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.
60 articles
List of articles in the library
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. ...
Interview by James Medd, The Word, December 2003
After years on the dark side of the street, Nick Cave lightens up. ...
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. ...
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. ...
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. ...
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 ...
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? ...
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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, ...
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. ...
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? ...
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 ...
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. ...
Retrospective and Interview by James Medd, The Word, January 2012
Multi-instrumental session vet Charlie McCoy has a motto: have harmonica, be eternally employable. ...
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 ...
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. ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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