Easter weekend. I made a typo typing eater weekend. It can be called that of course. A few days with the family, food, drinks, Easter eggs and most likely less time to read a blog or listen to new music. Here are ten new songs anyway, so enjoy! And, Happy Easter!Throw A Fist. The Northern Line
Just listen how
Throw A Fist starts. The Northern Line lays down an irresistible groove.
I won't say it's like The Stone Roses but the concept certainly is.
Drums and at least two percussive instruments play for 10 seconds, bar
two short bursts on a Hammond organ. Then the bass joins in and the
organ starts playing a melody. Guitar one joins the rhythm and then
guitar two starts playing the main riff over that strong groove. Only at
40 seconds the singer joins with "I never felt so low". That may be, by after that 40 seconds I'm in high spirits. What a great groove and what
an upbeat song Throw A Fist is. The Massachusetts band relive the
Britpop days of the mid 90s, with a band like The Charlatans in mind,
think its album 'Up To Here' e.g. It seems like I did not judge so
positively on The Northern Line's debut single 'Lightning Strikes', as
you cannot find it on this blog. Throw A Fist is and rightly so. What a
groove!
Nothing. Sex ScenesNothing starts with a
groove as well, but here we are in punk territory immediately. Sex
Scenes is from Milwaukee and is the kind of band that does not hold
back. Not in its music nor in its artwork. The blood vomiting skull on
its album's sleeve is somewhere between a joke and serious. The music is all
seriousness though. In just 2.14 minutes Sex Scenes tells and plays all.
Nothing is the band's first single from the first album 'Everything
Makes Me Sick', and it comes with a bang. Sex Scenes is around since
2016 but it's singer, Sarah Turbo, joined in 2021. She sounds like Amy
Taylor of Amyl and The Sniffers in an angry mood. Behind her the band
rages with a distorted bass guitar and guitars that play a great hook or
two during the song. Nothing is quite the introduction to the upcoming
album, to be released on 8 May.
Wonder. BenétUnwinding,
the big slow down comes with Wonder by singer Benét. The song starts as
a sort of 'Let Love Rule', but next reminds me more of G. Love &
Special Sauce where its rhythm is concerned. Wonder slowly evolves into a
dreamy song, where friends of Benét wonder about a topic that concerns
them, sampled into the song. This makes Wonder a song that sets itself
apart, as it is not entirely the singer's song. Musically, Wonder is a
basic song. Drums, a bass guitar is enough to kick it off. Surely but
slowly the song flashes out with more instruments and in the vocal
arrangement. It becomes an intricate weaving of instruments and voices,
that makes for interesting listening. And then other voices take over,
where the melody keeps Wonder going. It all ends abruptly, with an
acoustic guitar providing a short coda. Album 'Make 'm Laugh' is
expected on 6 June.
Scars. After ElmerWith Scars
Rotterdam band After Elmer turns the clock back for a few decades.
Around the year 2000 there were bands like Creed that started to play
songs like these, post grunge. But there's also some emo in Scars. After
Elmer builds up the song in an excellent way. An empty beginning with
strong accents from guitar and drums. Next up is the release in the
chorus, where the band goes full out. It's the kind of chorus that
deserves a moshpit. An audience that goes apeshit as one. No matter how
forceful the chorus is, the band has taken care of a strong vocal
melody. That is just one part of the song though. The dynamics work
really well and the band is an ace in getting the accents in all the
right moments. After Elmer may have hit its jackpot with Scars.
Low Hanging Fruit. Matt Tecu + Fernando PerdomoAn
instrumental is not your every day on this blog, but we have another
one with Low Hanging Fruit. I have no clue who Matt Tecu + Fernando
Perdomo are. The names are totally new to me, but this single rocks in a
very old-fashioned way. Low Hanging Fruit rocks to hard to be from a
cheesy circa 1970 movie soundtrack but the song contains the concept of
it. That organ does the trick alright. It provides this psychedelic
feel to the whole. The lead guitar is somewhere between surf and rock,
while the drums definitely make it a rock song. The bass on the other
hand is in Serge Gainsbourg territory. It gives you an impression how
diverse Low Hanging Fruit sounds. It's from an album called 'Getting
Warmer' which is out already.
Before The Fall EP. Kier Byrnes & The Kettle BurnersOn
Before The Fall Kier Byrnes & The Kettle Burners defy genre and
time with an all-time mix of folk, Irish folk, punk and what not. Of
course, rightly so you will think of The Pogues, Gogol Bordello, and
even Dropkick Murphys. It's all in the opening song 'White Russians',
right up to the mock Iwan Rebrow background singing. The instruments and
approach are more traditional than the last two mentioned bands. That makes
Kier Byrnes & The Kettle Burners a more traditional band. This
shows in the songs that follow, as the punk tempo goes out of the songs.
'When The Money's All gone' even moves into country territory. The
accordeon gives the song even a French Mediterranean flavour. The lead
guitar adds a Chris Isaak kind of rock and roll. 'Train's Off The Rails'
moves into The Paladins style rock and roll. In the following two songs
you will be surprised once again by the music on offer. Kier Byrnes
& The Kettle Burners may have a hard time choosing what kind of band
it wants to be, in each song the band convinces. Before The Fall is an EP
that deserves attention. Party time, is another good description.
A
Dutch singer working with The Who legend Pete Townsend? The answer is
yes, as you can see. The result is an indie rock track with some real
fiery guitar work by Townsend. What is more important, is that the track
caught my attention from the very start. Call Out Your Name hovers
somewhere between indie rock and a Fleetwood Mac kind of pop. Lamboo has
a voice that can compete with every female singer coming out of the
U.S. in indie rock/pop. Whether Alanis or Katy Perry, she's right up there.
The music itself is fairly basic. She let's her voice do the talking. And
then there's that lead guitar that throws "some mud against the wall in
that old sixties style" as Townsend called his contribution. At 79 he
has followed Inge Lamboo online and was especially caught by her mash up
of Arctic Monkeys with Fleetwood Mac. The result is a nice single and a
trip to London for Lamboo to see The Who and present the single to Townsend. Her
second album, 'This Is How The Future Sounds' will be released on 30
May.
Replaced
By Robots only rang a bell because of books on the fourth industrial
revolution, not because of a band. That changed with the release of this
five song mini album which the band released recently. The trio
consists of Goolkasian, Heather Joy Morgan and Adam Wade. Morgan has a
background in painting, the others have played in various bands over the
past two decades. For The Experiment they worked with producer Paul Q.
Kolderie. It resulted in a mini album that combines upbeat alternative
rock, with some glam rock and synth things. Replaced By Robots manages
to combine several decades of music in a successful way. Heather
Joy Morgan even does a Nico, one who is not on the verge of moving to
the other side. What gets to me, is the upbeat music that The Experiment offers. It allows for both serious listening and dancing all in one. Replaced
By Robots delivers it all in one go.
SS-100-X. The Speed Of SoundWhat
the story is, I still have to get into. Fact is, The Speed of Sound has
released three albums under the name 'A Cornucopia', with partly the
same track names. One of the singles from an album titled additionally
'Minerva' is SS-100-X, I suppose a soviet Union type missile that was
aimed at us in the 1970 or 80s. This song is 'I'm Waiting For My Man' by
the Velvet Underground during day time. Without any trouble I'm able to
sing "standing on a corner ..." over the intro. The vocal melody is it's own, making it
a different song. The song has a chorus as well. SS 100 eggs, I hear, influenced by Easter? The lyrics
are not on scoring heroine but on the Kennedy assassination and
conspiracy theories around it. SS-100-X was the code name of the car the
Kennedys were in on that fateful day in 1963. The combination of the
lyrics and the music make it an interesting song to listen to. In fact it's good.
He Seems To Think That He's A King. Garret VandermolenDo
protest songs still exist? Many people argue that they do not any more.
Garret Vandermolen has decided that this has to end this situation and wrote a song
against the would be (soon actually?) dictator in The White House, his oligarch friends and sycophants bowing to his every whim. The title
to the song tells it all. It is not the kind of king my country
has or the U.K., no a king that reigns at will, like Louis XIV, who went
to war in the summer, held court in the winter and kept his potential
enemies as close as possible. Raised taxes for his own whims, including hobby wars, lavish luxury, etc. It's
that kind of king Vandermoolen is singing about. The song is the right
mix between mocking, an upbeat beat and melancholy singing. Say Tom Petty
style. The sad thing is, that everything I and many others fear, may well be reality very soon. He Seems To Think That He's A King is the kind of song that may get Garret Vandermolen into serious trouble any day soon. Hopefully, the day will come that these
"mighty will fall". It will take more than this song though. Let's call it
a good start and make it the anthem of resistance.
Wout de Natris - van der Borght
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