LTW newsletter 39

Welcome Warriors!

Well the champaign bottle corks were popping this week at LTW towers or the tea bags were getting piled into the chipped Moomin cups with a wild abandon as we found out that we have become the 5th most read music and culture website in the UK!

Amazing to think how far we have managed to come with such a DIY operation - all the other websites in the top 10 were big money backed operations and we managed to get this far just on our own enthusiasm and love of the music and culture and, of course, the much appreciated loyalty of our readers! And you our dear subscribers who have made such a difference to us in the past year - thanks!

Anyway - enough of patting ourselves on the back! Lets return to the frey!

Of course, as ever, so much has been going on in the musical world and as we pack our tent pegs for Glastonbury and celebrate the longest days of the year we have had the ever eclectic soundtrack to immerse ourselves in.

American provocateur Peaches brought her confrontationally entertaining display of costume changes and fluid gender electroclash to the Ritz in Manchester with a stunning show that is, as ever, thought provoking and sexually provocative. It was also thoroughly immersive and entertaining.

https://louderthanwar.com/peaches_o2-ritz_livereview/Welcome Warriors!

Well the champaign bottle corks were popping this week at LTW towers or the tea bags were getting piled into the chipped Moomin cups with a wild abandon as we found out that we have become the 5th most read music and culture website in the UK!

Amazing to think how far we have managed to come with such a DIY operation - all the other websites in the top 10 were big money backed operations and we managed to get this far just on our own enthusiasm and love of the music and culture and, of course, the much appreciated loyalty of our readers! And you our dear subscribers who have made such a difference to us in the past year - thanks!

Anyway - enough of patting ourselves on the back! Lets return to the frey!

Of course, as ever, so much has been going on in the musical world and as we pack our tent pegs for Glastonbury and celebrate the longest days of the year we have had the ever eclectic soundtrack to immerse ourselves in.

American provocateur Peaches brought her confrontationally entertaining display of costume changes and fluid gender electroclash to the Ritz in Manchester with a stunning show that is, as ever, thought provoking and sexually provocative. It was also thoroughly immersive and entertaining.

In a hefty list mood we compiled our Albums of the year so far. We coralled everything from dizzy psych and dreamy classical dark pop to full-on anarcho punk and hard-hitting political takedowns. There were new names breaking through and great returns from familiar faces. Here’s a run down of Louder Than War’s albums of 2022 so far.

Interpol breezed back into our lives again with a stunning display of pristine melancholic post punk that fulled the perfect venue for these sonic adventures - the Roundhouse. It’s strange to think now that the band, that still feel new, have become as vintage as many of their earlier influences. Our reviewer was spellbound, ‘Interpol haven’t sounded this driven, or their songs this urgent, in years. And that despite a key member being absent from their Roundhouse show.’

The pop star of the moment, Harry Styles, has become one of the biggest stars in the world and transcended his TV fame and boy band roots to create a perfect pop and become very much a pop star of these times. His feel good music and performance impressed our poptastic reviewer! ‘Tonight, Harry Styles writes his own footnote and takes another step in bridging the credibility gap between his roles as first among equals in the phenomenally successful X Factor boy band product One Direction and respected international superstar solo artist.’

On a totally different note, in fact lots of totally different but very heavy notes, Download Festival was yet again a huge event and proof of the enduring power of metal. The heavy form, that is so often ignored by the media, has an eternal popularity that is driven by its bombastic beauty but also its restless intelligence and need to reinvent that often sees much of the ground breaking new sounds in all music emerging in its genre. Download captures all this from the trad noiseniks to the ground breaking freak ‘core in a bombastic weekend of earplug defying decibel behemothic juggernaut good times.

The Courettes have been carving name out for themselves since first being written about on Louder Than War and the duo’s twitching garage rock has been packing the small venue circuit out with its energy action and ideas. The duos innate cool backed up with razor blade sharp garbage intensity is putting them on the fast track.

The grand master of all things wonk garage - Jon Spencer has been touring with his new band and they delivered an electrifying series of shows that saw their intense, twisted and darkly funny shivers of sonic style thrill under the new flag of his new outfit Jon Spencer’s Hitmakers.

Nerina Pallot is the 47-year-old singer-songwriter - who released her first album back in 2001 - her seventh record 'I Don't Know What I'm Doing' is much loved by our reviewer here…

Elizabeth Fraser’s new album is shaping up to be one of this year’s classic if the three tracks that have been released so far have left any clues. The latest is an achingly beautiful soundscape adventure featuring THAT voice.

The much maligned have popped their shaggy mops back into the air again and defied all expectations by delivering something rather special according to our reviewer