The Bay Rays - New House

1.    Who are these champions of rock’n’roll?

These diamonds in the rough are The Bay Rays an indie rock'n'roll band from Tunbridge Wells, England. They have a couple of singles to their name. They rock harder than Dwayne Johnson's dick. New House (June'16) is their second stand-alone single.

2. What kind of delectable treat have they served?

New House is a rock and rolling, guitar-led, barn-burning, party-maker with a riotious piano assist that nods back to the fifties. An arse shaker belted out with feeling.

3. Who do The Bay Rays sound like?

The Fratellis, The Vaccines and PAWS. 

4. What have the mucky pups in the press said about New House?

“The Bay Rays don’t fuck about” – DIY.

“Insanely catchy punky rock and roll belter” – Louder Than War. 

“Genuinely thrilling, infectious, visceral” – Clash Music.

5. Which bands had an impact in forging The Bay Rays' "tight as a nun's nasty" sound?

Their main influences are The Clash, Talking Heads, Jack White, Skepta and Bruce Springsteen. 


6. Why should I give New House a lash?

New House is the gold standard of English rock'n'roll. It would make a dead man dance. End of story.


7. Do The Bay Rays have any more spanking tunes?

The only other single is the rockabilly romp Four Walls. 


8. Anything else? 

No.

“Life is an aquarium,

We’re all swimming just trying not to sink man”

Baby Strange are a rebel rock band with catchy punk pop choruses. From Glascow, Scotland and smashing out the tunes since 2012 they have one long player, Put Out (2015), on their roll of honor. Baby Strange are influenced by bands like Franz Ferdinand, The Clash, Sham 69 and Blasted Canyons while sounding at times like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Jesus and Mary Chain and The Vaccines. Pleasure City (2015) was a stand-alone single and is a tune Wild called “anthemic” and “three minutes of fast-paced fuzzed-up punk rock.”

“Get strange in the dark,

We can rip, rip, rip it apart”

The Best Indie Songs of 2015 - St Vincent

St Vincent’s Bad Believer is a belter and starts like Mike Tyson in his nasty prime, swinging big fucking knockout punches. Witness the machine gun drum intro and it’s straight into the chorus. Not even time to drop your pants and it’s wham bam thank you ma’am. Witness that fuzzy as fuck glam rock guitar givin a sniff of in Birth In Reverse and minding of Spirit In The Sky and T.Rex.

There are pauses. A repeat of the chorus whispered with a drum accompaniment. A bridge with organs. Organs just to belt you with the point the tune is about a lassie finding release in eschewing the miserable religious indoctrination of her youth. A barn burner with enough lead in its pencil to get heads rocking and bodies knocking. Bad Believer is one of the best indie songs of 2015.

“Momma held me up through the rapture
Dragged me through the eyes and the whispers
Lost the spirit out the car window”

St Vincent is Annie Clark from Tulsa, Oklahoma. She has been making music with her own band since 2006. Bad Believer was released as an extra on the deluxe version of her self-titled fourth album St Vincent (Feb’15).

Shit you need to know:

Annie Clark has described her song Bad Believer as having a “rollerskate, Gary Glitter paedophile party beat”.

She has said that playing with The Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens before forming her own band was "more like an apprenticeship than anything".

Annie Clark was really OCD about listening to Pearl Jam’s 10 as a youngster.

She has some hard rock influences. She was big into Metallica, Panterra and Slayer in the past. She still has a wide-o for the late Dimebag Darrel of Pantera her guitar hero.

Miss Clark fronted Nirvana when they played Lithium at their 2014 induction in to the Rock’N’Roll Hall Of Fame.

Annie get's her juice on to Twilight movies, even making a tune for one of them.

St Vincent is way popular with the folks who like to be heard. St Vincent's album was voted the best of 2014 by Guardian and NME, second best by Time and fourth best by Rollingstone, those bastions of all that is precious in the music world, holding the lonely lamp in the dead of the pitch black darkness on the frontier and defending all inside from the tasteless barbarian hordes who lurk waiting to pounce.

About making music Annie Clark has said, “People complain like, 'Oh this is so tiring.' Fuck you! Get out of the fucking game if you’re fucking tired. Go be a coal miner like most of the world, most of the world shovels shit for a living. Do something else, but don’t complain about this shit.” That is some righteous shit right there people. The lady deserves a lot of respect. She can keep the St.

Miss Clark's other goodies are Birth In Reverse, Cruel and Digital Witness.

 

Stirring the custard belongs to a boogie rock band from Canada, The Sheepdogs, and their groovy, fuzzy rocker Feeling Good (2012) on account of the guitar in Bad Believer reminds of this inconceivably good track.