John Cooper Clarke

Plus: Nick Cave, The Smile, Defeater, The Marked Men, Chris Stapleton, Desertfest, Big Boss Vette, and more tour and festival news.

Arctic Monkeys‘ musical cover of John Cooper Clarke‘s poem “I Wanna Be Yours“ has been streamed over a billion times on Spotify, and JCC's tour is in NYC at the same time as Arctic Monkeys.

Punk poet, actor and musician John Cooper Clarke will be over in support of his recent memoir ‘I Wanna Be Yours‘

This week in Indie Basement: reviews of new albums from Kiwi Jr, Palberta and Still Corners, plus a new post-punk disco box set, and a reissue of EXEK's debut album.

'The Jangling Man: The Martin Newell Story' also features interviews with John Cooper Clarke, Dave Gregory (XTC), BBC's Steve Lamacq, Kimberley Rew (Soft Boys/Katrina & the Waves) and more.

Sunday's NYC-area shows include Jawbreaker, Other Music/MoMa PS1's "Come Together" fest, Hamish Kilgour, Norman Westberg/DBUK, Jose James, and more.

Saturday show options include Other Music & MoMA PS1's "Come Together Festival, Jawbreaker, PAWS, Kid Congo, Gary Clark, and more.

Tonight's NYC-area shows include Ulver, KISS, Jose Gonzalez, Bambara, Gary Clark Jr, Homeshake, Torres, Weakened Friends, and more.

This week: Steve Gunn's great new LP, plus two Australian bands that feature members of Twerps, plus Flat Worms and a new wide-ranging Manchester compilation.

Salford, UK's legendary punk poet, Dr. John Cooper Clarke, was in NYC this past weekend for two nights at Joe's Pub (April 7 & 8). While 2016's ’This Time It's Personal’ found JCC to possess a crooner's singing voice (he made the LP with former Stranglers frontman Hugh Cornwell), these were nights of magnificent words and sharp wit.