Today 23 September is the astronomical season end of summer. Sniff, sniff.
Let’s say goodbye with a cast-iron band and one of their many cast-iron juggernauts.
Ladies and gents, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE with their 2002
jackhammer No One Knows at this year’s Glastonbury Festival.
29 August 2023
Agreed.
Turn up the heat and feel the beat.
It’s PART 8 of Turn Up The Volume‘s yearly hot summer playlists.
A mix of new punk-rock-pop-dance-psych-and-other-hot-stuff.
TRACK BY TRACK
1. ‘Feel Loop (Lizard Dream) by GAZ COOMBES (UK)
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2. ‘Time & Place’ by QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE (Los Angeles)
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3. ‘Cut Your Face’ by THE JOY FORMIDABLE (Wales)
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4. ‘Strange Neighbour’ by FOLLY GROUP (London)
Photo by @matthewritson
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5. ‘Baggio’ by MILES KANE (UK)
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6. ‘Sharp’s Catching Waves’ by PSEUDO COOL (South Wales)
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7. ‘Never Say Forever’ by MIRROR OF VENUS (Los Angeles)
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8. ‘Bodyheat’ by L (Sand Diego, CA)
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9. ‘Fall Into You’ by VIGILANTES (Lincolnshire, UK)
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10. ‘Angelcover’ by THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS
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11. ‘Don’t Be A Fascist’ by TANTRUM ZENTRUM (London)
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12. ‘Arrive!’ by LOOKING GLASS WAR (Boston, MA)
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Photo by Coleman Rogers
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13. ‘Time To Let Go’ by LIKE WHAT (New York)
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14. ‘Brilliant Things’ by ODONIS ODONIS feat. Terror Bird (Canada)
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15. ‘Fatwood’ by T.G. SHAND (New Zealand)
ALL TOGETHER
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See/hear you next week, music junkies
6 Augustus 2023
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE orchestrated by mastermind JOSH HOMME
released their 8th album, titled In Times New Roman… last month.
Josh Homme to NME: “We made something that sounds as brutal as it feels to
be alive right now. I think on this [part of the] journey there’s no armour left. It’s
only about walking deeper into the darkness. That’s the way it should be.”
Now for one of the singles, the bluesy banger NEGATIVE SPACE
QOTSA shared an eye-catching, animated video clip.
WATCH
ALBUM
Every week 10 new rad tracks added
In order to not miss a beat Turn Up The Volume scans the musical
horizon daily (doing it for years now, actually) to stay in touch with
all new things sonically great and shares the results on a weekly
basis.
Check the 10 new rad cuts just
added to this rad 2023 playlist.
TRACK-BY-TRACK
1. ‘The Nether-edge’ by PJ HARVEY
Enigmatic as ever.
Standout track from her brand new LP I Inside the Old Year Dying.
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2. ‘Poison The Well’ by SURPRISE BABY
The Los Angeles based project of musician and songwriter
Sarsten Noice and producer Claire Morison.
The track narrates facing the consequences of your own actions and the desire
to change the reality of a situation but ultimately having the resignation that you
can’t.
Poison The Well has a magnetic synth vibe that sticks
on the spot and actives your limbs. Strike!
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3. ‘There She Blows!’ by NOEL GALLAGHER’S HIGH FLYING BIRDS
Former chief of Manchester’s heroes Oasis still knows how to write an instantly appealing song. There She Blows is grooving and amusing. From NG’s new longplayer Council Skies.
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4. ‘Sicily’ by QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE
Josh Homme and his amigos just launched their new
wildly praised full length In Times New Roman….
Sicily is unquestionably and absolute highlight. Spooky stuff.
5. ‘Three Hours’ by JOHN PARISH & ALDOUS HARDING
A cover of a Nick Drake (1948-1974) song from his 1969 LP Five Leaves Left.
A mesmeric rendition by PJ Harvey’s longtime collaborator/producer and the sparkling voice of songstress Aldous Harding. It features a brand new tribute album named The Endless Coloured Ways – The Songs Of Nick Drake.
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6. ‘Banana Ketchup’ by BAZE BLACKWOOD
The project of music producer, educator, and
performer, named Miles Blackwood Robinson.
No, idea how banana ketchup tastes, but its sonic flavour will seduce
you to get up and shake your booty to the hip-activating summer beat.
Tantalizing tune!
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7. ‘Hard Shit’ by ASHA
Songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist
from Los Angeles whose music transcends genre.
Asha: “Hard Shit is about dating and how awful it is, especially due to the inventions of dating apps and how the culture has changed. There are just too many options for everyone now, so no one wants to stick around long enough to have something real. I think this song is super relatable and fun!”
I love Asha‘ no-nonsense and direct approach of this topic
and the song’s avid EBM pop resonance. Top shit!
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8. ‘Secrets’ by CHEW MAGNA
These Manchester’s cacophonous indie craftsmen score with their new high-energetic corker that resounds like a pop melody backed up by layers of guitar furor, eager bass play, bang-on drum hits and lively vocals. Tremendously catchy stroke!
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9. ‘I’m A Wreck’ by ROOMMATES
These British gunslingers kick-start your adrenalin production from the first chord on with this peppery pop-punk cryout fed by schizo guitars and distressed vocals. A thrill, although the song is about the wake of a breakup, an anthem of self-loathing, regret, and ultimately, forgiveness. I said it a million times before, heartache can lead to explosive catharsis in music.
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10. ‘High Exposure’ by HOLLOW GRAVES
This shoegazy dream pop titillation gets under your skin slowly but surely driven by its melodic brightness. And kudos to these Canadian indies to comment on the crushing amount of daily promo for artists/records.
“There isn’t necessarily anything wrong with doing some self promo, but sometimes there’s the temptation to lie and hide one’s true self to maintain their public persona. It’s disappointing to see, but the true pitfall of this kind of dishonesty is that it affects one’s own personal growth and self-discovery.”
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ALL TOGETHER
Steam to Spotify and stream.
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See/hear you next week music junkies
TUTV: Blog – Facebook – Instagram
9 July 2023
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, orchestrated by mastermind JOSH HOMME
unleashed their 8th album, titled IN TIMES NEW ROMAN… 3 weeks ago.
TUTV said: “The new Queens album is a nightmarish journey into Homme‘s
beat-up mind. His thoughts reflect the hard times he went through in the past
years. The overall sonic tone is murky and tenebrous. From the mid-tempo stoner
blues grooves to rugged garage rockers. And Homme‘s vocality is browbeating.
He chases his demons.”
Last Sunday QOTSA closed the Rock Werchter Festival in Belgium.
Here’s the full HQ show as registered by the fest’s organization.
Stupendous performance.
SETLIST
No One Knows
The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret
Smooth Sailing
My God Is the Sun
Carnavoyeur
The Way You Used to Do
If I Had a Tail
I Sat by the Ocean
The Evil Has Landed
Paper Machete
Make It Wit Chu
Emotion Sickness
Little Sister
Straight Jacket Fitting
Go With the Flow
A Song for the Dead
IN TIMES NEW ROMAN…
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QOTSA: Website – Instagram – Facebook
Standout albums
16 June 2023
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE orchestrated by mastermind JOSH HOMME have
their 8th album, titled IN TIMES NEW ROMAN…out today. Order info here.
Josh Homme to NME: “We made something that sounds as brutal as it feels to
be alive right now. I think on this [part of the] journey there’s no armour left. It’s
only about walking deeper into the darkness. That’s the way it should be.”
NME: “Informed by a turbulent period – including a messy divorce, cancer treatment
and the deaths of several of Josh Homme’s close friends – the band’s eighth album is
suitably bleak… They’ve pitched their comeback between an emotional exorcism for
Homme, but with enough fan-service for the die-hards; this is up there with their darkest, knottiest material to date, and will be appreciated all the more for it.” Score: 4/5.
TUTV: The new Queens album is a nightmarish journey into Homme‘s beat-up mind.
His thoughts reflect the hard times he went through in the past years. The overall sonic tone is murky and tenebrous. From the mid-tempo stoner blues grooves to the rugged garage rockers. And Homme‘s vocality is browbeating. He chases his demons.
I’m sure he’ll trace them down and kick them really hard in their ugly asses.
Homme is a survivor, and this bone-chilling record confirms that loud and clear.
Singles: Emotion Sickness / Paper Machette
– EMOTION SICKNESS –
– PAPER MACHETE –
FULL ALBUM
Feel good summer tour.
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE orchestrated by mastermind JOSH HOMME
have canned their 8th LP. It’s titled IN TIMES NEW ROMAN… They’ll launch
it on June 16.
Two singles so far.
– EMOTION SICKNESS –
– CARNAVOYEUR –
The best of the best of the month
ALL TOGETHER
on Spotify.
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TRACK BY TRACK
1. ‘Boys In The Band’ by LAMBRINI GIRLS (Brighton, UK)
These feminist girls in a band unleashed their A.W.E.S.O.M.E
6-track EP last week. Buy/stream here.
And opener Boys In A Band is a motherrockin’ standout. A ferocious punk sucker-punch
to crush male machos with. Vocalist/songwriter Phoebe Lunny has 4 lungs and uses them mercilessly and bassist Lilly Macieira-Boşgelmez plays her 4-string louder than war.
Holy Lambrini smoke.
BEST BAND IN THE WORLD!
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2. ‘This Just Ain’t My Year‘ by 32 TENS (Warrington, England)
This vigorous trio of young gunslingers speed full tilt ahead from the get-go.
No brakes, no breaks, no mistakes and creeping under your skin faster than you
can say ripsnorter. A whirlwind of scorching guitars, pounding drumming, a revolving
bass line somewhere in the middle, go-getting vocals, and a dynamite chorus. This is gonna be the year for 32 TENS.
YES!
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3. ‘Lose My Mind’ by THE MANIC BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB (Canada)
Photo credit: Iman Qasemi
“It’s a liberating, drum-backed anthem that allows the band to
break free from any stress or obligations in pursuit of a good night.”
Good times or bad times, it’s always (in)sane to lose your marbles while diving
into a hot let’s have a ball night, now and then, and go berserk. This manic master
blaster doubles your adrenalin production an make you feel flying eight
miles high while you jump from bar to bar, from club to club.
Hit the night.
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4. ‘Prophecy Of The Dragon’ by THE VOIDZ (US)
(Press image)
The Strokes‘ frontman Julian Casablancas and his hobby band are back with this flabbergasting metallic stunner. It goes forth and back, left and right, slow and fast as if Casablancas and his misfits put several snippets of several songs together and puzzled them into one stupendous stroke of a belter.
Blimey.
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5. ‘Divide’ by DRELLA (Bradford, UK)
Beware, they only look nice
The UK wasn’t so divided as it is now following Brex-shit, charlatan Boris Johnson
and the ongoing suffocating acts of the Tories. Like so many (young) Brits Drella
hate what they have to endure every single day. And they let it hear loud and clear
on this new stiff-necked wallop.
This is Drella‘s generation.
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6. ‘Bogus Operandi’ by THE HIVES (Sweden)
The Swedish punk clowns are finally back with new stuff.
Their new LP The Death Of Randy Fitzsimmons, their first
in 11 years, lands on 11 August.
The first single Bogus Operandi starts slowly with some drum hits and some distorted guitars. But after 45 seconds the wait is over. From there on it’s full steam ahead with frontman Pele howling as we know for a long time now.
Wham bam.
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7. ‘Chastity’ by PUSSY RIOT feat. Boys Noize and Alice Glass
Expect a techno speedball with the
ferocious force of a drilling hammer.
Press play.
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8. ‘Emotion Sickness’ by QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE (Los Angeles)
The Queens, orchestrated by by mastermind Josh Homme have canned
their 8th LP. It’s titled In Times New Roman… They’ll launch it on June 16.
First single Emotion Sickness is a hammering and riff-rolling corker.
QUOTSA by numbers, but I like their numbers.
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9. ‘In Lieu Of Failure’ by THE SMASHING PUMKINGS (Chicago, US)
The pumpkins released their three-part rock opera Atum in Three Acts
a couple of weeks ago. A total of 36 songs. I picked the 12 best, deleted
the rest, and guess what? I have a splendid new SM album.
This is one of the 12 gems.
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10. ‘Monster’ by LONELY LITTLE KITSH (Canada)
This two-piece alt-rock act – Kristen Goetz (vocals) and Nolan Jodes (guitar/bass/vocals)
took their name from David Bowie‘s 1974 track Diamond Dogs: “…just another future
song, lonely little kitsch.”
Monster is the duo’s 2nd single. A monstrous cannonball going everywhere fast.
A post-punk eruption that resonates like L.A.’s celebrated Amazons L7 on speed.
Fasten your seatbelt.
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11. ‘Three Hours’ by JOHN PARISH & ALDOUS HARDING (UK/New Zealand)
(Photo by Michelle Henning)
A Nick Drake tribute album is coming up. Parish and Harding are part of it.
The duo picked Drake’s 1969 composition THREE HOURS from his Five Leaves
Left LP.
Their take is a Krautrock-like-spinning masterstroke. It moves and grooves along
a hypnotic bass riff and a steady drum beat with doomy synths working their way to
the front. Mesmerizing and intoxicating while duet vocals float all over it, alluring and affecting. Special, really special
Top!
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12. ‘Depression Breakfast’ by JAPANESE JESUS (Ireland)
Depression Breakfast follows the first cranked-up single Tension and is the title
track from their upcoming 5-track EP which will see a digital and 12″ vinyl release
next June.
The tone is poignant and disturbing in an intriguing way. As we know, artists can do great things in case of a distressed state of mind. Despite the dark lyrical context Depression Breakfast‘s guitars cut like a Swiss knife just as troubled soul Lou Barlow (Sebadoh/Dinosaur Jr.) does with flaming force when he rocks out to expel his demons. Japanese Jesus can work cathartically too for all of us who haven’t a pink view on reality these days. As we know too, sad music can work deliberating.
“Depression breakfast
Cry in your cereal”
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13. ‘Spinning Plates’ by CHARLOTTE CARPENTER (UK)
(Photo by Fraser West )
Spinning Plates is a piece from this British songstress’ upcoming debut album.
Carpenter: “There’s a lot to unpack in this song. From societal pressures on the roles you are meant to fulfill as a woman, alongside the struggle of keeping up a relentless positivity to being a musician – and how impossible it is to ever get the balance between the two. Our anger is justified and our stories worth sharing. ”
It’s 2023 and still a lot of male machos and sexist pigs operate in the music
industry, and not only there. Horrible. Carpenter seems to try and fight these
awful demons with this emotive power-pop stroke gem. Spinning Plates is an
infectious guitar/drum-energized stomper with her room-filling voice standing
out upfront. At one point she slows down, only to restart the magnetic groove.
Watch.
Listen.
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14. ‘Stand For Something’ by INFINITE SONIC (Columbia)
“Born in Bogotá. Built to be Global.”
When I heard this earworm for the first time, I could swear that this pop pearl
is a previously unreleased track from U2’s recording sessions for their 1987 masterpiece LP The Joshua Tree. Stand For Something has that majestic grandeur of the Irish heroes’ idiosyncratic sound with The Edge‘s magical guitar play lifting their hits to epic heights.
No, I’m not kidding. What Infinite Sonic does here is what rhapsodic pop is about. I just looked outside, it’s a beautiful day, and if you still haven’t found the tune you’re looking
for this might be the One.
You too.
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15. ‘Won’t Let You’ by LOST IN JAPAN (Canada)
“A song about not accepting the harsh truths we all need to face sometimes.
Getting lost in some other distraction to ignore the hard task of acceptance.”
Following previous punchy single From The Start these Canadian Londoners nail it again with this new avid crackerjack that turns up the ardency every time when the catching chorus crashes in after the tension is built up in the verses. Firm guitars, a fired-up rhythm section, and fiery vocals. All ingredients you need to make your ears happy.
Today London, tomorrow the whole of Canada.
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16. ‘Bricks’ by BY FAR (Belgium)
This Belgian unit was founded in 2017 by singer-songwriter Jacob Vermeire
who needed a way to express his feelings and found it in his music.
Bricks is their debut single.
It’s an emotive introspection wrapped in a glorious melody that strikes your ears
from the kick-off. An arousing gem that resonates like a vibrant Americana song of
veteran songsmith John Mellencamp and the poppy moments of Violent Femmes. Strumming guitars, infectious flow, impassioned vocals and an uplifting chorus.
A top-notch pop thrill that elevates restless minds, by far.
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17. ‘Rango’ by SCARS FOR DAVID (Belgium)
(Promo pic)
Rango is the band’s debut single. A dashing slice of music. It combines a toe-tapping reggae groove with a bluesy chorus and somewhere along the way, an Eric Clapton-like guitar solo cranking up the vibe. Cool, right? Unquestionable. This is the kind of full of pep tunes that get you through the day while shaking your hips. The singer sings at one point “There’s No Space For Happines“. Don’t worry be happy, you scored a notable debut.
Tune in.
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18. ‘The Lender’ by TRISTAN ARMSTRONG (Toronto, CA)
“The Lender‘ is a song about surviving in the city. And these days, as any urban
dweller will attest, there’s much to overcome. Armstrong‘s new song is a deceptively
joyful reflection on the struggles of living in a concrete jungle. Evocative of Springsteen’s chronicling of life on the fringes of society, “The Lender” is a track hiding hope in desperation.”
This is captivating Americana the Canadian way. Great voice, great melody, great musicality, and the vocal resonance and swagger of the late great Tom Petty. Amstrong strums his acoustic guitar the way the Eagles did it endlessly and The Lender‘s bluesy-country feel has both a melancholic and yearning sensitivity. These are tunes that stick instantly, the ones you play for a while.
Press play.
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19. ‘You Don’t Have A Choice’ by EASTER ISLAND (Athens, GA)
“You Don’t Have a Choice’ is an indie rock song that evokes an ethereal and moody atmosphere through its intricate instrumentation and emotive vocals. The introspective nature of the lyrics is matched perfectly with the melancholic and contemplative instrumentation, resulting in a dreamy and haunting soundscape that encapsulates the overall mood of the song.”
This a moony and radiant beauty, an amplified musing with crystal guitar sparks
reminding me of NYC darlings Interpol‘s 6-string galvanism. A gripping heart-and-soul touching reflection with mesmeric vocals for tranquilizing moments. Magic.
Check in.
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20. ‘I Thought I Understood’ by THE UNDERGROUND YOUTH (UK)
On 18th August these cult post-punks, led by Craig Dyer
launch release their new full length, called Nostalgia Class.
This is the first single. Pure UY. A moony meditation embedded in a gripping,
melancholic melody that rings in your yearning ears from the first spin. There’s
a sparkling rotating riff that invades your head and stays there. Magical melancholia
with, of course, frontman Dyer‘s shadowy vocals completing the darksome sonic
picture as we know it.
Watch/listen.
