Nite Songs

  Mickey Leigh. You may not be familiar with the name but the guy's been a regular on the New York music scene for almost five decades now. Not least as he's the brother of the late great Joey Ramone - the pair were in bands together in the late '60s and early '70s before the Ramones were a thing and later put the band Sibling Rivalry together with him as well as serving in infamous rock writer Lester Bangs' punk band Birdland (not to be confused with the Coventry art-punks we covered on Garbage Days Revisited a few weeks back). However, despite this long history, Variants of Vibe  is Leigh's first solo album proper. I have to be honest, my hopes weren't too high for this one after hearing the lead-off single Standing In The Dark  a few weeks ago as part of the Singles Bar column and not being particularly impressed by it but it's actually a bit of a false alarm and there's plenty to like here such as the melodic Trouble Man , the spiralling riff of ...

  Welcome to the first Singles Bar of the new year - we're officially open for business again! Last month we didn't really have enough stuff to justify doing a Singles Bar but we've chucked the few things from that month along with some newies in here so hopefully there should be something to suit your taste... Anyway, a proper welcome development to start us off as we welcome The Hellacopters  back with a couple of new songs. Reap A Hurricane  (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) is a worthy comeback from Nicke and the guys combining a pounding Stooges style riff with a soaring chorus to remind you exactly why this band were so lauded back in the day. Similarly, Eyes Of Oblivion  is a full throttle stormer powered on by Dregen's spiralling riff and a killer chorus hook. The new album is due in April and on this evidence I think we could potentially have an Album of the Year contender on our hands. Also back with a new single are the U.K. Subs  with Sensei  (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) which cras...