Formed in Camden, London Sisteray is an alternative four piece guitar band from East London formed around the songwriting partnership of singer Niall Rowan and lead guitarist Daniel Connolly, along with Michael Hanrahan on bass guitar and Calum Landau on drums.
Cambridge Analytica... Data farming... The Information Age... We’re all caught in an ‘Algorithm Prison’...
Fugazi (pronounced foo-GAH-zee) is an American rock band that formed in Washington, D.C. in 1986. The band consists of guitarists and vocalists Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto, bassist Joe Lally, and drummer Brendan Canty. It is noted for its style-transcending music, DIY ethical stance, manner of business practice, contempt for the music industry, and MacKaye's little red hat.
Fugazi has performed numerous worldwide tours and produced six studio albums, a film and a comprehensive live series, gaining the band critical acclaim and success around the world. Fugazi has been on an indefinite hiatus since 2003.
I love the bass line on this song. Catchy and what is good about "post-hardcore". Rock out to this one as it is one of my favourites by them.
Drunk Mums are an Alternative/Indie
band from Melbourne, Australia. Their bio states that you’d
be hard pressed to find someone that’s into rock and roll and not into a
Drunk Mums record. It’s well written, raw and most importantly free of
pretension.
In essence what they do is straight up Aussie rock and roll reminiscent
of The Coloured Balls with a contemporary garage slant and an enthusiasm
to match in the live setting. They do what they do and they don’t seem
to care what anyone else thinks.
See what you think. Not that they care...
Trampled By Turtles is an American bluegrass/folk-rock band from Duluth, Minnesota. They have released eight full albums, three of which have reached US Billboard bluegrass chart number one spots. Their fifth release, Palomino, maintained a position in the Top 10 on the bluegrass charts for 52 straight weeks. Their latest album, Life is Good on the Open Road, was released on May 4, 2018.
I am going with Whiskey as it is probably my favourite by them. It kind of makes me want to start drinking and stop drinking at the same time.
Drab Majesty is an American, Los Angeles-based musical project, founded by musician Deb Demure (Andrew Clinco) while working as the drummer for the band Marriages, in 2011. They combine androgynous aesthetics and commanding vocals with futuristic and occult lyrics, a style Demure refers to as, "tragic wave." To create his imposing stage presence, Demure employs costumes, makeup and props to accompany his lush, '80s-influenced soundscapes. Since 2016, when performing live, Demure is joined onstage by keyboardist and vocalist Mona D (Alex Nicolaou).
It's
hard to believe that this album came out in 2017 as it is very 80s
dreampop/goth pop with hints of The Sisters Of Mercy, Mission and The
Cure. I could have gone with a number of tracks (Not Just A Name came
close, so check that out too) but I have gone with Too Soon To Tell. A
future new wave classic with a strong melody, a nice spray of synths and
delicate guitar work. The lyrics appear to be about the past and future
(this album jumps around through time a lot).
Stiff Richards are 5 blokes from Melbourne playing tunes "straight from the shed straight to your head..." and this is their 3rd appearance on here. Featuring members Wolfie (Vocals),
Arron (Guitar),
Gazz (Guitar),
Raff (Bass)
and Lochie (Drums), they play some brilliant stuff.
Great gruff vocals and a nice groove going on in this one.
NoFX is an American punk rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1983. Vocalist/bassist Fat Mike, guitarist Eric Melvin and drummer Erik Sandin are original founding and longest-serving members of the band, who have appeared on every release of the band, although Sandin departed briefly in 1985 only to rejoin the following year. El Hefe joined the band in 1991 to play lead guitar and trumpet, rounding out the current line-up.
NoFX's mainstream success coincided with increased interest in punk rock during the 1990s, though unlike many of their contemporaries (including Bad Religion, Green Day and The Offspring), they have never been signed to a major label. NOFX has released thirteen studio albums, sixteen extended plays and a number of seven-inch singles. The band rose to popularity with their fifth studio album Punk in Drublic (1994), which is their only release to receive gold certification by the RIAA. The group has sold over 8 million records worldwide, making them one of the most successful independent bands of all time.
For years the band consented to very few interviews and have only made a few music videos, citing the fact that it does not need any more exposure and that people were exploiting the group.[66] In recent years, Fat Mike has consented to more interviews, including six different interviews with Nardwuar between 2002 and 2011. The band has also refused permission for its music videos to be broadcast on MTV, VH1, and similar music channels, although its music has been played on Canada's Much Music. NOFX made a live appearance on NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien in 2004.
In 2018, the band attracted significant controversy after statements by Fat Mike and rhythm guitarist Eric Melvin during a concert in Las Vegas on May 30, 2018. Referencing the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, Melvin stated "I guess you only get shot in Vegas if you're in a country band," and Mike replied with “You know, that (massacre) sucked, but least they were country fans and not punk rock fans". Lead sponsor of the Punk in Drublic festival Stone Brewing Co. pulled support from the festival as well as NOFX's line of craft beer. NOFX and Me First and the Gimme Gimme's were subsequently pulled from the festival's lineup.
The band later apologized, stating "What we said in Vegas was shitty and insensitive and we are all embarrassed by our remarks". In June 2018 the band stated all of their U.S. concerts had been cancelled and they had been "effectively banned" from playing in the United States due to the comments. However, Fat Mike later clarified otherwise, stating that "Our promoter canceled — my partner [not the venues]."
One of the few songs that they made a video for is Bob which is the 3rd track from their 1992 album White Trash, Two Heebs and a Bean. The lyrics always remind me of a mate who has a bit of a drinking problem and probably shouldn't drink any more but still does.
Manchester Orchestra is an American indie rock band from Atlanta, Georgia, formed in 2004. The group is composed of rhythm guitarist-singer-songwriter Andy Hull, lead guitarist Robert McDowell, bassist Andy Prince and drummer Tim Very. Former drummer Jeremiah Edmond parted ways with the band in January 2010 to focus on his family and on running the band's record label, Favorite Gentlemen.
Manchester Orchestra has released several extended plays and five studio albums: I'm Like a Virgin Losing a Child (2006), Mean Everything to Nothing (2009), Simple Math (2011), Cope (2014) (as well as its accompanying acoustic version, Hope) and A Black Mile to the Surface (2017). They are signed to independent record label Favorite Gentlemen Recordings, which is distributed through Sony Music Entertainment, and Loma Vista Recordings.
One of the first songs I heard by them was I Can Feel a Hot One from their 2009 album Mean Everything to Nothing. For me this one is all about the lyrics. Lines such as "So I prayed for what I thought were angels, ended up being ambulances..."
"And you were holding on to make a point. What's the point?"
Bayside is an American rock band from the Bayside, Queens neighborhood of New York City, formed in 2000 by lead vocalist Anthony Raneri. The group also consists of lead guitarist Jack O'Shea, bassist Nick Ghanbarian, and drummer Chris Guglielmo.
Since their formation, the group has released eight full-length albums, with their debut, Sirens and Condolences, in 2004, and the release of 2005's follow-up, Bayside, launching the band into mainstream success. The band released six more albums: The Walking Wounded (2007), Shudder (2008), Killing Time (2011),Cult (2014), Vacancy (2016) and Interrobang, (2019).
I am going with Devotion and Desire from their second album Bayside. A bit of nostalgia for me this one. I didn't give them much time until I saw them opening for Alkaline Trio and I was impressed when I did.
Lifetime is an American punk rock band from New Jersey. Lifetime was formed in 1990 and disbanded in 1997. In late 2005, they announced their reunion.
The band was formed in 1990 by singer Ari Katz (ex-Enuf) and guitarist Dan Yemin with its roots in the New York/New Jersey hardcore scene. I am going with "Young, Loud, and Scotty" from their album Jersey's Best Dancers, released in 1997 on Jade Tree Records
For me, it is one of the best melodic punk songs ever written. A true classic.
Surfbort are an alt punk band from Brooklyn who feature Dani Miller (vocals), David Head (guitar), Alex Kilgore (guitar) and Sean Powell (drums). They have numerous releases to their name and recently dropped a new single.
Silly D is a swirling, arty dreamscape that reminds me a little of Sonic Youth or even of the recent music released by The Lovely Eggs.
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Dartgun formed in 2004 in Portland, Oregon, by Chuck Thrust (lead vocals/rhythm guitar/bari sax) and features Chad Dit It (bass), Bob Fountain (keyboard), Andrew Scanlan (lead guitar), Nathan Thorsen plus The Vignettes; Kat Aklysm & Christine (fellow Vignette Dana Thompson who features on this song sadly passed away last year).They style themselves a "psychedelic punk rock doo-wop group".
The song I am going with features on a new charity compilation album featuring some very cool bands and is called Volume Bomb The Cops. You can find the comp on Bandcamp.
The Church Of Monday Night Football is "a rock n roll fueled surfed up doo-wop battle cry" and it is a great listen.
Daiei Spray are a melodic punk band who formed in 2004 in Hirosaki, a city on the Japanese island of Honshu and who are now based in Tokyo.
Named after a Japanese brand of strong hairspray which is popular with the local punk community, the band line up with Kazuki Yagihashi (vocals), Kyosuki Shibata (guitar), Yota Onodera (bass) and Akira Saitou (drums).
In March they released their second album Behind The Wall on local label Debauch Mood and has recently been given a UK release via Serial Bowl Records. It's available on 12' vinyl, CD and digital download. You can get it on Bandcamp. I am going with lead single Shame On You today.
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Mitraille are a 3 piece garage punk band from Belgium featuring a line up of Liam Verherstraeten (drums), Mathias Roggeman (guitar/vocals) and Dennis Van Hoof (bass/vocals). They released a debut ep in 2018 titled Schroot, followed it up a year later with Hoopschroot and have just returned with ep number 3, Schroothoofd. The vinyl is available to pre order and is due out soon but for now you can get the digital version "name your price" on Bandcamp.
The song that I'm sharing today deals with the recent difficult times of no gigs, no socialising, no holidays etc. It's the sound of a band having to deal with the frustrations and paranoia brought on by enforced isolation. It also asks us to take this opportunity to think about what our leaders value most, our well being or lining their own kind's pockets. It's a great summation of 2020 and also a great song.
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I have done a quite extensive write up on Green Day before, so won't bother with that again here. 2,000 Light Years Away is from 1992's Kerplunk and it is still a great pop punk song to this day.
Having a strong affection for surf, sand, oldies radio and The Ramones, The Beatnik Termites wanted to bring the beach to their Mid-Western scene of Cleveland, OH. Pat Kim (Also known as Pat Termite) started the power pop band
in 1987 and he has had many different bassists and drummers in the band.
My favourite song of the band is probably “Somebody else's baby” so that is the one I am sharing today.
Parasites are an American pop punk band. They were formed in the late 80's by guitarist / singer Dave Parasite and bassist Ron Nole in New Jersey. Dave later relocated to Berkeley, California, and continued with a new lineup during the heyday of Lookout! Records and the Bay Area pop-punk revival.
I am going with Ronnie Is A Psycho which is a great pop punk song. With a catchy woah's and a good solid beat you can't help but bop along to it.
Lucky Malice are a riot grrrl punk trio from Halden in Norway who formed in 2004 and who've released 3 albums plus a split lp with fellow Norwegians Danger!Man. The most recent of those albums was the excellent Misfit and you can snap it up as a name your price download on Bandcamp.
Featuring a line up of Karine Brække (drums/vocals), Linda Haug (guitar/vocals) & Hanna Fauske (bass/vocals), they've just released a new single. It's a catchy but uncompromising pop punk delight, energetic with plenty of melody, it's "a maybe-it-will-be-love song about the careless and unstable time, before we put the labels and frames on a relationship." It's also the title track of their upcoming album and from today it'll be streaming on all digital music platforms as well as being made available for download name your price.
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The Lillingtons are a pop punk band from Newcastle, Wyoming. In 1999 they recorded Death by Television which was done with the band's own money, and without the benefit of a record label. Released on March 30, 1999, an album that took sci-fi movie-themed songs such as "War Of The Worlds" and "Invasion Of The Saucermen" and combined them with tracks that made references to other retro themes, such as "X-Ray Specs." The recordings instantly created a buzz. Successful label Fat Wreck Chords offered to release the album, but the band had already accepted an offer. They signed with Panic Button Records, an imprint of influential punk label Lookout! Records that was overseen by Ben Weasel of Screeching Weasel fame.
X-Ray Specs is the track that I am sharing today.
Marilyn Manson is an American rock band formed by namesake lead singer Marilyn Manson, guitarist Daisy Berkowitz, and bassist Gidget Gein in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1989. Originally named Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids, they gained a local cult following in South Florida in the early 1990s with their theatrical live performances. In 1993, they were the first act signed to Trent Reznor's Nothing Records label. Until 1996, the name of each member was created by combining the first name of a female sex symbol and the last name of a serial killer, for example Marilyn Monroe and Charles Manson. Their lineup has changed between many of their album releases; the eponymous lead singer is the only remaining original member.
In the past, band members dressed in outlandish makeup and costumes, and engaged in intentionally shocking behavior both onstage and off. Their lyrics often received criticism for their anti-religious sentiment and references to sex, violence and drugs, while their live performances were frequently called offensive and obscene. On several occasions, protests and petitions led to the group being blocked from performing, with at least three US states passing legislation banning the group from performing at state-owned venues. They released a number of platinum-selling albums, including Antichrist Superstar (1996) and Mechanical Animals (1998). These albums, along with their highly stylized music videos and worldwide touring, brought public recognition to Marilyn Manson. In 1999, news media, infamously, falsely blamed the band for influencing the perpetrators of the Columbine High School massacre.
As this controversy began to wane throughout the 2000s, so did the band's mainstream popularity. Despite this, Jon Wiederhorn of MTV, in June 2003, referred to Marilyn Manson as "the only true artist today". Marilyn Manson is widely regarded as being one of the most iconic and controversial figures in rock music, with the band and its lead singer influencing numerous other groups and musicians, both in metal-associated acts and also in wider popular culture. VH1 ranked Marilyn Manson as the seventy-eighth best rock band on their 100 Great Artists of Hard Rock. They were inducted into the Kerrang! Hall of Fame in 2000, and have been nominated for four Grammy Awards. In the U.S., the band has seen eight of its releases debut in the top ten, including two number-one albums. Marilyn Manson have sold in excess of 50 million records worldwide.
Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death) was released on November 11, 2000. Produced by the band's lead singer with Dave Sardy, the album also features programming and pre-production editing by Bon Harris of Nitzer Ebb. The band wrote over 100 songs for the album, which was a return to the darker, more abrasive sound of Antichrist Superstar. Much of its content was written in response to the Columbine massacre, with the album's third single, "The Nobodies", directly referring to the shootings. Described by the band's frontman as the third part of a trilogy which began with Antichrist Superstar and continued in Mechanical Animals, its overarching theme is an exploration of the relationship between death and fame in American culture, and its lyrics and artwork contain many references to John F. Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald, John Lennon and Mark David Chapman, and Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth. The "Guns, God and Government Tour" elaborated on Holy Wood's central theme, and with its logo – a rifle and handguns arranged to resemble the Christian cross – Manson made no attempt to conceal what he saw as the source of that fascination.
The band also revealed that within their concept album trilogy, Holy Wood serves as prequel to Mechanical Animals and Antichrist Superstar despite the latter two preceding Holy Wood in release date. Each album contains its own distinct storyline, which can be linked together to create a larger overarching storyline encompassing all three. Manson has offered this much in the way of an interpretation: "[Holy Wood is about] wanting to fit into a world that didn't want me, and fighting really hard to get there. [The album's deepest elements] are idealism and the desire to start a revolution. If you begin with Holy Wood, then Mechanical Animals really talks about how that revolution gets taken away from you and turned into a product, and then Antichrist Superstar is where you're given a choice to decide if you're going to be controlled by the power that you created or if you want to destroy yourself and then start over. It just becomes a cycle."
I am going with Lamb of God from Holy Wood. This is exactly what Marilyn Manson is about for me. This track is something a little different to what they usually do and it does have a certain feel, the lyrics 'Nothings Gonna Change The World' ring true! It is a fucked up world we live in.
One Step Closer's From Me To You was one of the best melodic hardcore EPs of last year, and going by new single "Lead to Gray," it sounds like these guys are leaning even more into the "melodic" tag and I for one am a fan of their newfound knack for big hooks like the one on "Lead to Gray." There's just something so great about a real-deal hardcore band doing pop-friendly choruses, and if One Step Closer's upcoming debut album has more like this, I think we're in for a real treat.
Power Alone is the new band of Eva Hall (Gather, Rats In The Wall), and their debut album Rather Be Alone has clear-as-day but still gritty and unpolished production courtesy the great Paul Miner (Kill Your Idols, Curl Up and Die, Thrice, etc), and it's a straight-up, little-to-no-frills hardcore record and about as ferocious as they come. Rather Be Alone's got big, chunky, heavy-as-all-hell riffs and killer grooves, and Eva tops it all off with a venomous bark and cutthroat lyricism that straddles the line between personal and political and sticks a middle finger in the face of anyone who gets in her way. It's mainly a straight-up hardcore album, but 40-second standout "All We've Got" takes the band into melodic hardcore territory and fans of that genre need to hear this.
Teenage Halloween hail from Asbury Park, New Jersey, USA and not to just assume that every musician in Asbury Park likes Bruce Springsteen, but they embrace The Boss' reach-for-the-sky anthemicism, and they wrap it in the lo-fi aesthetic of the DIY punk scene Teenage Halloween have been part of since 2014. This all comes across on "Stationary," the lead single off Teenage Halloween's upcoming self-titled debut album, due September 18 via Don Giovanni. "'Stationary' is about the feelings of existential dread and how the human brain processes change and being perceived as male as an AMAB non-binary person can slowly make a person more bitter with the world around them," vocalist Luke Henderiks told Paste. You can hear all of that emotion pouring out of Luke's voice on every strained note of this song, which is as lyrically powerful as it is catchy and musically ambitious.
After the 1997 breakup of Lifetime who were a huge influence on a lot of the bands to come, guitarist Dan Yemin formed Kid Dynamite, whose 1998 self-titled debut remains one of the finest melodic hardcore albums of the '90s. In 2000, they got ahead of all the fans and critics who would've surely called their sophomore album "shorter, faster, louder" by naming the album that, and this 18-song, 24-minute collection very much lives up to its title. Their label Jade Tree called it an "album so straightforward, precise, and skillfully executed, it probably had to be their last," and it's hard to disagree with that too. Dan Yemin would go further in a hardcore direction with his next band Paint It Black, while vocalist Jason Shevchuk would get even more melodic with his next band None More Black, but Shorter, Faster, Louder sat right on top of that fence between pop punk and hardcore, leaning over towards one side and then back to the other but never jumping fully onto one side. It has all the grit and attack of a true-blue hardcore record, but within Jason Shevchuck's gravelly shouts were bright melodies that any of the major label bands would've been jealous of.
The track I am sharing is Living Daylights. They have great gang vocals and some cracking melodies.
Vista Blue are a Nashville pop punk / power band who feature Mike, Mark, Richard, and Reese who recently released a two track single that is available as a name your price download on Bandcamp. It is a contender for the best summer song of 2020 and is guarenteed to brighten up your day.
The track that I am sharing has a title that is a play on words on the title the Beatles smash Here Comes The Sun and it's a song that reassures us that even though it may have been raining for so long, one day the sun will be out and we can forget all our stresses and get back out on the beach. It's a love song in which Mike doesn't care how long the drive is, as long as his loved one is by his side. It's a modern day power pop classic that could easily be a metaphor for these current difficult times. This is There Goes The Sun...
Swan Prince are a Redditch based 4 piece punk band whose line up includes Ed Draper (Guitar), Josh Stockwin (Drums), Danny Bartlett (Bass) and Rachel Stockwin (Guitar/Vocals). Their sound is what I would describe as a 90's Fat Wreck influenced style of catchy skate punk. They formed in 2017 and their debut album is titled Hell On Earth.
The album is 13 tracks of pacy female fronted punk that isn't ashamed to add a fair old dollop of well produced melodic pop to the mix. If you like a catchy tune to accompany the music you jump around to then this could well be for you.
I am sharing Rogue and it is a great little ear worm with a political message about the left side being the right side despite what the press may have you believe so get your head out of your ass and open your eyes.
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