Going back in sonic history looking for memorable albums…
21 February 2018
BAND: GRANT LEE BUFFALO
ALBUM: FUZZY – debut LP
RELEASED: 22 February 1993 – 25 years ago
ALL MUSIC/Mark Deming wrote: “When Grant Lee Buffalo cut their debut album, 1993’s Fuzzy, they had a distinct advantage over most bands making their first trip to the studio — vocalist and guitarist Grant Lee Phillips, bassist Paul Kimble and drummer Joey Peters had already recorded two LPs together as members of the then-recently defunct Shiva Burlesque, and most of Fuzzy’s 11 songs dated back to SB’s latter days. This goes a long way towards explaining how Grant Lee Buffalo were able to make an album as confident and solidly crafted as Fuzzy, but it was even more significant that Phillips had a marvelous voice, wrote fine and evocative songs, and was fortunate enough to be working with sympathetic accompanists who had a good idea of how to tap into the mysterious melodic structures of his music. Fuzzy is deep and mysterious stuff, but also very beautiful and crafted with imagination and care, and it’s no wonder Grant Lee Buffalo became critic’s darlings shortly after this was released. No wonder Grant Lee Buffalo became critic’s darlings shortly after this was released.” Michael Stipe said: “The best album of the year hands down.”
TURN UP THE VOLUME! says: magnificent Americana songwriting and Grant-Lee Philips‘ outstanding voice. All songs fueled by profound passion and vocal intensity.
A truly gripping, high-quality unity.
THREE HIGHLIGHTS: Fuzzy / You Just Have To Be Crazy / Jupiter And Teardrop
* FUZZY – intoxicating splendor
* YOU JUST HAVE TO BE CRAZY – haunting and spellbinding
“Eating people for breakfast, burning love to the ground since 2013…”
Metallic fuzz buzz trio TOWANDA (Montreal/Rhode Island) released their impressive
debut longplayerPlaything in 2016. A thunderous record filled with head-smacking
blows and lots of “avant-gruel-metallic-rock-noir” & “a steaming pile of raging estrogen.”
The rabid 3-piece return now with scorching lead-track ANOTHER BRIDGE BURNED
from upcoming 4-track EP titled ‘Freak Of Nurture‘. This new knockout slam is a slow-moving serpent getting nastier and rowdier with every wall-of-ominous-noise-second
until the apocalypse finally roars its ugly head. This bad-ass sockdolager will sneak into your unsuspected brain before you can say ‘Trump is a hopeless moron’ and mess up all dark corners of your poor head, and, trust me you’ll bloody love it. Here’s the glowing inferno, burn it now…
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The EP will be out on 6 April via GIRLSVILLE, a pretty cool independent
label from Chicago. All info/pre-order facilities here on Bandcamp
Meet thrilling, up and coming, artists in 10 questions…
Here’s… THUNDER ON THE LEFT
THUNDER ON THE LEFT is a heartfelt and hard hittin’ 3-piece dynamo out of the London desert producing deafening drones that will make your head spin 360°. Led by explosive frontwoman and passionate vox Carla the band develops a metallic and volcanic storm, fierce enough to blow big holes in our worldwide corrupted establishment. On brand new, barbed wire album NATIONAL INSECURITY you’ll hear crushing echoes, annex melodic vigor, of System Of A Down, Korn and RATM, both in vision and in sound. The LP is a mighty work of loud and clear protest against the eternal human rat race, against social abuse, against the Big Brother media, against impersonal gregariousness. We need committed bands like this. Pronounced artists who shout out, opinionated musicians who care. Thunder On The Left is a force to embrace. Let’s meet them, but start the acquaintance
first with the title track of the new record…
Welcome Carla (guitar, lead vocals), Arun (drums, vocals) and Adam (bass, vocals)
Let’s roll…
1 / When, how and why did the band form? Carla: “In the mind’s eye of a visionary named fate, we don’t remember how, why,
when or where we met – fate brought us together.” Arun:“And God said let it be so, and God said it was good!” Adam: “In a long-forgotten Viking horde buried under centuries of history there lay a drum kit, a Telecaster, and an SG bass. We never questioned how it was they came to be there, or the vast coincidences involved in bringing us three together on that same cold, stormy night. Riffs do not question the fingers that play them, nor do we question the ancient magic that now binds us together.”
2/ What’s the story behind the band’s name? Carla: “It’s from a book, of the same name, about disillusionment with society.
Listen to our music for a few bars of any song, and you’ll see why that fit.”
3/ When did you know “this is how want we to sound, this is what
we want to tell the world”? Carla:: “We’d describe our music as the very well-behaved and fortunate looking child of three very overbearing parents.” Arun: “I think we don’t ever truly know, it’s one of those things where we rehearse and it develops and changes just as we do as people, as we become better musicians. It develops alongside us, and when it comes out, that’s when we know. It’s never with pretence.” Adam: “We’re writing the music we want to hear and between the three of us, there’s a lot of different influences entering into it. When we’re playing and we discover something great, we all feel it right away. It’s a physical reaction, like adrenalin.”
4/ What or who inspired the band to call the debut LP: ‘NATIONAL INSECURITY’? TOTL: “Carla wrote it as a reversal of the concept of national security. In the sense of how society is conditioned to live in a state of fear and paranoia from the media and feels anything but ‘secure.”
Artwork ‘National Insecurity‘…
5/ What’s your fav track on the album? Carla: “Either ‘A Polite Fuck Off‘ or ‘Simply Eaten‘. APFO just sounds so good, and also perfectly mixes R n B (the bass-line for me in the verse) with heavy rock and an interesting sentiment (‘A Polite Fuck Off’ in this song meaning to cut someone out of your life without telling them as it’s pointless to try and sort out something they have engineered maliciously). ‘Simply Eaten‘ was finished at the studio, and I purposely left loads of the melody until then to work under a kind of weird positive pressure. I think it’s epic, brooding and very Post-Rock; it sounds huge. Also, how contemplative it is lyrically I think is a perfect way to end the album. It was written from a poem I wrote a long time ago.” Arun: “‘A Polite Fuck Off’ is a special song to me, it completely encapsulates my influences in terms of drumming, and pushed me beyond my limits of what I thought I was capable of playing. In short, it just feels good to play the song. It’s groovy, it’s heavy, and the chorus groove always hangs back in a cool swing which you wouldn’t expect from such a heavy song. ‘Interlude‘ is another favourite of mine, a repetitive groove locked in with Adam is always a winner. I’d also agree with Carla with ‘Simply Eaten‘, I was close to tears when we were recording that song because the lyrics just hit home so hard at the time. I could go into detail with every song but those stand out immediately.” Adam: “‘A Polite Fuck Off’ is so much fun to play… It’s full of energy and I love how it never stays the same for long, there’s always a change to throw you off your guard. ‘Survivor‘ is another favourite of mine. It’s all intensity from start to finish and I have a blast playing it live. ‘Simply Eaten‘ can’t go unmentioned of course, it was the last track on the album we recorded and when we finished playing it was an amazing feeling. That song creates its own atmosphere, and for those 6 minutes there’s no escaping it.”
4 Votes (Turn Up The Volume’s one included)
for ‘A Polite Fuck Off’…
6/ What movie would you pick to visualize ‘NATIONAL INSECURITY’ on
a big screen, in the back of the stage, when playing a show? Carla: “Battle Royale or A Clockwork Orange.” Arun: “Nirvana live at Reading, 1992.” Adam: “12 Angry Men.”
7/ Why is it that mankind, after all these ages, isn’t still capable of
living together and tolerate each other? Carla: “Religion. Politics. Divide and conquer. Power. Greed.” Adam: “People who seek power can never understand those who do not.” Arun: “Ego.”
8/ If the band was an animal, which one would it be? TOTL: “A mosquito. People under-estimate how deadly they are
until it’s too late. They are deadly AF.”
Thunder On The Left: deadly band…
9/ If you could go back in time on which artist’s front door
would you knock and ask to have a selfie together? TOTL: “No-one’s door, we hate selfies, and the artists
we love enough to time-travel back to see, would too.”
10/ Plans for 2018? TOTL: “Taking over the world, Pinky.”
Thank you, guys, for this interview with TUTV!
May the road rise with... THUNDER ON THE LEFT
Band: STAGS Base: London, UK Who:“This hefty 4-piece is making waves in the London circuit since 2012 and gained a solid reputation all over the UK with their unique brand of blues rock and incredible stage presence. They have performed alongside artists such as Therapy?, who handpicked them to support their UK tour in 2014.” Pick: THIS LOVE – single from upcoming debut album Score: Here’s a blazing combination of Black Crowes blues dynamism and early Led Zep ferociousness with towering guitars, a hammering rhythm section and heated vocals all over it. A fierce mid-tempo rock crackerjack with a healthy dose of passionate bombast and shots of pulverizing excitement. Test your speakers and your lungs’ intensity. Go…
Going back in sonic history looking for memorable albums…
20 February 2018
Band: RADIOHEAD Album: PABLO HONEY – the band’s debut Released: 22 February 1993 – 25 years ago… Rolling Stone wrote: “Flashing a song called ‘Creep’ as a musical ID takes cheek, but then, everything about these Brits is unabashed. On their debut, the swagger affected by every
arch-Anglo since the Kinks is already in full effect. Three guitars (and bass) and a singer
whose narcissistic angst rivals Morrissey’s (‘I will not control myself!’) Thom Yorke screams on ‘Vegetable’ and on ‘Prove Yourself’ he mourns, ‘I’m better off dead’), these five Oxford lads come on extreme. What elevates them to fab charm is not only the feedback and strumming fury of their guitar work — and the dynamism of their whisper-to-a-scream song structures — which recall the Who by way of the early Jam, but the way their solid melodies and sing-along choruses resonate pop appeal. If they don’t implode from attitude overload, Radiohead warrant watching.” Turn Up The Volume! says: their very first step to awesomeness,
geniusness and massiveness… Three Top Tracks: How Do You? / Creep / Thinking About You
* HOW DO YOU? – Radiohead would never rock like this again – nasty and rowdy…
* CREEP – simply unavoidable, because it’s a 24 Karat Gold classic…
Twenty-five years ago – on 22 February 1993 – British glam rockers SUEDE released one of their best tracks ever (to my ears). ANIMAL NITRATE was/still is an awesome firecracker. Glowing and flashy. Anthemic and towering! A top stroke! According to Chris Jones, BBC’s music journalist at the time, the song (with its reference to the inhalant drug amyl nitrite), was “despite its punning title, a thrill-seeking slice of cynicism that perfectly summed up what
it was like to be young and chemically imbalanced in the nation’s capital at the time”.
It was the third single from their stupendous, self-titled debut LP, and charted
at number seven on the UK Singles Chart. Here’s that fabulous beast…
Like his dad you know that he’s had
Animal nitrate in mind
Oh in your council home he jumped on your bones
now you’re taking it time after time
oh it turns you on, on, on, now he has gone
oh what turns you on, on, on, now your animal’s gone?
Well he said he’d show you his bed
and the delights of his chemical smile
so in your broken home he broke all of your bones
now you’re taking it time after time
oh it turns you on, on, on, now he has gone
oh what turns you on, on, on, now your animal’s gone?
what does it take to turn you on, on
now he has gone?
now you’re over 21?
now your animal’s gone?
animal, he was animal, an animal
Band: ALTOBELLI Base: Hulst, The Netherlands Who: 5-piece unit travelling back in time to fuse heavy rockin’ genres such as
Britpop, noise-rock, grunge, nu-metal, and post-rock… Track: TREES Score: this track was written before Soundgarden‘s frontman Chris Cornell took his own life last year in May, but as I heard it for the first time after that fateful event I experience(d) this towering emo eruption as a tribute to that great, unfortunate artist. Although there’s some Metallica bombast in there I still think of Cornell‘s sonic power and impactful vox. That’s the beauty of music. It can generate countless, different associations depending on what one is feeling/thinking/observing at one specific moment in time. ‘Trees‘ does the job perfectly. A strong LOUD/Quiet/LOUD score and so is the accompanying clip. Roll it here…
Vibes that thrill us in a way we want to scream out loud…
19 February 2018
Today no SHOUT OUT for a thrilling band/artist or a new song but a SHOUT OUT for GUN CONTROL. This Florida student and her friends are desperate. Will the immoral NRA and its corrupted friends in the White House listen this time? I doubt it strongly, but if people stand up non-stop and keep screaming about this ongoing American scandal and we all help to spread the message, maybe, just maybe, something can change. The shocking deaths (again) of innocent people due largely to the awful American weapon laws and the complete lack of political will to change them, need to stop. Again, so many friends and families are in immense pain. Another mind-blowing tragedy. Let’s listen to this brave, hurt, fearful student called EMMA GONZALEZ from the high school in Parkland, Florida where 17 people were left dead after a mass shooting on 14th February and ALL those who support her and her message. WE CALL BS…
Florida, 14 February (AP Photo)
Los Angeles, 1 October 2017 (photo: Getty)
Sutherland Springs, 5 November 2017 … (photo: Getty)
JUJU – Kinky Star, Ghent, Belgium – 18 February 2018
Despite the fact that on an average Sunday evening the majority of humankind prefers to fall asleep in front of the TV this cool, small club in Ghent (Belgium), called Kinky Star (one
of Turn Up The Volume‘s fav hang-out places) was packed with hungry psych fans eager to watch/hear Italian collective JUJU, a mind-expanding squadra build around experienced Sicilian sound explorer and singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Gioele Valenti (Lay Llamas, Herself). Last year they released sophomore LP debut album ‘Our Mother Was A Plant‘ via Fuzz Club Records. A truly impressive, trippy work of transcendent vibrations. From cinematic Pink Floyd echoes to Hawkind‘s spacey rock escapades and some stellar spellbinding tribal jams to pump up the beat. Something like this…
If you’re hooked on exciting, elevating stuff like here above you just ignore TV and jump out in the cold night to get a mind-massage by this tremendous artist and his fabulous orchestra because what you get is trance injected jams that infiltrate your bloodstream instantly and kaleidoscopic wizardry covering several decades. From 60s cult heroes Iron Butterfly‘s psych power to British dance experts Leftfield‘s hallucinogenic vision and many woozy influences in between. Bewitching music without sonic frontiers, rhapsodic music with an appetite for continuous discovery, upraising music to absorb on record and on stage. Valenti ‘s sparkling guitar play and distorted voice are upfront, but he surrounds himself cleverly with inspired musicians in order to translate his amplified reveries to the utmost and the result was just flabbergasting. A riveting journey from start to finish. Magnifico!…
A brand new SEVEN IN THE MIX for a brand new week!
Seven splendid strokes I played on repeat these past days
Seven towering tracks to feed body & soul all week long
Turn up the volume! Music is the dope! Here’s the stuff!
. 1/ ‘Loss Of Sophistication’ by LOW HUM (L.A., California, US)
Here’s a striking electro pop tremor with a murky twist by Collin Desha aka Low Hum. He creates a deep bass drone that sticks instantly and gets under your skin without asking.
2/ ‘Corazone’ by HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THE JANE FONDA AEROBIC VHS? (Finland)
Euphoric pop corker energized with a rapturous scream-along chorus that will put a big smile on your face. Uprising and blissful stuff! Also one of the weirdest band names I
ever heard! From their wicked new album ‘Jazzbelle 1984 / 1988‘ – here on Bandcamp.
3/ ‘Temper’ by SUSS CUNTS (Melbourne, Australia)
Jingle jangle electricity you just can’t resist. Witty and punky. Pushed by blustery bass/drum truculence and fueled with clenched harmonies. Strapping score!
4/ ‘Soft’ by COREY FLOOD (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US)
Hazy turbulence intensified by wandering guitar escapades. Very entrancing and highly seducing. Wondrous track from 3-track debut EP ‘Wish You Hadn’t‘ – all info on Bandcamp
5/ ‘Greenman’ by SCHOOL DISCO (Plymouth, United Kingdom)
Surf injected psychedelia with a rockabilly edge à la The Cramps. This spacey firecracker invades your bloodstream on the spot. A far-out and gluey stroke to get completely lost in!
7/ ‘Climbs’ by BROADS (Norfolk, UK)
Cinematic and gloomy electro soundscape colored with mesmeric violin melancholia. Dreamy and romantic. Top track from this duo’s new LP ‘Field Theory‘ – here on Bandcamp
