finally what about some Humanists featuring Rides Mark Gardener. Taken from Humanist’s eponymous debut album out now. Buy on CD / LP / Digital: https://humanist.lnk.to/humanistID
Humanist is the Music of Rob Marshall featuring the vocals of Mark Lanegan (Queens Of The Stone Age), Dave Gahan (Depeche Mode), Mark Gardener (Ride), Carl Hancock Rux (David Holmes, Portishead), John Robb (The Membranes), Joel Cadbury (UNKLE), Ilse Maria, Ron Sexsmith and Jim Jones (The Jim Jones Revue, Thee Hypnotics).
Hound Gawd! Records announce the new album by The Cutthroat Brothers and Mike Watt. The trio’s Record Store Day release was such a hit that the Brothers and Watt are back with an album of all new material. Titled ‘Devil in Berlin’, the album will be available as vinyl LP, CD and digital download on December 3rd. You can watch the video for the title track now…
The album “The King Is Dead” by The Cutthroat Brothers and mike watt (recorded by Jack Endino; with artwork by Raymond Pettibon) right off the bat is an absolute fuckin’ joy from top to bottom, start to finish its wall to wall bangers. If the king is indeed dead this’ll wake him up!
I’ve been a fan of the cutthroat duo so far and loved everything they’ve done thus far and the lockdown live release well needs a vinyl press considering how bloody good it was and sounded. Then this banger creepy crawls without bells and whistles or fanfare with added Mike Watt delivering some low-end power that really elevates these tunes into the something special category. Basically it’s the last studio album but with the Watt factor that was lost in the interweb ether but turned up after the album had been cut.
As soon as ‘Killing Time’ kicks in with a swagger and a truckload of attitude, these boys come out swinging like the wanderer’s gang with baseball bats lashing out and jumping like a cat on a hot tin roof and before the second chorus has passed you’ll be joining in on the “killing Time”. After such an energetic opener that swagger turns into a strut as ‘Medicine’ is buzzin like a lunatic on class A’s.
The title track is a throbbing brooding throwback to better times. Watt adds a phat sound that is a sonic jump and an already big-sounding band goes supersonic. It adds something special and the loose blues of the menacing title track is epic in sound and feel. When the band raises the tempo it raises the menace and my speakers start to shake rattle and roll.
These guys go through the gears and show off a play on the variations of what we call Rock and Roll and the melodic catchy ‘Out Of Control’ has a slice of power pop with its main course for what is one of the records high points as it did on the bands sophomore record but as it was meant to sound. Released for RSD this is a fantastic slice of Garage Rock n Roll that any self-respecting rocker will want to hear. If you can find a copy then do so and play it loud!
Hey! today is a good day. why? because today I get to review a new record from Pat Todd & The Rank Outsiders that’s why and those who know just know and those who don’t know…well, nows your chance to get involved and get excited. Patt Todd & the Rankoutsiders, the underground rock ‘n’ rollers from Los Angeles, California are back in top form with a new album. “…There’s Pretty Things In Palookaville…” Hell I never heard of Palookaville but if Todds saying so then I’m a believer, folks. This is one pandemic blues busting album that’s full of high energy that plays on the embryo of all that’s good and great with American rock ‘n’ roll, adding a twist and a turn with every fast and gritty chord.
As per usual from Patt Todd There are no studio sound tricks or autotune, it’s just the sound of a real Rock and Roll band working its ass off in some sweaty studio and knowing they’re capturing and bottling a little bit of that magic we call Rock and Roll.
“…There’s pretty things in Palookaville” shows no sign of writer’s block for Todd with its sixteen songs.
The album sparkles into life with the opening salvo of ‘All The Years #1’ with plenty of punch and a rasping guitar sound its drawing a line in the sand and is like a ray of sunshine through the dark storm clouds. Today is another day and this is how it starts with some positive Rockin attitude. It might be a song that was left off the last album but it’s great that it wasn’t disguarded and makes for the perfect battle cry on this one.
Time honoured boogie-woogie is the order of the day as some ‘Cheap Nostalgia’ just rocks. Nick Alexander and Kevin Keller both tear it up on guitars, with Steven Vigh on bass and Walter Phelan on drums keeping the engine room hot and rock solid showing great empathy for what they’re playing. Todd does the whole cowpunk thang so well and ‘The World Don’t Care & Neither Does She’ is a great example of that. With ‘Read Em And Weep’ the band kicks back and knocks out an acoustic countrified part ballad and with a wheeze on the old gob iron adding something else to the mix its a welcome change of pace and a terrific song. Simple yet so effective and most welcome. Sit on the porch with friends telling stories and sharing a beer – perfect.
Sixteen tracks is a lot to get through but with it being a Pat Todd album the ebb and flow is always a given and you get the ballsy rockers and the cowpunk but you also get the out and out hootenanny as ‘To Get The Monkey Off My Back’ is one slap of the thigh in that direction. What Todd does really well is when he does the power pop Stonesy vibe of ‘Turn Back The Hands OF Time’ with some lovely chord picking and a sixties shuffle it’s a real highlight.
You also get a delve deeper into the classic American songbook with some 50’s Rock and bop with ‘Little Jael’ followed by possibly my favourite on the album ‘True Romance’ with its sped up-tempo this one just soars with a great melody. Just a great song with loud guitars and great lyrics. ‘Theda #2′ is a little Keith and Mick from the mid-70s’ simple as that. Why fuck around when you happen across a cool riff and a backbeat then sprinkle some cool lyrics over the top its wise to just get it down on tape and tip the hat and move on. Pat Todd gets that and does it so well.
Yehaw! ‘Nothing But Excusses’ is another brush with that good ole cowpunk with more emphasis on the cow than the punk. The record finishes on an impressive and loud one-two with ‘Way Deep Down In Your Heart’ brimming with energy and riding a great hook before closing off the record with ‘They’re Wrong/ Dead Wrong’ a real steamroller of a song packing plenty of punch to close off what is a perfectly rounded record full to bursting with variety, charm and most of all bloody good songs. What more could you want from your records?
Pick it up without delay from Hound Gawd! Records Here
An olden forgotten should be classic gets dusted down shaken up and released on vinyl here in Europe for the first time just prior to Christmas and thank Gawd! Nikki first came to our attention with her ‘Feline Roots’ album and we were impressed with her Blues meets Rock and Roll tunes and a voice that was as soft as Marshmallow and as loud as a clap of thunder.
As good as Nikki might be on record I’m sure she comes alive and playing Rock and Roll shows so Covid and all the shutdowns haven’t been good to her but we’ll have to make do and this delve into the back catalogue is a welcome relief from all these here lockdowns.
Think the obvious -Tina turner (for that soaring vocal), Joplin (for that raw blues n soul), DC (for the volume and Rock and Rolla) and hell yeah The Bellrays for lighting the touchpaper for all this noise. All this talent would be irrelevant if Hill didn’t have the songs to back it all up and walking the walk as well as talking the talk is something Nikki Hill most certainly does. Take ‘Oh My’ for some straight down the line boogie-woogie Rock and Roll that just kicks out the jams old school. or the Stonesy ‘Struttin’ ‘ that comes from the same school as The Black Crowes did.
The shake and shimmer of the more laid back darker ‘And I Wonder’ makes way for the glorious Faces barroom of (Let Me Tell You Bout) Luv’ it’s sunshine Rock and Roll that deserves to be heard and to compliment Hills vocals the rollicking barroom joanna playing is wonderful. It’s definitely the more swaggering staggering blues numbers that steal the show here. ‘Hot Shot’ is gloriously confident and the lyrics “Too little ain’t enough for me” is about spot on. The licks might be as old as time but the delivery is superb and that solo hits the spot.
It’s not all bluster and partying because tucked in the tail is the stingingly beautiful soulful ‘Nothing With You’ where Hill shows restraint again playing the song, which is excellent, rather than just wailing and less is certainly more here. But wait, the yang to the balladry is ‘Scratch Back’ that was surely written to be rocked out live which is where all this leads – Live has to be the place to hear this album much like the excellent ‘Feline Roots’ as an artist you can see Hill growing from one record to the next and this is a well-rounded place to start full of top tunes handled by professionals who clearly believe in what they do and if Rockin is their business then business is good…no business is great. Check it out and come join us in twistin’ the night away.
Lusitanian Ghosts – ‘For the Wicked’ (European Phonographic) Lusitanian Ghosts return with their latest single ‘For The Wicked’, The band is led by singer-songwriter and producer Neil Leyton and Swedish guitarist, singer and multi-instrumentalist Micke Ghost, with a cast of musical associates. We were blown away by the album last year and this single is more of the same with the use of their Portuguese chordophone instruments. ‘For The Wicked’ speaks to a lost and apathetic society.
It has a sense of melancholia as the track builds gradually to an anthemic finale. Providing calm in a world which is certainly not calm. It’s a confident record that oozes charm and class.
Prima Donna – ‘Gimme Christmas’ (Wicked Cool Records) Now one of the coolest and best bands over there on the West coast have just rocked up and made us feel all festive with their sleazy Rock and Roller Crimbo tune. I don’t want to hear that sleigh bells aren’t cool because we all know they are really and as these bad boys wind the clocks back to a time when these sort of things really mattered and people wanted to hear what bands had for the festive fun. ‘Gimme Christmas’ is a stomper whilst ‘Misletow Blues’ is a horn honkin twelve-bar booze-up where Alvin Stardust and Shakey are invited to compare the office disco and these bangers are gonna be on loop and you’ll all bloody well enjoy yourselves. Of course you will it’s fantastic. Prima Donna win again!
Rich Ragany & The Digressions – ‘December In My Heart’ (self Release) Pour yourself another eggnog and strap on some mistletoe and tinsel because Rags and the gang have gone and nicked bits from the Christmas goodies past and knocked up a warm n fuzzy tune for the festive season. If you have an office party slip this on and watch the girls from Accounts throw themselves around Health &Safeties handbags with festive abandon. Socially distanced dancing of course the best festive number thus far and unless Mayhem does ‘Little Donkey’ this will be the festive pick at HQ’s party.
Guerrilla Teens – ‘Faux King’s Guillotine (Self Release) they just can’t stop monkeying around. some sleazy garage punk n roll sees the Teens knock out ‘Faux King’s Guillotine’ for our listening pleasure and the best place to pick it up would be on the first Friday of every month from our mutual friends at Bandcamp and whilst you’re there get the album as well. If you don’t you must be bananas.
Fist pumping and with a fantastic rolling riff around a great lyric “remove the head and the body will die”. indeed. Release the hounds or else
Dirty Fences – ‘Garbageman’ (Greenway Records) What a headrush. Dirty Fences do that to you, Chasing into the distance with a hot melody played through the medium of some dirty power pop with a decent dollop of Garage and attitude thrown in for good measure. the B Side is even better, ‘Sometimes Sunshine’ is like Elvis Costello and the Attractions sped up hammering out a melody you feel like you’ve heard before but regardless it’s damn good and you know it and so do they. New York has never sounded so cool if only the Strokes could have sounded this good
Shadows Of Night – ‘Wild Man’ (Wicked Cool Records) oh hell yeah, shake it, baby, as Shadows Of Night are garage rock to the bone with the swirling keys and backbeat and a whole cave of reverb on the guitar as they shout to the devil on ‘wild Man’. This is retro enough to come with a scratch and sniff Afghan Coat whiff. The workout of ‘I Ain’t Got You’ is splendid from the freak-out solo to the keys it’s a blinder and of the highest order and knocks spots of a certain Boston band’s take on this. If only Tyler and Perry could be this authentic.
Dead Dirty Dinosaurs – ‘Bad Timing’ (Riot Records / Golden Robot Records) ‘Bad Timing’ is the latest single from the Dead Dirty Dinosaurs and the third release with the force that is Riot Records and their parent company Golden Robot Records. Bad Timing is a very decent dirty understated riff with great production that helps the song as you focus on the melody and that dirty low-down riff. Pre-order/pre-save Bad TimingHERE
Hells Ditch – ‘The Likes Of Us’ Laying down some modern American sounding indie post-punk rock the likes of Menzingers and not a million miles from the Americana of Gaslight Anthem but the punkier end. The one thing I was surprised at was these guys are from Lincoln and not Boston. They have the potential to be a big noise on the scene over on this sound of the pond.
Radio Days – ‘I Gotta Love’ (snap Records) Power Pop with a bit of edge sees Radio Days knock out a classic slice of Rock and Roll with a cool riff and lick and harmonies that hit you right in the heart. A backbeat the love to use and the perfect partner for the Subways or More Kicks. You even get a free pin badge with this slice of Milanese magic.
Rod Hamdallah – ‘Crawling Back’ (Hound Gawd! Records) Atlantas Swampy Garage Rock played like they’ve just crawled out of the ’50s and have landed on the ’60s shoreline. With a great melody that does what the geeta does, it’s retro rock n roll at its finest with a good hook on the chorus. Sure you could dance to it and wig out on the solo. as for the instrumental on the B side? Perfect for a 7″ b side I guess all weird and mystical for a band from Georgia. Always worth checking out.
Automatics – ‘Octonary’ (Blank Generation Records) Limited pressing on white vinyl this record sees the Pistols Steve Jones and the Legend that is Johnny Thunders guest appearance email steve@blankgeneration.show for details of how to order your copy. The songs of real interest are obviously ‘Wild One’ featuring Thunders iconic guitar tone wailing in on the solo and the track ‘Peace On Earth’ for the equally iconic tones of Steve Jones.
The Octonary EP features 4 previously unreleased tracks by the Automatics and is a limited edition release of 300 only on 7″ white vinyl, and comes housed in a luxury sleeve with 4-page lyrics and info booklet. The purpose of the EP is to promote the EIGHT albums of unreleased Automatics material that is now ready to download and stream on most platforms. For a cheeky peek at the Jonesy influenced ‘Peace On Earth’ open the video. Well worth having in your collection that’s a no brainer.
Top of the list of “bands I should have seen live before I moved”, Pussycat And The Dirty Johnsons are back with album number four, ‘Beast’. Check out any live footage of the band, and you’ll see what I mean. Puss was born for the stage, and with the perfectly fuzzed riffs of Dirty Jake and tribal drums of Filfy Antz, they are a three-piece who command your attention.
Don’t panic, but some songs are over three minutes long, and one breaks the four-minute barrier. Almost prog length by their standards, but the music remains as feral as ever. As ‘Lying In My Bed’ batters your speakers with the fear of “existential dread”, yet you can still shake your bones to it.
There is much, righteous anger and venom across the twelve songs, which shouldn’t surprise anyone familiar with their work. Keeping an essentially live sound works well, ‘Doin It’ is perfect for a sweaty club, encouraging you to follow your dreams, regardless of the doubters. Zero tolerance of idiots and hidden agendas runs through ‘Not Your Baby’, ‘Knee Jerk’ and ‘Shit’, while ‘Stale’ despairs at the small town attitudes of “Basingstoke psychosis” (in itself a good title). ‘Abuser’ is plain talking, while the four plus minutes is devoted to ‘Do Ya Feel Me?’, their unique take on a love song, when you wait to see each other again.
‘Hey Honey’ builds from an almost hushed intro, a list of the inevitable judgements of others for carving out your own path. Puss and co. chose their own way long ago. It’s the only way to be happy, and they’re on fine form here.
Something for the Week sir? how about the brand new cartoon video from The Cutthroat Brothers? Of course here goes.
Next how about some Dizzy Reed and his Hookers & Blow jazz up the Stones classic ‘Rocks Off’
Finally this week we bring you the brand new video from Bullets & Octanes “Riot Riot N Roll” the band have released a new single and video for “Ain’t Gonna Be Your Dog”:
I just visited your website and there are Kiss levels of merch on there. When can we see the cutthroat bobbleheads? and what merch would you love to see for the Cutthroat Brothers?
Jason: bobbleheads would be fantastic! Just looking for somebody that will make a two-headed monster version. We’ve talked about Cutthroat Brothers barber products, you know, pomades, shampoo…maybe it should all be blood-red liquid but not stick to the skin. Or maybe it should?
Donny: potato chips, you just can’t eat one.
Some footage from the European tour is on youtube it looks insane, how good was the tour?
Donny: The most fun on tour ever, one night I tried to hug everyone in the place.
Jason: The tour was fantastic! Really great crowds and venues. The welcome for our first time was overwhelming. People screaming and dancing and not letting us stop playing until we played every song we knew. Tours really are about connecting with people on a personal level and that happened a lot. I’d never been to any of the places we went so everything was really fresh and exciting. We were supposed to be on tour right now. Life is cancelled due to Covid, so we wait patiently to return to work and the road.
COVID-19 has derailed everyone are there plans for a return to Europe? What about UK shows?
Jason: Absolutely, We will be coming back as soon as the dust settles. We can’t wait to play the UK! Punk is still alive more across the pond, so wherever people want us that’s where we will be.
The live album sounds amazing will it see a vinyl release?
Donny: I’m hoping Houndgawd will do the vinyl once life is somewhat back to normal.
Jason: Definitely we will get it out on vinyl. We will hopefully everything on vinyl as soon as the pressing plants start up again. A run of white vinyl for ‘Live in Europe’ would be fun.
How do you approach songwriting as a pair or alone?
Jason: Generally I will sketch out the song to a point then we will arrange it and finish them when we see each other. The demos sound a lot different than the final version because i just sketch them on my iphone. We are hoping to release a collection of demos sometime soon for our hardcore fans. I always enjoy listening to ones from my favorite artists.
Donny: There’s a major component to our writing that I think, makes this work, no negativity, we are friends, we do this to have fun.
What were the decisions you had about doing this whole thing as a pair and not heading for a more traditional band set up with bass or piano or two guitars? Is it something you might look into in the future?
Donny: funny you should ask, we have a collaboration awaiting the record presses with the legend Mike Watt. He had offered to play on our next record (‘Taste for Evil’) in our very first interview for our Debut album on his radio show. We took him up on it and sent him the tracks, somehow emails were in the spam folder and we missed having him on the record or so we thought. That said after ‘Taste for Evil’ was set to come out we found the Watt tracks, we have 4 collaborations from ‘Taste for Evil’ that we’ll release as soon as Houndgawd is back up and running full speed.
Jason: It was an accident. We didn’t intend it to be just two people, but it felt right and we didn’t see the need for more. We make creative decisions really quickly this way and with Jack Endino to steer us we can get a lot done fast. We don’t want to risk the squeaky wheel too. You know, the other person who is always arguing or being late, wearing shorts to gigs, you know THAT one.
Have you recorded using a full set up or are you open to ideas?
Jason: We are open to whatever for sure! It just hasn’t happened yet and probably won’t soon as long as it feels good to us.
Tell us a bit about your background in music?
Donny: Mudhoney, ELO, EODM, AC/DC, ZZ Top. My grandma was a classical pianist and the she taught piano and organ played at funerals and weddings. My dad was a keyboardist as well he had a band pretty much my whole life and then went into playing for church. My parents said I started playing at 2, I don’t remember but I also don’t remember not playing.
Jason: My father is a preacher, so I started playing in our family country western gospel band touring around doing Carter Family songs and such around age 13 I think. Early country and rockabilly were my first loves, then my folks bought me a Louie Louie compilation that started with Kingsmen and ended with Black Flag. My parents accidentally introduced me to punk rock and it was downhill from there.
what plays on the stereo in the barbershop? maybe a short back and sides or sponsored ‘something for the weekend’ could be on the merch desk at future shows?
Donny: Punk, Metal, Garage, Rockabilly, rap, hip hop.
You teamed up with German label Hound Gawd Records (which you mentioned) they’ve released some great records how did that pairing come about?
Jason: Oliver from Hound Gawd! Got a copy of ‘Taste for Evil’ when we just finished it. It was mentioned to him by our shared publicist, Ilka. He dug it and the rest is history. We love Hound Gawd! All the bands are great.
Donny: I can’t say enough about if you’re putting out your art do it with someone who loves what you do or even more than you, this is why we are with Houndgawd.
What plans have you got in the future? Recording? touring? I heard you were ready to record album three in March. Did that happen? is Jack Endino involved again? What can we expect on the next record? Is Mike Watt playing on it at all? If you could get a bunch of guest musicians to join on the next record who would you love to ask?
Jason: Jack is definitely involved with everything we do. He really is the third Cutthroat Brother. Mr. Watt has offered to play on stuff again, yes, but we don’t know any specifics. We have another album planned out. We had to push it to a safer time because of Covid but we will be at it ASAP. I’ve asked Jesse Hughes from Eagles of Death Metal, he said he would be on it but we will see. I would love to get him and Jennie Vee on the next one. Cross your fingers.
This video was shot at the legendary Berlin punk club, ‘Wild at Heart’ on the first night of the tour. Burlesque troupe The Velvet Creepers joined the band on stage that night. The track is taken from their second album ‘Taste For Evil’ released on Hound Gawd! Records and was reviewed Here During the global lockdown the band released an excellent live album recorded on their recent European Tour check out the review and link to buy it Here
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