Relaxing musings for the laziest day of the week… touchingly…
Back in 1988 alt country & folk band COWBOY JUNKIES covered THE VELVET UNDERGOUND‘s classic SWEET JANE with a delightful heart and soul touch.
Magnificent and timeless performance…
COWBOY JUNKIES: Facebook – Website
Daily fuel to load your sonic batteries…
10 June 2018
KRISTIN HERSH, singer/songwriter and ex-frontwoman of guitar pop band Throwing Muses will launch her new solo album Possible Dust Clouds on October 5. A couple of weeks ago she shared first single Lax. A turbulent cracker with a swinging swagger. And today Hersh dropped a rough mix of a second new song, titled BREATHE IN. And it’s another groovy mid-tempo rocker that sticks instantly. To be honest, I really thought on hearing the very first seconds of this new cut for the first time that it was the opening sequence of The Breeders classic single ‘Cannonball‘ with Kim Deal‘s raw, distorted vox coming on. Truly weird. But after that confusing intro, it became directly and totally clear it’s Kristin Hersch with a similar powerful panache as on ‘Lax‘. An electrical cracker performed with crude bravado. Pretty heavy, pretty cool, pretty quaking. Catch the reverberating fever right here…
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KRISTIN HERSH: Website – Facebook – Twitter
(photo Kristin Hersh via PR agency Shameless Promotions PR)
Going back in sonic history looking for memorable albums…
9 June 2018
Band: RADIOHEAD
Album: HAIL TO THE THIEF
Released: 9 June 2003
ROLLING STONE wrote: ” ‘Hail To The Thief’ is a product of its moment: recorded in late
2002, during the American and British governments’ slow, inevitable march to Iraq, of which lead singer Thom Yorke was an outspoken opponent. Hail is filled with images of monstrous, Orwellian force from which there is no escape. On ‘Sit down. Stand up’ Yorke assumes the
voice of Big Brother, giving rote, meaningless orders — ‘Sit down/Stand up’ — over and over. With equal parts whine and sneer, he says, “We can wipe you out anytime.” Radiohead have always been paranoid and pessimistic, but thanks to recent history, people who used to seem paranoid now seem prudent.” Score: 4/5 – Full review here
TURN UP THE VOLUME says: A haunting, hypnotic and hair-raising record from
one of the most creative and visionary bands of all time. Never duplicating themselves. Always challenging and exploring new sonic fields. Always strikingly opinionated and
arresting, time and again.
THREE TOP TRACKS: Sit Down Stand Up / 2 + 2 = 5 / There, There
* SIT DOWN STAND UP – ‘Walk into the jaws of hell’
* 2 + 2 = 5 – ‘I’ll stay home forever / Where two and two always makes a five’
THERE, THERE – ‘Just ’cause you feel it / Doesn’t mean it’s there’
RADIOHEAD: Website – Facebook – Twitter – All Albums
Brand new longplayers that will have an impact on your ears and your speakers…
1/ ‘Babelsberg’ by GRUFF RHYS (Wales)
Fifth solo album by Super Furry Animal‘s frontman. A modern-day crooner and sharp observer. Smooth orchestrations and edged visions rolling into something special.
Stream here…
GRUFF RHYS: Facebook
2/ ‘WOWSERS!’ by CHICKN (Athens, Greece)
These Greek psych noiseniks show their love for mad genius Frank Zappa with an explosive and effervescent cocktail of head-twisting firecrackers and some quiet mindfuckers. WOW!
Stream here…
CHICKN: Facebook
3/ ‘The Horror’ by GET WELL SOON (Berlin, Germany)
Fifth LP by singer/storyteller Konstantin Gropper. The record “is about fear in all its forms. Fear as a motivator, as an obstacle, as a consultant, and as a political weapon, both socially and privately”. Sonically it moves, feels and sounds like a musical. A truly intriguing journey.
Stream here…
GWS: Facebook
4/ ‘Lush’ by SNAIL MAIL (Baltimore, US)
Debut album by singer/songwriter Lindsey Jordan aka Snail Mail. From intimate meditations to amplified, melodic indie pop with a sensitive slacker twist. A touching first full length.
Stream here…
SNAIL MAIL: Facebook
5/ ‘Distant Light’ by TAPE WAVES (Charleston, South Carolina, US)
Duo TAPE WAVES – Kim Weldin and Jarod Weldi – will soundtrack your moony summer dreams with mellow musings floating over layers of electrical, atmospheric sentiments.
Stream here…
TAPE WAVES: Facebook
See/hear you next week, music junkies…
Daily fuel to load your sonic batteries…
8 June 2018
Beth Rettig, the flamboyant frontwoman of British electro force Blindness has officially started her solo project called WHERE WE SLEEP today with two shadowy tracks: VEINS and CRAWL. Both songs create an atmospheric and ambient ambiance that activates, immediately your mind’s romantic side. ‘Veins’ is a groovy, relation-related reflection sounding like Beth Rettig is fronting Garbage on one of their moodiest moments. Yes, at times her strangely warm voice has that same, heartfelt tone of Shirley Manson‘s wonderful vox. Second cut ‘Crawl’ has a slower and dreamier pace, similar to the mellow reveries on Blindess‘ last year’s The Monsoon E.P. I guess you already know what to do. Dim the lights, relax and absorb these dusky electronic waves on your headphones…
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WHERE WE SLEEP: Twitter – Facebook
VEINS/CRAWL available on Bandcamp
(Beth Rettig’s photo by Nando Carniel Machado / artwork music sleeve by Dominic Lee)
Going back in sonic history looking for memorable albums…
8 June 2018
Band: EMBRACE (West Yorkshire, UK)
Album: THE GOOD WILL OUT
Released: 8 June 1998 – 20 years ago
ALL MUSIC wrote: “Debut albums rarely arrive with as much expectation as Embrace’s
‘The Good Will Out’ in Britain, at least. Arriving after the massive success of Oasis and The
Verve, The Good Will Out was perceived as the heir apparent to the lad-rock throne. One
listen to ‘The Good Will Out’ illustrates why the group ingeniously combines the anthemic
hooks and the monolithic roar of Oasis with the sweeping aural majesty of the Verve. That
alone makes the album a bracing listen.” Score 4/5 – Full review here.
TURN UP THE VOLUME says: The astounding combination of sky-high anthems, intense sentiments, epic ballads, steamy rockers and magnetic tunes turned ‘The Good Will Out‘ into a king-sized debut longplayer. Huge achievement.
THREE TOP TRACKS: All You Good People / My Weakness Is None Of Your Business /
One Big Family
* ALL YOU GOOD PEOPLE – the classic single…
* MY WEAKNESS IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS – riveting ballad…
* ONE BIG FAMILY – titanic stroke…
Album in full…
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EMBRACE: Website – Facebook – Twitter – All Albums
Remarkable albums from the past…
‘Paul’s Boutique’
BEASTIE BOYS
Released: 25 Juli 1989
Second longplayer
ROLLING STONE wrote: ” ‘Paul’s Boutique’ named after a Brooklyn store whose radio
ad is tossed in the mix and whose picture graces the cover, surprises from the get-go.
Each track brims with ideas and references too numerous to catalog, veering in new
directions at every verse. The songs are buoyed by the deft interplay of the three voices
and a poetic tornado of imagery. The Boys’ rap references range from Magilla Gorilla to Dickens, their musical samples are equally far-flung, including Johnny Cash, Hendrix and
Jean Knight’s ‘Mr. Big Stuff.’ The Boys are just being themselves, thrashing about in a reality ignored by too many mainstream white-rock acts.”
Score: 4/5 – Full review here
TURN UP THE VOLUME says: ‘Maybe not their best known album,
but certainly one of their best.
TOP TRACK: Hey Ladies
Album in full…
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BEASTIE BOYS: Website – Facebook – All Albums
Daily fuel to load your sonic batteries…
Abdur Rahim Latada aka Oyi is a music junk out of Indonesia. A one-man band sounding
like a whole rock ‘n’ roar army. That’s how GROW RICH exactly resonates like. Creating tons of layers of electrifying, Western-influenced indie racket that booms and resounds non-stop. His new EP, titled SENEN LEMPUYANGAN is a steamy four-track thunderbolt.
A jigsaw-like punk express going real fast. If you need a sonic injection to pump up your adrenalin’s stream press the button right here, right now and make some bloody noise because as writer/theologian/activist and Baptist pastor Jeff Hood says, cited by Oyi
on the EP’s artwork…
“Distance doesn’t separate people, silence does”
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GROW RICH: Facebook – Twitter
SENEN LEMPUYANGAN available on Bandcamp
Smashing live performances of smashing knockouts…
‘Heroes’ by DAVID BOWIE
Glastonbury Festival, UK, 2000
Talking about a firework performance, here’s the late great hero…
From the awesome, same-titled album 1977 album…
Daily fuel to load your sonic batteries…
6 June 2018
I have no idea who’s behind this musical project except from some data on his/hers/their Facebook page. THE EGO RITUAL seems to be a trio from Lincoln, UK and they cite a quote from the late American writer/philosopher/anarchist Robert Anton Wilson: “I don’t believe anything, but I have many suspicions”.
Anyway here’s the first track of their forthcoming EP. ‘CHAKRA MARACA‘ is totally sixties psychedelia. A hallucinating mix of imposing guitar layers, hazy vocals, a sticky mantra-like chorus, a hammering beat that thunders in the back like a Black Sabbath drone and a sitar sequence in the end. Press the button and fly back to 1967…
THE EGO RITUAL: Facebook
CHAKRA MARACA is available on Bandcamp