This week’s episode includes the latest from The Goood Things, 50 Foot Wave, Caesaria, Hands Off Gretel, Kolumbus, The Crosiers, and the Blue Soap Music Blue Soap Box Top 10 in independent tracks.
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The Mootekkis Release Against the Ropes (The Week in #Indie Segment)
Tokyo’s The Mootekkis are one of those bands that deliver the musical goods every time. And I mean every time. And this time is no exception with the uber-catchy ‘poptastically’ decadent track that is ‘Against the Ropes’, from their new album ‘Pucker Up‘ (check out our review HERE).
The video above gives the quirky story of love lost, found, and lost again on the epic streets of Tokyo while the band plays on. The video harks back to the glory days of MTV and solidifies the band’s stature as one of those #indie bands that truly get it. Look, and sound like a million bucks and, guess what, you’re a million bucks.
‘Pucker Up’, from The Mootekkis is out now. Get your copy HERE.
The Mootekkis
This booze-loving Tokyo-based 5-piece – Australian, American and 3 Japanese – garage rock’n’roll band was formed midway through 2008 by Jude (guitar) and Mike (vox) and two years later were featured on the front cover of Japanzine after winning the magazine’s nation-wide battle of the bands with their 2010 EP track “Hey…What You Want?”.More recently a number of their tracks from 2014 debut album “Heckling the Dawn” have been used for the Skateboarding Japan podcast while their tune “The Whiskey” is the theme music for drinkers and skaters delight podcast Got Faded Japan.
Prior to this, in August 2012 they embarked on a 10-day tour of New York where they played Manhattan hot spots Bowery Electric and Piano’s as well as New Haven’s Elm Bar and a handful of basement and loft parties in Brooklyn – before this trip 2 members had never been outside Japan.
Brooklyn’s Ishmael Osekre, an organizer of the festival Aputumpu, had this to say after seeing The Mootekkis at a Bushwick loft party: “This was pure rock’n’roll in a way that most people around here haven’t seen for a long time…it was just amazing.”
The Mootekkis have had the good fortune of having a lot of good people behind them. In 2013 they crowdfunded their debut album and in 2014 they finished in the top 10 of Tokyo’s 126 bands trying to earn a spot at Summer Sonic thanks to immense local and foreign support.
They’re truly humbled and wholly committed to giving rock’n’roll lovers something new with decades of respect for what has come before.
The Mootekkis are:
Mike (vocals)
Jude (rhythm/lead)
Koji (rhythm/lead)
Yo’cchan (bass)
Takahiro (drums)LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/themootekkis
https://twitter.com/themootekkis
https://themootekkis.bandcamp.com -
Jammerzine Exclusive: An Interview with Hybrid
Jammerzine has an exclusive interview with a duo of masterclass composers and musicians that go under the moniker of Hybrid. With their new album titled ‘Black Halo’ releasing tomorrow via Distinctive Records, Hybrid are poised at just the right time to release a new album on the scale of originality and creativity as I have seen in this past year, to say the least.
Hybrid is not only a unique music project, but a pair of composers who have been in the game since the 90’s and have written music for over 30 feature films, computer games and trailers including Fifty Shades Freed, X-Men: Wolverine, Billionaire Ransom, the Fast and Furious franchise.
That culminates into the music of ‘Black Halo’ A concept album in flow and style and a soundtrack to that future set of memories you will get. You will hear me in the interview praise this album for a few reasons. Almost in a gushing manor. There is reason for this. Maybe I heard ‘Black Halo’ at just the right time. Maybe I heard it in just the right setting. To be honest, part of the reason I say this is the best album I have heard in a while was how it changed my mood and my outlook for the day with the first track and sustained that feeling, modifying it with each song, through the end. Prompting a second listen. That is what music should do. introspect, interpret, influence, and enhance. And I can say, with all honesty, that this has the potential to do the same for you. There are many layers in each song on ‘Black Halo’. Musical, emotional, and spiritual.
In today’s interview, we talk about the songwriting and creative process that defines Hybrid as well as the album itself. This is as much a good conversation as it is an informative interview. Enjoy!
About Hybrid
The sweetest musical spots are always found deep between the contrasts. Dark and light, orchestral and digital, dramatic and delicate, raw and polished, sadness and bliss. Searched for by many, discovered by few, conquered by Hybrid; it’s a creative place where any story can be told. From studio to stadiums, dancefloor bangers to symphonic film scores, the clue’s been in their name since day one.
Hybrid’s electric spark for splicing musical DNA has been evident since their first ever single in 1996; Symphony, a cult club anthem where orchestral dynamics met jungle-inspired breakbeats. 25 years, six studio albums, myriad tours and a few line-up splices later, their ever-evolving, often bass-laced,
sound remains a constant in an accelerate scene. And that same thirst for fusion they began with is now nuclear. Attuned and amplified over years of writing and performing with their full band; it’s a fine-tuned alchemy that runs deep in everything Mike and Charlotte Truman do. Be it conjuring powerful dynamic electronic productions that can tear down underground music havens like Fabric London, working on scores for Hollywood hits from Hobbs & Shaw to Hercules to Interlude In Prague or living, writing and recording in a family home with over 60 animals.
Their CV is a dizzying litany of pinch-yourself moments and accomplishments, including collaborations and credits with luminaries as far-ranging as Cypress Hill, Perry Farrell and Hooky from New Order. With band mates Stu Morgan (guitars and bass) and Simon Hanson (drums) they continue to take their art to incredible places through speakers, stage and screen. And at the heart of it all is simply this: powerful storytelling.
A deep emotional narrative runs through all Hybrid music. You can sense it in Charlotte’s stirring songwriting and vocals, you can hear it in Mike’s formidable sound design and production, you can tangibly feel it in the drama, tension and release of the arrangements. Their latest album – Black Halo – is the best example of this so far. Largely written during the turbulence of 2020, the album celebrates the perseverance and triumph of the human spirit. No matter what life throws at us, we thrive and survive. To enhance this narrative even more, and join further dots between their love of music and the big screen, they’ve created three conceptual videos with writer/novelist James Scudamore and actor Edmund Kingsley. Weaving sci-fi themes with the stark, hard-hitting reality of the 21st century, Hybrid’s visual fusion is just palpable as the music itself.
Following on from their critically acclaimed 2018 release Light Of The Fearless – an album eight years in the making which saw them execute a precision come-back with a sold out tour – Black Halo reaches for those sweet spots between the contrasts once again. Somewhere deep between organic and electronic, faith and escapism, strings and synths, drums and bass, fear and hope, it’s a place where Hybrid can tell their boldest stories so far.
A band whose electrorock influence echoed throughout the ‘90s straight up to today, Hybrid have always been on the forefront of the electronic music scene. Merging Jimi Hendrix-styled guitar riffs via guitarist/vocalist Stu Morgan into Mike’s sonic soundscapes and punctuated by drummer Simon Hanson’s meticulous rhythms, Hybrid’s music allows Charlotte’s clear and pristine vocals to float and weave effortlessly.
Originally formed in 1995 at the height of the UK-led Breakbeat Era, Hybrid became leaders of an electronic movement that encompassed a dizzying litany of pinch-yourself moments and accomplishments, including collaborations and credits with luminaries as far-ranging as Cypress Hill, Perry Farrell and Peter Hook from New Order. In their own right, Hybrid continue to take their art to incredible places through speakers, stage and screen. And at the heart of it all is simply this: powerful storytelling.
Hybrid is:
- Charlotte Truman (vocals, piano, synths, guitar)
- Mike Truman (sound design, producer)
- Stu Morgan (vocals, guitars, bass)
- Simon Hanson (drums, percussion, backing vocals).
Featured image by Steve Gullick.
LINKS:
https://www.hybridband.com
https://ffm.to/hybridblackhalo
https://hybridbanduk.bandcamp.com/album/black-halo
https://twitter.com/hybridbanduk
https://instagram.com/hybridbanduk
https://facebook.com/hybridbanduk
https://open.spotify.com/user/killcitymusic
https://www.youtube.com/hybridbanduk
https://geo.itunes.apple.com/gb/artist/hybrid/4054018?mt=1&app=music
http://soundcloud.com/hybridbanduk -
Follow The Lion Premieres New Single Titled H.O.P.E. (The Week in #Indie Segment)
Follow The Lion officially drop their new single titled ‘H.O.P.E. (Hold On Pain Ends)’. A lear progression from their previous work, Follow The Lion gives a solid mix and master with a stunning lead vocal and lush set of guitars pinning beautiful harmonies. This song is thought out but done in such a way as to capture the moment that was being conveyed during the writing process.
Epic in scope and vivid in execution, ‘H.O.P.E.’ counted on faith and delivered originality. This is brilliant.
ABOUT FOLLOW THE LION
Follow The Lion are a Leeds (UK) based neoteric Alternative Rock group founded in 2013. Following the release of their critically acclaimed début EP ‘The Candy and Gravity Motel’ and its single ‘Candy and Gravity’ the band took an enforced two-year hiatus due to the ill-health of frontman Daniel Francis.
Follow The Lion are back for 2020 with a fresh new line up featuring singer/ guitarist Daniel Francis, dynamic lead guitarist Dylan Price, gifted bass player Quinton Wharton Junior and Brazilian-born, twice-golden, once-platinum award-winning Rodrigo Duarte on drums.
In March of this year Follow The Lion re-entered The Chairworks Studio to record their new single H.O.P.E. (Hold On Pain Ends) together with producer Steve Whitfield (The Cure, Terrorvision, Wire). The track is mastered by Grammy award-winning, Jonathan Wyner.
H.O.P.E. is a song about an ill-fated love affair, about integrity and ultimately the acceptance that some things in life hurt and that pain is unavoidable in pursuit of joy.
In response to the coronavirus crisis and worldwide lockdown, the band has chosen to release H.O.P.E. on April 17th and will be donating half of all sales directly to the NHS. The band announced this via social media asking fans, friends, and family to take part by filming themselves at home doing something that made them happy. The announcement video has had over 44.6k views to date and the response has been so staggering that the band has to delay the video release date by a week (April 24th).
The band intends to follow-up on the release of H.O.P.E. with two further singles and their début full-length LP ‘The Crone, the Thorn, the Lizard, and the Lighthouse’ in early 2021.
LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/followthelionmusic
https://instagram.com/ftlionband