Band: BASEMENT JAXX Who: Electro dance duo from London Active: Since 1994 / 7 studio albums
Album: ROOTY – 2nd LP Released: 25 June 2001 – 20 years ago Score: #5 in the US and the UK
AllMusic: “A stunning, diverse album that’s not only
an immediate winner but a great album down the line
as well. You can take the boys out of Brixton, but you
just can’t take Brixton out of the boys.” Score: 5/5.
Band:NUDE MODEL Sound: Grinding, dissident, hyper, stripped down, post-everything.
Their sound comes from a deep appreciation of DIY music from 1977-1997. Influences: black midi, Metz, and Girl Band (3 of Turn Up the Volume’s favorite
noise-challenging bands, on record and on stage)
Turn Up The Volume says: This is the kind of rowdy rumpus that makes me jump up
and down like a hyperkinetic kangaroo. Picture this: Gang Of Four‘s late great guitarist (Locusts / Red / Tuffy Fluffy) joining Australian madmen The Birthday Party along their cowboy bassist Tracy Pew (Solid Solid Gold / Ice Storm / Heart Beat ) with Nude Model’s Michael Guarrine on vocals. Sounds scary, right?
I know it’s only post-noise-rock-exorcism but I bloody like it.
MENOPAUSE RHAPSODY is a parody version, fabricated by SHIRLEY SERBAN,
of QUEEN‘s monster hit single Bohemian Rhapsody. A cover, all women will
relate to as it’s about the struggle of menopause.
Who is Shirley Serban? A principal of Lake Brunner School in Moana, New Zealand
and as a freelance musician, she writes songs for clients across the world in her spare
time. Weird, really weird
Since the lockdown in NZ she has become a YouTube sensation (a bit like Toyah and husband Robert Fripp), after a parody video she did of the Sound of Music movie’s
most famous song Do-Re-Mi (about Covid-19).
Serban about “Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen in a parody song about Menopause.
Wwomen will relate to the struggle! A rhapsody is an epic, episodic, highly emotional
work. To be Bohemian is to be socially unconventional. Isn’t that combination the perfect description for a woman frustrated by menopause? For Queen fans, especially you older
queens facing or who have already been through menopause, this parody song is for you!”
About: Photos from live Paul Weller events in the UK and overseas, taken from
1990 to 2019. Containing many unseen shots all taken by the fans! It’s a very unique
book, with narrative by Pat Gilbert (MOJO), interviews with fans and reflections from some bands lucky enough to have supported Paul on tour during those 30 years.”
Publication : November 2021 – 400 pages – full colour Order-info: here
(photo by Turn Up The Volume – Brugge, Belgium, 2015)
Compiled and designed by life-long fan Jon Abnett, From the Floorboards Up! will be published in two editions: a standard hardback version, priced at £39.99; and a special edition box – limited to just 500 copies, each featuring an individually hand-numbered certificate – priced at £75.00. This edition is likely to sell out quickly, so be quick!
The special edition is limited to 500 copies
only and are individually numbered and comes
complete with bonus items:
2 replica concert tickets
VIP lanyard pass
2 Paul Weller setlists
Paul Weller poster
4 exclusive postcard photos
PWM Ltd edition enamel key fob
A numbered certificate of authenticity
(photo by Turn Up The Volume – Brugge, Belgium, 2015)
Artist: JOHN GRANT
Born in Buchanan, Michigan, U.S. – now living in Iceland, Europe. Who: Former member of alt-rockers The Czars (1994–2006) / so far
he made 4 solo albums.
Info:John Grant arrived at the studio to begin recording his fifth solo record,
Boy from Michigan, on 1st March 2020. “So, basically right at the beginning of
the pandemic nightmare and all throughout the Presidential campaign,” he says.
For Grant, lockdown was largely academic. He is insular by nature and removed
himself from his native America in 2011, decamping to Iceland. From afar, the US
Presidential race loomed large, though, igniting potent memories of the country
which shaped John Grant. 2020’s temporary destabilising of world order suits
Boy from Michigan’s intent just fine.
John Grant on working with Cate Le Bon for this longplayer: “Cate and I
are both very strong-willed people. Making a record is hard on a good day.
The mounting stress of the US election and the pandemic really started to get
to us by late July and August last year. It was at times a very stressful process
under the circumstances, but one which was also full of many incredible and
joyful moments.”
NME says: “The electro-pop artist’s latest punctuates intense and dark
examinations of contemporary masculinity with moments of breathtaking
beauty… It’s an album that does not only confronts the cult of masculinity
and its endless tentacles, but ultimately overcomes it.”
Score: 5/5.
Turn Up The Volume: From nostalgia and heavyhearted reveries to
upbeat electro grooves (The Rusty Bull / Rhetorical Figure / Best In Me).
When you, like me, live in an uncertain weather country (Belgium) it’s
great to have records like these to keep your moods swings company
on rainy summer days.
Keylines: “The American Dream is not for weak soft-hearted fool The American
Dream can cause scarring / and some nasty bruising / The American Dream is
not for weak soft-hearted fools” (from title track ‘Boy From Michigan.”
Artist: MADNOLYNNE Who: An emerging indie-alternative artist
from Prince Edward County, Ontario.
Mandolynne met with a string of tragedies from a young age, used
writing as a tactile way to explore her dark thoughts and verbalize her
internal reactions to her surroundings. Her lyrics are a direct reflection
of her lived experiences and have enabled her to face many demons,
including sexual assaults, a tragic car accident, as well as her troubled
and dysfunctional upbringing.
Mandolynne: “When we exit abusive situations, they leave an imprint
that impacts us for years moving forward. Writing my new song, “HANDS,”
has allowed me to release a weight I had been holding onto for so long“.
Turn Up the Volume:: Mandolynne not only gets rid of her nasty
demons, but she kicks them into oblivion with this walloping disco
banger. Brisk, high-energetic and totally confident. She liberates
herself of mind-crushing memories, while having fervid fun along
her swirling way.
