2023: 23 Highlights (pt.4)

The last post of 2023 - and it's a final summary of my 23 fave records of the year, starting off with some great EPs, including a couple of debuts.

Hallan - 'The Noise Of A Firing Gun'
Second EP from a band I'd never even heard of until Steve Lamacq played this brilliant track on his 6Music show. Definitely worth checking them out, they have some very good, powerful tracks in their small canon, full of cutting, cynical and often scathing lyrics about modern society, culture and politics. The Unwomanly Face Of War is inspired by the real-life stories detailed in the book of the same name by Nobel award-winning author Svetlana Alexievich.

 

Heartworms - 'A Comforting Notion'
Lambrini Girls - 'You're Welcome'
Both of these were mentioned back in my short run of posts in the summer, so here's a different track from each. Both EPs are debuts and show a lot of promise.

 

Micky Dolenz - 'Dolenz Sings R.E.M.'
Now this is one that will probably surprise you as much as it surprised me. I normally steer well clear of things like this, but I'd read good things about it so gave it a go. And who would have thought that a 78-year-old former member of a band who were made up for a TV show in the 60s could, in 2023, have made an EP of songs by my favourite band of all time and, in a couple of cases, actually make them sound better? Shiny Happy People is nowhere near as excruciatingly sickly as the original, and Leaving New York makes me wish R.E.M. had made all of 'Around The Sun' as vaguely listenable as this. But this version of Radio Free Europe tops the lot - classic American power-pop with a touch of psych thrown in! Bonkers but brilliant. (Oh, and the sleeve depicts Dolenz outside Wuxtry Records, the very store where Peter Buck and Michael Stipe first met. Nice touch.)

 

And a few more albums to round things off. To be fair, I could have included a few more (H. Hawkline, Shame, even the Tolhurst/Budgie/Lee collaboration etc.), but that would take it over the 23 which kind of defeats the point of having 23 for '23. What a silly rule to make...

SHONEN KNIFE - 'Our Best Place' I mean, you know what to expect. You can't be disappointed with a Shonen Knife record. A shame though that my favourite track (Ocean Sunfish) isn't on YouTube to post here, but hey, this will do nicely.	THERAPY? - 'Cold Hard Fire' Continuing their recent string of excellent albums, the Northern Irish trio delivered their 16th set of short sharp shocks, trimmed of fat and filler, and as riffy, angry and blunt as ever.
BIG BLISS - 'Vital Return' Not sure how Big Bliss passed me by before now, but their second album sounds exactly like the sort of thing I should've picked up on, evoking classic 80s US 'college bands' like a certain Athens, GA. quartet...	JENNY OWEN YOUNGS - 'Avalanche' It's been ELEVEN years since Jenny's last studio album, and this year she released two! The first comprised instrumental ambient pieces, while 'Avalanche' was more akin to what us fans love about her.
SQUID - 'O Monolith' A Squid record is never less than interesting. Their second full-length continues that tradition. "We were keen for things surrounding this album not to make too much sense," they tell us. Box ticked!	EASY STAR ALL-STARS - 'Ziggy Stardub' What's that? A classic Bowie record done reggae-style? Count me in! The latest in the Easy Star All-Stars' series of iconic album remakes featuring a host of special guest vocalists, and it's one of the best.

As for what 2024 holds? Well the debut album from Sprints is out in January which is hugely exciting - make sure you buy it! A new Idles album is also just around the corner, and Grandaddy have new stuff coming out too! But, if this track is anything to go by, the new Nadine Shah record due in February could already be a contender for album of the year. I mean, this is just FUCKING BRILLIANT!

 

And that's it. You haven't heard much from me this year. Be prepared to hear even less of me in 2024. But there will be an announcement in February so stay tuned. Cheers all.

Best of 2018 #3

Today's triptych of totally top tunes from 2018. Or something...

Emma Ruth Rundle - 'On Dark Horses'




Shame - 'Songs Of Praise'




Goat Girl - 'Goat Girl'

Memories of 2018 gigs #8

Shame
Support: HMLTD, Fontaines D.C.
SWX, Bristol - 15 November 2018

Back so soon at SWX? Well Shame have made one of the albums of the year and one of the best debuts of the decade. They also have a reputation for being rather tasty in the live setting so I reckon it would've been foolish to pass up this opportunity to catch them so close to home. What I've noticed about Bristol in relation to Cardiff is the audiences there arrive early. Like the Idles show a few weeks back, the place was already heaving when we arrived halfway through the opening set.

Fontaines D.C. are from Northern Ireland and play a brand of punk that has great pedigree in those parts, though this lot are more Stiff Little Fingers than Undertones, angrier, grittier and more than a little agitated. There's certainly more than a little bit of The Fall in them too and they comfortably fit into the scene being carved by the likes of Shame, Idles and the like with the the songs to match. I'd look out for Fontaines D.C. if I were you.

For an entirely different reason, I'd also advise you look out for London's HMLTD. If the description 'electro-art-punk' doesn't scare the bejayzus out of you then it really should. I could write paragraphs about this lot, but they are not worthy of my time or effort. I'll just say how annoyed I am that the half hour I spent watching them cannot ever be reclaimed. A horrific experience I just want to forget about. Look out for them - and avoid like the plague, for your own sake.
("I found them entertaining, it was like musical theatre." - MrsRobster.)

So thank heavens for Shame. That reputation they have that I mentioned above? It's justified. My word, how good are Shame live?! Their brilliant debut album 'Songs Of Praise' has been quite rightly heralded as a highlight of 2018, and it has plenty to recommend it. But it's clearly the live setting where they belong, the energy exuded onstage was electrifying. A crowd-surfing singer, an acrobatic bass player, and some of the best lead guitar sounds you'll hear in a long time.

There may be some who will denounce bands like Shame as being derivative of the original punk era. Well, that may be true to some extent, and I don't think they'd totally deny it, but to this generation, bands like Shame are simply expressing what they feel. There is no attempt here to be the new Clash or anything quite so crass, but there are more than a few parallels with 1976 in 2018. The times may share similar tensions, but the bands of each era are certainly doing very different things. No one was writing songs like Concrete, Lampoon and The Lick in 1976, and you'll be hard pressed to find many who do it quite so well as Shame in 2018. Live, they are given a new lease of life, and the biggest, sweatiest and wildest mosh pit I've seen in years (even better than the Idles one) is testament to the pull this band has.

There were a couple of new songs in the set and only time will tell if they hold up as well as the songs we're now familiar with, but having witnessed the sensation that is Shame with my own eyes at last, I'm confident they're in it for the long haul, and that is an exciting prospect whether you're an old punk, a new punk or someone who hates electro-art-punk.

DIY magazine recently wrote of Shame: "This is not just hype, this is the real fucking deal!" I'll happily agree with that sentiment on this evidence.

• Boys In The Better Land [live] - Fontaines D.C. (recorded live for KEXP 2018)
• Concrete [live] - Shame (recorded live at the Reading Festival 2018)

New stuff wot sounds like old stuff #4

OK, so if you live in the UK and haven't heard of Shame yet, then either:
 a) you've been hiding in a cave in the middle of friggin' nowhere for the past 6 months;
 b) you've become a monk, living a simple, silent life in a cave in the middle of friggin' nowhere for the past 6 months; or
 c) you have absolutely no interest in music whatsoever. And you've been living in a cave in the middle of friggin' nowhere for the past 6 months.

Basically, they are THE band to watch in 2018. Steve Lamacq thinks they're the new Clash or something. Probably. Actually, yeah, he probably genuinely does. Anyway, I wasn't quite convinced the first time I heard them, but their debut album 'Songs Of Praise' that came out last month is really rather fine. Quite a few styles going on but I suppose they could be described as punk/post-punk/new wave if you wanted to put labels on them.

I'm not going to get to see them when they play Cardiff in April. Aside from the fact it's sold out, we're watching our wallets for a bit so gigs have to take a back seat. Which is a shame (arf!) because I reckon Shame will be fecking amazing. I hope they are for everyone lucky enough to be there.



Right. That's quite enough young whippersnappers doing proper music. I'm off to listen to some old people. Where are you, Mr Cave???