Month: March 2023
PERE UBU – Video For 1991 Nugget ‘OH CATHERINE’
26 March 2023
Cleveland’s art-rockers PERE UBU, with mastermind David Thomas in the driver’s seat started their musical Odyssey in 1975, took a break in 1982, returned in 1987 and are still active. So far PU released 17 longplayers with The Long Goodbye as the most recent one, released in 2019.
Let’s return to the past, to 1991, to the 8th LP Worlds In Collision.
The opener/single OH CATHERINE was/is
a bittersweet, lovesick tune. Both charming
and moody.
Here’s the weird video clip.
PERE UBU: Bio – Discography – Facebook
PETE TOWNSHED Goes Country On His First Solo Music In 30 Years With Charity Single ‘CAN’T OUTRUN THE TRUTH’
Reveries for the laziest day of the week
26 March 2023
The Who’s conductor PETE TOWNSHEND
released solo music like a zillion years ago,
well, actually 30 to be exact.
And now, out of the blue comes a brand new single, entitled
CAN’T OUTRUN THE TRUTH is composed and produced by
his partner Rachel Fuller under the name Charlie Pepper.
All proceeds of the song go Teenage Cancer Trust.
Buy it here.
Townshend: “The pandemic years were terrible for charities; the Teenage Cancer Trust was created in order to take the money from a series of concerts at the Albert Hall every year and various other things and that had all dropped out. So, the idea of doing this, which is it’s something that has sprung out of Lockdown about mental illness, but also for this particular charity. If you’ve got a scenario in which somebody in your family or a teenager has got cancer, they’re being treated, Lockdown hits, and you’re not allowed to go and visit them. There’s a poignancy to the whole thing about the song.”
It’s an irresistible, bluesy tune with a country feel.
A little pearl with heart-wrenching Townshend vocals
and melancholic harmonica play.
Press play.
.
Townshend: Website – Instagram
(Townshend image: cover of solo single ‘Rough Boys‘)
Manchester Team HEAVY SALAD Share New Feel-Good Wake-Up Call For Humankind
Daily electricity to load your batteries
26 March 2023
Artwork by cult artist Jim Medway
Band: HEAVY SALAD (Manchester, UK)
Who: Formed in 2018, bonding over a joint interest in psychedelic horror films,
with Panos Cosmatos’ cult classic ‘Mandy‘ being a particular favourite, Heavy Salad
loved the idea of being in a band like a psychedelic cult, albeit a cult with no rules.
Photo via Puffer Fish Press
Back in 2020 the Manchester team released their
noteworthy debut LP Cult Casual. Since then they
recorded/released several singles.
And here’s another one, titled TEMPORARY VISIONARY.
Info: “Temporary Visionary is the sound of spring awakening beneath your feet.
A psychedelic, springtime slacker pop anthem that welcomes the promise of longer evenings to come… but not without some caution. The lyrical melancholy of the song weaves a truthful tale of life on the edge of catastrophe and asks the listener to look beyond the boundaries of their own personal world and consider how we all affect the environment we live in. We are all temporarily on this cosmic ride through space but we
all have an opportunity to be visionary!”
TUTV: Expect a lazy, easy-going and catchy pop tune you can sing along, hum along or whistle along. Temporary Visionary is also a wake-up call for humankind. We need to take care of our messed up planet, of nature and of each other. Heavy Salad combine a great taste for feel-good and dream-away melodies with a sharp eye on today’s not-so-great reality. We need more of that in music.
Buy/stream here.
.
Also streaming on Spotify.
.
HEAVY SALAD: Facebook –
Glam Legends DURAN DURAN No 1 In The UK With ‘IS THERE SOMETHING I SHOULD KNOW?’
Top singles from the past
26 March 2023
British glam legends DURAN DURAN are not retired yet, although they’ve been around since 1978. So far they canned 15 LPs, with Future Past as the most recent one, released in 2021.
Back now to the past, back to 26 March 1983, 40 years ago when DD topped
the UK Singles Charts with IS THERE SOMETHING I SHOULD KNOW?. It was
also a success in the US where it peaked at #4.
Listen/watch.
New Box ‘T. REX 1973 Whatever Happened To The Teenage Dream?’
26 March 2023
A new retrospective T. REX box set entitled T.Rex 1973: Whatever Happened To The Teenage Dream? is planned for release on May 26 by Demon Music Group.
The 4CD and 5LP sets include all 1973 music the Tanx and Zinc Alloy albums, along with the non-album hit singles & B-sides, including Children Of The Revolution, Solid Gold Easy Action, 20th Century Boy and The Groover as well demos and outtakes from both albums.
The sets also focus on Bolan’s initial forays into soul music and highlights from the unfinished album he wrote and produced for the American singer ‘Sister’ Pat Hall.
There is also a single album anthology entitled Songwriter: 1973.
Both the 4CD & 5LP sets feature a brand new essay along with many previously unpublished photos taken by Keith Morris, as well as ephemera from the era.
Demon Records will also reissue T. Rex’s 1973 singles as 1000-only limited edition
7” picture discs featuring photos from the Keith Morris archive, beginning with
20th Century Boy.
Tracklisting and pre-order info HERE
LIAM GALLAGHER Likes His Brothers’ New Song ‘DEAD TO THE WORLD’
New striking strokes
26 March 2023
As announced before NOEL GALLAGHER and his HIGH FLYING BIRDS have
album number #4, named Council Skies out on June 2. Pre-order info here.
Noel: “It’s going back to the beginning. Daydreaming, looking up at the sky and wondering about what life could be, that’s as true to me now as it was in the early ’90s,” Gallagher explained of the upcoming album. When I was growing up in poverty and unemployment,
music took me out of that. Top Of The Pops on TV transformed your Thursday night into this fantasy world, and that’s what I think music should be. I want my music to be elevating and transforming in some way.”
Photo by Turn Up the Volume
The former Oasis chief shared another new – the third – track off the LP.
It’s called DEAD TO THE WORLD and is a hazy and wistful lullaby carried
by Noel‘s dreamy voice and candlelight strings.
Listen here.
The surprising news is that his brother Liam likes the song.
LOLLAPALOOZA CHICAGO – 3/6 August 2023
Blue Colored Bulldozer ALREADY DEAD Back With New Steamroller ‘DON’T WAKE ME’ Feat. BOS
New striking strokes
25 March 2023
Band: ALREADY DEAD
Who: Hefty punk rock trio
from Boston, Massachusetts.
The trio don’t pretend to be working class, they just are. Daniel Cummings (vocalist/guitarist) is a union pipefitter, bassist Brandon Bartlett is a union
ironworker; and drummer Nick Cali is a CDL operator in his hometown.
They made Turn Up The Volume‘s ears tremble last October
with their smoking debut album My Collar Is Blue.
Turn Up The Volume said: “7 working-class punk anthems for working-class people who wear their working-class identity on their sleeves. Loud and proud. 7 sucker punches about and for natural-born blue-collar workers.”
New single: DON’T WAKE ME featuring BOS The Rapper
BOS (pronounced ‘Boss’) “It’s about traveling, the desire to move and see new places and being restless when you’re stuck in one spot. I love an open highway at night, driving and seeing the bright lights of a big city I’ve never been to creep towards me. Something inside always wants to be some place I haven’t seen, having a beer with someone I haven’t met. It’s about dreaming of music being the vehicle that makes it happen, touring and performing in buildings we might ever see again.”
The Boss (pic by Berto Medoa)
TUTV: The 3-motor Boston bulldozer steam again on this blistering haymaker.
A two-headed beast, starting with a rotating riff and a mid-tempo groove, and
working its way with an ominous pace to a sudden blistering acceleration around
the 1-minute mark. A head-spinning process that repeats itself afterward. Agitated
vocals rush throughout and add a sharp-teethed edge.
Already Dead are alive and kicking hard again with this blue-hot-blooded
steamroller everybody with an open mind can go nuts to.
Take a deep breath and press play
.
ALREADY DEAD: Instagram – Facebook
REVEREND & THE MAKERS Score Big Time With Brand New Sticky Gem ‘A LETTER TO MY 21 YEAR OLD SELF’
Daily electricity to load your batteries
25 March 2023
Album artwork – Reverend and friend
Band: REVEREND AND THE MAKERS
Who: British celebrated indie mavericks from
Sheffield fronted
by main man Jon Clure.
Active: Since 2005 / 6 studio LPs, all albums went Top-20 in the UK.
New album: HEATWAVE IN THE COLD NORTH – 7th album
Out: 29 April – order info here
New single: A LETTER TO MY 21 YEAR OLD SELF
Clure: “A Letter to My 21 year old Self” is most of my pals’ favourite song from the new record, it’s also the most personal one I’ve ever written. Put simply I’ve made a hell of a lot of mistakes during my time as a musician. Said and done loads a dumb things. I guess this is me trying to tell myself not to do all of those things but also saying not to be hard on myself or to turn my frustrations in on myself. If I knew then what I know now, I’d have taken over the world. But doesn’t everyone say that?”
The Reverend, aged 34 then, playing Brussels in 2016 – pic by TUTV
Clure invited fans to send in a letter that they’ve written to their own 21 Year Old Selves.
The letters will be displayed at a pop-up exhibition. Locals will have the opportunity to meet Jon and have an exclusive listen of the new album
Some of his (famous) friends are participating too. Brian Eno, Mel C, Jeremy Corbyn, Carl Barat, Joey Barton, Helen Chamberlain, Steve Lamacq, Richard Hawley + more also write letters for the exhibition.
TUTV: One listen and I added this cracker of a song into my ‘best-tracks-of-2023’ notebook. Why? It has an uplifting flamenco resonance with its acoustic guitar strum, its towering chorus sticks on the spot and the song’s theme is an ingenious idea, making me think of Oasis‘ blockbuster ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger‘.
Our Reverend scores big time, again.
May he preach for another two decades.
Get a couple of castanets and
pirouette yourself dizzy.
.
Reverend and The Makers: Facebook – Website