New Album: 錯乱前戦 (Sakuran Zensen) || I Am Sakuran Zensen

By / / Garage Rock / 3 Comments

There is a lot I hate about the Internet, but here’s something I love. Two years ago, I received a LinkedIn request from someone from the US I hadn’t met. Let’s call him Dan. Apparently, Dan followed me on Spotify, appreciated some of my playlists and wanted to say hi. That in itself I thought was a cool thing of him to do. Fast-forward two years, I messaged him that my AOTY list was up and that I started this blog with my brother. Dan replied and shared his own Top Ten of 2020 which he was working on for his friends’ annual poll. Dan’s top 10 included 9 excellent picks, and one completely unknown one from Japan: 錯乱前戦 (Sakuran Zensen). I have been playing their latest album I am SAKURAN-ZENSEN nonstop this morning. What an exciting garage rock-‘n’-roll record. Just one look at the album cover and the video below tells me: these guys know exactly what they are doing and are destined for bigger things – they remind me of early Hives in that sense. So thank you, Dan. And welcome to the wantlist 錯乱前戦!

Lookout for a list of records we overlooked in 2020 sometime in the near future.

Add to Wantlist: Discogs 

New song: The Shop Window || Sad Eyes

By / / Indie Pop, Jangle Pop / 1 Comment

It’s always nice when an artist not only makes good music, but also embraces a bigger idea. As The Shop Window (UK) does. The art work of the five songs they have released so far have the same layout (including the band name mirrored) and the Spotify playlists of the band members are “shop windows” of their favorite tracks. But I certainly appreciate their jangly indie pop too, especially this new song Sad Eyes.  After an impressive visit to his 104-year-old grandmother, composer Carl Mann reached for his guitar as soon as he got home and this song wrote itself (video on YouTube). Beautiful. Unfortunately, this track will not be on the forthcoming album The State Of Being Human, due out in the spring, but is now available digitally and will be released early 2021 on 7 ”vinyl through Spinout Nuggets.

‘I see you sitting in your chair // Waiting there, watching time // All you have now is the past // The future has gone beyond your grasp’

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New EP: Crosstown Killers || Exotic Psychotic

By / / Psych / 1 Comment

The idea behind this blog is that we share the work of relatively unknown artists, work that we would like to have in our collection, work you might want to add to your wantlist. That’s not always that easy. This week, through a Spotify playlist, I discovered Exotic Psychotic, the second EP by Australian psych rockers Crosstown Killers. I immediately dragged the track This World is a Modern Day Jail to my favorites list, but it seems there’s no option to pay for the music. They have a website and some social accounts, but unfortunately no page on Bandcamp, no physical release either. Too bad for you and me, but also for the band, I guess. I found a song on Soundcloud to give you an idea of what you’re missing.

So apparently the EP is not for sale, but it can be heard on Spotify.

UPDATE: Message from Crosstown Killers: ‘We’re in the process of making some hard copies for sale.’ 🙂

Music Year-End List || Niek’s Favorite Albums of 2020

By / / Alternative Rock, Garage Rock, Glam Rock, Indie Pop, Indie Rock, Jangle Pop, Power Pop, Punk / 14 Comments

I am a sucker for year-end lists. They help uncover releases I missed, artists I overlooked, and curators worth following. I equally love the process of creating my own lists. There is an instrinsic value and joy in revisiting and reflecting on the records that come out each year. It offers a reminder that some records take time to appreciate, while others’ immediate appeal ultimately proved to be short-lived. One noticable trend in this streaming age is that artists release a crazy amount of great songs, whereas their albums often fail to live up to that promise. Quite a lot of my favorite songs of the year were on releases I left out my top 50. This top 50 celebrates the art of great collections of songs, records I own, records that are on my wantlist,records I’ve played and enjoyed front to back. What about those great individual songs? I will share my favorites in a playlist before the year is over (Update: I made two). I will also publish a list of my favorite singles (7″, digital) and EP’s of 2020 next week (Update: it’s here). And, of course, don’t forget to check out Dennis’ favorite records of 2020.

Ok, less talk, more rock. Below you’ll find my favorite records of the year. Mostly punk, garage, powerpop, rock-‘n’-roll, indiepop and indierock releases.  I’ve added short descriptions of what I love about each record, and sample songs and video’s. If you like what you hear, just click on the album title and AddToWantlist. Oh yeah, and for you streamers out there, there’s a playlist with my favorite song of each record at the bottom of this post. Let’s go!

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New song: Daniel Young || The World Ain’t Gonna Wait

By / / Blues & Roots / 1 Comment

American singer-songwriter / guitarist / drummer / sound engineer / producer Daniel Young knows how to capture the Zeitgeist in this new song. ‘We’re all locked up in our homes, trying to figure out just where to start’, he sings with a country sob in his powerful voice, assisted by Tyler Lambourne (bass), Ryan Tanner (piano), Marcus Bently (backup vocals), Andy Joy Chase (hand claps, yeah!), Sadler Vaden (guitar) and Trevor Nealon (B3 organ). A beautiful song, but also an important one, because ‘The world ain’t gonna wait for us, wondering what we did with our lives’.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New EP: Hobby || Hobby

By / / Indie Rock, Jangle Pop / 1 Comment

Now that was an original way to announce a name change: last year this five-piece band from Paris released a split tape with themselves – the A side under the new name Hobby was called After, the B side under their previous moniker Deaf Parade was called Before. And now there is a new EP from Hobby (‘not professionally and not for pay’) with four tracks, just called Hobby, although none of the songs are titled Hobby. The co-release of Hidden Bay Records (vinyl) and RDS REC HH (tape) offers an interesting combination of slacker jangle and alternative rock with a 90’s feel.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New single: The Ar-Kaics || To Be Free / Easy

By / / Garage Rock / Leave a Comment

They perform this task with gusto: The Ar-Kaics keep 60’s style garage rock alive. After full-length albums in 2014 and 2018, a compilation with singles & unreleased work was released earlier this year. And now they are back with a new single: To Be Free b/w Easy is available through Daptone’s rock subsidiary Wick Records. It’s a great band and this is another great proof of competence. This new single could have been a hit from 1965, but maybe it will be a hit in 2021?

Add to wantlist: Daptone

GIMME 5! || Fievre Share Five Essential Punk Releases From Argentina

By / / Punk / 1 Comment

Add to Wantlist is all about finding that next musthave record for (y)our collection. There are of course many ways to achieve this. We all have trusted record labels, record stores, music blogs, reviewers and playlist curators. With Gimme 5! we take a peek into the collections of artists we admire. The premise is simple: artists WE like, share 5 records THEY love. Sometimes this will be all time-favorites, but the top 5 can also be more genre-, scene-, theme- or region-specific.

To kick things off, we asked our new favorite Argentinian punk band Fievre to introduce us into a scene that, in all honesty, is unknown territory to us. Fievre singer Chelo (left on photo above) was so kind to share his 5 essential Argentinian punk records. Click below to see it. Chelo added words and video’s to his favorite song off each record. We added Discogs links to enable easy adding to your wantlist – which I already did for four out of five of the releases on this list. Thanks Chelo!

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New song: Skegss || Wake Up

By / / Garage Rock / Leave a Comment

We know the Australian garage rock trio Skegss of party bangers like the awesome L.S.D., but their last song is a lot more serious and laid-back. ‘Been living down the wrong side of town, I should move up to the right’, Ben Reed sings accompanied by an acoustic guitar. Beautiful. (Who would have thought that we would describe Skeggs’ music as beautiful?)

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

Music Year-End List || Dennis’ Favorite Albums of 2020

By / / Alternative Rock, Blues & Roots, Funk & Soul, Garage Rock, Glam Rock, Indie Pop, Indie Rock, Jangle Pop, Power Pop, Psych, Punk / 8 Comments

OK, let’s start with the obligatory cliché intro text. The only good thing about 2020 was that by being at home more often you could listen to even more music and for those who want to hear it, enough good music has been made. Since January I have checked out 1,100+ new albums. Sometimes after half a minute I knew it wasn’t for me, sometimes I just couldn’t get enough. No doubt I missed a few things that I should not have missed, but right now this is what it is. And it doesn’t really matter either. Music lists are by definition debatable, because they say something about taste and taste is personal. What follows does not really say anything about quality, but simply reflects what I have played and enjoyed the most. In my list guitars and distinctive voices predominate, it’s mostly rock orientated (alternative, garage, jangle, roots, post-punk, …) plus a little bit of soul, with both debuting bands and old rockers with renewed energy who could have been their grandfather. It turns out that 2020 was not that bad at all!

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