So, the next PROFESSIONALS chapter officially begins, to take the band into 2020.
6 new songs recorded during 2019, will be available to advance order from today (29th November).
The 3 EP’s will be released in January, February and March of the new year. Each EP will feature 2 new tracks plus two live recordings of older material. They’ll be available individually through Transistor Music on CD, limited edition vinyl and super limited edition colour vinyl, or as various bundles with exclusive T- shirts and signed posters. The new tracks are contenders for next year’s October released album, the follow up to the critically acclaimed ‘What In The World’. There’s also talk of adding guests to the new recordings before the release, taking advantage again of Paul Cook’s immense punk rock address book.
Studio time has been booked around the band’s tour with SLF and US dates, where further new material will be put down.
We have a 2020 vision and hope you’ll all be part of it.
“a release of intense basic frustration, anger, and aggression, especially that rediscovered by means of primal therapy”.
What better way to release your frustration and anger than at a gig, and what is more Primal than, raw garage rock, alongside a few diversions into other territories, dance, industrial, country and good old raw Rock and Roll, welcome to Primal Scream, one of my fave live entities, always sharp, always intense, always in your face with no punches pulled, hands up who remembers Bobby Gillespie, dedicated ‘Kill all Hippies’ to the massed Glastonbury ranks and not one of them realizing he was taking the piss? Priceless!!
I first caught Primal Scream in Glasgow in 2000 supporting Oasis, just after the release of probably my favourite LP ‘Exterminator’ and I’ve caught them just about every tour since and every time they’ve mutated the sound, changed direction and kept the crowd guessing to what we’re going to get. So tonight for me is a culmination of the last 20 years a set going out under the banner of Maximum Rock and Roll, a best of so to speak happy days.
Openers tonight were a brand new band to me Holy Youth Movement, as far as I can tell not a lot out there to pick up but if tonight’s performance is anything to go by they’ve got the potential to take it to the next level. Grounded in the garage rock sound we know and love, they made a great noise, reminiscent of the rawer side of Primal Scream to be fair, and a great fit, sadly this was the last night on this tour before support bands change over.
On to the main event, and opening with ‘Don’t Fight It, Feel It’ was always going to be a winner for me but to follow it with one of my personal favourite tracks ‘Swastika Eyes’, I could have left then happy. The thing is though with Primal scream they just get better and better as the set moves on, the rush hitting everyone harder and harder, no Little Barrie Cadiogan tonight but Andrew Innes, brought the MC5 influenced raw Rock and Roll sound to the plate, while Simone Butler locked the base down, there was no let up tonight and as the tracks blurred you caught that garage rock and roll underpinning, shaping everything, there were many highlights tonight including the rebirth of Rock and Roll part 2, an inspired ‘Come Together’ complete with a bang up to date Fck the tories, Fck Boris Johnson refrain interspersed in the lyrics, but for yours truly I think the tracks that sent this set into overdrive were a blinding version of Dolls, a jaw-dropping ‘Cry Myself Blind’ and a seriously rocked up version of 100% showing how good the ‘Chaosmosis’ tracks are when given a live slant. And the incredible ‘Kill All Hippies’.
Watching the crowd go mental to ‘Country Girl’, the dedication of ‘Loaded’ to the Super Furry Animals and the encore of ‘Come Together’ before the roof was well and truly lifted with ‘Jailbird’ and ‘Rocks’, 20 years of following Primal Scream nicely rounded off for yours truly. Lets kick off the next decade as usual with a new sound from the Scream (as usual) or maybe a tour playing ‘Give Out But Don’t Give Up’ (The Memphis sessions version complete with brass section) or the 21st anniversary of ‘EXTERMINATOR’ would be a good shout, but as with all things Bobby Gillespie the only guarantee is it’ll be relevant!!!
Acclaimed chronicler of the dark Suzie Stapleton has announced the release of her new single, ‘Thylacine’, and a five-date UK tour. Both herald the release of her highly anticipated debut album, ‘We Are The Plague’, which is due in the spring.
Released on 29 November via AWAL as a digital-only release, ‘Thylacine’ finds Suzie Stapleton in compelling form. Tying in with the apocalyptic themes that inform ‘We Are The Plague’, the new single is suffused with a sense of drama and an ethereal intensity that marks her down as a very special talent. This is music that seduces, compels and haunts.
“When I started writing for this album, I felt a sense of responsibility to address what was going on in the world. We’re bombarded constantly by horrific news, stuck on a broken systemic hamster wheel. I felt stupid writing about my insignificant woes whilst the world burned around me,” explains Stapleton.
Joining Suzie Stapleton’s live band are bassist Gavin Jay from Jim Jones & The Righteous Mind and Yann Tierson drummer Dave Collingwood. The Stranglers’ drummer Jim Macauley brings his talents to the studio.
“I approach the art of recording differently to performing songs live,” continues Stapleton. “There’s energy during live performances that can turn songs into a different beast. I expect that these new songs will evolve and begin to draw breath during these dates.”
Produced by Suzie Stapleton, ‘Thylacine’ and ‘We Are The Plague’ were recorded at OX4 Studios in Oxfordshire and Stapleton’s home studio and were mixed by award-winning engineer Dan Cox, whose previous credits include Thurston Moore’s ‘The Best Day’.
Suzie Stapleton plays:
DECEMBER
07 – Paper Dress Vintage, London
JANUARY
04 – The Carlisle, Hastings
24 – The Brunswick, Brighton
25 – Rough Trade, Bristol
Ryan Hamilton & the Harlequin Ghosts, slowing things down for their new video release ‘Won’t Stop Now’. It’s a song of quiet defiance giving thanks for all the good that music can bring, despite everything the world likes to throw at us. Facebook
‘Won’t Stop Now’ was written during the aftermath of some unspeakably cruel online bullying, which got so bad, Ryan had to get the authorities involved. Native Texan, singer/songwriter Hamilton, thought it fitting that the track be released around the US holiday of Thanksgiving (November 28), given the song’s subject matter.
“The video features footage from the past 10 years of my life”, says Hamilton. “Former bands. Former relationships. I am so thankful for this life and the incredible power music has to get us through the most difficult times”.
The track is taken from the critically acclaimed 2019 album, ‘This Is The Sound’, released on Wicked Cool, the label run by Little Steven/Steven van Zandt (a long time supporter and co-writer of former single ‘Mamacita’).
Renowned for their killer live shows, whilst the band look forward to bigger tours and festival appearances in the UK and Europe during 2020, they recently announced their inaugural ‘Holiday Hoedown’ Christmas show, MFN, Nottingham, on December 14. With the intention of making this an annual event, the band have pledged their support to Notts based homeless charity ‘Emmanuel House’ and will be collecting donations of essential items at the show for distribution to local homeless people.
“The UK – and Nottingham in particular has been amazing in its support of our band”, says Hamilton, “this event seemed like the perfect opportunity to give something back to the community”.
The ‘Holiday Hoedown’ will take place at MFN, Shipley Gate, Nottingham on Saturday 14 December.
London-based independent promotion collective Chaos Theory who celebrate their 10th anniversary with Chaos Theory Festival on Saturday 29th February 2020 at The Dome and Boston Music Room have completed their impressive line-up.
Joining the likes of the already announced ZU, Teeth of The Sea, Vodun, VASA and Mammoth Weed Wizard are UK doomers Undersmile who will make their official comeback in 2020 and reunite at Chaos Theory Festival. Norwegian noise rock act Årabrot will perform 2 sets at the festival, one featuring music from 2018’s album ‘Who Do You Love’ and the 2nd from this year’s ‘Die Nibelungen’ release, the soundtrack to Fritz Lang’s legendary silent movie, which was originally performed and recorded live at the Tromsø international film fest in 2016. Completing the line-up are instrumental outfitNøught, featuring members of Thurston Moore band, Gong, This Is Not This Heat and The Display Team, they fuse rock, jazz & the avant-garde.
Towards Collapse’s takeover afterparty which features U.S breakcore legend end.user have also completed their line-up adding, Shelley Parker, Ecstasphere &, Aphexia, Metalogue andForce Majeure. Chaos Theory Festival founder founder Kunal Singhal comments,
‘It’s an honour to announce more bands and producers at 10 Years Of Chaos who have consistently blown my mind over the last decade. Nøught are notoriously busy with their many other projects, so it’s a very special chance to see them together, as they prepare for the release of their first album in twenty years. I’m floored that Undersmile have chosen to reunite and to make their comeback show at the festival; they’ve been missed by a lot of people and we all look forward to their next big steps. I’ve seen Årabrot progress from tiny basement gigs, to touring with Mono and Jo Quail, to a huge show in the Barbican this year, so it’s a privilege that they’ll play two sets with the music from different periods of their back catalogue.
Metalogue has made an appearance at several Chaos Theory events in the past, so it will be great to hear his newest post-industrial glitches and beats. The Towards Collapse lineup also features artists Shelley Parker and two projects by producer Ophelia Sullivan, Ecstasphere & Aphexia, as well as local producer Force Majeure. Along with end.user, this is going to be exactly the kind of mindbending danceable lineup that I secretly wish all club nights were like.
We’ve got a generation of artists who’ve been able to listen to the most obscure music from around the world with a few clicks, and have been inspired to create new ideas, techniques and sounds. This day celebrates what we do at Chaos Theory, which is try to show you where to find them. It’s for people who love going to gigs but want to experience something different.’
Full line-up for Chaos Theory Festival 2020
ZU (UK exclusive) Teeth Of The Sea Undersmile (comeback show) Årabrot (2 sets) Nøught Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard Gold Furia (Pl) Vodun (+ special guests) VASA (album launch) Memory Of Elephants Mai Mai Mai (AV show UK premiere) Ante Inferno Lush Worker (Mike Vest, BONG) David Terry (BONG)
At its core Chaos Theory have worked with musicians of emerging and underground genres and across almost a decade have put on the likes of Darkher, Zu, Lingua Ignota, Black Peaks, Imperial Triumphant, Thumpermonkey, The Fierce and the Dead, Boss Keloid, Vodun, Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard, Casual Nun, Mutiny on the Bounty, Nøught, Telepathy, Jo Quail and Khost.
Chaos Theory was started as a response to the pay-to-play environment founder Kunal Singhal discovered in London. Now almost ten years on, the Chaos Theory team are gearing up for their biggest ever event with 10 Years Of Chaos at The Dome and Boston Music Room. Tickets are on sale now with more even bands to be announced over the coming months.
Towards Collapse will run the official festival afterparty takeover from 11pm to 3am in Boston Music Room.
Taken from the bands latest album ‘Kiss Off’, Directed by Håkan Göstas ‘Six Pack Of Champagne‘ is classic Punk n Roll from Sweden’s finest. Out on CD featuring a bonus track exclusive and soon to get its vinyl release ‘Kiss Off’ is the first full album from “Demons” in almost ten years.
After a recent chat with Mathias, he commented that there are plans afoot to release a new album in 2020 as well as getting their first unreleased album from 1995 out. It will at the very least see a digital release in 2020 which is exciting stuff.
The band is busy booking shows for next year which happens to be the bands 25th anniversary as well as some festivals and the Japan dates we’ll keep you up to date with the best punk roll band from Sweden at the following links –
Known for their incendiary live shows, Avalanche Party are a feral garage rock 5 piece from the North Yorkshire Moors. Cited by Radio 1 as “the most exciting rock ‘n’ roll band in the UK right now”, singer Jordan Bell and his band of miscreants have a lot to live up to with their debut album ’24 Carat Diamond Trephine’. Their raw, live energy is not at question here, the question is can they transfer that wild, untamed energy from the hot and sweaty UK clubs to record? Let’s drop the needle and turn it up to 11!
Opener ‘El Dorado’ lulls the listener into a false sense of security with its haunting vibes. It creates stark imagery in black and white with stabs of piano and understated harmonica, as singer Jordan Bell croons his lyrics softly, almost spoken word. This murder ballad is a more poetic and cinematic introduction to the album in pure Nick Cave/Warren Ellis style. As an opening track it works perfectly and much better in the context of an album than as a standalone track.
Let’s get one thing straight, this is not a party album, this is a dark and desolate trip, much like the cold and rugged terrain where Avalanche Party reside. Recorded in York last December, it has the ghost of close friend Dale Barklay (The Amazing Snakeheads/As It Moves frontman) all over it. Dale was a big influence on the band in the last few years of his life and his energy is kept alive here.
‘Bugzy’ and ‘7’ follow the opener in quick succession. The former is a 70’s inspired Doors/Stooges groover with added Avalanche eccentricities. The latter, a high octane blast of punk rock noise that captures the feel of an Avalanche Party gig to maximum effect.
‘Howl’ has 70’s glam vibes from the off with hand claps and cool as you like vocalisin’, coming on like early Bowie meets The Birthday Party. A great, anthemic chorus takes things up a level. It’s a good place to be.
Already, this is the sound of a band who are riding the crest of a wave. 5 years of constant touring, honing their craft in sweaty clubs and festival stages all over the world has seen Avalanche Party come of age; it truly feels like this is their time.
But while the melodies and refrains are instant and lasting, it is not an easy listen. This is an album of stark contrasts and sonically seductive moments. To go from the piano led ‘Hey Misdemeanour’ with its haunting female backing vocals and strings n’ things, to the relentless and unnerving ‘Playing Field Blues’ with its stabs of guitar, drums and wailing vocals, and to make it sound like it is just meant to be…this is something truly special and something their contemporaries cannot match.
Props to the rhythm section of Joe Bell (bass) and Kane Waterfield (drums), they absolutely kill it on this record. Falsetto vocals come to light throughout bringing an epic grandiose feel to the likes of ‘Cruel Madness’ and the trashy but pumping ‘Milk And Sunlight Is A Heavy Dream’.
If you were a new band and you had a song like ‘Rebel Forever’ in your arsenal, you would probably open the album with it, but with Avalanche Party you can expect the unexpected. They close the album in style with a song that can outdo Fontaines DC in the “who can sound like Joy Division the most” stakes, and they sign off with an absolute banger. High octane, edgy rock ‘n’ roll noise just the way we like it.
Most bands are at their best on their first album and spend the rest of their careers trying to reach the same dizzy heights. If this is Avalanche Party’s piece de resistance, then so be it. Its early days, but I feel whatever they do in the future, this will be go down in history as their ‘In Utero’, their very own ‘The Holy Bible’. ’24 Carat Diamond Trephine’ is Avalanche Party’s defining moment, and one of the best debut album of the year.
**Not guaranteed for delivery by Christmas, although most US customers should be OK***
NOTE: For customers outside of the US, your order will take an average of 4-5 weeks to reach you via economy shipping, which does not have tracking. If tracking is needed, you can upgrade to priority shipping at an additional cost but must email us for details.
Cokie the Clown, Fat Mike’s alter ego, has now been elevated to Throbblehead status. This figure is limited to just 1000 hand-numbered units, stands at 7″ tall, and is made of a high-quality polyresin.
Re-creating the cover art from Cokie’s first full-length album “You’re Welcome,” this Throbblehead comes complete with noose, squirting flower, and clown shoes.
“Punk rock was never just music to me, it was my life,” says Cokie. “My parents were just relatives, my family was always NOFX.”
Just recently I had an email drop into my inbox highlighting a new single from the Young Gods and sending me into memory free fall all the way back to 1993 and a Young Gods performance on the Phoenix Festival main stage supporting a Mike Patten led Faith no More at the time they definitely piqued my interest but as is the want with festivals you see so many bands in such a short space of time things blur and the band slipped out of my consciousness,
The next time I came across the band was within an Interview of David Bowie in 1995, when he was asked whether NIN had influenced the creation of the Outside LP “His reply was that he was actually listening to a Swiss band at the time called The Young Gods, things came together and I re-tracked the band and was blown away by the first three LP’s The Young Gods, L’eau Rouge and T.V. Sky (which remains a fave up to today)
Franz, what can you tell us about the early days of The Young Gods? How did the band start out? What influenced the music?
We were born in the 60s and grew up during the 70s. Our first musical loves come from that period. Early psychedelism and later on punk, influenced us a lot.
We started the band in 1985 and at that time our main influences were Einstürzende Neubauten, Kraftwerk and postpunk. (Killing Joke, Wire, Gang of Four…) I think The Young Gods is a bit of all that: psychedelism with a punk energy. But the real thing that influenced us the most was the new technology of the time: the sampler. When affordable sampling devices came on the market, that totally changed my approach on writing music. No more chords, harmonies, E or A strings, just pure sound. A collage of sounds, that’s how you can call our music in the early days.
For someone hearing the Young Gods for the first time, how would you describe the music, and the way it’s developed from the early days to now?
To make it simple, I like to describe the band as “electronic rock music”. I think we used and abused the sampling technology until the mid-nineties and then felt the need to extend our sound with the help of other devices like synthesizers or computers plug-ins. I now play the guitar as well on stage, which is new. The music might be a bit less radical in its form but has kept the intensity of the early days.
Delving into your background Franz I’ve found you were a classically trained guitarist, but dropped the instrument in favour of a more experimental approach to music, utilizing technology, loops and beats, repetition et al did you find having such a structured? introduction to music help or hinder what you were trying to do with the Young Gods? How did it influence you?
Learning classical guitar made me consider music as ONE thing that evolves with time and technology. Every generation needs to find its own way and sound, but I was frustrated that my fellow punk friends were not interested in classical music and that the other musicians in my classical guitar class could not play a simple blues. Everything is so compartmented. If you follow classical music by the rule or punk music by the rule, you trap yourself into conservatism. Music is not about conservatism, it is about freedom and openmindedness. Music is here to unite us.
Tell us about the Young Gods Play Kurt Weill LP, what inspired your choices for the LP? “September Song” in particular really stood out for me, do you have a personal fave? What were you as a band getting across to a generation that potentially hadn’t heard Kurt Weill?
Again it is a will to make people aware of good music that had been written in the 30s /40s. For me the association of Kurt Weill and Bertold Brecht is fantastic.
Take the “Three Penny Opera” for example. It is total counterculture: it is called an opera but there is no “bel canto”, people sing slightly out of tune, the music is dissonant, the story happens in a dark Soho where the heroes are gangsters, prostitutes, priests… It is political, subversive. No wonder these two where considered public enemies N°1 by the nazis. Weill and Brecht are the pioneers of “pop music”.
“September Song” comes from Weill’s period of exile. He flew to NYC to escape the Nazis. He then wrote for the Broadway theatres. Very intense songs, classics. September Song made me realize that one can be intense without having to scream…
Moving forward as a listener the sound you were creating seemed to become more sparse, allowing more space within the music, taking the listener on an internal journey, what was changing within the Young Gods?
I guess it is still a try to dive into sound and take the listener on a trip. With time we became less frontal. Age gives us a different energy. But it might be temporary as well !!! there is a lot to be angry about nowadays.
I remember reviewing Everybody Knows on its release calling it industrial with style and substance, how would you describe the LP?
‘Everybody Knows‘ was our first try to write music together (4 people at the time) improvising. We wanted to challenge ourselves, wanted to go out of the computer grid. With distance, it was a transitional album. It is very free and full of explorations.
Coming up to date you have a new LP out called Data Mirage Tangram, what can a new listener to the Young Gods expect? How would you describe it?
We are back as a trio but with a serious change of people. Al Comet and Vincent Hänni left the band in 2011 and Cesare Pizzi (who started the band with me) is back after being away for more than 20 years. It is more “downtempo” than usual, deeply psychedelic ( in its greek definition: revealing the psyche). You can listen to it like as a soundtrack to your dreams. It takes you to Amazonia, it has tribal elements, it sounds at times very urban, psychoacoustic, it warns you about the blind trust we put into algorithms and it is danceable!
Live we’ve got some dates coming up in the UK, what can the fans expect?
We mainly play the new album but include in the set a few “classics”.
Last thing Franz, what influences you at this moment in time? Are there any new and upcoming bands you could point us towards or any classics we need to re-explore?
Coming from your land: I like Farai and Perera Elsewhere. From France: the Psychotic Monks. And TM404, the Island people, The Oh Sees, the Viagra Boys, Clap Clap, Insalar. To be rediscovered: acoustic John Lee Hooker, Sun Ra (Nuclear War, Space is the place)
Thanks for taking the time out to chat with us
Thank you for your interest Nev
Franz it’s been an absolute pleasure to talk to someone I’ve followed for so long
Brand new video from rejuvenated Zeros. Their first single is about to get released this December and to catch a quick glimpse of what to expect Heres the video for ‘In The Spotlight’
6 new songs recorded during 2019, will be available to advance order from today (29th November).
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