Fresh from their recent Slam Dunk Winter Jam tour in January with Zebrahead, Teenage Bottle Rocket and [Spunge] cross-genre punk band MILLIE MANDERS AND THE SHUTUP have announced a double AA side 7” single to coincide with their previously announced UK tour throughout the spring.
ANGRY SIDE and CAN I GET OFF? will be released on 5 April alongside a range of new T-Shirts to help raise funds for Mercy Without Limits: https://mwlimits.org
Talking about the single, Millie Manders says:
“Angry Side is, I guess, a letter from my teenage self, apologising for being so angry and wanting to burn down the world. I had a lot going on back then and I hid behind bravado a lot. I suppose it’s also me telling my younger self that it’s OK to have been that angry when I went through a bunch of trauma that I couldn’t process well enough to deal with it all. I was a kid.”
“The western world is privileged because it has pillaged resources from everyone else in the world. We need to unlearn what we know and recognise the suffering people are going through as a result of our greed. Can I Get Off? is an outpouring of my frustrations about that and, ultimately, the reason we are fundraising for Mercy Without Limits.”
A sold-out Cab in Newport on a Good Friday Bank Holiday seemed like the only place to be as the South Wales punk rock community welcomed Port Talbot neerdowells to the stage for their Newport baptism on this most holy of days as they proceeded to entertain the gathered congregation to the ways of the steel towns finest exponents of what has been best described as pub punk. For the next thirty-plus minutes the band stormed through their repertoire of zero fucks punks rock at an impressive speed. The mostly uninitiated seemed to very much appreciate the music being doled out by these young guns who’ve just recorded their debut album of working-class punk anthems. Ending the set with their party anthem ‘Beer & Gear’ most definitely made everything alright. The Shunkos don’t take themselves too seriously but their music is honest and they do it very well indeed and are a ray of sunshine on any bill. Sadly several of the bands pulled out of the originally advertised show meaning next up were South West punks Split Dogs.
Split Dogs made the short hop across the border to perform their uncompromising street punk and they wasted no time in delivering their blunt yet really enjoyable set kicking off with the stylish ‘Why Does It Hurt’. Split Dogs are the go-to band along this stretch of the M4 and it’s easy to see why. They get on with the job and play uncompromising punk rock – it’s no-nonsense but they do it with a cheeky smile whilst chomping at the bit and snarling like a rabid dog. Songs like ‘Prison Bitch and ‘Lafayette’ land solidly on your jaw and in Harry they have the frontwoman to captivate as she covers every inch of the stage like a fireball, leading the band through their brutal set. Is it hot in here or am I having some sort of episode? Such is the intensity of Split Dogs performance tonight the place is a sweaty den of noise. The band finishing off with an intimidating ‘Tears of a Clown’ which seemed on point and there was no way they could top that – Job done. Another day another really enjoyable set from the impressive Split Dogs.
Headlines Riskee & The Ridicule take no time at all hitting the tight stage of The Cab and get on with the job of following two worthy support bands as they rise to the challenge and pump out the title track of their latest album of Grime meets Street punk ‘Platinum Statue’ and with a half decent sound things get messy as frontman Scott oozes passion and a love for his job of leading the band through what amounts to four albums worth of honest impressive punk rock. Scott engages with the appreciative audience as the pit gets off right from the opening title track of that fourth album. I reviewed Body Bag many moons ago it would seem and have caught sets from the band when they went out with The Bar Stool Preachers as well as sets at Rebellion Festival. After warming up (not that the venue needed warming up) the band hit their stride when they blitzed out ‘Molotov Cocktail’ the excellent ‘Kaboom’ and a splendid rendition of Lana Del Rays ‘Young And Beautiful’ before closing with a fantastic ‘Our Time’.
No bullshit, No encore, No fucking about it was turn up get on with business, do it to the best of your ability and get the fuck out of dodge and tonight Riskee And The Ridicule certainly delivered another excellent set. Top night of punk rock from three quite different bands all doing their music proud and all with new records either just out or on the way, Proving punk rock is alive and well and in safe hands. Also cool venues like The Cab being the perfect venue for nights like this. I love nights like this and I love punk rock – long live the underground! The only complaint would be no ‘Blue Jacket’ not being in the set but hey ho you can’t have everything. Next time yeah?
Laura Jane Grace is back with her fourth solo album ‘Hole In My Head’, which has taken a while to land at RPM HQ even if it has been out in the wild for a few weeks. After absorbing the content it’s fair to say its top notch Grace with all the vim and vigour of previous outings and fury of Against Me rolled into one but with a softer sound, it reminds me more of the acoustic ‘White crosses’ release.
‘Hole In My Head’ has all the expected ingredients and some of it is pent-up anger mixed with equal amounts of anxiety and a fair sprinkling of fear to keep the listener on their toes. Having long been outspoken and confrontational Laura Jane Grace is a major player on the alt-rock scene and rightly so.
It was way back in 2012 when LJG went public with her gender transition in the pages of Rolling Stone. The journey has stayed true to the angst and political outspokeness continues alongside the gender journey and all that goes on with it politics and the in your face lyrics rightly continuing.
Less Rock and more Americana acoustic guitar driven with Folk and poetry pushing more to the fore on this outing makes for a really epic and highly enjoyable record. but worry not because the more easy and gentler sound dovetails well with the more anarchic and roudy attack takes the songs in a different direction by using a different approach but it all makes for a thoroughly enjoyable journey for the listener.
As far as alt rock goes this is pretty much as good as it gets and all the solo work has enabled Grace to reach this point. the title track is a roudy affair with muted distortion overdriven guitars thrashing away for the vibrant and attention grabbing opener. ‘I’m Not A Cop’ is a little T-rexified but the Dylanesque ‘Dysphoria Hoodie’ is simple and powerful.
The stripped back nature of ‘Birds Talk Too’ really works well and whilst it sounds so simple that’s because Laura makes it sound that way. ‘Punk Rock In /basements’ is like an American punk rock ‘brim full of asha’. This is where the album veers off into a more laid back stripped bare acoustic offering which really works culminating in the final cut of ‘Give Up The Ghost’ where a thoughtful Grace delivers a moving and through provoking final swansong on what is a sparkling album that has the lot. Rebel songs for people who want some weight in their music and for it to mean something whilst entertaining them from start to finish with variety and plenty of charm. Buy It!
Eight years on from his critically acclaimed Magnificent Bastard album, Dallas roots-rocker Tommy Hale returns with new single, video and album.
The driving ‘Hideaway’ is the opening cut on Tommy’s forthcoming album All At Sea, out through Holiday Disaster Records on 12 April.
Once again, the album was recorded in England, at Wiltshire’s Mooncalf Studio with sometime members of London roots-rock band The Snakes (Simon George Moor, Johnny O’Sullivan and Dan Tilbury) along with guitarist Nick Beere, and was produced by Moor.
The band started the recording in November 2019 and were set to begin on a Monday morning. Tommy received a call on the Sunday evening informing him that his father had had a heart attack and was not expected to live. The recording sessions were abandoned. The following spring the pandemic began. Consequently, the album carries an unavoidable sense of loss, escape and finding solace in the quiet moments that came about because of the unprecedented circumstances.
It would be easy to lazily bracket Hale’s oeuvre as ‘Americana’, but there’s quite a bit more going on here, with forays into power-pop, alt-rock and classic left-of-centre songwriting in the manner of, say, Randy Newman, Warren Zevon and Kevin Ayres, although Tommy would never be so bigheaded as to compare himself to any of those masters. What is certain, though, is that the clash of Texan and English cultures give them album an unique and vital energy.
“I went into making this album wanting to interpret other people’s songs alongside mine,” explains Tommy. “I’ve always enjoyed hearing a great Willie Nelson song that sounds like it came straight from his soul, only to find out another songwriter wrote it. The record contains two songs from friends of mine that I wanted to see if I could interpret – ‘Esperanza’ by Tex Smith and ‘Radio Towers’ by Greg Vanderpool. These songs always stood out to me as something I wanted to dive into. I also stepped back a bit on writing lyrics and Johnny O’Sullivan stepped forward. I think it added some depth and a different perspective that I couldn’t achieve on my own. I had grown a bit tired of my own thoughts.”
Tommy and his band will play three UK shows around the time of the album’s release:
As all of you gothic rockers out there know, it’s currently a very healthy, varied genre. Indeed, labelling music does it few favours; you either dig a band or you don’t. You can’t force it. But if we must define a genre, Then Comes Silence are, no offence, way ahead of their contemporaries. Perhaps in part because Alex Svenson has been writing and performing for a long time, honing the sound and range of the band.
This, their seventh album, is the first on the Metropolis label, who were no doubt impressed by the ‘Hunger’ album released in 2022. From the opening notes of ‘Ride Or Die’, their sound is instantly recognisable, whilst across the album the keyboards are more prominent than before, which keeps it interesting and gives the band more scope. Alex refers to their bond, their dedication to each other; “you read my mind, I’m right behind, together we die”.
‘Like A Hammer’ is even more infectious, it’s on regular rotation chez moi. Apparently, each of their albums has “an ABBA moment, a Ramones moment and a Judas Priest moment”, and this is their ABBA one. They certainly have a knack with addictive chord sequences, so there is that similarity. The metronomic drumming of Jonas really drives the song along.
‘Feel The Cold’ wraps layers of sound around your ears, pumping synths and simple, effective melodies. Since Mattias left, Hugo handles all the guitar parts, and as they’ve shown on their recent tours, this works really well live in conjunction with the backing tracks. ‘Tears And Cries’ is a dark, glam duet with shades of the Glitter Band. ‘Stay Strange’ melds a punchy riff to an unexpected middle-eight, and ‘Stiffs’, with its refrain of “if I can’t have your soul, I can take your bones” should alert the local mortician, with an end like a haunted merry-go-round.
‘Blind Eye’ is the kind of tune that longtime fan Wayne Hussey would be proud of; sinister and catchy. As he said, they’ve got the tunes and the looks. And, of course, Alex’s voice. But the ace up their sleeve (sorry) is that they are greater than the sum of their influences. They have created their own personality. ‘The Masquerade’ proves this by sounding only like Then Comes Silence.
‘Never Change’ has a chiming, spacious riff, similar to Killing Joke, while ‘Dead Friend’ gets a little heavier on the guitars. ‘Runners’ is one of their most atmospheric songs to date, a sign of their desire for progression without losing their identity. With ‘Ghost House’, the album ends on one of their most commercially accessible songs, worthy of radio play, in an ideal world. I’d already preordered, knowing that Then Comes Silence always deliver quality tunes. With every new release, more people are recognising that this band are special. Join us. W.O.O.O.U, as they would say.
After last year’s sensational Vive Le Rock Awards at London’s O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, which we said would be our last, well…it would be rude not to come back and do it all again!
Vive Le Rock magazine is extremely proud to announce that UK post punk legends Theatre Of Hate will celebrate their founder Kirk Brandon’s VLR award with a special 30-minute awards set at O2 Islington Academy on April 12th. Brandon and Theatre Of Hate are known for hits including ‘Do You Believe In The Westworld’ and ‘The Hop’ and recently completed a mammoth 32 date U.S tour. Theatre Of Hate tour the UK in April.
And in other post punk news, there will be a special tribute to the great Killing Joke guitarist Geordie Walker at the VLR’s, with contributions from Jaz Coleman and the Vive Le Rockers playing a special song for the greatly missed punk legend.
They join the already announced special 30-minute award sets from Hersham Boys Sham 69, and Ruts DC, who will feature very special guests in their one-off appearance, alongside special guest performances from the iconic TOYAH, rock n’ roll king JIM JONES and the one and only Saffron from REPUBLICA, plus Lily from fast rising punks THE MEFFS!
And that’s not forgetting the mighty VIVE LE ROCKERS all-star band, led by the inimitable Paul-Ronney Angel!
A five hour show with a full programme of awards, winners and celebrity presenters, there’s only one place to be in April and that’s the 2024 VLRs!
“It’s no exaggeration to say that last year’s Vive Le Rock Awards was many peoples show of 2023,” says Vive Le Rock editor Eugene Butcher. “And this year we have more unique collaborations, one off performances and special guests for a wild night for friends old and new to join together and celebrate these legends of rock n’ roll!”
Tickets and special VIP packages including aftershow party, VLR Two Tone Annual and special Awards T-shirt are available HERE:
Album number six from this trio of street punks kicks off in style with the upbeat and vibrant ‘Last Man Standing’. With a pocket full of Steve Jones chords and a melody you can whistle on your way to work it sits nicely alongside the likes of Argy Bargy or the last couple of Last Resort albums its got boundless energy and plenty of heart but the one thing this record has is a great production that taps into the bands strength of writing catchy melodies and really good arrangments and this opener is a great way to get proceedings off with a bang.
If you’re looking for some boot boy terrace energy then the breakneck bounce of ‘Not Like You’ won’t disappoint. As the riff rattles off the curb the vocal tells it as it is – Bosh! ‘London’ is a rousing cockney knees-up that gets elbowed out of the way by ‘Music In My Heart’ that really rattles along on an excellent melody. You get fourteen songs here so seven aside and the quality is kept high throughout which is a feather in their barrow boy caps as the energy gets pushed and pulled in all directions from the punchy ‘Filth’ which again is helped by a really clear production that helps with the light and shade of the songs leaving room for that guitar to cut through the glugging bass and full throttle drum attack.
The title track sounds pissed off as that guitar is made to sound like a rabid dog barking as it drools, but underneath is that constant rumbling bass that fills the sound and it goes for the jugular. The band keep on course never feeling the need to change things up for the sake of change and preferring to keep it Street and packed with anthems ‘You Sort It Out’ tips the hat to Sparrer on that rousing chorus. Before we’re done you have ‘Hate Culture’ and the Ramones like ‘I Don’t Care’ snarling and steaming in before the album checks out with ‘Society’ and their work here is done. Made to be played live no doubt about it and a top night will be had by all. Knock Off have just delivered a quality album bursting at the seams with pissed off street punk. If you haven’t already then I suggest you get an earfull of this pronto – Oi Oi!
A very wise man (and record producer) once told me that he thought “some of the best songs ever written start with a chorus.” I argued back that in rock that’s not usually the done thing, you build to the hook, but he then went on to list a whole host of Atlantic Soul, Tamla Motown and Stax tunes just to prove his theory, and it’s something that’s obviously stuck with me to this day.
Whether producer James Bragg had the same conversation during the recording of the long awaited eighth studio album from London Oi!/streetpunk legends Cock Sparrer (Bragg returning to duty following his sterling work on the band’s ‘Forever’ opus), I’ll probably never know, but it’s exactly how ‘Hand On Heart’ begins. BOSH! Straight into the chorus of ‘With My Hand On My Heart’ and this 2 and half minute belter is an instant classic.
What quickly becomes obvious though is whatever chats were had, this time around the Sparrer boys are doing things a little bit different. Yes ‘Hand On Heart’ is quintessentially the band we all know and love, but this time around they are (just like Desperate Measures have done with their recent album) pushing the punk rock envelope just a little bit more. Take the distorted guitar and thumping drum introduction that segues into the fantastic ‘Mind Your Own Business’ for example, is the hook here the gang vocal chorus or the guitar riff? I’ll let you decide, but for me it’s one of the many highlights that ‘Hand On Heart’ has to offer, and yeah this could finally be the sound the band has always looked for from a studio record.
‘I Belong To You’ is up next, and this is a song that if you could cut it open would positively bleed Cock Sparrer, as would ‘No Way Out’ which follows at the album’s mid-point, the latter reminding me of the band circa the ‘Here We Stand’ era (a record which is now 17 years old, jeez). This is feelgood music to shine your cherry reds to getting ready for a Friday night on the town… classic Cock Sparrer.
Talking of which, the lyrically brilliant ‘Rags to Riches’ is all about just that; dressing to impress and having a sense of self pride whatever the world can throw at you. Something that the chugging ‘Take It On The Chin’ (a track that had previously featured the ‘Garry Bushell presents: Oi! 40 Years Untamed’ LP) echoes and it’s at this point I have to say that its tremendous to hear Colin McFaull in such fine voice, delivering some of his most impassioned work to date.
That punk rock envelope I mentioned earlier gets well and truly ripped to shreds by the time we reach the opening bars of ‘One Way Ticket’. Is this the band writing for a yet to be filmed Bond movie theme? Whatever it is, it’s epic, and the early-70s Slade-mid section is absolute bloody genius, as is the “Where are they?” vocal hook that drives home the pounding ‘Nowhere To Be Found’, a song that could easily have come from (Sparrer guitarist Daryl Smith’s other band) Argy Bargy’s superb ‘Hopes Dreams Lies & Schemes’ album.
Oh, and then there’s my real highlight of ‘Hand On Heart’, the beautiful, (yeah you read that right) ‘My Forgotten Dream’. The string section arranged by Simon Dobson (who’s worked with everyone from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to Bring Me The Horizon) is like a ray of spring sunshine cutting through the clouds on this most wonderful of Cock Sparrer moments, and even the hardest of heart listening to this is going to melt just a little bit, trust me on this one.
Which leaves us just enough time for the album’s final track ‘Here We Stand’, a boisterous call to arms kind of affair, cut from the same cloth as ‘One By One’ from ‘Forever’, and if this really does go on to prove to be the band’s final hurrah, what a way to end it all eh?
There’s no one out there that writes Oi!/streetpunk anthems quite like Cock Sparrer, and that’s a fact. That they have taken their magic songwriting formula and augmented it with new ideas and techniques fifty-two years after the band first got together shows their continued commitment to be the band other band’s look up to when it comes to punk rock music.
FROM ‘THE SEVENS’, NEW MONTHLY 7-INCH SERIES ON DEDSTRANGE
EUROPEAN TOUR IN APRIL
A Place To Bury Strangers release new single ‘Chasing Colors‘ via Dedstrange. ‘Chasing Colors’ appears alongside ‘I Can Never Be As Great As You‘ in the second instalment of ‘The Sevens‘, a series of four 7-inch vinyl records on white vinyl that unveil a treasure trove of previously unreleased tracks from their critically acclaimed 6th album, ‘See Through You‘.
Photo credit: Devon Bristol Shaw
Renowned for their visceral sonic assault and immersive live performances, A Place To Bury Strangers has cemented the end-all-be-all space for over-the-top post-punk/ shoegaze destruction. With this special vinyl collection, the band invites listeners to delve deeper into their sonic universe, exploring uncharted territories and hidden gems.
“When looking back at the recordings that were done around the time of See Through You, there were a bunch of great tracks that just captured life back then and really had something incredible going on,” says frontman Oliver Ackerman. “Even though they are a bit raw and a bit personal, I thought it would be a mistake if they didn’t come out. I thought it would be best to go back to my roots and put out a series of 7-inches the way A Place To Bury Strangers started. That strange weird format where the tracks each speak for themselves; no album context to muddy the water. These tracks are such a contrast to the way I am feeling now and the current songs we’ve been working on so slip back into this moment in time.”
Fourteen new tracks from Pat Todd who seems to be immune from the dreaded writer’s block and just seems to be able to knock out album after album of the highest quality. This Cowpunk rock n roll has mastered the sound and energy to make great records – it’s not difficult to see how Eddy Spaghetty holds him in such high regard.
This Americana or Cowpunk rock n roll is poured into every album and with that formula, they seem to get better and better. As his career progresses Todd’s moulded his craft to suit his strengths, Mixing ’70s punk rock, country, blues, roots rock it’s all in here folks. But the magic formula is heart and soul you just can’t fake it if you want it to be authentic and Todd & his Rank Outsiders couldn’t be accused of that.
The lyrics of the 14-track album are heartfelt and honest. New Originals like ‘Why I Sing’, ‘The Company You Keep’ or ‘Victim Of Dedication’ are warm and comfortable – you know what you’re in for and Todd delivers in spades. Be it the Rankoutsiders or The Lazy Cowgirls this brand of Rock n Roll is heartwarming and full of energy, life-affirming energy
The cover version of “Tower of Song” by Leonard Cohen shows how you can own a tune and energise a song that the listener might not have seen coming, but when it does you know it’s done so well and a fine way to close off the album.
Todd is joined again by guitarist and founding Rankoutsider, Nick Alexander; long-time guitarist and vocalist Kevin Keller, who also takes over the mic on ‘You’re Gonna Loose It All’ (I know makes you sick – so much talent); Steven Vigh on bass and Walter Phelan on drums, the rhythm section, who are driving these songs with boundless energy and belief in the power of Rock and Roll. Amen and halleluiah, Rock and Roll is in safe hands and it sounds bloody great! Buy It!
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