The Nite Songs Singles Bar - November 2020

 

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 hopefully we'll be able to enjoy our surroundings a bit more than we did this year. Tomorrow's Promises (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) goes into slightly darker territory with a bitter ode to backstabbers but Spunk and the lads still can't resist building it up into a big singalong chorus while Only Got Eyes For You (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) is another more mid-paced and moody effort but the chugging riff and gang-chant chorus are just as irresistible as ever. There's a new album from the Eruptions out before the end of the year apparently - on these omens it should be well worth waiting for.

It's good to see The Dollyrots back again and Make Me Hot (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) is their first single for Little Steven's Wicked Cool records (also the home of Ryan Hamilton and Jesse Malin at the moment). It's more of the same sugar-sweet Green Day indebted pop-punk but no less enjoyable than it always was and comes recommended by us. Bizarrely the B-side sees them covering that staple of '90s mallrat movie soundtracks Stay (I Missed You) by Lisa Loeb. Which really works better than it has any right to. Bandcamp link here for streaming/downloading.

Speaking of Jesse Malin we've had a couple of recent singles from the D Generation man in the current review pile. Backstabbers (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) is a sugar-sweet pop melody with (as the title suggests) some dark lyrics hiding just beneath the surface backed up with a well-handled cover of Tom Petty's Crawling Back To You and is a good reminder of what the guy's capable of after his recent slightly disappointing Sunset Kids acoustic album, Todd Youth (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑), meanwhile, is a touching ode to the late former Chelsea Smiles frontman featuring HR from Bad Brains on guest vocals with an almost funk-style bassline propelling the tune along. Good stuff and hopefully a sign that JM is getting back on form for his next album. Available for stream/download from Jesse's Bandcamp page.

We've had quite a big batch of stuff from Wicked Cool this month actually - Norwegian garage rockers The Cocktail Slippers are a band I haven't heard for a good few years (probably since I last got a compilation from WCR to be honest!) but City On Fire (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) proves that they're very much still out there with a soaring ode to pyromania backed by a vocal that's one part Siouxsie Sioux and one part Saffron from Republica (and I mean that as a compliment I promise). Good stuff - Bandcamp link here for those who want to investigate further.

Finally in the Wicked Cool pile, The Woggles' Nothing More To Say (🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑) couldn't be more retro if the video featured Austin Powers grooving along Carnaby Street to it but it's still an enjoyable enough slice of Nuggets style garage rock even if it very much does what it says on the tin. Bandcamp link here.

Well here's a name I didn't think we'd be hearing from again for a while - Sheffield's Black Spiders have reformed and are back with a new single Fly In The Soup (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) which is a timely reminder of what made them such a good band first time out. Essentially sounding like Massive Wagons minus the cringiness and with the aggro dialled up to a much more enjoyable level (especially the satisfyingly crunchy Stonesy riff), this bodes well for their forthcoming album due in early 2021.

It's good to see some new music from Rich Ragany as it's been a good year and a half since the release of the Digressions' excellent Like We'll Never Make It and From Nowhere To You (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗) is a touchingly heartfelt tribute to Rags' late brother with the countrified style and acoustic guitars powering the engine recalling Tom Petty which is no bad thing at all. Highly recommended - you can download or stream from Rags' Bandcamp page.

Following on from their excellent See You, See Me album which we reviewed last month, The Dowling Poole are back with a new single We Are The Noise (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑). More of the same off-the-wall offerings as always, it goes from a post-punk voice to an almost jazz-funk chorus warning against "giving up to the idiots". As with most Dowling Poole releases, this is one that grows on you with each listen and is well worth a spin - Bandcamp link here.

Finally, what would a post-Halloween edition of the Singles Club be without an offering from everyone's favourite ghoul-rockers Zombina & The Skeletones. It's been way too long since we last heard from Zombina and co but Running On All Fours (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗), a tribute to the perils of owning a pet monster, sounds like some great lost Billy Idol tune given an All Hallows makeover. The frenetic B-side The Scare with its bubbling synths is a good 'un as well. Hopefully this is the signs of this particular monster stirring back into life but in the meantime, you can download or stream it from the Zombina Bandcamp page.

Anyway, thus concludes our trip to the Singles Bar for this month. Hope you all had a good time and managed to find some cool new sounds to take home with you. Till next time...