The Rogue Network is a blast of contemporary blues/soul music.
Influenced by the blues/soul sounds of the 70s but on a background of fat guitar riffs, driving grooves and analog synths the music hits a perfect marriage of modern dynamism and retro groove/soul.
The Rogue Network is the creation of singer/songwriter Gerallt Williams. He’s originally from North East Wales and now spends most of his time in Manchester.
While the nucleus of the Rogue Network is Gerallt, he is backed up by an array of talented rogues, ensuring the live performances are always full of energy and depth.
The Rogue Network was formed in 2015 and has established itself as a band/artist that’s trying to create it’s own unique sound.
In a music scene saturated with many similar bands/artists, the Rogue Network has established it’s own unique sound, style and identity.
On the song, Gerallt says:
‘Supply and Demand’ is a song about the modern-day drug dealers who are taking to the internet’s dark web to sell and distribute narcotics. They are young, innovative, skilled, and quick to realise that people who live in urban, down-trodden societies are keen to spend their money on drugs as a means to relieve the pressures of everyday life. Good businessmen squeeze the market, regardless of the consequences. It’s easy money”.
LINKS:
https://facebook.com/theroguenetwork
https://instagram.com/theroguenetwork
https://twitter.com/THEROGUENETWORK
https://youtube.com/channel/UCyxVGC4z3qqrtQVa5UVsueA
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The 109’s – So Long
The 109’s follow their 2017 eponymous debut with ‘Hollow Point’, a set of 11 new songs that showcases the band’s combination of ferocious rock riffage, searing lead guitar breaks, and harmony vocals. The 109’s are an English four-piece who celebrate a mutual love of the late ’60s and early ’70s rock – Sabbath, Zeppelin, AC/DC, The Who, MC5, Grand Funk Railroad. This melting pot of influences has created a blistering, dynamic fusion of all that is best in rock, and their music has garnered praise from DJs, festival promoters and gig-goers alike.
The musicians come from strong improvisational backgrounds and write their songs as a collective, jamming until they find riffs, melody lines and unusual rhythms and cadences that can be boiled down into short, punchy song structures that strut effortlessly through complex, unexpected changes. The album has been produced by Jason Wilson, at Stakeout Studios who has produced bands such as ‘Don Broco’ and ‘You Me At Six’. Jason has translated the tremendous power and passion of the band’s live performances into recorded songs that have an equal sense of aggression and grandeur.
On “So Long” Matty says:
“Sometimes a song begins not with a melody or a lyric, but with a guitarist suddenly discovering a unique tone or sound. This riff appeared literally seconds after I plugged in a freshly purchased effects pedal, an Octave Multiplexer, which gives the guitar that distinctive phat fuzzy tone. We added some lyrics that pay homage to our interest in grungy, dystopian sci-fi and the rest of the song wrote itself”.
Lead guitarist, Matty P, is also an author and member of the UK Crime Writers Association. He has published four novels in the UK to date – Scarecrow, Stolen Lives, Broken Arrow and Werewolf – under the name Matthew Pritchard, and was nominated for the CWA’s Gold Dagger Award.
The band’s line up is as follows:
Drums – Steve Collings
Vocals and Guitar – David Gambril
Bass – Andrew Horstead
Guitar and Vocals – Matthew PritchardLINKS:
https://soundcloud.com/the-109s/sets/album
https://www.facebook.com/the109s
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/the-109s/id1153559243
https://twitter.com/the109s
https://www.instagram.com/the109s
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX-DfgIKTdyQmAoBtLCjFUA
http://www.the109s.com -
Social Station – Try (Cross My Heart)
With a passion for analog synths, hypnotic guitar, and undeniable melancholic vocals, the band originally started as a solo project in 2013 by singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist Paul Todd, debuting with the single ‘The Sun and The Air’, followed by their ‘With a Smile’ EP.
“The song ‘Try’ has been evolving for close to two years with its start as a slow and deep staccato guitar riff along the lines of early Chelsea Wolfe or PJ Harvey, and just the first verse. Moving the song to an arrangement for piano completed the verses but still did not have the Cross My Heart chorus and up-tempo pace. Still pretty gloomy,” says Paul Todd.
“Experimenting with an Akai MPC 100, the song took off with a life of its own. The guitar melodies and string arrangements just fell into place. Two words always come to mind when working on a Social Station song, yearning, and melancholy. The perspectives or lens may change but longing or struggling and feeling overwhelmed drives the writing process. This song in particular frames the challenge of feeling comfortable in your own skin while trying to have a meaningful and significant relationship.”
Their live show and distinct sound took shape through Paul Todd’s collaboration with Spenser Kydd. Their common music sensibility for distinct melodies and themes led Social Station to release their debut single ‘Awfully Pretty’ in 2015. That track received immediate attention and was hand-picked for Orkus Music and Culture Magazine’s monthly music compilation.
With the addition of Alexander Minx on drums, Social Station spent a summer in an industrial space in Baltimore, writing and recording their debut full-length album ‘Our Pleasure of Solitude’. This effort earned them inclusion in the NPR-affiliated WAMU Capital Soundtrack and Stereo Embers Magazine’s ‘Next Twenty Post-Punk Bands You Should Know About’.
With a renewed commitment to touring and recording and the departure of Spenser Kydd and Alexander Minx, this release marks a new chapter for Social Station. The extensive use of midi sequencing and the addition of classical musician Jacob Sebastian on bass has opened a whole new world of possibilities for the duo, both in the studio and on stage.
The two of them will kick off an extensive tour in support of their new single ‘Try (Cross My Heart’ and their back catalog. Catch them at one of the dates lined up their summer.
LINKS:
http://socialstation.com
https://www.facebook.com/socialstationmusic
https://socialstation.bandcamp.com
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC01nErg_F6csXIF08HBNt8w/videos -
Herman Dune – Dreamin’ is Over, Callifornia
Herman Dune is David Ivar’s musical project. It was started in 1998 in Paris, France. David is a French/Swedish citizen who began playing antifolk in Paris at a time when no DIY scene existed, let alone with songs performed in English. In 2001 he started the MOFO music festival in Paris which featured acts like Daniel Johnston, Bonnie Prince Billie, The Silver Jews, Dinosaur Jr., and The Moldy Peaches.
After spending years in a Lo-Fi territory with the label Shrimper (The Mountain Goats), 2006 found Herman Dune signing to EMI/Source (UK Virgin) and releasing two albums. The album “Giant,” was certified Gold in France and both records had Herman Dune touring non-stop for the next two years. Herman Dune played 42 States in the USA and many festivals including; SXSW, End of the Road, Green Man, Benicassim, Primavera Sound Festival, All Tomorrow’s Parties, and Central Park Summer Stage festivals.
In 2008, Funny Or Die-produced the video for the song “Tell Me Something I Don’t’ Know,” featuring John Hamm and a puppet made by Jim Henson’s Studio.
Through a “Never-ending” life on the road, Herman Dune has toured with Arcade Fire, Jolie Holland, Kimya Dawson, Of Montreal, and opened for Sleater Kinney and Wanda Jackson. Whenever in the UK, he was always welcome at BBC1 to record exclusive sessions and holds a record for tracking 10 John Peel Sessions with the mythical British DJ.
David Ivar has also been recognized as a visual artist and his work has been seen in Playboy, Flaunt, and Spray magazines. His art has been shown at the FIAC in Paris, Art Basel in Miami, Triennale in Milano. He’s had multiple exhibitions in galleries in Paris (Nivet-Carzon, Agnes B), New York City (Cinders Gallery), Los Angeles (Small World Books), and institutions and galleries in Europe. David Ivar has written and recorded the soundtracks for theatrical movies like Mariage A Mendoza (Edouard Deluc), Blockbuster (July Hygrek, a NETFLIX film), and Chasing Bonnie & Clyde (Olivier Lambert).
David Ivar – On writing the album:
“Sweet Thursday” is the third volume of the Cannery Row trilogy by John Steinbeck. After leaving France in all kinds of clashes and hurries, I felt that in my new home in San Pedro, California, I had found my own Cannery Row. I moved to Santa Cruz Street, by the harbor, where life starts at 4 AM. The nine songs of “Sweet Thursday” were recorded live with my band (Kyle McNeill & Lewis Pullman) and produced by myself and Kyle. It was then mixed by Adam Selzer (M.Ward, Langhorne Slim).”Now an Immigrant in California, I set up a studio in my backyard, gave up my phone, stopped touring and started working intensely on music and art. I also drove around the South Bay in my 1992 Toyota with its old cassette deck. Most songs on “Sweet Thursday” are inspired by this new life and the doubts and fears of being an alien resident in the shift of the US during this current administration.
At a recent show of Mike Watt & The Missing Men in a warehouse on the docks near my house, Mike shouted out to the audience, “Release your own stuff! Put out your own music!”. I felt like the King of the San Pedro Punk Scene was pointing at me to inspire me in my process of going back to doing things myself, my own label, my own everything!
The album has strong visual themes to me and I decided to work with video artist Brett Sullivan of the NYC antifolk band American Anymen to help realize music videos for the entire album. I really dug his editing style in connection to music, so when he came up with the idea of a video campaign for “Sweet Thursday”, almost a movie, I really jumped on the idea and we got to work filming music videos about San Pedro that inspired the album so much.
LINKS:
http://www.davidivar.com
https://www.facebook.com/HermanDuneYeah