Mancunian indie quartet Westside Cowboy have a busy tour schedule laying ahead of them, now that a combination of rave reviews and word-of-mouth got them out of the underground and into the limelight. Are they country, are they pop, are they rock? Yes, they are, and they are pretty good on stage as well.
Dutch '80s inspired quintet Morgendust go for a bigger, less polished sound on their new EP Monuments of Men. The main theme is various forms of danger lurking in the shadows of the city, never calling it by name - and some of it might be figments of their imagination, but most of them are very real indeed.
The rise of digital capabilities can lead to unchecked synchronisation, marketed as a utopian sparkling future that is actually a dystopian paradise for tech bros whose only goal is to become even more filthy rich than they already are. O, and those guys tend to be quite misogynistic as well. It is about being lost in a confusing world, where the old-fashioned means to cope are no longer of much use.
Irish punk folk duo The Guzzlers came up with an old school drinking song for their debut 20 Pints To Cherbourg. Brothers Tom and Cian O'Dowd had a gig on a ferry, providing entertainment for the clientele with ther music, but they were subsequently fired when they helped themselves to too many alcoholic beverages.
On the plus side: it inspired them to write this tune, a rowdy singalong about bad decisions and not giving a damn. The video was filmed at The Jacaranda in Liverpool, as part of their 20 Bars Campaign doing pop up shows all over town.
English band Patto fell through the cracks with their amalgam of blues and jazz, which made them outliers as progressive and hard rock were gaining traction. They released three albums in quick succession in the early 70s, before it fell apart. Their second album Hold Your Fire is considered as the highlight in their career and it became a musician's favourite long before the press or radio jocks caught up (with the notable exception of John Peel who did play it).
With the great Ollie Halsall on guitar and vibraphone and singer's Mike Patto impressive vocal range the band's rhythm section could throw those two any tempo and they would be there to catch on instantly. For its reissue the people at niche label Think Like a Key once again used the services of retired sound engineer Prof Stoned, who did a fine job indeed. The inclusion of couple of outtakes - why they shelved Bad News back then is a mystery - and alternate takes/mixes gives the listener a fly-on-the-wall perspective as the band worked out what a track needed. This version of Hold Your Fire sounds fresh and not dated at all - that's what being of the forefront of mixing genres can do.
LA punker Justin "J Mau" Maurer goes outlaw country with his new band The Kiss Off. With Cynthia Herrera (bass), Jairo Gabriel (guitar) and Christopher Michael (drums) he has cooked up a three chords wonder for their first release, Poison, a murder ballad that gets darker as the song progresses.
They took a healthy dose of honky tonk, added some surf and garage rock, stirred it vigorously and then served it when it was still steaming hot. The video was made by Zache Davis and Marta Ribate Gracia-Davis.
