Brand new video to accompany the new single ‘S.A.S.S.’ from Hands Off Gretel sees new music from the band before they head out around England and Scotland for some shows. Formed in 2014, Hands Off Gretel features Lauren Tate (lead vocals, Guitar), Becky Baldwin (Bass guitar, backing vocals), Sean Bon (lead guitar) and Sam Hobbins (Drums). Founding the band at just seventeen, band songwriter Lauren is also behind all of the band’s art design, merchandise, music videos & album art visuals creating HOGs own unique style aesthetic.
Paul has been doing his particular Rock and Roll thing since way back in 79 and has endured many changes to the face of this business but one thing has remained and that’s his ability to write and play some of the finest power poppin’ rock and roll anywhere on this planet.
This his latest solo offering is choc-o-bloc with hooks melody drama and cranked up guitars something he learned early on when a member of the Nerves and right through the double figured releases of his solo career.
‘Out Of My Head’ is a real return to his roots and as well as singing he plays all the drums and most of the guitar parts so in almost every sense of the word this truly is a solo album. There is no studio trickery on display here and along with Paul Stingo this was taken back to the garage and recorded on Reel to Reel now that’s not something you’re gonna hear being done much these days and it’s not a hipster gesture these guys are the real deal.
Eleven songs in a shade over half an hour is just about right and the formula is pretty straightforward. Great songs laden with melody and hooks and played on authentic instruments by people who know their craft and not some digital illusion created in some spotty kids basement or bedroom these guys are professions god damn it and once the needle drops you’ll get my drift.
I guess Collins has done this for so long he can write these tunes in his sleep he must sweat classic power pop every time he pulls his skinny tie too tight – it might be too early to announce this a classic but given time we might just look back on another genre highlight.
As soon as ‘In And Out Of My Head kicks in it’s like welcoming home the prodigal son – you feel like it’s been here before and whilst it purposefully meanders towards the solo its exuding confidence and you know how good this is.
‘Go’ is altogether punchier with a 60’s Britpop feel and Collins influences shine through. It’s a struttin’ number and if he still had one – his moptop would be shaking like a shitting dog.
This seems to be the pattern for the next few songs with hooks aplenty and melodies everywhere you turn. ‘Stranger’ has some wicked keyboard playing for good measure and a solo that’s like a ray of sunshine.
It’s not until ‘Emily’ does the pace relent as the tone is guitar and voice for the intro and first verse with gang harmonies carrying this one home. The drums sweep in halfway but ‘Midnight Special’ is altogether a rougher tune. With a bit of distortion laid on top of the Rickenbacker.
‘Killer Inside’ has something of a Doors feel on the intro through to the first uttering of the title then cuts loose as the atmosphere gets dark and the sparse guitar break certainly adds to the haunting feel of the song.
Certainly, one of the albums highlights for me is the laid back chill out melancholy of ‘Lost Again’. Certainly, the tempo fades towards the final third of the record with this final three
being a gentle fading of the light with the Dylanesque curtain call of ‘Beautiful eyes’ being an emotional Collins lamenting with just acoustic and electric guitar with sparse bass notes punctuating the chords to perfection.
Sure this isn’t reinventing the wheel in any way shape or form but it’s one hell of a strong album that showcases Paul Collins and his huge songwriting talent.
MAIDEN’S ACCLAIMED REMASTERS
GET THE CD DIGIPAK TREATMENT
Parlophone Records will continue their reissues series of the IRON MAIDEN catalogue with The Studio Collection – Remastered, covering the band’s sixteen-strong studio albums across their career to date.
Following on from 2014/2017’s black vinyl releases and 2015’s Mastered for iTunes project, The Studio Collection – Remastered will be released on the Digipak CD format, with the track listing matching the original UK releases. The recordings are taken from the same remasters as the 2015 hi-res digital releases. The albums will be released chronologically in batches of four, across a nine month period superseding the previously available studio catalogue and all titles will also be made available on streaming platforms. As a bonus for collectors, one CD from each batch of releases will also be optionally available in a specially artworked box featuring a 1:24 scale figurine and exclusive patch. In the November 16th batch, this will be The Number Of The Beast.
Maiden founder member and bassist Steve Harris says, “We’ve wanted to revisit these for a long time and I was delighted with the remastering we did in 2015. I thought it was the best that our albums have ever sounded and it was only right that we made them available on CD now too.”
All four albums in this first batch are available for pre-order now from studiocollection.ironmaiden.com .
1st batch: November 16th
Iron Maiden / Killers / The Number Of The Beast (option of standard or collectors boxset edition including TNOTB Eddie figurine and patch) / Piece Of Mind
2nd batch: Feb 2019 date TBC
Powerslave / Somewhere In Time (standard/collectors) / Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son / No Prayer For The Dying
3rd batch April 2019 date TBC
Fear Of The Dark (standard/collectors) / The X Factor / Virtual XI / Brave New World
4th batch June 2019 date TBC
Dance Of Death / A Matter Of Life And Death (standard/collectors) / The Final Frontier / The Book Of Souls*
*not remastered but appearing in Digipak for the first time
IRON MAIDEN recently completed the first leg of their Legacy Of The Beast tour, playing sold-out stadium, arena and headline festival shows across Europe to over 750,000 fans. The tour, which was hailed by fans and media alike as the must-see show of the summer, will continue into 2019 with a headline show at Brazil’s Rock In Rio festival recently announced and more dates to follow. See www.ironmaiden.com for updates.
Punk/Pop are two dirty words that shouldn’t be used in the same sentence these days, right? Overly used by reviewers, (hell, I’ll be the first to hold my hands up!) it’s an easy double-barrelled description to pigeonhole a band. But Ontario based boys The Dirty Nil are not a punk band and they most certainly are not a pop band. The three-piece, comprising singer/guitarist Luke Bentham, bassist Ross Miller, and drummer Kyle Fisher will be the first to tell you their band is a straight ahead rock ‘n’ roll outfit.
Their sophomore long player ‘Master Volume’ contains ten short, sharp shocks of power pop laced rock ‘n’ roll fury, with the songwriting suss of Westerberg and Cuomo and a raw visceral delivery akin to Nirvana on ‘In Utero’ or The Manics on ’The Holy Bible’. Bold comparisons to live up to yes, but check out the similarities.
There’s a nihilistic, fuck you attitude within the grooves of ‘Master Volume’. Just several songs in you get the feeling that Luke’s manic, almost schizophrenic vocal and guitar delivery could well turn from tongue in cheek to window licker at any given moment. What could tip him over the edge?
Largely written on the road, the lyrics explore themes of death, loss, and boredom, yet sound-wise it’s a remarkably upbeat album. The opening one-two of ‘That’s What Heaven Feels Like’ and ‘Bathed In Light’ certainly explore those themes to the full. The former a mid-paced rocker that rides on a sleazy riff and a Lit melody, the latter channels The Replacements with bouncing bass and pop sensibilities aplenty.
The Dirty Nil deal in irresistible, radio-friendly hooks and have crafted an album chock-a-block with the fuckers! Whether it’s raw, in your face punk energy of ‘Please, Please Me’ with its live feel and glorious ramshackle live climax, the punk/pop (there, I said it!) goodness of ‘Smoking is Magic’, the glorious Mega City Four feel of ‘Pain Of Infinity’ or just getting lost in a stoner wasteland on ‘Always High’, there is not a duff tune in sight.
Highlights? ‘Super 8’ deals with the tedium of motel life and has one of the finest hooks you’ll hear all year, you’ll think you’ve heard it before somewhere, it’s that good. Luke takes things down if only momentarily in ‘Auf Wiedersehen’, a break-up song for two fuck-ups that builds Westerberg style, to an epic, bile-spitting chorus.
While the album paints a picture of self-destruction and living on the edge, there is also introspection and a warm-heartedness to several songs. How can you not feel the sentiment in ‘I Don’t Want That Phone Call’, a song that names no names but is a shout out to a friend’s addictions.
A stadium-sized production job courtesy of John Goodmanson (Bikini Kill/Death Cab For Cutie) manages to capture the sound and feel of a band writing songs during soundchecks and practicing harmonies between gigs in the back of a van or a cheap motel.
Yes, there’s something special about ‘Master Volume’. Maybe it’s the familiarity, they certainly remind me of Mega City Four, The Replacements and The Senseless Things amongst others, or maybe it’s the lyrics that just seem to hit home. Whatever it is, it makes me wanna turn the volume of life up a notch, hit the gas and ride towards oblivion on a high.
LOUISE DISTRAS ANNOUNCES HEADLINE UK TOUR
NEW ALBUM PRODUCED BY ROSS PETERSEN (BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, GOO GOO DOLLS, THE VAMPS) COMING IN 2019
Louise Distras is pleased to announce she’s back on the road for a stretch of headline tour dates next January.
Commenting on the news, Louise says “It’s going to be just me, my guitar, and my songs. I can’t wait to hit the road and finally share everything I’ve been working on over the past 12 months.”
This year Distras announced she’s been recording her sophomore album in Oakland CA with producer Ross Petersen (Bruce Springsteen, Goo Goo Dolls, The Vamps) and Steve Whale of The Business. Set for release in 2019, Louise says the new record will “take the songs to a new level with harder hitting lyrics and harder hitting concepts.”
Tipped as the voice of punk‘s next generation, praise has poured in from the likes of Kerrang! Magazine, The Guardian, Vive Le Rock, Louder Sounds, BBC Radio 1, Radio X, and KROQ. She’s also appeared at Glastonbury, 2000 Trees, Godiva, Punk Rock Bowling and shared stages with Billy Bragg, Buzzcocks, The Damned, Stiff Little Fingers and The King Blues to name a few.
Louise’s headline tour will be the perfect teaser of what to expect from the new album. Her talent for crafting powerful and direct messages with addictive melodies over righteous punk rock hooks has really come to the fore more than ever before. Hold tight!
Following on from the excellent ‘Chokehold’ video Slaves release ‘Magnolia’ from the new album ‘Acts Of Fear And Love’.With very few tickets remaining you’d better get on it if you want to see the band on this tour.
Never let it be said that Trampolene sit idle waiting for their dream to come true as they hit us with a brand new song ‘The One Who Loves You’ which follows hot on the heels of Jack Jones debut solo single and recent compilation album ‘Pick A Pocket Or Two’ and that’s on top of some incredible shows and critically acclaimed debut album ‘Swansea To Hornsy’.
The band are about to head out once again on a never-ending tour of the UK – Catch them whilst you can playing these sized venues
‘The One Who Loves You,’ was produced and mixed by Josh Green at Konk Studios and includes ‘There’s No More Rockstars’ on the flip side, is the followup to ‘Hard Time For Dreamers’, which was playlisted at Radio One and Radio X. ‘The One Who Love You’ is available now on digital download:https://tinyurl.com/iTunesTheOneWhoLovesYou & 7” vinyl. Listen on Spotify:https://tinyurl.com/SpotifyTheOneWhoLovesYou
Says Jack, “‘The One Who Loves You’is quite different for us, less distortion and more melody. It’s a song I started writing after my first love at school and only got round to finishing recently…it’s about offering the world to someone you love… but the world is never enough. Suffice to say it didn’t last. ’There’s No More Rockstars’” is pretty self-explanatory ‘they don’t play guitars’”
TRAMPOLENE‘s latest album ‘Pick A Pocket or Two’ went into the indie chart at no 10 last month. ‘Pick A Pocket or Two’ features a compilation of songs and poems not included on the band’s debut album ‘Swansea To Hornsey’ (October 2017). ‘Swansea To Hornsey’ was described as a “Brilliant debut from indie gutter poets” **** by Q Magazine and featured in The Independent’s ‘Top Ten Albums of 2018’.
Firstly don’t let the cover fool you this isn’t a foray into the woods with some Black Metal loons but a well-rounded bash over the head with a sonic assault that is varied and well above average.
Starting with the punchy ‘Gotta Get Through’ with its four to the floor before the guitars wail in and the bass tries its best to summon up the dead as the vocals just repeat the song title in a manic and panicked manner. Its a rush of an opener and quite exciting and certainly interesting because this could go all manner of ways including tits up or straight to the top of any end of year best of list.
These Northern upstarts have indeed got divine rights and it is their divine right to shout about it and shout about they shall. This island off mainland Europe can indeed drop into a cesspit of corrupt right-wing self-serving politically self-serving scumbags and every now and again the kids need to rise up and put on their shit kickers and kick some shit and maybe that time is now. ‘L’etat Cest Moi’ nicely throws its weight into the jerking rhythm of ‘Hate Song’. At times this power trio sounds menacing in a way that Cabbage sometimes also achieve and that modern take on noise is showcased on the epic ‘Where No Man Comes’.
If there is a theme running through this album then its of a band of brothers raging against the machine and throwing stones and musical bombs until people sit up and take notice no matter if its via the preaching purposeful march of ‘Free The Slave’ taking a left turn via the beaute dan le rue of ‘Ballad Of Winston Smith’ with its 60’s style storytelling that builds and swirls majestically to ‘Et Tu’ with its heavy hypnotic riff-a-rama before ‘Brutus’ is the sound of a stressful mind twisting and turning as it comes to grips with what is going on on the streets of our austerity ravaged towns. It’s no shock that these boys are playing with Idles and Cabbage for what would be an extremely heavyweight line up of modern rock bands who have something to say and say it well and manage to wrap it up with some awesome musicianship.
‘Brave New World’ is a rollicking song with a spring in its step not unlike who they might be alluding to in the lyrics it’s confident and brash taking Kasabian to an extreme in some ways but actually having something to say.
The album signs off with a cold and sparse ‘Orbit (Salmon Of Alaska)’ but as you hold your breath and take in the lyrics you’ll smile that finally some bands on shit island are waking up and creating music with meaning and variety and guts.
Viva le revolution – bring it on kids lets wake up the good people of shit island and show them the way through Rock and Roll for its a broad church and all are welcome.
UK Rock ‘n’ rollers THE BLACK BULLETS are back with another blistering slab of sleazy rock. The much-revered quintet delivers their new single ‘When The Devil Comes Knocking’, on Friday 16th November, via Animal Farm.
Five bastard children from hell, THE BLACK BULLETS, are the real deal; they live, breathe, and consume Rock ‘n’ Roll. Formed in 2012, THE BLACK BULLETS locked together to produce the filthiest Rock n Roll to penetrate human ears. Since their inception, the crew has been handed their share of setbacks from personnel departures and internal fallouts. They have suffered high and lows, and everything in between, but, like a hurricane, with every hurdle thrown in their path, this posse has kicked on and kept on progressing through adversity.
Famed for their impressive recorded work, the hellraisers have also toured throughout the whole of Europe, sharing stages with The Anti Nowhere League, UK Subs, Vibrators, Warrior Soul, The Main Grains, and more recently Love / Hate, Lita Ford, LA Guns, and Michael Monroe. As ever, further shows and touring will support the release of their next single, When The Devil Comes Knocking, which lands this November. The band remarks about the track “’When the Devil Comes Knocking’ is a dark tale of star-crossed lovers trapped by temptation and desire in the seedy underbelly of Camden Town. It’s a song for the empty, whiskey-drenched souls, the sad and lonely who’ve danced with the Devil and for those who’ve played dice and rolled a 13.” The band has touring plans in the works, so keep posted with their movements via their social sites.
The Sunset Strip has been a buzz this year with stellar returns from the classic hard rock artists that made the strip .. well … the Sunset Strip! We just saw music by Kingdom Come on stage the other night, LA Guns returned with a new album release, Tesla and Warrant just played through Agoura Hills – it’s been tremendous to feel the music one more time. For the true American hard rock die-hards, what started with the fashion of Jim Morrison and his bare chested, steel belt buckled leather pants bad boy image that evolved into an endless list of artists including all the rarities fans collect on old cassette tapes to this day – that street has seen it all.
Lesli Sanders, the embodiment of what real bubblegum fanatics call the last man standing, rode alongside every major label hard rock icon from the era of hair spray – Guns n’ Roses, Warrant, Poison – ahhh, the ever poppy Pretty Boy Floyd; yes, Lesli was there. What began as a literal explosion of sound had looked like riding an endless wave of girls, cars, money and parties that people still talk about now, yes, decades later … it just didn’t last.
Sanders stood on stage at the Whisky when it was alive, and he stood there again as the dreams of every young rocker on the planet saw the life they know fall under the oppressing fanfare of grunge. The tide that carried in the music that made our lives quickly swept down Sunset and off into the ocean somewhere down around the Santa Monica Pier. If you lived it – you know what this means, and if you didn’t, then you know what it means to have missed the boat.
It was perfect. It was amazing. It was Hollywood.
Lesli Sanders didn’t quit the music. He did, however, quit the drugs, the booze, the parties and the lifestyle that every hard rock local was privy to. He got in a car and drove back to Seattle and straightened out his shit! Then, as any musician would do – he started to write for his passion of expressing himself and not for the girls and glam. He wrote songs! Flash forward to last year’s single – “Take Me To Your leader.”
In and around April 2017, Sanders rounded up friends from his era of debauchery and mapped a route across the US, ready to kick ass in any club that would take ‘em. He put together a band, packed his gear on wheels and performed shows coast to coast. Some of the shows were electric, some of the shows were acoustic and all of the shows brought back the edgy, glammy, and passionate music that Sanders has crafted throughout his career.
It was perfect. It was amazing. It was Hollywood.
The album is aptly titled “Nothing But The Truth.” it’s being released on October 26th through Bill Chavis’ HighVol Music and you can follow for details here:
It features 10 hauntingly poignant songs that speak from the voice of a soul that flourished and suffered on the Sunset Strip and lived through an industry of broken dreams, stolen opportunities and character building that has made Sander’s unique in his music, and our lives.
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