With only two singles it was a relatively calm year for Italian
synth-pop songsmiths THE BANKROBBER with siblings Oberti.
Last June they released the intriguing and darksome saga I.A.M.N.A.Y.A.M.D (Always
In My Nightmare) and to say goodbye to 2020 they just shared new moody emo ballad, titled BLOOD.
Starting with a short repetitive intro of ah ah ah’s bringing Laurie Anderson‘s 1981
hit O Superman to mind, you instantly enter a twilight zone with dreamy atmospherics, weeping guitars and poetical, alternating male/female vocals. A shadowy, somber, and pitchy meditation, a misty winter song, a double-edged candlelight beauty.
NME says: “It’ll be interesting to see where The Smashing Pumpkins frontman goes with his next magnum opus. But in ‘CYR’ Corgan has undoubtedly created the “contemporary record” he so craved; it’s far better than anything Corgan produced when he was running with the Pumpkins name on his own. It’s also amazing that after all the bad blood and messy break ups, he’s more adept at penning an accessible tune than he’s ever been.”
Full review here. Score: 3/5.
Billy Corgan: “I got sick of making music that people kept telling me didn’t sound contemporary. So I took that on and I was like, ‘OK I’m gonna make a contemporary
music record, I don’t care what it takes’.”
Turn Up The Volume: Not bad at all, Billy. But not as good as your classic double
one Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, released 25 years ago, 24 October 1995.”
Sixth 2020 single. Sixth tour de force. These poetic metalsmiths honour all the real caring heroes in these hazardous times, with an ill-fate inspired roller coaster that “reflects upon the events of the ongoing pandemic and global crisis. The song is an appeal to humanity and an emergency broadcast to mankind at a critical moment in the current crisis. The music video is a tribute and homage to all the healthcare professionals around the world who have risked their own lives to save the lives of others.”
The accompanying video clip is a heart and soul touching then and now visualization
‘BL/FF (Fake Friends)’ by MONOWHALES (Toronto, Canada)
A boosting crackerjack to play on your car stereo when go out at night looking for a playmate. An electrifying ‘I Feel Donna Summer Love’ flare-up. A hormones-fueled slice
of peppery power-pop for (safe) Saturday Night feverishness. Go for it here…
“At its heart ‘Blush’ is essentially just a soppy love song, two people recounting that magical feeling of falling for each other” says the band. To my ears, this is at its heart a full-steam-ahead knockout wanting you to leave your lockdown hole, roll over and over in the street and jump for joy. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! From the band’s upcoming debut album ‘Subatomic Party Cool’, out June 2021 via Alcopop! Records.
“In the search for your true calling in life, it’s easy to try so many things that you end up confused. It can lead to an enormous build-up of frustration.” That’s what this ongoing
rolling-guitar-and-bass-riff-driven jam is about. Sticky as first-class glue. Here’s why…
Last week the Brit trio released their new, critically acclaimed, album Night Network.
On this highlight, good friend and ex-Sonic Youth memberLee Ranaldo joins them (again) for a dreamy groover. Tune in here…
Early October KURT VILE released a 5-track EP called Speed, Sound, Lonely KV (ep) with covers of two songs by his country idol John Prine whp passed away recently due to that nasty corona devil.
Yesterday Vile played one of them, Speed Of The Sound Of Loneliness,
on American TV Show Late Night With Seth Meyers.
Newcastle upon Tyne rockers MAXÏMO PARK score again new
steaming stunner from their upcoming, seventh album titled NATURE ALWAYS WIN (let’s really hope so), out next February.
You can pre-order here.
“Last time we wanted to make more political music, but we also didn’t want
to rely on the cliches of it being a punk record. We wanted to do something
you could dance to but also think about what you’re dancing to, which is
more of a post-punk or punk-funk sort of ideal…
With this one, I’ve become a parent over the past four years and the other guys
in the band have got kids as well and I didn’t want to ignore it but I also didn’t
want it to be the central aspect of the record because I want the record to be
open to all” says spearhead Paul Smith about the new record.
After the previously shared splendid, reflective pieces Baby, Sleep
and Child Of The Flatlands (listen/watch below) ringleader Smith
climbs, higher and higher, upon the ladder with steaming stunner I DON’T KNOW WHAT I’M DOING.
The song is “about taking responsibility for how your own behaviour can affect
other people, and how nobody knows it all, but that doesn’t stop us from trying.
More personally, it’s about the fears and self-doubt I’ve experienced as a new parent.”
I Don’t Know What I’m Doing is an instant rollicking-guitar-crazy stormer. An agitated
and keyed-up ripsnorter on the run with an adrenaline-fueled chorus triggering your jump up-and-down button. One of the most intense rockers I heard all year. Bang-on big time! The proud fathers did it, again!
BBC Music: “In the two years since ‘Bummed’, the Happy Mondays had embraced
dance culture. Every movement needs its high-water mark, and their third album,
‘Pills’n’Thrills And Bellyaches’ was Madchester’s Tewkesbury. Although The Stone Roses
debut is more retrospectively adored, ‘Pills’n’Thrills And Bellyaches’ at the time felt like
nothing you’d ever heard before; except it was absolutely everything you’d heard before; exceptionally undemanding chord structures; grinding beats; shambolic monotony – but
the dance nuances of producers Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne and the influence of E
as well as Shaun Ryder’s witty dystopian lyrics made the album a very serious work indeed. Music is the dope!”
Turn Up The Volume: The mother-rave-record of all Madchester-rave-records. The E album for all 24-hour party people. The acid-house album for all dance floors globally, then and now. The twisting my melons LP. Music is the dope! Oh yeah, addictive stuff.”
