Early last month Turn Up The Volume! stumbled into a fresh Scottish band. A jangly post punk The Fall-like noise duo featuring Paul and John (with those names world domination will be a piece of cake) calling themselves MEMES. The cutting tandem had just released their two smashing debut tracks ‘Blah Blah Blah‘ and ‘Funny Man‘ and now the pair is back with a new biting thwack on which they sound actually a bit like Mike Skinner‘s The Streets after he picked up a bass, hired a drum machine and went totally parlando punk. AWESOME STUFF! AGAIN! Here’s ‘GO TWEET ME‘…
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Fucking ace, isn’t it?! By the way the band is one step closer to global stardom. Former legendary NME hack and BBC‘s cool DJ Steve Lamacq invited them for a live session where they also played this fresh ‘Go Tweet Me‘ slam. Check it out…
A swirling fusion of rhapsodic rippers and cool crackerjacks,
that activated my bloodstream and my limbs this past month! Turn Up The Volume‘s 15 Knockout Tracks for September!
‘Under The Spell Of Joy’ by DEATH VALLEY GIRLS (Los Angeles, US)
L.A.’s garage devils surprise with this gospel stunner. Polyphonic choir, booming beats, crazed sax, towering tune, and a mental finale. The title track from their fourth album coming your way this Friday, October 2. Can’t wait!
‘So What’ by MEMES(Glasgow, Scotland)
Post-punk mavericks strike again. This new cut is more infectious than that horrible coronavirus, deeper carving than a Swiss knife, 103 seconds of high-energy swagger.
New EP in November via Fierce Panda.
. ‘The Rise And Fall Of America’ by THE MOODS(England)
It’s this British collective’s towering take on the bombastic American National Anthem with razor-sharp lines and an addictive chant. They rock, roar and rage. Enough is enough! Play this on repeat until the elections in November. Make America, America again. It’s not too late! Vote that orange out!
‘American Dream’ by TOKYO TABOO (England)
‘Dumb Trump’ is the loud and clear message. These high-voltage noiseniks squeeze that orange idiot into pulp in 4 minutes and visualize their disgust with both a hilarious and frightening video clip. About time this buffoon gets kicked out of the White House!
‘Leon The Pig Farmer’ by CABBAGE (England)
These post-punk gunslingers describe their racket as Apocalyptic Sprautrock. Sounds
totally 2020 to my ears. This new amazeballs brain-breaker races like a hot rod on
the run without slowing down for a second. Bang-up stonker!
‘Psychopath’s Monologue’ by THE CHRONICLES OF MANIMAL AND SAMARA (It/Sing)
A soundtrack for an unmade David Lynch movie. Chemical bros beats, Leftfield bangs, industrial uppercuts and a nightmarish spoken-word sermon all over it. Sonic paranoia
for a baffled world in an ongoing virus crisis. Doomsday is just around the corner.
‘Tokyo Music Experience’ by RATS ON RAFTS (The Netherlands)
An electrical punch-sucker driven by hyperkinetic guitars, manic vocals, and a relentless beat sounding like legendary weirdos Devo are back with some fervent firepower. Expect to be totally puzzled after just one spin. You can get satisfaction here, folks!
‘Land Based Antics’ by STRUGGLES WITH SYNTAX (London)
A rage-against-the-machine motherrocker, a smash and clash crossover stormer, a
nasty rap brain-breaker, a brutal thwack challenging you to bang your head against
the wall while pulling your hair out. A volcanic spit and sneer eruption.
‘Moment In The Sun’ by SUNFLOWER BEAN (Brooklyn/NY)
Perfect pop play! Catchy as hell, totally uplifting and mood-boosting. Funky and groovy.
An earworm to listen to in your bath, in your car, at work, in the pub, and in your bed.
‘Truth II’ by BEND SINISTER (Vancouver, British Columbia)
A rambling, rumbling, rollicking and roaring ripsnorter with a scream along on the top of your lungs chorus demanding the truth. C’mon Bully Trump and Boris the Clown, stop
lying 24/7, you twin idiots.
‘7 Seconds’ by PORRIDGE RADIO (Brighton, England)
Earlier this year this amazing Dana Margolin fronted band released their contender-for-best-album-of-the-year tour de force Every Bad, they shine again on this brand new melodic humdinger.
‘Docker Martins’ by ARCO ARENA (Ireland)
A riff-loaded crackerjack that triggers your Saturday nightmare fever moves. Funky as
fuck and sickly sticky from start to finish. A kick-ass hammer sharp as a serrated knife challenging you to fight for your right to be the last man standing. Yeahhh!
‘Serotonin‘ by VIOLENT VICKIE (Long Beach, CA)
Put your Goth outfit, dim the lights, and trip on this pitch-black synthscape with
Vickie wildly yearning for lost love and lust. You’ll get goosebumps when listening
to this petrifying cry out on your headphones. Time to kick your evil demons out
of your bedroom!
‘We Are Chaos’ by MARILYN MANSON (Ohio, US)
Yes, the self-proclaimed ‘God of Fuck’ still walks the planet. No, he didn’t move yet
to his real home in hell. And the title track is a massive sing-along pop (yes, ‘pop’)
anthem celebrating what we became: CHAOS in these surreal virus times.
‘Cotton Fish (A Dream)’ by JAY CRAFTON (Toronto, Canada)
Don’t really know much about this Canadian musician and record producer just that his new (instrumental) single is a spellbinding guitar-driven jam with a relaxing effect on my mindset. Pretty special. Pretty dreamy.
Who: A noisy Glasgow duo called John and Paul – not that John and Paul, obviously.
And as band name John Paul II would be ridiculous, they called themselves MEMES.
Tracks: ‘BLAH BLAH BLAH’ / ‘FUNNY MAN’ – brand new double A-side single
Score: ‘Memes‘ is one of those faceless bands you stumble into now and then on the Internet. As long as their havoc makes my hair stand up in the back of my neck I really don’t care actually how a band looks like. And this fresh Glaswegian John/Paul tandem succeeds in getting my sonic attention directly with their double A-side debut single.
Both smoking tracks, ‘Blah Blah Blah‘ and ‘Funny Man‘ resonate gloriously infectious, crackingly jingle jangle and rumbly creaking. If The Fall would release their 1978 debut
EP Bingo-Master’s Break-Out! today, it would sound as tumultuous and blustery as this…
Most lists of best 2020 albums and tracks ignore rock ‘n’ roll completely. Lists by legendary music websites such as Rolling Stone and NME who used to champion rock for ages and still do (only) when it comes to big-name acts. Same game with more recent webzines like Stereogum and Pitchfork. It’s all about hip-hop, R & B, EDM, and synth-pop these past few years. I know, it’s the music liked by millions (see the number of YT views of each and every track below) these days, no problem so far.
But what I don’t understand is that the very same online music press raves about records by rock acts such as The Strokes, Fontaines D.C, Idles, Deftones, Flaming Lips, Thurston Moore and so many more, the moment their singles/albums came out but not a word at the end-of-the-year. Weird, but it is what it is.
I’m definitely looking forward to Turn Up The Volume‘s best 2020 firework
and I’ll play Black Rebel Motorcycle Club while waiting…
I’m ready now to go through the 10 best songs of
the past 12 months according to Rolling Stone.
1. ‘SWAP‘ by CARDI B Feat THEE STALLION “In the darkest depths of Covid lockdown — at a moment in history when leaving your house could literally get you killed — Cardi B and Megan delivered the perfect instructions on how to beat the quarantine blues:” – RS
306.341.716 YouTube views
2. ‘Key West (Philosopher Pirate)’ by BOB DYLAN “In the nine-minute “Key West (Philosophical Pirate),” he’s adrift in Florida, murmuring the Sunshine State blues over a ghostly accordion, as he growls, “Key West is the place to be if
you’re looking for immortality.” – RS
598.850 YouTube views
3. ‘People, I’ve Been Sad’ by CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS “With sparse synths and a voice on the verge of tears, Christine and the Queens captured the universal moment with words in English and French about missing out, disappearing, and falling apart.” – RS
3.089.767 YouTube views
4. ‘Blinding Lights’ by WEEKND “The real magic is how his voice and the song’s chiming keyboard line lingers in your head well after he injects new life into the greatest Eighties-steeped lyrical cliché of them all: “I can’t sleep until I feel your touch.” – RS
306.750.942 YouTube views
5.’August’ by TAYLOR SWIFT “Swift’s lithely vocals soar across string instrumentation as she tells the story from
the side of the “other” woman. One thing is for certain: Don’t trust Inez.” – RS
16.669.449 YouTube views
6. ‘Don’t Start Now’ by DUA LIP “A song that yearns to be bumped in a packed club, that still boasts a hook that
actually made for a perfect Covid quarantine meme: “Don’t show up/Don’t come out.” – RS
433.711.505 YouTube views
7. ‘Dynamite’ by BTS “Cup of milk, let’s rock and roll/King Kong, kick the drum/Rolling on like a Rolling Stone!” – RS
686.556.896 YouTube views
8. ‘Ladies’ by FIONA APPLE
“It’s a heart-to-heart that is as sincere as it is wryly funny: Apple has never sounded more sure of herself than when she lists off all the leftover baggage, literally and figuratively, that she’s left behind for her old flame’s new love.” – RS
582.880 YouTube views
9. ‘Adore You’ by HARRY STYLES “It’s a sleek sliver of psychedelic soul, where Styles dreams up a “strawberry lipstick
state of mind,” and then offers you an irresistible invitation to join him there.” – RS
166.316.607 YouTube views
10. ‘Gaslighter‘ by THE CHICKS “The Chicks blasted back this year with the best jerk-torching anthem they’ve
given us since the glory days of “Goodbye Earl,” back in the late-Nineties.” – RS
Another new cut from the upcoming full length, another astounding
hellraiser swinging your mind from left to right and back, from Samara‘s
sort of vocal broadcasting performance to Manimal‘s death metal
snarls and back.
130 seconds of intimidating thunder-and-lighting brouhaha.
A merciless brainbreaker. From their
2nd, upcoming LP Trust No Leaders.
Pushed by a one-note, boogie-woogie piano touch (played by Parks‘ father on her grandfather’s piano – wow, that’s cool) that I couldn’t get out of my head anymore after
a couple of spins. I can’t get her husky, sensual voice out of my mind either, but that’s already been for several years now.
Combine the filthy psychobilly swagger of The Cramps, the black-leather
rockabilly of The Raveonettes and the blues-rock coolness of The Kills, and
I am sure you can work out for yourself what will blast out of your
stereo in a minute.
Yes, a sick riff stunner with a speedy version of The Stones’ unforgettable
‘woo woo, woo woo‘ chant on Sympathy For The Devil when the chorus
comes on strong.
A splendid corker going full steam from the kick-off.
No brakes, no breaks for this blistering bolide.
Hair in the wind, foot on the pedal, going nowhere fast.
Hungry guitars, Billy Idol-esque vocals, magnetic melody.
Don’t feel sad if you’re alone at home, you can dance with
yourself to this pick-me-up thrill.
The video is created by van Wetering, made entirely of ASCII characters
and has a stylistic kind of retro-futurism perfectly befitting of his sound.
The video is created by van Wetering, made entirely of ASCII characters and
has a stylistic kind of retro-futurism perfectly befitting of his sound.
Van Wymeersch masters the art of writing smooth, instantly
appealing songs you can play any time of the day.
His crooner voice, the easy-listing construction of his compositions and the gracious orchestrations transfer you to a place where reality fades away and makes room for
sepia-colored memories. As I said before Wolf is a romantic at heart.
I love this adrenalizing booster. Makes me smile from left to right and back.
The little low verses are alternated with a little high chorus, actually a euphoric
resonating high. Feels terrific, for hungry ears and restless minds. This caring
tandem knows what pop-ular music is about. Upper tunes, upper emotions
and upper choruses.
After last year’s clashing and crashing album Sauvé
IIAA came back a few weeks ago, with a new (double)
single with missile Mascare as the first one.
They are racing like a blustery bulldozer on speed, riffing and
screaming their lungs out like madmen is what IIAA is. I’m a
longtime fan of these manic motherrockers on record and
on stage. So should you be(come).
London’s rapper OSCAR MIC decided to write and release a song
for Ukraine after witnessing on the news the horrific violence and
criminal civilian targeting of Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion.
The rad result is WE ARE UKRAINIAN. A tremendously catchy hip-rap-pop
jam featuring steel drums and timpani balancing somewhere between Roots
Manuva and Mr. Scruff. Top tune.
If you combine Interpol‘s hypnotic guitar romanticism, and their frontman Paul Banks‘ mesmeric vocal timbre and you add your own heart and soul as a band, you have all
my attention. That’s what happens on Porcelain, a standout track from the group’s tremendous new album Barricades.
Time to turn up the bright lights. Principe Valiente know exactly how to switch them on.
16. ‘Worthless Souls’ by MELTED WINGS (Toronto, Ontario)
An addictive synth stomper inviting you to throw your furniture out of the window
to make some room, to hang a disco ball on the ceiling, and rotate yourself dizzy.
Seadog create a little head-in-the-clouds world of their own.
One you can hide in, and doze for a couple of minutes, to forget about
the worrying times we live in. Titillating melodiousness, sparkling synth-pop
catchiness and feather-light vocals are the fitting ingredients that evoke
that pleasurable dream-away feel.
It’s an epic ballad with a country feel. If this melancholic gem was written
in the 60s it would have been sung by Linda Rondstadt, Tammy Waynette
or Dolly Parton, anyway, by an angelic voice like Olsen‘s magnific one.
Ounsworth (mastermind): “The songs are politically motivated,
which is unusual for me. It’s about what I think we’re all experiencing
at the moment, certainly here in the United States, anyway, trying
to move forward amidst an almost cruel uncertainty.”
Turn Up The Volume: Riveting tunes, sharp-cutting reflections,
magical sparks, Ounsworth‘s feverish voice, and his glittery guitar
play make this LP the best one since the self-titled 2005 debut.
Bewitching all the way. My 2021 number one
Turn Up The Volume: Finally, Iceage do what they were expected to do for a long
time. Creating a standout album that makes the hair in the back of your neck stand
up. Melodramatic with ardency, impassioned with vigour, emotional with grimness. Charismatic frontman Elias Bender Rønnenfelt leads the troops as never before.
Turn Up The Volume: From outlandish sonority – think Scott Walker – to
Zappa-esque adventurousness, from a ‘normal’ song (Marlene Dietrich) to
free jazz weirdness. The sonic search of this impressively inventive band is
both inscrutable and intriguing.
Cavalcade confirms the experimental brilliance of their debut LP. Miles Davis going post-punk in the 21st Century.
Turn Up The Volume: The drop-dead gorgeous sisters in rock arms Lindsey Troy
and Julie Edwards celebrate their 10th year of producing high-powered turbulence.
Their bond is tighter than ever and their boogie-woogie more varied than ever.
Mind you, don’t expect a jazz record. Deap Vally are still about rocking ‘n rolling
while tackling their demons with vocal bravado and forthright ruminations.
Old skool punk ‘n’ roll? Absolutely. Any good? You betcha!
Amyl and her buddies made another blistering riff-manic-monster of
a hell fucking hell yeah record. Pogo madness is back. Sturm und drang
from start to finish. Holy Moly!
Turn Up The Volume: This black and white pearl is the work of
the romantic Cave crooner meeting the haunting Cave crooner. Idyllic
orchestrations, classical arrangements, and bad seed Warren Ellis
showing, once more, his refined grandeur.
Turn Up The Volume: Manimal and Samara are a poetallica sensation.
A new laser light at the end of a mythical and tenebrous tunnel.
Imagine Sylvia Plath fronting a mind-challenging, noise-exploring band.
Their debut album is a multi-faceted opus in sound and vision. Puzzling poetry
exploring life, death, birth, past, present, and future embedded in titanic thunder
and lighting symphonies going from perplexing metal to chill-out ambient.
Turn Up The Volume: The amplified haziness of Slowdive, the mystifying
soulfulness of Spacemen 3, the multi-layer-constructing skills of My Bloody
Valentine.
Hallucinating soundscapes, synth shadowplays, and guitars dueling with
each other while tireless drums dauntlessly beat, and wailing voices wander
in an enigmatic fog of reverberation.
This is what the (sur)real world of Ghost Patterns sounds like.
Turn Up The Volume: This time the bombastic rockers take another direction
to express their emotiveness. Moody, nostalgic, melancholically romantic with
frontman Brandon Flowers looking back at his teenage years in his hometown
Utah. Think Bruce Springsteen‘s sentimentality on his masterpiece Nebraska.
Overall an emotive and melodramatic
record without going over the top.
For some critics, it’s too mellow.
For me, its gripping mellowness
that works just fine.
Liz Lamere (Vega’s widow) remembers: “Our primary purpose for going into the studio
was to experiment with sound, not to ‘make records. I was playing the machines with Alan manipulating sounds. I played riffs while Alan morphed the sounds being channeled through the machines.’
Turn Up The Volume: Most of the lost albums that eventually came/come to the
surface one day should have stayed lost forever. If they were good enough to be
released the moment they were recorded they would have never ended up in a
smelly cellar or, worst case, in a trash can.
So what about Alan Vega’s lost one? One: it feels special to have the legend back.
Two: the album seems to come from a very dark mind, from the obscure places
of Vega‘s soul, creating a nightmarish and Kafkaesque chill-out atmosphere for
a 30-minute David Lynch film-noir.
Turn Up The Volume: The rap and roll venom of Rage Against The Machine, the
fuck-you-hypocrites grimness of Black Flag, the punky saxophone of X-Ray-Spex,
the sharp poetic spit and sneer anarchy of Mark. E. Smith, the challenging spirit
of open-minded-and-ass-kicking-anti-establishment doom and gloom crusaders.
Sounds like 2021, like the end of the world as we know it.
Turn Up The Volume says: Like Pavement going prog rock with the sound- exploring
state of mind of Mogwai. Jazzy and classical music textures make sure your curious mind
is focused all the time. And singer Isaac Wood‘s voice resonates freakishly identical to the chilling voice of American songwriter Conor Oberst from indie band Bright Eyes.
It’s not a happy record, but who needs a tsunami of cheesy pop tunes in these science-fiction-like times, anyway. I know it’s their first time, but these hungry noise crusaders
will stun us again in the future.
Turn Up The Volume wrote: Gusto, high-spiritedness, and anxiety are the
keywords here. This warm-blooded record is a heart-rending reflection of the
group’s state of 2021 mind. A galvanizing collection of cohesive poignant emo
songs influenced by the disturbing way our troubled world is handling human
issues, once-in-a-lifetime dramas, and the personal turmoil of frontwoman Eline Chavez.
Her soul-stirring and powerful (Aretha Franklin / young Tina Turner) vox, the weeping
guitars, and the electrical intensity are at times overwhelming and heartbreaking. Impressive!
Turn Up The Volume: The essential message of this new powerhouse album is loud and clear: noise-challenging turbo Pink Room is here to stay! Their tsunami energy is beyond any decibel regulation. Again, loudmouth Bart Cocquyt leads the rip-roaring trio.
As I said before his vocal range is out-of-this-world. He easily could front a death metal band (Stay Black/Stay White) or a Nirvana reunion (Losing/Skin) or kick Ozzy Osbourne‘s ass (Hail Satan). Expect ear-shattering jackhammers, over-the-top frenzy, and clamorous lockdown paranoia.
Putain, putain, c’est vachement bien, nous sommes quand même tous des bohemiens.
Eleven Knockout Tracks on repeat this past month!
A tasty cocktail of rollicking rippers and first-rate cuts.
Here’s Turn Up The Volume‘s Knockout April Team!
. 1. ‘Blah Blah Blah’ by MEMES (Glasgow, Scotland)
The spirit of The Fall’s debut EP Bingo-Master’s Break-Out!. Ramshackle racket!…
2. ‘Covered In Filth’ by THE MEDICINE DOLLS(Capetown, South Africa)
Raw rollicking rockabilly riffs with waggish bubblegum ooh-la-la’s. Filthy score!
3. ‘Don’t’ by MILLIONAIRE (Belgium)
An ominous funky smack fueled by a mighty disco stomp. Hell yeah!…
4. ‘Candy’ by FALLING MAN (Belgium)
An enigmatic painkiller for spooky midnight hours. It will keep you sane. Maybe…
5. ‘Stay Where You Stand’ by THE RINGARDS (London, UK)
Jangly guitars, ace pace, poppy synths and a scream/sing/hum along chorus. Top!
6. ‘The Way In’ by THE DREAM SYNDICATE (Los Angeles, CA, US)
Electrifying psych piece from the band’s new upcoming album ‘These Times‘ …
7. ‘Hey’ Gyp (Dig The Slowness) by THE RACONTEURS (US)
Jack White & buddies back with gloriously messy Donovan cover…
8. ‘6.30‘ by SUPER PARADISE (London,UK)
When blitzkrieg guitars, echoing vocals and flashy synths meet. A bang-up roller coaster!
9. ‘Who’s Been Having You Over’ by PETER DOHERTY & THE PUTA MADRES (UK)
Snappy garage stomper with sharp-edged guitar licks and Doherty‘s characteristic vox…
10. ‘Prozac Spaceman’ by FAUX CO. (Chicago, US)
This delightful humdinger will dance in your head for some time after one spin…
11. ‘Parabole’ by TURQUOISE (Bruxelles, Belgique)
Sensuous French vocals, glimmering guitars and New Order‘s blue dynamics. Magnifique!…
