Regular readers will know that I love a protest song and I bloody love the best all girl band there has ever been, the Tuts. Well the Tuts are back, with some great friends as Solidarity Not Silence collaborating on a bright, angry, sharp and powerful song about their trials and tribulations since they took a stand for the abused. It has most certainly not been an easy ride and sadly it ain’t over yet! I have copied below the message from the Tuts social media. Kathleen Hanna’s involvement has helped greatly and even Rolling Stone have picked up the story. Please contribute to the cause and stand in solidarity with them and everyone else involved with this song and all the survivors of abuse. If you can’t afford much how about leaving the song on repeat overnight on Spotify? I’ll be doing that and I have also pre ordered the vinyl single! Let me make that bit easy for you, click here for the Spotify link. Very special thanks to the Tuts, Petrol Girls, Kathleen Hanna, Colour Me Wednesday and Personal Best . The scales of justice is weighing on the wrong side right now, let’s help swing it back!
“Hello, we’ve been quiet for a while but TODAY we launch our brand NEW SONG ‘THIS IS SISTERHOOD’. We’ve formed a SUPERGROUP under the name SOLIDARITY NOT SILENCE ft The TutsPetrol Girls Kathleen Hanna Colour Me Wednesday, Personal Best & loads of feminist musicians & choirs, who have provided us with the most powerful gang vocals. We would like to say thank you to everyone who’s featured on this track (you know who you are) and Alcopop Records for releasing it with us. Gingerdope for the video Tunnel Of Reverb & Patrick James Pearson for recording it. This song release is not only to raise funds and awareness for our case and survivors but it’s for the wider issues at hand. It’s for anyone who wasn’t believed, who spoke up and got shut down, for the fuckery caused by the CPS, for that person who is too scared to speak up, who has to live with the haunting trauma. We hope that this song is somewhere you can feel safe, believed and less alone. We hope the message reaches you and the people who need to hear it and helps them as much as it’s helped us. We’ve been fighting this for over 4 years and it’s taught us resilience but also how hard it is to get JUSTICE. We have so much admiration for survivors. FULL VIDEO: https://youtu.be/GDHNlUY2V24 NEW MERCH & VINYL: www.solidaritynotsilence.bandcamp.com Please share it, download it, donate and support each other. Love,The Tuts xxx“
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As a boy I was a keen Leeds United supporter, but I was born and grew up in London, so how did that happen? Well this was in the late 60s when they were easily one of the best club sides that had ever existed. I have stuck with them ever since, although maybe not as passionately as back in the olden days. Like many supporters I was incredibly pleased to see the club return to the Premier League this season and even more pleased to see how well they have performed. But wait, this is a music site, why am I babbling on about Leeds United? Well for a few reasons, firstly two of my favourite current bands are huge Leeds United fans, that is Apollo Junction and Skylights. Both have featured here at With Just A Hint Of Mayhem quite a few times.
Today it is the turn, once again of Skylights who recently shared a stark and beautiful stripped down version of their recent single “Darkness Falls”. Leeds Manager Marcelo Bielsa is a big fan of the track and he has written to the boys too tell them. He also appears in the video, well his picture at least! The song works really well in this unplugged style take. Rob Scarisbrick’s vocals ooze with soul and emotion and the gorgeous noise that guitar maestro Turnbull Smith makes with a simple acoustic guitar is incredible. This for me is the mark of a great song in that it works well in many guises from full production to sparse and stripped back. While we are waiting for the Skylights debut album can we have a Stripped EP please?
Click here or below to check out the video of the track on Twitter, currently the only place you can find it.
Not Now Norman are back with yet yet another absolute banger of a tune, “Shut Your Mouth”. The music has an old school hard rock feel with shades of Thin Lizzy and Nazareth, and a screaming guitar solo worthy of Ritchie Blackmore at his peak. Once again Taylor’s vocals put the icing on the cake, she has one of the finest rock voices I have heard in quite a while. Previous releases “Little Cheryl” and “Little Frankenstein” were good, but this is even better. The chorus rips through your ear canals and forcibly hooks itself into your brains temporal lobe. This will be epic in a live environment. Aligned with the bands recent and rather excellent collaboration with Geo Moon, “Run Boy” the subject matter here is domestic abuse.
Taylor said this about the song and its meaning; “The track is about domestic abuse, the words are everything I wanted to say when my abuser was berating me. The build-up is meant to get people to start shouting ‘shut your mouth’ with the track when the final chorus hits. It’s meant to reignite the fire that victims feel has died when they escape domestic abuse and boost confidence.” You can hear and feel Taylor reigniting her fire and hopefully this message will help other victims of domestic abuse in their recovery from what must be a truly awful experience. It is something I have never encountered personally, so I can only imagine how it is for domestic abuse victims. After listening to this great track click here to check out Refuge’s website, they do some wonderful work helping and supporting those who have been affected by domestic abuse!
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Beyond any doubt, for me, Laura Kindelan is one of the sharpest and brightest talents of her generation to emerge from York. I have had the pleasure of seeing her live quite a few times and also interviewing her a couple of years ago. On top of all that talent she is also a wonderful human being and now she has had a new tune played on BBC Radio 1. Laura’s “Feast” is one of a fantastic collection of awesome tracks to feature on Gemma Bradley’s show last night. I have likened Laura’s style and delivery to Jeff Buckley before and I stand by that with the new song, but here I also sense elements of Kate Bush around the time of “The Sensual World”. “Feast” does so much with the space between the notes as it does within them. The song is sultry, moody, jazzy and the guitar work is chilled and even eerie at times. I am looking forward to this track being more widely available 🙂
On her social media Laura says of “Feast”, “This version of Feast was recorded start to finish by me on my ridiculously small laptop. The drums were recorded in my drummer/housemate/Luca’s room with a bloody cajon as a kick drum. Safe to say I never ever anticipated it being played on BBC Radio 1. As a bit of a perfectionist, it makes me so scared that this is happening, as it’s so unexpected, but I couldn’t be happier!!” This is well deserved recognition for Laura and she is definitely someone I can hardly wait to see play live again when we finally come out of these dark Covid days!
Click here to hear the track on Gemma Bradley’s show. Laura appears at around 58 minutes in, but why not listen to the whole show, there really are some great songs on offer!
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Cold Culprits (a.k.a. Andy Watson) recently released a cracking new tune, “Keep On Rising”. It is a fabulously uplifting song which oozes positivity. I know that the song arose from a boxing story. Andy explains the gestation of the track as “the spark of the idea was struck by the story of a Leeds boxer who suffered a shock defeat to an underdog earlier this year, after being unbeaten his entire career. Keep on Rising is all about sticking at something that’s important to you, taking the knocks and inching your way forward to success. It’s about being able to focus on the long term, but also taking care of the day-to-day things that mean your dream of tomorrow doesn’t always just hang there as a dream, out of reach”. But the message goes way beyond sport and is a great song to support our move away from the dark covid days we have all endured.
The guitars scream like Bernard Butler and Mick Ronson joined forces and unleashed a sound like banshees on shrooms. The drumming is ace, in fact some of the drum patterns sound like they could be used to soundtrack a flurry of punches in a boxing match. Andy tops things off with one of his best vocal performances to date, I occasionally picked up a small touch of Neil Young in his voice. It only took a couple of listens for this anthem in waiting to get into my head and take up residence! We will keep on rising people, stay positive and listen to great music like this! Click here to check out more great stuff from Cold Culprits.
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I have loved the resurgence of vinyl as a medium for music again these last few years. It has also given rise to some cottage industry-style releases and label setups. One of the latter is the label created by what is probably the best record shop in Yorkshire, Vinyl Eddie in York. The label, unsurprisingly, is called Vinyl Eddie Records and is preparing two release their next two slabs of vinyl, two collections by York’s laid-back, psyched-out, grungy noiseniks, Soma Crew. Two volumes of rather delightful tunes from this very talented band. The two volumes will be issued under the main title of ‘The Hunmanby Gap Sessions’. Volume 1 is subtitled ‘Out Of Darkness’ and Volume two will be ‘Into Light’. The out-of-darkness and into-light stance may relate to the terrible year we have all been through, but I am not sure all of these tracks were written post-Covid. But either way, there are some fantastic tunes here which will certainly help lift the mood into something more positive. Soma Crew are almost mysterious as there is not much information available about them online. They formed in 2013, and were initially called Muttley Crew Is that a pun on Motley Crue or an homage to Dick Dastardly’s sidekick? . It came about after a few friends got together after regular attendance at open mic nights in York. There seems to have been an array of members over the years (including those featured on the album sleeves). Si Micklethwaite, singer, songwriter, and guitarist has certainly been ever-present and maybe some of the other members have, but the internet is really short on bio data for this rather excellent band.
Volume 1 opens with “Phantom” an intriguingly hypnotic slice of melodic shoegaze with added drone. I love it! Next up “Wishlist” continues the perfectly executed drone rock with a rumbling bass that hits you right in the chest when you play it loud. This one has a nice injection of Velvet Underground style. If Jonathan Richman had joined the aforementioned Velvet Underground I think they might have produced something like “You’re So Cool”. I can imagine this supported by a video-heavy on the use of an oil lamp projector and psychedelic filters. “Half-Life” is majestically chilled, with a steam train drone and some stunning use of organ as it builds towards a huge crescendo of an ending. This track made me think of Spiritualized, which given that Soma Crew state one of their influences as Spaceman 3 I am not surprised. This song made me want to spliff up and lie in a hammock in the sunshine! I have no real idea why, but “Mighty Forces” was reminiscent of John Squire, in a world where Squire was a member of the Grateful Dead. This is probably my favourite track on volume 1. This first disc closes with “Happening” a Soma Crew song you could almost dance to, well at least frug around a bit.
“Hey Sister” kicks off volume 2 and it has a great psyched up 60s Pink Floyd vibe going on, Syd Barrett would have been proud of this one. “There’s A Fire” flies off the blocks like a proper rock bastard and I reckon a Jason Pierce remix of this would be ace. Next up we are treated to the more chilled side of Soma Crew again with “Broken Matches” a really understated tune driven by a rhythm on top form. The band showcase their more electronic sound on the intro to “Machines”, although guitar, bass and drums still feature heavily as the track progresses. I love the distortion on this one, it is an amazing track to listen to on headphones. Simon’s vocal is almost choral in style here. On “Seven” they sound like a warped alt.country band who trespassed into the KLF’s White Room. It definitely crosses the Weirdsville City Limits as it builds into an other worldly anthem. This is potentially my favourite of the whole collection. “Nicotine Drum” certainly owes a debt to Spaceman 3, but it is a great song in its own right. I am so looking forward to getting my hands on both these LPs. I am also looking forward to the opportunity of seeing Soma Crew live sometime soon.
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Regular readers know that I love political and protest songs, which is the first reason that “Bad Bones” the new single from Marq Electronica alerted my ears. It is like a Portishead collaboration with Goldie at his peak, but this is no facsimile, the song stands up really well on its own and is driven hard by some bountiful bombastic electro synth bass lines. Marq says this of the track, “Bad Bones is my reaction, my dissatisfaction and frustration at the political landscape what I see as the smiling faces and the double talk of those in power.” Personally I think he has nailed the dissatisfaction that many of us feel about current politicians, particularly the UK Government. Lyrics like, “The higher the bidder, the more you comply. Lie to the people, then look them straight in the eye”. have immense depth and huge power. The video has a gorgeous ‘Tron’ versus ‘Max Headroom’ feel to it and enhances what is already a great tune. The song was produced and mixed by Simon Ellis who has worked with the Spice Girls, Britney Spears, East 17, S Club 7, and Westlife). This track is good enough for me to forgive Simon for anything he did with Westlife! Marq has a really interesting canon of work available on SoundCloud, his cover of Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” takes the tune to another dimension. This dude is definitely one to watch out for, click here to play “Bad Bones” and more of his music.
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The Saturn V rocket which launched all the Apollo missions in the 60s and 70s generated 7.6 million pounds (34.5 million newtons) of thrust at launch and it could launch about 130 tons (118,000 kilograms) into Earth orbit. That is heavy and now a band that shares part of their name with those Moon missions is about to release their heaviest single yet! I am talking about the new tune from one of Leeds finest bands, Apollo Junction who unleash their new song “Light Up The Sky” on the world this coming Friday, 9th April. It is a full on glam stomper with funky metal overtones, however they still maintain their signature electro sound within it too. On the evidence of this and all the singles released since their 2019 debut album ‘Mystery’ they will certainly overcome that “difficult second album” conundrum. Album number two, will, I suspect be even better than the first. “Light Up The Sky” has almost immediately become my favourite Apollo Junction tune!
The band describe “Light Up The Sky” as “an anthem about the need for togetherness in darker times. It’s the song that we have aimed to write since the day we formed Apollo Junction and is a great representation of the big sound of our second album”. Well I agree that it is anthemic and not just a big sound, but a monumentally huge sound. As we slowly move out of the dark cloud of Covid there are an increasing number of chances to see the boys play live in 2021, including Carfest North and Carfest South, Bingley Weekender, Isle Of Wight Festival and supporting the Kaiser Chiefs at the Halifax Piece Hall to name just a few. If this band is not stratospherically successful in the next few years I might have to eat my hat! Get them in your life now! When the single is issued later this week I will add a few links for you to get it into your ears! Click here to check out some of their other great tunes on Spotify!
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It’s very close to the end of March and this is our fourth singles round up of 2021. This roundup once again features a special guest reviewer. I was joined for this mega online listening shindig by an ace Radio DJ, check out his Indie/Alternative Show on Jorvik Radio (Sundays 5pm to 7pm). Let me introduce you to the one and only Jake Cartledge!
We listened to ten quite different tunes from ten clearly talented bands and singers, two of whom (Moodbay and Elkyn) have featured on With Just A Hint Of Mayhem before, but I am confident that all ten will appear here again in the future. This bunch come from Sheffield, Leeds (two of them), North-East UK, the South Coast of England, Lincoln (two of them), Newport, North-West UK and one from outside the UK, San Francisco! Inject this eclectic selection of tunes deep into your lugholes! Click here to check out the Spotify playlist with all ten songs on it!
Bill – Dark, late-night jazz. I love her voice. A proper chanteuse, a real torch singer. In a few years I can imagine Caroline being a contender to record a James Bond theme. It has a 60s feel and possibly my favourite of this particular singles roundup.
Jake – An old school, vintage 60s vibe, but with a slightly more modern twist. Maybe Nancy Sinatra with some Kate Bush thrown in. Really good track and different from everything else in this batch of singles.
Jake – Definitely one of my favourites from this review session. A song of two distinct sides. It starts off with a dreamy, atmospheric, laid-back late-night listening vibe and then moves into a much more manic and urgent sound for the second half.
Bill – Chilled and even a little lo-fi at the start. Parts of the instrumentation rather weirdly made me think of George Michael’s “A Different Corner”. I love her voice and the harmonies are great. Strangely she didn’t sound very happy in the chorus, but maybe that was wonderfully performed irony. It moved into something really loud and “out there” for the second part.
Bill – A great vocal from Anna. Like something that All Saints might have done if theye were new to the scene now. Great hooks and I love the way the synths build and then drop to a great keyboard refrain.
Jake – I love this, very atmospheric with great vocals. Anna’s voice sounds a little like Kat from Leeds band Polo.
Jake – A nice, chilled start, this reminded me of Tame Impala and towards the end some of the more recent MGMT releases. A wonderful galloping bass sound!
Bill – A new take on early 80s jangly indie sounds. Great harmonies and instrumentation and as Jake said, wonderful bass. This lot are more likely to be a defibrillator to pop rather than be the death of it!
Jake – This really got going in the final 45 seconds or so. The vocal reminds me of Hozier and there is a great lyrical flow.
Bill – A dark tune where the lyrics are not just dark but bitter too. I love the way that it moves into a quasi rap sound and it builds really well to a fabulous end. I like this one a lot.
Bill – Great pop punk riffs for a tune that has mosh action written all over it. The singer has a great rock voice. Perhaps a little too Foo Fighters at times, but some definite promise.
Jake – The riff was good, but this one didn’t really stand out for me. But perhaps that is because I am not a huge fan of that pop punk style.
Jake – This reminds me of something from the 90s, an obscure singer whose name escapes me for now. An androgynous vocal over a chilled 90s dance sound, it becomes a little “ploddy” at times though.
Bill – The name Seagoth suggested something heavy and dark, it wasn’t. This is much more of a dance pop vein. At times like a rare Stone Roses remix. I was not hooked at first, but it did begin to grow on me.
Bill – Clearly an ode to gay sex, sadly the sexual nature of some of the lyrics mean it will miss out on airplay. I love his voice and the swirling synths that underpin the track. I think this could be transformed magnificently with a decent dance mix.
Jake – I kind of felt this was a little predictable, the drums were pretty much the same all through. Not entirely sure what to make of it, but I don’t think I would listen again.
Jake – A bit self-deprecating, with a “feeling sorry for myself” lyric, but that didn’t take anything away from it. Like Bill I felt some Depeche Mode in there. I really did not expect that vocal, very distinctive. The vocals were also very nicely layered which worked really well.
Bill – A late 80s, early 90s shoegaze vibe. I like the lyrics, especially the line “abusive relationship with myself” and that deep, dark bass line. A little feel of Depeche Mode.
I couldn’t find Bad Idea’s “Happy” on YouTube so here’s a bonus 🙂 their video for “Winter”. But don’t forget to click the Spotify playlist link in the first part of this post!
Another bonus for you, I couldn’t find Moodbay’s “Psycho” on YouTube so check out “Like Nobody Else” but don’t forget to click the Spotify playlist link in the first part of this post!
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Please Remain Calm, a new Leeds based five piece rock band announce their arrival with a debut single that could knock the Incredible Hulk into next week and smash Thor’s hammer into a million pieces! I cannot see anyone remaining even moderately calm when gigs return and Please Remain Calm hit the stage. This is a huge metal anthem in waiting, riffs forged in the obsidian bowels of Mordor and a rhythm section that could not get heavier if they tried. There is an orchestral feel to the melodies, especially in the chorus. Flowers (a.k.a. Chloe) gets better every time I hear her, either solo or as the front woman of incredible York band My Wonderful Daze. On this track she channels her inner Amy Lee and frankly is as good, if not better than some of Amy’s finest Evanescence moments. On the strength of this single Please Remain Calm have the ability to be huge and I hope they are!
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With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 