Q: What's small, female, Australian and brilliant? A: Tal Wilkenfeld. No, it's not a joke. It's what I asked Mrs. Crotchety the other day after reading a blog post by CirdecSongs. The article was a personal appreciation of Jeff Beck and it just happened to mention Beck's bass player on his Live At Ronnie Scott's…Read more Corner Painter
fusion
Something Different
Crotchety Man lives in two parallel worlds. There's the real world of solid objects like houses, apples and people. Then there's the insubstantial world of the imagination. The other day, at the click of a mouse button, a bubble of the imagined world burst into the mundanity of real life. My computer screen had given a link into a province of La La land…Read more Something Different
Moroccan Roll
Brand X are back. And how! Here's a splendid live version of Malaga Virgen from their 1977 album Moroccan Roll. This was recorded just a few months ago on the band's reunion tour of the US. https://vimeo.com/195527081 If that performance doesn't leave you panting with excitement and aghast with admiration I'll ... I'll ... errm ... I'll…Read more Moroccan Roll
Sasse
A band called Antiloops appeared on the Crotchety Radar recently. I liked what I heard and added Luna from their 2014 Electroshock album to my list of tracks to feature in these pages. Then, two days ago, I played Luna again to refresh my memory of the music and to think what I might say about it.…Read more Sasse
Rekt
Crotchety Man doesn't make New Year resolutions. But this year I want to write more about recent releases. So, this week I've been sifting through my Release Radar, a playlist automatically created by Spotify every Friday based on my listening history. Only new releases appear on the Radar and although my taste is relatively broad I…Read more Rekt
Birdland
Birdland is in New York. Currently it's in the Theater District of Manhattan but Weather Report's track of the same name harks back to its original location on Broadway. Judging by the music, it must have been a magical, joyous place then, always full of happy sounds. Birdland is the first track on the Heavy Weather album…Read more Birdland
The Remedy Of Abstraction
I've said it before, but I just love the Internet. Did you know there are websites dedicated to listing weird band names? And lists of funny names feature in quite a few music blogs, too. Most of the names in those lists are, not surprisingly, either mildly offensive or downright obscene. Some, though, are rather…Read more The Remedy Of Abstraction
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