The Nite Songs Singles Bar (September 2020 - part 2)

 

Well, here we go, part 2 of this month's Singles Bar as we finish rounding up all the good stuff that's landed in my inbox over the last few months while I was in reviewing hibernation. Hopefully everyone will find at least something they like in here! Cheers again and hopefully we'll see you with the next instalment either next month or in November depending on how much stuff lands in my inbox between now and then!

Starting off with a band who I'm friends with from my days living on the Herts/Essex borders, Touch of Blue reformed a couple of years ago and "Here It Goes" (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑), their new single, is a good slice of low-slung and loose Stonesy rock with a slight nod to the bar-room stomp of the Quireboys as well. If you're looking for something nice and simple to sink a pint to this coming Friday night then you could do a lot worse than this - downloadable from their Bandcamp page (along with a couple of other recent re-releases) if you want to investigate further.

London garage rock mainstays Lucy & The Rats are yet another group whose album is currently sitting patiently in my review pile to be given a full write-up in the weeks ahead. As well as the album itself, you can download the taster single Dark Clouds (🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑) from their Bandcamp page. It's the usual mix of power-pop with girl group harmonies but no less enjoyable for it and the band still stand out as a group who offer a more measured and thoughtful take on the power pop formula.

Like a few other bands on this list, The Speedways are a band whose album is sat in my pile and should have a review up on this site in the near future. In the meantime, we’ve got a couple of teaser singles from it to review for youse here, both of which you can buy or stream from their Bandcamp page. Kisses Are History (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) shows off the moodier side of the band’s output and is a song you could almost imagine Ronnie Spector singing back in the day. Not bad but the Undertones-esque B-side Number Seven is better - a real full tilt dose of joie de vivre that shows that the tunefulness that informed their excellent Just Another Regular Summer is very much still intact. This Ain't A Radio Sound (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗), the title track (sort of) from the album is even better still, a soaring summery tune that sounds like early Elvis Costello with added pop sensibilities and is backed up with a cover of Billy Ocean’s Love Really Hurts Without You which really has no right to work as well as it does. If the album lives up to these standards then it may well be up there in our Album of the Year stakes in a few months time.

Never mind a virus outbreak, you suspect that it’d take a full on nuclear apocalypse to stop Nottingham’s ultra-prolific Hip Priests from putting new songs out. Drink To My Demons (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗) is exactly the sort of Dead Boys meets Turbonegro 900mph riff pile-up that the Priests are rightly revered for and is backed by a gleeful kicking of Adam & the Ants’ Press Darlings on the B-side. I really don’t think you need any further reason than that to go and investigate it immediately to be honest - check it out via their Bandcamp page.

Power Of Dreams were recommended to me by a friend from the Senseless Things group on Facebook following my Things retrospective a few weeks ago. Their new single Hurricane (🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑) is an odd one, similar to the Cure’s poppier mid-‘80s phase. Enjoyable enough even if it does sail worryingly close to the rocks of U2 at times. Any road up, it's downloadable or streamable from their Bandcamp page if you want to find out more.

The reunion of cult Canadian scuzz-rockers the Black Halos a few years back happened with surprisingly minimal fanfare but rest assured they very much are still out there. Ain't No Good Time To Say Goodbye (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑), their second single since reforming, is a Lords of the New Church style doomy ode to friends no longer with us with Billy Hopeless’ Stiv indebted snarl just as menacing as ever. B-side Rusty Rake, meanwhile, ups the aggro to almost Motörhead levels. You can download or stream it here. Any chance of an album soon lads?

Smash Fashion’s excellent Rompus Pompous album was one of the big surprise highlights of a couple of years back and their new single Got Da Hee Bee Gee Bees At CBGB's (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗) sees them carrying on their good form with a stomping Sweet style slice of ‘70s glam which contains lyrical shout outs to both Stiv Bators and the Leather Nun and an amped up cover of Elton John’s Bennie and the Jets on the B-side taking it off down a Ziggy/Bolan style side street for a rifftastic makeover. If you’ve not become acquainted with this rather awesome band yet then do yerself a favour and put that to rights asap (download or stream from here) if you know what’s good for you.

Like fellow rock veteran Tony Wright in part 1 of this round-up, it seems that Duncan Reid has been looking to the lockdown for lyrical inspiration and Can I Go Out Now Please? (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) even if Reid is up front about it being a rough 'n' ready demo recording, is a prime slice of power pop with its handclaps and My Sharona style guitar line that Reid's made such a good name for himself over the years with. Highly recommended and you can download it from the Big Heads' Bandcamp page.

I've got a copy of Duncan's recent album in my review pile and, as with a lot of bands on this page it seems, there'll be a review of it up in the next few weeks. Likewise Carol Hodge who you may know from her work with Steve Ignorant and Ryan Hamilton whose Savage Purge album should have a review up on here later this month. In the meantime, Hodge has put out a standalone single "A Song For You", (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) a quite lovely stripped down piano ballad. It's the sort of thing to offer a reassuring hand on your shoulder at a time when I suspect most of us need it most and you can download it from Carol's Bandcamp page.

Some of you may remember Bristolian multi-instrumentalist Laura Kidd under her previous alias of She Makes War but this year she's re-launched herself under the new moniker of Penfriend and has put a couple of tracks out on her Bandcamp page in recent months. Debut Everything Looks Normal In The Sunshine (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) is another of the growing number of odes to the lockdown that have sprung up in recent months but does so from a more optimistic point of view as she pleads for our leaders to "don't second guess humanity away" under a summery slice of Voice of the Beehive style pop which sticks in your head nicely. Its follow up The Only Way Out Is Through (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) is a similarly mid-paced thoughtful number about trying to pull yourself out of a depression tailspin and again seems quite uncannily relevant in the times we currently find ourselves in. You can download or stream both tracks from the Penfriend Bandcamp page.

Finally for this month, The Middlenight Men are a new band fronted up by former New Device, Yo-Yo's and Role Models and current Duncan Reid & The Big Heads guitarist Nick Hughes and are currently in the middle of releasing a series of six singles at the moment with two currently being out. B.A. Baby (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) is actually a shamelessly flashy slice of glam rock which sounds more like the '70s' most under-rated band Starz than anything with its chantalong chorus and chiming guitars which is certainly not a bad place to be. Second single Rat Star (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) meanwhile sounds like latter day Billy Idol (Devil's Playground specifically) with its tight-wire rhythms and pounding drums. Where exactly the Middlenight Men take us next I don't know but I'm certainly looking forward to following their journey in future editions of this 'ere column...