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Black Summer. Red Hot Chili Peppers
A new Red Hot Chili Peppers single? How long ago was that? And how long ago when the world paid attention? That must have been 'Dani California' and the singles following it. I'm pointing to the 00s now. News in the past years was that John Frusciante returned to the ranks; for the third time a RHCP member. It is promising, as the band made its best albums and songs with him on board.
All that said, Black Summer starts rather bland. There's no urgency, no nothing, just a ballady song with nothing pointing to anything but the need to release something after x, standing for too many years. The red pepper does come in a mild form, finally. There's some great guitar and bass playing going on later on in the song. It all remains on the safe side though. This is no 'Dani California', as that song has become something of standard where I'm concerned. The Peppers are getting on in years. 60 is getting nigh for them. A little less pace is only understandable. After a few listenings the song definitely gets better. Frusciante's guitar playing is outstanding, as is Flea's bass part. Clean, little overdubs, just Frusciante-Flea-Smith working together. That makes Black Summer a bare song, yet it works. It makes me a little hopeful for what is to come.
Doortje Hiddema (EuroBoy and Rats on Rafts) and Alicia Breton Ferrer (too much to mention) started a musical chain letter and the first result is the single Reading Glasses. The music is as alternatively rocking as you can expect reading the names. Wiry riffs and melody lines. Nothing seems to be like a regular pop song, yet it somehow all fits in a perfect way. All together it does become an alternative pop song of some sort. The guitar plays a prickly riff from the beginning and keeps it up for most of the song. A strong bass and tight, elementary drums are one third of the song each, when it starts. Slowly but surely more and more is added, a second vocal melody, overdubs of guitars, a keyboard. Reading Glasses gets very crowded and yet it is a song that goes forward in a straight line. Whatever is added, it never deviates from the plotted course. The only thing Reading Glasses cannot be accused of is variation. The song is one basic idea or chord and within that idea the duo tried out everything they could think of and fit it in the less than three minutes the song takes. Well done. There's an album coming in September.
Hater returns to these pages with a new single, working towards the release of its upcoming album, 'Sincere' (6 May). In Something the higher voice of Caroline Landahl mixes with a darker sound of the band, where elements of alternative rock, shoegaze and dreampop come together. Hater produces a huge sound where the drums and a prominent bass lay a foundation over which layers of guitars are draped. Solid rhythm playing is adorned with many other parts, from playing a single stroke on each bar, to small motives and languorous melodies. They together make up Something. The song offers many different musical lines to follow. The dreamy vocals deliver the pop element adding to the pleasure the song offers. An interesting development is on display through Something. The, now, four piece band delivers a taster that makes curious to learn more. Three months of patience is required, folks.
Old punkers never die, although "I know I have seen better days", as the singer sings on the band's first new single since 2003. Ann Beretta, from Richmond, Virginia, started in 1996 and recorded its last record in 2003. In 2022 the band is back and that starts with this great punkrock single called Better Medicine. The single starts with a two second, huge drum roll before the band catches on. My ears are on fire before there is a song in sight. Ann Beretta does not disappoint from that moment onwards. The chorus is great, the verses powerful. The band is all fired up and shows it in all the ways it is able to do. Compare this to Green Day's latest album and you will know everything it lacks. And I even liked the album somewhat, go figure. Like with all good punkrock songs the bass is prominent and melodically strong. The drums are hit, tight, dry but above all hard. Each snare hit is like a gun fired. It gives Better Medicine all the energy I like when listening to a punkrock song. Ann Beretta delivers the better medicine for 110%.
With Monumental The Slow Clock returns to WoNoBlog. With a mention in a recent column in 'Oor' Harmen Kuiper, he is The Slow Clock, already got a very positive mention as a saviour of the columnist's sanity in strict lockdowns. This is of course a very subjective observation. Drawing your attention to Monumental is just as subjective, as I am the only one deciding to draw you to it. The reason why I do so, is that the song, has this interesting, alternative riff opening it, after which it moves into alternative poprock spheres, where believe it or not a strong link with The Beatles' harmonies is established. Just this ending of each block of music, that little extension of the song, just like the Fab Four were great at. It is little moments like these that make me pay just this little more attention, where the attention is there from the very beginning already. Add to that the dreamy harmony vocals, as part of the song and the almost solo near the end and there it is, a nice single and song. On 3 March 'The Origin of Air Quotes' is to be released.
Steve French is moving up in the world. It moved from Subroutine to Excelsior and with that ironed over its music a little. Country Blues Dilettante is an alternative pop single with a 1960s length. 2.20 minutes exactly. It's enough to play it all. Looking at it from another angle, Steve French is Canshaker Pi with another from man, Cees Paris. He sings and Willem Smit is his sideman here. Ruben van Weegbree plays bass. The Amsterdam scene is slowly getting like Antwerp in the mid 90s where everybody played with everyone in different bands and solo outings. The result is a nice pop single like Country Blues Dilettante, with memories of decades of music within it and still enough of 2022 to be relevant. Paris may not be the most steady singer, it does give the song a light psychedelic touch, while musically not wavering for a second. Yes, delicate, nice and tasting like more.
Happy Birthday Forever is a song that has two distinct sides to it. There is the husky and almost emotionless singing of Tess Parks. "Get me out of here" but its almost as if she is emotionally incapacitated to truly get the urgency of the message across. It is the music that comes to her rescue. The sound is pumped-up by a Madchester kind of rhythm and the gospel harmony vocals that come in. Here emotions do start to fly, just before the piano and rhythm section play the song home. The end is as mysterious as the beginning of Happy Birthday Forever. The outro is long, not spectacular. Apparently there is nothing left to say. The message was conveyed by Tess Parks in clear words. With the single Tess Parks announces her first solo album since her debut in 2013. Nine years is a long time.
As a personal note. The promo photo accompanying the release was rather confusing, as it could have been the girlfriend of one of our sons in the picture. Dress, shoes, hair, everything fits.
Yes, a true first single on this week. You better brace your ears as this is punk as punk comes. The trio called Scrunchies goes at it without a care for meters flying in the red, perfect recording techniques, perfect playing. This is all about getting the energy across. Probably some anger as well. And it does. There's no escaping the energy balled into this song. In less than two minutes No Home Planet is all over. Laura Larson (guitar, vocals) and Danielle Cusack (drums, vocals) started the band in Minneapolis in 2018. Later joined by Matt Castore on bass, the band started working towards its first album, which is to be released early in spring. Think The Thermals, and some punk rock bands from the 90s fronted by young women who I've forgotten the name of decades ago, but enjoyed at the time. If No Home Planet is anything to go by, 'Feral Coast' is going to be an intense affair as the title promises.
Men of a certain age playbacking music by the pool. 60s psychedelics are laid over the video. It's a match, as the music is a mix of The Byrds and garage rock. A Rickenbacker is allowed to do its 12 string magic, around it all sorts of psychedelia come by. Even the recording sounds like it comes out of a basement through the closed, cottonwooled doors, so mum and dad won't mind the noise too much. Sunshine Tough does a few things right. The melody works of course. Otherwise this music is senseless. The Laissez Fairs play a wild sort of pop music from long ago. Roger McGuinn is present all over Sunshine Tough. From there however things explode. "The spike in the punch", as the singer sings, hit home while recording the single. The pop melody is taken on a trip through the dark sides of pop. Traffic played inside out and driven though every existing warping device. It results in a song that on the face of it is pure ugly, if it had not been so much fun. As that it is, pure pop fun, no matter how ugly some of it sounds.
Today music from Iceland and not from modern composers who come by on Kairos. No, this is heavy fuzz rock from a band taking its name from the volcanic activity Iceland is known for. Volcanova is a trio in the classic power trio line up. It has released one album, 'Radical Waves' in 2020. later this month the EP 'Cosmic Bullshit' will be released. On Desolation the band does not go halfway. A long intro makes sure there is no doubt where this song is going. ROOOCK!! it spells. The only question remaining is what kind of singing joins in. Things can still go very wrong in my ears. It does not. This is true, tough rock singing and fits the song like a glove. A deep sound, with nice, hard-rockin' riffs come by. Played by bass, guitar and drums together. There some great playing going on, without over doing it, killing the song as it were. No, the song is send packing the way it should, with a huge sound.
If you are a true lover of country music you are at the right address. I am caught in the middle here and could never write a truly favourable review, because over half of the music on Uranium Maiden is not music made for me. So, I refrain from writing on the album as a whole in this case.
However, Uranium Maiden has several great songs on it. And to those I like to point you. 'Time Zone' is such a song. MacLeod, who has a fine singing voice, all's well here alright, manages to mix her music with enough of a (U.K.) folk flavour to change her music in a successful way. The violin gives the song a melancholy mood that truly changes the feel and core of her music. Had 'Time Zone' been just a single, it would have received a rave review on this blog, where the album would never have been mentioned. There are a few more songs on Uranian Maiden that I like just as much, e.g. 'U-235' a Crosby Stills Nash kind of song. It almost gives me the impression there are two Uranium Maidens, one for me and one for others. Best go check to which half you belong. The lucky ones even win all.
Wout de Natris
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