PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake, released in February, won the 2011 Mercury Prize for best album from the UK and Ireland. Was it a deserving winner? asks music blogger Neil Walker.
Culture / The Arts / Music
album reviews 
Ball Park Music’s Happiness And Surrounding Suburbs
Six-piece Brisbane band Ball Park Music look quirky but don’t let that put you off. Their debut album Happiness And Surrounding Suburbs doesn’t just rely on the wacky factor to ensnare listeners, writes Neil Walker.
1991 albums: It was 20 years ago today
The 20th anniversary of the release of Nirvana’s Nevermind has sparked a Generation X spate of nostalgia for all things grunge, writes Crikey’s music blogger Neil Walker.
My Cup Of Tea: A digital avenue for Australian musos on the Jays
Triple J’s new digital radio station — specifically devoted to new and emerging Australian contemporary music — is a step in the right direction for Australian content.
Album review: Baxter Dury’s Happy Soup
Baxter Dury is the 39-year-old son of punk icon Ian Dury. His first two albums sank without a trace but his third effort, Happy Soup, provides many reasons to be cheerful, writers music reviewer Neil Walker.
infographic 
Animated: 30 years of the music industry
Back in 1980, when Blondie and Pink Floyd were rocking the charts, 59% of music sales were for LPs or EPs. Back just last year that figure was down to 1%, with 49% CD sales. Check out this glorious GIF of graphs from 30 years of music industry info.
album reviews U2′s Achtung Baby
To celebrate the 20th birthday of U2′s 1991 hit Achtung Baby, the album is being re-released in various wallet-tremblingly expensive box set editions. But does it truly deserve its place in the fabled pantheon of “best of all time” lists? asks Neil Walker.
Hope for FreezaCentral in Ted Baillieu rock pitch
Organisers of the axed FreezaCentral rock mentoring program are confident of a reprieve in next year’s Victorian budget as Premier Ted Baillieu moves to bed down its credentials as a live music saviour.
‘Sticky carpet-clad’ Ted pledges Libs’ love of live music
Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu draped himself in the iconic Melbourne music venue The Tote’s mythical sticky carpet to ram home his message that Liberals “love live music”.
album reviews Bon Iver’s latest: Bon Iver
Don’t believe the hype and those end-of-year album polls. When it comes to much-hyped indie band Bon Iver, these emperor’s new clothes are beige, writes Neil Walker.
Welcome to the most expensive music festival in the world
While headliners at last weekend’s Splendour in the Grass festival, Kanye West and Coldplay, would have walked away with tidy sums and an adoring crowd ringing in their ears, for the vast majority the equation didn’t seem to stack up.
My Cup Of Tea: The costly disease in our backing orchestras
An Australia Council-commissioned report into Australia’s ballet and opera orchestras reveals an unsustainable business model. But where will efficiencies come from?
How to interview a celebrity
Music journalist Jessica Misener tells a hilarious story in GIFs about what it’s really like to interview famous bands and pop stars.
album reviews Beastie Boys Hot Sauce Committee Part Two
Remember the Beastie Boys? Those three dudes from New York with a “we just make shit up as we go along” attitude. Ruby Krupka reviews their latest album, calling it “disappointing” and “pretentious” compared to their earlier work.
Russell Brand on Amy Winehouse and addiction
Ex-drug addict and comedian Russell Brand writes an obit-of-sorts to his friend Amy Winehouse: “the lips that I’d only seen clenching a fishwife fag and dribbling curses now a portal for this holy sound”.
My Cup Of Tea: Book barns are dead, long live cosy indies
We can’t save big book barns, but we can save independent cultural retail. It’s independent book stores and music retailers that offer something the big chains rarely mustered: character, passion and charm.
Music Which song has been soundtracking your life this week?
It’s the weekend! This is your moment! Which song has been soundtracking your life this week/weekend? Leave the YouTube link for the song in the comments section
Album review: The Horrors Skying
Did you spend the 1980s mooching around in an overlong trenchcoat with nobody understanding you or who you were going to be? Then The Horrors new album Skying will appeal to your alternative 80s goth, says Neil Walker.
Egad! Rebecca Black’s new single hits the web
Rebecca Black, of Friday, Friday, Friday fame has released another song. Can you contain your giddy excitement? This is like that time Radiohead released a surprise album…but better, right? says Neil Walker.
Music No.1 Superhits! This week’s chart toppers
Remember when you used to care about what song was number 1? Relive those glory days each week on earworm where the Australian and one other random country’s best-selling song (this week: Japan!) is aired.
album reviews Suck It And See by Arctic Monkeys
In the fourth album from Arctic Monkeys, singer-songwriter Alex Turner has rediscovered his lyrical nous by toning down the weekend US rock star shapes a tad and riffing on home grown phrases, writes Neil Walker.
Is Neil Young’s Harvest a classic album?
This month’s instalment of earworm’s Classic Album? series analyses Neil Young’s Harvest, a strange beast that fluctuates from the sublime to the ridiculous, writes Neil Walker.
Vale Video Hits, the world’s 2nd longest running music vid show
No culling of subeditorial staff, no mass redundancies of newsroom personnel, has grieved Mel Campbell quite as much as the latest casualty of Lachlan Murdoch’s Channel Ten purges: Video Hits. Crikey looks back.
No.1 Superhits! (week ending 4 July 2011)
In earworm’s weekly Superhits section Neil Walker reveals the top-selling song in Australia and, for a splash of Eastern European panache, the biggest hit in the Ukraine.
Daily Proposition: Go back to (after) school
The number of hobbies kids take up then tire of really is testament to the unyielding patience of parents. But there’s something to be said for it, writes Iona Salter. So why not take up something you did as a kid?
