Modesty Blaise has released their new video for the track titled ‘Girls Just Wanna Dance’. That quirky, almost show tune shtick vibe about is what catches the ears and opens the eyes. This song is catchy. And I mean catchy in a stuck in your head fashion. This is a good thing, trust me. Partly because Modesty Blaise will put a smile on your face. And the story-tell factor of the video adds punch to the punchline and puts some stammer in your step.
As of February 5, ‘Girls Just Wanna Dance’ is available digitally everywhere, including Spotify, Apple Music and Bandcamp. ‘The Modesty Blaise’ album will be released on March 26 by from Lo-Fi to Disco! and distributed by Broken Silence (for Europe), Shellshock (for the UK), and Tedium House – Revolver USA and Midheaven mailorder (for North America).
ABOUT MODESTY BLAISE
Bristol-based avant indiepop outfit Modesty Blaise has announced that the impending release of a new album via German label From Lo-Fi to Disco! A baroque pop collection titled ‘The Modesty Blaise’, this is the band’s third studio album and their first LP in 20 years since releasing their head-turning ‘Melancholia’ LP (2001), featuring hit single ‘Carol Mountain’.
Ahead of this, they present the lead single ‘Girls Just Wanna Dance’, a perfect orchestral pop song and live favorite singalong that is more Music Hall than Dance Hall. A longtime set closer, ‘Blaise fans have been crying out for it to be recorded and here it finally is. You can bounce around your own kitchen to it and rip your own sink out just for fun.
This new release was preceded by a string of singles, including ‘Natalie Vendredi’ with its endearing nouvelle vague video, which will also be included on the album.
Modesty Blaise has been around for a few decades in various guises. After forming in late 1993, the band quickly recorded their debut single ‘Christina Terrace’ with the esteemed Edwyn Collins at the helm, garnering them immediate success with a live appearance on ITV and inclusion among many many end-of-year top music rankings. This acclaim however was not enough to quell the kind of internecine warfare that Modesty Blaise has become famous for.
After ‘Melancholia’, the band faced one delay after another with line-up changes and deteriorating personal circumstances. An all-too-familiar spiral, the years went by slowly but, no matter how bad it got, Jonny still had his guitars in his mum’s attic.
“When everyone else was in their bedrooms working on guitar solos and dreaming of being a rock god, I was reading biographies of Cole Porter and listening to Gershwin and Jerome Kern and Irving Berlin. I try to write concise things, with deliberate moves away from that where necessary,” says frontman and songwriter Jonny Collins.
“Melody, arrangement and counter melodies… The 3-minute pop single is, I’d contest, the summit of great art. It is timeless, and we consistently get it wrong confusing art with commerce. If your art (or your pop record) sounds like today, it may sound like yesterday pretty soon. Pop iconoclasm”.
Oher career highlights include supporting Robbie Williams at London’s O2 Arena, inclusion in a Rough Trade compilation, an ITV company documentary on Jonny Collins, and a BBC Radio session involving seventeen people.
LINKS:
https://www.modestyblaise.net
https://modestyblaiseuk.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/themodestyblaise
https://www.instagram.com/modestyblaiseuk
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4lnNm8g0IYG9H90ZIzsOZw/videos
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Ventrelles – County Lines
Ventrelles are a Manchester-based quartet headed by Phil Knox, fusing the styles of 80’s guitar groups such as Pale Fountains and Echo and the Bunnymen and sometimes darker tinged edges of The Chameleons and The Jesus and Mary Chain with a punchy delivery, sun-soaked guitars, energetic rhythms, life-affirming vocals, and soulful bass lines.
Beginning as the pet project of songwriter Phil on his return home from living in Chicago, the initial experimental kick about project line up included
Joe Kondras ( The Heartbreaks), Christopher Deakin ( The Heartbreaks, By The Sea), Ben Parsons (Cherry Ghost/Miles Kane) Jason Goodwin (The Delaplains), and George Moran (Miles Kane/Mabel Love/ Last Shadow Puppets)“I wanted to see what I could do with all the bits I’d accrued over the last few years whilst living abroad and just to have a laugh with mates after a particularly hard time, in an environment I knew and loved to be in. I felt I’d hit on something stylistically and soulfully that wasn’t necessarily happening on the radio at the moment, after the initial year of recording with friends just having a kick around, I decided to take things a step further and brought in Connor, G-lo and Winny as a full-time band”
Since the solid line up came together Ventrelles has been going from strength to strength, early releases ‘Stop’ and ‘Shutters’ caught the attention of Manchester imprint Black Bleach Records and the band went on to prove themselves as a standout live outfit on both the small and big stage. Unfortunately, this year’s pandemic made the band re-think the way things were going and decided to hunker down in a studio and create more of the wonderfully scenic and magnetically attractive shimmer guitar Pop they were getting a name for on the live circuit.
Now with the aid of producer Dean Glover ( Twisted Wheel/Shotty Horrah) the band is set to make big waves in 2021.
Jump in, strap yourself in.
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Mercury Slim – Space Cadet
Mercury Slim has officially released his new video for the song titled ‘Space Cadet’. This song, and video come to think of it, have that ethereal quality from that first frame/note. Almost a subtle journey to be shared. A dream state in transit. A personal journey of bonding and growth. Its funny how life can inspire, and even encourage, the magic in music and share that with anyone who wants to listen. In that way alone, we are all connected. We’re all the space cadet. Our goal is to live long and prosper.
About ‘Space Cadet’
I wrote this song while living in a Van on a rainy day
The song is very multi-faceted and takes on Many roles rather than being about any one thing in particular. I continue to find new meanings as time marches on. Space Cadet about rejecting everything culture and society hands you as what you are supposed to be. As well as rejection of the consumerism and ideology that drives a lot of what’s harming people and the planet we live on. The chorus/ hook is a release from societal expectations.
I became a huge Star Trek (particularly TNG) fan after high school and it has shaped how I view the world and what is possible for humanity in a post-scarcity society. On another facet, my father and I began working together right after I got out of high school and he drove the company work van.
Once I got into Star Trek, which he was already into, it became something we bonded over and we were able to connect in a positive healthy way really for the first time in our lives. He had been gone for half of my childhood battling addiction and was able to overcome what he needed to come back into my family’s life. We named his work van the NC-17D and it was kind of our ship to drive around and solve mysteries (doing IT work) in.
LINKS:
https://linktr.ee/mercuryslim_
https://www.instagram.com/mercuryslim_
https://soundcloud.com/mercury-slim-6
https://www.facebook.com/mercuryslim
https://mercuryslim.bandcamp.com
https://twitter.com/SlimMercury -
Partisan – Oxygen
Partisan formed in Manchester, UK, early 2013. As the name implies they are passionate about their cause, which is to inject some authentic rock into the limelight, as serious contenders to pick up the music scene with punchy, bold and unflinching rock anthems!
The band’s members are Stuart Armstrong (lead vocals and guitar), Dan Albon (bass guitar) and Leo Stanfield (drums). Founding member Stuart Armstrong (lead vocals and guitar) left his previous band Six10Repeater, that disbanded in 2012 but returned to the scene with Partisan working on new material with his rock edge and progression from Six10.
They have achieved numerous accolades including being awarded as ‘Best Unsigned Band’ by XFM in 2009, two tracks, Hearts and Nails and Today Somehow featured Pro Evolution Soccer, supported prominent bands such as Nine Black Alps, Baby Shambles, Status Quo and The Damned as well as being reviewed by influential peers within the industry, Mark Radcliffe, and BBC Introducing.
The band has recorded and released many rock anthems, including the very popular Two Lovers, Ashes, Today Somehow and Juggernaut in recent years. Now signed to GAS Music they are releasing Oxygen in 2018. They have had the pleasure of working with notable producers, Jim Spencer, Christophe – Oxygene Studios and Mike Bennett.
They have had an exciting year, playing gigs and festivals such as The British Sound Project, Victoria Warehouse, and Sonder Fest. They have plans of further gigs and hoping to return to the US next year, after a fantastic response when they played Pianos in New York and Whisky a Gogo in Los Angeles in late 2016.
SOURCE: Official Bio
LINKS:
https://www.wearepartisan.rocks
https://www.facebook.com/wearepartisan
https://twitter.com/wearepartisan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeA7ADB8ws4
https://soundcloud.com/partisan77
https://reverbnation.com/partisan3