"How did the contact with Keane come about? / Completely randomly. A friend of the band's, bought one of my prints from a mutual friend's shop. The band saw the print in his house and said 'this is the person we have to work with on our next album artwork'." Sanna Annukka (previously on MeFi) discusses how she came to illustrate Keane's album, Under the Iron Sea, and singles, the artwork of which is playful, lonely, and folklore-like in feel. [more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome on May 18, 2009 - 20 comments

"There's sickly pop, there's cheesy pop and then there's the Lightning Seeds brand of pure shiny pop." The Lightning Seeds mixed slick production with equally compelling melodies and lyrics, and produced a number of critically acclaimed albums in the 1990s. Now there's a new album coming out - their first since 1999's Tilt. [more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome on Mar 3, 2009 - 38 comments

The Mellotron features prominently on the 1968 album, The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society, more commonly referred to as The Village Green Preservation Society. The weird, eerie quality of this electronic keyboard, which uses pre-recorded tapes of individual sounds such as strings and woodwind instruments, worked well with singer/songwriter Ray Davies' nostalgic, backwards looking sensibility. [more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome on Jan 16, 2009 - 26 comments

The Stone Roses are set to reform. It's almost 20 years since they released their extremely fine album creatively titled The Stone Roses. The band that was a big part of the Madchester movement have been bumping into each other at Manchester United games and no doubt seeing the money that the footballers are making decided it was time to regroup. The rumours are not certain, but some say it is 75 percent likely and media reports everywhere indicates it is probably happening. [more inside]
posted by sien on Dec 15, 2008 - 54 comments

Blur have re-formed and announced their intention to play Hyde Park. Who's next?
posted by chuckdarwin on Dec 11, 2008 - 66 comments

As laddish 'landfill indie' bands take over the British charts and the previous vanguard of art-school bands trouble the mainstream less, the old debate on class in pop music rears its head once again.
posted by mippy on Oct 28, 2008 - 41 comments

Nick Sanderson, ex-lead singer of UK art rockers Earl Brutus, has passed away. Earl Brutus were one of the most overlooked bands of the Britpop era, Sanderson himself being a swaggering hybrid of Jarvis Cocker and Mark E Smith. If you've not heard any of their music, just listen to (and watch) Come Taste my Mind (YT), and have a taste of the Brutus.
posted by hnnrs on Jun 18, 2008 - 9 comments

Star Trek: The Animated Series + Shatner (previously) "singing" (previ|ously) Common People (previously) = THIS.
posted by Sys Rq on Jun 9, 2008 - 40 comments

Well, young folk, there was a time, y'know, when bands would put their band name on the kick drum head, so the audience could see the name of the band, y'see? Why, best as I can recall, the The Yardbirds did it, and The Zombies, too. And The Hollies. Oh, and did I mention The Yardbirds? Well, my memory's not what it used to be... oh, and there was those boys from Liverpool, used to sing about Kansas Cty so well, why, you'd think they'd actually been there! Now, there was this one band called themselves the Spencer Davis Group, but I never could figure out why, cause it was that little Winwood fella just outta knee pants who was the star of that show! [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite on May 17, 2008 - 18 comments

Rhino Releases The Brit Box It's hard to explain in 2007 what it feels like for music to be both uniting and important. Having spent nearly three years of the '90s living in London, it's with honest nostalgia and wonder that we examine Rhino's The Brit Box. The set's mission is rather broad: it attempts to examine the whole of UK indie rock from 1985-1999 and devotes a disc each to '80s indie, shoegaze, Britpop, and the late '90s. [more inside]
posted by psmealey on Dec 6, 2007 - 60 comments

AppreciationFilter: Edwyn Collins --Scottish Britpop Master--from Nu-Sonic as a teen in the 70s, Orange Juice ("Rip It Up") in the early 80s, to "A Girl Like You" and "Magic Piper," and still going strong decades later. He even created a British sitcom, West Heath Yard, and now supports up and coming bands. Even if you've never heard of him, you've heard at least one of his songs, whether in Austin Powers or elsewhere. More history here, from his old site. (and you can hear 18 streaming songs of his on the main link, above.)
Edwyn is now in the hospital after suffering a serious brain hemorrhage.
posted by amberglow on Feb 26, 2005 - 13 comments

Love and Poison tells the story of BritPop's love triangle -- Blur's Damon Albarn, Suede's Brett Anderson, and Elastica's Justine Frischmann. These articles from The Guardian are an excerpt from John Harris' "The Last Party: Britpop, Blair and the Demise of English Rock."
posted by Reggie452 on May 8, 2003 - 10 comments

blur are back. My favourite band since seeing them play in a pub in Leicester, blur release their 7th album next month. They "invented" Britpop, then reinvented themselves when the backlash began, and it's lovely to still have them around. Something I've grown with and recognise as I stare at another edition of Top of the Pops, understanding nothing of the karaoke-cover-pap in the charts today. If you're going to see them in London next month, I'll be the one at the back with a pint in my hand and a contented smile on my face (too old for this jumping around at the front lark)...
posted by jontyjago on Apr 25, 2003 - 35 comments