Browsing Tag rock
Hands Like Houses – Dangerous
Hands Likes Houses are one of Australia’s favourite rock bands. It features Trenton Woodley (vocals), Matt Cooper (guitar), Alex Pearson (guitar/vocals), Joel Tyrrell (bass/vocals) and Matt Parkitny (drums). The Canberra five-piece have multiple awards, critical acclaim, sold out tours and legions of global fans to their name.
Only weeks ahead of their self-titled EP (set for a 23 October release), Hands Like Houses unleash its third single. Dangerous is a hard-hitting track that gives a good impression of what the EP has in store. It’ll be fast and furious, both lyrically and musically.
About the single, Woodley says: “Something about this song has always been uncomfortable for me. When we started, Dangerous was meant to be playful, confident, even arrogant. But as it came together, it felt like a reflection on frustration and losing control when all your confidence falls apart.”
Fans of Biffy Clyro, You Me At Six and Bring Me The Horizon should listen closely. Hands Like Houses might be their next favourite band.
Recommended as well:
Hands Like Houses – Overthinking
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Werner’s Weekly (week 40)
This is Werner’s Weekly, your compass to the music that matters, containing the two most recent Carte Blanche Music Wildcards, and the best of the other new releases in alphabetical order:
- Pixey – Just Move (Wildcard this week)
- Penfriend – The Only Way Out Is Through (Wildcard last week)
- Django Django – Spirals
- Liza Owen – Getting Good
- Miss Machine – Tout Autour
- The Mountain Goats – Get Famous
- T99 vs. Youngr – Anasthasia [Youngr Bootleg]
Click the links for more info and listen to each of the tracks via the Werner’s Weekly player below.
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist. Also added last week: Bastille, Saint Motel, The Waterboys, and more.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Semisonic – Basement Tapes
Thanks to great tunes like Closing Time, Secret Smile and Chemistry, Semisonic are one of my favourite bands from around the turn of the century. In 2002, following their third album All About Chemistry, the band went on an indefinite hiatus. However, they never broke up. In the meantime, frontman Dan Wilson built a successful career of his own. He was a songwriter and producer for the likes of Pink, Dixie Chicks and Adele, as wel as a solo artist. He is quoted as saying he found it difficult to write new material that sounded like Semisonic.
In 2017, Wilson met Liam Gallagher with the intention to write new songs for the latter. Eventually, the two didn’t work together. Wilson felt the sketches of the songs he wrote for Gallagher were more suitable for Semisonic instead.
In the summer of that year, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of their 2016 debut album Great Divide, Semisonic reunited for a series of shows. At these occasions, they played Great Divide in its entirety. At the end of that year, commemorating the upcoming 20th anniversary of their sophomore album Feeling Strangely Fine, they performed the whole of that album a few times. Last year, they came together again to do some more gigs. During these 2017-2019 shows, they also played some of Wilson’s new, previously unreleased ‘Gallagher’ songs.
These tracks have now been properly recorded and released on the EP You’re Not Alone. This is Semisonic’s first collection of new material in 19 years. It contains five fine examples of craft song-writing, as we’ve come to expect. Basement Tapes is my favourite. A great pop-rock song, very well sung and executed by Wilson and his band. A welcome return.
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Crocodylus – Social Climber
Sydney garage-rock trio Crocodylus describe themselves as ‘Northern Beaches most disappointing band’. Well, if the band was already surrounded by disappointment, they definitely shake it off with their new single.
‘New’ is relative, by the way. Social Climber was written four years ago. It was recorded right before Sydney went into lockdown earlier this year. A jangly garage rock anthem-in-waiting, it’s the band’s most dynamic and poignant song yet.
Crocodylus frontman Josh Williams offers some insights… “This song’s about being in a relationship with someone who’s climbing the non existent social ladder. It’s about trying to make the relationship work but it all becomes too much. Manipulation and jealousy comes into play as well as some 12 string and organ action. The song was written a few years ago and it’s sick to see it finally recorded with a full band.”
Social Climber is one half of a double A-side 7″. The other half, Camouflage, will come out on 16 October. Crocodylus have used their recent downtime well, working on their forthcoming debut album. The long-flayer is slated for release in 2021.
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Werner’s Weekly (week 39)
This is Werner’s Weekly, your compass to the music that matters, containing the two most recent Carte Blanche Music Wildcards, and the best of the other new releases in alphabetical order:
- Penfriend – The Only Way Out Is Through (Wildcard this week)
- ONR (feat. Nile Rodgers) – Kill TV (Wildcard last week)
- Hedda Mae – Madness
- Lucas Hamming – Falling
- Smarts – Cling Wrap
- Stix Bones feat. Imani Coppola – Breakin’ The Dance Floor
- The Wannadies – Can’t Kill The Musikk
Click the links for more info and listen to each of the tracks via the Werner’s Weekly player below.
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist. Also added last week: Annie, Georgia, Semisonic, and more.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
I Don’t Know How But They Found Me – Razzmatazz
Obviously, it’s important for a band to have good songs. But in order to stand out in a long list (such as a Spotify playlist), it’s equally important to have a good band name. Enter I Don’t Know How But They Found Me.
In the beginning, the band was surrounded by mystery, but by now, we know it’s the new project from former Panic! At The Disco bassist Dallon Weekes and ex-Falling In Reverse drummer Ryan Seaman.
16 October, four years after they started, the duo release their debut album Razzmatazz. The glossy, piano-driven title track is their new single. The use of a multitude of instruments provides the song with a rich, at times jazzy sound. It was inspired by classic rock albums such as The Beatles‘ Sgt. Peppers’ Lonely Hearts Club Band and David Bowie‘s The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars. Razzmatazz’ lyrics concern Weekes’ disillusionment with Hollywood.
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
The Mountain Goats – Get Famous
The Mountain Goats are not exactly a young and emerging band. They’re about to release the 19th album in their almost 30-year career. Getting Into Knives will be out on 23 October. Other than this year’s surprise album Songs For Pierre Chuvin, which was recorded in frontman John Darnielle’s North Carolina home, the upcoming long-player was recorded in the legendary studio Sam Phillips Recording in Memphis. This is the studio Sun Records founder Sam Phillips built when the original Sun Studio was no longer big enough to handle the demand. The album was recorded over a single week with an array of Memphis musicians.
The new single off the record sounds as vintage as the studio it was recorded in. This track, Get Famous, is actually an ‘anti-fame’ song. It’s a soulful rock ‘n’ roll tune with a snappy groove, enhanced by rich horns and a bubbling organ. Darnielle said about the track: “If I told you all how much fun we had making this one you wouldn’t even believe me. But we hope it comes through.”
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Django Django – Spirals
Django Django’s new single Spirals is an up-tempo song right from the start, made for the radio. For adventurous radio stations at least. The tune kicks off with driving drums, a walking bassline and the kind of elegantly circling synths you might know from Sophie B. Hawkins’ Right Beside You, or Grandaddy’s The Crystal Lake. It combines Django Django’s early sound with that on more recent releases (the latest being two years old).
The same idea goes for the kaleidoscopic, Maxim Kelly directed video that comes with the song. It features repeated images of frontman Vincent Neff spiralling as if in a DNA strand. The image of DNA is used to muse on how the connections we have as humans are stronger than the divisions.
Kelly explains: “The approach was to translate the psychedelic trip through The Victorian technique of the phénakisticope. The visual illusion generated by spinning the disks at the correct speed coupled with the shutter of a camera is both confusing and hypnotic. I was drawn to how the animations flow in and out, drifting and duping the mind and then back again. This felt a lot like the psychedelic experience tome. The challenge was to fuse the old with the modern. The analogue and the digital. Updating and modernizing the technique.”
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Miss Machine – Tout Autour
Here’s more proof that the French music scene is full of talent at the moment. Today, I’d like to introduce you to Miss Machine, the alter-ego of young singer-songwriter Éloïse Boisseau. She grew up in a home where music was all around. Apart from the artists she heard via her parents, she discovered her own heroes as well. Arctic Monkeys, for instance, or Metric.
Miss Machine’s first 4-track EP, Tout Autour, comes out on 28 September. Ahead of it, its title track is her debut single. A beautiful song, combining ‘90s rock nostalgia, electronic pop sounds, and French chanson. Highly personal music, with lyrics that are both expressive and impressionistic.
While studying Philosophy, she continues recording new music in her home studio in Nantes. A new EP, or even a full album, will come out in 2021.
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Wildcard (week 38):
Penfriend – The Only Way Out Is Through
Penfriend is the solo project of Bristol’s Laura Kidd. She’s not only an upcoming artist, but also a successful podcast maker. In the first series of her podcast Attention Engineer, she interviewed guests like Belly’s Tanya Donelly, Frank Turner, Charlotte Hatherley, Public Service Broadcasting, and Tom Robinson. It shot to #10 in the Apple Podcasts top music shows on launch. Series 2 will launch on 7 October.
Following Everything Looks Normal In The Sunshine, The Only Way Out Is Through is only Penfriend’s second release. Sonically, her new single is a nod to the powerpop that ruled the airwaves in the early 1990s. Its grungy guitars give it a rock touch, but it’s sugar-coated by an icy synth melody. Lyrically, Penfriend delivers the message of hope and determination that we all need after a tough six months.
She says: “The choice to release music in a universally dark time isn’t one I take lightly. The Only Way Out Is Through is the most resonant and useful song I have to offer right now, a rescue raft for whoever needs one. That’s what this song is for me.”
The Only Way Out Is Through by Penfriend is the new Carte Blanche Music Wildcard!
In the Wildcards 2020 playlist you’ll find all of this year’s Carte Blanche Music Wildcards so far.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
