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| singles - current and forthcoming releases... | |
| BALLBOY Where do the Nights of Sleep Go to.. (SL
Records)
Reviewed by Paul THE DIVINE BROWN Brown
Got Da Power (Thrill City CD) A firestorm of
guitars and rock ’n’ roll testifying in the best MC5 and Brother JC Crawford
tradition. Though they’re far less
pretty, they have the same love of garage rock and showmanship as the Hives. They dress like 50s rockers but the South London
accents make the testimonials a bit hard to take seriously, unlike their music. They’re righteous rockers – one of the
few UK bands with the attitude to face up to the US, Australian/Kiwi and Swedish titans
right now (“you’re going down to the Divine Brown in just one round”). Kranked Up Really High, a highlight of the
recent Artrocker collection, is the stand out here: mad levels of energy and adrenalised
vocals putting over the Divine Brown philosophy of music: “accelerate the bass
c’mon and load up the treble/I only dig it at earbleeding level”! It’s a genius package – MP3 audio
tracks, bonus demos, a series of videos (rehearsal and live), photos and a sermon from the
band! As the sleeve says “thou art
truly motherfuckin’ blessed”. (http://thedivinebrown.com)
Reviewed by Ged THE BEATINGS: Bad
Feeling (Fantastic Plastic 7”) Produced by Mr
Kevin Shields so you know what to expect: loud and rocking for a start. The twin guitars bowl you over and then the rhythm
section stomps all over you while you’re rolling around. Riffs a-plenty and a thrilling chorus make for a
corking single. What You Say on the flipside is a simple rock ‘n’ roll
riff which gains some more complicated post-punk touches as it goes. So far it’s been everything turned to 11, and
God bless ‘em for it, but it’s good to see them getting more adventurous on this
one. Limited to 1000 7” with an
extra track on the CDS. Reviewed by Ged SWEATMASTER I am A
Demon and I Love Rock n Roll (Bad Afro) Judging by the four
recordings on here, Sweatmaster have found a rather neat little niche for themselves in
these Seeds/Stooges obsessed times. Sure,
they play guitars and of course they are garage but they sound like Led Zep playing those
quirky 70s keyboard mongoloids Devo. The
overall effect lives a few streets down from the Hives and all four tracks could merit
A-side status. Reviewed by Paul (X) Is Greater Than (Y) Mirrors and Cameras () Apart from the mostly indecipherable lyrics and rather scratchy production, Mirrors and Cameras by UK rockers (X) Is Greater Than (Y) - not to be confused with Add (N) to (X)- (Maths equations are the new black, dontchaknow)- is a decent enough offering. In parts it sounds a slightly like a heavier Kula Shaker (haha) - and the lead singers vocals do tend to drone on a bit- but the instrumental break towards the end is catchy. Nothing to keep you coming back for more, though. Reviewed by Neon THE MARTINI
HENRY RIFLES: Luger 6000 (Blast First, Sonic Mook Seven Series, 7”) The first of Sonic Mook’s series of singles, each limited to a thousand copies and heralding the future of rock ‘n’ roll. Luger 6000 is manic and discordant with breathless twin vocals, which play off each other in a good way. The B-sides are similarly intense, Pan Am being more melodic and the beaty and punky God Make Me Destroy Those Infidels taking the r’n’r prize on title alone. Reviewed by Ged For
some inexplicable reason most pop pundits seem to resent Moby his success. Give the guy a break, he’s got enough on his
plate with stunted growth and premature hair loss. He
must be sobbing into his bundles of 100 dollar bills, you cruel heartless baskets. Unfortunately this record is probably not the best
one to base a defence on being as it is a rather workaday semi-gospel number which borrows
rather too heavily from Depeche Mode’s Everything Counts and re-uses his own
‘Lordy’ refrain. Reviewed by Paul RUBICKS Move Away/ Midas (Balloon Records
double A-side 7”) Move Away is a brutally insistent and super catchy electronic pop song with flurries of whizzy synths. Imagine Stereolab remodelling themselves on Dare-era Human League and bringing in Bjork on vocals and you’ve got it. Midas (the 7” edit, fact fans) is layered with smooth synths and is ultra poppy, in a strong New Orderish vein, though I don’t think Bernie and Hooky would have put up with the kids chorus at the end. Reviewed by Ged The first 20 seconds are soft and power-poppy, so the screaming voice comes as a real shock. Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr and Pixies are obviously major influences and the song is a fantastic mix of melody and power with fierce vocals. The B-side Your Starlight is sprightly and exciting with a Sonic Youth-like softer vocal and thrashy guitars. Future Kings of Spain are three talented blokes from Dublin of whom we’re bound to hear more. Reviewed by Ged RAGING SPEEDHORN Fuck the Voodooman () How many British heavy metal acts are there? There can't be that many. So Raging Speedhorn lead the pack....I'm not too sure that's a good thing. Fuck The Voodooman is a raucous two minute blast of...I'm not quite sure what. They say "fuck" and "voodooman" a lot, though. It's fine if you like that sort of thing, but unoriginal. Actually, it sounds scarily like Slipknot. Aaaaaaaaaargh.... B-sides include two covers- a reworking of Black Flag's 'My War' and RS's take on Uriah Heap's 'Gypsy'. The former is dire but the latter is much improved and probably the best track on the single; an interesting union of 60's psychedelic stoner-rock coupled with your modern-day standard shouty metal shite. Reviewed by Neon TERRASHIMA Losing My Grip (Blast First,
Sonic Mook Seven Series, 7") Limited to 1000
copies. Play loud and then check for structural damage.
This is uncompromisingly thrashy and guaranteed to piss off your parents. Guitars will crush you into submission with the
weight of repeated riffs while the vocals are massively distorted with the singer’s
efforts to growl at a painful volume. On the
B-side, Another Day Another Dollar is energetic feedbacky punk while Screaming
does what it says on the tin. Merciless. Reviewed by Ged
|
|
| THE VINES Outtathaway (Heavenly, 2 x CD)
Reviewed by Ged BADLY DRAWN BOY You Were Right (Twisted Nerve) Simply wonderful yet wonderfully simple as always, it is available for only one day and cheap (about 99p) so boy bands permitting it could be his first top three hit. It has a marvellous hook, lovely string accompaniment, excellent lyrics (“I remember doing nothing the night Sinatra died”) and as a prelude to his forthcoming new album it’s a mouth watering hors d’ouvres. First b-side, Last Fruit, is a gentle pleasant acoustic number and the second is a live version of the A-side during which Damien struggles so badly with the whistling section at the end that he has to hum instead. Reviewed by Paul VON BONDIES It Came From Japan (Sweet Nothing)
From the
impressive ‘Lack of Communication’ album, It Came From Japan has a
driving, grungy feel with a psychedelic undertow. It’s
two minutes of distilled noise and coiled up passion, contemporary and at the same time
classic rock ‘n’ roll. The video,
also included here, shows they’ve got the look and attitude of rock stars. Make it so! The
extra track My Baby’s Cryin is a new one: mutant R ‘n’ B with spooky
organ and eerie sax, Michigan goes to Memphis with all the beautiful messiness that this
implies. The effect is brilliantly unsettling. Reviewed by Ged SALOON Girls are the New Boys (version) (Track and Field, 7" only + limited to 1000copies) Saloon confound. Girls... (a remix from the LP)
starts off sounding as a mix of gently mesmerising rhythm and folky vocal, then the tone
of weary disappoint floats up and then the whole thing kicks into guitar and percussive
freneticism where it fades out, unresolved. Beautiful
and vaguely unsettling. The two newly recorded tracks, Solitude ("When the world gives up on you
don't give up on yourself") and I am the
Cheese are slower, intimate, fragile, mournful.
Reviewed by Kev
AUDIOVENT
The Energy (Atlantic) "The
Energy" is the debut UK release from California’s Audiovent, and it's easy to
see why they chose this track. It's very easy on the ear and is nicely paced for a unknown band in the current musical climate. Hovering
somewhere in the realms of Foo Fighters rock that even non-rockers would find appealing,
it is the sound of a band ready to take on the world. Not the best track off of their
debut album "Dirty Knights in Paris" it is easily on of the most accessible, and
given decent airplay could break the UK market for them. In a nutshell, a great track to
announce their arrival over here, but without doubt there are better things to come. Both the
other tracks on the single feature on the album (third track "When I Drown" is
an instrumental throwaway version) which is slightly disappointing as I am looking
forwards to hear what else they have to offer. Worth the effort of listening to, but it's
probably better to spend your pennies on the album. Reviewed by Micky Bananas
THE STAR SPANGLES Which of the Two of Us is Gonna Burn The House Down? () 7” A mop headed four piece from, yes you guessed it, New York, the Star Spangles have secured support slot on the forthcoming Idlewild tour. This is a limited seven inch release of regular late 70s style rock n roll. The A-side Gonna Burn sounds like Springsteen’s Born to Run fronted by a man gargling gravel. B-side Bloodstain Glass Shoes resembles the Boomtown Rats but with a decent song. The Star Spangles may not be the most exciting thing currently happening in New York but they still knock seven shades of poo out of most band’s releases. Reviewed by Paul THE PLEASE Never
Complete EP (own label CD) San
Francisco’s The Please wear skinny ties and jeans and have a fondness for New Wave
tunes. That doesn’t make them The
Strokes, but their shared influences, on first hearing, make similar sounds, and the
vocals are quite Casablancas-ish. Subsequent
listens – and you will want to hear this repeatedly
- shows that they have their own distinct, clear sound. Television’s influence looms large,
particularly on No Style. About Me
stands out by virtue of its big drums and soft-rock melody (early Cars anyone?). On the mighty Another Disaster, the vocals
are so laid back they could be by Peter Perrett. The
Please were one of the Face’s 40 bands to watch recently and this time the fashion
victims have got it right. Try Rough Trade or
go to www.theplease.com LEMON JELLY Space Walk (XL Recordings)
THE WANDERING STEP I Want to Go to Reykjavik (Deltasonic Singles Club
7”) Imagine Lou Reed
selling holidays in Thomas Cook in Preston and you’ve an inkling of what the A side
contains. Primitive, raw, rock ‘n’
roll, sounding like Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, in a hymn to the delights of
the Northern hemisphere. It’s infectious
and repetitious and sounds as if they don’t know when and how to stop. The B-side Shout and Shout Again is a
spare, stripped down pop rock song, where spirit wins out over muso-ship once again. THE GOLDEN VIRGINS I’ve Seen the Light (Rex Records 7”)
Like the Coral,
another mad medley of ideas and influences. The
A side is an unhinged anti-love song, full of simple hypnotic melodies, apparently
recorded in a single take. “If you want
someone to keep you warm throughout the night/don’t think of me” they sing. If this isn’t dark swamp rock, at least
it’s garage rock in a flooded basement. It
fades out with bizarre steel guitars and what sounds like a Russian chorus! Staying Sober on the B-side is full of
melancholy melody, accompanied by simple guitars; again a minimalist gem, reminiscent of
the sadly missed Stars of Heaven. The final
track From the Garage to the Country sums up their influences, from Sergio Leone,
via Nick Cave and Pogue Mahone to the Velvet Underground.
Three small and perfectly formed gloomy pop songs - seek them out. Reviewed by Ged |
|
Another single from the album; but a
corker. If the Beatles came from another port city and sang about Seattle 'Rain'
rather than the Liverpool version, it would sound like this, polished and masterly.
Their celebrated cover of Ms Jackson in their live set is raw and anguished while
this studio one is dreamy and psychedelic with lovely piano trilling. Both
demonstrate Craig's ability to improve a good song and at the same time make it personal
to him. However…their live version of Country Yard at Glastonbury shows
how the band can piss their best songs up the wall, with Craig sounding like an
amphetamine-fuelled Muppet. There's a second CD with a 3 second shorter
version of the single (the radio edit!) plus a darkly psychedelic Don’t Go,
which starts echoey and eerie and ends explosively.
It’s almost as if everyone’s favourite
electronica dessert had never been away.