The Nite Songs Singles Bar June 2022

 

So here we go again. After the absolute deluge of new singles last month, thankfully June has been a little bit quieter with us back to being able to condense all the new releases into a single Singles Bar but with some pretty exciting new stuff therein. Let's take a closer peek shall we? Mine's a large one landlord...

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I guess the obvious place to start this month is with the debut single from Ginger Wildheart & The Sinners - Ginger has been touting his new post-Wildhearts band for the best part of a year now and it's good to finally hear some music from them. Worth the wait as well as Wasted Times (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗) is a most enjoyable slice of Stonesy strut (there's a definite Honky Tonk Women influence here) which should be more than enough to get fans of the guy eagerly anticipating the forthcoming album. Good to have you back with us feller. Bandcamp Link

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Almost as highly anticipated around these parts is the new single from Suede and I'm pleased to report that She Still Leads Me On (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗) is a good comeback from Brett and the boys, sounding like a more grown up take on the poppier Suede sound of Coming Up but minus the piercing production that sunk that album a bit with Brett's booming vocals, Richard Oakes' riffs and the band keeping things supremely tight coming together to create something pretty damn good. Roll on that new album in September.

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As if to reinforce the fact that this month really is comeback central for bands that have been away for too long, we've also got a new Pop Will Eat Itself single to contend with in the form of Poppies Strike Back (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) If you've heard the group's 21st century output then you'll know that it has more in common with their classic 1994 album Dos Dedos Mi Amigos than the more well known efforts that came before it and that's alright with me - as you'll know if you remember the Sounds From The Junkshop we did on PWEI in the early days of this 'zine, I consider that album to be their finest moment and this is a bass-heavy slice of anger packing an agreeably savage kick to it. Hopefully a new album will be forthcoming soon.

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Mad Daddy's self-titled debut album marked them out as one of the best new bands we encountered in 2021 and it's a pleasure to report that their new EP Road Racer (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑)  sees them continuing to build on that progress nicely with the Manx psychobillies cutting loose to devastating effect on the tub-thumping title track, the Stooges style assault of It Ain't Easy, the leering strut of Be Bad and the riffed-up chaos of Here To Stay. Give this 'un a spin forthwith, you know it makes sense. Bandcamp Link

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Are Helen Love trying to set a record for the busiest band of 2022? If so, they're doing a pretty good job of it! Not content with releasing a major contender for the album of the year award with January's This Is My World and a more than worthy odds 'n' sods compilation Songs From Under The Bed Vol 2, they've now got a second non-album single of 2022 out in the form of Come Out Sunshine (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗) and it's another triumph, the sort of effortlessly great singalong pop song that would've been all over daytime Radio 1 during the summer holidays circa 1985 or so. Which your correspondent's six-year-old self would have probably been listening to while staring out at the rain and waiting for the repeat of the Monkees TV show to come on. Ah, those were the days. Possibly. Bandcamp Link

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Also taking advantage of the warmer weather are Anglo/Kiwi punks Desperate Measures whose Thinking Of England (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) gives the impression of having hit the shops (well, the streaming sites anyway) just in time for the jubilee with its frustrated howl against another summer of British apathy. DM have been a group who've been quietly simmering away on the sidelines for a while now and I reckon this might be their strongest effort to date. Worth a listen. Bandcamp Link

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The Coolies are actually something of a power-pop supergroup featuring Palmyra (Palmyra and the Delrans) and Kim Shattuck (the Muffs) among their number with their cover of the Go-Gos' King Of Confusion (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) also features Kathy Valentine from the Go-Go's themselves plus Clem Burke on drums. A good cover version which gets my hopes up that the group will be putting out a second album at some point soon. Bandcamp Link

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Finally, I feel that we owe Sheffield indie veterans The Suncharms a bit of an apology as they sent us a copy of their album a few months back and we completely forgot about it until we received a new EP from them this month in the form of Distant Lights (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑). The group describe themselves as shoegazing revivalists which could have gone either way really but I'm happy to report that this reminds me more of the good stuff of this genre. In fact the title track actually reminds me of late '90s Brit-grungers the Llama Farmers (see one of our Sounds From The Junkshop Footnotes columns from a few months back) in one of their more mellow moments and there's worse places to be than that. B-side Telescope meanwhile is reminiscent of one of early Ride's gentler efforts. So yeah, worth a spin. And yeah, sorry guys, we'll have that belated album review up soon we promise. Bandcamp Link

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So there you have it - a decent crop of new stuff in there and hopefully you'll have found something to pique your interest. Sufficient releases permitting (lest we forget, July is normally a notoriously quiet month for singles releases traditionally) we'll see you next month. Till then.