The “Quest For Blood” is on! Hooveriii’s drum machine debut originally released on cassette tape in 2014. The origins of the band begin in a garage in El Segundo, CA as a pure solo outlet. All tracks performed by Bert Hoover with just a bass, guitar, Casio, Kent drum machine and a Tascam 414. Blown out, noisy, garage rock. On vinyl for the first time ever, Includes new liner notes and album art by Callum Rooney. Remixed by Mark Rains and newly re-mastered by Mikey Young.
The vinyl will be released for Record Store Day on April 20th 2024 in extremely limited quantities to support independent record shops! Head to recordstoreday.com & recordstoreday.co.uk now to find your local record shop and how to take part in this year’s celebrations!
The cinema of the scenes as told from the heart and spirit of the omniscient narrator shines through the awe-inspiring oeuvre of Glenn Donaldson’s canonical titan that is The Reds, Pinks & Purples. The storied and esoteric histories of every underserved underdog becomes immortalized in records and poignantly penned paeans that evoke the eras and underachievers that became synonymous with their own respective corresponding localized micro-movements. Donaldson channels that psychic spirit and journeyman earned wisdom to provide contemporary era rock operas that eulogize tales of infinitely influential rises and falls. Crystalizing the tragic self-celebrating kingdoms of fortunate failures, false heroes, music press deities of limitless deceit, hometown dive gods and humanity in the grips of all its romanticized wonder and woe — the latest sortie of the sensational and spectacular takes aim at the threads of hope and an untethered abandon into the intimacy and dualities of idolatry and isolation with “Unwishing Well”.
Ever since its emergence from the harried late 2010s — The Reds, Pinks & Purples have become the absolute encapsulation of Donaldson’s own proliferation and prestige. From a musical legacy that chronicles a long list of minor successes and major tragedies; Glenn distills the timelines of distinction from yesterday, today, tomorrow and whatever may be into a musical phenomenon that embodies something more than all of its analogous inspirations. Beyond the clamor about the retro cult pop artistic allusions and tropes that can be found in those spirit expanding kaleidoscope chord chimes; Donaldson takes you on a guided tour through the San Francisco underground movements that would have been, could have been or perhaps never were at all from the start. The Reds, Pinks & Purples’ coveted catalogue inadvertently, consciously or unconsciously, offers an authorized and anonymous history of imperfect and ambitious debutantes, dilettantes, auteurs, et al. The lauded visionaries whose volition informed the big money touring stage headliners, but only enjoyed a fleeting jaunt through the glorious corporate clad carnival canopies from the touring circuit routes and tech funded festival tent tabernacles. “Unwishing Well” is a eulogy for the buzz bands that crashed, the wily one hit wizards, and omnipresent (and often uninspired) eternal aesthetes who work the lucrative outlets of licensing media markets.
Glenn pulls no punches with the promiscuity of the pop machines and their exploited propped up brand ambassadors on the cutting “Your Worst Song is Your Greatest Hit” that tangles with the lumbering and inescapable creatives and careerist trajectories that trade in boardroom playbooks and verticals. Expressions and influencers break out into the collective commissaries of commerce exhibitionism on “Public Art”, to auditing the forums of fandom that pertain to developed affinities and the roads to rabid infatuation with the obsessive in earnest, “Learning to Love a Band”.
And while the Glenn spins many yarns on the under-appreciated secret histories of DIY, “Unwishing Well” offers cathartic hymns of modern malaise. Sighing in lamentation of regressive trends, “What’s Going on with Ordinary People” balks with concern over contemporary states of devolution, while “Faith in Daydreaming Youth” questions what vestiges of hope and valour can be found in the new vanguards of political bodies that govern the world’s sovereign daydream nations. The dustbins of dastardly discontinuity are imbued with desire and grief on the dramatist tragedy of “Dead Stars in Your Eyes”, to basking in the discarded ditches of the damned below in voids of obscurity on “Nothing Between the Lines at All”. The human addiction to languishing in anguish, misery and negativity tussles, tosses and turns on “We Only Hear the Bad Things People Say”, the penultimate ode to inherent human infallibility as Donaldson rides the audience out into the gilded sunset glow of “Goodbye Bobby”.
The central set piece of “Unwishing Well” revolves around the title track that wrestles with wellness and wishes tempered by the sobering reality of ultra pragmatic skepticism. Donaldson shows the audience where the dream falls short, an indictment on the fickleness of wants and the life/work/art balances of making it all work. It’s the group that never makes it, the idea that never gets off the ground, the recognition that never arrives, the raise that is never awarded, nor the promotion to the next ladder rung that remains laughably inaccessible. Glenn has the gift of bridging the divide between the hunger artist, their adoring cult public and the common threads that connect these local and global communities through the humanist cause of collective commiseration.
As increasingly found in the continued adventures of The Reds, Pinks and Purples canon — Glenn circles the drain of surrendering to unabashed sentimentality in passions worthy of being showcased as the top headlining spot that your favourite revered then later reviled pop act never even had the chance to claim or ascend. “Unwishing Well” uplifts and uproots the undercurrents that carry the commonalities between the spectators and the spectacles. Donaldson pays homage in heart to everything and everyone that never got their due or to the lucky ones that made the grade, but paid an ultimate price. The cycle of these pop vignettes depict successes and failures in the same sentences, existing within the same stanzas, where the stories of making it and breaking it operate as events that live on different sides of the same coin. “Unwishing Well” is a reflection of us, the icons we adore, the Adonises we worship, the false prophets that proselytize the edicts from theses cults of personality, the fallouts, the third acts and the artistic fabrics that spool these sub-sects of artful dodgers into the stuff of legend.
MGMT have released a new album “Loss of Life” It’s their first studio album since 2018’s “Little Dark Age”. The bands Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser co-produced the new LP with Patrick Wimberly, while long time collaborator Dave Fridmann mixed the record.
The 10-track “Loss of Life” includes singles “Mother Nature,” “Bubblegum Dog,” “Nothing to Declare,” and the Christine and the Queens–featuring “Dancing in Babylon.” In a light hearted statement about their new album, VanWyngarden and Goldwasser said that “musically speaking, we are running at around 20% adult contemporary and no more than this, please.”
This dynamic push-and-pull has resulted in five unique studio albums so far—including this most recent endeavor, “Loss of Life”. “The songs that make it to an MGMT album, they’re the only things that Ben and I both feel the same way about,” VanWyngarden says. “There’s not many things that make it through that threshold in the end. It’s really just about what we both are feeling and believing in at that moment, more than any sort of stylistic intention.”
released February 23rd, 2024 under exclusive license to Mom+Pop
Sheer Mag have laboured to carve out a discernibly singular position within the canon of contemporary rock: toggling with ease between the refined flourishes of a “connoisseur’s band” and the ecstatic colloquialism of populist song writing — yet displaying no strict loyalty to either camp — their sound, while oft-referenced, is unmistakably and immediately recognizable as theirs alone. On “PlayingFavourites,Sheer Mag’s third full-length and first with Third Man Records,
The band capitalize on a decade’s worth of devotion to their own collective spirit — a spirit refined in both the sweaty trenches of punk warehouses and the larger-than-life glamour of concert halls — emerging with a dense work of gripping emotions, massive hooks, and masterfully constructed power-pop anthems. This is the record the Philadelphian rock and roll four-piece has always been destined to make.”
their upcoming album, “Playing Favourites,” out on Third Man Records on March 1st, 2024.
“Mannequin Pussy’s music feels like a resilient and galvanizing shout that demands to be heard. Across four albums, the Philadelphia rock band that consists of Colins “Bear” Regisford (bass, vocals), Kaleen Reading (drums, percussion), Maxine Steen (guitar, synths) and Marisa Dabice (guitar, vocals) has made cathartic tunes about despairing times. “There’s just so much constantly going on that feels intentionally evil that trying to make something beautiful feels like a radical act,” says Dabice. “The ethos of this band has always been to bring people together.”
Their latest “I Got Heaven” is the band’s most fully realized LP yet. Over 10 ambitious tracks which abruptly turn from searing punk to inviting pop, the album is deeply concerned with desire, the power in being alone, and how to live in an unfeeling and unkind world. It’s a document of a band doubling down on their unshakable bond to make something furious, thrilling, and wholly alive.”
“I Got Heaven” has the best and most wholeheartedly pop songs the band has ever written, along with some of their most ferocious hardcore songs, and the in-between moments like the title track and “Loud Bark” are among their most gripping songs to date. Whatever you were looking for this year across the wide spectrum of guitar-based alternative rock music that this album covers, Mannequin Pussy did it best.
‘I Got Heaven’ by the brilliantly named Mannequin Pussy is just about the most urgent rock song you could ever hope for. One of those tracks that writing it must have felt like going from an unhinged bad mood to the most joyous shoegaze dreamland. There are few better ways to spend the next 3 minutes.
Vocals, Lyrics & Melody by Marisa Dabice Guitar & Synths by Maxine Steen Bass by Colins Regisford Drums by Kaleen Reading Background Harmonies by Macie Stewart
Exactly where the title of Les Big Byrd’s fourth studio album came from remains mysterious even to the band’s frontman, Jocke Åhlund. You might speculate, though, that it’s a neat encapsulation of a record that is unafraid to deal in contradictions, that finds room both for glittering pop and for stormy atmosphere, and that doesn’t just showcase the thrillingly ambitious psych-rock sound that we’ve come to expect from the group by now; it pushes it forward, into new and more daring territory.
After their third album, “Eternal Light Brigade”, took four years to follow on from 2018’s mission statement “Iran Iraq IKEA”, Åhlund was determined that this time, the Stockholm rockers would hit the ground running, swiftly returning to the studio for another album that maintains the momentum and energy of “Eternal Light Brigade” whilst finding room to wander down sonic avenues all its own.”
“Diamonds, Rhinestones and Hard Rain”, released March 1st via Chimp Limbs
Written by The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney with longtime friends Dan “The Automator” Nakamura and Beck, the celebratory, joyful ‘Beautiful People (Stay High)’ is one of several songs on the album that feature collaborations between the band and various additional friends and colleagues, including Noel Gallagher, Greg Kurstin, and others. Speaking on the collaborative nature of the album, Carney shares, “We had this epiphany: ‘We can call our friends to help us make music.’ It’s funny because we both write songs with other people – Dan all the time [as a solo artist and producer], me when I’m producing a record. That’s what we do.”
Auerbach adds, “No matter who we work with, it never feels like we’re sacrificing who we are. It only feels like it adds some special flavor. We just expanded that palette with people we wanted to work with. We were there to support them and their ideas, to do whatever we could to see that moment flourish. But when it came time to finish the album, it was just Pat and me. We’d never worked harder to make a record,” he continues. “It’s never taken us this long to make an album. We took our time and did it right.”
“What we wanted to accomplish with this record was make something that was fun,” Carney says. “And something that most bands 20 years into their career don’t make, which is an approachable, fun record that is also cool.”
While making Ohio Players, a title inspired by the legendary Dayton, Ohio funk band of the same name, The Black Keys were also DJing dance parties in cities around the world that they called “record hangs”, spinning 45s from their own eclectic and growing collections. ‘The spirit of those parties infused the album’s DNA. ‘That’s been the fun of it,’ [says] Auerbach. ‘Letting go a little bit.’”
Their infectiously upbeat single “Beautiful People (Stay High)”. I’m a long-time fan of the duo, comprised of guitarist-vocalist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney, and the song clicked with me the first time I heard it. I love its exuberant melody, bluesy, foot-stomping groove and celebratory chorus. The lead single from their forthcoming twelfth studio album “Ohio Players”, due for release April 5th, the song was co-written with their long time collaborators Beck and producer Dan the Automator (aka Daniel M. Nakamura). In a press statement about the recording of the album, Auerbach noted “We’d never worked harder to make a record. It’s never taken us this long to make an album. We took our time and did it right.” Carney added “What we wanted to accomplish with this record was make something that was fun. And something that most bands 20 years into their career don’t make, which is an approachable, fun record that is also cool.”
Montreal psych-pop band Elephant Stone’s seventh studio album ‘Back Into The Dream’ is out in the world today
Centred on the enigma of dreams—whether they’re subconscious murmurings or portals to parallel universes—’Back Into the Dream’ encapsulates the eternal cycle of waking and dreaming. “We’re perpetually oscillating between two realms, trying to comprehend each,” says Rishi. “If our music can serve as a bridge between these worlds, then we’ve accomplished our mission.”
“Rock’n’roll was my late-night companion, the anthem of my adolescence,” says Elephant Stone’s Rishi Dhir on the subject of their new single (which is not a cover of The Jam song). “I’d drift off to sleep with ‘Live at Leeds’ by The Who playing, tweaking the stereo so it was just the left speaker booming, coloring my dreams with John Entwistle’s bass genius. Those moments weren’t just about listening; it was like living inside the music. That’s the heart of ‘Going Underground.’ It’s an homage to those times, that sensation of being enveloped in a universe conjured by a few chords and a horizon of endless possibilities.”
From Elephant Stone’s new LP “Back Into The Dream”
Elephant Stone have just announced their upcoming EU/UK tour
The Who’s October 13th, 1982 concert at Shea Stadium, the now-demolished, long time home of the New York Mets, was released on DVD and standard-definition Blu-ray back in 2015. Now, MercuryStudios is returning to that thunderous gig – the band’s second of two shows there – for an audio release on 2 CDs or 3 LPs.
‘Live at Shea Stadium 1982’ captures The Who’s second of two shows at the Flushing, Queens, New York ballpark on a rainy night in October 1982.
The evening of Wednesday, October 13th, 1982 was chilly and rainy in the New York City metro area, certainly not optimum weather for a large-scale outdoor rock concert. That night, The Who performed their second of two sold-out shows at Shea Stadium . The stadium, which at the time was home to MLB’s New York Mets and the NFL’s New York Jets, had very famously hosted concerts by The Beatles in 1965 and 1966. The support acts for The Who at the Shea Stadium concerts were former New York Dolls vocalist David Johansen and The Clash.
On March 1st, “Live at Shea Stadium 1982” will arrive preserving The Who’s tour stop in support of “It’s Hard”. In front of an enrapt New York audience in Flushing Meadows, Queens, founding members Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, and John Entwistle joined with drummer Kenney Jones to perform both new songs and old favorites. The 1982 North American tour was ultimately the last one to feature Jones in the drummer’s seat, and The Who’s final such trek until 1989. (Jones replaced the late Keith Moon for two studio albums, 1981’s “Face Dances” and 1982’s “It’sHard“.
The Who, on what was being billed as their “Farewell Tour,” had announced that the band would break up once they had completed the tour for their then-current album “It’s Hard”. Pete Townshend initiated the split and was quoted by music critic Robert Palmer of The New York Times as stating, “It’s time for us to step aside, time for the new people to come in.” The tour was sponsored by the now-defunct American beer company Schlitz under the banner “Schlitz Rocks America.”
The Clash were promoting their “Combat Rock” album on the tour. Drummer Nicky “Topper” Headon had been fired by the band earlier in the year. The band were performing with their original drummer Terry Chimes on the tour. Despite the soggy weather, The Clash performed a storming and quite memorable set. The music videos for “Career Opportunities” and “Should I Stay or Should I Go” were filmed that night. An audio recording of The Clash’s full set from that show was released in 2008 as the album “Live at Shea Stadium”.
The Who’s 1982 tour, which was all in North America apart from two warm-up dates at the Birmingham NEC in England, was their last to feature Kenney Jones on drums and they wouldn’t tour again until 1989. The tour promoted the recent “It’s Hard” album, which had been released in June 1982, and the set list included a number of tracks from that album, some of which the band would only play live on this tour. This release features the show from the second of their two nights at New York’s Shea Stadium and was recorded on October 13th 1982. Although a couple of tracks have appeared on compilations, this is the first official release the full show on 3LP.
Opening the set with the 1966 non-album single “Substitute,” The Who had the crowd on their side from the word go. The strong performance of “Substitute” featured powerful lead vocals by Daltrey, great drumming by Jones, solid bass from Entwistle and a rock-steady guitar break by Townshend. That was followed by another oldie but goodie, the 1965 non-album single “I Can’t Explain,” which was The Who’s recording debut under The Who name. The performance of “I Can’t Explain” at the concert started with a terrific guitar intro by Townshend and included strong vocals by Daltrey, tight work by the rhythm section of Entwistle and Jones and effective backing vocals by Townshend and Entwistle.
The Who then segued into a selection of five newer songs. The first of these was Entwistle’s “Dangerous” from that year’s “It’s Hard” album. Gorman provided some nice keyboard work. Entwistle’s bass provided a great foundation for the song augmented by Jones’s tight drumming. Townshend contributed impressive slash-and-burn guitar work. Gorman’s keyboards in the performance of 1978’s “Sister Disco” are not prominent enough in the mix on this recording. And that makes the version of the song on this album weaker than the outstanding recording of it on the 1981 album The Concerts for the People ofKampuchea. That aside, it’s still a decent performance. Daltrey delivered powerful lead vocals and Townshend added a good vocal bit in the song’s midsection. , Townshend played some nice bluesy guitar at the end as he and Daltrey sang together. The heavy version of Entwistle’s song “The Quiet One” from 1981’s “Face Dances” album was one of the standout performances of the show. Entwistle sang lead on the song as well as providing some outstanding bass playing. Townshend added some blistering guitar work. And Jones delivered yet another strong performance on drums. Daltrey sang some bits of the song along with Entwistle. The section of the show concluded with two songs from “It’s Hard”: the title track and “Eminence Front.” On the former, Daltrey played rhythm guitar for the first time in the evening as well as delivering assertive lead vocals. Townshend contributed some nice guitar in the intro as well as good backing vocals. The latter was the highlight of the newer songs performed at the concert. Gorman’s keyboard intro was impressive. Townshend sang lead on the song and also played impressive guitar throughout. Entwistle’s funky basslines provided the song’s foundation.
Four songs from It’s Hard were performed during the Shea setlists, including the album’s title track, “Eminence Front,” “Cry If You Want,” and “Dangerous.” Those were joined by classics from the ’60s (“Substitute,” “I Can’t Explain,” “Pinball Wizard”) and ’70s (“Behind Blue Eyes,” “Baba O’Riley,” “Won’t GetFooled Again,” “Who Are You,” “Sister Disco”) as well as “The Quiet One” from “Face Dances“. Choice covers – “I Saw Her Standing There,” “Twist and Shout,” “Young Man Blues,” and “SummertimeBlues” – rounded out the setlist. (The latter two songs were featured on the original, six-song “Live at Leeds” album in 1970.)
Daltrey introduced “Tattoo” from 1967’s The Who Sell Out album as a song that The Who had not performed live in a while. The tight version of the song featured Daltrey on lead vocals with Townshend contributing some vocals as well. Next up was an extended version of the rocker “Cry If You Want” from the “It’s Hard” album.
A pair of songs from 1969’s “Tommy” album were up next. Townshend’s guitar was all over “Pinball Wizard,’ which also featured very strong vocals by Daltrey, That went right into a stellar performance of “See Me, Feel Me” that was highlighted by Daltrey’s commanding lead vocals and Townshend’s outstanding guitar playing. “Love Reign O’er Me” from 1973’s “Quadrophenia” is one of the highlights of the album.
“Long Live Rock,” which first appeared on the 1974 collection “Odds and Sods”, had Daltrey and Townshend trading off on lead vocals, a cool guitar intro by Townshend, and impressive keyboards by Gorman.
In front of an enrapt New York audience in Flushing Meadows, Queens, founding members Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, and John Entwistle joined with drummer Kenney Jones to perform both new songs and old favourites. The 1982 North American tour was ultimately the last one to feature Jones in the drummer’s seat, and The Who’s final such trek until 1989. (Jones had replaced the late Keith Moon for two studio albums, 1981’s “Face Dances” and 1982’s “It’s Hard”.
The performances of “Love Reign O’er Me” and “Behind Blue Eyes” are currently streaming on Mercury Studios’ YouTube channel. Though the original DVD and Blu-ray releases are now out-of-print, they remain available from second hand sellers. Look for “Live at Shea Stadium 1982” on March 1st
There are rumours that The Who are now closing in on the end of their performing career. Daltrey turns 80 on March 1st, the release date of this album. And Townshend will be 79 in May. Daltrey and Townshend will be performing with The Who backed by an orchestra at two shows at London’s Royal Albert Hall on Monday, March 18th and Wednesday, March 20th for the benefit of Teenage Cancer Trust, a U.K. charity that raises funds to build dedicated cancer wards for teenagers in hospitals throughout the U.K. Daltrey serves as patron for the charity.
The Fat Angel Sings 