Back in the day, the Italian power pop band Radio Days has already made some very catchy music (they represent the pop side of rock’n’roll, as they call it themselves). Four years after their latest work, they are now back with a great new 7″ EP with three songs and cool art work I Got a Love is out on December 11 via Snap!! Records.
Add to wantlist: Bandcamp
Another band from Australia, Perth to be precise, who make delicious likeable jangly guitar music. What’s in the water over there? Too Deep For The Desert, The Spunloves’ second full length album is one you would love to play again and again. Listen to Love Letter (Return to sender) below, my favorite track from the LP.
Add to wantlist: Bandcamp
Pretty much everything about this is intriguing. First of all, the band name Lylyly, of course, but also the singing style of frontwoman Emily Mineo, lyrics like I Thought That I Was Dying (Same As Yesterday) and the self-drawn artwork of the self-titled LP, even the name of the label – goodhowareyou records – intrigues. Check interviews with Rawckus or Vents Magazine if you want to know more, but better: take a listen and let the music speak for itself.
Add to wantlist: Bandcamp
Sometimes you discover new music that turns out not to be that new anymore (actually, that happens quite often, simply because too much new music appears to keep up with it all). This one was released two months ago via Rounder Records, but is too good not to mention. The Nashville husband and wife duo Mike Trotter Jr. and Tanya Blount-Trotter mix elements of soul, gospel, country and rock and roll in their songs, but it’s mostly their powerful voices that keep your attention. Watch and listen to Beautiful below, a track from new album Hearts Town, featuring Jason Isbell. Impressive. I would love to see the couple live with their band.
Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs || thewarandtreaty.com
The Dirty Knobs has long been a side project of guitarist / songwriter / producer Mike Campbell (The Heartbreakers), fellow guitar player Jason Sinay, bassist Lance Morrison and drummer Matt Laug. Every now and then they played together, and finally there is an album now: Wreckless Abandon. The title track below gives an idea of what to expect: American, old-fashioned, familiar-sounding, quality rock and roll. How great that such music is still being made.
‘Throwing caution to the wind // Going over the edge again // With wreckless abandon’
Add to wantlist: Discogs
Last week, MOJO, Uncut and Rough Trade, among others, already published their music year end lists. With six weeks or so to go in 2020, there is of course the risk that they will miss some new albums. Like this one! The combination of the singing skills of songwriter / arranger / band leader / ‘vocal powerhouse’ Samantha Martin and the soul / funk sound of Delta Sugar make The Reckless One an album that would not have been out of place in the aforementioned lists. My favorite song is original Don’t Have To Be – see below – but you should at least also check out Bob Dylan cover Meet Me in the Morning.
Add to wantlist: Gypsy Soul Records || samanthamartinmusic.com
Looking back to the past to forge the future. That’s what Seth Bovey was aiming for with his history book about garage rock. The author is a professor of English at a university, but 40 years ago he also played in several garage bands. The scientist’s hand is clearer than the musician’s experience in the book; above all, it provides a thorough and detailed overview (no lack of references), roughly arranged chronologically and by location. Although many bands are mentioned in the six chapters, it is useful that the book ends with a list for recommended listening – many “garage punk unknowns”, but of course a classic like Psychotic Reaction by Count Five is not missing, see below – and recommended compilations and compilation series. Oh man, my wantlist has expanded a lot when I was reading this – you’ve been warned.
Want to hear more? I’ve collected songs mentioned in the book in this Spotify playlist.
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It was worth the wait, The Parson Red Heads are back with a new LP. As they put it themselves: ‘An album full of dreams, self-reflection, and weary yearning (…) beautiful vocal melodies and harmonies, sparkling pedal steel-driven cosmic Americana and folk rock, coupled with (…) layered synths, organs and mellotrons, songs that build and drive to chaotically beautiful peaks.’ I couldn’t have said it better. Listen to stand-out track All I Wanted below.
I know, this 7″ from TV’s Daniel (Daniel Fried from Bad Sports, Mind Spiders, Radioactivity, among others) is over a year old, but the flip side has become one of my favorite Friday night anthems lately. I like the A side of the single – Maybe We’ll All Die, but what I really love is the B-side (always check the B-side!). Sing along: It’s Better Than It’s Been!
The heyday of Flying Nun Records somehow passed me by at the time, unfortunately, but that won’t happen to me again (#FOMO). The New Zealand record label is still on the right track, and look, tomorrow they are releasing The Bats‘ 10th full-length – one of those bands I also would rather have discovered in the 80’s than 30 years later, but better late than never, right? Either way, they’ve again managed to record 12 addictive songs that you can listen to all day long.
Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Flying Out