19 October 2026
Metallica’s voice/guitarist James Hetfield stated during a concert
at the Sphere in Las Vegas last week that “Metallica is not there to
influence the audience with nonsense, but for “love, energy, and
heavy music.”
Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters reacted, loud and clear.
Reveries for the laziest day of the week
18 October 2026
Legendary Irish singer-songwriter GILBERT O’SULLIVAN (né Raymond Edward O’Sullivan
79 years ago in Waterford) will celebrate the 60th anniversary of his illustrious career next year.
In 1967 he moved to London. Determined to get a record deal and looking to stand out, he created an eye-catching visual image consisting of a bowl cut, cloth cap and short trousers.
Worldwide, he has charted 16 top 40 records, including six No. 1 songs and
classic pop pearls such as Nothing Rhymed , Alone Again, Clair and Get Down.
My parents had several of his singles, so the lauded songsmith isn’t a stranger to
my ears.
Across 20 studio albums, his last three landed in the UK Top 30.
He is also a three-time Ivor Novello Award winner, including
Songwriter of the Year.
Now, to mark that milestone, O’Sullivan will release his 21st full-length,
named On The Record. It comes our way on Nov 6th. Pre-order here.
“Daring to be different was the key for me. The writing
has never stopped being the most important thing.”
Along with the news came the first single IT’S ME. A feel-good, soulful, and
slightly disco-juiced tune you can hum/whistle along to while stomping your
feet to the beat. It’s definitely O’Sullivan.
17 October 2026
“He had style, that attitudinal New York hypster style. To me he was the Johnny Cash of New York rock. He was always the man in black.”
17 October 2026
The now 59-year-old Boston singer-songwriter EVAN DANDO endured a long, troubled life/career with drug addiction and mental health issues. Nevertheless, in between several collapses, he managed to create mesmerizing music. Eleven albums (from good to great) with THE LEMONHEADS, plus one top-notch solo album, the enthralling Baby I’m Bored LP.
Last year, following reports of Dando being back in healthy shape, The Lemonheads delivered, after almost 2 decades and 2 albums with covers (2009 and 2019), their first LP with new material, bundled on Love Chant. A notable and acclaimed return with a series of bona fide pop tunes.
The album’s promotion tour brought them to Brussels last Tuesday.
The first thing we noticed when Dando hit the podium was that he looked like shit, as if
he was recovering from a nasty hangover. For the greater part of the gig, while he sang and played, he was staring at the ceiling as if the lyric sheets and the setlist were pinned to the ceiling instead of lying next to him, where they had actually been placed by a roadie.
“I think I see my lyric sheets up there”
He regularly exchanged incomprehensible words between songs with
his two lemonheads, drummer and bassist, seemingly to decide what
to play next.
It all looked chaotic, but Dando never, besides a couple of hiccups, really lost control and rushed through the set like a whirlwind, like if he needed to be somewhere urgently.
And? His cranked-up guitar riffage, his reliable bandmates (who never lost an eye on him), the super setlist and the whole venue ambiance, combined for a terrifically punky rock night out.
Lots of lemon pearls such as Into Your Arms, Big Gay Heart, A Shame About Ray, Confetti,
If I Could Talk To You and My Drug Buddy, several covers (Graham Parsons’ Return Of The Grievious Angel, Smudge’s Tenderfoot and The Outdoor Type, Townes Van Zandt’s Rake, among others) and 4 from the new album (In The Margin / Togetherness Is All I’m After / Deep End and Roky).
Welcome back, big gay heart.
Big-time return on record
and on stage.
Hey Evan, your lyric sheets are here.
Always keeping an eye on Evan.
LOVE CHANT
.
17 October 2026
Photo by Turn Up The Volume
Band: dEUS
Who: Arguably, the best band in Belgian history.
Active: Since 1991 / 8 albums
Single: KEPTMAN
Rumours of a new album start here.
Tom Barman (frontman/songwriter) “A simple vocal line, the verses, and the bridge.
I worked those out in Portugal without much thought. Even the title took shape without much deliberation: our sound engineer João Portela accidentally made the space between the two words disappear. ‘Kept Man’ became ‘Keptman’. Sometimes simple mistakes don’t need to be corrected.”
TUTV: Smooth and laid-back flow, haunting Barman vocals, thunderous finale.
Band: KINGS OF LEON
Who: The reputable rock family from Mount Juliet, Tennessee.
Active: Since 1999 / 10 LPs (new one included)
Single: KOYSAR
Third taster from their 10th LP, titled O My Beloved.
Out November 6th. Pre-order info here.
TUTV: On this new piece, KOL show their
softer side, more country, less rock.
Photo by Sasha Khalimonova
Band: BODYWASH
Who: Shoegaze duo from Montreal who conjure a dreamscape with
airy vocals, wet guitar textures and pulsating synths over a heavy
rhythmic foundation.
Active: Since 2016 / 3 albums (new one included)
Single: LA RENOMME
Third shared cut from their upcoming LP, called Laughing At Noise.
It’ll land on November 20th. Tracklist and order info here.
TUTV: Poppy tune drowned in a pool of guitars.
Significant longplayers from yesteryear
Band: THE 13TH FLOOR ELEVATORS
Who: Psychedelic garage rock legends from
Austin, Texas fronted by renownded vocalist/guitarist
Roky Erickson (1947-2019)
Active: 1965-1969 / 3 LPs
Anniversary Album: THE PSYCHEDELIC SOUNDS OF THE 13TH FLOOR ELEVATORS
Released: 17 October 1966 – today 60 years ago.
Photo: Doug Hanners archive / Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · WebP conversion
The album showcases the earliest known use of the word ‘psychedelic‘ on an album title.
The tracks are described as exhibiting a dark, eerie quality. Roky Erickson‘s vocals have been likened to banshee wailing and have been described as sounding like yelping and howling like a man possessed.
Pitchfork in retrospect: “Erickson’s psychedelia was not passive aural wallpapers,
all pretty shapes and colors to listen to while tripping, but an active force of social,
musical, and psychological change.”
SINGLE
ALBUM
Daily electricity to charge your batteries
16 October 2026
Band: LONELY LEESA & THE LOST COWBOYS
Who: Boston-based Americana rock and roll team
led by Leesa Coyne.
Track: NEW AMERICAN DREAM
Their brand new single.
Leesa: “To me, the ‘New American Dream’ is for everyone to have some comfort and freedom. To be able to have those moments of not having a care in the world. To not constantly worry about some impending doom coming around the corner: ‘Am I going to be assaulted?’ ‘Am I going to be deported?’ ‘Am I going to be broke?’”
TUTV: Leesa‘s fantastic, room-filling voice carries this majestic power ballad.
Ten seconds in and two names came to mind, Sheryl Crow and Lucinda Williams .
Yes, that emotive and imposing. Vocal Americana grandeur.
I love the sanguine idea of New American Dream. After the GOP and their psychotic
God got their lying asses kicked in a couple of weeks the biggest challenge is to live
all together tolerantly, regardless religion, origin, politics, or sexuality. No more the
Divided States Of America.
There’s no other way. After 21 centuries we should at least try it once,
not only in America. We wouldn’t be lonely and lost anymore, I guess.
New American Dream evokes those sentiments, and being embedded
in this wonderful song it becomes an inclusive anthem of hope.
16 October 2026
Band: FONTAINES D.C.
Who: The Irish indie stars, fronted
by their charismatic and highly talented
singer/songwriter Grian Chatten.
Album: DOPAMINE CHAMBER.
Their 5th. Order info here.
Grian Chatten (frontman/songwriter) who spent time among the faded grandeur
of Venice, Vienna and Sicily in search of lyrical inspiration: “I think Romance was maybe
60 per cent human and 40 per cent corrupted by automation, and a loss of feeling.
This one feels more like 60 per cent corrupted — the mask is wearing the face a little
more. I felt it would be more powerful to leave the hope out and reflect the ugliness
honestly. This one needed to feel more like a catastrophic warning.”
NME says: “A doom-ridden escape from the band of the decade. The gothy tones of
The Cure linger and ‘Dopamine Chamber’ would sit comfortably alongside the melancholy moodpieces of ‘Disintegration’ and ‘Pornography’, as well as the future-proof genre-clash
and dislocation of Massive Attack’s ‘Mezzanine’.”
TUTV: Their first 2 LPs were afire ones, the ones young gunslingers make, full of vim
and vigour and stuffed with muscular barnstormers. With their third album Skinty Fia
the growing-up Irishmen showed signs of change of course, sonically and lyrically.
The 4th full-length Romance confirmed their new direction completely
and now with Dopamine Chamber they created/crafted a masterpiece.
A strings sweeping, orchestral, gloom/doom triumph. More cinematic, designed synth arrangements, less youthful guitar upheaval, more in-depth reflections about what worried Chatten sees and hears around him in this dark era.
His ruminative tonality and affecting storytelling timbre are on his most entrancing button. This sign of the times exploit will spin on my headphones for a long time. One
of the most fulfilling accomplishments of 2026.
Singles.
– MARIANNE –
– TONGUE –
– WHERE IS GONE? –
Featuring Rosalía
ALBUM
.
Instagram
Linktree
All Albums
2027 TOUR
2019 TOUR
Grian Chatten, yours truly, and a T-shirt.
16 October 2026
Oops.
The Pet Shop Boys released a new album last week, named ‘A Man from the Future’.
It’s an electronic/orchestral/concept one that follows the life of English mathematician
and logician Alan Turing (1912-1954) and his legacy. It’s a collaboration with Turing biographer Andrew Hodges. The record is credited to Tennant/Lowe/Hodges.
Sorry, but I can’t find a ‘Billie Jean‘ here neither, Neil.
Photo on top: from cover of TPS album ‘Nonetheless‘.
