Camper van beethoven

CVB comeback, take two: A sun-cracked roots-rock homage to Northern California...

Unlikely comeback from Santa Cruz bohos

Limited edition five-CD box from '80s US indie heroes

Alt.country trailblazers back catalogue lovingly curated

Uplifting, melodic sixth is the Portland, Oregon conceptualists’ most immediate work...

I’m sure most of you have heard the grim news about Mark Linkous in the past few days. I can’t really add much to the memorials that have accumulated about him and his music; on the odd occasion when I met him – all well over a decade ago now – he always came across as a gentle and reserved man, who told harrowing personal stories but at the same time didn’t seem to give that much away about what he was actually like. I have, though, dug out this Sparklehorse piece I wrote for NME in 1996. As is so often the way of these things, it’s hard not to see an awful poignancy in his last couple of quotes.

A deathless debut, and 25 years ago, the first indie-rock album