Thoineau Palis from TH da Freak (who just has a new single out, Pretty Cool) turns out to have a brother who is also quite musical, who also creates idiosyncratic indie rock. Please meet Rémi Palis, who just released his debut EP Fade, Out under the moniker of Animalmore. You’ll hear five lo-fi guitar songs with psych pop influences and catchy choruses, energetic, hooky and ramshackle. RIYL The Strokes, Holiday Ghosts, The Bug Club.
Fade, Out is out now digitally trough Flippin’ Freaks Records.
Prolific French punk enthusiast and songsmith Bart De Vraantijk (Janitors, Pneumonias, Wild Zeros, Skeptics, Teenage Hearts) has recently been writing and putting out solo material as Bart and the Brats like there is no tomorrow. Two 7″s, a 10″ a compilation CD and now there is a self-titled LP, and all that in a mere 18 months? That is impressive.
Fast, urgent and loud, the twelve songs on Bart and The Brats are a blast. They have the spontaneity and energy of first takes, but don’t feel like throwaway songs at all. Quality punk with a late ’70s UK vibe, a touch of early Ramones and a total lack of polish and shine. Good stuff! Buy the LP at No Front Teeth or Big Neck Records.
In 2022, not many artists can claim to have collaborated with Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, Joe Tex, Bobby Womack, Wilson Pickett, Jackie Wilson, Sam Cooke and many other big names, let alone release a new album more than 50 years after their debut. But look: American guitar player and singer Herman Hitson aka Hermon Hitson has survived a wild life – his biography calls him a recovering heroin addict, one-time inmate and snake-clearer armed with a flamethrower – and recently in two days he recorded the nine songs of Let The Gods Sing, unstoppable as if he were at the beginning of his career, although his unique dark voice betrays longevity. The experienced pioneer plays here alongside The Sacred Soul Sound Section – Will Sexton (guitar), Mark Stuart (bass), Will McCarley (drums/percussion), Al Gamble (organ) and Art Edmaiston (horns) – forcing everybody to get loose and then tight. The LP captures the adventurous musical spirit of Hitson, with a wicked groove and a mix of funk, rhythm & blues, soul, hard blues, all layered with psychedelia, all raw and authentic. You’ll hear new performances of some of Hitson’s best-known R&B tunes, like Suspicious (an original Hitson song attributed to Jimi Hendrix at the time), and he also re-covers Bad Girl (featuring garage rock legend Jack Oblivian on guitar and Marcella Simien on vocals), written by his longtime bandmate Lee Moses. The record colors wildly outside the lines, takes you on an exciting trip, and leaves you in awe.
Let The Gods Sing, produced by Bruce Watson and Will Sexton, is out now digitally, on CD and vinyl LP through Big Legal Mess Records.
Australian punk-pop trio Bloods are back with a new full-length album, Together, Baby!. The LP kicks off overwhelmingly with Radical, a hypnotic Latin American protest chant featuring trumpet, trombone and gang vocals: “Vamos a cambiar el mundo // Ya temenos el motivo” (Let’s change the world // We already have the reason). After that, Marihuzka “MC” Cornelius exchanges Spanish for English, but it should be clear that she’s unstoppable: “It’s a big bad world // And I’m so done with being the nice girl” (from BOSS). Thematically, the focus in the following songs shifts to what life is all about: being together. The message in I Like You, in which Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace guests, sounds hopeful: “Not sleeping alone anymore // Never sleeping alone anymore.” The lyrics are given even more expressiveness by the melodic and infectious accompaniment by Dirk Jonker and Mike Morgan. Anger and love go hand in hand on this release, and it works out well.
Together, Baby! is out now digitally and on rainbow splatter vinyl LP through Share It Music.
Wait, didn’t I just write about Dan Vapid & The Cheats? I had to look it up and it was only ten months ago we covered Escape Velocity. It feels even more recent. Well, here’s Welcome To Dystopia, album #5 by pop punk and ramonescore legend Dan Vapid (Screeching Weasel, The Riverdales, The Mopes, The Methadones, The Vindictives). I liked Escape Velocity a lot, but Welcome To Dystopia may be even better.
Welcome To Dystopia is an album of contradictions. It sounds super smooth but its themes touch upon the rough direction society is taking. Sweet and sour, light and dark, it’s all there on the record. It’s political but communicated through personal experience, frustrations and anger. Dan Vapid uses that fuel to create something that sounds anthemic and joyful at the same time. What better way to deal with that hateful narcissistic populist leader than by shouting along to Big Boy Is Crying Again. What better way to sing away your frustration about friends and family lost to conspiracy theorists than with Fact Or Fiction?
Can a record about such negative themes that are all too familiar still be fun? Leave that in Dan Vapid’s capable hands. This is pop punk bliss. Out now on CD through Eccentric Pop Records, LP expected eventually.
It’s a pretty safe bet. Ask any fan of ramonescore/pop punk about the best European bands and The Manges will pop up sooner or later. Take a quick dive in their discography and you’ll wonder what’s left to prove for The Manges. It’s just packed with hits and quality records and singles. The Manges have made their point, proven their worth, built their fan base, so why bother recording new material if you could just tour your old stuff every now and then, knowing the fans will show up and sing along.
Apparently (and fortunately!), for The Manges this poses no dilemma at all. They sound extremely inspired on their new record. It’s hit after hit after hit. I see no reason to skip any of the songs – 11 originals and a fun cover of The Fleshtones’ I’m Not A Sissy. On Book Of Hate For Good People, The Manges combine experience and skill with youthful punk energy with us listeners as the main beneficiaries. Out now through Striped Music (blue vinyl) and Hey Suburbia (yellow vinyl)!
That was a pleasant surprise on the first day of autumn of this year: Another Summer, the full-length debut album by UK dream pop outfit The Surely Knots was released. It’s a musical project by longtime friends Fred Spence and Dylan Evans Hutchison, who recorded seven original tunes with the help of Polly Ruppel, Sam Seccombe, Zach Ockmore, Jake Searle and Max Elliott. They play folky indie pop influenced by the psychedelic ’60s, on the musical spectrum hovering somewhere between Jens Lekman, Belle and Sebastian and Bright Eyes. You’ll hear wonderful, heartfelt songs about friends, love, and peace, with exciting structures, a rich instrumentation and compelling vocal harmonies. Another Summer adds color to your autumn.
Another Summer is out now digitally (self-released). Add to wantlist: Bandcamp
I love it when an album opens with a call to action. Of course, that call should feel urgent and authenthic to actually strike a chord. Come Alive, the title track of the new Outtacontroller is exactly that. “Are you still here? Do you still care?,” Outtacontroller wonders. It’s a rhetorical question. I mean, it must be right? A new Outtacontroller record? Plenty of reason to get excited, because these Canadians (Halifax, Nova Scotia to be precise) always deliver. Most importantly, an abundance of hooks.
Come Alive is no exception. By now, you should be familiar with the main ingredients of an Outtacontroller release: garage powerpop with pushy urgent drumming, simple but effective guitar riffing and the delayed (but guaranteed!) gratification of killer hooks. Come Alive delivers on all fronts without ever feeling redundant of like a been there done that record. Outtacontroller sound like they are just getting started, like they can’t wait to get your garage party started. The hits on Come Alive are too many to highlight. Here are a couple of personal favorites though: Time To Crash (prototypical Outtacontroller), Hit And Run (those sweet guitar licks!), Show Me How It’s Done (glammy and earwormy), and Hanging Over You (sooooo catchy).
Outtacontroller has been teasing some of these songs in the past 18 months or so, and Come Alive definitely makes good on the promise of those tracks. Come Alive is another win for Outtacontroller. It is out now, and currently appears to be streaming only – which kinda worries me, since I’d like to add it to the collection soonish…guys?
The self-produced fifth album from Sydney swamp rockers The Ramalamas is literally and figuratively a thrilling one: the 16 tracks here form the original motion picture soundtrack to imaginary long lost 1968 horror/drama cult classic Le Cape Noir (The Black Cape). Chris Nielsen (vocals, guitars), Peter Kirwan (guitars, pedal steel), Matthias Engesser (bass), Paul Leadbetter (keys) and Scott Armstrong (drums) play danceable garage psych topped with a dirty country and surf sauce. To emphasize the cinematic feel, some tunes are instrumental, and you’ll also hear cracking skits with dialogues by Australian actors Sacha Horler and Nick Galea. This isn’t the first soundtrack to an imaginary movie, but rarely has it turned out as well as this one.
Le Cape Noir is out now digitally and on vinyl through Half A Cow Records.
Pleasure Center are a four-piece from St. Louis, Missouri. I assume the band name refers to the reward circuit in our brain, because that is exactly where the ten band’s debut LP Jangle In Pity City will quickly find a home. This is top notch power pop that feels spontaneous, rockin’ and full of memorable melodies. Pleasure Center sounds very poppy, but never glossy or too polished, and there is a good bit of jangle on the record. The vocal chords have a touch of sandpaper to them, which gives the songs an even more rockin’ sound. Sonically, Jangle In Pity City fits nicely between the most recent Local Drags and Starter Jackets LPs.
It always brings me joy to hear a new band opting for a classic powerpop sound and absolutely nailing it. Nice to have you around Pleasure Center. Keep writing tunes like these.
