The Nite Songs Singles Bar - December 2020 (Part 2)

 

Okay, we've restocked the drinks, got a few new items on the cocktail menu and we're ready to go - here's part two of this month's Singles Bar...

Anyway, kicking us off for part 2 is a return to the fray from Paul-Ronney Angel (feat Tomirae Brown). Seven Spanish Angels (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗) actually reminds me of something that Tyla might have done - a bluesy country lament complete with slide guitar and a tale of two doomed lovers in the old West heading for one last gunfight. Atmospheric and sinister but with a tears-in-yer-pint singalong chorus to power it along, this is another good effort from Mr Angel and is well worth your investigation.

Also returning to the fray this month is former Mission and current Wonder Stuff guitarist Mark Gemini Thwaite aka MGT. Teaming up with vocalist Chris Connelly, the pair have given the old Ace number How Long (🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑) a goth style makeover. It's okay rather than brilliant, reminding me of a less fey Gene Loves Jezebel for some reason. The original song on the B-side Covert is a bit better, a sinister creepy effort that just to say stays on the right side of overblown. Bandcamp link here if you want to investigate further. 

You'll never catch us complaining here about having some new material from Saint Agnes to review and The World Ain’t Big Enough (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) is everything you'd want from them, a lurching seasick ode to dysfunctional relationships which skitters around like a tarantula on uppers. Definitely recommended - Bandcamp link here.

It's good to see some new music from Last Great Dreamers in here as well and Lunacy Lady (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑), a taster for their forthcoming live album is a good solid slice of Quireboys/Faces style bar room boogie. Rocket science it very much ain't but if it doesn't cause your foot to start tapping along through sheer joie de vivre then I'd suggest you're probably dead.

Kris Rodgers & The Dirty Gems are another band from the prolific Wicked Cool stable (Rodgers is also the keyboard player with Kurt Baker's band whose album we should be reviewing up on here any day now) and She Likes To Party (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) is a supremely funky slice of party rock 'n' roll which owes a sly nod to Mott the Hoople (Honaloochie Boogie in particular) in its execution and which you'll struggle to resist getting up and busting some moves out to yourself. With a well-executed cover of Boz Scaggs' Lido Shuffle on the flip, this is a good 'un worth investigating - Bandcamp link here.

Adam & The Hellcats are a new group from Bristol and Welcome To The Madhouse (🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑), their second single, sounds more like something from Halloween rather than the festive season. Think one part Phantasmagoria era Damned, one part Gary Numan and one part Screaming Lord Sutch and you wouldn't be too far off with the creepy haunted house keyboards and fuzzed-up guitars. An intriguing start, let's see where they go next... Bandcamp link here.

Finally for this instalment, we have a new single from The Ramonas - before anyone asks, as the group's 2017 album First World Problems proved, this is a covers group who've comfortably graduated to doing their own material. Weirdly though, From Belgium With Love (🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 featuring the talents of none other than Charlie Harper from the UK Subs on harmonica, reminds me more of the mellower end of the power-pop spectrum and bands such as Lucy & The Rats or maybe the Primitives if you want to go a bit further back. Not quite what I was expecting but it's an enjoyable tune so they're forgiven. Bandcamp link here.

Anyway, thus endeth our second transmission of the day from the Singles Bar. Tune back in in an hour or so as we look at some stuff that falls between being straight up singles and full-blown albums. Intrigued? You will be...