Nite Songs

  How to describe Hung Like Hanratty? Imagine Sleaford Mods except with a full band instead of just two of them and replace their electronica with a brand of foul-mouthed punk reminiscent of Peter & The Test Tube Babies and Spunk Volcano & The Eruptions. Now on their fourth album, they're still blasting out the same basic three chord thrash (albeit with some surprisingly adept flashy guitar solos in there) and growling out humorous tales of smalltown psychosis like I Hate The World  and Twat On A Bike . So why the hell is it so addictive then? I think it's because in a country which hasn't just gone to the dogs in recent years but blown its last tenner on a three-legged chihuahua while it was there to boot, not to mention that we've been stuck indoors unable to see our friends for the best part of nine months while listening to a load of silver-spoon-up-their-arse poshos desperately trying to reassure us that they know what they're doing when it's pretty...

  Bob Mould is of course somebody who should need no introduction on here and in recent years the former Husker Du and Sugar man has been in a supremely prolific run of form with Blue Hearts  being his third album in as many years. Hand on heart, while I enjoyed 2017's dark Patch The Sky , I found last year's Sunshine Rock , while a much more upbeat album than its predecessor, to be a bit anonymous compared to Mould's best stuff. Blue Hearts  though is a much fiercer album which sees Mould railing against the state of the US in 2020 with the doomy anti-war Heart On My Sleeve  lulling you into the album gently before the ferocious Next Generation , urging the youth of America to stand up for themselves before it's too late, hits you with a real gut punch to kickstart things in earnest and is followed by the ferocious American Crisis  which really doesn't hold back in its anger, almost harking back to the sheer vitriol of early Husker Du with Mould sounding as if ...

  Punk concept albums? Hang on, is that even a thing? Apparently so. Professor & The Madman are a supergroup of sorts with the former DI duo of Alfie Agnew (also ex-Adolescents) and Sean Elliott linking up with the Damned's imperial years rhythm section of Paul Gray and Rat Scabies (and I'm sure plenty of other Damned fans will agree, it's good to see those two working together again) and Seance  is indeed a concept album about a group of friends carrying out an attempt to contact the dead which leads to a journey into the afterlife. The obvious touchstone upon first listen is the Damned's Black Album  and not just because of the presence of Gray and Scabies. Songs like the opening title track and So Long  definitely mine the same vein of gothy garage rock as that classic did and the 12 string guitar work on Real Me  is definitely reminiscent of Captain Sensible in that era. It's not a one trick pony though and the band definitely show a bit of versatility f...

  "You're just chokin' on your Coca-Cola/Chokin' on your dreams..."  - The Almighty, Jonestown Mind , 1994 After a few more indie-leaning columns, this week sees Sounds From The Junkshop return to heavier territory. The Almighty were a band I first became aware of after seeing the video to their second single Wild And Wonderful  on the ITV Chart Show Rock Chart. Listening to it now, it's pretty obvious that the main influences were Motorhead, the Cult circa Electric  and AC/DC. As a 12-year-old, of course, I wasn't quite in a position to put all the pieces of that jigsaw into place (I knew of AC/DC through the awesome Thunderstruck single and video of course and might have been aware of the Cult via Fire Woman a year or two earlier but I was a year or two away from discovering Lemmy and co when a re-released Ace of Spades  stormed into the Top 30) but what I did know was that there was something undeniably anthemic about that "C'mon honey and show...

  The name Richard Davies & The Dissidents may not be immediately familiar to a lot of our readers here but trust me, the guy has a pretty impressive pedigree having recently served as guitarist to the living legend that is Peter Perrett and having previously been in Americana types the Snakes and, way way back, with early Britpop never-quite-weres Tiny Monroe. With a band also including various off duty members of Mega City Four and Last Great Dreamers, this album certainly looks like an enticing prospect. Certainly there's a palpable nod to both Mr Perrett and his American equivalent Johnny Thunders on here with the laconic likes of No Man's Land ,  Lay Me Low  and Heartbeat Smile conjuring up the yearning spirit of the Only Ones or Thunders' So Alone  and Que Sera Sera  albums. There's echoes of the likes of Darrell Bath ( Long Road To Your Heart ) and Ryan Hamilton ( Echo Road and No Master No Guide ) on here as well. Under The Skin  even reminds me...

  As those who've been reading this webzine since the early days will know, I make no secret of the fact that Carter USM were a massively influential band on my music taste and the prospect of a new Jim Bob album to review has been something I've been looking forward to greatly since it came out a couple of months back while I've been working through the review backlog here. Pop Up Jim Bob  is, as the 30 second lead-off single 2020 WTF  intimates, an increasingly despairing look at the state of the world this year. Jo's Got Papercuts  is a tale of sheer frustration at the world around you while Kidstrike  salutes the youth of today who seem to be more motivated to try and change the increasingly hopeless world around them than the older generation and the epic six minute spoken word Truce  imagines a world where people stop arguing and just try to get on. Elsewhere, Jim Bob takes some well aimed potshots at the MAGA gun culture in the States ( Ted Talks ), ...

  Now here's one of the more unexpected comebacks of 2020. Barnsley goth/post-punk types (although their Bandcamp page now has them based in Scarborough) the Danse Society achieved a degree of low level chart success in the mid-'80s, mainly with their Heaven Is Waiting  single and album and I honestly had no idea they had reformed. In terms of their sound though, it's pretty clear from the icy guitars, jumpy post-punk bassline and nervy vocals on opener Dance Away Your Love  that the band are very much sticking to their tried and tested sound although the new 21st century version now has a female vocalist in Maethelyiah who occupies an interesting middle ground somewhere between Siouxsie and the Cocteau Twins' Liz Fraser (with maybe a slight hint of Bjork in there as well). The atmospheric title track sees them sailing into more melodramatic waters to decent enough effect but it does come across as a bit overblown at times. Thankfully the pounding guitars of Valerio...

  "And when they come to ethnically cleanse me, will you speak out, will you defend me?"  - Pop Will Eat Itself, Ich Bin Ein Auslander , 1994 I'll be honest, until my mid-teens, Pop Will Eat Itself were the one of those bands who I sort of knew that I should  like as all of my favourite groups at the time (Carter, the Senseless Things, the Wonder Stuff) were constantly raving about them but just never quite did it for me (see also Atomic Dustbin, Ned's). I had a couple of their singles ( X, Y And Zee  and  92 Degrees Fahrenheit  if anyone's keeping count) but for every slice of scuzzed-up indie techno anthemicness they seemed to then come out with something pretty anonymous. Until the album we're going to deal with today, of course, namely 1994's seminal Dos Dedos Mi Amigos  which well and truly won me over to their cause. And of course, as with every sodding band I seemed to get into circa 1993-94, it ended up being their final effort with the group s...

  Diablofurs have previously shared a split release with the very under-rated Deadcuts (RIP) and feature at least one ex-member of semi-legendary "we were the Manics before the Manics" Coventry indie-punks Birdland so the initial omens for this release were pretty promising. Put any thoughts of the scuzzier end of early '90s alternative music out of your mind though because on this evidence, Diablofurs appear to have set their controls for a good decade earlier with a full on power-pop/new wave sound. The opening duo of Chase The Beat  and Everybody's Dreamin'  come on like Parallel Lines  era Blondie being fronted by Gary Numan and it's not an unpleasant sound at all. The album continues on the early '80s vein throughout with the title track coming on like Tubeway Army going pop while the epic Obsession/Meteors  is probably the closest thing stylistically to Birdland on here but the bubbling synths certainly mark it as being a new evolved version of the s...

  Having established himself on the scene with a couple of promising albums in the form of 2014's Last One To Die and 2016's The Road To No Town  plus a spell playing bass in Tyla's current incarnation of the Dogs D'Amour, it's good to see a new album from Northern Irish troubadour Matty James Cassidy here in the dying days of 2020. As with the two previous efforts, Old Souls ' closest template is the steely countrified rock of solo Ricky Warwick with Said & Done  and Contradiction in Terms  having the necessary growly vocals and honking harmonica to conjure up the image of music from some spit 'n' sawdust saloon at the rough end of town. However, it's far from a one-trick pony - the doo-wop rhythms of The Art Of Falling Down  bring to mind Johnny Cash turning his hand to covering Queen's Somebody To Love  of all things while Rosary 's sinister almost mariachi style rhythms could have sat on a Nick Marsh album. The title track (and recent...

  Hailing from New York and signed to Little Steven's Wicked Cool Records, the fact that Wyldlife are pretty much a straight up power-pop band should probably come as a surprise to no-one. The closest template I can think of here is Cheap Trick with a touch of the Ramones and the Buzzcocks chucked in as evidenced on the zippy opening one-two punch of Deathbed  and Neon Nightmare . To be fair, even if they do pretty much tick off every influence you'd expect for a power-pop band from the Elvis Costello snarkiness of Get Well  and Tulsa Superstar  through the Records style harmonies of Automatic  and the Replacements style sour pop of Keeping Up With CT  to the more countrified Tom Petty-esque Crime Of The Scene , at least they're doing it well and Year Of The Snake  is a varied enough beast to keep your interest. They work best when they dial the venom up a bit such as on the the Thunders style snottiness of Kiss And Tell  and the frenetic title tr...

  Yup, you're right, it has  come around again quickly. Sod's law being what it is, pretty much as soon as I'd finished last month's Singles Bar column two weeks ago, a whole flood of new releases came to my attention so we almost instantly ended up with enough to do another column all together. So you lucky people are getting this month's singles bar instalment a couple of weeks earlier than planned this time out - hope you enjoy... Okay, first up, I demand to know how the excellent Spunk Volcano & The Eruptions  have managed to put no less than three singles out in recent months without anyone bringing it to my attention! Oh well, better late than never. Kicking off, Football In The Sun  (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗) is a great and surprisingly touching ode to kickabouts in the park with your mates in the '80s with a great anthemic singalong chorus in the best Undertones stylee. If you missed it first time out, get a copy now and keep it on standby for next summer when hop...

  “Lace your trainers, zip your top ‘cos you’re burning bright!!” - These Animal Men, Sharp Kid , 1994 I can't quite remember exactly when it was that These Animal Men first cropped up on my radar but I do know that for a band who made such a limited splash commercially, they were definitely a group who inspired a lot of people with the New Wave of New Wave movement that they were at the head of offering a glimpse into what seemed like a genuinely dangerous and controversial movement until the music press cut it off at the knees and watered it down to become its safer more well-behaved and more commercially viable bastard child Britpop. Our story starts in the early days of 1994. Like I say, I can't quite remember exactly where. Either...I read about TAM in the NME or Melody Maker (both of whom hyped the group to absolute high heaven in their early days). Or...I saw the video for their debut single Speeed King  on the ITV Chart Show. Or...it was the time when I saw them on a ...

  Nick Marsh's passing five years ago following a protracted battle with throat cancer saw him leave behind an incredibly rich and under-rated legacy. From his work in the '80s with Flesh For Lulu (a band who in a just world would have gained the sort of plaudits and sales that their fellow year zero goths the Sisters of Mercy did) through his haunting 2010 solo album A Universe Between Us  to his woozy guitar work with the Urban Voodoo Machine, his back catalogue is well worth exploring. Waltzing Bones  represents the final chapter in Marsh's legacy - he was working on the album at the time of his passing and the album has been finished over the last couple of years by his widow, Katharine Blake (Miranda Sex Garden, Medieval Baebes) as well as a number of his friends and musical collaborators. The seasick six minute waltz of Masquerade sees Marsh continuing with the sinister themes of A Universe Between Us and sets the scene nicely for this effort before the flamenco-fol...

  Now on their fourth album, it's safe to say that life is very much ticking on the same as it always did in the world of Lancaster rockers Massive Wagons. In that they still sound as if they've pretty much teleported straight into this timeline from a Scorpions support slot circa 1978. When singer Baz yells "Maybe I'm old before my years"  on opening track In It Together  you can't help but roll your eyes at the irony of it all. To be fair, I always feel it's a bit unfair to peg Massive Wagons as a bunch of derivative retro-merchants as they at least show a lot more energy and enthusiasm in going about their craft than the detestable likes of Greta Van Fleet, Black Stone Cherry et al but at the same time it's difficult to shift the feeling when you listen to them that they're only one falsetto vocal away from essentially being a bunch of Darkness clones. And as much as I like the Darkness, cornball humour in rock 'n' roll is something that...

  Sometimes you can tell just by looking at a cover of an album that the omens are gonna be good and such is the case with Canadian scuzz merchants the Sick Things. Band named after an Alice Cooper song? Check. Signed to Yeah Right Records who also count the Black Halos and Smash Fashion among their roster? Check. Yup, this one is definitely ticking all the boxes. So it's safe to say that when the opening track here Take The Head From The Crown  kicks in on a swaggering riff that Steve Jones would no doubt happily endorse before exploding into a ferocious slash 'n' burn white knuckle ride that sounds like the bastard offspring of the Backyard Babies and early Manics, you can allow yourself a satisfied nod that this is living up to expectations. Second song Boogaloser  struts in sounding like the sort of wrong-side-of-the-tracks tale of wrongdoing that bands like the Hangmen do so well before the Thin Lizzy indebted twin guitar sound of Sick Thing  kicks things up ano...

  "Take these words I give to you, take some comfort, every word is true"  - Mega City Four, Wallflower , 1993 Yup, it's that time again where your friendly music reviewer takes you back on a journey to the early '90s in search of overlooked gems. Given that we’ve already covered Carter USM, the Wonder Stuff, the Senseless Things and Kingmaker in this feature, I suppose it was inevitable that Mega City Four would crop up here as well and so they should - they were another very underrated band who were generally written off as too unglamorous by the stuck up pricks in the inky indie press at the time and whose back catalogue deserves a closer look. The thing is though that Mega City Four were actually a bit different from the other bands haphazardly chucked together under the “fraggle” scene of the early ‘90s. You listened to the Wonder Stuff or to a lesser extent, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin (a band who I have to be honest I liked a few songs by like Kill Your Television bu...

  Following a turbulent year, it's good to see Ryan Hamilton back with a new album. Since his previous effort, 2018’s This Is The Sound , not only have the Harlequin Ghosts changed guitarists with Main Grains/Spangles man Ben Marsden replacing Dave Winkler but Hamilton has gone through a divorce and has described Nowhere To Go... as being his breakup album, written while road tripping across the States to try and get his head in order. These things can go one of two ways - either a really well-handled album that you'll come back to when you're needing a bit of solace for some heartache or an absolute klutzfest which sees a previously respectable band well and truly tank their credibility (fans of Marilyn Manson and Rancid may allow themselves a rueful nod and a sigh here). I'm happy to report that Nowhere To Go But Everywhere  definitely falls into the former category though. Hamilton has always been a guy with a keen ear for a melody and he's on good form here. Ye...

  When the Spitfires first emerged in 2014, they were heralded as the main figureheads of the latest incarnation of the Mod Revival (mainly on the back of frontman Billy Sullivan's vocal similarities to Paul Weller I suspect) only for no other bands to really follow them into the mainstream. Life Worth Living  is their fourth album and their first since signing to Acid Jazz records and also sees them slimmed down to a power trio (something which I suspect won't help those omnipresent Jam comparisons to go away). Their previous effort, 2017’s Year Zero was a bit of a disappointment to these ears with the band sounding as if they’d stalled a bit creatively so it’s pretty much put up or shut up time with this one. To be fair, it gets off to a good start with the northern soul indebted Start All Over Again  with Sullivan decrying the lack of voices pointing the way out of dark times for the youth of the country ( "Yesterday's heroes all just keep their heads down" ) ...