Bilk - Essex Drugs And Rock And Roll
Say what you like about that album title; it knows exactly what it is.
Three-piece Bilk (guess where they’re from) released their self-titled debut album in 2023, consolidating their grassroots following through a clutch of EPs and incendiary live shows since their formation five years earlier.
Their no-frills approach to music continues on this second album. Following in the veins of early Arctic Monkeys (certainly not the current iteration) and The Streets, these are tales of life in modern Britain, brutally unpolished and unrefined.
As such, it’s designed to have mass appeal, speaking to a disenfranchised youth. Opening track ‘RnR’ proudly and shamelessly lifts the spirit from ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Star’ by Oasis, an aspirational song about aiming for stardom (‘Forget about the bullshit outside my room’) but fused with boisterous glam rock guitars and incessant vocal delivery.
At the other end of Essex Drugs And Rock And Roll, ‘Band Life Blues’ outlines the story of Bilk to date, detailing the meagre pay new bands receive, offset by the joy of living their dream.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/bilk-essex-rock-and-roll-review/
Pastel - Souls In Motion
The Spirit Of Spike Island label has gathered pace over the last few years.
Though Afflecks Palace, the band led by label head J. Fender, has built up an impressive fanbase, anticipation for the debut album by fellow Mancunians Pastel could lead to their biggest statement yet.
If you’ve ever wondered or hoped to hear The Verve fronted by former Kasabian frontman Tom Meighan, Pastel have the answer. Unsurprisingly, the answer is big – very big.
Their debut album has been a long time coming; their first single, ‘She Waits For Me’, was released just as the world went into lockdown (mercifully, nearly five years ago), followed by a procession of singles over the preceding two years.
In 2022, they played to a crowd of 85,000 people at Liam Gallagher’s Knebworth show and built on it with further singles.
So, there is a certain degree of expectation on Pastel’s shoulders. They kept a low profile last year, burrowed away in the studio, but now the fruit of their labour is here and, in keeping with the band’s attitude and output so far, it’s a boisterous body of songs.
Interview - Stella Rose
After releasing her debut album in early 2023, Stella Rose follows it up with EP Hollybaby, released on Friday (December 13th). A marked step on for the New Yorker, the songs both finetune and expand her sound to take in more contrasting influences.
The daughter of Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan, the musician is no stranger to moody, intense sonics, and the EP consolidates her position as one of the most exciting new talents around. Recently, she spoke with CLASH, having just returned from a support tour with A Place To Bury Strangers followed by her own headline tour.
https://www.clashmusic.com/features/in-conversation-stella-rose/
Interview - Fran Healy
Having been a staple of the mainstream for 25 years, the perception of Travis is probably ‘timeless songs delivered by nice boys’. Not exactly the most rock and roll description, but it could be worse. Yet to assume it’s a description they readily accept is dangerous.
‘We’ve always been bashed for being nice, and I always find that quite amusing,’ says Fran Healy. ‘I would say to people: don’t confuse nice with weak. It’s the wrong thing to do, especially if you’re talking to someone from Possilpark. I’ll fucking rip your face off, you c**t. People look at us like, ‘Ahhh’. You don’t even know me. Fuck off.’
When CLASH speaks to the Travis frontman, he’s suffering from jet lag having landed in the UK to prepare for a short but condensed run of shows. Yet one senses that his riposte is not because of tiredness, more a flash of rarely-seen inbuilt Glaswegian steel.
‘It used to annoy me,’ he says of their public image. ‘But what can you do? You can’t do anything about it, it’s just the perception of a few people. The fact is, in a hundred years from now, we’ll all be dead and maybe there will be a couple of songs floating around. That’s kind of it.’
https://www.clashmusic.com/features/ive-still-got-unfinished-business-travis-interviewed/
Live4Ever - Our Year In Review 2024
2024 was billed as the biggest year ever for democracy, with more than four billion people casting votes to elect leaders and governments.
Inevitably it was a mixed bag; while the UK is finally free of Conservative rule after 14 years, the United States has regressed eight years and brought back Donald Trump to oversee what will be a turbulent four years at home and abroad.
The ongoing conflict in Ukraine may be the first consequential decision of Trump 2.0, yet all eyes are on his actions (if any) regarding the increasingly worrisome situation in the Middle East.
Oh, and Mother Nature continues to push back at speeds that humanity continually fails to comprehend, let alone manage, but we don’t talk about that, do we?
In our safe space, the Oasis reunion will likely dominate discourse next year in the same way it has the last four months of this, but for those not of a Gallagher persuasion 2024 has been another year of evolution in music.
Now it has been normalised, AI has been embraced by the likes of Grimes and The Weeknd, introducing software into their craft (although, obviously, The Beatles did it first), despite reservations from their peers.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/our-year-in-music-english-teacher/
Nadine Shah - Live at Kentish Town Forum, London - 22nd November 2024
The best things come to those who wait.
Coming off the back of her best album to-date, Nadine Shah has made infrequent live appearances in the UK in 2024.
During her towering performance at Green Man Festival in the summer, the songwriter made a point of saying that she hadn’t been booked for many UK festivals and – perhaps down to the sheer cost of touring – the final show on this leg of the tour is her only British show.
Regardless, the gig conclusively proves that bookers and promoters should hang their heads in shame.
It goes without saying what a superb voice Nadine Shah possesses, but just in case opener ‘Keeping Score’, with dense, throbbing verse and majestic chorus quickly reiterates the point before the jangling Fast Food gets bodies moving to kick off a perfectly pitched set.
Fifth album Filthy Underneath is deservedly earning its place on Albums Of The Year lists and is well represented; the matter-of-fact narrative of ‘Sad Lads Anonymous’, on which Shah relays a crisis of confidence in surroundings both domestic and external (‘Don’t tell me your secrets, I don’t want to know’) is cathartically percussion-heavy, while the modish skit of ‘Even Light’ snaps and bites.
U2 - How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (Re-Assemble Edition)
The interminable wait for Larry Mullen Jnr’s recovery continues.
With no new album since 2017 – their longest ever gap – his U2 bandmates have found ways to keep themselves busy as they patiently await his recovery from back surgery.
In 2022, Bono released his autobiography with an accompanying tour, swiftly followed by the Songs Of Surrender album, where he and The Edge re-examined U2’s catalogue acoustically.
Most recently, there was the Las Vegas residency which saw Bran van den Berg step into Mullen Jnr’s shoes to commemorate Achtung Baby.
Fortunately, the Irish four-piece has a mighty canon to fall back on, and next in line for reappraisal is this album from – terrifyingly – two decades ago.
After their largely successful re-application for ‘Best Band In The World’ in 2000, U2 opted to seek a harder-hitting sound and, after a couple of false starts, they found a formula with Steve Lilywhite and Jacknife Lee behind the production desk.
GLOK/Timothy Clerkin - Alliance
While the lockdowns may be an ever distant memory (thank goodness), every so often a reminder rears its head, whether it’s seeing someone in a face mask, having a Zoom call or drinking at home. For Andy Bell, it seems to be every time he opens his laptop.
Despite completing two solo albums and a GLOK album (to say nothing of remixes) in those miserable eighteen months, it’s a well the Ride man can keep returning to, unveiling yet another pleasant surprise at regular intervals.
Four years on, fans are treated to another GLOK album, but one with a twist: on Alliance he joins forces with producer and Insult To Injury label boss Timothy Clerkin.
Bell’s GLOK label Bytes introduced the pair virtually (Clerkin provided a track for the Dissident Remixed album) before they met in real life at Andrew Weatherall’s funeral in early 2020.
How fitting that the much-missed producer, who always possessed a knack for hearing connections other people missed, is still bringing people together from beyond the grave.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/glok-timothy-clerkin-alliance-review/
Primal Scream - Come Ahead
The last Primal Scream album was released in March 2016 which, as you may have noticed, was a vastly different geo-political world to the one we currently inhabit. Never one to hide his beliefs, Bobby Gillespie has a few things to say about the state of the world in 2024.
Not that the Scream were always going to be the outlet for it. Gillespie is currently undergoing the most prolific spell of his career, with an autobiography, a collaboration album with Jehnny Beth, numerous guest appearances with the likes of Lol Tolhurst x Budgie x Jacknife Lee, a soundtrack album and writing for Paul Weller all under his belt this decade. Yet the repetitive nature of Primal Scream work (album, tour, repeat) made him question whether new material was necessary.
Enter David Holmes, who sent Gillespie a piece music he couldn’t help but contribute to, and the Scream wheels were rolling once again for their first album since the death of Martin Duffy two years ago. Yet again, we should be grateful to Holmes, as Come Ahead has reinvigorated the band.
https://www.clashmusic.com/reviews/primal-scream-come-ahead/
Thus Love - All Pleasure
Upon its release in 2022, Thus Love’s debut album Memorial made a lasting impression on those who heard its scratchy and lush indie sound, brimming as it was with catchy melodies and snappy hooks.
Since then, much has changed for the Vermont outfit.
Founding member and bassist Nathaniel van Osdol has departed, and Thus Love have bolstered their numbers to become a quartet.
Ally Juleen has stepped in on bass, and the sound has been expanded via Shane Blank’s addition on guitars and keyboards. As such, the sound on All Pleasure is fuller and rounder, but not to the detriment of the songs.
The riff on first single ‘Birthday Song’ is grittier, adorned with splendid guitar acrobatics, while the soaring, anthemic chorus (‘We’re still holding hands’) is an ode to friendship through good times and bad (‘Remember to breathe, it’s the worst it will ever be’).
A Place To Bury Strangers - Synthesizer
Aren’t bands supposed to get more polished as they progress through their career?
With a view to becoming more accessible, some compromises must be made to achieve further appeal, a price that many acts are prepared to pay.
However, compromise has never been part of A Place To Bury Strangers’ vocabulary. Seven albums in, if anything ‘New York’s Loudest Band’ (a title they seem unlikely to ever relinquish) get darker, weirder, scarier and – if anything – they seem newly galvanized.
The new energy can be put down to another lineup change; Oliver Ackermann remains the group’s key architect, but is joined here by John and Sandra Fedowitz, with the trio hitting the studio straight after the campaign for 2022’s See Through You was completed.
Not that A Place To Bury Strangers were ever lethargic, but – as anyone who saw their recent UK shows can confirm – there is a new sense of purpose and energy.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/a-place-to-bury-strangers-synt-review/
Razorlight - Live at Strange Brew, Bristol - 24th October 2024
For the uninitiated, Strange Brew in central Bristol is a medium-sized, newish venue with psychedelic imagery on the walls and lava-lamp lighting.
There are no big brand names to speak of served at the bar, the toilets are unisex, the whole atmosphere is geared towards a left-of-centre, outside the mainstream independent venue.
The biggest name performing before Christmas is The Horrors, followed by Billy Nomates. It’s very cool.
Or at least, it normally is. Tonight, the clientele is all middle-aged couples, the sort who go to a couple of gigs a year, talk very loudly during the music and generally don’t know the decorum.
It’s perhaps unsurprising given the headline act is more than twenty years old, but as the cool kids gave up on Razorlight some years ago (somewhat unfairly), most of tonight’s audience most likely bought their second, self-titled album in ASDA in 2007. Because Johnny Borrell and company were that mainstream, for a while.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/razorlight-live-strange-brew-review/
Interview - Joey Santiago
While not quite hitting the same prolific heights as in their first phase (an album a year from 1988-1991), in their second act Pixies are in something of a purple patch, with three efforts since 2019. Tenth album The Night The Zombies Came may not a traditional concept album – despite the title – but Charles Thompson IV has described it as a ‘movie in song form’, with certain reoccurring themes including druidism and apocalyptic settings, fittingly for an album which lands just before Halloween.
It also lifts the curtain on the new iteration of the band. Bassist Paz Lenchantin has moved on, to be replaced by Emma Richardson, formerly of Band Of Skulls, who steps immediately into the limelight, harmonising with Thompson on tracks such as ‘Mercy Me’ and ‘Primrose’, both of which capture the classic Pixies sound. Yet that’s just one element of a diverse album which fuses surf-rock, punk and 12th century poetry all put together in a melting pot which may be their most unique yet.
As well as their tenth album, 2024 marks 35 years of PIXIES activity and also 20 years since their reformation. Recently CLASH spoke with guitarist and co-founder of the band Joey Santiago to talk about the new album, the milestones and his own songwriting.
https://www.clashmusic.com/features/ignorance-is-bliss-sometimes-clash-meets-pixies/
Razorlight - Planet Nowhere
It’s perhaps hard now to process just how big Razorlight were for a few years back in the 2000s.
And not just for the music; frontman Johnny Borrell’s propensity to generate headlines was a boon for music journalists, whether by riding a motorcycle with then-girlfriend Kirsten Dunst, clad in full biker gear, or by comparing himself to legends (‘Compared to the Razorlight album, Dylan is making the chips, I’m drinking the champagne’).
His Gallagher-sized ego made him a figure of fun, which sometimes distracted from the success of his band.
And successful they were. Of their peers, only Kaiser Chiefs could also claim a number one single (Ruby for the Leeds act, America for the north Londoners) and few others headlined Reading Festival during the era.
Yet, on the flipside there is an argument to be made that Razorlight were the snowball for the avalanche of landfill indie that followed in their wake.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/razorlight-planet-nowhere-review/
Humanist - Live at Dareshack, Bristol - 17th October 2024
Humanist by Katja Mayer
Exit Calm should have been a big deal.
Sonically a beautiful alchemy between U2 and The Verve, the Barnsley four-piece released two albums before disbanding in 2015 to the chagrin of a depressingly small amount of people.
Four years ago, guitarist Rob Marshall re-emerged with a solo project under the guise of Humanist..
Across two albums of electronic, atmospheric rock music, Marshall has been able to coerce an impressive roll-call of contributors including Mark Lanegan, Dave Gahan, John Robb and Peter Hayes of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club to provide vocals.
For obvious reasons, touring the Humanist albums requires changes, and for this run of UK shows Marshall has put together a band made up of Wendy Rae Fowler on bass, Exit Calm drummer Scott Pemberton and American singer/songwriter Jimmy Gnecco on vocals.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/humanist-bristol-dareshack-review/
The Libertines - Live at the o2 Academy, Bristol - 9th October 2024
It never looked like it was going to be this way.
Somehow, against all the odds, The Libertines have their happy ending in becoming one of the UK’s most consistent indie rock bands.
In what has been a busy 12 months with the buildup to then release of their excellent fourth album All Quiet On The Eastern Eplanade, the boys in the band have just quietly gone about their business.
After a rather wonderful and random introduction by Creed Bratton (from the US version of The Office), Pete, Carl, Gary and John somewhat wrongfoot the audience by opening with B- side ‘The Delaney’ – a hark back to their early days – before a thumping ‘What Became Of The Likely Lads?’ (answer = they’re doing just fine) recentres the crowd.
Peter Doherty appears comfortable centre-right of stage, while John Hassall is largely static, staring out the crowd while in contrast Carl Barat paces around the stage, his hands doing as little as possible on guitar as ever.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/the-libertines-live-bristol-review/
Maximo Park - Stream Of Life
Maximo Park occupy a rarefied place in the music scene.
Intelligent, well-read and therefore respected, the group have consistently released albums – and especially singles – of high quality indie pop, straddling the gap between literary and primal with their customary classiness.
To put it another way, in their now 20-year career, the group’s musical textures haven’t especially evolved which, for an act held to such a high standard, could ordinarily be construed as a criticism.
Yet Paul Smith and company transcend any possibility of such barbs by virtue of their quality control. Take the opening track on Stream Of Life, ‘Your Own Worst Enemy’, announcing it through a clatter of drums, powerful guitars and soaring chorus.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/maximo-park-stream-life-review/
Blitz Vega - Northern Gentlemen
Northern Gentlemen is the tale of two men.
One is the legendary Andy Rourke, the iconic Smiths bassist – whose dexterous musicianship powered the likes of ‘Barbarism Begins At Home’ and ‘Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now’ (to name but two) – was cruelly taken last year.
His image adorns the cover of this album, a tribute to the work and effort he summoned to finish as much of it as he could before his passing.
The other is Kav Sandhu, himself a musician with a storied career with stints in Happy Mondays and co-creator of the Get Loaded club night and festival. For more than a half a decade, Blitz Vegaa has been his sole focus.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/blitz-vega-northern-gent-review/
Deadletter - Hysterical Strength
Formed in 2020, Deadletter have been gradually building momentum through a series of singles and EPs along with a visceral live show. Having refined their sound and style, this debut album promises to be the culmination of their hard work.
Firstly, a warning: your enjoyment of this album will depend on your tolerance of the saxophone. For many years now, the sax has been underpinning numerous bands’ output, but here it is front and centre of everything, either guiding songs or dominating them, often in lieu of a lead guitar. Although it’s an excellent mood-setter, in truth it does get wearing at points, but fortunately there is much else to digest.
https://www.clashmusic.com/reviews/deadletter-hysterical-strength/