2024, week 38. 10 singles

There are times to rock and times to balladeer. In the single section of this week, you will find all extremes. From a 1.13 punk single, to post rock clocking in close to seven minutes. There is even a song resembling bossa nova. So there you go, enjoy!

What's Fair. Blondshell

Blondshell returns with a single that brings back memories of rock bands from the 90s. Lyrically she could have fooled me though. From listening to Blondshell's lyrics I could have sworn she was dealing with a bad boyfriend and all that comes after breaking up. It isn't. It is all about a person that is impossible to break up with for her, her mother. There obviously are a lot of issues here, that won't go away easily. "I did not chose you, you chose me", she sings. Musically, the song is confrontational as well. Mostly a two chord progression that is repeated all through the song. It works because of the emotions Sabrina Teitelbaum releases, although I could add that she still holds back a lot. The guitar solo is most telling. It rips things apart, including itself. Just listen to know what I mean. A good song? Yes, What's Fair is. A great song? No, for that it sounds too familiar. It's good enough.

rivers. Meadowlake

Meadowlake returns to this blog. The Groningen band can be found in 2018 ('Meadowlake') and 2020 ('Wait For Me'). The group consisted of five people but on the latest band photo and in the video I only find three. Singer Jarno Olijve obviously is still there. Listening to him sing, the first thing that sprang to mind was Marcel Hulst, as happened to me twice before I've found. Musically Meadowlake is closer to his work as Mountaineer and partly Maggie Brown as well. At least on rivers. This slow and beautifully crafted song is extremely intense in a very modest way. There's a very big role for a guitar, that is the most prominent. With a bass and drums behind it. Olijve sings as a whisper, drawing the listener towards him as it were. There are some beautiful harmonies as well. The band was able to record in Buck Meek's (Big Thief's guitarist) studio in L.A. Looking at the video the band was able to do a little road trip as well, visiting several of the beautiful sights in the U.S.'s south west. Album number three is released on 19 September. It's called 'where the mountain meets the sea’.

Double Down EP. Seb Zukini

It's two years ago when Seb Zukini debuted on this blog, while this spring a new single was reviewed, 'Honesty'. The song opens the band's new EP. Listening once again, it's quite clear why I singled it out. It has this darkish mood, without forgetting a golden melody. From there the five song EP diversifies. It always rocks but with a different kind of band in mind. Seb Zukini obviously is not afraid to show us its musical heroes and make them part of its own music. You can hear post grunge bands from around 2000 but also Oasis, to name two examples. The variation makes for an EP that I like listening to better with each spin. "Give me a break, I got to change the mood" singer Sebastiaan Kusters sings in 'Teddy'. Seb Zukini does just that to great effect. From 'Teddy' to 'None Of It Will Last' is a giant leap. The pace of the latter song is fantastic, "hit the gas" indeed. Seb Zukini is rocking no little here. It combines the fast and tight pace with a golden vocal melody. 'None Of It Will Last' is the kind of song that I would love to sing along to in a live situation. Kusters has the flair of Liam Gallagher while the band is Creed at his best, i.e. the best songs from that band's debut album. With 'Monkey See' Seb Zukini brings a little of that darkness back. 2000 Post grunge but with better melodies than most bands could muster at the time. The title track closes the EP and brings the pace back into the whole.  Summing up, Seb Sukini seems ready to convince more people that this obscure reviewer. Double Down is some EP.

Grey Rubble - Green Shoots. Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Reviewing a single by Godspeed You! Black Emperor is like ... Yes, like what? The post rock or rock symphony orchestra, what you prefer, plays long spun out instrumental songs, that I could not listen to until not too long ago. A single is like having one small piece of chocolate while the bar is in front of you. Something like that. Grey Rubble - Green Shoots is a huge piece of post rock that is extremely listenable. A violin comes through the massive sound, riding rhis huge wave all the way to the shore. From there the whole tones down, just like symphonies do. The Canadians really play with the mood of their listeners. The band tones it all down to little segments of music with held notes that are allowed to fade out before the next chord is struck. A guitar comes in to play a modest lead melody, as does the violin. Grey Rubble is the loud part and Green Shoots the soft part. Two songs in one go as it were.

Love's Changing. Tasha

Where previous single 'Michigan' "certainly rocks in its own way", Love's Changing is a slow song, very atmospheric and hinting at bossa nova. I can imagine someone like Bebel Gilberto singing Love's Changing. Until the middle section that is, when Tasha takes the song into a very different direction before the slow swing returns. Tasha is working towards her debut album that is released on 20 September and is called 'All This and So Much More'. The album is about loss so Tasha lets us know, but also that this single was the last song she wrote. It reflects being on the other side of loss and it shows. The mood may be melancholy, the slow mood reflects more a lazy, yet contented sunny day in the park or a place like it. I really like the way the piano manoeuvres through the song and how the rhythm sort of drags its feet, allowing for that lazy feeling. 'Michigan' got the benefit of the doubt. Love's Changing is a winner.

Champion Runner. Recitals

The title for the new Recitals EP. 'I Got Gold!' comes from the single Champion Runner. As an alternative rock band from New Zealand should, with Champion Runner Recitals does not present a straightforward song. It combines some great pop elements with alternative rock and a little weirdness. Especially in the way the lyrics are sung, with the longest pauzes possible and even beyond that. Champion Runner holds elements of all in equal portions. The sum of the parts is a song that deserves to be heard across the world. Recitals is a seven piece band, Tharushi, Carla, Sam, Olivia, Christian, Josh and Xanthe. With its album 'Orbit 1' it made it to the 18th spot on my list of albums for 2022. The distinctive trumpet is still there, although only noticeable at the end. Champion Runner is a driven song. It keeps propelling itself forward. "Ive got gold. I'm not trying", is sung over and over. I don't believe it. Recitals has worked this song out quite well, so yes, it goes for gold and is doing all it can to make the best impression. And rightly so, as the proceeds of the EP go the the Palestine's Children Relieve Fund. 'I Got Gold!', the EP is released on 27 September. The vinyl version for November.

Ffleur Hari. Tramhaus

Tramhaus is a young band but can be called a WoNoBlog veteran by now. The Rotterdam post punkers have made quite an impression on yours truly. With Ffleur Hari it shows itself at its most uncompromising. The band is rocking and on a roll here. There's nothing pretty about this single. It is almost industrial in the way the band pounds all the instruments. Singer Lukas Jansen is closer to (hysteric) shouting than singing, the drums are relentless in a The Velvet Underground style, supported by the staccato bass.  And the two guitars? Live it will be painstaking the way they are played. Above it all Tramhaus shines. It is getting closer and closer to a sound the band has been working on from the very first single. Rotterdam's finest is carving out its own place in the world and the world has started to notice. The album will be here very soon.

Ter Aarde. Nieuwe Gezichten

Nieuwe Gezichten zijn minder nieuw dan de bandnaam doet vermoeden. Het is een samenwerkingsverband van Michiel van de Weerd en Arthur van Vliet die met anderen vier van hun nooit afgemaakte liedjes hebben afgemaakt. Ter Aarde is er daar een van. Zanger Joost Steltenpool (De Koorts) en zangeres Adura Silaiman (Future Husbands) zijn degenen die op de voorgrond treden in deze enorm jachtige track, die een mix lijkt tussen Moss (vooral die bas) en Spinvis on coke. AM Sam, Bo Menning (Aestrid), Lisa Jonker (Sophie Straat L.A.J.), Joep van Osch (Robin Kester) zijn de muzikanten. Probeer maar eens stil te blijven staan bij dit enorm up tempo nummer. (Ik ben enorm blij niet de bassist te zijn!) Het contrast tussen de dromerige zang en de muziek waar na het intro geen seconde rust meer in zit is enorm en de reden dat het nummer werkt. Te zijner tijd komt er dus een EP aan. Ik ben zeker benieuwd.

What May Come 7". Texture Freq

Texture Freq is a band from South Minneapolis and punk as punk comes. All noise, little song. There's no rest for the wicked here. Single Golden Pavilion is no way reminds me of the famous pavilion in Kyoto, oh, wait, the song's already over.

Shake. Liz Borden

Shake sounds just like the bio coming with the single makes one hope it would sound. At least, I did. Liz Borden used to play in Lizzie Borden & The Axes, one of the first all girls band in new wave and punk in the 80s. Totally unknown to me, as their work never reached me in NL. Lizzie became Liz and is 40 years older like I am today. Shake is a song that holds all the drive songs of this kind had in the 1980s and includes that little extra that the decades have added to the genre. Kim Wilde may have sung about the kids in America, Lizzie Borden was one. That can still be heard in Shake. There's something of the kid in the song. Borden still gets away with her voice in this Blondiesque song. I would not have had a problem at the time hearing Debbie Harry singing Shake. The song has that blend of punk and pop, of toughness and sweetness. In fact Shake has the exact right mix of both. Nice single.

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