What happens when an anti-social petty thief, a male hustler, and a delinquent runaway come together to join forces in the streets of NYC? One of two things, usually. Either the birth of a gang of misfit criminals, or a legendary rock & roll band. Luckily, for society’s sake, the latter has turned out to be true for Beechwood. This easy psychedelia and vintage sounding looseness puts Beechwood in a sonic world not too distant from the ones inhabited by modern classics like Foxygen and Tame Impala.
There’s a definite 60’s rock flair to the track, amidst a bit of garage-punk groundedness, sunny pop structure, and dreamy psychedelia. The effect is like sunshine in the midst of a bomb cyclone-ridden winter: euphoric and hard to get enough of.
The band are set to release their new studio album, “Songs From the Land Of Nod”, on January 26th 2018 via Alive Naturalsound Records, and the NYC street punks have now unveiled the video for their new single, I Don’t Wanna Be The One You Love.
The NYC pop-punk band has always had a talent for pulling back the curtain to reveal the dark underbelly of humanity, and their latest visual is no different.
Shot and Directed by Nika De Carlo and Gordon Lawrence. Taken from the album “Songs From The Land Of Nod” : http://www.alive-records.com
• They run a pretty wide gamut of scuzz from garage to glam to punk to indie that’s not that easy to date. – STEREOGUM
• Brings the late ’60s into the ’00s. – GRUNGECAKE
• Recalls the best moments of the Zombies and Beach Boys, adding elements of garage and light tinges of the psychedelic. – POPMATTERS
• It’s languid, drippy, like molasses spilling out of a jar, and the vocals do a subtle Kevin Shields thing in my brain. – WHAT YOUTH
Icelandic singer Rakel Mjöll fronts this British guitar band, her voice switching between Scandi-pop sweetness and a rip-roaring punk yowl. Dream Wife’s music simmers with lust and fury – on tracks such as Let’s Make Out and Fire they manage to strip the angular 00s indie sound of its dad-ish associations in the process.
The real band Dream Wife — a name taken from a ’50s film starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr — began as fake band in an art school project that was a This Is Spinal Tap-esque mockumentary. The project was created as a way for Rakel Mjoll to explore femininity and its tropes within pop music. Along with Isabella Podpadec and Alice Go, the trio put together the “fictional” Dream Wife, entered a film competition and won. The prize was performing at a Canadian Music Festival, after which they found themselves touring around that country. And so the art project Dream Wife became the real Dream Wife, creating songs dealing with femininity that look to subvert assumptions within the subject.
The trio wrote to tell me that they “wanted to make something direct and simple. The song ‘Somebody’ is a ballad about the experience of living with a female body … we focused on capturing a truthful performance that was both elegant and stripped back.
“We drew inspiration from the male-dominated iconography of ’70s glam rock, a time where men were able to explore their femininity. With the video, we are playing off this subversion with our own exploration of contemporary femininity.”
The video was produced and shot by John Podpadec — you may remember that name from the first paragraph of this article. John recalls being asked to shoot the video by his daughter, Dream Wife’s bassist.
“When my daughter Isabella asked if I’d be interested in shooting Dream Wife’s new promo for ‘Somebody’ I didn’t know how to respond,” he said. “Surely they had someone in London who could do this — they’re part of such a great creative collective. Although I’d worked as a photographer around the Bristol music scene in the mid-’80s, I’d never really involved myself with pop videos. I did shoot one promo for the Blue Aeroplanes – ‘Jacket Hangs’ — but I then went off to work for 30 years as a lighting camera person on broadcast documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4.
“They pointed me at David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ and some other videos. They wanted something clean and simple but with the ability to carry a strong message. What I really like about the film is that it’s got attitude and makes its point, but also captures the energy of Dream Wife’s stage performance.”
I heard a number of people talking about this band and their stage presence at SXSW just recently. I saw a show of theirs there and, though I think in order to do their talents justice some further development may lie ahead, DreamWife is a band worth watching — and their message deserves to be heard.
Pretty much all you need to know about Death Valley Girls can be summed up by the line from the 1975 sexploitation film Switchblade Sisters that became the band’s unofficial slogan: “Everybody’s gotta be in a gang.” All those images of leather-clad, grime-covered, rebellious fun that such a phrase evokes are just what the Los Angeles quartet personifies. It’s slightly crazy, completely sexy, and just frightening enough that you want nothing more than to be inducted into the club.
Luckily, Death Valley Girls are sending an open invitation with their sophomore record, Glow in the Dark. On Burger Records, the follow-up to 2014’s Street Venomplays like a beacon from space sent to incite a cultural mutiny. Tracks like “Love Spell” and “Disco” beckon the listener to shed the chains of repressive modesty in favor of letting loose in the neon light of the night. “Horror Movie” and “I’m a Man Too” strike out at the definitions laid down by a society enslaved to consumerism and clearly delineated classifications. All of it bursts out in surfy proto-punk layered with sugary shrill harmonies that cut through the garage door like so many steel studs.
If the message of the album isn’t clear enough, this band delivers “Join the experience that will cosmically unite the living and turn on the dead. The battle is now, Be part of the revolution. Glow in the dark.
A Los Angeles /Santiago, Chile-based quartet lead by two sweet-singing girls who manage to combine the noisy darkness ofshoegaze with “scream-in-your-face” punk rock and ethereal-sounding pop – in a very original way.
We are Slowkiss – a 4-piece band – 2 girls and 2 dudes. We make alternative punk rock music, and we do our best to ‘bring it’ for our audience at every show we play and on every song we record. ULTRAVIOLET is our brand new EP – five explosive songs that will surprise you in the best of ways. Big drums, a wall of guitars, growling bass and aggressive-yet-sweet vocals that will melt your ears. The EP artwork was done on canvas by the great Chilean painter Juan Vade, and it turned out so beautiful and eye-catching that we feel it was meant to be printed.
Slowkiss has a series of tour dates in Southern California throughout October 2017!
Almost two months after they announced it via their website, the Manic Street Preachers have made their 13th studio album Resistance Is Futile available to pre-order via channels other than their own website.
The band have recorded the new album (their first in four years) at their new studio near Newport after they were forced to vacate their Faster studio, which had been a recording, rehearsal base and general ‘hangout’ since 2005.
The 12-track album is described by the band as “widescreen melancholia” and will be available in the now familiar two-CD deluxe hardcover bookset which includes a bonus disc of the entire album in demo form and two bonus tracks.
Tracing Bruce Springsteen’s career arc from cult artist to superstar, theater to arena headliner, there’s a case to be made that a series of radio broadcasts on the 1978 Darkness On the Edge of Town tour played a significant role. The five home-recorded, fan-traded and oft-bootlegged concerts from The Roxy, The Agora, The Capitol Theater, The Fox Theatre and Winterland captured and ultimately spread the magic of Bruce and the E Street Band’s live show, and seemingly converted thousands to fill arenas two years later on the River tour.
Despite that rich history, there were no live broadcasts from the River tour, the Born in the U.S.A. tour or the U.S. leg of the Tunnel of Love tour. Which is why in 1988, after ten years of radio silence, the announcement that a portion of Springsteen’s July 3rd show in Stockholm would be broadcast live via satellite to the U.S. and the world was huge news for fans.
Like many among us, I tuned in that Fourth of July weekend and heard a potent 90-minute first set that wrapped with Bruce announcing plans to join the Amnesty International tour before wrapping the broadcast portion with a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Chimes Of Freedom” (later released on the EP of the same name). It was the first of hundreds of listens to follow.
Conveniently apportioned to fill a 90-minute cassette tape, the Stockholm broadcast joined the five ‘78 b-casts as the most played live Springsteen recordings most of us had. There was just one problem: as great as those 14 songs were, 20 other songs were played in Stockholm after the satellite feed came down, and short of a crummy audience tape, few of us have had a chance to hear the full show, until now.
Happily, this complete, multi-track recording validates what we all presumed: the Stockholm show was one of the best on the Tunnel tour, offering a passionate, hyper-focused first-set and–freed from the pressure of a global listening audience–a rollicking, playful second set and encore. Looking for a sign of Springsteen’s mood after the transmission ended? How about the inclusion of Gary U.S. Bonds’ ultimate party track “Quarter to Three” for the first time since 1981.
Fondness for the familiar first set is richly deserved. It starts with Bruce inviting the audience in the stadium and at home to come aboard with a wonderful “Tunnel of Love,” now followed by a horn-blasting “Boom Boom’ (with its unabashed sentiment of “I need you right now” replacing “Be True,” performed in this slot for most of the US leg). The brazen John Lee Hooker cover forms a bond of emancipation with what follows, “Adam Raised a Cain,” again propelled by the five-piece Horns of Love. Bruce hadn’t toured with a horn section since ‘77 and their presence is a critical component in the distinct sound and theatrics of ‘88 shows.
Because the broadcast was limited to 90 minutes, the first set showcased key Tunnel tracks, including a majestic “Tougher Than the Rest,” “Spare Parts,” “Brilliant Disguise” and “All That Heaven Will Allow.” Bruce also featured two killer non-album tracks: “Roulette,” unforgivably left off The River, but resuscitated to sound an alarm on the Tunnel tour; and “Seeds,” another take on the plight of working-class Americans and this time they’re pissed.
Perhaps the surprise highlight of the first set is “Born in the U.S.A.” Separated from its namesake tour and attendant misinterpretations, the song’s deep-seated anger is rekindled. Listen to Bruce’s shrieks of angst before Max’s drum crescendo, echoed later his own impassioned guitar solo. The story has grown more personal, too, as Springsteen adds new flashback lyrics after the final verse: “I just want your arms around me/I see the fire from the sky/I need your arms around me.” A stunning performance.
Set two is a totally different animal, but no less satisfying. I have often wondered how a seemingly long-forgotten song returns to the set, and there is no better example of this than the sudden reappearance of the instrumental “Paradise By the ‘C’” which opens the second set, after premiering four nights earlier in Rotterdam. What prompted its resurrection, after going unplayed since the Darkness tour? Sure, it suits the horns, but then again, there was no horn section in ‘78.
Regardless, it is a welcome showcase for Clarence and the Horns of Love, and sets the tone for a highly entertaining second set that milks the expanded band lineup and staging dynamics for all they are worth on songs like “You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)” (which begins with a long, bit of musical teasing and showmanship often referred to as “Don’t You Touch That Thing”), “I’m A Coward” (Springsteen’s comic rewrite of Gino Washington’s ‘60s original) and a chock full o’ horns encore sequence of “Sweet Soul Music,” “RaiseYour Hand,” the aforementioned “Quarter to Three,” and the inevitable last song for a show this joyous, “Twist and Shout.”
There are a few serious moments in the back half, among them the fine ‘88 arrangement of Bo Diddley’s “Who DoYou Love?” into “She’s the One,” the first “Downbound Train” of the tour, and an unflinchingly earnest reading of Elvis’ “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” Interestingly, Stockholm ‘88 has a connection to Springsteen on Broadway in that the solo acoustic version of “Born to Run” that Bruce is currently performing was first played in that arrangement on the Tunnel Of Love tour, a fine take of which is captured here.
Stockholm ‘88 has always been a fan-favorite because of the simulcast. Now restored to full length and remixed from the master tapes, it rightly joins Springsteen’s other legendary radio broadcasts as one of the best concert recordings of his career and a great representation of the Tunnel of Love tour’s European edition.
Esoteric Recordings are pleased to be kick starting the new year with brand new reissues of two classic CURVED AIR albums: Air Conditioning and Air Cut. Beautifully packaged, both classic albums have been given the Esoteric Recordings reissue treatment: AIR CONDITIONING has been newly remastered from the original tapes, and expanded with 11 bonus tracks drawn from previously unreleased studio out-takes and BBC sessions, while the new definitive CD edition of AIR CUT has been remastered from the original tapes for the first time ever! Both boast illustrated booklets with new essays & interviews.
Up first is a new expanded and re-mastered 2 CD edition of Curved Air’s classic 1970 album “Air Conditioning”. This new edition of “Air Conditioning” also includes an illustrated booklet with a new essay by Malcolm Dome featuring an exclusive interviews with band members.
And secondly we have a new official re-mastered edition of Curved Air’s classic album “Air Cut”. Originally released on the Warner Bros. label. This new edition of “Air Cut” has been re-mastered from the recently located original master tapes for the very first time (with previous CD editions being taken from vinyl transfers).
Son of Gutbucket is a 1969 sampler album released to promote artists on the Liberty Records label. It followed the earlier release in 1969 of Gutbucket, (subtitled An Underworld Eruption). Back in 1969 Liberty Records released two compilation albums: ‘Gutbucket (An Underworld Eruption) and ‘Son of Gutbucket’, that featured artists on it’s roster. These included the likes of Captain Beefheart, Alexis Korner, Canned Heat, The Groundhogs, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Roy Harper and Aynsley Dunbar to name just a few of them. The albums were recognisable from the pigs on the cover and something of a DIY looking aesthetic (although Liberty was an imprint of a major label, Transamerica).
Both albums were reissued on a single EMI CD in 1994, with an informative booklet, but with 6 the original 31 tracks (from the combined albums) missing.
Side 1
“Bootleg” – Creedence Clearwater Revival – from the LP Bayou Country
“My Babe She Ain’t Nothing But A Doggone Crazy Fool Mumble” – Ian Anderson’s Country Blues Band – from the LP Stereo Death Breakdown
“I Got Love If You Want It” – Johnny Winter – from the LP The Progressive Blues Experiment
“Preparation G” – T.I.M.E. – from the LP Smooth Ball
“Walking Down Their Outlook” – High Tide – from the LP Sea Shanties
“Oh Death” – Jo-Ann Kelly & Tony McPhee – from the LP I Asked for Water, She Gave Me Gasoline
“Don’t Mean A Thing” – Floating Bridge – from the LP Floating Bridge
“Sergeant Sunshine” – Roy Harper – from the LP Folkjokeopus
“Mistreated” – The Groundhogs – from the LP Blues Obituary
Side 2
“Sic ‘Em Pigs” – Canned Heat – from the LP Hallelujah
“Hard Headed Woman” – Andy Fernbach – from the LP If You Miss Your Connexion
“T.B. Blues” – McKenna Mendelson Mainline – from the LP Stink
“Sunshine Possibilities” – Famous Jug Band – from the LP Sunshine Possibilities
“Hurry Up John” – Idle Race – from the LP Idle Race
“I’m So Tired” – Brett Marvin and the Thunderbolts – from the LP I Asked for Water, She Gave Me Gasoline
“Leavin’ My Home” – T.I.M.E. – from the LP Smooth Ball
“Sugar On The Line” – Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation – from the LP To Mum – From Aynsley & The Boys
Gutbucket (An Underworld Eruption) is a 1969 sampler album released to promote artists on the LibertyRecords label. It was followed later in 1969 by Son of Gutbucket.
Back in 1969 Liberty Records released two compilation albums: ‘Gutbucket (An Underworld Eruption) and ‘Son of Gutbucket’, that featured artists on it’s roster. These included the likes of Captain Beefheart, AlexisKorner, Canned Heat, The Groundhogs, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Roy Harper and AynsleyDunbar to name just a few of them. The albums were recognisable from the pigs on the cover and something of a DIY looking aesthetic (although Liberty was an imprint of a major label, Transamerica).
Side 1
“Gimme Dat Harp Boy” – Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band – from the LP Strictly Personal
“The Wall” – Hapshash and the Coloured Coat – from the LP The Western Flier
“You’re Gonna Miss Me” – Lightnin’ Hopkins – from the LP Earth Blues
“I’m Tore Down” – Alexis Korner – from the LP A New Generation of Blues
“Still a Fool” – The Groundhogs – from the LP Scratching the Surface
“Dismal Swamp” – Nitty Gritty Dirt Band – from the LP Pure Dirt
“Wine, Women & Whisky” – Papa Lightfoot – from the LP Rural Blues Vol 2
Side two
“Pony Blues” – Canned Heat – from the LP Living the Blues
“Down in Texas” – The Hour Glass – from the LP The Hour Glass
“No More Doggin’” – Tony McPhee – from the LP Me And The Devil
“Can Blue Men Sing the Whites” – The Bonzo Dog Band – from the LP The Doughnut in Granny’s Greenhouse
“Mamma Don’t Like Me Runnin Around” – Big Joe Williams – from the LP Hand Me Down My Old Walking Stick
“Rollin’ And Tumblin’” – Jo-Anne Kelly – from the LP Me And The Devil
“Call Me Woman” – Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation – from the LP Dr. Dunbar’s Prescription
Fuzz Club Record’s new Reverb Conspiracy compilation is available soon. As usual it a lovingly curated, peerless 16 track collection of some of the best fuzzed up and freaked out tunes released in the last 12 months from all around the world and other planets. Featuring a mix of Fuzz Club Records signings and tracks from bands on other cool, psychedelically inclined Indie labels, these compilations have been likened to a modern-day Nuggets series and hailed by The Vinyl Factory as “a time-capsule-like documentation of modern Psych”. it’s previous four volumes have included music from GOAT, Anton Newcombe, The KVB, The Cosmic Dead, Josefin Ohrn + TheLiberation and Ulrika Spacek to name just a few. Psychedelia is a broad church………..whether it be Psych Rock, Garage Rock, Post Punk, Shoegaze, Krautrock or just straight up Psychedelic Rock’n’Roll, the ReverbConspiracy collections hold a mirror up to the Psych Underground and pulls together some of the best bands currently melting minds, reflecting where Psychedelia is heading at this point in time and also providing an introduction to hot new bands you really need to check out, with Volume 5 including tracks from TRAAMS and their biting motorik Post Punk, cult Italian Psych rockers Julie’s Haircut, the harrowing psychedelic snarl of Portsmouth upstarts Melt Dunes and many, many more.
From Fuzz Club’s very own impressive international collection of bands, Reverb Conspiracy: Volume 5 includes contributions from Dead Vibrations, JuJu, Helicon,10000 Russos, NONN, Sekel, The Gluts and Spirit Valley which even as a label sampler alone would be pretty special. Newly signed to Fuzz Club and with their debut album for the label imminent, Swedish Shoegazers Dead Vibrations open side one of Reverb Conspiracy: Volume 5 with their epic single ‘Swirl’ which first appeared on the tiny Lazy Octopus Records label last May……..channeling classic early 90s Shoegaze but tempered with an hard edged modern Psych snarl it’s pretty obvious why Fuzz Club wanted to sign this band. Also newish to Fuzz Club are Glasgow Psych Heads Helicon and JuJu (the solo project of Italian multi-instrumentalist Gioele Valenti) with Helicon’s contribution ‘The Bold Yin’ coming from their recently released debut album that has left a trail of blown minds in it’s wake while the JuJu track ‘Bring ‘Em War is a little older, taken from the stunning debut album that first appeared early last year via Sunrise Ocean Bender.
Fans of Fuzz Club’s most recent releases should be familiar with NONN, Sekel, The Gluts and, of course, the mighty 10000 Russo’s who’s devastating Distress Distress LP made you realize that everything you thought you knew about Psych Rock is wrong. Slightly falling through the cracks last year was Negatives by Amsterdam based Aussies Spirit Valley and ‘TNNLVSSN’ taken from that record will make you want to do some serious back tracking.
Sprawling over four sides of vinyl, Reverb Conspiracy: Volume 5 has plenty of space for a wide spectrum of Psychedelic hues………………the aforementioned Psych Noiseniks Melt Dunes take Nuggety Garage Rock influences from 60s bands such as the Seeds and ? And The Mysterions and beat the shit out of them with a ton of Punk attitude while Julie’s Haircut follow in the grand tradition of European psychedelic strangeness sounding a bit like Van Der Graaf Generator gone very wrong. Elsewhere the brilliant Dreamweapon contribute the pulsing Krautrock track ‘Monte da Virgem’ and Psychedelic Trips To Death provide menacing discordant Post Punk growl with ‘The Flesh’. With the rest of the record made up with tracks by Avenue Z, Black Heart Death Cult and You Said Strange, Volume 5 is another fantastic addition to the annual Reverb Conspiracy compilations…………………totally accessible, it’s a collection of tracks that is possibly tailored more towards the curious Indie Kid as you don’t need to be a complete Psych Rock obsessive to “get it” and like the previous compilations, Reverb Conspiracy: Volume 5 works as a gateway to a wider Psychedelic Universe.
Due for release 19/01/2018, Reverb Conspiracy: Volume 5 is available as 2 x LP on coloured 180g vinyl in a gatefold sleeve, limited to 600 copies
1. Dead Vibrations – Swirl
2. Melt Dunes – Flesh
3. JuJu – Bring ‘Em War
4. Helicon – The Bold Yin
5. 10 000 Russos – ISM
6. Dreamweapon – Monte da Virgem
7. NONN – Time
8. Julie’s Haircut – Burning Tree
9. Sekel – Bergamot
10. TRAAMS – A House On Fire
11. Psychedelic Trips To Death – The Flesh
12. The Gluts – Squirrel
13. Avenue Z – ZeÌ tron Libre
14. Black Heart Death Cult – Black Rainbow
15. You Said Strange – Yuri’s Night
16. Spirit Valley – TNNLVSSN
:format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(40)/discogs-images/R-2952938-1450521916-5612.jpeg.jpg)
:format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-1975711-1444039489-4607.jpeg.jpg)
