Ryan for Glasto

Apparently, Ryan Adams has confirmed a short UK tour to coincide with his appearance at Glastonbury in June. As NME.COM revealed, the singer-songwriter will play at this year’s Glastonbury Festival in support of his forthcoming double album Cold Roses, out on May 2.

I went through quite a big Ryan phase when he first went solo; inspired by one of the best records ever made, Strangers Almanac by his former band, Whiskeytown. I just realised that I haven't listened to one of his records for quite some time, so I wonder if I've gone off him. Was it his self-indulgence, or mine?

Still, I think he has been pretty influential. Kathleen Edwards, from Paste magazine (February/March 2005 issue):

"What changed everything for me about Whiskeytown was the songs and that the songs were just so full of imagery without being these run-on songs - there was a start and a finish. And there wasn't all this fluff in there to get to one line." ((...)) Her Whiskeytown epiphany led to the cycle of songs that would become Failer.

I'll be at Glastonbury again this year, and I'll certainly catch his set.

Art is not a loaf of bread - maybe

Remember when I talked about Why Wilco is the future of music?

A subsequent live event, Art is Not a Loaf of Bread, occurred this month. Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy and professor Lawrence Lessig talked about music, remixing, artistic freedom and the law. Listen to it on the link.

Expletive included

I am finding it dificult to buy a record which doesn't include the F word in the lyrics. And I'm not buying urban rap stuff. Martha Wainwright's eponymous debut, Bright Eyes, even Kathleen Edwards' Back to Me. Not that I'm a friggin' prude or anything, it's just becoming so common that it's starting to lose it's effectiveness. What are we going to use when we want to really explete?

This day in music

What was the number one song on your birthday? Or maybe another important day on your life? Click here.

The UK pop charts began in 1952 & the US charts in 1955. If you were born before these dates, try your life's theme song which is the No 1 on your 18th birthday.

My results:
Birthday - Diana by Paul Anka
18th - Hold Me Close by David Essex
21st - Summer Nights by John Travolta & Olivia Newton John
40th - Candle In The Wind '97/Something About The Way You Look Tonight by Elton John

Dear me, that's so uninspiring.

Wedding day - Two Tribes by Frankie Goes To Hollywood

Now there's irony!

A periodical imbalance

Something's gone wrong with my monthly music magazine deliveries. No doubt due to some competitive marketing wheeze, my copies of Uncut and Mojo are arriving by post in the same week, within a couple of days of each other. This has led to some serious congestion.

If I recall correctly, they used to be spaced about a fortnight apart; the latest issue of one arrived just as the last minor record review of the other was read one last time and the issue replaced in the periodical pile in the porcelain throne room.

Mojo was initially released as a grown-ups' music magazine, in contrast to the market defining Q - aimed at the 50 Quid Bloke. Q, in keeping with the often red top front page, has deteriorated to a scandal sheet. Mojo continues to plough a more mature, if occasionally rather dry, furrow.

Uncut certainly leads the field, and not just because it covers music genres which are usually within my tastes. The standard of journalism is very high (Chris Roberts, Stephen Dalton, Barney Hoskyns spring to mind - there are others). There is excellent coverage of movies and DVDs too. Moreover, Uncut is one of the few magazines I have found which offers readable, unsnobby reviews of contemporary fiction.

Honorable mention also goes to Paste magazine, which comes from the States every couple of months. It has a very different style, not neccessarily transatlantic, which I am just getting into. Recent issues have had a CD and a DVD - I'm not sure that this is a good thing.

Mind you, last month it blotted its copybook by arriving in the same 3 day period as Uncut and Mojo. Too much of a good thing...