Honeyblood - Sea Hearts

I was lucky enough to catch Honeyblood on their first tour and they've bee(n)...bee...honey...geddit... oh alright then...on fine form ever since. Their latest single's another firm favourite at Baron Towers so if you've not heard it yet wrap it round yer ears for an hour or two. You're welcome.

The CPM Connection - Breaking News!

How's this for a Friday treat, a little slice of inspirational psych from The CPM Connection. Turn on, tune in and drop out.

Pete Burns RIP

Good grief, this one's come as bit of a shock. Okay so Pete Burns might not had the same impact on popular music as Bowie or Prince but you can't deny that he was one hell of a character (and how much does the world need proper characters in this day and age eh?) who came out with one of the definitive hits of the 80s before transforming himself (literally) into a gloriously trashy star of celeb TV. Aged just 57 apparently he suffered a massive heart attack a mere five days before the release of an equally massive 19 disc retrospective called Sophisticated Boom Box MMXVI. RIP.

All Years Leaving 2016

Attention Brum based peeps. This Friday/Saturday sees the annual All Years Leaving Festival and as usual it's stuffed full of some of the best new bands around. Anywhere. Fact. It's kind of like SXSW...just in Kings Heath (well that's south of Brum isn't it...geography never was my strong point). Tickets for the whole thing cost just £25 (which probably just about buys a falafel at Glasto these days) and quite frankly it's worth paying that just to see Hooten Tennis Club play Katy-Anne Bellis and Table Scraps play...well...anything really.





PS: Looks like weekend and Saturday tickets are all gone but you can grab the last few Friday tickets here if you're faster than Bradley Wiggins on speed.

Tourists - Drive

Spanking new music from hotly tipped Torquay five piece Tourists (I'm guessing living where they do they're something the band's well used to) courtesy of synth-tastic new single Drive. Featuring the kind of catchy 80s tinged chorus that'd be right at home on the soundtrack of a John Hughes (RIP) classic (even the vid has a bit of a Weird Science vibe) the band saves the best till last with...be still my beating heart...a ruddy sax solo. God I love a sax solo. Why more bands (M83 being one of the few exceptions these days) don't use a little/a lot of brass is a mystery to me. Anyway, dust off your rah rah skirt (and that's just the chaps), pump up the volume and bop till you drop.

Drive is out on November 4th. 

Islet - Liquid Half Moon

Had the great pleasure of seeing Islet way back in 2010 (ahhh, going to gigs...I remember that) and, as is the way sadly, gradually let them slip into the darkest recesses of what's left of my brain. Seeing a mention of their new single in NME sent me shuffling to the old laptop to give it a 'spin' and it's a darn fine slice of dreamy oddball psych. Fans of Conan Mockasin will heartily approve...that's me then. Bravo.  

Captain Sensible - There Are More Snakes Than Ladders

Heard this last night for the first time in a decade or three. I've had a bit of a soft spot for Captain Sensible ever since seeing him do a suitably OTT version of Happy Talk on Top Of The Pops back in '82 (good grief) but I'd forgotten this one. For a silly pop song it's a pretty good summary of life's rich tapestry and the brief guitar solo (Sensible's actually a genuinely brilliant guitarist) is well worth the wait too. Chart nerds might be interested to note that it reached the dizzy heights of number 57 in 1984 which is quite frankly a national disgrace.