Drowners - Cruel Ways ILIYLI

Wesley Fuller - Melvista SCS

Following the relaunch of 1965 Records last year, they have quite the selection of talent on their roster, amongst others: Coves, Black Peaches and one Mr Wesley Fuller. His track Melvista may not be the newest of the new music (a few months old or something) but it is a damn fine song and that is why I have chosen to share it. Straight outta Melbourne, Wesley has made a crackin' pop rock single which I think shows signs of great quality music to come. Make sure to check his Soundcloud on the regular for updates. Enjoy!

Frankie Ballard - Journey To Sonic Ranch YTV

With the recent release of Frankie Ballards third album El Rio, he has made the video below discussing the making of said record. What I found interesting about the story was why he chose to record in El Paso as opposed to the popular and some would say over-saturated Nashville.  Taking a relaxed pace whilst recording records can 9 times out of 10 be a positive thing, it just helps refine and relieve pressure of strict deadlines and improves the quality of the record and gives it an overall chilled vibe. Frankie and the band also stopped off at some legendary studios enroute to bang out some tunes. Really interesting thing. Enjoy!

Kyle Craft KEXP ILIYLI

General Fiasco AS

This months Artist Showcase is a bit of a throw back to the early 10's which (to my grand realisation when researching this piece) right now is well over half a decade ago, boy do I feel old, it truly seems like last week. So the band in question is General Fiasco, a Northern Irish four piece consisting of the brothers Owen and Enda Strathern, Stephen Leacock and Stuart Bell. 

My first experience with them is when I was but a boy and I went to see One Night Only live at a small cramped little venue in Birmingham and who would have thought that ONOs supporting band would have been so good, some would even say they overshadowed the headliner but that's just crazy talk. They did a shortish set of the big tunes as you do and something special stuck with me and I couldn't get them out of my head. They are are still in there bouncing around to this day. 

To date they have only released two albums and boy oh boy what albums they are. Buildings was their first release in 2010 and this was one of those LPs that seemingly never left my CD player. 10 songs of absolute joy and if you hunt around a bit on the internet there is a fantastic acoustic version of Sinking Ships out there. 

Unfaithfully Yours was their second LP released in 2012 and I remember first going into it not knowing what to expect. I should not have been worried because the boys did not disappoint, more of the same quality rock songs with the added bonuses of the occasionally heavier tune. Check out The Age You Start Losing Friends video below. Happy days all round. Lets just hope they come back out of their hiatus soon.

You can stay up to date with the bands goings on HERE so far they seem to post a couple of times a year.

 

WOMPS - Live A Little Less YTV

This week has given me an influx of great new music albums. One of the highlights being the WOMPS LP with the great single Live A Little Less on it. The Scottish two piece has created a perfect piece of garage rock that seems to defy the rules of time by being just under 4 minutes long but in my head it is all over in about a minute. Very fast paced and noisy with the classic combination of drums and guitar, bare bones just how I like it. Enjoy!

Star - Cock Swan SCS

The temperature is rising and the sun is shining here in Manchester and what perfect way to make the situation even better than Cock Swan. Released by Star from what I can only hope is recently (so that I can expect new music on the way) Cock Swan is a fuzzy garage rock little number that shares all the right vibes of bands like Bleached, Tacocat and the like. From what I can gather from the small world of the internet is that their last release was in 2007 and they don't have an official site so I'm going to be keeping one eye on their BandCamp and the other on Saint Maries SoundCloud for any hint of more music. Enjoy!

Beck - Wow YTV

Beck hasn't been away but he is Back! Wow is the new release since the 2014 LP Morning Phase and 'wow' is definitely the word for this tune. A somewhat surprising synthy electronic sound that I am not used to hearing from the main man but I am loving it. I am quite a fan of his previous talented and extremely prolific work and this new single is no different. One of my favourite elements of the song is the lyrics that seem to come in easy and relaxed, with humorous rhymes at times (haha I even did one myself) and despite being a lyric video, it does a great job accentuating the madness. Enjoy!

Twin Peaks - Down In Heaven MA

This is coming only a few days late, but you know what they say 'better late than never'...... Anyways onto the feature. May has yet again been another fantastical month for music as I am sure everyone has grown to expect. Even on the quietest of months great LPs are made. Classics have been released from Spookyland, Nothing, The So So Glos, Outer Spaces and more. You can check out my full May playlist HERE

Kicking things off is my third favourite of the month, one Oscar with his debut Cut And Paste. A bit of a surprise hit for me, I was not sure what to expect when I started to listen to the album but I was pleasantly shocked at how great and high quality the music is. In terms of a first album, or even any album, this is definitely a strong hitter. Check out the absolutely banging single Daffodil Days below.

My second place LP is perhaps unsurprisingly the sophomore from the Catfish & The Bottlemen boys. I am a tremendous fan of their first album from 2014 and The Ride is more of the same. Just top level rock and roll tunes that are made for stadiums as well as the backstreet dive bars. Check out the soon to be club classic 7 below.

My numero uno album has to be Down In Heaven by the awesome Twin Peaks. This was probably the one album I was most hotly anticipating this month since Wild Onion was seared into my brain as an instant classic back in 2014. And boy oh boy I was not disappointed, 13 tracks of pure joy that seemed to flow by my ears with such ease that before I knew it, it had finished so back to the start I went. Below is Butterfly, on of the albums big hitters amongst 12 others. Check it out and go buy the album HERE. 

Dinosaur Jr - Tiny YTV

Fresh out of the gates with a bang is this new track from Dinosaur Jr. Tiny is off of the bands upcoming LP Give A Glimpse of What Yer Not which is out in just over 2 weeks. I have been a big fan of DJ for a few years now and J. Mascis' latest solo album was one of my favourites from 2014. So it is no surprise that I am pleased of the new music from these guys. It is the same great quality that I have grown to expect from their previous work. Enjoy this extremely informative video!