From the gutters of Indianapolis, Indiana, Wet Denim is a no-frills Rock n’ Roll band with an appetite for having one white cowboy boot on the monitor (old School), the other stood firmly in a time when Motorhead were kicking up a shit storm, and Noddy Holder was king of the castle with Slade. Two seemingly important features of Wet Denims’ arsenal and why the hell not. Aggressively catchy, the record begins with ‘Double Fister’ (oh er Mrs), those influences are worn proudly on their denim battle vest. The boogie is turned up on ‘One Should Know’ imagine Spider (back in the day, fifty-somethings will remember) jammin with Slade over a few Watney Party Sevens and you’re at the right house party.
The full-on heads down and let’s rock like there’s no tomorrow, and the fuzz are on the way ‘Flatlined’ is a blast and a lot of fun with zero fucks given. There isn’t any new ground trodden here, but it’s well delivered, and when The Ramones influence is ushered in for ‘Loosen Up’, there’s nothing not to like here, not reinventing the wheel so much as getting your groove on with said wheel and rolling on into 2026 and having a blast doing it.
There’s a real carefree vibe about this record just a bunch of guys living their best lives playing rock n roll hard and fast and having a hoot, and it would certainly get the party started ‘Out Of Love’ is a stomper and they finish off with a tip of the hat to all things scandi rock as ‘Keep On Knockin’ turnes it up to go out in a blaze of glory. Rock like fuck kids and turn it fuckin up! ‘Bite Back’ is turning up the summer heat in style, go get some.
Following the release of ‘God Bless America – Best of Thirsty’, the Thirsty Quireboys will host an exclusive evening at The Spice of Life, Soho, on Thursday 30 July 2026, celebrating the album’s launch and the enduring legacy of Guy Bailey, founder of The Quireboys and architect of Thirsty’s distinctive sound.
The event will feature an opening set by Bones of the City (7.30 pm), followed by an 8.30 pm video premiere, Q&A, and live performance from Spike, joined by Tom Golzen (guitar), Chris Johnstone (keyboards), Matty Cassidy (bass), and Simon Hanson (drums). Produced by Chris Kimsey, the album brings together Bailey’s songwriting partnership with Irina D, reimagined through Spike’s powerful vocals – a posthumous collaboration that reunites The Quireboys’ founding duo in spirit and sound.
Limited to 100 guests, tickets are £20, available: Here Part of the proceeds will be donated to Nordoff & Robbins in memory of Guy Bailey.
God help us, they call out on opener ‘Back Of Beyond’, and I sit back as the speakers shake, rattle and roll as the remnants of Rotten Foxes, young Francis Hifi and other notable death punk influencers, and with Dave Draper at the desk, they’ve crafted a beast. It’s muscle music being flexed on cheap cider and tabs and forced down your throat with the use of a sledgehammer. It’s more laid back than previous bands they’ve been in, if laid back is the correct term used, seeing as ‘Break Free’ is a bruiser of a track before ‘Treacle Pits’ cuts like a knife. Hell, that’s a fuckin fiddle in the mix now I wasn’t expecting that.
Side one is over in a flash as ‘Castellum De Silva’ gets the pit moving with topless bodies sat on shoulders, it’s the breakdown that swirls and builds and has the longest fade out when they described it as creamy triped out punk, they weren’t wrong, trust me.
Flip it over, and side two begins with a thumping Bass line over some B-movie soundscape before thumping in like death punk never happened. ‘Sunshine State’ is on the move. Thumping through the speakers, they’ve embraced the last twenty years of underground garage rock and taken ownership, complete with chanted gang vocals. It’s a splendid opener to side two and then to follow it with ‘Ties That Bind’ – wait, there goes some more subtle strings playing with your head before the song kicks on and steps into the centre of the swirling pit. Saving the best till last in my humble opinion, with the one two combo of ‘Jeans & T Shirt’ and the final cut being the epic runaway train that is ‘Brick Layers Laptop’ its not a massivly long LP and judging by the run out they could have served up a couple of extra tracks but I’ll take ten bangers from Brightons new kids round the block. It ain’t new, it ain’t clever, but it sure is good. These chaps know what they’re doing, and they do it oh so well. ‘Jeans & T Shirt’ is thunder in a bottle from start to finish before the closing ray of sunshine rock with cathedral-sized backing its heads down, and let’s just rock like fuckbecause its the right thing to do and boy does it hit the spot.
If you’re looking for your fix of loud garage rock n roll from the south coast, then look no further, Moody Goods are here, and this should shift units from the darkest corner of your local independent store or the interweb I’m not sure this time next year we’ll be millionaires (it would be nice) but our lives will be richer for putting this in our ears, bloody lovely Moody Good – go get some.
Fair warning to all those who might be entertained; there’s more than one bad reason that a person came alone… Released via Tri-Tone Records / Republic of Music, on July 2nd, The Heat Inc. unveil Mind Control – a towering new single that threads the anthem from past to present, as one of the band’s most accomplished and arresting releases to date.
Built around a long-simmering chorus melody and lyric that had existed in fragments since as early as 2014, Mind Controlbecame the result of old ghosts colliding with new vision. What began as half an unfinished idea eventually found its missing piece in the riff and verse of “Belacqua” — an unreleased track originally written years earlier by frontman Jon Dodd in a previous band with current bassist, Nico Rigot.
“Marco had this Chorus melody, I think and I had the lyric for the chorus for years,” vocalist Jon Dodd explains. “We struggled to make it into a whole song, then suddenly I noticed that it fit with the main verse riff and maybe the coda of an old track Nico and I had played in our previous band but never recorded. One day everything just locked into place.”
That collision of timelines gave birth to the song’s strange emotional landscape: a darkly theatrical world populated by memory, regret, and reckoning.
“I couldn’t get a verse lyric down for it until tracking at Woodworm,” Dodd continues. “Then I realised there was this figure — a ringmaster of sorts — guiding a tour of unhappy tourists around a carnival where the exhibits feature lovers you’ve known and possibly wronged in the past. The chorus became a kind of cautionary reprisal to anyone who might enter.”
The result is quintessential The Heat Inc. — balancing crushing weight with haunting melody while refusing to settle into either extreme. It’s a tightrope the band have spent their careers learning to walk.
“Any number of bands can go heavy and there are a lot of bands out there that do easier numbers as a habit,” Dodd says. “But very few can do both in one evening and not seem like two totally different bands. There is a very succinct blend of heaviness with melody that we try to maintain at all times without thinking too hard about it.”
That balance comes from chemistry forged over years together. Marco provides “the vision,” while Nico and Maurizio form “a rhythm section built to untune the sky.” The songs themselves now arrive with greater instinct than ever before.
“We definitely understand one another better now. Stuff comes together faster and we have a pretty keen sense for what’s going to work before getting stuck in the weeds. We’ve always been okay with going for the gentle, melodic number, but now we can do that while still maintaining an intensity that doesn’t overthrow an otherwise beautiful song.”
For The Heat Inc., Mind Controlis less a reinvention than a refinement — the sound of a band that knows exactly who they are and have stopped trying to get in their own way.
A little over a year on from the release of their “absorbing” self-titled debut album, Russ (aka Spunk) and Maff (aka err Maff) from Dirt Box Disco and Spunk Volcano & The Eruptions, along with their long-time producer John Kettle return with their studio-only project SUBMIT and this, their equally intriguing second album entitled ‘SOUP’.
The album title alone was enough to hook yours truly in, I mean that debut ten tracker was certainly a curious amalgam of musical styles, and had more than just a little “90s alternative” feel to it, so have the trio gone all Blind Melon (whose second record was also called ‘Soup’) on us with their return?
Well, according to the notes that accompany the album’s PR kit, the record actually takes its title from a strangely addictive pottage that was served in the Greenhalgh’s bakery opposite the band’s studio in Wigan. So, there you have it, and any fears of the band going full on US college rock on me can be put to bed, that is until I press play and the riff to ‘Pot Holes in Memory Lane’ jumps out of the speakers at me like some long-lost Sugar track.
Look, Russ’s lyrics will always be quintessentially British (in the John Cooper Clarke sense), but what he does here with SUBMIT is take those words outside of the expectations of the punk/metal boundaries defined by his other bands and give them an all new musical light under which to grow.
There’s more late 80s/early 90s influenced guitar riffage evident in the riff to the equally excellent ‘Stubbs’ (possibly the closest SUBMIT get to sounding like the Farrell brothers other bands), and then there’s ‘Cockroaches & Scorpions’ the third video teaser for the album which takes a lowkey grunge guitar riff combines it with a lilting vocal melody line before soaring into a chorus straight out of the Billy Corgan songbook. Wonderful stuff indeed.
Where I think SUBMIT really excel is when they throw the songwriting rulebook totally out of the window like during the fragile beauty of ‘Crushing Your Dreams’ that somehow then goes all Paradise Lost during the heavier mid-section, and then when the Maiden-esque riffage of ‘That’s Unfortunate (Rave On)’ suddenly morphs into the kind of song Terrorvision would have been bothering the charts just a few decades ago, and let’s not forget ‘Catastrophic Biopic’, perhaps my favourite track on ‘SOUP’, simply for its honesty.
Elsewhere ‘Crow With A Bone’ is a 2 minute 30 second slice of power pop that has a pre-chorus that wouldn’t be out of place on a modern-day Bob Mould solo record, whilst ‘My Heart Hates My Blood’ is a brooding slice of pop with a metallic(a)/gothic edge which leaves the anthemic (I mean c’mon does Russ write anything other than anthems) ‘Resilience is Brilliant’ and the jaunty acoustic jig of ‘Distress Call’ (you’ll be humming this bugger after just one listen) to wrap things up.
New music from the Farrell brothers is always welcomed with open arms here at RPM towers, and trust me when I say this CD is custom made to be enjoyed alongside your expansive Dirt Box/Spunk Volcano collections. So, I suggest that you get your copy (via the SHOP link below) pronto. It’s released on July 31st.
EU tour with Canadian rockers Danko Jones confirmed for October
Set to release their stomping new album ‘Nice ‘N’ Rough’ on September 25th via Venn Records, Split Dogs have dumped another hot, fire licked rock n’ roll boulder on the world in new single ‘Suffer’.
Complemented by a video that channels the occult vibes of 1970s downer rock and 1980S metal, ‘Suffer’ features some of the most personal lyrics singer Harry Martinez has ever written.
“It’s about carrying the weight of abuse long after it’s ended,” admits Harry. “The song deals with the struggle of letting the past dictate your happiness, but ultimately it’s about taking your power back, knowing your worth, and moving forward.
“For the video, we knew we wanted it to have that classic heavy metal video nasty feel, so we grabbed a green screen and a smoke machine and experimented with some moody lighting and it came together really organically.
“Maciek Mastalerz (@doomridermedia) came down to capture behind-the-scenes photos, as well as shooting some additional footage with us in the graveyard. Jess Rushby (@scrotbagz) stepped in as our video vixen, when we told her we wanted a ‘Warriors of Genghis Khan’ by Bad News vibe, she absolutely understood the assignment. She also styled Harry for the shoot alongside the incredibly talented Issy Jones (@riingworm) who handcrafts chainmail. We featured several of her pieces throughout the video to create that the world we wanted.”
2026 has already seen Split Dogs complete their own UK headline tour, before multiple festival appearances, a headline German tour in July, a string of instore performances in September (ticket link HERE) and an EU tour with Canadian rockers Danko Jones in October. This all comes off the back of a massive tour with Gogol Bordello in 2025 and gigs with Bad Nerves, Teen Mortgage and many others.
New album ‘Nice ‘N’ Rough’ was recorded at The Station House, a recording studio based in a repurposed Victorian police station in Leeds, Split Dogs quickly discovered the studio also boasts one of the country’s finest VHS collections. Fuelled with classics like ‘Heavy Metal’, ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’, and a Tina Turner live tape, the Bristol based four-piece went to work capturing their sophomore album, ‘Nice N’ Rough’, with producer Jonah Falco (High Vis, Rifle, and drummer of Canadian punks Fucked Up) and engineer James Atkinson (formerly of seminal hardcore band Voorhees).
The result is thirteen thumping tracks featuring lightning-fast guitar licks, raspy hooks and cues from greats like Plasmatics, New York Dolls, Motörhead and The Stooges. Front-person Harry Martinez delivers a larger-than-life, undeniable rock ‘n’ roll performance, injecting the band’s reputable live energy straight into the vocal booth.
Catch Split Dogs live at the following dates in 2026:
GERMAN HEADLINE TOUR/FESTIVALS 18-Jul-2026 GER Selters Seepgo (Festival) 19-Jul-2026 GER Augsburg Ballonfabrik 20-Jul-2026 GER Tubingen Blauer Salon 22-Jul-2026 GER Cologne Sonic Ballroom 24-Jul-2026 GER Hnxe Ruhrpott Rodeo (Festival) 25-Jul-2026 GER Trebur Trebur Open Air 26-Jul-2026 GER Munich X bar 27-Jul-2026 GER Bamberg Live Club 28-Jul-2026 GER Dresden Ostpol 29-Jul-2026 GER Erfurt MuseumsKeller 30-Jul-2026 GER Hamburg Welt TurboJugend (Festival) 31-Jul-2026 GER Goldenstadt Afreiht un Buten (Festival)
01-Aug-2026 GER Essen Freak Show
FESTIVALS
07-Aug-2026 UK Blackpool Rebellion Fest 13-Aug-2026 Slov Tolmin Punk Rock Holiday 16-Aug-2026 UK Winchester Boomtown Festival 21-Aug-2026 DK Vordingborg Gutter Island 22-Aug-2026 UK Devon Beautiful Days
5-Aug-2026 UK Southampton, Burn It Down Festival
10-Oct-2026 FRANCE Cretin Hop Festival
SUPPORTING GOGOL BORDELLO UK
23-Aug-2026 NorthamptonRoadmender
24-Aug-2026 Southampton The 1865
AUGUST HEADLINE DATE
29-Aug-2026 Brighton, Daltons (with Snatch, Quick Romance and The Clubheads)
INSTORE PERFORMANCES 25-Sep-2026 UK Leeds Crash Records 26-Sep-2026 UK Glasgow Blitzkrieg 27-Sep-2026 UK Liverpool Rough Trade 28-Sep-2026 UK Coventry Just Dropped in 29-Sep-2026 UK Bristol Rough Trade 30-Sep-2026 UK Nottingham Rough Trade 01-Oct-2026 UK Rough Trade East
TOUR W/ DANKO JONES
12-Oct-2026 GER Potsdam Waschhaus 13-Oct-2026 GER Nurnberg Löwensaal 14-Oct-2026 AT Wien Flex 15-Oct-2026 HU Budapest A38 16-Oct-2026 ROM Bucharest Quantic 17-Oct-2026 Bulg Sofia Pirotska 5 Event Center 19-Oct-2026 ROM Cluj Form Space 21-Oct-2026 Cro Zagreb Vintage Industrial Bar 22-Oct-2026 Slov Ljubljana Kino Siska 23-Oct-2026 AT Salzburg Rockhouse 24-Oct-2026 CH Rubingen Muhle Hunzinken 25-Oct-2026 CH Zurich Dynamo 27-Oct-2026 GER Oberhausen Turbinenhalle 2 28-Oct-2026 B Ghent Handelsbeurs 29-Oct-2026 GER Frankfurt Batschkapp 30-Oct-2026 NL Haarlem Patronaat 31-Oct-2026 NL Tilburg Next Stage 01-Nov-2026 NL Leuwaarden Neusoorn
Formed in 2023, Concrete Hyena is a collaboration between vocalist Jay Butler, formerly of 90’s underground Punk heroes Realtv, and post-millennial Major Label USA chancers Grand Theft Audio – and producer Jim Davies, original guitarist for the fledgling dance act Prodigy, who penned the indelible riffs that would launch a million gurns, as well as being guitar slinger in the aural assault of Pitchshifter. Two battered refugees from the Nu Metal wars, joining forces together to bring about the downfall of mankind, aided by live by bassist Toshi formerly of the Professionals/Hey Hello!
Featuring the singles ‘Cut Me Mick’ and ‘Patchwork Guilt’, their crushing debut mini album ‘Future Primitives’ is released this coming July 31st via Armalyte Industries and will be preceded by new single ‘Hi! I’m Radio Mike’, which is out on Friday 3rd July. The single comes with two new remixes by dARKMODE and The Joy Thieves.
‘Hi! I’m radio Mike!’ is Concrete Hyena’s feel good summertime ode to long lost autonomy. It’s a pulsating electronic clash of genres that tangles the listener up in its throbbing beats and guitar blasts.
“It’s a sonic love letter to the hit machines and radio stations that keep workday toes a’ tapping and empty minds fapping, with its tongue firmly in its cheek,” explains frontman Jay Butler. “This clash of irony and disco will carry you through the next 3 minutes 40 of life’s scorching monotony like an aural life raft – your productivity is UP – your thinking is DOWN – but promotion awaits … now just sing me to the middle of a panic attack.”
‘Hi! I’m Radio Mike’ – the feel good shit of the summer. Watch the video HERE
With the ‘Future Primitives’ mini album conceived and written during 2025, Concrete Hyena are a musical regurgitation of shared experience, post-millennial storytelling with a side order of powerhouse hooks, eternal optimism and mixed disgust, cock blocking beats and solid intent. Encompassing Butler and Davies shared love of both guitar and electronic music, it inserts multiple fingers into multiple genres – Hard. Concrete Hyena are a sonic headlock, a vocal half nelson – a technical KO.
Also featured on the album are appearances by Jason Bowld (Bullet For My Valentine / PWEI) and Ritch Battersby (The Wildhearts).
‘Hi! I’m Radio Mike’ EP track-listing.
1. Hi! I’m Radio Mike
2. Patchwork Guilt (Heat Treatment Remix by dARKMODE)
Legendary UK indie-punk outfit Midway Still have officially announced the upcoming release of their highly anticipated new EP, ‘What If….?’, arriving July 31st via Bitter And Twisted and the band start their UK tour this month.
Featuring four brand-new tracks, the EP captures the band’s signature fusion of raw, distorted guitar walls and infectious, bittersweet melodic sensibilities—a sound that originally helped define the UK’s 1990s rough-edged indie scene alongside contemporaries like Mega City Four and Leatherface.
Recorded and produced by the band, ‘What If…?’ finds the trio delivering some of their most urgent and lyrically sharp material to date. Lead single ‘Could Have Been’ serves as the perfect introduction to the record, blending driving rhythmic urgency with the poignant, introspective songwriting fans have loved for over three decades.
“We wanted this EP to capture the energy of our live shows but with a sharper focus,” says frontman Paul Thomson. “The songs came together quickly, dealing with themes of regret, ageing and lost opportunities. It feels like a natural evolution while staying true to the noisy guitar DNA of what Midway Still has always been.”
First bursting onto the scene with their 1991 debut single ‘I Won’t Try’ and the critically acclaimed Roughneck album ‘Dial Square’, Midway Still established themselves as masters of melodic, fuzz-drenched punk rock. Over the years, the band has maintained a fiercely loyal cult following, proving that their knack for soaring choruses wrapped in heavy distortion is entirely timeless. “What If…?” honours that legacy while proving they are far from done making vital new music.
‘What If…?’ will be available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify and Apple Music, as well as a limited CD run available through midwaystill.bandcamp.com.
‘What If…?’ track-listing:
Could Have Been
Don’t Wanna Feel Anymore
Nothing In Your Way
Never Made It Happen
Catch Midway Still on tour this month with Dealing With Damage and Mega Fishy Four at the following dates:
14th Liverpool, The Tunnel
15th Leeds, Hyde Park Book Club
16th Newcastle, Little Buildings
17th Birmingham, The Hare & Hounds
18th London, The Hope & Anchor (* supports for this gig are The Charlemagnes/Mezzanine)
Social Distortion have recently released their long-awaited eighth album ‘Born To Kill‘ via Epitaph Records. The new record wastes no time letting the listener know where its heart is: its hard-charging title track — named as one of ROLLING STONE’s Best Songs of 2026 So Far — paying respects to Lou Reed (“Rock ’n’ Roll Animal gonna come your way!”) and Iggy and the Stooges (“The agenda is yeah to Search and Destroy”) and lionizing David Bowie (“It’s a Rock ’n’ Roll Suicide”) on “Partners In Crime.” This is a man, a band, and a record that wear their influences proudly while creating timeless anthems and ballads that chart Social Distortion’s path forward while celebrating its storied past.
Co-produced by Mike Ness and Dave Sardy, and featuring guest appearances from Benmont Tench of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Lucinda Williams, and collaborative cover art by Ness and Shepard Fairey, ‘Born To Kill’ is the latest installment in a remarkable catalog that spans nearly three generations, including Mommy’s Little Monster (1983), Prison Bound (1988), the RIAA gold-certified Social Distortion (1990) and Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell (1992), White Light, White Heat, White Trash (1996), Sex, Love and Rock ’n’ Roll (2004), and Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes (2011).
Fresh of a hugely successful European tour in support of Born To Kill, including sold-out headline shows in Berlin, London, Amsterdam and Munich, as well as appearances at major festivals including Rock am Ring, Rock im Park, Download Festival, Hellfest, Vainstream, Les Eurockéennes and Rock Werchter, the band will return to the road on 17 July, kicking off a North American tour with special guests The Descendents and The Chats.
WATCH ‘THE ROAD TO BORN TO KILL’ SHORT DOCUMENTARY HERE
The surviving members of Sorry and The Sinatras are set to reunite for a special one-night-only performance under the name “The Sinatras” at the Scott Sorry Memorial Birthday Show, taking place on October 30, 2026, at KK’s Steelmill in Wolverhampton.
Guitarists Rich Jones and Dave Kerr will come together to celebrate the life and legacy of their friend and bandmate Scott Sorry, who sadly passed away in October 2025 following an 8 year battle with brain cancer.
The performance will also serve as a tribute to the band’s other fallen members drummer Lenny Thomas in 2016 and bassist Roger Segal in 2022.
Jones and Kerr will be joined by acclaimed drummer Karl Rockfist (Danzig, Michael Monroe) and bassist/vocalist Billy Liar to complete the lineup for this unique performance.
“Sorry & The Sinatras was more than a band” comments Jones “it was a gang of great friends playing rock & roll the way the lord intended – loud, fast and furious! I’m incredibly proud to get the opportunity to honour Roger, Scott and Lenny as we blast our way through these songs for one last time. Dave & I are also very fortunate to have Karl Rockfist and Billy Liar join us as honorary Sinatras – I honestly can’t think of anyone better for the job. So let’s kick off this night right and get everybody singing loud enough that even our old friends can hear it. This one’s for you, fellas.”
Dave Kerr “I am truly honoured to be playing Sorry and the Sinatras songs again with Rich, Billy and Karl in tribute to our brothers Scotty, Roger and Lenny.
Sorry and the Sinatras was the perfect embodiment of Scotty’s love of chaos and a huge chorus – a white knuckle, full-tilt, wrecking ball of a band that I will forever be grateful to have been a part of and more so to call these guys my friends. I can’t wait to bring that spirit and energy to the already amazing lineup at KK’s for the STILL KINGS show.”
The Sinatras will kick off proceedings at the Scott Sorry Memorial Birthday show which is set to include many of Scott’s friends and bandmates.
Other confirmed musicians making guest appearances throughout the night include Scotts former Wildhearts bandmates Ritch Battersby & CJ Wildheart, Dregen (Backyard Babies), Warner E Hodges, Sami Yaffa (Hanoi Rocks/New York Dolls), Tom Spencer (The Professionals/The YoYo’s), The Scott Sorry Band and many more.
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