Posts
State O' Maine. Continental
Rock and roll!!! With State
O' Maine Continental combines the best of the Stones around 'Exile On
Main Street' or more modern Primal Scream's rendition of said album, 'Give Out But Don't Give Up',
with some good old punkrock attitude. Front man Rick Barton rocked with
Dropkick Murphies in his day as its founding guitarist. (To my surprise
that band played the largest indoor venue of NL recently.) This single
is dirty rock and roll to the max. Everything is kept so simple,
i.e. deceptively simple, as it all fits so well together. "I'm so glad that you have gone" is the conclusion in the lyrics. Well, I'm glad
Continental has kept on rocking and is releasing its album 'Hello' on
Rum Bar Records soon. If it's as exciting as State O' Maine it's best to
fasten our seatbelts and ride, ride, ride as fast as we can. Great
single!
20
Year anniversaries or less or more years. There's always a reason to
formally re-release a record. She's So Tuff by Tina and the Total Babes
get a 20 year one. A band I have never heard of before. In 2003 it never
reached me. Surprising is, that the band's line up on this song has two names
that have been on these pages quite recently,
Miss Georgia Peach and Travis Ramin, while Holly Beth Vincent wrote this
song and also released work on Rum Bar recently. Tell That Girl To Shut
Up is 'She's So Tuff's single and is of the powerpop variety. The
better Blondie singles and other female (fronted) bands from around 1980 come to mind but also the big powerpop bands of
the late 70s. I just love the enthusiasm jumping out of my speakers. I
don't know the girl in question but one can only agree on the basis of
the song and in the meantime hope she never does. Who is going to sing this song
for us then? I'm afraid that the lyrics are going to be censored by the
Roald Dahl sensitivity society. They will turn it into something less offensive. (Would this work for music?) Let us in
the meantime enjoy it for what it is: a great single.
The
No Ones had me there. With a title and band name like this I had braced
myself for the loudest punk imaginable. Instead this extremely pleasant
60s tinged psychedelic pop song pops out of my speakers. An R.E.M.
like lead guitar, double vocals and this lovely music spanning a few
decades in the best The Byrds / McGuinn, Clark, Hillman tradition. Add a
60s organ and you're there. The No Ones is a new name to me. Guitarist
and co-composer Peter Buck and co-band member Scott McCaughey are not.
The combination with Arne Kjelsrud Mathisen and Frode Stromstad, unknown
names to me, works really well. Phil Ochs Is Dead (and for quite some
time, 1976) is an extremely pleasant song, pleasing my ears and mind.
Nostalgia kicks in but not just that. It is a good song in its own
right.
After
the utterly brilliant album 'Concrete Americana', see my list for 2022
to see how brilliant, ATEM returns with a double a-side single.
Disrespectfully, expect more of the same. Respectfully listen to how Jan
Korbach uses his acoustic guitar to recreate a genre from the past that
has gone totally out of style and yet feels so fresh thanks to his
approach. Korbach took the country out of (spaghetti) western movies soundtracks and
breaths life into the genre. I will repeat again, everyone needing a
replacement for Ennio Morricone should start looking here. Angel's Share
and Devil May Care, two short, filmic, compositions are filled with
atmosphere, conjuring up images of a huge desert with a small dust
cloud, somewhere at the edge of the screen. The stagecoach with the
protagonists or the first victims on route to their doom, one way or
another. slowly comes into view. This single holds it all. Quentin Tarantino are you paying attention:
ATEM!?
Time for some rock.
Danish band Pyramaze brings alive the 80s classic rock bands and adds a
power layer to its music, creating a modern version of Europe and
Whitesnake at the same time. The drums are all over this song. The
double bass is in full use giving Broken Arrow a huge bottom end to fall
back on. The rhythm guitar is in full metal mood, deep and dark,
assisting the drum to create a thick carpet, the sound bounces off on.
The keyboards, synths and piano, are the lead instruments. The
solo notes can come from either. In the video there's no bass player. I
think there is one in the song, but that could be a synth as well. It
would be unique, a power rock-metal band without a bass player. The
singer has all this genre needs. Is it enough for a song to rock in a
great way? Sometimes it is, screaming singer and all.
Sands Of Gold, who wouldn't what to find some, is a dark rock single that explores the edges of rock music by adding some desert and space
rock elements. Things that are hard to find in the band's home
country Finland. Imagination guides people a long way beyond their daily
lives and environments. Craneium has a lot of it. With Sands Of Gold it
manages to entertain with ease. The song has a dark sound overall, a
thick sound as well, like a supernova in the making, making it harder
and harder to escape from. The guitar solo's have a tough job to truly stand out in this sound, besides being great and lifting the song one step
up with each guitar. Fans of this dark style rock music better pay
attention as Sands Of Gold is a stand alone single.
The
song title Lay Down has been taken since 1970 by Melanie (Safka). Her
number 1 single with the Edwin Hawkins Singers is one of the great
singles of the decade. Young Germans Bird's View can be excused. Perhaps
their parents were not even born at the time. With the new single, the
band appears for the second time on these pages. Working towards the
release of 'Red Light Habits', slated for 19 May, Bird's View delivers a
nice visiting card with Lay Down. Easy to sing along to and to move our
heads rhythmically back and forth. In the singing it matches Melanie's
hit. The number one position will probably remain an illusion, unless
the band manages to a Maniskin of some sort. Niko Huber has that edge to
his voice making him a very convincing for a rock singer and the band
profits from it. Behind him is a solid band that manages to combine
power with melody. Lay Down works.
From the skyline to the harbour, After Elmer shows in its video's what it is all about in Rotterdam. The new clip was recorded right between hundreds of containers in one of the terminals. The new single 246 Toothpicks is a loud and tight affair. The young band shows to have learned from the best. This is not just punk music. The deep bottom end shows a love for metal as well. The mix delivers a song with the seriousness and toughness of metal or emo if you like and the pop element the best punkrock songs hold in them. The Ramones started out with speeding up the hits of the early to mid 60s and then started to write their own, is my guess. After Elmer has this part totally down and successfully brings with it a legacy of decades to its own new single that is chock-full of the right kind of energy to get noticed. 246 Toothpicks is a lot to pick up when spilled onto the floor. Within this song it's all clear, let's play it again.
Time for some modern
pop music. Luka is releasing a new single on route to her next record.
'Director In The Dark' is an EP to be released on 7 April. Her debut
album 'First Steps Of Letting Go', made these pages in 2020, showing
that her kind of pop made enough of an impression on me. This is not a
given, as most pop of the 20s goes into the one ear and straight out the
other. With Raven's Nest Lisa Lukaszczyk and her producer and
co-composer Wannes Salome go for atmosphere and almost a minimal layer
of music. Electronic beats drive the song. The synth bass is the
backbone of the melody. Singer Luka is the principal driver of melody in
the song. The combination makes Raven's Nest a mysterious and
intriguing song. What is going on here? The ghost like background vocals
moving in and out of the mix. Raven's Nest is a song that achieves a maximum
effect with a minimum of effects.
Oh, sweet pop music. Jody and The Jerms know where Abraham got his mustard alright. There's nothing new in this song. It has all been done before, except for the way the chord progression is played and the melody filled in in Started Something. The result is a song anyone with a love for the better female fronted pop bands of the past should want to hear. Bands that, no doubt, Jody Jeger was a fan of herself at the time. Starting with an effective piano riff, the band takes us into soft rock songs territory. Started Something has a strong drive and rhythm, setting it apart from regular pop rock songs. Jody Jeger's voice has that girl like innocence coming with the territory, belying her age. Without sunshine in the song itself, Started Something magically makes the sun come out. It's that kind of song.
Wout de Natris
No comments:
Post a Comment