The John Sally Ride: new album "For Sal" in December; stream "Mott and Broome"

Power-pop band The John Sally Ride have come up with an album for their bass player Sal Maida, who died in 2025. He had an interesting life, playing with Roxy Music, Sparks and Milk ’N’ Cookies, some of which he documented in his Four Strings, Phony Proof, and 300 45s book.

A couple o his former band mates and close friends, including Artie Lamonica, Phil Manzanera and Steve Wynn, where happy to oblige to be part of For Sal, ten songs written by the band's singer and guitarist John Dunbar. The lead single, the psych-tinged Mott and Broome, was inspired by Maida's youth in New York City.

The Bullfight: "Dance With Me Damn It" live video

Watch Dutch folk noir band The Bullfight perform Dance With Me Damn It at Beauforthuis in Zeist on October 4th. Originally released on their Stranger Than The Night album, the song also made the cut for the retrospective 3CD set The Storm Behind Our Smiles.

British Birds: "Lie Down With Dogs, Stand Up With Fleas" video

English quartet British Birds have made a video for Lie Down With Dogs, Stand Up With Fleas, a track from their Murmurate, Oscillate album : "A loveable mix of psychedelic garage rock, XTC-flavoured New Wave and the Kinks in their late '60s early '70s vaudeville leanings."

Martyrs: Grey Wolf Grey

Welsh synth duo Martyrs are in full-on retro mode on their new single Grey Wolf Grey, using every '80s production trick they had at their disposal as they look into the mirror to find out that their hair has lost its shine and is turning grey. Lamenting the fact that nobody warned them that this could happen - "They don’t sing about it on the radio".

Jon Howells put his recently acquired Fender Bass VI to good use to supply both rhythm and melody, besides his array of guitars, synths and choice bits of tubular bells. Singer Michael Hall unleashed his inner New Romantics crooner capabilities. It does not sound new, but it does sound that it has been always there waiting to make itself finally heard decades after it was created.

The Bullfight: "Swaying Dimly in Darkness" live video

Watch Dutch folk noir band The Bullfight perform Swaying Dimly in Darkness at Beauforthuis in Zeist on October 4th. It is a song about couple who have been together for many years and now both of them that the boat they are in is no longer big enough to hold them both. Originally released on their One Was A Snake album, the song was also included on the bonus disc with that album in full that came with Shame, Guilt, Deception - Individuals Chapter I and the retrospective 3CD set The Storm Behind Our Smiles.

heavyskint: Headstone

Scottish blues-infused rockers heavyskint pinched just a bit from All Along The Watchtower for their Headstone single, probably not enough for having a day in court for copyright infringement, but it will give them a way in into the boomers market.

The song deals with making mistakes and not being to rectify them properly, which pisses them off. Plugging in and churning out a track with plenty of swagger was a good way to blow of some steam. The video was made by Daniel Blake and Jamie Kelly.

Salomea: "stick around" video

Watch the Salomea video for stick around, the opening track from their axxxis album: "Singer and composer Rebekka Salomea leads her band through emotional minefields, snapshots taken during night life and of course the wicked ways of love. While the subject matter has been covered umpteenth times, she has found new ways to tell the tales that need to be told."

The Gentle Spring: Down with Love

Anglo-French melancholic pop trio The Gentle Spring show off their education by quoting Shakespeare's famous line "If music be the food of love, play on" spoken by Orsino, the Duke of Illyria, in Twelfth Night at the start of the video for their new single Down with Love.

It is a nice contrast make a song sounding a tad optimistic while being seriously disappointed. Lead singer Emilie Guillaumot nailed those mixed emotions rather well. Love is likened to a game of scrabble and sometimes one might stuck with a subpar set of letters.

Steven Wilson: "A Basket of Bees (The Village Hall Sessions)" video

Steven Wilson has shared a video for A Basket of Bees, played live (sort of) in the studio with Randy McStine (guitars, backing vocals) and Russell Holzman (drums, percussion) and Shelby Logan Warn (backing vocals), a pastoral prog rocker veering into metal at some point in order to confuse the punters. It is a track from his new album Requiem for a Village.

Jordan Galland: "You Killed My Saturday" video

Jordan Galland created a hand drawn animated video for You Killed My Saturday, a track from his No Rockstars album: "He has taken a scalpel to his current life, cut out all the bullshit, and ended up with a bunch of carefully crafted songs. His sense of humour ensures that he is quite content about where he is right now: trying to be a father of a girl. Raising her means that he had reshuffle his priorities, but once he had the diapers thing under control, music made a comeback with a vengeance."

» jordangalland.com

HCTF review of No Rockstars

Gillian Welch & David Rawlings: in-studio performance @ KEXP radio

Watch the video of the in-studio performance by country musicians Gillian Welch and David Rawlings with Paul Kowert on bass on The Afternoon Show @ KEXP radio in Seattle, recorded on August 18, 2026.

Motörhead: "The Löst Tapes Vol. 8: Live at Margate" Black Friday release

Another Motörhead live show will be released as a 2LP - on aqua blue vinyl - for Black Friday (November 27). The Löst Tapes Vol. 8: Live at Margate" was recorded on November 5, 1984 @ Winter Gardens in Margate, UK. The show became available in May this year as a digital release.

Marc Soucy: Rebellion And Seduction

Boston-based composer and producer Marc Soucy kicks off his instrumental Rebellion And Seduction with a big and loud piece of classic rock, albeit without using actual guitars, before bringing in jazz as part of the equation. It gets dark and dystopian in a '70s sci-fi kind of way, with short keyboard jabs acting as shooting stars.

Anton Barbeau: "Come Home To Me" video

Watch the new Anton Barbeau video for Come Home To Me, the title track from his latest album: "He and his musicians leave a trail of musical nuggets, some quite obvious, others hiding in plain sight, and the Easter eggs only showing themselves to those with undivided attention and an above average attention span."

» antonbarbeau.com

HCTF review of Come Home To Me

Courtney Barnett: Live at Ancienne Belgique video

Watch the full show by Australian rock singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett at Ancienne Belgique in Brussels on October 9.

Setlist:

1. Stay In Your Lane
2. City Looks Pretty
3. Avant Gardener
4. Small Poppies
5. Mantis
6. Same
7. History Eraser
8. Need Little Time
9. Another Beautiful Day
10. Depreston
11. Site Unseen
12. Great Advice
13. Elevator Operato
14. Sugar Plum
15. Wonder
16. Before You Gotta Go
17. One Thing at a Time
18. Mostly Patient
19. Canned Tomatoes (Whole)
20. Pedestrian at Best
21. Nobody Really Cares If You Don't Go to the Party

» courtneybarnett.com.au

Wyatt: Morning

Manchester slacker garage rockers Wyatt wrote their debut single Morning shortly after an amp broke down during a show. It made them realise that such a thing isn't that big of a thing to worry about, because shit happens. If anything, they got a nice melancholic tune with a hint of optimism out of it.

Morning is released via Heist or Hit, available on all the usual digital outlets. The video was directed by Seth Lloyd.

Mouth Ulcers: Lady Rust

London neo-goth quartet Mouth Ulcers took one half of The Cure (going as far as namechecking their Head on the Door album) and one half of the Sisters of Mercy for their new single Lady Rust, about an undead women turned vampire who is adamant to kick out all the folks who dare to venture into her Manor House. Everything around her falls apart, because stuff ages while she doesn't. The band's bass heavy take on late '80s early '90s imagery will strike a chord with disgruntled emo teens of all ages.

J.M. Hart: "Tell Me Your Story" video

Singer-songwriter J.M. Hart has posted a video for Tell Me Your Story, a track from his Headwaters album: "Hart keeps it deceptively straightforward, using the tone of his guitar to capture the various moods and no frills lyrics that cut to the chase."

» rowjimmy.net
» J.M. Hart on Bandcamp

HCTF review of Headwaters

One-off screening of expanded "Jimi Plays Berkeley" in Arlington

An expanded version of the 1971 film Jimi Plays Berkeley will be shown at The Regent Theatre in Arlington on October 22. It features extra 15 minutes of previously unseen footage from the shows at the Berkeley Community Theatre on May 30, 1970, showing bits the Jimi Hendrix Experience performing Voodoo Child (Slight Return), Machine Gun and Hear My Train A Comin'.

Simon Karolis: Furious Racehorse

Simon Karolis, nom-de-plume of Dutch musician Arend Jan van der Scheer, has come out of hibernation with Furious Racehorse, the lead single for his forthcoming album Where To Find Back The Flow. He was the lead singer of LPG, an indie band who made three well-received albums between 2005 and 2012. He has been flying solo since then.

Currently working as a teacher in The Hague he had to squeeze in the recordings of his new songs between his day job and domestic chores. The soft-spoken folk-tinged single is about dreaming about bigger things, but being held back by reality. Spoiler: he is the horse and he does manage to break free in the end. Ilse Hamelink played a wonderful melancholic yet powerful violin part. He shot the video in the dunes near The Hague, with his son Isaac lending a hand.