The James McMahon Music Podcast

So here’s a bit of throat clearing. One of Eaves Wilder ’s parents is basically the reason I wanted to write about music . The other is one of the kindest people I’ve ever met in the music industry, which isn’t a huge demographic, I’ll give you that. But now that’s out the way, I am absolutely obsessed – yes, obsessed – with the 20 year old’s new single, the fuzzy, fizzy, poignant, brainworm of a...

You might have noticed that I’m mixing the podcast up a bit at the moment – speaking to journalists and photographers, label owners and industry people – as well as the obvious musicians that make up the majority of the episodes. Well, in doing that, I had to speak to the head honcho at one of my very favourite indie labels, Jack Clothier , the man at the control deck of the great Alcopop! Records...

The Zombies - from St Albans, Hertfordshire – were one of the most interesting British bands of the 1960s. Their second record, Odessey and Oracle , remains as beguiling now as it did when it was released in 1968, as the group imploded. The spelling mistake in the title is symbolic of the group’s legacy; spoiled brilliance. And yet all these years on – over half a century – the group is revered, a...

Yeah, I know I only just published an episode of the podcast, but I thought I’d get this one out and into the world ASAP. Those Damn Crows , from Bridgend, Wales, have got a new album, their third, out right now. It’s called Inhale/Exhale , and it’s an excellent collection of melodic and emotional heavy rock ‘n’ roll. It’s riding high in the UK album charts too. In fact, when I speak to drummer Ro...

Born in London, now based in Athens, Greece, Westerman ’s debut album, Your Hero Is Not Dead , knocked my socks off when it arrived in 2020. The songwriter melded folk, R&B and the sort of bare synthpop that always makes me lose my mind a bit, to create a collection of songs that were a balm in a year where it felt like the entirety of human civilisation – and I include myself in this – were l...

The Telescopes have a new album out this Friday, on February 24th. It’s called Experimental Health and it’s a strange and beguiling thing. As we’ll learn on this episode, The Telescopes have got a bunch of records out this year, with the legendary shoegaze/experimental/psychedelic/noise rock group seemingly making up for lost time after the pandemic of 2020 made them down tools for a moment. On th...

You should know that the Bucks Fizz that I speak to today – that’ll be Cheryl Baker and Jay Aston , Mike Nolan is off coveting the group’s Eurovision trophy, which they won in 1981 (probably) – don’t actually trade under the name Bucks Fizz anymore. They call themselves The Fizz, but since Bobby G’s version of the band haven’t been in operation since 2018, I’m going with Bucks Fizz. In your face,...

James Walsh , frontman of Starsailor , has a new solo record out. It’s called Coming Good , and it really is a lovely collection of songs. As the focal point of the aforementioned four-piece, James has sold over three million records. He’s experienced life at every level of the music industry. Major labels and indies. Big budgets and none. He’s received adoration and cutting critical distain. And,...

In Flames released their new record Foregone last week, and the Gothenburg band’s fourteenth album is not only a total rager, but one of their most interesting releases in an age. An impressive fusion of the melodic death metal by which the group made their name, and the alternative metal sound for which they’ve become better known for, I had a chat with singer Anders Fridén late last month about...

There’s a new Screaming Females album released next week, on February 17th, as ever, on Don Giovanni Records . Called Desire Pathway , it is, as ever, a thrilling thing, with some of the best songs the New Jersey band have written – and some of singer/guitarist Marissa Paternoster ’s most exciting licks – in the group’s 17 years of history to date. I’ve loved Screaming Females for years. They’re o...

Glen Matlock needs no introduction, but I can't publish an episode with this bit blank so I’ll do one anyway. The bass player in the immortal Sex Pistols – and the principal songwriter within that group too – in the decades that have followed he’s recorded with Iggy Pop , The Damned , played with the Faces, Primal Scream and – currently - Blondie, shared lead vocals with Midge Ure in the Rich...

Forged within the punk youthquake in 1977, The Raincoats are one of my favourite bands. I’m not alone in my love of them. Kurt Cobain of Nirvana was famously a fan. Sonic Youth too. Simpsons creator Matt Groening. Jeff Magnum of Neutral Milk Hotel. But here’s John Lydon to articulate the brilliance of the band perfectly. "The Raincoats,” says John, “offered a completely different way of doing...

Sometimes life works out in the strangest ways. Nikki Brumen was the singer in Pagan , a band from Australia that I was really excited about, until unexpectedly - from where I was enjoying their blackened punk from, anyway – they split up, in 2020. That, as Nikki will explain, was a pretty fucking heavy blow to recover from... But wait! A member of Pagan told her that Blood Command - a band from B...

I’ve been a fan of Patrick Wolf since he was a kid. A figure in and around the Teen-C scene that mattered so much to me as a teenager, when Patrick Apps became Patrick Wolf, and released a string of perfect records – my favourite remains 2007’s The Magic Position , but in my opinion, none of his six records to date have been anything less than perfect– he was well on his way to being one of my all...

Despite releasing pivotal songs and albums by The The, Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, Blancmange, Coil, Swans, Psychic TV, Cabaret Voltaire, Einstürzende Neubauten, and my personal favourites, Scraping Foetus of the Wheel, the story of Some Bizarre Records and their maverick founder Stevo Pearce, has been largely forgotten. But wait? What’s that? The music journalist Wesley Doyle is about to release a b...

In 1995, Suede , to the outside world, were done. After being left on their skinny arses upon completion of the sprawling Dog Man Star album by the departed guitar hero Bernard Butler, few would have expected the group to rise again, and certainly not with a record as fresh and as effervescent as their third, Coming Up . If you were a fan of music in that era, you will know what happened next. And...

Okay, from the off, let me make it clear that We Are Scientists – that’d be guitarist and singer Keith Murray and bassist Chris Cain – are managed by my wife. Nepotism? Shlepotism. But please do buy their excellent new album, their eighth, Lobes , which is out now on 100% Records ! But even before me and my wife got together, which is a time in my life I just about remember, I was crossing paths w...

<Deep breath> The Autumns, Beach House, The Dears – fucking love The Dears, Dirty Three, Emmy the Great, Fionn Regan <deeper breath> Howling Bells, John Grant, Lanterns on the Lake, Laura Veirs, Lift to Experience, Midlake, The Walkman… For the last 25 years, Bella Union have been responsible for bringing me some of the best music I’ve ever heard. And before that, the label’s owner, Si...

The audio isn’t great on this episode, and so, as is the case when I record an episode and the sound quality isn’t what I’d hope it to be, I’ve published it as a bonus episode. There are moment where it sounds a bit like Daniel Hunt , principal songwriter and producer of Liverpool’s longstanding electronic wonders Ladytron , is calling into talkSPORT after seeing his preferred football team succum...

Katherine Priddy ’s 2021 debut album, The Eternal Rocks Beneath , was a revelation to me when I discovered it a few years back. Folk music it might have been, but it wasn't so inaccessible that it was too much for those who merely enjoy their rock acoustic and restrained. I’m not alone in being a fan of the singer-songwriter from Birmingham. Praise came from Cerys Matthews, Tom Robinson, Radc...

Michelle Grace Hunder , who hails from Melbourne, Australia, takes some of my favourite music photos. Her 2018 photo project (in tandem with her project partner Claudia Sangiorgi Dalimore ), Her Sound, Her Story , celebrated 80 women from across the Australian music scene visually and in print. It was hugely inspiring to me, and I have ample respect for the time and patience MGH takes to campaign...

Did you know there’s a new Hundred Reasons album on the way? On February 24th? Called Glorious Sunset ? You didn’t? Well there is, which is exciting, and on this episode I talk to guitarist Larry Hibbitt about just that. Also the group’s forthcoming dates with Hell is for Heroes and My Vitriol. And Larry’s career as a producer. And why the group shut down in 2012 and have  returned as an active co...

Dividing her time between Nashville and London, and originally from Sydney, Australia, the music of Emma Swift has been a balm for me in recent years. Emma's debut album, 2020’s Blonde on the Tracks , saw her articulating her depression via the music of Bob Dylan, and I guess extracted a similar sort of comfort from it when I discovered the record last year. I wanted to get her onto the podca...

Mom Jeans , from Berkeley, California, are one of my favourite bands from recent years. Now three albums in, last year’s third offering, Sweet Tooth , marked a radical departure in sound. That’s good. Bands should evolve. Unless you’re the Ramones. I’m fine with the Ramones writing the same perfect song over and over and over again.  But before Mom Jeans hit the UK next month, I wanted to know wha...

On this episode I speak to Alex Melton , who in recent years has lit up YouTube with his smart, soulful, innovative punk pop covers of songs raging from those penned by Harry Styles, Third Eye Blind, Oasis, Foo Fighters, Taylor Swift and – my personal favourite, this – Hanson . I love a bit of ‘MmmBop’, me. If you’re thinking this sounds terrible, I can sympathise, but either via his YouTube chann...