If you liked Deliverance then the Black Lips should make your morning way more interesting. Play this video of ‘Boys in the Wood’ to your boss today. The True American Redneck Dream has been unleashed. Amazing as expected.
Category: Music
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Cheatahs
Cheatahs
S/T
Wichita
Originality isn’t everything. Sometimes there’s nothing wrong with sewing your influences onto your sleeves if what you are doing is still done with passion, conviction, energy and is good. There’s no getting away from the fact that this London quartet are obviously huge Swervedriver and My Bloody Valentine fans. There are moments on their self-titled debut that jolt you and drag you down a time vortex to the late eighties, early nineties when the aforementioned bands were injecting brave new sounds and moods into a flagging English indie rock scene. The influence of these bands is undeniable on Cheatahs. But it’s a good influence. A healthy influence. And the fact of the matter is, what they do, they do so very well.
On songs like ‘The Swan’ and ‘Get Tight’ they effortlessly tap into what made that era of music so exciting. Yeah, some call it shoegaze but Cheatahs aren’t staring at their feet, they’re glaring straight into your face – dazzling bright and alert and burning your retinas with their psychedelic space rock attack and swirling guitar noise. You see, much like Swervedriver before them (sorry to mention them again but there’s no getting away from it), Cheatahs rock. Although Swervedriver were lumped in with other shoegazing bands of the time such as Ride, Slowdive and Chapterhouse, they were a world apart and like Cheatahs, actually rocked. High energy, balls-out, rock.
So, despite their obvious influences, the fact of the matter is that Cheatahs have crafted an album that shimmies and shines with amazing songs, sounds incredible and is a joy to listen to. As time moves on it’s obvious that they will evolve and change and blossom into their own vision. And this is the perfect start on that journey.
James Sherry
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Winnebago Deal at The Cellar, Oxford
Winnebago Deal
w/ Desert Storm / Flack Blag
The Cellar, Oxford
January 18th
It’s been nearly four years since Oxford’s favourite power-punk-rock-and-fuckng-roll duo Winnebago Deal last blasted us senseless with their oppressively loud high-voltage noise. They’ve been missed. This is the band who when they first crashed onto the scene in the late 90s had everyone cupping their hands over their ears screaming “how the hell do two people make such an oppressively loud noise!?” This is the band who played as Mondo Generator with Nick Oliveri and just about survived. They toured relentlessly, supported Fugazi, released a batch of great records, then came to an eventual halt after a good long run with the album ‘Career Suicide’ in 2010.
Since then, guitarist Ben Perrier amped up the speed for the mighty Blasted, as well as cranking up the garage rock n’roll with Los Pepes. Drummer Ben Thomas hasn’t picked up his sticks in two years and tonight, with less rehearsals than you can count on one hand, both Bens will not only be roaring through a 45 minute set of prime Winnebago Deal rockers, they are also opening the night with their Black Flag covers band, Flack Blag – the Deal plus friends stampeding through prime-Flag material from the early days (‘Fix Me’, ‘Wasted’) to later songs like ‘Annihilate This Week’ and ‘My War’. They are infinitely more preferable to the Greg Ginn version of Black Flag that I was unlucky enough to witness at Ieperfest in Belgium last year. Unlike Black Flag, Flack Blag play with energy, passion and conviction, hurling themselves into these American punk rock classics with aplomb. And despite the small amount of rehearsal time, they are tight and on it. The stop-start parts of ‘Slip It In’ are razor-sharp. The deceptively weird timings in ‘Depression’, ‘Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie’ and everyone’s favourite ‘Nervous Breakdown’ are spot on. We screamed our throats raw to every word. That’s how you do it Ginn.
Next up, Oxford locals Desert Storm warmed the crowd up nicely with a set of crushing Clutch style classic rock grooves that got heads nodding and hips shaking. The venue is packed and the receptive crowd give it all they got. But it’s the arrival of Winnebago Deal that really kicks things up a gear. They quite literally detonate across the stage, still fired up from the Flack Blag set earlier. You could never tell Ben Thomas hasn’t played drums for a couple of years as he powers through his second set of the night. Anyone who had forgotten quite how loud, menacing and hard rocking Winnebago Deal are and were is very quickly reminded as the likes of ‘Did It, Done It, Doing It Again’, ‘Just Cruising’, ‘Manhunt’ and ‘Whiskey Business’ slap us senseless about the cranium. The crowd goes nuts. Both Bens are a blur of riffs, sticks, sweat screams and hair. This is what rock n’roll thrills are all about.
With a bit of luck Winnebago Deal will stick with us for a bit. We need a band that rocks this hard in the UK. There aren’t many. They play London at the Black Heart on the 31st of January. Don’t miss it.
Words/pics/video by James Sherry
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New OFF! album ‘Wasted Years’ incoming
Keith Morris and co are probably the busiest in the hardcore scene right now and delivering some serious quality stuff too. They have just announced that OFF! has a new album ready to go on Vice Records called ‘Wasted Years’ with the following words:
2…the LP is simply the most direct and unprocessed realization of OFF!’s mission yet. In an attempt to capture the sonic embodiment of the album’s thematic darkness, the album was self-recorded live to 8-track ½” tape in the quartet’s practice space, with a minimum of overdubs and an inability to punch in (i.e. every performance is an unedited take).
if this is how punk rock is supposed to be we are in for a treat. Look out for tunes soon, this album is set to drop officially on April 7th.
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Simpsons apologise to Judas Priest
Recent Simpsons episode sparked controversy amongst Judas Priest fans after a scripting error lead to the iconic rockers misclassified as ‘Death Metal’.
Rob Halford & co. made a cameo appearance performing their 1980 single ‘Breaking The Law’ when trying to lure a fugitive Homer Simpson and his family from their hideout at the Springfield Swedish Embassy after Homer downloaded too many pirate movies.
The line that caused this uproar from Priest’s loyal fans came from Springfield police chief: “There’s only one surefire way to get fugitives out of a foreign building. Blasting death metal!”
Despite the band themselves not seeming to give a toss about this genre confusion, it ignited rage amongst fans and some fierce tweets.
Metal Insider tweeted: “Judas Priest were called “death metal” on The Simpsons, which is like calling The Simpsons a documentary.”
Followed by: “While it’d be ridiculous to suggest that Opeth, Amon Amarth or Entombed would be on the show in place of Priest, it might have been a good idea to not call a 43 year old song that gets played on classic rock ‘death metal.'”
Stereogum then joined in with: “I don’t care if you want to have fun at metal’s expense but if you brazenly mix up black metal and death metal – and the essence of the joke hinges on getting that reference right – well, that’s just lazy writing and it deserves to be called out and mocked relentlessly”.
It’s safe to say Matt Groening won’t be making the same mistake again. Apologies were made in the opening credits of the very next episode. The famous chalk-board scene featuring Bart scrawling his detention lines this time read: “JUDAS PRIEST IS NOT “DEATH METAL”.
Hit play below to see this metal mix up for yourself.
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Rawcus
Rawcus
‘White People Crazy’
rawcus.webs.com
2014 just kicked of with an anthem. Some will throw the racist card into this new tune from Rawcus, an Atlanta based rapper/producer whose identity is underwraps, but others will be raising the genius card on this ditty and maybe even parting a dollar in exchange.
It’s a pompous message that calls out a bunch of celebs and reasons why most ‘White People Are Crazy‘ that will spreads like a virus onto the computer screens of the world’s peepers over the next week or so.
No doubt Rawcus has been working on this for a while to produce a track and a video that goes viral to help fill that tip box. Anyone that has the audacity to prepare something so goddam controversial, yet still hold so much truth in its words whilst looking at 2014 society with such disregard and humour should be commended. Or shot. Your call.
No doubt this video will have millions of views on it in the next week. Watch it why there’s still only 38,271 as we post this. Hats off to Rawcus, this will go down as one of the feats of free speech of the year without a doubt poking fun at the mainstream and reminding humans just how stupid the entire planet is.
Download the single which is on the “Fake It Til You make It.” EP here.
Nothing like kicking off 2014 with a bunch of new music. There’s tonnes of it circling out there already so this new monthly will be stuffed with tracks that are found in our ears the most. The 10 tracks we have hand-picked below fall into the good old indie/rock genre, encompassing psych, shoegaze, garage, sludge, ….call it whatever you want, this is what is playing in here from our staff writers. Press play, listen, buy and destroy and then send us yours.
BTW, this image was ripped off the web. If you are in it and want to sue us, up yours.
THE BLACK TAMBOURINES: ‘Ghost At A Party’
Like a box of Christmas chocolates that are still resting on your lounge tabletop, we kick this off with a tune that actually came out in late 2013 but was too good not to reblog. Prepared yourself for a dose of laid back, cool-as-fuck, garage-psych from Cornwall’s The Black Tambourines who are one of the most underrated British bands of last year. Search out their self-titled album for 11 tracks that you will be hooked on for months. – Zac
MENACE BEACH: ‘Where I Come From’
Some call this lot a Leeds supergroup due to members of Pulled Apart by Horses, Hookworms and Sky Larkin. This track lifted from their Lowtalker EP swirls inside your brain like a double dipped ohm on a fairground ride. Beautiful sounds. – Zac
VERTICAL SCRATCHERS – ‘These Plains’
Vertical Scratchers is the latest musical adventure from former Brainiac and Enon man John Schmersal. Teaming up with ex-Triclops/Anywhere member Christian Beaulieu, Schmersal is back with yet more quirky skewed pop genius. ‘These Plains’ is crammed full of melodies that embed themselves into your skull and point blank refuse to leave. Their debut album ‘Daughter Of Everything’ is released through Merge Records on the 3rd of March. If this track is anything to go by, the album is going to be on heavy rotation in our heads this year! – James Sherry
POLEDO – ‘King Of Cool’
‘King Of Cool’ is the latest from lo-fi scuzz band Poledo – taken from a collaborative 12” from the very awesome Art Is Hard and Reeks of Effort labels. The tracks strength lies in its simplicity. It’s a carefree slice of fuzzy pop from a band who clearly don’t over think or over complicate when they know they’re onto a good thing. – Joe Parry
GIRL BAND – ‘Lawman’
Unsettling razor-sharp experimentalism has never sounded as groovy as ‘Lawman’ from Dublin’s Girl Band. If Sonic Youth and The Locust had a schizophrenic baby, chances are they’d make sounds similar to this. – Joe Parry
SLIPPERTAILS – ‘Hip New Jerk’
This sludgy rock duo has provided the soundtrack to my life for the past fortnight. I use the term sludge loosely, mind. Slippertails’ debut album There’s A Disturbing Trend holds elements of cross-legged campfire folk, as well as the essential crash, bang, wallop. But their first single from the record, ‘Hip New Jerk’ sucks you in straight from the off. This is guaranteed to get your head banging. – Dave Palmer
DAY RAVIES – ‘Cocoon’
Day Ravies churn out the most agreeable dream pop ditties. They’ve got a great debut album full of them available to stream from their bandcamp, which is also host to one of the coolest sleeve designs of last year. ‘Cocoon’ is one of the more abrasive tracks from Tussle. There’s a Sonic Youth swagger in there that steers this tune away from the twee and back towards the shadows. – Dave Palmer
CHEATAHS – ‘Get Tight’
This bands music has stained the ceiling in our office. We’re all hooked. Nearly everything they’ve put out has had heavy rotation in here. Their Wichita debut is set to land February 10th and is sure to be a winner. Keep your eyes on the site for an interview with the band coming very soon. – Dave Palmer
THE MEN – ‘Pearly Gates’
Prepare for a pedal to the metal soul explosion from The Men’s latest offering taken from their forthcoming new album ‘Tomorrow’s Hits’, which lands on 3rd March. This band are like Ween, they can morph into whatever music genre that takes their fancy. Once again, the metamorphosis doesn’t disappoint as this crew go from campfire marshmallow dippers into Iggy Pop’s collection of fired up MC5 singles. Rip roaring radness on 11. – Zac
BLACK LIPS – ‘Boys in the Wood’
Those barfly motherfuckers the Black Lips have returned with yet another dope new album titled ‘Underneath the Rainbow’ scheduled for release this March. This first offering titled ‘Boys in the Wood’ is a drunken sing-along with no fooling around. The album is killer with no filler and comes free with an abundance of dirty garage filled swagger. Get hyped. – Zac
Watch this rad performance from one of our bands of 2013, Parquet Courts. The band are back in the UK on the following dates in February:
14 Brighton, Concorde 2
15 Manchester, Academy 2
16 London, Electric Ballroom
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The Men
Could The Men be the saviours of punk, hardcore, rock n’ roll and indie rock? The answer right now is a firm yes on first listen of this brand new track released today via Sacred Bones.
The Men have a grand amount of musical knowledge and not afraid of venturing into any goddam genre. This new track ‘Pearly Gates’ sees them lifting the horns and pushing the pedal to the metal on a rock n’ roll track that takes the rocket fuel of the MC5, the soul of The Solution and the steez of Iggy Pop pushed all the way to 11 at 100mph.
Look out for their new album ‘Tomorrow’s Hits’, which lands on 3rd March as they NEVER disappoint.
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True Widow announce UK tour for April
Texan stoners True Widow will be revisiting European shores in April this year following pre-Christmas shows and a banging new album titled ‘Circumambulation’ that dropped on Relapse records last year. It made our albums of the year for a damn good reason:they rip, in a very slow and seductive way.
See them at the following UK dates:
Apr 05 Milton Keynes UK Crawford Arms
Apr 06 Glasgow UK Broadcast
Apr 07 Leeds UK Brudenell Social Club
Apr 08 Liverpool UK The Shipping Forecast
Apr 09 London UK O2 Academy 2 Islington
