Duncan Reid and the Big Heads – Bombs Away
Kicking off in style with ‘Can’t Stop’ Duncan Reid and the
Big Heads are laying their stall out for all to see.
Think Helen Love if they managed to get within sniffing
distance of a real recording studio and you’re in the ball park.
No offence to Helen Love. Love that lo-fi pop trash, but
yeah, they would definitely swap their zx spectrums for a slice of this.
It’s a magnificent start, but before you know it you are
neck deep in album title track ‘Bombs Away’ and it’s a mighty glitter bomb of a
terrace stomping glam tune.
Please release it as a single and make a seventies pastiche
video for it while you are at it Mr Reid.
We need the flairs and the mock top of the pops studio. We definitely
need woollen tank tops and platform boots too.
Shangabloodylang pop pickers.
Two tracks in and the party has started.
There’s no stopping them.
No one should be surprised though.
Three albums into their career and the band quite literally
haven’t put a foot wrong.
The two released prior to Bombs Away sound like greatest
hits packages, and they have done it again.
Every single track could, and should, be a single.
In the alternative world that exists in my head, the one
that I often find preferable to real life, these guys are dominating the
charts.
They’re on the news as the BBC film them getting off of a
private jumbo jet to hordes of screaming fans that have brought the airport to
a standstill.
It’s Big Head Mania.
They are in the middle of a ballpark and you can’t hear them
for the screaming.
‘Let’s skip to the good bit’. It’s a song that is ambrosia
for the ears.
This can be the flip side of Bombs Away on the double A
sided single.
I’m writing a letter to Santa saying that I’ve been good and
it’s all I want this Christmas.
To get the point across about how good this release is it
has to be said that as far as quality goes it is relentless.
Every single song without exception is a classic in waiting.
There are fourteen of them too.
While some bands struggle to hold the attention of even
their most hardcore fans over the length of an ep this album demands your
attention, and demands it in the best possible way.
It’s not even half way through the year and it is going to
take something very special indeed being released to knock this off the top of
a personal best album of the year list.
It’s a solid chunk of power pop magnificence from start to
finish.
PWR BTTM - Pageant
With their debut ‘Ugly Cherries’ quickly grabbing attention
outside the niche scene that spawned them, the band PWR BTTM had a coming out
party like no other.
In so many ways it felt like the world was ready for change and
they were going to deliver a big shiny and glittery calling card screaming that
they were here and here to stay.
With their infectious, weezer-esque pop punk tunes they had
set their stall out and people loved what they were offering.
Now all they had to do was live up to the promise of that,
and with Pageant they didn’t.
Instead they jumped much further ahead than was expected.
If people were looking for an Ugly Cherries 2.0 they will
still be acclimatizing themselves to Pageant.
Everything from the debut that fans loved is still in place,
but the songs sound supercharged.
It’s an evolution in progress at a speed that we can all
participate in.
Who knows where the difficult third album will take us, but
for now Pageant is a luxurious, but also deeply personal, indulgence that is
recommended.
The socio political angle can’t be ignored either.
As the world appears to be slipping back a step or two when
it comes to equality rights for many it needs its champions.
It needs people who will make their presence felt.
It doesn’t necessarily have to come from a platform, or from
a protest march, but from the artists like PWR BTTM who will deliver a message
via their art.
All over the world Pageant will slip unnoticed into
households and open eyes to another world.
A world where what is considered normal is challenged. A
world that highlights that under the clothing, under the masks people wear,
under the labels given and those clutched at, that we are all just people. We
are all simply people trying to get through the day. People working on how we
fit in with our families, with our friends, and in the general the world about
us.
And that’s not a bad thing because Vive le difference!
The party is here. You can join us or pretend it’s not
happening, but the music will play on regardless.Website
Bandcamp
(Currently PWR BTTM have been dropped by their label and their management team.
Two members of the touring band have left and other acts who were booked to support the band have withdrawn from the live engagements.
This is the reaction to allegations against band member Ben.
Allegedly he has sexually assaulted some individuals and is being classed by many as a sexual predator.
It would be very easy to consider that there is no smoke without fire.
Especially as those surrounding the band publicly cut them loose, but I am of the opinion that everyone is innocent until proven guilty and right now as this review goes live no proof whatsoever has been provided to substantiate the allegations.
If that proof does come to light then of course that changes everything.
It is not my position to defend anyone that abuses others.
It is also not my position to castigate anyone, famous or not, based on unsubstantiated allegations.)
(Video updated to feature one from Ugly Cherries as Pageant videos have been pulled from YouTube)
(Video updated to feature one from Ugly Cherries as Pageant videos have been pulled from YouTube)
Southern Approach – Restitution
A new wave of goth inspired rock?
The jury has contemplated the charges laid before them and unanimously found Southern Approach as guilty.
Damn guilty of wallowing in the birthing pool that gave us The Cult, Gene Loves Jezebel, Sisters of Mercy, The Mission, and every other kohl eyed guitar slinging band that did the rounds back in the eighties.
It’s not that Restitution is a nostalgia smash and grab party though.
There are plenty of punky guitar and rock elements that proliferate throughout that puts that notion to bed.
It’s an album that has very obviously been recorded in the present, a release that very carefully avoids sounding as if it is an unearthed gem from yesteryear.
It’s also has to be said that is material that wouldn’t be comfortable residing on the small stages of the clubs as it is obviously designed to order for stadiums.
The big grand sound is back, and it’s dressed in black.
Unfortunately for fans of this genre, new and old, they are not going to have Southern Approach coming to them.
Either on a small or large stage, and if the need arises then they will have to come to the band.
This is not due to any arrogance on their part though. It’s simply the nature of the beast. Southern Approach, as a project, was the result of old friends getting back together to address unfinished business.
They were a group of individuals that became the big fish in a small local pond and should have, could have, been destined for something more, but then life got in the way.
It’s a tale as old as time itself, but one that many don’t get to add a happy ending to.
So with that in mind they, to use a cliché ‘got the band back together’ and Restitution is the result.
There have already been some well received outings for the band, and other dates will happen, maybe even more recording, but the intent was never to chase anything more than what it is, and that is friends making music.
Any plaudits that come forth are just the icing on the cake for them.
That being said the future is indeed unwritten.
So maybe everything will change again.
At one time the notion of a Southern Approach album being recorded would have seemed fanciful.
And yet here it is.
For everyone who dared to dream here is the proof that they can be manifested into existence.
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