Legendary group Motorhead have just finished their new album, Kiss Of Death, which is due to be released in August, and are currently touring Europe, wowing crowds everywhere. The group have confirmed they will return to the UK with some live shows and the dates are [all with Clutch]:
October:
31st – Dublin The Point
November:
2nd – Newcastle City Hall
4th – GlasgowAcademy
5th – Manchester Apollo
7th – Bradford St. George’s
8th – Sheffield City Hall
9th – Birmingham Academy
11th – Cardiff University
12th – Oxford New Theatre
13th – Leicester De Montfort Hall
15th – Norwich UEA
16th – Cambridge Corn Exchange
17th – Ipswich Regent
19th – Nottingham Rock City
20th – Bristol Colston Hall
21st – Plymouth Pavilion
23rd – PortsmouthGuildhall
24th – Folkstone Leas Cliff Hall
25th – London Brixton Academy
In 2003, singer songwriter Luke Steele and co delivered The Sleepy Jackson‘s debut album “Lovers”, a record that earnt critical aclaim and went down as one of the records of the year, but where do you go once you have made the lights shine in the ether for that tricky second album?
Hawthorne Heights have just announced a third gig for August. The group, who are already confirmed for the Reading and Leeds festivals, will also play a headline show at the Islington Academy.
Here is the skate schedule on the Extreme Channel for July:
This is Dubbledge’s debut mixtape and it is red hot! This selection of impressive tracks is scrupulously blended together and the result is spot on. Fist of Jah features some of the best UK artists in the business. With Dr Syntax, Skrein, Genesis Elijah, Wordsmith, Foreign Beggars and Micall Parknsun featuring on various tracks how could you possibly go wrong? This cd is pretty damn raw to say the least. Nice to hear some tunes that make you feel like you could actually be in the room while the tunes are recorded. There is some exceptionally tight production coming from Dag Nabbit, Jabba the Kut, Ghosttown and Shlomo (who you should all know by now).
Brighton’s Black Grass, otherwise known as Mex is back with his hard hittin’ new single, “Don’t Leave Me This Way“, taken from the up and coming “A Hundred Days In One“. Dominique Noiret and Mex were brought together by accident. Mex wrote the music while waiting for a session player to show when the words to the unforgettable 1970’s disco tune (yes, you guessed it) “Don’t Leave Me This Way” jumped into his head and Mex realized that this could work well. A collaboration was born after Mex saw Dominique Noiret, on the front of a magazine, in her Noir Alt Country band and persuaded her to get involved. This is the end result!
What can I say? An online radio show that plays amazing tracks fused together with some pleasing mixing. I would definitely play most of the tracks out when im on the ones and twos in some club or bar. All of the archived shows will soon be available for download, just keep checking the websites above. If you go into the media section of the bare-records site you can download loads of unreleased tracks, some tracks that have already been released and a couple of videos that are worth watching, quite impressive really. I was sent their first show on cd when I bought some tunes from suspect-packages & I was impressed. These people will definitely be going somewhere, I’ve been hearing more and more about them recently. Keep your ears peeled.
Gilles Peterson is this generation’s John Peel. Let’s face it, there isn’t a style of music, that Gilles doesn’t know about or hasn’t championed to the point of exposure. On this Back To Brazil compilation, he serves up a double disc dosage of tunes from the South American country that will strike a note with anyone and everyone somewhere along the way. On the first CD, entitled Das Velhas, he throws in some mellow jazzy sounding stuff, perfect for warm late nights in the summer, kicking back and just chilling with this in the background. It’s not really my cup of tea, but playing it over my stereo when we had guests over seemed to grab their attention, so clearly there’s something there.
A-Skillz is a name I’d heard mentioned around but wasn’t sure where. It turns out the talented 24 year old has been behind the decks for the likes of Madonna and I have a soft spot for the queen of pop so he’s already gone up in my estimation without even having heard him! In fact, he beat Basement Jaxx and Scratch Perverts on Annie Mac’s mini-mix of the year for Radio 1, so he’s clearly got something. And this record certainly doesn’t let him down. A booming opening to Export 02 which features funky guitars, heavy cutting and some samples from the likes of the Jungle Brothers shows he ain’t messing around.
Kool Keith has had untold amounts of guises but arguably the most popular one of them all is Dr Octagon, and finally he’s brought that alter-ego back after a gap of 10 years. Trust me when I say this return single doesn’t disappoint. Starting off with a plodding fuzzy beat interspersed with short sharp bursts vibing in the background from various intstruments, the track floats around with a Portishead-esque Mysterons sound and finally gathers speed with off-key pianos as the Doc tells us all about the threat of Aliens.
Big Dada have done it again, they just keep on bringing out great tune after great tune and New Flesh’s new single is no exception. The sub-bass on this track is absolutely amazing, and truly reminiscent of Roots Manuva, who was so impressed by this track that he walked out of Big Dada’s offices carrying a CD-R of it to put on a compilation. But its not just the bass that resonates around the ears, it’s the differences in delivery by the rappers. You’ve got a Carribbean sounding emcee, you’ve got a harder rapping style and a more laid back homely sounding emcee opening the track up.
There’s no point in me discussing how massive Gnarls Barkley have become because let’s face it, after Crazy, we all know. But what I can tell you is that if you haven’t got the album and you want more proof that Dangermouse and Cee-Lo can pen a danceable fun track, then Smiley Faces is the one for you.
So there’s the music for this time around, hope there’s something in there you like. As for the art, we’ve got something by an artist called Mark Jenkins, who does embedding art amongst other things. Check out this photo of his fake person with their head supposedly going through the wall, absolutely genius, and something that doesn’t get tiring to look at. If you want to see some reactions by the general public to this, then throw your cursor over this link and check it out: 
Panic! At The Disco’s two dates at London’s Brixton Academy have both sold out and the band have added a third date for the 22nd of October, which is selling out fast too. So make sure you get to buying a ticket if you want to catch the band whilst they’re over this year.
The Deftones have decided to call their album Saturday Night Wrist after toying with the idea. The album is recorded and mixed and due for release in October though it could be delayed by the label.
The tracklisting for Lamb Of God’s new album Sacrament has been finalised and the tracks are as follows:
Uxfest, which is taking place at the Islington Academy on August 6th, has just confirmed that Captain Everything are the last band to be confirmed on the bill, and the line up is now complete. With 2 stages and 21 bands taking place and money going to charity, this is well worth checking out. The bands playing will be: