Keeping in line with the current montage of Nirvana whirling around the media, the fantastic Robotic Empire label have revealed their second tribute to the band.
Following 2014’s take on In Utero, which featured an all star cast of Ceremony, Daughters and Jay Reatard, this time around, Nevermind is given the cover treatment.
Featuring a diverse range of acts from Torche’s low-end sludge rendition of ‘In Bloom’ to La Dispute’s post-hardcore ‘Polly’ drawl, via White Reaper’s thrashing ode to ‘Territorial Pissings’, there’s much gold to be found here. Especially in Young Widows’ thankfully innovative spin on ‘Teen Spirit.
Bursting out of the basements of Southern Alberta and into Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio studios quicker than you can say, “It’s 1983, Grow Up!” Fist City are back with a brand new album titled Everything Is A Mess for June 22nd and we are very excited about it.
The first cut, ‘Fuck Cops’, is awash with their token guitar scuzz and hazey hooks, with a furious anti-racist, anti-police brutality mantra spat all over it. And if it’s anything to go by, the 16 other brand new tracks set to feature on Everything Is A Mess are sure to be bursting with just as much fizzing and impulsive energy as 2014’s sophomore, not to mention the on-stage antics they’re famed for. Catch them on tour at the below dates through May.
May
16th – Brighton, The Great Escape
18th – London, Alberta Showcase at The Islington
22nd – Liverpool, Liverpool Sound City Festival
25th – Leeds, Gold Sounds Festival
Everything Is A Mess is due June 22nd via Transgressive, be sure to pre-order the album here.
It’s not often that you stumble across a band that love sludge, and space cakes, so much they launched a KickStarter to fund a trip into orbit as the first stoner rock trio to jam in outer space. Gnob are that band, and thank green we’ve found them, and their new EP, Temple Of Sinners – a mind-melting home brew of cosmic dirge that is guaranteed to blow your ears clean off.
Sadly, KickStarter denied their proposed £498,000 space ritual fund-raiser, but this bunch plough on to higher realms regardless. Opening track ‘Curse Of The Jester’ takes a treacherous plunge into some seriously evil aural gloop, before coming up for air to breath the kind of vocal you’d expect to find on Master Of Reality. Bridging the gap between this filthy offering, and the bold psychedelic dimensions that lay ahead, though, is ‘Ceremony’. Five minutes of what’s only describable as shamanic, almost recalling the sitar-like noodling prowess you’d expect to hear hailing from the mystic Goat commune.
As if your ears weren’t smouldering already, ‘Temple Of Sinners’ morphs into a ten-minute psychedelic close, building Sleep-indebted riffs to monolithic heights before hurling into a wonderful haze of warped eastern jams.
Hit play below and let Gnob’s sludge ooze (careful) from your speakers. There’s nothing short of a masterclass in the dark arts of sludge, doom and psych to be found here.
Following the chaotic introduction of their debut track, ‘Hungry Heart’, London’s Yak have announced their debut EP Plastic People for May 25th, and served another head melting slice of their delicious garage rock to match.
‘Smile’ sees the trio loose and laid back over a near-four minute jam that creeps and crawls like Iggy Pop on a guest vocal with the Bad Seeds. Stream it here and catch them on tour through May at the dates below.
April
29th London, St Moritz
30th Nottingham, Bodega Social Club
May
1st Manchester, Soup Kitchen
5th Newcastle, Cluny 2
6th St Albans, The Horn
8th Bristol, The Louisiana
9th Exeter, The Cavern
13th London, St Moritz
16th Brighton, The Great Escape
22nd Liverpool, Sound City
Teenage Bottlerocket Tales From Wyoming
Rise Records
Sometimes, the biggest joys in life are the most straightforward, uncomplicated ones. The great thing about Wyoming quartet Teenage Bottlerocket is that they don’t fuck around, not wasting a single chord or word over the 35-odd minutes of Tales From Wyoming (their sixth record), and no end of great tunes.
Seriously, those tunes – they don’t half stick in your head. These guys play melodic punk rock in a similar vein to the Ramones, Misfits and Screeching Weasel; with few songs clocking in past the three-minute mark, and all the important topics – girls, horror movies, insanity, heavy metal heroes, comic book villains, etc. – covered. Watch the video for ‘They Call Me Steve’ below.
Run The Jewels feat. Zack de la Rocha
“Close Your Eyes (And Count To F**k)”
You know that El-P and Killer Mike are on some next level shit when you see videos as powerful as this. America’s ridiculous history of death, violence and inside jobs within their Police force has reached peak. It certainly never manages to learn anything from humiliating black culture, who they clearly see as aliens out there.
This artistic new video by director AG Rojas constructs an exhausting chase that paints the perfect picture of the battle that young black Americans face. The battle that never seems to end. It’s just a shame that some of the confusing YouTube feed comments are written by so many people that don’t ‘get it’. What is there not to get? Maybe these are the same people with no brains that essentially fuck everything up…and they are somehow given jobs as Police officers.
Run The Jewels recall the fine work of Zach De La Rocka on this tune, who we all know from RATM. This jam was tight without the video, but let’s hope a few of the people on the other side of the game in those Police departments are watching, and learning like us out here. This is a cold and tiring look at reality from the ever growing list of unjust Police brutality.
Riddles
‘Psychedelic Power Engine Iron Claw Thunder Mistress’
What would Hawkwind have sounded like if they hadn’t kicked Lemmy out of the band, let him cane his speed and take full control of the musical reigns? Sadly we’ll never know, but Hastings’ Riddles offer a pretty likely idea.
‘Psychedelic Power Engine Iron Claw Thunder Mistress’ is the near six-minute space rock epic from this electrifying foursome, and it will leave your ears red raw. Phasers cranked and tubes cooking hot, this lot only do business if it’s coated in feedback, fuzz, and steaming along at 100 miles per hour on a hell-bent journey to terrifying sonic altitudes.
Watch the dark and twisted new music video below that matches this head-melter perfectly, and keep an eye on their facebook page for gigs.
Swervedriver
‘I Wasn’t Born To Lose You‘
(Cherry Red)
Nostalgia has never played a bigger part in music than it does right now.With decades of music to draw from, and with literally every band from the past still active or reformed and playing again, it’s a cluttered world of music that we all occupy, and it’s a wonder how new music even gets a look in. How many of these reunited old bands, however, can return eighteen years after they last made a new album and come back with a set of songs that is as good as, if not better than, the prime of their original material? The answer is of course, not very bloody many. Apart from Swervedriver.
I Wasn’t Born To Lose You is testament to how talented Swervedriver are. Initially lumped in by the UK press in the early 90s with the whole dour ‘shoegaze’ scene (Ride, Slowdive, Chapterhouse etc), it was a label that never sat well with the band. They were tougher, harder and more psychedelic. Swervedriver’s swirling, charging, dusty-road-wasteland rock had its roots and influences in the highways of American blues, the sonic white noise pop of Husker Du, the psychedelic freak-outs of Sonic Youth, the slacker fuzz grooves of Dinosaur Jr. Their debut single ‘Son Of Mustang Ford’ (released in 1990 on Creation Records) wasn’t the sound of a band gazing at their shoes, this was a band tearing down the highway, peddle to the floor, blowing sand and dust in our faces as they tore through the music scene, creating some of the most sublime and addictive psychedelic rock the nineties had to offer.
By 1998, however, their tank was running out of fuel and the band went on hiatus, going their separate ways. By 2007, with their cult status at an all-time high and with the music scene coming around again and catching up with their style, they performed at Coachella and played intermittently for the following years. By 2013, we got out first taste of new material in single ‘Deep Wound’ and the flavour was good! Now we have the whole album in our hands and in our heads and it doesn’t disappoint in any way whatsoever. Tracks like ‘For A Day Like Tomorrow’ and ‘Setting Sun’ are as good as anything, if not better, than the band have created before. Singer Adam Franklin’s voice drawls, whispers and croons, chiming and shimmering against Jim Hartridge’s motorised guitar-weaving to perfection. And then there’s ‘Red Queen Arms Race’ which sees the band ploughing headlong into heavier waters, brandishing tough stoner-rock-Black Sabbath infused riffs to brutal and punishing effect.
Ignore some of the average reviews of this album that have appeared. These people obviously didn’t spent enough time with it. Or they don’t know Swervedriver like we do. The longer you spend with this album, the larger the melodies and grooves grow. Open your minds. Let Swervedriver in.
Orgaanklap ‘I’m Fuck, Punk You’ (Draaiorgel Remix) Suburban Records
Sometimes you see something in life that knocks you for six, stops you in your tracks and slaps you in the face like a wet fish. Today was one of those days as this played for just 40 seconds.
The thing is, it felt natural, felt like it was what my day needed. I was owed this Orgaanklap remix. It was meant to happen.
There’s no point in explaining it. Just play it, take it in and appreciate ‘I’m Fuck, Punk You’. Genius bastards!
A great deal has happened since 90s alt influenced punks Drug Church‘s debut LP, Paul Walker. Vocalist Patrick Kindlon has released a number of records with his “main” outfit, Self Defense Family, the band have toured the USA multiple times, and have an upcoming European tour with Title Fight and Gnarwolves planned. It’s not only a struggle to imagine how the band found time to release this EP, but also what’s arguably their best record to date by quite a stretch.
Opening with their most experimental cut yet, ‘But Does it Work?’, this deeply cynical list sets the tone of the entire EP. Kindlon’s almost Morrissey-esque repetition of the phrase “nothing works”, coupled with heavily monotonous rhythms, makes this easily one of the most interesting and engaging songs in Drug Church’s discography, let alone this record.
Kindlon’s song writing prowess extends with EP closer ‘Zero Zero’s lyrics horrifically relatable for anyone with an over-active brain. The opening line of “I care an unhealthy amount about things I can’t at all help / I care a bit too much for those who choose to stay out of touch” sums up the song perfectly before he appears at his most biting with the lyrics, “gas station food and bus station people, a moment to share, surrounded by equals”.
Musically, Drug Church clearly take cues from bands like Quicksand and Seaweed (though I’d argue DC are far more interesting than either). Buzzsaw post-hardcore guitars with moments of shoegaze riffs (again, see the brilliant ‘Zero Zero’), if you were a fan at all of the debut LP it is vital that you pick this up. If you’re unfamiliar, then start with this record, five brilliant songs clocking in at just 16 minutes, it is the perfect length. Perhaps too many bands take influence from the 90s but it’s unlikely you’ll find it done much better than on Swell.
Whatever Nevermind
Fist City
Teenage Bottlerocket
Riddles
‘I’m Fuck, Punk You’
Drug Church