Scottish melancholic pop experts BELLE AND SEBASTIAN are in the middle of the release of a trilogy of new EPs under the umbrella title ‘How To Solve Our Human Problems’. The first one came out last month with the second planned for 19th January. Here’s THE SAME STAR, its first track sung by Sarah Martin and designed with all Belle characteristics we know and love: moodiness, catchiness, nostalgia and romanticism. It sounds exactly like the very early days of a new year: hopeful, lively and electrical. Music, maestro, please…
They look quite normal, but just like me you’ll have your doubts on hearing the menacing havoc produced by this aberrant Portuguese duo, called SUNFLOWERS. I’m pretty sure that they hide their real names – Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde – in order to avoid trouble with crazed shrinks and far-out alienist. Actually, after some research I found out that the two lovely people in the picture on top were kidnapped a while ago by our two-headed monster in order to entertain them with psycho-neurotic hullabaloo, like it’s Halloween every single day of the bloody year. Listen to brand new single CASTLE SPELL and you’ll understand exactly what I mean. It’s a hypnotic jam, a barbed wire bolide, a spellbinding escapade pushed by a red-hot drum beat and fueled with firework guitars. Striking garage wizardry for outlaws and desperadoes. Prepare yourself for a tumultuous ride, press the button and release the bats…
After making an impressive impact with 4 EP’s in 2015 (Noera Genesis / The Flood / Non Compos Mentis and Black And Blue Latitudes) Swedish sonic explorers EYEMOUTH, now a trio, return in epic style with brand new opus TO CARRY THE SPARK. Another monumental composition made to be played in giant cathedrals all over the globe. Yes, their cinematic and atmospheric sound still has something mystical, something biblical, something extraordinary, something transcendental. Experience the spark here…
The new track plus a 2015 outtake is available here on Bandcamp
Wayne Doyle, singer-songwriter for Welsh band V0iD has written a most affecting tribute for a lost friend, who died after fighting Leukemia for over ten years. It’s a heavy-hearted homage where melancholia, passion, pain, grief and eternal friendship come together.
BROTHERS IN ARMS is a human song for sad hearts and sorrowful souls. I just came back from my father’s grave who died last year and I’ve been listening on repeat to this most appropriate pearl for today’s All Saints’ Day with the volume turned down for a change. And for some reason, I feel like this beauty is about hope too…
We championed this thrilling electronic power pop quartet herebefore for the simple reason that they produce delightful symphonies that make you smile all day long. Yes,
indeed, THE BANKROBBER is a thrilling Italian band without sonic frontiers, formed in 2008. After last year’s delectable 5-track Land Of Tales EP, they return now with brand new single CLOSER. An irresistible dance floor filler, that you’ll have on repeat after one spin. Saturday night fever all the way. Although the song is apparently about an on/off mixed-love-emotions relationship its addictive drive will be certainly approved by electro dance experts New Order, while moaning for not having written this cracker themselves. Get ready, time to stretch your limbs, here we go…
Let’s draw an agreement up before we go
before we go any further with this love.
I don’t feel up to hang out with you tonight
I’m going to lose myself in m’tv screen
and I feel like I told you I’m away
but you’re still always calling me at night
you know it hurts, but I want to be sure
please leave me alone, you got to let me go
I feel it in my bones
I am sorry it’s not worth it I am human and you are perfect we just met but we are distant I’m so sorry we were closer, closer
smoking calms me down I want to drink with you I want to clear up this mess but I feel like I told you I’m feeling fine the ocean is screaming you know it hurts, but I want to be sure your voice is calling me and I won’t go I here take it slow
I am sorry it’s not worth it I am human and you are perfect we just met but we are distant I’m so sorry we were closer, closer
John Spencer and his New York blues-punks BOSS HOG fronted by his charismatic wife Cristina Martinez released, last March, their very first new album in nearly two decades. BROOD X is a mighty, robust beast of a record filled with a series of dynamite killers. Dark, ominous and firing. The torrid kick-ass clan will invade Europe at the end of this month for several concerts. Check the cities and dates here. Until then we’ll have this smoking taster to prepare us for the storm. Here’s one of the nastiest cuts on the new longplayer, the spine-tingling SHH SHH SHH with Martinez explaining “The lyrics began as an exercise in
free association. I imagined a place of chaos, panic, and loss of control and that’s what emerged.” Yes, Halloween is just around the corner…
Artist: ANNA TOSH Who: “London born and bred, Anna Tosh has been lending her considerable six-string skills
to a varied roster of bands since she was a teenager, but with her own collection of striking self-penned songs demanding attention, and the assistance of a red-hot rhythm section in waiting – Herman Stephens (bass) and Jeremy JayJay (drums) – Anna decided it was high time to make her mark as a solo artist.” Anna quote: “My roots are in punk, rock and blues, but I have been playing and listening to hip-hop, drum and bass, funk, psychedelia, dream pop, experimental electronica…” Track: WEIGHTLESS – from her excellent, versatile 5-track debut EP ‘One Big Fire’… Score: the opening track of this experienced artist’s solo debut EP is a highly alluring cracker. A funky body stimulant that will make your adrenalin stream faster. A seducing groove spiced with a luscious duet chorus. Get up, stand up and fight for your right to move in wicked ways. Here’s the sensual score…
I guess we’re in the ideal mood to continue and discover Anna Tosh‘ debut EP in full.
Songs inspired by a general reappraisal of her life direction following a relationship
break-up. “They come and go from one moment to the next. It’s a never-ending source of inspiration how weird life is.” revealed Anna…
Next Monday – 23 October, Antwerp, Belgium – I will see the awesome THE BREEDERS finally again. But I’m at least equally excited to see, support act, the stellar Manchester
gang PINS too… again. They soundtrack their rage against injustice, intolerance and all sorts of inequality in our society with gloriously amplified knockout pop punk rock gems. Check their two flaming albumsGIRLS LIKE US (2013) and WILD NIGHTS (2015) and this year’s excellent 5-track Bad Thing EP, including a collaboration with the one and only punkfather IGGY POP. A few weeks ago, ahead of a series of headline dates & the support slots with The Breeders across Europe the band launched stand out single SERVE THE RICH. Produced by JAMIE HINCE of ‘The Kills‘ it’s a ‘loud and clear’ cracker “about how sometimes we feel like we only exist to make money for other people, it’s a swizz. We are promised things by saviours, these people who have come to rescue us, but it’s not true. ‘Serve The Rich’ was my opportunity to assert myself. I’m saying that we as PINS, musicians, women, Labour voters, and feminists, are here to save the kids, we’re here to save each other, we’re here to save ourselves. ”
Californian punk rockers THE DOLLYROTS just released their tribute to the late, great Tom Petty who passed away too soon, only 66, last Sunday. Their cover of the legend’s classic AMERICAN GIRL is offered as a pay-what-you-want download on Bandcamp. Detailshere. All proceeds will go to The Midnight Mission, an organization founded in 1914 that offers paths to self-sufficiency to men, women and children who have lost direction. More info on the organization’s actions and services here. Discover the steamy way The Dollyrots honour the swirling artist Petty was, right here…
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Great tribute to a great artist for a great organization…
Band: THE DARTS (US) Who: an all-grrrrl garage rock gang, formed in 2016, featuring NICOLE LAURENNE (The Love Me Nots, Motobunny, Zero Zero), RIKKI STYXX (The Two Tens, The Dollyrots, Thee Outta Sites), CHRISTINA NUNEZ ( The Love Me Nots, Casual Encounters, The Madcaps), and MICHELLE BALDERRAMA (Brainspoon)… Track: THE CAT’S MEOW Turn Up The Volume: Weow! This is the The Cramps reincarnated! But they look sexier, they sound sultrier and they move nastier than ever before. ‘The Cat’s Meow’ is an ongoing voluptuous garage groove, spiced with some sensual organ and tempting vocals. Sticky, seductive and, yes, black is the color. Listen & watch with caution, they have seven lives…
