Known as the guitarist with Newcastle heavy metal godheads Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, as well as acting as their producer, Sam Grant launches a solo career as Rubber Oh that explores different tangents of that sound. ‘Strange Craft’ is pitched somewhere between the over revved guitars of Pigs x7 and Seventies science-fiction soundtracks – the droning analogue synths and fuzzed-out haze of ‘Little Demon’ exemplify the approach perfectly.
Inspiration can strike anyone at any time, and more often than not from somewhat peculiar quarters. Rarely more so than when Sam Grant – thus far best known as guitarist and producer of Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – finally set about work on a solo project that had been pursuing him for some years. “It’s easier to describe it materialistically than by any other way.” he reasons “I want people to imagine that feeling of rubber – its physical memory, the unnatural vibe of it. It’s so tactile but alien, but also difficult not to know. It’s an odd analogy, but that’s what this music is for me.”
Taken from the album “Strange Craft” (Launch251) on Rocket Recordings
Laundromat‘s first three EPs have been brought together into one handy compilation. The colour themed and long sold-out 7” releases from the Brighton-based songwriter have been met with acclaim from the music press and radio DJs alike. Showcasing a genre-bending style which encompasses psychedelia, 90s indie, and even a bit of the Stones Throw label’s adventurous hiphop, ‘En Bloc – 3 EP collection’ is a great introduction to the early career of a feller tipped for big things.
Influences range from Broadcast, Can, The Breeders, Madlib, and Built To Spill. These songs have such good changes in them but are played down by an artist who doesn’t show off with flash arrangements & keeps it laid back. Makes a change. Another great E.P.
En Bloc by Laundromat – from ‘Red EP’ out 23rd April 2021 via Brace Yourself Records
The debut single from Gabriel’s Dawn who are a band from England who have a love for the Laurel Canyon music scene and Country rock. We are huge music fans first and foremost and we love to engage with like minded people. And the points where they break with a full embodiment of Tom Petty or The Byrds [by way of Dylan’s‘Mr. Tambourine Man’] are for certain the more interesting aspects. The special kind of arpeggiation in ’24 Hours from Heaven’ – so plainly reminiscent of a twelve string guitar – combined with thick, clean chorus, does well as a dog ear to the pages of that type and period of 60s music.
Fran explained “We’re all massive fans of 60s’ culture, music, films, art and fashion. That’s not to say we are stuck in that time period, but I’d certainly love a time machine for a day or two to experience it. Although we’re fans of the UK bands and the psych and freakbeat scenes, we all agree that US bands of that time appeal more to us more. The Byrds, Love and Buffalo Springfield being the obvious ones, but also bands like The Merry Go Round, The Beau Brummels and Penny Arkade.“
It should go without saying that elements from these bands and really from that whole era are absolutely foundational and therefore serve as an unavoidable influence, but Gabriel’s Dawn grabs all the best glimmering bits and throws them into a coalescence of country (resulting in song ‘We’), dream-pop, and with the likes of earlier 60s re-imaginings which cropped up in the middle and late 90s. ‘Loaded Gun’ is a perfect marriage of the three.
Gabriel’s Dawn are new band from the Midlands brought together through a shared love of melodic pop, jangly guitars and classic song writing. Featuring Gudg (vocals), Fran (Bass), Leon (Guitar) and Stuart (keys). The self titled debut album from Midlands based band Gabriel’s Dawn was released on May 30th. Brought together by a shared love of melodic pop, the chime of the Rickenbacker and the power of classic song writing, the album was recorded throughout 2021 by band member Leon Jones.
From the first bass note within the driving drum beat you can tell something is different about the new record from Nikki Lane. The backbeat feels like a gutsy strut while the lead guitar feels like a revved up engine shifting gears. “Denim & Diamonds” comes out firing, spit shining the cowboy boots and tossing on a jean jacket.
Produced by Joshua Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), “Denim & Diamonds” has the Highway Queen embracing a more rock-oriented sound while still maintaining the heartfelt outlaw country sound she has developed across her previous three releases. “Denim & Diamonds” still has the fuck-off flare of which Nikki has come to be known. Her stylized, story-telling lyrics are all there as well as her catchy country hooks. The outlaw country sound is now balanced out with a gritty guitar and a machine gun snare that echoes the sound of 70’s rock.
“Denim & Diamonds“. Arriving September 23rd on New West Records, the 10-song project was produced and mixed by Joshua Homme at his Pink Duck Studios in Burbank, CA.
We brought in a diverse range of players thoughtfully tailored by Homme to create a more rock and roll sound. The All-Star band includes Homme, as well as his Queens of the Stone Age collaborators Alain Johannes on guitar, Dean Fertita on organ & Michael Shuman on bass. Additionally, the album features drummers Matt Helders of Arctic Monkeys, Carla Azar of the acclaimed post-punk band Autolux (and frequent Jack White collaborator), and my pedal steel player Matthew Pynn (Dwight Yoakum, Miley Cyrus).
Nikki Lane has made a record that sounds new and old. Familiar and surprising. She embraces where she has come from, (“First High”, “Born Tough”) the lessons learned along the way, (“Good Enough”, “TryHarder”) all while doing things her way, (“Denim & Diamonds”, “Black Widow”).
Yeah Yeah Yeahs have returned with their first new music in nine years. They’ve announced their fifth studio album Cool It Down, the follow-up to 2013’s Mosquito, with the single “Spitting Off the Edge of the World” that features Perfume Genius. The announcement of the new album—which is out September 30th—and single come with a striking visual emphasizing a grandiose and gritty rock ‘n’ roll return with construction workers hocking loogies, Perfume Genius turning into a limo-driving “avenging angel,” and Karen O singing on top of a limo that looks like it came straight out of Trash and Vaudeville. In spite of the looming death it depicts, the Cody Critcheloe–directed video ends with the trio playing a rowdy underground punk show.
“Spitting Off the Edge of the World” confronts us with a thick new wave wall-of-sound as Karen O’s vocals call for resilience in a seemingly hopeless world. “And the kids cry out / We’re spitting off the edge of the world / Out in the night / Never had no chance / Nowhere to hide,” goes the chorus. “I see the younger generations staring down this threat, and they’re standing on the edge of a precipice, confronting what’s coming with anger and defiance,” Karen O said about the track’s lyrics. “It’s galvanizing, and there’s hope there.”
In regard to the video, she adds that “it’s a dream collaboration with one of our favourite artists of the 21st century Cody Critcheloe who did the artwork for our first record back in 2003 and has been making visionary music videos for the last decade. The time to collaborate again came with ‘Spitting;’ the shoot in Kansas City was dream-like, the dreams you have after eating something really greasy right before bed bizarre, poetic, and intense. Perfume Genius was incredibly gracious to roll in the very cold mud as my co-pilot and steal scene after scene with his surreal charm.”
It could only be called alchemy, the transformative magic that happens during the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ most tuned-in moments in the studio, when their unique chemistry sparks opens a portal, and out comes a song like “Maps” or “Zero” or the latest addition to their canon, “Spitting off the Edge of the World” featuring Perfume Genius” — an epic shot-to-the- heart of pure YYYs beauty and power.
A thunderstorm of a return is what the legendary trio has in store for us on “Cool It Down“, their fifth studio album and their first since 2013’s “Mosquito“. The eight-track collection, bound to be a landmark in their catalogue, is an expert distillation of their best gifts that impels you to move, and cry, and listen closely.
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss opened their “Raise the Roof” tour at Marvin Sands Performing Arts Center in Canandaigua, N.Y. Their set was heavily comprised of tracks from their latest joint album, “Raise the Roof” released November 2021 – along with a few numbers from their first collaborative effort, 2007’s “Raising Sand“.
Throughout the performance the pair treated the audience to some Led Zeppelin classics starting with “Rock and Roll.” They immediately followed up with a cover of Plant and Jimmy Page’s “Please Read the Letter,” a rocking ballad first featured on their 1998 album “Walking into Clarksdale”.
The show later featured “The Battle of Evermore” and a performance of Memphis Minnie & Kansas JoeMcCoy’s “When The Levee Breaks,” both of which Led Zeppelin included on their untitled fourth album released in 1971. The performance was backed by fiddle, upright bass and electric guitar; in line with their recent releases duo added a rustic spin to the Led Zeppelin hits.
Apart from the Led Zeppelin covers and their collaborative material, Plant and Krauss explored their shared musical inspirations found on “Raise the Roof” with covers of The Everly Brothers, Benny Spellman,Little Milton, Bert Jansch and more.
Last night, The Rolling Stones kicked off their “Sixty Tour” at Wanda Metropolitano in Madrid. The high-energy performance featured a setlist stacked with fan favourites and a live debut of the 1966 tune, “Out Of Time.” The trio’s current tour honours 60-years spent on stage performing as an ensemble.
The single set performance got underway with the arrival of “Street Fighting Man” off 1968’s “BeggarsBanquet”, which was capped with “19th Nervous Breakdown.” Then, the band turned up the heat on an electrifying “Sad Sad Sad” ahead of a crowd-pleasing “Tumbling Dice.”
A rare moment followed: a first-ever live performance of the 1966 Mick Jagger and Keith Richards penned tune, “Out of Time,” which initially appeared on the London natives’ “Aftermath” studio album. Then, by crowd request, The Rolling Stones blasted to 1978 with “Beast of Burden.”
“You Can’t Always Get What You Want” was performed to a sold-out audience of 53,000 ahead of a funky take on “Living in a Ghost Town.” Next, Jagger strutted into “Honky Tonk Women” and followed with band introductions, which included Steve Jordan (drums), Daryrl Jones (bass), Chuck Leavell (piano/organ), Karl Denson (sax), Tim Ries (sax), Matt Clifford (keyboards) as well as Bernard Fowler (backing vocals) and Sasha Allen (backing vocals).
Richards lead vocals on “Happy” and “Slipping Away” before Jagger broke it down on “Miss You” – his signature dance moves carrying him from one side of the stage to the next. “Midnight Rambler” off The Rolling Stones’ 1969 studio album, “Let It Bleed”, came before a boisterous take on “Start Me Up” with Ronnie Wood leading the band on guitar.
“Paint It Black” came before “Sympathy for the Devil,” and finally, the band capped the single set performance with their 1968 non-album single, “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” After a break from the stage, they returned to deliver their encores, starting with “Gimme Shelter.” Then, for the last song of the band’s Sixty Tour opener, they performed a lively take on “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.”
The Rolling Stones tour kick-off included other memorable moments, like Jagger leading the crowd through “Happy Birthday to You” in honour of Ronnie Wood’s 75th, which occurred on the concert day. Following last night’s rousing performance, the band will pop up in Munich for a gig on June 5th.
Zola Jesus has been making some of the best electronic goth pop around for over a decade, but she hasn’t put out a new album in five years. That finally changes with “Arkhon“, which was made with Randall Dunn (Sunn O))), Marissa Nadler, etc) and drummer Matt Chamberlain (Fiona Apple, Bob Dylan, etc). Lead single “Lost” is a widescreen number full of pounding drums and a soaring chorus of voices that finds Zola in fine form.
There is a way a voice can cut through the fascia of reality, cleaving through habit into the raw nerve of experience. Nika Roza Danilova, the singer, songwriter, and producer who since 2009 has released music as Zola Jesus, wields a voice that does that. When you hear it, it is like you are being summoned to a place that’s already wrapped inside you but obscured from conscious experience. This place has been buried because it tends to hold pain, but it’s also a gift, because once it’s opened, once you’re inside of it, it can show you the truth. Zola Jesus’s new album, Arkhon, finds new ways of loosing this submerged, stalled pain.
On previous albums, Danilova had largely played the role of auteur, meticulously crafting every aspect of Zola Jesus’s sound and look. This time, she realized that her habitual need for control was sealing her out of her art. “Arkhon” sees Zola Jesus’s first collaboration with producer Randall Dunn (Sunn O))), Earth, Mandy soundtrack, Candyman soundtrack) and with drummer and percussionist Matt Chamberlain, whose prior work appears on albums by Fiona Apple, Bob Dylan, and David Bowie.
“Arkhon” runs the spectrum from songs whose weight lies in their bare simplicity, like “Desire,” an elegiac piano composition about the end of a relationship that was recorded acoustically in a single take, to towering, groove-oriented tracks like “The Fall” and the tight, interlocking percussion and samples of a Slovenian folk choir in “Lost,” which propel narratives of collective despair and mutual comfort in kind. Through these turns, “Arkhon” reveals itself as an album whose power derives from abandon. Both its turmoils and its pleasures take root in the body, letting individual consciousness dissolve into the thick of the beat. Despite the darkness curled inside reality, there is power, too, in surrendering to what can’t be pinned down, to the wild unfurling of the world in all its unforeseeable motion. That letting go is the crux of “Arkhon“, which marks a new way of moving and making for Zola Jesus.
From the upcoming album Arkhon out on May 20, 2022 on Sacred Bones Records.
Grace Ives comes up for air on her latest record, “Janky Star”. The queen of charmingly claustrophobic beats, some of the angular synths, and punchy percussion from 2019’s “2nd” resurface in her singles. However, she pairs this ear candy with pensive gaps that give her a chance to catch her breath. While she’s ornate as ever on tracks like “Loose,” other singles like “Lullaby” are mellow in comparison as her vocals melt into a shimmering laze of electro-pop. The themes Ives touches on are as complex as her composition, as she discusses sobriety, overdoses, escapism, attempting to slow down, and trying to find solid ground in a world that never stops spinning.
“Janky Star” is the new album from pop-polymath Grace Ives, following 2019’s critically acclaimed “2nd”.
The 10 tracks are full of punchy synths and unconventional rhythms, but Ives uses the quiet spaces in between to honestly reflect on her ongoing struggle to find stability and happiness. Touching on sobriety, overdoses, and the desire to escape from the realities of modern life, “Janky Star” focuses on the rewards of slowing down and finally finding a home for herself in the ever-shifting world.
S.G. Goodman was raised in Western Kentucky on the Mississippi River Delta in a strict church going family of row crop farmers. Her debut solo album “Old Time Feeling”, co-produced with fellow Kentuckian Jim James, showcases S.G.’s otherworldly voice, which soars above a sonic blend of gritty guitars, bottomland grooves and plaintive balladry. Goodman has a new album due this week,
S.G. Goodman turns the sleepless nights spent yearning over unrequited love into a delicate delve into her psyche on her latest album, “Teeth Marks”.
The first three singles from the Kentucky singer-songwriter’s follow up to 2020’s “Old Time Feeling” feature a delicate finger-plucked electric guitar and subtle southern influence. It feels like pressing on a bruise as she revisits old wounds, comes to terms with an emotionally unavailable lover, and recalls it all through fragmented details like the dead birds they prayed over in the park.
With the first glimpse of the record already packed with so much raw emotion and intimate half-hushed confessionals, it’s clear that the rest of the album will be just as tender-hearted.
“All My Love is Coming Back To Me” the new album ‘Teeth Marks’ out 3rd June: via Verve Forecast.
