FRANCIE MOON – Glass House EP

Moon Glass HouseIf ‘Free To a Good Home’ showed Francie Moon’s craft at its rawest – seven demo recordings of unreleased tunes – the ‘Glass House EP’ provides the perfect counterpart with four more polished recordings showing off the subtler side to her work.  On this, Moon’s third release of 2014, the idea of subtle is relative; even in a setting that sounds far less “live” than before, she insists on drenching almost everything with a cloud of distortion.  This, of course, is not necessarily a bad thing.

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New video from Black Moth

Black Moth’s long-overdue second album is to be released on June 30th.  Produced by Grinderman‘s Jim Sclavunos, ‘Condemned To Hope’ follows 2011’s ‘The Killing Jar’ with another selection of dark atmospheres and bone-crunching riffs.

Before the album’s release, you can check out the lead track ‘Room 13’ in the video clip below.

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FRANCIE MOON – Free To A Good Home

FM1Following a self-released digital EP in 2013 and split cassette with Darkwing in the first half of 2014, ‘Free To a Good Home’ brings more previously unreleased music from New Jersey’s Francie Moon (aka Melissa Lucciola).  Released to tie in with a summer tour – and acting as a stopgap before the appearance of ‘Glass House’, a studio recorded four track 7” – its seven recordings are very DIY in origin, but there are still times where they provide an excellent example of the performer’s talents.

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SUNRISE HIGHWAY – Windows

windowsSunrise Highway’s self-titled album (independently released in 2010) struck a chord with a few power pop fans.  Although not a patch on the sole album from the sadly missed Oranjuly, it had a homespun appeal and some of the tunes (‘Life on Mars’, especially) showed great promise.  Four years on, their ‘Windows’ full length was picked up for wider distribution by Kool Kat Musik (home of DIY singer-songwriter Stephen Lawrenson, Cleaners From Venus etc).  For those expecting more of the lighter tones of that earlier record – particularly the jauntier Brian Wilson/Jellyfish inspired piano tunes – ‘Windows’ may come as a disappointment.

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REAL GONE GOES OUT: Winger – Islington Academy, London 21/06/2014

Winger have had more than their share of knockers in the past.  In the early 90s they were blasted on an almost weekly basis by cartoon misfits Beavis & Butt-head; members of high profile rock bands weren’t any kinder with their childish jibes, while the music press were often too quick to write them off in the face of a changing musical tide.  Such things surely would have hurt, but it doesn’t change the fact that the first three Winger albums are top-notch melodic rock affairs – albums that have aged better than those of some of their peers. Nor does it change the fact that Winger were – and still are – a superb live act.

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