I guess lots of people only know DEXYS (previously named Dexys Midnight Runners) from their giant 1982 hit Come On Eileen (more than 806 million streams on Spotify), but the now 72-year-old mastermind Kevin Rowland has done so much more in his 52 years in the music biz.
The most recent Dexys album The Feminine Divine,came out in 2023. A masterly crafted record featuring a song called MY SUBMISSION, one of the best love ballads I ever heard.
Happy Valentine.
[Verse 1] And I will worship and adore
In every way
And I will do as you will
[Chorus] Oh I’m yours
I crave your smile
And I always will
You, you, you are everything
You, you, you are my world
And I, I will give you all you want and more, so please
[Verse 2]
Now you own me
I’m trusting all to you
I’m scared, but I’m excited
You could disown me if you choose
And leave me completely alone
I’m trusting all to you
You have the power now
I hope you will look after me and I will be your pet, to do with as you will
[Chorus] Oh, I’m yours
I crave your smile
And I, always will
You, you, you are everything
You, you, you are my world
And I, I, I’ll dedicate my life to serving you
The eccentric fairy-tale rockers THE FLAMING LIPS, led by their psychedelic
priest Wayne Coyne are around since 1983 (oh my, I had no clue it was that long).
They have fascinated their fans with 17 albums (so far).
As a longtime fan myself, I dare to say that their concerts are even better than their records, as I experienced once more last year in Antwerp, Belgium. A visual and sonic spectacle.
Band: VILLANELLE Who: Fresh Brit-rock trio led
by Liam Gallagher‘s son Gene.
New single: PLACEBO
Their 3rd one following last year’s first two, Hinge and Measly Means.
All 3 songs will feature on their debut EP, named ‘Measly Means’. Out on
May 6th.
Gallagher: “‘Placebo’ is about heightened visualisations of post-session anxiety.”
I’m sure his father hasn’t a clue what his son is saying here. To be honest I
have no clue myself.
TUTV: Villanelle like it raw and rough, straight in your face. Placebo is a ripping-riff wallop. Gene Gallagher doesn’t follow in his father’s band footsteps. His motto is more like ‘tonight I’m a grunge star‘.
Yep, his band don’t look back in anger to the Nirvana days. They’re definitly, maybe fans of Kurt Cobain‘s unpolished and unbridled exuberance and they are great pupils at it. Mind you, they’re influenced, but they aren’t replicaters. Villanelle smell like teen spirit their own way, sonically, vocaly and lyrically. They will go places.
Press info: “The new album captures the messy, cathartic energy of transformation. Written in the aftermath of the pandemic, the record is shaped by grief, uncertainty,
and a deep love for music and friendship. Songs wrestle with identity, memory, and growing up, balancing bratty catharsis with tenderness and reflection.”
TUTV: Indie-pendent guitar pop is back. Actually, it never was gone whatsoever,
but the electric-powered 6-string scene is prominently present lately, way more than before. Remember Sports, Dream Nails, Ratboys, The Belair Lip Bombs, Fanclubwallet, Sprints, Man/Woman/Chainsaw, Wet Leg, Vuce Vera, Lime Gardeb, and way more other bands crank up their guitars to vitalize their cacthy pop tunes.
No artificial ballyhoo, no ersatz hurry-skurry, no phony posing. They all keep it
simple, direct, fresh and whipped-up. They do not pretend to be the next big thing.
They act inspired by their gut-feeling and insatiable knack for spine-tingling, kicky
music. The Refrigerator features all those plugged-in characteristics. Remember
Sports are in excellent condition to compete in this sonic discipline.
Btw, while writing this, it dawned on me that all the aforementioned bands are
female-fronted ones. Coincidence? No idea, but it shows that rockin’ girl power
is back. Supercool!
In this brand new sort of magazine, UNCUT takes what you might call a greatest hits approach – presenting all the quality and expertise you’d expect, but cutting straight
to the chase. Like it says on the cover: the life story, the greatest music, the Uncut version. And the Greats? They’re our personal pantheon of classic artists, who just happen to have made some of history’s finest music.
The first hero on this first edition is the immortal musical genius DAVID BOWIE. UNCUT provides a countdown of Bowie’s top 20 greatest albums, his greatest singles,
and tells his extraordinary life story.
You can purchase a copy and have it sent to your home address. Info right HERE.
The now 56-year-old, unique songstress PJ Harvey released her 8th LP LET ENGLAND SHAKE on 14 February 2011, today 15 years ago. One of
my beloved PJ albums.
The record was written over a 2+1⁄2-year period, and recorded in five weeks
at a church in Dorset (UK) during April and May 2010. It peaked at #8 in the UK
and #32 in the US.
PJ: “I knew that I wanted the music to offset the weight of the words. That was very important.
I wanted the music to be full of energy and to be very uplifting and unifying, almost insightful
in its creation of energy.
It took me a long time to find out how to sing such words because to sing it in the wrong voice would have given it the wrong feeling– maybe too self-important and dogmatic. I wanted the songs to be much more ambiguous than that. This was the way that the language was best moved from lip to ear.”
Pitchfork said: “On Let England Shake, Harvey is not often upfront or forceful.
Her lyrics, though, are as disturbing as ever. Here, she paints vivid portraits of war,
and her sharp focus on the up-close, hand-to-hand devastation of World War I,
depicting “soldiers falling like lumps of meat, provides a fitting setting for today’s battlegrounds.”
No more fitting band to go berserk to on this Friday the 13th than psycho-billy
freaks THE CRAMPS. They were and still are the devilish priests of graveyard
parties.
No rest for the wicked. Dress/look/scream
like a zombie and scare your neighbours.
Track: DIRTY TECH
New piece from her 3rd full-length in 6 years,
titled Play Me. It’ll drop on March 13th. More
info here.
“I was kind of musing about, is my next boss going to be an AI chatbot? We’re the first ones whose lights are going to go out — not the tech billionaires. It’s so abstract that people can’t comprehend.”
TUTV: Former Sonic Youth icon has found her niche as a solo artist. She experiments with synths, loops, overdubs, and other studio tricks, as she does also here again with this 2nd taster from the upcoming 3rd album, appropriately and sarcastically titled Dirty Tech.
Band: BLEACHERS Who: The moniker of American multi-instrumentalist/singer-songwriter Jack Antonoff, who worked under several other aliases and who composed
4 soundtracks, so far, too.
“An optimistic record that feels lovestruck and hopeful.”
TUTV: Bleachers always make me think a bit of Beirut and vice versa.
Both create relaxing atmospherics with multi-layered tunes, inventively
constructed, like Jack Antonoff shows here once more with this new
glorious pop symphony.
One of the 23 tracks performed by big-name bands/artists on a new album,
named Help, with all benefits going to War Child. An organisation that shapes
systems that protect and support the well-being of children affected by conflict.
War Child UK: Website
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Band: THE ORIELLES Who: 3 thrilling indies
from West Yorkshire, UK.
Track: TEARS ARE
Newest single from album #5, named Only You Left.
It’ll come our way on March 13th. Order info here.
Esmé Hand-Halford (bassist/vocalist) about the song: “You could think of
something deeply human. But you could also answer it in a completely linguistic
sense and think of a tear as a symbol or an image.”
TUTV: Near-whispering vocals and musing thoughts about tears
surrounded by creaking guitars until the long acoustic outro.
English prog-rock legends GENESIS released their 7th studio album,
today 50 years ago, on 13 February 1976. It was the first LP with their
drummer Phil Collins on vocals replacing face/voice Peter Gabriel
who had left the band.
It went to #3 in the UK and #31 in the US.
Upon release, critics were impressed by the improved sound quality
and the group’s ability to survive the loss of Gabriel without sacrificing
the quality of the music.
AllMusic said: “This album is not quite as memorable as Foxtrot or Selling England, largely because its songs aren’t as immediate or memorable: apart from “Dance on a Volcano,” this is about the sound of the band playing, not individual songs, and it succeeds on that level quite wildly — to the extent that it proved to longtime fans that Genesis could possibly thrive without its former leader in tow.”
