Record Label: 4AD

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Although he’s done at least 1,400 collaborations in the period between then and now, ‘Blues Funeral’ is Mark Lanegan’s first Mark Lanegan LP since 2004’s ‘Bubblegum’. Recorded under the name ‘Mark Lanegan Band’, Bubblegum broke from the dustbowl-burnished woozy blues of prior solo releases  into density and claustrophobia. ‘Blues Funeral’ picks up where that left off – pretty much immediately – with single ‘ The Gravedigger’s Song’ emanating from a place where light does not penetrate. (Glasgow?). As ever with Lanegan, the primary driver is THAT voice – and as usual, whatever he employs it to do is carried off with aplomb. If lyrical themes of blackness and redemption (or not) are familiar, then, musically, only ‘Deep Black Vanishing Train’ would find a home on the likes of ‘Scraps At Midnight’. The fuzz guitars of ‘Quiver Syndrome’ could fit nicely into any of his erstwhile Gutter Twin Greg Dulli’s previous oeuvre. The synths and drum machine employed on ‘Harborview Hospital’ sound for all the world like a Knife track where Karin’s smoked 3 million fags and been played at the wrong speed. If not an LP for the complete newbie – go for ‘I’ll Take Care Of You’ for that – fans who have come to Lanegan thru QOTSA and Gutter Twins will find much to love on this.

Chances are if you went to a festival in 2009, you’d have seen Southend post-punkers Baddies – they did 32 of ‘em. 2010 was spent working on second LP ‘Build’, which drops March 5. They’re touring it next month, on a schedule we can only assume was drawn up by someone who can’t read maps (Southampton thenLeeds?)

FEBRUARY

3/2  The Green Room,Welwyn Garden City, 4/2  Aldershot West End Centre, 6/2  Southampton Joiners,

7/2  LeedsEscobar, 8/2  ManchesterAlter Ego,  9/2  KingstonNew Slang

and rounding it off with a hometown show – 10/2 Southend Chinnerys 

MARCH

5/3,  London, Garage (Upstairs)   16/3  London, Koko (Club NME)

Given the price of petrol these days, we reckon their new single – ‘Bronto – out on Monday 30^th Jan – should probably cost about 20 quid, but they’re letting you download for nowt from here: http://baddies.bandcamp.com/

Oh, and here’s the moving images bit for it too.

Excellent news this – shout4music favourites Maybeshewill have announced details of their new single ‘Red Paper Lanterns’, dropping on 9th March across Europe and 12th March in the UK on Function Records. The limited edition 7″ also includes a track which the band recorded during the sessions for ‘I Was Here For A Moment’ entitled ‘Rain’. And if you need a reason to go on holiday, go and catch them on their European tour. Go to the Sevilla show. And then go to Rayas up near the Iglesia San Pedro for the best ice-cream in the known world.

They’ve maintained an intense touring schedule that has seen them play sold out shows across the UK, Europe,Russia and Japan & festival slots at 2000trees, Summer Sundae, Truck, Dot To Dot, Off The Cuff,  and Dunk! They’re off roundEurope again, kicking off in March.

MARCH

8th – Jocieper, Ieper, Belguim, 9th –Rockbox, Luxembourg.

10th – The Box, Tessenderlo, Belguim, 11th – JC Den Eglantier, Bercham, Belguim, 12th – Les Ateliers Claus, Brussels, Belguim, 13th – Venue 013, Tilburg, Netherlands, 14th – Peron 55, Venlo, Netherlands.

15th -OT301 – Amsterdam, Netherlands, 16th – Gruner Jager, Hamburg, Germany, 17th – Lagerhaus, Bremen, Germany, 19th – Blue Shell, Cologne, Germany, 20 – Kassablanca, Jena, Germany, 21st – Comet Club, Berlin, Germany, 23rd – Klub 007 Strahov, Prague, Czech Republic, 24th – PMK, Innsbruck, Austria, 25th – B72, Vienna, Austria, 26th – Ampere, Munich, Germany, 27th – Jubez, Karlsruhe, Germany, 28th – Treibhaus, Luzern, Switzerland, 29th – Kiff, Aarau, Switzerland, 30th – Amnesy, Lainate, Italy, 31st – Boulevard, Rock Club, Misanoadriatico, Italy.

APRIL

1st – Init,Rome, Italy, 4th – Heretic, Bordeaux, France, 5th – Razzamatazz,Barcelona,Spain, 6th – 12 Medlo, Murcia, Spain, 7th –Caracol, Madrid , Spain, 8th – The Rincon Pio Sound, Don Benito, Spain, 9th – Der Fliegende Hollander,Seville, Spain.

Last seen some six or seven years back on Rough Trade, Dublin’s Hal have made good their return. New four track ‘Down In The Valley’ EP  precedes forthcoming LP -‘The Time The Hour’– and sees them continuing to mine the rich veins that are Phil Spector and West Coast pop.

Released on 27th February 2012, the EP will be available on CD and digitally via all usual outlets, the full track listing is  ‘Down In The Valley’ / ‘Why Do You Come Here’/‘Motorcars’ and ‘Little Lady’.

The album ‘The Time The Hour’ will follow 16th April.

Record Label: Transgressive

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In the same way that Fox News castigated ‘The Muppets’, not falling in love with PABH’s debut is admission that you don’t have a soul. The aural equivalent of being beaten to death with a giant squeaky dog toy, a big fuzzy brutal cartoon of a thing. However, unlike the Muppets, people have to grow up. Even PABH. Much is similar – Tom’s vox are still Kathleen Hanna at full pelt meets Zed from Police Academy. And ‘Shake Off The Curse’ is pretty much ‘Back To….’ 2.0. Elsewhere though, there’s a much harder, more focused bent. Basslines  have become muscular than grungey. Lead single ‘V.E.N.O.M’ is claustrophobic, with more than a hint of Sabbath (albeit Sabbath at 1400 mph), and ‘Epic Myth’ burns out of Kyuss’ desert. Even the tracks following on from the grunge of their debut – ‘Degeneration Game’ is as much ‘Bleach’ era Nirvana as ‘The Lighthouse’– are tighter, louder; lyrics have become much more coherent – howling about ultimate power has gone (boo), and you WILL laugh out loud at ‘Wolf Hand’s opening salvo. At 33 mins over 11 tracks, ‘Tough Love’ is as tight as a whip – and if it’s not quite a sea change from the the first LP – then it’s the sharpest case of moving up the weights this side of Manny Pacquaio

Can you think of anything more fun to do in Glasgow on a Thursday night than go and see DJ Yoda? We can’t. You could go to Brewdog and drink that world’s strongest beer escapade, but then you can’t function for three fucking days afterwards.  SO – if you could win tickets to a  DJ Yoda full audiovisual  set at the Subby that’d be good, right?

Globally renowned scratch extraordinaire, DJ Yoda, is set to headline a free gig in Glasgow  courtesy of leading streetwear brand, Gio-Goi. As part of the Christmas celebrations at the Gio-Goi store on Buchanan Street, music and fashion fans in Glasgow are being given chance to get their hands on free tickets to catch the king of cut-and-paste mixing in action at Sub Club on Thursday December 8th 2011.

As good as the How To Cut & Paste LPs are, Yoda’s much better appreciated live – his visuals are superb – and at the Subby, he’s got Boom Monk Ben and Mr.Mafro as support too.  A limited amount of free tickets are up for grabs. Visit www.gio-goi.com/djyoda to enter the free prize draw for tickets.

Here’s some footage of the man in action

We’re getting odd noises thru from prog-rock monsters Amplifier. They’re on tour at the mo, and seem to have a new LP on way. We’ll let the band explain….

It’s been a year. The Octopus is still going strong. But we know that a lot of people have been wondering what will be happening next…

MYSTORIA
To tie in with our UK tour, we’re giving all ticket holders a very very special sneak preview of what to expect.
For a very limited period – We are giving away a free download track as a teaser for next year.
We did this very succesfully with “The Wave” from The Octopus, so we’re going to do it again.
SILVIO (Sample – http://soundcloud.com/top-button-digital/amplifier-silvio-sample)

Silvio will probably be a future single from Mystoria. Fate has decided that now was a particularly apt time to let people hear it. We love how that works.

Mixed by UK master Chris Sheldon (Amplifier, Oceansize, Biffy Clyro, Foo Fighters)
Mastered by US maestro Steve Fallone (TV On The Radio, The Strokes)

We are very pleased.
All ticketing pre-sales for the december UK tour will be accompanied by a download code. This will be sent out by our arrangement with the ticketing agents.

If you already have bought a ticket – don’t worry – you will still be sent your download code.
Weds 07/12/11 Wolves Slade Rooms
Thurs 08/12/11 Colchester Arts Centre
Fri 09/12/11 London Islington Academy
Sun 11/12/11 Manchester Academy 3
Mon 12/12/11 Bristol Fleece

Tickets for all dates can be had from www.theoctopus.info
Oh, and here’s the video for ‘Planet Of Insects’

Four unassuming-looking gentlemen (Jamie & Ross Cameron, Martin Kirwan, Brian McEwan), St.Deluxe like making noise. Lots of noise.  A bit like Snakedriver era MaryChain and the scuzzier end of Sonic Youth, they’ve sent many a distortion pedal to its union meeting claiming unreasonable abuse, however much like early Teenage Fanclub (when they thought they were Dinosaur Jr, but dropped a whole load of Roger McGuinn in there too) have hummable little melodies tunnelling their way into your brain. With St. Deluxe’s cause being shouted from the rooftops by no less than Vic Galloway, Sonic Boom, Tim Burgess & Alan McGee, and their last single produced by Stuart Braithwaite (Mogwai), Calvin Johnston (Beat Happening) and Joe Foster (The Television Personalities, Creation Records, The Times, amongst lots of others), they’ve showcased at SXSW and done a headliner as part of Nice N Sleazy’s 20^th Anniversary Celebrations. We caught up with guitarist Martin on a piss-wet Glasgow afternoon:

Afternoon Martin, how the dickens are you?

Not bad!

Must have been fairly flattering to be asked to do the Sleazy’s 20^th? That place has seen some legendary nights. I’ve seen Jeff Lewis and Dave Pajo in there…

Yeah! We’ve been going to Sleazy’s for years and playing there for years too, so being asked to help out their celebrations is excellent. Feeling a bit honoured. It was great playing with Paws and Edinburgh School For The Deaf as well.

Were you not worried about playing with Paws? I’ve heard there was a bit of a stramash at one of their last gigs…

No, it wasn’t much. A duffelcoated gentleman, shall we say…had to be ejected out of the side exit…

I guess when you’re opening for The Vaselines and Mudhoney – at the same show – then you get a bit used to pressure anyway.

Yeah,  that was a great night. Big venue in Edinburgh, obviously loved Mudhoney forever, so that was a bit nerve-wracking…

What’s SXSW actually like? Is it just a big cliquey industry jolly-up?

No, we didn’t really see that. We spend most of our time hanging about with our mate Lauree and Tam Coyle (Glasgow manager/promoter), but we bumped into loads of people. We bumped into Kim Fowley – who Jamie knew from recording the BMX Bandits – and he’s just the same as always, looking for new bands to go and do stuff with.

For readers unfamiliar with you guys, describe the St.Deluxe sound in 4 words

4 words? Umm….noisy…poppy…fuzzy…droney.

There’s noises in the city that your new LP’s being recorded / having the polishing done on it  / etc. just now…..

We’re still recording – we’re about three quarters there – there’s 8 songs that just need mixing, and then another 2 or 3 that we need to stick the guitars and vocals onto, and then it’ll be a case of getting it mastered and getting it out there. We’re still talking to people about when and where it’s going to drop, but it definitely should be the early bit of next year.

Anyone else coming out of Glasgow that we should be listening out for just now?

Paws. Love Paws. Played with them a few times now and they’re a great band. Bronto Skylift (2-piece Scottish noiseniks) are a great band. Mondegreen – who we’re playing with on Saturday – they remind me a bit of a Scottish Pavement. You know what Glasgow’s like though, there’s always a million new bands coming out every week, it’s crazy trying to keep up sometimes…

ATP are on the phone demanding you curate a show – who’s on the bill?

Oh Christ……emm….we’ve done stuff with Spectrum and Sonic Boom before so we could probably get him to appear…we could reform Spacemen 3 for that one, I’d reckon. And the Telescopes, we’ve done some stuff with Stephen Lawrie – we played a festival with him in Norway as The Telescopes, it was something to do with a student radio station in Bergen….Phonofest, I think it was called? I think if Brian had to choose it’d be probably the Black Angels or Electric Lizard.

What’s the best bit of vinyl you’ve picked up in a charity shop?

That’s an easy one! I found Lou Reed’s ‘Street Hassle’ in the Victoria Road (Glasgow) Oxfam shop for about six quid. I got turned onto that by Spacemen 3’s ‘Ode To Street Hassle’, and there’s some amazing stuff on there, it’s great. I’ve never seen it anywhere else, so I was dead chuffed with that.

And the December show?

Yup, that’s Saturday the 3rd Dec. Get pished and come up. There’s a Fife band called Silvermash on as well. They’re excellent, they’ve got a heavy shoegaze vibe going on.  Their guitarist used to play drums for the Wedding Present, and he’s supertalented, so I’m looking forward to seeing him on guitar.

Bit like J Mascis?

Aye, maybe! We like our December shows though, we did one a couple of years back that was a Jonathan Richman tribute night and we got Francis MacDonald (Teenage Fanclub) and a few other bands and we did a version of ‘She Cracked’, which we still play.

With that we’re off out into a rotten Glasgow afternoon (are there any other kind?). As much as shout4music values our readers health and happiness, and wouldn’t normally recommend they leave their houses in Scotland in December, we must impress on you that St.Deluxe will be at The Captains Rest on Saturday 3rd. And that you should be too. And seeing as it’s a Saturday night, the telly will be pish – the XFactor intermingled by horrible Xmas adverts?! Don’t encourage Morrissey to make any more money by having John Lewis kill Smiths classics. Find out more at www.stdeluxe.co.uk  or www.myspace.com/stdeluxe

Here ye go….

Bear Driver - London’s purveyors of sunny slacker pop – have unveiled the first fruits of their forthcoming as-yet-untitled debut album in the form of ’Never Never’, a woozy, four-minute slice of  fuzz-pop.

You can stream or download‘Never Never’ free from the band’s Soundcloud page:
Bear Driver – Never Never by Bear Driver

Taking influence from the likes of Sparklehorse, The Flaming Lips & Yo La Tengo, Bear Driver are West London-based quintet Harry Dean on Vox n Geetar; Oli Deakin – Vocals/Guitar; Jon Rulton – Bass/Muscles; Joseph Croft – Keyboards; Richie Harwood – Drums.

So far ‘Never Never’ been getting lots of love from The Guardian and The Fly. Shout4music thoroughly recommends discovering it of a morning – at about 6.30, when you’re sticking coffee into your ears and fags in eyes due to lack of consciousness. Bit early Pavement (think ‘Here’) with the odd bit of guitar chime to gently wake you up to realise your shirt’s on fire. Marvellous stuff.

‘Never Never’ is released on the 2nd January as part of a double-A side with another brand new track ‘Let The Cold’ on Adventure Club. Bear Driver’s debut album is due for release in spring 2012.

Record Label: Matador

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Not sure this ‘new-goth’ tag’s doing much justice to the Brighton trio. People my age are just going to think of Wayne Hussey. Youngsters, probably summat to do with those not old enough to have any reason to be miserable (job, mortgage, girlfriend) acting all miserable. Musically, there’s a hell of a lot going on here. Opener ‘The Fall’ passes by like an intro – not sure if there’s space enough for that on a 6 track EP, but it sets the tone, as the EP’s a continuous piece with songs segueing into each other throughout. ‘The Flight’ nods to post-dubstep with its little pulsebeat underpinning brooding proto-industrial electronics. The strangulated guitar lines of ‘The Surge’ build the listener into thinking there’s a big money-shot crescendo and then peter out to leave you realising it’s the piano motif that carries through into ‘The Still’. Very clever, Mr Esben. And therein lies the downer, too – this isn’t goth – it’s perhaps shoegaze made in a freezing Soviet tower block – but Rachel Davies perma-high-drama vocals, and lyrics proclaiming something about borders being broken make you think there’s something huge and otherworldly at work here. And it’s all far too poised for that concept to be bought into, somewhat like setting ‘Wuthering Heights’ in a cul-de-sac in Sidcup. All the ideas are here, but all the cold leaves this listener feeling a bit….well, cold.