Sun, 12-31-17 Columbus, OH at Express Live
Author: Nik Havert
The Damned’s Paul Gray rejoins the band in time to record their new album.


Costello, Burt Bacharach, Bryan Ferry and Brandon Flowers.
Formed in 1976, The Damned really need no introduction… As well as releasing the first ever British punk single and album, they also broke further new ground as the first UK punk act to tour America. The Damned still receive their dues in the US, where they are often cited as a major influence on many future rock acts, including bastions of the nascent US hardcore scene such as Black Flag and Bad Brains plus heavy metal heavyweights such as Green Day, The Offspring and Guns ’N’ Roses. The band recently celebrated four decades together with a deluxe reissues package and a world tour.
Slow Magic releases another hot single – “Drum.”
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Live: Buddy Guy and Quinn Sullivan – Elkhart, IN – September 09, 2017
My wife and I caught Buddy Guy at the Lerner Theatre in Elkhart, Indiana. It was our first show at the Lerner, even though we’ve lived a 30-minute drive from Elkhart for over 20 years. I don’t know how this happened, but we got some good seats (after a ticket mix-up at the box office) and settled in for the opener – 17-year-old blues guitarist wunderkind Quinn Sullivan.

Sullivan first played on stage with Buddy Guy when he was seven years old. He shreds like he’s been playing for far longer than seventeen years. He played a few cuts from his three albums, as well as a cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing.”
Buddy Guy came out to meet a rowdy crowd (many of whom had done plenty of pre-game drinking) and got right down to business by breaking a guitar string on the first note.

Once a replacement guitar was brought to him, he proceeded to shred through “Damn Right I Got the Blues” and then played around with classics like “Rock Me Baby,” “Fever,” “Hoochie Coochie Man,” and “Who’s Making Love to Your Old Lady?”
Guy had plenty of fun stories as well, including one lively rant about genetically engineered chickens and tomatoes (“When I was a kid, a tomato was like cotton. You could make a sandwich out of it. Now you get a tomato and you could play baseball with it.”) and how you should buy produce that still has bugs on it (“Because it hasn’t been sprayed with stuff you shouldn’t eat.”).
One wild part of the show was when he played a guitar solo using a drum stick and a shirt.

Trust me, it worked. It worked quite well, in fact. He was flailing his guitar with a T-shirt and playing Cream riffs while doing it. He also walked through the crowd, shredding and singing the whole time.
He brought his son, Greg Guy, and Quinn Sullivan back onstage for the end. His back-up band was, just like the last time I saw him, killer. They can play seemingly any tune and stop on a dime. Greg Guy and Sullivan played along during Buddy’s hit “Feels Like Rain” and then tore through Clapton and Hendrix covers to end the show.

The show was close to three hours total, and a fun performance that had everyone cheering and hollering. Buddy Guy is eighty-one years old now, so don’t miss him if he comes close. He’ll probably tour until he drops dead, but make sure you see him shred. There aren’t many living legends anymore.
Keep your mind open.
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Levitation Austin festival to return in 2018.
File this under: Best News You’ve Heard Today. Austin, Texas’ annual Levitation Festival returns April 26-29, 2018.
The flagship Levitation festival (the others are in Chicago, Vancouver, British Columbia, and Angers, France) was cancelled this year after the organizers, the Reverb Appreciation Society, took a heavy loss due to the 2016 Austin festival being cancelled due to storms and flooding. Make up shows were quickly scheduled, but many attendees got shut out of those thanks to ruthless ticket scalpers. The RAS bounced back a bit this year with their Angers festival, but fans hoped the Chicago, Austin, and Vancouver shows would return soon.
There’s no word on the Chicago festival (which is usually the first of the four and held in early spring), but the announcement of the Austin festival’s return is great news and a good omen for the other Levitation shows.
Tickets for Austin aren’t on sale yet, but don’t wait too long to score them. The demand will be greater than normal. See you there.
Keep your mind open.
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Goodbye Honolulu – No Honey
Toronto garage / psych-rockers Goodbye Honolulu (Max Bornstein – drums, Fox Martindale – guitar and vocals, Jacob Switzer – guitar, bass, and vocals, Emmett Webb – guitar, bass, and vocals) bring infectious energy on their debut EP No Honey.
The EP is five fast tunes starting with the catchy, bass heavy hit “Back to Me” – a clever song about the lead singer realizing everyone he knows hates him. He’s on a quest for the good ole days when he wasn’t such a hipster elitist, even if that means he’ll just be “drinking beer and smoking lots of weed.”
“Mother to a Brother” hits hard like a long lost Weezer B-side. The guitars on “Where You Wanna Go” somehow blend garage rock with a bit of reggae chops during the verses.
The title of “Bloody Hands” seems appropriate for how hard the entire band plays on it. It reminds me of early Wavves tracks with its slight surf-vibe. “Typical” closes the EP with jangly psychedelia as the singer laments his routine of loser behaviors such as drinking too much and then calling a former lover.
No Honey is too short, but so are all good EPs. They leave you wanting more. Say hello to Goodbye Honolulu (Am I the first to make that bad joke?).
Keep your mind open.
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Elephant Stone’s “Remix of Fools” now available for pre-order.
Montreal’s Elephant Stone have a remix album of their Ship of Fools record, entitled Remix of Fools, now available for pre-order. Two of the tracks are instant downloads once you pre-order the full album.
PRE-ORDER the EP today and get instant downloads of both singles: http://smarturl.it/RemixOfFools
WATCH ‘Love Is Like A Spinning Wheel’ (Xavier Boyer Remix) here: https://youtu.be/teO4UmdGLLQ
WATCH ‘The Devil’s Shelter’ (Young Galaxy Remix) here: https://youtu.be/_cpXRAjRT-U
Don’t forget to catch them on tour across Europe! Paris, Leicester and an Acid House Ragas (check out this live recording) London date just added!
9/17 Paris, FR @ SuperSonic FREE/GRATUIT FB EVENT
9/25 Leicester, UK @ The Soundhouse
9/26 London, UK @ The Social FREE | FB EVENT (Acid House Ragas only)
9/28 Arta, GR @ Miles Bar


Kauf’s new single, “Limestone,” is out now.
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ORB releases new single, “A Man in the Sand,” ahead of upcoming album due October 6th.
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Rewind Review: The Moonlandingz – Expanded (2015)
The Moonlandingz started as a bit of a joke between Sean Lennon and members of Fat White Family when then created a fictional band. That band got so much hype that art turned into reality and the Moonlandingz released Expanded in 2015.
The EP starts with the instrumental “Exorcise Your Mammary Eyes,” which I think is code for “Stop staring at my tits.” A Sean Lennon “de-mix” of “Sweet Saturn Mine” (one of the Moonlandingz biggest hits so far) is next, and the slowing of what is normally a fast, brash tune only highlights the creepiness of the lyrics (which are mostly about having sex while you’re high). “Lay Yer Head Down on the Road” is almost a carnival midway song about getting high to escape reality, even though such an action might be a bad idea.
“Blow Football with J. Carpenter” sounds like something John Carpenter would brew up on his home synthesizers. It’s creepy and futuristic at the same time. “Psych Ersatz” is equally strange, mixing images of spooky things in the shadows with psychedelic loops, beats, and echoed vocals.
The EP ends with “The Man in the Lyfe Suite – Parts 1, 2, and 3.” It’s a wild trip full of fuzzed out guitars, frantic vocals, and rollercoaster beats and loops.
Expanded was a nice appetizer for their full-length follow-up, Interplanetary Class Classics (one of my favorite albums of 2017 so far). Both are well worth your time.
Keep your mind open.
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