Music was our first love, and music is our last. Music of the future, and music of the pa… No, actually, it’s just the music of the future. Please enjoy this week’s rockin’ roundup of coming-soon excellence.
Pop Evil - Footsteps Grunge my have lost out to hair metal in our recent Thursday Death Match, but the former’s influence never ceases to wain. Footsteps comes from the Pop Evil’s forthcoming Up album, which they describe as “the sound of a rock band cementing a powerful identity that’s steadily materialised over the course of three prior full-length slabs”. We like the word “slab” used in this context, so may well get up early to watch the band play the Main Stage at Download on June 14.
Jim Jones & The Righteous Mind - 1000 Miles From The Sure At the end of 2014, the Jim Jones Revue played their last show of a rollicking, seven-year garage-rock run. Sad times. But now Jones is back with a slinky new beast - The Righteous Mind. This first peep into their world is a sultry voodoo ballad, all shadowy vixens, smoke filled crypts and dark, mystical depths. Like a soundtrack to ‘65 Hammer Horror romance She, with added Indonesian Bud.
Backyard Babies- Th1rt3en Or Nothing The Kings of Swedish sleaze are back with a new single, and very good it is too, starting off with a country-blues shuffle before taking off like a jet-powered grizzly bear made out of weapons-grade titanium. It features bits that ascend, bits that descend, an immense amount of cowbell, and it rocks like a demented Weeble.
The Strypes - Get Into It A couple of years ago these baby-faced Irish boys were rock’s marmite. Some loved them for their devout preservation of 60s blues/70s pub rock, while others hated them for much the same reason. Are they capable of something beyond high-quality copycat rock? We’d say so, based on this.
Russkaja - Rock’n’Roll Today Russkaja are a Russian “turbo polka” band from Vienna, and while that might not sound like the kind of thing we’d normally cover, this song sounds like Gogol Bordello playing Eurovision punk, and it’s enormous amounts of fun. Also: they’re also signed to Napalm Records, so they clearly have rock running through their Russian/Austrian/Jamaican blood.
Von Hertzen Brothers - Hold Me Up It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that all music videos are improved by balloons, pretty lighting, and a cuddly white tiger. The feelgood single from these Finnish siblings features all these things, plus a heap of other happy-making japes. The perfect song to sing you into the weekend.
Lucifer – Purple Pyramid According to Encyclopaedia Metallum, there are eight bands called Lucifer. We think they should all play together at one festival. It’d have to be called Lucifest or Beezlebubstock or something, there’d be lots of pyro, and it would be great. In case you’re wondering, this Lucifer are from Berlin, and we think they’d probably headline, such is their demonic demeanour.
Johnny Wore Black - Comfy Slippers If you caught Games Of Thrones this week, you may have spotted Jonathan Cohen, a.k.a. Johnny Wore Black, appearing as one of the Wildings alongside surprise musical guests Mastodon. For Johnny is a stunt performer, having stunted his way through movies like The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Dark Knight Rises and the forthcoming Dad’s Army. And now he’s got a music project, and he’s roped in a surprise musical guest of his own — Megadeth’s David Ellefson — to assist with things. “Johnny Wore Black definitely has it,” says David.
