(Atlanta, GA) Has it been 10 years of Ravagers already?! Those rabid Baltimore rockers are back with a 10 year anniversary release of their debut EP “Livin In Oblivion”. Originally pressed in 2013 on Virginia’s Cricket Cemetery Records, “Living In Oblivion” has been long out of print and we all agreed it needed to be back out there. No more paying exorbitant discogs prices anymore. Also, this EP has some Ravagers classics, that are also live staples, like “Suicide Bomber” and “Cold Heat”. These tracks set the tone for Ravagers follow up releases “Natural Instinct” (2015) and “Badlands” (2022).
“Livin In Oblivion” was produced in 2013 by longtime friend of the band and guitarist Matt Gabs (Biters/Fishnet Stalkers), who later joins the Ravagers, first appearing on their latest release “Badlands” (2022). The 2023 release comes with original art and insert. It was also remixed and remastered by “Badlands” producer Dan Dixon. The vinyl is available now in the US from Spaghetty Town Records and is available on all major streaming and download outlets.
First released as a limited run for RSD this iconic and memorable show is captured for the masses on vinyl and streaming with exceptional sound compared to the ropey less than perfect bootlegs that were available.
Recorded on November 15, 2002, the concert was a benefit for striking firefighters and would be one of Joe’s last performances (he passed away a month later). The performance features a three-song reunion with Strummer’s former bandmate from The Clash, Mick Jones, who reunited on stage for the first time in almost twenty years. When I first dropped the needle on this I was awash with emotion as I heard Strummer’s voice and it weighed heavily on my mind for a while just thinking about how I’d never hear his voice again nor get the chance to see him perform. Man I loved the Clash and I loved his solo output listened to more than most in my collection over the years and hearing his mid-song banter here is emotional. Dropping the C Bomb on Simonon and Topper before ‘Police And Thieves’ makes me smile even after hearing it for the umpteenth time. The band Strummer had put together under the Mescaleros banner were always loose yet tight and usually nailed the songs, even the old Clash classics when they opened that particular war chest.
It has to be said that the remastering and production on this official version is exceptional and every instrument has its space when played loudly through a good set of monitors or headphones it’s exceptional what you can hear spilling out. If it’s overdubbed later on I know not but frankly, I don’t care either – it’s a moment in time and one tinged with sadness and glory. the Clash penned some of their generation’s finest tunes no question and Strummer’s solo output isn’t too shabby either but I guess this release is all about the reunion however fleeting and brief. I’m glad it happened and they got to share this moment together and that it was captured for everyone to enjoy.
‘Johnny Appleseed’ and ‘Coma Girl’ sit very nicely alongside ‘Police On My Back’ and ‘I Fought The Law’ but truth be told I’d have paid £30 just for the encore with Jones ‘Bank Robber’, ‘White Riot’ and the appropriate ‘Londons Burning’ are killer, no doubt about it sloppy but oh so sweet. Rest In Peace Joe your body is sorely missed but your soul lives on and on. Buy It!
Ex-Humpers Scott Drake & Jeff Fieldhouse lead this group along with Saul Koll, guitarist also from Lovesores, 8-Foot Tender & The World’s Strongest Men bands with bassist Anna Andersen & drummer Tim Connolly. Vinyl and CD are coming down the track so until such a time we’ll have to go down the digital route. Now stop monkeying around and pay attention this is serious. What we have for you is ten whoppers bristling with energy, enthusiasm, and above all quality. Of course, when it carries that seal of quality that is Scott ‘Guerrilla Deluxe’ Drake you know it’s going to be good at the very least.
We’ve spent the last few years being drip-fed tunes from this beat combo but no full-length album and wondering with the changing times and pandemics maybe our expectations were too high but then it just dropped ‘Under The Dagger’ is a bit of a slow-burning beast. Ten slices of that wonderful garage Rock n Roll burning the punk rock at one end and the Rock solid timeless Rock n Roll the other, meeting in the middle for an explosive blaze of glory.
Guerrilla Teens are: Deaf Jeff (guitar – vocals) Teenage Tim (drums – vocals) Guerrilla Deluxe (vocals) Anna Bananas (bass – vocals) Saul Teen (guitar)
Swedish rockers release the retro rama-lama-retro album of the year. Put on your high heels and dust off the old TOTP albums the party is about to kick off.
Velvet Insane were formed in 2013 as a four piece outfit but by the time of their self titled debut album they were billed as a duo.
The first album took them around the world touring Europe, Japan, USA & Australia.
Their critically acclaimed debut was a fresh mix between classic rock, pop, inches of folk influences and it also contained traces of early 70’s British glam rock. And the band kept walking that glam track and now they’re back as a trio and this time it’s glam glitter boogie all over.
They hired the cult glamrockers Diamond Dogs frontman Sulo as a producer and together they’ve created a bright shining monster. You can hear the Sulo influence for sure in the epic opener ”Bamalama Breakout’ with all its mid seventies Glam rock n hollerbaloo going on its loud and proud and leaving you in no doubt that Rock and Roll is in the house now crack open the bubbly.
‘High Heeled Monster’ is certainly well titled if you’re looking for a description as to what this sounds like. ‘Boogie Star’ has a cowbell and a hoof footed Rock solid beat and big chorus its Mott The Hoople for the 21st Century and I’m down with that.
Smooth pop harmonies pumped up by heavy drums and barbed wire guitars and singer that wear it well. It brings back memories of a time when Slade, TREX, Bowie & Mott we’re topping the charts.
From the catchy singalong choruses of the pop gems “Velvet Tongue”, “Riding the Skyways” & “Sound of Sirens” to the frantic boogie energy in barroom stompers “Driving down the mountain”, “Backstreet Liberace” & “Spaceage DJ”, it’s the real thing.
You also get a glimpse of Ziggy Stardust in the acoustic ballad “Midnight sunshine serenade”.
Velvet Insane are a band that plays with their hearts on their sleeves and it’s satisfaction guaranteed.
Dregen and Nicke Andersson from The Hellacopters jumps in the backseat in “Backstreet Liberace” and just like Rolling Stones honored the tradition of Muddy Waters blues Velvet Insane takes on the job to keep rock ’n’ roll alive.
NEW ALBUM ‘LOST AT SEA‘ OUT OCTOBER 20TH VIA SNAKEFARM (UK / IRELAND) PRE-ORDER HERE
NEW SINGLE – ‘DAMAGE CONTROL’ Filmed around the UK from fan footage
Chris Shiflett has announced the release of his new album Lost At Sea, which will be coming out October 20th via Snakefarm in the UK & Ireland. Pre-order here.
To coincide with the announcement, he has released the sultry summer anthem ‘Damage Control’, which comes with a video of fan filmed footage from his triumphant sold-out UK headline tour earlier this year.
Most of the new album was recorded in Nashville, working with his producer and collaborator Jaren Johnston, frontman of The Cadillac Three, as well as the songwriter behind nearly a dozen Number 1 country hits.
“We wrote a lot of these songs during the lockdown,” recalls Shiflett, who spent much of the pandemic at home in Southern California. “Then I began making trips to Nashville to work with Jaren. He and I have a lot of overlap, in terms of the music we like. We made a guitar-centric record that encapsulates everything I’ve been listening to over the years, from the most country songs I’ve ever recorded to punk rock and even songs that sound like a California version of The Clash.”
‘Damage Control’ is the track he’s referencing, which strays further from the country influence than most of the album. It’s also the only ‘old’ tune that Johnston and Shiflett included on Lost at Sea.
“All the other tunes were written in the months leading up to recording, but when Jaren and I were sorting out which songs to do he mentioned something about The Clash and I remembered this old one I’d demoed about 15 years prior,” recalls Shiflett.
With its layers of reverb, pulsing percussion and Echoplex tape delay, ‘Damage Control’ went through a number of versions before reaching its final form in the studio with Johnston.
“I love that the musical inspiration on this one was late-stage Clash, but we wound up layering it with banjos and what-not. Definitely takes it somewhere else. Ska-mericana?” Shiflett laughs. “There’s nothing better than when influences converge taking you places you never expected.”
Caught halfway between the honky-tonk saloon and the punk rock dive bar, Lost at Sea is both eclectic and electric, making room for alt-country crunch, guitar-driven grit and sharp songwriting. Tying that mix together is Shiflett himself, a musical Renaissance Man whose influences are every bit as wide-ranging as his resumé.
The new album also features a stellar cast of Americana all-stars. Among them are fellow guitar slingers Charlie Worsham, Tom Bukovac, and Nathan Keeterle, all three of whom laced the record with fiery fretwork. Shiflett also teamed up with several co-writers, partnering with Kendell Marvel, Cody Jinks, and others to fill Lost at Sea with storylines that pack as hefty a punch as the music itself.
The new single follows the release of the two-steppin’ fuzz-fuelled ‘Dead And Gone’ and the southern rockin’ ‘Black Top White Lines’, both setting the flavour of the album with its signature honky-tonk-meets-rock-and-roll sound and blending the lines between his previous albums – 2017’s honky-tonk homage West Coast Town and 2019’s gritty Americana fuelled Hard Lessons.
‘I Inside the Old Year Dying’ is PJ Harvey’s tenth album, and her first in seven years. Throughout her career, she has always ensured that each phase of her progress has taken her somewhere new, but her latest music is audacious and original even by her own standards. Full of a sense of a cyclical return to new beginnings, it combines its creative daring with a sense of being open and inviting, inthe most fascinating way. The new songs, Harvey says, offer “a resting space, a solace, a comfort, a balm-which feels timely for the times we’re in.”
And that intro from the press release is as good a place to start as any, I started listening to Polly Jean back in the time of 5OFT Queenie coming out, stocking Dry when I first opened my own record shop, have moved with her through virtually every stage of her career and watched and listened as every LP has unravelled each with their own personality each echoing a time in Polly Jean’s life making a statement from a snaphot, but always moving forward, the music itself constantly changing and adapting and very much as with people like Bowie and Nick Cave fans will be drawn to a specific era, a genre and sometimes not move forward with the artist happy in the now, unwilling to Embrace change, not something that can be levelled at artists such as Polly Jean.
So what does the LP give us again drawing on Polly Jeans words from the press release
” In the album’s liminal world, scattered with biblical imagery and references to Shakespeare, all these distinctions dissolve. “I’m somewhere where I’ve not been before,” Harvey says. “What’s above,what’s below, what’s old, what’s new, what’s night, what’s day? It’s all the same, really–and you can enter it and get lost. And that’s what I wanted to do with the record, with the songs, with the sound, with everything”.
Opening up with “Prayer at the gate” your instantly drawn into that world of Aural soundscapes faved by Warren Ellis and the Producer flood’s work really draws you in, this is a very different PJ Harvey, the voice an instrument in the whole rather than a lead. Next up “Autum leaves” has quite a Soulful almost funk feel in the backdrop, but the vocals push the song forward in a very different way almost sitting outside the music dipping into and weaving through the Sound. “Lonesome tonight” again has a very different feel a song that stops you dead and you just have to listen, the story unfolding takes me to a parallel with the Orianthi Poem written in old Cornish, this is probably my fave on the LP, it twists and turns and is I think one of the strongest PJ Vocal performances I’ve heard.
“Seen and I “ hints at past sounds but again the vocals move in a very different direction, the John Parish influence I think coming to the fore. “The Nether edge” weaves a very different soundscape almost industrial in its reverb and repetition, but again the vocals sit outside moving in and out, The acoustic guitar that introduces “I inside the old year dying” drifts away as that industrial soundscape takes over, the music changing and adapting to the story being told. “All Souls” enters almost hesitantly the piano and vocals overtaken as the distortion and reverb comes in. At this point you realise how strong the Vocals are throughout this LP I would definitely say this is one Of PJ’s strongest ever vocal performances,
Moving through the rest of the LP “A child’s question July” “I inside the old I dying” with its stop start animation led video, “August” with its initial Piano led soundscape, flows seamlessly into “a Child’s question July”which has an almost mystical feel weaving a fairytail picture, “A noiseless noise” finishes things up with again one of my faves of the LP tearing you back with power and intensity to earlier PJ Harvey works.
This is a powerful LP but in a number of ways, it holds your attention and is very definitely one to listen to all the way through, for someone new to PJ Harvey I’m not sure that it’ll set things up for you to explore the artists earlier work this Isn’t ‘Stories from the City’, ‘Is this Desire’, ‘Dry’ or ‘Pure’, its also a long way from ‘The Hope Six Demolition Project’ and ‘Let England shake’, but if you sit and listen you can pick up pieces from them all just re-interpreted. It might not hit you first listen, but stick with it I think it’ll creep on to my LP of the year list come December!!
Tommy Stinson Should need no introduction however there might well be a whole generation who’ve not had the chance to appreciate the genius of his work be it as an integral member of The Replacements or his solo work, Perfect, Bash & Pop or as a member of Guns N Roses or Soul Asylum. His catalogue of work is extensive as its magnificent and has stretched over four decades. is a revered American musician who has enjoyed a significant four-decade-plus career. He’s appeared on recordings by the Old 97’s, Moth, and BT, plus played bass on Puff Daddy’s ‘It’s All About the Benjamins (Rock Remix)’. There you go kids go look that lot up and then bow down at his feet.
Stinson’s latest venture is Cowboys in the Campfire. A duo with Chip Roberts, their debut album ‘Wronger’ is Americana as apple pie or a star-spangled banner, and whilst he’s dabbled at various points it’s always been fleeting. This bad boy is on a well-trodden trail on horseback with his buddy and they’re suckin’ on cigars and twanging them strings be it Ukulele, pedal steel, or yeehaw, sorry I mean guitar. The very first song, ‘Here We Go Again’, sets the tone; Stinson is on ukulele, singing about the ardors of creativity, while horns swell and the only hint of percussion is from the tapping of feet by the musicians in the room. Toss another log on that there fire boy.
An obvious hanging post would be some Steve Earle and of course, Johnny Cash it’s broad and passionate from the rough ‘n’ ready rockabilly of ‘That’s It’ its a thigh slapping salamander stick thumping banger. ‘We Ain’t’, is authentic and heartfelt, and that’s what draws you in. Other songs such as ‘Schemes’, ‘Souls’ and lead single ‘Dream’ prove the man’s genius at this here songwriting thang be it punk rock or pop and some country has got the whole shooting match sorted. what an ace pop songwriter Stinson still is. If this is the best ten songs he had then his work here is done and he knows it’s nailed.
The genesis of Cowboys in the Campfire actually dates back over a decade. Roberts is the uncle of one of Stinson’s exes and was previously a gun-for-hire guitar slinger. “We’ve been really good friends and writing partners pretty much since we met, writing rock tunes to ballads or country or Americana,” explains Stinson. Neither expected their association to become a going musical concern, but the mid-2010s saw a Guns N’ Roses hiatus prior to Stinson venturing into Replacements and Bash & Pop reunions, so things got a little more serious. “We thought, ‘Let’s go play some shows and fuck around.’ I took some songs he and I had written together, some of my solo stuff, some covers, some other stuff of mine he plays.”
‘Schemes’ is a lush ballad with a swirling organ and a gently picked guitar with a tear-jerking vocal melody superbly delivered. Hell, they could have headed to Memphis and locked themselves away in an office out the back of Sun Studio and worked 9 to 5 to get these done and the living breathing proof would have to be ‘Fall Apart Together’. After only having the briefest time together listening to this I’m sure some Stinson fans will be disappointed it’s not a full-throttled rocker but given time to get used to it I’m sure they’ll appreciate its songwriting genius or if they’re sad about it they can listen to the tear-jerking ‘Hey Man’.
By the time we get to ‘We Ain’t,’ the guys in the band are cooking and there’s plenty of meat on the bone with some lovely twanging going down over the solid acoustic chords. As the album moves gracefully to its finale with ‘Souls’ via some wonderful hazy slide guitar.
This really impressive record waves goodbye with the poptastic ‘Dreams’ with its late-night vocal and honking guitar its signs off in style, with a doffed stetson and a cowboy shirt it’s so long from Tommoy and the gang until next time just don’t take another decade unless you fancy doing another Bash & Pop or pretty please Replacements, but this will more than do. Now throw some ribs on that campfire and let’s do this again.
For under £20 you too can own a fine quality record of the debut album from power pop punks The Exploding Hearts. Their story is one of tragedy and a band dealt the most extraordinery end in music. There was talk of a documentary about the band but that seems to have gone all quiet and the one remaining member has surfaced to promote this here release, which is the shining light that has come out of this incredable story, apart from the fantyastic bunch of songs that made it to this record and the comp ‘Shattered’.
Four snotty kids with a bunch of Boys like power pop anthems enter a cheap studio and lay down some tracks that clock in at less than half an hour and subsequently blow people’s minds then tragedy strikes and the dream is gone. Kicking off with the majestic ‘Modern Kicks’ as good a power pop punk rock anthem you’ll ever hear, yup it’s that fuckin’ good.
I could have reviewed it from the original I own but I wanted to wait for the remastered to land with the bonus tracks but thanks to Third Man awful distro it was in the shops a few weeks before my copy arrived from their mail-order and almost ten UK pounds cheaper on Amazon but that’s a debate for another day. Where were we? Oh yes ‘Modern Kicks’ what a tune, an absolute gold standard banger. What a legacy to leave behind man some bands have been at it for decades and never wrote a song close to that, but, there’s more. This record is fantastic. House in a nice gatefold and with a decent loud remaster at least Third Man has done the band’s memory proud on that front.
Theres a new wave melody at every turn its like Rockpile if they were late teens mixed with the Boys mixed with valley of the dolls mixed with a hint of The Jam its none more evident than on ‘Throwaway Style’ or the epic and punchy ‘Thorns In Roses’ with the snotty melody and rapid beats underpinned by the chiming guitars before some serious boogieing.
This band could also seriously boogie on down with the best of them – from the Stooges one fingered piano drill on ‘Boulevard Trash’ to the acoustic baladeering on the dreamy ‘Jailbird’ turning the dial back as far as the Kinks or The Who for inspiration but you’re never far away from a Johnny Thunders inspired guitar lick like the snotty ‘Still Crazy’ with its cool as bv’s. As much as I love this album its forever steeped in tragedy but its one hell of a record and Third Man have done them proud here.
With a couple of remixes nailed onto the end is a welcome addition but I can’t urge you enough if you’ve never heard these cats then do it and buy this album – you absolutely won’t be disappointed – these songs rule and have aged superbly well. Long live The Exploding Hearts their flame is still buring thanks to reissues like this. Adam “Baby” Cox, Matt “Lock” Fitzgerald, and Jeremy “Kid Killer” Gage rest in peace fellas your legacy is forever preserved. Long live the Exploding Hearts.
To celebrate the band’s 30th anniversary, the folks at Damaged Goods Records are releasing a double CD/vinyl compilation of dayglo, D.I.Y bubblegum punks, Helen Love. 30 years? I can’t remember where I first heard them, possibly Mark and Lard on the late shift. It’s like they’ve always been here.
From ‘Yeah, Yeah, We’re Helen Love’ onwards, it’s a reassuring trawl through their back catalogue. No one wants a drum n bass/free jazz Helen Love album. It was no wonder that Joey Ramone invited them to New York, they share similar DNA; instantly memorable tunes for sunny days, or when you need to pretend that the sun is shining. Most of them fly past in under three minutes, always guaranteed to raise a smile. Whether it’s ‘Beat Him Up’ or ‘King Of Kung Fu’, they put their Casio keyboard and Woolworths guitar to good use. Their hand made, primary colour record sleeves were designed by necessity, but perfectly suited the tunes.
‘So In Love With You’ would sit nicely in John Shuttleworth’s set, a real compliment in my book! Oof!
They even had the nerve to nick the title ‘Leader Of The Pack’ for one of their songs. ‘So Hot’ should be the theme to your summer holiday. This is ear worms a-go-go. There’s ‘Joey Ramoney’, of course, the perfect fan response song. I can even forgive their cut-up of ‘Wig Wam Bam’, and Joey himself appears on ‘Punk Boy’, a joyous duet.
As it’s looking like we’ll have a ‘Golden Summer’, this is the place to acquaint yourself with Helen Love. Over 30 songs. Tune into their own ‘Summer Pop Radio’, break out the ice pops and stop being so serious. Let’s go!
We all know the story by now of how this record came to life whilst the main protagonist and only original member Mike Peters was in Hospital fighting pneumonia after a breakdown in his medication against his long-term leukaemia battle. Armed with a ward of Doctors a guitar and a headful of ideas as well as some PMA, Peters wasn’t sure his voice would hold up so set about recording the latest Alarm record as a way of fighting the good fight and probably for his own sanity and way of dealing with his latest battle.
‘Forwards’ begins with the Title track and on first impression, it’s a fairly standard Alarm sounding song. Nothing wrong with settling into a record and easing in on familiar ground (call it safe, unsure or just setting out one’s stall). It’s ‘The Returning’ that dials up the Rock with another big chorded song, with plenty of digital tweaks and buzz flyovers adding texture to the song. The lyrics grab your attention where Peters, staring into the abyss of his predicament needs to let it out to exercise the demon in the room. and for such a positive man, maybe, negative thoughts have infiltrated. Feelings that he’s reached the end of the road and a terrifying reality winds up in his lyrics. Chilling and a moment where I’m stopped in my tracks, however, I’m still waiting for this record to really grab me musically. sure the backstory is nuts and most mortals wouldn’t even contemplate picking up a guitar.
I love that Mike Peters still writes and releases new music and through a chequered career he’s had very high highs, from the humble beginnings of the originallineupp through an upward trajectory they amassed a hardcore following that was steadfast through some savage attacks in the press butgalvanizedd them somewhat until that night in Brixton. Then a solo output that released records like ‘Breathe’ and ‘Rise’whicht were exceptional records along with the incredibly creative poppy fields project he’s kept me coming back for more through decades and projects like Coloursound and Jack Tars or Dead Men Walking Every time you think thats it he’s come back with something special.
By the time I’ve reached ‘Love And Forgiveness’ with a gentler song with hushed vocals, Peters has hit paydirt. Without a recognised bass player in the lineup or should that be a traditional lineup of Bass, Drum, Guitar, and vocal its definitely a talking point, however, whoever is playing the bass lines throughout the track should pat themselves on the back it’s a real draw and pulls you in on an excellent song and one of the records real high points.
Side one closes with the rockin’ ‘Next’ and again with some exceptional solos and fills it’s a smooth uptempo song that is really good. I like the attack and the production from George Williams it’s just the right side of “Big production” and has enough dirt under its fingernails to appeal to the cool kids it’s a winning formula that Peters should do more of, no doubt about it.
Side two opens with the rush of ‘Whatever’ a great up-tempo electric meets acoustic intro that breaks down that’s anthemic but steering far enough away from being lush and delving into cliché territory with lyrics that can be interpreted to light at the end of the tunnel of the dreadful time this record began its life in. It is alright as Peters leads the gang vocals and whatever gets you through is always good.
New technology meets old as ‘Transition has its throbbing technology layered beneath the Baritone guitar as it licks around the throb whilst the layers of electric guitars fall like an avalanche into the chorus before the solo but its Peters vocals that hit front and center and any fear he might have had whilst in his Hospital cell are put to bed with an exceptional sounding delivery.
‘Love Disappearing’ is the most sounding Alarm song on offer with its ‘Strength’ like intro but when it gets going its got an aggressive edge that’s good to hear sure it’s polished and big but it’s like its been given all the knobs and whistle treatment but then been wiped with sandpaper to give it grit and edge and that works and the frailties of Peters limits on his vocals works well and the harmonica honk is well placed.
‘New Standards’ is possibly the most Alarm sounding song of the lot and will play to the gallery and that’s fine. I hope it’ll grow on me like a lot of this record which to my ears is a whole step up from the last few that were ok but didn’t enthuse me apart from the odd track. This is far better on first impressions and even though I’ve only had a few plays but my first impression is, it’s got a lot of excellent songs and avoids cliches that people like to hammer Peters for. I look forward to hearing some of these songs live and giving them the live test but ‘Forwards’ is a record that does have some instant appeal but I hope it’s got depth that will keep me coming back for more.
The record finishes with ‘X’ as the band wrestles to tame a beast that twists and turns and meanders through its verses with layered vocals and a scuffing riff. Some excellent sounding and prominent drum fills that work well through some very wordy verses its a top tune to close off the record. Peters empties what’s in his head and does it well as he puts a life into some sort of perspective reaching clarity as the song unfolds. I love the use of harmonica and where the verse breaks with the chaotic loops and keys layer add something different and then we go back in and rise again. an exceptional song to close off a thoroughly enjoyable album.
I kept an open mind about ‘Forwards’ as I didn’t want to reach unrealistic highs for one of my favourite recording artists and I think my strategy has paid off. I can reap the rewards of a really impressive album. I haven’t enjoyed an Alarm album this much since ‘Under Attack’ and I know its early doors. I hope that this album grows and gets better with every play and I still feel the love in months to come as the earworms burrow down and take hold. Buy it!
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