“So Far Gone,” the latest track from Weird Nightmare, the electrifying new project from METZ guitarist and singer Alex Edkins is now available for your listening pleasure on all digital service providers. The single is an exuberant blast of fun-as-hell, melodic indie rock that mixes equal parts Replacements, Teenage Fanclub, and Edkins’ own METZ-ian snarl.
This stand-alone track follows the double A-Side split, “I Think You Know” w/ “Bird With an Iron Head” with friends Ancient Shapes, and the self-titled debut full-length released earlier this year, which was aptly described by The Quietus as “…an irresistibly euphoric blast of feedback spattered garage-pop that is just what the doctor ordered to chase away any lingering post-lockdown blues.”
The unholy union of Weird Nightmare and Ancient Shapes brings you the double A-Side experience of the year! “I Think You Know” w/ “Bird With an Iron Head” delivers two sides of sing-along power-punk you need to hear to believe.
Weird Nightmare’s Alex Edkins says of the union, “Daniel has been one of my favorite writers/performers for many years now and his work with Ancient Shapes and the Outfit are a constant source of joy. I’m super excited to be sharing this record with him.”
Features tracks from The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Killing Joke, The Birthday Party, Joy Division, Soft Cell, Specimen, Sweet, T-Rex, Roxy Music, New York Dolls, Sparks, The Velvet Underground and more…London 1982. As the new romantic youthquake of 1981/1982 faded, and after what felt like a lifetime since punk’s last gasp, a tiny nightclub opened its doors in London’s Soho. Drawing to it a new generation of misfits and miscreants with a penchant for polysexual hedonism, for dressing up and showing out, The Batcave became the dark heart of alternative club culture,
“Young Limbs Rise Again” is a forthcoming compilation album that celebrates the subculture of Goth via the music that was played, and the bands that performed at the legendary Batcave, a weekly club night hosted in London’s Dean Street (and later in Leicester Square) in the early 1980s.
Art school students, ex-punks and psychobillys, boys and girls, gays, straights, don’t-knows and don’t-cares, Camden and Kensington Market stallholders, professional squatters, kids on the dole, kids in bands, nocturnal music journalists, edgy fashionistas, androgynous randoms and even a smattering of bona fide popstars. All were welcome to pile in, gawp at the hair, ripped, torn, bleached and rubberised fashions, and death-mask make-up and take in the dancefloor’s heady musical mix of beats-heavy post-punk pioneers, outsider icons like Wayne County and The Cramps, and a teetering pile of lusty glam rock singles from the likes of T. Rex and The Sweet.
By the summer of ’82, The Batcave became a focus for alternative club culture, just like The Roxy and The Blitz before it and it’s “No Funk, No Disco” rule set it apart from other club nights at that time. Famous regulars included musicians and singers such as Nick Cave, Robert Smith of the Cure, Siouxsie Sioux, Steven Severin, members of Bauhaus, Marc Almond and many others. Acts would play live (the club even had its own house band, Specimen) and visitors could enjoy four-hour DJ sets.
The“Young Limbs Rise Again” collection attempts to capture both the fun and freedom of The Batcave while also looking back to reflect the musical influences on the scene and examining how that scene pointed forwards. There’s plenty of space in which to do that, since it’s offered as a 5CD or 6LP vinyl set. Both come with an 80-page hardcover book with an introduction from KrisNeeds, packed with flyers, record sleeves, over 100 photographs, many previously unseen, and the whole story of the club as told by the people who were there.
It was a light bulb for all the people like me who were from the sticks and wanted a bit more from life. Freaks, weirdos, sexual deviants, there’s people around who’ll always be attracted by something shiny, glittering, exciting Jonny Slut, SPECIMEN
Both big sets are broken down into themed albums and the 6LP vinyl offers 63 songs while the more generoous (and cheaper) 5CD large format box delivers 89 tracks. There’s a 2LP vinyl edition for a more concise overview.
Specimen’s Jon Klein and Jonny Slut, along with Sophie Chery (from another stalwart Batcave band, Sexbeat), have worked with the record company to help putting together this musical and visual accompaniment to this very specific moment in time.
“Young Limbs Rise Again: The Story of the Batcave Nightclub 1982-1985” will be released on 24th February 2023, via Demon Music.
“Foreground Music”, is the title of Ron Gallo’s 4th LP, and debut for Kill Rock Stars might also be a suitable name for his own genre. In simplest terms it’s the opposite of background music – unavoidable, urgent, in your face – Gallo’s consistent theme is to confront, disrupt and sometimes even confuse people into a sense of awareness. The intention to steer away from apathy and self-empower by focusing on what we can control and make light of in a world designed to take it away. The guitar is less an instrument and more of a primal noise machine. This record is a challenge to everything and everyone, including his own self, who is holding back the progress of humanity (especially in America) into a more open, empathetic and collective unit – the words delivered with a punkish tenacity and lining even the heaviest topics with an ever-present sense of humor. It covers the full spectrum of emotion. This music feels like life feels right now. In his eyes, how could it not?
Clad in caution tape and construction orange colour scheme, much like his surrounding neighborhood in Philadelphia where it was written and recorded. Gallo doesn’t see now (or ever) as the time to sit back and chill – this is going to be what we make it.
Over the course of the record traversing between sounds akin to an exploding NYC subway station, oddball dance-punk, noise pop, even the more grave moments would sit well in whatever a modern version of CBGB’s 1975 would be – in 11 songs Gallo shares detailed anecdotes and takes on male entitlement, the age of anxiety, apathy vs. action, gentrification, narcissism, retail therapy, xenophobia, the dread of future generations, right wing extremists in giant pickup trucks, capitalism, climate change and the experience of having a loved-one who is an addict.
If an existential crisis could somehow be fun – it’s this record.
“Foreground Music”, new album, coming 3/3/23 on Kill Rock Stars
The Great Escape is the central date in the calendar for industry players and storm chasing fans alike as it showcases a carefully chosen selection of new key bands to get to know. In combining festival with conference, TGE is a huge moment for the bands that feature, some practically playing for their lives, or at least their record deals. It is an exciting, action packed few days, the British answer to SXSW, and this year already looks set to deliver, with only a fraction of what will come to almost 500 bands having been announced.
The festival stormed back into our consciousness back in November with their ‘First Fifty’ showcases, throwing up the devilish choice of which to pick. For me it came down to The Dinner Party or Jessica Winter with Grove. I went with The Dinner Party, acutely aware that their rapidly growing profile meant that this could well be one of the last chances to see them in as small a venue as MOTH Club for quite some time. They are a truly exciting new band, drawing on the classic pop irresistibility of bands like ABBA and Sparks and bringing to it the attitude and style of the modern London scene.
They are just one of the many tantalising prospects leading the line in the initial lineup announcement of TGE. The exceptional quality of Jessica Winter and Grove, who also reliably bring brilliant live performance stacked with quality songs, speaks of the strength depth already written into the bill. Winter was a highlight of Mutations back in November, with her unique, intelligent take on contemporary pop. Grove dazzled throughout festival season, my favourite set being to a small but dedicated crowd of Wide Awake goers in search of something fresher than Primal Scream.
All that indecision and brilliance compressed into three of the vaunted ‘First Fifty’! That is not to mention the ‘Spotlight Show’ headliners, Mercury winner and 6 Music favourite Arlo Parks and pop superstar in the making Maisie Peters, back from tour with Ed Sheeran to the city where she started out as a busker. Elsewhere on the bill are riotous Brighton punk favourites Lambrini Girls and Ethan P. Flynn, a modern-day songwriting master. Melin Melyn bring an exciting jangly psych sound breathing life into a Welsh indie heritage dating back to Gorky’s and the Super Furries, while Been Stellar come in from New York with Strokes guitar lines magnified to stadium scale.
The festival encompasses over 30 venues across the mercifully walkable Brighton city centre. As with Austin during SXSW, the entire city comes alive with music, with bands popping up in the most unlikely locations. Tickets are available to buy to guarantee access to the bigger shows, but the official Alternative Escape throws up an additional set of free events showcasing acts from the bill in smaller spaces for those lucky enough to get in. If you want to get in on the ground floor with a new wave of unmissable bands, mark the 10th to 13th May in your diaries, check in on your Brighton mates with spare sofas, and start dissecting that lineup in search of the next big thing.
Rough Trade Shops UK & USA placed Black Midi’s ‘Hellfire’ in their top 10 Albums of the Year list at number 8. This is the 3rd year in a row making the top 10, which is a first in the history of the list.
To celebrate, Black Midi release ‘Live Fire‘ today, a limited edition 12″ exclusively at Rough Trade Shops online and in store. “Live Fire” is the soundboard recording of black midi’s exhilarating performance at Primavera Porto this summer, and sees the band performing as a four-piece with keyboardist Seth Evans.
“Live Fire”, is the soundboard recording of Black Midi’s exhilarating performance at Primavera Porto this past July, following the release of“Hellfire“. The group – guitarist/vocalist Geordie Greep, bassist/vocalist Cameron Picton, and drummer MorganSimpson — took the stage as a four piece alongside keyboardist Seth Evans, now a familiar part of the band’s live set-up. Together, they played one of the festival’s most memorable sets, and a firm favourite of the band, performing deep into the night for a frenzied crowd, whipped into shape by fan favourites “Welcome To Hell” and “Speedway.”
The live album is a physical release only, with a special JCD format in Japan.
It’s somewhat paradoxical that such electric music as Sister Wives’ is great at making you feel like you’ve planted your feet on the mossy earth and let in feelings from thousands of years past – but, things like that are never simple.
And neither is succinctly describing Sister Wives’ sound: a single genre descriptor does the band a disservice, as there’s a lot more going on here than just a tribute to 70s acid-folk acts or another spin on occult rock. And their debut record “Y Gawres” does explore Welsh and English mythology – but don’t mistake the record for one solely placed in prehistory. There are tracks that deal with definitively modern issues, and the album charts a course from tradition to modernity: old folk standards are mixed in with driving drums and bass, and jagged, post-punk-inspired guitar.
Guitarist Liv Willars and Rose Love about the band’s unique, intriguing sound. Liv: “I was in another band in London and moved up to Sheffield, and just wanted to start something here because it’s got such a great scene. And [singer and keyboardist] Donna was also in a punk band, so I asked her if she knew anyone that wanted to do something. She said, ‘I do – but I want to do something that isn’t a punk band, something different with organs and keys and synths and so on.’
“We had a couple of practices just me and her, but it just felt like the sound needed a lot more. Donna was friends with Rose, so she brought her in on bass and I was friends with Lisa, who plays drums. And it all kind of came from there.
“We’ve never said anything like, ‘we want to be a band that sounds like this, this is our main influence’ – we all like a real mixture of music, so it’s kind of, put it all together and see what we kind of come up with. “We made a conscious decision not to have one person fronting because I think a lot of the bands we were drawn towards are sort of ‘collectives’ – each individual is interesting, bringing something in, rather than it just being a single person playing with a backing band.”
‘From House to House’; the new single from Sister Wives’ long-form record will be out on the Libertino record label on 28/10/22.
“Milk For Flowers” is at once visceral and enlightened, its soundscapes verdant yet delicately rendered, and with this latest, most intimate work, h.
H. Hawkline beautifully bares his blood, bones and soul. and quietly, along with the entrails and rubble held in “Milk For Flowers” reliquary, there hides a small, green kernel of life; hope, perhaps, that today’s decay might nourish tomorrow’s blooms. recorded at Rockfield Studios in Monmouthshire, the album features a host of musical collaborators – Davey Newington [Boy Azooga] on drums, Paul Jones [group listening] on piano, Tim Presley [White Fence, Drinks, the Fall] on guitar, Stephen Black [Sweet Baboo] and Euan Hinshelwood [Younghusband, cate le bon] on sax, Harry Bohay [Aldous Harding] on pedal steel and John Parish [pj harvey, aldous harding] on infrequent bongo. ‘Milk For Flowers’ is the title track and first single from H. Hawkline’s new album.
The first song to be taken from album is the title track about which Huw said: “Grief is a song that can’t be unheard: from the moment you learn it, you never stop singing. Its music paints the scenery – pulling the strings of every day. Forgotten corners and untended gardens can become rich with sickly vegetation, ice rinks and playgrounds decaying with every chord. These videos (this is the first of 3) are a way of trying to express that sensation in the most direct way possible. Every day, an audition. At least I choose the soundtrack.”
The record was then engineered by joe jones [aldous harding, parquet courts] and mixed, after an unlikely and fortuitous crossing of paths, by the grammy-nominated Patrik Berger [charli xcx, robyn, lana del rey],
His fifth album, ‘Milk For Flowers’. His most personal and confessional record to date, it’s released on Friday 10th March 2023 on Heavenly Recordings.
This is a declaration of wonder and reverence for the living Earth. As we phase out fossil fuels, the way through the climate crisis is by the regeneration of this planet’s incredible natural systems. This song is for alignment with life on Earth, including one another. The future requires us to consider everything and everyone- love and curiosity are key.
“The Natural World” – streaming everywhere, “I wanted to film The Natural World video in the redwoods of California because it’s the most alive place I know. Old growth forests are the best carbon-capture technology in existence. I wanted a futuristic vision of a flourishing Earth – what if we try, what if we get it right? We imagine, and we are presented, in film and literature, with every version of dystopia- dusty, bleak, and sinister.. I think it’s important to envision the future we want so we can fight for it. What future are we calling forth? What could it look like?”
Singer songwriter from California, USA. Los AngelesJenny O. is currently readying a new album for release early next year. It’s the follow-up to 2020’s “New Truth”, and she’s already released the R&B-inspired single “Prism.” Now, Jenny is sharing another new album track called “The Natural World,” which was filmed all around pastoral California landmarks like the coastal redwoods. It’s also directed by Sam Gezari.
“…Really I hope it’s part of a vast web of gestures.. facilitating a great human collaboration to draw down greenhouse gases and stabilize the climate as best we can.”
“I believe in love and curiosity, I am fascinated with the natural world,” Jenny says of the video. “This is a declaration of wonder and reverence for the living Earth. As we phase out fossil fuels, the way through the climate crisis is by regeneration of this planet’s incredible natural systems. This song is for alignment with life on Earth (including one another.) The future requires us to consider everything and everyone; love and curiosity are key.
“Spectra” refers to the many ways we identify. It is about my experience with connectivity and an expression of my love for others, self, and nature. It is my favorite record I have made and my most joyful.” – Jenny O.”
