LTW newsletter 74
Welcome Warriorz!
We are now entering the twilight zone of the General Erection with blue rinse lunatics on our TV’s yelling the word ‘tax’ over and over again and shouting for change after 14 yers despite being in government all this time. Their rudeness is unbearable and their arrogance seems to be inbred in them from day one. The sooner we get this government dumped the better. God knows if it will get any better…but it certainly won’t get any worse!
Just who are these freaks that claim to govern us? These born to rule Tories whose parched souls have little or zero art in them. souls that are dusty empty spaces bleached of soul and wonder and full of gimlet eyed hatred and a perverse belief in hoovering up all our money into their private forest of magic money trees.
Of course a lot of art can be selfish as well but it, at least, creates a world of wonder and beauty instead of this sparse desert of the human soul and its this that we celebrate every day on Louder Than War!
This week, like all weeks, has been unrelenting in its ever shifting soundtrack of stories and reviews.
Who would ever have thought that Blondie would be setting up their wondrous jukebox of hits forty plus years after punk rock turned the pop charts upside down? Debbie Harry remains a wonderful and intriguing creature and at nearly 80 still looks iconic.
We are certainly still touched by her presence dears!
She still has a great band built around her with the wonderous Clem Burke still delivering his personal avalanche of rhythm on the drums like a Keith Moon/Ringo hybrid and Glen Matlock the super super sub who seems to be de rigour bassist in every band on the planet whilst making them all swing.
https://louderthanwar.com/blondie-piece-hall-halifax-live-review/
Glen has been busy! somehow he has also found time and space in his diary for a gig by the Sex Pistols. The reformation of 3/4 of the naughtiest band in history certainly came out of the blue but three nights in London as a benefit for the Bush Hall seems a good enough reason to us for getting old gang back together.
Of course there is a glaring omission and its of the wild eyed charismatron of John Lydon who is not there. It was never going to happen, yet, as relations between the two camps are not great after ‘Pistol’ so the remaining three have found a great replacement with Frank carter from Gallows whose own personal psychodrama will fully suit the current version of the Pistols or whatever monicker they will use as they blast through the whole of Never Mind The Bollocks from one end to another.
It’s always good to be reminded of just what a great powerhouse ‘BAND’ the Pistols were and this gig will sound amazing and, of course, LTW will be there!
Oasis have been limbering up to excavate their vaults and release an anniversary edition of the band’s multi million selling debut ‘Definitely Maybe’ alum which is due out soon.
It’s a remix of the original version of the album recorded in Monnow Vally studios that the band scrapped before rerecording it at Sawmills in Cornwall. The remixed version does both make you think ‘wow! that sounds great’ with razor sharp guitars and great songs but also understand why it never came out as that version misses a certain swagger as a young band are perhaps overawed by being in the big studio for the first time and trying to reach for the stars.
It’s to the band’s credit that they dared to pull the plug and rerecrd the alum from scratch.
Most bands would panic and go with whatever they had recorded even if they knew it was not quite right.
This version of ‘Columbia’ is from those sessions and its’ longer and assumes a mantra like trip that places the band back on their label Creation records at the time with its then shoegaze narrative and less of the monumental lads band they went on to.
Richard Hawley is becoming a bit of a national treasure! The Sheffield based musician has just released a new album drenched in the idiosyncratic culture of his home city and has set out on his own big venue tour yet and it’s a triumph! His melodic nouse, sardonic wit and cool charisma have seen him find his own space a long way away from such dull stuff as fashion. There is a timeless brilliance that makes his own quiet revolution thrive on his songwriting skills.
https://louderthanwar.com/richard-hawley-o2-apollo-manchester-live-review/
More important in connecting a community together before the world self-destructs electro nerd Moby is back with us! On Always Centered At Night, Moby’s 22nd album, he collates some of the chroniclers of our time to replicate the spirit of discovery similar to that of a record store illuminating us with the various treasures and debris within them says a typically word salad surgery Ryan Walker.
https://louderthanwar.com/moby-always-centred-at-night-album-review/
It’s been a long time since we heard from Shampoo - the duo who had a brief flicker of fame back in the early Britpop days with their sassy gonzoid bubblegum. I remember them at the time as inseparable cool future indie twins decked out in punky indie finery hanging out at every gig and event you ever went to glaring at everyone from their corner. Somehow they turned their cut and paste take on indie culture into a micro pop career of their own and this new boxed set embraces their Day-Glo adventure.
https://louderthanwar.com/shampoo-complete-shampoo-album-review-interview/ (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)
Friend of LTW and the the UK’s best comic (although he likes to claim 48th best) Stewart Lee was in touch about an excellent looking event he is putting on in London. A run of gigs that sees him put on his favourite garage bands whist he warms up with a set of new material that he is knocking together. It’s a great concept and a great mix of band and comic and well worth getting down to if there are any tickets left.
It’s been some time but Massive Attack are back out playing live - getting ready for their own big event gig in Bristol this summer. their recent gig in Scandinavia was on YouTube and the footage shows a band still at the top of their dark energy game with tour vocalist Liz Frazer sounding as enigmatic and brilliant as ever.
Beautiful Days Festival sent over the day splits for this August’s event which sees arguably their best and most ambitious bill ever. There are a handful of tickets left so hurry!
https://louderthanwar.com/beautiful-days-festival-2023-live-review/ (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)
Janes Addiction brought their glam psych post punk back to the UK for a quick jaunt. the lost decades left them unaffected and the run of shows were a reminder of their wild and exuberant age brilliance.
Man it seems to have en a week of comebacks sailing into view..
Here is one we never saw this coming! Jesus Lizard suddenly returned from the blast from the past graveyard with a new singe that sounded as thrillingly wild and off kilter as as anything they have ever done. It was the aural equivalent of reconstituted dino DNA bringing back some crazy creature and a terrible lizard from the deep and distant past…
https://louderthanwar.com/the-jesus-lizard-hide-seek-single-review/
