This week’s selection brings us music from the Middle East, music from the American North West, and music from many other points on the great Compass of Rock. We’re just here to point you in the right direction.
Jay Wud - Low Of all the Beirut-born guitarists currently based in the United Arab Emirates, Jay Wud is probably our favourite, and new song Low is terrific. It features a pummelling riff, a hooky chorus, an epic solo, and lyrics like “this rage is slowly eating my brain”. I think we can all identify with that.
Dolomite Minor - When I’m Dead With a pounding QOSTA-alike riff and vocals as sleazy as a bent vice cop shaking punters down for coins, When I’m Dead is further proof that 2015 is shaping up to be the year of two-piece bands. Like being kicked in the head by an angry horse, but in a good way.
UFO - Run Boy Run In a world full of bands desperately attempting — and often failing — to repeat past glories, UFO are back with a song that can stand alongside their classics without shifting sheepishly from foot to foot, while Phil Mogg’s voice sounds remarkably unworn. In the current issue of Classic Rock, the singer proudly boasts that he’s able to lie and his back and self-fellate, but we don’t think the two facts are connected.
Of Earth - Sweep The Fire You wait for ages for one UFO song to come along, and two come along at once. Or rather you get one, followed by Of Earth, who are fronted by UFO bassist Rob De Luca. Sweep The Fire starts off sounding a bit like Chariots Of Fire, before ramping up with a big verse and an even bigger chorus and a monster of a riff.
Man Made - Car Sick Cars It doesn’t seem right that Johnny Marr is old enough to have children in bands of their own, but that’s the case with Man Made. Crazy! We know! But Nile Marr fronts the band, and Car Sick Cars is crashing power pop that rattles along at a fair old lick, with “whoo-woo” bits that probably sound great in your headphones as you’re out on your BMX, riding around and annoying pedestrians.
Revolution Saints - Back On My Trail Another track from the supergroup hewn from rock’s rich seams by Former Whitesnake guitarist Doug Aldrich, Journey drummer Deen Castronovo and Night Ranger bassist Jack Blades. Back On My Trail is exactly what you’d expect from three such veterans: polished and epic and loud.
Killit – Shut It Down In which a Jessie J lookalike performs some laser beam limbo dancing in a warehouse in Bolton. If that’s not enough information to get you watching, consider this: the band feature members of King Lizard, Ace Mafia and Wasted Sinners, and have a classic rock sound with a modern rock feel and a possible cockney twist.
Moon Duo - Animal In an interview, professional skateboarder Richie Jackson once said “I believe in psychedelicism. Not just psychedelic music, but everything. A psychedelic experience is characterised as the unveiling of perceptions previously unknown – the brain unfettered from its usual constraints. To me, it’s all there is, and certainly all that’s worth doing. I find no worth in that which doesn’t surprise. Anomalies, irregularities, deviation from the common rule – that is all I will ever care for.” Which probably explains why he appears in this video performing kick-flips on a garden fork as driving psychedelic music from San Francisco’s Moon Duo swirls and dances.
