Failure have announced a North American tour in support of their recently released, widely-praised sixth album, Wild Type Droid.
Ken Andrews said of the live outings: “I have not been this excited to bring new material to the stage since Fantastic Planet. Prepare yourself for an out-of-body experience.”
The dates, which kick off on June 2 in San Diego and run for five weeks before culminating in a hometown show at Los Angeles’ Regent Theatre, are on-sale today at 10 am local time. All shows will open with a special preview of the forthcoming Failure documentary.
Wild Type Droid (https://failure.ffm.to/wildtypedroid) arrived in December via the band’s own label, Failure Music. Rolling Stone called the 10-song collection “incredibly expansive,” Guitar World described the album as “one of the most inspiring alternative guitar records to arrive in 2021,” and Paste Magazine said the trio “make a career-defining statement.”
“To me, it captures a lot of the new musical approaches and techniques we were going for on this album, but somehow is still quintessential Failure,” Ken Andrews explained as news of the album was revealed. “We’ve been together long enough to know that some of our best ideas come directly from these experimental sessions. For this album, we simply cultivated that methodology for a much longer time than we have in the past. It brought out the trio aspect of the band. There was a feeling we could really push the individual parts further away from each other and let the more interesting and challenging combinations take center stage.”
Failure is Ken Andrews (vocals, guitar, bass, programming), Greg Edwards (vocals, guitar, bass, keys), and Kellii Scott (drums, percussion). Forming in early ‘90s Los Angeles, the trio have released six albums: Comfort (1992), Magnified (1994), Fantastic Planet (1996), The Heart Is A Monster (2015), In The Future Your Body Will Be the Furthest Thing from Your Mind (a series of EPs released as an album in 2018), and Wild Type Droid (2021). The group is considered one of the era’s most influential rock bands with Vice, in an all-encompassing retrospective upon the band’s return saying: “While many of their contemporaries became prolific by releasing an ungodly amount of materials, Failure’s [initial] three-record catalog is minuscule, but just as important in terms of content, style, and music texture.”
Formed by the members of the beloved and now defunct New York post-punk band Pill and their NYC underground peers Eaters, P.E. have been trafficking in boundary-pushing, dystopian grooves since the release of their mesmerizing first single “Top Ticket” in 2019. Collaborating with artists like Parquet Courts, Xiu Xiu and Liars, the band have developed a growing cult following that has continued expanding as they come to broader attention with the release of their first LP Person, in 2020 and last year’s The Reason For My Love EP, which have earned praise from outlets like Stereogum, BrooklynVegan, Bandcamp, The Guardian (who had the EP’s title track on their 2021 Best Songs You Haven’t Heard list) and Pitchfork (who had the EP on their list of Great Records From 2021 You May Have Missed). Today, the band are returning to announce their most fully-realized artistic statement to date, an album called The Leather Lemon that will be released on the buzzing Brooklyn label Wharf Cat Records (Palberta, Water From Your Eyes, Lily Konigsberg) on March 25th, and sharing that album’s first single “Blue Nude (Reclined)” which is premiering today on FADER.
LISTEN: to P.E. – “Blue Nude (Reclined)” on YouTube // FADER
Writing about the band’s last single The Guardian said that P.E. channel “the fidgety, dark, and inescapably danceable sound of Mudd Club-era, underground bands like Bush Tetras, the Contortions and ESG,” and this latest single feels like a further refinement of that direction. Their sound is far from a retread however, as they process the sounds of the 70s and 80s Lower East Side through the filter of contemporary influences and recording techniques, using surprising building blocks to create something that is as effective as pop music as it is forward-looking.
“This was one of the first songs we wrote for the new record, shortly after settling ourselves mentally & physically around the country,” singer Veronica Torres says of the song. “With all of our tour plans scrapped in the initial wave of the pandemic, the five of us decided to put our energies into writing new material for the next record, trading files back and forth in order to shape our new sound. “Blue Nude” quickly became an inspiration for the rest of The Leather Lemon – something that foregrounded both the song and the sound, as fun as it was abstract.”
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P.E.‘s sophomore album, The Leather Lemon (Wharf Cat Records, out March 25, 2022), ushers in a new era for the New York band. A wild ride through chewy bubblegum pop, sweeping synthetic orchestrations, and mutant club beats, the album slides ever closer to the fully-realized pop sensibility only winked at with their debut album Person (2020) and subsequent releases.
Digging into mystery, romance, and sex appeal with The Leather Lemon, the group — composed of members of Pill (Mexican Summer/Dull Tools) and Eaters (Dull Tools/Driftless) — centers its sound within a Bermuda Triangle of dance music, electronic composition, and experimental rock. Members Jonathan Schenke, Bob Jones, and Jonny Campolo play within pop parameters, building upon free-form collaboration to create a fluorescent groove machine that harnesses the energy of their frenetic live shows. Singer Veronica Torres explores her softer side, expanding her vocal repertoire from spoken word and jagged growls to cherubic and sensuous psalms. Sax virtuoso Benjamin Jaffe’s chiseled experimental tone is heard in an extended solo of true romance in “Tears in the Rain,” a somber surrealist duet penned by Torres and Andrew Savage, singer/guitarist of Parquet Courts.
Recorded primarily at Schenke’s Studio Windows in Brooklyn, NY, The Leather Lemon was cultivated from a fertile creative period between spring 2020 and summer 2021, which also yielded 2021’s acclaimed The Reason For My Love EP, of which Pitchfork writes:
The quintet refines their impulses on their 2020 debut Person and transforms them into a body-moving EP. The jittery electronics are still there, but the drum cuts feel sharper and lighter, bringing a sense of structure to what could easily be shapeless. Vocalist Veronica Torres abandons spoken-word and leans fully into singing about poetry, beauty, and the contours of the body. Her lovely vocal stretches fill up the space once occupied by industrial bass drops. Sensuality suits them well.
The Leather Lemon is a reckoning record for the times; an album of psychedelic resurfacing, real-time response to world events, and soft, sympathetic magic. This is a collection of songs shaped by five individuals who embrace music-making as a way to center themselves in times of uncertainty; it’s resilience and imagination given shape. The Leather Lemon is a true sweet-and-sour listening experience, an album as bright and clear as it is fractured and fun. Get turned UP and ON with the electrifying new lemon drop from P.E.!
The Leather Lemon will be released on Wharf Cat Records on March 25th. It is available for preorder here.
The Philly punk scene is a powerful thing. It should come as no surprise that this bastion of hard hitting punk rock would be a lodestone for some of the best metal punk talent in the world! Such was the case for vocalist/guitarist Phillipa Tank of California Motorhead tribute band Motorbabe, and now frontwoman of the hard hitting punk thrash band, Roadkiller. After an initial burst of shows, Roadkiller quickly recorded their self-titled debut EP, a record fated to make your ears bleed in all the right ways. Created with the goal of fusing punk, hard rock and crossover thrash whilst still remaining uniquely Roadkiller, Phillipa is on a mission to write songs to get your blood pumping. With dreams of constant touring and a dedication to quality songwriting, Roadkiller is more than just another punk band. We are witnessing the birth of a well oiled machine, representing the magic of all the underground has been and will be.
Phillipa Tank shares “This is the second single off of my upcoming record Pick of the Litter, featuring the inimitable Dave Witte (Municipal Waste, Melt Banana, Discordance Axis) who nailed my song ‘Slicker than Oil’. We shot down at Graffiti Pier, directed and filmed by my awesome crust-lord, drone pilot friend, Botgrinder.” Dave Witte adds “Phillipa Tank‘s ROADKILLER songs are rocking and full of energy. It was really fun to play the tune and film a cool video to boot! Also to be included among a really great group of drummers playing on the record is equally as exciting.“ 2022 will see the release of Roadkiller‘s first full length record “Pick of the Litter“, featuring stacked guest spots of iconic drummers across the heavy music spectrum.
About ROADKILLER: Phillipa Tank is ROADKILLER. Phillipa is the vocalist, singer and composer of the music and lyrics of all of the songs on the record. She is also the guitarist and founding member of all girl Motorhead tribute band, Motorbabe. Five guest drummers participated in the recording of the upcoming ROADKILLER album, Pick of the Litter: Dave Witte (Municipal Waste), Jess Margera (CKY), Donald Tardy (Obituary), Tommy Akerholdt (Turbonegro) and Adrian Aguilar (Exmortus). Phillipa invited each drummer to record a song that best fit each drummer’s style of playing. Each session was filmed and a total of five videos will be produced.
Trip Villain is a Brooklyn-based power duo that fuses synth-laden psychedelia with the prehistoric stomp of doom metal. Trip Villain is Josh Musto (Tragedy, ex-ShitKill, ex-Netherlands) and Damien Moffitt (Leach, ex-ShitKill, ex-Netherlands). Today, Trip Villain released their new dance-punk single/title track “Won.” This is the third single off their upcoming debut LP, Won, which drops February 22nd. Accompanying the single is a live in-studio performance of the song shot at Rad Hazard Studios.
Guitarist Josh Musto and drummer Damien Moffitt share “The title track, ‘Won’ was the first jam we came up with as Trip Villain. The prompt we gave ourselves was ‘heavy, sexy, dancey,’ and once our friend, Trip-Pop artist, Leach recorded a guest vocal, it gelled beautifully. Lyrically, ‘Won’ is about breaking free from bad relationships and controlling your own destiny.
An instant digital download via Bandcamp of the three singles “Won”/ “The Villain”/”Is This Love?” comes with a preorder of either the digital album Won or the two-track 7″ flexi-disc of “The Villain” & “Ego Death.”
The 7” Flexi-Disc is two tracks (The Villain, Ego Death) and comes with a full album download via Bandcamp. 7” Flexi-Discs will not ship until late-March.
Trip Villain explains“Won is the culmination of the two of us playing together in various bands since we were thirteen. We wanted to make an album that punches as hard as the riffy metal bands we grew up with, but with the emotional depth and synthy sparkle of the psychedelic music we’re influenced by as adults. Since most of these songs were born out of improvised jams, our seventeen years of musical chemistry is front and center. The sound we ended up with lands somewhere between the metallic grooves of Helmet and the tripped out ecstasy of The Flaming Lips, all with a deep reverence for the almighty RIFF.”
Two previously released singles from the upcoming album, Won, “Is This Love?” and “The Villain”are also currently streaming HERE on Spotify
Brooklyn band BODEGA shares the new single, “Thrown,” from their anticipated second album, Broken Equipment, out March 11th on What’s Your Rupture?. Following lead single “Doers,” “Thrown” serves as a thesis statement for the record’s multi-faceted exploration of how ideology and identity are shaped, but never fixed. In the album’s opening moments, vocalist Nikki Belfiglio urges listeners to “watch the thrown.” She is joined by fellow founding member Ben Hozie, who details various ways his personality is constantly influenced, or “thrown”, by phenomena such as “big rock ads” or “the itch on my back.” The track is biting, with metallic bass and taut percussion.
“‘Thrown’ was an attempt at a self-portrait track,” says Hozie. “The older I get the less I trust my own thoughts and perceptions of self ——> I realize most of my values and judgments come from the records, films, books, and advertisements I have consumed my whole life. Recognizing this ‘thrown-ness,’ while slightly disturbing, has been a source of inspiration for my creative mind. If the mind can only output what has been presented —> provide it with the proper input. You can remake yourself entirely at the drop of a (top)hat. The inputs I selected for this lyric: James Joyce and Bob Dylan. The music, to me, is a synthesis of many of the stylistic motifs our group has developed over the past few years : syncopated bass over a slow-shifting sea of guitar harmonics, violent guitar spasms with machine influenced but human-played drums; plus male/female vox alternating between spoken text raps and melody.”
The accompanying lyric video, directed by Belfiglio, is a combination of acrylic portraiture and the graphic design of advertising.
The follow-up to the band’s acclaimed debut album, Endless Scroll(2018), and 2019’s Shiny New Model EP, Broken Equipment was inspired by a book club. In the early months of 2020, the Brooklyn art-punk incendiaries gathered together with close friends to study the works of a wide range of philosophers. The resulting Broken Equipment is BODEGA’s attempt to interrogate the external factors that make them who they are, propelling existential quandaries with tongue-in-cheek humor, highly personal lyrics, and irresistible grooves.
The album’s 12 songs are set in present day New York City, packing in references to contemporary issues of algorithmic targeting, media gentrification, and the band itself. Watch: “Thrown” Lyric Video “Doers” Video
Partner are back with a new single and video “Time Is A Car“. It is a new single for a new era as we enter 2022 and the youngest member of Partner (Josée Caron) enters her 30s. This single follows Partner’s Never Give Up(You’ve Changed Records) and their break out debut album, In Search of Lost Time.
A Message from Partner: “This is a song that we wrote while reflecting on the years that have passed and the way that the passing of time offers fresh perspectives. Fittingly enough it’s ready just in time for us to present it to you on Josée’s 30th birthday. Time sure does fly!!
We had a distinct idea for the visual accompaniment to this track and we knew there was one person who could bring it to light; our beloved and frequent collaborator Lesley Marshall. However, when we were informed that the time to make a video was upon us, it seemed close to impossible that we would be able to make the trip to meet with her. While she is close to our hearts, we were separated by 4580km (2845 miles for our USA/UK friends). However, Lesley and the team at MAVN thankfully remained undaunted by such concerns. The result is one of our very favourite videos to date.”
“Time Is A Car is a meta music video. A music video in a music video. It’s what would have happened if Thelma and Louise escaped with all the money and drove happily ever after off into the sunset and had wonderful prosperous lives. Fueled by music video epics, pulp films, and ripe with sarcasm, Time Is A Car, has the parody quality of Beastie Boys’ Sabotage and the vibrancy of Megan Thee Stalion’s Thot Sh*t.” – Director Lesley Marshall
During a brief period in 2020 when it was safe to travel, the band headed to Gabriola Island on BC’s West Coast where they quarantined themselves for 14 days in a cabin writing and rehearsing, and then headed into the studio for 7 days at The Noise Floor Recording Studio. “Time Is A Car” is the first song from this session. More to come later in 2022.
Lucy and Josée formed Partner in the spring of 2014. They were looking to experiment with genre, discuss being gay, and share some jokes and ideas. Their objective has remained the same over the past seven years, although in that time their sound has shifted considerably.
Partner’s debut album In Search of Lost Time (2017) made an impact with its big guitars and polished sound. The record, mixed by Chris Shaw (Ween, Bob Dylan, Cheap Trick), landed a spot on NPR’s All Songs Considered, along with Stereogum, Noisey, Exclaim, CBC Music, Indie 88 and many more best of 2017 lists. The album was shortlisted for the Polaris Prize, and Partner were the recipients of the SOCAN songwriting prize for their song “Play the Field”.
Partner’s follow-up EP Saturday the 14th found the duo embarking on bolder and more playful compositional excursions. Throughout this highly experimental period, ideas for the next album began to coalesce. In the summer of 2019 Lucy and Josée joined all-star drummer Simone TB (US Girls, Highest Order, Darlene Shrugg) in the studio to create their second full-length album, titled Never Give Up. With Never Give Up, Partner returned to their classic rock roots and awakened their truest gifts to deliver their most exciting, riff-laden effort yet.
A Place To Bury Strangers share “I’m Hurt,” the newest single from their anticipated sixth studio album, See Through You, out February 4th (digital) and March 11th (vinyl) on Dedstrange. Following previous singles “Let’s See Each Other” and “Hold On Tight,” the post-punk legends dive headfirst into suffering on today’s dark and explosive “I’m Hurt.” The accompanying video, directed by Chad Crawford Kinkle (Dementer, Jug Face), is the first in a series of See Through You videos from horror movie directors hand-selected by A Place To Bury Strangers. Under Kinkle’s frantic and hallucinatory direction, Oliver Ackermann’s expression of relentless liminal terror is transubstantiated into a brutal backwater blood feast. While the flickering, kinetic visuals will be familiar to anyone who has seen the band live, the psychological horror at the heart of “I’m Hurt” is raw. Together, Kinkle and APTBS scramble our collective unconsciousness with scenes of grotesque public freakouts from the outskirts of the subliminal that are tied to a scorned woman’s black magic ritual which conjures up teenage demons on the hunt for revenge.
“‘I’m Hurt’ is the sound of friendship dying. At the time of writing this song, I was going out of my mind dwelling on conflict in my head and beating myself down while trying to rebuild my faith in humanity which is reflected in the actual structure of the song. The drums build with this frustration and a desire to scream with no voice. Listen closely to the vocal phrasing of ‘I’m Hurt’ in the chorus and you can hear the self-doubt and failure I was experiencing at the time,” says Ackermann.
A Place To Bury Strangers always bring surprises. Outpacing even their own firmly blazed path of audio annihilation, See Through You repeatedly delivers the massive walls of chaos and noise that every A Place To Bury Strangers fan craves. See Through You is an explosive journey which explores the listener’s limits of mind-bending madness while simultaneously offering the catchiest batch of songs in the band’s discography. It’s a nod of the cap to the art school ethos of the band’s origins, while forging a new and clear direction forward. Simply put, See Through You promises to be an epic, instant classic.
A Place To Bury Strangers’ previously announced North American tour in January and February will be rescheduled for May and June due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. New dates are forthcoming. Please stay tuned. Pre-order See Through You
A Place To Bury Strangers 2022 Tour Dates Wed. March 9 – Hamburg, DE @ Hafenklang & Thu. March 10 – Dresden, DE @ Beatpol &Fri. March 11 – Warsaw, PL @ Klub Poglos & Sat. March 12 – Prague, CZ @ Futurum & Sun. March 13 – Bratislava, SK @ Randal Club & Mon. March 14 – Budapest, HU @ Durer Kert & Wed. March 16 – Bucharest, RO @ Control Club ^ Thu. March 17 – Sofia, BG @ Mixtape5 ^ Fri. March 18 – Thessaloniki, GR @ Eightball ^ Sat. March 19 – Athens, GR @ Temple ^ Mon. March 21 – Skopje, MK @ 25th of May Hall ^ Tue. March 22 – Belgrade, RS @ Club Drugstore ^ Thu. March 24 – Zagreb, HR @ Mochvara ^ Fri. March 25 – Bologna, IT @ Freakout Club ^ Sat. March 26 – Rome, IT @ Largo ^ Sun. March 27 – Milan, IT @ Legend Club ^ Tue. March 29 – Zurich, CH @ Bogen F ^Wed. March 30 – Munich, DE @ Backstage ^ Thu. March 31 – Martigny, CH @ Caves Du Memoir Fri. April 1 – Paris, FR @ La Trabendo * Sat. April 2 – London, UK @ Lafayette * Mon. April 4 – Antwerp, BE @ Kavka * Tue. April 5 – Munster, DE @ Gleis 22 * Wed. April 6 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg * Thu. April 7 – Groningen, NL @ Vera * Sat. April 9 – Stockholm, SE @ Hus 7 * Sun. April 10 – Oslo, NO @ John Dee * Mon. April 11 – Copenhagen, DK @ Pumpehuset * Tue. April 12 – Berlin, DE @ Hole 44 * Wed. April 13 – Cologne, DE @ MTC * & with Jealous ^ with Plattenbau * with Lunacy
Today, CHAIpresent a new single, “WHOLE,” released via Sub Pop. In addition, “WHOLE” is confirmed as the theme song for Japan’s public broadcaster NHK’s new romantic-comedy-drama series, Koi-senu Futari. Tapping their San Diego-basedWink Together collaborator, Scoobert Doobert, to produce, “WHOLE” is a nostalgic and romantic J-POP track, charged with harmonies and melodies that draw influences from 90’s Japanese TV drama songs. The lyrics, inspired by Koi-senu Futari’s storyline featuring an aromantic/asexual couple, touch on the theme of universal and unconditional love. “WHOLE” speaks on the desire to accept one another’s differences, to love one another as a “whole,” and the wish to “turn this anger into something beautiful”—a message that reverts back to CHAI’s philosophy as artists.
Yuuki, who penned the lyrics, says the song: “Sometimes, no one empathizes with you. But is that really a bad thing? I don’t want to make my thing, or someone else’s thing, something to be ashamed of. Because our ‘differences’ may not be our enemies. I wish we could love each other’s little differences and little similarities entirely– that’s the hope behind this song.”
Next month, CHAIwill begin their WINK TOGETHER tour before embarking on a string of sold-out dates supporting Mitski. Full tour dates are below.
CHAI TOUR DATES Fri. Feb. 4 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall Sat. Feb. 5 – Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club Sun. Feb. 6 – Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry Wed. Feb. 9 – Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace Fri. Feb. 11 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair Sat. Feb. 12 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Foundry Sun. Feb. 13 – Washington, DC @ Union Stage Tue. Feb. 15 – Brooklyn NY @ Elsewhere Thu. Feb. 17 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel * – SOLD OUT Fri. Feb. 18 – Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz * – SOLD OUT Sat. Feb. 19 – Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern * – SOLD OUT Mon. Feb. 21 – Birmingham, AL @ Iron City * – SOLD OUT Tue. Feb. 22 – New Orleans, LA @ Civic Theatre * – SOLD OUT Thu. Feb. 24 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall (Outside Lawn) * – SOLD OUT Fri. Feb. 25 – Dallas, TX @ The Bomb Factory * – SOLD OUT Sat. Feb. 26 – Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits Live at the Moody Theater * – SOLD OUT Mon. Feb. 28 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren * – SOLD OUT Wed. March 2 – Los Angeles, CA @ Shrine Expo Hall * – SOLD OUT Thu. March 3 – Los Angeles, CA @ Shrine Expo Hall * – SOLD OUT Fri. March 4 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater * – SOLD OUT Sat. March 5 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater * – SOLD OUT Mon. March 7 – Portland, OR @ Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall * – SOLD OUT Wed. March 9 – Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre * – SOLD OUT Thu. March 10 – Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre * – SOLD OUT Sat. March 12 – Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile Sun. March 13 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge Tue. March 15 – San Francisco, CA @ Bimbo’s 365 Club Thu. March 17 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom *= supporting Mitski
Swedish trio Firebreather share a new track today from their forthcoming album Dwell In The Fog via Metal Injection. Hear and share “Creed” HERE. (Direct YouTube and Bandcamp.)
Revolver Magazine previously shared the first single “Kiss Of Your Blade” HERE. (Direct YouTube.)
Gothenburg, Sweden trio Firebreather’s 2019 RidingEasy Records debut album Under a Blood Moon was a powerhouse that most certainly established the band’s incendiary potential. But none of us would be prepared for the suffocating onslaught that is Dwell in the Fog. While that album was in-your-face and raw, Dwell in the Fog rumbles and rages with a fury the band had only hinted at previously. Firebreather has a streamlined focus on driving, symphonic riffs in the vein of High on Fire, Inter Arma and their tour- and label-mates Monolord. The guitar and bass tones are, quite simply, entrancing. Paired with vocalist/guitarist Mattias Nööjd’s guttural yet melodic howls and drummer Axel Wittbeck’s groove based rhythms, their entire sound flows like thick, viscous lava.
“The album is a cathartic journey inwards and a musical continuation from Under A Blood Moon, but with more emphasis on groove and feel,” Nööjd says. From the first notes of album opener “Kiss Of Your Blade” you’ll know exactly what he means. Like their preceding two albums, Dwell in the Fog was also recorded and mixed by engineer Oskar Karlsson at Elementstudion in Gothenburg. The band is joined by new bassist Nicklas Hellqvist on this album, who seems to have increased the thunder rumble tenfold.
From the aforementioned album opener “Kiss Of Your Blade”, with its droning opening chords over a rollicking tom pattern, the band quickly shifts gears into a head bobbing, serpentine riff with a transcendent melodic hook. Elsewhere, as on the title track and “Weather The Storm” rapid-fire hummable riffs come and go in an ever-shifting mass of devastating swirling churn. It’s like the band has such an endless supply of great hooks that to, ahem, dwell for too long on any one would undo their constantly building momentum. That they somehow give each song, and the album as a whole, a streamlined and cohesive, monolithic groove is testament to their skill. And, proof that the album must be absorbed in its entirety to experience the overwhelming swaying and lunging low end growl that drives the band’s most captivating work to date.
Dwell in the Fog will be available on LP, CD and download on February 25th, 2022 via RidingEasy Records.
Keep your mind open.
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How do you even attempt to create a collection of Motörhead‘s forty-year career? If you’re BMG Records, you put together Everything Louder Forever, which they describe as “the definitive assembly of Motörhead songs that have created [a] cultural phenomenon, and represents the first time all the eras of the band’s recorded history have been represented in one place.”
Starting with the classic, frantic “Overkill,” Everything Louder Forever packs so much power into two CDs / four LPs that it’s bursting at the seams. Lemmy Kilmister‘s heavy bass comes to the forefront on “We Are Motörhead” and never leaves for the rest of the collection. “Fast” Eddie Clarke‘s guitar solo on “Snaggletooth” (a song named after the band’s logo) is stunning. Brian “Robbo” Robertson‘s piano pounding adds a fun touch to “Rock It.”
The fuzz of “Orgasmatron” never gets old. Mikkey Dee‘s drums on “Sacrifice” are bonkers and make you stop in your tracks and pay attention. “Killed by Death” is still one of Motörhead’s wittiest tracks, as is “Smiling Like a Killer,” in which Kilmister takes on the persona of a happy man with a dark, deadly secret. “Keys to the Kingdom” is a good example of how well Motörhead could groove.
The double kick drum on “Burner” is perfect for the afterburner energy of it. “Just ‘Cos You Got the Power” has Kilmister at some of his angriest on the vocals and some of Micheal “Würzel” Burston‘s best guitar work. “R.A.M.O.N.E.S.” is a fun tribute to fellow rockers. “I Ain’t No Nice Guy” features Ozzy Osbourne on guest vocals and Slash on guitar. The compilation ends, appropriately, with “Motörhead.”
It’s full of great tracks, too many to list and review here. It works as both an introduction to the band and a fine addition to an established collection.
