Ever since Bill Haley first rocked around the clock in 1954, men and women of all nations have rocked around the clock in the search for musical nirvana. This week, we rocked around the clock and found it with this bunch.
We Are Harlot - The One Get your groove on in Aerosmith-meets-Van Halen style with these LA-based rock’n’rollers (fronted by ex-Asking Alexandria singer Danny Worsnop). Clearly they had an AWFUL time making this video. All those pretty girls in bikinis, shimmying all over the place, sawing off their stiletto heels, pouting… must’ve been proper crap. Think Hot For Teacher, in technicolour.
Broken Witt Rebels - Shake Me Down “These guys sound like Kings of Leon without the whining”, wrote somebody on Twitter, and we couldn’t agree more, except to add that Kings Of Leon struggle to write songs as strong as this. The band describe themselves as combining “the power and intensity of classic rock with the finesse and delicacy of soulful blues”, and we agree with that too. All in all, very agreeable.
Alabama Shakes - Don’t Wanna Fight The first you hear from the brilliant Brittany Howard on this song is when she makes an extraordinary boiling kettle noise, and from that point on it’s all win: think Prince crossed with Sharon Jones playing blues funk so extreme it might actually explode. This comes from new album Sound & Color, which will dock with Planet Earth in April.
Black Star Riders - Finest Hour It’s a remarkable thing Black Star Riders have achieved, somehow transforming from a tribute act to their younger selves into something fresh and good and entirely meaningful on its own terms in a way that many newer bands never manage. Finest Hour might not actually be the band’s finest hour (we prefer previous single The Killer Instinct, possibly because we’re a bit deaf), but it’s a very, very good four minutes and 14 seconds.
Razer - It’s A Mutha We’ve heard from Razer before, and here’s another film from their personal warehouse in Phoenix, a secret location used by the band to hone their devastatingly crafted anthems before unleashing them on regular humankind. It’s A Mutha is short for something altogether more profane, we reckon, a suspicion borne out by closer examination of the lyrics. The song also features an excellent twin guitar part that reminds us of Flight Of The Bumblebees.
Love Cream - Spend The Night Together We don’t usually let bands describe their own videos, but we’re making an exception in the case of Aussie larrikins Love Cream. “Set to a kitschy western backdrop,” advise the band, “a skirmish of hipsters attempt to enforce their indie de jour tastes upon a well-to-do group of rock n roll fanatics. Finding themselves the last bastion of defence in this battle, symbolic of the greater threat facing rock, Love Cream set out to vanquish their cardigan-clad foe and restore rock to its rightful position in the hearts and ears of the youth and industry.” And so say all of us.
The Lucid Dream - The Cold Killer “They revel in extracting every last tone from their combined wall of sound” wrote Classic Rock of psychedelic ensemble the Lucid Dream back in 2013, and we’re not going to change our minds because we’re older and supposedly wiser. The Cold Killer’s freak beat is trippier than Albert Hofmann’s bike ride, more disturbing than a miniature goat playing pachinko, and merely bookmarking the video has caused us possible long-lasting psychological damage.
Empire Of Fools - Devil Inside Is Exeter the rock’n’roll capital of the world? Not yet, but Empire Of Fools are doing their best to bring the devil to Devon with this thumping track. The band will be supporting Wishbone Ash at this year’s Bikers Make A Difference festival in Paignton. Vroom, and indeed, vroom.
