Month: April 2021

VIDEO TIME With The Spell-Binding Los Angeles Hellcats DEATH VALLEY GIRLS

Posted on by JL

Clips that impress your eyes and ears…

22 April 2021

Last October the fabtatsic garage rock hellcats DEATH VALLEY GIRLS returned from
their Los Angeles graves for their flabbergasting, third, album UNDER THE SPELL OF JOY. Sonically a different beast than the previous two longplayers. To Turn Up The Volume‘s hungry ears the DVG’s best and boldest work (so far).

To remind the world of this big LP, Death Valley Girls disclosed a new video for one of
the highlights Little Things. To remind the world of all three previous clips I decided
to show them all together, right here, starting with the fresh one, of course.

Dim the lights, take a big bucket of popcorn, and
let your eyes and ears have a spell-binding time …

– LITTLE THINGS –

– I’D RATHER BE DREAMING –

– HOLD MY HAND –

– THE UNIVERSE –

Stream/buy the full album here…


.
DEATH VALLEY GIRLS: Facebook
TUTV’s 2020 interview with Bonnie

The wonderful Amazon Bonnie Bloomagrden, in the middle, and her choir

Psychedelic Stoner Blues – Swiss Engine MYSTIC SONS Dropped Their New Album ‘CURSES AND SPELLS’

Posted on by JL

22 April 2021

Band: MYSTIC SONS (Switzerland)
Who: Some random guys from Switzerland
playing some random rock and roll.


(photo: Lucien Grandjean / via FB-page Mystic Sons)

Album: CURSES AND SPELLS
Released: 16 April 2021

Turn Up The Volume says: These Swiss motherrockers build a huge
wall-of-titanic-stoner-blues-sound influenced by other motherrockers
such as Black bloody Sabbath (Curses And Spells / Great Horse), Monster
Magnet (Girls Of The Night / Helpless Blues) and Fu Manchu (False Gods).
LOUD. LOUDER. LOUDEST. Oh, my poor stereo-speakers, I hope they
survive this ear-splitting trio.

Single: Helpless Blues

Stream/buy the noizzzz here…


.
MYSTIC SONS: Facebook

Recorded and mixed by Jan Saunier at Blend Studio – Lutry
Mastered by Kent Stump at Crystal Clear Studio – Dallas
Artwork by Bertrand Bouchardeau

Coming Soon… New Album By THE MOUNTAIN GOATS

Posted on by JL

22 April 2021

Band: THE MOUNTAIN GOATS
Who: Indie folk-rockers led by founder
and singer-songwriter John Darnielle
From: Claremont, California, US
Active: Since 1991 / 20 albums (so far) /
Latest: Getting Into Knives (2020)

New album: DARK IN HERE – 20th LP (third in 18 months)
Cover artwork: Walpurgis Night in Bergslagen, Grandgärde in Dalarna
by Swedish painter Anshelm Schultzberg – 1896 – from the collection
of the Swedish National Museum.

Out: 25th June via Merge Records – Order info: here.

Peter Hughes (The Goat’s multi-instrumentalist): One of the words that
John (Darnielle) used when we were talking about the direction for ‘Dark in Here’
was “wild,” which I liked a lot. Not wild in the sense of abandon—these aren’t those
kind of songs. But wild in the sense of something undomesticated, untamable. Wild
like the immutability of nature, the way it will take back any piece of untended space
as its own…. Wild like the whale; like a powerful animal. Or a virus—the beast that
awakes, emerges from a forest, and stops the world. You can fight the calamity all
you want, but either way, it’s going to demand your surrender.

Lead-single: Mobile

A moody beauty…


.
THE MOUNTAIN GOATS: Facebook


(photo: Jade Wilson / received via Silver PR)

When Lockdown Blues Leads To Schizophrenia – A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS Back In Town With New Team

Posted on by JL

Daily fuel to load your batteries…

21 April 2021

Band: A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS
Who: Infamous psych-noiseniks from Brooklyn, NY
led by founder/mastermind Oliver Ackermann
Active: Since 2003 / 5 LPs (so far) / Last one: Pinned (2018)

New work: 5-track EP titled Hologram, out 16 July. Order info: hero

Lead-single: END OF THE NIGHT

Oliver Ackermann: “It’s the first track written in collaboration with either of
the new band members. It sort of came about as a strange stream of consciousness
and unknowingly became about the end of the former band and the beginning of
the new one.”

Score: If anyone knows a lot about the real secrets of the night it’s A Place To Bury
Strangers. I always thought/think that they only function when the darkness sets in.
Their new nightmarish psych thriller finds Ackermann‘s restless shadow looking back
and forward.

The razzle-dazzle result is spine-and-mind-chilling like Nine Inch Nails going punk, Spacemen 3 returning from the dead and The Brian Jonestown Massacre freaking out
on acid, all at the same time. This is what happens when lockdown blues leads to schizophrenia, I guess.

Get out of your straight jacket and dive into the night…

A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS: Facebook

THE ROLLING STONES Released Their Reggae Album ‘BLACK AND BLUE’ 45 Years Ago

Posted on by JL

Back in time…

21 April 2021

Band: THE ROLLING STONES
Active since 1962 / 23rd British and
25th American studio albums (so far).

Album: BLACK AND BLUE – 13th LP
Released: 23 April 1976

Rolling Stone magazine wrote at the time: “In a way, Black and Blue is an admirable
album just for its refusal to bow to the past. A few songs here try to sound like “Brown Sugar” and “Tumbling Dice” and those few aren’t the best ones. Still, the Stones have problems. Keith Richard recently has seemed to run out of melodic ideas altogether and, like the majority of their post-Exile on Main Street repertoire, the new numbers are based on loose riffs rather than tight song structures. Consequently, the music lacks energy. Like the Who or any rock band, the Stones are obsessed in their way with age and time, but unlike the rest, they’ve matured with confident gracefulness. For Soul Survivors, I guess, dying before you get old is simply not relevant.”

Turn Up The Volume: One of my favorite summer albums.
Simple but effective. Cocktail music for the sunny days.

Singles: Hot Stuff/ Hey Negrita / Fool To Cry

– HOT STUFF –

– HEY NEGRITA –

– FOOL TO CRY –

Album in full…

.
THE ROLLING STONES: Website – Facebook – All Albums

‘WAITING FOR ANOTHER WAR’ – A History Of THE SISTERS OF MERCY

Posted on by JL

21 April 2021

Book: WAITING FOR ANOTHER WAR
A history of The Sisters Of Mercy
Volume I: 1980-1985

270 pages / 50 illustrations / $35.00 excl. shipping
You can order the book here.

Info: “The thrash of Motörhead. The mechanized anxiety of Suicide. The poignancy
of Leonard Cohen. The arrogance of Bowie. The Sisters Of Mercy combined it all to
create an unforgettable noise. From 1980 to 1985 lead singer and master strategist
Andrew Eldritch maneuvered The Sisters Of Mercy from the grimy pubs and student
unions of Northern England to London’s storied Royal Albert Hall. Then the whole thing
fell apart. Based on original research and a thorough reading of hundreds of interviews,
articles and reviews, ‘Waiting For Another War’ is a chronicle of The Sisters Of Mercy’s
brilliant years from ‘The Damage Done’ to First And Last And Always.”

​

Louder Than War interviewed writer Trevor Wistow. Read it all here.

The sisters’ ultimate classic…

THE SISTERS OF MERCY: Bio

Rage & Blaze Middle-Fingers – PINK SUITS Unleashed Their Sharp-Cutting Protest Album ‘POLITICAL CHILD’

Posted on by JL

21 April 2021

Band: PINK SUITS (Margate, UK)
Who: A ‘Queer Feminist Anti Fascist PoliRock
Political Punk Rock & Rage‘ band.
Making Noise, Music, Dance, Film, Art.

Album: POLITICAL CHILD debut LP
Released: 16 April 2021

Louder Than War says: “At times this sounds like a couple of Butlins Redcoats
shouting and swearing about the stuff you and I would agree need shouting and
swearing about and at other times it sounds like Jack White and Eve Libertine singing
something that would sit alongside Ant Rap or a thousand other basic punk rock tunes
that have not stopped being written since about 1978.” Full review: here.

Turn Up The Volume says: Only drums and guitar, but louder and meaner than
a jet fighter. This pretty in-your-face pink duo doesn’t care whatsoever about sonic
arty-farty effects nor big boring production. They want it raw and rough, plainspoken
and brutally honest. Expect a steaming series of clash and trash middle-fingers. Targets: Brexshit, Boris, TrumpDumped, fascists, racists, sexists, homophobes, and all related scum.

My kinda 21st Century punk machine guns. They scream and shout like Lydia Lunch having wild sex with Richard Hell, they spit and sneer like Nina Hagen kicking Mark E Smith‘s butt, they rage and blaze as if an illegal amount of decibels feels like a deafening orgasm.

You can’t ignore their manic and primitive sharp-cutting-razor-blade havoc and spot-on protest. Open your windows and doors before you press play. The whole neighborhood must hear these new political children. The pink revolution starts here. Spread the word!

Key single: Fake Great Britain

Stream/buy album here…


.
PINK SUITS: Facebook

THE FALL – 13th Longplayer ‘SHIFT-WORK’ Came Out 30 Years Ago

Posted on by JL

Back in time…

21 April 2021

Band: THE FALL (Manchester)
Active: 1976–2018 / 31 albums

Album: SHIFT-WORK – 13th LP
Released: 22 April 1991 – 30 years ago

Note: ‘The War Against Intelligence’ was the original title of the album until the outbreak of the Gulf War. Smith agreed to change the title. Then in 2003, Universal released ‘The War Against Intelligence – The Fontana Years‘, a collection of Fall songs from the LPs ‘Extricate, Shift-Work, Code: Selfish’ and related singles although the UK was involved in another Persian Gulf war.

AllMusic wrote: “Shift-Work marked the sophomore effort from a new Brix-less Fall and is a slightly more subdued effort than the raging Extricate. It also marked a new direction for Mark E. Smith and the band as what once was repetitious grooves became interspersed with pop song structures… There are hooks and melodies here, and the group ineffably remain the Fall. The following year’s Code: Selfish would return to a much harder sound, leaving this a melancholic, introspective album.” Score: 2.5/5.

Turn Up The Volume: Except for a couple of good singles this is a disappointing longplayer. But hey, even the best sports athletes have an off-day now ad then.

– WHITE LIGHTING –

Full album…

.
THE FALL: All Albums

Big Electro Bass Banger – CHRVCHES Drop New Track ‘HE SAID SHE SAID’

Posted on by JL

New sonic impulses…

21 April 2021

Band: CHRVCHES (Glasgow, Scotland)
Active: since 2011 / so far 4 albums

New single: HE SAID SHE SAID
A song recorded while in lockdown, with singer Lauren Mayberry
and multi-instrumentalist Martin Doherty isolating in Los Angeles.

Mayberry: “I feel like I have spent a lot of my life, personally and professionally,
performing the uncomfortable balancing act that is expected of women and it gets
more confusing and exhausting the older I get… ‘He Said She Said’ is my way of
reckoning with things I’ve accepted that I know I shouldn’t have. Things I pretended
weren’t damaging to me. Being a woman is fucking exhausting and it felt better to
scream it into a pop song than scream it into the void. After the past year, I think
we can all relate to feeling like we’re losing our minds.”

He Said She Said is a huge electro bass banger..
A slo-mo emo coup with sparkling synths.

Listen here…

CHRVCHES: Facebook