Month: May 2021

Soul-Stirring – KURT WAGNER And LAMBCHOP 16th Album ‘SHOWTUNES’

Posted on by JL

30 May 2021

KURT WAGNER and his band LAMBCHOP
were pretty productive the past few years.

In 2019 new album This (Is What I Wanted To Tell You)
came out and last year he recorded an LP of covers titled
Trip with his mates, in Nashville.

New album: Showtunes – 16th LP
Released: 21 May 2021

The Guardian (UK newspaper): “Kurt Wagner puts a midi keyboard
centre stage on Lambchop’s expansive, laid-back latest… Showtunes is
indelibly a Lambchop album, a set of songs that references the legacy
of American songwriting from inside a vat of shimmering treacle. The
pace is slow but spacious, giving rise to a pair of instrumental
meditations.” Full review: here . Score: 4/5.

Turn Up The Volume: Listening to Kurt Wagner‘s sonic paintings the
bombastic melodrama of Scott Walker comes to mind, musically that
is, because Walker‘s baritone vox is quite unique. Wagner’s slo-mo
compositions are more accessible, soul-stirring, and less eccentric
although it takes several spins to integrate Wagner‘s world.
.
Singles: A Chef’s Kiss / Fuku

– A CHEF’KISS –

– FUKU –

Full album…

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LAMBCHOP: Facebook

Toronto Stormers THE EFFENS Turn Up The Heat With ‘VENOM DENIM’

Posted on by JL

Daily electricity to load your batteries…

30 May 2021

Band: THE EFFENS (Toronto, Canada)
Who: “Hyper-strange post-grunge and glam pop four piece who seem to
take in all the vagaries of the internet age and recycle them into something
unique and fantastic.”

Pick: VENOM DENIM – opener from the band’s 4-track EP Eventually
About: “You can never truly take away the parts of your life that an ex has
helped shape. “Venom Denim” is about all the marks and residue left, even
after you’ve broken free of a relationship.”

Score: Ongoing guitar drones create an inflammatory wall-of-rip-roaring
sound with the impact of a drilling hammer. Rattling drums increase the
fervency of the emotive heat at play, while a mysterious female voice
echoes in the back now and then. Pretty puissant, pretty tenacious, pretty
steamy while the intensity goes through the roof. Strike!

Turn up the heat…


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THE EFFENS: Instagram

ELECTRONIC – AIR – SMASHING PUMPKINS – ROD STEWART

Posted on by JL

29 May 2021

Band: ELECTRONIC (Bernard Sumner / Johnny Marr)
Album: ELECTRONIC – debut LP
Released: 27 May 191 – 30 years ago

Stream here…

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Band: AIR (France)
Album: 10 000 HZ LEGEND – 2nd LP
Released: 28 May 2001 – 20 years ago

Stream here…

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Band: SMASHING PUMPKINS (Chicago, US)
Album: GISH – Debut LP
Released: 28 May 1991 – 30 years ago

Stream here…

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Artist: ROD STEWART (Scotland)
Album: EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY – third solo LP
Released: 28 May 1971 – 50 years ago

Stream here…

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SPARKS & Friends Reveal Sparkling Movie Track ‘SO MAY WE START’

Posted on by JL

29 May 2021

The Mael brothers, better know as SPARKS wrote not only the soundtrack
but also the script for upcoming music movie Annette. The film will open
the 74th annual Cannes Film Festival on July 7.

This is the trailer…

One of the songs is SO MAY WE START.
A sparkling pocket pop opera song with
Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard joining
Sparks.

Check it out…

SPARKS: Facebook

BLACK MIDI Confirms Experimental Brilliance On Second Album ‘CAVALCADE’

Posted on by JL

29 May 2021

Band: BLACK MIDI
Who: Young tremendously compelling guitar-noise-explorers
from London scoring one of the best albums of 2019 with their
otherworldly debut Schlagenheim.

Album: CAVALCADE
Released: 28 May via Rough Trade
Order info: here

Info: Black Midi began writing music for a new album in late 2019, not long
after the release of their debut studio album, Schlagenheim, in June of that
year. The band chose to have a less improvisational approach to writing their
second studio album, in contrast to Schlagenheim which was crafted around
jam sessions. Prior to the recording sessions for the album, guitarist Matt
Kwasniewski-Kelvin took a break from the band, citing a need to focus on
his mental health, he took part in the writing sessions for Cavalcade, however.

The Guardian says: “It’s a successful evolution: the maelstrom of moods stormed
across the LP is masterful, from Hogwash and Balderdash’s slapstick skronk-funk riffage…
To focus on whether it lives up to the hype is to miss what Cavalcade shows us: a freakish, feverish parade of our inconceivable world and all its extremities, half-measures be damned.” Full review here. Score: 4/5

Turn Up The Volume: From outlandish sonority – think Scott Walker – to Zappa-esque adventurousness, from a ‘normal’ song (Marlene Dietrich to free jazz weirdness. The sonic mind of this impressively inventive band is both inscrutable and intriguing. Cavalcade confirms the experimental brilliance of their debut LP.

Singles: John L / Slow

– JOHN L –

– SLOW –

Full album…

BLACK MIDI: Facebook

(pictures by Turn Up The Volume! Brussels 2019)

Moshpit Madness – Welsh Trio SHLUG Drops Debut Single ‘THE SCENT OF ROY KEANE’

Posted on by JL

29 May 2021

Band: SHLUG (Cardiff, Wales)
Who: Three peas in a pod that
are constantly exploding.

Pick: THE SCENT OF ROY KEANE – debut single

“Written in a point of adolescence, ‘The Scent Of Roy Keane’ tackles
masculinity along with the question – what really turns a boy into
a man? Is it through protein shakes? Or is it by pissing all over the seat?
Either way, you decide. Just get the conversation going,” says vocalist
Ellis Acton-Dyer.

Score: Moshpit madness. Hefty hardcore. Rip-roaring racket. Add
red-hot-blooded vocals and you know your stereo will have a hard
time, but it’s definitely worth it. This my generation blast kicks you
up the ass, wakes you up and helps you to crush your nasty demons.
Yes, way cheaper than therapy.

Unleash the beast here…


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SHLUG: Facebook

Author Of Tons Of Hits With CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL – Happy 76 To Legend JOHN FOGERTY

Posted on by JL

28 May 2021

John Cameron Fogerty was born in
Berkeley, California on 28 May 1945.

Happy 76 to a natural-born rocker and author of countless hits
as the charismatic frontman of legends Creedence Clearwater
Revival (also covering some songs of other artists, like I Put A Spell
On You and Run Through the Jungle). With the band he released 7
studio albums, solo he recorded 10 LPs (so far).

Maestro of a travelin’ band
who wanted to stop the rain
and put a spell on you
when the bad moon rises
above the green river
and down on the corner
where Susie Q looked
out her back door

Three big CCR/John Fogerty moments…

– BAD MOON RISING –

– SUZIE Q –

– TRAVELIN’ BAND –

JOHN FOGERTY: Facebook