The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project – ‘The Task Has Overwhelmed Us’ (Glitterhouse Records)

The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project – ‘The Task Has Overwhelmed Us’ (Glitterhouse Records)

Featuring Dave Gahan, Nick Cave, Debbie Harry, Mark Lanegan, Warren Ellis, Mick Harvey, Lydia Lunch, Mark Stewart, Jim Jones, Jim Jarmusch, Peter Hayes, The Coathangers, Suzie Stapleton, Duke Garwood & more. If that list doesn’t set your musical taste buds tingling then I don’t know what will. Quite simply I got excited way back when I first heard there was going to be a volume four of Jeffrey Lees sessions. I loved Gun Club from the very first time I heard their music and everything thereafter moving through the posthumous releases I couldn’t get enough so when these releases came out and seeing the list of contributors I was delighted and this is no exception.

Ten years in the making by the late Gun Club titan’s guitarist Cypress Grove, the Project has always
aimed to highlight Pierce as one of America’s most fascinatingly influential singer-songwriters of
the last century while propelling his outpourings into modern times by placing it in the hands of
former collaborators, friends and fans. Following 2009’s We Are Only Riders, 2012’s The Journey Is Long, and 2014’s Axels and Sockets, The Task Has Overwhelmed Us presents stellar interpretations of tracks from Pierce’s Gun Club and solo canons along with fresh works constructed from rehearsal skeletons its simply exquisite. Described as a wild ride doesn’t do it justice from these skeletons and Frankenstein songs have been fleshed out into lean mean rockin machines from Depeche modes Dave Gahan’s opening haunted piano ballad take on ‘Mother of Earth’ through, Mark Lanegan singing ‘Go Tell The Mountain’ backed by Ellis and Cave (who back Jeffrey himself on ‘Yellow Eyes’) is simply haunting and the warmth in the vocal is spine-tingling. Cave duetting beautifully with Debbie Harry again on ‘On the Other Side’. The blitzkrieg bop of ‘Debbie By The Christmas Tree’ is only matched by a thumping Jim Jones ‘Going Down The Red River’.

If it’s beautiful balladeering then Suzie Stapleton doing ‘Secret Fires’ will give you the chills. But the Debbie Harry and Nick Cave duet is simply wonderful no need for superlatives it walks the walk and talks the talk. there are eighteen tracks on offer and I could recount them all and their majestic beauty but I’ll trust you to buy this and revel in the genius and beauty of the music and these interpretations. Jeffrey Lee Pierce went too soon, way too soon he had so much more to offer on top of what he did leave us. Just buy it! it’s worth every second of your time.

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Author:Dom Daley

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Suzie Stapleton ‘Angel Speak’ video

Suzie Stapleton ‘Angel Speak’ video

from album  ‘WE ARE THE PLAGUE’
Negative Prophet Records/Cargo Records
VOTED TOP 20 ALBUMS OF 2020 
“A dazzling debut album of guitar rock, fused with the primal spirit of blues and gospel… Blending the spirit of Patti Smith and PJ Harvey with the soul of Nick Cave and Mark Lanegan.

The album, which Stapleton self-produced, was recorded with her band which shares members with The Stranglers and Jim Jones Revue. However, ‘Angel Speak’ is a stripped back affair with Stapleton making a switch to acoustic guitar and her delicate vocal taking centre stage.

Stapleton filmed and edited the video herself, collecting footage through the changing seasons over the past year around her home town of Brighton. “A year,” she says, “when great beauty has shone from small things often taken for granted and passed by in the rush of life.” Full press release below.

Stapleton will be playing her first shows in 20 months supporting Humanist in the UK in October. She is also working on a follow up album with funding from Arts Council UK.

Suzie Stapleton
Tour Dates October 2021
Supporting Humanist 

Saturday 23rd – Academy 3, MANCHESTER
Monday 25th – The Prince Albert, BRIGHTON
Tuesday 26th – The Lexington, LONDON (Sold Out)

Mark Lanegan Band – ‘Somebody’s Knocking’ (Heavenly Recordings)

Mark Lanegan Band – ‘Somebody’s Knocking’ (Heavenly Recordings)

The single best thing about a certain internet shopping giant fucking up my recent pre-order for this the eleventh solo by Mark Lanegan and the fifth of those to come with the added “Band” moniker was that when I was chasing up my order I inadvertently got to read the tongue in cheek review on said website by one Ellie Woozle, a long-time fan of Lanegan’s who described ‘Somebody’s Knocking’ as sounding like an album of Erasure covers performed by Lee Marvin.
This really tickled me simply because whilst it might be an oversimplification of the 14 tracks contained here (after a few listens) it really isn’t that far off the mark when it comes to the super funky electro-pop of ‘Penthouse High’.
Elsewhere though the sound is much more in keeping with the Band evolution which Lanegan has been working on with musician-producer Alain Johannes ever since 2004’s excellent ‘Bubblegum’ album.
There’s the goth rock overtones of 2017’s ‘Gargoyle’ album returning right from the off with the frantic (well by Lanegan’s standard anyway) ‘Disbelief Suspension’ a track that sounds not unlike Lanegan has taken over the role of Lux Interior for one night (or song) only. Meanwhile the tracks that follow like ‘Letter Never Sent’, ‘Night Flight To Kabul’, ‘Dark Disco Jag’ and ‘Gazing From The Shore’ all could have easily fallen off peak period albums by Joy Division, The Cure, Killing Joke and The Cult, however most importantly here the choruses of these songs tower over anything Lanegan has done since that aforementioned ‘Bubblegum’ opus.
Fans of the more melancholic side of Lanegan will revel in the almost New Order goes dubstep feel of ‘Play Nero’ whilst ‘Paper Hat’ is the first time a guitar features as the main instrument on ‘Somebody’s Knocking’ and is the type of dark lullaby Mark has been wowing audiences with since he left Queens Of The Stone Age.
‘Name And Number’ and ‘Radio Silence’ get the Krautrock influence quota back on track whilst ‘War Horse’ is an understated rap delivered as only Lanegan could and in ‘Stitch It Up’ and ‘She Loved You’ the big man is surely just a club remix away from filling dancefloors worldwide.
I can’t say I’m a fan of album closer ‘Two Bells Ringing At Once’ as this track once again strays a little too close to the dour sound of latter-day U2, but that aside ‘Somebody’s Knocking’ is a huge celebration of positivity and is certainly the crooner’s most upbeat record to date.
They say good things come to those who wait, well the 2 weeks it took a certain internet shopping giant to get me a copy of ‘Somebody’s Knocking’ made it sound all the more sweeter when I did get to hear it, and whilst it doesn’t really sound like Erasure covers sung by Lee Marvin for anyone left feeling disappointed with Iggy Pop’s recent ‘Free’ album this is the near-perfect antidote to that record.
Great stuff!

buy ‘Somebody’s Knocking’ Here

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Author: Johnny Hayward