Sonic knockouts from the past…
26 February 2019
‘This Is How It Feels‘ by INSPIRAL CARPETS
The band Noel Gallagher was a roadie for.
Released: September 1989 and included on
their 1990 debut LP Life. It was their first
Top-20 hit in the UK peaking at #14…
INSPIRAL CARPETS: Facebook – Discography
Clips that impress your ears and your eyes…
25 February 2019
(promo press pic)
PETER DOHERTY is back with a new band called THE PUTA MADRES with an LP planned for April. “A devastatingly intimate portrait of love, loss and being lost” says a press statement. The album was recorded in a French fishing village last summer. The new group released first single ‘WHO’S BEEN HAVING YOU OVER‘ a few weeks ago. A snappy garage cracker with sharp-edged guitar licks and Doherty‘s characteristic vox upfront. Have a look at the song’s new video launched today…
PETER DOHERTY & THE PUTA MADRES: Facebook
Self-titled debut LP out 26th April – all info here
Brand new sonic impulses…
25 February 2019
Stephen Jones aka BABYBIRD was so much more than his huge 1996 hit You’re So Gorgeous (of which most of the buyers hadn’t a clue what the song was really about) suggested. Becoming a pop star was not his prime artistic goal. He operated in a twilight world of his own behind closed doors, writing compelling, darksome and soul-stirring songs that weren’t, besides that one exception, conceived with massive commercial success in mind. Therefore Jones‘ music was too profound and emotionally too complex and too real. If you never heard of Babybird check this two emotive top albums and you’ll understand what I mean: Ugly Beautiful (1996) and There’s Something Going On (1998).
Today BABYBIRD announced a new compilation titled HAPPY STUPID NOTHING,
out next Friday, 1st March, with a series of tracks from the period 2015-2018. Along
with this announcement he shared one of the album’s stirring musings. The 2017
ballad ‘IN PLACE OF LOVE‘ is a gripping goosebumps performance. Only vox and
piano. A spine-tingling achievement. Listen/watch here…
BABYBIRD: Facebook
Daily fuel to load your sonic batteries…
25 February 2019
Band: SUPERET
Who: “The band formed in Los Angeles, California on Valentine’s Day 2016. The name
‘Superet’ was nicked from the facade of a cult church in east Los Angeles. It’s derived from a Latin moniker that translates to “may they overflow”, which has become the bands modus operandi. Hence the name, they have been known to put on a relentlessly, electrifying show.”
Track: COMES AS A RELIEF – title song from their new 3-track EP
Score: Party Time! Here’s a kick-ass funky drum/bass driven dance floor bang-up with
80s glamorous disco synths while frontman Matt Blitzer‘s spicy vox cuts like a knife and keeps pushing the song’s sprightly tension. ‘Comes As A Relief‘ raises your blood pressure, boosts your body temperature and activates your limbs. Get up, stand up and make your move. Right here, right now…
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SUPERET: Facebook – Stream full EP on Spotify
Sonic knockouts from the past…
25 February 2019
‘Natural Born Bugie‘ by HUMBLE PIE
One of the first supergroups with Steve Marriott (from The Small Faces) and
wonder boy Peter Frampton (from The Herd) as the most famous members.
This was their successful debut single on Andrew Oldham‘s (original Rolling
Stones manager) own label. The cracker hit #4 on the UK singles chart and
later on, the band became even bigger in America. Time to boogie, folks…
.
HUMBLE PIE: Biography
Bob Mould about the troublesome consequence of a long career…
Full interview here
Out now new album
SUNSHINE ROCK…
DEATH VALLEY GIRLS – 4AD Club, Diksmuide, Belgium – 23 February 2019
After following this red-hot Los Angeles garage gang since their 2014 debut LP Street Venom hit me in the face and having interviewed them at the end of 2017 I finally got
to see DEATH VALLEY GIRLS explode on stage, for the very first time, yesterday. Are they that special I hear you ask. Absolutely. This crazed quartet combines The Stooges‘ raw power, The Cramps‘ rockabilly lunacy, Black Sabbath‘s metallic insanity and they inject their sonic havoc with a cool, dark sense of humor. Oh, and one more thing: they love cemeteries. As expected the band’s ringleader Bonnie Bloomgarden led the rollicking troops last night. Intoxicating opener Abre Camino from new stirring album Darkness Rains set the heated tone of a stormy set instantly, with blazing bangers Death Valley Boogie, Disco, Electric High and the already classic stormer Disaster (Is What Were’ After) being the tumultuous highlights of a thunderous show…
… in between, ambiguous groove Gettin Hard, infectious poppy chant Pink Radiation
and organ injected swagger Wear Black showed their versatile songwriting caliber while Bonnie was wandering all over the place and hugged cracking bass player Pickle a couple
of times. She’s the charismatic eyecatcher of a hell-raising foursome that spoiled us all with a psych-o-delic Halloween experience in February. HAIL HAIL DEATH VALLEY GIRLS!
Picture this…
Hello Belgium….
Get down and boogie…
Hide-and-seek…
At the disco…
These boots are made for walking…
Band hug…
Stream new longplayer
DARKNESS RAINS here…
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DEATH VALLEY GIRLS: Facebook – ‘Darkness Rains’ available on Bandcamp
(All concert pics by Turn Up The Volume!)
Relaxing vibes for the laziest day of the week…
24 February 2019
Band: MALIHINI
Who: Lo-fi pop duo featuring Rome-based Giampaolo Speziale and Federica Caiozzo. Malihini, which means ‘newcomers’ in Hawaiian, deal exclusively in the music of lived experience and time-honed emotional intelligence, their disarming musical universe never less than distinctive, yet resonating with a confessional, modern European pop sophistication of a kind elsewhere purveyed by the likes of Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jose Gonzalez and Our Broken Garden.
Track: IF U CALL – A song “about the beginning of a relationship, with grown-up behaviours hiding teenage feelings” from their upcoming album ‘Hopefully, Again‘ out in March
Score: This is an amorous daydream embedded in a vibe that feels like a gratifying sonic massage. Heartfelt, ingenuous and lovey-dovey. With tender guitar fragments, charming synths and smooth alternating vocals. Sit back, loosen up and enjoy the unbending mood…
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MALIHINI: Facebook
Debut album HOPEFULLY, AGAIN out 8th March via Memphis Industries
TOY – Witlof Bar (Botanique), Brussels – 22 February 2019
Last month Brighton‘s psychedelic pop collective TOY released their glowing, critically acclaimed, 4th LP HAPPY IN THE HOLLOW. Their most engrossing achievement so far. The amazing thing about this band is that you can enjoy them in two truly different ways. On record, their songs have an overall atmospheric, bluesy and mind-exploring resonance and are best experienced on your headphones, late at night with the lights out and the world asleep. On stage the whole Toy dynamic changes drastically. The decibels go up
(way up actually), the intensity rises to an overwhelming level, the motorik drum/bass beats speed up your bloodstream and the intoxicating streams of hallucinatory waves touch you really physically.
Yes, every nerve and every muscle in your whole body moves in overdrive, especially when they switch to exhilarating jam modus on their classic oldies ‘Join The Dots’, ‘Motoring’ and most of all the monumental ‘Dead And Gone’, but the trance-like treatment works perfectly too for the steamy rippers ‘Jolt Awake‘, ‘Mechanism’ and ‘Energy’ off the new LP. During their more relaxed twilight meditations (‘Mistake A Stranger‘, ‘The Willo‘ and ‘Last Warmth Of The Day‘) you could catch your breath again but to be honest, every time they slowed down
I (and the crowd) couldn’t hardly wait to get the next electro Krautrock shock, to absorb the next guitars charged crescendo extravaganza and to lose ourself in the next glorious cacophony. Third time I saw TOY! Third time they nailed it and my ears still buzzing 15 hours later are proof of that! Memorable performance!
Dazzling out-of-body experience…
Stream HAPPY IN THE HOLLOW here…
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TOY: Facebook – Website – Tour Dates
Flaming electricity…
(pics by Turn Up The Volume!)
Clips that impress your ears and your eyes…
23 February 2019
Last year Boston‘s guitar pop legends BELLY, led by wonderful voice & songwriter Tanya
Donelly returned in convincing style with comeback album DOVE. A striking record with multiple beauties on it like that graceful pearl HUMAN CHILD, one of Turn Up The Volume‘s favorites. And precisely for that superb song, Belly just released a video with footage from the band on and off stage, then and now. Just lovely. Watch it here…
BELLY: Website – Facebook – Twitter
You can stream comeback album DOVE right here