The INCREDIBLE STRING BAND – ” The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter ” Classic Albums

Posted: January 2, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , , ,
0

Scotland’s Incredible String Band combined traditional music of several cultures and brought that mixture into the hippie era, giving birth to freak folk. Among the ISB’s many fans is Robert Plant, who once cited the group’s “The Hangmans Beautiful Daughter” as a major influence on Led Zeppelin. The 1968 Elektra collection is ambitious and eclectic, applying a wide array of acoustic instruments (including sitar, oud, hammered dulcimer,  pan pipe and harpsichord) to the frequently surreal lyrics of Robin Williamson and Mike Heron. These songs of minotaurs and amoebas are psychedelic in the broadest sense of the term, and make excellent use of multi-tracking and overdubbing, guided by the capable hand of producer Joe Boyd. A commercial success in its native U.K. as well as a Grammy nominee, THE HANGMAN’S BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER is considered the Incredible String Band’s finest album, and it still works a strange magic on listeners.

For an album with lyrics like “If I were a witch’s hat, sitting on her head like a paraffin stove” and “I hear that the Emperor of China used to wear iron shoes with ease;We are the tablecloth, and also the table;also the fable of the dancing leaves”?
Just goes to show we baby-boomers had a damn sight more musical appreciation sense than we’ve been given credit for! This is, granted, the most mysterious, wordy, other-wordly of the Incredibles albums, but it Never loses its’ way musically, even in the key and tempo changes abounding in Williamson’s opening Keoaddii There or Heron’s 12 minute A very Cellular song, which, over 15 years on, Talking Heads adopted as a concert closer-now you know David Byrne was no fool either.

The best bit about this is you don’t need to be any of these things to enjoy this-stoned/hippy/old/living dead. It probably goes without saying that the duo’s instumentational abilities are great on any of their first 4 albums-this being the 3rd-but here the sheer variety of what they play and what they get out of those instruments defies belief. You could almost listen to the album for that alone, or for the poetry of the lyrics.

TOM PETTY – ” Live At The Fillmore (San Francisco Serenades) ” (3Cd) Box set

Posted: January 2, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags:
0

Live Broadcast Recording from Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker’s classic FILLMORE shows during the early 1990s they d been on a hiatus of sorts, but by 1995 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers had fully reunited to coincide with the release of their six CD Playback box set. After an extended tour, the band spent much of 1996 writing and recording the soundtrack album Songs And Music From “She’s The One”. While not one of their most successful records, it still produced three Top 20 hits while featuring appearances from Lindsey Buckingham, Ringo Starr, George Harrison and Carl Wilson. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers began 1997 with a staggering 20-date residency at The Fillmore in San Francisco, which ran from 10th January to 7th February. The final date of this extended run was deemed, in most quarters, one of the finest shows the group had ever performed, and was luckily recorded for live FM broadcast. Now included in its entirety on this triple CD box set for the first time, the show features a mix of hits, rarities and covers – including numbers originally by The Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry, Van Morrison, Booker T. And The MGs and a host of others – and includes too a guest appearance from blues legend John Lee Hooker, who joins the band as lead vocalist for three of his own songs.

PROLETARIAT – ” Mr. Brown “

Posted: January 2, 2018 in MUSIC
Tags: , ,
0

Image may contain: 1 person, playing a musical instrument

Some fast and furious rock ‘n’ roll riffs are delivered here on ‘Mr. Brown’, the debut single from Proletariat.

Released last April, it is the first cut from the Mossley, Manchester band’s debut EP ‘Always The Same’, A live favourite, ‘Mr. Brown’ offers some blistering punk guitar riffs that augment the sharp grungy vocals that could have come straight from the 70s, mixed with a dose of Noughties’ Slaves.

In a recent interview, vocalist James Cummins said of the song, “‘Mr. Brown’ is the demon that lives in all of us,” adding: “A lot of people think that it’s about heroin, but I can’t say that, at the age of 20, any of us have delved into it so it’s definitely not about that.”

Band Members
James Cummins – Vocals/Guitar
Connor Dolan – Lead Guitar
Aaron Hall – Bass
Luke O’Reilly – Drums

SWAY – ” To Be A Man “

Posted: January 2, 2018 in MUSIC
Tags: ,
0

Image may contain: one or more people, people standing, sky, cloud, outdoor and nature

The Glasgow band blend an eclectic mix of shoegazey guitars and pounding rhythms with strong power pop melodies; rock-gaze shot with through with an energetic fizz bomb of power pop.

Renfrewshire’s newest four piece band are sure to keep you moving to their guitar-laden and bass heavy sounds.

Likened to the style of Jaws, Ride, Basement and The Verve, four-piece band Sway is already taking the local music world by storm. The band consists of bassist Craig Milroy, 18, drummer David Roberts, 19, plus guitarists Matt Aitchison, 16 and Jonjoe McGirr, 16.

Hailing from from Johnstone, Linwood and Paisley respectively, the band are making their musical mark one guitar rift at a time.  David said: “We originated as a three piece band with only me, Craig and Matt. “We brought Jonjoe on board because we felt the tunes we were writing were missing something and since then, we’ve had such a great response as to how well we sound and also how far we have come. SWAY reinforced their huge potential and increasingly incisive songwriting skills with the release of their latest single ‘To Be A Man’ last week. Sounding more focused and self-assured than ever, the follow-up to ‘Planet Earth’ and ‘Give You It All’ saw the band build on their idyllic yet striking amalgamation of indie-rock, shoegaze and power pop in even more robust and exuberant fashion.

LARKINS – ” Sugar Sweet “

Posted: January 2, 2018 in MUSIC
Tags: ,
0

 

Hailing from Glossop, the four former college friends spill out shimmering indie rock n roll. Influenced by the likes of Foals and Led Zeppelin, the band formed at college and embark on a UK tour in April. Likely lads Larkins are creating their own brand of singsong indie pop which is perfectly encapsulated on new track “Sugar Sweet”.

I was caught off guard by the higgledy piggledy chords overlaid by the acoustic guitar in the verses and a question suddenly popped into my head. What if I don’t like it? I’m not sure what I was expecting; maybe a standard electric guitar melody ripped straight from a mainstream manufactured charts band? It’s not uncommon for a rising band to lose their grip on the sound they’ve worked so hard to refine, as they begin to make waves within the music industry.

An unassuming four-piece band from Manchester, are doing just that. The group are making straight laced indie pop filled with anthemic choruses and heartfelt lyricisms, wooing their listeners into a utopian world of leather and skinny jeans.

MINT – ” St Oxford “

Posted: January 2, 2018 in MUSIC
Tags: , ,
0

Image may contain: night, skyscraper, sky and outdoor

Receiving recognition from Radio X, BBC Introducing, the Grimsby band had the support of This Feeling this year and played festivals such as Isle of Wight, Y Not and Reading before ending with single ‘St Oxford’.  The band keep the momentum going with this new single and along with live favourite ‘St Leonard’. The band have bagged support from lots of blog sites plus combined with a live show that’s one of the best in the country for an emerging band, Mint are very much ones to watch. As soon as possible.

http://

Band Members
ZAK. LENNY. BAMBI. VEGGIE

PALE WAVES – ” There’s A Honey “

Posted: January 2, 2018 in MUSIC
Tags: ,
0

Ethereal dreampop from this BBC Sound of 2018 longlist nominated Manchester quartet, who released their debut single ‘There’s A Honey’ was produced by Matty Healy and George Daniel of The 1975 – with whom they toured the US. 80s new wave fused with rock-fused pop. Their debut EP, ‘New Year’s Eve’, will be released in January 2018.

Anyone who’s been paying attention to the Dirty Hit label in the last year would know that virtually everything they touch is turning into gold. Their roster includes The 1975, whose epic second album ‘I love it when you sleep…’ they released last year; The Japanese House, now one of the hottest new prospects in the game; and Superfood, who recently made a stonking comeback. Any sign of new music coming from Dirty Hit gets anyone in the know just a little bit giddy.

Their latest signings are Manchester indie-pop newbies Pale Waves, and they dropped their massive first single in late 2017  ‘There’s A Honey’ – which features production by George and Matty of The 1975. As expected, the song’s subject matter is strikingly intimate and relatable (“I would give you my body, but am I sure that you want me?“), but is packaged into a chorus that’s so catchy, you wonder how it hasn’t been written before.

 

QUEEN ZEE & THE SASSTONES – ” Idle Crown “

Posted: January 2, 2018 in MUSIC
Tags: ,
0

Image may contain: 2 people, people standing, beard, shoes, indoor and outdoor

Liverpool DIY punk outfit blur the lines between everything, from sexuality and gender to global politics. On tour with Marmozets in February.  Two months ago, it would have been easy to perceive the Liverpool group as light-hearted and charmingly crass; shooting misandrist fuzz punk songs from the hip in the name of radical feminist solidarity. Now, it’s evident that Queen Zee and the Sasstones has always been a platform to express dysphoria and confusion. A coping mechanism. “I created the Zee character in order to live how I needed to live”, Zapata-Jones explains, “I think I grew into it.”

That lovable goofiness that the band initially radiated doesn’t exist by accident, though. In fact, ‘Queen Zee and the Sasstones’ in its earliest form was purely a name on a gig poster, there was no intention for anybody to play under that name. Eventually, with five days to go until the show, Zee and Em Dee, a long time collaborator of theirs, decided that they’d bring the band to life and play the show; their set consisted solely of a chaotic cover of The Prodigy’s ‘Firestarter’.

Band Members
Zee, Jason, Frankie, Dave, Courtney

SWIMMING GIRLS – ” Tastes Like Money “

Posted: January 2, 2018 in MUSIC
Tags: , ,
0

Image may contain: text

Bath based dark dreampoppers with their third single due out early 2018, following 2017’s  ‘Tastes Like Money’ and ‘2 Kids‘ alt-pop gems. The vocals glide over walls of sonic bliss and cut through abstraction – gifting ‘Like a Prayer’ anthracene and ‘To Here Knows When’ sugar-cane within the same breath.

Dream-weavers Swimming Girls, being randomly fused together, and simply instructed to “write a song”, birthed a world of high-aiming melancholy that is as unashamedly confident as it is imaginative. Mixed by Marta Salogni, who has collaborated with such artists as Shura, M.I.A. and Sampha, the band’s first offering was “Tastes Like Money’ is a celebration of 80’s, night-drive nostalgia – kissing sheets of Lynchian romance and pandering to the ache and obsession found in the thought of yesterday.

Self-described as ‘Dark Dream-Pop’, Swimming Girls stop to smell the roses, while pressing thorns against a blushed cheek.

http://

We’ve been pretty spoilt by massively promising debut singles this year – from the polished introduction from Pale Waves to the Warpaint and Blood Orange-channeling Londoners ALASKALASKA – but ‘Tastes Like Money’, the first offering from Swimming Girls, might just take the biscuit.

http://

Band Members
Vanessa, Jay, Roo and Max

KING GIZZARD and the LIZARD WIZARD – ” Gumboot Soup “

Posted: January 2, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , ,
0

Fifth album of 2017 and it’s still this amazing. These songs were too good for the albums they were supposed to be on so instead we get a singles collection.

To many it may seem like an impossible task, but for King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, the notion of releasing five albums in a year is not beyond the realm of possibility. In fact, while some were doubting the band’s plan would come to fruition, the group left it until the last day of the year to prove the doubters wrong, releasing Gumboot Soup overnight.

Following the four albums released this year, including Microtonal Banana, Murder Of The Universe, Sketches Of Brunswick East, and Polygondwanaland, the band had already released a major stack of music,

Older Entries
Newer Entries