Nite Songs

  Well, here's something we weren't expecting in 2022. Even though EMF officially reformed two decades ago, new music has been notably absent since then but this year has finally seen the band break their protracted silence with a new album. I have to be honest, I wasn't a huge EMF fan back in the day although given my love of a lot of similar bands in this era, I probably should have been - you can probably put it down to just how omnipresent and subsequently annoying Unbelievable was at the time although I'll concede they did have a couple of good singles dotted in among their output, Getting Through  and Lies  notably. The main thing that strikes me about Go Go Sapiens  is that it's a much more guitar-heavy sound than the EMF of old and I have to be honest, I think that's a good thing as it gives this album a bit more of an organic sound rather than the slightly blaring noise that was their trademark back in the day. It allows a crucial bit of subtlety to und...

  After a shaky debut, Fontaines DC's 2020 sophomore album A Hero's Death saw them finally starting to live up to the hype the press had saddled them with since day one, taking on more of a gloomy post-punk gothic sound reminiscent of Echo and the Bunnymen to good effect. It showed plenty of promise but the question was always lurking in the back of your mind - was it progress or just a blip? Well, the group's third album Skinty Fia is now here and we have an answer. Namely that it feels like the group have clearly aimed for the middle ground between that slightly underwhelming debut and the promise of its follow-up with the result being a decent in places but overall rather patchy album. The Joy Division/Bunnymen influence of the first album is definitely still there but the vocals appear to have returned the rather blaring style of the first album which takes away a lot of the subtlety that made the second album look like the much needed step forward that it was. Weirdly ...

  "Well I don't know why it's such a bore/I don't think you're funny anymore"  -  Bulletboys  -  THC Groove Consider this the second and (hopefully) final part of our Garbage Days Revisited detour that started following the Rock City Angels column a couple of weeks ago. The Bulletboys seem to be one of those bands cursed with being remembered as among the dregs in the closing years of the Sunset Strip and if all you'd heard of them was their first and best known self-titled album from 1988 then that's understandable - it's very much of its time. However, the band quickly seemed to kind of rebel against what was expected of them and came up with a couple of albums which I'd argue are actually a bit underappreciated. But first...before there was the Bulletboys, there was King Kobra, a band who aren't really eligible for GDR as none of their albums were particularly good to be honest but who deserve a mention here for the sheer weirdness of t...

  "I burned down the mansion/The circus made me blue/They passed around the poison/It tasted just like the truth"  - The Bellrays  - Blue Cirque For about five minutes in 2002, Poptones genuinely did feel like about the coolest label around. We've already discussed how they came to briefly capture the lightning in a bottle that was the Hives and some of their other early triumphs like Beachbuggy , Sing-Sing and the Cosmic Rough Riders . For my money though it was the Bellrays, another import from the minors abroad, who were the jewel in the label's crown in those days. The group hailed from California and had been formed in the mid-'80s as the Rose Thorns by singer Lisa Kekaula and guitarist Bob Vennum. By the time Poptones signed them, the group had already put out five albums (including one as the Rose Thorns) and Alan McGee's label put out a compilation of the best bits from the then-most-recent two of them called Meet The Bellrays . For a bit they were d...

  Hailing from Minneapolis, this is the second album from the Von Tramps and I have to be honest and say it's my first encounter with them. Supposedly written following the end of the lockdown and being based around the theme of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, it's an agreeably upbeat affair. If you remember the Amorettes from a few years back (around the time of their Game On  album when they still had that vital rawness and urgency to them) then it's safe to say that the Von Tramps’ brand of chantalong choruses and barrelling riffs may well sound a bit familiar. They come at things from a more punky angle than a classic rock one though so there's definitely an element of the Donnas and the Dollyrots in there as well. It gives the likes of the opening title track and Live Fast  a fired up and sunny quality to them making them difficult to resist. They're not afraid of chucking in a curveball rather than just keeping things straightforward though - Love ...

  It seems safe to say that, as of time of writing, our Album of the Year race is currently a straight contest between Helen Love's This Is My World  and Bob Vylan's The Price Of Life  and there's something quite enjoyable about two such different records being up there as the best two of 2022 so far. While the Vylans' album was the sound of pure feral political anger dialled up to 12, Helen's was a gentle lookback at childhood, equal parts fond, nostalgic and heartbreaking. And, clearly intent on making hay while the sun shines, the Swansea trio have now capitalised on the good press by putting out this "unreleased gems" album of songs which didn't quite make the cut for their albums from 2013-2020 and most of which were actually being thought of as potential singles at one point. It's fitting that the opening song here, The Day We Saw The Jam Play , Helen's recollection of going to see Weller and co as a teenager ( "The boy next door had...

  Kae Tempest's first album since their name change and coming out as gender neutral is maybe not something you'd expect to see in this webzine but the truth is that similar to the likes of Scroobius Pip, Riz Ahmed or Run The Jewels, quite simply I’m a fan of their music. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not what you'd call a rap or hip-hop aficionado at all but I can appreciate this sort of music when it's done well and Tempest is definitely one of those who can deliver on this front as they’ve demonstrated ever since the days of albums like Everybody Down . Although The Line Is A Curve  is a very introspective album, Tempest deserves credit for not going for what would arguably have been the easy route and write about their experiences over the last few years. There's a few tracks like These Are The Days  or Water In The Rain  which could be deciphered as coded references to their struggle but mostly, this is an album about finding solace in tough times...

  Hailing from Norway, The Good, The Bad And The Zugly have shared split releases with the likes of the Bitch Queens in the past and definitely owe a debt in their sound to their fellow countrymen Turbonegro. They pack a high-octane brand of punk rock with ferociously angry lyrics and a sense of the theatrical plus vocals that could definitely have been the late Hank von Helvete circa Ass Cobra . It all makes for an intoxicating mix with the brutal opening one-two of What's My Rage Again?  and Song For A Prepper being introduced with some Queen style atmospherics and a piano intro respectively before the tempo kicks in and GBZ kick in with a furious race to the finish line while Bridge And Tunnel Guy  is a full throttle assault including the lyric "If you wanna be one of us/You gotta get drunk on the bus!"  which says a lot while The Power Of Beer  namechecks the Hellacopters giving away another of the band's influences. At the other end of the scale, Original I...

"Now this gun's pointing at me in this reality/Am I breathing my very last breath?"  -  Hellion  -  Run For Your Life So not for the first time we've gone on a bit of a detour with Garbage Days Revisited. That's the thing about doing a series of columns revisiting forgotten albums y'see, just when you think you've got the next couple of months' worth all cued up and ready to write, one of the revisits sends you off down a rabbit hole and the next thing you know, you're blundering around the grimier outskirts of Sunset Strip in the '80s and pushing those columns on other groups back a few weeks. Such was the case with the Rock City Angels GDR we did last week - while sorting through the sheer weirdness of that story, I ended up touching on Ann Boleyn who managed the band through her Renaissance records label in their early days (you may remember that someone who may or may not have been connected to either Geffen who were trying to sign the RCA...

  "Do what I please, gonna spread the disease because I wanna"  - The Hives - Hate To Say I Told You So The Hives really were proof that sometimes supernatural self-confidence can do wonders in turning what could have been yet another average early noughties garage band into one of the most genuinely exciting groups of that era. They first came to my attention when they signed to Poptones records (who also had SFTJ alumni the Cosmic Rough Riders , Sing-Sing and Beachbuggy on their books around this time) who put out the Your New Favourite Band  album, a compilation of the best bits from the group's two previous Sweden-only albums Barely Legal and Veni Vidi Vicious . The thing about the Hives is, and I suspect some of their fans wouldn't welcome the comparison but, their formula was very similar to the whole Andrew WK one - not a huge amount of variety but they attacked those songs with such vicious pinpoint precision that you'd hardly have time to get your brea...

  Well, there's your album title of the year right there. Joking aside, it's always good to see Snuff back and the band appear to have been on a bit of a creative hot streak in recent years with Crepuscolo Dorato  (look, if you think I'm typing that title out in full every time I refer to it then you've got another think coming) being their third release in as many years following on from 2020's Wrath Of Thoth EP 2019's There's A Lot Of It About  - not bad if you consider the group had done just two albums in the fifteen years prior to that. Sound-wise, Crepuscolo  is pretty much what you'd expect from Snuff with Duncan's machine gun drumming and sandpaper-rough vocals being backed up by some commendably aggressive riffing from his bandmates on the likes of Green Glass Chippings , Small F  and Stolen From View . However, it's not the full story when it comes to this album - One Of Those Days  shows a more subtle side to Snuff's output with it...

  It's safe to say that Wet Leg have been something of a divisive band during their short existence so far. It seems that half of the people I've discussed them with regard them as post-modern pop geniuses while the other half (usually middle-aged punk rockers for some reason) have muttered darkly under their breath about "manufactured band" (yeah, 'cos the Pistols weren't, right?) or "rich kids trying to be rockers" (usually the same people who rightly laud diplomat's son turned punk god Joe Strummer). I have to be honest, I was initially unconvinced by them - the first time I heard their omnipresent debut single Chaise Longue , my thought was that they basically sounded like a post-ironic version of late '70s post-punk one hit wonders the Flying Lizards except playing original songs rather than covers. However, on hearing this album in full, I'll admit I've warmed considerably to the buggers. Wet Leg have been pretty adamant all alo...

  No less than the sixth album from Italian glam revivalists Faz Waltz, On The Ball  sees the group moving away from their tried and tested template with a hitherto hidden love of classic '50s rock 'n' roll coming to the fore. Given that the group have a good reputation for being a consistently enjoyable group (even more so, I'd argue, than their more celebrated compatriots Giuda), it had me wondering a bit how well they'd be able to negotiate this sudden change in sound. But no need to worry as it turns out - the key is that Faz Waltz remain a band with a sound that's as tight as their ducktail hairdos and you could almost have imagined the Jim Jones Revue spitting out fire-breathing doses of rockabilly like Hot Cold Fever  and Fool For Your Love  a decade or so again while the frantic piano on Soon I'm Gone  is pure Little Richard. They're also a band with the sense to throw in the odd curveball to keep things interesting such as the Merseybeat style r...

  Formed by ex-Dogs D'Amour guitarist Jo Dog and former L.A. Guns frontman Paul Black, Sonic Boom put out one sadly underappreciated album in 2000, Sundown Yellow Moon , and it's good to see them back with a much-delayed follow-up here in 2022. While the group's first album was a straight up slice of blues rock powered along by Jo's dextrous guitar work and Black's world-weary vocals, on this follow-up there's definitely signs of new ground being broken. Opening track Another Tree For Shade  has an almost Humble Pie era Steve Marriott style feel to it with the soaring chorus and chirping organ plus the lengthy blissed outro underpinning the song and gets this one off to a strong start. Up For The Late Show  sounds like a speeded up version of Jo's old band's classic Sometimes  and keeps the momentum rolling while Blue Like The Morning  is a lovely longing slice of Gram Parsons style country sorrow before former single You're Home picks up the tempo a...

  "She's a night time nowhere baby, tearin' my soul right apart..."  - Rock City Angels  - Deep Inside My Heart Bluddyell - never mind a Garbage Days Revisited column, you'd probably need some sort of cowboy hatted and velvet thrift shop jacketed sleaze rock version of Hercule Poirot to do the story of weird circumstances and deals gone wrong that I'm about to tell in this week's column justice. The Rock City Angels started life as a Florida punk group called the Abusers in the early '80s. Heading westward to LA and Sunset Strip in the middle of the decade, they took on a more glam rock sound and even had a certain young guitarist called Johnny Depp who was also trying to make it as an actor in their ranks. Now here's where the story really starts to get a bit confusing - the group were starting to get a reputation as one of the most exciting new bands on Sunset Strip as 1986 turned to 1987 and ended up signing with New Renaissance Records run by H...

  You still here? Well, it may be near to closing time at the Singles Bar for this month but we've got a few late stragglers nipping in for a pre-last orders pint along with a couple of mini-albums (something we've not had many of this year for some reason) just to round things off for this month. One for the road then?... *** Marc Valentine is probably best known as frontman with the excellent Last Great Dreamers and with that band on a temporary hiatus at present has decided to put out a solo album called Future Obscure  (due in July) with Last Train Tonight  (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) being released as the lead-off single. There's a definite hint of T-Rex here in the vocals but with a driving riff that makes it an intriguingly individual proposition. Consider me looking forward to that album.  Bandcamp Link You can usually rely on Rum Bar records to brighten your day up with some decent music and Jay Allen and the Archcriminals  are another band to emerge from their stable...

  It's been a while since we last did a two-part Singles Bar and, to be honest, I was going to hold a few of the releases on the second part of this effort over until June. But eventually I decided sod it, there's some good stuff on here, let's get the word out! Anyway, enjoy... Some proper big hitters to start us off with as Killing Joke  have a new EP out in the form of Lord of Chaos  (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗) and it sounds just as intimidating as you'd hope/expect with Geordie Walker's apocalyptic grinding riff, Jaz Coleman's "shaman of doom" vocals and Youth and Paul Ferguson's rock solid rhythm combining to create something pretty awesome. B-side Total is similarly ferocious while the EP is rounded off by a couple of mixes including a Youth dub one. It's good to have them back. It's always a pleasure to have some new music from Miles Hunt  to listen to here at the Singles Bar and Things Can Change  (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗) featuring Laura Kidd aka Penfriend is...

  Yup, it's that time again. Similar to last month, a bit of a bumper crop this month with the Singles Bar meaning we've officially got our first multi-parter of the year with no less than three instalments coming at ya this morning. First bit here and the second bit'll be up in an hour or so. Enjoy... *** Well the obvious big news this month is a new Michael Monroe  single and Can't Stop Falling Apart  (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗) is a confident comeback from the guy - a mid-paced ode to sticking to your guns and not giving up which builds up to a trademark big Monroe singalong chorus which has a definite hint of the early '70s Stones in there. The frenetic B-side Murder The Summer Of Love  is even better with its panic attack vibes and angry message showing a definite nod to Mike's old mucker Stiv Bators. Good stuff - roll on the album! *** Those of you with long memories may recall that the Sweet Things ' In Borrowed Shoes On Borrowed Time  was the first album we ever re...