The Blood Brothers - Ambulance vs. Ambulance

The Blood Brothers were an American post-hardcore band from 1997–2007, formed in Eastside Seattle, United States. The quintet has released five albums to date, as well as numerous side projects on behalf of the members. They reunited for a series of shows surrounding and including FYF Fest in 2014

Taken from their 2003 album ...Burn, Piano Island, Burn, Ambulance vs. Ambulance  was released as a single and had a music video produced for it.

Turnstile - Mystery

Turnstile is an American hardcore punk band from Baltimore, Maryland and dropped a new single a few days back. It's a great catchy little number.

Chelsea Wolfe & Emma Ruth Rundle - Anhedonia

Chelsea Wolfe has returned with a new song called ‘Anhedonia’, which features guest vocals and guitar by her Sargent House labelmate Emma Ruth Rundle.

Wolfe said in a statement about the track:

I wrote “Anhedonia” after I experienced it during summer of 2019, then tucked the song away and moved forward with my acoustic album and subsequent North American tour. 

When COVID-19 hit and stay-at-home orders began in 2020, my European tour was canceled and I had to fly home. Restless, I started listening through my archives of unfinished songs and little unused ideas. 

When I heard “Anhedonia” again, it hit me how strangely relevant the lyrics felt to current times. I’d been wanting to work on a song with Emma for a long time, so I recorded it and sent it her way. 

She graciously added her gorgeous vocals and lead guitar, and then Ben mixed it, adding his signature sound landscape as a fortress around the song. As I listened back to the final version, I was finally able to set free those emotions which I couldn’t feel back in 2019. 

I had worries around releasing the song, not wanting to romanticize the condition of anhedonia (the inability to feel pleasure), but I also understood that it could possibly be cathartic for others who are struggling, as it was for me, to sing and dance my way out of a depression.

Emma added;

“I was moved to tears when she sent me ‘Anhedonia,’ which made getting 

through the tracking very emotional and slow on my end,” Rundle added. “I love the way the guitars I tracked morphed in Ben’s mix. The whole song swirls in a poignant eddy of sorrowful sound and still takes a hard swing at my heart hearing it now.” 

Catch 22 - Keasbey Nights

Catch 22 is an American ska punk band from East Brunswick Township, New Jersey. The band was formed in 1996 by guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Tomas Kalnoky, who left the band in 1998 and later formed Streetlight Manifesto.

Founding members still in the band are vocalist/saxophonist Ryan Eldred, trumpeter Kevin Gunther and drummer Chris Greer. While largely inactive since 2012, the band announced a spate of shows in 2015.

Keasbey Nights was one of the most recognized third wave ska albums of the time and it is the title track that I am sharing today.

Save Ferris - Come on Eileen

 Save Ferris is an American ska punk band formed circa 1995 in Orange County, California, United States. Their name is a reference to the 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off. In 1995, the band began to perform underground venues in Southern California. In 1996, the band won a Grammy showcase award for best unsigned band and a contract with Epic Records. Their album It Means Everything from 1997 was their first full-length album. By 1999, the band moved from ska-pop into pop-punk. After a hiatus, in 2017, Save Ferris released the Checkered Past EP.

Their debut album It Means Everything was released in 1997 and included their popular version of the Dexys Midnight Runners song Come on Eileen. This is the track I am sharing today.

Hot Water Music - Jack Of All Trades

Turnover - Dizzy On The Comedown

Turnover is an American rock band from Virginia Beach, Virginia. Formed in 2009, the band is signed with the Run for Cover Records label. Turnover has released four albums, two EPs and a handful of singles.

Peripheral Vision is their second studio album. Produced by Will Yip, the album was released on May 4, 2015. It finds the band shifting from their pop punk origins to a more atmospheric, dream pop-type sound. Peripheral Vision peaked on at number four on Billboard's Heatseekers Albums chart, and critical reviews were largely positive, focusing on its stylistic progression.

Today I am sharing Dizzy On The Comedown.

Weezer - Island In The Sun

Weezer is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1992. Since 2001, the band has consisted of Rivers Cuomo (lead vocals, lead guitar, keyboards), Patrick Wilson (drums, percussion, backing vocals), Brian Bell (guitar, backing vocals, keyboards), and Scott Shriner (bass, backing vocals, keyboards).

I am sharing Island In The Sun today.

Send More Paramedics - Zombie Crew

Send More Paramedics is an English zombie film-influenced crossover thrash band from Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. They are named after a line in the film Return of the Living Dead.

Zombie Crew is from their 2nd album The Hallowed and the Heathen.

Sick of it All - District

H2O - What Happened

H2O is an American hardcore punk band formed in New York City in 1994.

What Happened is a great punk song that I can relate to. With guest appearances from Matt Skiba and Lou Koller I'll just post the video and lyrics.

When it began, for those who don't know

it didn't matter how you looked or what you wore to a show

dress codes, fuck NO! we didn't care

about the brand of your jeans and all that shit in your hair

But now the biggest part is all about the image and not the art

Fashion before passion!

And at nights, it makes me mad that I should have to ask:

What happened to the passion? (passion!)

What happened to the reason for screaming?

What happened the music and the message that I love?

What happened to the hard work? (hard work!)

And why does everybody look the same?

What happened the music and the message that I love?

And I know, that people change

and we go through different stages in life

and I'm not here to criticize

but the reason I scream, is a feeling inside

But now the biggest part is all about the image and not the art

Fashion before passion!

And at nights, it makes me mad that I should have to ask:

What happened to the passion? (passion!)

What happened to the reason for screaming?

What happened to the music and the message that I love?

What happened to the hard work? (hard work!)

And why does everybody look the same?

What happened the music and the message that I love?

Lost (1, 2, 3, 4) lifetime ago it seems

you gave up on your wildest dreams

but i refuse to let mine go

I took an oath, you can find me here

with an open heart and ears

refusing to surrender

I can't believe they don't remember

what it feels like to be young

What happened to the passion? (passion!)

What happened to the reason for screaming?

What happened the music and the message that I love?

What happened to the hard work? (hard work!)

And why does everybody look the same?

What happened the music and the message that I love?

Soda City Riot - Resist and Refuse

Soda City Riot are a bunch of self confessed "stupid fucking morons" from Columbia, South Carolina, who play anthemic street punk which contains both political commentary and humour. 

They've just released a new ep titled Resist And Refuse and it's available to download on their Bandcamp

The title track is about being sick of being told what to do by those who dumb us down and rob us blind. It's a call to arms with plenty of catchy backing chants and handclaps. A call to stand up and be heard. It's very catchy indeed.

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The Crew - One Voice

Featuring Members of Rancid, Pennywise & Suicidal Tendencies, The crew are a so called punk "super group" who dropped a track yesterday. A project that came together during lockdown, this is hopefully the first track of many!

“Collaborating with Tim Armstrong, Mike Muir, And Matt Freeman has been an awesome experience, obviously Byron Mcmackin and I go way back. Byron and I had a demo of ‘One Voice’ laying around for couple years, and I thought it would be cool to bring a couple old friends in to breath some new life into it. Watching these guys lay down their own personal trademark styles on this song was nothing short of amazing! I think it’s safe to safe we’re all pretty fucking stoked on the final product, and being able to donate proceeds to Musack feels pretty awesome as well. Find it, crank it up, and enjoy!” – Fletcher

Stream & Download links

Latterman - Fear and Loathing on Long Island

Latterman is an American semi-active four-piece punk rock band from Huntington, New York, United States. A melodic punk rock band with vocals shared by Phil Douglas and Mattie Jo Canino, their songs often contain political and/or socially conscious lyrics. The band is considered highly influential in the Melodic Punk genre with their album No Matter Where We Go... being considered a staple of the genre. Phil Douglas and Mattie Jo Canino respectively would go on to form the equally acclaimed Iron Chic and RVIVR. Canino, Douglas and Schramm would go on to form Tender Defender in 2015, considered by many to be an extension of Latterman.

Today I am sharing the track Fear and Loathing on Long Island from No Matter Where We Go...

This Is Hell - The Polygraph Cheaters

This Is Hell are an American hardcore punk band from Long Island, New York. The band is known for extensive touring and high energy concerts. The band has released five studio albums and five EPs.

I became aware of them when they formed back in 2004 due to their singer, Travis Reilly, being the brother of The Movielife / Nightmare Of You member Brandon Reilly.

The Polygraph Cheaters is a track from their debut album Sundowning.

Black Rooster - Maladjusted

Black Rooster are a 3 piece from West London fronted by singer/songwriter Lucille Rees (ex Screaming Violets). They list amongst their influences the likes of Buzzcocks, Stooges, Ramones, The Slits and Sleaford Mods. They play a kind of fuzzed up garage punk with Lucille singing in a can't give a fuck style (which is hard to do properly and make it work but she sounds great).

They've recently released an album titled '74-75' and I'm really enjoying it. A track that they have a video for is Maladjusted. It tells the tale of when Lucille's adoptive mum would take in and look after problematic children from London. Just as a certain amount of stability was in place, Lucille's adoptive mum died when Lucille was 17 years old leading to further instability and drug abuse.

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Moot - Patient One

Moot are from Forster, New South Wales and feature a line up of Ross Dreise (vocals), John Walker (guitars), Shane Dalton (bass) and Benjamin Copland (drums). They're "an high energy rock n roll band" and they released a debut ep on Riot Records last year titled Cultural Treason.

The 4th of June will see the release of ep number 2. Titled Loathing, Self And Others, it contains 7 tracks and they describe it thus; "A little more reflective but no less uncompromising than past work, the music drips with sarcasm and rages at hypocrisy."

If you don't want to wait till June, it's already streaming on bandcamp. 

This is the first single from the new EP and is titled Patient One.

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King Prawn - Dominant View

King Prawn are an English ska punk band founded in 1993. The band split in 2003, later reforming for a second run in 2012.

I am going with an old favourite today.

This is Dominant View.

Archers Of Loaf - White Trash Heroes

White Trash Heroes seems to be a total marmite track. You either love it or you despise it and there is no in between.

As you can tell from me sharing it, it is definitely the former here. It is the closing track from the album of the same name which was their fourth and final studio album. It is one of the finest tracks the band recorded, with vocals akin to the gentle gruffness of Tom Waits. Sirens whistle continuously like a train journey as the white trash heroes are celebrated (“Dreaming of the white trash heroes/I’m in paradise”). It broods and feels like it is building, but it never explodes which somehow adds to its charm.

Riverboat Gamblers - Bonzo Goes To Bitburg

Texas's Riverboat Gamblers have released a new 7-inch called RAMOTORHEAD. The 7-inch features a cover of “Bonzo Goes To Bitburg” by the Ramones featuring CJ Ramone and a cover of Motorhead’s “No Voices In The Sky” that features Dave Krum Bum. The songs are available digitally and the vinyl will be out in the summer via Anxious and Angry.

Today I am sharing Bonzo Goes To Bitburg.

The Ableist - Sucked Back Into the Sun

The Ableist are from Chicago, Illinois and earlier this year released a very interesting Self Titled album in which they enlisted the aid of a number of guests to produce something pretty special. It's a mix of hardcore and post punk, the pace varies from brooding instrumental to spoken word to shouty ragers but it all coalesces into a more than satisfying whole.

This track features Alice Kraynak on vocals and violin as well as Barry Cabrera (Guitar/Backing Vocals), Stephan Piven (Guitar/Backing Vocals), Jairus Paulus (Bass), Johnny Chacon (Drums), Paul Scanty (Lead Vocals), Sean Jones (Backing Vocals) & Maddie Bomher (Backing Vocals). As with many of their songs, it's an intelligent political treatise that both stimulates the mind and gets you jumping around. This is Sucked Back Into the Sun.

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HEALTH & Nine Inch Nails - Isn't Everyone

LA punks HEALTH have teamed up with Reznor and fellow Nine Inch Nail Atticus Ross on their new single ‘Isn’t Everyone’. It’s the band’s first release since their fifth studio LP Disco4:Part1 was released last year.

This is a song that captures both Nine Inch Nails and Health so well and have Trent Reznor singing like it was the 90s again. Fantastic.

Laurel Aitken - Skinhead

Lorenzo "Laurel" Aitken (22 April 1927 – 17 July 2005) was an influential Caribbean singer and one of the pioneers of Jamaican ska music. He is often referred to as the "Godfather of Ska".

I am sharing his track Skinhead today. Enjoy!

The Smashing Pumpkins - 1979

The Smashing Pumpkins are an American alternative rock band from Chicago. Formed in 1988 by frontman Billy Corgan (lead vocals, guitar), D'arcy Wretzky (bass), James Iha (guitar), and Jimmy Chamberlin (drums), the band has undergone many line-up changes. The current lineup features Corgan, Chamberlin, Iha and guitarist Jeff Schroeder.

Disavowing the punk rock roots of many of their alt-rock contemporaries, they have a diverse, densely layered, and guitar-heavy sound, containing elements of gothic rock, heavy metal, dream pop, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, shoegazing, and, in later recordings, electronica. Corgan is the group's primary songwriter; his musical ambitions and cathartic lyrics have shaped the band's albums and songs, which have been described as "anguished, bruised reports from Billy Corgan's nightmare-land".

The Smashing Pumpkins broke into the musical mainstream with their second album, 1993's Siamese Dream. The group built its audience with extensive touring and their 1995 follow-up, the double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart. With 30 million albums sold worldwide, the Smashing Pumpkins were one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands of the 1990s. However, internal fighting, drug use, and diminishing record sales led to a 2000 break-up.

I am going with 1979 from their third studio album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. It was written by frontman Billy Corgan, and features loops and samples uncharacteristic of previous Smashing Pumpkins songs. The song was written as a nostalgic coming of age story by Corgan. In the year 1979, Corgan was 12 and this is what he considered his transition into adolescence. I love the lyrics of this one and that is why I am going with it.

Martha - Mini Was a Preteen Arsonist

Another track from Pity Me's Martha today. I didn't know the background of this track until recently when "Inside Story: Mini" came up as part of "Louis Theroux: Docs That Made Me, a collection of Louis favourite documentaries". It is a documentary about an 11-year-old serial arsonist that shocked millions across the UK in 1975. Michael 'Mini' Cooper had already torched a church and set his family home ablaze, knowing his father to be inside. The film follows the angelic looking Mini in a young offenders home in County Durham, as social workers and psychiatrists quiz and probe the charismatic and intelligent tearaway to determine his future. It is fascinating. He is one of those children that speaks like an adult. It's an incredible story that is well worth your time. It is up on iPlayer if you want to check it out. This is Mini Was a Preteen Arsonist.

Solidarity Not Silence - This Is Sisterhood

You've possibly heard about the court case involving a group of women who are being sued for speaking out against a man in the music industry over his treatment of women. They (Nadia Javed (The Tuts), Ren Aldridge (Petrol Girls) and 'Anon') are having to personally fund (at the risk of bankrupting themselves) their legal defences and as the name of the collective suggests, they're joining together in solidarity rather than being silenced. There's a crowdfunding page set up if you'd like to support them or just to learn more.

Another way to help is by checking out a new song that's just been released. It features Nadia Javed on lead vocals and guitar, Harriet Doveton on bass and backing vocals, Jodi M Burn on drums, Katie Gatt on lead guitar, Ren Aldridge on spoken word and Choir Noir & friends on choir vocals. The opening speech is by Kathleen Hanna (Bikini Kill, Le Tigre). You can find it on Bandcamp.

This is what they have to say about the song : This song release is not only to raise funds and awareness for our case and survivors but it’s for the wider issues at hand. It's for anyone who wasn’t believed, who spoke up and got shut down, for the fuckery caused by the CPS, for that person who is too scared to speak up, who has to live with the haunting trauma. We hope that this song is somewhere you can feel safe, believed and less alone. We hope the message reaches you and the people who need to hear it and helps them as much as it’s helped us. We’ve been fighting this for over 4 years and it’s taught us resilience but also how hard it is to get JUSTICE. We have so much admiration for survivors.

My opinion is that not only is it a for very worthy cause, it's a powerful and very classy song that in a way makes me think of a gritty, punked up companion piece to This Is Me (from The Greatest Showman). It's a track that builds to a big choral finale and it's a message that should be shared far and wide so feel free to get sharing.

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Naked Raygun - Living in the Good Times

Naked Raygun is an American punk band formed in the Beverly neighbourhood of Chicago in 1980. Initially active until 1992, the band had several short-lived reunions afterwards and a full-time reformation in 2006.

They recently announced that they’ll be releasing their first new album in 31 years this spring, via Chicago label Wax Trax! Records.

To coincide with the album reveal, the band released its first single, “Living in the Good Times". The accompanying video shows the band performing on the roof of an empty music venue while wearing gas masks in a nod to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The video then cuts to Naked Raygun performing on the same rooftop in the daytime, without masks, joined by a chorus of friends and fans singing the song in a collage of at-home videos.

“Living in the Good Times” is the first new music Naked Raygun has released since a string of one-off singles in the early 2010s. The band has developed a cult following in Chicago and other punk scenes since their formation in the early Eighties, and they’ve been cited as a favourite of Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, Steve Albini (who played with Naked Raygun’s Santiago Durango and Jeff Pezzati in Big Black), Fall Out Boy, and Blink-182/Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba. “Living in the Good Times” is also Naked Raygun’s first new music since the death of long time bassist Pierre Kezdy, who died from cancer in October 2020.

The Subways - Fight

The Subways are Billy Lunn (lead and backing vocals/guitars) & Charlotte Cooper (bass/co-lead and backing vocals) from Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire and they've been around for almost 2 decades now (drummer and co founder Josh Morgan recently left due to family reasons).

They've just released their first new single since 2015 and it's great. It's "a gesture of love and solidarity with the Black community, and it's a wake-up-call to the white community (about the importance of allyship in the fight for equality and justice)" It was inspired by the Black Lives Matter Movement. It's the first release from an upcoming new album (their 5th) and suggests we're going to be in for a treat.

It's a politically charged rallying cry to raise our voices and our fists. Stand up and fight for justice. This is Fight.

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Bottlekids - Smokes, Let's Go!

Bottlekids are a punk rock band from Chepstow UK. I don't know much more about them but saw this song from their 2019 self-titled EP on a playlist and liked what I heard so am sharing it today.

This is Smokes, Let's Go!

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65daysofstatic - When We Were Younger & Better

65daysofstatic (often abbreviated as 65dos, 65days, or simply 65) are an experimental band from Sheffield, England. Formed in 2001, the band is composed of instrumentalists Paul Wolinski, Joe Shrewsbury, Rob Jones and Simon Wright.

The band’s music has been described as noisy, electronic, guitar-driven instrumentals, interspersed with live drums and off-beat sampled drums akin to those of IDM artists, although they have continued to evolve their sound by incorporating electronic music, drum and bass and glitch music. They have been described as, "a soundtrack to a new dimension, where rock, dance and electronica are equals."

Today I am sharing When We Were Younger & Better which is the first track from their 2007 album The Destruction of Small Ideas. It is a great piece of music from start to finish.

Amigo The Devil - Murder At The Bingo Hall

Danny Kiranos is the man behind the alter ego that is Amigo The Devil. With a family background based in both Spain and Greece, Amigo was introduced to a wide variety of musical influences from an early age, ranging from Eastern European folk sounds, Australian bush ballads through to Spanish and Cuban Bolero traditions. So expectations are always high for a heady cocktail of influences to shine through his music.

Amigo The Devil’s debut album in 2018, Everything Is Fine, cemented his growing reputation for pushing hard against the boundaries of traditional folk, Americana and country music. This reputation had been built through a body of earlier songs which were put together in a collection, also released in 2018, entitled Volume 1. Many of these songs had already achieved significant streaming figures on various platforms supported by an ever-growing worldwide audience.

There is little doubt that Amigo’s work draws much inspiration from the sounds and styles of the likes of Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Johnny Cash and Father John Misty. This is clearly evident in his new album, Born Against, which again displays Amigo’s penchant for dark and macabre storytelling, the deep emotional turmoil and philosophical thoughts that he explores through his lyrics, and a great deal of humour which he likes to throw into the mix. What struck me in particular was the intensity he derives through immersing himself in the characters within each song, drawing you right into the heart of the narrative.

Today I am sharing Murder At The Bingo Hall, which is channelled through the organ and piano of his producer and main musical accompanist Beau Bedford, really displays Amigo’s sense of humour as he explores the intense atmosphere at a Wednesday night bingo hall gathering by aligning it to what sounds like a scene from a wild west movie. It’s the ultimate analogy for a fiercely competitive spirit and another lyrical masterpiece.