Nite Songs

  Arguably the time is more right now than ever for a Newtown Neurotics comeback. In the early '80s, the group were one of the most overtly political bands on the scene, raging against the heartlessness of Thatcherism. Fast forward 40 years and we're stuck with a government magnifying all the worst aspects of that evil cow's style of government and an utterly toothless opposition that can't seem to offer any sort of credible alternative other than persecuting anyone in its ranks who dares to challenge the clearly broken status quo with both sides brayed on by the amoral scumbags in the mainstream press who farcically refer themselves as the "moral majority". It's heartening to report that the Neurotics are still as fired up as ever despite their advancing years with the likes of Climate Emergency  and Liar Liar  being angry outbursts against fossil fuel companies (almost like a 2022 version of When The Oil Runs Out ) and an angry diatribe against that sent...

  Summer in the city and the air is still as Aztec Camera once sang. Though not that still over here as we've got a bumper crop of new releases in this month's Singles Bar - we'll have a couple of EP's later this morning but for now let's get started by pouring a cold one and looking at the singles themselves... *** We could only really start with a new effort from Ginger Wildheart & The Sinners  really as Lately Always  (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗) represents the second release from their upcoming debut album due in October. Ginger's spoken of the Sinners as being an outlet for the much-loved country-influenced side of his output and while its predecessor Wasted Times  didn't quite showcase this, great though it was, this is more what you might be expecting, a gentle mid-paced effort which is a perfect soundtrack to those lazy summer evenings chilling out in the garden. Great stuff as you'd expect. Bandcamp Link *** Ginger's not the only member of the Wildheart...

  "They always try to blame it on the blacks/But it's really those in power who will stab you in the back"  - Newtown Neurotics  - Living With Unemployment It probably says a lot about my political beliefs that we've covered a fair few left wing fireband bands in both Sounds From The Junkshop and Garbage Days Revisited columns past from the Clash's Sandinista! through the Angelic Upstarts (RIP Mensi), Carter USM and Pop Will Eat Itself 's Dos Dedos Mi Amigos up to the likes of One Minute Silence , Pitchshifter and King Prawn in the early noughties. You could probably add the obvious likes of Billy Bragg in there as well (I've just not done a column on him yet as my favourite albums of his seem to be the same ones that get rightly acclaimed elsewhere like Brewing Up and Don't Try This At Home so I couldn't really call them under-rated). I guess it comes from growing up in a Teesside family relocated to West Yorkshire but I had the traditiona...