We will not generally do controversy in our Tracks Of The Week roundup, but this 7 days we have some.
An assessment of last week’s voting – in which rowdy Liverpudlians The Imbeciles and Nashville rock’n’rollers The Bloody Nerve collected around 90% of the votes involving them – has thrown up what election observers refer to as “suspicious” voting styles. Hundreds of votes were being posted for each artist in alarmingly shorter periods of time, suggesting that a large military of robotic monkeys experienced been engaged to continue to keep the aid coming.
We’re not suggesting that either band had been individually engaged in any nefarious action – and if they ended up, congratulations on this kind of electronic crafty – but neither will we allow their medal positions to stand.
So congratulations to Xander & The Peace Pirates, who concluded a distant 3rd in the standings but are also this week’s winners. Hooray!
And now, on with this week’s level of competition.
Whiskey Myers – Antioch
Texas’s gnarliest bunch of southern rock renegades are back, and this time they appear bearing horns – moreover colossal backing vocals for a abundant, swampy rock n’ gospel punch. It’s nevertheless the gritty, serious-deal taste of the American south that we liked them for at first, but with new levels of ambition. The to start with taste of their up coming album Tornillo (out in July) it conjures visuals of sizzling, sweaty summers and buzzing competition crowds at sunset.
H.E.A.T – Nationwide
You will need pace? Oh we’ll give you pace. Again with a bang – and with unique singer Kenny Leckremo in tow, soon after Erik Grönwall’s departure in 2020 (he’s now fronting Skid Row) – the melodic rock Swedes have released this breakneck 1st solitary from their new album Force Majeure, out in comprehensive in August. Laden with jet-powered synths, it’s so 80s it ought to appear with its personal cherry purple open up-topped Camaro, driven by Joey Tempest and Kenny Loggins. Yeah, image that.
ZZ Top rated – Brown Sugar
Sure, it is a new release from ZZ-fucking-Top! No, it is not a protect of the Rolling Stones basic – au contraire, this bad boy is a small-slung, greasy fireball that at first observed the gentle of working day in January 1971. Now, it’s the opening keep track of of the band’s impending history, Uncooked, an homage to their early days. “Brown Sugar has been sweetening our concert sets for several a long time now,” Billy F Gibbons claims, “so it seemed like the ideal tune to kick off Raw.” Perfectly, quite.
Church of the Cosmic Cranium – Now’s the Time
Time to get divine, in the company of Nottingham’s sublimely psychedelic freakniks, the Church Of The Cosmic Cranium. But this is no band of aimless, bong-smoked wanderers, as this new keep track of confirms. Harmonies, organ whirls, wah-wah guitars and other violin touches are thoughtfully layered, creating a heady but sensible, sweet effects. Test out this and additional on There Is No Time, which comes out in May perhaps. Sign up for the church. Resistance is futile.
Dorothy – Black Sheep
Built on a refrain you’ll be humming for times, Black Sheep has the arena-courting stomp n’ clap swagger of Halestorm and Shinedown (at their rockiest), loosened up with streaks of California hippie sunshine. Subsequent the in close proximity to-demise of her guitar tech from an overdose a few decades ago, the Hungarian-born singer/songwriter underwent a reawakening of her individual, pouring it into her tunes. The resulting album, Gifts From The Holy Ghost, is out 22 April.
Seaside Bunny – Fireplace Escape
On the indie conclude of our spectrum but continue to good and crunchy, the most current single from this Chicago troupe (originally the solo undertaking of singer/songwriter Lili Trifilio) is a neat, far more-ish very little marriage of pop punk, moody lyrics and surf vibes – sugar with a subversive shadow. Proof, if it was needed, that the 90s under no circumstances actually died – additionally a significant TikTok next. New album Emotional Creature will come out on July 22nd.
Steve Vai – Teeth of the Hydra
At last! A probability to gaze with awe on the alien majesty of Steve Vai’s substantially-heralded Hydra guitar. And boy, is it some thing, with a zither-type attachment, in addition dials and lights and issues that make sudden noises as Vai whips all over its multi-necked magnificence, twiddling and noodling and swooping and widdling and generating noises further than the ken of us mere mortals. Observe and tremble.
Pink Sizzling Chili Peppers – These Are The Approaches
When the new Pink Sizzling Chili Peppers album has received the standard bag of “mixed” evaluations from individuals unwilling to recognise the band’s mastery of melancholy, we are delighted that new solitary These Are The Strategies is much more of the sort of factor they do much better than just about any one else. So it can be a song with that mournful Hollywood noir vibe, but this time they’re carrying out it with additional chunk than on previous singles Black Summer and Poster Child. In other words and phrases, it starts off unhappy and then just isn’t.
