First up today we bring you the new video from Crows. After Johnny’s recent review the band have released a video for ‘Closer Still’.
It’s an exercise in pummeling noise-rock. One of several unapologetically political songs on the album, where single James Cox says, “‘Closer Still’ was written about the fit-for-work scandals that kept happening where the Department for Work & Pensions were deeming people fit for work when they obviously weren’t able to, taking away what little support they received from the state in an attempt to save on expenditure. It really highlighted our government’s contempt for the vulnerable. People whose daily lives were incredibly difficult.”
‘Mornington Avenue’ finds Marc Valentine team up with Matt Dangerfield, of THE BOYS and Rock n Roll legend. It’s the second single to be lifted from Valentine’s magnificent debut solo album ‘Future Obscure’. Valentine visits old haunts in Camden Town (ones that are still there that haven’t been gentrified quite yet) and reminisces about his roots at places like his old flat where he put his band together way back in ’89.
Some great use of vintage The Boys footage adds gravitas to the video which captures the sentiment of the song perfectly. Also some great appearances from Marc’s band on the album Steve Fielding, Denley Slade and Richard Davies (of Richard Davies & The Dissidents). ‘Future Obscure’ is available to pre-order here. Facebook
Joyce Manor have announced their 6th studio album, ’40 oz. To Fresno’, set for release on June 10th on Epitaph Records. New single ‘Gotta Let It Go’ clocks in at a massive one minute fifty-three seconds, but it packs a lot in.
Joyce Manor will also be touring with The Menzingers in the UK in October of this year. Enjoy!
With ‘Combat Rock’ getting the special edition treatment with unreleased tracks The Clash also get the 4K treatment on their classic ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go’
So, an old friend of mine (who has been working with, managing and writing about cool bands for the best part of three decades) said to me a few weeks back. “Come and see Crows in Cardiff, you’ll love them”.
“Nah – they’re too Indie for me” I quickly replied.
He even asked me again on the day of the gig, and yet again I replied in the negative.
Then, as I woke the morning after said gig, I found another friend had tagged me in a live video from the gig on social media, only for me to click on it and think. “Hang on this is actually really really good.”
And, a few quick spins of ‘Beware Believers’ (the London band’s recently released second album) later, and boy oh boy am I regretting my decision.
Why all the fuss you might wonder? Well, this week whilst the world and its dog are all seemingly losing their shit over Wet leg’s new album, Crows have crept out of leftfield with next to no media fanfare and have released one of the albums of 2022.
Having witnessed the very good The Imbeciles supporting Killing Joke just a week or so earlier I cannot help but think the self-styled Lords of Chaos missed a trick not getting Crows out with them too, because whilst Killing Joke’s flame still burns very brightly indeed Crows are (to my ears at least) the voice of a whole new generation of disaffected UK music fans.
Take ‘Garden of England’ for example, this tune bristles with the spirit of post punk circa 1978-79 and even adds a soupcon of Mr Lydon (In the “England” phrasing) towards the end of the track – yet with its subject matter of a diseased country falling to rack and ruin it is very much 2022.
Elsewhere, the gargantuan ‘Only Time’, the Mark E Smith fronts IDLES drone of ‘Room 156’, the Division Of Laura Lee-like ‘Moderation’ and the truly sublime ‘The Servant’ are all standouts in an album jam packed full of them, and it’s only when the pace (and indeed intensity) drops for album closer ‘Sad Lad’ that I actually get a chance to reflect on the greatness on offer throughout all of the record’s eleven songs.
‘Beware Believers’ is an album I could easily write 10,000 words about, but the litmus test will be you going out and listening to it and loving it too. This is all killer no filler post-punk, and in a rock world seemingly crammed full of lip synching manufactured beige bollocks it’s bands like this that really keep old farts like me interested and excited about the UK scene.
Oh, and Andy, you were right all along… I do love them.
Futurama, the legendary post-punk festival is back after 40 years and takes place at the Invisible Wind factory / Make Arts Centre and Ten Streets Social in Liverpool over two days, 3rd and 4th of April 2021.
With promising news on the horizon regarding the vaccine roll out this week, the Futurama Festival’ has announced a second wave of bands to play the influential festival in Liverpool next Easter.
Undoubtedly one of the most famous electronic & synth bands of all time, Heaven 17 had hit after hit back in the 80’s with their incredible albums ‘Penthouse and Pavement’ and ‘The Luxury Gap’. This extraordinary success means their gigs are as popular as ever and they consistently sell out shows in the UK and abroad. The original Human League split in 1980, when Martyn Ware and IanCraig Marsh left to set up their BEF production company and recruited Glenn Gregory to help create “music of quality and distinction”. Taking their name from the disco in Clockwork Orange, Heaven 17 had immediate success with hits such as ‘At the height of the fighting’, ‘Fascist Groove Thang’ and ‘I’m your money’. ‘Penthouse and Pavement’ would become a landmark album that defined the 1980’s.
For their unique performance at the Futurama, Martyn and Glenn will perform a Heaven 17 set and will also revisit some of those classic early Human League songs. By re-imagining them and keeping the original spirit, they hope to recreate the futuristic ambience and immersive atmosphere of the early days. As Martyn says he ” loved the wider theme of dystopian science fiction that the Futurama touched upon and he always envisaged the Human League growing up in a science fiction noisescape”. Human League were scheduled to play the original Futurama in 1979 but for one reason or another, it sadly never happened.
As well as Heaven 17’s back catalogue, Martyn Ware can call on the astonishing early records of the Human League. The first Human League albums ‘Reproduction’ and ‘Travelogue’ were two of the most influential synth albums of all time. It cannot be underestimated how important the sound of young Sheffield 78 -83 became in post punk Britain with the Human League, Cabaret Voltaire, ClockDVA and Vice Versa (Later ABC) leading the way. They were the first wave of British bands to mix machines and electronic noise. Their music reflected their environments, the urban decay and industrial decline of this period. A bleak but beautiful soundtrack.
“Heaven 17 are really looking forward to the Futurama show, it holds so many fantastic musical memories for us both as performers and audience, states Glenn Gregory. “It’s fantastic that we have the chance to be a part of the future of Futurama”
“Brothers, sisters don’t just sit there on your ass!” Join us as we fix this historic error and go back to the Futurama with Heaven 17
Peter Hook and The Light are the Sunday night headliners and will be performing the ‘life changing’ Joy Division set from the 1979 Futurama in Leeds for the first time in 40 years. Another world first for the return of the Futurama in 2021. Peter Hook and the Light as well as the historical set will back it up with all the classics that they have delivered across the world in recent years to such acclaim. Two very special headliners for the return of the Futurama. They are joined by legendary Factory band Section 25 and the Expelaires who played the first Futurama in Leeds in 1979.
The AF Gang have confirmed their first acts for their All Is Love / Goth Kitchen stages with up-and-coming London punks Chubby And The Gang who have just signed to Partisan Records (Idles, Fontaines DC, Laura Marling) and TV Priest who have just signed to legendary American label Sub Pop. Other bands they’ve picked are Genn, The Pleasure Dome, Ditz & Frauds who the AF Gang have been championing for some time.
Planet X, Liverpool’s infamous goth and punk club have Balaam & The Angel headlining its stage with Dr Diablo & the Rodent Show, Peter Bentham & The Dinner Ladies, Feather Trade,
the Gentle Scars, Three from Above & The Webb supporting. Also, confirmed are Girls in Synthesis, Ist Ist, Dream Nails, Liines, Gravves, Klamp, Coughin Vicars & Deh-Yey. All in all, it’s shaping up to be one of the best line-ups of every year.
As promoter Marc Jones, says ‘fingers crossed, the timing could be perfect, we all desperately need something to look forward to after one of the hardest and most difficult years ever! 2020 has seen the festival and live gig circuit decimated by the pandemic. It could one of the first festivals post Covid restrictions and it would be a real boost to the Liverpool music scene and the independent venues involved and perhaps a real starting point for and hopefully a much better year in 2021″
New Early Bird December from SEE tickets HERE: 1st payment 7th December with subsequent payments in Jan, Feb and March 2021
There will be a last wave of bands to be announced in January when day splits and full stage line ups will be announced.
Other acts confirmed to appear include Theatre Of Hate, Warmduscher, The Chameleons, The Blinders, The LovelyEggs, Spizz Energi, Imperial Wax, Just Mustard, Membranes, Evil Blizzard, Sink Ya Teeth, John, Heavy Lungs, We Are Not Devo, DSM IV, Bob Vylan, Billy NoMates, Witch Fever, Tokky Horror, Pozi, Crows, St Agnes, LibraLibra, Courting, Crawlers and Joe & Shitboys, with the world’s biggest rock ‘n’ roll and punk magazine Vive Le Rock and respected website Louder Than War hosting the main stages.
Futurama, the legendary post-punk festival is back after 40 years and takes place at the Invisible Wind factory / Make Arts Centre and Ten Streets Social in Liverpool over two days, 3rd and 4th of April 2021.
The Futuramas were a series of ground-breaking and innovative post punk and electronic music festivals in the late 70’s and early 80’s. They were the brainchild of one-man, John Keenan, a legendary Leeds promoter who has put thousands of bands on over 40 years at his famous F Club. In 1979, he decided to do a 2-day festival at the Queens Hall in Leeds and put on all of his favourite up and coming bands and curated the first alternative indoor festival in Britain. Nearly all of Britain’s most important and influential independent bands played these festivals and many of them went onto considerable success in Britain, Europe, and the US. The roll call reads like the greatest who’s who of alternative music and they include Joy Division and New Order, Echo and the Bunnymen, PiL, Killing Joke, Teardrop Explodes, Bauhaus, The Fall, The Smiths, Gang of Four, Sisters of Mercy, Theatre OfHate, The Psychedelic Furs & even a fledgling U2. The Futurama festivals caught the zeitgeist perfectly and not only put on many female fronted bands, including Siouxsie and the Banshees, Young MarbleGiants, Bow Wow Wow & Altered Images, but also many of the new wave of electronic & synthesizer acts including Soft Cell, Cabaret Voltaire, OMD, Simple Minds, Clock DVA & Vice Versa who later became ABC.
The post-punk era still casts an enormous influential shadow over contemporary music, making the timing perfect for the festival to return, combining both legendary acts from the festival’s history with the absolute best in up-and-coming talent.
pic by William Ellis – www.william-ellis.com
Bringing Futurama full circle, Peter Hook & The Light are confirmed to perform Joy Division’s set from Futurama 1979 in full, promising to be an absolute thrill for fans of the iconic band.
“Futurama was one the first festival experiences I ever had,” remembers bassist Peter Hook. “John Keenan the promoter became a lifelong friend. He was one of the first legends. The gig was the first time I’d ever seen caravans used as dressing rooms indoors, but it had a great atmosphere. It really put Joy Division on the map and the groups on the bill were very well matched to the audience. There weren’t many indoor festivals prior to Futurama so it was quite ground-breaking for the genre in the north. Funnily enough it gets talked about a lot even now. John became a legend and, in many ways, so has the festival. Let’s hope we can capture that wonderful atmosphere again.”
Also linking the festival’s history are Kirk Brandon’s Theatre Of Hate who will be celebrating their 40th anniversary of playing Futurama 3 in 1981, returning in 2021.
With a headliner still to be announced, these iconic acts join a host of bands from the many different strains and spectrums of alternative music, with respected website Louder Than War hosting the main stage on one day, and the world’s biggest rock ‘n’ roll and punk magazine Vive Le Rock the other day, whilst The AF Gang (the IDLES legendary fan club) host the up and coming stage.
There are 4 stages at the Futurama.
Invisible Wind Factory Main Stage: Headline acts and supports
Substation Downstairs in IWF: Electronic, synth and experimental noise
Make Arts Centre: Some of the best new and vintage post punk bands on the circuit
Ten Street Social: The AF Gang hosts the up and coming stage plus DJ sets
Other acts confirmed to appear include Warmduscher, The Chameleons, The Blinders, The LovelyEggs, Spizz Energi, Imperial Wax, Just Mustard, Membranes, Evil Blizzard, Sink Ya Teeth, John, Heavy Lungs, We Are Not Devo, DSM IV, Bob Vylan, Billy NoMates, Witch Fever, Tokky Horror, Pozi, Crows, St Agnes, LibraLibra, Courting, Crawlers and Joe & Shitboys, with many more to be announced.
Tickets are Early Bird £80 for the weekend from See Tickets HERE:
£20 deposit scheme and four payments scheme in place
Welcome, welcome, welcome step inside the 45’s club and see what delightful singles and videos get pushed through our virtual and physical letterbox. a right mixed bag arrive for this update and there is only one place we could possibly start and that’s with HeWhoCannotBeNamed and his brilliant video for ‘Good Fuck’ taken from his new album ‘The Good, The Bad, and The Brutal’. Spin the black circles and keep it 45…
Jake Starr & The the Delicious fullness ‘All The Mess I’m In’ (Beluga Records) This Singles comes in four delicious coloured sleeves and fours different coloured records, Blue, Red, White, Black.
After fronting Washington DC garage rockers Adam West for nearly 17 years, soft-spoken, introverted, and mild-mannered Jake Starr took a few years off to recharge his batteries. Now he’s back with a band of brothers (and sister) alongside him to deliver the best in high-octane, garage rock-n-roll. With Sean Crowley (Hall Monitors) on guitar and backing vox, Louie Newmyer (tons of bands) on bass, and Nathaniel Osgood (ex-Phobes) on drums, this swinging combo is the perfect mix of the Small Faces, Chocolate Watchband, Easybeats, Music Machine, and everything nice in 1966. The A-side is a rock solid retro rocker but the gem here is ‘Biff Bang Pow’ a cover of the Creation number and with its fuzzed up lead guitar its a real hoot and sure to fly off the shelves – our advice if you want the colours you better get a move on and shake your shit over to Beluga.
Lags – ‘Knives And Wounds’ (Casu Marzu Records/To Lose La Track/Fuzzy Cluster Records) Next up is the new single from Lags.a post-hardcore band out of Rome, Italy, They’re gearing up to release their second album, SOON, on March 29th, and they’ve teamed up with Heavy Consequence to premiere the video for the new song “Knives and Wounds”. The song is an anthemic track with a sound reminiscent of bands like Hot Water Music, BoySetsFire, and Sparta, as singer Antonio Canestri delivers the lyrics with a powerful rasp.
As mentioned, the album SOON will arrive on March 29th. Pre-orders for the disc are available here and here.
Powersolo“Transfixing Motherfucker” EP (Slovenly) If it’s on Slovenly then we want to know about it. Wear it like a badge of honour because Slovenly don’t put out rubbish and when we got this pottymouthed single we virtual high fived Powersolo for having the cheek to knock out a garage dripping rock n rolling old school it’s like Bo Diddley and the Cramps going shot for shot and having some instruments thrown in for good measure. These Danish rock n rollers kick out the jams for sure and even manage a tune in their native tongue which is always cool with RPM.
The Cavemen “Lowlife” EP (Slovenly) Always happy to review a Caveman record that for sure and Lowlife doesn’t disappoint. The Lead track sounds like The New York Dolls in full peacock swagger and that guitar solo fuckin’ rules! ‘Baby I’d Do It For You’ is like a rocket, all speed and fuck you fury straight out of the traps and it doesn’t relent until it crashes and burns. To close off this monster is a dark brooding Cavemen progbustin four-minute classic. Like they’ve been down to the crossroads and old Nick has thought fuck this do your worst I’m off. the Cavemen rip it up like hooch when you’ve run out of moonshine. Single of the month? I can’t see anything else even coming close. Get these dirty rock n rollers on tour with Brother Jim Jones and his righteous mind that would be perfect. Facebook
Priors “Call For You” EP (Slovenly Recordings) Hailing from Montreal this five-piece wall of garage rock n roll fills me with joy due to their understanding that garage punk rock comes in many forms and they hit you right in the kisser with their guitar driven rock n roll and the lead track ‘Call For You’ is a force of nature, a wall of guitars, unrelenting and unforgiving yet the tune has melody and makes me feel warm and fuzzy. ‘Destroyer’ is more of the same to be fair maybe a little more uncompromising but equally enjoyable. Which just leaves ‘Swelter’ to shake its shit with its awkward rhythm to pulverise you with. A most excellent record and available through their bandcamp in very limited quantities so don’t sleep on this one. Bandcamp
Crows – Chain Of Being (Balley Records) London post punk noisemakers sign to Joe Talbot of Idles Balley Records and ‘Chain Of Being’ is the first song released off their debut album “Silver Tongues” released on March 22nd Pre-order Here. They head out on tour with Idles in March to coincide with the album check em out Facebook
The Anomalys “Trooper” EP:(slovenly Recordings) Straight out of the Garage in Amsterdamned these rock n rollers kick up a veritable shit storm with their fairly traditional reverb dripping rock n fucking roll. ‘Fire In The Hole’ is the second song in and flys by in less that one and a half minutes of rowdy rock n roll just as we like it. To be fair that’s pretty much a done deal for the band as its only the fourth track that the tempo drops below boiling, ‘Anomolyphant’ is an instrumental but doesn’t really go anywhere but three out of four isn’t bad at all. Keep an eye on these noisemakers. Facebook
Erica Drive – All We Are – Emo alternative rockers Erica Drive are about to drop their second album and have released ‘All We Are’ to pave the way. South coast five-piece worked with Mike White (wolf Culture) and had the tracks mastered by My Chemical Romance engineer John Naclerio With heavy riffs and crisp production I’m sure the band will pick up more than the last albums 10,000 Spotify plays. Full-length album to come in early April.TwitterFacebook
The Empty Page – ‘When The Cloud Explodes’ (Punk Fox Records) the Empty Page has grown up as a band in public and that journey has landed them here at this junction with a new single on offer this coming Feb the 22nd to be precise. Its a confident slab of alt-rock shaped using the inspiration of their idols it’s got a great hook and feel to it as lyrically it celebrates their roots and obsession with the wet northern weather with a huge wall of sound. Stirring stuff indeed and if this is the strength of the new material it won’t be long before bands are citing the Empty Page as an influence alongside your Sonic Youths and Pixies. Great stuff!
Vain vipers – Kissy Doll (Volcano Records) I couldn’t resist throwing this bad boy up here just because I could. Can you believe outside the parody shite that is Steel Panther there are still heavy on the ride fretboard tappers out there strutting their shit like its cock rock o’clock and people really want to hear this. Like anyone dances on their bed wearing some Vain Viper grits who hasn’t been paid to. I also love that the axeman (that’s what cock rockers call their six stringers right?) has got a replica Slash tattoo on his right gun. Absolute comedy gold can’t wait for the follow up its like 1987 never ever happened.
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