Imagine Green Day with long white beards, Weezer with a sack full of lousy presents and Blink-1982 disguised as gabba gabba hey Santas. Oh, and they’re all boozed up, just like
you are during this festive lockdown season. Got the picture?
Now stumble to your stereo and turn the volume way up to play Detroit punks WE ARE THE UNION so the police, who have their station a couple of blocks away, can hear you.
The challenge is: how long will it take them to track you down, arrest you and throw you in jail. Exciting, right? You betcha! And so much more fun than working for retail these days.
Ho ho ho…
I’m working retail for Christmas
Kids screaming, parents get mad
I’m working retail for Christmas
Suddenly hell don’t seem so bad
Aussie rockers AMYL & THE SNIFFERS made a blitzkrieg impression last year with their self-titled debut LP. A red-hot-blooded-deafening-retro-rock-powerhouse that leaves
your ears echoing long after it blasted through your trembling speakers.
And live??? OMG! Pure dynamite as Turn Up The Volume experienced in Antwerp last year. Manic hell cat AMYL looks like the twin sister of blonde punk Goddess Cherie Curry from 70s punk combo The Runaways and sets venues on fire with her bonkers stage presence. She’s pure dynamite and an overwhelming non-stop whirlwind!
This year the steamy band released a 3-track live EP Live At The Croxton (three bombs from the debut LP). The back to basiscs video for opener CONTROL makes you jump up and down like a kangaroo on illegal substances. No special effects, no arty farty visuals, only tons of adrenaline in motion. Oh my punkness!
Single: MY SWEET LORD Score: No 1 in the US (for a four-week run) from
26 Dec 1970 on – 50 years ago today.
Note: In February 1971 Harrison was accused of alleged copyright
infringement regarding a song called He’s So Fine written by Ronnie
Mack in 1963, and made popular by The Chiffons. After a court case Harrison was convicted to pay $1,599,987.
Harrison‘s version.
Check out the similarities
with He’s So Fine here.
Info: “Formed into the early hours of 2017, Hull (UK) based Ryan Smith left
his bedroom to stage a band called bdrmm. They produce a slimy cocktail of
synth-soaked Beach House, jangly slackers DIIV and otherworldly shoe-gazers Slowdive. They combine a knack for weaving dreamy sonic textures and
sentimental story-telling together perfectly.”
Key references: Ride, Lush, The Horrors, The Cure, Slowdive, Cocteau Twins
NME said: “This is without doubt a modern-day shoegaze classic.” Full review here. Score: 5/5
TUTV said: The glowing-and-glimmering-guitar-scapes brilliance from start to finish
is totally amazing. Double-edged emotions wrapped in sterling shoegaze symphonies performed in a sonic universe between heaven and earth. It’s a 24 carat gold piece de resistance. The perfect companion to ease your lockdown blues. Best debut of 2020.
Multifaceted Sudanese-American artist SINKANE invited some of his musical friends
such as LCD Soundsystem’s Nancy Whang and Pat Mahoney, Beastie Boys’ Money Mark,
Roxane Danset and more for a playful cover of 1981 song Christmas Wrapping by
former Ohio’s indie band The Waitresses.
Artist: THE CHRONICLES OF MANIMAL AND SAMARA Who: London-based duo comprising Daphne Ang (Singapore) and Andrea Papi (Italy). They’re pioneers of a new form of expression through the performance of poetry in their genre-defying music. Drawing inspiration from TOOL and Kraftwerk, as well as the poetry
of Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf, and Jim Morrison, TCOMAS continues to fill a gap in music by bringing literature, art, and history together into a space where rock and metal meets electronica
Spotify said: “The most innovative and forward thinking metal of today”. TUTV calls it poetallica from now on.
Expect: One of the best albums of 2021. I know, it’s very early, but I repeat with conviction… FULL SPECTRUM will be one of the best albums of 2021 where poetry and metallic turbulence come together as one. Encounters of the third kind. Why do I know? Because 6 of the 11 tracks were released the past 12 months as singles and are already worth an album on its own. And I had the privilege to hear the other four gangbuster trips. So there you go. And TCOMAS deserve also five-stars for their videos and artwork. Ang and Papi care about their art.
Released: September 1986 – debut LP AllMusic:“Throwing Muses’ self-titled 1986 debut is still a startling collision of punk energy, folky melodicism, and Kristin Hersh’s mercurial voice and lyrics… A powerful debut, Throwing Muses puts the work of most self-consciously “tortured” artists to shame; its fluid, effortless emotional shifts may not make for the most accessible music, but they’re unquestionably genuine.” Score: 5/5.
Released: 15 November 1986 – debut LP AllMusic: “Perhaps Licensed to Ill was inevitable, a white group blending rock and rap, giving them the first number one album in hip-hop history. But that reading of the album’s history gives short shrift to the Beastie Boys; producer Rick Rubin, and his label, Def Jam… The Beastie Boys fueled this record through their passion for subcultures, pop culture, jokes, and the intoxicating power of wordplay.” Score: 5/5.
Released: 29 September 1986 – fourth LP AllMusic:“This was a New Order with nothing more to prove – witness the tossed-off
lyrics – aside from continuing to make great music… the songs and the band’s production
had reached such a high level. Score: 4/5.
Released: March 1986 – fifth LP AllMusic: “Moving to a major label doesn’t affect Hüsker Dü’s sound greatly — although the production is more full-bodied than Spot’s razor-thin work, the Hüskers don’t change their blazing attack at all.” Score: 3.5/5.
Released: 3 November 1986 – fourth LP AllMusic:“The Bad Seeds turn from the interpretive triumph of Kicking Against the Pricks to another strong high, the mostly-original ‘Your Funeral…My Trial’… Arguably Cave and company have by now so clearly established their overall style that the album is much more a refinement of the past than anything else, but so good is their work that resistance is near impossible.” Score: 4/5.
Artwork: The sleeve was conceived after Beth and Tom Hingston, who also
created the cover artwork of Massive Attack’s Mezzanine and Nick Cave’s Push
the Sky Away, met. Beth told him she started doing boxing workouts and that
she was fascinated by some photographs of bodybuilders and that’s how the
idea of the LP’s impressive image came about.
