Category d) Nineties [1990 – 1999]

SWEET MARS LANDING

Like a lot of things in life, I came late to the edgy melancholic jangle-pop world of Matthew Sweet. Stumbled across the album after the one that got him known and worked backwards to fill in the history. But although I’m slow, I’m loyal, and we have gone forward resolutely together to the extent that […]

AUTUMN ALMANAC

Born in Melbourne, Australia on 25th October 1941: singer Helen Reddy. Her song ‘Delta Dawn’ was a #1 hit in the liberating year of 1973. Diary – Turned on the transistor and heard that dreadful song about the jilted woman who goes crazy. I’m going crazy trying to work out what to wear to school […]

HERE IS A SUNRISE. AIN’T THAT ENOUGH? [Power Pop!]

“JANGLY CHORD-RICH GUITAR ROCK WITH TIGHT HARMONIES OFF-BEAT LYRICS SING-ALONG CHORUSES AND A MIDDLE EIGHT TO DIE FOR (PERHAPS)” Sometimes you just happen to be in the right newsagent at the right time. So it was deep into the yuletide season of 1993. Hunting for a clutch of Christmas cards and hoping that there was […]

BACK LIVE

Having already offered two pieces on the joys of ‘live’ albums*, it would probably be sensible to leave that topic alone for a while. But I re-acquainted myself with so many terrific recordings while writing those posts that I just had to bring out those that didn’t quite make the first two ‘Live In Your […]

VINYL HUNTER-GATHERER GOES FORTH

In these parts the financial year begins on 1st July. A good time for fiscal resolutions and for a vinyl addict with fast diminishing storage space and finite resources to ponder stemming – or at least reducing – the flow. The original idea was to have a purchase-free month. Catch up with some listening. Cleanse […]

THE JOYS OF MUSIC TRIVIA – or – “Oh, I know that one, it’s…”

Last Friday in Melbourne was chilly. Cold even. Not altogether surprising, it’s winter and we’ve just passed the shortest day. But there was activity in the suburbs, as Vinyl Connection presented a Live Music Trivia Quiz at one of our favourite Record Stores, Quality Records…plus. It is a lovely store, with books, DVDs and CDs […]

LIVE IN YOUR LIVING ROOM [Second Set]

Perhaps the only truly honest concert recordings are ‘bootlegs’: verbatim transcriptions of what happened on a particular night on a particular stage. Containing and disclosing all the fluctuations in energy, rambling introductions, musical missteps and extraneous noises just as they were, they truly tell it like it was. Not surprisingly, bootlegs tend to be the […]