Best Times Ever - Lions Tigers and Bears

Lions Tigers and Bears · Maxi

In a change to posting tributes to the recently departed or tracks that were released on wax cylinders (ask your great, great grandparents) here’s a bostin’ brand new debut album from Lions Tigers and Bears, a bit of a Midlands super group (featuring as it does members of Supercaan, Flamingo Flame, Hey Pablo, The Bourgeois Four, Recall 34, Fillmore Gears, The Rebel Party Band...blimey). 

Entitled Best Times Ever, perhaps ironically given the unending clusterfuck that is the world right now, it’s 10 tracks of the very finest scuzzed up indie grunge with hints of Interpol and The Strokes at their early New York City Cops baiting best. Pick of the bunch Maxi adds a little math rock to the mix whilst rollocking along like a greased up rollercoaster on a highway to PiL, quite possibly one of the tracks of the year.

You can buy, stream, download the whole shebang from a dizzying array of platforms. channels or whatever else you're supposed to call these things...I'm still trying to get over the miracle of CDs...

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/album/1od0cVjemOzfMXA1urlc08
Apple Music - https://music.apple.com/us/album/best-times-ever/1518115666
Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/lionstigersandbearsgrrr
Bandcamp - https://lionstigersbearsgrrr.bandcamp.com
Deezer - https://www.deezer.com/en/album/154191972
Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Times-Explicit-Lions…/…/ref=sr_1_2…

Dudley more from MPH

Another cracking guerrilla gig from MPH, this time in Dudley. Speaking of guerrillas here's MPH doing Great Ape Rock on a roundabout in my old stomping ground Bearwood too. With no Glastonbury this year it's great to see some live music on t'You Tube...who knows perhaps by 2021 the world will have caught up with Miles and he'll be u where he belongs on the Pyramid Stage.

Summer In The City (Disco Version) - Evolution

Wonders will never cease, we're actually getting a few days of nice weather...and when Glasto was due to start too...oh the irony. Time to dig out this classic disco version of Summer In The City which I'm pretty sure I have on yellow vinyl somewhere. Groooooovy baby.

Rupert Hine RIP

You might not know the name but if you were around in the 80s you'll know some of the songs he produced, in particular Howard Jones' run of classic albums including Human's Lib, The 12 inch Album and Dream Into Action. And let's face it, who doesn't feel like throwing off their 'mental chains' right now eh? Oooooh, oooooh, ooooh. 

Dame Vera Lynn RIP

That's not a bad innings eh? 103! And she never retired either. To be fair I'll never retire but that's down to the ever rising pension age rather than personal choice. Anyway, in tribute to Vera's passing here's a remix of her greatest hit that I like to think she'd approve of. 

In The Midnight Hour by Goodnight Lenin

Goodnight Lenin · In The Midnight Hour

Two years after going into hibernation (and despite at least one of the band now living on a different continent) Hearing Aid favourites Goodnight Lenin are back with a brand new track, In The Midnight Hour, the first from a forthcoming album intriguingly entitled 'Never Ending Album'. Building to a soul stirring wall of guitars that's practically guaranteed to send coronavirus packing it's the kind of tune you can imagine playing over the last scenes of a movie as the lead character walks into the sunset after being relentlessly kicked in the balls by life but overcoming all the odds and living to fight another day...and...cut...that's a wrap. Who says movie making's tricky eh?

XTC - The Mayor of Simpleton

As the world gets sillier and sillier by the second I've had The Mayor of Simpleton, from the criminally underrated XTC, going round and round in my head all day. Enjoy.

PS: If you want a little more of the lovely Andy Partridge here's a full 48 minutes of the man in full chatty flow.

Bah Bah Um Wah - Matt Philip Hale

And the songs keep coming from the one man tune fountain that is Matt Philip Hale. If you're in or around the Midlands keep your eyes and ears open and you might just catch a live performance somewhere in the bushes...up a tree...in the middle of a lake...Bah Bah Um Wah-ll worth looking out for. 

Icona Pop - I Love It

I was vaguely aware of this track before catching it on one of the many music channels I randomly trawl through and, coming from the 70s as well as being a bit of a 90s bitch, I was quite taken with it. Hell, it's Friday...you need a bit of dance pop perfection on a Friday. 

Diane Solo - N'Ziketio

I can't say I've heard many disco funk tracks sung in Godie and I suspect I'm not the only one but apparently this is just such a rarity. It's a bit of a gem too...makes me think of happy days frugging away at the Jazz World Stage in Glasto...ahhhh...festivals...remember them?