Another tough week in the rock’n’roll mines is over, and this week’s seam of gold belongs to These Wicked Rivers, whose recent single Sing Another Song (featuring Kezia Gill) received enough support to ensure it rode into the sunset victorious.
Sari Schorr’s Mr In The Middle came in second, while Spiders’ Creature Of The Night managed to clamber onto the bottom rung of the ladder.
This week’s UFC of rock music is now underway. Check out the combatants below, and vote for your favourite at the foot of the page.
HOL1D4Y – Autonomatic
“It’s a word I came up with by combining the words: autonomy and automatic.” says Rival Sons guitar-hero-in-chief Scott Holiday, explaining the title of this latest single from his solo project. “Autonomatic: The built-in or intrinsic desire for autonomy.” Accompanied by a fittingly psychedelic, mixed-media video, Autonomatic offers another enticing taste of first HOL1D4Y album, Topology (out next month and highly recommended), playing out like a riffy, cinematic trip into the desert. Shweeet.
Joyous Wolf – In Your Shadow
When these guys parted ways with livewire, back-flipping singer Nick Reese (due to “creative differences”) we wondered if that was it for the punchy, commanding young Californians we first fell for around 2018. So we’re happy to find them on fighting form with this heart-warming highlight from their just-released album In Between, with new frontman Pedro Cordeiro bringing a gravelly, Chris Cornell-infused soulfulness to the mix. Straight-shooting in a good way.
Joanne Shaw Taylor – The Girl That You Loved Before
Gorgeous Telecaster tones, husky, soul-flecked pop and rock’n’roll abound in this latest chapter in JST’s current hot streak (this appears on her second album in two years, The Trouble With Love, coming out in October). Lush bluesy solo, too – Jo’s still very much a Stevie Ray Vaughan-raised blueser at heart, on the guitar front, though as TGTYLB reflects, her voice and melodies keep her in more cosmopolitan territory.
Girish & The Chronicles – Disintegrate
On this moody, oomphy newbie, Indian hard rockers Girish & The Chronicles swap their hair metal heft and 80s Sunset Strip opulence for grungier sensibilities with some proggy metal bass twangs. Still packs a simple-yet-effective punch though (“this would happily live on my gym playlist,” one colleague remarked), complete with a flashy guitar solo that harks back to their leather-jacketed roots.
Eddie 9V – Whole Lot Coming For You
Taking flight with Freddie King-laced fire and landing on the right side of ramshackle, the Atlanta singer/guitarist mixes up a hot cocktail of blues, Southern soul and headshaking vintage rock’n’roll. Feels like it belongs in a different era, in a totally fun way – the kind of bluesy jam that makes you want to grab the nearest axe and join in. Not hard to believe that it was one Eddie’s favourite tracks to cut, when he made its parent album, Down Here, with Black Keys man Dan Auerbach.
Earth Tongue – Dimly Lit Cadaver
Returning to their B-movie horror roots with the brilliantly titled Dimly Lit Cadaver and a video shot in the actual Swiss Alps, this might be the finest release yet from New Zealand psych-fuzz duo Earth Tongue. It includes some stellar riffing from Gussie Larkin – especially the section with the extra grunt that steams in at 2’35” accompanied by some strange burbling – and brilliantly propulsive drumming from Ezra Simons. Throw in Larkin’s spooky, pagan-chant vocal stylings, and you get the perfect soundtrack for your next coven AGM.
Graveyard – A Means To An End
These Swedish rockers strap on their biggest, stompiest boots for this taste of their forthcoming album, the spicily titled Fever. Fierce, fuzz-heavy and full of ragged punch, A Means To An End finds them swapping woozy retro trappings for a heavier, more straight-shooting approach. Still alluring, still old-soul Sabbathian cool, but now it’s all kicking off on the dirtier, dicier side of their proverbial musical town.
De Staat – The Underdog
And now for a curveball. Offbeat, contorted and expansive, the Dutch art rockers’ return after two years gains another shot of momentum with this industrial mini-epic. The Underdog builds and builds over cascades of high, eerie organ and vocals, cavernous beats and thunderous basslines – sort of like Rammstein at a rave with glowsticks, descending into a kind of dystopian nightmare, but really this is very much its own, enigmatic thing. A compellingly odd but hooky taste of their upcoming self-titled album. This divided opinions in the office, and it’ll probably do so among you good folks. But isn’t that the point sometimes?
(LouderSound)
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