It's that time again. Let this week's Rock explode like a cannon, right in our faces!
**Grand Design – Rawk’N’Roll Heart Attack ** “Beware!!! The eighties are here!!!!!!”, say Grand Design, reinforcing the strength of their conviction by using no less than nine (NINE!) exclamation marks. They’re from Sweden (we seem to have a Swedish band every week) and sound like Def Leppard, all big and sleek and shiny.
Balduin - Change Continuing the international theme, we’d like to introduce you to Balduin, who comes from Bern in Switzerland. It’s very sixties, very psychedelic, but in a sweet pop way rather than a noisy way. Pass the lava lamp.
Henry’s Funeral Shoe - Janice The Stripper Pt 1 Corrr we like this song. As HFS man Aled Clifford told us, “I always imagine strippers to be quite aggressive”; certainly from this iron-clad devil of a blues rock’n’roller, old Janice must have been bloody terrifying. Fab.
Devon Allman - Half The Truth According to Devon ‘Son Of Gregg’ Allman, “half the truth is still a lie.” Weeell, technically it’s a half-truth. Anyway, the overriding bluesy stomp n’ roll at work here is considerably more optimistic.
John Fairhurst - Breakdown John is from Bristol, and the owner of one of the deepest voices we’ve ever heard, like Captain Beefheart but even more so. In this growly blues performance he sings about the bottom of the ocean, and that’s how deep his voice is. The video is weird, like a a cross between an episode of The Sweeney and Smack My Bitch Up.
The Picturebooks - PCH Diamond Garage rock, actually played in a garage, this two-piece follow their Teutonic brethren Zodiac with a greasy, groovy blues-rock thumper. Their album, Imaginary Horse, is out October 6, and you can catch ‘em at Camden Black Heart on November 11.
**Helix - _Even Jesus (Wasn’t Loved In His Home Town) _ Canadian metal veterans Helix were formed in 1974, but they’re still rockin’. EJ(WLIHHT) is from new album Bastard of the Blues, which is the follow-up to Vagabond Bones, which was originally titled It’s Rock Science, NOT Rocket Science!, which is one of the greatest unused album titles ever. Why would you change such a thing? **
Stevie Nicks - Watch Chain Here’s Stevie Nicks, back with a tribute to Mick Fleetwood. We tried to make a Venn diagram that explained all the various relationships in Fleetwood Mac, but then we ran out of paper. It’s very complicated.
