Lou Barlow is on fire this year, having contributed one of the best songs on Dinosaur Jr’s excellent new album “Sweep it Into Space“, and his new solo album “Reason to Live“ looks to be a keeper, too. He’s just shared a new single from the record, the gorgeous, thoughtful and moving “Love Intervene.”
“I shy away from declarations, life is too complicated,” says Lou of the song, “but, it’s hard to argue with the power of love. I wrote this song a few years ago and recorded it a few times. I tried it as solo acoustic song and sang it on a few short tours I did, playing backyards and living rooms in the U.S. It seemed to go over well, or, maybe I just like singing it. I tried it with a band too. I’d like to say that this Reason To Live version is the definitive recording of the song but, honestly, I’d like to hear someone else take it to new heights. The sentiment seems almost out of my range sometimes. Believing in love is like that, it can always be bigger but remain so elusive.
“Love Intervene” lyric video, which Lou directed, “Reason to live” is out May 28 via Joyful NoiseRecordings
After recording Number The Brave with Wishbone Ash, John Wetton elected to move on and help form the supergroup, Asia. He brought to the fold Steve Howe (Yes), Carl Palmer (ELP), and Geoff Downes (The Buggles/Yes) and released their first album, the eponymous Asia. The debut album generated a big radio hit with “Heat Of The Moment”. For three albums, the band was high on the charts until departures watered down the essence. Nevertheless, the promise of the band was pushed forward with new members that included John Payne, who along with Geoff Downes, kept Asia going with six more albums. Eventually, the original crew reformed and delivered three more albums through 2012. The final Asia album, Gravitas (2014), was without Steve Howe.
Alongside Phoenix (2008), Omega (2010) and XXX (2012) the set also contains the double live set Fantasia, Live In Tokyo, which was released in 2007. Singer and bass player John Wetton, who sadly died in 2017, said at the time the band reunited, “Each one of us is comfortable as a human being, and the sound reflects the collective maturity of these four people who are not only eager to explore but also relaxed enough to luxuriate in the strength of the material.”
“The chemistry and energy that comes out when the four of us are working together, is reflected in the new material,” drummer Carl Palmer says.
On June 11th, BMG Records will release a 5CD clamshell-styled Box named The Reunion Albums 2007-2012. In it will feature three albums with the classic line-up as well as the 2007 2CD live set, Fantasia – Live In Tokyo recorded during their 2007 World Tour on March 8th, 2007. In this album are songs played from each of the members’ previous bands. The four albums all contain original Roger Dean artwork although the Fantasia cover has been updated.
The box cover art was pulled from a previously unused Dean art piece.
Following on from 2018’s acclaimed ‘Actualisation’, ‘The Deep End’ builds upon the acid house influences of the former but ventures into many new paths. Hip hop, techno, drum ‘n’ bass and other ‘genres’ sneak into the creative palette whilst also staying true to the band mantra of throwing the rule book out of the window, as far as ‘genres’ or ‘boundaries’ are concerned.
The album was penned over the Spring of 2019 by Mark Emmerson (vocals/guitar/synths). Again, Roland 303/808 synths, bass and vocals were key tools for writing, whilst the Roland SH01a found its way onto the team sheet, as well as a sampler for the first time. Recording commenced in March 2019, the ethos being rehearsing and recording a track as soon as it was written with mixing taking place on each track shortly after. By July 2019 85% of the album was completed, the final track laid down in January 2020.The album was again recorded at Whitewood Studios, Liverpool, with Rob Whiteley, the album produced alongside long-time collaborator Ross Halden (Ghost Town Studios, Leeds) with frontman Mark Emmerson, with mastering via Dean Honer (All Seeing I/I Monster/The Moonlandingz).
Lead track ‘CHI-03’ gives the album its first sucker punch moment. A track born out of listening to late 80s hip hip records on loop before allowing the 303 to take on the co-lead vocal role alongside the addition of the sampler. A beat again designed to make people move, with enough Lucid sonics to stamp the band signature. ‘Leave Me In The Dark’ takes a 7 minute journey that taps into places the band have been before. No mean feat when that is a melting pot of dub, drum ‘n’ bass, jungle and enough raw power to know that this is a Lucid Dream track.
Side 2 kicks off with ‘Fight To Survive’. A beat belonging in 80s New York, keys more suited to the East Coast counterparts of the time, another statement. ‘It’s a campaign of hate, campaign of hate’. ‘Sunrise’ then takes the album on another tangent. The Lucid Dream tapped into acid house on ‘Actualisation’ but this track is acid/Balearic in its purest form. Another track that begs for communal celebration, when the opportunity permits. ‘High and Wild’ closes the album. The 9 minutes within don’t share the optimism and ‘highs’ displayed in the 35 minutes prior but doesn’t suffer any for it either. The most ‘conventional’ and only guitar based song on the album, this track won’t be found near a dance floor. More suited for the days after, when the highest highs bring the real lows.
The forthcoming 5th album, ‘The Deep End’, to be released 2nd April 2021 (vinyl/CD/download), via Holy Are You Recordings.
To celebrate the 30th Anniversary of BMX Bandits seminal sophomore LP, Star Wars, Past Night From Glasgow will release the remastered album on vinyl to coincide with May 4th (Star Wars Day).Featuring the classic Bandits line up: Stuart, McAlinden, Blake, Kelly, Keen and MacDonald the album is jam packed full of chiming guitars and catchy choruses, not to mention the odd spectacular ballad.
The sleeve has been updated (new wallpaper no less) and now features a die cut photo frame with an inner printed horse, how’s that for classy updates?.
Collecting songs from their albums C86 and Star Wars, C86/Star Wars gives new fans a great jumping-on point to fall in love with the music of BMX Bandits. Capturing all of the innocence and sweetness of the guitar pop darlings, the album will make easy fans of those willing to give it a chance, immediately drawing them in with its simple rhythms and naïve, Jonathan Richman-esque sense of romanticism.
Rock & roll is not a game for those with innocent hearts. Fortunately, there have been a few people with innocent hearts who have slipped through the cracks and brought a real sense of joy to the music scene. One of them is Jonathan Richman and the other is Duglas Stewart and his BMX Banditscohorts (includingFrancis MacDonald, Norman Blake, and Joe McAlinden, amongst others). Perhaps these artists are not literally innocent, but the music they bring to the table is passive, pure, and carefree, not aggressive or mean spirited in nature. The Bandits, of course, are one of Scotland’s great unsung bands, sharing members withTeenage Fanclub, the Soup Dragons, Superstar, and others, yet steering a clear path of their own with captain Stewart and co-pilotMacDonald at the helm. Stewart‘s voice is a strange mix of Mike Love, Lou Reed, and Richman, but works perfectly within the context of the Bandits‘ music.
With the sweet-voiced McAlinden (later of Superstar) handling lead vocals on a few tracks (and backing vocals throughout), there is a nice balance that saves the album from certain monotony (like an Oasis album, for example). Loaded with pop songs galore and beautifully produced by Duncan Cameron and the band, “Star Wars” is the first in a line of great Bandits albums. From the joyful “Come Clean,” “Students of Life,” “Life Goes On,” and “Do You Really Love Me?” to the heart-tugging “Extraordinary,” there is hardly a wasted moment within earshot.
If you can imagine the sheer pop genius of Teenage Fanclub with Mike Love singing lead, then you may have an idea of what you’re in for. And if you could put wide-eyed innocent pop back onto the charts, thenBMX Bandits would be superstars.
Wyldest has announced her second album ‘Monthly Friend’ on Hand In Hive (Blackaby, A.O. Gerber, TV Priest) and shared lead single ‘Hollow’. Written, mixed and produced by Zoe Mead (Wyldest), the forthcoming album documents Mead’s empowerment not only as an entirely self-sufficient artist but also as a woman overcoming gender stereotypes and societal constraints. Indeed, the title itself, ‘Monthly Friend’, is a reference to something society taught her to be ashamed of which she now regards as a blessing. Musically speaking, ‘Monthly Friend’ sees Wyldest continue on that evolutionary journey. Taking inspiration from the tender song writing of Elliot Smith and the precise guitar patchworks of Soccer Mommy and Hovvdy, she has fused together these two elements plus her knowledge of ambient, soundtrack-style textures to produce an intimate indie rock opus.
“Beggar” is the new single from Wyldest, taken from the upcoming album ‘Monthly Friend’. The musical evolution of Zoe Mead, aka Wyldest, has been a slow but steady one – a mix of deliberate exploration, a natural shifting in taste, and a certain virus twisting her arm. After recording drums for 20 songs touted for her second album – Monthly Friend– last February, the impending lockdown then took studio time off the table.
“Firstly I entertained the idea of mixing it myself and then sort of laughed it off,” Zoe reflects. After spending the isolated summer of 2020 mixing music for some friends confidence then came, empowering her to finish the album herself, completing her bloom into an entirely self-sufficient musician, songwriter, producer and mixer.
Wyldest’s debut album Dream Chaos, released in 2019, was a swirl of dream-pop and shoegaze, with sweet melodies bathed in reverb, recalling the likes of Warpaint and, on the heavier end, My Bloody Valentine. The album was then re-worked for a stripped-back version – Redream Chaos – last March, and this aesthetic carries through to “Monthly Friend” while being pushed further along. “I was hell-bent on removing the reverb,” Zoe says of her approach to Monthly Friend her sophomore record due 28th May via Hand In Hive longing for a more intimate sound akin to her influences at the time, such as the tender song writing of Elliott Smith and Phoebe Bridgers.
While Monthly Friend is a self-contained concept album about the joys, woes and confusion of femininity and womanhood, it’s also a next step in the growth of a singer-songwriter who refuses to be pinned down by genre labels or traditional categorisation. While the lockdowns have taught her how to mould a slick, affecting indie rock album from start to finish and become a self-sustainable artist, it’s also stripped her of any artistic facade, leaving behind just an honest approach and an unyielding desire to explore. No-one – least of all Zoe – knows where she might travel next, but the excitement lies therein.
Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood went public earlier this week with the news that he spent part of the pandemic fighting off small-cell cancer. “I’ve had cancer two different ways now,” he told The Sun. “I had lung cancer in 2017 and I had small-cell more recently that I fought in the last lockdown. I came through with the all-clear.”
His 2017 lung-cancer diagnosis came after a lifetime of chain-smoking cigarettes. “There was a week when everything hung in the balance,” he said at the time, “and it could have been curtains.” But after a five-hour operation where they removed part of a lung, doctors confirmed that the cancer hadn’t spread to the rest of his body. “They went, ‘Your lungs now are like you’d never smoked,’” he said in the 2019 documentarySomebody Up There Likes Me. “And I went, ‘How is that for a Get Out of Jail Free card?’”
He seems to have gotten a second “Get Out of Jail Free card” now that he says he’s beaten small-cell cancer, which is also caused by smoking. And whenever the Rolling Stones play live again, expect him to be on the stage.
Wood hasn’t missed a show ever since the Stones brought him onboard to replace Mick Taylor for the 1975 Tour of the Americas. Here’s video of them playing “Gimme Shelter” at the L.A. Forum just about six weeks into his tenure with the band. As you can see, he’s already locked in tightly with Keith Richards. That chemistry has fuelled the band during the past five decades and it’s very difficult to imagine a Stones gig without Wood at this point, even if most of the songs in their set list pre-date his arrival.
The Stones were supposed to play American stadiums in the summer of 2020, but the pandemic got in the way. Fans are hoping they find a way to squeeze in the replacement dates before the end of the year, but summer 2022 now feels like a safer bet. By that point, Charlie Watts will be 81, Mick Jagger will be 79, and Keith Richards will be months away from turning 79 himself. Ron Wood is the baby of the group and he’ll be a mere 75.
Almost nobody could have foreseen the Stones still touring in 2022 back when Wood joined up with them in 1975. But they’ve proven that they’re absolutely bulletproof and nothing can stop them from carrying on, not even cancer or a worldwide pandemic.
“10 years of Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds?? Blimey!” Gallagher wrote on Twitter. “Just think of all the things I COULD have done in that time!!”
The Best Of collection, released June 11th, celebrates 10 years of Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.
The tracklist for the 18-song album was curated by Gallagher, and features two new tracks written by Gallagher and Paul ‘Strangeboy’ Stacey, “We’re On Our Way Now” and “Flying On The Ground.”
“The title just came to me one afternoon, at the kitchen table,” the musician noted. ”It’s a saying isn’t it: ‘back the way we came’. I actually thought it was a great title. Which is why it’s got Vol 1. Because if there’s another one, I’m not coming up with another title!”
On BBC Radio 2, Gallagher also revealed that The Crown actor Matt Smith will appear in the upcoming music video for “We’re On Our Way Now.”
‘We are [good friends],” Gallagher told BBC host Zoe Ball. “I’ve been friends with Matt for about 10 years. He came round to ours one night and I manipulated him with a lot of alcohol. I said, ‘Did you have a good night?’ [He said], ‘The best, the best energy.’ I said, ‘Do us a favour, be in the video for us.’ He agreed with a bad hangover.”
“‘Flying On The Ground’ is literally the best thing I’ve released since the last thing I released. If Burt Bacharach wrote for Motown this is what it would sound like… only not as good… obviously.” (NG).
‘Flying On The Ground’, the new track taken from ‘Back The Way We Came: Vol 1 (2011-2021)’
Most recently, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds released “Blue Moon Rising” EP in early 2020. Gallagher formed the group after leaving Oasis in 2009. Curated and compiled entirely by Noel, and includes tracks from the three Number One albums and the three acclaimed EPs – plus 2 previously unreleased tracks including the brand new single ‘We’re On Our Way Now’.
The album is available on limited edition deluxe formats featuring a bonus disc including previously unreleased acoustic versions, remixes, instrumentals and an unheard demo.
“Back the way we came: vol 1 (2011-2021)” is a best of celebrating the first decade of noel gallagher’s high flying birds.
This double album, curated and compiled entirely by noel, includes tracks from the three number one albums (‘noel gallagher’s high flying birds’, ‘Chasing Yesterday’ and ‘Who Built The Moon?’) and the three acclaimed eps (‘black Star Dancing’, ‘This Is The Place’ and ‘Blue Moon Rising’) – plus 2 previously unreleased tracks including the brand new single ‘We’re On Our Way Now’.
Noel Gallagher has shared a track-by-track video talking through each and every song from his new High Flying BirdsGreatest Hits, ‘Back The Way We Came: Vol 1 (2011-2021)’.
The collection gathers songs from the former Oasis man’s three solo albums through to his latest trilogy of EPs. In the new video, Gallagher goes into a deep-dive into the writing of each of the tracks, and why he chose to release a ‘best of’ now.
“I’d done enough touring and didn’t want to go on tour, and after all of those EPs it seemed like the right time to go, ‘Right, that’s been 10 years’,” says Gallagher, introducing the video.
“For best ofs, the titles are always shit. This one just came to me one afternoon while sat at the kitchen table. It’s a saying, isn’t it – back the way we came. We’re looking back over a 10 year period. I actually thought it’s a great title. That’s why it’s called ‘Volume 1’ – if there’s a ‘Volume 2’ I’m not coming up with another fucking title because it’s fucking great!”
Bonus Tracks Include It’s A Beautiful World (Instrumental) If I Had A Gun … (Acoustic Version) Black Star Dancing (Skeleton Key Remix) Black Star Dancing (12″ Mix Instrumental) The Man Who Built The Moon (Acoustic Version) International Magic (Demo) Blue Moon Rising (Sons Of The Desert Remix) The Dying Of The Light (Acoustic Version) This Is The Place (Skeleton Key Remix) This Is The Place (Instrumental) Black Star Dancing (The Reflex Revision) Be Careful What You Wish For (Instrumental)
Flying On The Ground · Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds Flying On The Ground ℗ Sour Mash Records Ltd Released on: 2021-06-07
Motörhead‘s 1981 album “No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith” is to be reissued for its 40th Anniversary across a number of formats, including a four-CD deluxe edition with previously unreleased performances.
The record featured tracks from the band’s ‘Short Sharp Pain in the Neck’ tour which saw them play Newcastle, Leeds, Norfolk and Belfast in the space of a week, in late March 1981.
The 11-track album – issued in June of the same year – featured three tracks from Ace Of Spades, five from Overkill, the title track from Bomber title track and two from their debut. It was the only Motorhead number one album and Lemmy is quoted as saying: “I knew it’d be the live one that went best, because we’re really a live band. You can’t listen to a record and find out what we’re about. You’ve got to see us.”
The 40th anniversary reissue features a new remaster of the original album created from the original tapes. The four-CD edition includes five bonus tracks on the first disc (three of which are previously unreleased from a soundcheck) and features three previously unreleased full concerts from this tour: Leeds Queen Hall (28/3/81) and both nights from Newcastle City Hall (29th & 30th March). Just over half of the original album is from the Newcastle show on the 30th March, in case you are wondering. The box set is pictured above and includes 28-page book, poster, plectrum, tour pass, ticket, flyer & badge.
This version of “The Hammer” — which Motörhead tear through in all their ragged, raw and pulverizing glory — comes from their March 30th, 1981 concert concert at Newcastle City hall . While a handful of tracks from that show made it on to the original No Sleep ’Til Hammersmith, the new reissue marks the first time the concert will be released in its entirety. The line up on this track is Lemmy, Fast Eddie Clarke and Philthy Animal Taylor.
A 3LP 40th anniversary edition features the new remaster of “No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith” and the full Newcastle show from 30th March 1981. A two-CD edition repeats the same content.
These 40th Anniversary editions of No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith will be released on 25th June 2021 via Sanctuary/BMG Records.
There is a sparkling seventies sunshine feel to the new single by New South Wales South Coast bandPacific Avenue that emanates pure golden rays. Layered harmonies, arcing guitars and a powerful melody serve to illuminate this track: bolstered by one of those guitar solos that pop and strut around with attitude.
Singer Harry O’Brien says of the song: Whilst love can be an entirely complicated mess, it’s also the easiest thing we do. Running into someone, unexpectedly at that, and finding that you don’t need to try being anyone but yourself, is a very sweet thing and is something that’s worth holding on to. Regardless of who you are, love is love, and that’s what we hope to convey through the song and the video clip.
This sense of optimism is a perfect panacea for our world and delivered with such unabashed joy by the band that it is delightfully infective.
The accompanying video perfectly captures that special essence of the South Coast: bars and pubs, spectacular views, bleach-white sands, sunshine and an easy going camaraderie. It really is a delicious dollop of cream on an already succulent piece of cake: To coincide with the release, the band will embark on an Australian headline tour, playing shows in Adelaide, Fremantle, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Sydney
The wheels rattle into the thrilling unknown on The Coral’s first new music since 2018, finding the unsurpassed, metamorphic gonzo-pop five-piece in the company of crooks, sell-by-date candyfloss and plastic skeletons as they release Faceless Angel. Of misplaced memories from a place and time that might never have been, the track precedes a new and vividly evocative body of work from the legendary Merseyside band in the form of their TENTH and first, ever double-album: “Coral Island”.
Squinting into the neon-lit penny arcades and draining an after hours glass with the displaced and dispossessed once the power is pulled, The Coral’s latest caper concerns listeners with the light, shade, thrills and profound melancholy of coastal palaces packed with fun and fright. Both now and then, or perhaps never as fiction encroaches on reality, the feverous anticipation of a night amongst the screams, fights and romance of the fair become part of life on the newly-built Coral Island.
Welcoming travellers one trepidous step at a time, Faceless Angel sits amongst a series of promised audio visual portraits of and inspired by the Island’s inhabitants. Conceived and created by artist, Edwin Burdis, the single’s video was filmed ‘on’ Coral Island itself, a sprawling diorama purpose-built inside a deserted Chinese restaurant in Cardiff. It’s the band and fans’ first venture onto the surreal land mass, populated by surreal sculptural forms, charity shop-finds, looming mountains and gathering storm clouds. Filmed in debt to the traditional model-based filmmaking methods of greats like George Lucas or Ray Harryhausen, Burdis navigated Coral Island at waist-height and via camera-friendly pathways to gather 360 degree footage from inside and outside his and The Coral’s fascinating, fabricated world. The expansive and ambitious installation also provides the album artwork for Coral Island as well as designs for Faceless Angel and future singles.
Indebted in part to the classic pre-Beatles rock and roll era of Duane Eddy and Chuck Berry alongside the clattering of a weary ghost train’s rusted wheels on worn steel, Faceless Angel’s title evokes DC Comics ominous occult detective series, Hellblazer and the broken character of the strip’s protagonist, John Constantine.
Almost 19 years after the release of their celebrated, self-titled, Mercury Music Prize-nominated, platinum-certified debut in 2002, kick-starting a decade of classic singles, including Dreaming Of You (now on over 100 million streams globally and gaining UK Platinum status), Pass It On, Don’t Think You’re The Firstand In The Morning, The Coral move into 2021 as in thrall to the self-endowed gift of creative freedom as they were on day one. The band has sold over a million albums to date.
Of their nine albums to date, the last of which, Move Through The Dawn, was released in 2018, five have reached the Top 10 including 2003’s chart-topping Gold-selling Magic and Medicine which saw the band nominated for Best Group at the Brit Awards. Never anything other than wilfully idosyncratic and critically-praised, the follow-up, The Invisible Invasion reached No.3 in the UK Albums Chart and joins it’s predecessor in being certified Gold.
Recorded in a sense of barely-controlled, copy and paste chaos at Parr Street Studios in Liverpool, Coral Island was written and performed by the multi-instrumentalist and multi-talented line-up of James Skelly, Ian Skelly, Nick Power, Paul Duffy and Paul Molloy plus a special guest.
Taken from the band’s forthcoming album ‘Coral Island’ released on 30th April 2021.
The Fat Angel Sings 