Pulled Apart By Horses have always been a thrillingly chaotic live band, but on their self-titled debut album, they often struggled to walk the fine line between twisted hardcore genius and the musical equivalent of a ‘death pint’ (i.e. great ideas mixed together in a muddled, slapdash way).
Nevertheless, the promise was definitely there, and on Tough Love they’ve served up a more convincing, confident record, without sacrificing the raw edge that made them so appealing in the first place. Most notably, they now boast great riffs by the bucketload; the kind of filthy, thunderous riffs of which the old guard of the early 90s (Soundgarden, Helmet, even RATM) would surely approve.
For the most part, Tough Love does a fine job of capturing the unhinged energy of the band’s live shows. Those aforementioned razor-sharp riffs, the propulsive drumming, and vocalist Tom Hudson’s signature screech will all sound imposing enough on your stereo, but they’ll no doubt serve even better as a soundtrack to a throbbing mass of sweaty bodies, roaring themselves horse as they tumble over monitors, microphone cords and each other.
It’s not one great big hardcore free-for-all, though. They manage to shift down a gear for the gloriously QOTSA-esque chugging rhythms of Epic Myths, and Tom even manages to sing pretty convincingly on Give Me A Reason. The musical teeth are never far away, though, and it’s testament to the band’s confidence that they can rein themselves in from time to time and still sound unmistakeably like Pulled Apart By Horses.
The first great British rock record of 2012? Quite possibly, but – as you’ve probably gathered by now – it’s in the live setting where PABH truly shine. They’ll be touring the UK in mid-February; check www.pulledapartbyhorses.com for details.
Enter Shikari’s Rou Reynolds who played the Crossfire Halloween Massacre back in November has made a statement on the band’s website explaining feelings behind the current midweek chart position on new album A Flash Flood Of Colour:
“Two days ago things began as normal.
I pressed snooze a few times, finally woke up, rubbed my eyes, stretched my arms… and checked Facebook/Twitter.
But from then on it got weird. Really weird.
Our bands album ‘A Flash Flood Of Colour’ was at number 1 in the official UK charts.
I waddled confused and still half asleep down the stairs and had a crumpet to ‘celebrate’.
I lie, i ended up having 3.
I’m writing this two days after that rivetingly descriptive morning escapade, on Wednesday 18th, and we’re still topping the charts by a few thousand copies. Madness.
Now i’m not gonna sit here and bark on about how this is…
a) a victory for independent music
b) a victory for meaningful and societally conscious music
c) a victory for guitar/alternative music
…of which it is undeniably all three, but it has to be at least mentioned.
It goes without saying, you certainly wouldn’t label the majority of artists normally in the charts any of those descriptions, let alone those that reach number one.
The fact that so many people have bought this record and supported the values behind it is incredible. And we would like to thank every single person that has, from the bottom of our hearts.
I don’t know whether we’ll be holding strong by Sunday when the end of week chart run down happens.
In fact i’m sure Adele or Bruno Mars will have crept back up on us by then and achieve their 50th week at number one or whatever they’re on.
But we’ll have had our nice brisk trot in the limelight, and big up all those that contributed to it.”
2012 is shaping up to be a pretty vintage year for decent albums so let us introduce you to yet another contender that should stoke you out if you like your garage rock and country.
Firstly, it’s best to mention that Diamond Rugs is a project that was conceived back in August last year. John McCauly and Robbie Crowell from Deer Tick, Ian St Pe from Black Lips, Bryan Dufresne of Six Finger Satellite, Steve Berlin from Los Lobos and Hardy Morris from Dead Confederate went down to Nashville, Tennessee together to lay down some tracks and miracles happened. Speaking to Morris back then, he mentioned to us on a telegram that: “We were planning on recording 5 songs, and we did 14, so I guess you could say we had fun! It’s got a couple of Ian’s songs, 4 of mine, and the rest are John’s and other folks. Should come out early next year, I’ll keep you in the loop.”
Fast forward to January 18th and Diamond Rugs has surfaced online with a taster of what’s to come in a tune called ‘Gimme a Beer‘. The result, a mighty fine slab of catchy, slide guitar and horn assisted, country-rock’n’roll with a dirty Southern edge that makes you want to shake your shit over and over. I quote the words, “Damn it feels good to be a gangster!”
Check it out for yourself, download this tune for free and look out for an album announcement for the UK pretty soon.
For those of you record nerds that looked at this and thought that Sub Pop’s Pond from the early 90’s had reformed and releasing new material let’s make this clear that this Pond is full of new life, is not a grunge band and lives down in Australia.
Made up of 2 of Tame Impala’s touring members, Pond have unleashed one of the coolest psych records of 2012 so far with brand new track ‘Fantastic Explosion Of Time‘. Made up of of a mix of late 70’s pop punk rhythms and a large dose of 60’s psych, the rollercoaster trip this track omits is a ride that everyone should be on by the time the full length record is released this March 5th in the UK.
Previous releases have seen the band delve into Bowie/MGMT 70’s rock vibes so the forthcoming album Beard Wives Denim that will be released on Modular Recordings should be quite a melee of goodness to look forward to.
For now, feast on this single that is up for free download from the soundcloud link below and try not to play it again and again. Magical stuff.
Aesop Rock will be dropping his new album this year.
The rapper and producer, announced that his new album will be called Skelethon and is going in to be mixed next week. It marks the first solo album since None Shall Pass which was dropped in 2007 though he was part of Hail Mary Mallon who released their debut album last year on Rhymesayers.
In addition to Skelethon, Aesop is also working on a collaborative album with Kimya Dawson under the name the Uncluded. It’s called Hokey Fright and will also be out this year.
OF Tape Vol. 2 will be released on Odd Future Records on March 20th. The mixtape, a follow up to the crew debut from 2008 will feature Tyler, Hodgy, Left Brain, Domo, Syd, Mike F and Frank Ocean amongst others.
The crew are showcasing it with a US tour and will screen their Adult Swim show Loiter Squad as part of the tour.
It has been the talk of the town for yonks but confirmation is finally here. Soundgarden will be playing at this year’s Download Festival. It’s official.
Other acts announced to play tonight are Chase and Status, Biffy Clyro, You Me At Six and Tenacious D. Another nine bands will be added to here by tomorrow morning so look out for updates on this thread.
Following a huge breakthrough in 2011 with their debut album ‘Late Love’ picking up some rave reviews across Europe, Wolves Like Us return to 2012 hungrier than ever to spread their Nordic love further into our rock scene. The 4-piece will be back in the UK co-headlining on tour with label mates Junius in April, so look out for them on the road and enjoy what bass player Toy Kjeldaas told Ryan De Freitas and Crossfire when asked about how their impressive sound and stature has come together so goddam well.
Talk us through how this album came to be, from the formation of the band to the finished product?
Lars, Espen and I had recorded a few ideas and sketches that we played for Jonas. When all four of us met up in the rehearsal space for the first time, it all just clicked. It was truly amazing. We had plans for maybe playing a couple of shows last fall, but before we knew it we had been touring Europe, done a bunch of shows in Norway, sealed a record deal with Prosthetic Records, and started recording our debut album. Not sure what happened really.
Would you say that the experience you guys had musically with bands such as JR Ewing and Amulet helped you to find a mutual respect for each other quickly?
It certainly did. We were all fans of each others bands, and we’d all been friends for a long time when we first started thinking about making music together. We grew up listening to the same music, but it wasn’t until we started to play together we realized how similar our background really was.
The artwork on the album is also something that people have picked up on, we know that it’s by Justin Bartlett , who has also worked with Kvelertak and Sun 0))), how did the concept come about and was there a bunch of choices?
Justin put in a lot of work for us on this one. He used both our music and our lyrics for inspiration, and picked elements from them to come up with the concept that ended up on the album sleeve. He’s a very thorough guy, and it certainly shows. We thought it was an incredibly cool concept ever since he showed us the first sketches. He is an amazing artist we have a lot of respect for.
Are there other artists out there that you want to work with on sleeves in the future?
We have a few names on our wish list. We’ve already been in touch with Aaron Turner, he’s better known through his music career having been in the late, great Isis, but he’s doing some incredible artwork as well and we’d love to work with him.
You are currently touring with Kvelertak, how will you fuck with them on the road?
1) The contents of their on-stage water bottles might “accidentally” be replaced by vodka one night. That’s a classic really. I’m pretty sure it has been done before.
2) They are using a wireless system on stage for their guitars, and we plan to hack their frequency and play Justin Bieber’s last album through their amps in the midst of their set.
3) Our finishing blow will be to hide all their guitars right before they go on stage and put fake plastic weapons in their guitar stands instead. You know, axes, swords, medieval stuff really. The drum kit will be a bunch of real anvils. We really are doing them a favour, because it looks even more badass than real instruments.
Which band member is the most roadworthy and can take anything that comes in the way without moaning, and who is the worst?
Espen can take anything that comes in the way without moaning – except bad coffee. That unleashes hell. To all other problems, he only sees solutions. Jonas is the one that has been touring the most in the past, and has certain expectations of how things are supposed to be while on tour. That of course leads to a certain amount of moaning, haha! He’s the youngest of us, so we just treat him like a child, and everything will pass. No really, it’s a good thing, cause all of us others are just a bunch of puppies learning the ropes when it comes to touring compared to him.
What is the most ridiculous tour story to date since the band formed?
Well, we haven’t been around with this band long enough to make that much of fools of ourselves yet, haha! One funny story is about a friend of ours who is a lightning engineer. He was gonna do lights for us at a show in Oslo. We started worrying because he never came around to the venue. After a long while he turned up, and as it turns out he had gone to the wrong venue, spent a couple of hours setting up the entire lightning rig, programmed the light board and been starting digging in on the backstage beers when he realized that someone else was playing there. No one noticed him sneaking out the back, so it was all good.
‘Late Love’ is an album that truly shines, how do you follow such an epic record now it’s out there and will you be playing new material on this tour?
Well, first off; thanks a bunch! Lars has some awesome riffs and ideas going on, but there won’t be any new material on this tour unfortunately. It has been an incredibly busy year for us, and we need some time to get back in the rehearsal room and put things together in a proper way before any new material will see the light of day.
In the past you’ve referenced 90’s skateboard videos as something you took an interest in musically, are you drawn to skate culture and do any of you guys skate or is it purely the music that you found enjoyable?
Skating and music goes hand in hand. We’ve discovered lots of bands by watching skate vids in the past. Espen, Jonas and I used skate back when we were kids. We still bring our boards on tour though, but personally I am feeling a bit too old and fragile to be doing any neck-breaking stunts these days, haha! I mean, I am almost 37 now and haven’t really been skating much for the past twenty years. Plus, I was a vert skater, and still suck immensely at street skating so I’d rather look back at my teenage glory days on the vert ramp than risking my limbs doing kickflips to impress the other guys outside the venue while on tour.
What decks and skaters were influences along the years?
Obviously, the Powell Peralta team were the shit when we were kids. They were the easiest decks to get a hold of. Personally, I was really into the H-Street team. My first deck was the Tony Magnusson pro model. I met him a few times on some skate events he did in Norway, and he was a really inspiring guy. Him being a Scandinavian making his way onto the US skate scene was mind blowing for me at the time. That was everyone’s secret dream to do. Also, I’ve always loved the artwork that Ed Templeton did for his decks when he started his own company, and in the later years I’ve become a huge fan of his photo work as well.
If you have some skateboard history to unleash from back in the day, unleash it here…
As absurd as it might sound, since the 1970s and up until 1989 skateboarding was illegal in Norway, so when we started to skate we had to sneak around and hide our boards or the cops would confiscate them. When the ban was lifted, I’ve heard stories about guys who went to the main police station in Oslo to get their gear back. They were followed by an officer down to a vault in the basement, and there, right by sawn off shotguns, homemade nail bombs and rocket launchers was a bunch of skateboards. A skateboard is really a powerful thing, use it wisely.
Last words….
Remember kids, skateboarding is not a crime…anymore.
Wolves Like Us + Junius April 2012 UK tour
22nd Nottingham Hit The Deck Fest
23rd Glasgow Ivory Blacks
24th Manchester Star And Garter
25th London Borderline
Common has always been a rapper that everyone has enjoyed, he’s had his hits and he’s made a name for himself both in and out of the music world. But when he dropped his new album, The Dreamer, The Believer at the tail end of 2011, there wasn’t a great deal of hype surrounding the record. It’s a shame, as it turns out, as this is a great album, full of big production and an authoritative voice not heard from Common in quite a while.
After an opening salvo from Maya Angelou, Common and guest Nas drop bombs over No ID‘s thumping bass kicking the album off with a bang that doesn’t relent throughout. Lyrically, Common is on point, sometimes being a lot more forward that usual but always maintain his prowess with words in a voice that could only belong to him. With few guests appearing on the album [especially in this era of guests on almost every song], his vocals cut harder and with more meaning, clearly no bad thing.
Having No ID produce the entirety of the album also helps gives the record a consistency that might have been missing if the MC had cherry picked beats from a variety of beatmakers. Whether dropping a sample from ELO’s Mr Blue Sky or crafting a more intropsective beat for the track Gold or a larger epic sound to carry the John Legend guested The Believer, the producer continually finds sounds that fit Common’s delivery perfectly.
If this had been released in the middle of the year, or indeed anytime before the last couple of weeks in December, it would have definitely been in the top 10 of 2011. As it is, I wasn’t able to listen to it as much as I’d like before making my list, but don’t get it wrong – this is a fantastic album and, dare I say it, the best of Common’s already stellar career.
For a loosely termed musical genre that developed as a tougher edged take on first-wave Punk, ‘Hardcore’ has been subsequently sliced, diced, and generally misappropriated by a whole host of chancers, eager to put a credible spin on marketing their musical output, and even career aspirations. Gawd help us!
So let’s be clear, Section 13 are very much Hardcore as derived from the source, laying down 13 (what else!) bruising and whipped up blasts of anger driven music, with an attitude firmly rooted in Punk Rock. Singer Ian Murphy goes all the way back to mid-Eighties shining lights Visions of Change (from the then scene hotbed of Leamington Spa) and after time in the wilderness returned to action with S-13 a few years ago, “regrouped, reviewed, came back with strength renewed” – Hell yeah!
Burning Bridges is the band’s debut album and comes to a crunching finish a shade under 30minutes. You do the maths. This is super fresh sounding old time Hardcore, that’s screaming for a change, and banging its head against the wall. The lyrics are introspective, venting spite and frustration at personal failings and being disconnected with a world consumed by hate and division such as “I stand outside all those neat lines, not on the fence, not using that defence”.
It all adds up to fast and melodic Hardcore that keeps the true spirit alive, a reason why I am most certainly liking this album a lot! You won’t read about S-13 in glossy music magazines, they will never (ever) be Flavour of Month, endorsed by a sneaker company, or on a backpack sponsored tour. But they were never playing that dumb game in the first place. No shit, this is the real deal, and I cordially instruct you to go check it out pronto!
Pulled Apart By Horses have always been a thrillingly chaotic live band, but on their self-titled debut album, they often struggled to walk the fine line between twisted hardcore genius and the musical equivalent of a ‘death pint’ (i.e. great ideas mixed together in a muddled, slapdash way).
