Since September 2016, Aliens potent mix of Alt Rock, Pop hooks and politically engaged social commentary has been firing up live audiences, reviewers and DJ’s across the UK. Long Way to Run is the lead track from their new album, Terradome.
Aliens were created as a music/film collective by composer & producer, Iain Harvie, (best known as the Rock guitarist for million sellers, Del Amitri) and filmmaker, songwriter & singer, Tim May. They were soon joined by Helen Turner from Paul Weller & Style Council on keys, Martyn Barker from Shriekback on drums, The Bible’s Leroy Lendor on bass, and hot new talent Tommy Sheen on guitar. Now, Iain has confined his Aliens duties to mixing and producing, while Tim and the band play live.
Their last single, Desolation Angel, written with Jungle’s Fraser MacColl, was released in aid of Centrepoint, the UK’s leading youth homelessness charity, and swiftly became BBC Radio Scotland’s record of the week. Terradome brings both tracks together with a whole load more that are destined to bring Aliens the wider attention they deserve.
“Maybe the world changes one conversation at a time, one idea, one slight shift of perception, if so Aliens are as vital as any more obvious rallying cry.” Dave Franklin. Scene and Heard.
LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/blackoutlockdown
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1cdiplXHN22XQZ1qieLtEu?si=_yBEoR8eT2elQVb7ReTlvw
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmeJb7YdDx0C4AzkAok8FLQ
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An Interview with XTC Author Mark Fisher (The Week in #Indie Segment)
When a band, or any kind of artist for that matter, has such a positively fervent following, as XTCdoes, the music and stories surrounding that band or artist can elevate to a kind of mythical status. There is certainly mythology surrounding XTC that has fermented for decades with followers and fans of all ages, ethnicities, and beliefs all captivated with the music in their own special ways.
And now we have author Mark Fisher chronicling some of those stories from those who knew the band personally as well as those who know the music. This is an inciteful book about an inciteful band. And now we get a perspective of XTC from a well-versed author who is also a fan (having run the original XTC newsletter, Limelight).
‘What Do You Call That Noise?’ will be released on March 4 (links below).
About Mark Fisher & ‘What Do You Call That Noise?”
From Mark Fisher, the editor of ‘The XTC Bumper Book of Fun for Boys and Girls’, comes a new musical exploration of one of the most essential pop groups of the 20th century. ‘What Do You Call That Noise? An XTC Discovery Book’ is a compelling 228-page book that involves some of the world’s leading musicians and keenest fans of XTC. Here, they come together to discuss what makes this Swindon band so very special and the extent of the impact of their music worldwide.Every member of XTC also makes an appearance. Andy Partridge speaks about mixing, Dave Gregory on arranging and Barry Andrews on the piano. The book also features interviews with XTC drummers Pete Phipps, Pat Mastelotto, Ian Gregory, Prairie Prince, Dave Mattacks and Chuck Sabo.
“Every XTC album that got ignored gave the band a real power jolt. It was like being the Duracell bunny and getting a fresh set of batteries in your back. It made us want to strive harder,” says XTC frontman Andy Partridge.
“Weirdly, it does feel like the band is being appreciated now. We’ve become a historical artifact that’s more important than when it was a pot in Cro-Magnon times. As a museum exhibit it’s become priceless, but as a Neanderthal pot, nobody wanted to bother pissing in it. It makes me feel valued – as long as I don’t go into national treasure territory!”
Fisher also offers an in-depth review of Colin Moulding and Terry Chambers playing live for the first time in 36 years as TC&I. during their recent Swindon Arts Centre residency, a performance named on BBC Radio 6 Music’s Marc Riley show as one of the gigs of 2018.
Contributing musicians include:
- Rick Buckler: The Jam
- Chris Difford: Squeeze
- Debbi Peterson: The Bangles
- Dennis Locorriere: Dr. Hook
- Steve Conte: New York Dolls
- Steven Page: Barenaked Ladies
- Chris Butler: The Waitresses
- Tracey Bryn: Voice of the Beehive
- Jason Falkner: Jellyfish
- Andrew Falkous: Future of the Left
- Peter Gabriel
- Mike Keneally: Frank Zappa
Plus Anton Barbeau, Todd Bernhardt, Chris Braide, Mikey Erg, Anne McCue, Jim Moray, Erich Sellheim, Rosie Vela, Mark Vidler, and David Yazbek, as well as members of Fassine, Big Big Train, bis, Cosmic Rough Riders, Odds, Tin Spirits, Palm Ghosts and many more…
2018 marked the 40-year anniversary of XTC’s first studio album ‘White Music’. While XTC was founded in 1972, it wasn’t until 1979 that XTC had their first UK chart single. Colin Moulding and Andy Partridge continued their partnership until the group’s dissolution in 2006.
Lately there has been renewed interest in XTC, in part due to the release of eye-opening XTC documentary ‘This Is Pop’ about the band’s history and legacy, which looks at XTC and their journey from mercurial pop outsiders to full-blown national treasures and one of Britain’s most influential yet unsung bands.
“The song is a little machine. If you take apart the machine, it’s not a clock anymore and you can’t tell the time by it.”
– Andy Partridge“Music… I couldn’t imagine life without it. It’s always there.”
– Dave Gregory“I was always quite envious of XTC because they weren’t put in the same pigeonhole as punk bands. They were regarded as a bit more arty than that. We always had to fight off this flag, being under the banner of punk… XTC never seemed to fall into that trap. They had that freedom.”
– Rick Buckler ( The Jam)“Seeing them on TV was like being in a tribe. Together I thought we might rule the world… Yes, I stole from them. I’m sure I was not the only one. The wit did woo mee. I fell head over heels for the clever wordplay, the charge of the story and the sentimental Britishness of it all.”
– Chris Difford (Squeeze)“XTC’s music has always been there in my consciousness. I think about it a lot when I’m making records… They come across as an everyday group of people and that’s very much what Barenaked Ladies were about too – living as ordinary a life as you can in a bizarre lifestyle like rock’n’roll.”
– Steven Page (Barenaked Ladies)“I remember when I first heard Making Plans for Nigel on the radio… I absolutely loved the song, especially the drum part… Terry’s drumming was so rhythmic. I was very much influenced by him. In fact, I would drum along to XTC songs to warm up. It was very inspiring to me!”
– Debbi Peterson (The Bangles)LINKS:
http://www.xtclimelight.com
https://twitter.com/LimelightXTC
https://www.facebook.com/XTCLimelight
https://www.facebook.com/groups/425591964471058
http://www.xtclimelight.com/buy.html -
Your 33 Black Angels Premiere ‘Hott Funn’ on Jammerzine (The Week in #Indie Segment)
Your 33 Black Angels (a.k.a. Y33BA) just defined my ideal criteria for originality in music. The quirky personalities of the mindset of each member tossed into something written within the boundaries of the band as a whole. The secret is, is that those boundaries are endless don’t exist. So for Y33BA to come up with something within that definition of that criteria, with their new single and video titled ‘Hott Funn’, is a masterstroke in music.
Y33BA ‘Eternities I’ is slated for release on May 7 and will be available across digital stores and streaming platforms. It can also be pre-ordered via Bandcamp. The band’s album release show will take place on May 10 at Alphaville in Brooklyn.
About Your 33 Black Angels
Your 33 Black Angels (a.k.a. Y33BA) has announced their new album ‘Eternities I’, which is their seventh long-play to date, to be released in early May. Ahead of that, they are previewing the lead track ‘Hott Funn’.Recorded over three years and more than 60 studio days with endless mixes in the making, ‘Eternities I’ is 13 tracks that are built to stand as the culmination of Y33BA’s labors.
Based out of New York City, Y33BA is a long-running noise-pop freakshow. This genre-defying project has its own stamp of dark pop, electro-paisley new wave space rock, with a dose of crunk bass and rhythm. They produce elegant vibrant melodies with strange, novel sounds. This is the New Age underground for the End Times.
How do a group that has danced around sensibilities and sounds refresh the template? More cutting-edge instruments and riskier, avant-garde pop songs than ever. Imagine Madchester, and imagine dream pop meets Aphex Twin. Imagine the bastard child of Arthur Russell, Rain Parade and Rza and add original 21st century sound design and guitar webs.
This is a radical, angry, watermark record. Designed to embrace and rattle against the times. Combining haute popcraft with touches of the undercurrents of our lives–acid house, Paisley Underground, synth wave, field recordings, minimal electronica, and epic RAWK.
As well, the Y33BA wordsmiths have always been equal part poetry fans as lyricists, so the Poesia Concreta of Augusto de Campos or Guillaume Apollonaire may have as much influence as wonderful lyricists like Neil Hannon, Bjork or Serge Gainsbourg. Breaking rhythms and broken meter match the polarized sounds from start to finish.
Formed in 2003, Y33BA debuted with the album ‘Lonely Street’ in 2007, which was a vinyl-only limited edition. Once the initial pressings sold out, Y33BA released the album on CD and digitally. They followed up with ‘Tales of my Pop-Rock Love Life’ (2008), ‘Pagan Princess’ (2009), ‘Songs from the Near Bleak Future’ (Optical Sounds, 2010), ‘Moon and Morning Star’ ( Optical Sounds, 2012) and ‘Glamour’ (2015).
In that time, they have played over 500 shows across Europe and North America, sharing the stage with some rather fine acts during recent tours. The Monochrome Set selected Y33BA as the direct support act for its first New York City show in 30 years. La Femme, The Veldt and Dyr Faser have toured or shared many nights with the group. The band has also played with King Tuff, Blitzen Trapper, Suuns, Six Organs of Admittance, Blonde Elvis, B-17 and We Melt Chocolate.
The video for ‘Hott Funn’ was made by Richie of Vinyl Villains. “Richie is a mysterious Bushwick programmer that doesn’t leave his loft til the light has disappeared and the day has turned to dark. He is part vampire, part design whiz. He has invented an automated animation program that turns songs into aliens, furry creatures, whatever the sound seems to suggest. Obviously, Your 33 Black Angels have a very alien sound, but he might have horses singing to Neil Young, vegan cupcakes singing Fiona Apple, dolphins singing Supergrass, etc. Richie is so ineffable and distant, we don’t even know his last name. All we know is he commands legions of aliens, faeries, and elves. Literally, that’s what he does!”
“A delight of jangling guitars, spacey-sweet vocals, and electronic squiggles, a psych record rooted in beat-pop and experimentalism”
– Village Voice (on ‘Glamour’)“One of this year’s treasures… is worth the hunt for its pop-wise rattle (Pavement with a case of the Strokes) and singer Josh Westfal’s resemblance, in dry, frank voice and cautious optimism, to another local institution: Lou Reed on the Velvet Underground’s fourth album, Loaded”
– Rolling Stone (On ‘Lonely Street’)“This is dark electric frenzied New Wave space-rock, blasting by like a fiery and unexpected sonic guest, clearly defying genres and interacting with cosmic messengers”
– Big Takeover Magazine“Retro-leaning, though hardly flower pop fetishists… pacey keyboard textures and groove-oriented arrangements, while their penchant for laid-back Daniel Johnston vocals and warbly lo-fi riffs more closely resembles the classic college rock of Pavement and Built to Spill”
– NOW Toronto (On ‘Songs from the Near Bleak Future’)“Your 33 Black Angels are known for frenetic, unpredictable shows. the interlocking guitars sometimes surged into what seemed like an eternal groove”
– Washington Post (live review)LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/your33blackangels
https://y33ba.bandcamp.com
https://twitter.com/y33ba
https://www.instagram.com/y33ba
https://soundcloud.com/y33ba
https://itunes.apple.com/bn/artist/your-33-black-angels/271047566 -
Robi Mitch Releases ‘Future Perfect’ Album (The Week in #Indie Segment)
Robi Mitch is set to release his new album titled ‘Future Perfect’ in April. Robi definitely has an originality about him in regards to his music. That sense of pop plus personality and even a sense of humor that cuts and defines while entertaining and enlightening.
With all of that, however, you get that hook. That monster hook lends a listenability to each song. This gives each track its own personality. Think of them as children and try to pick your favorite.
LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/robimitchmusic
https://www.instagram.com/robi_mitchWatch the full episode HERE.
Click HERE to watch Season 7 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.
Click HERE to watch Season 6 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.
Click HERE to watch Season 5 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.
Click HERE to watch Season 4 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.
Click HERE to watch Season 3 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.
Click HERE to watch Season 2 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.
Click HERE to watch Season 1 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.