Peaches: “With this rework of the track, it frames my song in a darker,
more twisted world. ‘Fuck the Pain Away’ is ever-expanding and now has
new meaning in the Hellraiser universe. I’m in!”
Underaged individuals can watch the Nazi’s monstrous actions on YT without
restriction whatsoever, but if a video is sexually tinted, all hell breaks loose.
He’s like The Beatles to me and I mean that in every way.
At times instead of singing in a whiney accent he’s sort of
just lying out the facts in a monotome whisper. I always gravitated towards that type of performance. It’s almost
a little bit apathetic sounding, and I love that. If someone doesn’t like his music, I actually feel like I’m not going to
agree with them about anything.
TUTV: These punked-up Irishmen rush and rage with knives between their teeth,
chasing bad news. Watch your back, Fontaines guys, Gurriers are coming fast.
Band:U2 Who: The giant Irish rock & pop
stars playing around since 1976,
yep that’s 50 years.
Track: SILENCIO
New single from their upcoming 16th album,
called Carnaval De Luz, out November 13th.
TUTV: Silencio is a sterling rock footstomper with a red-hot chorus.
I guess I haven’t heard them ignited like this since Vertigo (gosh, that’s
22 years ago). Bono & Co are still swirling relevant.
TUTV: Wham bam. From the first chord, these Swedes rock and knock incessantly.
No breaks, no brakes. Fast forward is the only direction to get to Sri Lanka. Expect
a stormy flood of pelvis-energizing riffs and heated hooks, peaking on the sing/scream along chorus.
Artist: KATE NASH Who: Widely praised, full-hearted English
songstress from North Harrow, London.
Track: SPLIT MILK
First single from her new, upcoming 6th longplayer,
titledCailín. Out 22 Jan 2027. More info here.
TUTV: Nash is on a roll on this spiky jackhammer as if she has a lot of repressed
passion to ventilate, which results in a flaming dash. The milk is boiling, people.
Don’t burn your headphones.
Artist: THE GENTLE RECKONING Who: The new project from Irish singer-songwriter Jamie Wells. Designed as an vehicle of intense personal self-expression that centres around himself, with the ability to surround himself with a rotating cast of band members, pulling people into his orbit dependent on what the song requires.
Lyrically, the track is pulled from Jamie reflecting on years lost to excess, self-loathing, and the precarious situation the world found itself in while dealing with the intense isolation and loneliness.
TUTV: Unbridled guitar rock puissance is burning throughout this roaring riff ripper, juiced with anxious vocals. Wells channels past demons via a stream of gutsy guitar electricity. The present sounds fully charged; the future is a challenge to encounter with all amps up.
Band: TOY PARLOUR Who: A hectic indie outfit combining their prior unique and influential sounds,
with a certain swagger and raw energy that looks to fly into the UK Alt scene with
all guns blazing.
“Galactic Girl is a love song. It’s about meeting someone so amazing, so
unbelievably perfect, they must be from out of this world. There’s no other
explanation. Everyone wants to know her, everyone wishes she wanted to
know them, and you can’t believe you’re lucky enough to be with her.”
TUTV: This riff-insane fireball starts ticking and ticking like an eruption is about
to emerge, which actually happens when the detonating chorus explodes into
your ears and confuses the Richter scale. All hence and decibels on deck.
Toy Parlour take no chances; they go nuclear into the universe
to track down the galactic girl. T.Rex called it Hot Love.
TUTV: MFT have another head-twisting, electro-punk whopper on their hands. Every Version Of You hammers without mercy, without escape exit. Glorious shit
to go ballistic to.
TUTV: C’mon, twist those itchy hips, move that hot head on top of your body, while the beating beats go crescendo and predict a volcanic discharge. Euro Stomper matches the fervid forcefulness of a missile that gets launched. Blimey.
Band: ADULT DVD Who: EBM punk partygoers
from Leeds, UK.
Track: JESUS CHRIST SUPERCAR
Cut from their brand new self-titled debut
fireworks full-length. Stream it here.
TUTV: Holy Moses, there goes Jesus Christ, unstoppable and unindestructible,
with the speed of an illegally pepped-up Ferrari. Even atheists (like me) should
make a sign of the cross and pray for safety first.
Artist: HANNYA WHITE Who: Experimental noise
crusader from London.
TUTV: Relentless, merciless bass/drum beats pulsate non-stop. White is into
noise exploration driven by her appetite for unorthodox, distorted percussion
and outlandisch wailing.
White‘s #FREAK draws you into her David Lynch-like labyrinth you want to get lost in.
Band: THE LIVING PINS Who: Texan outfit started by seasoned
rock chickc/musicians Pam Peltz and Carrie Clark.
Track: A AND B
Newest single from their forthcoming debut album, titled Roxy Unicorn. Out on November 13th. Tracklist and pre-order
info here.
TUTV: Addicted TUTV followers know we’re vivid Living Pins fans. Why? They always guarantee something stimulating for all of your limbs. Once upon a time, English glam rockers shouted “Clap your hands, stamp your feet, get down and get with it“. That’s the Living Pins attitude for you, music junkies. No nonsense. This pumping riff-roller is worth an A+.
TUTV: It is a soul-stirring and mellifluous pop pearl. The siblings still have
a knack for writing exciting tunes that stick the moment they start. Hats off
to the everlasting-delivering Scots.
Artist: ELISA SMITH Who: Country singer-songwriter based in Boston. Her soulful
sound blends elements of Americana, folk, and traditional country
music. She released her debut EPHitch A Ride in 2018.
Smith:“I wrote this song about my two greatest heroes, Loretta and Dolly,
quoting as many of their songs as I could to describe them. They were such
a powerful force for music and women and have inspired me every day to
keep going, keep writing, and keep playing.”
TUTV: This room-filling, warm-hearted, and zealous voice confused me at first.
I thought, I swear, when I heard this sonic stimulant for the first time, I got tuned
into ‘a best of’ playlist of legendary country diva’s (I’m sure you know many
of them).
Smith displays a similar confident timbre and uplifting tone that those self-assured
angels spread worldwide. Take no shit from your boss, people; sing as loud as you
can from 9 to 5.
TUTV: Be ready to get drowned in a smoggy psychedelic spiral of echoing,
mind-altering guitars. Once there, you’ll stay to be engrossed in this lyrical trip,
with its striking vocals and hallucinatory flow. There’s always a dream at the end
of the tunnel. Go catch it.
Band: DEAD WELLS Who: 4 British indies
from Macclesfield.
Track: COLD SEAS
Only their 2nd single, following
debutStain that came out last May.
“The sounds of the guitars are inspired by the spanky spring reverb sound used in early
garage rock, but with a thick layered fuzz sound underneath to give them an edgier, grungy sounding kick. Lyrically the song centres on the pull of a dangerous attraction: the point at which temptation becomes difficult to resist despite knowing where it may lead.”
TUTV: Psychotic guitars, accompanied by a frenetic drum/bass collaboration, set
the tone, from the get-go, for this ominously reverberating jam. Nervous tension fills
the air. Cold Seas gets under your skin without asking. And it feels good, in a startling
way, that is.
Brian Molko:‘‘This is a new rock song inspired by the piano melody from
H.K. Farewell and named after one of my favourite people from history,”
Helen Keller was an American author who lost her sight and her hearing after
a bout of illness when she was 19 months old, but it didn’t stop her from writing
14 books and hundreds of speeches and essays.
TUTV: Placebo just started their massive 30th-anniversary arena tour. It seems as
if they wanted to entertain all of their thousands and thousands who are waiting to see them with this new tranquillising mid-tempo cruise. I guess it’ll work. Definitely, maybe.
Artist: BAXTER HALL Who: Indie folk singer-songwriter from Boston, who released
his debut full-length, Somewhere In My Guitar, back in 2020.
Track: THE WORK
Title song of his luring brand-new EP.
Stream it here
Hall: “‘The Work’ is about my personal experience handling the emotions of going no-contact with a parent. The feelings of loss and sadness that come with that decision, but also having your boundaries be stronger than your empathy and empowering yourself to break the cycle and not internalize and inherit toxic behavior.”
TUTV:Hall‘s heart-and-soul arousing voice, his songwriting skills, and refined
feel for captivating melodiousness combine for an aurally satisfying happening.
From acoustic to electric; from reflective to emotional, The Work evokes
the wandering spirit of various legendary singer-songwriters from the past.
TUTV: I love this kind of torch-burning, power rock ballads. They have an overwhelming
effect on your mind and body. As long as they’re not too sugary my ears are very willing.
Artist: MARY GAUTHIER Who: Much-lauded 64-year-old folk singer-songwriter with a rich
past, writing/recording/releasing her deeply felt songs since 1990.
TUTV: I don’t know much about this indie musician. He mailed me some songs that sit “somewhere between indie rock, alternative and indie folk, with influences ranging from Bon
Iver and The Neighborhood to The 1975 and David Kushner.” and who writes songs as he quotes for the almosts, the maybes & the memories.
Won’t Let Me Go is the musing that caught my ears’ attention. Its darkish acoustic tone, reflective moodiness, and melancholic vocals got me in a self-rumintive headspace.
Canadian bulldozers DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979, bassist Jesse F. Keeler
and drummer/vocalist Sebastien Grainger are back in noizz town.
They’ve canned their 5th album, their first in 6 years. It’s titled PRIVATE LIVES
and will hit the streets on 29 January 2027. Tracklist and order info here.
The artwork uses early imagery. See here.
Press info: “Death From Above 1979 have for up more than 25 years maintained
the reputation for raucous, in-your-face rock music that’s packed with energy and
hooks galore. And they’re not done yet.
Private Lives finds them more invigorated than ever before, with sharp and tangy
melodies complimenting the duo’s signature low-end thickness and eternally cool swagger.”
Grainger says: “When we first started making music, it was as easy as going down
to the basement. It was a physical process. An extension of just hanging out and living
together. As the years went by, the process became more deliberate.
“The trick is to remember what makes it fun and special. Our band has always been
a balance of sweet and sour. Heavy music that’s also tender and playful. We’re really
cooking when we lean into those contradictions.”
The title track is the first single.
An ear-shattering assault that
rocks fiercely.
Soul star ISAAC HAYES (1942-2008) released his big hit THEME FROM SHAFT today, 55 years ago, on 30 Sept 1971.
It was the theme song to the 1971 crime action film Shaft.
It topped the US Singles Chart.
Hayes later explained to MOJO: “As this was my first such undertaking, at the initial meeting I had with the producer and director in New York you could see the anxiety on their faces. They tested me by giving me the opening scene – footage of Shaft coming out of the subway – to take away and see how I got on.
I remembered a guitar line I had in a tune I’d never used, got it off the shelf and had our guitarist play it exactly the same, but with a wah-wah. Then I got our drummer to play 16-note sequences on the hi-hat and we had it. The core rhythm for the tune, the springboard for the whole soundtrack, we’d cut in under two hours.”
TUTV: Straight from Jakarta, Indonesia, a blend of prog synth-pop and Krautrock dynamics transferring your mind onto a cloud way above our disorderly planet. Wake up, keep on dreaming, and hope for the best.
Band: ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN Who: The indestructible Liverpool post-punk-pop rockers who have
no expiration date, fronted by big mouth/songwriter Ian McCulloch.
UNCUT (British music monthly magazine) says: “The album draws deep on Mac’s rich and strange memories of the 1970s, outside of the holy trinity of Bowie, Cohen and Reed. On an album keen not to outstay its welcome, you feel, quite reasonably, that this one should have
run maybe three times as long.
Album artwork
TUTV: Almost 50 years into their career, The Bunnymen come up with their first masterwork of the 21st Century after 4 average albums, but in the meantime, still delivering electrifying goods on their never-ending touring. It matches their 1999 LP What Are You Gonna Do With Your Life?
Like that grand opus, this new one is a near-solo Ian McCulloch effort, musically
and lyrically. Longtime brother in arms, Will Sergeant‘s role is relatively minimal.
As the line “Is this the blues I’m singing?” goes in their 1980’s classic cracker Rescue
that sentiment is all over the place right here. At 67, McCulloch also gets gripped by melancholia, by memories of a lifetime. He translates them into his often cryptic, poetic,
and shadowy language and embeds them in a stunning series of astounding tunes enflamed by his eternally awesome voice.
The outcome is strikingly vital. Not one weak moment, and with Can’t Be Sold, Brussels Is Haunted, I’ll Be Your Sunshine, The Light That Surrounds You, Lab Rats Ran, and We Prayed In The Dark as the 24-karat gold nuggets.
TUTV: The downfall of Trump’s Divided States Of Hate (“We got a criminal running this
place. He got lies written all over his face”) makes Seasick Steve angry, confused, mournful and combative. Except for MAGA, almost the whole wide world despises today’s America
for its current failure on many levels and its global, disastrous impact.
That’s the record’s main theme. Dark clouds hang all over Steve‘s doomful grooves
and his brooding ballads. He also goes after all “useless motherfuckers and parasites
in the music industry“.
Steve doesn’t rock out much. He spits and sneers on many occasions. He boils inside.
No, this is not a happy album. It reflects the ill-omened signs of this historic, damaging,
and dangerously tumultuous American era.
Yet, in the end, Steve still believes in a healing metamorphosis if we all get together and make it happen, as he sings on the funky footstomper Bad Things: “There’s bad things, but we still can change. If you believe in hope, we can rearrange. I still believe in the power of love.”
It’s not over yet is Steve‘s underlying belief in a redeeming turnaround.
KEY SINGLE
It’s the last season of America
And we’ll never watch again
The show that we loved
On Half-Told Stories,half of the tracks are designed to rock out and freak out while trying
to pogo your way around the dancefloor in your head. More and more, the long-serving duo’s mix of trippy electronics and bouncy rock undercurrents comes with pumped-up, pounding decibels, like you can experience, among other stompers, to the full extent on the 3 dumbfounding singles (hear below)
Then again, half the record contains laid-back breathers, letting poetic storyteller Moffatlook out the window and reflect on all things weird whirling in his mind, with his trademark wit and dark humour.
Put everything – low and slow, fast and fervent – together and you know for a certified
fact that the Scots delivered another buzzworthy showpiece for end-of-the-year lists.
DIY Magazine (UK) wrote: “A tense, exhilarating follow-up that digs even deeper into
the dark, searching for signs of light. The 10 tracks creak, judder and detonate, riding fuse-like guitar scratches and claustrophobic drums. There’s doom and gloom, but Gurriers aren’t cheap nihilists – they understand the human spirit and the vitality of kinship.
Album artwork
TUTV: Without a shadow of a doubt, one of the hottest records of the year. They rock,
they punk, and they punch with blood-and-guts fervour. They’re on a quest to find the
light at the end of the tunnel to replace today’s dark times. Watch your back, Fontaines, your fellow committed countrymen are coming fast.
Pitchfork says: “Exploding its signature blend of noise-punk and dance music to masterful extremes, the Irish band gets louder, rawer, funnier, and more methodical on its exhilarating fourth album.”
TUTV: I follow/love these Irishmen since I saw them live in Belgium in 2014
as nervous snotnoses hadn’t a record out yet, as support act for Fat White
Family. Their chainsaw hullabaloo went through bone and marrow.
And it still does. Mind you, their songs had and still have bloodcurdling body and returning, capriocious structure that’s bone-chilling and mind-blowing at times, while frontman Dara Kiely fights upfront to vomit his eccentric lyrics. If your eardrums survive
this electric-chair experience, you’re ready for some more sonic Gilla Band blitzkrieg.
Last week, giant Irish stars U2 announced details of their upcoming album.
It’ll be their first in 9 years, following Songs Of Surrender, which was actually
one with reworked versions of old songs.
The new LP is titled Carnaval De Luz and is set for
release on November 13th. Pre-order info HERE.
Along with the news, we got the 2nd appetizer, named SILENCIO.
It’s a solid gold footstomper with a red-hot chorus. I guess I haven’t
heard them ignited like this since Vertigo (gosh, that’s 22 years ago).
English synth-pop celebs ERASURE, vocalist Andy Bell and keyboardist/songwriter Vince Clarke, who co-founded Depeche Mode back in 1980, announced the upcoming birth of their 20th full-length. It’s titled Radio!! Radio!! and will be launched on March 12th, 2027.
Andy Bell: “When you’re a songwriting partnership for so long, it’s very deep, kind of like a soul connection. You trust that person with your life, and because of the nature of songwriting, you just lay bare your soul. That becomes a sacred space.”
“I’m so pleased that we were able to find a way for the tour to work for Vince. He’s always too modest but he’s so much more than the Musical Director, Vince is one of the great loves of my life and everything we do as Erasure we decide together.”
Along with the news comes the lead single WINGS OF LOVE.
Out-and-out Erasure synth-pop nirvana. Daydreaming time.
Manchester’s synth-guitar-pop kingpins NEW ORDER released their 4th LP,
named BROTHERHOOD on 29 September 1986, today 40 years ago.
Brotherhood saw the band further exploring their mix of post-punk and electronic
styles, with the track listing being conceptually divided into “disco and rock sides“.
Stephen Morris (drummer) said: “The album was kind of done in a schizophrenic
mood that we were trying to do one side synthesizers and one side guitars”, which
he retrospectively stated “didn’t quite work”.
The album sleeve, created by Factory Records‘ house illustrator Peter Saville, is a photograph of a sheet of titanium–zinc alloy
It peaked at #9 in the UK, #15 in Australia
and, oops, only at #117 in the US.
UNCUT Magazine (British music monthly) “There’s an increased tension between
the frequent beauty of the music and the band’s Northern self-consciousness. This was
New Order becoming New Order and if anyone was entitled to not be Joy Division, they
certainly were.”
SINGLE
The album’s only single, ‘Bizarre Love Triangle ‘, was the band’s breakthrough single
in the United States and Australia. It was the only track from the album released as
a single.
