Tommy James and the Shondells : Crimson and Clover [ purchase ] Joan Jett and the Blackhearts : Crimson and Clover [ purchase ] Dolly Parton : Crimson and Clover [ purchase ] Jarvis Cocker : Black Magic (Crimson and Clover) [ purchase ] We can call this a title in search of a song. Or maybe a singles artist in search of an album audience. Tommy James has said that this title came to him before the 1968 song itself—crimson was his favorite color, and the clover blossom his favorite flower. I'm sharing the expanded 1969 album version, with a bit of dissonance where they tried to merge new ...

Pulp's 'Common People' has topped NME's list of the 100 best tracks of the 1990s. Jarvis Cocker and Co's 1995 single beat Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' and Suede's 'Stay Together' to take the accolade, with Radiohead's 'Paranoid Android' and Manic Street Preachers' 'Motorcycle Emptiness' rounding out the rest of the top 5. Australia featured twice on the list: Nick Cave double-dips, with 'Into My Arms' at number 22 and 'Where The Wild Roses Grow' at number 35 with Kylie.  . NME's 90s Top 100: 100. Coolio – “Gangsta’s Paradise” 99. Black Grape – “Reverend ...

The Vaccines, Bon Iver and Jarvis Cocker are also fans of the world's hottest new band

Scott 4 didn't chart, but it showed Walker">Scott Walker at his warmest and most gentle Walker">Scott Walker is the recluse's recluse – a singer and writer who went from teenage heartthrob with incredible hair to tortured soul in the space of four eponymous albums between 1967 to 1969. In the 43 intervening years he has released only four more "proper" solo albums, each more eremitic than the last (plus others of standards and country ballads he would rather expunge from history). This is a man who literally avoids the limelight. When I went to see his avant-garde ...

Where have all the outsiders gone? The savants, the nut jobs, the angel-headed hipsters fit to burn the heavenly cosmos of night? All are sadly lacking in the UK right now, with chequebook indie and dollar sign Grime bulldozing the fragile archicture of our pop heritage. Sometimes it feels like only a few genuine, bona fide outsiders are left. Luke Haines , therefore, is an endangered species. Creative lynchpin for The Auteurs and Black Box Recorder, his new book 'Post Everything: Outsider Rock & Roll' seems to profile the music industry just as the post-Millennial malaise set in. ClashMusic caught up with Luke Haines to define the fall of the outsider... - - - You’re obviously looking back on your own work now, do you see yourself sitting in a tradion of outsiders running through British pop music? Yes, absolutely. I’m not comparing myself, but people like John Cale, Syd Barrett, Kevin Ayers, especially those kind of people on Harvest Records maybe in the early ‘70s - which was a bizarre kind of setup where by people were seemingly allowed to do whatever the hell they like and there didn’t seem to be that much interest into taking off into the mainstream. In a way Hut Records was a bit like that with me, because I was very much shielded from the accountants. I think I’m one of the few people in rock ‘n’ roll to have an A&R; man who actually let me do what I wanted to. Remember, I was on Hut for 10 years ...

Wednesday night’s (May 2) themes on American Idol were the ’60s and Britpop, which got us excited to see who pulled the lucky straw to sing Oasis‘ “Wonderwall,” and maybe even some Pulp action! (Now Jarvis Cocker is a mentor we would literally pay money to see.) Alas, by Britpop they apparently meant any British ... More »

Photo by Mark Seliger The annual Meltdown Festival  at the Southbank Centre in London is curated by a different artist every year; past curators have included David Bowie, Morrissey, Walker">Scott Walker, Nick Cave, Patti Smith, Laurie Anderson, Elvis Costello, Ray Davies, Massive Attack, and Jarvis Cocker. This year, the honor goes to Antony Hegarty . His festival, which runs from August 1-12, represents a "constellation of artists" he greatly admires.

In his brilliant, if bitter book ‘Bad Vibes’, Luke Haines traces the birth of what went on to be know as Britpop to the Select magazine of April 1993, the one with Brett Anderson of Suede on the cover striking a coquettish pose against the back drop of a union jack. The text of the ‘Yanks Go Home’ article was about combating the influx of American grunge music by supporting home grown bands that specialised in ‘Wit, glamour and irony’. Almost exactly a year later, notes Haines, Kurt Cobain killed himself and with him the domination of America music. If ...

Of this year’s Coachella reunions, returns and resurgences, none seemed to warm the musical loins of fans as much as Pulp’s. (OK, maybe Refused was 1b.) The Britpop warriors gave exhilarating performances both weekends, with Jarvis Cocker providing a clinic on how to be a rock frontman. Pulp were equally thrilling at their very theatrical [...]

"This guy looks like he was created by Wes Anderson" says Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach as Pulp's Jarvis Cocker gambols across the stage It's a couple of hours before the duo's show on the first night of this year's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and Auerbach and drummer...

Dr. Dre thinks more holograms is the way to go: “I think everybody’s in love with it right now, so we’re having fun. Hopefully, different artists are able to bring out their favourite artists. Hopefully, we can see Jimi Hendrix and Marvin Gaye. Let’s see what happens,” he told MTV. I’ve got an idea: Let’s [...]

“Anybody come here by cable car?” Jarvis Cocker had only been in San Francisco for a few hours Tuesday when the longest legs in rock raced his upper half to City Lights bookstore. Later, on stage at the Warfield, he read an excerpt from his purchase—a copy of Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s translations of the French surrealist [...] Read More

Goin’ Old School isn’t a trip down music memory lane, it’s a mugging in the dark alleyway of nostalgia: Early Warp goodness from Richard H Kirk’s Sweet Exorcist moniker with some ace Bleep House in 1989’s ‘Testone’. Jarvis Cocker directed the video! Try Squash Gang’s ‘I Want An Illusion’ from 1986 for some pure Euro [...]

Whether you were at the festival itself, or you were glued to your computer screen, this past weekend was all about the first weekend of Coachella, which featured one amazing performance after another, for three jam-packed days. Gotye held the flag up high for Australia (though pulled the live stream last minute), and impressed, but what else impressed us? Here's a look back at our top SIX Coachella moments for 2012: 6. Bon Iver "Wolves" Singalong opening for Radiohead In his first performance at Coachella under the Bon Iver pseudonym, Justin Vernon delivered one of the most awe-inspiring sets ...

Written by Mikey Sibson It's no secret - ask anyone with even a passing interest in culture and they'll tell you that Leeds has always been the artistic beacon of the North, boasting - along with iconic galleries and museums - one of the most expansive music scenes in the country. You'd be hard pressed to find as much musical endearment in such concentration outside of the capital. So it'll come as no surprise to the previously enlightened among you that Leeds embraces Record Store Day with open arms, hosting events, giveaways and general muso-loving all across the city ...