What becomes a legend most…?  How many great artist have we talked to about the bands they played in during the 80′s and 90′s?  How often have they tried to distance themselves from their earlier bands, denying a new generation an opportunity to hear their fine work?

Rob Dickinson fronted one of the greatest of these bands when Catherine Wheel provided some of the best music to come out of England in the 90′s.  From 1990 to 2000, Catherine Wheel shed their early shoegaze tag and became one of the great rock bands of the decade.  Black Metallic set the tone for the first record, “Ferment” and the band continued to create epic soundscapes throughout their career.

Black Metallic

Alas, all good things must come to an end.  But after the band broke up, Dickinson emerged with a solid solo record, Fresh Wine For The Horses which complimented rather than distanced itself from his CW work.  He’s also recorded an album of acoustic versions of six Catherine Wheel songs and still performs it all live.  He’s embraced the work he created without using it as a crutch.  Instead,  reinterpreting it and growing it to it’s next logical place.

Rob took a few moments on the phone with us to talk about his past and the future.  He’ll be performing in Austin, Texas this week, giving us all an opportunity to learn that what becomes a legend most.  Well baby, tonight it’s you.

Rob Dickinson will be appearing at Mixx in Austin, Texas on Friday, September 25th.  You can purchase tickets here.

To purchase his latest solo record via iTunes, click the cute little iTunes button.

or any of his tremendous work with Catherine Wheel

As always you can listen to the interview here or download it for free at iTunes here. You can also subscribe to our podcasts via iTunes at that link.

Follow us on Twitter to get a preview of upcoming interviews, music news and behind the scenes stories about our interviews.  We’re also giving away tickets to see bands throughout the U.S.!  Do you know of any other websites who give away tickets to see shows throughout the country???

I’m not sure if there’s a non-musician who’s made a more indelible impact on music than Alan Mcgee.  In 1983, Alan formed Creation Records and brought the world a tsunami of music whose impact still reverberates today.  The Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream, Ride, My Bloody Valentine and dozens of other bands changed the way alternative music was made, under the umbrella of Creation.  In 1994, Alan signed Oasis and started yet another British Invasion.

With the revival of the C86/Mary Chain sound providing such a huge impact on current bands, we thought it was high time to track down the wizard behind the curtain.  To our good fortune (and yours!), he didn’t disappoint.  Still fiercely political, his views are still just as controversial.  But, this isn’t a marketing ploy to get in your head.  He clearly believes that our world is in turmoil and the state of the public consciousness will determine our fate.

But despite this, he took an hour of his time to talk about the great bands of the past with the gusto that we’d hoped for.  Buckle up kiddies, because Alan doesn’t pull any punches on his feelings about My Bloody Valentine, Coldplay, major labels or the future of Oasis.  While we may not agree on everything discussed here, we do agree on a critical point:  Passion will conquer all.  Love is all you need.

Alan Mcgee by TDOA2011

You can download it for free at iTunes here. You can also subscribe to our podcasts via iTunes at that link.

Follow us on Twitter to get a preview of upcoming interviews, music news and behind the scenes stories about our interviews.

This week, we continue our profile of the great band Magazine. Last week, we published our podcast with their singer Howard Devoto. Dave Formula was an integral part of the band and his influence as a keyboardist is particularly relevant now. With the plethora of groups using keyboards, it was interesting to talk to one of the first and most important keyboard players of the post-punk era.

Dave was remarkably patient while we experienced a few technical difficulties during the recording of this interview. We don’t think you’ll notice the minor edits that are included in this recording and they certainly don’t impact the overall impact of the interview. More importantly, it was nice to speak a patient, friendly and brilliant member of one of the worlds’ most influential post-punk bands.

As always you can listen to the interview here or download it for free at iTunes here.

Please let us know what you think. We’d love to get some feedback in the comments section on our podcast series. Next week, we will publishing a re-edited podcast of our interview with Peter Hook from New Order.

To purchase the new DVD, currently available only in PAL Format visit http://www.wire-sound.com/shop
You can also purchase Dave Formula’s new solo record (highly recommended!) from the same site.

To purchase the music of Magazine, visit Amazon.com here

Follow us on Twitter to get a preview of upcoming interviews, music news and behind the scenes stories about our interviews.

Magazine were an influential British post punk band founded in 1977 by former Buzzcocks singer Howard Devoto and guitarist John McGeoch. The other members of the band’s classic lineup included bassist Barry Adamson, keyboardist Dave Formula, and drummer John Doyle. The band burst onto the scene with the single Shot by Both Sides and released five albums before disbanding in 1981. Magazine’s music continues to be an influence in modern music today. While having roots in the punk movement, Magazine were one of the primary pioneers of post-punk. Radiohead in particular draws on the lyrical style of the group, while Former Smiths singer Morrissey called the break-up of Magazine, “one of the saddest days of his life”.

In 2009 the band resurfaced for half a dozen life performances in the UK, with Noko (who collaborated with Devoto in the late 80s in Luxuria) filling the position of guitarist. One of their recent shows in Manchester, recorded on Feb 17th 2009 has been released under the title, “Magazine: Real Life & Thereafter” and shows the band in amazing form.

Earlier this week, I had an opportunity to speak with singer Howard Devoto and keyboardist Dave Formula via phone. This is the first part of that interview, in which I talk to Howard Devoto.  You can listen to the interview here or download it for free at iTunes here.

Here’s a video from the DVD; ‘Magazine: Real Life & Thereafter’.

To purchase the new DVD, currently available only in PAL Format http://www.wire-sound.com/shop

To purchase the music of Magazine, visit Amazon.com here

Follow us on Twitter to get a preview of upcoming interviews, music news and behind the scenes stories about our interviews.

A while ago, we got a very nice email from someone at Apple inviting us to publish a weekly podcast on iTunes. Since then, we’ve gotten a few requests to put our interview with Peter Hook on iTunes, but just haven’t taken the time.

It took a bit of work, but we’re finally ready to take our first shot at putting some of our interviews on iTunes.  You can listen to the interview below or you can download it via the iTunes store.  We’re committed to doing this on a weekly basis. We’ll put some of our older interviews out there in the next few weeks and we think you’ll enjoy them: Peter Hook, East Hundred, Living Things and Brendan Canty have all provided us with some great interviews and we’re anxious to share it on iTunes. We also have some scheduled in the new future that should provide some great material. PLEASE, subscribe to the podcast at the iTunes store so that we can continue to provide this as a service to our readers.

You can go to the iTunes Store, download the latest episode and subscribe to our weekly podcasts here: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=327728349

We listed Zee Avi as one of our favorite albums of 2009 thusfar and are still blown away by her voice and melodic abilities. Her cover of Morrissey’s ‘First of the Gang to Die’ got her noticed by the alternative crowd, but she is more than a great cover. We caught her on the phone (seemingly in an elevator…) in between an interview with Wired and AOL. Listen to the podcast here (or go to the iTunes store!) and here’s some terrific videos as well:

Zee Avi interview with The Dumbing of America:

For more information about Zee Avi, visit her website at: http://www.zeeavi.com/

To purchase her splendid first album visit Amazon.com

Zee Avi