ALT BLK ERA are back with a new single, “Come On Outside”, from their forthcoming debut album ‘Rave Immortal’. Try and pigeon-hole this band at your peril they comfortably play fantastically well at multiple music genres. “Come On Outside” has a riotous, riff-laden grunge feel to carry its positive message. The chorus is alive and takes up residence in your brain almost immediately after the first listen. Chaya wrote the song for her sister Nyrobi and had this to say about it “For two years my sister was bed-ridden with a chronic illness that shot waves of pain throughout her body. The doctors couldn’t figure out what it was. I thought I was going to lose her. Thankfully, with lots of support, she is slowly getting better and she now has strong medication that helps her to manage the pain. This song is my message for Nyrobi, for you, and for anyone else who has faced physical or emotional challenges.” Based on this and other recent releases from this incredibly talented band I am going to take the bold step of saying that the debut album, due out early next year, will be a contender for album of the year 2025!
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Read The Room is a classy rock band based in Norwich in the UK that formed in 2023. They are made up of Alana Beardsley-Best on rock goddess vocal duties, Adam Hearth and Alex London, both axemen extraordinaire, Dan Dawson bass boss and Elle Steele who bangs the drums as though her life depends on it. They have a new single out called “Aggravate Me”. The sublime sonic mix has raging riffs, hard-hitting hooks, and in Alana’s voice, a key to rock’s top table! Get this band in your life now so that you can say that you were there near the start when they become planet-straddling mega stars!
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The new Dolores Forever single, taken from their recent album ‘It’s Nothing’ oozes teenage angst and anger and is a powerful youth anthem. The track takes aim at patronising politicians. The band had this to say about the song, “This was the last song we wrote for the album, it’s a bit of a scathing look at the world and the people who are running it with impunity, the feeling of being told to shut up while watching your house burn. What can we say, we love an apocalyptic bop.” I too love an apocalyptic bop and this is a song that I would happily play while the world ended. I hope that doesn’t happen, but if it does you really should give this tune a try out!
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“Tiny War” is a huge new song from amilost. You know when you have those ridiculously stupid arguments with the one you love, perhaps your soulmate? Well, I think that is what this undeniably awesome slice of synth-driven pop-rock, with some ethereal and heavenly string parts, is all about. Ross Leslie of the duo says “It was written on the day Sigrid broke up with her boyfriend,” vocalist Sigrid added “Tiny War is about the end of a relationship. It’s about trying everything to make it work, including changing yourself so much that you almost don’t recognise who you are anymore. In the end, you realise that you have to let it go.” So not quite what I heard on the first pass, but it is a truly wonderful modern ballad.
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The Velvet Hands have unleashed the first taster for their upcoming 3rd album. The song is called “I’ll Be Free” and it is a full-on 21st-century punk onslaught that would make the Strokes jealous. It is hook heaven and riff rapture combined in a powerful punky rock anthem that grabs you tight and does not let you go. The NME said that the Velvet Hands are “full of bolshy spirit” and this track proves it!
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The Saliva Birds are a band that I have still not managed to see play live, but I hope to rectify that soon! In the meantime, they have just released a wonderful new single “Time Is Out”. There is a poignant tone and the tune is filled with heart-filled pathos. It has a great upbeat rocking feel and hooks aplenty, but the subject matter is not the happiest. But in spite of all that it steadfastly remains an uplifting tune. At times it made me think of early U2. Chris from the band described the song as “It’s a very personal track about coming to terms with a parent with dementia and mourning their loss even though they’re still with us.” This is something that, sadly, many of us might come to experience. Will this song fix all that, no it won’t, but it will be one small part of helping you stay positive. Music can be wonderfully helpful in helping people with dementia remember things and that can never be a bad thing! “Time Is Out” deserves to be listened to, do it now, that is an order!
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“ANIMAL” is the darkly gorgeous new single from a collaboration made in heaven, or maybe a warped heaven that borders very closely with hell. That team-up features the hugely talented and very “out there” bennytheghost working in perfect alignment with equally talented and gifted KiNG MALA. The song is dark, and funny and would work incredibly well on a horror film soundtrack. If there was any justice in this world this song would be a huge hit everywhere. bennytheghost has been bigged up by many tastemakers including Zane Lowe and Elton John. Lyrically the track tackles, to some degree, the state of the world and the plight of the young folks who will inherit it in all its broken shittyness. He says of the song “I take massive inspiration from JOJI who’s songs are also incredibly dramatic and heartbreaking, while his character is so goofy, aloof, mysterious and funny. A dichotomy that houses those two opposites is so compelling to me; that’s where I want to live.” Give this one a spin and it will become a major part of your listening in the next few months!
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The White Roses, one of Yorkshire’s finest bands have just launched an EP, ‘So Close (yet so far)’, and on the first couple of spins, it feels like a proper grower! The EP opens with the title track, an instrumental, and it is either a brief part of an unfinished track or as I see it a kind of overture. It certainly segues nicely into the first vocal track “This Town”, a banging song that should fill the floor at every student disco in the coming months. Next up is “2:23” which has the makings of a power ballad and Ellie’s vocal here is emotional, yearning and, evokes the best of Stevie Nicks. There is some excellent guitar work from Jack on “If I Could” which is a classy slice of indie pop that drives along like a 21st-century Altered Images. I love the screaming and distorted guitar sound on the fade. Talking of fade the fifth track is called “Bound To Fade” and this one reminded me of some of late-80s pop rock sensation Shakespears Sister’s finest moments. This one was recorded at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in London. The band had this to say about that experience, “It was such a surreal experience creating our own music in the same space as our literal heroes. Who would have thought that this little indie band from up north would end up here? It was truly surreal.” The EP closes with a poppy, acoustic ballad called “Skeletons”, the perfect chill-out after a gorgeously infectious journey through some of the White Roses’ finest moments to date! They are probably not the finished article yet, but this band improves with every release and every gig. The future is bright white for the White Roses!
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Lloren’s gorgeous new single “Mad Woman” evokes the dark side of Lana del Ray and Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game”. The darkly, enticing ballad washes over and into you with a sublime majesty. Lloren’s voice is emotional, yearning, ethereal, darkly angelic, and with a clarity like none of her contemporaries. Lyrically she seems to deal with the weird line between men and women which appears to let men get away with almost anything. I was haunted by this incredible tune on first listen and it seems to refuse to leave my head!
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I first encountered the Virginmarys through witnessing a blistering set from them on the Main Stage at Leeds Festival in 2016. Now this rather excellent British band, from Macclesfield, are about to release their fifth album ‘The House Beyond The Fires’ on the 1st of November. “There Ain’t No Future” is the second single from the album and it oozes class. These boys encompass classic rock, punk, blues, metal, and grunge to note just a few. This band has a true social conscience and wears it on its sleeves. The song is a dark and heavy rock banger that turns its anger up to Rage Against Machine levels and has riffs and backing vocals that Led Zeppelin would be proud of. Meanwhile, Ally Dickatay’s voice makes his rage, passion, and empathy super clear all this is supported by Danny Dolan playing his drums so hard that he might accidentally summon millions of long-dead spirits from their eternal sleep!
Photo by Debbie Ellis
Ally said of the new single “This is a track for the uninspired, for the unheard, those who crave truth and all that’s real. Those struggling day to day to make ends meet, yet still have love in their hearts to fight the good fight. Those who see the system is broken and choose not to punch down. We’re really proud of this track, musically, we haven’t released a song like this before, it’s a further glimpse into an album we consider our best work to date“. If the new album is just half as good as this single it will be stunning. The lyrics are passionate, and compassionate and throw rightful barbs at the powers that be and society in general. For example, the power in these four lines is spectacular. “No intervention, just dead air and tension, No redemption, no sick pay, no pension. Put up or shut up, subliminal lessons, The hills are alive with the sound of depression.” The Virginmarys are truly a band for our times and you need to listen to them!
They will be embarking on a European tour soon, which includes some UK dates, check the dates below and the band website for how to get hold of tickets:
28th Sept – NWOCR Live, KK’s Steel Mill, Wolverhampton 2nd Nov – Cinemac Cinema, Macclesfield **Headline Tour 3rd Nov – Bodega, Nottingham **Headline Tour 4th Nov – The Garage, Glasgow **Headline Tour 5th Nov – The Cluny, Newcastle upon Tyne **Headline Tour 6th Nov – The Waterfront Studio, Norwich **Headline Tour 8th Nov – Bear Cave, Bournemouth **Headline Tour 20th Nov – Café V lese, Praha **Headline Tour 21st Nov – Durer Kert, Budapest **Headline Tour 23rd Nov – Legend Club, Milano **Headline Tour 26th Nov – X-TRA Musikcafe, Zurich **Headline Tour 28th Nov – Blue Shell, Cologne **Headline Tour 29th Nov – Molotow, Hamburg **Headline Tour 1st Dec – Rahuset, Kobenhavn **Headline Tour 2nd Dec – Badehaus Berlin **Headline Tour 3rd Dec – Feierwerk Orange house, Munchen **Headline Tour 4th Dec – Kulturclub schon schon, Mainz **Headline Tour 5th Dec – Willem Twee poppodium, Den Bosch **Headline Tour 7th Dec – Exchange, Bristol **Headline Tour 8th Dec – Oslo, Hackney London **Headline Tour
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