Godfathers – ‘Alpha Beta Gamma Delta’ (GodfathersRecordings2)

Godfathers – ‘Alpha Beta Gamma Delta’ (GodfathersRecordings2)

The last few albums from Godfathers, I think it’s fair to say were absolute belters. Mainstay Godfather Peter Coyne assembled some fine musicians to hold high the legacy worthy of the band’s rich tapestry and history. Post pandemic and it all changed with a fresh raft of Godfathers to carry forward the sound and fury. Two former Heavy Drapes Billy Duncanson (drums) and Richie Simpson (guitar) alongside former Damned bass player Jon Priestley with guitarist Wayne Vermaak from The Great St Louis completing the lineup for this album.

Written and recorded during the course of the Covid pandemic, the album was produced by The Godfathers’ bassist (and former Damned member) Jon Priestley giving it a glossy yet unfussy production leaving the songs room to breathe and punch their weight. A new band can offer a new lease of life for bands who’ve existed for several decades not necessarily changing the direction but shifting lanes if you like and this is no exception.  Adding an exciting, darker tone to the catalogue. ‘OCD’ borrows a riff and then proceeds to shake the foundations with a rock-solid tour de force. The chorus is simple and will get the heart rate up during live performances.

Coyne has said previously that you don’t have to like the artist to appreciate the art and constantly rotating the musicians might not endear him to many but you can’t deny the guy employs some fantastic players who buy into the music and from ‘Big Bad Beautiful Noise’, ‘Jukebox Fury’ and the superb live album ‘This Is War!’ the players brought the best out of Coyne and the tunes and I’m happy to report that this album follows suit with some very good songs being elevated by a band who gets the MO and buys into the attitude and delivers exactly what The name Godfathers legacy deserves.

‘Bring On The Sunshine’ eases you in rather than beating you over the head with volume and attack its got a cool effortless feel-good about it which is strange for Godfathers as I often feel like picking up a brick and launching it through a window but the chorus and the layers of BV’s works a treat. ‘You Gotta Wait’ is more like it from the power chords to Coyne’s spoken delivery this is what I was expecting. the chorus again is infectious before motoring back into the vverse. The rhythm is rock solid and powers the song leaving space for the guitars to weave an excellent tune.

Song titles like ‘I Hate The 21st Century’ is more like it and the jolting Clash-like melody twists towards the gang vocals that again add a texture that isn’t something I was expecting but works really well giving the song a commercial edge and a really good break down. ‘Midnight Rider’ has an arrangement and delivery that could be Iggy ‘Bla Bla Bla’ period or Bowie’s ‘Lodger’ even. Love those subtle backing vocals – whoo whoos! are always a winner. This is a commercial songwriting edge I wasn’t really expecting and am pleasantly surprised with it. The restraint shown on the playing is really good and works with the music and rather than just Rocking out (which I wouldn’t have complained about) holding back works in the song’s favour.

There is obviously a time and a place where turning the distortion up and just kicking out the jams works and that time is ‘Lay That Money Down’ where the production shines with a clear distorted guitar that hits the sweet spot whilst Billy hits that ride and drives this machine hard.

To be fair the more plays and the deeper you delve into the cuts the better this album gets. Giving some really great songs like ‘Tonight’ and the blistering ‘I’m Not Your Slave’ Hell, the acoustic ballad that is ‘There’s No Time’ is simple in its delivery and adds another texture to the flow of this record before we head into the home straight that is ‘Dead In Los Angeles’ with its brooding hazy delivery even manages something of a West coast feel to the backing vocals as the song twists and turns like the Hollywood Hills.

Closing the album is ‘I Despair’ with its Sonic Temple feel it’s a rocker that has plenty of punch from a band that is delivering throughout the album on every level. Individually these songs are as good as anything the Godfathers have delivered for the past thirty-plus years, worthy songs added to their impressive repertoire. Yet another impressive Godfathers album.

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Author: Dom Daley

The Hawks – ‘Obviously Five Believers’ (Seventeen Records)

The Hawks – ‘Obviously Five Believers’ (Seventeen Records)

Starting out in Cornwall with a box of cassette tapes, safely curated for 40 years by Stephen Duffy, then baked and extracted in London by acknowledged leaders in the field of music rescue FX, thereafter mastered for vinyl and CD in Los Angeles by Grammy Award winning engineer John Paterno, and finishing up in Warwick and Rugby with Seventeen Records, the Cassette-O-Sonic sound of The Hawks “Obviously 5 Believers” album is finally available on vinyl and CD.

 

Everybody knows the story of Steven ‘Tin Tin’ Duffy and Duran Duran right? Right.  Everybody who readys RPM is familiar with The Jacobites or Dave Kusworth Right? right well lets introduce The Hawks from Birmingham back when Five nineteen year olds  Stephen Duffy, Dave Kusworth, Dave Twist, Paul Adam’s and Simon Colley – The Hawks released just one single “Words Of Hope” in 1980 and then vanished without a trace into a world that through time created myths about lost tapes, unreleased diamonds etc etc well here are those myths – Busted!.

In 2021, with “O5B”, they have now released The Greatest Album Never Made by a ragamuffin, group of jangly guitared foppish haired rock and rollers who believed in the magic and mystery of what a band could produce.  Something that seems to have been lost in the mists of time.

Born out of punk and a Stones infused Rock and Roll dream these post punkers are what time has deemed could have and should have beens.  There are bands people have heard of but probably not heard that litter the diaries of music fans especially those in the Midlands of a certain age. Live they weren’t a mystery by people who were there and they did spawn one 7″ single but that’s it…until now.  when Duffy and Kusworth last met, Duffy, as custodian of The Hawks’ ‘tape recordings’, promised that they would one day see the light of day. Sadly this was not soon enough for Kusworth who tragically passed away suddenly in September last year amidst this wretched pandemic.

 

True to his word Duffy has finally released these ten tracks Some forty years after they were made. Forty bloody years (where did it all go?) with all ten songs being penned by Duffy ‘cept for a handful co-written by Kusworth begins with the jangly ‘All The Sad Young Men’ without the modern fineries of digital recordings this earthy time capsule is more than listenable as it lies somewhere between early Waterboys and the obvious ingredients of what was to come from these teenagers.

‘Aztec Moon’ is a dreamy acoustic slice of balladeering but once the rest of the band breaks in it floats off. There’s a beautiful naivety or innocence about the arrangments and familiarity as well as ‘Big Store’ is a timeless melody even if the lyrics needed a little work.

Songs like ‘what Can I Give?’ give the likes of The Mighty Wah!, Teardrop Explodes, and Echo And The Bunnymen a royal run for their money, and the bass line at the start of ‘A Sense Of Ending’ is majestic.  ‘Bullfighter’ could be something that the Lower East Side darlings of the late 70s such as the Voidoids would have fought over but there is a Britishness about it as well and considering this was the work of such young men its impressive stuff.

 

You do wonder after repeated listening how these songs weren’t picked up by some eager A&R bod looking to make a name for him/herself.  Had The Hawks come from the heady northwest say a budding Liverpool scene or Manchester then things might have turned out differently, very differently. ‘What It Is!’ is somewhere between the beatniks from the 60s and the baggies from the late 80s maybe they were just too cool for school and this is the best way for those who know to get their hands on a copy and their best kept secret legacy to continue on into infinity, who knows.  I’m glad I’ve heard these tunes it was well worth the wait.  I’m just gutted Dave didn’t get to hold a copy.

 

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Author: Dom Daley

Sonny Vincent releases video taken from new album

Sonny Vincent releases video taken from new album

Brand new album from living legend Sonny Vincent (Testors/The Limit). Vincent’s new album “Snake Pit Therapy” is raw, real-deal blazing Protopunk with lashings of Psychedelia and Hard Rock, all taken to the edge with Sonny’s Vincent’s secret weapons, the naked aggression in his passionate voice and his trademark caustic guitar. 15 tracks of electrifying shock-treatment, with catchy, primal screams and searing melody, “Snake Pit Therapy” is just what the doctor ordered. Songs like “The End of Light” and “Never Tired” with their heart-ripped open choruses are visceral, vital and urgent.

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Vincent’s new album “Snake Pit Therapy” is raw, real-deal blazing Protopunk with lashings of Psychedelia and Hard Rock, all taken to the edge with Sonny’s Vincent’s secret weapons, the naked aggression in his passionate voice and his trademark caustic guitar. If there is an honesty which runs through the bones in “Snake Pit Therapy” it’s because Sonny Vincent’s life and antics are more than legend, they are real, as documented in his recent book bearing the same title as this very album. In and out of homes for bad kids, committed to the Psych Ward for observation and forcibly conscripted into a tour of duty in Vietnam courtesy of the U.S. Marine Corp, Sonny Vincent’s experience of wild and tough living has awarded his songs hardness with humanity. Sincerity without mawkishness, “Snake Pit Therapy” is a glorious testament to real Rock ‘n’ Roll.

15 tracks of electrifying shock-treatment, with catchy, primal screams and searing melody, “Snake Pit Therapy” is just what the doctor ordered. Songs like “The End of Light” and “Never Tired” with their heart-ripped open choruses are visceral, vital and urgent. Sonny Vincent has venom in his fangs, and his song-writing is razor sharp.

Burning with underground spirit, never standing still, Sonny Vincent is the ultimate undestroyable outsider, most recently exploding the airwaves with his new heavy Punk Metal band The Limit, featuring Bobby Liebling of Pentagram, and garnering glowing reviews worldwide. While playing with some of the genre’s most influential names during a career which has spanned over 3 decades and 28 albums without compromise, Vincent’s music remains die hard, high octane, high voltage and high class.

“Snake Pit Therapy” rocks with a heart-heavy passion, savage smarts, and tunes that can reunite you with your own bastard youth. Are you ready to get your head rearranged by a man whose music mixes irresistible melody with a powerful and raw sound that’s more potent than a cornered king cobra? If so, you’re in urgent need of “Snake Pit Therapy”!

Cult Figures – ‘Deritend’ (Gare du Nord Records)

Cult Figures – ‘Deritend’ (Gare du Nord Records)

There are tales of bands getting together back in the heyday of new music and adventure that was the 60s ’70s & ’80s when things were new and adventures were fresh for kids who had instruments and an ambition to tread new exciting frontiers only to find that the streets weren’t paved with gold (well, not for everyone they weren’t) and fell into jobs and relationships and gave up on their dreams.  Now sometime later after they’ve had their career and kids they find they had unfulfilled passions and ambitions but had the means to investigate the songs they had written together as part of a gang and as time falls behind then they contact their former bandmates who have been through similar life journeys and find themselves thinking if only’s and what if we do it nows. We’ll its been Forty years between recordings for post-punks that are Cult Figures.

 

After trudging around the midlands during their ’77-’78 incarnation and releasing their debut in 2018 it seems only right to put out the follow up amidst a pandemic ravaged time these tracks are not old songs given a restart but have been written from 2016 onwards since they reformed and enthused they embrace punk rock attitude, pop melodies and some psychedelic Rock to mix it up with a modern-sounding record that embraces their past and tips the hat to whats gone before them from the sprightly opener ‘Chicken Bones’ through the melodic and catchy ‘Donut Life’ and energetic and excellent ‘Lights Out’.  There an alignment with some of the recent SLF songs and the opener reminds me of Kirk Brandens recent releases.

 

There is a maturity to the songs because it doesn’t sound like carefree kids that’s for sure.  ‘Silver Flames’ has an energy and a well-constructed song more power pop with the layered big acoustic guitar chords is great to hear and really well recorded with warmth and energy.

 

I see they mention that Roger Taylor from Duran Duran once held the drum throne in the band however relevant and thin the tenure is why not throw that clang! out there. They follow up ‘Silver Flame’ with ‘White Noize’  ‘Julie Anne’ that has a great floor tom thump. Again, keeping up the energy levels is good midway through the album and the chorus is uplifting before the first track to be accompanied with a video is ‘Concrete And Glass’ that nods to the past lyrically slightly reflective but with a present sound and comes across as reflective laying back after the sprightly previous songs.

Finishing off with a bit of a dancefloor filler ‘Privilege’ is a fitting full stop to a really good record. With a post-punk meets a bit of a mod vibe Cult Figures prove that it’s never too late to strap on those guitars and turn those amps up and get your groove on from releasing your debut single with Swell Maps helping out Gary Jones and Jon Hodgson should be well proud of this record shame it took so long to get here but grateful it did.  Check em out.

 

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Author: Dom Daley

Folk Devils release first new music in three decades

Folk Devils release first new music in three decades

FOLK DEVILS have returned with their first new music in 33 years. The band blazed a trail across the UK’s independent music scene of the mid-80s with their unique brand of post-punk energy, known for their acclaimed indie-chart singles ‘Hank Turns Blue’, ‘Beautiful Monster’, three John Peel sessions, plus live dates opening for Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, The Fall, The Gun Club, Screaming Blue Messiahs and others.

The 3-track Forever EP lands on 10” (clear red vinyl) and digital on 18 September via Optic Nerve Recordings and features two new compositions, the title track ‘Forever’ and ‘My Slum Soul’, plus an incendiary new version of an old live favourite ‘Ink Runs Dry’.

Recorded at London’s famous Konk Studios in North London and mixed and co-produced by Grammy Award-winning engineer Rik Simpson, the re-born Folk Devils drew inspiration for new recordings from the release of their 2016 career retrospective Beautiful Monsters (Singles & Demo Recordings 1984-86) and the excellent reactions at subsequent live shows around the UK with kindred spirits Membranes, Inca Babies, The Wolfhounds and The Cravats.

Founder members, guitarist Kris Jozajtis and bassist Mark Whiteley, reformed the group by recruiting members of a short-lived 1987 version of Folk Devils; guitarist Nick Clift and drummer John Hamilton. Together with singer Dave Hodgson they soon discovered they had created a well-oiled twin-guitar juggernaut that brimmed with the same restless, twisted blues that characterized the first and second iterations of the band from 1983-87 when they were fronted by the highly underrated and now sadly-departed singer/songwriter Ian Lowery. Hodgson, a fellow transplant from the North-East, had known Lowery in the early 80s prior to Folk Devils, when the two were in their respective post-punk bands Ski Patrol and Parting Shots.

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SMALLTOWN TIGERS unveil video for ‘Just Friends’.

SMALLTOWN TIGERS unveil video for ‘Just Friends’.
Italian upstarts SMALLTOWN TIGERS have just unveiled the video for their debut single ‘Just Friends’.
The release comes just in time for their first ever UK dates which kick off on Thursday 10 October in Southend and include an appearance at Loud Women’s 4th Birthday Party at London’s iconic Hope & Anchor venue.

Hailing from the Adriatic resort of Rimini, the Tigers hit the road last Spring for a tour with NYC powerpoppers Baby Shakes, and have been preparing their debut album for release in the New Year. The album was produced by blues-punk guru Stiv Cantarelli (Silent Strangers, J.D. Hangover) with the tracks mastered for release by legendary Detroit producer Jim Diamond (White Stripes, Dirtbombs, Sonics).

Smalltown Tigers play the following dates…

Thurs 10 Oct – The Railway Hotel, Southend-on-Sea

Fri 11 Oct – The Shacklewell Arms, Dalston, London (w/ The Speedways)

Sat 12 Oct – The Hope & Anchor, Islington, London (Loud Women 4th Birthday – onstage 5pm)

Sat 12 Oct – Biddle Bros, Clapton, London (w/ The Dublo)

Out now, ‘Just Friends’ is available from Bandcamp and all the usual digital platforms.

Dave Kusworth – The World of Dave Kusworth Volume 1 & 2 (Easy Action Records)

Dave Kusworth – The World of Dave Kusworth Volume 1 & 2 (Easy Action Records)
Dom Daley.
So when is it a good time to look back on a recording catalogue thas rich with quality yet seemingly something of an unknown quality to the general music buying population?  Right here right now I guess.  Dave Kusworth is something of an enigma in the music world he still writing and recording and making music but modern technology and social media tools have somewhat bypassed the guy and he will happily carry on in his own inimitable way creating music for his dedicated fanbase to feast upon and he’s teamed up with the good people at Easy Action Records to put together an amazing double album that spans his career and showcases just what a talent he has.
this record begins with the band he formed with the sadly passed Nikki Sudden who wrote this song whilst on acid and it was Kusworth that stole the music from the barracudas and changed the title which kinda makes it as good a place to start as any as the guitars jangle along to the uptempo beat.  Next its ‘Shame For The Angels’ from the EP of the same name that I love. Great lyrics an interesting story about what happened to the tapes of this allegedly.  Rock and Roll pirates and vagabonds to the end.
The Bounty Hunters are up next and with Glen, David and Alan  Kusworth rocked things up to a “Happy” pitch and songs like ‘Threads’ led the way in boozy rock and roll and could or possibly should have seen these guys become as popular as The Quireboys and The Dogs D’Amour. Over the next side and some The Bounty hunters rock and roll like their lives depended upon it ending up with ‘Riches To Rags’ which sort of seems quite fitting.
The second record in this collection sees a solo recording of ‘Next Tuesday’ that is taken from the fantastic ‘All The Heartbreak Stories’ and is a beautiful melancholic wander through the mind of Kusworth.
His tenure with the Tenderhooks are up next and the loose version of ‘All I’ve Got Left’ is fantastic and whilst I tend to lose the thread(no pun intended) as to what he was calling the band at the time and what album this one or that one is off because as long as the title contains the words Dave Kusworth – I’m in.  bounty Hunters or Dave Kusworth Band who knows or to be honest who really cares ‘Paint And Sugar’ is a pretty simple song and it mixes up perfectly the whole Keith and Johnny vibe with his more Waterboys tinged side.  To be fair to Kusworth having his output condensed down into twenty songs seems a bit of a headache for whoever contrived this and not a project I’d have liked bestowed upon me.  Sudden had a boxed set and I’m thinking this could easily have been the case because for every reason there is for including the rocking and excellent freak out of ‘Someone Else’s Shoes’ there must be another ten tracks you could have snook in but for consistency and variety this collection could always be considered a starting point eh?
The World Of Dave Kusworth can often be a magical and terrifying adventure and judging by the soundtrack on offer from Easy Action one that should be grasped at with both hands but the best thing is this being Vol 1 & 2 suggests there is more to come so watch this space.  Fantastic talent – fantastic legacy – Buy it!
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