Library Rock's Backpages

James Medd

James Medd

James Medd is a freelance writer who grew up on Radio 1, Smash Hits and a "100 Greatest Albums" special issue of Rolling Stone. Formerly Associate Editor of Esquire, he has written for The Word, Q, MOJO, The Times, The Observer, The Guardian, The New Statesman and more. Though music is his first and greatest love, all of culture is his playground, from film and television to comedy and fashion, history and sociology. He feels blessed to have interviewed Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, Keith Richards, Polly Harvey, Diane Warren, Bill Callahan, Marc Ribot, most of The Clash and horrible old Lou Reed. His favourite Bob Dylan album is John Wesley Harding.

James Medd on the RBP podcast

60 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By artist | Most recently added

Leonard Cohen: Zen Len pens ten

Profile and Interview by James Medd, Esquire, October 2001

Leonard Cohen proves that you can take the songwriter out of the Zen monastery, but you can't take the Zen monastery out of the songwriter. ...

Nick Cave: Out of the Shadows

Interview by James Medd, The Word, December 2003

After years on the dark side of the street, Nick Cave lightens up. ...

Air: One for the Ladies

Report and Interview by James Medd, Esquire, January 2004

"IN FRANCE, the more you have girlfriends,the more you are a seductive man, and the more you are healthy," says Jean-Benoit "JB" Dunckel. "In France, ...

King Creosote: Choose Fife: The Fence Collective

Report and Interview by James Medd, Esquire, January 2004

THE SIGNS have been there for a while,in current artists from Bonnie "Prince" Billy to Portishead's Beth Gibbons and Kings of Convenience. And it was ...

Lambchop: Paranoid Schizophrenia

Report and Interview by James Medd, Esquire, March 2004

On Lambchop's new twin CDs, Black Sabbath mix with soul and country. Call it what you like – just don't call it a double. ...

Morrissey

Interview by James Medd, Esquire, June 2004

From his unlikely hideout on the West Coast of America, pop's Greatest Living Englishman has emerged triumphant with his first album in seven years. "Pop ...

The Clash: Band at their Best: The Clash's London Calling

Retrospective and Interview by James Medd, Esquire, October 2004

In 1979, with punk reeling from the death of Sid Vicious, the Clash holed up in a small London studio under pressure to reignite the ...

Metallica: Band on the Ruin: Metallica's Some Kind of Monster

Report and Interview by James Medd, The Word, October 2004

Metallica was facing meltdown and group therapy — then the film crew arrived. The result is the greatest music documentary ever made. ...

Kings Of Leon: Songs of Experience

Profile and Interview by James Medd, Esquire, October 2004

Older, wiser and a lot less hairy, the Kings of Leon... rule. ...

The Ramones: Bruvvas In Arms

Report and Interview by James Medd, Esquire, December 2004

The Ramones mixed pop cuteness with garage-band crudity and came up with punk. You'd think nothing could be more fun. You'd be wrong – very ...

Bright Eyes: Burning Like Fire

Report and Interview by James Medd, Esquire, February 2005

Bright Eyes, the sharpest act in the US today, turns his gaze from his navel to the world. ...

The Magic Numbers: You'll like this...

Profile and Interview by James Medd, Esquire, May 2005

The Magic Numbers: two guys and two girls make instant pop bliss. Count yourself a fan. ...

Röyksopp: Music to Watch Grills By

Interview by James Medd, Esquire, August 2005

Royksopp say they've made the perfect soundtrack for your barbecue. ...

Keith Richards: What I've Learned

Interview by James Medd, Esquire, November 2005

All my stories are treated with a certain sense of suspicion, but they're all fucking true. The story of how I fell in my library ...

Joanna Newsom: It's a Thin Line…

Profile and Interview by James Medd, Esquire, December 2006

From Bush to Bjork, pop's greatest women have always divided audiences. Joanna Newsom knows it – and she doesn't care. ...

Belle And Sebastian, Tindersticks: Rocking the Cradle: Songs for Kids

Report and Interview by James Medd, Esquire, February 2007

Yes, it's children's music-but these dark, soulful, sweet tunes are a long way from Bob the Builder. ...

The Horrors! The Horrors!

Profile and Interview by James Medd, Independent on Sunday, 18 February 2007

They came out of nowhere (well, Southend) and then suddenly they were everywhere. Now, with a full-length album to back up their formidable haircuts, James ...

Grinderman: Dirty Old Dogs

Profile and Interview by James Medd, Esquire, March 2007

Nick Cave makes some noise again; young punks give up and go home. ...

Blur: Alex James: Where There's Muck, There's Blur

Interview by James Medd, The Word, July 2007

Britpop pin-up, champagne-guzzler and gentleman farmer... Just how much of Alex James's extraordinary life has gone into his new book? ...

Love Me Do: Rock's Pantheon

Comment by James Medd, The National, 8 May 2008

The road to rock'n'roll's Hall of Fame is long – and with many a winding turn. James Medd asseses the greats and the ones who ...

Giant Sand: Mercury Rev: Snowflake Midnight (V2); Calexico: Carried To Dust (City Slang); Giant Sand: Provisions (Yep Roc)

Review by James Medd, The Word, October 2008

Cosmic cowboys Mercury Rev, mushroom mariachi merchants Calexico, heartbroken hobos Giant Sand. Can you even call this stuff Americana anymore? ...

Oasis: Words from the Wise: Liam Gallagher

Interview by James Medd, GQ (Australia), January 2009

IT'S STILL EXCITING. Making music is exciting. Being me is very fucking exciting. And being you should be exciting. ...

Lily Allen: Celebrity: Lily Allen

Interview by James Medd, GQ (Australia), February 2009

She's released a new album and that string of expletives at Elton John at the UK Men of the Year Awards. So how will GQ ...

The Bird and the Bee: Greg Kurstin: Mister Fairy Dust

Interview by James Medd, The Word, March 2009

When Lily Allen, Kylie, Britney, Beck, Flaming Lips, Ladyhawke or Little Boots need a multi-instrumentalist or musical director, they send for Greg Kurstin. And for ...

Phoenix: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (V2)

Review by James Medd, The Word, June 2009

The hot-air balloon, the electric iron and the current trend for shiny '70s and '80s-inspired synthpop: the French tend to get there first. ...

Yo La Tengo: You Never Knew There Was So Much In It

Profile and Interview by James Medd, The Word, September 2009

James Medd meets Yo La Tengo – American music's feverishly industrious purveyors of jazz-folk-funk-samba-epic-ballad-space-rock. ...

The Duke & the King: Testifying with American royalty

Profile and Interview by James Medd, The Guardian, 3 September 2009

Are they a revivalist folk-soul band or a religious cult? Either way, this charismatic three-piece are on a mission from God. ...

Nick Cave: Original Sin

Interview by James Medd, The Word, October 2009

Nick Cave's new fiction hero is a monstrous expression of the male psyche grotesquely obsessed with sex, he tells James Medd. Did he evolve from ...

Manu Chao, Nirvana, R.E.M., Slade, Martha Wainwright, Tom Waits: Nirvana: Live At Reading and other live albums

Review by James Medd, The Word, December 2009

They keep saying this is the golden age of live music. So why don't live albums sound as good as they used to? Nirvana: Live At ...

Tom Waits: Albums of the Decade: Tom Waits' Real Gone

Review by James Medd, The Word, January 2010

ISTHERE A musician whose stock is higher? It's certainly hard to think of another whose songs are covered by both the singer of Led Zeppelin ...

Joan As Police Woman: What I Like

Interview by James Medd, The Word, January 2011

Joan As Police Woman aka Joan Wasser, fearsome singer, songwriter and serial collaborator, formerly of Antony & the Johnsons and Jeff Buckley's girlfriend ...

Cat Power: '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction'

Retrospective by James Medd, The Word, February 2011

SHORN OF A RIFF and chorus that are both as familiar as any in rock and roll, just verses and rhythm and a single guitar, ...

Anna Calvi, Joan As Police Woman, Mélanie Pain: Mélanie Pain: My Name/Joan As Police Woman: The Deep Field/Anna Calvi: Anna Calvi

Review by James Medd, The Word, February 2011

Three records rich in charm and melancholy. Give it up for Mélanie Pain, Joan As Police Woman and Anna Calvi. ...

PJ Harvey: Let England Shake

Review by James Medd, The Word, March 2011

PJ Harvey is "a human being affected by politics" in an absorbing new record suffused with imagery from wars past and present. And they said ...

Smog: Bill Callahan: Searching For Smog

Profile and Interview by James Medd, The Word, April 2011

How, after 11 albums, has the mysterious Bill Callahan stayed so supremely unknowable? ...

Mercury Rev: The Big Sleep

Report and Interview by James Medd, The Word, June 2011

Mercury Rev's masterpiece was inspired by an orchestral record of Rip Van Winkle from childhood. Deserter's Songs has just reawaken. ...

PJ Harvey: Polly Harvey: An Interview

Interview by James Medd, The Word, June 2011

SHE'S SO ON-BRAND, it's like 20 years never passed: a black sleeveless vest top over a physique suggesting food is not an interest, the black ...

Andy Kershaw

Interview by James Medd, The Word, August 2011

"THE FIRST 50 years have been eventful, haven't they?" asks Andy Kershaw, reassuringly still the cocky young'un off The Whistle Test despite 2009's half-century. ...

They Might Be Giants: If You Can't Take A Yoke (You Shouldn't Have Joined)

Retrospective and Interview by James Medd, The Word, August 2011

Johns Flansburgh and Linnell formed They Might Be Giants during punk's "amnesty for oddballs". In the 30 years since, they've represented for Marmite-flavoured ebullience in ...

Thomas Dolby: Appliance Of Science

Interview by James Medd, The Word, October 2011

Name a musician that hasn't felt the magic plug-in of hyperactive studio dweeb Thomas Dolby. ...

Marc Ribot, Tom Waits: Marc Ribot: Swamp Thing

Profile and Interview by James Medd, The Word, November 2011

The genius fog-filled guitarist who pushed Tom Waits' signature sound off the piano stool. ...

Charlie McCoy: Fad Gadget

Retrospective and Interview by James Medd, The Word, January 2012

Multi-instrumental session vet Charlie McCoy has a motto: have harmonica, be eternally employable. ...

The Belle Stars, Dennis Bovell, Ian Dury, Joy Division, Paul McCartney, Me'Shell Ndegeocello, Jaco Pastorius, The Specials, The Stone Roses, The Stranglers, The Strokes, Suede, Talking Heads, Warpaint: Bassists: Let's Stick Together

Overview by James Medd, The Word, February 2012

They are "the glue" that cements the music, the mysterious put-upon souls plying their crucial trade in a cloud of dry ice by the drum-riser. ...

Beth Jeans Houghton: Eat To The Beat

Interview by James Medd, The Word, February 2012

Managers, labels, producers — all of them got short shrift. Beth Jeans Houghton knows precisely how she wants things to be — "edible". ...

Evan Dando, The Lemonheads: Evan Dando: Different Drum

Profile by James Medd, The Word, February 2012

Evan Dando's dismissal as the work-shy poster boy of bubble-grunge masks a monumental talent. Reconsider this man! argues James Medd. ...

Kent Hartman: The Wrecking Crew – The Inside Story Of Rock And Roll's Best-Kept Secret

Book Review by James Medd, The Word, February 2012

If it's Monday it must be the Beach Boys, Tuesday it's Sinatra. The fantasy life of L.A.'s fabled sessioneers told as soap opera ...

Ladyhawke: Walls and Bridges

Profile and Interview by James Medd, The Word, March 2012

Like David Byrne and Gary Numan, Ladyhawke suffers from Asperger's — a tough call in an industry based entirely on communication. ...

Andrew Bird, The Dirty Three: Andrew Bird: Break It Yourself/The Dirty Three: Toward the Low Sun (both Bella Union)

Review by James Medd, The Word, April 2012

AS A RULE, violins have no place in rock. Fairport Convention went wrong at Liege & Lief, ELO were all about the synths and 'Geno' ...

The Divine Comedy: Neil Hannon On Lyric-Writing

Interview by James Medd, The Word, May 2012

It takes weeks to make it sound this easy, says Divine Comedy songsmith. ...

Regina Spektor: What has Regina Spektor found in the poet-singers of her native Russia?

Interview by James Medd, The Word, June 2012

NEW YORK IS JUST WAKING UP TO spring, but inside Russian Samovar on 52nd Street hearty borscht and warming horseradish vodka are still on the ...

Silibil n' Brains: Rap stars straight outta Dundee

Report and Interview by James Medd, The Times, 17 August 2013

THEY SHOULD HAVE been huge. Silibil n' Brains arrived in the UK in 2004, a pair of white Californian rappers: a double Eminem or two ...

Ty Segall: Garage rock's Pied Piper leads a new march

Profile and Interview by James Medd, The Guardian, 21 September 2013

The hardest-working slacker in lo-fi has another album coming out, but this time he's having a bash on drums. ...

David Bowie: Let's Not Pretend: David Bowie's Brit Award was for being alive

Comment by James Medd, New Statesman, 20 February 2014

Musicians and pundits need to get over their obsessive, nostalgic hero-worship. In 2014, David Bowie is irrelevant. ...

Blondie, Marianne Faithfull, Jimmy Page, Ed Sheeran: Picture this: The love affair between rockers and the lens

Book Review by James Medd, New Statesman, 16 October 2014

Jimmy Page: Jimmy Page (Genesis) Marianne Faithfull: Marianne Faithfull – A Life on Record  (Rizzoli) Chris Stein: Negative – Me, Blondie and the Advent ...

Belle And Sebastian, Alice Cooper, Grateful Dead, The Jam: Slaves to the rhythm: What the non-frontmen have to say

Book Review by James Medd, New Statesman, 18 June 2015

That's Entertainment: My Life in the Jam Rick Buckler Omnibus Press, 384pp, £14.95 Deal: My Three Decades of Drumming, Dreams and Drugs with the Grateful Dead Bill ...

Ben Ratliff: Every Song Ever/John Seabrook: The Song Machine and other new books

Book Review by James Medd, New Statesman, 13 May 2016

The digital revolution has turned pop into a world of smart playlists and surprise albums. Yet the way we engage with music remains remarkably similar. ...

Bob Dylan: How Dylan's Blonde On Blonde created the modern album

Retrospective by James Medd, Bigmouth, 23 May 2016

Fifty years ago, Bob Dylan turned pop entertainment into a vehicle for dazzling visions – and it's been that way ever since. James Medd investigates the album that invented an ...

Light Years: The Golden Age of the Night Club

Retrospective by James Medd, The Rake, December 2016

When you think of the '70s, what do you see? How about Bianca Jagger on a white horse at Studio 54, or Grace Jones on ...

David Hajdu: Love for Sale/Marc Meyers: Anatomy of a Song/ Ed Ward: History of Rock'n'Roll, Vol. 1

Book Review by James Medd, New Statesman, 14 January 2017

For decades, white male critics have championed white male rock. Can a new school of writing re-evaluate the history of pop music? ...

The Clash: Paul Simonon: The Clash's Ace of Bass

Retrospective and Interview by James Medd, The Rake, August 2017

Without him, The Clash would still have been a great band, but with him they became iconic. Paul Simonon was built for rock 'n' roll and ...

back to LIBRARY

COPYRIGHT NOTICE