Band: THE LIVING PINS Who: Texan outfit started by seasoned
rock chickc/musicians Pam Peltz and Carrie Clark.
Simon Le Bon (Duran Duran icon) is a big fan: ”One of the things I can
really recognize when I hear a bit of their music is the fun that they were
having when they made that. In fact, if you do check out Living Pins, you
will hear that in all of their music. I think it’s wonderful.”
Track: ROXY UNICORN
Newest single and title song from their forthcoming
debut album. It’ll land on November 13th. Tracklist and
pre-order info here.
Single artwork
TUTV: As long as commited artists come up with riff-rotating turbochargers like this one, rock will never vanish from planet Earth. Roxy Unicorn arouses all of your aching limbs the moment a relentless, non-stop hammering drum/bass beat starts pushing this straight up, in your face corker.
Shiny guitar lines, ardent vocals, and the drop-dead cacthy buzz fuel this voltaic cracker’s energy. Simple, but instantly and tremendously efficacious. A striking skill on its own.
For those about to rock The Living Pins salute you.
Press info: “Interpol’s first album in four years finds the band turning inward while continuing to move forward. Across the record, reflection, distortion and perception become a lens through which familiar shapes are refracted into something slightly
alien, as if seen through a different kind of light.”
Paul Banks told NME: “The drive of the record is a spirit of striving for elation,
enlightenment and clarity. I was born uncertain, that’s what keeps me intact”.
Album artwork
Mojo Magazine writes: “The results display more radio-friendly polish, while the grooves
are enhanced with percussive syncopation, and strings and woodwind are employed for
added sonic swirl.”
TUTV: Finally, after all these years, Interpol made an album that’s up there with their
first 2 outstanding ones, Turn Up The Bright Lights (2002) and Antics (2004).
This Mirror Weighs a Ton is, as the cliché goes, a return to form, stupendous form that is. The record excels because of its strong, utmost, dark romantic songs. Sterling songwriting, not one dull moment.
It feels like Paul Banks was wandering through his beloved New York City for many nights, absorbing its grandeur and also its shadowy mystique, and translating his observations and thoughts into commanding tunes, vocally, lyrically, and sonically.
The tracks’ pace shifts frequently with slow-progressing reveries (title track / Ever The Actor / Enemy / Sudden), amplified mid-tempo jams (Wounded Soldier / Darling Thoughts / Wake-up) and a couple of straight-up rockers (See Out Loud / Wings Of Fire).
Full aural ravishment for 53 minutes. A striking comeback achievement.
On Sunday September 13th, a one-day indoor festival will take place in the small town
of Oostakker in Belgium. Nothing unusual so far. But wait, here it comes. Within about
12 hours, 37 Belgian bands/acts, I repeat, 37 Belgian bands/acts will perform.
Each one of them gets 15 minutes to show what their musical potential is all about and
try to earn themselves a minimum of 15 minutes of fame afterwards. There you go, this
is a musical event of a calibre I’ve never seen or heard of in Belgium. Impressive, just impressive.
The festival is named Kill Your Darlings, after a 30-year-old rock song by Belgian brothers Soulwax (from their debut full-length Leave The Story Untold), who turned their musical direction upside down over the years, from a post-punk force to an EBM techno turbine that made them internationally famous.
But it goes further than just that. Soulwax was, a long time ago, a laureate of a Belgian showcase for emerging musicians. It was organised by a guy named Vincent Welvaert.
Today he’s the managing director of a Tourbus Agency, and operator of a multi-functional music centre calledGoed Leven (Dutch for Good Life), and he’s also co-organizer of this upcoming, unprecedented festival that shares much of the same DNA as back then with Soulwax: discovering young talent, giving them opportunities, and above all, a great love for music.
With so many Belgian bands around, picking the right ones becomes difficult. Kill Your Darlings, as they say. A nod to Soulwax, to a long-past Belgian showcase, and a lasting curiosity for what tomorrow holds.
Along Welvaert the driving force and instigator of the upcoming fest is Didier Becu,
co-founder of very popular Belgian music website Luminous Dash, which focuses
mainly on, I’m sure you guessed it… Belgian artists.
Becu is a 24/7 music junkie (like me, no wonder we’re buddies) who started to organise
gigs for up-and-coming acts in small venues/clubs/bars a few years ago. Now he goes for
a big Belgian bang.
“37 bands in one day is madness, but so was Woodstock”
Tell us about it Didier: “The idea for Kill Your Darlings originated when I crossed paths with Vincent Welvaer. Soulwax was one of the first bands he worked with. There is so much talent
in Belgium, but it is a matter of luck whether they can become your darlings or not.
My love for Belgian music began as a child by listening to the radio, to a Belgian sort
of John Peel DJ . After years of writing my own fanzines and contributing to all kinds of
websites, I bumped into Ann Cnockaert, with whom I founded Luminous Dash. After a few years, it became clear to me that my favorites had no stage, so I decided to organize concerts myself.
A circuit that resulted in this huge turning point when I found a soulmate in Vincent. We both realized that 37 bands in one day is madness, but so was Woodstock. A good fairy—whether
or not with long blonde hair—whispers to me that Kill Your Darlings will be the first of many adventures.”
Maybe this Belgian tour de force can inspire music junkies out
there, outside of our little country, to stage something similar.
Vitalizing tunes that work faster than a stream of caffeine
2 September 2026
Band: HEARING TESTS Who: A hardcore band from London, sonically direct, taking influence from all
over the hardcore spectrum, fast pummelling riffs, huge sing along political lyrics,
tackling issues such as the rise of the far right, consumerism and inequality with
more personal stories.
Their sound is fast, raw, and unapologetically direct – built for sweaty basements and
shouted choruses. Lyrically, they pull no punches, taking aim at consumer culture, far-right
politics, and systemic inequality with a clarity and fury that leaves no room for ambiguity.
Politically charged and sonically relentless, Hearing Tests aren’t just playing punk – they’re
living it.
TUTV: Holy smoke! Hearing Tests tash, crash and smash all war-greedy psychos who
have turned our planet into a ravaging battlefield. Burn The Flag is an exploding punk grenade, a detonative ebullition, a barbed wire assault.
We all know that we’re doomed if all those immoral, intolerant, egomaniacal world leaders as we know them, stay in charge. Their erratic behaviour is unpredictably dangerous. We the people should stand up, all together, and get rid of all those evil politicians while screaming Burning the flag, Burn in hell at the top of our lungs.
Band: SUEDE (London) Active: 1989–2003, 2010–present
10 studio albums so far.
Anniversary Album: COMING UP
Their third LP. Released: 2 September 1996 – 30 years ago today Score: #1 in the UK, Sweden and Denmark.
After the departure of guitarist Bernard Butler and the lack of commercial success with their 2nd LPDog Man Star – still their masterpiece to my ears – and its singles, they were being somewhat dismissed by the British music press with Oasis, Blur and Pulp taking the limelight.
Determined to bring Suede back into the mainstream, frontman Brett Anderson decided that the sound of the new album would be the complete opposite of Dog Man Star. “I think the next album will be quite simple, actually. I’d really like to write a straightforward pop album. Just ten hits.”
The Daily Telegraph (English newspaper) said: “Coming Up is their defiant reminder of what made Suede so special. If Dog Man Star was Diamond Dogs, then this is Suede’s Ziggy Stardust – extravagant, steeped in glam and unashamedly poppy.”
TUTV: Many thought Suede would implode after musical force Bernard Butler left, except for Brett Anderson. His self-confidence
went through the roof with a magnificent record of glam and
glitter firecrackers as a result. Towering trash all the way.
Steamed-up American rockers THE MENZINGERS from Scranton, Pennsylvania
celebrate their 20th anniversary as a band. They did it, for starters, with their
new, 8th LP, called EVERYTHING I EVER SAW, that came out last July.
It’s a turbo-charged record stuffed with highly passionate, mesmeric
pieces of intensely emotional music, lyrically, vocally and sonically.
Kerrang says: “Diametrically opposed life experiences for The Menzinger’s two frontmen ensures this eight album beautifully captures the whole spectrum of human emotion one of band’s very best. As a result, their melodic punk reflects both the macro and the micro, the universal and the personal. You get the country as a whole told through the very specific, individual experiences of co-frontmen Tom May and Greg Barnett.”
ALBUM
.
The band just announced they’re flying, accompanied by Canadian punk
buddies The Flatliners, to the UK and Europe next year to promote the
new album.
“The one rock star that that makes me know I’m shit is Polly Harvey. I’m nothing next to the purity she experiences.I like knowing that there’s someone who is a better guitar player,
who had it down lyrically and kicked my ass all over town.”
