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
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Jason Herring & The Mystery Plan – Electric Love
Jason Herring & The Mystery Plan released their new album ‘Queensland Ballroom’ on September 8 via Ten Millimeter Omega Recordings. With an infectious chilled atmosphere and dreamy female vocals, ‘Electric Love’ is the first single from this release. The accompanying video was directed by Jon Ecklund and Fiona Jones and produced by Dream Out Loud Media.
Based out of Charlotte, North Carolina, the band is comprised of Jason Herring, Otis Hughes, Jeff Chester, Amy Herring, Paul Jensen and Patty McLaughlin. This 11-track offering follows the band’s ‘Electric Love’ EP, released in June of this year.
Both of these releases involved production by legendary producer John Fryer, one of the most innovative sonic architects of our age. “John Fryer has practically soundtracked your entire life,” says Impose Magazine, with a musical imprint that is massive, having shaped the sound of nearly all early 4AD Records’ releases (Cocteau Twins, Lush, Kristin Hersh, Dead Can Dance), as well as bands from Nine Inch Nails and Love and Rockets to HIM and Depeche Mode. He is also one of just two artists behind This Mortal Coil, along with Ivo Watts-Russell, and the mastermind behind his latest project Black Needle Noise.
Jason Herring met Fryer while visiting Los Angeles, where his studio is currently based. After collaborating on the ‘Electric Love’ EP, they launched into the new ‘Queensland Ballroom’ LP, which sees the band take a turn from their trademark psychedelic folk sound to a more electronic downtempo groove.
After a hiatus of several years, bandmates Jason Herring (The Interstellars, Muchacho, Farfalla) and Paul Jensen (Fetchin’ Bones, the Interstellars) began writing songs again. Soon thereafter, the first album ‘The Future Ain’t What It Used to Be’ was released in 2010, followed by ‘Chateau Beaumont’ in 2012 and ‘Long Shadows’ in 2014.
“Our previous releases are a little melancholy, so Amy and I decided we should make this record a little more fun. A record outside of our norm” says, Jason Herring. “Electric Love was inspired by Amy and I feeling a bit randy in the studio – that’s fun, yeah?”
This whole experience ultimately led Jason Herring to collaborate further with John Fryer on music for a feature film and an HBO documentary. Fryer also appears briefly in the new video for ‘Electric Love’.
SOURCE: Official Bio
LINKS:
http://www.facebook.com/The-Mystery-Plan-1498248636862179
http://www.facebook.com/10mmomega
http://soundcloud.com/10mmomegarecordings
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoUq0Xz_tBvIeOPc6oL59HA/videos
http://www.reverbnation.com/jasonherringthemysteryplan
http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/jason-herring-and-the-mystery-plan/id366403103 -
Phil Rudd – Head Job
Phil Rudd solidifies his rock roots and firmly asserts his reason in rock history with his new video for the title track off of his album “Head Job”. The album has recently been re-released as to get all of the legal BS that can sometimes happen out of the way and now it is time to get down to business. And this song, along with the album “Head Job” is all about getting busy with it’s classic yet timeless sound that Phil helped to create.
About Phil Rudd
Described by Malcolm Young, co-founder of AC/DC, as “the real deal”, Phil Rudd, the band’s long-term drummer, played in several Melbourne bands such as Buster Brown and The Coloured Balls before joining up with the rock giants in 1975.Rudd powered the band to super-stardom with his dogged consistency and unshakable back-beat on classics like ‘It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Want To Rock ’N’ Roll)’ ‘TNT” and ‘Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap’, becoming an indelible part of AC/DC history.
To the untrained ear, Phil Rudd’s drumming may seem rudimentary, but his style and groove have earned him the adoration of generations of his peers. Rammstein’s Christoph Schneider said in the October 2010’s Modern Drummer, “AC/DC were my absolute heroes because they are simple and easy to copy, though soon you find they are not so easy to copy.” The magazine’s May 2010 issue also honored the rocker with the feature ’50 Reasons To Love Phil Rudd’.
Rudd has appeared on all but three of AC/DC’s 18 studio albums, which have sold more than 200 million copies worldwide. When the blockbusting album ‘Highway to Hell’ went multi-platinum worldwide, Rudd said he ‘‘went straight down the road to buy my first Ferrari’’ sparking a lifelong love of luxury cars. Rudd showcased eleven of his luxury cars in Christchurch, New Zealand as part of an earthquake appeal fundraiser, his current collection includes a rare 1991 Ferrari F40, a brand new Ferrari 599, two Lamborghinis, a 2010 Rolls Royce Ghost, 2011 Bentley Mulsanne, and Bentley super sport, Audi R8 V10, a 2011 Aston Martin DBS, and 2010 Mercedes SLS AMG. The cars have a combined worth of approximately $3m. Rudd’s airport hangar is also home to his MD 520N helicopter.
With the lavish rock star lifestyle firmly in place, Phil Rudd recorded and released his first debut album ‘Head Job’ with Kiwi musicians Allan Badger and Geoffrey Martin in 2014. The album was released via Universal Music Group in Australia & New Zealand but further promotional plans were scuppered by well-publicized legal problems in New Zealand.
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Michael P Cullen – Do You Believe
A man in a suit, an old semi-acoustic guitar and a voice like sandpaper dipped in honey. Michael P Cullen tells stories of longing and regrets in a unique and textured baritone with echoes of American mid-century pulp writers, 60s Vegas cabaret, and Southern Gothic Americana. He has often been compared to Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, and Nick Cave but his unique blend of Noir, New Wave, Stax and Northern Soul ultimately defies comparison.
The Sydney-based lounge lizard artfully marries Southern Gothic dustiness to black-sequined seediness in a way that actually reveals a true sense of class.
Monster Magnet Records (Los Angeles)True Believer is a hedonistic, lush, red velvet-curtained fragile and beautiful album. Imbued with the sexual frustration and louche ambivalence of Robert Forster from The Go-Betweens and underpinned by a Nick Cave-like gothic baritone darkness, each listen reveals more complex layers, greater humor and a melodic strength. Every song is great – flashes of Tindersticks and Leonard Cohen weaving in and out of this lounge-room lothario performing in a haze of smoke and whiskey.
Back Seat Mafia (London)Songs about regret, bitterness and a love gone sour. The vocals are a rich baritone cocktail of spoken word, singing and crooning while [Tim]Powles provides seamless, charming accompaniment on the keys and drums. It’s intoxicating. It has to be experienced.
Rip it Up Magazine (Brisbane)Inspired by the likes of Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, and Tom Waits, you nevertheless get a very Michael Cullen experience. He is strong and has a distinctive baritone vocal that weaves through the music, making this album unique, and uniquely valuable. 4.5 Stars
Sydney Morning HeraldMix a stiff drink or three, crack open a pack of cheap cigarettes (I don’t care if you smoke… you want to experience this correctly or not?), and sink in your own glorious malaise, pondering where you could have done better for yourself. Michael P Cullen & The Soul Searchers understand.
Modern Fix (Wisconsin)Musicians/Instruments:
Michael P Cullen – vocals. Guitar. bass
Tim Powles – drums, percussion, vocals (Tim is a long time member of legendary Australian band The Church)Produced by Michael P Cullen & Tim Powles
Engineered by Tim Powles and Ted Howard
Mixed by Danton Supple (Coldplay, Morrissey many others)LINKS:
http://michaelpcullen.com
https://soundcloud.com/michael-p-cullen
https://bit.ly/MichaelPCullenYouTube
https://bit.ly/michaelpcullenfacebook
https://twitter.com/m1chaelcullen