Tag Archives: alternative

JENNIE VEE – Suffer EP

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Jennie Vee’s second solo EP ‘Die Alone’ was a masterpiece of retro cool. Taking elements from The Cranes, The Cure, Lush and early Echo & The Bunnymen, the release was a superb homage to everything that was brilliant about 4AD and electro-goth from the early 90s. [Read a review of the EP here.]

In the three years since that release, the one-time Tuuli frontwoman has been incredibly busy. She’s recorded a full length album, played with Courtney Love and supported Echo & The Bunnymen and Manic Street Preachers. Earlier in 2007, she also landed the job as bassist with Josh Homme’s Eagles of Death Metal.

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Watch the new animated video from At The Drive In

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Hardcore/alt-rock legends At The Drive In have issued a new video for ‘Call Broken Arrow’, a track taken from their 2017 release “in•ter a•li•a”.   The band reformed in 2015 following the demise of The Mars Volta.

The full animated clip can be seen in the embedded box below. “in•ter a•li•a” is available now on Rise Records.

REAL GONE SAYS:  It’s good to have At The Drive In back…though we’ve never really recovered from their live set at the Reading Festival back in 2000!

ZWAN – Live at Rock am Ring 2003

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In just two short years, Zwan demoed and recorded a huge amount of material.  Whether in their electric format (The True Poets of Zwan) or stripped back and more acoustic driven (Djali Zwan), the Billy Corgan-fronted project showed a great depth and inventiveness.

Always a prolific writer, with Zwan, Corgan occasionally showed off his power pop influences (‘Lyric’, ‘Yeah’) alongside expansive prog rock indulgences (‘Jesus I/Mary Star of the Sea’).  While not always championed by everyone, this varied approach to material ensured Zwan’s only studio album remains a thrilling listening experience years after the event.

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KING BLACK ACID & THE CRYSTAL UNICORN – Super Beautiful Magic

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In March 2017, retro rock band King Black Acid released their ‘Twin Flames‘ EP. Despite ’17 barely being a few months old at that point, it was clear that the EP was special enough to potentially be one of the year’s best releases. Bringing together the sounds of Crazy Horse, Band of Horses and more besides (not necessarily horse related), its three tracks dropped the listener into a twenty minute musical cycle that was both other worldly and pretty much timeless. If ever there were a great example of music being utterly satisfying, then ‘Twin Flames’ most assuredly fit the bill.

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SUNSHINE & THE RAIN – In The Darkness Of My Night

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With the bleep of old style tone test, Sunshine & The Rain open their 2017 long player in a most unexpected manner. Kicking square into ‘Let’s Go’, their music, too, has a very old soul…and it’s all the better for that. It might seem at once that this duo’s main musical stock comes from tried and tested garage rock noise, but just as quickly as the distorted guitars assert themselves, the harsh melodies are topped off with plinking glockenspiels in a contest for the ultimate contrast. The vocals come with almost a sweet naivety, as Ashley Morey (previously of New Jersey’s The Black Hollies), approaches her performance with a clarity and an almost bubblegum inspired sound. With the push and pull between the noise and the pop, you’ll either love or hate this band immediately. If you hate them, your opinion is the wrong one. Within a couple of minutes, Sunshine & The Rain assert themselves as the most exciting thing to happen on the garage rock scene since Coach ‘n’ Commando released ‘FBP!K!K!‘ the previous summer…or maybe even since Brockley Forest dropped their third EP way back in 2015.

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