It’s about that time

The newly reconfigured band throw open the doors on an expansive sixth album. By Victoria Segal. Illustration by Quinton Winter.

WE WERE THE first band of our generation that started to grow up,” Billy Corgan says, reflecting on the making of the Smashing Pumpkins’ 1995 grand opus, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. “The b

WHILE MOST DUAL-GUITAR bands tend to have designated roles in terms of what kind of sonic space their members occupy, Momma six-stringers Etta Friedman and Allegra Weingarten enjoy being unrestricted,

The past few years have been marked by change for JOAN SHELLEY and her family – from parenthood to relocating from Louisville, Kentucky to the shores of Lake Michigan and recording sessions in Toronto with The Weather Station crew. But her graceful, heartfelt songs have never sounded better. “Living by a bay that is beautiful and blue, and the sky is big because it’s over this lake. Those big feelings, those big spaces to think in, are greater,” she tells Ana Gavrilovska. “They bring more richness to my life”

Manchester quartet hit heavy and soft with radiant prog sound.

Born in the titular Kent city in the late 60s, the Canterbury scene spawned some of prog’s most creative and quirky acts. From The Wilde Flowers and Soft Machine to Caravan and Gong, each had a distinctive sound and, in many cases, image that captured the hearts and minds of their followers. But the scene’s impact didn’t end in the 70s. Phil Howitt, Facelift editor and Hugh Hopper’s biographer, explores the new breed of progressive acts inspired by it, both consciously and unwittingly, and unearths the secrets of the ‘Canterbury chord’.