The late, incomparable MARK E. SMITH about I’m not just The Fall, the music industry,
his own world, taking a walk before a concert, books and much more in a 1990 interview with MTV.
M.E.S.: Bio – Discography
Daily noise that works faster than any stimulant
28 April 2023
Andy Partridge | Jen Olive | Stu Rowe – photo courtesy of Stu Rowe
Andy Partridge, main man of British new wave/guitar pop band
XTC (1972-2006 / 14 albums) has always been busy since the band
called it a day (producing others / graphic work) but not in the public
eye.
A few years back he said: “I’m waiting for my music
mojo to return, in between I research UFO events.”
And guess what? His mojo has enlightened him again.
He has put a new band together with Jen Olive and Stu
Rowe and named it THE 3 CLUBMEN.
Along with the news comes their first single, titled AVIATRIX.
Partridge said to Joyzine: “Like an “action painter” throws colour at a canvas, we tend to throw musical and sound things, knowing that we’ll cut through this seemingly insane mess later, to hopefully find some beautiful garden, hiding there. I throw paint, Jen throws paint, Stu throws paint… and we walk away. If, when we return, something in there calls to us, we’ll move heaven and earth to get it out and let it breath. Using whatever it takes, be it contrary musical ideas, parts in clashing keys incongruous sounds, contradictory words/phrases. It’s all clay to us.”
Aviatrix is a frolic flute-infused pop song that flutters like a little bird
in the sky. A 5-minute, playful and infectious Spring ditty with Partridge
and Jen Olive sharing vocals.
Enjoy.
.
THE 3 CLUBMEN: Facebook – Instagram
27 April 2023
Last September I discovered London gang OPUS KINK at the glorious
indie-crowded Leffingeleuren Festival in Belgium. I was flabbergasted
by their jackhammering sound and their we-are-the-coolest-band -in-the-world
attitude.
And yesterday they impressed my greedy ears again while
bulldozing through their steamy set in Antwerp (Belgium).
Maybe conquering the world isn’t on their agenda… yet, but their definitely one
of the best gunslingers of the post-Brexshit-punk (r)evolution along with such bands
as Ditz, Lambrini Girls, Lice, DEATLETTER, black midi and Cassels (which I all saw
live too, already).
Why?
1. First of all the music of course. High capricious quality songwriting and staggering
sonic execution. Post-punk exorcism heated up with saxophone and trumpet. Not in a Black Country, New Road way, but rather in a James Brown punk orchestra way. Horntastic awesome.
Check their EP ‘Til The Stream Runs Dry for starters.
.
2. Their flaming intensity/passion-loaded songs all get an enormously adrenalin
injection on stage. All burners on. They jump from rock opera to scream-your-lungs-out chants (at times in one and the same song) to barb-wire funk pushed by a brill rhythm section. When they slow down and the lights dim you feel another storm coming. And, yes, the saxophonist and the trumpetist are really special, sonically and visually. Their towering play is a fundamental aspect of who/what Opus Kink is and they look cool as fuck.
3. Besides being blessed with a knife-edged vox, frontman Angus Rogers
leads the troops with his big heart, restless soul, and cast-iron determination
to make a difference.
Final result: Opus Kink are here to stay for a long time.
Here’s an idea of their live force.
And before we all can take a breather, here’s
their new rad
single CHILDREN described as ‘our Ibiza summertime anthem’.
.
OPUS KINK: Facebook – Instagram
Setlist
27 April 2023
Two days ago famous singer-songwriter-actor star HARRY BELAFONTE (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr., 96 years ago in New York City) passed away following congestive
heart failure. R.I.P.
Today LENNY KRAVITZ shared his tribute to the legend, a good friend of his,
with a glowing cover of a Belafonte‘s song titled HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN BLIND?
A powerful soul song that was, mysteriously enough, never released as a single, or as
an album track.
Watch/hear Kravitz‘s version.
Harry Belafonte with a magical live performance in 1985.
HARRY BELAFONTE: Bio – Discography
Daily electricity to load your batteries
27 April 2023
Band: DAIISTAR
Who: Noisy misfits
from Austin, Texas
They recently recorded their first studio album produced by frontman Alex Maas of The Black Angels and engineered by James Petralli of White Denim and arrives later in the year.
New single: TRACEMAKER
Alex Capistran (guitar/vocals): “There was a time in my life when I wanted to push the boundary of existence both physically and mentally. The memories I have of those days are vague and abstract just like the words written for ‘Tracemaker,’ but when it’s all put together you begin to understand the meaning. It’s one of my favorite songs on the album and a good indicator of what’s to come from DAIISTAR. We are thrilled to set home base with FUZZ CLUB and can’t wait to share more with the world.”
TUTV: This is a sick psych smack. Think Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Jesus And
The Mary Chain having a roaring riff contest with The Brian Jonestown Massacre‘s
mastermind Anton Newcombe as the referee. Sounds amazeballs, right? You betcha.
Tracemaker swings forth and back with a wall-of-schizophrenic-guitar sound,
Misti Hamrick‘s sensual voice and tons of feedback. A mad motherrocker of
a groove. These are the kind of bad-ass belters the on-repeat button was
invented for. Bang on!
Roll the tape.
Go mental.
Also st(r)eaming on Spotify.
.
DAIISTAR: Facebook – Instagram
Photo by Janelle Abad
The previously announced docu about SYD BARRETT, the late (1946-2006),
infamous co-founder and songwriter of prog-rock titans Pink Floyd will
premier in London today, 27 April. A wider U.K. release is scheduled for
May 15.
More info here
It was Barrett who gave the group their musical moniker by combining
the names of two obscure blues players — Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.
The docu titled HAVE YOU GOT IT YET? is named after
a daft Syd written jangler that the other Floyds didn’t like.
Check it out here.
The film features new interviews with the band’s surviving members — Roger Waters (Barrett’s classmate and Pink Floyd’s co-founder), Nick Mason, and David Gilmour — to provide insight into The Piper at the Gates of Dawn mastermind’s meteoric rise, acid-fueled breakdown and eventual exile from the band.
It also includes interviews with legions of the artists inspired by Barrett’s brief tenure with the band — The Who’s Pete Townshend, Blur’s Graham Coxon and more, plus former Pink Floyd managers Peter Jenner and Andrew King, playwright Tom Stoppard and Syd’s sister Rosemary Breen.
The movie was directed by Roddy Bogawa and the late album cover designer Storm Thorgerson, who created iconic Pink Floyd covers like The Dark Side of the Moon and
Wish You Where Here. Thorgerson died in 2006.
TRAILER
The last words Barret said to a journalist who
tracked him down in the street where he lived
and asked him if he was the former Pink Floyd star.
New striking strokes
27 April 2023
Band: GREEN GARDENS
Who: Four friends from Leeds who strive to bring inaccessible feelings into a shared band setting. Drawing from the deep wells of art rock and guitar music before them, they owe everything to the earth and their surroundings. Their gentle, ponderous energy invites listeners right into the recording process with a wide-open roomy sound contrasted with thick, heavy emotion.
New single: THINGS I DON’T DO
It’s about “the feeling of guilt creeping in after experiencing the death of a loved one.
It’s a fable of blistering regret, complete desolation and the imminence of it being over
before you even had a chance to realise you were in it.”
TUTV: This mourning, mellow musing moves like a funeral procession with melancholia coloring it all sepia. For some reason the slacker timbre of Dinosour Jr, in slo-mo, came to mind.
Distorted guitars, weeping melodiousness, saddening and some sax sparks in the back. It’s not a happy song, well, life isn’t a happy thing every day either. Death is also part of it, for all of us, we all suffer now and then. Therefore many music fans will find solace here.
Watch/listen.
.
GREEN GARDENS: Instagram – Linktree
STEVE MILLER BAND
1973 ‘The Joker Tour’
New striking strokes
27 April 2023
Charismatic frontman GRIAN CHATTEN of Dublin heroes Fontaines D.C.
has released his debut solo single, titled THE SCORE.
Chatten: “‘The Score’ is a heavyweight bated breath of lust. I wrote it in Madrid between an electric fan and a dying plant and I intend to keep it there. It was inspired by sugar and sunset.”
The song is a moody affair as I expected. We already got some soft Chatten moments on the last two Fontaines D.C. albums where he went tender and romantic. If he wants to rock out he always can do it with his fellow Irishmen.
“You know the score/ It ain’t limited to your knowing looks and touches anymore /
Cuz when you make his love you turn alone/ You see your heart’s been tethered to
a sinking stone.”
GRIAN CHATTEN: Instagram
27 April 2023
San Francisco screamos LOMA PRIETA release their
first LP in 8 years, called LAST and out on 30 June via
Deathwish.
Artwork new album
Ahead of it they shared a second taster called GLARE
following the lead single Sunlight.
Sean Leary (frontman): “Glare” is a song talking about the two meanings of the word “glare” and where they intersect. A blinding brightness vs. a hateful stare, more simply, light vs. dark. Within this, a metaphor about how light and dark play with our sight, same as love and hate cloud our mind; Love and hate are so closely tied in the human psyche, becoming confusingly similar in tone when felt full-on. Musically, this track runs the gamut of these strong diametric opposites- beginning contemplative, moving into hatred and rage, concluding with bright, cathartic triumph. The track features an appearance by Loma Prieta’s longtime friend and collaborator Josh Staples (The New Trust, The Velvet Teen).”
Glare is a rough roller coaster shifting space several times, taking the decibels
to an illegal level with deranged guitars, merciless drums, manicial howls and
scary barks. There you go. WOW!
Fast and furious.
LOMA PRIETA: Instagram – Facebook