Seasick Steve has announced that he will release his next album in October.
‘Man From Another Time’ will be released on October 19th and serves as a follow up to ‘I Started Out With Nothin’ And I Still Got Most Of It Left’ which came out in 2008. The singer is expected to announce a UK tour for November in the near future too. Remind yourself about the man himself with the video below:
Mexico City
Circo Volador
23/8/09
Latin American metal fans have a reputation for being a particularly devoted bunch, which perhaps explains why Mexico City seems to be blessed with a steady stream of no-nonsense metal shows in no-nonsense venues.
The Circo Volador (roughly 3,000 capacity) is an old converted cinema that looks reassuringly well-worn in places, with a couple of graffiti murals and countless posters of previous concerts adorning the walls. The beer is cheap (the equivalent of roughly £2 a pint), the atmosphere is friendly, and the fans’ enthusiasm isn’t waning despite the steadily rising heat.
The only slight worry is the echoing sound that plagues Mulux Pac‘s set. The local quintet’s thunderous, riff-laden attack doesn’t really break any new ground, but they do sound admirably tight and brutal in all the right places, and they deservedly whip up a decent-sized pit down the front of the steadily growing crowd.
For the second of two nights at this venue, Swedish death metal veterans Arch Enemy are dusting off plenty of older, rawer favourites; the kind of set which, as vocalist Angela Gossow informs us, they can only play in Mexico and Japan due to a relative lack of demand elsewhere. Any doubts as to the validity of such a statement are soon quelled, with the crowd going utterly apeshit as the band rip into ‘Enemy Within‘ with the force of a rocket-powered juggernaut.
It’s a pretty fearsome introduction, and from then on, the highlights come thick and fast. ‘Bury Me An Angel‘ is as fine an example of unbridled death metal fury as you could wish for, ‘Pilgrim‘ sees some jaw-dropping dual solo action from guitarists Michael and Chris Arnott, and the closing ‘We Will Rise‘ is as epic as it is heavy.Overall, it’s a fine soundtrack to the insanity that unfolds in front of the band, with every song greeted by pumping fists, hurricane-esque pits and deafening chants of ‘ARK ENEMY!’. Hey, you can forgive these folks the odd mispronunciation, trust me.
The smile on Angela’s face at the end of their set says it all. Arch Enemy have never exactly been slackers in the live setting, but they play with more fire and venom tonight than I’ve ever witnessed at their UK shows. And with a following like this, it’s pretty safe to bet that they’ll be back in Mexico City in the not-too-distant future.
Alex Gosman
Brixton Academy
August 26th 2009
You’ve probably heard the rumblings and rumors running riot this week as what is possibly the greatest rock ‘super-group’ of all time plots it’s time to strike in the UK.
The Vultures have already been circling across Europe and America, swooping down to play random festival and club gigs, feeding small snippets of music out online, building the excitement – leaving everyone waiting and wondering just how hard a band comprising of members of Led Zeppelin, Nirvana and Queens Of The Stoneage will rock. The obvious answer is, fucking hard.
Initial rumors suggested the band would play at Islington Academy on Monday night this week and the web exploded with excitement and claims that the gig had already sold out, before it was even booked. When the gig didn’t happen all fingers pointed towards the Arctic Monkeys fan club Brixton show happening the same week. Josh Homme having just produced the Monkeys new album, it seemed like a likely option. And although the Vultures appearance was confirmed online later in the afternoon, when Dave Grohl (drums), John Paul Jones (bass/keyboards), Josh Homme (guitar/vocals) and Alain Johannes (guitar) walked out onstage in front of a largely unsuspecting Monkeys crowd, an enormous roar erupted from the crowd as the venue was filled with the clunking sound of jaws hitting floor.
With a brief wave to the crowd, these Vultures don’t fuck around and kick straight into ‘Elephant‘ (because it’s as heavy as a) and it literally detonates into life as Grohl propels the band into a high-speed thrash out, his hair and arms flaying behind the kit like it’s 1992, before the band settle into one of those strutting Josh Homme riffs that is pure and prime Queens Of The Stoneage at it’s finest. Your first instant thoughts are (one) it’s so good to see Dave Grohl back behind the drumkit where he belongs (two) John Paul Jones is a lucky bastard to not only have played with John Bonham, the greatest rock drummer ever, he now gets to play with the second greatest rock drummer ever and (three) they sound like an anvil being dropped on your head.
Surprisingly, however, as the set progresses, it’s interesting how song-based much of the material is. You would expect musicians of this sheer weight and caliber to have delivered something a little more muso, replying on long drawn out instrumentation or a series of monolithic stoner riffs but songs like ‘New Fang‘ and ‘Scumbag Blues‘ have a pure psychedelic pop sensibility shimmering under the sheer heaviness and it’s as much of a joy to hear as it is to watch. The grooves that Grohl and Jones lock into are phenomenal and you can see the joy in Grohl’s face as he gets to play with his bass playing idol. Grohl is an enormous Led Zeppelin fan. It can’t get better then this for him.
It’s interesting watching the audience’s reaction throughout. It’s obviously the Arctic Monkeys audience and they look more like the crowd from your local pub than rock fans (as is the way when a band hits mainstream) so there are some non-plussed faces in the crowd as they are battered by this alien rock form. Take this as a lesson to rock oh Monkeys fans, because you won’t get any better teachers or schooling than this. The ultimate rock band, through and through. The album is going to be incredible. The Vultures are circling….
James Sherry
Them Crooked Vultures made their UK live debut in London last night.
The supergroup, featuring Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones and Queens Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme opened up for Arctic Monkeys last night, shocking a lot of early-comers with their appearance. Homme was in good form, telling people to dance and “whatever you want tonight”. Tracks played included Gunman, Elephant, Daffodils and Caligula amongst others. Click here for the live review.
Gogol Bordello will release a new DVD and CD in October.
Live from Axis Mundi features footage from their sold-out New York gigs in 2007 and will feature the usual bonus footage and extra tracks. It will also come with a CD of unreleased tracks and six tracks from the band’s 2008 BBC session.
Protest the Hero have posted a trailer for their first DVD.
Gallop Meets The Earth will be released on September 15th and features footage of the bands sold-out Toronto show as well as bonus features and hidden content. Check out the trailer below:
Gallop Meets The Earth – Trailer from Vagrant on Vimeo.
Kings Of Leon have announced details of a remix album.
Drummer Nathan Followill said that the idea came from hearing Pharrell and Justin Timberlake had remixed some of their songs without telling them. The album is also likely to feature the likes of Mark Ronson, Lykke Li and Kenna. The band will also release a DVD of their O2 Arena shows in July, saying:
“We figured what better place to make a live DVD than where the fans have been the craziest for the longest?” he said about the reason for choosing a UK gig for filming.
How will this one end up sounding?
Goldielocks‘ Hardknock night is taking over The Legion in Old Street this Friday [August 28th].
The night will see sets from Ruff Sqwad, Shystie, Logan Sama, Dot Rotten, DJ Drama and the lady Goldielocks herself. It’s free before 10pm and only £4 after, so make sure you go down and get your fill of dirty basslines.
If you’ve not already done so, check out our interview with Goldielocks here.
Club Velvet
Mexico City
21.08.09
In terms of gigs from international bands, Mexico City isn’t quite up there with the likes of London, New York and Los Angeles in the ‘spoilt for choice’ stakes. However, in terms of crowd enthusiasm, it appears to be a different story; as tonight hundreds of sharply-dressed folks crowd around Club Velvet like a swarm of particularly excited bees around a honey pot.
Many of them are begging for spare tickets for what will be Friendly Fires‘ second visit to the Mexican capital; and the show’s sold-out status is proof enough that the St Albans quartet have made plenty of new friends since the first time around.
The club is roughly the size of London’s Electric Ballroom, but whereas the latter has been showing its age for a long time, Velvet is clearly a new club on the block: with shiny fittings and Smirnoff vodka logos plastered over every pristine surface. The crowd are (for the most part) a worryingly cool bunch, with designer jeans and skyscraper heels in abundance, but thankfully they aren’t too cool to dance.
Local synth-funk merchants Neon Walrus aren’t quite as interesting or unique as their name might suggest, but they do have some pretty arresting basslines up their sleeves, and hence manage to get a few bodies swaying on the increasingly packed dancefloor. Meanwhile, those in the guest area are enjoying the presence of a free ‘create your own Smirnoff cocktail’ bar, and yours truly manages to slip past the security to join in the fun. The ‘Can’t Dance But I’m Gonna Try’ is made of equal parts vodka, watermelon sours, and Sprite – and if you think the name sounds clumsy, wait til you’ve had three of them. Hic.
Friendly Fires are on a roll right now, with a Mercury Music Prize nomination for their self-titled debut album, and plenty of successful festival appearances already under their relatively young belts. They hit the stage just after midnight, and are clearly delighted by the utter pandemonium that ensues in the crowd; a heroes’ welcome, no less.
In front of such a partisan bunch, FF were never going to struggle, but tonight they really pull out all the stops for an energetic, sweat-soaked performance. The stop-start rhythms of ‘Jump In The Pool‘ could get a dead donkey dancing, the Rapture-esque funk of ‘Lovesick‘ incites mass bouncing down at the front, and the epic chorus of ‘Paris’ envelopes a room like a cloud of spaced-out musical euphoria. Throughout, frontman Ed Macfarlane smiles as if he can’t quite believe this is happening, and this does seem a slightly surreal situation for four young (but talented) guys from the home counties.
Whether they’ve got what it takes to keep this impressive momentum going in the long term remains to be seen, but tonight Friendly Fires prove to be a pretty exhilarating live act, and one that is worthy of Mexico City’s love.
Alex Gosman