Well done rock bands; you’ve made our job very difficult (and fun) this week by releasing lots of first-class stuff. Nice one. We can’t include it all here, alas, but below is a selection of our favourites...
Howlin’ Rain – The Wild Boys
We’re loving this swirling, sunkissed new single from Ethan Miller and his merry men – taken from fifth album, Alligator Bride, which is out June 8. Eight crescendoing minutes of beautifully weathered, swampy rock’n’roll, it grows from pretty americana into the kind of cosmic fuzzed-up jam that’d make The Grateful Dead smile.
David Ford – Real Damn Slow
Time now for something bluesy and slow, ‘real damn slow’, courtesy of British troubadour David Ford. This has a more-ish ‘olde blues’ appeal – languid in its pace but sharp in its grooviness and splashes of harmonica and brass – while retaining real intimacy.
Tequila Mockingbyrd – Tell Me
The Anglo-Aussie trio have two new members (only founding drummer Josie remains from the original line-up) and sound ready to take on the world, armed with this boot-stomping blast of swaggering, hair-throwing rock’n’roll. Check ‘em out live in the UK in June.
Mos Generator – Shadowlands
Now for something appetising from a group of riffy, stoney rockers in Port Orchard, Washington. Shadowlands, taken from the album of the same name (due on sale 11 May), is a little bit Sabbath, a little bit Monster Magnet, and a lot of fun. And you can dance to it. All good things, in our book.
Sex Blender – Diver
These tripped-out Ukrainians have put sex in a blender, and it sounds way less painful than you’d imagine. In fact, it’s super cool and colourful. After just under 14 minutes of freaky bluesiness and tasty psychedelic hoodoo, we were singing its praises and wishing we had ‘Sex Blender’ T-shirts (with the snazzy artwork from new digital album Hormonizer, from which this is taken).
The Record Company – Life To Fix
Wahoo! The LA blues’n’roll trio are back with a new album, All Of This Life (on sale June 22), and the first single is really good! We first saw these guys supporting Blackberry Smoke in London (they went down a storm) and have enjoyed their slick yet loose take on rootsy rock since. Welcome back, fellas.
Ryders Creed – Headspace
A tight shot of no-nonsense hard rock gusto from British five-piece Ryders Creed. Drawing from classic rock greats in a way that echoes the likes of Monster Truck, it builds up to some nicely face-melting lead guitar action, all hanging from a big, badass main riff and classy lead vocals.
Oh Maddie – Oh Maddie
Enjoy the likes of the White Stripes and The Graveltones, at their darkest? Check out the eponymous new single by Chelmsford garage-blues noiseniks Oh Maddie, with its commanding, stompy blues hook, Tom Waits-nodding vocals and cracking stop-motion video – starring blue moose, and moose heads (cuter than it sounds). Nice.
