Night owls can expect to see Pete Yorn performing on Jimmy Fallon’s show tonight in support of the self-titled album he squeezed out last week. Seems like an opportune time to roll out this vintage, never-before-online interview I conducted with him on March 9, 2003. Continue reading
On her 2004 covers album, Relations, revered British singer/songwriter Kathryn Williams breathed new life into classics such as Nirvana’s “All Apologies,” the Velvet Underground’s “Candy Says” and Pavement’s “Spit on a Stranger.” In commemoration of the release finally reaching U.S. shores on Tuesday (via One Little Indian), the Bad Penny asked the Mercury Prize nominee to christen a new feature: Revising History. Continue reading
David Bowie gets the White Stripes, the Raveonettes and the Dandy Warhols – but not Yeah Yeah Yeahs. And were it not for him, he says, Lou Reed and John Cale’s immortal band might never have made it. Continue reading
An ongoing series in which musicians reveal the artists they’d most like to hear covering their songs. Continue reading
Eleven years ago, I studied for five months in Santiago, Chile. As part of my education regiment, I chose a class on the history of rock and roll. You might think that’s as much as a cop-out as taking a class in bowling or frisbee golf. But as someone who had mostly shunned classic rock till that point, I actually learned a lot. My teacher was obsessed with Deep Purple and Cream, and explained to us how Ozzy Osbourne was rock’s first psicótico.
I like to think I returned him the favor by teaching him a bit about Nirvana, of whom he wasn’t much aware, in my final paper. The self-generated topic: How Nirvana ushered indie-rock, rougher production values and anti-corporate attitudes into the mainstream with In Utero. El profesor told me I worked harder than any of his Chilean students in the class, and that I nailed the exam (70 out of 70), too.
These days, my Spanish is a bit rusty, so I couldn’t tell you what most of the paper means. But here it is for your archival viewing pleasure. PDFs are included in case the images are too taxing on yer eyes:
The Bad Penny (beta) 