Simon Maltman Blogs

Swampy Swagger and Blistering Ballads For the uninitiated, Walking Papers are a bluesy hard rock outfit from Seattle. It began as a project between Barrett Martin (Screaming Trees, Mad Season) and Jeff Angell (The Missionary Position). They ended up writing an album's worth of killer songs together with the swagger of some of their previous bands, with also the soulful and melancholy elements of say Mad Season. Overdriven guitar riffs sit comfortably next to vibraphone and double bass. Along for the ride were the likes of Mike McCready (Pearl Jam, Mad Season), Duff McKagan (GnR, Velvet Revolver), and Ben Anderson (Missionary Position). The minor label release of songs was so well received that Duff and Ben joined full time and they were all signed up to rerelease the album with a major label. What followed after was a great critical response, extensive touring and ultimately lots of ideas for a second record. The band then went in and cut this record, but with Duff inv...

Jim Thompson, Raymond Chandler,  James Ellroy... and Mark Sandman  In this blog post I get to write about two of my favourite things; Crime Fiction and the band Morphine. The three writers above were three of Mark Sandman's pulp favourites. Morphine's bluesy, swampy low rock is the perfect accompaniment to any of these hardboiled novelists. This style of writing was a big influence on his own songwriting. They both contain a direct, vivid and often somewhat nihilistic tone. Many of Sandman's characters form his songs could have walked off the pages of say The Getaway or The Long Goodbye . Sometimes during interviews, Sandman would go off on a tangent and just want to start discussing a particular Jim Thompson novel. He loved crime fiction and shared his passion with friends and journalists alike.  He appeared to find something in noir that moved him, just as his hero James Ellroy had-  "I love thinking about American history, thinking ...

Was having a wee think about my favourites from 2017- here they are!- Music- The Afghan Whigs- In Spades Books- Stuart Neville/ Haylen Beck- Here and Gone T.V- Mindhunter Film- Manchester by the Sea  -Loads of great stuff this year :) 

Wanna go for a ride? You sure will. New Album sees Dulli in fine form Gentlemen, Black Love, 1965 . Any fan knows that these are indeed the holy trinity. The comeback album- Do to the Beast splits opinion a little more. Personally, I think it's just alright. I'd take most of Dulli's non-Afghan albums over it. But, the new album,  In Spades is a very satisfying listen. From the opening track's largely string arrangement, it is clear that Dulli is not just making a 'Twilights plus John Curley' album. Other examples of really great song writing include  Demon in Profile and Toy Automatic . The final track- Into the Floor is a great one- almost Pink Floydy- with a very addictive melody hook. Dulli can be guilty of using the same patterns and progressions a bit too much, but even though there's some repetition here, it's still a really good collection of songs. He's mixed things up well- some classic Afghan scratchy guitar, a bit of clavinet...