British power blues-rock duo ROYAL BLOOD are bored
sitting at home for the past two years and decided to go on
a massive tour. Along with it they just unleashed a new
hammer blow called HONEYBRAINS.
Royal blood on social media “Instead of sitting on new music, waiting for it
to grow old, we thought it’d be fun to let you in on what we’ve been working on
over the past few weeks before we head out on our biggest tour so far! It’s as
new to us as it is to you. Crank it.”
Honeybrains is a blustery big banger moving
in slo-mo against a wall-of-whopping wacks.
On 6 September 1977 it will be 45 years since MARC BOLAN, the pin-up
spearhead of glam and glitter rock legends T.REX died in a car incident. He
was only 29. His wife was behind the wheel enad survived the crash.
A 45th Anniversary Concert will take place in London in September with British
veteran stars Marc Almond (Soft Cell), Tony Visconti (celebrated producer), David
Vanian (Japan) Toyah, Holly Johnson (Frankie Goes To Hollywood), Andy Ellison and
several more.
Finally after 2 years of canceled gigs (fuck you, corona) Brighton’s exhilarative
indie rockers PORRIDGE RADIO landed in Brussels to play several crackers from
their formidable 2020 longplayer EVERY BAD. With standout belters Born Confused, Give/Take, Long and Circling we got the best of the best of that LP.
Add the ablaze power of 7 Seconds, the feverish flow of new singleBack To The Radio and the first hearing of a couple of new ones from the upcoming album ‘Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky’ and you have all the emotive ingredients for a memorable concert. And it was nothing less than that.
The high-strung voice of Dana Margolin is the shiny star in the middle. Hands down. Several Poprridge Radio songs have a similar structure. They start moody and meditative and work their way to an overwhelming climax. From sonic foreplay to sonic orgasm in 3 minutes, and over and over again. Margolin‘s pitchy passion comes and goes like ebb and flow with incredible potency. You need a breather at times to be able to absorb all full-of-life puissance on stage. I’m sure that Margolin kicks one of her demons out of her system with every gig.
She looks like a boyish angel with female wings, she smiles endearingly
and she puts all her psyche in her songs and her vocality.
The whole band is authentic. They’re not technically trained musicians (as if that matters), they follow their confused hearts and their sweet souls and turn multi-layered studio versions of their songs into a raw experience on the podium. And it feels so real. Top gig.
Here’s an idea of their impressive impact on a stage….
SETLIST
Born Confused
Give/Take
Circling
Good for You
Splintered
Long
Back to the Radio
Jealousy
7 Seconds
Lilac
Supergroup THE SMILE feat. Radiohead boys Thom Yorke & Jonny Greenwood
and Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner just dropped a 3rd single (no details
so far about an album).
‘SKRTING ON THE SURFACE is actually a reworked version of an old Radiohead
song that appeared as a B-side somewhere in the past. And it sounds exactly
like a Radiohead one too, feverish and ghostly.
The video was shot by director Mark Jenkin inside
the disused Rosevale Tin Mine in Cornwall.
NME says: “Breezy and charming baroque indie. Now married and nearly three years clean, Pete Doherty is happier and sorted for cheese and fizz rather than chasing darker endeavours. ‘The Fantasy Life of Poetry & Crime’, the Libertines and Babyshambles man’s first collaborative album with French musician, composer and producer Frédéric Lo, is testament to that: written and recorded in Pete’s new home of France, there’s a sense of place throughout.” Full review: here. Score: 4/5.
Turn Up The Volume: The result of the collaboration of wordsmith and poetry fanatic Peter Doherty and French composer Frédéric Lo who wrote the music, is a sparkling thing
of beauty.
This is the record to play when you’re feeling lazy, and in the mood for doing nothing but daydreaming while lying in a green field enjoying the Spring sun. Expect romantic lullabies with violins, piano and smooth horns, sweet little pop ditties, and sepia-colored tunes that transfer you to a place far away from the cruel reality.
It’s my birthday today and this is the tranquil and soothing music (and
a couple of early Bowie’s) my mind, my heart, and my soul want to get lost in.
Singles/clips: The Fantasy Life Of Poetry & Crime / You Can’t Keep It From Me Forever
50 years ago today living legend NEIL YOUNG scored a number one hit
on the US Singles Chart with one of his best-known songs HEART OF GOLD
from his masterwork Harvest album.
The song features backup vocals by James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt and was
performed acoustically by Young as a result of a back injury. Unable to stand
for long periods of time, Young could not play his electric guitar.
NME says: “The Lightning I, II’ will certainly hit a chord with long-time fans of the band. It somehow seems deeply heartfelt and slightly unnerving all at once; humongous in its sound, but familiar and intimate to those who’ve followed them for nearly two decades. It feels pleasingly like we’ve been here before, but never quite this far into Arcade Fire’s modus operandi.”
The Lightning I, II is one song with two parts, a slow one and a fast one.
The real news is that Aracde Fire are back and sound epic, captivating
and symphonic again.
Today 45 years ago, on 18 March 1977, legendary gang THE CLASH released their
barbed debut single WHITE RIOT. A furious and timeless punk anthem. This dynamite outburst was inspired by riots in August 1976 in London’s Notting Hill Gate area involving Jamaican residents and the police after continuous tensions due to racist policing. Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon were present that day and participated in the fights, sympathizing with the black locals’ cause.
With ‘White Riot‘ the late, great Strummer wanted to encourage also white people who
felt abused and oppressed by the government to come out and protest. ‘White Riot‘ only reached #38 at the time it came out but got his classic status over the following years.
B-side: 1977. Time to, scream out loud, folks…
White riot – I want to riot
White riot – a riot of my own
White riot – I want to riot
White riot – a riot of my own
