Category: Legends

The Damned’s “Evil Spirits tour” has begun, and their new album is out April 13th!

THE DAMNED ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM ‘EVIL SPIRITS’ TO BE RELEASED APRIL 13th VIA SEARCH AND DESTROY/SPINEFARM RECORDS
LISTEN TO NEW SINGLE ‘STANDING ON THE EDGE OF TOMORROW’ ON SPOTIFY

Photo: Steve Gullick
Formed in 1976 at the forefront of the fledgling London punk scene, The Damned kickstarted the birth of punk as we know it, leaving an influential legacy for generations to come. Their musical journey has seen the quintet intent on moving forward, courageously exploring sights and sounds way beyond their brash wide-eyed beginnings – and they’re back to do it all over again.
Some ten years since the release of their last studio recordings, The Damned return with a new album, ‘Evil Spirits’, to be released April 13th on Search And Destroy/Spinefarm Records, preceded by the new single ‘Standing On The Edge Of Tomorrow’, streaming online today ahead of their forthcoming Evil Spirits UK tour starting January 26th.
Propelled by an enormously successful Pledge funding campaign, the band headed to Atomic Sound Studios in Brooklyn in early October 2017 and began a frantic, high-energy, nine day burst of creativity with famed producer Tony Visconti, whose list of past working-relationships reads like a who’s who of popular music. (David Bowie, T Rex, Morrissey, U2, The Stranglers, Iggy Pop and Thin Lizzy to name but a few), Reunited with former bassist Paul Gray (who played on the legendary ‘Black Album’ and ‘Strawberries’ in the early eighties), the renewed line up took full advantage of the studio’s classic Neve recording desk, valve gear and vintage equipment to form the new record.
“We deliberately recorded the album retro style,” explains guitarist Captain Sensible. “The same way our debut album was made, basically. There’s something wonderful about the seventies sounds; glam, rock and punk records, they all sound so great and Tony specializes in beautifully crafted old school production. He had us all playing live, bashing it out in the same room with a focus on getting the initial band version of each song as close as possible to the finished thing.“
The first taste of ‘Evil Spirits’ comes in the form of ‘Standing On The Edge Of Tomorrow’, a song penned by frontman Dave Vanian, that packs a punch and carries a melody that is impossibly hard to shift once heard.
“It’s supposed to be very optimistic, even though it’s about a dark subject,” states Vanian. “As an artist, you can’t help but reflect the times, because that’s what art does. I think we always do it, but in a slightly different way. So a song like ‘Standing…’ may seem quite joyous and uplifting musically, but some of the lyrics might be about quite dark things. That’s what I’d like to think this album is – an uplifting album, not a moaning old album – not ‘this is terrible, and that’s terrible’, and then not offering any answers. It’s more a case of, ‘If we get it together, maybe we could change things a bit”.
Across the album’s ten-tracks, The Damned get to the root of their collective song-writing and ‘Evil Spirits’ is an album which doesn’t shrink from opposing the dastardly political forces at work in 2018, and indeed triumphs in seeking higher ground, to progress beyond them.
“This album is filled with a lot of influences from our earlier, pre-’70s tastes – the ’60s stuff. ‘Standing…’ is really linked into Joe Meek, ‘Telstar’, and that kind of stuff,” continues Vanian. At first, I’d said in an interview before we started writing this stuff that the album would be psychedelic, and maybe a trip through the historical side of The Damned, as in what we like. It didn’t happen in the way I thought it would, but it still does the same thing. It still has all that in there, but it’s not as obvious as it could’ve been, which is good. It’s not like pastiches of songs you remember, it’s more a case of, what was great about something you loved as a kid has somehow influenced a guitar sound, or the way the drums are. You might not even know it if you’re one of our younger fans, but if you’re a little older, you’ll hear it, which is kinda cool.”
And of the ‘Evil Spirits’ that the album intends to dispel?  “I started buying records in 1967, the Summer of Love,” adds Captain Sensible. “There were so many positive changes happening through the 60s and 70s; civil rights, feminism, the anti-nuclear demos in particular. Whatever happened to all that? Where are today’s anti-war marches? Whatever happened to the beautiful hippy dream of worldwide peace and love?”
Evil Spirits will be available on digital download via Spotify and i-Tunes, on CD and 180g vinyl available to pre-order HERE

TRACKLISTING: 
1. Standing On The Edge Of Tomorrow
2. Devil In Disguise
3. We’re So Nice
4. Look Left
5. Evil Spirits
6. Shadow Evocation
7. Sonar Deceit
8. Procrastination
9. Daily Liar
10. I Don’t Care
Catch the band on tour this January and February. Main support comes from fabled Stray Cats drummer Slim Jim Phantom (*except Koko), whilst support at Koko and The Forum comes from Kristeen Young.
See The Damned on their ‘Evil Spirits’ tour 2018: 
27th January – Dundee, Caird Hall
28th January – Glasgow, O2 Academy
30th January – Leeds, O2 Academy Leeds
31st January – Manchester, Academy 1
1st February – Birmingham, O2 Academy
3rd February – Leicester, O2 Academy
4th February – Nottingham, Rock City
6th February – Folkestone, Leas Cliff Hall
7th February – Southend, Cliffs Pavilion
9th February – Cardiff, Great Hall
10th February – Bristol O2, Academy Bristol
11th February – Bournemouth, O2 Academy
13th February – Southampton, O2 Guildhall
14th February – Bexhill De La Warr Pavilion
16th February – Koko, London*
17th February London, O2 Forum
Tickets available HERE
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Five David Bowie albums due out February 23rd individually on vinyl for the first time since 1991.

All five David Bowie albums released in last year’s A New Career in Town box set are being released individually on February 23, 2018 for the first time on vinyl since 1991. The albums include all of Bowie’s iconic “Berlin” trilogy – Low, Heroes, and Lodger, as well as Scary Monsters and the live album Stage.

Don’t miss out if you’re a vinyl collector, Bowie fan, or both.

Keep your mind open.

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RIDE release “Catch You Dreaming” from upcoming EP.

Shoegaze rock legends RIDE, fresh off the success of their excellent return album The Weather Diaries, are already preparing a new EP, Tomorrow’s Shore, due out this February 16th.  The newest single from it, “Catch You Dreaming,” is out now and mixes dreamy riffs with their uplifting lyrics.  2018 is already setting up to be a good year for shoegaze.

Keep your mind open.

[I often catch myself dreaming of you subscribing.]

Terminal Mind – Recordings

Austin, Texas punk / no wave legends Terminal Mind only blazed through the Austin scene for three years (1978 – 1981), but they are back with a powerful release of rare cuts from their short time together.  Recordings collects a rare four-song 7″, live cuts, and unreleased studio tracks.  It’s a solid collection and already in the running for best reissue of 2018.

Opening with the skronky, bold “I Want to Die Young,” the band’s powerhook guitars are put front and center right away.  “I see life as a TV at midnight, nothing but static and outdated reruns,” Steve Marsh sings as he dreams of becoming something better than he is now before he gets old and waits for a heart attack.

“Refugee” has Marsh continuing his themes of alienation as he sings, “In a war, there are winners and losers.  I’m in-between.”  The post-punk attitude of “Sense of Rhythm” is sharp as a hatchet (and so is the drumming).  “Zombieland” sounds like an early Devo cut as Marsh sings about the joys of “living in negative space” and ignoring the suffering and injustice around you.  The guitars on it devolve into a wild cacophony that almost sounds like air raid sirens by the end.

“Obsessed with Crime” has a raw energy not unlike something you’d hear from the Stooges.  Terminal Mind once opened for them, so the influence shouldn’t surprise anyone.  The guitars and bass on “Fear in the Future” are downright dangerous.  Marsh growls “Time is a trigger, I hold it in my hand.  I point it at the future.  I think you understand.”

The live tracks begin with the snappy “Radioactive,” in which Marsh sings about hoping to have super powers so he can survive a nuclear war and watch everything burn around him.  The equally speedy “Bridges Are for Burning” follows it.

“No one wants to know the meaning of life anymore,” Marsh sings on the angry “(I Give Up on) Human Rights.”  “Black” is like Joy Division if they decided to speed up the beats and crank up the distortion.  You can almost feeling the audience grooving during “Missing Pieces.”  The keyboards on “Bureaucracy” slather the song in a glorious, distorted noise that ends the album on a high, post-punk note.

Three years was too short for a band this good, but at least we have this reissue to remember Terminal Mind.  Let’s hope for some new material in the future.  I’d love to hear their take on modern times.

Keep your mind open.

[I don’t want you to die young.  I just want you to subscribe.]

Austin punk legends Terminal Mind release first single from upcoming retrospective album “Recordings.”

Terminal Mind premiere track from forthcoming retrospective Recordings
Extremely rare collectors’ fave 7″, Live at Raul’s compilation cuts and unreleased studio & live tracks from Austin first wave punk trio
Hear & share “Refugee” (Soundcloud) (Austin Chronicle)
Photo_ Ken Hoge
“Grayscale art-rock with punk desperation channeled through instrumental and songwriting legitimacy…Terminal Mind remains an act locals still celebrate despite a short lifespan and being under-recorded.” — Austin Chronicle
First-wave Austin, TX punk trio Terminal Mind premiere the first track from their forthcoming retrospective album today via Austin Chronicle. Recordings collects the short lived band’s 4-song 7″ (which fetches upwards of $100 on eBay), Live At Raul‘s compilation cuts and outstanding unreleased studio and live recordings. Hear and share “Refugee” HERE. (Direct Soundcloud.)
 
Terminal Mind, formed in 1978, was one of the early first-wave punk acts in Austin, TX. Based far from the urban roots of a genre in its earliest stages, the band absorbed influences as disparate as Pere Ubu, Roxy Music, John Cale, and Wire. The life span was short, but their influence touched many of the next generation of Texas noise and hardcore acts as they shared bills with fellow proto-punks The Huns and Standing Waves at Raul’s, The Big Boys on the UT campus, and even opened for Iggy Pop at the Armadillo World Headquarters.
Founding members Steve Marsh and the Murray Brothers, Doug and Greg, started as a trio before adding synthesizer player Jack Crow. Steve Marsh moved to New York with his experimental noise band Miracle Room (before eventually returning to Austin and forming space/psychedelic rock band Evil Triplet and beginning an experimental solo project dubbed Radarcave), while Doug Murary joined the Skunks and Greg Murray played in a later version of The Big Boys. Jack Crow passed away in 1994.
This collection of songs is a journey back to the ‘anything goes’ first steps of American punk as it left the dirty streets of New York and Los Angeles and made its way into the heartland. Like the Austin of 1978, Recordings is a small outpost of musical individualism that planted seeds for the alternative music explosion familiar to later generations.
Recordings will be available on LP, CD and download on January 19th, 2018 via Sonic Surgery Records.
Artist: Terminal Mind
Album: Recordings
Label: Sonic Surgery Records
Release Date: January 19, 2018
01. I Want to Die Young
02. Refugee
03. Sense of Rhythm
04. Zombieland
05. Obsessed With Crime
06. Fear In the Future
07. Radioactive
08. Bridges Are For Burning
09. (I Give Up On) Human Rights
10. Black
11. Missing Pieces
12. Bureaucracy

On The Web:

Celebrate David Bowie’s birthday with a demo of “Let’s Dance.”

Today is David Bowie‘s birthday.  He would’ve been 71.  There are many ways to celebrate this day, but one of the best comes from Neil Rodgers of Chic, who produced Bowie’s big comeback single, “Let’s Dance.”  Rodgers has released a demo version of the track, with himself on guitar and Bowie having a fun time with the lyrics.  It’s the skeleton of what would become a powerhouse single and the rest of the Let’s Dance album.

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Houston psych / prog legends Spiny Normen’s unreleased album to arrive 40 years after it was recorded.

Spiny Normen premiere lead track from unreleased album 40-years after recording via Paste Magazine
1978 outsider psych-rock from Brown Acid compilation faves’ long-lost unreleased album coming soon from RidingEasy Records
Hear & share “Arrowhead” (YouTube) (Paste Magazine)
“A dark masterpiece.” — Paste Magazine
Spiny Normen premiere the first track from their forthcoming posthumous album — 40 years in the making — today via Paste Magazine. Hear and share album opener “Arrowhead” HERE. (Direct YouTube.)
Spiny Normen is an incredible mid-70’s Houston hard rock, progressive, psychedelic rock band (yes, all that and more) that featured mellotron, vox jaguar, crunchy, heavy guitars, flute with echo effects, and lots more. A totally lost relic this album is, recorded at the community college and never released. This band has a very English, dark, mysterious and proggy but very acid drenched feeling to it.
Vocalist/guitarist Steve Brudniak dishes on the band’s founding and this exceptional recording:
Circa 1976, Gerry and I would skip class, smoke whatever scrap of contraband we could scrape together and meet in the high school auditorium where there was a piano and bang out crunchy rhythms…. At home I shoved a mic into the family upright piano and overdrove a cheap recorder and home made echo-plex to get an impressive cacophony. Gerry was playing guitar, listening to Alice Cooper, hair down to his back and about the only Mexican American in a white bread school. He was cool! So when he said one day, “Hey man we should jam some time!” I was stoked. We did, man it was fun! I was soon on the lookout for a keyboard to become legit with. I found the already ancient Vox Jaguar in the Houston paper that had belonged to Fever Tree, one of the original psychedelic bands of the late 60s. I didn’t know how famous they were at the time but I bought it for $160 and a Kustom blue sparkle vinyl amp with a speaker that I blew out just right, that made the most beautiful distortion, accompanied by a beloved phase shifter.
We began torturing our parents in various suburban garages and bedrooms after adding Norman Davis on drums and Steve Koch on bass. Back then it was a Black Sabbath sounding, blues based crunch. Songs like “Carry Your Water” and “Space Age Flyer” were early comps.
We made a 4-track recording in a local studio around then that our drummer didn’t show up to the session for. All of us being Monty Python fans, and the Norman-no-show gave us the name Spiny Normen (with an E) which two more bands have since taken.
Over the next three years we began to experiment, waaaay off into the beaten path, spending months penning intense, bizarre, surreal and mind affecting pieces influenced by King Crimson, Pink Floyd, film soundtracks, Vandergraaf Generator, and the like along with some bad bad acid trips on my part. I was collecting keyboards …a melotron (hell yes!) a single key play moog. Gerry was adding echoes, early guitar synth and tons of pedals. I learned the flute. New bass player Bruce Salmon and a try at another vocalist Bob Riley and various drummers, my favorite being Robert Winters, were in and out. In we went with a hired stand up bass player and a little Gerry Diaz engineering knowledge to the Alvin community college 8-track recording studio and just played like psychedelic Mozarts. Timpani, live effects, sound effect records, backward echo, violin bow on guitar and plenty of echo. Gerry and I on vocals now. What came out was still, to this day, in my humble opinion, some very complex, untouched territory, holy-what-the-? stuff. We were all about 19.
It didn’t last long and we were way behind and way ahead of our time. I’m so ffffn thrilled though at 54 to see what this world of open-ended listeners will think of Spiny Normen now. The 19 year old Steve is getting his dream fulfilled. Gerry and I still experiment here and again with guitar and theremin in an effort called Psylobison. Just as touched, but its not going to give you such bad dreams.
Spiny Normen will be available on LP, CD and download on March 2nd, 2018 via RidingEasy Records. Pre-orders are available at RidingEasyRecs.com.
Artist: Spiny Normen
Album: Spiny Normen
Label: RidingEasy Records
Release Date: March 2nd, 2018
01. Arrowhead
02. Wrecko Wild Man Ride
03. Carry Your Water
04. The Monkeyweasel
05. To Meet the Mad Hatter
06. The Bell Park Loon
07. In The Darkness of Night
08. The Sound of Younger Times

On The Web:

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Top 30 albums of 2017: #’s 10 – 6

It’s my top 10 of the year.  Who’s here?  Read on for the first five.

#10 – Sleaford Mods – English Tapas

Bold, brash, and at times brutal, this is a punk rock album disguised as a hip hop record.  The minimalist beats get under your skin and the scathing lyrics stick it to the Man, ourselves, and everyone in-between.

#9 – Gary Numan – Savage (Songs from a Broken World)

This industrial powerhouse of a record was a great return for Gary Numan and a fantastic concept album (about life in a post-apocalyptic world) to boot.  It has some great riffs and Numan’s synth work is top-notch.  He shows no signs of slowing or aging.

#8 – Soulwax – From Deewee

Recorded beginning to end in just one take, this amazing record combines three drummers with four other people playing vintage synthesizers, drum machines, and sequencers.  It’s an impressive piece of work and it produced one of my favorite singles of the year – “Missing Wires.”

#7 – Honey – New Moody Judy

I picked up this album after hearing just one song from it, “Dream Come Now (another one of my favorite songs of 2017),” and was astounded by the rest of the record.  It’s fierce and chock-full of garage-punk riffs that flatten nearly everything else I’ve heard this year.

#6 – Slowdive – self-titled

This is one of the most beautiful records of the year and marked a big return for not only Slowdive but also the entire shoegaze genre.  Everyone wondered how this record would sound once Slowdive announced their reunion, and it exceeded everyone’s expectation.  It’s easily the best shoegaze release of 2017.

Who makes the top five?  Tune in on New Year’s Day to find out!

Keep your mind open.

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Top live shows of 2017: #’s 5 – 1

We’ve arrived at the top 5 live shows I saw this year.  Here they are.

#5 – LCD Soundsystem – Aragon Ballroom – Chicago, IL November 7th.

This was the second of a three-night residency at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom for LCD Soundsystem.  It was the second time we saw them in 2017, and they were healthier and a bit goofier than the first time.  It was also the best show we’d seen at the Aragon in a long while.

#4 – Slaves – House of Blues Chicago – Chicago, IL September 20th.

Slaves‘ opening set for Kasabian at this show was, without question, the best punk rock show I’ve seen in a couple years.  They came out with cocksure swagger and proceeded to freak out the entire crowd.  My friend, Portia, and I had a “rock moment” with them when we were the only ones in the audience who knew to yell “Fuck the hi hat!” when they began telling the story behind the song of the same title and they pointed us out in the crowd.  Win.

#3 – Gary Numan – Thalia Hall – Chicago, IL November 29th.

I hadn’t seen Gary Numan in concert for about ten years, but he hasn’t lost a step.  He actually has become better in that time.  His band was tighter, his vocals were sharp, and the spectacle of the performance was top-notch.

#2 – LCD Soundsystem – Pitchfork Music Festival – Chicago, IL July 14th.

No, this isn’t an error.  LCD Soundsystem are in my top five live shows of 2017 twice.  This was the first time my wife and I saw them, and we were instantly hooked.  They became one of our “We’ll see them anytime.” bands thanks to this performance that closed the first night of the 2017 Pitchfork Music Festival.  The crowd was wild, erupting into two mosh pits during the show, and LCDSS threw down a raucous set despite dealing with injuries and mild illness.

#1 – Midnight Oil – The Vic Theatre – Chicago, IL May 18th.

Within moments I knew this sold-out Midnight Oil show was going to be the best show we saw all year.  It was their return tour after twenty years and they sounded like they’d stepped out of a time machine.  Lead singer Peter Garrett even appeared to not have aged in that time.  They proved they were still one of the most relevant and best live acts in the world.  It was uplifting to see and hear them again, and left everyone hoping for new material soon.

There you have it.  Go see a bunch of live music in 2018.  Your favorite band is depending on you.

Keep your mind open.

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Top live shows of 2017: #’s 15 – 11

We’re halfway through my list of top live shows of the year.  Who’s in the top half?

#15 – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Scottrade Center – St. Louis, MO May 12th.

This was an impressive show with a sold-out crowd.  Tom Petty and his crew had a fun time tearing through a lot of classic hits, and the performance took on a deeper meaning to my wife and I after Petty’s death at the end of this tour.  We’d wanted to see him for a long while, so we were thankful we caught him in time.

#14 – Buddy Guy – Lerner Theatre – Elkhart, IN September 9th.

Blues legend Buddy Guy is pushing 90 and still shredding better than guitarists a third of his age.  He dazzled with his skill and spoke openly about the importance of love and compassion in these tough times.

#13 – Depeche Mode – Air Canada Centre – Toronto, ON September 3rd.

Depeche Mode were a big part of our high school years, so it was surprising that it took my wife and I so long to finally catch them live.  It was a solid set with new and classic tracks and one of the best encores we saw all year.

#12 – Deap Vally – Valley Bar – Phoenix, AZ March 11th.

Deap Vally are easily one of the best live bands of this decade.  This set at Phoenix’s VIVA PHX festival was a stunner.  I always feel bad for any band that has to follow them, and getting to chat with them after the show was an added treat.

#11 – The Black Angels – Thalia Hall – Chicago, IL May 11th.

I won’t skip an opportunity to see the Black Angels.  I’ve already bought tickets to see them at next year’s Levitation Austin festival.  This set in Chicago was a great start to a fun weekend with my wife, and the Black Angels played more aggressively than I’d seen them in a long while.

Who cracks the top 10?  Tune in tomorrow to find out!

Keep your mind open.

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