English musician Jonathan Stolber, former frontman of To Bury A Ghost, sees light at the end on Coming Up For Air, the new single about his mental health issues, by his project The Holy Road. Harsh industrial electronics collide with his vocals - think Nine Inch Nails having a party with Radiohead. It is all bleak and uncomfortable at first, but also alluring and dangerous. The song was mixed by Steven Durose (Oceansize) and mastered at Abbey Road by Frank Arkwright (Mogwai).
Dutch retro-pop duo Donna Blue have a couple of gigs lined up, including an appearance at the long running Rockpalast live music series on German TV. There might a couple of new songs in their set, but changes are that the bulk of the tracks will be from their latest EP Inbetween: "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."
Dutch-American roots duo Banty Holler have been working the pub circuit in The Hague for many years. Founder Neile H. Coe was born in the Chicago, before relocating to the Netherlands in the nineties. His current musical partner is Gijsbert Diteweg, a former student, and now making a living as a guitar teacher. For their new album Journeyman Songs, they go for an old school Americana vibe, with songs about being on the road in the States, falling in love (Clementine, Constantine), getting into trouble (Get Stupid!), and dealing with age (40).
Coe is a classic story teller, with a voice that urges the listener to pay attention. Diteweg can teach the pros in Nashville a thing or two about killing it on the dobro. Aided by a bunch of like-minded musicians Journeyman Songs is a record that will bring tears to the eyes of homesick Americans. The sole cover, the George Jones classic Color of the Blue, is played softly and respectully, as if they were afraid to mess it up. Changes are that they will sound more confident when they play it live.
NYC New Wave band Sorrows founder members Arthur Alexander (vocals, guitar), Joey Cola (vocals, guitar) tell the story of the making of Love Too Late... the real album. They got in a terrible row with their a label - who scrapped the parts on their second album and hired a couple of capable but faceless session players - and getting it right 40 years later. Entangling the legal mess required a lot of patience, but in the end they came out on top.
HCTF review of Love Too Late... the real album.
Phish
2021/08/29
Gorge Amphitheatre
George, WA
Watch the new Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds video for Vortex, a track from the forthcoming album B-Sides & Rarities II, due for release on October 22nd.
Phish
2021/08/28
Shoreline Amphitheatre
George, WA
Sound is what drives my solos, not verbal concepts, I never think 'I'm going to use a Lydian Dominant scale and then go up a half-step', even though that might be exactly what I end up doing.
John Scofield
Phish
2021/08/27
Gorge Amphitheatre
George, WA
Canadian power pop singer and multi-instrumentalist Bill Majoros is an incurable romantic. His new album Starlight Serenade by his project The Foreign Films serves as a companion piece for his previous full-length Ocean Moon (New Songs and Hidden Gems). His well of love songs never runs dry, and with the help of a beffy of superb musicians he has created a suite of orchestrated, transcendent psychedelica that will test the limits of the listener's audio setup.
The outside world might be in a flux, but he finds solace in the sparkling eyes of his loved one, serenading her with songs that are mix of the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Badfinger and Big Star (just to name the ones starting with a "B", but it goes all the way to "Z" for Zombies). His knack for melody and arranging are in full bloom, and his throws in musical teases as if they are going out of style. For starters: the most obvious one happens at the end of Many Moons Ago (Starlight Serenade).
Singer-songwriter Dave Keener has made a video for Internet of Things, a track from his forthcoming new album PTO: "The oddball rhythm smothers the bubbling frustration about a "smart" toaster and a fridge with a mind of its own. It is actually quite hilarious and it will strike a chord with fans of Jonathan Richman and They Might Giants". The clip was illustrated and animated by Lee Berman.
HCTF review of PTO.
Portsmouth pop trio Dutch Criminal Record are an optimistic bunch. Joe Delaney-Stone (vocals/guitar), Sam Thrussell (vocals/guitar), and Joe Frampton (drums) play the kind of jangling guitar songs that quintessentially English, with just a hint of surf thrown in so that it makes sense to States side people.
The tracks on their new EP, It's Gonna Be Okay, are soothing sunny-side up tunes that will get them playlisted a lot, with Hey Charlie and the title track as the most likely candidates. The more challenging tracks like the psychedelic Return To Dust and tongue-in-cheek 00's Nostalgia will resonate with fans Echo & the Bunnymen.
Dave Casey has made a video for Wedding Dress, a track from the Johnny Dowd album Cemetery Shoes. It is an amalgam of live footage, backstage shehanigans and, of course, dancing people.
Live dates:
Sander van Munster of Dutch indie folk project No Ninja Am I recorded two new, mostly acoustic, songs in his home studio. White Lies deals with people telling things that aren't true, but it will keep him and his loved ones safe. Playwrights echoes the same sentiment, using fiction as a way to cope with reality. Keeping up appearances is only human and Van Munster urges the listener to give him a break. As long as he does that with his tasteful guitar and spot on vocals he shouldn't be worried. Backing vocals were provided by Gijs Kerkhoven, Rens van den Boogaard and Chris Siegers
After a hiatus roots rockers Backyard Tire Fire returned to the stage in 2010 for a couple of shows. With original members Edward David Anderson and Matt Anderson in the line-up the music hasn't that much: melodic with a hint of country. The new single Alejandro Escovedo, inspired a rather weird meeting with the singer-guitarist (spoiler: it was in a dream), has a healthy dose of classic rock inspired guitar licks. Guest musician Adam Gardner is on board to add a couple of well-placed organ flourishes.
Canadian post-punk quintet Talleen take a swipe at rampant capitalism on their new single Economics. Channeling the sound of eighties darkwave they hammer home the message by building a dense wall of sound, with singer Alex Petersen on top of it, his voice coming close to a megaphone in need of repair. The video was made by Alex Ortiz (We Are Wolves).
Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, whose groove made the band rock and swing since he joined them in 1963, has died. Besides laying down the beat his art skills were put to good use for record sleeves and stage design. A statement from his agency: "It is with immense sadness that we announce the death of our beloved Charlie Watts. He passed away peacefully in a London hospital earlier today surrounded by his family."
Mick Jagger often told the crowd that "Charlie is good tonight, inne". He was good on any night. Watts had already bowed out of the upcoming Stones tour, due to health issues. His replacement Steve Jordan will be having an even harder time now.
— Keith Richards (@officialKeef) August 24, 2021
Dutch harpist Remy van Kesteren is on tour in The Netherlands. The 2022 Spring dates will feature his Analogue Robot Orchestra (ARO). Van Kesteren felt the need to for an extra percussive layer when performing, hence the use of the "orchestra" for beats and providing the loops. His Record Store Day single has two ARO enhanced live tracks.
French-Italian duo Ideini contemplate the meaning of life on their latest single, Phoenix. Like its prede Sera in Italia it all starts with Theo Duplus on acoustic guitar and vocalist Francesca Martino laying down a dreamy melody, after which they switch gears for a gentle electronic middle-eight that gives way to pulsating beat, giving the lyrics an extra layer of urgency.
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis have added two more shows to their UK tour, promoting their new album Carnage: Music Hall in Aberdeen (September 19) and the Theatre Royal in Glasgow (October 4). They will be joined on stage by French musician Johnny Hostile and backing singers Wendi Rosee, T Jae Colee and Janet Ramuse.
Live dates:
Clint Slate and Iona James became a duo in February after they met a songwriting contest. Their debut EP The Silent Sea, the first of a trilogy, is a throwback to the radio friendly side of seventies rock - Fleetwood Mac comes to mind - and eighties dream pop.
Their vocals take center stage, but it is not all about laying down luscious melodies. Musically they take changes, inserting folkish and ambient tidbits. Stand-out track The Ticking Tide is a 101 for call-and-reponse, wrapped in an intricate arrangment of keyboards and electronics.
There a lot of stories about bands who got fucked by their label and it happened in 1981 to NYC New Wave band Sorrows when their second album Love Too Late hit the shops. The label has replaced their parts, hiring a bunch of session players, who had succeeded in creating lifeless versions of their songs. Legal hassles ensued and the band broke up.
Fast forward to 2021 when original members Arthur Alexander (vocals, guitar), Joey Cola (vocals, guitar) and Ricky Street (vocals, bass), and new drummer Luis Herrera entered the studio to get it right this time. Love Too Late... the real album is not a nostalgic excursion, but a full-throttle power pop meets New Wave record with top shelf melodies.
Watch Belfast based rock trio Dea Matrona tackle the Rory Gallagher classic Cradle Rock. This was captured during a live stream on July 16th. They have shit load of great classic rock covers and original material on their YouTube channel.
Live dates:
Even if you're improvising, the fact that beforehand you know certain things will work helps you make those improvisations successful. It really helps to have a certain amount of knowledge about musical structure.
John Cale
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds will release Part II of B-Sides & Rarities on October 22nd. Part I, a 3CD-set, was released in 2005. A limited 7LP box set with both parts is also available for pre-order. Nick Cave on the set:
I always liked the original B-Sides & Rarities more than any of our other albums. It’s the only one I’d listen to willingly. It seems more relaxed, even a bit nonsensical in places, but with some beautiful songs throughout. There is something, too, about the smallness of certain songs that is closer to their original spirit.
B-Sides & Rarities Part II continues this strange and beautiful collection of lost songs from The Bad Seeds. I love the final side of the last disc because it reveals the small and fragile beginnings of some of my favourite Bad Seeds songs. ‘Waiting For You’ complete with bizarre ‘canning factory’ rhythm track, a gorgeous ‘Life Per Se’ deemed too sad for Skeleton Tree, and ‘Earthlings’ that some consider the finest track of the Ghosteen sessions.
The previously unreleased track Vortex can be streamed.
Brooklyn based experimental noise rock trio Cuneiform have made a video for their new single, Logicm a song about meeting unreasonable strangers. Those people can be scary - the usual unwritten rules of social interaction do not apply. It has been a live favourite for quite some time, but getting the angst and anger on tape was a challenge. In the end they decided to create a towering wall of electronics and left it to singer Sam Tyndall to rise above the din (spoiler: he succeeds). The single will be included on their debut album Reverse, due for release on September 24.
Logic is a self-released single. It is available on the usual digital platforms.
Live date:
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss have joined forces for a new album, Raise the Roof, the long overdue follow-up of their 2007 collaboration Raising Sand. Rock, roots and soulful country are once again in the mix, their voices singing together in uncanny harmony. All covers, safe for the Plant/T. Bone Burnett song High and Lonesome. The first single is their take on the Lucinda William classic Can't Let Go, with Williams herself helping out on backing vocals.
Glaswegian rock band Red Hearted Vibrations have made a video for their Wildfire single, a power ballad "with the token screaming guitar solo and ... wait for it ... a keyboard solo as well. The lyrics paint a dark picture, coming straight out of the fantasy genre that now has become a reality". The clip was directed by James Mackenzie.
Dutch experimental dark wave duo Scarlet Mill mix beauty and death on their debut EP, Chronicles, a 7-piece murder ballad suite. Jennifer Moesker (keyboards, vocals) and Erik Verhoef (guitars, bass, drums, vocals) take it slow most of the time, with saxophone Maarten Verhoef as a lonesome soloist on some of the tracks. The songs are connected almost seamlessly, even when they switch genres - jazz for In You, early Seventies psychedelic Pink Floyd for A Sudden Death, Ry Cooder guitar for 29 Palms, and piano driven spoken word for Je Suis a Toi.
Chronicles is an anatomy of a murder, but like any good story it is impossible to put down and not see it through until the end, only to listen again and again to fully appreciate the depth of the lyrics and the musical nuggets that might have slipped past the listener's attention.
Chronicles is a self-released EP. Buy it from their website.
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis have added two more shows to their UK tour, promoting their new album Carnage: St David’s Hall in Cardiff (September 26) and the Kings Theatre in Portsmouth (October 9).
Live dates:
The Persian Leaps is now a Drew Forsberg solo project. Being on his own hasn't stopped him writing powerful power-pop anthems with a post-punk twist. The new single When This Gets Out deals with the scandal ridden Trump-era. Any incident would have sunk 45, but somehow he lways found away to frame ir and put the blame on someone else. Forsberg played guitars, keyboards, bass, and took care of the drum programming, making it sound like a dialled in full band.
IN-SIDES is a psych rock project from Oakland, CA. It is the brainchild of producer and multi-instrumentalist Stephen Fong, focusing on introspection, ennui and loneliness by way of shoegaze. The new single Losing Game is a plea for the right to be an outsider and drop out from the rat race, a slow moving track with a guitar tone a la The Cure in their Lullaby phase. Krista Kleczewski helped him out with soft-spoken backing vocals.
Guitar virtuoso Guthrie Govan discussing playing live with The Aristocrats and Hans Zimmer in an interview with guitar.com. On creating a free-flowing perfomance:
You can’t ‘prepare’ meticulously for an intentionally unpredictable musical scenario like that, but we work on the premise that you shouldn’t really need to if all the players involved are sufficiently compatible. I think the Aristocrats are very fortunate in that we all seem to understand each other on an instinctive level: this greatly reduces the need for planning things in advance. Part of the exhilaration of playing live lies in just trusting the band’s natural chemistry whenever one of us takes a spontaneous risk and the others need to react in real time. We’ll always try to learn the new songs properly before any tour begins, of course… then we’ll rehearse maybe once and after that, we’re just ‘using the Force’ as best we can.
Argentinian power pop musician Juan Pablo Mazzola is working on a new Baby Scream album that will see the light of day sometime next year. He did a bit of house cleaning and has just released Sad Balloons, an album with a bunch of covers, alternate mixes, early demos, and singles to keep him in the picture. Some of the material from the early days comes close to punk and hard rock.
The rollicking Britney Has Left The Building was previously released in 2016 on Flavour Of The Month via Swedish label Ice Cream Man Power Pop and More Records, way before the current shit storm with her father in the midst of it, with his dubious role as her conservator. Including it as a prime example of serendipity. Mazzola is serious about the current state of the world and it became the main theme of the album. He channels a really angry Kurt Cobain with the brash Fuck This, before turning it down a notch with a subdued cover of Nirvana's I Hate Myself and I Want To Die.
Bill McClintock made a mashup of the Hank Williams classic Your Cheatin' Heart and Van Halen's Jump. Want more? His YouTube channel has lots of them.
Elvis Presley left the building planet 44 years ago. The King did way too many drugs and junk food. But man, what a voice. And tons of charisma.
Chicago based multi-instrumentalist Jared Rabin has been dabbling in jazz and prog, before gravitating to bluegrass. On his new all acoustic album Cold Rain and Snow he plays guitar, mandolin and fiddle, serving up a meal of traditionals and original material. Rabin likes to explore the boundaries of the genre, finding the proper for arrangement takes time, but when it is done right, the results are superb. Case in point: the instrumental West Fork North Branch, a challenging excercise for any band who are willing to take risks and hone their chops. The classic Whiskey Before Breakfast contains a few surprises that will drive the purists to cry wolf, but applying a fresh coat of paint can make a song shine like new.
Bluegrass is highly danceable and the deeper meaning of the lyrics might get lost in the revelry. Drone of Days deals with the boredom as a side effect of the pandemic. As a musician, he needs the response of his audience and being grounded sucks to put it mildly. On the upside: Rabin is able to poke fun at the pandemic as well, but it is all in good taste. Hey Mister Doctor is a tribute of sorts to Anthony Fauci.Cold Rain and Snow is both a blast from the past and a signpost to where bluegrass is heading right now.
Phish
2021/08/15
Atlantic City Beach
Atlantic City, NJ
Ronan Conroy will be playing a hometown show @ Arlene's Grocery in New York on August 25. Expect brand new songs and tracks from his latest album The Moment Is Gone: "While his previous EP Blood Dread found him down on his luck, this new collection of songs share an air of defiance. He is now able to move on and do what he does best: wearing his heart on his sleeve and let his warm baritone do the talking".
Musical maverick Johnny Dowd has been aded to the bill of the Oxford Blues Festival in Oxford, MS. He will be joined on stage by his long-time collaborator Michael Edmondson.
Live dates:
Phish
2021/08/14
Atlantic City Beach
Atlantic City, NJ
When I listen to something, I like to be taken out of my seat and thrown across the room. If it sounds good and feels good, that's it.
Rory Gallagher
Kyle Gass and Jack Black, better known as Tenacious D, have posted an over the top video for their version of You Never Give Me Your Money and The End, two songs from the Abbey Road medley. It is available as a 7" single and on all the usual digital platforms. All proceeds will donated to Doctors Without Borders.
English band The Catenary Wires have made a video for Always On My Mind, a track from their latest album Birling Gap: "Getting older and not minding that so much is the main theme on this album that is quintessentially English: stylish pop that will appeal to fans of the Zombies, The Foreign Films and the Sundays. The Catenary Wires are as perfectly balanced as the mathematical curve after which they named themselves".
Always On My Mind will be released as a single on September 3rd. The video was filmed by all five members of the band at their very first post-lockdown rehearsal.
Phish
2021/08/13
Atlantic City Beach
Atlantic City, NJ
Dutch country pop singer Sylvia Aimee sings about being lonely and feeling left out at parties, where everyone seems to be connected. Having a circle of Friends is the norm and it can be hard on those who don't have such a thing. Aimee has a crystal clear voice and her phrasing is top notch, but her backing musicians are cruising on auto pilot. She should get in touch with fellow singer Amber Kamminga for some pointers to give her music an edge.
Welsh guitarist Richard Thomas embraces to old adage of "go big or go home", releasing a brand new solo EP, We Are Sailing, a Best of... for those who could not keep up with his output, plus a bunch remastered live stuff of with his Uni band Mint and a completists only collection of odds and ends they recorded recently.
The new EP is more mellow than his previous recordings. Thomas is counting his blessings, being in a steady relationship, and going out exploring the hills. His tone is gentle and warm, especially during Late Night, Me And Her and Last Night, She And Him, both augmented with slightly psychedelic vibe. Right now it seems he only has to press "rec" and come up with an instrumental that is going places. All Barr Epstein moves slowly as a nod to the virus that causes mono.
Experimental guitarist Brian Wenckebach has made a video for My Life Went By Like A Dream, a track from his latest album A Morning, A Life: "Instrumental albums are rarely huge sellers - most people want words, although they don't pay much attention to the actual lyrics - but being a big guy in a small niche is not so bad. A Morning, A Life is a trip that visits 16 places and all of them is a landmark in its own right. Most some of them only last three minutes or less, but each one of them is a treasure trove fully deserving close inspection."
» Brian Wenckebach on Facebook
HCTF review of the A Morning, A Life.
Phish
2021/08/11
Hersheypark Stadium
Hershey, PA
Dutch musicians Paul Pijnenburg and Rob Suters have a soft spot for the radio friendly pop and rock of the seventies. After playing in countless bands they finally teamed up as a duo and founded Bigg Buss. Paul had amassed a stack of songs over the years, purely intended for his own enjoyment, and Rob kept bugging him to record them and go out and sing them in public. Their debut album Wonders finds them cruising the main roads most of the time, with a bit of funk and jazz to spice things up.
The upbeat title track and the piano ballad The Moon & The Sun, ain't half bad, but things get really interesting when they let go a bit: the progressive funk of This Is It, unleashing the guitars in I'm Lost and the French chanson inspired Deep Blue Sea. Bigg Bus is finally out of the garage. Next stop: a second album. Apparently there are lots of songs to choose from.
Swiss singer-songwriter Adrian Sieber has released Speakeasy, another happy sad synth-pop song that wil find its way to Summer playlists of mainstream music lovers. Bass affcionados should take note of the smart bottom end that lifts the track a couple of notches above the safe mode. Sieber's multitracked vocals were brought to the front by producer Grégoire Pasquier (Shuttle).
Phish
2021/08/10
Hersheypark Stadium
Hershey, PA
NYC noise rock trio A Place To Bury Strangers have made unveiled a video for In My Hive, a track from their Hologram EP. They have gone back to the rawer sound of their early days and Oliver Ackermann's vocals are mixed more upfront. There is actually is gentle melody trying to come up for air amidst all the mayhem, a track that will sound familiar to fans of The Jesus and Mary Chain. The video was made by label mates Data Animal.
Singer and activist Billy Bragg has posted a video for Ten Mysterious Photos That Can't Be Explained, a final track from his new album The Million Things That Never Happened, out on October 8th via Cooking Vinyl. It is a song about online facts and fakes, with an instantly hummable classic pop melody. To show he is a smart man he inserted a the shout out to the classic George Orwell novel Keep the Aspidistra Flying.
Marianne Faithful played five times (1995-2009) at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. Highlights from those shows have been colleced for a new live album, The Montreux Years, due for release on August 23 (vinyl, CD, digital). The tracks are from Claude Nobs' private collection. He was the founder and general manager of the festival.
Heavy funk rock pioneers Mother's Finest have a couple of States coming up. They bring the noise to Europe in the Spring of 2022.
USA live dates:
English musicians Dean Thom (guitars, organ, loops) and Phil Considine (drums, percussive elements and FX) have been playing together in various bands for 30 years. Their new ambient project Great North Star was kickstarted when Thom was asked to write some music for TV and film. it became a full album, exploring the nether regions of post-rock and progressive shoegaze. Smart use of loops enabled them to capture rhythm, lead and backbeat as if they were a full band. It is all about tone and moods - imagine Adrian Belew and Steve Hackett chilling out on a carefully manucered lawn, spiced up by sound effects and field recordings.
Thom and Considine play like two brothers from another mother. The compositions, inspired by the wonders of outerspace and Earth itself, flow at a leisurely pace, almost connected as one long piece music that will have the speakers of your audio setup purring like a contended cat. It is relaxing, but not in the boring New Age-y kind of way. Recommended if you like Brian Eno and Matt Stevens' solo output.
Phish
2021/08/08
Ruoff Music Center
Noblesville, IN
English indie band Waves of Dread go for a rough-around-the-edges on their latest single, Day I Did Nothing. There are countless songs about breakups, but this post-Goth excursion through numbness by way of distorted shoegaze is special. Take note of the strings arrangement, courtesy of Josh Ingledew (Spell Token). There is no light at the end of the tunnel yet. This kind of despair is still so fresh that only darkness is approriate.
Phish
2021/08/07
Ruoff Music Center
Noblesville, IN
