Bloody hell, it’s Friday already! Last week’s winners were The Answer, closely followed by Joanne Shaw Taylor with Baiju Dharmajan feat. Girish Pradhan in third place. But who will you pick this time in our Tracks Of The Week? Have a listen then cast your vote at the foot of this page, and we’ll announce the victor next week. Peace out, live long and prosper, party on Wayne (party on Garth…) etc.
Pink Floyd – Grantchester Meadows
When Pink Floyd weren’t discovering the dark side of the moon, or sending hammers marching in formation, they sung of more pastoral things like trees and splashing kingfishers. Or at least they did in this newly released video for the lovely Roger Waters-penned Grantchester Meadows. Sooo 1969… And isn’t Gilmour’s hair long?
Saxon – Wheels Of Steel (live in Munich)
“Bit of 1980s rock and roll!” crieth Biff Byford, before he and South Yorkshire’s finest dive into a monstrously satisfying Wheels Of Steel – filmed last year in Munich, or “in fucking Deutschland” as Biff proclaims. What they lack in German language skills they make up for in sheer riffy heft. Nice.
Gov’t Mule – Just Got Paid
The Mule do a tasty, slightly beefier version of ZZ Top’s Just Got Paid, accompanied here by a animated video featuring a cartoon Warren Haynes playing surrounded by flying money (apparently he just got paid) and a bar full of drunkards, darts players and clouds of smoke. Think Betty Boop crossbred with Popeye, at a Southern rock jam night. Sounds weird. Is actually very cool.
Baroness – Try To Disappear
Battered by a dramatic bus crash, but by no means defeated, Georgia foursome Baroness came back on fighting form with last year’s Purple – from which this brooding slab of fuzzy heft is taken, complete with brand new video. Pensive, powerful stuff.
Deap Vally – Gonnawanna
Lovely garagey, surfy rock from Los Angeles duo Deap Vally – in which modern life gets a lyrical grilling, and a pink gorilla man/woman dances on a beach (in the video that is; we don’t know if they actually wrote it with a pink gorilla man/woman in mind). Parallels with the riot grrrl movement are justified, but it’s their knack for hooky tunes and guitar you can sink your teeth into that really sticks out.
The Midnight Barbers – Hey Master
There’s a mermaid gimp suit in this stylish new video (a darkly arty but fun affair from up-and-coming director Rose Glass). But that’s not the only reason you should check out Hey Master: the music itself is pretty ace too. A bluesy, guttural piece of garage-laced oomph, it’s another appetising taste from a duo worth keeping an eye out for.
Stags – The Man Who Can
There’s a gorgeously louche late 60s/early 70s quality to this highlight from Stags’ brand new EP Night Time Voices. Close your eyes and it’s all bluesy, sun-kissed rock’n’roll with a side of gentle psychedelia. Classy stuff from a very promising act. Catch them live at the Lock Tavern in Camden, London on September 8.
Kyle Gass Band – Bro Code
And now for something completely different: the bro code, in pretty folk-tinged form, with strings and a chest-beating rock crescendo. There’s a lot about Gass’s solo guise that’s very reminiscent of his ‘choons with Jack Black in Tenacious D (grown-up music, not-so-grownup lyrics) but with more gear shifts and galloping. Altogether now, “the breaking of the bro code is forbidden, that is what we bros decree”. YEAH.
