Celebrating three decades since the release (17 June 1996) of their debut LP, British power-pop rockers PLACEBO, with original members, vocalist-guitarist Brian Molko and bassist Stefan Olsdal, will release a RE:CREATED version.
It’ll feature new, reworked and embellished versions of all
10 tracks from the original album plus two bonus tracks.
Placebo explains: “We think of this record as a director’s cut. We haven’t recreated
it from scratch. We went back to the original master tapes and brought 30 years of
playing these songs live back into the record.
This project was about finally finishing the record, dragging it into the 21st century sonically, while preserving the integrity and the spirit of the original. It’s not about improving it, there’s nothing wrong with it, it’s about completing it.
It’s a celebration of where we began, and a meeting point between who we were then and who we are now; a way of honoring that innocence, while letting the songs exist with the scale, confidence, and energy of the band we’ve become”.
The band will play several UK and European shows to celebrate the event.
Track: DESAFIAR
New piece from their upcoming 2nd LP, titled Ígnea.
It’ll see the day of light on May 22nd through Fuzz Club.
“Desafiar is about resisting control and the impulse to break free from it. Built on a hypnotic bass and drum foundation, the song moves forward like a mechanical pulse, as the synthesizers and vocals repeat and insist, until the tension finally breaks. It’s the moment when control cracks and disobedience becomes inevitable.”
Album artwork
TUTV: OMG! This psychedelic Krautrock-like comet makes your head spin uncontrollably, makes your bloodstream go out of control, and makes dopamine stream like a tsunami through your brain. About a thousand guitars roar nonstop, while pounding percussion clobbers mercilessly. Warning: once you get on board, you can’t get off.
“This feels like it’s got everything that made our first singles so interesting and then some,
with just enough finesse and polish to feel like we’ve finally got our big girl pants on. It’s just as jagged, gritty and angular in the verses but absolutely floating and heavenly in the choruses.”
TUTV: Wake up, nightclubbers! Time to shake your pelvis to this jumpy-funky,
bass-booming whirlabout. Alternating sultry/pithy duet vocals, some Freak Le Chic
guitar vibes, and a head-in-the-air chorus combine for a spin-around thrill.
Track: SICKO
New cut from their 4th LP, named Optimizer, out on March 27th.
TUTV: Nervous, cranked-up guitars at a nerve-racking speed and neurotic vocals
get under your skin from start to finish. Think Parquet Courts on speed. Sick stroke.
“This song is about the weirdest of all the terrestrials, people. Hellbent on flying away
from or killing our home soil, with a big appetite for destruction, guns, roses. We can
love and connect and nurture and inflict unbearable cruelty. You all know this but,
yeah, it’s kind of a great mystery isn’t it?”
TUTV: Bam-bam-bam goes the beat. Pond return with a both glittery
and zonked-out tune with a supercharged finale. Welcome back.
Track: THE TIDE
New piece from their upcoming 2nd LP,
baptized Smile. Out on April 3rd.
“The Tide takes listeners on a relatable emotional journey. It captures that introspective moment many of us recognise: the sudden realisation that we often only appreciate how good something was once it’s already gone — very much in line with the idea that “the grass is always greener on the other side.”
TUTV: This is an instantly sticking beauty of a warm, folky song. Sepia-colored, melancholic, and romantic. Think Mumford Sons and The Lumineers. Both acoustically designed and fully orchestrated with emotive and enticing vocals. A tune that triggers daydreaming. So welcome in these troubled times.
British prog rock icons JETHRO TULL (1967–2012, 2017–present) led on one leg
by charismatic Scottish vocalist/flautist/guitarist Ian Anderson, have released their
4th LP AQUALUNG on 19 March 1971, today 55 years ago
The LP has generally been regarded as a concept album with a central theme of “the distinction between religion and God“. The album’s “dour musings on faith and religion” have marked it as “one of the most cerebral albums ever to reach millions of rock listeners“. Academic discussions of the nature of concept albums have frequently listed Aqualung amongst their number.
The album’s original cover art by Burton Silverman features a watercolour portrait
of a long-haired, bearded man in shabby clothes. The idea for the cover came from a photograph Anderson‘s wife took of a homeless man.
Anderson later felt it would have been better to have used the photograph rather than commission the painting. Also, he recalled later that he posed for a photograph for the painting.
AllMusic said in retrospect: “In the space of one album, Tull went from relatively unassuming electrified folk-rock to larger-than-life conceptual rock full of sophisticated compositions and complex, intellectual, lyrical constructs. While the leap to full-blown prog rock wouldn’t be taken until a year later on ‘Thick as a Brick’, the degree to which Tull upped the ante here is remarkable.”
Isle Of Wight hipsters WET LEG – Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers – went like
a comet to stardom with their 2 albums, prizewinning self-titled debut from 2022
and last year’s follow-up Moisturizer.
TUTV‘s WL favorite still is their punchy pop pearl CHAISE LONGUE from
the debut LP. Here’s a gorgeous live rendition at Glastonbury 2022.
The ferocious hammer credited, among others, The Breeders’ Kim Deal,
as the looped wah-wah guitar riff in the song was sampled from the band’s
track S.O.S. from the album Last Splash.
Band: LIME GARDEN Who: 4 guitar pop Amazons from Brighton(UK) on their way to stardom.
Track: DOWNTOWN LOVER
Brand new, 4th shared piece from their upcoming,
2nd album named Maybe Not Tonight. It’ll land on
April 10th.
Chloe Howard (vocalist/guitarist): “Downtown lover came from three chords and
my need to investigate my regular avoidant behaviour within romantic relationships.
I saw the phrase ‘downtown love’ in an article online talking about some peoples
constant need for something new or attention in general when dating.
Through recognising this in myself and in an attempt to try and understand why
I act the way I do, I threw this one out in a matter of minutes on my acoustic guitar.”
Another buzzing and fuzzing earworm
to play out loud wherever you are allowed
to do so without getting the police on your
back.
Band: DOWN THE LEES Who: A passionate powerhouse trio, rooted in Vancouver and Belgium, and now based
in the Okanagan Valley, by guitarist/vocalist Laura Lee Schultz, with Andy Ashley on drums
and Chris Carlson on bass.
Three records that show the evolution in the trio’s towering noise-rock escapades,
marked by an inflaming emotionality, a torch-burning feverishness, and frontwoman Schultz sky-scraping vocals. Her poignant lyrics are embedded in a wall of astonishing thunderstorm-sound, creating a trance-like atmosphere that mesmerizes.
Following album No. 3 the band toured and filmed a high-concept concert at
the Mary Irwin Theatre in Kelowna, Canada. It features 5 tracks from Dirt, 3 from Bury The Sun and the stupendous non-album track Midi-Doric.
One of the best live records I heard in a long while.
Get ready for a relentless roller coaster,
a gigantesque noiz tour de force,
a bone-chilling experience.
