The Raconteurs are releasing their new single, Hands, on July 31st and will also be playing some festivals over the summer, so you can check them out at Reading, Leeds, Belfast’s Vital Festival and Scotland’s T On The Fringe. The dates are:
August:
Monday 21st – Dublin Olympia Theatre
Tuesday 22nd – Belfast Vital Festival
Wednesday 23rd – Edinburgh Corn Exchange
Saturday 26th – Reading Festival
Sunday 27th – Leeds Festival
Breed 77 are back with a new single Blind from their new album, entitled In My Blood, coming out in September. The group, nominated for Best British Act at the Metal Hammer Awards, will be supporting both releases with a tour of the UK. The dates are:
July:
16th – Guilfest
August:
12th – Bull Dog Bash
September:
10th – Stamford Corn Exchange
11th – Bournemouth Opera House
12th – Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms
14th – Edinburgh Studio 24
15th – Glasgow Cathouse
16th – Sheffield Corporation
17th – Stockton Georgian
18th – Nottingham Rock City
20th – Manchester Academy 3
21st – Birmingham Academy 2
23rd – Stoke Sugarmill
24th – Wrexham Central Station
25th – London Underworld
26th – Oxford The Zodiac
27th – Reading The Fez
28th – Exeter The Cavern
30th – Leeds Cockpit
October:
1st – Agincourt Camberly
2nd – Brighton Concorde
Hailing from Brooklyn, We Are Scientists took the UK by storm with their infectious, unpretentious indie calling card. Straddling the line between darker pop punk and retro indie chic, they manage to avoid the mutated indie ‘scene’ and come out the other side still smelling of roses. Tracks off the album like ‘This Scene is Dead’ and ‘Cash Cow’ seem content with self awareness, bright and sharp,’ and ‘Inaction‘ even seems to give the scene a good kicking.
On the flip side they also produced the wonderfully seductive ” Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt” slithers its way around your mind with vocals courtesy of frontman Keith Murray. The three piece describe their sound as “advanced high level sectional articulation”, its layers of guitars with disco beats, curling basslines combine with intelligent lyrics, thumping chorus lines and some sparkling tunes.
One thing’s for sure – they do seem fond of re-releasing tracks. With ‘Nobody Move Nobody Get Hurt’ re-released earlier this year, they’re following it up with the quirky, unbelievably catchy ‘The Great Escape’. With the summer (questionably) upon us, the more buzzing, upbeat and addictive tracks the better- and this is an absolute blinder of an indie gem. Exhilarating, exciting, topped off with a wonderful sense of urgency- this could be the anthem of the summer, and the soundtrack to the festivals. Scuzzy guitars and staccato turns, this is unchallenging, unmitigated fun – turn it up loud and enjoy!
Jurassic 5 are back, this time without Cut Chemist, but ready to drop their new album Feedback.
You can check out 5 tracks from the new album but hitting up this link and hearing what Akil, Marc 7, Zaakir and Chali 2na have layed on Nu Mark’s new beats.
The album, which features Dave Matthews and Mos Def will be released on July 24th.
Zurich’s psychobilly influences rockers The Peacocks are coming back to the UK for a tour after their travels to the US. The dates are:
12th July: Kingston Bacchus (onstage at 10:30pm)
13th July: Chepstow Five Alls
15th July: Sheffield The Plug
16th July: London Mean Fiddler
18th July: Newcastle The Cluny
19th July: Leicester The Charlotte
In other news, Captain Everything are bringing out a limited pink vinyl 7″ of The Bomb Song with He Am Spartacus and Diary Of A Spengler on the B Side. After almost a year Captain Everything will be hitting the road in the build up to the new album Buena Vista Bingo Club, the dates are:
12th July Hastings Crypt
13th July SouthamptonThe Joiners
14th July London Camden Underworld with You Me And The Atom Bomb
19th July Birmingham Bar Academy
20th July Bristol Bier Keller with Lightyear
21st July Hitchin Club 85
22nd July SwindonFurnace with You Me And The Atom Bomb
23rd July Cardiff Barfly
24th July Bolton Number 15
25th July Stourbridge Rock Cafe 2000
26th July Newcastle Carling Academy 2 with Lightyear
27th July Manchester Satans Hollow
28th July Leicester The Charlotte
29th July Amersham Jubilee Hall
30th July Derby First Floor with Lightyear
31st July Monmouth Monmouth Festival
1st August Newquay Fosters Beach Bar (Surfmasters)
3rd August Nottingham Rock City
4th August Lincoln Bivouac
5th August Doncaster Leopard
8th August Plymouth Hub
9th August Kingston The Peel with Send More Paramedics
10th August Hull Adelphi
12th August Blackpool Winter Gardens – Wasted Festival
13th August Derby Victoria Inn
26th August Reading Carling Festival : The Lock Up Stage
27th August Leeds Carling Festival : The Lock Up Stage
There’s less than a week to go til the Latitude festival and the people running it have decided to run a competition to give away 2 weekend camping tickets to the event.
All you have to do is visit their official myspace page, which can be found at www.myspace.com/latitudefestival and the tickets could be yours. Artists playing at the event this year include Giant Drag, Regina Spektor, Jose Gonzalez, Gomez and many more.
Vans have brought out a Descendents Shoe!
The band were one of the most unique punk bands to come out of California in the late 80’s releasing manby albums on the Cruz Record label. The classic Vans shoe has small Milo prints on them and hopefully will reach the UK soon.
Check Vans.com out for a magnified view and visit the SST Superstore where you will find a bunch of punk rock associated with this band and much more.
Hammersmith Apollo
06.07.06
Pink Floyd belting out over the speakers and a backing group wearing school uniforms aren’t exactly the setting you’d expect from the hip hop chart front runners Gnarls Barkley, but that’s the introduction they got when Cee-Lo bounded on stage in shorts and a school blazer. Dangermouse, the silent partner in the group, slunk from the background to the raised pedestal and manned the decks and other gadgets he had ready to roll.
Go Go Gadget Gospel was the first of their own tracks to blast out and with the drums sounding louder than a firework display, things were rockin’ from the very start. Cee-Lo’s demeanour is one of having fun, he was smiling throughout, even when singing, and he just looked like he wanted to have a good time. As they ran through the album’s strong points, from St Elsewhere to Feng Shui and Necromancing, the backing group grew in stature as they each came to the fore.
The string section sounded awesome and gave real depth to the performance when they were playing, and when they weren’t, they provided perfectly executed dance moves, clapping at their rights and lefts, shimming towards the floor and generally feeling the party-time vibe that was emanating from around them.
The two highlights of the night were the tracks Crazy [unsurprisingly] and new single Smiley Faces which got the desired results as Cee-Lo’s now blazer-less torso bopped and wound its way across the stage, the fantastic light show put on for the set beaming off his toothy grin. Of course, Crazy turned the night into a karaoke sing-a-long and this carried on into the encore which was finished off with an amazing cacophony of noise, bringing the fun to an end.
If you liked the singles, or if you have the album and feel that, then Gnarls bring that same entertainment to their live show. So if you can see them, and the selling out of the Apollo proved many people wanted to, make sure you go. Oh, and take your dancing shoes with you.
Black Flag. Black Sabbath. The two blacks. What more do you need in life? But hey, this is about Black Flag, we’ll move onto Sabbath next week. Find me a band more hardcore than Black Flag and I’ll call you a liar. Led by guitarist Greg Ginn, these street punks terrorized the world throughout the eighties with the most ferocious bursts of noise to rise from the punk underground then or since.
It was tempting to go for an older track or one of the classic early singles like ‘Jealous Again‘ or ‘Six Pack‘ but instead we give you ‘Slip It In‘ – a charging Henry Rollins led tirade that cuts a bass and drum grove that will have you kicking the legs out from under your table before drop kicking your computer into the nearest wall.
Soil
Camden Underworld
07.06.06
Thousands of Britain’s heavy metal fraternity may be currently pitching tents and sinking pints at Donington, but there’s still enough eager beavers packed into the Underworld tonight to send temperatures soaring to almost unbearable climates. So scorching in fact, that it’s difficult to say whether there’s more free-flowing liquids coming from the beer taps at the bar or the foreheads of those presently in attendance.
But however unsettling the conditions there can be no excuse for the coma-inducing stall set out by Chicago quintet Soil this evening. While their distinct brand of hard rock packs more than the odd punch, it’s delivered with all the visual intensity of a dead fish. Not even a crowd pleasing rendition of old favourite ‘Halo‘ is enough to provoke more than a smattering of applause from those outside the lacklustre pit area.
While Soil may resemble the tiresome younger sibling, Clutch are the perma-cool older brother. One who will pick you up, drive you home and provide a soundtrack of super suave blues-laden rock in the process. With a set consisting heavily of tracks from their recent ‘Robot Hive/Exodus’ album, the band has almost everyone in attendance in the palm of their hand from the off. Front man Neil Fallon is the focal point as ever, jiving and stomping his way across the stage like a man possessed; belting out the likes of ‘Burning Beard‘ and the anthemic ‘Mice & Gods‘ with all the supercharged conviction of a man half his age. It’s therein that lays the true beauty of a Maryland’s finest, because much like many of the finer things in life they remain a band that seemingly only ever improves with age; and as the riotous ‘Cypress Grove‘ erupts with such explosive energy that it threatens to take the roof clean off only a fool would dispute such statements.
As ever, Clutch remain a truly magnificent live spectacle. Here’s hoping they don’t apply the brakes any time soon.