Month: January 2022

Pretty Gorgeous – BABYBIRD Covers Joy Division, The La’s Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Beach Boys, Daft Punk And More

Posted on by JL

28 January 2022

Artist: BABYBIRD
Who: British singer-songwriter Stephen Jones‘ project

Active: 1995–present / Released about a thousand records,
the greater part via Bandcamp where you can buy his full
discography for the ridiculous price of £24.76.

Album Of The Day: COVERS
Released: 11 June 2021

Turn Up The Volume: Since the corona pandemic started tormenting our
planet in early 2020, a musical pandemic emerged too. Suddenly countless
artists began to cover other artists. It became a trend overnight.

Some delivered great interpretations, but most failed because, well you know,
they didn’t put their heart and soul (and time) in it as they just wanted something
to be out very quickly to keep their fans in lockdown happy and also wanted to stay connected with them to keep them warm for new work in the future (of which the
release was held back by record labels who feared for low sales during the pandemic).

But (you knew a but was coming) here’s one covers collection
that works terrifically well (definitely for my ears).

Babybird picked classic songs from Joy Division, Bob Dylan, Sonny & Cher, The La’s, Daft
Punk, Beach Boys and more. And why do his covers work? Because he lets all the songs’ melodies thrive into a tranquilizing haze of sparky synths creating a laid-back atmosphere and because, as usual, his melancholia-colored voice lifts his vocal performances to a
soul-stirring and intimate level. That’s why. Pretty gorgeous.

You can download it all for free
via the Bandcamp link below.

There he goes…


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BABYBIRD: Twitter – Bandcamp

To Hell With The Pandemic… Here Come Toronto Rockers AUS!Funkt With Rolling Ripper ‘INFORMATION OH YEAH!’

Posted on by JL

New striking strokes

27 January 2022

Band: AUS!Funkt
Who: Toronto based art-disco/post-punk quartet

New single: INFORMATION YEAH!
From their fresh 4-track EP Post-Stagnation

“The song conjures the computer-nerd New Wave idiosyncrasies of DEVO
or Talking Heads, and brings in some dark, dance-y New Order elements.
Then, as soon as the listener has become accustomed to that particular vibe,
the song morphs into a driving ’90s techno hypnosis with energetic female vocals.
It’s both a journey and a mishmash of all the elements that have led us here,
and even though it’s overlapping and trippy, it’s ultimately a ton of fun.”

Lyrics…

Information YEAH!
Regurgitation YEAH!
Information YEAH!
OVERLOAD
Information YEAH!
No inspiration YEAH!
Rumination YEAH!
NON-STOP

Turn Up The Volume says…

Rolling rock YEAH!
Swirling shock YEAH!
Crazy coldcock YEAH!
OVERLOAD!
Round-the-clock YEAH!
Chock-a-block YEAH!
Knacker knock YEAH!
NON-STOP

Here comes the electroshock…

AUS!Funkt: Facebook – Instagram

(photo via Eric Alper PR)

Hell Bloody Skin Yeah! SKUNK ANANSIE Is Back With Metallic Bomb ‘PIGGY’

Posted on by JL

Daily electricity to load your batteries

27 January 2022

Band: SKUNK ANANSIE
Who: Rowdy London rockers led by the utterly
charismatic Skin (real name: Deborah Anne Dyer)

Active: 1994–2001, 2008–present
6 studio LPs so far, with 2016 album
Anarchytecture as most recent one.

New single: PIGGY

Skin: “If there’s one thing we’ve all learned over the past couple of years,
it’s that we cannot depend upon our governments to look after us. They
seem to be unable to learn from the past and incapable of securing a
decent future. This song was written in a moment of rage combined with
bitter disillusionment. Brexit then a complete mis-handling of COVID,
how the hell did we get to this?”

Turn Up The Volume: After 28 years, Skunk Anansie still is
a tremendously popular band with Skin screaming her lungs
on this new killer single as if she’s still 28 years herself.

‘Piggy’ is an enraged eruption calling out all incompetent governments,
specifically UK’s short-sighted Brexit statesmen. This red-hot-blistering
shock wave explodes like a metallic bomb with a volcanic Skin chorus.
No mercy for the wicked.

“Yeah, come and see
Papa’s gonna buy us a brand new piggy
Yeah, you and me
Papa’s gonna buy us a brand new piggy”

Hell bloody Skin yeah!…

SKUNK ANANSIE: Facebook

The band formed in 1994 and wanted to celebrate its 25th birthday
with a big tour in 2020, but the awful pandemic prevented it all.
Fortunately, this year Skunk Anansie can throw big parties in
the UK and Europe.

NEW ALBUMS in 2022 – ‘ALPHA GAMES’ By BLOC PARTY In April

Posted on by JL

27 January 2022

Band: BLOC PARTY
Who: London post-punk force
from London led by Kele Okereke
Active: Since 1999 / 6 studio albums,
with Hymns (2016) as the most recent one

New album: ALPHA GAMES
Release: 29 April 2022 via BMG

Okereke: “Alpha Games was conceived on the road,
playing in front of amazing crowds on our last tour
and then brought to life with the fire and the frustrations
of 2020.”


(photo by Wunmi Onibudo)

Singles (so far shared): Traps / The Girls Are Fighting

– TRAPS –

– THE GIRLS ARE FIGHTING –

BLOC PARTY: Facebook

Boston Duo EX-HYENA Shares Twilight Hallucination ‘CAPTURE THE STILLS’ From Upcoming Album

Posted on by JL

Daily electricity to load your batteries

26 January 2022

Band: EX-HYENA (Boston, MA)
Who: The musical project of Bo Barringer and Reuben Bettsak
crafting the sound of an emerging dystopia, a sort of fantasy
land that existed along the margins of reality and within the
confines of the imagination. A very short time later, their music
is simply the sound of our enclosed reality.

New single: CAPTURE THE STILLS

New cut from the duo’s forthcoming sophomore album
Moon Reflections, the follow-up to last year’s critically
acclaimed debut Artificial Pulse.

Bettsak: “‘Capture the Stills is dark and menacing. Bo wrote the lyrics to this one.
It certainly fits the vibe, and themes that Ex-Hyena often covers. To me, it’s like falling
into a David Lynch movie void, and witnessing two characters in a volatile relationship,
or something like that. This was the last song written for the second LP, and I’m glad
it made it on the album.”


(Great illustration by Ian Adams)

Turn Up The Volume: This twilight hallucination resonates as the shadowy side of Depeche Mode and the enigmatic darkwave murk of The Soft Moon. The iterating synth-riff at work here gets under your skin without asking. The atmosphere is impending, the tone is obscure, the color is black. All you need for a sonic nightmare.

Stream/download here…


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EX-HYENA: Facebook

Amazing Artwork! DEPECHE MODE 40 Years Ago

Posted on by JL

For your eyes only

Band: DEPECHE MODE (Basildon, Essex, UK)
Album: A BROKEN FRAME
Their 2nd, turning 40 this year (27 September)

Artwork: The photo is taken by Brian Griffin (who also did the artwork
for the band’s debut album Speak and Spell). It’s a picture of a woman cutting
grain in an East Anglian field, in Cambridgeshire (UK). Griffin mixed natural
and artificial lighting. He named social realism of Russia, especially the work
of Kazimir Malevitsj and German Romanticism as his inspiration for this image.

Key single…

DEPECHE MODE: All Albums