Silver Screams - creep joint scratch

Silver Screams from Boston produce a great post-punk noise. You can hear influences from some of the cream of punk, hardcore and post-punk in their EP but with plenty of their own personality and attitude too.

The EP is bacially a glorious thrash and so alive, all in all a great debut by this trio. Highlights are "Mt Rumpke" and the cover "Wash away" but all 5 tracks are powerful slabs of no-nonsense punk rock.

MV : "Tania" by The Julie Ruin

Lo-fi synth punk pop yeah!

MV : "Run fast" by The Julie Ruin

Great band great album great song great K!

MV : "Oh come on" by The Julie Ruin

Off new(ish) Julie Ruin album.

MV : "(Just like) Susan George" by The Blanche Hudson Weekend

The Ritas - she's with the band / slash fic

The Ritas return with this great pair of songs which is a free download on Odd Box, very punk garage-y and lo-fi yet also with plenty of melody and glamour. "She's with the band" drifts along sublimely while "Slash fic" roars at you.

Cabaret Voltaire - mix-up

Cabaret Voltaire's first album comes from the earliest days of post-punk electronica and experimentation that finally led to industrial, goth and techno. So what do we get from this 1979 release: scruzzy vocals, dirty dub, tape loops and weird noises abound. Is it all just an atonal din though? Well maybe at times it does sound like some kids messing about such as on "No escape" which seems to go on forever with its annoying melody and actually goes on for longer than that. "Fourth shot" sounds like broken synths over a badly tuned guitar, and could well be.

On "Heaven and Hell" it all finally makes sense, a demented electro melody over disembodied vocals and random noise interjections. Its the soundtrack to the dark future we were all promised but has yet to arrive. When we are going around in black leather in spiked cars amid a smog of a post-Apocalypse then this is definitely the soundtrack. "On every other street" stands out for me as my favourite track with its feeling of electro doom amid the insanity.

Drunksouls - revolution

French independent band Drunksouls' music is a mix of styles with reggae, hiphop and rock mixed with punk attitude, funk and a love to experiment and play around with different influences. Their first LP was downloaded over 100000 times and this album looks set to continue their success.

Picking out some highlights, "Drifter song" which starts the album off is so infectuous and funky you can't stop listening to it over and over again. "Sullivan Song" sounds great with mad keyboards and an almost Two-Tone feel to it. "Happy death day" is a bit melancholic and has some nice horns.

"The end" is one of the most experimental on the album, with some crazy synth sounds and a slinky reggae beat. "Supermarket" is frenetic and races along amid a sea of funk and tasty keyboards. The title track "Revolution" has some interesting sounds amid its rock-rap attack.

"Uniform" which closes the album takes things down in tempo and feel being quite reflective before erupting into some tasty guitar work but keeping a powerful message, light and dark like much of the album.

Friday Links (04/05/12)

• John Peel's vast record collection is to go on-line and also see here for an insight into how he found anything. As for the actual collection...
• Duran Duran will headline the gig to mark the start of the Olympics.
• 1977 : The Queen's punk jubilee.
• Music stars back earplug campaign, well MBV are supposed to be making a comeback, you can listen to their re-issued version of "Loveless" here by the way.
• A Post-Punk Tumblr.

Friday Links (13/04/12)

• An interview with Graham Coxon from Blur (bit old this but forgot to add it earlier i think)
• He is called Mick Jagger
• Blur could play for the last ever time at the Olympics concert
• The 10th anniversary of the death of Joe Strummer will be marked by a festival
• Are we losing our respect for music?

Review soon... new single by Pontoons "antidote"

Friday Links (03/02/12)

• The Happy Mondays will reform in May, according to singer Rowetta the original line-up met last week and made the decision. Who else has a big tax bill due?
• The Flaming Lips have created a track with the help of Apple's Siri voice controlled assistant.
• Courtney Love's drug addiction apparently led to the death of two pets. A story thats not as good as the headline alludes to though.
• Feminist punk rock band Pussy Riot make an anti-Putin protest, enjoy them while you can...

Help Stamp Out Loneliness, nice band and nice song.

Friday Links (20/01/12)

• Felt: The Book!
• Rock album sales are at their lowest for 8 years. Rock is dead, long live Indie Pop instead!
• Rock's Backpages : a vintage interview with John Lydon
• Birmingham Music Archive - celebrating, preserving and sharing Brum's musical heritage.
• Last Shop Standing - a documentary coming soon on indie record shops

When Nalda Became Punk (Pebble 7")

This lovely single from Pebble Records is full of punky pop goodness, but with such a title is that any surprise? This Spanish punk pop band should immediately shoot to the top of your list of the best new bands.

The title track (and also the name of the band) rollicks along with sweet yet slightly deadpan vocals which i love after a ringing guitar intro. DIY sounds like the soundtrack of a youth TV show that will never be made but if it had would have ruled your life. A single wonderful in every way possible. An album is coming, bring it on!

Friday Links (13/01/12)

• The look of 2012 is apparently the punk look of 1977... not that i know anything about fashion to be honest though i have a nice hat.
• Here is a lovely archive of scanned cover images of Slumberland Records' releases.
• Feminist Music Worlds - Riot Grrrl, Ladyfest and Rock Camp for Girls
• From the Archives : Joy Division in their own words (Interview from the NME in 1979)
• Lost! 10 great albums that were shelved or abandoned

Currently waiting for...

24 Hour Party People OST

24 Hour Party People was an excellent film from the early 2000s that attempted to chronicle (fairly accurately but not completely) the Manchester music scene from punk to the collapse of Factory Records taking in the stories of Joy Division and the Happy Mondays. So you'd guess that the soundtrack to that film, a compilation of essential Manchester bands from Joy Division to the Happy Mondays would be pretty damn awesome. Well its not but its not bad.

Starting with the Sex Pistols the 18 tracks herein take us from punk, post-punk, 80s electronic, rave and Madchester. There are indeed some great tracks from the obvious like of "Blue Monday" and "Hallelujah" (which need to be included i guess though if you are like me you've heard them so many times you can barely stand them anymore!) so the less obvious and interesting like Moby's cover of "New dawn fades".

There was a "new" New Order song included too and "Here to stay" to be honest is probably worth the price of the album alone, one of their better later songs. There is a bit of dross on here too, or maybe i should say songs which probably don't belong on here and are taking up the space a more deserving song could have but them is the breaks.

This soundtrack is nice enough, great for a car journey or having on in the background, or if you do not have much by the likes of Joy Division and New Order then it is a reasonable introduction. A gateway drug? I like it...