Warner E Hodges / Mudlow / Sarah Vista to play The Lounge in Archway London

Warner E Hodges / Mudlow / Sarah Vista to play The Lounge in Archway London

The good folk at Runnin’ Blue are putting on a Rock and Roll show in London Town at The Lounge in Archway. The last two shows by Warner E Hodges were sell-outs so to avoid disappointment you can book a ticket at the links provided.

 

The Warner E Hodges Band are set to play at The Lounge in Archway and this time they have Mudlow in tow and the fantastic talent that is Sarah Vista who has been reviewed in RPM (Here) Some tickets remain and can be purchased Here

 

Tickets available Here

Warner E Hodges Band Facebook 

Sarah Vista Facebook 

Mudlow Facebook 

Runnin’ Blue Promotion Facebook 

Michael Monroe – ‘One Man Gang’ Official Video released

Michael Monroe – ‘One Man Gang’ Official Video released

Today sees the release of the new Michael Monroe single “One Man Gang” from the brand new album out Oct 18th.

The track also features the punk rock legend, Captain Sensible ( The Damned ) as a special guest playing the lead guitar on this one. If you’re into authentic, high-energy Rock’n’Roll you’re gonna dig this one!

Written by Rich Jones. The track features  Michael Monroe – lead vocal, Rich Jones & Steve Conte – guitars &  vocals, Sami Yaffa -bass, Karl Rockfist – drums, The Captain – guitar solo. ‘One Man Gang’ was also produced by the band. 

 

Ramones ‘Its Alive’ to get Rhino Anniversary Treatment

Ramones ‘Its Alive’ to get Rhino Anniversary Treatment

The 40th-anniversary of the Ramones’ first live album, ‘It’s Alive’, will be marked on Sept. 20 with the release of a six-disc version containing three unreleased concert recordings from the same tour.  The benchmark for all live albums ‘Its Alive’ was always going to follow previous Ramones albums with the book style Rhino treatment and welcome it is too.

A previously unreleased version of “Blitzkrieg Bop,” included in the four-CD/two-LP package, which is presented in a hardcover book. You can listen to the track here.

‘It’s Alive: 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition’ includes all four concerts that were professionally recorded during the Ramones’ U.K. tour in December 1977. Three of them make their debut on this set: Top Rank at Birmingham on Dec. 28, Victoria Hall in Stoke-On-Trent from Dec. 29, Friars at Aylesbury, from Dec. 30 and the Rainbow Theatre in London on Dec. 31.

The new edition will be limited to a run of 8,000 copies and will also be made available via digital and streaming services. This also marks the first time ‘It’s Alive’ has been available on vinyl in the U.S.

Miss June release new video for ‘Enemies’

Miss June release new video for ‘Enemies’

New Zealand’s Miss June is excited to announce the forthcoming release of their debut album. Entitled Bad Luck Party, the LP will be released on September 6th via Frenchkiss Records. Today, they share the newest single “Enemies” by way of a video directed by Dylan Pharazyn.

He notes, “the track gets at that feeling of instability in a relationship when there’s full-on confusion around who your friends are or who you are… reality runs amok. I started to imagine this full-throttle dream sequence in which a young couple bash through a bizarre night. As they find new places, they encounter strangers who at first seem normal become weird and dangerous creep characters… or ENEMIES. I felt like this erratic narrative had a powerful connection with the song – fast and heavy in a super off-kilter way.”

Pre-order “Bad Luck Party” HERE

Raised in the embers of punk rock and described as “some unholy union between Sonic Youth and Le Tigre,” the Auckland four piece harness jagged, noisy guitars filtered through the unrivalled stage presence of front-person Annabel Liddel, guitarist Jun Park, bass player Chris Marshall and drummer Tom Leggett.

The band has built a reputation for fierce, formidable and head-spinning live shows which have caught the attention of acts like The Foo Fighters, Shellac, Wolf Alice, Idles and Die! Die! Die!, who have all eagerly harnessed their support on stage. The band recently made their first trip to the U.K. and played to packed rooms in London’s Old Blue Last and Brixton’s Windmill as well as being a highlight for many at Bushstock Festival. The band will be back in Britain this autumn with dates to be announced soon.

Combining elements of post-punk, no-wave and rock, Miss June hold close their DIY roots while creating a blistering, reckless sound full of melodic hooks and overdriven riffs that are at once immediately recognizable and yet entirely their own.

 

Miss June online:
Facebook  Bandcamp  YouTube  Soundcloud  Frenchkiss Records

Steve Vincent – Paradise Alley – interview exclusive

Steve Vincent – Paradise Alley – interview exclusive
A UK based sleaze Rock band from the 90s have picked up the baton and began treading the boards again.  After a recent return to the stage at Camdens Dublin Castle Paradise Alley are back in the ring taking another swing so we thought it was about time we got comfortable with frontman Stevie Vincent and found out who the hell is Paradise Alley and where do they fit in in 2019.
Can you remember the point when you realised you wanted to be in a band?
I remember when I was a little kid being obsessed with Elvis and Glam Rock. My Uncle gave me his old Elvis signature guitar which was as big as me and I would thrash away on it singing Elvis and Sweet songs so the spark probably started there, lol. Consciously though it was probably when I was around twelve and my friends and I started to talk about having a band, it just seemed to make you really cool and I was never one of the cool kids, hahaha.


How did you find your music as a kid?
To begin with, it was just through watching Top Of The Pops every week which when you were a kid in the 70s was the law, you had to watch it. Even your parents watched it just so they could moan about these new-fangled bands making a racket. Then I became friends with this other kid who was a year older and was totally obsessed with music, regardless of the type of music, he was into it so through that friendship I just started trawling record shops for hours every weekend and being exposed to lots of different types of music and bands.

Was it tough putting a band together when you first started out compared to now in 2019?
I would say easier back then than now. You could just meet people when you were out at the pub or in record or music stores which was really organic. Plus you had lots of ways to advertise for musicians, local music stores were everywhere and had notice boards and you had Sounds, Melody Maker and Kerrang classifieds so it seemed easier to network then. Strange when you think about social media now but so many “musicians” now seem purely driven by how much money are they going to get paid or when you ask for influences they just blurt out what they like and then say I want a band like that – there isn’t a band that sounds like Guns N Roses mixed with Slayer and Perry Como as far as I know, hahahaha. I mean, I like a lot of diverse stuff, but when it comes to the music I play, all of us in the band know where we are coming from musically.


When or what was the spark that made you want to resurrect the band?
Never say never eh? I was actually in Helsinki at the time and was with my friends from Plastic Tears, Miqu and Edu and we started talking a bit about our shared history and stuff and it cam up about how we had never actually managed to tour together which was something we had mentioned in the past. Anyway, by the end of the night I had contacted Taj and asked him if he fancied us putting the band back together and carrying on the legacy.


Did you reach out to the other past members or don’t they do Rock and Roll anymore?
Other than Taj, no. We had tried that before back in 2013 and that did not work out at all. People’s heads were in different places, old habits that had caused problems in the past were still there and it just became hard work to be around. In the end we were doing it for fun and certain individuals were making it anything but so we played our last show with a rag tag line-up in June 2015 and just walked away.


You recently returned to the stage. How was it?
It felt really good, we had some fire back in the belly and the audience reaction was just like the old days. It was a bit rough round the edges but that’s rock’n’roll and as we play more shows, etc things will smooth out more.


You have finally got all the pieces of the band together tell us about the band in 2019? who what and where did you find them?
Well, we are still drummerless actually and relying on session drummers to do the shows at the moment so that’s not ideal. We have a couple of really good guys helping us out on drums but it would be good to have the role filled permanently. Sadly everyone who contacts us either assumes we are signed to Universal Music and expects a massive salary, or just does not get what we are doing musically, so the search continues. 
Taj has been in the band since 1998 and been a friend even longer (since about ’89 or ’90), I always say he is my Nasty Suicide. We work together well and we both have a shared love of Hanoi Rocks.
Ben Webster, the other guitarist we actually found through Facebook. We had been looking for ages and his name kept cropping up and in the end, his mate put him forward for it. We met up and just sat around, had a few drinks, jammed and it gelled right away. He had the right attitude and was under no illusions that we were about to get signed for 10 million dollars or any of that crap. He has definitely helped put the fire back in the belly. Ben Alexander on bass was actually a fan of the band and again we were linked through social media. We knew he played bass so when we started putting the band back together we asked him if he was up for this  That was pretty much it.


The music climate has changed massively since the 90s what are the biggest changes you’ve noticed?
How people consume music. I mean, there does seem to be a bit of a shift back to CD and vinyl and actually listening to albums rather than just random tracks which is a good thing, but also, we don’t have the whole tribe culture that was there when we were growing up. There are punks, rockers, mods new romantics, goths in the way that there used to be. I think that is really sad. No one nails their colours to the post anymore and you don’t see people having the same passion for music or bands. Mind you, how could anyone be passionate about Ed Sheeran or bloody Jess Glynne? hahahahahaha


what about new music? Have you picked up a guitar and written any material?
We are right in the middle of doing that now. When we tried back in 2013, that had been one of my hopes but no one showed any real interest. When I first spoke to Taj in 2017 about doing this, I said I wanted to move forward and not just play the same ten songs forever or I would knock it on the head. So, we are looking to release something very, very soon as a bit of a taster and then work towards a full new album sometime next year. So, we ARE writing new songs, we are demoing too and something will be coming VERY soon.


You spent time in NYC and LA have you been recently? They were always great Rock and roll towns but it seems the world is heading to hell in a handcart and not holding a bottle of jack but wearing loafers and no socks with a lovely smelling beard? Do you think sleazy Rock and Roll will ever come full circle? 
I think it will always be there as long as there are people out there showing interest. It is very niche but then, I guess it always was. Even when GnR went massive, there were a lot of confused Mums and Das and “normal” people at the live shows because it wasn’t all sweetness and light, hahaha. Look at events like HRH sleaze, there is an audience and a younger audience too. I love seeing another generation coming through wearing cool clothes again and embracing the rock’n’roll world, without that music just becomes gentrified like all our cities and towns. I mean, look at the crap we are force-fed by the mass media, it’s Starbucks /identikit bland rubbish designed not to offend or make you think. I want music that makes you go “holy fuck!”, I want the musicians to look like they landed from another planet, not like they are here to fix a leaky tap.
Haven’t been back to LA or NYC recently although I know they are both shadows of their former selves. There are plans to visit both from a band point of view, but I’m not saying more than that just yet, don’t want anyone else stealing my plans.


What new music have you been listening to? (If any)
Does the Michael Monroe band count? hahahaha. I try and listen to new stuff but most of it just leaves me cold and even when I say I have listened to something new, it usually turns out to be from the late 90s or early 2000s. I do like The Struts. Got into them when the first album came out and no one here had a clue who they were. Sadly, I can see the rough edges getting chipped away and they are becoming slicker and slicker. I hope they resist it and keep that little British edginess, but I reckon the mighty dollar will win in the end. Can’t blame em, they are there to make money, but I like my artists to have a little bit of integrity.


Will there be any other live shows? who would you like to tour with?
Of course, there will, we are back and live is where we shine. We’re back in London at The Big Red on August 10 then off to Y Lew Coch in Mach as part of the Rock’n’Roll Circus weekend on August 25. There are other dates confirmed but we’ll be announcing those soon enough. We will tour with anyone we can. I don’t want to get stuck in the nostalgia circuit though which is very easy to do. It’s lazy on the part of some sections of the industry to just lump you in with certain bands but we seem to attract all types of music fans and we aren’t out to just live in the past.


If you were to explain what your band is all about how would you best describe your sound (we all love a pigeon hole) 
oooooh, that’s sneaky, hahaha. We’re just a rock’n’roll band that takes influences from all over the place and it comes out sounding like Paradise Alley. If you wanted to narrow it down I guess I would say Aerosmith meets the Ramones….that sound like a good pigeonhole to you Dom?


If you have anything else you’d like to say nows your chance –
Just that we are glad to be back and to be moving forward, if you love rock’n’roll in all it’s forms, check us out, listen on Spotify or Amazon or one of the other streaming platforms. We are here to entertain and make rock’n’roll glamorous and fun again. The world needs a little bit of escapism right now

Rainy Days & Mondays

Rainy Days & Mondays

Love em or loathe em you can’t ignore them.  We happen to love em so here you go you mongrels it’s Amyl & The Sniffers with ‘Some Mutts’

 

Next up we have the brand new video from Henrys Funeral Shoes ‘High Shoulders Everywhere’.  ‘Smart Phone Rabbit Hole’ is the album that it’s taken from which is Released everywhere on 20th September 2019

Finally, this haunting offering from The Prophets Of Addiction closes off this rainy days collection of new video releases

The Replacements announce new 60 track Boxset

The Replacements announce new 60 track Boxset
Dead Man’s Pop features live material, a studio session with Tom Waits, and their 1989 album “mixed as it was originally intended”

The Replacements have announced ‘Dead Man’s Pop’, a new box set centered on their 1989 album ‘Don’t Tell a Soul’. The 60-track collection is made up of four CDs and one vinyl LP, featuring the full album “mixed as it was originally intended” along with previously unreleased studio material—including a session with Tom Waits—and live recordings. The box set is packaged in a hardcover book featuring rare photos and an essay by Bob Mehr, author of the 2015 biography Trouble Boys: The True Story of the Replacements. Dead Man’s Pop is out September 27 via Rhino. Check out the artwork below.

THE HOLD STEADY SHARE NEW SONG, “YOU DID GOOD KID”

THE HOLD STEADY SHARE NEW SONG, “YOU DID GOOD KID”

THE HOLD STEADY
SHARE NEW SONG, “YOU DID GOOD KID”

NEW ALBUM, “THRASHING THRU THE PASSION”, OUT AUGUST 16

LISTEN TO “YOU DID GOOD KID”

“THRASHING THRU THE PASSION” PAIRS FIVE BRAND NEW SONGS
ALONGSIDE FIVE DIGITALLY RELEASED BETWEEN
NOVEMBER 2017 AND MARCH 2019

ALBUM PRE-ORDERS AVAILABLE NOW

 

The Hold Steady have released a new song, “You Did Good Kid,” the second new one from Thrashing Thru The Passion, and can be downloaded with album pre-orders. Thrashing Thru The Passion is the band’s seventh studio album and is out August 16 on Frenchkiss Records. Fans can receive access to exclusive album bundles, including such extras as a poster, lithograph and enamel pin set. All album pre-orders will come with a free download of “You Did Good Kid” as well as the first song “Denver Haircut.” Both songs are available now at all DSPs.

“‘You Did Good Kid’ is the first song we worked on for this session, and remains a favourite,” says Craig Finn. “It went though a few iterations before we came to this arrangement, and I’m really psyched on it. It feels great to play live.”

LISTEN TO “YOU DID GOOD KID”

LISTEN TO “DENVER HAIRCUT”

PRE-ORDER THRASHING THRU THE PASSION

Thrashing Thru The Passion collects five new songs recorded this year alongside five acclaimed ones released digitally between November 2017 and March 2019. The album was recorded at The Isokon in Woodstock, NY with producer Josh Kaufman and engineer D. James Goodwin. Additional performers include Stuart Bogie, Dave Nelson, Jordan McLean and Michael Leonhart on horns and Annie Nero on backup vocals.

The Hold Steady will celebrate Thrashing Thru The Passion with “Constructive Summer 2019,” a series of live show weekends across the United States. These weekends take place in Seattle, WA’s The Crocodile (August 15-17), Chicago, IL’s Thalia Hall and Empty Bottle (August 22-24), Nashville, TN’s Basement East (September 5-7), Boston, MA’s The Sinclair (September 12-15), and the fourth annual “Massive Nights” event at NY’s Brooklyn Bowl (December 4-7). For complete details and ticket information, please visit www.theholdsteady.net/#shows.

The Hold Steady is: Bobby Drake (drums), Craig Finn (vocals), Tad Kubler (guitar, vocals), Franz Nicolay (keyboards), Galen Polivka (bass), and Steve Selvidge (guitar, vocals).

THE HOLD STEADY LIVE SHOWS 2019

AUGUST

15-17 – Seattle, WA – The Crocodile
22 – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall
23 – Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle – SOLD OUT
24 – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall – SOLD OUT

SEPTEMBER

5-7 – Nashville, TN – Basement East
12-15 – Boston, VA – The Sinclair

DECEMBER

4-7 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Bowl – (December 7 SOLD OUT)

Pretty Vicious – ‘Beauty Of Youth’ (Big Machine Records/John Varvatos Records)

Pretty Vicious – ‘Beauty Of Youth’ (Big Machine Records/John Varvatos Records)

You would have had to have been living under a pretty big rock these past five years or so not to have heard the name Pretty Vicious mentioned in music circles. The Merthyr four-piece were hailed as the “next Oasis” by many websites/magazines and inked a silly money major label deal after what was literally just a handful of gigs.

Whilst a few of my close mates experienced that early buzz first-hand and rejoiced in seeing a local band once again looking set to make it big I deliberately stayed away purely because with a band as young as Pretty Vicious (they were all in their mid-teens when signing their initial deal) it all felt a touch too voyeuristic, and you only have to look at what subsequently happened to The Strypes to see how badly it can all go for a young band if they don’t shift the units their label wants them to.

So here we are in 2019 and now devoid of that original record deal with Virgin /EMI Pretty Vicious currently find themselves doing low key interviews to promote ‘Beauty Of Youth’ minus their singer as he has had to step away from the spotlight due to a personal tragedy that almost cost him his sanity. Their long-awaited debut is now being released through Big Machine Records a label based in Nashville that normally specialises in Country music so with all this going on this just suddenly felt like the right point in time for me to fully experience what Pretty Vicious are all about.

Granted it’s not exactly my first time hearing the band as I did dip my toe in the water with some of their early singles and whilst they were okay they didn’t exactly blow me away either, so what ‘Beauty of Youth’ is is my first chance to sit down and fully immerse myself in the band’s sound, a sound that has now had 5 whole years to develop and mature.

Well, the “next Oasis” label afforded Pretty Vicious early doors I can certainly pick up on during opener ‘These Four Walls’ and there’s more than one occasion during the album’s dozen tracks that I get the sense that the pressure must have really been on the young lads to write arena-filling tunes at all costs. ‘No One Understands’ for example certainly has that early Stereophonics Valleys lad bowl (as in strut) about it, whilst album closer ‘Little Molly’ is the anthemic lighters (or should I say phones) in the air tune that all albums of this ilk see as mandatory. BUT and this is a huge BUT its when Pretty Vicious break out of musical trappings of what is expected of them that they truly shine, in particular, singer Brad Griffiths who sounds not unlike a curious hybrid of Axl Rose and 70s Ozzy Osbourne during tracks like ‘Are You Entertained?’ and the brilliant ‘Someone Like You’. Indie music this most definitely is not folks, and the production from Dan Austin (You Me At Six, Twin Atlantic, Pulled Apart By Horses) certainly helps the boys push the attitude (and guitars) to the fore.

Elsewhere ‘Something Worthwhile’ kind of reminds me of 90s rockers Cast albeit with a turbo booster shoved up their arses, ‘Move’ has an almost Gary Holton goes grunge feel to it and the back to back pairing of ‘Force Of Nature’ (Oasis drum fill in the intro aside) and ‘Lost In Lust’ could very easily be Smashing Pumpkins at their very peak.

With all that is going on musically in the dozen songs that make up ‘Beauty Of Youth’ the future should really be looking bright for Pretty Vicious, but with Brad side-lined and dealing with his personal demons I applaud his bandmates for sticking by him as there is no way success should come before a mate’s own wellbeing. “It’s just a game” after all, as Brad sings during ‘Playing With Guns’. I just hope he gets himself sorted and that the band can then fully capitalise on this absolute stonker of a debut album. In their own time though as they still have the real beauty of youth very much on their side.

Buy ‘Beauty Of Youth’ Here

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Matt Dudzik – Poison Boys Interview

Matt Dudzik – Poison Boys Interview
One of the best debut albums I’ve heard in quite some time happens to be ‘Out Of My Head’ it’s jam-packed with influences ranging from the good to the greats and the passion and energy poured into every groove of the LP is evident to the listener.  I tapped Matt up for an interview with RPM and he was happy to oblige.  If you’re lucky enough to have the band roll into a town near you I suggest you cancel whatever it is you’re doing and get down to the Rock and Roll show.  But hey check em out then support them and Dead Beat Records because we need more bands like this making music on labels like that.  So lets cut the crap and get down to the chatter that mattered  Ladies and Gents boys and girls  Matt from Poison Boys…
When did the band form and let us know a little about where you grew up and what inspired you guys to pick up an instrument and play Rock and Roll?
I grew up right outside of Chicago in Northwest Indiana, about 1 minute from the border of Illinois. Been obsessed with rock n roll since I was a kid. Me and my friend Mike Lippman had been playing in punk bands together since we were young teenagers and finally decided we wanted to start a rock n roll band. I played drums throughout those years but wanted to play guitar if it was a rnr band so started figuring out Ramones songs and went from there.
Can you remember what the first songs you wrote as a band was?  
Mike and I collaborated on nearly all of the early songs, he’d write riffs or I would, and I’d write vocals and he’d help me with the lines sometimes. First ones we wrote were Been Here All Night, Out of My Head, Cut Right Out, Bad Mouth, Without You and a couple of others. Unfortunately, Mike passed away before we could complete a lot of other songs which I ended up finishing later like Headed for Disaster, Got to Tease, and Up to the Sky among others. We always wanted it to be a well rounded rock n roll group, not just one specific sound the whole record or anything. But not to stray too far outside of the rock n roll spectrum.
You’ve released a couple of singles before the album came along with the first two being on the excellent UK label no front teeth.  How did that come about?  How did a label out of London pick up some guys in Chicago?  Is the line up stable now? your almost in Spinal Tap territory for past members already 
I found out about No Front Teeth from reading a PORK magazine and either seeing an NFT ad or a record review with NFT as the label it was released on. Just emailed Marco and he was super down to help us get our first (and second) 7″ out. Really I could not find any snotty punk labels in the states at all. Even now I only know of like 2 or 3 and that’s it. And if they aren’t interested or are too busy or whatever you turn to labels elsewhere that’s all.
As for the lineup… When people don’t wanna play rock n roll anymore or move out of state what do you do? The band hasn’t been around long enough to make much of an impression with anyone lineup, hasn’t had an LP or anything out prior to now so it didn’t matter to me. Granted I don’t exactly enjoy having members flake out or whatever but it is what it is. We’ve had a pretty solid lineup for about a year and a half or so with Matt “Chainz/the Chainblaster” Chaney on drums and Steve  “Stevsie/Stevie Poison” Elfinger on bass at home/guitar on the road, and touring members Nico Bones on bass and Julius Lange on guitar. It’s been pretty killer getting to know and hang with all of them.
The first single was back in 2016 then ’17 then you got White Zoo to release the last one last year.  Had you already signed up to dead beat to do the album by then?  How come you switched for the album? 
Dead Beat came about through me asking them earlier this year if they’d be interested in releasing the LP. They were very stoked especially after hearing the record, so we just had to finish up art and final mastering for it and it was a go. The 7″s were released on the other side of the pond, we were just looking for somewhere closer to get the records released by and knew Dead Beat had put out records by some of our favorite newer rock n roll bands.
Is there a chance of a European release for the record?  What about touring Europe and the UK?
We’d love for it to be released by a European label! Haven’t heard anything about that yet but time will tell I suppose. We plan to set up a European tour for hopefully next year.
As far as the album goes I was really pleased to hear plenty of influences in there and some choice covers.  Obviously, I have to ask why those covers? (apart from them being great songs) 
Well, I was listening to a Beatles singles comp called ‘Past Masters’ and heard a banging rocker called ‘Slow Down’. Knew it had to be a cover and found out Larry Williams was the original and sounded killer!! I figured we could pull it off and should give it a go. It delivers well live so we figured it’d be a good way to help open up the album and add more bitchin’ piano to it which we love big time. As for the Dead Boys cover… that one’s always been relatable to me and it fits with our style really well I think. It’s, of course, a tribute to them and our influences getting into punk at an early age.
I love the album and think it’s one of the best debut albums I’ve heard in an age and the attitude in the songs is superb – really authentic sounding. Is there a plan to tour then record some more? are you someone who writes all the time? 
Thanks man I really appreciate it. We worked hard on these songs and it’s good to finally let them have their day. Really nice to hear that people like them. We’re leaving for our “Out of My Head” East Coast/Canada Tour 2019 this week and beginning recording for our 2nd LP this week as well. Plenty still on the horizon for the Poison Boys. I write all the time even if it’s just little pieces and put them together as I go. Show ’em to the guys and get opinions and we work em out from there.
How has the reception been at the live shows?  How would you describe the scene over there in Chicago? is there much of an appetite for real rock and roll?
The live shows are killer and what we love the most. People seem to love it too and get down to our set so that’s cool. I think people need this type of rock n roll but just aren’t getting it much from bands these days. Not a lot of people go to rock n roll shows around here anymore unless it’s the Stones or KISS or something. A lot of bands around here either play washed out reverb’d out psychedelic shit or shoegaze or grunge or a mixture of all that. There’s like 3 bands in Chicago that don’t do that. As with many bands, the reception on the road is way greater than at home.
There seem to be pockets of superb music coming out of America right now – any chance you cats hooking u with bands like Wyldlife, Ravagers and The Sweet Things and stealing over here for a package tour?  Are there any bands you hear about currently tickling your fancy so to speak?
We generally like touring alone but are open to whatever if the situation’s right. One of our first shows ever was in Indianapolis in 2014 opening for Wyldlife. Alex from Ravagers does a lot of our artwork and we have a gig with our boys the Sweet Things coming up at Coney Island Baby in Manhattan in a couple weeks, Friday 8/02. Yeah favorite bands going on right now in the states are mostly in California, like Black Mambas, the Crazy Squeeze, the Flytraps, Dr. Boogie (although they just broke up), and also bands like Terry and Louie, our boys Jonesy from Montreal, the Rubs, our buds Big Blood from out here, stuff like that. And of course the Sweet Things out in NY. There’s a good amount of rock n roll going on elsewhere and I think it’s growing thankfully.
Listening to the album I hear some obvious inspirations from the likes of Dead Boys, Thunders, then I hear classic Stones and Faces – you guys have some of the swagger that made early Guns N Roses shine (tear Me Apart)  and I love the confidence of songs like ‘Up To The Sky’ but you can also mix it up like Hanoi Rocks on songs like ‘Desperado’   it opens up options for you to go in any direction what’s on in the van currently? What are you listening to?
We listen to old protopunk shit like Berlin Brats, Hollywood Brats, Razor Boys, Nervous Eaters, Rockpile, Flamin Groovies, Stooges, all that. A lot of Johnny Thunders and Dolls stuff of course, their solo stuff right after the Dolls broke up too. Hanoi Rocks, Dogs D’Amour. But also stuff like the Nuggets comps and other more obscure comps like the Bonehead Crunchers comps and shit like that. A ton of old punk bands like Menace, the Only Ones, Teenage Head, the Saints, Chelsea, Testors, Slaughter and the Dogs, Gen X… Then Mott the Hoople for 24 hours straight, Lou Reed, Kiss, T Rex, Motorhead, the Faces, Stones. All the goods all the time. Oh yeah and the RAMONES.
If there is anything you guys need to get off your chests here’s your chance.  Anything you’d like to add?
Come see us on tour!!! Buy merch, support rock n roll and keep us on the road. If you play rock n roll start a band get a shitty van and a mechanic friend and go tour. Keep this shit alive and growing and spread the love not shit talk and hate. We’re too small of a scene to be separated all the time by trivial cool guy bullshit and life’s too short to waste energy tearing each other down. It ain’t like the old days, we all know that… Rock n roll is so unimportant to modern society and we’re all we have left. We’re all in this together. Be inclusive there’s no room for hate against each other.
Buy The Album Here or coloured vinyl Here