Trust me # 89 Cut Your Hair by Pavement Pavement exploded on to the music scene in the early 90's through the release of albums Slanted & Enchanted (1992) and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (1994). Like most of the best bands, they seemed to be in their own world. The Pavement universe was full of in-band-jokes, zany videos, (at times) barely tuned guitars and cool song titles. The band arguably invented and certainly personified the slacker scene and style. I own both of those albums on vinyl along with the 7-inch of Cut Your Hair. I seemed to lose touch with the band aft ..read more

  Welcome to part 98 of my Never Ending Mixtape! I started this blog/playlist/mixtape back in October 2016 with the simple intention of creating a playlist that I would add songs to on a regular basis and then blog about the latest additions every month. There would be no thought to the structure of the playlist, unlike the mixtapes and CD's I would make in my younger days. I'd just add songs when I felt like it, depending on what I was listening to. As a result, my Never Ending Mixtape now has 4,269 songs! It's an eclectic and eccentric mix that I regularly play on shuffle. We jump from ..read more

  Cover version of the month #106 The Kingsmen cover Louie Louie by Richard Berry and The Pharaohs I recently watched the magnificent 24-Hour Party People film for the first time in ages. Steve Coogan is outstanding as Tony Wilson (with a little dash of Partridge) while the formation of Factory Records, development of Joy Division, Ian Curtis' suicide, opening and mismanagement of the Hacienda, reliance/total piss-take on New Order's money and chaos of the Happy Mondays are portrayed with the right levels of honesty, empathy, bemusement and humour. In the film, local punk fan Jon the Pos ..read more

  Trust me #88 Give Peace A Chance by John Lennon Released in July 1969, John Lennon's Give Peace A Chance created worldwide headlines as the Beatle wrote and recorded the song during a 'Bed-In' held with his wife Yoko for their honeymoon in Montreal. Capturing the times, the song quickly became the anthem for the anti-Vietnam war movement and was sung by 500,000 demonstrators, led by Pete Seeger, at a protest in Washington that year. Sitting cross-legged on his bed, Lennon leads his audience backed with acoustic guitars, handclaps and stomps through a string of verses beginning wit ..read more

I listed Viva Hinds by Hinds in my albums of the year blog at the end of 2024, describing it as; dreamy, treashy, thrashy, brashy garage guitar pop with dashes of shoegaze and psychedelia. I can't wait to see them in February. I actually think the album will make even more sense after seeing them live. Well, I've now seen Hinds live and I can confirm that both the album and the band themselves make more sense and I've really fallen for them. The gorgeous pull of The Bed, The Room, The Rain and You, the coolness of Superstar, charm of Hi, How Are You?, their taste in covering Charli xcx and Th ..read more

  Trust me #87 Slight Return by The Bluetones 30-years ago, on 22nd February 1995 I visited King Tuts Wah Wah Hut to catch a couple of hotly tipped bands - Supergrass and The Bluetones. Exceptional value for a fiver! Supergrass were building towards the release of debut album I Should Coco and had made waves with debut single Caught By The Fuzz in late October 1994. Meanwhile, The Bluetones were being spoken of in hushed tones by the NME and Melody Maker. A 4-piece who had been holed up in a garage crafting melodic guitar pop songs inspired by the Roses. I can't remember where I bought i ..read more

The sheer number of live shows, cost of tickets and the expense of a night out, plus, undoubtedly - old age, mean that I am a lot more particular about the shows I buy tickets for these days. That said, I still do pretty well and probably average 2-3/month. Not bad going for a 49-year old! When 432 Presents announced The Pains of Being Pure at Heart would be playing Stereo in Glasgow to celebrate the 15th anniversary of their eponymous debut album, I knew I'd be buying a ticket as soon as they went on sale. Hailing from New York City, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart seemed to arrive fully fo ..read more

  Welcome to part 97 of my Never Ending Mixtape. Anyway, in my Never Ending Mixtape ... we jump from 4,167 songs to 4,217 with the addition of a handful of songs by The Beta Band amidst rumours that they will be reforming ... watch this space. Dogs Got A Bone from their magical Three EP's album and a some super cool stoned gems and jams from the eponymous debut. This month I've added a number of Marianne Faithfull songs following her passing at the end of January. I have to confess to never exploring her back catalogue and I've enjoyed delving in. I may well write a future covers of the ..read more

  Cover version of the month #105 Al Green covers The Bee Gees Are you ready to hear one of the most beautiful songs that you are ever likely to hear? Al Green's How Can You Mend A Broken Heart, from his phenomenal 1972 album Let's Stay Together, is 6 minutes 23 seconds of bluesy soul goodness; the snare drum cracks, Green's voice is hushed and wonderful over piercing strings, angelic backing vocals are soothingly sublime and the lyrics are just beautiful, with the chorus asking 4 questions in a row. And how can you mend a broken heart? How can you stop the rain from falling down? Tell m ..read more

My old friend Mark W. Georgsson pinged me an email recently with a link to a new single he was releasing. I hadn't seen Mark in ages, possibly since pre-lockdown! We used to bump into each other at gigs all the time. Thankfully we caught up at Norman Blake's Bellshill gig last week over a few beers. Mark and I first met back in 2012 when he was in a cracking punk indie pop band called The Velveteen Saints. Here is a BLOG I wrote on them back then. They were a captivating live band, super energetic, excellent musicians and they had something about them; soul, a rawness and a no bullshit attitu ..read more