Nite Songs

  "I got my nose against the grain and yeah, you know that it's a bitch, playin' through the pain and watchin' shit bands get rich"  - Supersuckers  - Rock 'n' Roll Records (Ain't Sellin' This Year) It seems weird to think that it's now 30 years since the Supersuckers' debut album came out. Mainly because I think I always associate them with the early noughties when I first properly discovered them thanks to ChangesOne records - I remember ordering some CD's from them around this time  and they were doing a deal where you could take a free CD from a list of a dozen or so. One of which was the Supersuckers' Motherfuckers Be Trippin' Actually, that wasn't quite the first time I encountered Eddie Spaghetti and co - THAT would be a good six or seven years earlier when I'd seen the video for Born With A Tail on the ITV Chart Show (as part of the indie chart bizarrely - the band were signed to Sub Pop at the time) which is wh...

  Confession - this is an album that's actually been out for a few months (it first saw the light in the dying days of 2021) but we missed at the time. However, it just to say falls within our remit of "no reviews of albums more than 12 months old" so better late than never. Anyway, Monkey Mind are a bit of a north east punk supergroup featuring both Lee from Crashed Out and Olga from the legendary Toy Dolls among their number and this self-titled debut album is an enjoyably self-assured first shot across the bows from them. More than anything, they remind me a lot of the Descendents which is definitely no bad thing as the frenetic chugging riffs of Mr Wright  and There's Something About Lauren  get this one off to a good start. The vocals definitely remind me a bit of Billie Joe Armstrong as well but I mean that in a good way I promise. It would have been very easy for Monkey Mind to start repeating themselves but I think the big plus point of this album is that ther...

  Oh-ho, what have we here then? It's been a while since I heard any new material from Finland's very own rock 'n' roll sheriff but with new offerings from Nasty Suicide/Stenfors, Sami Yaffa and of course Michael Monroe landing on our review desk in the last 12 months, the prospect of some new material from Andy McCoy, even if it's just a covers album, is always something that's gonna put a smile back on my face. The key to a good covers album on the evidence of some of the ones we've reviewed in the last few years here at Nite Songs is either a) pick a suitably eclectic selection of songs that not everyone listening is likely to be familiar with (see the Hellacopters' Head Off  or the Wildhearts' Stop Us If You've Heard This One Before  for examples) or just simply kick loose and sound like you're having an absolute blast doing it (see the Skids' Songs From A Haunted Ballroom  last year). And I'm happy to report that Jukebox Junkie ...

  I think it's safe to say that the stakes are pretty high here. Following Pete Shelley's passing a few years ago, there were a fair few Buzzcocks fans who were of the view that the band should call it a day or at the very least change their name to reflect the fact that one of their two main songwriters and ever-present members was no longer with us. So it's safe to say that Steve Diggle's decision to continue releasing music under the Buzzcocks name (albeit with Shelley's blessing apparently) wasn't exactly warmly received by certain sections of the fanbase. Without wanting to be over-dramatic about it, I think it's no exaggeration to say that a mis-step on this one could've proved fatal. However, fair play to Diggle, Sonics In The Soul  is actually a pretty decent effort, worthy of the Buzzcocks name and should hopefully mollify some of the sceptics. I'd even go so far to say that this is a better effort than the band's final album with Shelle...

  Before Victoria are the brainchild of former Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing bassist and music writer Marc Burrows and with TMTWNBBFN currently on hiatus, the one time side project has clearly now moved up in his priorities a bit. I'd heard the group's previous EP Carry On Up The Chartists  a few years ago and, I'm gonna be brutally honest, was a little bit disappointed by it - it seemed to lack the oomph of The Men That... However, everyone deserves a second chance so I was intrigued to see where the group had gone since then. Moving Forward  actually gets off to a good start with Another History Song  almost sounding like a farewell note of sorts from Burrows to his old group with its overriding message of moving forward from the past and learning from our mistakes rather than repeating them again and again - there's a definite hint of social commentary on here as well...and this was before the frankly terrifying events of the last week or so in politics....

  "Outlaw boys of the rebel kind, gotta keep movin', don't look behind..."  - Torme  - All Around The World Now here's a rum one. I'm not sure Torme strictly count as a "supergroup" as such as at the time they existed, none of the members had quite got the reputations they'd subsequently build up afterwards but it was definitely an interesting meeting of minds. The group were formed by guitarist Bernie Torme (obviously) shortly after he left Ozzy Osbourne's band and Phil Lewis who at the time had just left the band he'd made his name with, Girl. Bernie Torme had actually first come to prominence in the punk era when he'd moved across to London from his native Ireland. Although he was a rock guitarist, he saw the prevailing trends at the time, cut his hair short and became a regular with his group at the punk clubs like the Roxy and the Vortex - he even appears on the Live At The Vortex compilation alongside other late in the day punk ...

"What's it like up there? Do you worry anymore? How's it feel up there? So much left to say..."  - The Music  - Getaway This one, kids, is a cautionary tale.   I seem to remember it was the free Breeze Festival at Temple Newsam in 1999 when I ended up seeing a band from East Leeds called Insense opening the second stage. Honestly, I can't remember a lot about them as I only caught the last ten minutes or so of their set other than that their closing track was an instrumental called The Walls Are Getting Smaller . Honestly, I remember giving them a "they were alright for first band of the day" sort of write-up for the 'zine I was writing for and that was pretty much that - to be honest, I'd probably half-forgotten about them even as I was watching the likes of Rosita , the Jellys , the Clint Boon Experience and headliners Terrorvision later that day. So fast forward a couple of years and this band suddenly start cropping up in the NME (which I w...

  Pet Needs' debut album Fractured Party Music  was one of the unexpected triumphs of last year, taking the tried and tested punk blueprint and adding a 21st century stamp to it to make it sound both fresh and invigorating. Not bad for a band who were hawking a song about toothpaste as the lead off single! However, with the arrival a mere 18 months later of a follow-up, it's time to put the pedal to the metal and see if they've managed to keep that initial burst of form up... Primetime Entertainment  certainly gets off to a decent start with the barrelling Lost Again  which sounds like Ferocious Dog minus the folk influences and isn't a bad start at all. Ibiza In Winter and former single Get On The Roof both have a hint of solo Frank Turner in one of his punkier moments on them which is no bad thing while Tried And Failed  is a well written look at social anxiety. The pace varies up nicely throughout here as well from the frenetic anger of Spirals  and The ...

  Definitely one of the most eagerly awaited albums of the year here at Nite Songs Towers, Suede's first new album since 2018's The Blue Hour  has been touted by the band for a while as the sound of them going back to basics. Since the group reformed around 15 years ago, they've put out three albums which have proved they're anything but a spent force but all of which have owed more in terms of their sound to the epic grandeur of their finest moment Dog Man Star . All very laudable but it does sometimes obscure the sight that there's another side to Suede's sound which is the blood and glitter cut and thrust approach that informed their awesome debut album and the first two efforts made by the Mk2 line-up, 1996's Coming Up  and 1999's Head Music . The prospect of something in this vein to redress the balance is certainly something that sounds intriguing on paper but there's still a definite feeling that this could go either way, a reaffirming triumph...

  "Well maybe this could be the ending, there's nothing left of you/A hundred wishes couldn't save you...and I don't want to"  - Strawberry Switchblade  - Since Yesterday Ah yes, the world of the one hit wonder. It's often the premise of novelty bands who hop on to a particular trend at a certain optimum moment in time and ride the wave to a solitary smash before promptly disappearing soon afterwards. But scratch beneath the surface and sometimes you'll find some genuinely good bands who undeservedly never quite broke beyond that one initial hit. Glasgow's Strawberry Switchblade are one such case with their 1985 Top 5 hit Since Yesterday being what they're probably best remembered for. A sublime slice of bubblegum pop with doomy goth undertones (I was convinced for ages it was about suicide, it turns out it's about the aftermath of a nuclear apocalypse. Cheerful stuff I think we can all agree), it's pretty much unique for its time period a...

I suppose one of the few bright points of the Wildhearts going on an indefinite hiatus earlier this year is that it's given all of the members a chance to concentrate on their solo projects and tonight is a good opportunity to catch up with three ex-'Hearts as they get back on the road. The number of familiar faces, some of whom I haven't seen in years, tonight really makes this feel like a bit of a special occasion and you know it's going to be a good one. The last time I saw Grand Theft Audio  live was at Bradford Rio's way back in about 2001 but as their Pass Me The Conch  album earlier this month showed, they've picked up without missing a beat and moved their sound forward well. With Jay and Ritch joined by new members Ben Marsden (The Main Grains, the Spangles, Modern Day Dukes, Warner Hodges Band) and Rob Lane (Teenage Casket Co, Ryan Hamilton, Bulletboys), tonight's set is a good mix of new ( Scrub Up , The Gods Of Rock , Ici Mon Decree ) and old ( W...

  I have to be honest, this month's Singles Bar very nearly ended up being a EP/mini-album special - bizarrely while we've had three of those come in this month, we've really had to trawl the vaults to find some of yer regular one track efforts to make up the list. We eventually managed it though so thankfully this month's trip to the bar is good to go. Mine's a large one landlord... *** Well, at least the Speedways  have made sure it isn't a completely barren month in terms of new 45's and Shoulda Known  (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) is another confident shot from them, sounding like some sort of halfway house between early Elvis Costello and The KKK Took My Baby Away  era Ramones. B-side A Drop In The Ocean  is a bit more mid-paced with a bit of a Babys/Records style feel to it which is no bad thing either. New album in November apparently and rest assured we'll have a review up here as soon as it lands. Bandcamp Link We should have a review of Suede 's new Autofic...

  "Now I can see you, but what can I see?"  - The Barbs  - Bury You The best way I can think of to describe the Barbs is that they were kind of like a hipster version of Zombina & The Skeletones . Formed in the Medway (although guitarist/co-vocalist Amy was an Aussie ex-pat), the group peddled a similar sort of retro-futuristic brand of rock 'n' roll albeit one which sounded more like the output of a group of kids hanging round Shoreditch and Hoxton on a weekend rather than developing away from the capital. Nevertheless, they were undeniably good. The group briefly became press darlings in the NME for about five minutes (being mates with Carl Barat from the Libertines probably didn't hurt them) but unlike a lot of other bands in what would grow into the godawful indie landfill scene that the NME was championing around this time, the good press was actually well deserved. Their debut single Massive Crush was an absolute belter of a song, like the Cramps taking...

  Following his excellent collaboration with the Stooges' James Williamson a couple of years ago on the Two To One  album, former Radio Birdman lynchpin Deniz Tek is back with a new album. Two To One  definitely showed that he's still got the fire and the chops over four decades on from Radio Birdman first appearing on the music scene. Long Before Day  is simply the sound of Tek kicking back and doing what he does best - menacing garage rock with a hint of blues to it as evidenced on Ballad Of Chief Joseph , a tale of Native Americans forced off their land to an insistent swaggering riff. Elsewhere, the bluesy Speak Of Ice  and the almost country noir of Home  see Tek taking traditional templates but imbuing them with an air of menace to create something that definitely stands out from the crowd. My only slight complaint about this album is that the pace doesn't really vary too much from the midpoint of the spectrum. That's not necessarily a bad thing and T...

  The Kut are one of those bands who suddenly seem to have made a pretty huge leap up commercially in the last year or two. Having come up through the London rock bar scene alongside the likes of Healthy Junkies and Yur Mum about half a decade or so ago, they put out a solid debut album in the form of 2018's Valley Of Thorns  but with the group moving up in the world, the pressure's on a bit here for the music to reflect their added commercial presence (tube ads an' all). Opening track Animo  is a solid effort with its chugging riff and Mahi's vocals reminding me a bit of Syteria for some reason which isn't a bad thing. The vocoder on the chorus is a bit hard on the ears though! Second track Burn Your Bridges  is a bit better with its laid back slacker menace coming across like L7 in one of their poppier moments before building up to a screamalong chorus. Grit  keeps up an impressively varied output throughout from the driving riff of Not Here For Love  to ...