Louder Than War : newsletter 9
Welcome Warriors!
We would like to thank you all for subscribing to the site…it’s helped to create some big differences in the way we exist.
For the first time ever we are able to pay something to our editors and to our main feature writers. Before this it was always a labour of love - a situation that we did not feel comfortable with but were trapped into by the lack of money in the online music world!
All the editors also would like to thank you for your support and we will be making other key changes to the site soon thanks to you all!
This week we have been very busy here - one of my side projects - a green and eco education apprenticeship project is close to launching - the aim is to help train up to 700,000 people green and eco and low carbon job kills and help to create the new green economy - please check the website for more info…
http://www.greenbritianacademy.org (Opens in a new window)Quite possibly not very green at all but ever wonderful is rockabilly icon Brian Setzer. When he burst onto the UK scene back in the early eighties with the Stray Cats it was a wonderful and thrilling moment. The band sounded modern down to Dave Edmunds huge production and the songs sounded like classic American rockabilly but with a huge modern post punk sheen - like a greasy relative of Adam’s wonderful Kings Of The Wild Frontier. Since then Brian has been busy on a myriad of projects and his new solo single is classic Stray Cat strut with an added hint of guitar genius Poison Ivy from the Cramps clank and grind.
https://louderthanwar.com/listen-the-brilliant-new-single-from-brian-setzer-who-does-his-stray-cat-thing-with-a-dose-of-the-cramps/
There is some great new music out as well. Erica Nockalls plays Miles Hunt and the Wonder Stuff and has released her debut solo single which is a dark and enticing piece built around a harmonium and violin and Jah Wobbles flexing bass brilliance. It’s haunting and breath taking and since we broke the news of it first last week it has been captivating many people.
People continue to fall in love with the Wet Leg debut single which we wrote about a couple of weeks ago and is still one of the most popular pieces on the site. It’s great when a band appears out of nowhere and becomes the biggest thing on the scene - that has always been one of the wonders of UK music - the fast turnaround - great bands appearing out of nowhere and making a big impression
https://louderthanwar.com/new-band-alert-wet-leg/
Of course Wet Leg didn’t really appear out of nowhere as Keith Goldhanger points out as he caught one of them in their older band, Plastic Mermaids where her stunning poetic voice is put to a completely different use at one of the thousands of gigs a year Keith went to before the pandemic took hold which he documents in his monthly column…
https://louderthanwar.com/things-we-didnt-know-a-month-ago-june-2021/
We love it when music get taken out of context and twisted and turned. The Cocteau Twins were amazing and mesmerising and we caught them live and interviewed them back in the day a few times. But that doesn't mean that we have a melt down because Miley Cyrus has covered them! Miley has been doing a series of unlikely covers and this is the latest and her extrovert reworking of the introverted song actually works. We think it’s wonderful that she points the spotlight at the Cocteau genius and also to do a pretty damn good version of the song.
Like Delta 5 sounding great and perfect pop on the Apple advert, it proves that so much of the post punk music we were immersed in was actually pop - not pop as a dirty world but pop as it really could have been if the mainstream wasn't too timid to embrace this life affirming wonder.
https://louderthanwar.com/now-miley-Cyrus-covers-the-Cocteau-twins/
One of the saddest things about growing old in pop culture is watching your contemporaries die. It’s been a long and dirty road and we have lost many of our comrades. All we have left is dust and memories and the debris of their complex lives. Sad reminders this week were provided by the sale of Mark e smith’s house…
https://louderthanwar.com/mark-e-smith-old-house-is-up-for-sale/
And also the blue plaque that was placed on Poly Styrene's house near Hastings…
Poly styrene blue plaque
The good news this week is the National Lottery pumping money into the small venues that create the backbone of British music culture.
https://louderthanwar.com/the-national-lottery-has-partnered-with-leading-UK-charity-music-venue-trust-in-a-unique-initiative-to-help-revive-the-uks-grassroots-live-music-sector/
One great album that you should check out this week is the debut solo album from Killing Joke drummer Paul Ferguson. It’s a dark yet fascinating work of the tribal industrial sound that Killing Joke invented and it reflects the drummer’s key contribution to that iconic sound.
https://louderthanwar.com/big-paul-ferguson-virtual-control/ (Opens in a new window)
Is it that time already? six months of this festering germ ridden year have slid away which gives us an opportunity for our Half Term Report of the albums of the year so far…
https://louderthanwar.com/albums-of-the-year-so-far/
Just every punk every youth club was full of mid teens pretending to be The Clash - most of the crashed and burned- but some of them were actually pretty good already - The patrol were one of these bands - their live tapes show a band that were advanced beyond their tender years ands ten years later when they morphed into The Stones Roses it wa snow surprsise to see them take off. Their drummer ‘funky’ Si Woltsencroft posted some shots of the fish faced looking band featuring Ian Brown and John Squire.
https://louderthanwar.com/new-photos-of-the-stone-roses-first-band-the-patrol-emerge/
Happy birthday Ringo Starr! 81 this week - every year we like to take this opportunity to celebrate just what a great drummer the remarkably we preserved Dingle born sticksman is…
Happy birthday Ringo Starr. 81 today! #Ringo Starr Rock myths debunked – ‘Ringo Starr couldn’t drum’ https://louderthanwar.com/rock-myths-debunked-ringo-Starr-couldnt-drum/
