If you were wondering if Mikkey Dee was keeping up his chops then worry no more because footage of one of our favourite Scandi rocking bands The Drippers teamed up with Mikkey to knock out a pretty impressive run through the epic ‘Iron Fist’
“Gently Towards The Light” is taken from Beechwoods latest album ‘Sleep Without Dreaming’ out on Alive Naturalsound and Sub Rosa Records and reviewed this week on rpm
Also coming this week is a review of the brand new MÄRVEL album “Graces Came With Malice”, released on The Sign Records
Primal Scream’s ability to mix indie pop/Rock and dance broke down musical boundaries and opened all sides to what could be done in the ’90s, helping to push dance and techno into the rock mainstream.
Recorded in 2015 at Levitation in front of underground rock fans from around the world, the LP marks the next release in The Reverberation Appreciation Society’s Live at LEVITATION series, which captures key moments in rock
This Primal Scream set shows the band’s undeniable creativity and unique place in music, combining psychedelic garage rock, kaleidoscopic pop, and acid house to create a sound that’s simultaneously of its time and ahead of it. But ask me if it’s as good as the band’s ‘Live In Japan’ album then the answer is no. This is one disc whereas Japan is a double album that includes some right crossover bangers that this album doesn’t include as well as their awesome take on The Heartbreakers ‘Born To Lose’.
Known for their explosive live sets, the recordings show why Primal Scream are at their best live and around this time they were on fire and to be fair this recording does a great job in capturing that moment and the fact that the production is less polished or rather still has the soundboard feel makes for better energy. Belting through tracks off of 1991’s ‘Screamadelica’, ‘Give Out But Don’t Give Up’, and the heavily electro-influenced favorite ‘XTRMNTR’. Making it a bloody good show and mixing up the techno with some raw electric guitars is excellent and pretty much essential for any collector of Primal Scream.
Over the past three and a half decades, Primal Scream has embraced everything from psychedelic pop to degenerate rock’n’roll; euphoric rave to industrial gloom. They’ve survived drug oblivion, personal loss when their beloved guitarist Robert “Throb” Young passed and captured the mood of the nation several times over. Throughout it all, they have always sounded like Primal Scream.
Exclusive versions are being pressed for the annual Ten Bands One Cause charity initiative, launching around National Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October, and benefitting Red Door Community where no one faces cancer alone.
It’s been a long while getting here probably due to Covid and the shortage of raw vinyl but the wait is over. Marc Almond is the subversive pop star better known for fronting synth giants Soft Cell as well as being the tortured torch singer, and as of now, he’s the frontman for Britain’s best garage rock band. Ok, ok so they might be primarily a covers band, but it’s a bloody good one, featuring former Sigue Sigue Sputnik man Neal X on guitar and Iggy Pop’s rhythm section Ben Ellis and Mat Hector.
Almond never shied away from his punk rock and garage rock roots to be fair a lot of new romantics spilled out of the punk era and the Bowie/Pop/Reed fan clubs. X being Almond’s go-to foil for many a live tour and album and X having played with Stiv Bators before he passed away is some serious credit in the rock n roll bank account. After last year’s limited edition CD run featuring covers, it seems the band has spent lockdown honing their skills and crafting another bunch of seriously good covers of classic garage rock n roll.
Splashed onto 10″ of wax this time around they tackle some Alice Cooper with a sleazy ‘Is It My Body’ as well as taking on The Dolls ‘Pills’ and roping in the talent of Glen Matlock to help kick out the jams.
It would have been nice to maybe extend the release to include a vinyl version of that first CD-only album but all good things to those who wait or ask nicely – Pretty Please! The band are seriously rocking on these tunes and I’d love to hear what they could do with some more original stompers not that I’m complaining but one out of eight is a start. OF the covers obviously, Glam Rockers and Garage aficionados will nod their approval for the quality of the interpretations of these tunes and bravo for picking some lesser-known deep cuts rather than trotting out already popular well-known tunes.
‘Wild In The Streets’ is a suitably trashy rocker so they’ve proven they have the chemistry to do a full record of original and having shown their epic array of influences on these first two releases I’d be well up for hearing it. Let’s be fair they own ‘Is It My Body’ and their twist of The Kinks ‘I’m Not Like Everybody Else’ is rather splendid.
It’s a no-brainer kids, The Loveless need some love from our turntables and with these Eight tracks we’ll be ‘Wild In The Streets’ as we wind back the clock and get seriously down with some loud garage Rock and Roll.
Saxon have been a mainstay in my life since I was 13 years old. My school pal Tigger gave me a cassette of their Strong Arm Metal compilation, and my life changed the moment I pressed play on that TDK C90 and Strong Arm of the Law came chugging out of the speakers. They introduced me to the world of heavy metal, and I have been a fan ever since. The band have had their ups and downs, but despite this they have (mainly) stuck to their trademark traditional metal sound. Of course, their most successful period was in the 80s starting as a forerunner of the NWOBHM movement, but they were head and shoulders above many of the other bands that faded away, except for Iron Maiden and Motorhead (yes, I do consider Motorhead a NWOBHM band!). Saxon flew the flag of heavy metal all over the world and influenced many of the bands to come after them in the thrash movement. A band you may have heard of called Metallica played one of their earliest gigs supporting Saxon. (Don’t mention the fan incident!)
Saxon have had an amazingly prolific career and their latest effort Carpe Diem is unbelievably their 23rd studio album. The band have released a fantastic succession of albums in the last eleven years or so starting with Call to Arms in 2011, along with other highlights in Sacrifice, Battering Ram, and Thunderbolt. I would say this period is up there with their strongest material. Many would argue that a major aspect in the quality of their more recent material would be in no small part due to producer extraordinaire and part-time member of Judas Priest, Andy Sneap. (Fun fact: Andy produced an album called Sugarbuzz by the band Whatever in the 90s, and this scribe played drums in the band! He was also our live sound engineer and loves a Phall curry!).
The production on Carpe Diem is incredible as we have come to expect from Sneap, I must also comment on Biff Byford’s voice. He sounds as good (if not better) as he did back in the early days of Saxon, no small feat for a man who recently suffered a heart attack, not sure if that’s where the album’s title came from, but Seize the Day seems apt! The opening of the album’s title track starts off with an atmospheric intro before a drum flourish gives way to a scream from Biff that could be something from Wheels of Steel! No sign of Biff retiring any time soon!
Carpe Diem gives us ten leather studded tracks of headbanging glory as only the Barnsley big teasers can deliver. This album does seem to be a bit more stripped down and lean compared to the other recent albums. This is no bad thing of course, big riffs courtesy of Paul Quinn and Doug Scarratt, pounding bass lines from the forever new kid Nibbs Carter, and the constantly outstanding Nigel Glockler in the engine room show the young un’s how to do this ‘eavy metal business. The title track is a head down, balls-out barnstormer with some glorious riffage and vocal gymnastics from Mr Byford, bloody marvelous!
Covid inspired track Remember the Fallen kicks off with another big chugging riff and kind of reminds me of another Saxon track about human disaster, Red Alert from their 1988 album Destiny, that song being about the Chernobyl incident. Saxon have always had great songs about historical events, The Eagle has Landed, Dallas 1 PM etc.. (I swear I learned so much more about history from metal bands that I ever did in school!) The track has a great video to go with it too with lots of news footage of the pandemic.
The entire album embraces Saxon’s signature sound and like many other of the giants of metal still around, you know exactly who it is instantly. Age of Steam steams along (sorry!) nicely with Nibs and Nigel locking as tightly as the proverbial duck’s backside! The pace slows a little for the epic ‘The Pilgrimage’ but we are soon back in breakneck territory for the brilliant ‘Dambusters’ (I can’t believe Saxon haven’t had a song about the RAF bombers before!), Glockler again shows why he is one of metals most influential drummers here with his double bass barrage. The album continues to impress with more fantastic, blazing metal with tracks like ‘Super Nova’, ‘All For One’, and the brilliant ‘Lady in Gray’.
Saxon has proven yet again why their metal eagle continues to fly so high. As I write this, the band is playing to sold-out audiences in Manchester and London with Uriah Heep, Diamond Head, and Girlschool in support. Carpe Diem is another quality collection of songs to add to their legacy, Saxon has done it again, right, I’m off to Seize the Day!
I’m not overly enamored for digital releases but sometimes they are a necessary evil like when a band as good as this releases a monster amount of music that would fill several vinyl records or multi CDs. Sure I’ve got everything they’ve ever released be it on Record, tape, or bonus downloads contained in the sleeves. Crazy & The Brains are a unique tour de force. They pay a ragged folky punk rock beat and do it on their own terms. They’ve been at this rock and roll game for long enough now and have so many wildly awesome tunes.
They first crossed my path when they released a split with Jersey Boys The Disconnects and I was blown away. They were a big part of the wonderful label out of Jersey the wonderfully named Baldy Longhair Records. I was sold the acoustic-electric punk rock was excellent but the Xylophone added something unique, something altogether memorable and it bloody well worked. Well, this compilation is Fifty Four track set, Yup, I did say 54! For the first time compiling all their singles, EPs, and covers in one place (God bless you Bandcamp) and all for a piss-taking low $15! Even if you’ve never heard of them $15 bucks is well worth the investment and one you can thank me later for.
From the primitive and tentative first step of those first demos through the brilliant ‘Let Me Go’, ‘Good Lord’, ‘Out in the Weedz’, ‘Into the Ugly’ and the crazy good covers this is a blast!
From ‘Sexy Magazines’ you then get the ‘Intro’ that just about summed the band up in under two minutes. thunderous rhythms and that free-flowing Xylophone tonking away like a bastard into ‘King Kong’ and the quite brilliant ‘Let Me Go’ Man these cats had some serious swing.
They weren’t afraid to mix things up either. ‘Out In The Weedz’ was more retro and had some cool backing vocals and harmonies. When they cut loose and went for it they were majestic – still are. They did cool like ‘Nasty’ as it builds up and cruises through the gears with some epic arrangements going on. ‘Hot Sauce’ is a wonderful change of speed almost a 50s inspired doo-wop era melody that builds once the electric guitar drags it into some Grease lightning party before just ending.
As we enter the final throws of this marathon journey through the band’s development we hit the covers and some crazy interpretations like the beaming ‘Great Big Kiss’ or the tear-jerking ‘Can’t Seem 2 Make U Mine’. They nail ‘Sweet Jane’ and of course, they breeze through ‘Oh Oh I Love Her So’ before they do an admirable job of ‘People Who Die’.
Crazy & The Brains just get it! Whatever IT is they understand that Rock n Roll has to swing and light and shade are important as is the Roll to go with the Rock. They do their music and art on their own terms and their passion shines like lady libertys torch. Punk rockers to the bones and songsmiths to the end, they deserve so much more, and it’s always a pleasure to hear new music from such a great band. Here’s to the next compilation of however many tunes because I’m sure they will reward the listener as much as this one has. Rock on brothers you Crazy, talented, original, beautiful bastards.
Denver’s Fast Eddy releases their sophomore album, and with a- dare I say it, more mature record (in as much as they are wiser in the songwriting department and have the recording and sound they want nailed!)
From the moment the needle drops it’s a smoldering intro, no snotty kids making noise but one that says turn it up mother fucker Fast Eddy’s in the room. ‘Take A Look (The track is a slow burner) The title track grooves out of the speakers with a cooool guitar riff.
Next up ‘Milwaukee’ is a supremely confident track that should be a radio hit for sure. With a cool backbeat, it’s a foot-stomper with a groove and you just want to move with that tambourine it first appears on the group’s “Toofer” 7” EP also released Spaghetty Town, in 2018. Complete with Thin-Lizzy Esque guitar duties shared between Morris and fellow six-stringer Lisandro Gutierrez, the track is the yin and yang of leading a full-tilt rock n’ roll lifestyle.
This being the first physical album Fast Eddy have released, the band have left noting in reserve and dished up a belter with songs like ‘Kill City’ (not to be confused with the Iggy classic) uptempo and rocking out with some cool riffing and good melodies helping rock out with some cool backing vocals straight out of the Hanoi Rock handbook.
The album took three recording sessions to Atlanta from 2018-2021, even in the midst of a global pandemic. Thanks to the assistance of Dan Dixon and Biters Tuk Smith, these 10 tracks are far louder and more contagious than anything found at your familiar super-spreader.
‘Dead Eyes’ is a radio-friendly slice of power pop with some great choppy guitar work. Adding another string to their impressive bow on the laid-back ‘Help Me’ that builds slowly like a bit of 70s glam mixed with some post-punk like Elvis and his attractions. They can still tear it up with the punchy ‘Hurricane Alley’ then they turn it up with a right ripper, ‘Lost’. It’s got some snotty punk rockin attitude mixed with Chuck Berrys rock n roll and a hint of an over-the-top Mott The Hoople for good measure. You can tell the band’s influences reach far and wide and whatever bleeds through is just left to keep on bleeding if the song needs it. An album that keeps on giving and one that with the right level of investment will reward play after play.
‘Game Of Love’ has touches of pomp rock and exaggerated larger-than-life thoughts with some glittery stack heels and huge flowing shirt sleeves but mixed with some tight leather trousers and a smoldering cigarette with a warm glass of single malt. The bridge is huge like Edwardian playhouse knees up or written after daydreaming about Oliver Twist dancing through the streets of sleazy London a few hundred years ago.
Before they sign off that Thin Lizzy dual guitar work is present on the upbeat handclapping ‘Frankie Died’ another tune that could and should be a huge hit. which only leaves the post-punk new wave-like ‘Sunflower’ yet another twist proving that the band won’t be pigeonholed into any particular Genre and just do Fast Eddy a little bit of this and more of that mixed together and poured out onto the turntable making a really impressive album that you really should invest in.
Italian garage-punk tearaways SMALLTOWN TIGERS are back for the Chinese Year of the Tiger.
To celebrate, they’ve just released a video of their cover of Columbus OH action-rockers New Bomb Turks’ ‘Girl Can Help It’.
The track was originally recorded for the album ‘Defiled! A Heavy Medication Tribute To New Bomb Turks‘, released last year.
The band dropped their debut mini-album Five Things to worldwide acclaim in the Spring of 2020, deep in the first lockdown, meaning their accompanying UK tour was first postponed and then cancelled. The girls from Rimini are now determined to make up for it.
As previously announced, they’ll be opening for The Damned on their reunion dates in the Autumn. They’ll also be playing Some Weird Sin’s Pump It Up! Powerpop Weekender in July, alongside Baby Shakes, Duncan Reid & The Big Heads and more…
Dates so far are…
3 July – The Lexington, London (Pump It Up! Powerpop Weekender)
28 Oct – Hammersmith Eventim Apollo, London (w/ The Damned etc)
29 Oct – Hammersmith Eventim Apollo, London (w/ The Damned etc)
3 Nov – O2 Apollo, Manchester (w/ The Damned etc)
4 Nov – O2 Academy, Glasgow (w/ The Damned etc)
5 Nov – O2 Academy, Birmingham (w/ the Damned etc)
Dirty garage rockers the Dry Retch, welcoming you tonight to celebrate the release of yet more new material; the new album ‘Operation Uranus’. Made extra special by bands outgoing charitable nature for Punk 4 The Homeless who will receiving donations from the proceeds. All wrapped up in a bow in the form of this 4 band bill.
Mark Murphy Mark’s stripped-down acoustic tracks are brash and beautiful simultaneously. Sounding somewhere between Sunny Day Real Estate and Grant from Feeder. Not a bad place to be. He’s got that rare ability to give adults that feeling of being a teenager all over again, wry smile included. Playing a range of solo material and collected tracks from bands of his career, either way, the set is strong. His own stuff is top end, better than the exquisite Misfits cover that is thrown in. Mark’s songs stand taller than Glenn’s(wink wink). Vermin Suicides Bouncy street punk the way you like it with added singalong choruses. These guys know what they are doing and do it well. Influxes of power pop and even the odd ska-tinged riff and a Boney M punk cover? Just what a Saturday night ordered! BiteBack They want the truth. Or at least something that sounds like that. These guys bolster an anthemic heavy twang. They certainly get your attention at times, not quite hitting the spot for me but the crowd are certainly with them tonight. The songs have a throb and urgency and almost hits that anthemic edge. Definitely worth a watch, but a little repetitive tonight. The Dry Retch Relentless, pounding garage rock from our headliners. In their time away the guys have gotten more fierce, faster and somewhat embraced a hardcore element to their sound. Still keeping their intricate elements but with even more focus and agenda but with an added savage quality to the assault. The crowd is a bit restless at this point, perhaps tonight could have benefited from one less band on the bill. The band’s performance doesn’t falter though, every song is a potent wall of fuzz and muscle memory. As ever Merseyside’s hidden gem.
Steelhouse Festival is excited to reveal the full SIX bandFriday line-up which offers a potent dose of the very best of the NWOCR. Previously serving as a curtain raiser for the main weekend event, Friday is now a full blooded first day in its own right. Kicking things off in fine style will be Inglorious, Myke Gray, The Dust Coda, Scarlet Rebels, The Hot Damn! and Valhalla Awaits. What a way to start; and further evidence of the commitment to support new acts alongside the established stars.
This year the event will run 29th-31st of July and, once Friday night has blown everyone’s minds, also performing at the top of the mountain will be original KISS guitar legend Ace Frehley, Orange Goblin, Diamond Head, H.E.A.T, Green Lung, Black Spiders, Anchor Lane and Ashen Reach.
Promoters Mikey and Max say, “The opening night at Steelhouse has really come into its own over the last few years. It’s now a legitimate full blown opening day. This year’s Friday line-up really shines a light on the best of the New Wave of Classic Rock. Headliners, Inglorious, are one of the genre’s main torch bearers. Scarlet Rebels and Valhalla Awaits are the latest bands from our homeland to really make an impact, whilst the Dust Coda have already broken into the UK top thirty. The Hot Damn! bring an unbridled joyful energy to the proceedings. Add to this ex-Skin/Jagged Edge mainman Myke Gray playing all those classic tracks from his back catalogue – many of which would have influenced the rest of the bill – you’ve got a Friday line-up that hopefully appeals to the NWOCR army!”
This line up offers the best of all possible worlds for lovers of classic rock and of Steelhouse. Friday will kick harder than ever before – and of course Ace Frehley is an undisputed icon of Rock, Diamond Head unrivalled as old school legends. Orange Goblin and Green Lung bring, in every sense, a burst of colour and verve – each pioneering their own way.
Steelhouse Festival were honoured to be voted ‘Best Festival’ by the followers and members of the NWOCRsocial community at the end of 2021.
2021, in the face of overwhelming odds, was a resounding success – marking as it did the 10thSteelhouse Festival. 2022 has a lot to live up to, but is well on the way to this being the best ever. Weekend and all day tickets are now on sale; demand has been such that Glamping is now sold out.
From the end of the ‘80s and early ‘90s Faster Pussycat were the premier league title holders of sleazy Hollywood Rock and Roll bands. As far as debut albums go, their self titled was released the same day as Appetite from Guns N Roses and this one has stood the test of time far better In my humble opinion. They managed to follow it up with the most excellent ‘Wake Me When It’s Over’ two years later and then after Grunge tried to kill off anything even resembling a hair metal band these cats knocked out the much underrated ‘Whipped’ in ’92.
There is also the Japan-only Live and rare EP and the ‘Nonstop EP’ wrapping up what is a complete set of previously released tracks.
Forming in Hollywood, California in 1985, and taking their name from Russ Meyer’s 1965 exploitation trash classic, Faster! Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, Taime Downe (lead vocals), Greg Steele (guitar), Brent Muscat (guitar), Eric Stacy (bass) and Mark Michals (drums) were the darlings of the Hollywood scene on sunset strip along with GnR they were putting in the hard yards on the live scene.
The debut album was all killer and no filler as they released singles ‘Bathroom Wall’ and tracks like ‘Don’t Change That Song’ the rap inspired ‘Babylon’ opening the band up to a global audience they were so much more than being an Aerosmith inspired band. Their infamous appearance in the Penelope Spheeris film The Decline of Western Civilization part 2 – The Metal Years, with the band interviewed as well as performing ‘Cathouse’ and ‘Bathroom Wall’ on stage did no harm propelling them into front rooms everywhere.
The commercial peak came in 1989 with second album, ‘Wake Me When It’s Over’, which reached gold sales status. Featured the singles ‘House Of Pain’ and ‘Poison Ivy’ with The black and white video becoming a classic. ‘Wake Me When It’s Over’ was a slight step to the left of field from the debut opening with the awesome ‘Where There’s a Whip There’s A Way’ as frontman and mainstay Taime Downe Led the band with his cheeky lyrics. They also recorded a cover of Carly Simon’s ‘You’re So Vain’ for the compilation album ‘Rubáiyát’, an album celebrating Elektra Records’s 40th Anniversary that is also included in this box set.
By the time they came to record ‘Whipped!’ the musical landscape had shifted dramatically but this gang of reprobates had gathered to record album number three Led by the single ‘Nonstop to Nowhere’, the band became more experimental pushing the boundaries of their style and spreading their wings ‘Jack the Bastard’ contained a fantastic riff. Despite sold-out tours and grunge, Faster Pussycat called it a day in 1993.
If you haven’t paid them much attention or were unaware they were still out there playing live and making records then this is the perfect one-stop-shop for all your first-wave Faster Pussycat music capturing their heyday in one box. What’s not to like? Besides the music contained is still immaculate all these years later and has certainly stood the test of time.
You know what to do. Hit that link and get involved – four CD’s of the best music from the second half of the eighties and beyond from the kings of sleazy Rock n Roll F-f-f-f-f-faster P-p-p-p-p-p-pussycat!
Recent Comments