Stone Fist EP. Stone Fist
We start with a new name on the blog. The Italian band Stone Fist released its debut mini album 'Stone Fist' on 9 May. On the album the band rocks, and no little at that. The band formed in 2022 and consists of Christian Spolaore, guitars, vocals, Emanuele Perego, bass and Matteo Vignocchi, drums. The music is described as stoner rock and I can live with that. Stone Fist plays rock songs with distorted and/or fuzzed up guitars. Together with the bass and drums fast chord changes are made using all the usable chords in between to create a nice run or fat accents. The result is energy charged songs which may not be the very best I've ever heard in the genre, but certainly well above average. Stone Fist presents exactly what you expect from a band with the name, without just playing heavy metal and ramming in the nails with that fist regardless. This is music that also contains the subtlety of a carpenter's experienced eye.When the pace goes down, at least for a part of 'Space Trip', it is the sound Stone Fist presents that makes the song a winner. The variation is what makes 'Stone Fist' work.
Lifeguard is a Chicago based trio, Asher Case (bass, baritone guitar, vocals), Isaac Lowenstein (drums, synth), and Kai Slater (guitar, vocals), that is on route to release its album 'Ripped And Torn' on 6 June. The energy and youthful exuberance brings the earliest U2 to mind immediately. 'Stories For Boys', 'I Will Follow', 'Gloria', that sort of songs the Irish rock dinosaurs broke through with at a modest level. The jumpy nervousness in the songs, the thin sounding but longer held guitar chords, it's all there. It makes It Will Get Worse land on solid and familiar ground. With the provided addition of a little punky attitude, you have the enthusiastic mix Lifeguard offers its listeners.
With an artist signing with initials, my mind tells me: male. I'm wrong here, as S.G. Goodman is a woman with a voice that can be categorised in the Stevie Nicks part of female rock. S.G. Goodman is a new name to me but not to Erwin Zijleman. He reviewed two albums of her on this blog, 'Old Time Feeling' (2020) and 'Teeth Marks' (2022). The new album 'Planted by the Signs' will be released on 20 June. Shania Goodman is a roots artist from Murray, Kentucky and her new single 'Fire Sign' can be put in this category. Fire Sign is a song with a drive provided by the drums. The song starts with just drums and bass over which S.G. Goodman sings her lyrics. Come the chorus the band kicks in, in which the lead guitarist grabs the front seat. It is that drive though that keeps propelling the song forward in all the right ways. Fire Sign is a nice introduction to that album to come.
Durry is brother and sister Austin and Taryn Durry from Minneapolis, Minnesota. They have put songs on Bandcamp since 2020, but for me are totally new. For folks who liked the grunge, punky songs with a pop feel from the 90s and 00s, Durry is a band to check out. This Movie Sucks may start with a wobbly organ that sounds like it is about to give up the ghost, from there the song very, very slowly but surely is fleshed out into an anthem like those songs of old did. Loud, almost bombastic but with a golden chorus that begs singing. Durry knows exactly what sentiment to play here. Where the arrangement is concerned the duo does a lot of things right, as for starters the song starts in a way that does not give away what's to follow. From there the band managed to find at least the second and third possible melody in the song's structure, making it interesting to listen to for a few reasons. This Movie Sucks is a nice single and the title of Durry's upcoming album. Expect it on 27 June.
Chambermaid? or 'I Want You'. I can't look it up right now but I'm sure Bob Dylan will have gotten a writer's credit in this song. There is a reference to the lyrics, the main riff is there and the chord sequence sounds familiar. Isn't "dancing with the chambermaid" a part of Dylan's lyrics? So, this is the chambermaid's tale it seems. It is a song that I've liked for longer than I can remember and I immediately like Chambermaid as well. The song is a part of Suzanne Vega's new album 'Flying With Angles' that was released on 2 May. What sets the song apart, is the force that Vega puts into parts of the song, making it more powerful than the original. It makes the song have an impact on me, forcing me to listen to it, notice it and incorporating it. Chambermaid is not a one ear in, the other out kind of song. For that it far too alive. That makes it another winner on 'Flying With Angles'. Be sure I will give the album a listen soon.
Not
long ago Bongloard released an album that was review worthy.
Unfortunately, time prevents me from writing about everything. So, here
is amends made. Bongloard released a single for Record Store Day 2025
and this is the b-side. A demo, that they left as it and I totally
understand why. Why change the winning song? Get Fucked is fired up
alternative rock from which sparks fly. The dynamics are taken care of
superbly. Drums - guitar and the drums - finally (fuzzed) bass - drums under the vocals.
Then all together for the chorus. There's even a synth solo along the way. The
Utrecht based band is really going for it in Get Fucked. To think I've
never even listened to the a-side, 'The Mirror', again. (I did last year, I found.) There's absolutely no
need, as Get Fucked does it all.
Folk Bitch Trio, from Melbourne/Naarm, Australia, recently signed to the Jagjaguwar label and releases its first single there, The Actor. With a band name that sounds sort of passive-aggressive, I did not expect to hear a folk song with just about perfect harmonies on it. The world has a host of female folk duos and trios, starting with boygenius, HAIM and many more. Yet, there's room for Folk Bitch Trio. The Actor is simply a beautiful song, with a subtle arrangement that allows details to escape from the whole, catching my attention time and again. With the huge bonus of Heide Peverelle, Gracie Sinclair and Jeanie Pilkington singing together. No doubt more will follow. For now, I'm game.
And now it's time for some darkness. Leave that to Ashton Nyte, the South-African born but Los Angeles living singer and songwriter. Nyte moves through the goth sector of music like a fish in water. On his three song EP he shows the dark side of music and singing. His voice may be compared with David Bowie's, his range is far deeper. Befitting the genre, I'd say. Musically, he does come closer. Single 'The Mirror' emulates a song like 'Scary Monsters And Super Creeps' for example. Deep sounding guitars and whole swathes of synths that are spread out of the structure of 'The Mirror'. The single can stand as a model for the other two songs, 'Thorough The Veil' and 'Haunting'. The Awakening is Ashton Nyte, who is responsible for all voices and instruments. As a band The Awakening will tour Europe, the U.S. and Mexico later this year. Time for "the bats" of old to get out that green soap, work their remaining hairs into the right The Cure style, explosion fashion, worm themselves into that grey and black clothes and gaze at their feet until the right songs by The Awakening come by to start dancing. If Through The Veil does not do the trick, nothing will get the old time bats out of their caves.
Goodwin, is Rob Goodwin of The Slow Show, who is about to release a solo record, 'PEEKABOO', slated for 19 September. To be honest, in the first minute of Whiskey I thought to have heard enough. But two things happened. 1) The addition of singer Samia Chancrin. 2) My brain played the Matt Berninger solo card. The music is very basic. A slow, almost classical piano is played by Goodwin's musical partner Lambert. With an acoustic guitar, some atmospheric noises and voices it is all there is. It is the interaction between the two singers that does the rest. The combination between singers and musicians is pure magic. Living in Berlin, Goodwin could have worked with Sophie Hunger, as Samia Chancrin's voice reminds me of the Swiss singer. I'm happy none the same. Whiskey is a beautiful song.
And now for something completely different. We end the weekly singles' overview with an instrumental, jazzy track by Dutch musician Rindert Lammers. A name I have never heard of before. In Closing Credits he ends the overview with a piece of music that could totally unobtrusively be played at the moment the movie audience is getting up, putting on their coats and shuffling towards the exit, softly discussing what they have just seen. Music played underneath "the little letters" that some people tend to look at, hoping to find out something or to find a reference to that song they heard in the movie. Lammers has that softly played drums some jazz bands have like they are playing in a late, late night club for the final stragglers. Over that drums a lot happens though and not just softly. This usually is not my kind of music but Closing Credits is a song I can listen to with ease. It even makes me a little curious to listen to the album, 'Thank You Kirin Kuki', that was released on 18 April.
Wout de Natris - van der Borght
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