It’s dead easy to list the most obvious influences of Scotland’s Teenage Fanclub. He’s read them so often, founding band member Norman Blake can rattle them off at the drop of a tam: Big Star, Byrds, Beach Boys. Pigeonholing the Fanclub’s melodic-yet-rocking sound becomes a little more dicey. Though most of the cornerstones of power pop—Posies, Flamin’ Groovies, Matthew Sweet, Velvet Crush, Tommy Keene, Alex Chilton—don’t think much of the label, it seems to be the only one that’s stuck. If they keep this up for another five years or so, Teenage Fanclub, which opened for business in the mid-’80s when Blake met fellow Scots Raymond McGinley and Gerard Love, might surpass the Groovies for career longevity, a career award that usually precedes only the obit in a band’s publicity dossier. And yet, the group’s new album, Shadows (Merge), is as vital as anything TFC has ever cut, adding fuel to the proposition that some artists come up with their best work after turning 40. Blake and Love will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our Q&A with Blake.
Gerard: In the back of 100 vans passing through, between and beyond 100 grim British cities, in jumbo jets, in airbuses and propellor planes, strapped into seats thousands of feet above the earth, on battered ferries in high gales, catamarans in calm crossings, in dressing rooms as far apart as São Paolo and San Francisco, on crowded platforms awaiting the arrival of the bullet train to Osaka or the blue train back home to Glasgow, in the control room of almost every studio we’ve ever worked, I have seen it: the eyes, locked in concentration, frozen, fixed only on the empty middle distance, seeing nothing of the physical world but instead looking deep, deep inside, awaiting the vision that will lead to the breakthrough that will make everything everywhere better forever. Well, for the next few minutes at least. 21 across: Heading—Guiding Rule (6), first letter R, fifth letter I …
Throughout the life of Teenage Fanclub, The Guardian Quick Crossword has been a source of constant satisfaction. The good thing about it is that it’s not too easy and it’s not too difficult; it’s perfectly tuned to distract you from the world for just long enough to feel mentally refreshed and ready to face the day with some nice new unusual words that you will have probably forgotten by this time tomorrow. In the past, it was only available in the physical newspaper, which, like vinyl records, is still the best format, especially when used in conjunction with a Uni-Ball UB-157 Eye Medium rollerball pen (black). Nowadays the Quick Crossword is fully interactive on The Guardian homepage.
Video after the jump.
