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Prayer To The Year. Liz Overs
Liz Overs is a new name on WoNoBlog, but Chalk Horse Music and Liz Pearson are not. In March 'Nightjar' will be released, her first album under the name Liz Overs. Prayer To The Year was released late last year for the sun solstice, so I'm a bit late. Better late than never, as Prayer To The Year is a beautiful single. Dreamfolk, why not introduce this moniker on the blog. Liz Overs sings a double tracked vocal, the one more dreamy than the other. Accompanied mainly by a banjo and all sorts of atmospherics that move in and out of the mix. Sometimes it leaves the impression of being there. Is there really a sound or is it a spooky trace I'm hearing? I just can't get my ear around it really. All together it provides Prayer To The Year a superb feel, making it beautiful, anachronistic and modern at the same time. I can't wait to hear more soon.
Mood
Bored returns to the blog with its second EP. Of the four songs two
have already been released as digital singles. That only leaves two new
songs, which is a shame as Mood Bored shows the progression that a band
hopes for after its debut EP (2023) and playing shows, as with label
mates POM. The Tilburg trio finds the right mix between alternative rock
and a more punkrock oriented form of music. 'Wet Faced & Ugly' is
the odd one out. The song is an alternative rock ballad, where Mood
Bored moves towards a band like Porridge Radio. The opening song, 'All
The Time', lies somewhere in between the two. It has a hint of Wet Leg,
but most of all a huge explosion that makes me forget the song started
off quite relaxed. Singer Myrte Driesenaar shows off her different
voices successfully as well. The two opening songs present Tramhaus
with freshly washed faces and nicely combed hair. The band is playing
more conventional alternative rock and not post punk, is what I'm
saying. It does have the energy and quality to write, play and present
good songs, like Tramhaus. The comparison is a compliment and a
well-deserved one. As I already said, it's a shame there are only four
songs on this EP, as all four songs are better than the ones on 'Bored'.
The band is ready for more.
I was about to click this away, as the song is driving me crazy. Every time I think the song develops in a certain direction, it sways somewhere else and again and again and again and again. It's impossible to make heads or tails of this song. Undoubtedly it's extremely clever, but it's driving me nuts. That feat deserves a few words, I decided, as not many songs have accomplished this state of mind with me. I may not like a song, think it's horrible or totally not my taste. Black Country, New Road with Besties has a totally different outcome. I hear things I like and then it changes and again I hear something I might get to like and then it changes, etc., etc. No one has ever done anything like that before, but I'm not listening to it again. I've given up.
Nearly one year ago The Devils' album 'Let The World Burn Down' received a very favourable reception on this blog. Already here is a new single of the garage rocking duo from Napels, Gianni Blacula and Erika Switchblade. It's drummer Switchblade who sings, with guitarist Blacula doing background duties. Expect once again a dirty sounding guitar over a sound rhythm. The references to other garage rocking duos can be made with ease and is just fine. The Devils rock so dirty that my late mother would have made me wash my hands after listening to the record. I'll conclude writing that this single is recommended listening for fans of rock and roll in the 2020s.
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How many alternative/indie rock bands are there in Brooklyn? It looks like as many as its namesake Breukelen over here in NL has inhabitants. Momma is another band that plays music that sounds very familiar, musically and vocally. You can figure that out for yourself. I would like to focus on the the way the song combines a lot of energy with relaxed singing, if not slacking at some points in the song. Etta Friedman and Allegra Weingarten share vocal duties (and play guitar) and both have a dreamy quality to their voice. Around them a storm can start cooking and regularly does. Aron Kobayashi Ritch and Preston Fulks make up the other half of the band and storm cookers. I Want You (Fever) is a song that sounds familiar but that wall of sound it creates, attracts me just the same. Album 'Welcome To My Blue Sky' is out on 4 april.
Did the Bronze Age collapse or did it adapt to iron after the invention of smelting iron ore? A good question that I do not have an answer to. A bit of both most likely. The song is one from 'Single', yes a 7", The Mistons plan to release soon. The band is from Portland, Oregon and delivers dirty, almost primitive alternative rock with infusions from punk and garage. The band has known many line ups through the years but has one constant, Sean Croghan, who played in many other bands through the years as well. With one common denominator for me: I haven't ever heard of any of them, including The Mistons, until today that is. Or so I thought, as the band was in the single section of this blog twice before in the past four years. Bronze Age Collapse is a dirty rocker, recorded as if it was recorded straight to a cassette tape with only one mike in the room. It's enough, this song rocks!
Cold Expectations is a name that can be found on this blog since 2021 with a range of singles. Our Hearts Need Electricity is no exception. I'm surprised how much the singing sounds like Cottbus, Germany's Para Lia. That is coincidence, no doubt. The title of the song has to be taken literally, as singer-guitarist Steve Prygoda had to undergo surgery for a pacemaker inplant to stay alive. It's clear that he survived to sing about it and gave him the new energy to do so. What I notice is that the song, perhaps unintentional, has stop starts moments, that make it all but a fluid song. It starts with a sort of wave sound, applying music to the wave of a heart monitor machine? Or so it seems to me. The singing with bassist JoEllen Saunders is exquisite, a great strength to the single.
Annika Henderson was born in the U.K. but now lives in Berlin. She makes music under the name Anika. She will release her new album, 'Abyss', on 4 April. In the meantime I'm listening to the single Hearsay. It is a stark, alternative rock song, with dirty guitars going full out, albeit mixed into the semi background. In the beginning of the song, when it is far more bare, I'm remembered of Sophie Hunger, the Swiss artist who moved from Switzerland to Berlin. In the music and in the special way both Anika and Sophie put an accent on words. Coincidence? I can only guess so. Hearsay is a song that is built up in a great way. Bass and drums and Anika's voice with an effect on it before the "ordinary" rhythm guitar comes in. From there more and more joins the song, until the song is cooking up a storm of music. Anika promises that 'Abyss' contains a lot more of this energetic music. Patience is the word for now.
girlpuppy is the project of Atlanta, Georgia's Becca Harvey. With her single I Just Do! she combines pop, girl like singing and alternative rock. The song begins with a drumcomputer rhythm before the song really starts. Still, she is not giving away her true colours. The explosion in the chorus are, when the effect pedals are kicked in. Surprised, I am thinking of New Zealand's The Beths, who can explode so successfully as well. The difference is that pop part in the verses and the very girlish vocals of Becca Harvey. She created the basic ideas of I Just Do!, before turning to producer Alex Farrar. Together they turned the song into the powerhouse it is. On 28 March the album will be there. It's called 'Sweetness'.
"Vaguely familiar and brilliantly original", stated the bio accompanying introducing All Together On 3. Vaguely? I can't help to suppress a laugh. It is as if I'm listening to a song by an aged voice of Neil Finn of Crowded House (and Split Enz) fame. The song starts as a Beatles inspired intro, so that aligns with Mr Finn's music as well. Push Puppets is a band around songwriter Erich Specht from Palatine, near Chicago. Together with Steve Frisbie (backup vocals and guitar), Kyle Magnusson (keyboards), John William Lauler (bass) and Greg Essig (drums) Specht goes for the perfect pop song. All Together on 3 is a good effort in doing so. The song is rich in sound and melody. At the right moments instruments are added and let go of again, making the song very much alive. Where Crowded House is concerned, Push Puppets may be overdoing it a little, but that does not mean All Together On 3 is a bad song. Far from I'd say. Album 'Tethered Together' is out on 16 May.
Wout de Natris - van der Borght
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