Quintana Dead Blues eXperience: Ashes

photo: Jesica Calvo

French garage grunge act Quintana Dead Blues eXperience is a force of nature. Singer and guitarist Piero Quintana and drummer Adrien Schiavone needed only three days to lay down the tracks for Ashes, not giving a fuck about leakage and VU-meters being in the red prettty much all of time. They barrel through nine originals and a sweaty cover of Nirvana's School, eager to captrue the moments of intense urgency that makes rock 'n' roll such a great genre of music.

Ashes is an album like a freight train without breaks. Songs like the title track, Still Haunted and It's Nothing come crashing down upon the listener. Things could have gone South pretty much easily, but the rapport between Quintana and Schiavone - and good ears of producer Martín Guevara - kept the songs from spiralling into a muddy mess.

Opus Kink: Will It Come For You?

Brighton based sextet Opus Kink sing about something nasty lurking in the shadows on their new single Will It Come For You?. As per usual they mixed up genre-wise, with a New Wave bass, Tex-Mex guitar, a jazzy conversation between saxophone and trumpet, plus dark folk vocals.

Suffice to say that is pretty captivating stuff. The lure of the dark side is always way more fun than playing it straight. Recommended if you like The Bullfight. The video was made by Kyle McCarthy and Reuben Davies Lindley.

Johnny Marr: guitars auction @ Christie's

Buying one his guitars at a Christie's auction n London won't turn the buyer into Johnny Marr, but it will be something to brag about for sure. From The Guardian:

Johnny Marr is preparing to auction off about 80 of his guitars, including the Rickenbacker heard on This Charming Man.

Marr has partnered with Christie’s for the auction, which will take place on 17 September in London, with the collection – including amps and other equipment – available for the public to view in London and New York prior to the sale.

The star lots include a 1982 Rickenbacker 330 Jetglo, whose top estimate price of £80,000 reflects its indie music pedigree: as well as This Charming Man, it can be heard on What Difference Does It Make?, Still Ill, and Accept Yourself, and was also lent out to Noel Gallagher: it appears on the cover of Oasis’s debut single Supersonic. (It wasn’t used for the distinctive opening riff of This Charming Man, though, which was played on a 1950s Telecaster.)

underdown: Hacked Off

photo: Oliver McKenzie

Welsh singer Rhys Underdown is in full Elton John mode on his new single Hacked Off, once again mixing his crooner vocals with upbeat piano rock, with a joyous sax and sumptuous backing vocals joining the party. Make no mistake, because he got an axe to grind with an undisclosed recipient of his anger - "You wouldn't Understand this song if it was all you could sing". Whatever it was that set him off, fans of articulate pop song with biting lyrics will be thankful that it happened.

hubris.: Death

Swiss instrumental post-rockers hubris. found some solace in the works of Tolkien, wherein elves considers mortality as a plus. Their new single Death grew out of the opening chords that were written by the band's guitarist Jonathan Hohl after his grandfather passed away.

The band have his back all through the raw emotions that found their way into the song, with an ambient coda serving as a send-off. To keep a listener's undivided attention for a little over 8 minutes is no mean feat, but they pass with flying colours. It bodes well for their forthcoming new album White Shores, due for release in September.