Album Review: The Bachelor Pad – All Hash & Cock (compilation)
Many folk of a certain age will recall the NME’s 1989 charity compilation video “Carry On Disarming”. One of the standout tracks was The Bachelor Pad’s “Country Pancake” – a riotous assault which fondly recalled the energy of early C86-era Soup Dragons singles with a large slice of lysergic cake thrown into the mix and just …
Album Review: The Loved Drones – Conspiracy Dance
I confess I’d not heard of this Belgian psych-pop band before now but it’s immediately clear I’ve been missing out in a big way! The band’s improvised spaced-out style blends psychedelia, Krautrock and post punk but on this album a more song based skewed angular pop has been introduced to the mix. It begins with …
Album Review: Arrest! Charlie Tipper – ‘Red’
STARTING out in 2013 as The Charlie Tipper Experiment, then The Charlie Tipper Conspiracy and more recently adopting the Arrest! Charlie Tipper moniker, these Bristol-based indie stalwarts have certainly kept us guessing about their name whilst releasing a steady stream of quality albums and singles. I once contacted the band to ask who Charlie Tipper …
Album: BOB – You Can Stop That For A Start
I recall a time in the late eighties and early nineties where one could venture out to see a band and BOB were almost always the support act! One of the hardest working bands at the time (possibly only Mega City 4 hit the road more often), BOB toured everywhere on an endless crusade to …
Track: Smokescreens return with new single ‘Fork in the Road’
Since their superb 2017 debut album Smokescreens have steadily grown into a solid jangle-pop band packed with melodic hooks and chiming guitars. Second album “Used To Yesterday” emerged a year later on the excellent Slumberland label and upped the quality even more. On the strength of this latest release it seems this pattern of self …
Album Review: The Wee Cherubs – The Merry Makers
The ever-reliable Optic Nerve label are shedding some light on this obscure gem of a band who featured Martin Cotter, later to resurface in The Bachelor Pad, (chiefly remembered for the riotous ‘Country Pancake’ amongst other Buzzcocks meets Syd Barrett classics). The Wee Cherubs only released one 7” single during their brief existence, (‘Dreaming’ in …
Track: Bob Mould releases new single / lyric video for Forecast of Rain
Following hot on the heels of last month’s blistering single ‘American Crisis’, comes this second track from Mould’s forthcoming album ‘Blue Hearts’. ‘Forecast Of Rain’ has all the hallmarks of a classic Mould song with deft use of distorted guitar, blended with acoustic textures and a solid rhythm which keeps the whole thing moving along. There’s also …
SEE: Guided by Voices’ ‘Haircut Sphinx’
THERE’S every chance that by the time you’ve finished reading this sentence Guided By Voices will have recorded and released their next three albums, such is their legendary work ethic and productivity. I don’t recall reading a single feature on Robert Pollard which hasn’t focused on this incredible feat of industriousness (107 albums and counting); …
Feature: Scratch the Surface: The Wolfhounds albums Bright and Guilty / Blown Away (1989), and an interview with Dave Callahan
THE WOLFHOUNDS formed in Romford, Essex in 1984, plying their trade in the local Rezz Club before playing gigs further afield, notably at The Clarendon in West London. Debut single “Cut The Cake” arrived in February 1986, gaining single of the week status in all three of the main music papers. Sadly, early critical success …
Album Review: The Total Rejection – The Time Traveller’s 3rd Will And Testament
Remember when gigs were a thing? Last year I went to a pub in Salford to see Bristol’s The Total Rejection in all their raucous glory. The gig was fantastic, like seeing ‘65 era The Who playing The Seeds or 13th Floor Elevators songs at full pelt and full volume. They may well wear their influences on …