Rock & Indie CD 562 Items

CD comes with limited edition mini poster featuring original album cover art by Wayne Braino Bjerke! A little mini story of the challenges of putting a record together during this pandemic. Balancing Our ambition vs safety precautions. The feel of the growth of the band as a big step forward from the first release. The hunkering down and really honing the new material to present an even tighter musical unit, especially given the departure of one member. The amount of songs that were surprisingly in a more powerpop direction yet even more rockers to come! Stay tuned for more Rock n Roll. With influences brought up on the bedrock of garage, power pop & punk from Generation X, Stiv Bators-Disconnected, Hanoi Rocks, The Wildhearts, 999, The Boys, Paul Revere's Raiders & The Stooges. Concretins, the sophomore release from NYC's The Idolizers is filled with big hooks, choruses, a thundering rhythm section and wall of guitars that pulls you in right to that time and place where you heard one of those influences for the very first time. Featuring the lead single "Riot Radio" hitting indie radio airwaves all over, get ready for some serious cranking up!!

Garage Pop from the Desert! CD includes limited edition poster! "Punky-pop with hints of Glam and Garage. Think of a cross between The Epoxies, New Bomb Turks and The Muffs and you may get close to what these guys’n’gals are doing." - Fear And Loathing Zine "In garage punk terms, the 'French Girls' EP is a must-have." - Real Gone First full length from Phoenix, Arizona’s French Girls. Led by Che Beret, formerly of Les Hell on Heels (Bomp!/Dionysus) and The Peeps (Sympathy for the Record Industry), the 2 girls and 2 guys have a garage rock sound routed through classic 60’s underground and the punk rock of the 70’s. Prior to the last years shut down the band has spent years perfecting a sound and playing a blistering live set along with bands such as King Tuff, The Love Me Nots, Screaming Females, Mark Sultan, Kepi Ghoulie, Kid Congo, Holly Golightly, Death Valley Girls, LA Witch, Hinds and more.

"One of America's finest rock and roll bands." - Faster And Louder "Done With Rock N Roll”? Yeah right!" - Maximum Volume Music "They are stone-cold professionals when it comes to writing hook-heavy, guns-blazing, shirts-off, hard-core rock’n’roll songs." - Sleazegrinder, Classic Rock Magazine Hard As Hell, Loud As Sin... Boston. Home to legendary household rock ’n’ roll names like J. Geils Band, Aerosmith, the Neighborhoods, the Real Kids, the Cars; and the city’s own namesake, Boston. Now, the legend gets even bigger when cocksure rockers/movers/shakers Watts return with their fifth full-length album. We’re sliding 10 brand new shots down the Rum Bar and into your ears. Shady Rock & Rollers is pouring up a heavy dose of Cheap Trick, Stones, Mott, Ac/dc, infused classic rock n' roll, struttin' with swagger, hooks galore, infectious lead geetar riffs, and a whole lotta Watts for your stereo cranked up listening pleasure.

We may be cursed to be in the midst a global pandemic, buffeted by all of its stresses and pain. But everyone knows that art provides succour, that music is the most reliable balm. And for many there is further significant comfort to be drawn from the knowledge that Paul Weller is in the midst of an unbelievably prolific purple patch. Paul Weller will not let us down when we need him most.

On May 14th, Paul Weller releases his 16th solo album since his self-titled debut in 1992, his fourth in as many years and his second in just under twelve months following June 2020’s magnificent, chart-topping On Sunset. It’s not hyperbole to state that this new album, titled Fat Pop (Volume 1), is among his most compelling collections, bar none, including all of his era-defining work in the 1970s and ‘80s with The Jam and The Style Council. It’s an absolute scorcher.

When lockdown was declared in March 2020, Paul Weller decided immediately that he wanted something to focus on, since it seemed unlikely he’d be able to tour On Sunset as planned that summer.

“I had lots of ideas stored up on my phone,” he explains down that same handset, speaking from outside his London home, “and at least this gave me an opportunity to develop them.” So he started to record songs on his own, doing just vocals, piano and guitar, then sending those sound files to his core band members such as drummer Ben Gordelier, Steve Cradock on guitar and various other instruments, and bassist Andy Crofts for them to add their parts. “It was a bit weird not being together, but at least it kept the wheels rolling. I’d have gone potty otherwise.”

The band reconvened at Weller’s Black Barn studio in Surrey during the summer when restrictions were lifted to finish the work, with several of the songs being cut live. By this stage, the shape of the album was clear to all. Weller wanted to deliver an album of singles, twelve short, distinct blasts, each strong enough that they could stand alone if so desired.

“That was a conscious decision,” he confirms. “I even thought about putting every song out as a single first then gathering them all on an album, but that wasn’t practical at the moment. They all have that strength and immediacy, I think, and they’re all short, three minutes or so maximum.”

Producer Jan ‘Stan’ Kybert was so taken with the concept that he half-jokingly suggested that the album be called Greatest Hits. “I quite liked the idea and every song does stand up as a single, I think,” chuckles Weller, “but no, we couldn’t do that really.”

Instead, he plumped for Fat Pop (Volume 1). “I thought we’d add Volume 1 to it just to keep my options open in the future for a second volume!” The title track, a tight, heavy blast of ultra-modern funk, is itself the conceptual key to the whole album. “It’s a celebration of music and what it’s given us all. No matter what situation you are in, and we’re in one now, music doesn’t let you down, does it?”

As ever, Weller’s sonic masterplan was to avoid whatever had recently preceded it. “After [2018’s] True Meanings I thought I wouldn’t have any acoustic guitars for a little while, so I’ve largely avoided those with On Sunset and with Fat Pop,” he says. “But more than anything I wanted something vibey, something we could play live.” He laughs ruefully at the irony of that. “God knows when that will be, bearing in mind where we are with the virus. But in the imaginary gig in my mind I can see us playing all of the songs on Fat Pop live, along with the songs from On Sunset, blending them with some of the old favourites too. What a great set that would be.”

Live is where he imagines On Sunset and Fat Pop (Volume 1) working in tandem, because they don’t act as companion piece albums otherwise. “On Sunset was quite lavish in places, whereas with this one I wanted to limit it in some ways, make the production less expansive.”

Beyond that desire to keep it frill-free and tight, sonically Fat Pop (Volume 1) is a diverse selection of sounds. No one style dominates. There’s the synth-heavy, future-wave strut of Cosmic Fringes, the stately balladeering of Still Glides The Stream, Testify’s moving-on-up soul, and the kind of dramatic three minute pop symphonies on Failed, True and Shades of Blue with which Paul Weller has hooked in generation after generation of devotee.

More than sonic plans, though, Weller set himself the same task as he does before any recording. “Whenever I make an album I’m always just trying to at least match what’s gone before because each time I think the bar’s been raised. If all goes to plan, sometimes I manage to go over that bar too.”

Sometimes he does, sometimes he really does.

Fat Pop (Volume 1), the story behind each song:

Cosmic Fringes

A dramatic entrance to Fat Pop (Volume 1). Cosmic Fringes pairs a minimal, pumping electro swing with a deadpan vocal that detonates an unspecified poseur and blowhard. “I’m a sleeping giant, waiting to awake/I stumble to the fridge/then back to bed”.

“It’s not about anyone in particular,” suggests Weller, “but I suppose it could be about a keyboard warrior, someone who is constantly brainstorming ideas but never gets around to doing them. Someone talking the talk, but never doing anything.”

“When I first did the demo it was quite punky, a bit like The Stooges. It doesn’t sound anything like that now because then I had the idea of stripping it all back to just the drums and bass, putting those synths on it. It’s got a bit of motoric feel to it and a little bit glam rock too, I think.”

True

A song with all the attributes of the greatest Paul Weller numbers: fire in its belly, questing lyrics, boss horns, flashes of guitar fury and a yearning melody you awake humming daily. It’s also a tremendous vocal, shared between Paul and Lia Metcalfe, the young Liverpudlian singer with The Mysterines.

“I really like her band and I really like her singing,” he says. “It makes a massive difference that we sang it live, in the same room. She’s got a really powerful voice and I wanted to write something for us to sing together, so I did. Then I just sent the phone demo to Lia and two weeks later we cut it. That was one of the last things we did for the album, in around September”.

Fat Pop

That brilliant, heavy bassline? “I did that. When we recorded it I was actually thinking about Cypress Hill, doing something that sounds like a DJ Muggs production. It’s got a bit of that. It’s my favourite song on the album, I think, about all the times music’s been there for me.”

Shades of Blue

A classic three-minute English pop kitchen sink drama, written by Paul Weller and his daughter Leah, who joins him on vocals. “Leah wrote the chorus for it and helped me finish it up. I wrote the verses. Reminds me of a suburban drama, a play.”

Glad Times

Sweeping, wistful, sparkling in shades of blue, Glad Times’ winning melancholia has been in the back of Weller’s mind for a while. “I wrote this with Tom (Doyle) and Ant (Brown). They usually send me a backing track and we work on it from there. It’s been around for a while, nearly made it onto On Sunset but didn’t quite fit. I really liked it, though, so I’m really glad it made it on to this album instead.”

Cobweb / Connections

Pastoral introspections, featuring a lovely acoustic solo by PW and a string score by Hannah Peel. “I think the song is saying that the more you can be yourself and be happy with yourself, the more you change into something better. It’s not just good for you, it’s good for everyone else as well. ‘Save yourself and save everyone around you too.’ It’s from observation but I suppose it’s about me too.”

Testify

Superfly strutting, cut live in the studio with Andy Fairweather Low adding distinctive vocals and Jacko Peake on fine flute and saxophone. When allowed out of the house, it’ll be a future live favourite.

“We had actually done it live two or three years ago,” says Weller, “but while I loved the groove I never really got a grip on the song. Then I did this charity gig in Guildford, one of the last things I’ve done probably, some Stax songs with Andy Fairweather Low. Our voices sound so good together and he’s such a lovely fellow, so I sent him the backing track. As soon as lockdown was lifted he came down to the studio for the afternoon. We cut it live and that was it.”

That Pleasure

In amongst those soulful strings there is some barely contained rage in Weller’s voice as he sings ‘Lose your hypocrisy.’ “I suppose it’s my reaction to the whole Black Lives Matter movement,” he explains. “You’re always on tender ground writing about that, but, regardless of my colour, any human being should be disturbed. You should be appalled and disgusted and shocked by those images of George Floyd being killed in the street. It has to stop. It’s a question for everyone.”

Failed

‘All the things I never get/and all the things I never meant/and all the things that make no fucking sense…I’ve failed.’

“Yes, I’m asking myself the question,” admits Weller, a man who has never been afraid of self-reflection in his songwriting. “It’s an angry song because I wrote it right after a massive row with my wife. But I like it. It’s honest. It’s not how I feel all the time, but it is how I feel some of the time. I’m just talking about me as a man. We all measure success in different ways.”

It’s also one of his favourite songs on the album, a stand-out.

Moving Canvas

A chunky, percussive groove, with the feel of Traffic but updated for the here-and-now.

“It’s going to be great live that one. I wrote it about Iggy Pop. I hope he likes it if he ever gets to hear it. It’s my tribute to him, even though it doesn’t sound anything like him. Aside from all the great records he’s made, as a performer he’s high art. It’s all about the Igster.”

In Better Times

A plaintive plea with some beautiful sax and guitar breaks. “Cold in your eyes, don’t you know you break my heart in two”.

“It’s me talking to a young person who is going through something, addiction or mental health pressure, or whatever, and just saying it’ll be alright. Just get through this bit and there’ll be better times to come, you’ll look back and you’ll see it differently.”

Still Glides The Stream

A stately collaboration between Weller and long-time guitar foil Steve Cradock.

“I had the chords and possibly the melody, which I sent to Cradock. And he sent me back a poem and I edited that, then we sent it back and forth by phone. Lockdown songwriting. I just liked the poem. In my mind, I was thinking about our road sweeper who’s a lovely fellow. I started thinking that there’s so many people in this country who form the infrastructure of it and without whom we’d be fucked. But they’re looked down upon, not really noticed. So I was imagining their story. I did find out that there’s a book of the same name (by Flora Thompson) and Cradock said he had seen it in a shop, so that’s where the title comes from. I just liked the poetry of it. Steve’s a very soulful fella.”

Multiple is the sixth full length record by the prolific maximalists known as LITE. Over the past 16 years, the Japanese quartet has established itself as one of the most influential groups across a host of subgenres. Though usually referred to by touchstones such as "math-rock" or "post-rock," LITE has developed an uncanny ability to fuse their influences into their own unmistakable dialect that defies generic genre classification.At times, Multiple's compositions find themselves at unlikely stylistic intersections. Conversating funk riffs will interweave with challenging rhythmic phrasing, blurring the lines between lead sections, obscuring where passages begin and end. LITE's distinct voice is emphasized in tracks such as "Double" and "4mg Warmth,"where melodies meander incessantly, constantly taking the listener to new territory.While many LITE songs unfold at breakneck pace, others entertain entirely different worlds altogether. In songs "Ring" and "Blizzard," the band tests the limits of their abilities with slowed-down, genre-bending forays into hip-hop and dub. On "Ring," LITE collaborated with rapper Maco Marets and singer Utena Kobayashi, where the latter's talents were also tapped for the song's ethereal steelpan section. As LITE has shown over nearly two decades, there exists no style that they cannot master or otherwise weave into their designs.

SAURUS came out as our second album in February 2007. The LP version was issued by Sitzer Records, the CD was released by Virgin/EMI. Rerelease October 2011 on Staatsakt/Rough Trade.
credits
released October 10, 2011

Written, performed and produced by LOCAS IN LOVE.
Björn Sonnenberg, Stefanie Schrank, Jan Niklas Jansen with Maurizio Arca on drums.
Mixed by Peter Katis.

Recorded between July 2005 and September 2006 at Maarweg Studio 2 and in our rehearsal space below by Niklas & Locas In Love, engineers for recording the drums on Sachen, Comandante, Straight and Egal Wie Weit: Alexander Breuer-Roelke and Daniel Klingen.
Horns recorded by Niklas & Locas In Love on May 7 2006 in the kleine Musiksaal of the städtisches Gymnasium Herzogenrath and on Sept. 24 2006 at Maarweg.
Choir for Mabuse recorded on Sept 17 2006 by Wolfgang Stach at Maarweg.
Strings recorded on Sept 19 2006 at Radio Buellebrueck Studio Berlin by Tobias Siebert.
Toy Piano recoded by Peter Katis on October 6 2006 at Tarquin Studios, Bridgeport, CT.
Strings on Honeymoon and horns on Comandante arranged by Peer Göbel.
While recording in the summer of 2005 Jens Bachmann and Arne Denneler were a big help, too.
Malcolm Middleton played and recorded his guitar on Honeymoon at Salvation Studios, Glasgow.

Mixed between Octoober 2. and 11. 2006 by Peter Katis, Tarquin Studios, Bridgeport, CT, Assistant: Greg Giorgio.

Diane Cluck Co-Produced Her Eighth Album Alongside Multi-Instrumentalist Colin Killalea. "It's The First Album I've Recorded In My Adopted Hometown Of Charlottesville, Virginia, And I Let Sounds Of The Region Influence Its Making And Bend My Songwriting. I Wanted To Collaborate, And To Focus On Deep Emotion Including Golden-Yellow Joyful. I Wanted To Make An Album That Honored My Family And Could Resonate With Young And Old." Spaciously Arranged Instrumentation Highlights The Strength Of Diane's Lyricism And Signature Vocal Style, Described By Npr As "Turning A Pitch Wheel With One Hand And A Tone Knob With The Other." The Album Features An Array Of Accompanying Musicians Including Longtime Collaborator Isabel Castellvi On Cello, John D'earth On Flugelhorn, Michelle Oliva On Bass Clarinet, John Ashley Murphy On Harmonica, Brian Caputo On Drums And Curtis Fye On Bass. Diane And Co-Producer Colin Killalea Each Play Piano, Guitar, Drums And Percussion. Common Wealth Deftly Weaves Disparate Elements Of Old-Time Music, Classical, Folk, Jazz Improvisation And Church Hymn Into Something Uniquely Vibrant.

Ipek Yolu is the Turkish name for the Silk Road which connected the East and the West. This band does not deal in silk but they connect flavors, smells and sounds from different corners of the globe, connecting the world.
The band merges bass-heavy electro-tinged cumbia grooves, saz riffs and surf guitar into a multicultural melting pot of South American rhythms, Anatolian folk music and 60s psychedelic rock. A unique universe of sound that bridges the tropical jungles and the dusty deserts in a kaleidoscopic blend of music. Ipek Yolu has used 2020 to write their debut album Tropical Anatolia and are ready to hit the venues and festivals.
The members of Ipek Yolu first got together for an improvised jam session during the Aarhus Roots & Hybrid Festival in 2018. The show was set up as a special one-time-only show merging members from the bands Hudna & Junglelyd. The show ended up lasting for almost three hours. It didn’t take them long to discover they were onto something special. If you know any of these bands mentioned you know you’re in for a body-shaking party, characterised by musical curiosity and improvisation.
The three members of Ipek Yolu have all been part of the Danish music scene for several years. The band leader, Orhan Özgür Turan, is a well-known and respected saz player all over Denmark, and has made a name for himself through his efforts in the Anatolian Folk band Hudna. In 2018 he won an award as Global Roots Artist of the year at The Danish World Music Awards. Olaf Brinch and Lasse Aagaard have worked together for many years making high energy cumbia with their band Junglelyd and Afrobeat with their band African Connection. Olaf is also an integral part of the Danish band AddisAbabaBand. In addition, Olaf and Lasse have toured and recorded with great musicians such as CC Yoyo, former drummer of Fela Kuti, in both Ghana and Denmark. All of the past experiences collided to create Ipek Yolu.

The fourth album by Sault scored 97/100 at Metacritic and is the most beloved album at HHVs Supreme 100 of 2020 list, chosen by 150 journalists, musicians, label makers and record collectors. Currently repressed and soon back in stock.

The second album of Sault follows their debut "5" which came out just three months prior to this one. Heads all over the world were still in awe of "5", when all of a sudden "7" dropped. Now, by the end of 2020, they are four critically acclaimed albums deep into buiding their own legacy.

Berlin producer Robot Koch is back for his third full length release, “The Other Side”.

Although Robot Koch has an international reputation as being “One of Europe's finest producers of the beat generation“ (Low End Theory), he is much more than just a beatmaker… “(Post)-dubstep infused Electronic Hip Hop“ is far too constrained a label to understand what this producer is all about. Instead of following the sound of his previous albums “Death Star Droid” (“Essential listening” – Bobby Friction BBC) and “Songs For Trees and Cyborgs“ (“Music for a modern age that has rarely sounded so good” – Boomkat), Koch takes the genre defying ingredients from these previous records to another level. There still are some of those “Galactic ten ton beats and space age melodies“ (Dazed and Confused) that made the previous albums staple drops in the playlists of Mary Anne Hobbs, Starkey, Daedelus and Gaslamp Killer to name a few, but there is a new dimension to Koch's production and songwriting that didn’t show on his previous records.

The cinematic vibe of tracks like “Nitesky”, the quirky and moody feel of “Bugs” and the electricity of “Tapedeck” show how Koch more than ever manages to create intimate and timeless pieces of music that are soulful, deep, mysterious and that will appeal to fans of cutting edge Electronica and modern pop music alike. This is the most personal record of Robot Koch to date. Instead of going for big name features Koch teamed up with lesser know artists like Kansas based vocal talent John LaMonica, long time friend and theatre composer Nielson and mexican singer/songwriter Graciela Maria to find the right voices for his compositions. John LaMonica infuses his whimsical and heartfelt melodies that breathe an air of darkness and nostalgia with Koch's fresh and forward thinking instrumentals to create something that fans of Radiohead, The XX and Jamie Lidell should not sleep on.

After the release of the John Robinson collaboration album (“Robot Robinson” – Project Mooncircle) earlier this year, it seems surprising how extensive Robert’s output is, but don’t be mistaken, this album is a longer term project than just releasing the songs Koch made in the last year. Some of the songs found on “The Other Side” were made seven years ago.