With August around the corner it seems only fair to welcome a bunch of banging 45s. As soon as we open the next sitting it seems dark forces are at work and more and more pile up so it wont be long before we have another round of singles for your listenign pleasure. Maybe next week maybe the week after but lets not get ahead of ourselves check out this wonderful fistful…

Kurt Baker – ‘Anchors Up’ (Wicked Cool Records) I don’t know how this guys head doesn’t explode with the amount of dynamite power pop melodied he has going off constantly. ‘Anchors UP’ is somethign of a lockdown be happy tune and boy does it make you smile.

‘Anchors Up’ started around an idea I had while living in Spain during the lockdown confinement. Being confined to your house was not a great experience, but I remember I used to take my guitar and play it next to my window, to get some sunlight. I guess the rays of sunshine brought a happy upbeat melody to my mind, definitely with the flavor of something Green Day might have recorded on their ‘Warning’ album, or maybe even the Kinks, which coincidently, I think Green Day was listening to a lot when they recorded ‘Warning’. Yeah baby I so get it. Then you get a whole bunch of barroom fun in the shape of ‘Sweet Alice’ with those picked notes and gang vocals, Woohoo!

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The Rellies – ‘Monkey EP (Damaged Goods Records) querky retro batnicks The Rellies play with yur mellon man with the ‘Monkey ‘ groove – some choppy echo reverb laden riff and some fun time gang vocals signal the mayhem.  The second single by The Rellies since releasing ‘Isabella is Annoying/ Brainwaves’ in 2020. Ryan, guitarist and dual singer and songwriter for the band describes the making of ‘Monkey’ during lockdown with his brother Riley. So some dudes spent their lockdown writing tunes or moping round and other just bashed out some tunes and monkeyed around check me into the latter they are bananas.

THE DROWNS / THE LAST GANG – ‘SPLIT’ (Pirates Press Records) Two of the west coast’s top punk bands, The Drowns and The Last Gang, have teamed up for a long-awaited split. Each band contributed a new track to this split with The Drowns offering the song “Subculture Rock ‘N Roll” and The Last Gang contributing the track “Pleaser.”

Theres a AC/DC rythm section vibe going on with this Drowns track from the Malcolm Young punch of that broken glass rhythm right through to the Bon scott vocal delivery. Excellent stuff really vibrant and catchy – I can feel it too baby!

As for the Last Gang track its got a West Coast punk style to it and it sounds tight in the delivery with a big melody on those vocals. For me The Drowns have it on a split decision.

Danko Jones – ‘Good Times’ (AFM Records) Hell Yeah! It’s Danko Jones in the room to fuck shit up with a suitably heavy riff -a – rama- lama -ding – dong. Catchy, Punchy, Heavy, melodic what more do you want? From the new album ‘Electric Sounds‘ it’s one of those earworms that will burrow down and take hold whilst you repeat the mantra OVER AND OVER. Always a pleasure.

Dictator Ship – ‘Electric Jehad’ (The Sign Records) a runaway train rhythm as ‘Electric Jehad’ gets down to business with a touch of Scandi Rock meets Southern Rock with attitude. A track you keep waiting to really cut loose and break out with a soaring wah infested solo but they show restraint and it doesn’t quite reach that peak. Cool solo though even if it does venture into a bit of prog garage thereafter.

The Drowns ft Suzi Moon – ‘Ballroom Blitz’ (Pirates Press Records) Single of the month for sure. Suzi Moon did it with Billy from The Black Halos a few months ago and does it again on this flawless cover of the Sweet classic. Man these guys n gal absolutely nail this classic.

The Goods – EP (Dandy Boy Records) Oakland California’s The Goods have just announced the release of their debut self-titled EP on Dandy Boy Records with an accompanying video for the song “David Jones Is Dead.” The Goods combine big guitars, huge hooks, and sweet British Invasion-style harmonies into a distinctive power pop tapestry on their debut. Self-produced in the band’s own studio in Oakland, CA, The Goods’ debut EP draws on decades of hooky punk and power pop from the 1960s through the 1990s. Mashing up those lush melodies with some ragged guitars and solid backbeat its power pop for sure and whats not to like especially in the summer sunshine. Get the beers on ice and lets party!

The Rusty Nutz – ‘A night At Ye Old Red Cow’ (Lavender Sweep Records) With an album ready to drop it makes sence to wet apetites with a single so why not release these two tracks on a limited edition 7 inch lathe cut record out Friday 4th August and will be available from Lavender Sweeps Bandcamp page.

Anyways onto the tunes from the fuzzed-up guitar and spoken word vocal the story unfolds to the qwerky backbeat with added fucked up keyboards. Ding Dong Heads gone. There are those who would say swansea hasn’t moved on much from the 70s anyway but I say fuck em keep on playing boys. B side ‘Liar At The Bar’ is a more straight forward old school slice of rock but thats fine. Weird and wonderful

Chuck Ransom – Chuck Ransom (Savage Magic Records) When hes not rocking like a good un it seems Chuck finds time to record some power poppin rock n roll under his own name. During that crazy year when nothing happened, the vocalist from The Chuck Norris Experiment got a bad case of ants in his pants and ended up recording these two tracks at Meltdown Studios in Kungsbacka, Sweden. The lead track is like a Boys inspired crash and burn slice of good time Rock n Roll and to be fair its a banger! ‘Hit On One & Run On Two’ is most excellent and not far behind it is ‘Gotta Keep On Moving’ a bit more rock with a shade less power pop but its a toss up which one floats my boat the most. Hey Chuck gives us some more if its as good as these two.