Band: STEPFORD WIVES Who: A no-frills, four-piece alternative/post-punk garage outfit
from Saddleworth, England. They don’t do guitar solos, fancy clothes
or ephemeral bull. They constantly strive to create thought-provoking,
passionate, at times subversive lyrics and melody played with an
aggressive sense of purpose.
Turn Up The Volume: No whistles and bells for these wives who look
like husbands. Making you go berserk with bad-ass brawny garage commotion
is what they’re about. Their riff-roaring swagger spurs with buzzing bluster like
a modern-day punked-up reincarnation of 60s jangle junks The Sonics. They
claim not to play guitar solos, except here I guess. I’m pretty sure they invited Jimmy Page for a dirty blues solo to close this wallop.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of BIG STAR‘s debut LP #1 RECORD, members of
R.E.M. (bassist Mike Mills), The DB’S (frontman Chris Stamey), The Posies (drummer Jon Auer) and Wilco (guitarist/keyboardist Pat Sansone) along with Big Star‘s original drummer Jody Stephens will play the album in full (plus other Big Star gems) on
a short tour.
Big Star was fronted by the late great Alex Chilton,
who passed away in 2010, only 59.
AllMusic about that debut LP: “The problem with coming in late on an artwork lauded
as ‘influential’ is that you’ve probably encountered the work it influenced first, so its truly innovative qualities are lost. Thus, if you are hearing Big Star’s debut album for the first time decades after its release (as, inevitably, most people must), you may be reminded of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers or R.E.M., who came after — that is, if you don’t think of The Byrds and The Beatles circa 1965. What was remarkable about #1 Record in 1972 was that nobody except Big Star (and maybe Badfinger and The Raspberries) wanted to sound like this — simple, light pop with sweet harmonies and jangly guitars.” Score: 5/5..
Who: The alias of underground producer/DJ, artist Justin Robertson with
over 30 years’ experience as an innovator and restless proponent of fascinating
forward-thinking electronic dance music, and Mark E Smith‘s widow who played
with The Fall from 1983-1989, and from 1994-1996.
Brix: “I’ve always longed to collaborate with Justin, who can manipulate sound in a very different way than myself. He is a magician who creates dimension transcending sonic atmospheres.”
There’s the psychedelic surf disco cut ‘Brix Goes Tubular, and its extended and dub version. The acid trip ‘Witchy‘ – straight from the far out corners of the cosmic dancefloor – and the Detroit techno-influenced ‘Immersion‘, which combines low-slung psychedelic groove and lysergic synth washes, with in Robertson’s own words, “the slightest hint of 1960’s film soundtrack”.
Get up, stand up, and fight for your right to go tubular!
Band: DEPECHE MODE Who: British heroes who went from synth-pop
to darkwave bombast over the years. Active: Since 1980 – 14 studio LPs (so far)
Anniversary LP: A BROKEN FRAME Released: 27 September 1982 – 40 years ago today
Artwork: It depicts a woman cutting grain in an East Anglian‘s field in the UK.
It was taken by Brian Griffin (who also did the artwork for their debut Speak & Spell)
using a mixture of natural and artificial lighting. Griffin cited as inspirations the socialist realism of Soviet Russia, especially the work of Russian painter Kazimir Malevitsj, and German Romanticism.
AllMusic/Ned Raggett: “A notably more ambitious effort than the pure pop/disco of the band’s debut… Gore’s lyrics sometimes veer on the facile, but David Gahan’s singing comes more clearly to the fore throughout — things aren’t all there yet, but they were definitely starting to get close.” Score: 3/5.
It features guest appearances from Apples In Stereo’s Hilarie Bratset,
Lucie Too’s Kokubo Chisato, Neha Hatwar, the Star Feminine Band, Nitty
Scott, and more.
Ian Parton (the band’s founder): “Get Up Sequences Part Two is an
international patchwork. A global fruit salad. A United Nations of Sound.”
Artwork new album
Lead single: DIVEBOMB feat. Detroit rapper IndigoYaj
Parton: “Protest songs have always been a balancing act. If you’re
too sledgehammer it’s cringey – like the Scorpions’ ‘Winds of Change’
or something – but at the same time given the stuff they’re trying
to pull with abortion rights it feels weird to ignore it.”
This spry tune is an ideal one to get up, to face a new day, to hope that
everyone feels the same lust for life and at least try to give humankind’s
future a chance.
Band: THE ILLICITS Who: 4-piece from Blackburn, Lancashire, UK. They produce
a ‘terrace punkʼ sound that brings the post-industrial imagery of
northern towns to the fore along with the will to keep moving
forward.
“Feel It combines an unmistakable bluesy riff with the progressive northern
rock n roll sound which The Illicits have become known for. The song pays
homage to their home whilst pushing towards a new hopeful horizon.”
Turn Up The Volume: The unmistakable resonance of that glorious riff
of David Bowie‘s glam stomper Jean Genie inflames this new crackerjack
corker of young gunslingers The Illicits from start to finish.
On top of it, cocksure vocals, schizophrenic guitar flashes and
a super-duper feel it chorus ensure that you add this to your
best-tracks-of-2022 list. Say no more.
British iconic glam rockers ROXY MUSIC celebrate the 50 birthday of their eponymous debut album the band including original members Bryan Ferry,
Andy Mackay, Phil Manzanera and Paul Thompson with shows in the US and
the UK.
7 Sep Scotiabank Arena, Toronto 9 Sep Capitol One Arena, Washington DC 12 Sep Madison Square Garden, New York 15 Sep Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia 17 Sep TD Garden, Boston 19 Sep United Center, Chicago 21 Sep Moody Center, Austin 23 Sep American Airlines Center, Dallas 26 Sep Chase Center, San Francisco 28 Sep The Kia Forum, Los Angeles 10 Oct OVO Hydro, Glasgow 12 Oct AO Arena, Manchester 14 Oct The O2, London Tour trailer
THE BEATLES masterpiece REVOLVER that turned rock and pop on its head – returns, remixed and revitalised with revelatory outtakes and studio chatter. With exclusive access, MOJO tells the full crazy story – acid and sitars, jam jars, tin baths and all – in a bagged package that includes CD and Beatles art print, wherever you are in the world.
Also aricles about Nick Cave, Joe Strummer, Blue Ôyester Cult,
Graham Coxon, Dry Cleaning, and more.
You can purchase a copy and let it be sent straight to your home. Info here
New rad indie cuts to re-charge your batteries with, weekly
26 September 2022
Band: ODONATA Who: French psychedoommetal band.
Dark progressive sound with ancient spirits inside. New single: ORIENTAL MEMORIES
A persistent, reverberating, menacing riff rotates on and on like
a nightmare in motion, messing your head up the way you actually like it.
This is a dirty groove jam extra fueled by nervous guitar sequences and
eerie vocals.
Wild: “‘Sweetest Thing’ is also about evolving and growing as a person
and one day you let the fear go and swim in the ocean rain, but all that
is done to punk shoegaze raunchy guitars that are reminiscent of Jesus
and Mary Chain and perhaps about of New Order in the bridge to have
it all explode in the guitar attack till the end,”
If you liked/like the post-glam-punk vibrancy
of the Scottish Reid brothers, you’ll like this
pschocandy stroke too, definitely.
Homely Raya is my fav cut. It’s an addictive psych groove with a trance-inducing flow.
Bang-on beats, flickering guitars, lots of sonic layers, and a duet chorus that brought The Kills immediately to mind. Home run.
Band: THE SAMURAIS Who: A four-piece indie rock band from the South Coast of England. The band started out in 2018 playing covers gigs before spending lockdown working on their original material.
What a classy way to start writing/releasing your own songs. Silence Of The Day is a classic mid-tempo power ballad – think early Travis – growing in vivaciousness and devotion along its perfervid course. Add a short fiery guitar solo and you have a winner of a debut.
. THE SAMURAIS: Facebook
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Band: UNDERCOVER MARTIANS Who: Hailing from both sides of the Donegal-Leitrim border in the North West
of Ireland, this four-piece merges classic rock and punk indie sensibilities, drawing influences from the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Interpol, and Green Day.
“The song is our poppiest to date. It still retains some of the raw instrumentation of our early singles, but is more polished and structured. Lyrically, the song deals with the initial stages of a relationship- all of the nerves and excitement that comes with meeting someone and falling in love for the first time. It simultaneously describes the anxieties and uncertainties of early relationships, as well as all of the exhilaration that comes with them as well. It is the first taste of our debut EP, which will be announced following the single release, and is one of the lighter moments on the EP as a whole.”
Wah-wah guitars with jangly echos and a sturdy drum/bass beat propel this indie belter. The twitchy resonance of the vocals reflects a feeling of insecurity many will recognize. Electrical romanticism for yearning earthlings.
Band: BLACK SABBATH
The legend goes Ozzy Osbourne started the band by saying to his mates
“They make movies to scare people, why don’t we make music that scares people.” Active: 1968–2006, 2011–2017 / 19 studio LPs
Anniversary LP: VOL. 4 Released: 25 September 1972 – 50 years ago
Pitchfork said: “Made in L.A. under the influence of colossal amounts of cocaine, the heavy metal legends’ fourth album, recently reissued, made room for both light and shade and featured several of their signature songs… It would be misleading to argue that Vol. 4 is the work of Black Sabbath at the peak of their powers. When you’re the band that recorded “Iron Man,” “War Pigs,” and “Paranoid,” and you put them all on the same album, congratulations, that’s the peak of your powers. But *Vol. 4 is a close second. The sense of scale, the lyrical directness, and the sheer riff-crunching power that mark the band at their best are all here, along with several signature Sabbath tunes. Paranoid might top the list, but Vol. 4 is indispensable metal in its own right.” Score: 9/10.
TUTV: Glorious big drones, two romantic ballads (the wholehearted Change and the instrumental Laguna Sunrise) and a what the fuck is going here weird thing called FX.
