Welcome to the second, somewhat slimline edition of Clicks and Klangs. In an issue accidentally devoid of any editorial balance, we appear to have partly mutated into an alt-country zine. Not so, and just to prove it, this month's Welsh Psycho completely avoids the subject of music altogether, covering wizards and messiahs instead. Hope you enjoy what we've served up this time around, please do get involved if you have something to add to what we're doing.

Response to the first issue was very encouraging, many thanks to everyone who sent along their kind words. Please do pass on your thoughts about Clicks and Klangs - if you have any comments, suggestions or criticisms, or would like to get involved in some way then do get in touch. I'd very much like to hear from you. Cheers.

-Graham Johnston, beefheart.com editor.

Howe Gelb, front man for Giant Sand, has spent the last two decades creating the most wayward, clattering and combustible alt-country around. It frequently sounds as if it is going to blow up in his face at any minute, as it sometimes does - Read article

A profile of the reclusive country musician who, like Howe Gelb, operates steadfastly on his own terms. As he says himself, "If you think any of my songs are slightly off the beaten path, wait 'til you see the buildings I build!" Read article

Miles Davis had already secured his name in the history books when, at the end of the 1960s, he listened to Jimi Hendrix, Stockhausen, Sly & The Family Stone and James Brown. The resultant music that poured out of him over the next 6 years was to have a profound influence on the worlds of jazz, rock, hip-hop, electronica and numerous musical styles yet to be created. Post-Miles Davis, music will never be the same. Read article

The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Bringing It All Back Home Again

A regular column from the writer who brought us the acclaimed Great Pop Things cartoons, featuring Colin's musing on whatever happens to take his fancy or provoke his ire. Knowing Colin, we'll probably see more of his ire than his fancy.

Colin has broken with convention after only one issue and has chosen to ruminate not about anything musical, but about messiahs and wizards instead:

• Part Two: Jesus Christ, Boy Adventurer

More next month.

jazzservices.org.uk

A vast, comprehensive online jazz resource.

Congratulations to Christopher Stephens of Kobe in Japan who has a copy of Irwin Chusid's book and the companion CD on the way to him. You were asked to write a few words about your favourite 'outsider'. Christopher nominated The Shaggs and wrote the following:

"In one way or another, every musician tries to create the illusion that they are outside of some tradition or convention. Being a true outsider, however, requires a natural flaw in cerebral circuitry or a viewpoint so pure that it tests the belief of the listener. With this in mind, there can be no doubt that the Shaggs are the most perfect outsiders.

"The Wiggin Sisters were women in a men's world, rustics who never got to the city, and savants to whom the thought of traditional musical structure and current sonic trends never occurred. And so far as we know, none of this was chemically inspired.

"Philosophy of the World is as profound a work as exists in the canon of popular music. But better still, the Shaggs are always there when you need them, so unworldy yet so knowing, offering sisterly advice and consolation."