Sometimes it's reassuring to hear a new record and be able to trace its lineage back to its precise point of origin – from a sonic standpoint. Take Green Day for example; author Stephen Frears wasn't wrong when he wrote that the origins of the band's sound could be traced back to Stiff Little Fingers; the guitar styling and tone of it on “Suspect Device” is virtually identical to that found on Kerplunk! and Dookie. The same could be said...

At this point, any discussion of The Proclaimers is going to include a token mention of a few things, so let's get them out of the way right off the top. The band's new album (their ninth), Like Comedy, deserves better than trite or cliche discussion, so let's condense everything that everyone is going to say down to one easy block and get it out of the way, right off the top so we don't have to think about it...

While it might have taken a while for Boz Scaggs' gears to catch (a couple of ill-fated albums with the Steve Miller Band as well as a few largely ignored solo albums came before the guitarist's career began to move with the release of Slow Dancer in 1974) there's no way to deny the guitarist's popularity in the late Seventies and most of the Eighties. The sound of a Fender Telecaster was the thing which really got Scaggs over but,...

Heya junky, Awright, so, apparently i's a holiday – didja know? They tell me thit half the music business is outta town an' shmoozin' down in Texas at South By Southwest. They tell me thit every publicist thit could afford it is packin' up an' ran south ta Austin, Texas ta talk an' drink too much as they ponder the state o' da music business an' see a buncha concerts. Sounds great right? Yeah shoor – 'cept I got one...

While volumes have been written trying to calculate an artist's worth and value to his fans, the best and easiest way to get a true impression lies in the moments when that artist inspires a sold-out crowd to sing along with him in concert. It might sound overly simplistic, but it's true; there is an intimacy in those moments which can't be bought and a connection between artist and audience which can't be asked for – it either happens spontaneously...