Dennis

New EP: Billy Conquer || Garage Hits

By / / Indie Rock / Leave a Comment

Since 2021 is slow to get underway in terms of new releases, this is a last one that came out in 2020 (on the last day of it, so we can still call this new). In the spring Billy Conquer already made the track Covid – 19  (‘There’s a little virus coming out / I wanna tell you all about’), but the situation hasn’t improved much since then. And what do you do when you are quarantined together as a band for a while? Right, you drink cheap beer, smoke cigarettes, and make music (not necessarily in that order). Joined by Yoshinobu on organ / piano / synth, the American 3-piece wrote and recorded six new songs, with which they say they make the transition from 90s indie rock influences to the garage rock revival category. Garage Hits was mixed by Gordon Raphael, producer of The Strokes’ Is This it and Room on Fire. Listen below to my favorite track 1984, an ode to the 80s (‘What’s that sound / I want more’) with a delicious organ part.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

“Coolest song” of 2020: The Weeklings || 3

By / / Power Pop / Leave a Comment

One of my favorite “radio” shows is Little Steven’s Underground Garage, with which hero Steven Van Zandt makes an important contribution to keeping Rock ‘n’ Roll alive (I made a Spotify playlist with tracks I heard over there; if I don’t know what to listen anymore, this always offers good fun). Every week he plays the best rock and soul music of the past 60 years (Beatles, Stones, Byrds, Yardbirds, Crystals, Ramones, Springsteen, Who, Fleshtones, Kinks, Otis, …), but also new tunes from his own Wicked Cool Records and other labels . The Underground Garage listeners have once again been able to vote which of those new songs they consider the “Coolest Song in the World” of last year. At the top of the 2020 list is 3 from The Weeklings, an American supergroup performing Beatles covers and Beatles-inspired power-pop originals. Below you can see one of the three videos they made for the single (there is also a lyric video and a dance party version). Hey!

Add to wantlist: Discogs || The Weeklings Shop

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New song: Chris Lujan & Electric Butter feat. Andre Cruz || New Years Day

By / / Funk & Soul / 1 Comment

New Year’s Day is a special day every year (in 2021 perhaps even more than usual), in that respect it’s remarkable that relatively few songs are devoted to it (compare it with the enormous amount of Christmas songs). Fortunately, Chris Lujan and Andre Cruz are now making a nice new contribution. From the idea that any day can be the beginning of a new year they wrote the tune New Years Day, an optimistic and atmospheric soul song that promises a new start. Available digitally through Lugnut Brand Records. Happy New Year!

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

“New” compilation: The Dogmatics || EST 81

By / / Garage Rock / 1 Comment

Rum Bar Records just released EST 81 by The Dogmatics in digital format, a collection of the songs of the Boston garage / pub rock band from the 80’s. Not really a new compilation, because available on CD in 1998 as Dogmatics 1981-86, but very welcome. Now, over 30 years later, the band is back, with the excellent single She’s the One (2019), singer-guitarist Jerry Lehane released an equally excellent self-titled EP (2020) and more new music is expected to follow in the new year, but it’s cool to hear the old work again. They are still great songs! What would be even more welcome than these downloadable tracks, is a vinyl version of EST 81. Please!?

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Savoy Motel || Love Your Face

By / / Glam Rock / Leave a Comment

It’s tempting to label Savoy Motel as a retro glam revival group, but with the Sorry People video of their self-titled debut album (2015), the American rock band made it clear they don’t want to be seen as such: ‘We aren’t trying to revive anything. We play southern rock in a modern tradition. We try to create music that is all-inclusive escapism.’ Anyway, there is now a second full-length (click here for the commercial promoting Love Your Face) – ten new songs arranged and produced by Ryan Donoho (drums), Tina Norwood (piano), Jeffrey Novak (bass) and Dillon Watson (guitar). They are songs that go in all directions (they remind me of Foxygen at times, but I’m probably not allowed to say that either), songs that indeed allow you to escape the news of last year for 33 minutes.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs

New album: Slaughter Beach, Dog || At The Moonbase

By / / Indie Pop / Leave a Comment

This is another album that wouldn’t have been out of place in my year-end list. In this case the fact that it’s missing is not because I overlooked it, but because it was only released last Friday. I think it ties in well with the mood of the last days of 2020. At The Moonbase, the new LP from Slaughter Beach, Dog (in this interview the band name is explained), is the follow-up to the excellent Safe And Also No Fear (2019). The music was written, performed and produced by Jake Ewald during the corona pandemic. He received help from several guest musicians, of which Wil Schade’s contribution is particularly striking: saxophone solos as heard on records in the 80’s. Apart from that, it is especially the lyrics that are intriguing. Lyric videos were made for all 11 songs, give it a try (you can see one of my favorite tracks, Do You Understand (What Has Happened To You), below).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Lame-O Records

Overlooked album: Kyle Lacy || The Road To Tomorrow

By / / Funk & Soul / Leave a Comment

Every year it happens again: you have published your album of the year list and then you discover that you missed LPs that you really didn’t want to miss. Today I listened for the first time to the music American singer-songwriter Kyle Lacy released in 2020: his first full-length solo album The Road To Tomorrow (released February 14, CD on Dala Records; listen to stand-out tracks Low and Slow and Hangin’ On below), his EP Bad Bad Days (May 1, independently available from Bandcamp), his EP in collaboration with Warren Malone Lunchbox Special (August 7, Bandcamp) and his EP No Better Me (October 1, Bandcamp). All worth checking out. A fine mix of soul, blues, gospel and rock ‘n’ roll that deserves a larger audience (why isn’t this dude as famous as Eli “Paperboy” Reed and Nick Waterhouse?). Kyle Lacy may be missing from my year-end list, but it’s never too late to discover such good music.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Dala Records

“New” album: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard || Teenage Gizzard

By / / Garage Rock, Psych / Leave a Comment

What a pleasant surprise from King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard! The Australian rock band released Teenage Gizzard, a compilation of their first songs, recorded in 2010 and 2011. Very cool to hear how they started: short rock songs with surf influences, in which the characteristic singing style and hypnotic guitars are already central, but less complex and drawn-out than in their later work. The ten tracks are available as a digital album, but you can also bootleg the album yourself (like seven other albums – live shows or demos). The audio master files and cover art can be downloaded for free by anyone who wants to release this album (in 2017 they did something similar with Polygondwanaland, now 288 different versions have been made). I look forward to the creative outbursts this new challenge will yield and I want to have at least one of them in my collection.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs

New album: Neil Brogan || Weird Year

By / / Jangle Pop / Leave a Comment

Anyone who likes jangle pop is probably familiar with the Irish band Sea Pinks (otherwise listen to Art Imitating Life, for example). Neil Brogan, their founder / songwriter / singer / guitarist, has now also released a (digital) solo album. Weird Year is a song diary of the weird year 2020. It was recorded at home as the months slipped away, a period of cancellations, miscommunications and garden visits. Fortunately, this alienating time has resulted in a nice retrospective. However, let’s hope 2021 will be less weird and indeed brings some cheers.

‘The inverse of what’s real and within touching // is what’s there to fear // not for nothing // do I hold you // So dear.’

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Bingo Trappers || Giddy Wishes

By / / Blues & Roots, Psych / Leave a Comment

In 1995 Waldemar Noë visited Wim Elzinga to record a few songs at his home, the start of Bingo Trappers. Now, 25 years later, the Dutch lo-fi band still works that way. They make 60’s/70’s-influenced psychedelic garage pop with a twang. Old-fashioned craftsmanship. Their new album Giddy Wishes, follow up to Elizabethan (2018), offers ten new melancholic tunes that bring a little light to these dark days. Most of the songs are a bit more subdued than before, but the singer’s ‘Whoo!’ exclamation halfway through the stand-out track What’s the score (listen below) shows the enthusiasm that the band still has. The album title refers to an old-fashioned postcard: ‘Some giddy wishes from a confined place – mind and heart are free to travel from A to B.’ Just what we need right now.

Add to wantlist: Almost Halloween Time || Grapefruit || Morc Records  (Bandcamp) || Morc Records (website) || Unread

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