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Chuck Norris Experiment – ‘This Will Leave A Mark’ (Transubstans Records / Ghost Highway Recordings)

Chuck Norris Experiment – ‘This Will Leave A Mark’ (Transubstans Records / Ghost Highway Recordings)

Swedens Chuck Norris Experiment are back in circulation and armed with an album that’s busying the moves of a band that have been in hibernation for far too long and have a tonne of pent-up aggression that they need to expel or else.

 

Kicking off with ‘Dirtshot’ it seems at least they have been able to vent in a positive manner. Beginning with electric guitars being Rinsed of every ounce of Distortion possible the cowbell rings out as Chuck enters the fray and the Rock begins.  With a driving solid rhythm, CNE have found the sweet spot of Action Rock and going to detonate as they see fit.

 

It’s a confident opener that gets faster and is played harder on ‘Landslide’.  The handicaps are like an exclamation mark as the band stretch their legs and riff and roll with the

 

best of em. As ‘Landslide’ collides with the rapid ‘Kill The Night’ that struts its stuff right out of the speakers and into your ear like the best earworms.

 

There’s a change of pace as the menacing ‘In For The Kill’ builds slowly into a wall of guitars with some subtle Stooges piano tinkling for good measure.

 

One of the band’s finest tunes is punched out as ‘Turning Me Inside Out’ is slammed out of the speakers with real fire inside and attitude aplenty.

 

With twelve offerings to the Hard Rocking mofo Community, there is plenty of grunt on show as this hotrod opens up on ‘Benefit Of Doubt’ and of course, ‘Hand Grenade’ goes off. In a time when people are pulled up for over masculine gestures, there is still plenty of sweat and testosterone flowing through this album and we wouldn’t want it any other way.

 

The title track is the beneficiary of some cool backing vocals and arrangements from the floor tom thumping to the grunt on that bass.  Great tune and a real highlight. ‘Spin It Right’ kicks off like the Dictators on ‘Who Will Save Rock and Roll’ and on the evidence of this album it would seem that Chuck Norris Experiment will be in the front leading the charge. Rock or step aside and these guys are indeed kissing the viper without a care for their safety.

 

There’s time yet for some slow grinding blues at the ‘Devils Lake’ but wait that’s a cock Rock rolling riff on ‘Bad Blood’.  It seems that there is no stone unturned on ‘This Will Leave A Mark’ and the band leave the building with a post-apocalyptic ‘New Day Rising’ with its gentle chord roll out and softly sung vocals.

 

CNE has once again nailed this Hard Rockin lark and made it look easy but be careful kids these gents are professionals and have been at this game for a long time and that experience shows this will indeed leave a mark as it exits your head.

 

As the world emerges from the past nightmare 18 months it’s great to hear some things can carry on if not get better and stronger and that can be said of this album and these players.

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Authir: Dom Daley

Jim Lindberg (of Pennywise) – Solo Project – “The Palm of Your Hand” Video

Jim Lindberg (of Pennywise) – Solo Project – “The Palm of Your Hand” Video

Most known for his role as songwriter and lead singer of punk rock band Pennywise, Jim Lindberg has been making inspiring, thought-provoking music since the 1990’s. Musically, he is influenced by an array of genres from punk and folk music to old school country and americana. Lyrically, Jim takes inspiration anywhere from transcendental philosophers to real life events; seeking always to tell a story or find the answers to life’s big questions. Today, Lindberg shares the first glimpse of his solo project with the track “The Palm of Your Hand” produced by Ted Hutt (The Gaslight Anthem, Lucero, Flogging Molly). The track features David Hidalgo Jr. (Social Distortion) on drums, Joe Gittleman (The Mighty, Mighty BossTones, Avoid One Thing) on bass, and Marc Orrell (The Dropkick Murphy’s, The Walker Roaders) on guitar. Check it out here and the new lyric video HERE:

 

Lindberg began writing “The Palm of Your Hand” over fifteen years ago, coming up with the chorus at the time but the song remained predominately unfinished until 2020 when he entered the studio to work on his forthcoming solo record. “I wanted to create two fictional characters who are struggling with shame, guilt and self-delusion to match the chorus lyric and so that’s how ‘Left-Handed Sal’ and ‘Walleyed Sally’ were created,” notes Lindberg. “It’s a song about two people who for one reason or another can’t seem to get out of their own way and end up inflicting all kinds of damage on the people around them. The only way they’ll get out from under all their problems is to ‘Let that ego drop’ and let their feelings show. The answer is right there in front of them, in ‘the palm of your hand’”

 

 

ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN – FIRST FOUR ALBUMS AVAILABLE ON VINYL | 22 OCTOBER

ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN – FIRST FOUR ALBUMS AVAILABLE ON VINYL | 22 OCTOBER

ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN are re-releasing their first four albums on vinyl on 22 October. Each of them will be available on 180g black vinyl from all music retailers, as well as limited edition coloured vinyl exclusively from Dig! – CROCODILES (Yellow) HEAVEN UP HERE (Blue) PORCUPINE (White) and OCEAN RAIN (Transparent Blue). Pre-order link: https://lnk.to/EchoandtheBunnymen_Vinyl

ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN were formed in Liverpool in 1978 with Ian McCulloch on vocals and rhythm guitar, Will Sergeant on lead guitar and Les Pattinson on bass. They were soon joined by Pete De Freitas on drums and the rest, as they say, is history.

 

The band’s first release was the 7” single Pictures on My Wall with the B-side Read It in Books on Zoo Records in 1979. Pictures on My Wall would appear on their classic debut album Crocodiles in 1980. Released amidst the growing wave of post-punk, Crocodiles cemented the band’s reputation as one of the best around with the NME describing it as “probably the best album this year by a British band”. The album ultimately broke into the Top 20, finishing in many critics greatest ever debut album lists.

 

The Bunnymen followed the album with the release of the Shine So Hard EP in 1981, recorded live at the Pavilion Gardens in Buxton, before releasing their second studio album Heaven Up Here in the same year. It became the band’s first UK Top 10 album, winning the 1981 NME Best Album award in the process. Considered to be a slightly darker album, Heaven Up Here was produced by Hugh Jones and was well received by critics and fans alike, featuring tracks such as A Promise, Over the Wall and Show of Strength.

The band’s cult status was soon transformed into mainstream success in 1983 with the release of their third album Porcupine, produced by Ian Broudie. Porcupine provided their best chart performances, with The Cutter reaching #8 in the singles charts and Porcupine finishing #2 in the album charts before being certified Gold.

 

1984 brought the fourth studio album Ocean Rain, regarded by many as the band’s classic opus. Recorded in Liverpool and Paris, the band used a 35-piece orchestra with award winning composer Adam Peters scoring the strings. The iconic, atmospheric cover artwork was taken in the stunning Carnglaze Caverns in Cornwall by photographer Brian Griffin, who also shot their three previous album covers. Ocean Rain continued the band’s use of strings, creating a dark, ethereal aura. Three classic singles were released from the album – Silver, Seven Seas and the massive anthem The Killing Moon, which reached #9 in the UK singles chart and continues to transcend generations to this day.

 

ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN will tour the UK and Ireland in the Spring of 2022, celebrating 40 years of magical songs. Tickets available here: https://www.gigsandtours.com/tour/echo-and-the-bunnymen

FEBRUARY 2022
 
Tue 01 Sheffield City Hall
Wed 02 Leeds O2 Academy
Fri 04 Bournemouth O2 Academy
Sat 05 Cardiff St David’s Hall
Mon 07 London Roundhouse
Wed 09 Dublin Olympia Theatre
Fri 11 Norwich UEA
Sat 12 Gateshead Sage
Mon 14 Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
Wed 16 Manchester Albert Hall
Thu 17 Nottingham Rock City
Sat 19 Cambridge Corn Exchange
Sun 20 Bristol O2 Academy
Tue 22 London O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire
Wed 23 Northampton Derngate
Fri 25 Manchester Albert Hall
Sat 26 Birmingham O2 Academy
Mon 28 Glasgow Barrowland
MARCH 2022
 
Tue 01 Glasgow Barrowland
APRIL 2022
 
Wed 16 Bexhill De La Warr Pavilion

The Dead Beats – ‘Die Screaming, Marianne!’ (Bandcamp)

The Dead Beats – ‘Die Screaming, Marianne!’ (Bandcamp)

Zombie Elvis takes a fast ride with the Shangri Las while listening to a Ramones, Cramps mixtape and drinking Motorhead Beer. Sure I’ll go with that who wouldn’t? featuring former/members of Goldblade, Anti Nowhere League, Jayne County, The Business, Poison Hearts, The Confused, Motorvators its a no-brainer for RPM to be all over this bad boy.

The familiar pipes of Johny Skullknuckles – plough through the speakers as he leads this merry bunch of punk rockers through their paces with a Ramones meets the Misfits intro on the title track and there’s no letup either as ‘Flatliner’ smashes on through on some Motorhead tip with the soul intent of smashing your skull in through the medium of punk n roll and before the zombie’s attack and eat your brain this lot are putting it through a mixer then mincing it with their devilishly good tunes.  I’m already singing with the gang on the big chorus.

The pace goes from foot to the floor to the creepy crawly muted rock n roll of ‘Sweet Toothed Sickness’ and what a fine example of smooth laid back rock a billy this is. Love the reverb swampyness of the lick with that wah solo echoing around the graveyard it cool as kids.

 

Wait, what? ‘Necro Nina’ is galloping like a slice of Maiden oh shit I spilt my cocktail for a minute but Johny’s vocals pulled me back.  There’s a spooktacular intro on ‘Drag Me To Hell’ and we’re off as we creep and crawl to the depths of hell as the Rev handles vox here and kicks the shit out of the tune all the way to its undignified ending.

 

The next few tracks tick over nicely from the Cramps inspired swamp lick of ‘The Devil Rides Out’ and you have to love the B movie intros that set the tone for what’s about to spew forth from ones speaker ‘Buried Alive My Baby’ has that Fuzztones swirling organ heading into a bit of punky psyche territory.

 

‘Of Flies And Men’ is right in the horror rock-a-billy bag and it’s carried off really well and the louder you play it the better it sounds.  The horror punk tunes smash and grab you as they climb out of the speakers racing towards the finale which is rather splendid.  ‘It’s Alive!’ has some tasty stand-up bass slap shuffling along with the drums for one of the album’s high lights, it’s a great way to close off a really impressive album.  Regardless of what’s on offer musically, you’re supporting some great charitable causes so whilst playing the soundtrack as you open up a portal to Beelzebub know that the funds are being put to good use and you never know you might only stay for the barbeque before being let back on earth to walk for a bit longer doing good things.  Bargain.  Get it and love it and remember it’s the little things in life that count and the good tunes to soundtrack it. Spooktacular!

 

IMPORTANT:
Shipping/collection has already started this week in September 2021.  Please specify when ordering shipping or collection from Rockers England, Manchester.


All shipping prices are for tracked and signed for shipping.

This is a collectible pack for charity therefore the shirt will be a random one from stock and we are not able to specify the design or size, but, we will do our best to accommodate ladies or gents option (subject to availability)

All proceeds to Furry Tails Cat Sanctuary and Overgate Cancer Hospice.

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Author: Dom Daley

 

The Persian Leaps – ‘Drone Etiquette’ (Land Ski Records)

The Persian Leaps – ‘Drone Etiquette’ (Land Ski Records)

‘Drone Etiquette’ is the latest slice of power pop perfection from the Minnesota band The Persian Leaps, although the collective word “band” may be stretching it for this particular release, with all work being done this time by singer/guitarist Drew Forsberg alone.

I stumbled across this band by accident while searching for music to listen to in the throes of the pandemic. Their song ‘Lost Cause’ (from the album Smiling Lessons) appeared on a playlist in which my own band were also featured. There were really only two decent songs on it – ours and theirs. Actually, theirs wasn’t just decent, it was excellent, and I was instantly hooked. So, I emailed him and told him so.

For ‘Drone Etiquette’, what would usually be a collaborative effort has turned out to be a solitary development, for reasons outside of anyone’s control – it is actually written as a by-product to the last two restrictive, pandemic years. The songs are not about it exactly, but the one-man band nature of it reflects the frustration many of us have felt.

It’s certainly no less of a record for it, and as with the previous album, it’s a fine collection of sugary riffs and honey-soaked harmonies. As catchy as ever, this short album is undeniable power pop glory, delivered with a decisive punch. And it is frustration that has formed the basis of the record, which is no better expressed than in the opening song and single ‘When This Gets Out’. Here is a story about the horror of watching the now ex-president and ultra-capitalist Donald Trump get away with scandal after scandal, and hoping that surely the next one will be big enough to bring him down. Is there no scandal big enough these days?

Frustration and hopelessness are themes explored throughout, always accompanied by bright and sharp guitars and rhythms, culminating in the somewhat sarcastic ‘Keep Smiling’. The Soviet-style, propaganda-themed artwork is perhaps the perfect visual accompaniment to a record lamenting the factory line of enablers that will inevitably lead us all to a sorry end. So with that thought, go and listen to the new album ‘Drone Etiquette’, and just keep smiling.

Buy  Here

Website

Author: Craggy Collyde

 

Exit_International – ‘Black Junk – 10th Anniversary’ (Say Something Records)

Exit_International – ‘Black Junk – 10th Anniversary’ (Say Something Records)

A lot can happen in 10 years, I mean the fact that I’m sat here typing this review after having just done a Lateral Flow Test, largely to put my mind at rest, before going to a gig tomorrow night, would have sounded like it had been taken straight out of a work of fiction a decade ago.  And I suppose if you’d told Exit_International frontman and bassist Scott Lee Andrews he’d soon be leaving his native Wales and be living in Australia just as the band were about to release their then debut album ‘Black Junk’ back in 2011, he’d probably have laughed you off the face of the planet.

 

One thing that time certainly cannot change though is the fact that Exit_International were totally unlike anyone else on the UK scene when they first emerged from the ashes of Midasuno and The Martini Henry Rifles just as the noughties entered the tenties (if such a term even exists).

 

I first encountered Exit_International in Cardiff’s (sadly) long lost Barfly venue supporting Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster and that night they totally blew my wig off. It wasn’t long before I was having ‘Sex W/ Strangers’ on a regular basis, reviewing the band live many times over for Uber Rock, and loving the fact that every encounter would deliver something new and give me something interesting to tell our readership. Be it the initial shock of watching a band without a guitarist (when everyone else seemed to be playing without a bassist), through to Scott, second bassist Fudge and drummer Adam playing in ill-fitting dresses one Halloween and showing way too much of their clackerbags every time they went full Steve Harris with the monitors. Or the fact that during two of the most memorable shows I saw them play, they not only played in the round but also on a totally makeshift backline and still managed to destroy all comers.

 

Exit_International always were about living in the moment (which I’m sure you will agree is kind of ironic given where they took their name from), so why am I so excited about owning a 10-year-old album once more, an album I had on the day of its initial release back on 17th September 2011? Well, perhaps it’s the fact it’s coming out on ultra-limited-edition coloured vinyl for the very first time, thanks to those wonderful people at Say Something Records? Or perhaps it’s the additional three bonus tracks (Japanese exclusives and B Sides from the era) that are tagged onto the tracklisting, oh and let’s not forget that Dave Draper has waved his sonic screwdriver over the original master tapes too. Thus, making this 10th Anniversary package a VERY attractive proposition indeed.

 

Pre-ordering the vinyl means you get an immediate download of the all-new 16 track version of ‘Black Junk 10’ as WAV files, so it’s that source from which this review is being based, but the first thing I had to do was go back to the original Carl Bevan (ex-60ft Dolls) produced CD, just to level the desk, so to speak.

 

The hi-hats that introduce the tenth anniversary version of ‘Glory Horn’ actually sound (to my ears at least) a little quieter than on the original expertly produced insanity, but as soon as the kick drum (literally) kicks in, the Dr Wooo tinkering becomes more than obvious, there’s certainly a much beefier aftertaste to ‘Sex W/ Strangers’ and the likes of ‘Sherman Fang’ and ‘Bowie’s Ghost’ sound so claustrophobic they could almost crack and break into the thousand disjointed pieces that make up the genius of Exit_International. Oh, and the bass sound midway through ‘Fang’ sounds like its Lemmy’s ghost Draper has been conjuring up on the ole studio Ouija soundboard, not Bowie’s.

 

I’ve always held the belief that a well thought out and executed remix can make an already established (and in this case excellent) album feel like a totally new record, and this has never been more applicable than with this reissue, as the re-touches, whilst subtle, are instantly effective, plus of course, with the three bonus tracks of ‘Lay To Waste’, ‘Black Junk’ and ‘Hex Lover’ being brought back into the fold, this means that without question this is now the definitive version of what was going on in the warped and fragile minds of Scott, Fudge and Adam a whole decade ago.

 

Look, in a world ravaged by division Exit_International, whilst musically always standing apart from much of the UK scene, were always about inclusion, they were the go-to place for (what society calls) the outcasts and the freaks to feel in control in a world they may have felt was way out of control, and sadly as is usually the case with such cult status bands, just as Exit_International looked like they might be breaking into the mainstream, largely via word of mouth, it was all over, and Scott was on a plane to Australia to start a new life.

 

Once Exit_International have touched your soul however, they never leave, and that’s why this 54 year old still connects with them, maybe even more so now than I did a decade ago, and its why the band themselves are already teasing a 2022 UK tour in support of this release. Don’t miss out on this VERY special band second time around because as Mrs. H just said “real class is timeless!”

 

HARDER, FASTER, BLACKER, JUNKER. ‘Black Junk 10’ is released on 17th September 2021, and you can own a copy by clicking Here

Author: Johnny Hayward

 

ONLINE: Website / Facebook / Twitter Instagram

The Found L.A.M.F. Masters to get CD release with bonus disc and 32 page Book

The Found L.A.M.F. Masters to get CD release with bonus disc and 32 page Book

After 44 years of hearing only outtakes, remixes and mud … NOW IT REALLY SOUNDS LIKE A M.F.

FOUND IN AN ATTIC – a copy master of the original tape, without ‘mud’! This classic punk album, made in London by New York Dolls Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan’s new band the Heartbreakers, was always controversial – and not just for the acronym. Upon release on Track Records in 1977, it was universally condemned in the music press for having a ‘muddy mix’ – later found to be a mastering fault. When Track went bust the following year, manager Leee Black Childers managed to burgle the Track Records’ Carnaby Street office and liberated the tapes that belonged to him and the band – but he found everything except the master-tape.

Subsequent releases were remixed from the multi-tracks (‘Revisted’, 1984) or compiled from outtake mixes – the ‘lost ’77 mixes’ (1994) being the version most known since. A tweaked needle lift from vinyl for a ‘definitive’ box set removed a lot of the ‘mud’ but still didn’t achieve full clarity. Meanwhile, fans found that the 1977 cassette version didn’t have that infamous ‘mud’, nor did certain European vinyl matrixes.

 

Unexpectedly, in 2020 a chance meeting led Jungle to Daniel Secunda’s archives. Danny was an old-school music biz pioneer who became a Track Records director – and the Heartbreakers ‘L.A.M.F.’ co-producer. In amongst his archives stored in his attic were numerous tape boxes, including two with no artist name, marked: ‘Copy Master 12.7.77’. They turned out to be a crystal-clear ‘L.A.M.F.’, just as the band and producers intended it. Sadly, in August 2020 the Heartbreakers co-lead vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Walter passed away. He was the last of the Heartbreakers ‘L.A.M.F.’ line-up – Johnny Thunders died in 1991, Jerry Nolan in 1992, and Billy Rath in 2014. Walter’s punk memoir autobiography is published in paperback in June 2021, and his band The Waldos also get their album ‘Rent Party’ reissued on blue vinyl for Record Store Day’s RSD Drop2, followed by a CD reissue.

 

‘L.A.M.F. – the found ’77 masters’ was released on vinyl for Record Store Day 2021 RSD Drop2 on July 17 as a limited edition in transparent purple vinyl. It has an inner bag with new notes by Simon Wright, plus a 12″ poster of a Roberta Bayley cover outtake pic. A CD version will be released at the end of October.

 

An example: ‘It’s Not Enough’ – when choosing tracks for ‘the Lost mixes’ from the attempts at assorted studios, there were only two versions to choose from. One had vocals mixed far too high; the other very low. We went with the low vocals version – they almost fade away at one point. Now, we can hear the correctly balanced mix.

Tracks: Born To Lose, Baby Talk, All By Myself, I Wanna Be Loved, It’s Not Enough, Chinese Rocks, Get Off The Phone, Pirate Love, One Track Mind, I Love You, Goin’ Steady, Let Go, Can’t Keep My Eyes On You*, Do You Love Me*. Cat. no: TRACKLP77. *Includes two tracks originally released as single b-sides. Direct Metal Mastered from 24-bit transfers from analogue tape.

 

WHERE TO BUY? The vinyl has SOLD OUT so it’ll be difficult to find. Don’t pay stupid prices; there’ll be another pressing in summer 2022.

The CD edition – with a bonus disc of four demo sessions 1976-77 and a 32-page booklet in a hardback book – will be available to preorder our Direct Webstore around a month prior to the release date of November 5th 2021

 

Upon release in 1977, Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers’ L.A.M.F. had a mastering fault, widely condemned as a ‘muddy mix’. Track Records went bust and the master was lost – so subsequent releases were compiled from outtakes or re-mixes. Forty-four years later, the master has been found in the attic of producer Daniel Secunda, a crystal-clear 1977 ‘Copy Master’.

Now L.A.M.F. can at last be heard as the band and producers intended!

“Previously buried clarity enables the astounding live chemistry sparking between band-members to rear unfettered at full power … Nobody in love with this definitive NYC classic should hesitate to splash out” – Kris Needs, Classic Rock, 9/10 review.

First released as a much sought-after vinyl LP for RSD in July 2021, this CD version comes together with a bonus CD – ‘the L.A.M.F. demos, plus’; a 19-track collection of four demo sessions from 1976 – 77 and three tracks from Track singles.  They are packaged in a hardcover 32-page book, with notes by Simon Wright and a 2012 interview with Walter Lure (the last of the LAMF Heartbreakers who sadly passed away in 2020), together with rarely-seen photos.

More info:  http://www.jungle-records.net/index.php/156-heartbreakers-l-a-m-f-the-found-77-masters

 

www.jungle-records.com ~ ~ ~ www.facebook.com/JungleRecords

Brian Setzer – ‘Gotta Have The Rumble’ ( Surfdog/Mascot Label Group)

Brian Setzer – ‘Gotta Have The Rumble’ ( Surfdog/Mascot Label Group)

Right folks get on your blue suede shoes, slick back your hair and grease up your quiff as Brian Setzer is going to rock this town with his guitar twanging new album titled “Gotta have the rumble”.

The first cut is titled “Checkered Flag” and it draws the listener in with a killer groove and has Brian’s signature killer guitar playing all over it.

Next up we have “Smash up on highway one” and Brian is in fine voice and with a hypnotic guitar riff this song is a winner.

“Stack my money” and “The wrong side of the tracks” are pure quality and keep the album flowing along with instant foot tapping anthems.

“Drip Drop” is a slower paced number and has a doo wop feel to it with some stunning female backing vocals and is a truly stunning track.

Up next we have “The cat with 9 wives” and the pace is picked back up with Brian telling us the tale of his 9 wives now this would be too much for the average joe but the rock’n’roll legend that is Brian Setzer is more than cool enough to pull it off.

“Rockabilly Riot” is what it says on the tin. The song is filled with hooks that just don’t lodge in your brain; they smash you over the head and if your leg isn’t shaking along to the rhythm Elvis style then get your pulse checked as you might be dead.

“One bad habit” is another effortlessly cool track dripping with attitude and pure energy.

Closing out the album is the track “ Rockabilly Banjo” and what a way to finish this great album off with a killer chorus that immediately gets the listener singing along and yet again Brian is on top guitar slinger form.

Brian Setzer is a living legend who never fails to deliver quality tunes and “Gotta have the rumble” is an album that from start to finish is up there with his best work and will reward the listener with repeated spins.

Buy Here

Author: Gareth ‘Hotshot’ Hooper

Former Pooh Sticks reunite for political indiepop punk band with a new album

Former Pooh Sticks reunite for political indiepop punk band with a new album
Swansea Sound: a band that came into being during lockdown and decided that fast, loud, political indiepop punk was the answer to being stuck indoors.  Who needs introspection?   

 

Hue Williams is reunited with Pooh Sticks singing partner Amelia Fletcher (ex- Talulah Gosh, Heavenly). Rob Pursey (also ex-Heavenly) and Ian Button (Wreckless Eric’s live collaborator) provide the noise.  
Swansea Sound are the funny, angry, gleeful and savage past, present and future of indie.  The band has played just one gig in real life – but there will be more in 2022.

 

On debut album ‘Live at the Rum Puncheon’, the opening track ‘Rock N Roll Void’ catches you up on the past: a two-minute revision session to make sure you haven’t forgotten The Kinks, The Ramones, and the brief explosion of noise pollution that was C86 pop.

 

The second track ‘I Sold My Soul on eBay’, also two minutes long, savages the corporate piracy of our digital present, where anyone can earn plenty of ‘likes’, but no-one gets paid any money.

 

Next, ‘I’m OK When You’re Around’ is a love song to all the people Swansea Sound would like to meet in the future. People they’ve fallen in love with in digital chatrooms: new allies all over the world who are standing up to the digital giants and the shit-stirring racist trolls everyone’s forced to share the internet with. 

Track 4: ‘The Pooh Sticks’.  Hue pays tribute to his former self in an apparently sincere tribute to one of the great lost indie bands of the 90s.  (No one else was going to do it.)  We have all become our own archivists these days.  We’ve all become our own covers bands...

 

This album whizzes by very quickly: you’re already near the end of Side One.  Four of the tracks have already been released as short-run singles on a variety of formats. ‘Corporate Indie Band’ was cassette-only. ‘I Sold My Soul on eBay’ was a one-off lathe cut 7” single that got auctioned on eBay (with a £400 winning bid). ‘Indies of the World’ was a 7” single/cassette, which briefly hit the UK physical Top Ten chart, before selling out.

 

Most recently, ‘Swansea Sound’ was released as a limited edition cassette/mini-CD on 1st September. This was the date, exactly one year ago when the much-treasured South Wales radio station, Swansea Sound, was re-branded by its new corporate owners and its old name became available.  The song is a requiem for that lost radio station – a DJ describing his final day at work before his show is ‘rationalised’ – but it’s also a wider protest about the culturally stultifying effect of corporatisation.

 

Some of the songs are reflexive – ‘Swansea Sound’ and ‘The Pooh Sticks’.  Others are searching for hope – ‘Let It Happen’, ‘I’m OK When You’re Around’, ‘Pasadena’, ‘Angry Girl’. Whereas ‘Je Ne Sais Quoi’ is pure pop throwaway fun.  The other songs are catchy too, they just happen to express sickness and a contempt for the state of things.  ‘Corporate Indie Band’ is about a group who have mortgaged their creativity to a major label and sold their identities to an online marketing team of public schoolboys.  Freedom of Speechtakes a look at three contemporary ‘alternative’ music stars and considers how they’ve responded to BLM, the pandemic and the rise of right-wing populism.   ‘Like self-serving arseholes’, is the unfortunate answer.  (You won’t struggle to work out who the three ‘alternative’ stars are.) Backing vocals are provided by queer indie punk band The Crystal Furs (Portland, Oregon).

 

Swansea Sound took their name from a radio station, and they even use its abandoned logo.   Something modern, acidic, and angry has taken up residence in a familiar, borrowed frame, just as it has in these indiepunk pop songs.   You can throw yourself around to Swansea Sound like it’s 1986, but if you catch the lyrics you’ll remember you’re in 2021.  Sorry about that.

 

The Rum Puncheon, a notorious pub in Swansea, closed down decades ago.

 

The sleeve is designed by Catrin Saran James. Amelia, Roband Ian also perform in The Catenary Wires.

 

The album is released by – 
SKEP WAX (Vinyl, CD, Bandcamp)
LAVENDER SWEEP (Cassette)

 

In North America, it is released by – 
HHBTM (Vinyl, CD)
AUSTIN TOWN HALL (Cassette)

 

In Indonesia, it is released by – 
SHINY HAPPY RECORDS (Cassette)

 

The album will not be released on streaming sites.

 

Swansea Sound: Instagram / Twitter / Facebook / Bandcamp

 

The Bar Stool Preachers/Dactyl Terra/Pigeon Wigs – Flemfest 21 – Pontllanfraith Rugby Club – 4th September 2021

The Bar Stool Preachers/Dactyl Terra/Pigeon Wigs – Flemfest 21 – Pontllanfraith Rugby Club – 4th September 2021

“It’s been a long time since I rock and rolled,” as some wise sage once sang.

 

It’s been way too long in fact, however, over the months of no gigs, I got this thing in my head that I really wanted my return to watching live music to be something special. What about Brighton upstart ska punks The Bar Stool Preachers playing a mini-festival at a rugby club literally a few miles from my front door then? The fact that The Bar Stool Preachers were also the last band I saw live before lockdown really did bring the whole thing full circle, but it was the “how the hell are they playing there?” part of this proposition that really hooked me in. So, tickets were duly purchased (£8 for four bands…Bargoed) and I sat around counting down the days until I could once enjoy that familiar ringing in my ears (which I must admit is the part of gig going I really had not missed).

 

In the hours leading up to Flemfest (the only slight disappointment of the night proving to be that the superbly named mini-festival had not derived its moniker from any punk rock notoriety but actually a local chap whose birthday it was nicknamed Flem), it became clear that; 1) it was going to be held outside, 2) that the bill had been reduced to three bands with Sister Yellow pulling out, and 3) it was a sold out show. That special twist I wanted from my first gig just got even more special as watching any band outdoors in the rain in the summer can be a tough ask here in the UK, but in September it would test even the hardest gig goer…perhaps the Sisters had some inside information on the weekend forecast?

 

Thankfully the weather turns out to be brilliant on the day of the gig and as I walk down Tram Road on the outskirts of Blackwood, the general bustle of people, the strong smell of street food vans and other festival-y substances, plus the throb of live music gives me goosebumps, but the first thing that really hits me as I enter the site is just how an impressive a set up Pontllanfraith Rugby Club have going on here. The stage and sound are so far removed from the back of a truck type of events I’d grown up knowing and it’s like someone has brought Red Rocks to a south Wales valleys town, there’s even a wall running out from the centre of the stage acting like a crowd control barrier for some mini version of Download Festival. I bet I know someone who will be making use of that as the night progresses.

To the music then, and whilst I missed the start of Pigeon Wigs set, what I did catch was mightily impressive. The band having recently played at the nearby Green Man festival exude a kind of quirky pop/rock charm that has me thinking Dexy’s Midnight Runners one minute and The Lemon Twigs the next. They are most certainly a world away from my old days of gig going in Blackwood when most Welsh bands I encountered wanted to be The Alarm. Pigeon Wigs are most certainly a name to look out for, and just like Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard before them they could very soon have the power pop world at their feet.

 

Dactyl Terra are a band I’ve seen before, supporting Pulled Apart By Horses in Le Pub in Newport, although the band have changed a lot since I last saw them live. Granted they still play the same brand of space rock as they did back in 2019, but adding an extra band member means their sound has also added an extra jammed out dimension, so for a majority of the people over 50 in attendance who remember the rock years of Reading Festival Dactyl Terra are the near-perfect early evening festival band.

 

As the clock hits 9:30 the sun has completely disappeared from the night sky and through the minimalist stage lighting I can just about make out the silhouettes of another band making their way onto the stage, it becomes apparent it’s The Bar Stool Preachers when a fully skanking line check erupts from the venue’s excellent sound system, and before I can even catch a breath, we are off double quick time into a eighteen – yup that’s EIGHTEEN song headline set via ‘One Fool Down’. TJ and the lads obviously delighted to be playing live once again then rip through the likes of ‘Trickledown’ and ‘Looking Lost’, before new track (written about the state of the homeless situation here in the UK) ‘Two Dog Night’ gets let loose and proceeds to tear everyone a new one.

There’s a lot of angry bite in the 2021 version of The Bar Stool Preachers and the addition of Karl Smith (ex-Jaya The Cat) on guitar means the likes of ‘Start New’, ‘DLTDHYOTWO’ and ‘Raced Through Berlin’ all pack a beefier chug than ever before. That’s not to say that any of the old skank appeal is lost though.

 

Of the other new songs previously aired pre-lockdown there’s sadly no ‘Late Night Transmission’ tonight, but ‘State Of Emergency’ sounds imperious, and the previously Strokes-like genius of ‘Heart Attack’ has now morphed into an almost totally different piece of music called ‘Flatlined’. Likewise, ‘Love The Love’ has taken a similar brave songwriting curve that had some us singing ‘Lonely This Christmas’ over the doo-wop intro.

 

Closing things out with ‘8.6 Days (All The Broken Hearts)’ TJ finally slips into full rock star mode, daring to negotiate the stage divide wall to deliver the song’s unforgettable chorus and thus ensuring that everyone leaves with a mandatory Cheshire Cat grin. That’s before the lads return for a much-deserved encore of the prophetic ‘When The World Ends’ and the always uproarious ‘Bar Stool Preacher’, and just like that, my first gig in eighteen months is over. What a great gig it was too, with The Bar Stool Preachers coming away from it like all conquering heroes and making many new fans along the way.

 

Make sure you check them out on the rest of their dates this September and on their full UK tour this December, because The Bar Stool Preachers are no longer just very strong contenders but in fact world champions in waiting. GET ON IT!!!!!

Author: Johnny Hayward