T’wards the Sun’s Rising is the latest release from the Canadian act Aerith. The first thing that caught my attention is the less than stellar production. As many of you know, I’m a fan of well-produced records and have a hard time stomaching poor quality recordings, so without even getting through the first song I was a bit turned off.
Deap Vally is a duo from LA’s San Fernando Valley (thus the name) and will be releasing their debut 7 inch single in the UK on Ark Recordings on July 31st. The a-side to this release “Gonna Make My Own Money” is making waves and can be grabbed for free right below. With rock-hard grit and all-girl soul, Deap Vally is made up of the howl of Lindsey Troy and the rhythm of Julie Edwards. Together, the duo break blues down to its simplest, most fundamental form: beat, melody, and meaning, while their scorching live shows are fast becoming the stuff of legend.
Olympia, WA’s cult rock and roll band Milk Music are about to embark on a full US tour in July, including a stop at Pitchfork Festival. Today, the band are sharing a new/old track to celebrate the tour. “Violence Now” originally appeared on a very small run of flexi discs as a split effort with Carrie Keith of Gun Outfit. They were included with an issue of the Olympia based NUTS! Fanzine. If you didn’t have a friend who was in the know, or were already familiar with NUTS!, chances are you didn’t get one. You can hear the dirty, fuzzed out anthem right now, released digitally for the first time.
With an enthralling live show that has won over countless fans and critics, Los Angeles quartet The Henry Clay People are thrilled to hit the road this summer in support of their upcoming album Twenty-Five for the Rest of Our Lives. The five-week tour beginning June 14th will see the band share the stage with Motion City Soundtrack, These United States and Futurebirds, along with their own headlining dates.
Nuneaton, UK is home to vocalist and guitarist Anthony McAteer, bassist Adam Chatwin and drummer Dan Carnevale, an awesome trio of alternative rockers who play together under the moniker Go Lazarus. Jamming since 2007 the guys decided to combine differing musical elements like house beats, hardcore riffs and dub bass lines into something they can seriously call their own.
The Black Keys seem to again have a big hit on their hands with the recent release of the duo’s seventh album, El Comino. The record has garnered them the best reviews and sales numbers of their career and maybe their biggest hit, with first single “Lonely Boy.” It’s amazing to think that this is now the band’s seventh album and they only recently began to receive mainstream recognition.
Fresh off the massive breakthrough success of their Brothers album in 2010/2011, the Black Keys are back already with the follow-up El Camino. The Keys became a household name after Brothers pumped out a few massive hits and was overall an excellent release, so the pressure might be a little heavier with this new record. Then again, the Keys don’t seem like a group who cares all that much about catering to the masses, as they’ve always done things on their own terms.
Oslo, Norway’s Wolves Like Us brings their earth-shaking hardcore sound overseas with their new album Late Love. Like many bands, their sound is a combo of various genres: they fuse punk, metal, hardcore and rock to form their fantastic mark in metal music. The instrumental elements combined with soaring vocals form this band’s cohesive sound; one which is supremely solid and catchy.
On their 17th studio release George Thorogood and The Destroyers pay tribute to their Chess Records heroes.
I wonder if bands like Thin Lizzy and Led Zeppelin had any idea back in their heyday that thirty years later we’d refer to them as “classic” rock. And I wonder if the fans who saw those bands back then, when it was all new and exciting, recognised the immensity and the staying power the music would prove to have. And now it’s my turn to wonder – are Rival Sons to modern music what Led Zeppelin were to the 1970s?
On first listen, Heartless Romantics is a raucous garage-band gauntlet: The Replacements, The Arkells, Gaslight; they all rear up at some point to bludgeon you. It’s a bit heavy handed, but as the album progresses to its more interesting tracks – the tender title-track, or the dance-punk of “Unsatisfied” – Only Thieves manage to impress.
The growl of chainsaws making firewood of fifty foot pines. That’s WILSON. The howling of a pack of wolves battling a rabid moose. That’s WILSON. The panting, gasping breaths of a smoke break “nooner”. That’s fucking WILSON. The citation for a noise violation… that’s just where the party begins. If all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, then all party and no bullshit have made WILSON juggernauts. For the past two years WILSON have transformed shows into parties, and concerts into riots throughout the Midwest. Sharing stages with the likes of Every Time I Die, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Steel Panther, Valient Thorr, Escape The Fate, Between The Buried and Me, Wilson has not only held their own, but raised the bar for how much fun live music can be.