The Fat Angel Sings

Swervedriver are among the most underrated band’s of their era, which is strange, considering they picked things back up after a decade away in 2008 and have since produced two fantastic records in “I Wasn’t Born to Lose You” and “Future Ruins”. Formed in Oxford in 1989 around core members Adam Franklin and Jimmy Hartridge. Between 1989 and 1998, the band released four studio excellent albums and numerous EPs and singles despite a considerable flux of members, managers, and record labels. By 1993 the band’s lineup had settled with Franklin on vocals/guitar, Hartridge on guitar, Jez Hindmarsh on drums, and Steve George on bass.

Fusing the muscular guitar work of J Mascis and James Williamson with the influence of groups like Sonic Youth and a touch of metal, they have everything right, from the pulsating rhythm section to the dovetailing work of guitarists Adam Franklin and Jimmy Hartridge.

Instead of debuting with a full-length album, Swervedriver released a series of four-track EPs over the span of a year, subscribing to the popular trend in the early ’90s. “If you had 4 songs ready-ish, you would record them there and then and put them all out ASAP. No such thing as ‘saving songs for the album’ back then,” explained Hartridge. Swervedriver’s debut offering, “Son of Mustang Ford“, was released in July 1990.

The group launched the release with an appearance on the John Peel BBC Radio 1 show in July 1990, performing a select B-side from each of their three debut EPs along with the song “Over” (which would not see an official release for 15 years). The release of “Rave Down”, the second EP in the series, followed in November. DJ Mary Anne Hobbs called its title track “a cyclone of wild, swollen riff machinery that sounds like it’s been played with dislocated shoulder joints.

Their third EP, “Sandblasted”, being described as “a head-on collision between guitars raging for chaos.

Raise

They are another band who got better when they burned off some of that haze, Swervedriver made a massive leap between their first album, “Raise”, September 1991. It was recorded at The Greenhouse & Falconer Studios and produced by the band, like their prior EPs, and included the title tracks from all three. We hadn’t been together that long when we started work on “Raise”. We’d recorded three EPs with Creation Records already, and then it came to the album. When we’d been looking for a label to get started with, Creation had been literally the last label we’d intended to give a cassette to. We had a bunch of cassettes made up of our demo which we gave to various labels. We had one left over and we thought, ‘What shall we do with this? Creation? They won’t sign us but let’s give one to Mark [Gardener, of Ride]”. And then the story is [Creation founder] Alan McGee was in LA in the back of a car looking for some music to play. He finds this tape given to him by Mark, of this band Swervedriver from Oxford and he puts it in – straight away it sounds great.  the actual album was three singles – “Son Of Mustang Ford”, “Rave Down” and “Sandblasted” – and only six new songs. Considering we’d put out three EPs by then, which was 12 songs, in some ways I think it was quite strange that the album came out with only six new songs.

Regarding the group’s overriding fascination with everything automotive, Franklin had said, “the car thing came from twisting around rock ‘n’ roll imagery. Chuck Berry used to sing about cars. T. Rex used to sing about cars, and being in the car is just a good place to hear music.

Swervedriver’s fourth EP, which featured the “Raise” outtake “The Watchmakers Hands” and the track “Scrawl and Scream”, a slowed-down reworking of “Afterglow”

“Rave Down“. It was the first recording we were really happy with and it just has this energy to it that is brilliant. 

Using footage from their first leg of touring, A&M representatives Jeff Suhy and Scott Carter produced the video “On the Road with Swervedriver: A Rockumentary”, which also featured interviews and the music videos for “Son of Mustang Ford” and “Sandblasted”, So “Raise” was released, then we go on tour, and… the band falls apart almost immediately. Graham Bonner, our drummer, famously left for a sandwich after a show in Boston never to return. 

Mezcal Head

Their second, “Mezcal Head”. A big part of that was a new line-up of the band which included a much-improved rhythm section of drummer Jez Hindmarsh and bassist Steve George that could really rip. Ultimately after touring “Raise” infighting within the band led to departure of two members all that remained of the band according to Franklin was, “myself, Jimmy Hartridge and some effects pedals”,

My thoughts on “Mezcal Head” are that I would’ve changed the track-listing slightly. I may have taken “A Change Is Gonna Come” off, possibly, but I appreciate that that song was quite different and it’s quite a strange song for us. But I would probably replace that with “Planes Over The Skyline”, which I think should’ve been on the album.

And “The Hitcher” I think “The Hitcher” is a classic lost Swervedriver song. Those two songs I think would go on the album, But I say that and other people say “Oh but I love that song!” or “You can’t replace that one!” and I think that’s what happens in the end – however flawed an album might be, or how much you think you could improve it, in the end people just want it how it is.

Franklin and Hartridge laid the groundwork for a new album at EMI’s demoing studio near Oxford Street in London, and while recording newly written “Duress” with producer Marc Waterman, he introduced them to Jeremy “Jez” Hindmarsh, ex-drummer of the London band 5:30. Later that night, Hindmarsh approached the duo at The Murray Arms bar in Camden Town and pitched them his services, including use of his 16-track studio equipment. They accepted and Swervedriver had their new drummer. The group got to work on recording their new album first at Playground rehearsal studios in Camden and then Trident 2 studios with Franklin and Hartridge splitting bass duties.

Swervedriver would still need a bassist when the show hit the road, and Franklin would encounter him at another bar in Camden. About meeting Steve George, Franklin recalled, “He actually came up to me and said, ‘You’re the guy from Swervedriver. You need a bass player. I’m your man.

“Mezcal Head”, produced by Alan Moulder and Swervedriver. Franklin and Hartridge credited Moulder for making the album sound “big and clear” and doing “way more for us than we had hoped critically acclaimed. Later reviews praised it “combined the best elements of shoegazing with grunge and even American indie rock. The album’s second single, “Last Train to Satansville”, was released. Critics and fans again were drawn to Hindmarsh’s deeper, harder-hitting drumming and Franklin’s stream-of-consciousness narrative, describing it as “the height of alt-rock badassery … with a monster guitar riff and chunky rhythm” and a “menacing spaghetti western bite.

Ejector Seat Reservation

Swervedriver’s third album, “Ejector Seat Reservation”, was recorded primarily at Church Studios and Konk Studios in Crouch End, again produced by the band and Alan Moulder. Aside from themes of fatalism and flight working their way into its composition, “for some reason we were wanting to reverse the notion of being the band with the American references in our songs and so some very British reference points appeared in the lyrics,” I think this album was great – the problem was with the marketing At the time, Britpop was everything, and by this point all the bands were doing songs that started with the acoustic guitar explained Franklin. The band had a dispute with McGee over picking the album’s launching single—they thought “The Other Jesus” was the obvious choice but McGee overrode them, selecting “Last Day on Earth”.  These incidents would prove to be just a precursor to the group’s album woes, however. Realizing a vanishing return on their investment, American label A&M cut the band’s funding, telling them the album would not fit into their release schedule for another year and a half. 

“Ejector Seat Reservation” didn’t get a fair shot in that it wasn’t released in our biggest marketplace. It didn’t come out in the US, so from that point of view it certainly wasn’t given a fair whack. But I do think there was some great stuff on it. The lyrics on this album were a bit crazy in an interesting way. I remember there were things from dreams being put into the lyrics

Despite its lack of commercial success, critics have considered “Ejector Seat Reservation” to be the band’s highest achievement.

99th Dream

Over the next year, the group would record “99th Dream”  their fourth album, February 1998. with Moulder at the helm, this time taking a more simple, laid-back approach than with previous productions. They scaled back from 48-track to 24-track recording, condensing the layering of guitar in the process, and employed more full-ensemble straight live track, partly with the mindset of making it easier to play the guitar lines live. During that time, the band also put out a pair of self-produced boutique label seven-inch singles, including the double split “Why Say Yeah” with indie collaboration act Sophia.

About the album’s progression to a more indie rock style, Franklin said “It wasn’t a conscious decision. [It was] just the way it was going – concise little pop songs, bossa nova beats and such.” He continued, “I’ve always liked the idea that you don’t always know where it’s coming from… [The lyrics are] all about time. It’s all over the place. I didn’t put too much thought into it, which may be good. You’re fuelling more from the subconscious that way.”

Working on the reissue I realised how much was going on at this time, because there’s a lot of really good material. But what I didn’t like about the album personally was the singing. There was something I was trying to do there and I didn’t do it well, and I really can’t stand the vocals. And I think there was a general harshness to the album which has been softened up in this new remaster. The unreleased tracks on CD3 will probably blow a few people away, actually. I think if you’re going to put out unreleased tracks after a long time they ought to be pretty fucking good. And I think these ones are. They’ve got this energy to them and that really struck me.

Hindmarsh mentioned, “There’s a track called ‘She Weaves a Tender Trap.’ That’s like a one-take, all-four-of-us thing, and it has a lot more air in it, a lot more space.  In the past, we used to try and fill every single hole. That song sort of defines a change in the way we’re thinking. I think we’re headed that way, to leave space to let the music breathe a little bit.

We already knew we were going to have to do a double vinyl reissue, so it was a question of if we spread the 11 tracks across four sides or if we added a fourth side. I decided to add a fourth side, because the songs on there were all things that appeared on indie 7”s. So you have “Why Say Yeah”, “93 Million Miles From The Sun”, The Director’s Cut Of Your Life. For me, side four is what makes it more of a whole, because I think those songs create more of an overall picture of what was going on with the band around the time. I think this album is flawed, they’re all flawed, but this representation does emphasise things you might have missed first time around.

That year also saw the release of two more works through Swervedriver’s personal label. The EP “Space Travel, Rock ‘n’ Roll”, released on February 1998 as an Australian single, showcased Hindmarsh’s first experimentation with looping. The July 1998 single “Wrong Treats” (“These Times” in Australia) would be the band’s last offering before their ultimate hiatus and featured the instrumental “Homeless Homecoming”, a recording begun during a soundcheck at the Metro Club in Sydney, and a cover of T. Rex’s “Château in Virginia Waters”.

Juggernaut Rides ’89–’98”

Record label issues and waning interest within the group led to their split at the end of 1998. A decade later, Swervedriver reunited In the beginning of 2005, the group convened in a collaboration with Castle Music to decide on songs for a retrospective. “Juggernaut Rides ’89–’98” compiled 33 tracks remastered from the original DATs and toured periodically over the next five years, The two-CD anthology featured four previously unreleased songs, including Shake Appeal’s “Son of Mustang Ford” demo from 1989 and the remainder of Swervedriver’s 1998 recordings, “Just Sometimes” and the orchestral string accompanied “Neon Lights Glow”. Regarding the production effort for “Juggernaut Rides”, Franklin, said “Me and Jimmy sat there [during the remastering] and said, ‘Wow this is pretty great.’ You do forget things about the various tracks,”

Swervedriver kicked off their reunion tour in April 2008 at the Coachella Festival in Indio, California and continued through North America for the next two months. The band then performed a pair of shows in Great Britain at the Scala London and King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow September 2008, respectively. On the heels of the tour’s success, remastered and extended editions of “Raise”, “Mezcal Head”, and “Ejector Seat Reservation” were reissued in the UK by Sony BMG.

Swervedriver appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on March 2012, performing their debut single “Son of Mustang Ford” and premiering the song “Deep Wound”, Releasing their first new material in fifteen years with the 2013 single “Deep Wound” But it was also better songs and more muscular production courtesy producer Alan Moulder who was very busy in the early ’90s.

The soaring, roaring track “Duel,” arguably the album’s finest moment, is backed with two killer B’s: the majestic “Planes Over the Skyline,” and starry eyed “Year of the Girl,” both of which have Jez going full Keith Moon. 

The standalone single “Never Lose That Feeling,” which would be tacked-on the U.S. edition of “Mezcal Head”, was actually the last record the original line-up of the band made. The EP version melts into the dubby “Never Learn,” making for a very worthy 11 minutes of listening.

I Wasn’t Born to Lose You

The album, titled “I Wasn’t Born to Lose You”, would be released on March 2015 through the Cobraside record label. The first single off the album, “Setting Sun”, was released on January 2015.

The really interesting thing about the origins of this album is that there’s a recording of a sound check in Arizona in 1998; our sound manager recorded it, and I found the tape. Between us playing a couple of songs, you hear a guitar playing “Lone Star’s” melody, and I thought, that’s quite cool. What is that? So I played it back. I don’t know if it’s me or Jimmy I think it was me. But it was this really good riff that ends up being the main intro riff of “Lone Star”. So that whole tune came out of two seconds of a sound check in Arizona in 1998. And if Dave our soundman hadn’t recorded that and that song, that melody would have floated off into the ether and been lost, or picked up by somebody else. I do quite like the idea of musical archaeology – just finding this tape and this little thing and turning it into something else. 

Initially, we just got back together to play shows, and that was really fun. I think that was probably in 2012 or something. It took a while before we actually recorded a new record. But eventually, it got to a point where Jimmy said, ‘Look, we want to do new stuff.’ So we started trying to write songs. I remember sending the band the demo for “Deep Wound”, and I think Steve George, bassist’s one-word response was ‘beautiful,’ and Jimmy’s one-word response was ‘nasty’. It was quite funny because they both happened to reply with just a single word.

Thanks to Rick Beato interviewing Franklin on his popular YouTube channel, as well as the current shoegaze resurrection with the TikTok generation, Swervedriver are earning many new fans. It’s about time, too, as the guitars are of a different class, with Franklin leading the charge. From weaponising open tunings to the scalding speed-freak essence of early cuts such as ‘Son of Mustang Ford’ to more psychedelic, immersive moments like ‘Duress’, in many ways, they are the perfect guitar band, and that is down to the work of Franklin and his sonic confederate Hartridge.

Future Ruins 

Franklin comments The standout track is definitely “The Lonely Crowd Fades In The Air.” That title is a misheard Supremes lyric. The original lyric was ‘The lonely cry fades in the air.’ I misheard it as ‘The lonely crowd.’ And I thought, that’s a great lyric, then when I looked it up I realised it actually wasn’t the lyric, and that I could claim that lyric. I think there’s a desire to sort of subvert the language a little bit sometimes. You can have a rock song, and lyrically you can do anything you want with it. And quite often, people don’t even take it in. I mean, even after 30 years, you find out what somebody was singing, and you never knew that’s what they were singing. But I always thought if someone is gonna find out after 30 years what you were singing, they might as well have a pleasant surprise, and find that there’s just something kind of reasonable going on there.

 I love “Theeascending“, it’s a beautiful song. “Spiked Flower” was actually a Jimmy riff, and I ended up pretty surprised with the vocal, which I sang late at night – suddenly it was like, ‘oh, holy fuck’, I kind of surprised myself. I think sometimes you hear your own stuff, and when it’s something you’ve recorded and then gone out and toured and played live lots of times, you then have that live version in your head. So you go back, and you hear strange little production things and they can sometimes sound a little out of place.

Not only is Franklin a gifted songwriter, but he’s also an intelligent guitarist who thinks outside of the box and is equally adept at moments of sheer brute force as he is in melodic splendour, toeing the line adroitly. Add a profound handling of effects to the mix, and you have a player who qualified as an all-time great years ago.

There’s something coalescing in terms of a next album. I mean, literally, we have been radio silent for four years. But we did a bit of recording back in October in Oxford, we just haven’t gotten around to finishing it off yet. But there are some songs there, and some other stuff that’s creeping up.

 Swervedriver album discography

• Raise (1991)
• Mezcal Head (1993)
• Ejector Seat Reservation (1995)
• 99th Dream (1998)
• I Wasn’t Born to Lose You (2015)
• Future Ruins (2019)

EP’s 12″ Vinyl

Son of Mustang Ford (1990)
Rave Down (1990)
Sandblasted  (1991)
Reel to Real  (1991)
Never Lose That Feeling (1992)
Last Train to Satansville  (1993)
Space Travel, Rock ‘n’ Roll (1998)

Just 10 months after The Derivative Sounds of…Or… A Dog Always Returns to its Vomit (Goner/Anti Fade), Alien Nosejob returns with their latest sonic assault: “Turns the Colour of Bad Shit”, The modern age has given rise to a variety of DIY artists capable of pumping out multiple albums per year. Hailing from Australia, Alien Nosejob is just one example of these prolific and tireless artists, and his latest record.

As a member of multiple DIY bands in Victoria, namely Hierophants, Leather Towel, Modal Melodies, Smarts, The Frowning Clouds, and, most notably, Ausmuteants, you would be forgiven for thinking that Jake Robertson’s thirst for song writing and performance has been well and truly quenched. However, Robertson spends his downtime writing and recording music for his side project, Alien Nosejob, under which he has released a total of seven albums thus far. “Turns the Colour of Bad Shit” is the most recent instalment in his solo discography, and it might just be his most infectious release yet.

Expect 24 minutes of late 70’s punk energy with a twist! From the haunting saxophone in ‘Bird Strike’ to the fiery ‘Medical Treatment’ finale, this record is raw, punchy, and totally unpredictable.

Awash with fuzzy guitar tones, innovative recording and production techniques, as well as a staunch DIY ethos, Robertson’s latest record is an absolute triumph for garage punk. At this point in time, the garage punk genre is incredibly oversaturated, and so it can often be difficult to find new angles and themes to explore without sounding derivative or generic. In contrast, Alien Nosejob is effective in breathing new life into the scene, tackling a variety of different topics ranging from authority to nepotism over the course of a ten-track record. Each track is delivered with unwavering energy, power, and passion, which makes the album very difficult to dislike.

It is officially no longer summer at least in the northern hemisphere. As the days get colder and gloomier, it’s only appropriate to match the weather with an atmospheric soundtrack, and Clinic Stars have the perfect album to offer. “Only Hinting”, their debut LP, is a gorgeous, texture-laden slowcore dream, offering up fuzzy landscapes for listeners to simply dissolve into. The full-length debut by Detroit duo Giovanna Lenski and Christian Molik both refines and redefines their pitch-perfect fusion of downer-pop balladry and featherweight shoegaze: “Only Hinting”.

When listening to “Only Hinting”, you gain a sense of clarity. Despite the longing, the desire for escape, and the pain that life brings, if it can all be made to sound this beautiful and haunting, surely we’ll all make it through? The album is best heard played in full from start to finish, allowing each song to blend into the next as blankets of sound lay on top of each other.

This is arguably one of the best debuts of the year, comprising eight songs of pure beauty. On ‘She Won’t Be’, a thick layer of sound undercuts tender guitar notes that create a feeling of intense melancholy, while ‘I Am The Dancer’ begins with a heavier fuzz, emulating the sound of despair or calmness, depending on how you interpret it.

Recorded and produced at the band’s home studio, the album was crafted across 2022 and 2023, patiently layering FX and spatial depths to give each song a swirling, subconscious undertow. The gated reverb of “Remain” to the greyscale guitar reverie of “Isn’t It,” the record aches as much as moves, daydreaming of escape and transcendence.

The group cite a desire to leave their “industrial environment” as muse, although the songs also revel in the romance of longing itself, in the beauty of hearts grown distant.

The duo’s previous EPs, “10,000 Dreams” (2021) and “April’s Past” (2022), captured a similarly swooning slowcore palette, but “Only Hinting” hits different. Here haze is as much instrument as texture, gauze and melody married as one, traced in elegant arcs across cities streaked in shadow.

David Gilmour kicked off his ‘Luck & Strange’ world tour Friday night (September 27th) at Circo Massimo in Rome, Italy. The set featured six songs from the new album, multiple guest appearances by Gilmour’s daughter Romany, three tunes from 2015’s ‘Rattle That Lock’, & 12 Pink Floyd classics.

Prior to the tour, Gilmour generated headlines all across the world by saying he had an “unwillingness to revisit the Pink Floyd of the ’70s,” & would instead play only songs from his era fronting the band in the ’80s & early-’90s. But as the months ticked by & opening night drew closer, he had a change of heart.

“One has to wake up to reality once in a while,” he told Rolling Stone in August. “I think I will be doing one or two things from that time, but it just seems so long ago. I know people love them, & I love playing them. I’ll be doing ‘Wish You Were Here,’ of course I will. And some of the things that started with me anyway.”

He played not only “Wish You Were Here” on opening night, but also “Breathe (In The Air),” “Time,” “Breathe (Reprise),” “Fat Old Sun,” “The Great Gig in the Sky,” and “Comfortably Numb.” He also did four songs (“Marooned,” “High Hopes,” “A Great Day for Freedom,” “Coming Back to Life”) from 1994’s ‘The Division Bell’, & one selection (“Sorrow”) from 1987’s ‘A Momentary Lapse of Reason’.

The show was also the official unveiling of his new backing group following a couple of off-the-radar warmup shows in Brighton, England. It includes drummer Adam Betts, guitarist Ben Worsley, keyboardists Rob Gentry and Greg Phillinganes, longtime bassist Guy Pratt, & backup singers Louise Marshall, Charlie Webb & Hattie Webb.

Romany Gilmour came out to join her father on “The Piper’s Call,” and a cover of the Montgolfier Brothers 1999 song “Between Two Points.” It’s unclear exactly how long she’ll remain on the tour. “I haven’t really worked out quite which [shows] she’ll be able to do,” the elder Gilmour told Rolling Stone. “She’s at university studying in London, and so I don’t know that she’ll be able to do it all.”

Much like just every David Gilmour solo concert in history, stretching all the way back to his first run outside the band in 1984, the evening wrapped up with a soaring “Comfortably Numb.”

Gilmour has another five shows booked in Rome before he heads over to London for six gigs at the Royal Albert Hall. The U.S. leg begins Oct. 25 in Los Angels at the Intuit Dome. He then heads across town for three shows at the Hollywood Bowl. It wraps up with five evenings at New York’s Madison Square Garden in early Nov., including one show that will begin just as results start coming in for the presidential election…

Dave Edmunds has a new collection, “Swan Songs: The Singles 1976–1981“, a 39-track set released on September 27th, 2024, through Omnivore Recordings. The compilation, featuring such favourites as “Almost Saturday Night,” “I Knew the Bride,” “Queen of Hearts,” and “Crawling From the Wreckage,” is available on 2-CDs and 2-LPs. The acclaimed musician, born in Wales in April 1944, turned 80 this year.

He retired from performing on July 22, 2017. Edmunds first came to prominence worldwide with his 1970 single, “I Hear You Knocking,” which pre-dates this collection. The song reached No1 in the U.K., and was top 5 in numerous other countries. Though he continued to score in the U.K. (with several of the songs on this collection), With just a handful of singles featuring his distinctive voice stalling midway up the chart. 

After hitting the charts in 1968, Edmunds began a spectacular career as a writer, performer, and producer. Signing with Swan Song Records, all of the pieces of the puzzle would fit into place. Beginning with “Here Comes The Weekend” (co-written with Nick Lowe), Edmunds began a stellar run, showcasing his propensity for, and ability to bring a classic sound back to the airwaves, and to remember where all of those sounds came from.

“Swan Songs: The Singles 1976–1981” reveals the magic of the 7″ single in a way that has yet to be explored. 39 tracks, covering every A- and B-side from that period, guide the listener through that pivotal time when listeners heard what they liked and liked what they heard.

From covers of contemporaries Graham Parker, Elvis Costello, and beyond, these Swan Songs all meld into Chuck Berry, Rodgers & Hart, and more. Huey Lewis & The News had a hit with “Bad Is Bad,” but Edmunds released it in 1979. Same with Hank DeVito’s “Queen Of Hearts,” with Juice Newton took onto the U.S. airwaves years later. Bob Seger’s “Get Out Of Denver,” John Fogerty’s “Almost Saturday Night”—classics and stunning originals, this was the time where music ruled, and it is collected here.

With new mastering and restoration from multiple Grammy-winner Michael Graves, the packaging of this double-CD and double-LP features a look at picture sleeves that 7″ collectors cherish, as well as detailed liner notes from Joe Marchese (from The Second Disc) which outline Edmunds’ roots and trajectory from performer and band leader, to producer (including his work with Stray Cats, as featured on their version of “The Race Is On”).

Over four decades after its debut, a deluxe edition of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ groundbreaking but often overlooked 1982 album, “Long After Dark”, will be released via Geffen/UMe on October 18th, 2024. The set, will be available on 2-CDs + 1-Blu-ray or on 2-LPs, The set features the newly remastered version of the original album taken from the original analogue master tapes, plus 12 rediscovered bonus tracks newly mixed by Petty’s longtime engineer Ryan Ulyate.

Despite it being a golden era of The Heartbreakers playing at the height of their powers, it is widely known as the band’s most misunderstood and underrated success. The album features an edgy collection of rock ballads and guitar anthems backed by the unmistakable sound of The Heartbreakers, including founding members Mike Campbell (lead guitar), Benmont Tench (keyboards), Stan Lynch (drums), plus the new addition of Howie Epstein on bass and backing vocals.

“Long After Dark (Deluxe Edition)” will feature the songs that were lost in the debate over the album’s original direction. Notable highlights include finding Petty’s version of “Never Be You”—which was a #1 country hit for Rosanne Cash—pop anomaly “Don’t Make Me Walk the Line,” and an up-tempo version of “Ways To Be Wicked,” which was previously covered by Lone Justice, recorded at Applewood Studios in Denver, Colorado.

Many of the additional tracks are taken from the French TV sessions, including acoustic gems, “Turning Point” and the Everly Brothers influenced “Keeping Me Alive.”

“Long After Dark” was a smash by the usual standards it spawned three fan favourites, “You Got Lucky,” “Change of Heart” and “Straight Into Darkness.” In the “making of” clip for the “You Got Lucky” video, Petty explains that he always wanted it to have “this Ennio Morricone – Clint Eastwood western feel. So when we went to write the movie, I really just wanted an excuse to go play around in the desert.”

“Long After Dark” remains an unsung gem amongst its predecessors, “Damn the Torpedoes” and “Hard Promises“. “It’s a good little rock & roll record” but also “a tough record because I never knew if we were making the right decisions about songs,

The Petty Legacy archives is sharing previously unseen newly remastered film and audio from 1982 to 1983 this year, beginning with a pair of new videos that were originally filmed for French TV.

First a version of “Straight Into Darkness” featuring footage of the band performing at the Record Plant by award-winning director Alan Bibby and the track “Between Two Worlds,” .  “There was some music recorded for “Long After Dark” that didn’t quite get on the record, that I thought would’ve made it a better album. I left off…four things that I liked quite a bit. And probably a few more written that never even got in the door.”

Looking back on their third and final album together, legendary rock music producer Jimmy Iovine reflects, “Long After Dark”, we thought we had it. Sounded like ‘Positively Fourth Street,’ sounded like one of those records, you know. By the way, I think it is!”

The most successful and influential rock band to emerge from San Francisco during the 1960s, Jefferson Airplane created the sound of a generation. Their hits “Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit” virtually invented the era’s signature pulsating psychedelic music and, during one of the most tumultuous times in American history, came to personify the decade’s radical counterculture. In this groundbreaking biography of the band, veteran music writer and historian Jeff Tamarkin produces a portrait of the band like none that has come before it. Having worked closely with Jefferson Airplane for more than a decade, Tamarkin had unprecedented access to the band members, their families, friends, lovers, crew members, fellow musicians, cultural luminaries, even the highest-ranking politicians of the time. More than just a definitive history, “Got a Revolution!” is a rock legend unto itself.
Jann Wenner, editor-in-chief and publisher of Rolling Stone, wrote, “The classic [Jefferson] Airplane line-up were both architects and messengers of a psychedelic age, a liberation of mind and body that profoundly changed American art, politics, and spirituality. It was a renaissance that could only have been born in San Francisco, and the Airplane, more than any other band in town, spread the good news nationwide.

Swell Maps were one of the key post-punk bands. The much-loved outfit swerved from lo-fi glam anthems to noise collage and were never ever dull and packed full of thrilling ideas. Through crackling, jarring scuzz and fuzz, Swell Maps’ two LPs – 1979’s “A Trip to Marineville” and “Jane from Occupied Europe” a year later – cut through krautrock, post punk, art punk and ambient noise in their short-lived existence.

Born out of suburban boredom, teenage brothers Nikki Sudden and Epic Soundtracks founded Swell Maps in Solihull in 1972, but only properly formed after the 1977 release of their juddering debut single ‘Read About Seymour’. Embodying the DIY spirit of the age, the track is messy, disjointed and chaotic, the guitar lines fall over one another in tandem with the tuneless vocals that provided a statement of intent from the brothers and their new bandmates, one that would follow into their full-length LPs.

Their next standout single, ‘Lets Build a Car’ more directly channels their contemporaries; straightforward riffs echoing the Ramones, instrumentation akin to Germs’ ‘Lexicon Devil’, and gargled lyrics provide a punk staple. With these singles in their arsenal, Swell Maps buried them within their two sprawling masterpieces, plunged into a dense and brilliant context, amongst rock ballad, jangling art-punk and sparse industrial pieces.

The group, also featuring the late Nikki Sudden and Nikki’s brother, the late Epic Soundtracks, along with Phones Sportsman, John Cockrill, and Richard Earl emerged in the late 1970s, and are now known as legendary pioneers of what is now referred to as “alternative rock” or “post-punk” with their blend of punk rock mixed with experimental and psychedelic sounds. Both albums standing at 22 tracks and a run time of an hour, Swell Maps’ two albums envelop the listener in a soundscape previously unheard, fusing experimental instrumentals filled with harsh piano chords and feedback, with surf rock tracks seemingly found in the gutter.

Together they released four 7” singles, the first in 1977 on their own Rather Records and two critically acclaimed albums in a brief but dramatic career, that led to them topping the UK independent charts, and influencing bands such as Sonic Youth, Nirvana, and Blur.

The sounds within the songs are in a constant battle with one another, melody is hidden beneath the grit of grating guitar, choruses appear from the depths of abrasive noise, before disappearing again as the tracks become looser and freer. Nikki Sudden’s guitar slices through the dirty, low-fi feedback, alongside the constantly pushing drums; their music is relentlessly inventive, without losing focus.

The debut, “A Trip to Marineville” is a white knuckle, violent introduction to Swell Maps. They do not waste any time, the opener of ‘H.S. Art’ boasts driving punk rock, staccato keys and an almost catchy chorus, whilst the brilliant ‘Full Moon in my Pocket’ shows the band wearing their influences on their sleeve, placing surreal lyrics onto a Can backbone. In stark contrast, the album contains the haunting ‘Gunboats’, which slowly builds to a crescendo of improvisational sound over its eight minutes, along with ‘Adventure into Basketry’ – an experimental opus acting as the centrepiece of the album.

Months later, the band released “Jane from Occupied Europe”, a less exhilarating listen than its predecessor, but still retaining an industrial menace, showing Swell Maps subtract from their music without losing impact. The album includes ‘Lets Buy a Bridge’, alongside the constant groove of ‘Secret Island’, which slowly unravels as the record moves on, after the restricted surf drums of ‘Robot Factory’. The echoing keys and indistinguishable noises that recur maintain the tone of a truly original project.

Shortly after the release of “Jane from Occupied Europe“, the band split during a tour of Italy, assigning Swell Maps to history, and leaving a legacy of consistent moments of ahead-of-its-time. After Swell Maps broke up in 1980, Jowe joined the Television Personalities. Ten years with the TVPs saw Jowe making more influential records, touring Europe regularly, and playing in Japan and the USA.

Swell Maps created great songs that pushed the boundary of what albums could sound like, leaving an immeasurable impact on the future of western guitar music. These albums provided a wealth of material for future innovation among post punk bands such as Sonic Youth, Pavement, Nirvana and Stereolab, even reaching the contemporary stylings of Parquet Courts. Swell Maps took the abrasive genius of Can, harnessed the pent-up aggression that comes with living in Solihull, and utilised punk ethic to create music far beyond their time. They demand a re-listen, some tracks last less than a minute and others creep closer to 10, every note and noise is disquietingly perfect.

“Secret Island” by Swell Maps, taken from the Peel Session recorded on 18 March 1980

Since the deaths of Soundtracks in 1997 and Sudden in 2006, Head has become the band’s archivist. “It’s difficult and sometimes even uncomfortable and slightly painful because two of my ex-comrades are no longer with us,” he says. “Nikki and Epic were very important members of the band. Well, we all had an important part to play. There were no passengers, we were all very vocal, all very creative.”

Today he still regularly releases recordings, solo and with multiple groups, and is the steward of the Swell Maps legacy. In his 155-page biography of the band, Jowe takes us to each members’ formative years and reveals what made them experiment with challenging music and eventually come together to form Swell Maps.

The First-ever official biography of Swell Maps, “Swell Maps 1972-1980” penned by band member and co-founder Jowe Head. Swell Maps were formed in Jowe’s home town of Solihull, West Midlands with various school friends in 1972.

Through his own recollections and utilizing interviews with former members, he explores the early days of the band, and details stories that bring the reader into the inner workings of the band as they travelled through the late 70s cultural scene in Europe. The last section of the book updates the whereabouts of all the key players.

The book includes dozens of full-colour images of band memorabilia from the author’s personal collection, including photos, posters, flyers, artwork, original lyrics, and more. Additionally, a 7” vinyl single is included that features tracks never before released anywhere.

“The first Swell Maps single I bought still to this day gives me a soul scorched buzz’n’rush….The Swell Maps had a lot to do with my upbringing.”—Thurston Moore

“Jowe Head spent time in two of the UK’s coolest underground bands: Swell Maps and Television Personalities…a lovably skewed indie-pop tunesmith.” —Time Out New York

·Contains 7” with six exclusive never-before-released tracks culled from the band and solo member archives.

Tracklisting:
1. *Securicore
2. *Come Upstairs and See My Chemistry Set
3. *Harmony In Your Bathroom
4. **Double Dose
5. ***Elegia part 1
6. ****Votive Offering

*These 3 tracks were edited from a 1977 demo session. Two of the songs have never been released before in any form.
**Double Dose – is a 1979 radio jingle, the master tape recently rediscovered
***Elegia part 1 – is an out-take from “Jane From Occupied Europe ” studio sessions.
****Votive Offering – is an experimental home-recording

·Packed with full colour photos and images of posters, flyers, album art, and other assorted band ephemera. ·Detailed appendix contains a discography, notes on selected songs, concert dates, and set lists among other items.

·First comprehensive biography to focus on Swell Maps.

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