Author: JL

THE VELVETEINS Take You On A Blissful Psysch Trip With ‘DECLARATIONS OF THE 3AM FREEWAY’

Posted on by JL

New striking strokes

6 June 2023

Band: THE VELVETEINS
Who: A pop-rock collective soaked in the bright psychedelia of the 1960’s and
dipped in the indie rock explosion of the new millennium. They’re best described
as a bridge between the two. Inspired after living out of a camper van on the beaches
of Australia for a year, frontman Spencer Morphy returned to his home country Canada
and started the band with co-songwriter Addison Hiller in 2014.

New single: DECLARATIONS OF THE 3AM FREEWAY

The title track of their upcoming sophomore album, that envelops the feeling
of road-tripping at dusk in the heat of summer, when there’s no one else on the
freeway and it’s just you and your thoughts.

Morphy: “The lyrics are yearning, and more insightful than our past works.
That longing sentiment is relayed perfectly on the title track “It all begins right
now / it all begins in the car on the freeway.”

TUTV: Psychedelic guitar pop splendour is what you get here in full glory.
Declarations of the 3am Freeway grabs your aural attention from the kick-off
with its blissful and dream-inducing imagery, its magnetic melodiousness, its
subtle The Edge-like riff (think With Or Without You) and bouncy bass lines, its
delightful chorus, and its featherlight vocals.

And it’s a spacey outro that leads to the abrupt end of a nothing less than
a magical trip in slow-motion on your favorite freeway, while dreaming awake
about sunlit twilights all summer long.

Start the engine.

Also trippin’ on Spotify.


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THE VELVETEINS: Facebook – Instagram

Living Legend BOB DYLAN Has His Bewitching Small Club LP ‘SHADOW KINGDOM’ Out

Posted on by JL

Standout longplayers

6 June 2023

In July 2021, a concert film, titled SHADOW KINGDOM featuring BOB DYLAN
was available for streaming for a limited time. It was shot on a sound stage in
Santa Monica, California over seven days while Dylan was sidelined from his
Never Ending Tour due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now the concert is available on vinyl, CD and streaming platforms for the first time.

The visual part of the show was pretty weird as Dylan was assisted by musicians with corona-resistant masks on. Together they played reworked versions (well, Dylan, was/is known of reworking his songs on stage from day one) of 14 Zimmerman classics, in an intimate club-like setting, such as ‘Forever Young’, ‘It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue’, Queen Jane Approximately, Pledging My Time and Tombstone Blues.

Rolling Stone says: “Bob Dylan makes his classic songs seem stunningly brand-new.”

TUTV: The re-imagined versions are enthralling, charming, sepia-colored and beautifully
stripped to the bone. The atmosphere is moody and cozy. At 80 (back then in 2021)
Dylan‘s voice sounds, eh, older, sometimes vulnerable and hoarse, but always bewitching. Well, you know the saying of wine that gets older. And, yes, I know many hated/hate his nasal resonance from the first time they heard it.

But for me and millions of fans, he’s still the best-ever singer-songwriter in history,
and not just for nostalgic reasons. Mind you, he made some awful records too in is
never-ending career but Shadow Kingdom is another grand accomplishment by
the rollin’ stone master and a truly unique live document that matches his magical
2022 concert that I saw in Brussels easily.

BOB DYLAN: Website – Bio – Discography

In Remembrance Of The Flamboyant Vodoo Blues DR. JOHN Who Passed Away 4 Years Ago Today

Posted on by JL

6 June 2023

Saying that DR. JOHN was a flamboyant and colorful psychedelic
blues singer-songwriter/pianist is a huge understatement.

He was born named Malcolm John Rebennack Jr in 1941 in New Orleans, Louisiana
and had a terrific career with his turbulent mix of blues, psych rock, jiving jazz and
funk. The legend fabricated a ton of albums and was a singular live performer
blessed with a unique voice.

He passed away four years today, on 6 June 2019, following a heart attack,
at the age of 78. To remember this genuine legend, let’s relive that fantastic
moment of playing SUCH A NIGHT (from his 1973 album In The Right Place),
one of his most famous songs, at The Band‘s The Last Waltz concert at
the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco in 1976.

Awesome.

DR. JOHN: Bio – Discography

(Dr. John image: cover of his final studio LP Ske-dat-de-dat, released in 2014)

PRETTY – Canadian Glam And Glitter Garage Rockers Create Fireworks On New Single ‘FOOD FOR THE MOON’

Posted on by JL

Daily electricity to load your batteries

6 June 2023

Band: PRETTY
Who: A rowdy bunch of people from Toronto who appear onstage with lots of noise and then leave. This half-silly, half-serious sentence summarizes the band’s fascination with psychedelic sound and culture, elements that fuse into a highly distinctive, dark and frenzied sonic landscape.

New single: FOOD FOR THE MOON

Piece from their upcoming EP ‘Citrus Magic’, out on July 28.


Artwork single

Torin Craig (the band’s songwriter):“The title comes from this phrase I found in a book, something about the moon living off of our emotions, basically farming us in a sense for sustenance – very occult. I can’t remember what book it came from and have been driving myself insane trying to find it again. The song itself was written in the days following a break
up, working with the feeling of futility, loss, and emotional torture that comes with that sort of thing. It’s two people who are both dealing with their own things and it gets in the way of them being together – and hey, what does it matter anyways, we’re all just food for the moon in the end.”

TUTV: Expect glam and glitter garage rock from the past century. This heavy haymaker
has a brawny mid-tempo drum-hitting inserted groove, that’s set on fire by an army
of frenetic guitars that attack your ears relentlessly and mercilessly.

When the barnstorming chorus kicks in your stereo will vibrate dangerously. Somewhere in the middle, the bassist wants his moment too and gets us in the right state of insane mind to confront the oh my electrifying God finale. This must be the loudest and clearest side of the moon. Pretty ace!

Stream/buy


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Also st(r)eaming on Spotify


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PRETTY: Facebook

Artwork photo by Ashleigh Hutchinson
Background graphics by Leanna Gennuso
Editing by Torin Craig

CHRISSIE HYNDE And Her PRETENDERS Rocked The Roof Off In ANTWERP (Belgium)

Posted on by JL

6 June 2023

Last week (31 May) CHRISSIE HYNDE and her PRETENDERS stopped
in Antwerp (Belgium) on their current EU tour. Hynde at 71 still is an
glamorous and arousing rock bitch filling the venue with her still
formidable voice.

Wow!

They played a straightforward, full-gass, hard rockin’ (emphasis on hard)
set with a rambunctious mix of new and old material. The new Pretenders
album, their 12th titled Relentless lands on September 1.


Album artwork

As the crowd did loud and clear, Chrissie loved every
second of the show too. Her performance was one you
label as dumbfounding. Keep on pretending in the free
world.

Lead-single ‘Let The Sun Come In‘ from the upcoming new album.

Picture this


These boots are made for rockin’


Still cool as f**k


Chrissie magic in Antwerp


Still the talk of the town

1. Losing Sense
2. Love
3. Turf Accountant Daddy
4. Talk of the Town
5. The Adultress
6. Downtown (Akron)
7. The Buzz
8. Domestic Silence
9. Message of Love
10. Time the Avenger
11. Kid
12. Biker
13. Don’t Cut Your Hair
14. Back on the Chain Gang
15. Hate for Sale
16. You Can’t Hurt a Fool
17. Don’t Get Me Wrong
18. Let the Sun Come In
19. Middle of the Road

Encore:
21. Junkie Walk
22. Cuban Slide


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THE PRETENDERS: Facebook – Instagram

Waking Up… In The ‘NIGHT TIME’ With Soul-Stirring Scottish Rockers BROKEN RECORDS

Posted on by JL

Daily noise that works faster than any stimulant

6 June 2023


Photo by Solen Collent

Band: BROKEN RECORDS

Who: Celebrated pop/rock outfit from Edinburgh, Scotland, that initially began life in 2007 as a three-piece, forming around the nucleus of brothers Jamie and Rory Sutherland, soon afterward Broken Records became a 7-piece operation that played all over the UK, Europe and the US and is gearing up ,now for a new longplayer and another tour.


Album artwork

New single: NIGHT TIME

The first single from their new, 5th full length, named
The Dreamless Sleep Of The 1990s . A record described by
BR as “A quiet record, a late-night record.” Pre-order info here.

Jamie Sutherland (frontman): “It’s a song about remembering old loves and the sweetness that comes with how they were everything and how those feelings now feel so dwarfed by the magnitude of marriage, children, responsibility, family. The simple, sweet pain, elation, and self-indulgence of being heartbroken and young when nothing was really of any consequence.”

TUTV: Night Time is a buzzy, awe-inspiring, and anthemic feat. It has that engrossing and afire rock swagger of Bruce Springsteen‘s melancholic Americana exploits, it’s infused with The Edge-like guitar sparks and frontman Sutherland‘s vivid signing is a perfect match for this towering standout of a song. Euphoric pop at its soul-stirring best. Touchdown! Just added it to my ‘best-tracks-of-2023’ notebook.

Listen/watch.

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Also streaming on Spotify.


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BROKEN RECORDS: Instagram – Facebook – Bandcamp

PETER GABRIEL Shares Another Single – Hear The Funktastic ‘ROAD TO JOY’ Here

Posted on by JL

New striking strokes

5 June 2023


(Press photo)

PETER GABRIEL has his new 9th album, named i/o out soon, but even
after a series of singles, there’s no exact release date communicated yet.

And this single number 5. ROAD TO JOY made me
immediately think of his 1986 knockout Sledgehammer.

Gabriel: “The song is one of the last tracks to emerge for the i/o record, but it has some
DNA from an earlier project; it was actually very late in the record that we got to this. There
had been a song that musically I’d started, I think, around the OVO project called Pukka. It was very different to this, but it was actually the starting point for coming back to this song. I just felt there was a good groove there, and I wanted something else with rhythm and so we tried a few things when I was working with Brian Eno. The excitement and energy in the song was something that I was getting off on. I felt we didn’t have enough of that for this record.”

Tune in.

PETER GABRIEL: Facebook – Instagram

Classic Clips – U2 With Euphoric Live Version Of ‘OUT OF CONTROL’ At Red Rocks Amphitheater, Denver 40 Years Ago Today

Posted on by JL

For your eyes

5 June 2023

40 years ago today, on 5 June 1983, Irish megastars U2 played
an iconic concert at the iconic Red Rocks Amphitheater near
Denver, US.

I have no idea why this euphoric version of their 1980 debut single
OUT OF CONTROL wasn’t included, like a couple of tracks played that
day were, on the live LP Under A Red Blood Sky released in November
of that year.

Anyway, this clip shows what a U2 live performance is all about and
why The Edge is a guitar virtuoso and Bono a pure show/front-man.

Euphoria in motion.

U2: Instagram