Radio Moscow, French Rolling Stone review

Robert Forster, Mojo review

The Perishers, Audioscribbler

The Perishers – All These Years

Head Records

Out Now

Duncan Fletcher

Long awaited 3rd album of guitar pop from Basingstoke's answer to Teenage Fanclub.

Most folks would plump for Bandwagonesque when asked what their favourite Teenage Fanclub album is. That said, there’s a strong case for the often overlooked Songs From Northern Britain. Its lovingly crafted blend of melodies, harmony and guitar chime is something it shares with the latest record from The Perishers, along with the big blue sky provincialism of the album’s cover.

The band, whose name is taken from The Daily Mirror’s cartoon strip of old, use no bells or whistles, smokes or mirrors. More simply a case of heart-on-sleeve songwriting and unashamedly classicist indie guitar chime, it’s all topped off with vulnerable, English-sounding vocals that have one foot in the happy camp and another in the sad and reflective. Add to that a smidgeon of folk, a soupcon of country and you’re somewhere close to The Perishers’ sound — the Teenage Fanclub comparisons best exemplified on the album’s title track and the wistful why-me laments of ‘White Skies’.

That’s not to say they don’t get to rock out a little bit — ‘Mean Old Man’ has an aggressive rock edge to match the spite of it’s lyrics, and the second half of ‘Two Parter’ borrows heavily from The Velvet Underground’s ‘What Goes On’, albeit with the sweetener of its vocal harmonies.

If you can’t wait for next years Stone Roses’ reunion then you’ll enjoy ‘You’ll Never Learn To Leave It Alone’ as it’s the kind of song everyone’s hoping their new material will sound like. My advice? Why wait. Look no further, The Perishers are doing it here and now, and tickets for their gigs are a fraction of the price.

DC Fontana, Audioscribbler

DC Fontana – La Contessa

DCTone Records

Out Now

Duncan Fletcher

Kitsch, 60's inspired, foreign language pop from the Midlands? I kid ye not.

DC Fontana are the kind of group that are nostalgic for an era of dancefloor-centric mod music that existed for a few short months from the winter of 1965/66 until its first tentative steps into a more lysergic state of mind. It was a time when England was truly swinging, as was American R&B. The rest of the world looked on and took this two-pronged musical attack to their hearts, eventually coming up with their own take on it.

The result in Europe was an ersatz version of beat music with foreign language vocals, most successfully in French or Italian. It’s this strain of music that Midlands based combo, DC Fontana (their name borrowed from a script writer for the original Star Trek series), have strived to re-create on their latest album La Contessa. In a bold move all but one of the songs are sung in either French or Italian, with the siren-like vocals shared between regular chanteuse Karla Milton and the band’s “girl in Paris” Kicca Andriollo.

The album opens with ‘Abbesses’, a stomping Hammond-driven slab of freakbeat. You know the kind of thing — imagine the TV set of Ready Steady Go circa 1966, plenty of op-art on the backdrops, short skirted go-go dancers on podiums, and the cameras zooming in and out at nauseating depth and speed. From this point in it’s an unpredictable but never boring journey taking in soul, jazz, R & B, and augmented in places with sumptuous string arrangements. There’s even room for some medieval style folk and mystical sitar drone, along with a wistful ode to 90′s cinema screen goddess Winona Ryder.

If I have one criticism it’s of this shape-shifting attitude towards the styles of music on offer, feeling at times more like an exotic re-issues label sampler than documenting a band’s moment in time. “Aural cuisine” is how bass player and band spokesman describes this pick and mix approach. Though each track is fine individually, when taken as a whole the album lacks coherence, so I’ve reluctantly knocked a point off for that. But then again each song is done extremely well, so hats (or should that be peaked white PBV “Lennon” caps?) off to them.

Duncan Maitland, Audio Scribbler

Duncan Maitland – Lullabies For The 21st Century

Indigo Octagon Records

Out Now

Duncan Fletcher

Good old fashioned easy on the ear pop, big on tunes and refreshingly low on cynicism.

Every once in a while a record comes along that may be out of step with current fashions, but is so well written and executed that it deserves a wider audience. This debut solo effort from Duncan Maitland is that sort of record. It’s a shame that, quite often, such records fall through the cracks press-coverage wise, losing column inches to lesser-talented attention seekers.

The LP is composed of 11 songs, all with big catchy melodies that hark back to a time when tunes were considered an essential part of a record’s make-up. (Strange to think that melodies are now often an afterthought to a lot of today’s song-smiths.) This album sounds to me like the latest addition to that peculiarly English or Anglophilic thread of music and songwriting that began with McCartney’s White Album contributions, continuing with the melancholic baroque-pop of The Bee Gees and Gilbert O’Sullivan. Also evident in ELO’s less bombastic moments, it was carried further with XTC and the adult-orientated pop of Crowded House and The High Llamas.

It’s the early 70s sound that resonates most loudly throughout this set of songs — instruments well recorded with an analogue warmth, treated with just the right amount of minimal effects, making an album that would sit nicely in your collection next to any of the artists mentioned above. The XTC comparison is particularly pertinent, with Maitland having previously contributed keyboards to their recordings, and also having written songs with Andy Partridge. The artistic cross pollination is returned by XTC’s Colin Moulding guesting on Maitland’s album.

Highlights include the ascending “ba, ba, ba” backing vocals on ‘Crash Position’ (Jimmy Savile would have approved), along with the fairground-organ-gone-wrong intro of ‘Horror Stories’. There’s even room for some Sinatra-style crooning for album closer ‘Insect Under The Stone’. In truth there’s not a bad track here, and though it may be a little too soft rock for some folk’s tastes that would frankly be their loss.

http://www.audioscribbler.co.uk/duncan-maitland-lullabies-for-the-21st-century/

The Bloody Hollies, Audio Scribbler

Alive Natural Sound

19/11/11

Duncan Fletcher

Fifth album of paint-stripping punk rock from US quartet.

I have to say, I like The Bloody Hollies. Their first couple of albums passed me by but I came across them via 2005′s If Footmen Tire You…, and its follow up from 2007, Who To Trust Who To Kill Who To Love. Both records were released by the ever reliable Alive Natural Sounds label. It’s been a long four year wait but there’s finally a new album and it may well be their best yet. The album’s title hints at their desire to keep on rocking, along with their dedication to their audience. Or, it may well be a more prosaic touring reference in the no-sleep-til-Booklyn/Hammersmith mode, (The Bitter End being a famous Greenwich Village venue.)

The move from the band’s native Buffalo, NY home to San Diego may have broadened their musical horizons as, along with the no-nonsense pedal to the metal drive and hard riffing sonic attack, there’s a more diverse array of styles and instrumentation on this latest platter.

‘Dirty Sex’ is a case in point with its sleazy slide guitar and more laid back southern boogie feel and there’s even a violin solo on ‘Goodnight, Sleep Tight’. The most revelatory departure, however, is the acoustic talking blues of ‘John Wayne Brown’ — a toe tapping tale of old time religion over harmonica, guitar and mandolin backing. For the most part the blues-punk of old is still intact with just the right amount of tunefulness in their Stooges style rock ‘n’ roll, while still maintaining a healthy distance from any frothy pop-punk nonsense.

There’s almost certainly going to be some Jack White comparisons for vocalist Wesley Doyle. His fast anguished howl on ‘Leave That Woman Alone’ occupying similar ground to that of the garage rock wonder boy. The truth is that both the White Stripes and The Bloody Hollies came through as part of the early noughties garage rock uprising. The one major difference however, is that The Bloody Hollies are still with us. The fact that Detroit rock legend Jim Diamond produced the album will only compound the comparisons but it’s a pairing that works. He seems to have brought out all that’s good in them. Long may they both continue.

http://www.audioscribbler.co.uk/the-bloody-hollies-–-yours-until-the-bitter-end/

Thee Gravemen on Audio Scribbler

Dirty Water Records

21/11/11

Duncan Fletcher

Out of the garage and into the grave. Spooks, ghouls, coffins and monophonic sound.

It’s unfortunate that outside of garage rock circles people think two-piece groups consisting of drums, guitar and vocals have copped the line-up idea from The White Stripes or The Black Keys. The truth is two-piece groups go back a lot further than that and have been a fixture of US juke joints since they first opened for business. Not many of those blues duos will have chosen to have dressed like undertakers and knock out rockabilly numbers about witches, werewolves and burials.

That’s were Thee Gravemen come in. Formed a couple of years ago by two English dudes based in Malmo, Sweden, they take their inspiration from Screaming Lord Sutch, The Cramps, Screaming Jay Hawkins, Bo Diddley, Link Wray and any number of gritty blues outfits from the pre-rock ‘n’ roll era. After a string of successful festival appearances and a couple of singles, this is their debut long-player courtesy of the good folks at Dirty Water Records, a label born out of the legendary club night in London’s Tufnell Park.

Over fourteen fear filled tracks drummer Daz Trash and guitarist Lee Tea party like it’s Halloween everyday. Simple two chord garage blues riffs over pounding beats. Sophisticated it ain’t, and that’s the point, it’s stripped down and begging you to come join the boogie. Horror themed rockers such as Diggin’ Graves, Six Feet Down and My Girlfriend Is A Werewolf rub shoulders with more traditional blues-punk tunes.

It’s unlikely to have much crossover appeal but what the hell. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, is good fun, and on top of that the garage rock scene holds its own, is admirably anti-fashion and always seems in pretty good shape in contrast to what’s going on elsewhere in the music scene. Fans of the genre will take them to their hearts.

http://www.audioscribbler.co.uk/thee-gravemen-thee-gravemen/

The Bloody Hollies, Happening Magazine

THE BLOODY HOLLIES

Yours Until The Bitter End

CD/ Digital Download / Colored Vinyl

Alive Records

Onto the fifth album of The Bloody Hollies career and they still mean it as they ever did. Here is a band whose rock doesn’t fit into any easy categorisation: not garage, not punk, not alternative, and yet somehow all these things still. The AC/DC-style bluster of opener ‘So Grey So Green’ sets out the stall of what to expect, and pretty soon you find you have rifled through the rails, looked in the boxes under the table and come away pleasantly exhausted from all the rock presented to you. Remember when Jack stopped Stripe-ing and became a Raconteur? If you went ‘great career choice!’ then you’re probably a classic rock lover and will love the songs and passion displayed within. Singer Wesley Doyle even resembles his Whiteness vocally, which always helps.

The moments of slide guitar and Hammond organ are welcome they hover into earshot, and frankly I would have preferred more of them for add some flavour to my meat. By the way, have I mentioned this album rocks? Hard rock is music for sweaty gig venues, and is hard to keep fresh across a whole album. Yet they give it a damn good stab anyway and succeed mostly, reminding me along the way of The Oblivians (RIP) and The Eviltones (stars of tomorrow). They also treat us all to a country blues ditty with closer 'John Wayne Brown', a brave yet assured move. More please chaps, you have the talents and the chops. Also worthy of mention is the real Shindig! moment that comes at the end of ‘Dead Letter’, when the guitar fireworks finish exploding and the low-key ending of Love’s ‘7 & 7 Is’ is recreated. Thanks for that moment guys, it shows your warmth within your seriously wild rocking.

Phil Istine

Radio Moscow in Shindig!

The Bloody Hollies, Classic Rock

Robert Forster, R2

Surf Beat, Ugly Things

Sandy Salisbury, Ugly Things

Todd Rundgren, Ugly Things

The Who, Ugly Things

Mott The Hoople, Penny Black Music

Joan Jett, Penny Black Music

Radio Moscow, Subba Culture

Radio Moscow The Great Escape Of Leslie Magnafuzz Psychedelic riffage for the mind, body and soul. Radio Moscow unleash their heavy, heavy monster sound. 8/10 Label: Alive Natural Records Within rock's onward progression and mutations it's often a case of two steps forward, one step back. Iowa-formed Radio Moscow are a band with a firm belief in such retrogression, their sound being a mix of late 60's, in-the-red psychedelic blues rock, and early 70's British proto-punk. With riffs as heavy as a dose of PCP laced skunk they sound as if they'd be equally at home playing at a Hell's Angel approved stoner festival or being the house band at a Ladbroke Grove squat party circa 1969. Despite their power-trio vibe, for studio purposes they're actually a two piece, with wonder-kid Parker Griggs on vocal duties along with playing all the instruments except the bass, which is ably supplied by Zach Anderson. For live gigs Cory Berry takes over on the drum stool. It would seem that rather than being the central character of a grand concept album, the Leslie Magnafuzz of the title is more likely an amalgamated nod to the band's love of revolving speaker cabinets and vintage effects pedals, with the Great Escape part perhaps referencing Griggs' recent incarceration for possession of marijuana. There's certainly some righteous anger from the off, album opener Little Eyes containing the kind of intense guitar wig-outs that most bands save for their set-closing opuses. Proof that old school guitar heroics are not necessarily a thing of the past. It's the beginning of a trip worth strapping in for, best listened to on headphones, so as to better experience the kind of widely panned revolving speakers not heard since Hendrix got all serious and started getting into Miles Davis. The intensity continues with No Time and Speed Freak, Griggs' guitar playing containing a doom-laden darkness that Tony Iommi would give another finger for. As well as his unfortunate brush with the law, it appears Griggs may be having some girl trouble – Creepin' and Misleading Me both full of my-woman-done-treated-me-wrong affronted paranoia. The album builds on the template the band created on their first two albums (2007's eponymous debut, and Brain Cycles from 2009), with Griggs' voice and writing having grown in stature. There's now an extra notch of ability, energy and ambition. The band have recently re-located to a remote ranch in Northern California, let's hope this means their sonic adventures may long continue. Now pass me that space cake dude. Click here for Radio Moscow's website. Duncan Fletcher

http://www.subba-cultcha.com/album-reviews/article.php?contentID=27384

Popjunkie get excited by Sweden's Pushy Parents

http://popjunkietv.posterous.com/it-is-staring-to-get-annoying-how-good-the-sw

What is it with the Swedes? How did they get to be this good at pop? What with new Jens Lekman stuff on the way, a genius Acid House Kings single (with TVP Dan) and now this, they are starting to eclipse the music that comes from these shores. Not good.

Actually very good. This lot look about 12, but have managed to create one thrilling pop single which is a bit 80s indie, a bit Nancy Sinatra and whole load of fun...

Radio Moscow 8/10, The Peterborough Evening Telegraph

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