rescuing musical virtue in distress.
I have to say, it's a fair question, especially considering the state of rock music today. It's either washed out with pop's saccharine sweetness to make it more accessible to the mainstream audience or cranked up with metal bombast and overkill as if making music was some sort of sonic dick measuring contest. What happened... Continue Reading →
Shocking! That certainly is the word. Shocking that I didn't explore and embrace John E Vistic's sonic charms years ago. After all, he has rubbed shoulders, collaborated and generally been a creative force for good alongside so many artists that have been close to my heart, some for longer than I care to mention. People... Continue Reading →
It is usual to glance through the list of bands influences and inspirations and see the same worn out and over-cooked role-call of artists, a list that usually has more to do with what a band would like to sound like than the music that they make. It is wonderfully refreshing, therefore, to come across... Continue Reading →
When I was handed this album, I was told it was punk. When it came to writing this review I had all of these smart references lined up, Sex Pistols, Ramones, The Clash, they all got a mention. I had a superb review written and then, like a shake of the head from fate, I... Continue Reading →
Depending on how you view such things punk is either one of two things. Either it was a time and a place, a musical event that can be marked with a cross on the timeline of musical history, something that is now only accessed by the shockwaves it set in motion. Or it is an... Continue Reading →
The more things change the more they say the same. That’s what they say isn’t it? And in Tough on Fridays' world, a lot is changing but so much is also business as usual. Katie may have left the band to pursue a different, you might even say more normal lifestyle, but main songwriter Caleigh... Continue Reading →
There is something immediately likeable about Kansas City rockers Pedaljets, there is a directness and punch that accompanies their music, and once heard, it’s difficult to ignore. On first listen you’re transported to another time, to another decade in another city where CBGB’s was the go-to place and bands like The Ramones, The Stooges, Blondie... Continue Reading →
With a title of Dirty Little Thing, you sort of know what to expect going into this song. Old school rock and roll, cheeky lyrics, low-slung guitars, crashing riffs…a good time song about a good time girl. And that is exactly what you get. What you don’t expect though, given that this isn’t exactly new... Continue Reading →
Cultural historians and academics of the sonic arts will tell you that rock and roll never really grew up. Devotees of the form will tell you that it never felt the need to. Country music may have forged its sound around three chords and the truth, but rock and roll was always happy to get... Continue Reading →
Why beat around the bush when you can get straight to the point? It saves a lot of time right? And that seems to be the ethic behind Elizabeth the Second's approach as they let loose their debut release upon the world. We have already encountered opener and first single No One Cares so we... Continue Reading →
Echoglass has always proved to be very chameleon-like when it comes to genres and musical styles, equally able to deliver spacious indie soundscapes as they are R.E.M. style alt-rock. Latest single Hard not only sits towards the latter end of that sonic spectrum but pushes even further into the boisterous and rocky territory beyond. Guitars... Continue Reading →
It’s a neat trick if you can do it. Taking a sound that is already familiar, that people can easily relate to and changing it just enough to make it appealing to a whole new audience. But that is, essentially, what Mark Henes does on Strip Me Down. It echoes with the sound of such... Continue Reading →
As a calling card for their debut release, the wonderfully named Two Margaritas at The Fifty Five, Elizabeth the Second have sent a swaggering, attitude-drive, groovesome slice of aggressive indie rock out into the world. Following a line back through the naughties and nineties, tipping their hats to The Libertines, The Datsuns and The Strokes, it... Continue Reading →
Whilst some bands try to write music with an eye to influencing the future and others seem happy to plunder the past, A G E N T seem more than content to live in the moment both musically and, in the case of this track, lyrically. They feel like the most natural progression of everything... Continue Reading →
Where some artists seem to revel in making music out of “sugar and spice and all things nice”, as the saying goes, Rod Hamdallah weaves a sonic design out of much more bruised and brooding elements. There is a time and a place for the sugar rush of the former but nine times out of... Continue Reading →
Not wanting to shoot my literary load right off the bat, that’s a grim sounding mixed metaphor if ever there was one, but this might be the most perfect slice of punked out, sleazy garage rock ’n'roll I have heard in a long time. But then it was always going to tick quite a few... Continue Reading →
As someone who spends their time scribbling about grassroots, underground and left field music, I tend to have a fairly good feel for the music that lands in my review pile, even before hearing a single note. A combination of the artwork, the title, the label or PR company who sent it or just the... Continue Reading →
There is a real art to making music at the pop rock collision point. Veer too far one way and you find yourself engrossed in foot on the monitor cliche, lean the other and you are in danger of sacrificing integrity and construction for a lightweight sugar rush, a quick fix soon forgotten. But like... Continue Reading →
Punk wasn’t built in a day, but it probably didn’t take the whole weekend. And this is the attitude that lies at the heart of A G E N T’s music, get the job done and then get the hell out of there. Fuck This Noise, a typically uncompromising statement of intent, is the sound... Continue Reading →
Advance releases should act as a teaser, a sonic signpost to a forth-coming bigger release, a taste of things to come. And on the face of it that is exactly what Stop Talking was in regards to this album as it landed in the review pile only a few days previous. But it is a... Continue Reading →
Guitar music has to walk some pretty fine lines. Take rock music for example, there isn’t much daylight between a cool guitar-slinger with all the chops and swagger and a cliched buffoon with his foot on the monitor shouting “Hello Cleveland” at a stadium audience. Similarly for every 100 indie bands busily checking its hair... Continue Reading →
As much as I love intricate, sweeping and clever music, sometimes you can’t beat a low slung guitar, a basic proto-punk-blues beat and some stripped back lyrics. And it doesn’t get more stripped backed than Leathers. Four songs, two guys and pretty much one groove. All four songs found on this eponymous ep seem variations... Continue Reading →
Man, that riff! You can’t beat a low-slung, scattergun blast of straight and honest garage rock of the sort that might have lured you into a club on the Lower East Side sometime around ’78. It growls, it grooves and it echos with the ghosts of the greats of blues, rock’n’roll and punk. The advantage... Continue Reading →
This may be their first album for eight years but as soon as Bothering Me’s boisterous Hollywood Brats style musical swagger starts emanating from the speakers, it seems like they have never been away. How quickly we fall back into line, them delivering acid-laced raucous garage rock and us lapping up every second of it. ... Continue Reading →
Hound Gawd! Records is set to release the new Morlocks album titled, Bring On The Mesmeric Condition, internationally on August 31st, 2018 (LP, CD and digital, formats). The band was founded by Leighton Koizumi, singer for San Diego’s most outrageous garage rock revival band, Gravedigger V. Through break-ups, break downs, personnel changes, changing cities and... Continue Reading →
You can break out all the musical tricks, all the studio gimmickry, you can revisit, re-invent, re-brand, re-package, carry torches, build songs around nostalgia and familiarity, but it doesn’t count for anything unless you have one thing. Authenticity. If you wear that hat then you can do what you want. Walter Lure has that in... Continue Reading →
Music historians will tell you that Punk, in its original form, evolved from two separate sources. In America, the nucleus was a New York scene of garage rock bands, musical hustlers and street urchins, in the UK bored London art college kids re-appropriated glam imagery and invented their own high velocity pop. Their common ground... Continue Reading →
In such an interconnected age as today, I’m surprised more bands don’t realise that just making music is limiting your appeal and that the best approach is a multi-pronged media attack. Okay, many deliver their music with a video to create a pincer movement of audio and images but far too few put out their... Continue Reading →
As one of those jaded journo’s that you always hear about, I guess I’m always looking to fit music into easy pigeon-holes, to stick a label on it and keep things in nice tidy demarcated genres. That said, some of the most interesting music to write about is the sort of thing that isn’t easy... Continue Reading →
Death by Unga Bunga have released their raucous new single 'Cynical' and described the song as 'filled with fuzz-fuelled twin guitars and intergalactic synthesizers that will have you wishing you were riding in Elon Musk’s space-car with this catchy tune on full blast!' The track is taken from their upcoming album 'So Far, So Good, So Cool' that is... Continue Reading →
