Browsing Tag rock
Bilderbuch – Checkpoint (Nie Game Over)
Bilderbuch pulls the same trick as The 1975, releasing two albums shorly after one another. Last week, to the surprise of many, the Austrian indie band put out their fifth album mea culpa out of the blue, while announcing number six, Vernissage My Heart, has already been scheduled for 22 February 2019.
Mea culpa has a loungy sound, with easy-going beats and groovy guitar licks, occasionally enriched by strings, horns, organs and vocal samples. Album highlight Checkpoint however, is a melancholic shoegaze-kind of song. Its mantra-like chorus ‘Wir sind nie Game over’ makes it an earworm with huge hit potential.
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.
All Good Things – Machines
You might not have heard of All Good Things, but you may very well have heard their music. This group of Los Angeles-based musicians of varied backgrounds (everything from Halestorm to Britney Spears) have built a fanbase by supplying music to video games and soundtracks. They’ve done this without anyone really knowing who they are, until a growing army of fans tracked them down.
Only a year and a half ago, All Good Things (Dan Murphy – vocals and guitar, Andrew Bojanic – guitar and vocals, Liz Hooper – bass, keyboards and vocals, Miles Franco – guitar, bass and vocals, and drummer Randy Cooke) decided to go public. They put out the album Machines, full of anthemic, bombastic rock tracks, and the title track is the first single off it. Explosive stuff!
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 Orielles – It Makes You Forget (Itgehane)
2018 has been one hell of a year for The Orielles. Everything grew: the attendance to their shows, their success in general and also the number of band members. Originally made up of sisters Sidonie B and Esmé Dee Hand-Halford and their best friend Henry Carlyle Wade, they recently recruited a new member, Alex Stephens, on keyboards.
Early this year, The Orielles (who chose their band name as a homage to The Shirelles) released their debut album Silver Dollar Moment, which includes the single Let Your Dogtooth Grow. But in an era where artists can’t afford to rest on their laurels, they now come up with not one, but two brand new songs, bundled on a good old-fashioned double A-sided single. The A-side – a tale about their neighbour’s cat – is called Bobbi’s Second World, but allow me to concentrate on the AA-side…
There, we find It Makes You Forget (Itgehane), a song that was already great in the original version by Peggy Gou. The Orielles have turned the electro/acid tune into an indie disco stomper to great effect. They explain: “After noticing a passion for songs that make us emotional, want to dance and quite literally ‘forget’, we decided to cover one of Peggy Gou’s latest floor fillers, ‘Itgehane aka It Makes You Forget’ hoping that we could evoke the aforementioned qualities of music within other listeners!”
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 50)
In the past, when people were only exposed to music that was released in their own country, December was a month where nothing much happened, as far as new songs were concerned. Nowadays, with millions of artists all around the world putting their music on platforms like Spotify, available for everybody all over the planet, things are different. Of course, this month, you need to plow through all the well-intentioned Christmas mayhem (don’t look any further, these are the all-time highlights), but then you’ll find a wealth of great new tracks. By Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kakkmaddafakka, KT Tunstall, Smallpools or Underworld, for instance.
Below you’ll find the cream of the crop: Werner’s Weekly, your compass to the music that matters. Treat your ears via the Werner’s Weekly player in the sidebar and/or click the links for more info:
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.
Art Brut – She Kissed Me And It Felt Like A Hit
Art Brut, or as the Brits call it, Outsider Art is art by self-taught or naïve art makers. When Eddie Argos formed a band, in 2003, he thought Art Brut was the perfect name for it. One of the first things he subsequently did, was writing a song about forming a band. It became their first hit.
15 years later, and seven years since their latest effort Brilliant! Tragic!, Art Brut just released their fifth album Wham! Bang! Pow! Let’s Rock Out! Argos’ trademark speak-sing delivery is still omnipresent, but we get horns as an added bonus. For instance on my favourite album track She Kissed Me And It Felt Like A Hit.
The song title refers to The Crystals’ controversial 1962 single He Hit Me (It Felt Like A Kiss). “I love a big glorious love song,” Argos says about it. “This is one and it’s about love at first kiss, it’s about immediately knowing the person you are with is even better than appearing on Top Of The Pops and what could be more glorious than that?”
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.
Calogero – On Se Sait Par Coeur
At the end of August last year, French musical veteran Calogero released his seventh album Liberté Chérie, which features singles like Je Joue De La Musique and 1987. Only three months later, a Deluxe Edition followed, containing seven additional tracks, like the brand new song La Vraie Vie and three songs recorded live in the famous Abbey Road Studios in London. Another bonus came in the shape of a new version of promotional single On Ne Sait Par Coeur (now featuring Clara Luciani, who has since broken through with her own single La Grenade).
With 300.000 copies of Liberté Chérie sold in France alone, and yet another edition of the album (now including a DVD) now instores, bass player/singer Calogero decided to release On Ne Sait Par Coeur as his new commercial single at last. Excellent choice!
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.
Grimes feat. Hana – We Appreciate Power
After months of teases, Canadian singer, songwriter and producer Claire Boucher (commonly known as Grimes) finally released new music. The dark, driving track We Appreciate Power features additional vocals from longtime collaborator Hana Gabrielle Pestle (or simply Hana). It’s Grimes’s most aggressive single to date; sonically, it sits somewhere between power pop and straightforward industrial.
We Appreciate Power comes after a year full of collaborations with other artists (Janelle Monae’s Pynk, for instance) and marks Grimes’s first new song since her 2015 album Art Angels. The track is slated to be the first single off her forthcoming, still-untitled (and unplanned) fifth album.
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.
Bob Mould – What Do You Want Me To Do
Bob Mould hardly needs an introduction. In the eighties, he was the frontman of Hüsker Dü (who recorded the original version of Therapy?’s hit Diane), and in the nineties of Sugar (check their classic track If I Can’t Change Your Mind). After that, he recorded a long list of solo albums, the most recent one being 2016’s Patch The Sky.
Recently, Mould announced his 13th album Sunshine Rock will be out on 8 February 2019. Following hot on the heels of its title track, What Do You Want Me To Do is the album’s second single. He calls it “a quick take on shaky relationships, coincidental debauchery and the emptiness that typically follows such follies.” A great track if you’re as much a Buffalo Tom fan as I am.
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 49):
The Vaccines – All My Friends Are Falling In Love
The Vaccines have never been caught writing a song that was not catchy, but with their new one, they raise the bar of catchiness.
The band released their fourth album Combat Sports only in March of this year, but All My Friends Are Falling In Love is a new tune altogether. It came about after frontman Justin Hayward-Young joined forces with songwriter Cole MGN. They penned a track that combines The Vaccines’s distinct guitar-led sound with infectious bubblegum pop choruses. Long-term followers of the band will be familiar with the song, as they already played it live. The recorded version is an anthemic offering, that manages to capture the live energy.
This week, All My Friends Are Falling In Love by The Vaccines provides a welcome counterpoise to the grey days of Autumn. This joyful single is the new Carte Blanche Music Wildcard!
In the Wildcards 2018 playlist you can 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.
Circa Waves – Be Somebody Good
Ahead of their third album What’s It Like Over There?, Liverpool band Circa Waves gives us not one, but two new singles. One is called Movies, but I personally like the other one better.
Be Somebody Good is a dynamic song, with easy-going verses and a rather explosive chorus, that brings Twenty One Pilots to mind (which I mean to be a compliment).
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.
