Stevie Chick
Stevie Chick has contributed to such titles as MOJO, The Guardian, Plan B, London Lite, Kerrang!, Arena, Melody Maker, Careless Talk Costs Lives, NME and Sleazenation. He edited the underground music magazine Loose Lips Sink Ships with photographer and musician Steve Gullick, and his book Psychic Confusion: The Story Of Sonic Youth was published by Omnibus in 2007. His life is made all the sweeter thanks to the music of Stevie Wonder, Sebadoh, J Dilla, 8-Eyed Spy, The White Stripes, Aretha Franklin and The Lord High Fixers, and the ever-purring presence of his cat, Chang. His favourite colour is orange, and he wears a size 9 Converse lo-top.
184 articles
List of articles in the library
Stereophonics: Cardiff University
Live Review by Stevie Chick, Melody Maker, 10 January 1998
KELLY'S HEROES ...
Grandaddy: The Monarch, London
Live Review by Stevie Chick, Melody Maker, 21 February 1998
A LESSON in not listening to The Man, who would have you believe that bands like Grandaddy, stretching their thrift-store synths way beyond their limits ...
Review by Stevie Chick, Melody Maker, 7 March 1998
THE PROBLEM with prog rock was that it didn't actually progress anywhere; musical frontierism was merely a smokescreen for some of the most wanky follies ...
Jeff Buckley: Sketches (For My Sweetheart The Drunk) (Epic)
Review by Stevie Chick, Melody Maker, 16 May 1998
YOUR INITIAL thoughts as you listen to this — the first posthumous release from mercurial troubadour Jeff Buckley (who drowned in the Mississippi last May) ...
Live Review by Stevie Chick, Melody Maker, 23 May 1998
TONIGHT, EVERYONE wants to be a cowboy, a hustler, a rock'n'roll star. There's an accentuated swagger to the crowd; drinks are ordered and ferried with ...
Grandaddy, Super Furry Animals: Super Furry Animals, Grandaddy: Academy, Manchester
Live Review by Stevie Chick, Melody Maker, 23 May 1998
CREATURE COMFORTS ...
Girls Against Boys: ULU, London
Live Review by Stevie Chick, Melody Maker, 20 June 1998
THE SATANIC VERSUS ...
The Jungle Brothers: Jungle Brothers: Metropole Hotel, Cork
Live Review by Stevie Chick, Melody Maker, 20 June 1998
A FEW YEARS back, while the world fell as one for the deftly jazzy, pro-Afro delights of A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul, ...
Review by Stevie Chick, Melody Maker, 5 September 1998
COURTNEY LOVE is performing the most outrageous and unexpected act of an outrageous, unexpected life: surviving. Her rewriting of 'Miss World' on Hole's last tour ...
RZA, Wu-Tang Clan: RZA: The Digital Revolution
Interview by Stevie Chick, Melody Maker, 28 November 1998
One minute RZA's producing the Wu-Tang Clan, the next he's writing as his alter ego Bobby Digital, then he's off to star in the movies. ...
The Dirty Three, PJ Harvey: PJ Harvey, Dirty 3: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Stevie Chick, Melody Maker, 2 January 1999
RELIGHT MY DESIRE! ...
Interview by Stevie Chick, Melody Maker, 9 January 1999
Gone are the days when SEBADOH records were the lowest in fi. We meet them in London and hear about their shiny new pop direction ...
The Roots: Astoria, London WC2
Live Review by Stevie Chick, New Musical Express, 1 May 1999
YEAH, THE Roots are live hip-hop, but that ain't what makes 'em special. What makes The Roots special is just how good their itchy, firebrand ...
Macy Gray: Embassy Rooms, London
Live Review by Stevie Chick, New Musical Express, 15 May 1999
SHE STANDS apart, unmistakable. It's like she's from another planet, another dimension, she's so different. Different from her vacu-formed backing band, who look and sound ...
Lauryn Hill: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Stevie Chick, New Musical Express, 12 June 1999
WE DO NEED MiSEDUCATION ...
Mary J. Blige: The Mary Changed: Mary J. Blige: Mary (MCA)
Review by Stevie Chick, New Musical Express, 21 August 1999
THE LATE-'90S HAVE BEEN something of a golden period for female-fronted soul/R&B music. ...
Mobb Deep: Murda Muzik (Loud/Epic)
Review by Stevie Chick, New Musical Express, 11 September 1999
IN QUEENSBRIDGE, NYC, when someone gets shot, they generally don't get up. Your homey isn't out drinking 40s and smoking blunts; he's laying on a ...
The Bluetones: Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth
Live Review by Stevie Chick, New Musical Express, 9 October 1999
UNHIP HOORAY! ...
Guided By Voices: Fleece & Firkin, Bristol
Live Review by Stevie Chick, New Musical Express, 30 October 1999
YOU KNOW the drill by now: 30-something schoolteacher, obsessed equally with The Beatles, The Who, and Budweiser, bashes out neo-psych nuggets with similarly wasted wastrels ...
Spearhead: Jazz Café, Camden, London
Live Review by Stevie Chick, New Musical Express, 30 October 1999
...
The Auteurs: London School of Economics
Live Review by Stevie Chick, New Musical Express, 6 November 1999
HE'S AGED well. In the six years since the Auteurs first waltzed into the fray, Luke Haines seems to have grown into his scowling, petulant ...
Shack: Head Masterful: Shack: L2, Liverpool
Live Review by Stevie Chick, New Musical Express, 13 November 1999
BACKSTAGE, the band's name is being wielded as a verb — to get "Shacked". As in to be drawn into Shack's chaotic, hedonistic tailwinds. To ...
Mos Def: Black On Both Sides (Rawkus)
Review by Stevie Chick, New Musical Express, 20 November 1999
DESPITE HIP-HOP being commercially and creatively stronger than ever, the political content of rap is at an all-time low. ...
Mos Def: Are You Def Or Somefink?
Interview by Stevie Chick, New Musical Express, 22 January 2000
Er, yes, actually. Mos Def, Brooklyn rapper, dontcha know… ...
Yo La Tengo: All Hail Melodic Lo-Fi Mavericks Yo La Tengo!
Interview by Stevie Chick, New Musical Express, 11 March 2000
TEN-GALLON FACTS (YES, IT'S THE BIG ONES!) ...
Common: Like Water For Chocolate
Review by Stevie Chick, New Musical Express, 6 April 2000
IT WEREN'T ALWAYS multiple Wu-pseudonyms and verbose flights of mystical lyrical fantasy down hip-hop's way. Back in the day, rappers wove their rhymes from the ...
Interview by Stevie Chick, New Musical Express, 15 July 2000
Som Wardner is no ordinary rock star-in-waiting — his granddad has a road named after him! — but then My Vitriol are no ordinary class ...
Sleater-Kinney: Three Times A Ladyman!: Sleater-Kinney: 13th Note, Glasgow
Live Review by Stevie Chick, New Musical Express, 5 August 2000
MAKE NO MISTAKE. Sleater-Kinney are incandescent. In the three years since their breakthrough third album, Dig Me Out, saw this corrosive power-trio progress from local ...
Peaches: The Teaches Of Peaches (Kitty-Yo)
Review by Stevie Chick, New Musical Express, 16 September 2000
THE MUSIC — harsh shards of electronic fuzz, coupled with unforgiving whiplash beats — sounds like ATR's Alec Empire playing lounge music for a San ...
David Cavanagh: The Creation Records Story – My Magpie Eyes Are Hungry for the Prize (Virgin)
Book Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 25 November 2000
WHEN NEWS OF the closure of Creation Records broke on November 26 1999, one person at least must have been grateful. David Cavanagh now had ...
Review by Stevie Chick, New Musical Express, 27 November 2000
IT BEGINS WITH AN ARGUMENT. Surprisingly, Ryan Adams and his bandmate aren't arguing about some dusty Gram Parsons track, but a Morrissey record. And, surprisingly, ...
Common: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Stevie Chick, New Musical Express, 13 January 2001
HEADY ON A diet of wigga-impressing gangsta-rap and wall-to-wall Eminem, some critics have a tendency to write off Chicago's master of the 'conscious' rhyme as ...
Live Review by Stevie Chick, New Musical Express, 17 February 2001
THE SOUND BEGINS as a whisper, builds into murmur, stretches into a babble. ...
The White Stripes: SXSW, Austin Fat Tuesday's, Austin, Texas
Live Review by Stevie Chick, New Musical Express, 31 March 2001
THE WHITE STRIPES are quite a sight. ...
The White Stripes: De Stijl (Sympathy For The Record Industry)
Review by Stevie Chick, New Musical Express, 21 April 2001
Two-piece brother and sister band kick up fine rock'n'roll ruckus ...
Spooks: The Spooks: "We're gonna hijack the planet"
Interview by Stevie Chick, The Evening Standard, 26 April 2001
They won't say where they come from but hip-hop collective the Spooks know where they're going. ...
The Strokes, The White Stripes: Big riffs from across the pond
Profile by Max Bell, Stevie Chick, The Evening Standard, 5 July 2001
US garage rock is back, and Detroit and New York are where it's at. Stevie Chick and Max Bell look at the new breed chasing ...
Interview by Stevie Chick, The Evening Standard, 23 July 2001
Last week, nobody had heard of her. This week, she's the fastest-selling pop artist in the world. Stevie Chick meets Alicia Keys. ...
The White Stripes: White Noise, White Heat: The White Stripes: 100 Club, London
Live Review by Stevie Chick, New Musical Express, 4 August 2001
HE'S THE don of Detroit, the god of garage, the man reclaiming rock'n'roll from false-hearted cheats and whining, hollow charlatans. ...
Interview by Stevie Chick, The Evening Standard, 8 August 2001
The rising London rapper has tuned in to the sounds of Brixton to give hip hop an international accent, says Stevie Chick ...
Sean Paul: Queens of calypso and men of steel
Report and Interview by Stevie Chick, The Evening Standard, 22 August 2001
MAURICE HAMILTON sighs heavily as he describes the series of events which has seen virtually all the proposed live performances at this year's Notting Hill ...
The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, Michael Franti, Spearhead: A Q&A With Michael Franti
Interview by Stevie Chick, unpublished, Spring 2001
MICHAEL FRANTI has been one of the most consistently insightful, incisive, and intelligent voices in politicised pop music for almost 15 years now. ...
Gorillaz: Damon and the fine art of faking it
Report by Stevie Chick, The Evening Standard, 15 January 2002
At this year's Brit Awards, Damon Albarn's creation, Gorillaz, look set to upstage the fake bands they so like to mock. Stevie Chick reports. ...
...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead: …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead
Profile and Interview by Stevie Chick, Kerrang!, 2 March 2002
They've been banned from every venue in their hometown, alienated the alt-rock underground by signing to a major label, and confused audiences the world over ...
Profile and Interview by Stevie Chick, Kerrang!, 23 March 2002
Forget the hype, the haircuts and the priviliged backgrounds. New York heroes have one thing on their mind: the music... ...
The Bellrays: Notting Hill Arts Club, London
Live Review by Stevie Chick, Kerrang!, 30 March 2002
Poptones present your new new favourite band. ...
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion: The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion: Praise Be!
Profile and Interview by Stevie Chick, Kerrang!, 30 March 2002
The planet's coolest band are here to give rock'n'roll back its swagger. This is the gospel according to The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion... ...
Girls Against Boys, The Icarus Line, The Von Bondies, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs: South By Southwest
Report and Interview by Stevie Chick, Kerrang!, 6 April 2002
Deep in the heart of Texas, the Icarus Line are being lynched by the locals, the dwarves are getting their kits off, and Courtney Love ...
The BellRays: Maximum Rock 'N' Roll
Profile and Interview by Stevie Chick, Kerrang!, 11 May 2002
Praying for gasoline-fuelled garage punk fired-up with Truth and Attitude? The Bellrays might just be here to save you... ...
Live Review by Stevie Chick, Kerrang!, 8 June 2002
An amped-up A begin their triumphant lap of victory across the UK ...
Guided By Voices: The Captain Never Fades: Guided By Voices Grows Sweeter with Time
Interview by Stevie Chick, The Stranger, 20 June 2002
ROBERT POLLARD HAS fronted slanted 'n' enchanted prog-punk bubblegum merchants Guided By Voices for two decades, and writing songs, he claims, "since I was eight ...
Mudhoney: Number one sick boys
Retrospective and Interview by Stevie Chick, Kerrang!, 28 September 2002
Mudhoney helped invent grunge, then became also-rans in a blur of fights, paranoia and heroin. They're happy to talk about it... ...
Fugazi: Corn Exchange, Brighton
Live Review by Stevie Chick, Kerrang!, 2 November 2002
Long-awaited live return of genre-thrashing Godheads ...
The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster: Gorllla Warfare
Profile and Interview by Stevie Chick, Kerrang!, 18 January 2003
The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster were reared on violence, vandalism and far, far too many drugs. Join them in their world of darkness and, er, ...
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Lust For Life
Interview by Stevie Chick, Kerrang!, 20 February 2003
Yeah Yeah Yeahs: sex, desperation and glamour, Big Apple style ...
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Fever To Tell
Review and Interview by Stevie Chick, MOJO, May 2003
IF YOU KNOW of them at all yet, more likely it's via constant, obvious press proclamations of their "cool", than the EP and single's worth ...
The Roots: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Stevie Chick, MOJO, June 2003
Philadelphia's venerated hip hop orchestra deliver a joyous lesson in the genre's elastic embrace ...
Amy Winehouse: Frank (Island) ****
Review by Stevie Chick, MOJO, January 2004
Stunning, hilarious debut album from UK soul chanteuse. ...
Interview by Stevie Chick, Loose Lips Sink Ships, February 2004
When was your first time in jail?"I was twelve years old... It was for shoplifting. Shoplifting booze, heh heh heh."Have you always been attracted to ...
Interview by Stevie Chick, MOJO, March 2004
United in a love of Bjork, Syd Barrett and Lenny Bruce, the Mars Volta's Cedric Bixler and Omar Rodriguez have survived heroin abuse and self-destruction ...
The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players
Interview by Stevie Chick, The Times, March 2004
"STOOSH OVER, DADDY!""I am stooshing! I'm stooshed over as far as I can... I don't have any more room to stoosh!" ...
Pete Doherty, Wolfman: Wolfman's howling mad week
Profile and Interview by Stevie Chick, New Musical Express, 1 May 2004
How did a degenerate mucker of with no fixed abode come to gatecrash the Top Ten and celebrate with a wild party at the snooty ...
Live Review by Stevie Chick, Plan B, June 2004
I WANT TO BELIEVE in impossible things. I want to believe in true love in a cynical world. I want to believe that, yes, Andy ...
Profile and Interview by Stevie Chick, Plan B, June 2004
Graham Coxon just wasn't made for these times. It's OK — the fairies are keeping an eye on him. ...
Secret Machines: Altered States: Secret Machines' Narcotic Bliss
Interview by Stevie Chick, The Stranger, 17 June 2004
"THE FIRST TIME you take acid, or have any kind of a psychedelic experience, from that point on you look at the world a little ...
Reigning Sound: Too Much Guitar
Review by Stevie Chick, MOJO, July 2004
Wracked and wonderful Southern rock'n'soul party at Greg Cartwright's garage. ...
The Roots: The Tipping Point (MCA) ***
Review by Stevie Chick, MOJO, August 2004
Philadelphia freedom: A sixth album of adventurous, organic hip hop from the city of brotherly love. By Stevie Chick ...
Review by Stevie Chick, MOJO, September 2004
"THIS IS THE ballad of Guided By Voices," reflected Robert Pollard poignantly on the band's 1996 semi-official bootleg Jellyfish Reflector, introducing 'Don't Stop Now', a ...
The Dirtbombs: The Beach, Brighton
Live Review by Stevie Chick, Plan B, October 2004
ALL WE CAN HEAR is the jackhammer beat, drummers Ben Blackwell and Patrick Pantano pummelling the traps with hypnotic, metronomic klang, cowbell and bass drum ...
Review by Stevie Chick, MOJO, November 2004
THIS ISN'T the same young actor/poet/rapper who stared confidently out from the sleeve of his debut, 1999's Black On Both Sides, scion of the new ...
Velvet Revolver's Scott Weiland
Interview by Stevie Chick, Kerrang!, 6 November 2004
THE RIBALD ROCK'N'ROLL spirit of Guns'n'Roses and their ilk has long since evaporated into the smog. Once they owned Sunset, roaring up the strip in ...
Guided By Voices: Fading Captain: Guided by Voices Head Into The Sunset
Interview by Stevie Chick, The Stranger, 11 November 2004
GEARING UP FOR what will be his last tour with the band that won him his unlikely fame, Robert Pollard is in a reflective mood. ...
Nirvana: With The Lights Out (Geffen)
Review by Stevie Chick, The Stranger, 18 November 2004
POSTHUMOUS RELEASES FROM from departed artists often flail to do the impossible – to provide the music so violently and abruptly silenced by, say, Jeff ...
Comets On Fire, Julian Cope: Comets On Fire/Julian Cope: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Stevie Chick, Plan B, February 2005
EVEN THOUGH THE rock star's wearing denim jeans, a strong waft of leather-kekkedness has wandered idly to Seats 2 & 3, Row E, Upper Stalls. ...
Interview by Stevie Chick, Kerrang!, February 2005
FIVE YEARS. It's a long time by most people's standards, but when such a period passes between albums by Nine Inch Nails, the turbulent electro-noir ...
The Mars Volta: Frances The Mute
Review by Stevie Chick, Plan B, February 2005
A thing of gaudy glory and ensnaring riddles that returns all the concentration you invest in it. ...
Dinosaur Jr.: Dinosaur Jr: Diary Of A Mad Band
Retrospective and Interview by Stevie Chick, MOJO, May 2005
Inspired by Sabbath, Hardcore and Oi!, Dinosaur Jr lit the late '80s with their fireball rock. ...
The White Stripes: Get Behind Me Satan
Review by Stevie Chick, Plan B, June 2005
THERE WAS almost a point, deep into Elephant, where you could sense something slipping away from Jack White. ...
Foo Fighters, Nirvana: Dave Grohl
Interview by Stevie Chick, MOJO, July 2005
Grooving on Led Zep, dossing with mud-wrestlers, he joined the "fucking dark" world of Nirvana a goofy naif and left it a rock star. "I ...
Teenage Fanclub: Love In A Cold Climate
Retrospective and Interview by Stevie Chick, MOJO, July 2005
Ladies and gentlemen! Gasp, as Scots prestidigitators the Teenage Fanclub turn base indie guitar slag into romantic pop gold! Gape, as their death-defying story is ...
The White Stripes: Heart of Darkness
Profile and Interview by Stevie Chick, MOJO, August 2005
Join us for a tale of extraordinary madness as we sail through the Brazilian rainforest deep into the Heart Of Darkness. There we find the ...
The White Stripes: The Truth In Red And White: The White Stripes' Romanticised Reality
Comment by Stevie Chick, The Stranger, 4 August 2005
"I SAW THIS documentary about a classical guitarist," Jack White told me recently. "He was playing Bach and Mozart, these really ridiculously complicated pieces, but ...
Dinosaur Jr: Back From Extinction: Dinosaur Jr And The Annals Of Indie-Rock
Comment by Stevie Chick, The Stranger, 18 August 2005
FUNNY HOW THINGS change. Only a year ago, the idea of Dinosaur Jr.'s J Mascis and Lou Barlow burying their legendarily blood-splattered hatchet was laughable. ...
Review by Stevie Chick, New Musical Express, 12 September 2005
Fresh US hip-hop on a bucolic tip ...
Foo Fighters: "Touring the UK? It Feels Great Every Time!"
Interview by Stevie Chick, Kerrang!, December 2005
2005 HAS BEEN, in the words of guitarist Nate Mendel, 'really fucking chaotic' for the Foo Fighters. First, there was In Your Honour, recorded in ...
Corinne Bailey Rae : Corinne Bailey Rae: Who's That Girl
Profile and Interview by Stevie Chick, MOJO, June 2006
She's the British R&B sensation who wants to keep it "underground". But can Corinne Bailey Rae convince America's taste-makers without selling her soul? ...
My Morning Jacket: Astoria, London
Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Evening Standard, 25 September 2006
JAMMING IS A justly maligned practice in rock, too often the last refuge of self-indulgent musos running low on inspiration. ...
Bright Eyes: That Vision Thing
Interview by Stevie Chick, MOJO, April 2007
As Bright Eyes he's spent half his 27 years as the boozy Dylan of disaffected youth. On the eve of a new album, Stevie Chick ...
Retrospective and Interview by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 11 May 2007
SHE STUDIED HARD, likes to stay in — and used to be such a stiff dancer people laughed at her. So how did Amerie become ...
Roots Manuva: The war on jiggification
Report and Interview by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 26 October 2007
Stevie Chick on how UK hip-hop got its groove ...
Retrospective and Interview by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 14 March 2008
AS GIRLS GROWING UP IN OHIO, Kim and Kelley Deal weren't expected to do anything more musical than shake a tambourine. The duo tell Stevie ...
Death Cab For Cutie: Platinum unknowns
Retrospective and Interview by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 18 April 2008
DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE may be the biggest-selling band that nobody recognises — even at their own gigs. Stevie Chick meets them. ...
Howlin Rain — Did the earth move for you?
Profile and Interview by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 2 May 2008
THE PATRONAGE OF RICK RUBIN is considered a Very Big Deal within the US music industry. Aged 21, in 1984, this white heavy rock fan ...
Sonic Youth: Experiences from writing a biography
Memoir by Stevie Chick, Plan B, June 2008
EXACTLY A YEAR AGO I was in a pretty scary place, yo. ...
Venom: "This is the devil's music"
Profile and Interview by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 27 June 2008
Credited with inventing an entire genre and influencing some of the world's biggest metal bands, Venom are still seen as a bit of a joke ...
Rodriguez: Detroit's comeback king
Retrospective and Interview by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 8 August 2008
We meet Rodriguez on the eve of his first headlining show in America, 38 years after his debut Cold Fact. ...
Metallica: "Why hasn't anyone dethroned us yet?"
Retrospective and Interview by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 5 September 2008
FIVE YEARS AFTER the critical and commercial disaster of St Anger, they're back to save metal — and save themselves in the process. Stevie Chick ...
Fall Out Boy: Chemical Brothers
Interview by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 24 October 2008
Fall Out Boy are the pin-ups of choice for an over-medicated, emo generation. But as election day approaches in the US, the band tell Stevie ...
Review by Stevie Chick, bbc.co.uk, 2009
Like some obscure 70s rock LP discovered by chance in a charity shop. ...
Madness : One Step Beyond... (30th Anniversary Edition)
Review by Stevie Chick, bbc.co.uk, 2009
The vaudevillian nuttiness of their debut set hasn't diminished over the decades. ...
Sly & the Family Stone: There's a Riot Goin' On
Review by Stevie Chick, bbc.co.uk, 2009
Dark, troubled and brilliant funk from kaleidoscopic soul-rock legends ...
Mastodon: Blood, Sweat and Beards: Mastodon
Interview by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 27 March 2009
IN THE TWO DECADES and change since Metallica's landmark Master of Puppets album debuted, heavy metal has charted an ascendant course, from derided, marginalised and ...
Review by Stevie Chick, bbc.co.uk, September 2009
While no seismic shift in direction, Popular Songs does find Yo La Tengo on peak form. ...
Review by Stevie Chick, bbc.co.uk, 14 September 2009
Q-Tip's previously-shelved, finally-released second album proves an undiscovered gem. ...
Shafiq Husayn: Shafiq En'a Freeka
Review by Stevie Chick, bbc.co.uk, 5 October 2009
One-third of futurist hip hop cartel Sa-Ra Creative Partners goes solo, brilliantly. ...
Built to Spill: There Is No Enemy
Review by Stevie Chick, bbc.co.uk, 6 October 2009
Belated but welcome UK release for BtS's late-period return to form. ...
Review by Stevie Chick, bbc.co.uk, 13 October 2009
Seattle grunge pioneers' first full-length, back on purple plastic. ...
The Low Anthem: The Folk-Rockers Who Sing About Darwin
Profile and Interview by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 4 February 2010
"I HOPE PEOPLE don't think we're just relics," says Ben Knox Miller, sincerely, dressed in a jacket fashioned from an old burlap flour sack, and ...
Erykah Badu: New Amerykah, Part Two (Return of the Ankh)
Review by Stevie Chick, bbc.co.uk, 30 March 2010
ERYKAH BADU HERSELF has explained that if Return of the Ankh and its predecessor, 2008's sublime New Amerykah: Part One (Fourth World War), were two ...
Review by Stevie Chick, bbc.co.uk, 4 May 2010
Former Faith No More frontman interprets Italian pop hits from the '50s and '60s. ...
Lauryn Hill: Whatever happened to Lauryn Hill?
Essay by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 28 May 2010
THE FORMER FUGEE won five Grammys for her chart-topping solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, in 1998. But we are still waiting for the ...
Steve Winwood: Revolutions – The Very Best of Steve Winwood
Review by Stevie Chick, bbc.co.uk, 7 June 2010
Career retrospective for enduring R&B legend, available as no-filler disc or four-CD set. ...
Review by Stevie Chick, bbc.co.uk, July 2010
Winning melodies, vivid choruses, memorable hooks and lyrics to make your heart hiccup. ...
James Chance & the Contortions: James Chance: Twist Your Soul – The Definitive Collection
Review by Stevie Chick, bbc.co.uk, August 2010
Two-disc retrospective of scabrous No Wave figure’s searing jazz-punk contortions. ...
James Chance & the Contortions: James Chance: Twist Your Soul – The Definitive Collection
Review by Stevie Chick, bbc.co.uk, 2 August 2010
Two-disc retrospective of scabrous No Wave figure's searing jazz-punk contortions. ...
Profile and Interview by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 28 October 2010
IT'S THE CONTRASTS between Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan, clearly visible from any seat in the Barbican tonight, that you notice first. Campbell, stage left, ...
Review by Stevie Chick, bbc.co.uk, 2011
Laconic, guitar-heavy masterpiece from Dinosaur Jr.'s second-wind. ...
Review by Stevie Chick, bbc.co.uk, 2011
Stray tracks from slacker-savant singer-songwriter ...
The White Stripes: Detroit's Rock Heroes Remembered
Retrospective by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 5 February 2011
THERE WAS AN outpouring of grief this week when the White Stripes announced they were to split. Stevie Chick explains their magic while photographer Ewen ...
The Beastie Boys: Beastie Boys: Hot Sauce Committee Part Two
Review by Stevie Chick, bbc.co.uk, May 2011
The Beasties' seventh LP is catnip for fans of their classic early-'90s output. ...
White Denim: Between Indie Rock and a Hard Place
Profile and Interview by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 26 May 2011
"WE'VE TALKED ABOUT starting another band and just writing really straightforward, boring pop songs," says White Denim bassist Steve Terebecki, sitting in a London bar. ...
Bad Brains, Minor Threat: Ian Mackaye meets Bad Brains and invents hardcore
Retrospective by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 14 June 2011
NO MERE THREE-CHORD punk dullards, Washington DC's Bad Brains had chops to spare. They'd started as jazz-fusion quintet Mind Power, worshipping at the altar of ...
Crowded House, Pajama Club: Pajama Club: No more Crowded House
Interview by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 25 August 2011
Once their children had left home, Crowded House songwriter Neil Finn and his wife found themselves with too much time on their hands — and ...
Review by Stevie Chick, bbc.co.uk, September 2011
It remains, 17 years on, a great place to get lost for a while. ...
Shin Joong-hyun: South Korea's psychedelic mimic turned master
Retrospective and Interview by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 15 September 2011
He learned American pop via a hand-built radio, became a psychedelic pop star in his own right, then was tortured by South Korea's dictatorship. Meet ...
My Morning Jacket: "We had to work it out ourselves"
Interview by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 27 October 2011
THEY STARTED out in a barn in Kentucky, and became one of rock's great cult success stories. My Morning Jacket's Jim James talks to Stevie Chick ...
Review by Stevie Chick, bbc.co.uk, 2012
Saturnian jazz godhead leaves Earth’s orbit. ...
Guided By Voices: Don't give up the day job
Retrospective and Interview by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 5 January 2012
Riven by addictions and family problems, Guided By Voices' late blooming was a double-edged sword. So why, after 15 years, has the classic lineup reunited? ...
THEESatisfaction: Queens Of The Stoned Age: THEESatisfaction Interviewed
Interview by Stevie Chick, The Quietus, 29 March 2012
Seattle-based "Empresses of Time" THEESatisfaction have just followed up a string of remarkable self-released records with their debut for Sub Pop. The duo tell Stevie ...
Fela Kuti: Live in Detroit 1986
Review by Stevie Chick, bbc.co.uk, 14 May 2012
Rediscovered concert recording from the king of afrobeat. ...
Review by Stevie Chick, bbc.co.uk, September 2012
Canadian turntablist goes to meet the devil down by the crossroads. ...
Review by Stevie Chick, bbc.co.uk, 24 September 2012
Danish trio bravely, and masterfully, embraces darker themes and moods for album four. ...
Matthew E. White: Lexington, London
Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 24 January 2013
"THIS ONE'S a groover," smiles a hirsute, check-shirted Matthew E White, looking like the Kings of Leon's friendly stoner cousin as he leads his five-piece ...
Alicia Keys: The New Priestess Of Soul
Profile and Interview by Stevie Chick, MOJO, March 2013
Raised in Hell's Kitchen and classically trained, Alicia Keys was a teenage musical misfit who tried her best "to be a boy". Over a decade ...
Review and Interview by Stevie Chick, MOJO, March 2013
Noticed in the "not so important" tray of rock's celestial dead letter office: the noise-drenched pop genius of Brainiac. ...
Fela Kuti: The Best of the Black President 2
Review by Stevie Chick, bbc.co.uk, March 2013
Cherry-picked cuts from the catalogue of He Who Carries Death In His Pouch. ...
The Breeders: LSXX – Last Splash (20th Anniversary Reissue)
Review by Stevie Chick, MOJO, May 2013
The wild, weird and subterranean pop of their second album proved there was platinum-selling life after the Pixies for the Breeders' Kim Deal. ...
Profile and Interview by Stevie Chick, MOJO, June 2013
Corrupted from birth by Lou Reed, driven by his own otherness and "music that sounds haunted", Deerhunter's Bradford Cox is the most intense, extraordinary, outspoken ...
Review by Stevie Chick, The Quietus, 1 August 2013
I'VE LEARNED, over two decades and change of really quite serious record listening, that few are the artists who have even one masterpiece inside of ...
The Isley Brothers: 10 Of The Best
Guide by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 7 January 2014
1. 'Shout (Parts 1 & 2)' The Brothers Isley (Kelly, Rudy and Ron) started out singing gospel music before embarking upon a pop career that would ...
Mary J. Blige: Mary J Blige: Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 26 September 2014
A masterful Mary J. Blige takes the audience to giddy heights of joy and depths of pain as she showcases her imminent London Sessions album. ...
Ty Segall: Electric Ballroom, London
Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 13 November 2014
Segall and his band attack these garage-psych nuggets with wild glee, joyriding them like stolen cars. ...
Mastodon: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 30 November 2014
THE FOUR FRONTMEN straddle the divide between their hardcore roots and crossover future with ease. ...
Natalie Prass: The Lexington, London
Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 29 January 2015
DURING A MOMENTARY delay between songs, Nashville singer-songwriter Natalie Prass looks to the audience and, with a genial awkwardness, says: "I feel like I should ...
D'Angelo: Hammersmith Apollo, London
Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 22 February 2015
HE MAY BE a soulful innovator, but there has always been a strong traditionalism in D'Angelo's music, and he begins tonight by tapping into a ...
Review by Stevie Chick, MOJO, May 2015
UK hardcore firebrands' fourth delivers raw punk with a complex undertow. ...
BadBadNotGood, Ghostface Killah: Ghostface Killah: Electric Ballroom, London
Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 18 May 2015
Toronto jazz trio BadBadNotGood deliver razor-edge grooves to join the most prolific Wu outside the Clan for a frenetic tour through his back pages ...
Tyler, the Creator: Cherry Bomb (Columbia)
Review by Stevie Chick, MOJO, July 2015
Odd Future man's fourth solo joint blows hot and cold. ...
Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 16 July 2015
The New York hip hop duo were at their best as they unleashed the cavernous thunder and pungent rhymes of their classic album The Cold ...
Curtis Mayfield: 10 of the best
Guide by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 5 August 2015
Deploying sweet soul and blistering funk – and pouring his gorgeous, honeyed falsetto over it all – Curtis Mayfield veered between breezy optimism and hard-edged ...
Profile and Interview by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 6 October 2015
DEATH THREATS, DOOMED ACTS, audience-baiting: the exploits have overshadowed the music at times. But they are still the greatest rock group of the 21st century. ...
Review by Stevie Chick, MOJO, February 2016
Former Fiery Furnace goes rad in the country. ...
Lydia Lunch: Lexington, London
Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 22 March 2016
Lunch unites with Gallon Drunk's James Johnston and Ian White for the most joyfully bawdy music of her career. ...
At the Drive-In: Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 28 March 2016
DYNAMISM UNDIMMED by the departure of Jim Ward, the band play punk-rock as a pure adrenaline rush, tempos changing and riffs turning on hairpins. ...
Review and Interview by Stevie Chick, MOJO, April 2016
On a mission to make their "White Album", The Coral ended up on hiatus. Five years on, they return for a dark masterpiece. ...
Review by Stevie Chick, MOJO, April 2016
Austin, Texas' best-kept secret deliver fine fusion of psych/soul/punk. ...
Minnie Riperton: 10 of the best tracks
Guide by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 29 June 2016
She had a five-octave vocal range, inspired Stevie Wonder and gave birth to Maya Rudolph – the tragedy is that this huge musical talent died ...
Profile and Interview by Stevie Chick, MOJO, November 2016
Two years ago, in crisis, doubting his worth and dismissed by his own label. Then he started to sing about that uncertainty, and everything changed. ...
At the Drive-In pick up where they left off — sounding like the future
Profile by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 24 February 2017
SEVENTEEN YEARS AFTER THEY SPLIT, At the Drive-In's return brings back hot-footed, high-wire punk that honours their past. ...
Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 29 March 2017
The prodigious bassist's songs veer between jazz fusion and intimate, soulful pop – augmented live by detours into wild improvisation ...
Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 17 April 2017
.Paak barely pauses for breath in this irresistible sprint through his hard luck/good fortune tracks: this is a man unafraid to break a sweat to ...
Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 12 July 2017
PREVIEWING THEIR NEW ALBUM V, the gothic hipsters hint at a life beyond the record-nerd crowd, mixing in throbbing electronics to lighter-waving effect. ...
Korn: O2 Academy Brixton, London
Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 24 August 2017
Bombastic, brutish riffs and snarling frontman Jonathan Davis combine to deliver authentic thrills of the skull-cracking kind. ...
Mastodon: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 11 December 2017
A triumphant blend of brutal nosebleed thrash, furious prog-style epics and multi-part harmonies exhilarates the hardcore faithful. ...
Interview by Stevie Chick, Uncut, March 2018
Misshapen, hard to market, but full of flavour, Young Fathers are the Mercury-winning Edinburgh anti-rappers versed in "Mistakeology" and allergic to "cunts" in the press. ...
Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 10 July 2018
The fake plastic shrubs on stage have more charisma than Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser in this understated, underwhelming set. ...
Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 12 September 2018
ONCE A CHORISTER, Andrew Hozier-Byrne ultimately followed in his father's blues footsteps and swapped allegiances to the music that sells its soul to the devil ...
Spiritualized: Hammersmith Apollo, London
Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 23 September 2018
By turns poignant and defiant, the soulful rock'n'roll wastrel Jason Pierce turns up the feedback and faces down his mortality – flanked by a horn ...
Interpol: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 15 November 2018
WITH WARMTH and emotional heft, the New York band continue their journey towards rock's top tier ...
Van Morrison: The Prophet Speaks
Review by Stevie Chick, Metro, 4 December 2018
NOVEMBER MARKED the 50th anniversary of Van Morrison's masterpiece, Astral Weeks, but for the longest time, the artist formerly known as Van The Man might ...
Van Morrison: The Prophet Speaks (Caroline International)
Review by Stevie Chick, Metro, 4 December 2018
NOVEMBER MARKED the 50th anniversary of Van Morrison's masterpiece, Astral Weeks, but for the longest time, the artist formerly known as Van The Man might ...
The Eagles: Eagles: Wembley Stadium
Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 24 June 2019
THEIR SPLIT was so severe that they titled their by-no-means-inevitable 1994 reunion album Hell Freezes Over, but now it seems not even the death of ...
Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 17 July 2019
INITIALLY UNDERCUT by weedy sound, the Mancunian trio become muscular and euphoric in this greatest hits set. ...
Report and Interview by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 7 December 2019
A new series of Slow Burn re-examines the deaths of two of music's biggest stars. "We still haven't had closure," says its host. ...
Idles: A Beautiful Thing – Idles Live At Le Bataclan (Partisan)
Review by Stevie Chick, MOJO, January 2020
Bristol brutalists in concert in Paris. C'est magnifique! ...
These New Puritans: Barbican, London
Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 24 February 2020
THE DUO'S VAST SONIC CANVASES, here expanded with a 16-piece ensemble, are ambitious and cinematic but need focus. ...
Sleater-Kinney: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 27 February 2020
THEY STILL DO PUNK ROCK better than anyone, but the veteran US band have ably stepped into icy electronics, disco and offbeat pop. ...
Madness: An exclusive interview with Madness to mark 40 years of Absolutely
Retrospective and Interview by Stevie Chick, GQ, 24 December 2020
To mark the 40th anniversary of Madness' sophomore album, Absolutely, Stevie Chick spoke to Chris Foreman and Lee Thompson, who recall their experiences during the ...
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard: KG (Flightless)
Review by Stevie Chick, MOJO, January 2021
Restless Antipodean psychonauts find further inspiration in the notes between the notes. ...
Obituary by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 1 January 2021
A hip-hop genius who built his own universe of poetry ...
The Offspring: Platinum pop-punks the Offspring: "We're outcasts among outcasts"
Retrospective and Interview by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 14 April 2021
THEY SCORED A UK NO 1 single and the biggest-selling independent album ever. Thirty-seven years into their career, the California band ponder middle-aged sex — ...
Retrospective and Interview by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 15 July 2021
As the US boiled with violence, 1969's Harlem cultural festival nourished spirits with soul, jazz and gospel. Now, Questlove has turned lost footage of it ...
Mark Lanegan defied darkness to become one of his generation's most soulful singers
Obituary by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 23 February 2022
ONCE PRIMED TO SELF-DESTRUCT, Lanegan found salvation and creative freedom in collaborations that brought out the nuances of his uniquely dignified voice. ...
Ben Howard: "It felt like a falling apart": Ben Howard on returning to music after two strokes
Interview by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 16 June 2023
When he suffered two mini-strokes last year, the singer-songwriter felt like "the world was pouring in". But the experience has fuelled his most fluid, experimental ...
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