Nite Songs

  There are some bands where the sight of some new music from them landing in your inbox gives your soul and spirit a much needed lift and a big grin to spread across your gob. And then there’s bands like Massive Wagons where the appearance of a new album has the effect of making your heart sink and cause a general grimacing feeling of “well go on then, let’s give ‘em another chance, who knows, maybe this one’ll surprise us.” The harsh truth is though that in well over a decade of output, the Morecambe rockers have only really managed one album, 2018's Full Nelson , that could honestly be described as being above average and the fact that they followed that with 2020's decidedly underwhelming House Of Noise  suggested that the opportunity for this band to really make their mark as the bright hopes of Britrock that some were touting them as had been and gone. For what it's worth though, Triggered  is at least a step back in the right direction. Oddly, the group that Massiv...

  We first discovered Hayley and the Crushers via their Fun Sized  EP last year. Modern Adult Kicks  is actually these Californians' second album and sees them building on the pop-punk sound of that EP and their previous album Vintage Millennial  in good style. The key, it seems, is a more power-pop influenced direction. Hence while the Ramones and Go-Go's influences are still very much writ large on this album, a lot of the songs here are nearer to 3 minutes than 2 allowing the melodies to come to the fore a bit more. Hence Broken Window  is an enjoyable slice of Joan Jett style tuneful defiance and I Fall  could almost be a long lost Revillos song with its shameless harking back to that day-glo '50s vibe, likewise the retro flavoured California Sober  which is a pure singalong power pop delight. However, the anti-clickbait Click And Act Now!  shows that the snotty punk spite is very much still there in the background and the vitriolic break...

  Hugh Cornwell's last album, 2018's Monster , was arguably his strongest effort for a good few years, mixing a theme of songs about remarkable personalities with some genuinely good songwriting and tunes. It'd probably be an exaggeration to say that Moments of Madness  therefore has a lot to live up to as Cornwell's been on the scene long enough now that he doesn't have to make any apologies regarding who he is but I was interested to see how this album compared to its impressive predecessor. The truth is that it's a bit of a curio really. Although the opening track Coming Out Of The Wilderness  is a strident opening statement of intent, this album quickly disappears down so many side roads that it becomes a bit difficult to keep track of. Red Rose  appears to be a diatribe against people with tattoos which just comes across as a bit spiteful and unpleasant unfortunately although Iwannahideinsideaya  rights things with Cornwell casting a weary eye over the stat...

  "Though the clock's ticking slowly, life's slippin' away/Hey girl don't ya know me?/I was your yesterday"  - Spiders & Snakes  - Fields Of Clover I remember a while back while writing the Rock City Angels GDR entry that it might just be the most convoluted band story we've ever done on Garbage Days Revisited. Well, stop the clocks, we have a new winner. Spiders & Snakes frontman Lizzie Grey was arguably the great nearly man of the Sunset Strip and the story of the three bands he's best remembered for, namely London, Ultra Pop and Spiders and Snakes, is one of those that's got more twists and turns than all the rollercoasters on Blackpool Pleasure Beach combined. And although it's arguably his finest hour, Spiders & Snakes' debut album, that we're here to discuss today, we should probably start right at the beginning over a decade before in London. No, not the city, the band. Who were from L.A. See what I mean about this b...

  It's fair to say that the Urban Voodoo Machine are a bit of a unique proposition in the live arena but even by their standards, this opening night to their tour in support of the new Snake Oil Engine  album ( Nite Songs review here ) feels like a bit of a special occasion. And not just because there's surely no other band where you'll see a lead singer, Paul-Ronney Angel, be carried across to the bar by various fans/throne-bearers on top of a crash barrier like some sort of voodoo Egyptian pharoah and then manage to almost strangle himself with his own hat a few minutes later! Tonight's set sees the seven-piece version of the Voodoos kicking up a proper storm right from the moment Empty Plastic Cup  gets things underway with Angel working the crowd with all the self-assuredness of a guy who's been fronting his band for almost two decades now while behind him, his group whip up a truly hellacious racket where new songs such as the almost showband style Johnny Forei...

  "But every time I coulda died, I thought of being by your side..."  - The Ga*Ga's  - Crash And Burn They were an odd one, the Ga*Ga's. As I mentioned in the Darkness' SFTJ entry a few weeks back, once Justin and co had become Top 3 artists, exactly what you'd expect to happen happened. In that it seemed that there was a massive rush by every single major label to sign "their" version of the Darkness. Add to that Motley Crue's The Dirt becoming as infamous as it did and there was also a sudden new rush of bands who'd been drawn in by  Permission To Land and then heard Girls Girls Girls and Dr Feelgood * for the first time and thought "Hey, WE could do that!" Predictably, some of these bands were truly dreadful (anyone remember the Answer or Red Star Rebels or Jack Viper or Nothin' To Lose or Lionsex or...actually I should probably stop there or else we'll be here all day) but in amongst the chod there were a few bands w...

  It appears that evidently I've lost track of the Pixies a bit in recent years. Upon receiving this album to review, I was convinced that it was their first since their unexpected triumph of a comeback Indie Cindy  (if ever there was an award for "terrible album name, great album" then that one would be up there) way back in 2014 but apparently Frank Black and co have put out not one but two albums since then. Oops. Oh well, better late than never. At least from listening to the opening track here, the discordant angst of Nomatterday , it initially feels like the Pixies haven't missed a step despite the departure of Kim Deal in the interim with Joey Santiago's razorwire guitar and Frank Black's stark vocals mixing well before an unexpected change of pace in the middle sees it suddenly go into tuneful new wave territory (well, as tuneful as the Pixies ever get anyway and they casually chuck in a refrain of "don't piss in the fountain"  just to ma...

  Although there's been a fair few albums we've reviewed over the last couple of years which were recorded during the Covid pandemic, it's maybe a bit of a surprise that we've not yet had a full on concept album about the weird times of the last couple of times but one has now landed on our desk courtesy of Xtra Mile signed lo-fi types Deux Furieuses. According to the press release, the album documents singer and chief songwriter Ros' journey from being stuck in her London flat in the early days of the pandemic to seeking sanctuary away from the city once she was able. Similar to Penfriend, Songs From Planet Earth  is gentle but thought-provoking and often angry heartfelt songwriting. There's a lot of very understandable anger here on the likes of the almost grungy guitars on lead off single  Bring Down The Government (which features My Bloody Valentine's Deb Googe on bass), Fool All The People  and the anti-police brutality of Know The Score  (inspired by t...

  The Lightning Seeds always seemed to be one of those bands cursed with being regarded as a great singles band who never really made an all time classic album which is very unfair as they actually managed two very good long players back in their first run in the form of 1995's Jollification  and 1997's Dizzy Heights . Providing a more honest heart-on-sleeve counterpoint to the haughty cool of Britpop, they marked Ian Broudie out as a great songwriter with a very keen ear for melody. See You In The Stars  is the first Lightning Seeds album in 13 years (and, to be honest, the first one your correspondent has listened to since 1999's Tilt ) and the initial feel here is that this is a much more stripped-down and skeletal sounding band than the one you probably remember from songs like Lucky You  and What If . The opening duo of the semi-acoustic lament Losing You  and the pared down Emily Smiles  still show Broudie's sense of tunesmanship is intact but there's...

  It always seems to be the way at the end of the year that you end up discovering a bunch of albums that you missed at the time and so it proves again in 2022. This comeback album from Newport metallers Dub War actually hit the shelves in May but flew under our radar at the time. Anyway, Dub War are probably best remembered for being Benji Webbe's band before he put Skindred together around the turn of the millennium and on this first album for over two decades, it's safe to say that they sound much the same as they ever did ie a righteous mix of dub and metal with vicious political invective snarled over the top by Benji. For the most part it works pretty well (I mean it's better than Skindred's disappointing most recent album Big Tings  which is definitely a start) with the vicious likes of Mary Shelley  and the cover of Max Romeo's War Inna Babylon  packing the requisite punch to get your attention. Westgate Under Fire  is more of a solid album than a specta...

  "Spike my drink with a suit 'n' tie.."  - Gunfire Dance  - Suit & Tie Gunfire Dance seem to be one of those bands who were cursed with really awful timing when it came to emerging on the scene. I know, I know, I say that about a LOT of bands we feature on Garbage Days Revisited but it's especially true of this lot. Looking at some of the endorsements they received during their brief initial run, there's really no way they shouldn't have at least managed to carve out a reasonable run as underground rock 'n' roll legends for a few albums. Their debut single was produced by the Damned duo of Brian James and Rat Scabies. They sold out the Marquee on numerous occasions as well as being taken out on tour by the Dogs D'Amour . When they went to the States, the likes of the Waldos , the Throbs , New York Loose and D Generation welcomed them with open arms as long lost kinsmen. So where on earth did it all go wrong? Well, like I said at the begi...

As that well known rock philosopher W Axl Rose once observed, it's hard to hold a candle in the cold November rain. I mean, he didn't say anything about reviewing new singles in it like but we've got to start somewhere. Anyway, come in and take some shelter from the storms outside why don'tcha and let's see what's on the singles bar this month shall we?... Anyway, starting us off as we take our seats at the bar this month are Bob Vylan , whose The Price Of Life  will almost certainly be up there when it comes to our end of year awards in a few months' time. Their new single The Delicate Nature  (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕) featuring Slaves' Laurie Vincent might just be their strongest yet. Relatively restrained by the Vylan standards, it still has plenty of the anger of old directed against gentrification and the cleansing of underprivileged inner city areas but opts for a new stealthier approach railing against gentrification before amping up to a brutally heavy outro....

  "Gimme joy, gimme action, gimme electric satisfaction!"  - Crash Kelly  - Ride The Wire Believe it or not, ladies and gentlemen, there was a time way way back when the idea of retro rock revivalists didn't make me roll my eyes to the heavens and mutter something about having some ideas of your own. I'm prepared to admit that maybe it was because of being a bit younger when my ears were still hearing things for the first thousand times and the fog of middle aged cynicism hadn't quite yet bitten me although I prefer to think that the bands of this genre we had back then were just a bit...well, better really. Case in point - Crash Kelly. Another group who emerged from the early noughties Canadian rock scene that also spawned the likes of Robin Black and the IRS , Danko Jones and Crystal Pistol, they were a group of four lads who'd quite clearly grown up idolising Marc Bolan and Phil Lynott but were smart enough to give those sounds an early 21st century nip an...

  RT-Zed are the brainchild of Stiff Little Fingers drummer Steve Grantley and ZedNation  is their third album. I'd heard the band's name before this but not their music so I was interested to see how it bore up especially compared to Grantley's day job. The truth is that it's pretty damn good. ZedNation  essentially takes the classic '77 punk template (not least Grantley's Johnny Rotten influenced half-sneer-half-snarl) but drags it into the 21st century kicking and screaming with the tight energetic fury of Superfaker  and Don't Hit The Brakes Until You Crash  setting the band's stall out nicely. Elsewhere, the sinister feel of Black Heart Of Love  and Why Did I Even Care?  even see them dipping a toe into gothier waters, not unlike a heavier Flesh For Lulu. Elsewhere, the squalling guitars of Quiet Child  almost go into Stooges territory and Uncomplicated  even has a bit of a punked up rockabilly style feel to it before the closing Ain't G...

  "God I miss David Bowie/He was my paperweight/And when he went back to Mars, man/I swear the stars looked very different that day" Thus sang Chris Catalyst on You Die At The End , one of the standout tracks from his debut solo album Life Is Often Brilliant a few years ago. So the arrival of a covers album of tracks from the Thin White Duke probably shouldn't come as a surprise from the Eureka Machines frontman and recently unmasked Ghost guitarist. Now, let's be honest, attempting a whole set of songs by an artist as seminal as Bowie is fraught with danger - most of us know these songs inside out and the question is, where can you take them that they haven't necessarily been taken to before? So Chris really deserves a lot of credit for pulling off something special here - while these songs are most definitely identifiable as their original versions, he's added just enough of his own stamp on them to ensure that it doesn't descend into slavish fanboy cop...

  Kirk Brandon's certainly a man who likes to keep himself busy. Not content with taking both Spear of Destiny and Theatre of Hate out touring this year as well as heading up punk/post-punk supergroup Dead Men Walking, he's now signing off 2022 with the first SOD album since 2018's underrated Tontine . It'd be easy for a band who've been around on the scene as long as SOD have to phone it in at this point but thankfully Tontine  showed that they were doing anything but and I'm happy to report that Ghost Population  carries on this good run of recent form. It gets off to a bit of an odd start with Shine  almost sounding like a bit of a requiem with its mournful piano-led feel leading into a soaring chorus but it definitely works. The sinister Clarion Call  and the almost funeral march style Pilgrim  take things back into more familiar Spear of Destiny territory while the tribal drums of Neolythic By Design  and Waster  are suitably unsettling backi...

  It's good to see the Voodoos back after a three year break since their last album. Snake Oil Engine  was actually originally due to be released last year but the Covid pandemic put the kibosh on that with the Voodoos unable to convene for 12 months due to the sheer impracticalities of trying to get a band with a dozen members together during a lockdown. In the meantime, frontman Paul-Ronney Angel kept himself busy with online gigs and released a series of lockdown singles later collated on the very worthy London Texas Lockdown  collection last year. Indeed, a few of the songs here actually saw the light on some of the Voodoos' pre-lockdown singles but it's still good to see them again and there's no doubt that the lilting calypso of Living In Fear  (a vicious riposte to the small-minded little Englander anti-immigrant knucklehead brigade), the anti-consumerism tirade polka of Empty Plastic Cup , the desolate howl of  January Blues  and the anti-...

  "If you won't love me then I'll find someone who will!"  - Soho Roses  - So Alone The Soho Roses were a classic case of right band, wrong time. If they'd broken on to the scene in the last few years then they'd have had a ready made audience on the 21st century power pop scene and probably be regulars at Some Weird Sin and similar club nights in the Smoke. The reality? They broke through towards the tail end of the '80s and got lumped in with the dying embers of the Soho glam scene, leaving behind one sadly underappreciated album and a few EP's before self-combusting. In a way, I sort of see the Roses as a British version of Enuff Z'Nuff. Not so much in terms of their sound but more of the fact that they were a group crowbarred in with glam who weren't really a natural fit there and kind of paid the price for it - I've always thought Enuff Z'Nuff sounded more like a Britpop band with flashbomb guitars than a hair metal band. Oh sure, ...