Singles Club – About Bloody Time Eh?

Singles Club – About Bloody Time Eh?

After some time since the last singles club, enough banging singles have come through the door of Daley Towers to warrant having a singles club get-together so let’s get it on. Oh, you bands pull yer fingers out and press some 45s we love em and miss them very much so, without further ado…

Zeke – ‘Snake Eyes’ (Hound Gawd! Records) No shock that the mighty Zeke have found a home on Hound Gawd! Records seeing as they both share other projects and a love of all things outside the box and underground. Zeke lies dormant and without prior warning strike. First the single then the tour followed by the album – fuckin’ hell yeah! No, you can’t stream it or download it this is Zeke motherfuckers. ‘Snake Eyes’ is pure 100% proof Zeke with pounding reckless drums, howling solos riff after riff after riff and a melody that Lemmy would approve of ‘Snake Eyes’ is a majestical thing. Like prime DC cutting up a Motorhead song whilst out raising hell – Flip it over and ‘The Knife’ is cutting up the dance floor like a bat out of Hell. I had to check that I didn’t have it on 78bpm such was the ferocity hurtling out of the speakers like Slayer doing Discharge but faster – Buy it!

Dirt Box Disco / Aerial Salad (Safety Pins Magazine) Always a good read and the fact they give away a fine slab of wax with every issue is always a welcome bonus and this one is particularly special. Firstly Those scamps in Dirt Box Disco have broken the Babs Woodhouse tombstone and there wouldn’t be a tipper Sticker big enough to cover their side of this split and its fair to say I almost spat my cornflakes over my turntable when I dropped the needle on this 7 inches (oh ere mrs) absolute potty mouth from Spunk Volcano and the boys but what a banging tune it is easily one of their finest songs for a long long time. Inspired by a true story no doubt and it’s not every day you hear the words Dong, a fair sprinkling of C Bombs and the line one in the pink and one in the stink just about finished me off (Cough Cough). It’s a rip-snorter of a track, and it’s well worth picking up the Mag for this bad boy. Flip it over (sorry that the last one) Aerial Salad hail from oop North and this track ‘Fever Dream’ is a down n dirty chugging slab of snotty punk n roll. If you’ve never heard them then this is a smart introduction right here. Top melody on a top tune what a split this is truly magnificent stuff – congrats to Safety Pin and these fine pair of bands.

Stiff Richards – ‘GFC’ / Empty Barrels’ (Legless Drunken Sailor Records) It’s fair to say Stiff Richards do a fine line in intros. ‘GFC’ kicks off with a snare roll like a warning bell for what’s to come then all hell breaks loose and a thunderous song kicks in. Fuckin majestic stuff indeed. Of all the amazing bands falling over themselves in Australia Stiff Richards might well be the finest of the lot and ‘GLC’ is another in a long line of barking bonkers tunes from Australia’s finest. Their first new material in 4 years and the B side is a rapid, frantic manic slaughterhouse of a song for its entire one minute and fifteen seconds its pure bliss on wax. Get this new album out asap the world needs it as of yesterday. Record of the week? absolutely, Record of the month? fuckin right it is. Melbournes finest do it again – buy it!

Sister Morphine – ‘Werewolves Of Suburbia’ Big Egg Records) Having reformed after an eternity to finally get around to recording and releasing songs from a lost moment in time Sister Morphine didn’t stop there and not wanting to be pigeonholed as one of those there heritage bands, Sister Morphine couldn’t stop the momentum and wrote some new songs and bloody well recorded them onto wax via their label, who purchased one of those there Lathe cutting machines so it seemed only fair that the band would cut a two-track single and the lead track is a rockin’ number. With sleazy riffs and a thumping bass line, it’s a dark and dangerous opener and a howling good time too. The other track on offer is ‘I’m Up For Letting You Down’ which is my pick of the two tracks on offer and a classic snotty low-slung rocka. An impressive double A-side single in the classic time-honoured tradition and hopefully enough of a driver for the band to not stop there and follow up this single with more recordings and not leave it for another couple of decades. Great stuff and one of the summer’s finest offerings. Go get one, they’re cutting them up one at a time so before they run out of ice white wax get involved. oh, I have to say the solo on this second track is a belter.

Head Hunters – ‘Hour x Hour’ / ‘You Go tMe Hummin’ (Head Hunter Records) If the opening singles aren’t enough how about this bad boy from earlier this summer Birminghams Head Hunters put out a single on their own label and what an impressive pair of tunes they were too. Jez Miller on guitar and vocals, Ray Birch on bass, Ozzie on drums and Martyn “Nelsta” Nelson on lead guitar. (ex King Adora )are names that should be familiar to RPM Online regulars so it comes as no shock how bloody good these songs are. From the jungle drum intro and the feedback howl to Birchys floor trembling bass lines, this is a beast of a song ‘Hour x Hour’ is a no-nonsense high-quality offering along the lines of classic Gunfire Dance but so much more to boot and the guitar soloing is a most welcome wall of chaos and a maelstrom of proto-punk goodness.

‘You Got Me Hummin’ is like a throwback to a beatnik 60s pill party with a dancefloor full of beauties all shaking their shit to the sound of the day which just happens to be a head fuck of a groove from Head Hunters. love the vocals and the gang vocal callback makes for a fantastic song. Man, I want more of this from Head Hunters its a beautiful noise and a pair of tunes you shouldn’t pass by. Go pick it up as it’s a single that will sit pride of place in any self-respecting rock n rollas collection. Buy It!

M*arx – ‘Teenage Prayer’ (Wrecking Ball Sounds) After taking fifteen Years to pu this record together and released former Sisters Of Mercy guitarist Gary Marx goes back to his roots and cranks out an album Bolan would have boogied to and Bowie would have flown to Mars to be involved in. Well, the twelve track album was reviewed a while ago and the CD had more tracks than the LP but hidden in the sleeve of the record is a 7″ banger. Free ffs not something every band is racing to do I can tell you. Well, those who are rewarded with the purchase of the initial copies of the aforementioned LP can get this retro tastic Glam slammin ‘Teenage Prayer’ and ‘Chain Store Mascara’ are worthy of nestling right into the track list of the record. Super fun and totally authentic Mark and his friends nail the style and the songs every time and this 7″ bonus is most welcome. Easily one of the best record released over the summer. Get on it kids it top pop pickers innit!

Aerial Salad – ‘R.O.I.’ (Venn Records)

Aerial Salad – ‘R.O.I.’ (Venn Records)

When Manchester trio Aerial Salad set the date of late March 2020 for the release of their awesome ‘Dirt Mall’ album who could ever have predicted that their fierce barrage of spikey adolescent punk pop was about to run headlong into a metaphorical career brick wall known as a global pandemic. That record really should have seen the Salad boys (Jamie Munro on vocals and guitar, Mike ‘Wimbo’ Wimbleton on vocals and bass and Jake Marshall on drums) leapfrogging all comers on the global scene but as with anyone with musician as their job description back then they were largely forgotten overnight.

How any band reacts to such outside forces is always going to make or break them, and in the case of Aerial Salad having to seemingly “start over again” (for want of a better phrase) only seems to have further galvanised them as a musical tour de force. With time on their hands to further refine and define their songwriting formula, the band’s follow up record ‘R.O.I.’ is indeed a mighty fine return on investment for all the blood, sweat and tears shed in the intervening years.

Released on April 12th 2024 via Venn Records (the label run by Lags from Gallows and home to the likes of Bob Vylan, Clobber and Meryl Streek) ‘R.O.I.’ sees the post punk influences of the band’s early ‘Roach’ era tunes crashing headlong into the Seattle guitar rawk of ‘Dirt Mall’ whilst adding a whole new twist to the Aerial Salad sound, something the lads have been quick to dub Madchester Punk.

A quick listen to recent single ‘Tied To Pieces Of Paper’ will give you near perfect sounbite of the band’s angsty take on life in 2024, as it’s sounds not unlike Mark E Smith fronting The Jam before they are joined by Nirvana for the tune’s chorus crescendo, and it’s all over in 2 minutes and 40 seconds.  BOSH! ‘ave it!

The anger has certainly been dialled up on ‘R.O.I.’ and straight from the off with opener ‘Rottin’ n Shakin’ you can almost taste the frustration in Jamie’s vocal delivery thanks to a fantastically tight production from Dean Glover (who has also worked with The Membranes) as tunes like ‘MDRN LVN’, ‘As The World Eats Itself’ and ‘They All Lied To Me’ perfectly illustrate what it must be like to be young growing up in this post-Brexit disunited kingdom we call home. 

With a mission statement to appeal to everyone and anyone, from rave heads to indie kids, poets to rockers, you just need to give the album’s first single ‘Big Business’ a listen to fully understand how they are going to achieve this, and this tune is not alone in its genre-blending potential as tracks like ‘Do You Like Flowers Son’, ‘Same 24 Hours (As Beyoncé)’ and the almost psych pop of ‘Capo 2’ will have you stomping around your bedroom like a good ‘un.

There are times during ‘R.O.I.’ where I have to check that this is really is still the same band I once saw upstairs in a tiny Bristol boozer long before global pandemics were ever a reality, as this is a record that truly transcends the pub circuit, and the likes of Yard Act, IDLES and Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes best be looking over their shoulders because if Aerial Salad do take their ‘Chances’ (groans)  there’s nothing to say they won’t be stealing those band’s fanbases during the summer as the trio look to promote their finest record to date via a series of explosive live shows.

You can get your copy of ‘R.O.I.’ HERE!

Author:Johnny Hayward

Aerial Salad – The same 24 hrs (As Beyonce)

Aerial Salad – The same 24 hrs (As Beyonce)

Manchester punk trio Aerial Salad has their first new music since the release of their ‘Dirt Mall’ album in early 2020 and are back with a new single ‘The Same 24 Hours (As Beyoncé)’

Following the release of their 2020 album ‘Dirt Mall’, a pandemic, a few lockdowns and then a much-needed dash for freedom on a UK tour with Snuff, Manchester trio Aerial Salad are back with new music!

‘The Same 24 Hours (As Beyoncé)’ is a scathing criticism of modern influencer, celebrity, and social media culture. 

Inspired by Love Island contestant and social media influencer Molly Mae, quoted as saying, “Beyoncé has the same 24 hours in a day that we do”, the new Aerial Salad single captures the frustration that millions of people have with this sentiment.

“The new single throws jabs at modern working life, and the constant feeling of ‘survival’ over prosperity for millions of British people who are just trying to live nice, relaxing, lowkey lives,” explains guitarist and vocalist Jamie Munro. “But between soaring energy prices and unrealistic life expectations set by the likes of Molly Mae on social media, everyone is just left burnt out and hurting.”

In typical Aerial Salad fashion, they deliver this message in a fun, sarcastic, cheeky, and infectiously catchy way, flexing their ability to step outside of their immediately recognisable sound, whilst remaining true to the essence of the band.

The video was recorded just outside of Vibe recording studio in Cheetam Hill, Manchester and subtly features clothes that the band have bought second hand as a last-ditch effort to stick one to fast fashion.

“If we had a bigger budget, it would have looked like the ‘Ashes To Ashes’ video by David Bowie,” laughs Jamie. “but we don’t have the money for a camera crew or make-up team so this will have to do for ya!”

Aerial Salad are unlikely to become TikTok sensations anytime soon with their dancing but they are set to become one of the hottest punk bands on the planet.

They play a special single launch gig at Blondies in East London on September 15th, which is already SOLD OUT, so there!

There will be more Aerial Salad very soon.

Find Aerial Salad online at:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aerial_salad/?hl=en

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/aerialsaladband/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/aerialsalad?lang=en

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7eq7Gy7wawqSKSYMiN4m3e

Apple Music:https://music.apple.com/us/artist/aerial-salad/1094178592

Website (merch/tour dates): aerialsalad.co.uk

MANCHESTER PUNK TRIO AERIAL SALAD GET STRESSED

MANCHESTER PUNK TRIO AERIAL SALAD GET STRESSED

 

NEW ALBUM ‘DIRT MALL’ OUT NOW VIA ROACH INDUSTRIES/PLASTERER RECORDS

 

Raising their voices from lockdown, fast-rising Manchester punk-trio Aerial Salad return with ‘Stressed’, the third single to be taken from their new album ‘Dirt Mall’, released as the world clamped down earlier this year via Roach Industries/Plasterer Records.

 

‘Stressed’ is a scream of frustration at the daily grind of working life: “I would walk past the location we filmed ‘Stressed’ every day for two years on my way to work,” explains guitarist and vocalist Jamie Munro. “I always knew I wanted to film the ‘Stressed’ video there because it’s an old office block. ‘Stressed’ is a song about my descent into madness while working in an office for a blue chip company; the song’s not a glorification of weed, more just me pointing out how sad it is that that’s the only respite that can be conjured for a lot of people in their early 20s working shit jobs just to pay rent. Shout out to Tommy from Bruise Control, Lauren from LAD$ Zine (go check that out) and Keiron from Don Blake for their extra work and Mark Richards for filming.”

“I’m glad we managed to film on location,” continues Jamie. “It was boarded up, so we recorded in early February and high winds knocked down the gate to the location so really the universe clearly needed to see this video and so do you!”

 

Order ‘Dirt Mall’  Here

Aerial Salad are:

 

Jamie Munro – guitar/vocals

Mike Wimbleton – bass/vocals

Matty Mills – drums

 

Find Aerial Salad online at:

 

FACEBOOK / BANDCAMP / YOUTUBE / TWITTER / INSTAGRAM

Aerial Salad – ‘Dirt Mall’ (Plasterer/Roach Industries)

Aerial Salad – ‘Dirt Mall’ (Plasterer/Roach Industries)

Every now and then here in the UK a band connects with a generation and explodes into the mainstream. Nirvana, the Sex Pistols, Oasis, the Arctic Monkeys and Slaves are just a few who have achieved this, and this year I think we are very likely be adding the name of Aerial Salad to that stellar list too. Granted over the decades there have been scores of other bands I could have named but these bands perhaps have the most in common with where Aerial Salad’s heads are at, and it only takes a few bars of opener ‘Virtue’ to tick off the Seattle influence buried under a lyric from frontman Jamie Monroe that is designed to tear the clothes from off your backs and rip the flesh from your bones…quite literally.

I should perhaps admit that when I first witnessed Aerial Salad a few years back supporting Wonk Unit in Bristol they didn’t exactly blow me away, it was good yes, but to my ears it wasn’t really the second coming that their manager Daddy (Alex) Wonk would have us believe, not at the time anyway. Fast forward to early 2020 and witnessing the band supporting (who else but) Wonk Unit, and they were like an altogether different band.  Playing songs largely drawn from ‘Dirt Mall’ this time Aerial Salad sounded every bit like the second coming, something that was quickly reinforced just a few days later when they premiered the video to ‘Romance?’, a song so amazing that it alone should have you hovering over the “Add to Cart” button on the band’s website.

This is dirty punk rock folks albeit a version that is never afraid to throw you a killer pop hook or two along the way and for that reason the likes of ‘Fever Dream’, ‘Lazy’ and the insanely catchy ‘Such A Pity’ could all very well have been hit singles had they been released when singles sold in their millions. For me it’s the likes of ‘Temp’ ‘State O’ Yer’ and ‘Dirt Mall’ that have me slamming and bouncing around the room like a teenager all over again, all of them perfectly capturing the frustrations and anger of someone growing up in this age of austerity. Oh, and whilst we are on that subject in album closer ‘Stressed’ we have perhaps the definitive anthem to be written about the Tory’s social cleansing initiative.

Just as Butch Vig did for Nirvana on ‘Nevermind’ producer Paul Tipler (allegedly hired by the band simply because they loved the work he did on Leatherface’s ‘Mush album but I’d like to think they were also aware of his awesome work with the mighty D4) allows each of the nine tracks on ‘Dirt Mall’ the space to breathe whilst simultaneously capturing an uncontrollable energy that is designed to cave in your cranium. Something that can be lethal in the right hands…and here it’s deadly.

‘Dirt Mall’ is released on 27th of March on a variety of different coloured and signed vinyl formats (all of which come with a free CD copy) via the band’s website linked below, and it’s a record that really should be in every self-respecting music fan’s collection.

Buy ‘Dirt Mall’ Here

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Author: Johnny Hayward

 

AERIAL SALAD Announce New Album, Tour & Video

AERIAL SALAD Announce New Album, Tour & Video

Aerial Salad started as a dream, that turned into a nightmare, that thankfully worked out a dream. Conceived by frontman and guitarist Jamie Munro after he’d attended the legendary punk event The FEST in Gainesville, Florida in 2016, the young Manchester Uni student was so inspired and impressed by what he’d witnessed at the festival, he had to start a band. He HAD to play that festival.

 

“It was a very important time in my young age,” remembers Jamie. “I was like, ‘fuck me, all these people, all these bands are small punk bands, but they’re playing here and they’re all on tour, this is fucking sick this!’ Fuck uni, I hate uni, I’ll start a band. We’ll play The FEST.”

 

And while for many, those dreams would have remained a fantasy as the daily grind of real life tightened its grip, choking out those young teenage dreams, Jamie Munro did form a band with two best friends (Mike Wimbleton – bass/vocals, Matty Mills – drums) and he did play The FEST, but as is so often in life, things did not go as planned.

 

In the run-up to what is now billed in their minds as ‘The Worst Festival Set Of All Time’, the fledgling Aerial Salad recorded a couple of scrappy digital EPs, played a small handful of gigs and through sheer bluster and confidence, somehow blagged themselves onto The FEST. However, bad luck, over-indulgence, technical difficulties and unfamiliar equipment led to a catastrophic performance that made sure the band were never invited back. “The set was so bad that as soon as it finished, I had to run out of the  venue, hide around the corner and cry,” shudders Jamie.

 

Returning home with dreams momentarily shattered, the rag-tag bunch of teenagers may not have found acclaim, but they did find purpose, regrouped and forged ahead. Luck was on their side when they met former Flying Medallions frontman and Wonk Unit leader Alex Johnson who, so taken with the bands spirit and vibe, offered to mentor, manage and help put out Aerial Salad’s debut album – 2017’s ‘Roach’ – on his label Plasterer. He became ‘Daddy Wonk’ to the band and finally finding their stride in ‘Roach’, a sound and boldness started to emerge that  quickly turned heads in the UK punk scene. An album of soaring punk songs, with melody and brash, rough edges that made it fizzle with excitement. The germ of greatness was sown in ‘Roach’. Wonk Unit took them on a three-week tour (“effectively a four year training course on how to actually be a band,”) and Aerial Salad were one step closer to being ready to deliver what the world is about to hear in new album ‘Dirt Mall’.

Armed with a headful of new songs, under the guidance of Daddy Wonk and the production of UK recording legend Paul Tipler (“because he’d recorded ‘Mush’ by Leatherface, which we love,”), Aerial Salad have delivered nine songs of anthemic, driving punk rock that roars with disgust, yet equally joy, at the world around them. Released this coming March 27th  via the bands own Roach Industries, and once again with the help of Plasterer, ‘Dirt Mall’ is the sound of the once rag-tag teenagers finding their sound, feet and minds, frustrated by day jobs, brexshit and the world swirling around them.

 

“It captures everything I’ve seen working as a temp in offices and generally being in my twenties trying to work myself and the world out. With some pop songs thrown in for fun,” admits Jamie, and it is all of that and more. Bristling with energy and passion, each and every song means something. From the charging title track (“people should not have to try and survive life,”), the bass and drum groove and explosive chorus of ‘Such A Pity’ (“about being young and a fucking arsehole,”), the cathartic strut of ‘Stressed’ (“the Tories are basically trying to kill us, that’s the cut and dry,”) and first single ‘Romance?’ (“a song about wanting romance with someone who is otherwise romantically engaged,”), ‘Dirt Mall’ is an album by three best mates, experiencing this life together, and taking it on.

 

Aerial Salad is starting its most exciting chapter.

Wonk Unit/Aerial Salad/Bottlekids – Cardiff, Clwb Ifor Bach – 11th January 2020

Wonk Unit/Aerial Salad/Bottlekids – Cardiff, Clwb Ifor Bach – 11th January 2020

It’s time for my first gig of the “roaring twenties”, but tonight is sadly also the last one to be put on by Drew and the Cardiff Punk Rock Bowling team as they are seemingly disbanding after tonight’s event. From my experience, it’s always a mixture of joy and pain (well it is the next morning) when you see Wonk Unit live so they as returning headliners for this PRB Awards night feels like the perfect choice to see out this vibrant and close-knit community of Kingpins.

 

Kicking things off tonight at a time when most people are seemingly still enjoying their first (much cheaper) pint in one of the nearby watering holes are Chepstow’s Bottlekids. It’s six months since I last saw the trio live downstairs in this very same venue and inbetween they’ve released a debut self-titled EP to widespread critical acclaim, and here with the benefit of Ifor Bach’s main room sound system the likes of ’25 Days’ sound like stadium filling anthems for the next generation. With a string of German tour dates already ahead of them these are busy times for Bottlekids make sure you check them out.

If Bottlekids see the stadium punk of Green Day as their musical peers then Manchester’s Aerial Salad must look up to DJ Rubble from Paw Patrol. They look so young I can’t help but wonder if they are actually legally supposed in the venue at all. Don’t let their child like appearance fool you though, as once these boys get into their stride, they’ll rip your throat out.  I should perhaps admit that the last time our paths crossed I really didn’t “get” all the fuss that was being generated around the band at the time, and they just kind of felt like a harder pop/punk version of Arctic Monkeys to me. A year and a half on though and tonight I have to say Aerial Salad are nothing short of phenomenal, and I can now see the trio’s immediate appeal plastered across the smiling faces all around me. It’s kind of reassuring to know that the future of punk rock is very much safe in the hands of Jamie, Matt and Mike. Fantastic stuff!

It only feels like a few weeks ago that I was last penning a live review of Wonk Unit for RPM Online, and that’s because it was. Yet as the Wonk faithful know all too well you’ll never get tired of seeing the greatest band ever to come out of Croydon simply because there’s never two Wonk gigs alike, and with the insanity (and nudity) of their valleys shows of old missing from proceedings tonight it really is time for the music to do the talking. So, with added Véronique on keyboards coupled with the aforementioned Clwb Ifor rig I’m pleased to report that Wonk Unit really have never sounded more amazing than they do tonight in the 20 plus times I must have now seen them live.

 

As always Daddy Wonk’s ability to mix deep cuts with “the hits” is always a delight to behold as the Unit are kept well and truly on their toes with the likes of ‘Girlfriend Is A Lunatic’ (from the band’s debut ‘Flying The Japanese Flag’) and ‘Judus Betrayers’ (from the far more recent ‘Terror’) thrown into the set seemingly on a whim, but it is their upmost credit that they never once fail to rise to the challenge.

Likewise it’s great to hear curveballs like ‘Old Trains’ and ‘We Are The England’ sandwiched in alongside the ferocious ‘Depressed?’ and the pogo-tastic ‘Go Easy’ plus there’s the chaos of returning set closer ‘Johnny Rambo’, and I’ll say it again the eclectic influences at the very core of Wonk Unit is what makes them such an essential live band.

 

Clwb Ifor was packed out tonight just 24 hours after Subhumans had done just the same, remind me who was it that said punk rock was dead?

 

Well tonight it’s never been more alive, exciting, or essential… FACT!

Author: Johnny Hayward

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