The Jesus and Mary Chain - Amputation

1. Who are The Jesus and Mary Chain? 

The Jesus and Mary Chain are one of the finest bands to ever walk God's green earth. An iconic alternative rock/indie noise-pop band from East Kilbride, Scotland. The Jesus and Mary Chain are a fucking line in the sand; if you don't like 'em you can fuck right off. The brothers Reid started making music in 1983 and are still going strong. Amputation (Dec’16) is the first single from their seventh album Damage and Joy (March’17). 

2. What kind of tune is Amputation? 

Amputation is typical of the Mary Chain's later period when they were all swagger, menace and razor sharp riffs. Balanced against the reverb, caste-iron riffing and swirling noise are the usual coos and harmonies while they sing about “Fucked-up girls” loving “drugged up guys.” Not a love song then. But the legends are in great form.

3. What bands sound like The Jesus and Mary Chain? 

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, My Bloody Valentine and Dinosaur Jr. 

4. What have the righteous press said about Amputation? 

“The music still feels raw” – Paste.  

“It’s got the Mary Chain stamped all over it… cloaked in reverb” – Fact.

“Like something off an indie soundtrack from 1996” – Consequence Of Sound.

5. Which bands inspired the almighty Jesus and Mary Chain? 

Some of their influences are The Velvet Underground, The Sex Pistols, The Beatles, The Shangri La’s and The Stooges. 

6. Why should I give Amputation a listen? 

Because it's the fucking Jesus and Mary Chain and they've lost nothing over the years. Because they are the alternative of rock'n'roll. 

7. What are The Jesus and Mary Chain's best songs? 

Sidewalking. The song you play as she gets in the car, you put on your shades and floor a V8 down the highway with a half drunk bottle of whiskey between your legs. The song is rock'n'roll. Here Comes Alice and April Skies are just a few more of the brightest gems in JAMC's crown. 

8. Any more words? 

Damage and Joy is produced by Killing Joke bassist Martin Glover (The Verve, Marilyn Manson, James).

The brothers Reid are joined by the Lush bassist, Phil King< and Fountains Of Wayne drummer, Brian Young, on the new album and on tour.

 “It’s just like a grape in a bottle,

It’s wine today but piss tomorrow”

The Shins are an iconic indie pop band from Albuquerque, New Mexico. They started playing together in 1996, have recorded five albums together, and have been both commercially and critically successful. TheShins are similar to Belle & Sebastian, The Decemberists and Neutral Milk Hotel.  They are influenced by The Beta Band, The Jesus & Mary Chain, and country and western. Mildenhall (Feb’17) is the third single from their fifth album Heartworms (March’17). Paste called Mildenhall “a slice of warm and fistful folk-pop.” It also has strong elements of Americana, lashes of honesty, and a lyric to make all JAMC fans sit up.

“A kid in class passed me a tape,

A band called The Jesus and the Mary Chain”

Novah - Revolution

1.   Who are these young lads?

Novah are an atmospheric indie rock band from Stockholm, Sweden. Novah took flight in 2013 and their debut single Robot (Aug'15) had big play. Revolution comes crusading off their debut E.P. Alaska (2016).

 2.   What kind of tune are Novah pushing?

Revolution is aiming for epic and emotive. Bottom of the heart, gut-wrenched, vocals accompanied with acoustic guitar that kicks in to electric guitar to take flight in the chorus. Revolution is stadium filling, arms in the air, soft rock for the masses.

3. Who do Novah sound like?

Coldplay. The Planet Of Sound say Novah sound like Local Natives, The Verve and M83.

4. What do the Lords and Ladies of the press have to say about Revolution?

“A slowly driven indie track that explodes into an epic open arms experience with its soft vocals.” – Alternative Tracks.

“Sonically stunning and particularly crafted new single.” –The Four Oh Five.

“Blew me away with one listen.” – The Daily Listening.

5. Which bands have inspired these wunderkinds?

Coldplay maybe.

6. Why should I give Revolution a listen?

Because being a hater is wrong and deep down in your heart you remember a time of euphoric happiness when listening to a Coldplay song. 

7. Do Novah have any more good songs?

Revolution is far and away the band's best.

8. Are there any more interesting facts to share about Novah?

Novah went to an isolated Swedish island to record their E.P. instead of using an established studio in Copenhagen.

The Magic Numbers are an indie folk pop band who hail from Ealing, England. They have been making music together since 2002 and have four grand albums on display. Mornings Eleven (2005) was the first single off their self-titled album and one of the best tunes The Magic Numbers have ever made. Their concerts have been called “a quasi-religious affair” and “a fully fledged cult affair” by The Independent and Pitchfork calls Mornings Eleven a “banjo-like guitar romp.”  Here’s the real deal. The Magic Numbers.

“Baby if you telephone,

Maybe I can meet you in the morning,

Come on your own”

PUP - DVP

1.   Who are these legends?

PUP are a punk band from Toronto, Canada. These heroes have been burning up the music scene since 2013 and have one long player the self titled PUP (2014). DVP comes rocking of the short player The Dream Is Over (Jan'16).

2. What kind of tune have PUP served up?

Don't read too much into the ‘punk’ description.  It starts out all fire and brimstone and shouted verse but the chorus is all melody and ‘ohhh ohhhs.’
A story telling song about getting drunk and the emotional fall out, you can hear the lyrics despite the speeding down the highway chased by the police speed of the drums and guitars.

3. Who do these PUP punks sound like?

Cloud Nothings, Metz, Not Scientists and Dirty Nil.

4. What have the press got to say about DVP?

“Mile-a-minute ramshackle punk stumbles into a killer harmony, all bolstered by emotionally bare lyrics” – Stereogum.

“Throttles forward at a breakneck pace, at least three choruses crashing together in a glorious pile-up” – Pitchfork.

“PUP list off their messy failings over a rip-roaring melody” – Consequence Of Sound.

5. Who put the gas in PUP’s drive?

Built To Spill, The Bronx and Queens Of The Stone Age are the bands main influences.

6. So why should I give this banger a listen?

DVP is a screamer of a punk tune but it luxuriates in melody while laying bare the feelings of late night drunk heroics and morning after blues.

PUP have been big-upped by Noisey Vice, their debut album “is a perfect ten,” and sounds like, “If Weezer made a punk album somewhere between the Blue Album and Pinkerton.”

7. Do these Canadian heroes have any more bangers?

Oh yes, they do. Guilt Trip is the most popular and has the Weezer vibe.

8. Have you got any more pearls of wisedom to drop about PUP?

All four members went to elementary school together and have been friends ever since.

PUP have been on fluffer duties for The Hives, The Smith Street Band and Modern Baseball.

PUP do a cover of the Jay Reatard song My Shadow and a stonking version of The Buzzcocks Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't Have).

“Your sister thinks that I'm a freak,
She's been ignoring my calls, we haven't spoken in a week,
I get so drunk that I can't speak”

Slippery seconds is served courtesy of The Smith Street Band. Hailing from Melbourne, Australia and with three long players under their belt this punk band have been rocking socks off since 2010. Don't Fuck With Our Dreams is a jumping little folk punk number in great story telling tradition. It's pure fucking genius.

“Walked the flat city streets looking for a sign of a past you
And knee deep in alcohol and borrowed souls”

DZ Deathrays - Blood On My Leather

1.   Who are these champions?

DZ Deathrays are a dance punk duo from Brisbane, Australia. These hard charging heroes have been making magic together since 2008 and have two long players under their belts. Blood On My Leather (Feb'16) is a standalone single.

2. So what is the skinny on Blood On My Leather?

Stomping punk rap verses and full on headbanging in the chorus and with a thick wedge of humour. Blood On My Leather is a massive aural assault, firing all the big guns, a mad soundtrack to tanks rolling into the fray.

3. Who do DZ Deathrays sound like?

Blood On My Leather is a dead ringer for Beastie Boys, No Sleep Till Brooklyn or Fight For Your Right To Party vintage. Bangs harder though.

Generally the band envoke lazy comparisons with Death From Above 1979 because both bands are drum and guitar duos. So lets roll with the flow and throw in punk rockers Violent Soho because, they roll from the same town.

Recourse to the experts tells us, snap, Rolling Stone are good with the obvious, straight batting “a rambling snarl reminiscent of the Beastie Boys’ rock/rap hybridity.” Double snap, Clash Music add a Death From Above analogy.

4. What have the rags to say about DZ Deathrays?

Blood On My Jacket is “Chaotic and unruly” say Mushroom. “Loud, distorted, and downright tumultuous,” reckon The Line Of Best Fit. “A blitzkrieg,” big up Tone Deaf.

The last album Black Rat (2014) is “more earworms, less clutter, everything polished with blood and spit,” say Clash Music and “a siren call to headbanging piss heads everywhere,” according to NME.

5. Which bands get DZ Deathray’s blood pumping?

Motley Crue, short and simple say the men. Megadeth, The Bronx and The Offspring were added to the list. In an 2013 interview Arctic Monkeys, Future Of The Left, Hot Snakes, Mac Demarco and Gesaffelstein were also mentioned as floating their boat.

6. What makes Blood On My Leather stand out from the crowd?

Not as noisy as you might imagine. Massive, but loquacious drums, funny as fuck lyrics and and a relaxed big stomp with female back up vocals from Sweetie (from Sydney punk band Bloods) adding depth and variety.

7. What other goodies do DZ Deathray bring to the table?

The line is longer than the train at a Brisbane pool party. No Sleep continues in the riotious party tone. Gina Works At Hearts has a big riffy heart. Cops Capacity is simply slamming. Refective Skull brings the punk to the dance. Fuck it, these guys are killer. Get amongst. Get your snout in the trough.

8. Any more information to share about these legends?

DZ Deathrays added immensely to their mythology by having the plug pulled and being thrown off the SXSW stage in 2012 because of excessive volume. Fucking knob jockeys.

Both men were founding members, and still play in, the Brisbane 12 piece band garage pop band Velociraptor.

The band have been selected from a long list of applicants for fluffer duties for rock gods The Foo Fighters.

“See you at the bong for a massive blow out,

Can’t cut me loose, I’m stuck on the noose,

Never fall asleep at the wheel,

I I I I... got blood on my leather”

Stirring the porridge are Los Angeles punk heroes The Bronx. Wasted Youth romps off the album IV (2013). An album COS said is “unrelenting rock ‘n roll fraught with the bitterness of adulthood” and Loudwire said is “filled to the brim with homeruns.” Prepare yourself for the fine fucking goodness that are the modern punk legends The Bronx.

“Sometimes the best laid plans
Still end with blood on your hands”

The Best Indie Songs of 2015 - Blur

Blur were big in 1997 with Song 2 and some people know their earlier 1995 number one hit Country House too. Check out their reunion gig live in London's Hyde Park for a tit-ripping version of that precious jewel. Country House was a storming victory in a sometimes bitter war that Oasis and Blur fought for King Of Britpop, and Oasis ultimately won. Noel Gallagher said at the time he hoped both Blur’s Damon Alburn and Alex Jame’s would “ ...catch AIDS and die.” Spurred on by the media both bands released singles on the same day and Oasis’s Roll With It (live in Manchester ‘96 version here) sold 60 000 less copies and sat at number two on the UK charts. For many people Blur were of biblical proportions in the canon of English music lore and one of The Only Bands That Matter, much like 2003 Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s The Clash. 2015 saw Blur release their first album in 12 years The Magic Whip (Apr’15) an album London’s Daily Telegraph called “...a triumphant come back” and "...everything fans could have hoped for.”  Clash magazine dubbed it "...an imperial return." It went straight to number one in the UK.

 

On The Magic Whip is this campfire sing-along in the tradition of the gospel standard Stand By Me, The Beatles Carry That Weight, Big Bang's We Like To Party or more relevantly, Ages and Ages divine, spiritually uplifting gem, Diversionary. 15 years after Song 2 was important; and check out this andrenelin injecting Glastonbury 2009 live version to appreciate it’s majesty; Ong Ong (Jun’15) shows that Alex James still has some of the greatest song writing licks the world has ever seen. While Ong Ong is no life changer, and you won’t be rushing out to carve ‘for real’ on your arm after hearing this one, it is a nostalgic reminder of one of the best rock bands ever. Called "joyous" by Rolling Stone and "simple and chant-centric" by DIY magazine, Ong Ong, and the The Magic Whip, were inspired by a five day stay in Hong Kong and has an appropriately nautical feel. Ong Ong has sixties melodies and irrepressibly pops in the verses while bringing a laidback singalong bounce to the choruses. It's a shoe in for one of the best indie songs of 2015.

“I wanna be with you
On the slow boat to Lan Tau,

through misty seas..
I wanna be with you.”

 

Shit you need to know:
 

Ong Ong is the second single off Blur's eighth album. The song was called by Uncut a “...singalong...with a Faces stomp and a beery chorus.”

The new album was inspired by Hong Kong specifically and cities generally. "There's nothing pastoral about it", Albarn said, "it's very urban".

The band from London started in 1988 influenced laterly by bands like The Beatles and The Kinks.

The bands initial influences were the likes of The Pixies, Dinosaur Jr and The Stone Roses.

Singer Damon Alburn was in Gorrillaz (best British group and album 2006) and are most remembered for the alternative hip-hop tune Feel Good Inc. (2005). 

Damon Alburn joined bass player Paul Simonon of The Clash in the band The Good The Bad and The Ugly  (2005 - 2006) and had both Paul and Clash guitarist Mick Jones record on, and tour in support of, the 2010 Gorillaz album Plastic Beach.

Damon Alburn recently criticised the ‘selfie generation’ for a lack of political engagement in modern music.

For more rather spiffing Blur songs give this year's Lonesome Street a listen, or the old classics Beetlebum and Boys and Girls.

Today’s two for one is courtesy of English alternative rock band The Verve. Bittersweet Symphony (1997) was a number two British chart single and a Brit and Grammy Award’s winner. It’s a stone cold classic and this is the 2008 live version at Glastonbury. Sublime.

“Cause it's a bittersweet symphony, this life
Try to make ends meet
You're a slave to money then you die.”

 

 

The Best Indie Songs of 2015 - Rabbit!

A hit tune isn’t easy but Rabbit A Year In The Life (Jan’15) not only have a fucking ripsnorter on their hands here, they are a band to fall deeply in love with. This tune is emblematic of how they do. It isn’t happy, it’s delirious and brimful of optimism.

Released on New Year’s Eve it’s a song with a head nodding piano intro and boppy verses that set up a Kinks-esque chorus made of unicorn dreams and my little pony wishes. All the while with a touchdown pass from the drums and a little 'I got your six' from the guitar.

A Year In The Life revives an innocence found in music made at the dawn of pop while making it essential to a modern audience and thats what makes it one of the best indie songs of 2015.

 

"With a little love, a little hope,

we’ll find a way to rewrite,

all our fractured fairy tales" 

 

 

Rabbit! are an indie pop rock band from Mount Dora, Florida. They burst into glorious fruition in 2007.

A Year In The Life is a free New Year download from the Rabbit! facebook page. Rabbit! have two absolute gems of albums to their undying credit, Go For It and Connect the Dots.

Shit you need to know:

Rabbit! are genuine good guys having toured in support of art and music programs in schools and other laudable causes.

People tend to love or hate this band, check out their YouTube comments for corroboration. I particularly like the one on “Sun and Moon” where some dude compared the dislike bar to Justin Bieber's penis. That person got told.

Rabbit! songs are popular for advertising having been used for Mott’s Juice, Telus and Zappos among others.

Rabbit! have been described as TweePop, simple, sweet, do-it-yourself, indie rock that has convoluted origins.

Rabbit! do a ‘fuck yeah, of course it’s better’ cover of Black Eyed Peas I Gotta Feeling.
 

Feeling Twee as fuck? More tunes fuck full of fantastic are  Great is Better, Magic, Together, Pea, Best Thing That I've Found and that’s just a taster bag.

 

 

So sloppy seconds today is reserved for these ska punk legends fighting out of Seoul, South Korea since 1996, the Korean mythical beasts that are No Brain.

This is their, pat your pockets down, adjust your love package in the crotch of your jeans and get ready for it, mosh pit favorite. It'a a fucking stormer, hold on tight for Party Like Crazy (2006).
 

 

Gaze on the majesty of these cunt punting rock gods.