Chicago rock trio The DifferentsBlack Operator have made a video for their latest single "Small, a track from their It's All Too Beautiful. album: "Old school craftmanship is flowing through their veins. Heartfelt, blue-collar music that deserves to be played at top volume in bars who go against the grain by hosting live shows to entertain their clientele.".
Due so the Corona Virus precautions each band member filmed their part in their own home.
When Lexytron started recording the songs for her debut album Something Blue she was living in Manchester, but about half way she packed up her things and moved to Auckland in New Zealand. The new environment did not change her outlook on life that much and her "alternative girl's guide to love, loss and lust" is a coherent psych-pop album, upbeat with razor-sharp observations about in being your early twenties: lovers walking out, betrayal, feeling lonely when the world is dancing around and of course the Couples parading their new found happiness in front of her eyes.
Her training as a classical violinist and pianist came in handy and there are plenty of bits and pieces in her songs that get the listener on the wrong foot in a good way. Check the intricate arrangements for The Veil Of Veronica and In The Box. Lexytron has found her voice on the first try, a debut that is filled to the rafters with talent and a sardonic sense of humour.
An unreleased Rory Gallagher radio appearance will be released for Record Store Day (June 20) October 24. The recordings was recently found on a small 7” reel.
We're pleased to announce the ‘Cleveland Calling’ LP. This intimate 8 song acoustic session and interview, recorded at WNCR in Cleveland in 1972, is released for the first time specially for Record Store Day.
SIDE A:
1. Pistol Slapper Blues 2. Don't Know Where I'm Going 3. Gypsy Woman 4. Out Of My Mind
SIDE B:
1. The Cuckoo 2. Bankers Blues 3. Should've Learned My Lesson 4. Blow Wind Blow
B&W cover. 3000 copies.
Watch the Amanda Palmer video for her cover of the Nirvana classic Polly. She recorded it in 2012 with The Grand Theft Orchestra. The track is available on Bandcamp (pay-what-you-want).
English instrumental prog experimentalists The Fierce & The Dead have posted a video of them performing Flint @ RoSFest in Gettysburg, PA, a track from their album Live USA 17: "Hitting the Americans over the head with post-rockers like Spooky Action and the towering power of Truck and soothing them with the pastoral The Wait and a superb rendition of the complex Andy Fox they build their set like a classic English mansion: balanced, yet with plenty of hidden rooms and weird details".
HCTF review of Live USA 17.
I lost my innocence with Johnny Cash. I used to watch the 'Johnny Cash Show' on television in Wangaratta when I was about 9 or 10 years old. At that stage I had really no idea about rock n' roll. I watched him, and from that point I saw that music could be an evil thing - a beautiful, evil thing.
Nick Cave
Italian psychedelic post-punk band Stolen Apple are based in Florence, a city that is considered to be ground zero for the Renaissance, when humankind finally got out of the Middle Ages - from darkness back to the light basically. They are more interested in what is hiding in the shadows, picking subjects like Suicide and Out of Fashion that are very much part of life, whether people like it or not. Harsh, distorted guitars, alternating with quiet interludes, give their songs a captivating edge. The sole ballad A Looking Behind Kid offers the listener a change to catch its breath, before the hectic rocker Tattoo kicks in.
Wagon Songs is dark and dangerous. Stolen Apple don't want to put listeners at ease, but overpower them with crashing waves of monolithic riffs. Recommended if you like Muse and The Jesus and Mary Chain.
Gregory Curvey has come up with the aptly titled Quarantyne, a new single by his project Custard Flux. It's a sad, neo-psychedelic song about social distancing and feeling lonely. Curvey played acoustic guitar, bowed acoustic guitar, and harmonium.
Denver Balkan folk inspired band DeVotchKa have made a video for Done With Those Days, a track from their This Night Falls Forever album.
The song warns of a metaphorical storm baring down on a small town and the people who call it home. Nature is the great equalizer when she brings her wrath, like the current storm we are in, only that which really matters comes into sharp focus.
A smooth song about feeling down can hurt even more than screaming in agony and indie band Little Grim followed that recipe for their new single Mercy. Singer Joe Murphy took a long, hard look at his life and added the shallowness of all the happy-go-lucky people on social media to write scathing lyrics as a counterpoint to the New Romantics-alike music. Dressing up for depression is the prerogative for the young and the London based quartet pull it off with flying colours.
Jack Poels, the leader of Dutch Americana band Rowwen Hèze, goes solo for the very time with Blauwe Vear, an album that got kickstarted by a major event in his life: his son left the house for his first big trip to Korea. As a parent hew knew that he should be supportive of this endeavour, but of course he worried a lot, pacing around the house. As a musician he put his hopes and fears into an album. In a change of pace from the Tex-Mex and polka commonly associated with his band, he slowed things down considerably with just his guitar and voice as the main instruments. Multi-instrumentalist BJ Baartmans served as co-producer and one-man band playing - wait for it - electric guitar, acoustic guitar, 12-string acoustic guitar, resonator guitar, mandolin, bouzouki, banjo, piano, bass guitar, percussion, and harmonica as well handling the backing vocals.
When Poels found a feather (Blauwe Vear) of an Eurasian jay on his way to his recording studio it served as a catalyst for writing the songs for the album. As per usual he sings in the Limburg dialect, the language of his native province. Following the folk tradition of telling stories he kept it close to home, with a song about drinking way too much in the bar, although that seemed like a good idea at the time (Kermis in de hel) and using the clock of the church in his village as a landmark (Elf oaver elf). He cannot help but wondering how that little boy transformed into a grown man almost overnight. The first track of the album, In de achtertuin, sums it up perfectly: he just want to pick up the conversation in his backyard, while he tries to act cool and in control, but feeling immensely relieved that he offspring has made it safe back home.
Dutch blues rock quartet Black Operator have unveiled a split screen video for their latest single Desolation Blues, a track from their self-titled debut album: "low strung swamp rock (...) the kind that grew out the marshes in Louisiana and Tennessee: growling, distorted, and scary in all the right places".
Because of the corona virus precautions each band member filmed their part in their own home.
HCTF review of Black Operator
Los Angeles based art pop quartet Walker Brigade have just released the double-header single No b/w Fallout as part of Big Stir Records Digital Singles Series. Both tracks are gnarly and raw. Imagine the Pixies having a party, with things getting out of hand in a good way when the Stooges join in. Lead singer Tracy Walker refuses to back down and manages to be heard clearly, which is nog mean feat when the band is playing up a storm and firing on all cylinders. Both tracks will be included on the Big Stir Singles: The Sixth Wave album.
Walker Brigade:
Tracy Walker: vocals, guitar
Mark Fletcher: bass, vocals
Craig Tyrka: drums
Jeff Walker: guitar, vocals
To commemorate it 40th anniversary the classic Motörhead single Ace of Spades with its orginal B-side "Dirty Love will be reissued for Record Store Day (June 20) as a limited edition 12" shaped picture disc (4000 copies).
Watch Chris and Rich Robinson (The Black Crowes) play three songs for a NPR Tiny Desk Concert.
Outlaw country rockers The Rev make dreams come true on their new single Girl Like That. It's an old trick to tell a story and - suprise! - it all has been a dream, but they turned the tables on that concept. The woman who always seems to be so close, only just of reach, is real. In fact, she is sleeping next to the singer who can't believe his luck. No wonder that band leader and songwriter Eric Meyers was inspired to write this heartfelt love song with a twist.
English bluesy folk singer Natalie Bouloudis finds her way back to the light on her new single Expand. She did some serious soul-searching, questioning the bad choices she made in the past, but now she is looking ahead again, coming out of her shell and telling the world she is here to stay. It's a slow song, with her vocals sharing the spotlights with Luke Waterfield's soothing violin.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Band of Gypsys album a special Jimi Hendrix 7" single with two of the album's tracks . Message To Love and Changes, will be released on for Record Store Day (September 26th). Red and yellow splattered vinyl. 10000 copies.
The album itself will be reissued on March 27 "on 180-gram audiophile black vinyl by Quality Record Pressings, along with a limited color pressing on 180-gram translucent cream, red, yellow and green swirl vinyl".
Now that his Dutch tour is cancelled, French pop noir singer Lian Ray will be playing his album Rose in full from the comfort of his own home. The Social Distancing Tour can be streamed via his Instagram on March 24th, 26th and 29th at 8pm CET (Amsterdam Time):
I will play my album Rose in full, in its original order, acoustic live from my apartment - with the help of some mellotron samples and backing tracks to have it as close as possible to the original.
This is going to be very special and I look forward to romance you all through these congested fiberoptic pipes. (thank you Netflix).
HCTF review of Rose.
English instrumental prog experimentalists The Fierce & The Dead have posted a video of them performing Andy Fox @ RoSFest in Gettysburg, PA, a track from their album Live USA 17: "Hitting the Americans over the head with post-rockers like Spooky Action and the towering power of Truck and soothing them with the pastoral The Wait and a superb rendition of the complex Andy Fox they build their set like a classic English mansion: balanced, yet with plenty of hidden rooms and weird details".
HCTF review of Live USA 17.
London based fuzzy shoegaze quartet Honey Lung added a cheesy but highly keyboards to their musical palette on their new single Juggle. It's a snarling song about folks who are trying to keep it together, while fulfilling required expectations: sex, a job, kids and such. Singer Jamie Batten adopts the role of the text book outsider, looking on in horror and feeling hurt.
Microplaza, an off-kilter indie pop project by Dutch musicians Benjamin van Vliet (Microwolf) and Arno Breuer (Pino Plaza, Sven Agaath), will release their second EP, We'll Never Fit In This Poem Together, on 7" vinyl (very limited - 30 copies) on Tiny Room Records. This duo does not sound like any other act, or more accurately a dozen others acts at the same time. They made a video for the lead single Through The Fabric.
A gentleman is someone who can play the accordion, but doesn't.
Tom Waits
After completing his magnum opus The Record Collector Canadian power pop singer and multi-instrumentalist Bill Majoros went back to the drawing board to contemplate his next move for his The Foreign Films project. After some head scratching it resulted in Ocean Moon (New Songs and Hidden Gems), a concept album with new songs and a couple of previously released ones about love and a longing for an era before he was born. Majoros is a big fan of the melodic pop of the Sixties and Seventies, with the Beatles (especially the George Harrison stuff), the Zombies, the Beach Boys, CSNY and Big Star as the most obvious references.
He dances with his girl in the jukebox light in Dream With Me Tonight, pretending that it is 1964, a time when the world appeared to painted in TechniColor, and string arrangements added a glow to pop songs. Majoros likes to look up to the sky, looking for a sense of perspective and being a bit envious of the Birds In A Blue Sky. He can't believe his luck, having a woman by side that he is madly in love with (Under Your Spell).
French dark wave band Deleyaman have made a video for Evil, a track from their latest album Sentinel: "With birds whistling softly as the intro for the first tracks Exil the album unfolds slowly, like a chrysalis in slow motion. The orchestrated psych pop in Keep the Light and the pastoral Electric Sky lead to the two reinventions of a smattering of their favourite poets: De Roses Vermeilles by Gérard de Nerval and The Valley in an inventive coupling of poems by Winifred M. Lets and Arthur Gorges, an intriguing maze without a road map. Brendan Perry (Dead Can Dance) lends a band on the latter track, playing cimbalom, bouzouki and drums."
The video was edited by William DeBagio, using images from MI Archives.
HCTF review of Sentinel.
Jack Poels, the leader of Dutch Americana band Rowwen Hèze, will release his debut solo album Blauwe Vear ("Blue Feather) on March 27. When he picked up a feather of an Eurasian jay on his way to his recording studio it served as a catalyst for writing the songs for the album. The title track draws comparisons between this bird's flying skills and his son's first big trip to Korea. As parent he encouraged him to do so, but now that he is actually gone, a sense of doubt crept in. The video was made by Rob Hodselmans.
LA based rock trio PLNT9 have been lying low for awhile, but now they are back and they come out swinging with a new single, On Your Own. It's an in-your-face rocker, shouting at a world that doesn't seem to care. This slice of bottled anger was produced and mixed by Fox Fagan, who receives an A+ for dynamics and separation.
On Your Own serves as a taster for their debut EP Orbiter, out on April 3.
Italian alt-rock/psychedelic band Earthset were invited to create a soundtrack for the silent film L'Uomo Meccanico. Released in 1921 the movie is a prime sample of experimental Dystopian sci-fi cinema. No complete prints of this story about a murderous robot ("The Mechanical Man") and its successor that was build to beat him have survived. It is regarded as a lost classic and a big influence on the far better known Fritz Lang's movie Metropolis that came out in 1927.
Performing live to stay in sync with the footage the transfer to the 21st century went smoothly. Following the eight chapters the band uses recurring themes for the portrayed characters and its gets quite intense and harsh when the original robot joins the dark side. The guitars is alternate between early Seventies prog and Nineties metal, while the bass leans to New Wave and the drums could be labeled as grunge. The album is perfectly suited to be enjoyed as a stand-alone piece of art. Hopefully they can resume touring with the simultaneous screening of the movie. Created a century apart these two versions L'Uomo Meccanico deserve a worldwide audience made up of film buffs and adventurous music fans.
Watch the new video for Little Bit Sweet The Wood Brothers, a track from their latest album Kingdom In My Mind. Gary Dorsey created the clip for the American roots trio, using vintage Footage and a bit from a live performance of the song provided by at KCPT in Kansas City, MO.
Hard-hitting Chicago blues rock quartet The Steepwater Band will release their seventh studio album "Turn of the Whee on April 24th via their own label Diamond Day Records (vinyl, CD, digital). Available for pre-order here.
Luke DeLalio tells the story of how he tried to make sense of Eddie Kramer's mic set-up for getting a great drum sound:
If you don’t know who Eddie Kramer is… he recorded Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin — enough said, right? In the late 60’s, using maybe four microphones, a pair of compressors and whatever EQ was on the console at that time — we are not talking about sweepable parametric eq’s or anything like that — think high and low shelving and that’s it — Eddie Kramer managed to invent rock drum sounds. And rock guitar sounds.
Watch Dutch avant-electro pop acts Pocket Knife Army and LIJO perform live @ Qbus in Leiden, The Netherlands. Recorded on February 15 for 4themusic.nl, a local TV show run by volunteers.
Dutch rockers De Staat have made a video for Phoenix, a track from their latest studio album Bubble Gum. It's a dark song, inspired by global warming. Shooting started at the time when parts of Australia were devastated by fire.
Manchester-born indie singer Lexytron now lives in New Zealand and headed out to the beach to make the video for Blue, his first proper love song that appears to end well, although she could not resists a bit of wordplay. It is a track from her debut album Something Blue, scheduled for release on March 20 via Persian Punk Records.
HCTF review of Tell The Vein.
John Cale performed at the Nublu Jazz Festival in São Paulo, Brasil - March 14, 2020. Note: unconfirmed setlist.
The band:
John Cale: vocals, electric guitar, keyboards
Dustin Boyer: lead guitar, samples
Joey Maramba: bass
Deantoni Parks: drums, samples
Setlist:
Dutch retro-pop band Donna Blue paid a visit to the Paste Studio @ The Manhattan Center on March in New York on March 12 and played three songs: Sunset Blvd, Get Away, and Desert Lake.
HCTF review of Inbetween EP.
Los Angeles songwriter Aaron Beckum only needs a guitar and his voice to tell compelling tales on his new album Songs From A Triangle Room. As a director and composer of music for short films and commercials he knows how to get to the point within the space of a couple of minutes or less. He is a keen observer, with a sharp eye for the absurdities of his surroundings. He wrote Airport Cemetery Blues after spotting a graveyard nearby an airstrip and he turned it into a song people about trying to escape, only to be pulled back to the inevitable end. Flowers In The Vase is a contender for this year's best break-up song, scrolling through to the photos that his ex has posted on social media, concluding that "Your selfie has taken my place" and "You put me on the shelf, next to flowers dead in the vase."
Beckham apparently apparently has some issues with the ubiquitousness of smartphone use in general. In Born Forlorn he contemplates the possibility of throwing it into the toilet: "flush it out to the deep blue sea and I let it settle on the bottom of the ocean. And you can send me texts I'll never see". He tries to drown his sorrow in a Whiskey Pyramid, holed up in the triangle room that became the title for superb collection of lo-fi folk songs.
Doctor Who fans rejoice: Demon Records will release the narrated full-cast TV soundtrack of the legendary historical adventure The Massacre of Bartholomew’s Eve for Record Store Day (June 20):
The Massacre is the lost fourth serial of the third season of Doctor Who, which starred William Hartnell as the First Doctor in BBC series Doctor Who. In this 4-part serial, first shown on BBC TV in February 1966, the TARDIS materialises in Paris in 1572, a time of great danger and religious strife. The Catholic Queen Mother, Catherine de Medici, is hatching a plot to kill all French Protestants, and the Doctor and Steven are quickly caught up in events. While Steven is befriended by a group of Protestants, the Doctor has a perfect double in the shape of the hated dignitary, the Abbot of Amboise. One of them is about to lose his life!
I’ve tried several pedals over the years. My first was a DeArmond tone and volume pedal – straight up and down was the volume, side to side the tone. Swing to the left and you’ve taken all the top off, to the right and take all the bass end off, and by doing a circular motion with the foot, coming from a bit more bass heavy, top light, not anywhere close to a wah-wah, but just starting with the tone you’re finishing on, gives you a sort of ‘mwah, mwah’, quite a nice effect.
Hank Marvin
French singer-songwriter Lian Ray's new album Rose is based on a true story: his own life, with a love lost and regained, going down the drain with crippling substance abuse, endless delays and coming close to abandoning the project altogether more than once. Recorded in 2013 it finally sees the light of day and it has been well worth the wait: glorious pastoral pop noir that has the power to comfort and transcend.
Ray shines with new found confidence, still fragile, but in control now that he reunited with the love of his life. Rose served as his means of therapy, quite painful at times facing his demons, but with a Hollywood ending that seemed impossible when he started out.
Record Store Day has a new date. due to the Corona virus crisis it has been moved from April 18 to June 20:
We’ve decided that the best of all possible moves is to change the date of Record Store Day this year to Saturday, June 20.
We think this gives stores around the world the best chance to have a profitable, successful Record Store Day, while taking into consideration the recommendations of doctors, scientists, the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control, and the need to be good citizens of both local and worldwide communities.
Progressive jazz-rock band quartet Marbin are hitting the road for a lengthy tour. Most of the stuff will be brand new, but they may play compositions from their latest album Strong Thing: "The Chicago based band don't follow the album + promo tour format, but hit the road with a fresh stacks of material that is road tested and perfected along the way. Only then they enter the studio to replicate the live experience. Sharing a love for improvisation Marbin are an outfit that keeps reinventing and experimenting".
Steven Wilson will release his new album The Future Bites on June 12th. Lead single Personal Shopper is a sprawling piece of electro prog, taking a swipe at rampant commercialism, with an on point spoken word interlude delivered by Elton John.
Rock act Kleenex Girl Wonder burst upon the scene with their sprawling lo-fi garage debut album Ponyoak in 1999. An expanded reissue, with a nice stack of bonus tracks handpicked by the band's songwriter and lead singer Graham Smith, saw this long out--of-print gem making a comeback for its 20th anniversary. Listen to Take My Heart and Rub It, a fuzz-heavy mid-tempo rocker with ear-worm potential. Keep in my mind that it was recorded in a single dorm room in Madison, WI. Warts and all it is a piece of bare bones DIY college rock
Ponyoak is released on their own Reesonable Records label (vinyl, digital).
» Kleenex Girl Wonder on Facebook
HCTF review of White Lacuna.
Another archival Phish release is available for streaming and download: 11/12/94 MAC Center at Kent State University, Kent, OH :
November 12, 1994 Phish returned to The Buckeye State to play the Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center (aka MAC Center) on the Kent State University campus in Kent, Ohio. The MAC Center is a 1950’s wood-floored gymnasium with a storied music history including performances by Duke Ellington, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Bob Dylan and CSNY. When Phish landed at Kent State in 1994, they were in the midst of a 46-date, nationwide fall tour following the release of their fifth studio album, Hoist. The fall shows were recorded on multitrack for what would become A Live One. Kent State ’94 was a Saturday night – Phish’s first show back after a week off and the first major concert in the newly-renovated MAC Center. Kent State students had voted for Phish in an All Campus Programming Board band survey. Tickets cost $18.00 and the show was sold out.
To commemorate the 30th anniversary of Songs for Drella, the touching tribute to Andy Warhol by Lou Reed and John Cale will be reissued as a 45rpm 2LP for Record Store Day (April 18 June 20). The set is pressed on audiophile, heavyweight vinyl and includes an etching on Side 4. Limited to 8500 copies worldwide.
Jazz Is PHSH, the collective led by Adam and Matthew Chase, will be on the road in April. As the name suggest they play Phish songs, reinventing them as jazz music. This works quite well on stage and their sole album He Never Spoke a Word is worth seeking out: "They show some restraint, perusing tension and release, to get low down dirty funky in Foam and 46 Days, while sticking closer to the originals during Camel Walk and Magilla. Jazz Is PHSH are able to switch from monochrome to full HD colour, making He Never Spoke a Word far more than just a tribute album".
Richard Knutson, American avant-garde musician, succumbed to Motor Neuron Disease yesterday. He head been diagnosed in June last year and kept working on new music until the very end, recording with Colin Robinson, the English half of Churn Milk Joan. Their last album I'm Nearly 60 Miles High was a challenge to record, with the use of his muscles deteriorating on account of his incurable disease. A unique musician and visual artist who could turn mild-mannered eccentricity into art.
HCTF review of I'm Nearly 60 Miles High.
Two releases by The Who for Record Store Day (April 18 June 20). The first one, A Quick Live One, features their complete set @ Monterey Pop Festival on June 18, 1967. They barreled through six songs within half an hour:
1. A Quick One While He's Away / 2. Substitute / 3. Happy Jack / 4.Summertime Blues / 5. My Generation / 6. Pictures Of Lily
This running order as listed on the Record Store Day site is way off. If the front cover is an indication the folks of The Monterey International Pop Festival Foundation did not fuck it up on the album itself. Actual setlist:
1 Substitute / 2. Summertime Blues / 3. Pictures of Lily / 4. A Quick One (While He's Away) / 5. Happy Jack / 6. My Generation
Red/white/blue striped vinyl. 6500 copies.
Alt-country singer Eilen Jewell will be on tour in Australia & New Zealand this month. Ater a short break it's business as usual with a bunch of shows in the States.
Australia & New Zealand:
Ever wondered what Paul Weller would have sounded like wearing dancing shoes, with Eddie Van Halen joining in for an old school guitar solo? English punk rock disco quintet Be Quiet. Shout Loud! are the kind of band that has "good times" written all over them in capital letters.
Their new single ('Til The Weekend) Comes Round Again will be released on March 20 (pre-save here), but can already be streamed below. These guys are loud, in-your-face, providing a fist-pumping anthem to forget all about the boredom of a dead-end job, school or anything that makes life a drag.
Barcelona based singer-songwriter Daniel Ruiz has a knack for writing sad love songs. His latest is called A Little Song for You and while it starts out as a happy tale, the protagonist ends up lonely - and quite possibly mad: "So now I find myself in darkness, where I can’t see the orchids bloom // Locked up in some maniac’s basement, chained to a replica of the Moon // In each crater there’s a mirror and she lights some candles every noon // Brings me food almost every Wednesday, except for when I ask about // You".
Ruiz played piano and a bit of keyboards to add texture, his voice almost a drawl. Saxophone player Arnau Abadal comes in near the end, with a choice late jazz solo.
English progressive guitarist Tom Walding has released Ceremonious Synapses (ii), another single from his forthcoming album Realm by his one-man project The Bloody Mallard. He explores the subject of neural pathways and behaviours within the human brain, an ambitious concept he managed to pull off with an eclectic array of chord progressions. The video was directed and filmed by Kevin Dawson.
Dutch duo Geminga play an unusual mix of electronics and jazz. Jean-Paul Pino and Claudia Cathérine are always game for trying something new, so when Cathérine's uncle Sjax de Bekker came by with a huge stack of songs wondering if any those would be of interest to them to record. They picked five of them and rearranged them for a 5-track EP. The concept itself is pretty straightforward: bookended by a songs about having breakfast (Het Ontbijt) and preparing for bed (Bedtijd), the other three tracks focus on mundane and bigger questions that come to mind during the day.
As a philosopher Claudia Cathérine knows all about questioning things and sometimes the answer is simply Daarom ("that's why"). Jean-Paul Pino provides dreamy trumpet flourishes, a far cry from the glaring, military tone that this instrument is often associated with. Geminga's knack for exploring the back roads of downtempo music are a perfect fir for De Bakker's lyrical wanderings. Further exploration of this collaboration should not be a problem. De Bekker wrote 300 songs so far and picking a few for a follow-up release should be fun.
English instrumental prog experimentalists The Fierce & The Dead have posted a video of them performing TrucK @ RoSFest in Gettysburg, PA, a track from their album Live USA 17: "Hitting the Americans over the head with post-rockers like Spooky Action and the towering power of Truck and soothing them with the pastoral The Wait and a superb rendition of the complex Andy Fox they build their set like a classic English mansion: balanced, yet with plenty of hidden rooms and weird details".
I'll admit that writing doesn't always come, but I'm totally against walking around looking at the sky when you're experiencing a block, waiting for inspiration to strike you. Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov didn't like each other and agreed on very few things, but they were of one opinion on this: you had to write constantly. If you can't write a major work, write minor trifles. If you can't write at all, orchestrate something.
Dmitri Shostakovich
Amsterdam based Two Too Many have two hometown shows coming up, gibing them the opportunity to punch some eardrums with the songs form their self-titled debut album; ""With riffs galore and not taking themselves too seriously - the reality check of Worse Things Have Happened (To Much Better People) pretty much sums it up - Two Too Many is a band that can get a crowd into a good mood and singing along to the Stones inspired This Is How We Roll and grooving to the nasty boogie of Head To Toe. Not a ballad in sight, except maybe the first few bars of Call The Boatman, where Charon is summoned to make the trip to the underworld.
Gregory Curvey has posted the instrumental Indian Ocean Road, one of the six tracks on the bonus CD that will be included with the vinyl version of his latest album Echo by his project Custard Flux:
Indian Ocean Road was inspired by a long drive down the western coast of Australia, near Perth, and features the harpsichord that I've just restored, the 1890s Harmonium, and my Echoplexed Gibson Flying V, and Timothy Prettyman on Double Bass. The artwork is by Gregory Chamberlin.
Bill McClintock made a mashup of James Brown and Motörhead: Super Bad + Overkill = Superkill. Want more? His YouTube channel has lots of them.
Dutch singer Mone has a unique vocal delivery that is part jazz, part folk and part cabaret. Her debut single Crocodile Kisses is a lyrical maze that will be way too much for a casual listener, but her poetic imagery has an internal logic that reveals itself slowly. It is the title track from her forthcoming debut album, due for release via the Berlin collective The Famous Gold Watch Records.
The video was directed by Jaime Molleda & Floor Milou Smit.
The idea behind the Digital Singles Series by the folks at Californian power pop label Big Stir Records was quite simple: every Friday a band from their roster or a like-minded boutique company catering to that niche (Kool Kat Musik, SpyderPop Records, Karma Frog Music and their partners at Futureman Records) releases two songs. After awhile those singles are rounded up for a CD with all the artists' A-sides, followed by the B-sides. The Fifth Wave is the latest edition and it's a jukebox chock full of goodies.
The GoAllTheWays get the party started with Silly Girl, a melodic pop song that has Summer written all over it. As a contrast Saturday Show by Mod Hippie is a mid-Sixties garage rocker. Power pop as a genre reached a peak in the Seventies and The Tor Guides connected all the dots in the correct order for Just A Smile, a song on a par with Big Star and Badfinger. English It's Karma It's Cool's neo-psych song Wooden Buddha brings well-crafted eccentricity to the table. The Armoires, the band fronted by label owners Christina Bulbenko and Rex Broome, make fun of themselves with the violin driven folk rocker Pushing Forty.
After releasing two self-titled 3-track EP's Dutch retro-pop duo Donna Blue are stretching out a bit with Inbetween, a collection of five songs. The two preceding singles, the haunting story of a former lover turned stalker Billy and the Henry James inspired Desert Lake already hinted at s slighter darkr mood. Danique van Kesteren and Bart van Dalen have come out of their bubble to look at the world and they found there is trouble in Paradis (sung in French).
Sadness and loneliness have found their way into their music, but they have retained the lush arrangements and soft-spoken vocals. It makes the underlying message even more gripping. The mixed emotions reach a peak in the title track, captured in a mix of surf, country and doo-wop.
John Cale is on the bill of the Doune The Rabbit Hole in Port of Menteith, Stirling (July 17-19). Exact date and more details TBA.
Relix has put up the Wetlands Preserved Documentary: The Story of an Activist Rock Club on YouTube. It premiered in 2006 and made the rounds on the film festival circuit before a theatrical release in select theaters in Los Angeles and New York.
Archival footage, soundboard recordings and the work of a dozen digital animators help to relate the story of celebrated Tribeca nightclub Wetlands Preserve. The venue gave an early home to artists such as Phish, Dave Matthews Band, Blues Traveler, Spin Doctors, Widespread Panic, The Roots, moe., Gov’t Mule, Guster, 311, Robert Randolph, Soulive, The Disco Biscuits, all of whom appear in the film along with Bob Weir, Derek Trucks, Oteil Burbridge, Joe Russo, Darius Rucker and many others. Wetlands was not solely a music venue, as the club simultaneously supported a social and environmental activism center.
Dutch electronic pop duo Pocket Knife Army teamed up with drummer an Pohl for "one new song each month" challenge. Drowning Is Not An Option is disturbing, harsh and catchy in one big swoop. Desirée Coumans and Erwin Tuijl throw in a couple of joyful notes during the instrumental break, but leave it to the listener to guess if the protagonist makes it safe to the shore. The clip was filmed by Jesse Immanuel Bom at Pohl's Okapi Recordings studio in Rotterdam.
English quartet Voodoo Bandits are a bit early with an upbeat song for a glorious Spring day, but Empty Swimming Pool covers all the bases of catchy indie rock with a pop twist. The lyrics don't make much sense, but according to songwriter Ben Donaldson may have something to do with the fact that his dog was trying to help him out. Counter culture imagery and having trouble to make definite decisions pop up every now and then. The interaction between the band's two guitarists is spot on, with the rhythm section egging them on and commandeering the spotlights themselves.
Dutch DIY rock band The Covenant take their rock opera trilogy The Story Of Bloody S. Cash on the road again. It is a story without a Hollywood ending -a far cry from the shit cover bands that bars advertise as live music to sell beer to their clientele.
Live dates:
