This week’s selection of The Best New Music Available To Mankind™ features all sorts of unsettling video content designed to distract the keen listener from paying attention to the actual tunes: torture, murder, naked women, naked men, and a nice chap singing a song on a roller coaster. It’s probably best we get started…
Anthrax - Blood Eagle Wings
Our old chums at Anthrax actually built a torture chamber for this video, an eight minute tribute to the brutality of progress that features all sorts of nasty goings-on. Highlights included a man whose entrails are literally ripped from his quivering body, so it’s probably NSFW unless you work in an abattoir or teach at Serial Killer College.
LTNT - Oh Drag
With a riff so distorted it’ll twist your arteries, Oh Drag thunders along the line that separates sludge from grunge in fairly spectacular fashion. The video features lots of the sort of excessive behaviour that boisterous young men in bands get up to, including a moment at 3’39” that’s probably NSFW unless you work in the proctology department of a busy hospital.
Yuma Sun - Violets To Stone
“There are many references to the apocalypse and to death in our songs,” says Yuma Sun frontman Jaran Hereid, and this is borne out by the Norwegian band’s disturbing new video, which features a bout of coitus in which the male participant is killed, some clearly supernatural activity, and a naked crucifixion. Ergo, it’s probably NSFW unless you’re an intern at a particularly bloodthirsty religious cult. Musically speaking: think an evil Lloyd Cole crossed with an American Bad Seeds. Bonus fact: The Yuma Sun is a newspaper in Arizona.
Sserpress - My Only Friend
Sounding like an outtake from Nirvana’s Bleach crossed with early Killing Joke, My Only Friend is the debut single from East London wildmen Sserpress (Ooh, look! A palindrome!), and it’s receiving its Internet premiere right here. The band describe themselves as “Black Sabbath riding BMXs,” which is thrilling enough, but the track is even more thrilling, with chaos and mayhem colliding to quite delicious effect.
Lee Aaron - Tom Boy
The last time this particular writer witnessed the glory of Lee Aaron, she was supporting Bon Jovi at London’s Dominion Theatre back in 1985. And 30 years on, while she’s never really been away, she’s definitely back back BACK, romping through the extremely catchy Tom Boy like she’s a hard-rockin’ Toni Basil. The video features several children in the musicianly roles, and everyone appears to be having the time of their lives. Bonus points for rhyming “old school rock” with “poppycock”.
The Posies - Squirrel vs Snake
Back in 1993 The Posies released one of the greatest power pop albums ever, Frosting On The Beater, and while the band have never quite reached such giddy heights since, this free download from new album Solid States gives us great hope that at least they’re clambering in the right direction. 50% grit, 50% glitter, all good.
Phil Martin - Bitter And Twisted
Way back in the mists of time, Classic Rock’s Editor At Large Geoff “Geoff” Barton described Phil Martin’s Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark album as having “a clear Kevin Ayers/Canterbury vibe, gentle subversion being key to the appeal…”, and we’re delighted to reveal that Phil has finally got round to making a video for one of that album’s highlights. Bitter And Twisted was filmed at the Whitby Pavillion on the Yorkshire coast, a building that also plays host to the bi-annual Whitby Goth Weekend.
The Rides - Virtual World
“We’re just in it for the music and we’re having a ball.” So says guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd, member of a supergroup that bucks recent trends by featuring members who actually have their own Wikipedia pages: the great Stephen Stills, the great Barry Goldberg, and the great Chris Layton. This piece of hazy, honey-dappled blues is plucked from the band’s second album, Virtual World.
