The Nite Songs Singles Bar - October 2021 (Part 2)

 

This month has seen us having a bit of a decks-clearing exercise at Nite Songs so there's quite a bit of stuff to go through - see below for the stuff we couldn't quite cram into Part 1. Part 3, consisting of EP's and mini-albums coming later this morning.

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The prospect of a new Riskee & The Ridicule album in 2022 is definitely an enticing one and we've got a new three tracker Too Young To Be Blue (🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑) from them this month. It gets off to a slow start with lead off track Young & Beautiful sounding a bit awkward and sluggish but the Idlesesque gammon-bashing B-side Blue Jacket is better and a new version of previous single Backwords 2 turns out to be the strongest cut here with its righteous fury. A bit hit and miss but still well worth a listen. Bandcamp Link

A four track EP consisting of four different bands? Now there's something to get every mid-'90s indie kid who remembers the early days of Fierce Panda etc feeling all nostalgic. R*E*P*E*A*T* records are the label in question, the release is called X-Ray Flex (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) and I would imagine the main item of interest for the curious on this is a new offering from late '80s indie stalwarts The Darling Buds (they of the indie-pop classic Hit The Ground) with Jump In, a sleek Blondie style slice of new wave pop which shows they've got plenty of gas in the tank since reforming. New album due next year apparently, should be well worth a listen. Elsewhere, although Tom Emlyn's indie mumbling on Serenade proves to be a bit unmemorable, we get two good examples of youth leading the way in the form of Cambridge noisemongers The Monoliths and their enjoyably venomous two minute burst of noise Fuck Oasis which sounds like Discharge with a diddly keyboard in the background and Colchester punks The Verdicts who contribute the enjoyably snotty You Believe, a well aimed Pistols style diatribe against Sun reading drones. Bandcamp Link

We should have a review of Bedfordshire one-woman punk/new wave outfit Vanity Rose's Hooligan's Shampoo (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) album up on the site in the near future but she’s also got a non-album single Penniless Kiss out as well. It's a bit different from the album, a Mazzy Star style ghostly stripped down lo-fi lament with just a guitar and violin which shows off another side to her output to good effect. Soundcloud Link

Bristol punks The Violent Hearts are another band whose new album is currenty sitting in the pile waiting to be reviewed but on the evidence of lead-off single Terminal (🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑) we should expect the unexpected - this is a dark almost gothy lament which sounds like some sort of weird halfway house between the Manics, the Jesus & Mary Chain and the Lords of the New Church. Intriguing. Bandcamp Link

Chicago ne'er-do-wells The Poison Boys also have a new album ready to drop and Little Speedway Girl (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) is the second single from it following on from Can't Get You Out Of My Mind which we reviewed in the Singles Bar a few months back. It's more power pop than you might expect, blasting through in less than two minutes like a scuzzed-up Buzzcocks after listening to a few Dolls and Ramones records (Scuzzcocks?) and is just as much of a fun listen as you'd expect. Bandcamp Link

It's always good to see some new stuff from Rum Bar records in the review pile and we've got a couple of releases from them this month. First up Miss Georgia Peach with You Blow My Mind (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) which features various off duty members of Nashville Pussy and Nine Pound Hammer to create a full on cowpunk rave-up like Johnny and June knocking back the whiskies with Hank Williams III and Bob Wayne in some redneck bar. B-side Do You Know What Love Means? meanwhile brings up the mental image of Dolly Parton fronting Jason & The Scorchers and is another good 'un. Looking forward to reviewing the album when it lands next year. Bandcamp Link

Also incoming from Rum Bar (and available free, gratis and for nowt) is the new offering from New York residents The Heartdrops, the Three Songs EP (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑). Actually a retrospective release, the Heartdrops were a group of almost-were greaser punks from New York and on the evidence of songs like '95 and Truth Comes Around, they were ploughing a similar furrow to the one that the Yo-Yo's and the Loyalties were on this side of the Atlantic at the time. This is great tuneful scuzzed up pop-punk which sounds like a cross between the Ramones, the Clash and Johnny Thunders' Heartbreakers Bandcamp Link

The prospect of a new album from The Urban Voodoo Machine has been tantalisingly hanging over us for a while now and with a new single arriving in Empty Plastic Cup (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗), the good news is that the wait appears to be almost over. The Voodoos' material has been taking on an increasingly political bent in recent years and this skeletal ragtime ode to the forthcoming environmental apocalypse sees them continuing in that direction with Paul-Ronney Angel unleashing his vitriol to good effect. There's some strong competition but if we were awarding a Single of the Month award in this column then this'd probably be it. 

What's that Skippy? A new Idles album out next month you say? Well, that might just have a bearing on the Albums of the Year list if The Beachland Ballroom (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) is anything to go by. A lurching seasick piano-led waltz, it's unlike almost anything they've done before and shows them continuing to build on the progress that last year's Ultra Mono album showed and expanding their musical horizons nicely. Who knows what that album is gonna bring on this evidence but I'm looking forward to hearing it. 

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And so that finally brings us to the end of the singles part of this month's Singles Bar column. But wait, we've got a part 3 coming up consisting of no less than SEVEN new mini-albums and EP's. Which might just be a record we think. Check back in a couple of hours to see which of 'em are hot and which of 'em...aren't?