Sugar Horse: Not A Sound In Heaven

The in-your-face industrial noise rock made by Sugar Horse refuses to be contained. Sure enough, there are plenty of quiet passages om their new album Not A Sound In Heaven , most notably during History's Biggest T-Shirts and You Can't Say Dallas Doesn’t Love You, but their anger about the unfair distribution of wealth comes howling from the speakers pretty much all of time.

The Brighton based quartet is not about just making a racket with a message. Upon closer inspection the music is far more complex. Casual listeners are clearly missing out, while the clientele of independent record stores will have a field day labeling every nook and cranny, collecting all the easter eggs. Not A Sound In Heaven is a pamphlet, a one-fingered salute, by four guys who are playing up storm. Hold tight for a bumpy and captivating ride.

Donna Summer / The Police: Roxanne Works Hard for the Money

Bill McClintock made a mashup of Donna Summer and The Police: She Works Hard for the Money + Roxanne = Roxanne Works Hard for the Money. O, and bits of L.A. Guns' Never Enough and Ratt's Round and Round thrown in for good measure. Want more? His YouTube channel has lots of them.

The Second Summer: I Should

photo: Lisa Herrmann Dunneback

Chicago based power pop band The Second Summer have come up with a song about self-doubt and regret, I Should, and the grippling deadlock of contemplating various possibilities for making amends that might prevent people from getting something done about it, since they have been putting off for God knows how long. It is aimed at offering encouragement and ensuring that things will work out eventually.

The Bullfight: tour dates

Dutch folk noir band The Bullfight will be on the road in The Netherlands to promote their latest album 81 Bedford St., a soundtrack for a film noir movie that does not exist: "Most soundtracks are connect-the-dots affairs, with a few well-known popular songs and a run-of-the-mill theme that a composer won't lose any sleep over to create to something memorable. Not so for 81 Bedford St. on which the band's resident writer and multi-instrumentalist Thomas van Vliet went above and beyond with a bunch of songs that are closely linked to create a narrative, but also can hold their own and be enjoyed as such. There is jazz, industrial noise, torch singing, avant-garde, pastoral violin driven baroque pop, and much, much more."

Words about music (830): Jan Akkerman

I used to listen to a lot of Frank Zappa and really liked his eclectic approach to making music, but the main heavy rock guitar motif that is throughout the track is actually very Chuck Berry based.

Jan Akkerman