Stags - Sun Bleached Baby
We once described Stags as “like Mother Love Bone meets Clutch meets King’s X”, which some might say is elevating a band into a position from which they can only fall, but Sun Bleached Baby shows no sign of nerves as it slowly gathers momentum before crashing gleefully into your ears. Modern classic rock at its most zesty.
Swedish Death Candy - So Long…
There’s not many bands who release 16-minute singles, but Swedish Death Candy have done exactly that. The band aren’t Swedish at all, but were formed in London, and the aptly titled So Long… is very long indeed. Luckily, however, it’s also very good, mushing together all sorts of wild riffs and spectacular soloing into a monstrous psychedelic freakout of literally awesome proportions.
Black Bombers - Break It Down
Rattling along like Aussie punk legends The Saints, Break It Down sounds like it was chauffeured directly in from 1977 without touching any of the intervening years along the way. As spiky as a room full of cacti, and several times tastier.
Mike Tramp - Stay
Former White Lion and Force Of Nature frontman Mike Tramp seems to have his eyes firmly set on the US market with this latest video, which finds our hero dressed in lumberjack shirt and Davey Crockett hat, performing all sorts of useful outdoorsy tasks. But amidst all the wood chopping lurks a song with a melody as perky as a newborn racoon, and we’re we’re willing to bet that this is the finest heartland Americana to emerge from Copenhagen yet.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - People-Vultures
Australia’s prime purveyors of woozy, delirious psychedelia are back with a track that we’d tell you all about were we not completely in thrall to the accompanying visuals. In this demented video the band find themselves self-driving a giant pink vulture with laser eyes, creating havoc wherever they go. A giant pink vulture with laser eyes! This is probably the greatest video since Thriller.
Idlewar - Out Of My Head
Men with beards are everywhere, not least in Idlewar, but this Californian trio are no mere flat white-drinking hipsters. Beneath their lustrous chin shrubbery they shoot riffs like crazed, bazooka-wielding freedom fighters, rocking their hard rock groove like a tractor teetering atop a cliff. Immense.
Heather - Open My Eyes
Despite a YouTube blurb that rather unfortunately describes Heather as a “young sexy female Ozzy Osbourne,” this acoustic take on Rival Sons’ Open Your Eyes shows she’s carved from much less industrial stone. Heather (her surname remains a mystery) has a fine rock voice, with plenty of soul, and we’ll be keeping an eye on her band, Gypsy Heart. Who may or may not have been named after the Miley Cyrus tour of the same name.
Beastwars - Witches
Beastwars are from the world’s greatest (and windiest) capital city, the port of Wellington at the bottom end of New Zealand’s North Island. The band are so heavy that the Kiwi Government has banned them from travelling to the northern hemisphere, lest our planet should somehow unbalance and shift from its very axis. In this video they’re played by girls.
