THE DWARVES have been members of groups like KMFDM, Gnarls Barkley, Mondo Generator, Kyuss, Motochrist, Penetration Moon, The Queers, Scream, Bloodclot, Decent Criminal and The Uncontrollable. Don’t hold it against them.
THE DWARVES are OG’s (Original Grunge) appearing with Nirvana, Mudhoney, L7, Supersuckers, Rev. Horton Heat and the Fluid. They appeared in the film Kurt and Courtney where they were described as “one of the more violent bands.”
THE DWARVES were attacked by a disturbed person enraged over the band’s lyrics. The first rock ‘n’ roll battle record, ‘Massacre’ proved the old adage that the truth hurts, but so does being assaulted.
As a confirmed fan of The Speedways, it’s no surprise that one of their recommendations is releasing a debut chock full of pop goodness. The Melmacs will be on the same bill on 28th January at Paper Dress Vintage, east London. So, what do we have here?
Eleven songs, from the immediate hook of ‘Good Advices’ to the Spectoresque ‘Planet Melmac’, it is a lesson in how to craft sly, addictive pop music. ‘Stage Fright’ adds keyboards to frantic riffing, made for playing in a sweaty club. Their blurb reads “very nice, very evil, stabbing you in the back, blowing out your earwax, rising the sun with its bare hands, nudging you on the dancefloor: no armpit left dry, no voice unhoarse, no haircut prim and proper: 100% hits, 100% fidgety”. And who am I to argue?
It’s music to dance to, ‘Can’t You See’ has a touch of early B-52s. ‘Low Life’ is closest to The Speedways, while ‘Retrospective Life’ is just the right side of melancholy. ‘Out Of My Way’ gets things bopping again, and ‘Watch Out’, with its bouncing bass line, reminds me of The Rezillos. Fine influences all around. But this remains a fresh, exciting debut album. As they reside in Germany, it would be wise to catch them at the above-mentioned gig. Get yer dancing shoes ready…
THE DWARVES are the very best looking band in show business. They’ve shared bills with the Cramps, the Offspring, Vandals, TSOL, JFA & countless more!
THE DWARVES did a live one-hour performance on Japan’s prestigious NHK network. At the dinner afterward, they literally ate a horse. This turned out to be better than all of the food in Indianapolis.
THE DWARVES inspired a current popular catch phrase with their bestselling 2013 self-help book Make the Dwarves Good Again.
THE DWARVES played Berkeley’s punk collective 924 Gilman Street the first month it opened and appeared there with the likes of Green Day, NOFX and the Didjits. They were later banned for beating a spectator, but don’t worry, he was a fan of some other group.
THE DWARVES are a true independent band with no outside management or record deal, DIY forever. They leave no remains when they die, only footprints in the snow.
THE DWARVES bassist Rex Everything has been tased while committing battery and resisting arrest. He loves kittens, puppies and long walks on the beach. Guitarists HeWhoCanNotBeNamed and The Fresh Prince of Darkness teach and counsel troubled teens when not ingesting cocaine and masturbating to hardcore pornography.
The Hold Steady have announced the release of their ninth studio album, The Price of Progress, arriving everywhere on the band’s Positive Jams label via Thirty Tigers on 31st March 2023. It will be available digitally as well as on CD, standard black vinyl, translucent green-colored vinyl (band store), metallic gold (indie retail), metallic silver (Vinyl Me, Please), and white (Rough Trade). Pre-orders are available now. The Price of Progress is heralded by today’s premiere of the first song, ‘Sideways Skull’, available now at all DSPs and streaming services.
“Sideways Skull is a rocking song about rock and rollers,” says frontman Craig Finn. “In this case, they’ve been taken out of the game for a bit of rest, but still keep their dreams alive as they discuss past glories. We loved the big sound of this when Tad Kubler brought it into the band, and the studio performance of it felt especially joyful. We’re happy to put this forth as a first look at The Price of Progress, and the album’s title even comes from this song.”
Mar 10 – The Weekender at Electric Ballroom, London, UK Mar 11 – The Weekender at Electric Ballroom, London, UK Mar 12 – Colours Hoxton, London, UK (SOLD OUT)
Australia, Australia, Australia! It seems that anything top-notch is coming from afar these days and powering through 2022 “Down under” has delivered time after time and it seems flipping off the year was the MO of Melbourne Rockers The Stripp.
From the great cartoon artwork, it’s obvious these rockers are all about having a good time and rockin’ out. Ten tunes between two and three minutes long keeping it short and sweet. They kick things off in style with a rollicking title track that puts the foot down and goes for it. You don’t need to concentrate to hard just know the title and shout out ‘Aint No Crime To Rock N Roll’ with your thumbs in your bullet belt and your head nodding back and forth. It’s part Scandi rock part old-school hard rock and a heap of Aussie attitude and a little bit of Bosh!
‘The Bitter End’ has a stinking attitude as the riff just cuts through the solid rhythm. Hold on a gawd damn minute it’s the backbeat of Joan Jett meets the bass grunt of Quatro that’s shoved down your ears on Ghost Town. I’m hearing comparisons of Sally Cato and her Smashed Gladys going on here. The songs come thick and fast and sound like they were born out of playing shitty venues left right and center and grinding out a style and sound born out of who they are and all they know.
The fact that Lux Noise are handling the record in Europe makes perfect sense and they should get over here pronto and hit the road with Bitch Queens and slay some audiences around the globe. ‘Witch Hunt’ has got some swing Whilst ‘Back In Action’ tunes into some fine Action Rock.
There’s no reinventing the wheel here and that’s not what The Stripp are about – They’re about picking up the blazing baton and carrying it forward – making a noise and doing it well and hopefully turning some young pups onto some good old loud hard rocking music. There’s no time for a power ballad its just foot-on wedge rockin’ out from the top to the bottom finally signing off with the shuffle of ‘Don’t Feed Me Your Lies’ with its hard n heavy tip of the hat to those who’ve gone before them and blazing a path to oblivion. Rock hard brothers and sisters and turn it fuckin’ up! The Stripp are in da house drink up.
THE DWARVES were kicked off tour with a UK metal band for sleeping with the girls the headliners had hired to hang out backstage. They were banned from venerable punk dive CBGBs for breaking a table and bleeding on the floor making the venue cleaner and improving its décor.
THE DWARVES played with the Minutemen weeks before D. Boon died, visited GG Allin in prison and did coke with the Lemonheads in a seedy hotel room. And that was all in one day! Their list of collaborators on records is vast, including the ones they can contractually mention like Dexter Holland, Josh Freese, San Quinn, Nash Kato, Gary Owens, Stacey Dee, DJ Marz and Spike Slawson.
The U.K. Subs announce that joining Charlie, Alvin and Steve for next week’s Lewes and London gigs, and for the subsequent January/February European tour dates will be the multi-talented drummer Stefan Häublein, who is also the stickman for TV Smith & the Bored Teenagers.
Stefan previously played drums with Ava Adore from 2015 to 2020, the band of TV Smith’s guitarist Marc Carrey, with his other current projects being the drummer for Dexist, who are a post-punk band from Barcelona, where Stefan currently lives.
Photo: TCB/Chris Hill Photography
Stefan, who at present has committed to fill the Subs drum stool for all Subs gigs up to and including May 2023, had these few words for the Subs faithful when asked:
“I’m really looking forward to meeting all the U.K. Subs fanatics, I can’t wait to start as this is so fucking exciting!”
THE DWARVES were one of the first hardcore bands to regularly use samples, drum loops and found sounds, even on their earliest recordings where they used cassette tapes to generate them.
THE DWARVES teamed up with Top Ten producer Eric Valentine (Third Eye Blind, All American Rejects, Slash) to make their last 5 studio albums. He even showed up to some of the sessions! Valentine and Blag Dahlia helped write songs for Smashmouth and Skye Sweetnam.
Sleazy does it kids, Tis the season to be jolly, excessive, loud, obnoxious, in your face, and rude. Well, I Love Rich has just poured themselves into my ear and latched on to the fun receptors of my brain with their take on sleazy rock n roll action. It’s a glamorous, cliched, well-trodden path but as we all appreciate every now and then. A band will come along who are entitled to be the kingpins of the cliched and well-trodden but only if they have the chops. I Love Rich has those chops. Hell, ‘Gods Gift To Women’ is cock sure and in your face as it stomps hard.
Hailing from Chicago these guys have song titles to grab your attention by the scruff and like a rabid dog they won’t let go. They offer a riff-heavy ‘Rock N Roll Sex Cult’ it’s like I’ve been forced into a scantily clad time machine full of DC Riffs with an unhealthy dose of 80s sleaze thrown into the mix for added effect whilst Kiss Klassics play at the pool party ‘Wake Up Let Me Rock you’ will have you reaching for the Ice to go with you bourbon. I Love Rich are a good enough reason for me to wonder why Toilet Boys aren’t back touring the world and dragging these lovely people with them oh and bring the Erotics for good measure.
Go get an earful of this and tease your hair and lets get the party started.
I really can’t think of a better way to kick-start my 2023 than with ‘Every Loser’, Iggy Pop’s 19th solo album, released via a partnership between Atlantic Records and Gold Tooth Records.
Four years after his last solo record, 2019’s largely spoken word and sombre affair ‘Free’. ‘Every Loser’ sees Mr Osterberg Jr teaming up with hotshot producer and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Watt. A man I last saw having an onstage meltdown with a soundman for not doing his job properly before slamming his guitar headstock first into the monitors, so whilst his production client list might range from Lana Del Ray via Justin Beiber to Ozzy Osbourne, I’ve witnessed the guy’s inner Iggy…and let’s not forget by also played guitar on Glenn Hughes’ best album in decades, the excellent ‘California Breed’, and that’s how I got witness his outburst.
Cranking the Wharfdales up (Jesus I really am starting to sound like Tommy Saxondale) in anticipation of a return to Iggy’s more rockier moments, opener and lead single ‘Frenzy’ certainly doesn’t disappoint. Built around the rock-solid rhythmic backbone of Duff McKagan and Chad Smith. Iggy is back to his potty-mouth best spitting out the profanities at will whilst Watt places the guitar somewhere between Asheton and Jones. Incendiary stuff!
It’s the second teaser from ‘Every Loser’ that got me excited most first of hearing it though, the goth pop of ‘Strung Out Johnny’ sounding like the best 69 Eyes (stop laughing at the back) song they never wrote. Seriously this is Iggy at his infectious best and save for a few f-bombs this could have been a huge radio hit back in the day.
The Igg-ster is no heritage act though and ‘New Atlantis’ is the near perfect amalgamation of his latter-day love of the spoken word and the desert rock leanings he took onboard during ‘Post Pop Depression’, and just like the tracks that precede it the hook is a true killer Iggy. Albeit these days, granted it’s in a slightly lower register.
‘Modern Day Rip-Off’ is the first time I get a sense of the Stooges raising their middle finger to proceedings as that rigid digit is used to play the one note piano riff that underpins yet another set of vitriolic Iggy lyrics, Smith, McKagan and Watt meanwhile sound like they are having the time of their lives. I bet Duff wishes his day job band still sounds this alive….and their singer is nowhere near 75 years of age, and speaking of which, even Iggy needs a little breather from time to time and here it comes in the shape of side 1 closer ‘Morning Show’.
Dropping the needle on side two and it’s the kooky ‘The News For Andy’ that gets things off to a great start. Iggy once again talking his way through an almost Bowie–esque curveball that is over all too quickly.
‘Neo Punk’ is the track a lot of journalists have been picking out as the possible standout on ‘Every Loser’, and yes it does indeed rock in seismic proportions, but for all its bluster it’s the track that follows it, ‘All The Way Down’ that really impresses me most. Again, it’s got that Stooges one finger piano in parts but just like ‘Strung Out Johnny’ on side one this beauty has me reaching for the volume control to turn things up even louder, and that’s got to be the first time in around three decades I’ve said that about a song featuring Stone Gossard on guitar (look, before I get shot for this, it’s an in-joke okay).
Fellow grunge superstar Eric Avery plucks out the bass intro to ‘Comments’ and that mid 80s post punk influence his old band used to play about with to maximum effect is here in abundance. The keyboard touches from multi-instrumentalist and Gossard band mate Josh Klinghoffer are an absolute delight and working his magic on the hi-hats there’s the sadly departed Taylor Hawkins. He must have been so proud to have played on this album, and in hindsight, what a way to bow out.
‘My Animous Interlude’ and ‘The Regency’ close out ‘Every Loser’, and it’s a song pairing where it’s impossible to separate them. The former providing a glimpse of Banshees like spoken word charm before the latter has Iggy spitting out “Fuck The Regency (Up)” over a hook that somehow manages to give Siouxsie and Co a late 80s Guns N’ Roses makeover before spiralling off into 4AD territory for the album’s final grooves.
Having pretty much everything Iggy Pop has ever produced within my music collection and enjoying most, if not all of it, (yup even the French stuff) this album really is right up there with the very best of Iggy’s illustrious back catalogue, and I just can’t wait to hear these songs live. So, roll on Dog Day Afternoon, every loser has to be there.
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