“It is with extreme sadness we announce the passing of the legendary Barrie Masters.
As you can expect, this sudden news is a huge shock to the band and family.
We welcome tributes posted to our Facebook and Twitter sites which will be passed on to Barrie’s family.” – Twitter
Rock and Roll has lost another good un. RIP Barrie. Barrie’s cause of death is unknown at this time of writing. Frontman of Eddie and the Hot Rods who broke through in the late ’70s, and released four albums, including their 1977 LP ‘Life on the Line’, which contained the classic hit, “Do Anything You Wanna Do.” They first came to my notice when they were wrongly pictured on the back of the first press of the classic ‘Damned Damned Damned’ album who they no doubt influenced. After breaking up they reformed a few times with Barrie as the sole constant member. In recent years, they toured ‘35 Years of Teenage Depression’, a 35th anniversary re-recording of their classic 1976 debut ‘Teenage Depression’.
There’s a case to be made that Redd Kross is the seminal Los Angeles band of the last 40 years. And ‘BORN INNOCENT’ is gonna make it.
Formed in 1978 by brothers Jeff and Steve McDonald, and still actively playing and recording today, Redd Kross are the ultimate rock and roll lifers. They have influenced independent music in ways that beg to be acknowledged. From helping invent Beach Punk to influencing the Grunge and Glam Metal movements, Redd Kross have maintained the highest level of musical integrity, originality and quality for over forty years.
Born Innocent will introduce a wider audience to two of the coolest people alive. The McDonald Brothers embody Southern California, rock and roll, and what it means to be an artist.
In 1978, in the Southern California beach suburb of Hawthorne – home of The Beach Boys – two brothers, Jeff McDonald, age 15, and Steven McDonald, age 11, started a band called The Tourists. They wrote a set of songs including “Annette’s Got the Hits” and “Clorox Girls” that would become classics and define the genre known as “Beach Punk”. The first time The Tourists played in front of anyone was at BlackFlag’s legendary rehearsal space, The Church in Hermosa Beach. They got the older band’s seal of approval, along with a new name – Red Cross. They were so young that their first studio recordings were financed with money from Steve’s paper route.
But when Jeff saw hardcore being codified into a set of musical and fashion rules, he rebelled. Red Cross was the first band from the hardcore scene to grow their hair long, and their second record, Born Innocent, was unlike anything that had come out of the underground. It’s a record drenched in 70’s pop culture references: Linda Blair, Tatum O’Neal, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls… even a cover of a Charles Manson song. Steven Malkmus of Pavement listed it as one of his top five biggest influences, and Mark Arm of Mudhoney has said that it was the record that got all the Seattle grunge bands started.
Red Cross fought back against hardcore’s anti-rock star stance, dressing in outlandish thrift-store-glam stage costumes like their idols, The New York Dolls.
The high school-age McDonalds received a letter from the International Red Cross threatening legal action if they continued to use the name “Red Cross”. Jeff’s response was to change their name to “Redd Kross” in an homage to comedian Redd Foxx. With their new name, Redd Kross continued to evolve their sound. Their Neurotica record would prove to be one of the crucial influences on the Grunge scene in Seattle that changed music in the 1990’s.
When pop music caught up to what they were doing and grunge was on the rise, Redd Kross pivoted again, making a sugary bubblegum record for their major label debut, Third Eye, which sported a nude Sofia Coppola on the cover. And while they had previously starred in the cult classics Desperate Teenage Lovedolls and Lovedolls Superstar, the 90’s saw them star in their first studio movie. Before there was The Brady Bunch Movie, there was The Spirit of 76, a 70’s nostalgia movie that saw Jeff and Steve starring alongside David Cassidy, Leif Garrett and Devo.
Their next evolution had them perfecting a beefy power pop sound, with their records Phaseshifter and Show World. This was the phase that garnered them fans from Robert Plant to Joe Elliott of Def Leppard to Dave Davies of The Kinks.
While chart-topping success in America eluded them, they have toured the world to massive acclaim, treated like rock gods in the UK, Spain and Japan. Steve has played with Beck, Hole, Sparks, and Tenacious D. He currently plays in both The Melvins and Off! Redd Kross have always followed their artistic muse, wherever it led. Forty years later, they are still going strong, heading out on tour in support of their seventh studio album, Beyond the Door.
Redd Kross has long been a cult band, a band’s band, a secret code word among music fans that signifies taste and cool. But unlike many cult bands, their music is eminently accessible. If you like The Beatles or The Ramones or Cheap Trick, basically if you’re a rock and roll fan, you’ll like Redd Kross.
Wow-what a fantastic record. That’s it I could leave the review right there that’s all you need to know. It’s nothing new – they’re not reinventing the wheel – just cruising around with the hood down supping on a few beers with the best eight-track sitting in their retro rocket-fueled hot rod. Dead Furies just play Rock and Roll and play it loud and loose and that’s all you need to know. Oh Yeah, incase you need it spelling out they write Great Songs!
Ok, so its not really all you need to know but you get the picture. I’m not really up on what’s hot and what’s not in in Tallinn, Estonia but I do know that it has one of Europes finest Rock and Roller bands out there making Solid Gold Rock and Roll right here right now. They mix up some classic ’70s rock n Roll and stand it next to some Classic Rock n Roll from the likes of Iggy or the Stones and the whole Scandi scene and let it all melt into one. What’s not to like on the blistering ‘Good God Damn’ it’s like Bolan Jammin with Iggy – everybody on your feet because this pre-chorus needs a standing ovation its that good. If I had to reward a tune ‘Tune of the month’ then this is it. Then, to follow it up with a slab of Motorhead inspired heads down Action Rock of ‘Holy Nothing’ these boys are having it and strutting their stuff like a Rock and Roll peacock and looking good doing it as well.
From the Stooges piano on the title track its feel-good Rock and Roll and seeing as Rockin is their business then I should declare right here right now that business is not just good its awesome. With more than their fair share of excellent songs, this record should, in a just world, see the band kick open plenty of doors and hear ‘Stay Gold’ blasting out of bedroom all over this globe. But they’ll have to work hard for it and tour the guts out of this record just to make a tiny dent I guess. It deserves to be heard because they don’t just have one or two good ideas they have a record bursting with very good songs.
‘Death Of A Comedian’ is coolness personified cruising along towards the understated chorus and we go again. There are fourteen tracks on this album so they’ve shoed in plenty of bang for your bucks. ‘A couple OF Winos’ could be about a few people I know and from the heavy lick it cools down into a good groove for the verse this should appeal to classic old school rockers for its arrangement but its got style and is nestled in well in the middle of the record next to the MC5 hip shake of ‘Sweet Lovin’ Body’ with a great chorus and maybe candidate for my favourite track on the album.
Oh, wait, ‘The More things Change’ howls in on a cool as fuck saxophone honk wearing an old Bowie jacket and a little heavy eye makeup. Such a good song. ‘(I’m Not Gonna) Go Down’ is straight out of the early Hellacopters and Total 13 handbook and why the fuck not? ‘Same Same But Different’ reminds me of The Heartbreakers ‘I Wanna Be Loved’ but it’s same same but different- you’ll get it. As we head into the homestraight the boys just cut loose with rockers ‘Cowboys And Indians’ before taking you up a side street for the closer ‘I Get A Kick From You’. I get akick from hearing records this good and would happily endorse this bad boy there is a lot of music and it has variety yet keeps its identity and they’re not afraid to tread outside their comfort zone now and again either.
Pittsburgh political punk band Anti-Flag announce vital UK and European tour dates for January 2020.
“We need these shows. We need this tour. We need to set the pace for the work that lies ahead in 2020. Our individual strength, optimism and hope comes directly from the interactions and exchanges we have at shows like these. It is a space where individual energy transforms into collective energy and power is born.
We cannot wait to unveil our new record. New songs are our bridge to reach out, reconnect, energize and organize. An opportunity to put names to faces, city to city, town to town. We are living in a time where minorities are being increasingly marginalized and cast out of society, where their mere existence has become illegality. Those victimized by the current administration need much more than allies, they need accomplices. We can no longer be shocked or distracted by defeat. Now is the time to remind each other that we are not alone and together we can beat back injustice.
We hope that this collection of songs, the congregation of folks around the shows, will all serve as tools of solidarity in the face of oppression and empire – solidarity with the poor, the marginalized and the scapegoated who are all catching hell.
Sometimes people say “enough” and a riot echoes forever.”
FULL UK & EUROPEAN TOUR DATES AS FOLLOWS: –
8/1 Lisboa, PT – RCA Club
9/1 Madrid, ES – Caracol
10/1 Vitoria, ES – Kubik
11/1 Zaragoza, ES – Sala López
12/1 Barcelona, ES – Estrapelo
14/1 Milano, IT – HT Factory
16/1 Zurich, CH – Dynamo
17/1 Graz, AT – PPC
18/1 Vienna, AT – Flex
19/1 Prague, CZ – Roxy
21/1 Berlin, DE – SO36
22/1 Munich, DE – Backstage Werk
23/1 Nuremberg, DE – Lowensaal
24/1 Chemnitz, DE – Talschock
26/1 Warsaw, PL – Proxima
28/1 Hamburg, DE – Fabrik
29/1 Köln, DE – Essigfabrik
30/1 Haarlem, NL – Patronaat
2/2 Brighton, UK – Chalk
4/2 London, UK –02 Academy Islington
5/2 Manchester, UK – Club Academy
6/2 Birmingham, UK – The Mill
7/2 Glasgow, UK – The Garage
Tickets go on sale on Friday 4th October @ 10am UK time / 11am CET.
Anti-Flag are currently putting the final touches on their new studio album, further details will be revealed in due course.
You can forget about your boot boy Glam of Guida or any other pretenders who think they have their finger on the pulse of ’70s glam rock vibe because there can be only one at the top of the pile and quite frankly that’s Gyasi. From the opening intro and lyric come the wise words “if you can’t hide it hang bells on it, Baby!” Hell yeah! we’re off.
With a trashy tempo ‘Colourful’ is up and running. The title track is up next with its big strumming acoustic guitar holding the rhythm along with handclaps and some sweet organ toots its glam alright like when the 60s turned into the 70s and it was all about the music. Excellent stuff.
As the record goes from a fruity early Joe Perry like riff or the Zep inspired ‘Young Love’ to the out and out glam of ‘Tongue Tied’ the band kick back and mix up some classic Lower East Side rock and roll al a Lou Reed stylings on ‘Blackstrap’ its got some lush horns and matching riff which makes for an interesting and enjoyable cocktail for sure.
To be fair this album has ten really good tunes it might not necessarily make album of the year it is full of solid rock and roll songs that are well written and well played and borrow bits and pieces from the good and the great from a bygone era – given a dust down and remodeled with extra feathers is always going to go down well around here. I do like what they bring on ‘Bring Your Love’ mixing up the acoustic and electric guitars and summoning the spirit of prime time Robert Plant draws on some classic trippy rock as well. ‘Nightcrawl’ has a cool organ rasping away on the intro like John Lord in platforms and feathers with a nice line in nail polish and listening to classic Iggy Pop when he went to Berlin for inspiration.
Saving the best until the end ‘Kiss Kiss’ is a piano tonkin’ sax blowing romp that the Dolls would have been proud of and ‘Little Tramp’ is sitting crossed legged with only ‘Hunky Dory’ for companionship atop of a mountain. great record go pick it up glam slammers.
Of course there are bands that have garnered higher chart positions, sold more albums and filled bigger venues than Anvil. Yet there are few metal acts that have earned as much respect from their colleagues as the Canadian act surrounding vocalist/guitarist Steve ´Lips` Kudlow, Robb Reiner and Chris Robertson.
The most renowned Anvil aficionados include, among others, international stars such as Metallica and the late Lemmy of Motörhead, who have expressed their unreserved admiration time and again.
Expect a romp around the country in sold out, sweaty, hard rocking/metal shows to tell your mates about from these living legends that are an inspiration to many.
Tickets go on sale 24th September and will be available from the venues and various ticket outlets as listed on the band’s website Here
Dinosaur Pile-Up have announced a landmark headline show at London’s O2 Forum Kentish Town on April 3rd. Tickets are available on O2 pre-sale on Wednesday October 2nd, and go on general sale on Friday October 4th via MyTicket.
Regarding the show frontman Matt Bigland says, “We’re blown away to be headlining the Forum. Just so so pumped. Some of the best shows I’ve ever seen have been in that room, and we’ve supported countless bands there, and the fact that we’re now going to headline that stage is something we’re really grateful for and super f***ing excited about. It’s our turn, and I can’t wait to play on that stage.”
They announce the Forum on the back of selling out their forthcoming UK headline tour in December in support of the critically acclaimed new album Celebrity Mansionsout now on Parlophone.
The new album has seen Dinosaur Pile-Up lay claim to 2019 as one of the UK’s most exciting and talked about rock bands.
Dinosaur Pile-Up recently completed a monumental nine week US tour, which saw them play 37-dates, as they toured arenas across the country with Shinedown before embarking on their first ever headline tour of the country.
On return to the UK the band jumped straight into Reading & Leeds Festival where they performed as the specially requested guests of Radio 1’s Dan P Carter.
Celebrity Mansions’ singles ‘Back Foot’, ‘Thrash Metal Cassette’ and ‘K West’ have all received great support from Radio 1, so much so the band made a ‘Back Foot’ jingle for the Breakfast show following the song being added to the Radio 1 playlist. The singles have also made the playlists of Radio X and ‘Back Foot’ is now proving a hit in the States and is the highest UK entry in the Active Rock Chart at No.5.
Before embarking on their forthcoming UK headline tour, the band are heading back across the Atlantic to play arenas in Canada on a 14-date tour with The Offspring and Sum 41 next month. Full Dinosaur Pile-Up tour dates can be found below:
DINOSAUR PILE-UP TOUR DATES
CANADA (W) THE OFFSPRING & SUM 41 NOVEMBER
12th – Halifax, Scotiabank Centre
13th – Moncton, Avenir Centre
15th – St Catharines, Meridian Centre
16th – Sudbury, Sudbury Arena
17th – Laval, Place Bell
19th – Sault Ste Marie, GFL Memorial Gardens
21st – Winnipeg, Bell MTS Place
22nd – Moose Jaw, Mosaic Place
23rd – Medicine Hat, Canalta Centre
27th – Cranbrook, Western Financial Place
29th – Penticton, South Okanagan Events Centre
30th – Abbotsford, Abbotsford Centre DECEMBER
2nd – Kamloops, Sandman Centre
DECEMBER UK HEADLINE TOUR **SOLD OUT**
6th – Bristol, Exchange
8th – Birmingham, Institute
9th – Glasgow, Garage (Attic Bar)
10th – Manchester, Academy 3
11th – London, Scala
Legendary guitarist and front-man of iconic rock bands Black Star Riders and Thin Lizzy is set to auction his denim cut off jacket to the highest bidder to support the excellent work Cancer Fund For Children are doing to help patients and families throughout the hardest time of their lives.
Ricky Warwick will auction off the denim cut off he wore on stage during the Thin Lizzy summer shows in 2019. The jacket features a design of Black Rose by Zoe Hinton and it is signed by all members of the band: Ricky Warwick, Scott Gorham, Darren Wharton, Damon Johnson, Troy Sanders, Scott Travis. All the proceeds will be donates to the charity, which desperately needs funding, receiving only 0.5% of government help.
The auction starts in 1stOctober 2019 at 10:00 AM PST and will take place on the Black Star Riders Facebook page. Bidders need to send an email to ace@sirenmanagement.comwith their bid and their contact details (shipping and handling costs will be included). The auction will end on 31stOctober at midnight PST. The highest bidder at that time will be notified and settlement made.
Ricky Warwick comments: “This is a wonderful charity doing many good things and helping kids who have been diagnosed with cancer, they recently helped a good friend of mine who’s young daughter had been diagnosed and helped her fight and overcome this terrible illness. Please help them to continue doing the wonderful work they do.”
Based in Northern Ireland, Cancer Fund For Children, offers support to families and patients and aims to empower, connect and strengthen them, so they feel equipped to deal with whatever the future may hold.
Further info on the charity are available – Here
You can access the auction here –Facebook
L.A. thrashers’ sixth album due in February; marathon tour with Enforcer continues this Fall!
Three weeks into their ongoing 54-shows-in-54-days co-headlining tour with Enforcer, the Los Angeles-based thrash quintet WARBRINGER has released a new single, “Firepower Kills.” The song can be streamed on Spotify, Apple Music and other digital platforms
WARBRINGER‘s new album will serve as the follow-up to 2017’s “Woe To The Vanquished,” which Metal Hammer said “delivers all the pounding riffage and machine-gun tempos a thrash freak could want.” The as-yet-untitled new record – which was helmed by returning producer Mike Plotnikoff (In Flames, Fear Factory, All That Remains) and mastered once again by Howie Weinberg (Anthrax, Slayer, Overkill) – will be coming out on Napalm Records and marks the band’s first full-length release with bassist Chase Bryant (Oni), who joined the group last year.
“’Firepower Kills’ is the album opener and is a rapid-fire thrash burner, with both lyrics and music following the theme of the rapidly evolving and really frightening side of technology. We’ve been playing this tune nightly on the current tour and it’s been highly well-received,” explains Warbringer vocalist John Kevill. “We are right in the middle of this massive North American tour with Enforcer and have left a wake of fire over much of the continent. More updates on Warbringer incoming… yes, the future looks bright!”
Over the past dozen years, WARBRINGER has released five acclaimed albums of intense, aggressive thrash and toured with a who’s who of metal, including Megadeth, Testament, Obituary, Napalm Death, Exodus, Suffocation, Overkill, Arch Enemy, Kreator, Soilwork, Municipal Waste, Skeletonwitch, Destruction, Nevermore, Symphony X, Iced Earth and Death Angel, among others. More information on the group’s forthcoming album will be unveiled in the coming weeks.
Remaining North American Tour Dates –
10/01/2019 The Foundry – Philadelphia, PA
10/02/2019 Dingbatz – Clifton, NY
10/03/2019 The Chance – Poughkeepsie, NY
10/04/2019 Kingsland – Brooklyn, NY
10/05/2019 Blackthorn 51 – Elmhurst, NY
10/06/2019 Fish Head Cantina – Halethorpe, MD
10/07/2019 Cattivo – Pittsburgh, PA
10/08/2019 Canal Club – Richmond, VA
10/09/2019 Black Circle – Indianapolis, IN
10/10/2019 The Masquerade – Atlanta, GA
10/11/2019 Motorco – Durham, NC
10/12/2019 The Haven – Winter Park, FL
10/13/2019 O’Malley’s – Margate, FL
10/14/2019 Crowbar – Ybor City, FL
10/15/2019 Southport Music Hall – New Orleans, LA
10/16/2019 Scout Bar – Houston, TX
10/17/2019 Rock Box – San Antonio, TX
10/18/2019 Come And Take It Live – Austin, TX
10/19/2019 Trees – Dallas, TX
10/20/2019 Aftershock – Merriam, KS
10/21/2019 The Shrine – Tulsa, OK
10/22/2019 89th Street Collective – Oklahoma City, OK
10/23/2019 Launch Pad – Albuquerque, NM
10/24/2019 Herman’s Hideaway – Denver, CO
10/25/2019 Liquid Joe’s – Salt Lake City, UT
10/26/2019 Backstage Bar and Billiards – Las Vegas, NV
Pardon us are a pop-punk band from Liverpool who formed in 2014. Some of their members have also played in Flamingo 50, theDown and Outs and Town Bike (No I’ve not heard of them either but I have heard of Pardon Us). They can be seen on the bills of DIY gigs, festivals and all-dayers around the UK, and are often compared to Jawbreaker, J Church and Off With Their Heads (mmm Nah me neither). This is their debut long-player and it’s been worth the wait let me tell you. If you’ve never heard of them until you read this then let me give you my take on ‘Wait’.
‘Wait’ is the work of three people who make a very tasty racket, very tasty indeed. Its loud (hooray) its got melody (hooray) some great lyrics and the album is full of fuckin’ bangers. Drawing their inspiration from a load of places there are moments of classic Jam happening and also some early punk roots like Husker Du and I’m also having shards of Stiff Little Fingers punching through their wall of sound. I love the simplicity of ‘Brains’ with the gang backing vocals and raw guitar these boys know how to write top tunes. At times it’s so raw its savage but its always wrapped in a melody which is where I get my SLF and Jam influences from. There is an air of joir de Vivre about it, they’ve penned ten pop songs and played them through distorted guitars with a reckless edge and youthful abandonment at times it could be some britpop fops playing punky or a Supergrass in the melodies songs like ‘Brains’ have a touch of the Jam about them if they went pub rock instead of soul boys. The arrangements impress me with the gang vocals and attack on the riffage being just loud guitars and not using a wall of virtual sound technologies. ‘Counting Backwards’ is like screaming on top of a mountain and then rolling down it like a big kid and without a care in the world.
I go back to my influence obsession and will site Husker Du and throw in a Replacements (a little bit at least when they were young) and some Buffalo Tom as well on ‘Thankful’. The Scouse accent comes through loud and clear and I like that on ‘Phil Ochs’. ‘If The Black Shirt Fits’ is off like a speeding bullet and the vocals are stretched to the limit. Raw and passionate it’s one of the best tracks on the record for sure. when I stumbled across the singles a while back I found the band really exciting and the album has realised those expectations and that pleases me greatly because after all said and done and all the musical comparisons I could muster Pardon Us is fresh and exciting and the main thing is the songs are bloody good and that’s job done for me. Signing off with ‘We Are The Champions’ is a good place to finish seeing as its true these three are indeed champions. If they rock up in your town go see em and tell em RPM sent you – you won’t be disappointed – great album!
Recent Comments