Category: Buzz Chart

Ex-Blur guitarist Coxon is back with another solo album and this one really is killer. The twanging guitars always associated with him are still around, but this time they are coupled with harmonicas, thrashing chords and all manner of harmonies.

Coxon throws in a good mix of arrangements on this release, with short, sharp punk bursts standing alongside sweetly sung ballads, showing that his versatility as a guitarist stretches to his vocals too.

Single Standing On My Ownagain is a stand out track, but it is the brilliant You & I which steals the show on this album. This album is a must for any fans of old school Blur, garage rock fans and anyone who appreciates a good bit of punking out.

Live dates in March

20 Newcastle University
21 Liverpool Academy
22 Glasgow Garage
23 Edinburgh Liquid room
25 Leeds Cockpit
26 Norwich Waterfront
27 Leicester University
28 Manchester Ritz Ballroom
30 Cambridge Junction
31 Oxford Zodiac

April

1 Nottingham Marcus Garvey Centre Ballroom
2 Bristol Bierkeller
4 Brighton Concorde
5 London Hammersmith Palais

Yep, Dilated Peoples are back in the mix with another fantastic slice of Hip Hop. Back Again is the first single to be lifted from the much anticipated 20/20 album released this month. The video features Rakaa, Evidence and DJ Babu as they travel around a Los Angeles rooftop evading chemical agents and features cameos from B-Real, The Alchemist, Defari, DJ Rhettmatic, Los Angeles Lakers Forward Lamar Odom and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Stars the Gracie Family, among others that you can view on this page.

The single itself is a mid paced beat filler stuffed with hooks and head nodding ingredients that you can’t just buy anywhere around town.

Back Again is the first slice of the pie from the new album to follow up last years monster “This Way” produced by man of the moment Kanye West and the new material takes the unit back to their roots. Rakaa from the band says: “We’ve done a lot of experimentation, worked with a lot of different people and tried a lot of different things, but with this record, we wanted to really get back to a real, uncut pure vision and get back to the pure, boom-bap sound that really made us all get together as people and want to make music together.”

With this quote in mind whilst listening to the new album, Rakaa is spot on as this slice of Hip Hop should turn more heads than their competition right now, but with 4 albums under their belts since 1997, you know this was always going to be quality.

Back Again is out this week with the album 20/20 out in the UK on February 20th. Look out for a full album review in The Mix on this site later this week.

Originally crafted in Texas, this lush NYC three piece going under the name of Calla have some beautifully crafted indie tunes that will melt in your mouth once you get past the dodgy band name and uninspiring artwork. I almost missed playing this as the sleeve said nothing to me personally but as soon as the first riff of flagship tune “It Dawned On Me” kicked in i was somewhat surprised.

This album has laid back steez in the guise of Ambulance LTD (also from NYC) if i could compare the arrangements, even production of the overall sound and vocals, but chuck in some Zwan and even Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin’s mellow solo stuff mixed with some Verve and you are close but left with no cigar. So, if you like to get down to beautifully, laid back indie with depth, then this album Collisions is going to your new best friend. It’s an undiscovered gem and i now have fallen in love with it!

The band are in Europe touring from the dates below:

Feb 13, 2006 Brighton, UK Freebutt
Feb 14, 2006 London, UK Barfly
Feb 15, 2006 Paris, FR Nouveau Casino
Feb 16, 2006 Amsterdam, NL Paridiso
Feb 18, 2006 Berlin, DE Knaack Klub
Feb 19, 2006 Hamburg, DE logo
Feb 21, 2006 Koln, DE Gebaude 9
Feb 22, 2006 Munich, DE Atomic Café
Feb 24, 2006 Bologna, IT Cova
Feb 25, 2006 Rome, IT Circolo Degli Artisti
Feb 26, 2006 Torino, IT Spazio 211
Feb 27, 2006 Milan, IT Transilvania
Mar 1, 2006 Brussels, BE Botanique – Witloofbar
Mar 2, 2006 Bristol, UK Uni AR2
Mar 3, 2006 Manchester, UK Blowout @ The Bierkeller
Mar 4, 2006 Liverpool, UK Acad 3 – club night
Mar 5, 2006 Birmingham, UK Bar Academy
Mar 7, 2006 Glascow, UK King Tut’s
Mar 8, 2006 Leeds, UK Cockpit
Mar 9, 2006 London, UK Islington Bar Acadamy

People just have to rock and this Nashville based quartet are no exception. Let’s Get Sandy is the latest single that will be lifted from Be Your Own Pet‘s debut album scheduled for release in March that was recorded in their home town of Treasure Isle with Steven McDonald (one of the main dudes in Redd Kross) and although this clocks in at just 1 minute long, the debut album is reported to have at least 30 minutes of music on it!

Stream this single if you like a short sharp shock stuffed full of raging punk rock and chaos! The band have just toured the UK but expect them to be back wreaking havoc more this year. Carnage!

When I first heard about the new strokes album I was immediately excited about what I thought would be another offering of some classic Strokes stuff and I have not been left disappointed. The album shows The Strokes sound has modernised but still has the original kick from the previous 2 albums.

The album begins with ‘You Only Live Once‘ a relaxing song which seems to be a simple intro track. It then breaks into their amazing new single ‘Juicebox‘. Pretty much the rest of the album shows off The Strokes newly matured sound with exception to a few tracks of classic strokes tunes.

This album shows this NYC 5-piece at their best and I would recommend “First Impressions of Earth” to anyone who liked ANY or their previous material and if you have never heard of them before, you have a lot of essential catching up to do.

Chris Arundel

Australia is not really that famous for it’s rock and roll, well i guess The Saints are probably up there in my own personal opinion but they were more of a punk band anyway. But, now Wolfmother have taken Australia by storm and they are growing in your territory as i type this review. On a recent surf trip, i met a few Aussies (always my favourite squeezes) and they mentioned how much this band have blown up in Oz with expectations being high.

For a 3-piece they make a huge sound thanks to the help of one Mr Dave Sardy (producer of Hundred Reasons, Jet, Hot Hot Heat and also an ex Barkmarket member – what, you never heard this band?) who has lifted Minds Eye into another dimension. To get to the point, this is huge 70’s rock groove akin to Soundgarden and Led Zeppelin led by the sustained vocals of Andrew Stockdale.

Wolfmother have everything set up in front of them to take to the big stage and put on a show that will leave people wanting to rock out with their cocks out. But take note, this is real, it’s not Spinal Tap….it’s actually your spine on tap once you have discovered the beauty of what they have arranged.

The album will hit the UK soon and we are sure this band will rule the festival circuit this year but if you want a sneak listen to some album tracks from the Modular site then click here.

Lifted from their sublime new album ‘Mr Beast‘, ‘Friend Of The Night‘ is a beautifully emotive slice of post rock genius that starts fragile and still and builds and builds until the swirling guitars and stabbing piano patterns explode in a crescendo of noise. The centre piece of the whole album, this single release perfectly showcases where Mogwai are at in 2006.

Their sense of melody and how to express it emotionally has increased tenfold and gone are the jarring barrage of loud guitars of the past (although they do raise their heads at points throughout the album!), now replaced by spine-tingling subtle piano melodies, intricate guitar pickings and shuffling drums. This is a truly beautiful single from their most accomplished album yet.

Catch the band live at the following dates:

TOUR DATES

29 March – Bristol, Academy,
30 March – Southampton, Uni,
31 March – Wolverhampton, Wulfrun Hall,
01 April – Oxford, Brookes Uni,
02 April – Cardiff, Coal Exchange,
04 April – Cambridge, Junction
05 April – Liverpool, Carling Acdemy,
06 April – Newcastle, Northumbria Uni,
07 April – Sheffield, The Plug,
27 April – Edinburgh, Queens Hall (Triptych Festival)
22 September – London September, Royal Albert Hall

Reggae messiah and musical superstar Burning Spear is celebrating his 35th year in the music world with a new album, and another reminder of why he’s been around for so long. Spear, known to his friends as Winston Rodney, has always tried to deliver his political message to the people through the mass of popular music in Jamaica and he’s able to do it once more in this new release.

Fresh and dubby as you’d expect from him, Spear allows his personal struggles to come through in his music, giving it an edge of more popular reggae as he drives through Friends, Down In Jamaica and the bouncy positive sounding Fix Me which delivers an uplifting message about getting the most out of your life. Spear might have been in the game for over 30 years, but he’s sounding as new and as intriguing as he ever has.

Abjekt

For more than a decade, Canadian maniacs Strapping Young Lad have been one of metal’s most enthralling, yet ultimately terrifying prospects. With their 1995 debut – the peculiarly titled ‘Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing” – Devin Townsend and his merry men set a new standard in the realms of aggressive music. A relentless sonic assault of grinding guitars, pummelling drum fills and blood curdling screams; it was to be an underground cult classic that would stay firmly in the memories of all those who heard it.

Ten years later the quartet would release their fourth and possibly finest album to date ‘Alien‘. Undoubtedly the final step in what would prove to be a slow but sure evolution towards perfection; the result was ten tracks of mind-melting metal mayhem with a new found purpose and maturity. While their thrash/grind roots would remain greatly visible, a spine chilling cocktail of haunting melodies and twisted ideals (including a choir of children) were thrown into the mix to create one of 2005’s benchmark releases.

With a soaring vocal led chorus and enough spiralling grooves to satisfy even the reddest of hillbilly, ‘Love?’ is a stark reminder that while perfection may come with age, we should all remain very much afraid.

Ryan Bird

Corrosion Of Conformity were one of the first early eighties American hardcore bands to mix sludgy metal riffs with traditional hardcore punk, sounding like a chaotic and ear splitting mix of prime Black Sabbath doom and hyper-speed Black Flag and Bad Brains.

As the eighties progressed, C.O.C. (as they were more often known) delved even further into their metal influences, spearheading the late eighties crossover movement that saw hardcore punks like D.R.I. Crumbsuckers and Ludichrist redefining hardcore with a renowned force and power. By the ninnies after many line-up changes, guitarist Pepper switched to vocals and C.O.C. became a fully fledged rock monster, bringing a whiskey soaked Lynyrd Skynyrd southern drawl to the heavy metal party.

‘Paranoid Opioid‘ is from last years awesome ‘In The Arms Of God‘ album that proved to be one of the band’s best and a real return to form after the disappointment of their previous ‘America’s Volume Dealers’ set. And the good news is they’re here, right now, ripping through our little Island as support to the mighty Clutch.

Don’t miss this one!

The dates are as follows:

1/20/06: Liverpool, UK – UNI
1/21/06: Manchester, UK – MDH
1/22/06: Nottingham, UK – Rock City
1/23/06: Leeds, UK – Cockpit
1/24/06: Glasgow, UK – Garage
1/25/06: TBA – TBA
1/26/06: Portsmouth, UK – Wedgewood Rooms
1/27/06: Brighton, UK – Concorde 2
1/28/06: Oxford, UK – Zodiac
1/29/06: London, UK – Mean Fiddler/Astoria

COC is currently supporting In the Arms of God. Clutch released Robot Hive/Exodus earlier in 2005.