Wyclef Jean offers advice to his homeboys on Mr October, from the first of seven planned solo albums in different genres by the former Fugee.

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I bloody loved The Cramps the moment I heard them. They had all the energy, lo-fi spirit and antisocial appeal of punk – channelled into rockabilly.

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Derry Brownson was the co-founder and keyboard player of EMF, who had a huge hit all over the world with indie-dance anthem Unbelievable in 1991.

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Roxy Music first recorded Grey Lagoons in 1971 but left it off their debut album a year later, only to re-record it for their second.

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The Allah-Las are massive music nerds and turned their talents to dub reggae on this tune inspired by a Jamaican movie from the Eighties.

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Mary In The Junkyard are the latest in a recent tradition of highly original British bands whose influences are hard to detect.

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Death Valley Girls return after a hiatus caused by the California wildfires with a stripped-back sound on this taster of new album Welcome To Earth.

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Mary Gauthier keeps it real in a way few others have ever dared to do in her autobiographical coming-of-age song Drag Queens In Limousines. (more…)

The Teardrop Explodes were one of my favourite bands in the late Seventies. I bought all their records and saw them several times.

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I first came across the name Margo Cilker five years ago when she released a debut album with the mysterious and unpronounceable title Pohorylle.

The music was rooted in old-time storytelling country music – the genre sometimes called “cowboy country” – but with a contemporary twist, built around motifs of family and nature.

Her songs have earned her comparisons to Lucinda Williams, which is high praise indeed, or perhaps just lazy journalism, because I don’t hear that at all. 

I must admit that after my initial discovery I seem to have rather forgotten about her, until I was reminded by my daughter’s best friend Zoe, and discovered this excellent new tune.

Cilker is a California girl who has moved up north, first to Oregon and thence to Washington with her husband, to live and work on their ranch. Her music, meanwhile, has moved south in its influences.

I now need to acquaint myself with her second album, Valley Of Heart’s Delight, while waiting for her next one to arrive. In the meantime, here’s a catchy li’l taster.