A house in Pimlico, London Today, Crotchety Man has followed the sign at the Burning Shed, and headed in the direction of Pymlico. We have agreed to meet there on 20th May to celebrate the release of that band's seventh album, Supermassive. In the meantime, I have been mugging up on both the Pymlico band…Read more Pymlico
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Sympatheia
For the next two weeks or so, Calum Graham, acoustic guitarist extraordinaire, is running a crowdfunding campaign for his next album. He has appeared in these pages twice before (Waiting, Billie Jean) and on both occasions I have marvelled at his work. CG's last album, Thread of Creation (2019), was self-released and doesn't appear on…Read more Sympatheia
Concert for Ukraine
Newsflash: On Sunday, 13th March, at 7 pm, the Jazz After Hours website will be streaming a Concert for Ukraine. The headline act is Alina Bzhezhinska and the HipHarp Collective. Alina is a Ukrainian-born jazz harpist, and she comes with a 5-star rating from the Crotchety Critics Circle. For further details, click the image above.…Read more Concert for Ukraine
Light a Fire
There's an examination subject in the Scottish Education system with the title "Modern Studies". It aims to develop students' knowledge and understanding of contemporary political and social issues in local, Scottish, United Kingdom and international contexts. When I was in the middle school (ages 13-15), those of us in the Science stream had two periods…Read more Light a Fire
Strong Feelings
If a music blogger is only as old as the songs he reviews I have been getting ever more youthful. And my slide backwards has never been more apparent than with this latest track-of-the-week. Strong Feelings, was only released last month as a taster for Dry Cleaning's forthcoming album, New Long Leg, due out on…Read more Strong Feelings
Karta & Kompass
Urtidsdjur's self-titled debut album, originally released only on vinyl, is now also available on streaming services. To coincide with this milestone the band has released a video of the Karta & Kompass track. As you can see, their unerring navigational skills have brought them to their destination in high spirits. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnFnilOaU1Q The figure on that…Read more Karta & Kompass
Vandringssång
We met a Swedish prehistoric beast for the first time in September when this blog featured Trippar Runt Dig, a single released ahead of Urtidsdjur's forthcoming eponymous album. It was just a short exploratory trip then but those guys are on a much longer journey now. Here's the first single taken from the album itself,…Read more Vandringssång
Trippar Runt Dig
For those of you who don't speak Swedish, "trippar runt dig" has nothing to do with weakling piglets or archeological excavations. It means "trips around you" in English and it is the title of a single by Urtidsdjur that is released today. "Urtidsdjur" translates as "prehistoric animal" but the band with that name is very…Read more Trippar Runt Dig
Radar Blips
My Release Radar this week included several interesting new pieces by not-so-new artists spanning a wide range of styles. I'm featuring them in another Spotify playlist this week. But before we get to that, I must pay tribute to Peter Green, who's death was announced yesterday. Rolling Stone placed the blues/rock guitarist born Peter Allen Greenbaum…Read more Radar Blips
Soften the Glare
A Couple of Unrelated Things Before We Start ... Robert Fripp posted a very moving tribute to Bill Rieflin on his Facebook page this week. Bill was a drummer and keyboard player who became part of the wider King Crimson family. He succumbed to cancer on Tuesday. Burning Shed is offering a free download of…Read more Soften the Glare