Sunday 16 November 2014

BOB COLLUM - LITTLE ROCK CALLING

Essex-based Okie, Bob Collum returns in January with his first full album since 2007’s Set The Stupid Free. Once again he’s joined by his faithful band The Welfare Mothers, once again featuring fellow transplanted American Marianne Hyatt, plus special guests Peter Holsapple, Martin Belmont and David Lewis. The album was produced by renowned producer and ex-Vibrator Pat Collier at Perry Vale Studios in Southeast London, and is Bob’s first under a new deal with Harbour Song Records, also home to fellow Essex mavericks the Lucky Strikes and M G Boulter.

Of the ten songs on the album, Bob says “If I had to have an angle I'd say they are mostly about looking back at what I remember America, particularly the South, was like and how different I seemed and felt about what was around me.”

Johnny Held Em Down is about the Confederate flag and how it's used a weapon of keeping people aware of their place. Quite sinister stuff that loses its context outside of The US. Little Rock is about looking at home with equal parts longing and trepidation. An ex-pat’s lament! Wasted Wonderland is a bit of a romantic autopsy. I think that tells the story of the majority of people I knew growing up. Locust Grove is the true story of the murder of three girl scouts at a scout camp outside of Tulsa in 1977. It was like a gothic horror story that really affected kids my age and I've never been able to shake the awfulness of the whole thing.”

A native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the decade and more since Bob arrived in the UK, he’s come up with a series of memorable albums: the solo releases More Tragic Songs Of Life and Low Rent Romeo, plus two with his band The Welfare Mothers: The Boy Most Likely To and Set The Stupid Free, and latterly the Twisted Lines & Mixed Up Rhythms and The New Old Thing EPs. He’s also shared stages with an equally memorable cast list of the great and the good of American music, including Dave Alvin, Marshall Crenshaw, Greg Trooper, Alejandro Escovedo, Robert Earle Keen, Robbie Fulks and many more.

Alongside Bob and Marianne, The Welfare Mothers feature Allan Kelly (pedal steel), Paul Quarry (drums) and Gareth Davies (bass).


www.bobcollum.com


“Collum's Anglophile Americana reaps subtle yet sustaining dividends...” **** Daily Mirror
“Collum… like Nick Lowe is able to express a wry riposte and an aching heart within the same breath.” **** R2
“Possibly his finest yet… He continues to refine his songwriting with some quite stunning musical arrangements.”  Maverick
“…a truly gorgeous bundle of country joy..” FATEA
The Boy Most Likely To... is a testimony to the enduring power of finely crafted songs played well . It deserves a wide hearing and appreciation." Bucketfull Of Brains
“With The Boy Most Likely To, Collum has crafted roots pop perfection" Amplifier
“Pop melodies and hooks that’ll have you humming the chorus to each song before the record is halfway through" Subba Cultcha

Thursday 21 August 2014

STIV CANTARELLI & THE SILENT STRANGERS HEAD DOWN TO THE RIVER

Stiv Cantarelli & The Silent Strangers are back, building on the success of their critically acclaimed debut Black Music / White Music with more post-punk revolutionary blues.

Having recorded their debut in an abandoned church amid the isolation of Italy’s Romagna hills, Stiv and the band decided to up sticks for the city for their next project; specifically the super-trendy environs of Hackney Wick, East London – on the banks of the River Lea – where they holed up in the infamous Gizzard studio with producer Peter Bennett (founder of Monkey Island, The Dublo and Morning Bride) and studio owner/engineer Ed Deegan (Billy Childish, Mudhoney, The Fall, The Cribs). In a nod towards the stripped down Thames Delta sound of Dr Feelgood et al, Dave Dulake, landlord of Southend rock’n’roll boozer The Railway Hotel, was also on hand to lay down some barrelhouse piano.

The result eschews much of the gentle Americana of their debut album, the band now immersing themselves fully in the dark and savage blues that they’d only just begun to hint at on record, but that had already made their live shows a thrilling and cathartic ride. If you’re thinking The Gun Club, Thin White Rope, The Scientists or Gallon Drunk, you’re getting close.

Stiv Cantarelli initially came to prominence as leader of Italy’s number one alt.country band Satellite Inn, who were recruited by North Carolina label MoodFood as a replacement for the ascendant Whiskeytown. Touring the States intensively, Cantarelli became firm friends with Portland, Oregon roots legends Richmond Fontaine, which has led to him releasing several records on their El Cortez label and employing them as his backing band on his solo debut Innerstate. It was this connection that found him at the wheel of a tiny Fiat beside Bob Mould for an Italian odyssey during the miserable winter of 2009. In the Silent Strangers, Stiv is joined by former Satellite Inn rhythm section Fabrizio Gramellini (bass) and Antonio Perugini (drums) along with new member Roberto Villa (guitar and sax).

The album release will be followed by a series of UK dates in mid-October.


Praise for Black Music / White Music….

A long night’s ramble through the musical fleshpots of the soul… The urge to listen again is powerful. 4/5  R2
Destined to be a seminal classic 9/10 Vive Le Rock
An overwhelming success… 9/10 Americana-UK.com
This is bluesy country punk for grown-ups Q
An exciting mix of post punk rock and desert blues  4/5  AAAmusic.co.uk
A really fascinating album…. It will reward the time you give it. Stiv Cantarelli & The Silent Strangers take a no compromise approach to their recording and long term it definitely pays off.  FATEA
Cantarelli has grown into a bluesman whose songs can break your heart, while also sounding like they could handle themselves in a barroom brawl. Classic Rock Blues

Fantastic album… Absolute killer.  Pennyblackmusic.co.uk

Wednesday 13 August 2014

ABC GUITARIST LAUNCHES NEW BLUES ALBUM

Matt Backer is a leading guitarist and songwriter, having performed and toured with an array of artists including Laura Mvula, Emilia Mitiku, Aimee Mann, Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, Kim Wilde, Swing Out Sister, Elton John, Cher, Bananarama, Joe Cocker and Alice Cooper, amongst others.

Matt’s new blues album Get Backer is produced by Matt and his long-time collaborator Ian Shaw (Nick Heyward, Julian Cope). The album features special guests including former Shakespeare’s Sister Marcella Detroit, Peter Cox (lead singer of Go West), US blues legend Bill Blue and world-renowned blues harmonica player, Adam Gussow. Award-winning British director Steve Graham directed the video to accompany the first single, Histrionic Narcissist Blues (Let’s Talk About Me). Both single and album are released on 15 September.

Matt’s debut solo album, The Impulse Man, resulted in two US Independent Music Network Number 1 singles and won Best Adult Contemporary Newcomer at the New Music Awards in Los Angeles. Mojo described the album as having ‘the chunkiest riffs and licks you wish youʼd learned to play wrapped around songs reeling with fat choruses and wry humour.’

His second solo album, Idle Hands, earned him Favourite International Artist at the Independent Music Network Awards 2013. Matt was also nominated for Favourite Group/Duo, along with collaborative partner Julian Lennon, who co-wrote, produced, and shared lead vocals on the anthemic single All That Youʼve Wanted. The track was play-listed at radio stations across the USA, and reached Number 1 on several Independent Music Network charts. Martin Fry took time out from his position as ABCʼs inspired frontman to duet on the track Halfway To Jessica. The single Let’s Art, was played on UK radio stations nationwide, including BBC Radio 2.

Matt has toured the world with artists including Belinda Carlisle, ABC (with whom he sold out the Royal Albert Hall performing an orchestral version of their seminal Lexicon Of Love album) and Rumer, on whose double platinum debut Seasons Of My Soul he performed, as well as its follow up Boys Donʼt Cry.





Monday 23 June 2014

MR PLOW: NOT THE BEGINNING, NOT THE END

Murderbilly, Gothic Country, Americana Noir. Just three of the terms sort of useful in sort of describing the music of Mr Plow, who release their third album Not The Beginning, Not The End this Summer.
 
Hailing from the urban anonymity of the English Midlands, the band first released an EP (Four Murder Ballads) on PinkBox Records (2008), securing them a live session for Mark Lamarr on BBC Radio 2. Their debut album The Book of Common Despair was released the following year to  several excellent reviews and features in the Americana press, plus copious radio play, righteously earned through many hours traipsing up and down the country to promote it. Both The Guardian and The Sunday Times namechecked Mr Plow in articles citing the best of UK Americana: “Leicestershire's own Man In Black” proclaimed The Sunday Times!
 
Mr Plow's second album Joyful In Song Are We was released in July 2011, and was reviewed very nicely by many nice people. The band again played a raft of gigs in support of the release, which included them being cited as 'Moment of the Weekend' at Moseley Folk Festival. The second album also saw Mr Plow rated as one of Europe's most 'intriguing' Americana acts by the US Americana site ‘The Alternate Root’.
 
The Mr Plow band is currently made up of - Mr Plow (vocals/guitar), Sgt. Thorley (guitar), The Crusher (drums) and Flame Boy (bass). It's 2014 and they're unleashing album number three!

Not The Beginning, Not The End will be available on limited edition coloured 12" vinyl (300 copies) plus digital download. It will be available to buy from selected record stores, plus direct from PinkBox Records. They’ll be playing a whole crop of dates to go with it, and are available for interview right now!


 

Wednesday 29 January 2014

THE BRAINIAC 5 - WHEN SILENCE WAS SOUND

Do you remember when silence was sound?

This timely compilation documents the first flourishing of psych-punks The Brainiac 5, born out of the free-flowing Cornish freak-scene of the mid-70s. Featuring seventeen extremely rare recordings, highlighting the band’s New Wave smarts melded with lysergic guitar workouts influenced by the late-60s San Francisco scene, the release comprises the band’s 7-inchs, along with sole long-player World Inside, produced by Hawkwind/Hawklords drummer Martin Griffin, and live tracks recorded at The White Horse, Launceston in 1980. Including a sixteen-page booklet with full band history by archivist Colin Hill, When Silence Was Sound is packaged in mindbending art from the paintbox of noted UK artist John Hurford. Released on 7 April on the specially reactivated Reckless Records imprint, the anthology chimes neatly with the current resurgence in all things psychedelic.

Formed out of the ashes of free festival favourites the Half Human Band – also featuring Griffin – the initial Brainiac 5 line-up of guitarist/vocalists Charles Taylor (aka Charlie Nothing) and Bert Biscoe, bassist John ‘Woody’ Wood and drummer Steve Hudson made a name for themselves on the isolated yet thriving Cornish pub, club and festival scene. Coming to the attention of the NME with their Mushy Doubt EP, and with Richard Booth of early Stiff signings Plummet Airlines replacing Biscoe, the band made the move to London to enjoy the fruits of a gig circuit enlivened by punk. However, they split before World Inside could be released, the album eventually seeing the light of day in 1988 via Reckless Records, the label arm of the secondhand record empire founded by Taylor, also responsible for releases by such psych legends as Bevis Frond, Black Sun Ensemble and Mu.

Fast forward to 2013 and with Taylor returning to the UK after 20 years running Reckless stores in the States, the opportunity to reconvene the Brainiacs results in Space Is The Place, a 10-inch EP of new recordings on Bucketfull Of Brains magazine founder Nigel Cross’s Shagrat label. Garnering effusive reviews from the likes of The Wire and Shindig! magazines, and with Charlie and Woody now joined by another Plummet alumnus Duncan Kerr on guitar, along with Nick Onley on sax and flute and Wayne Worrell on drums, The Brainiac 5 are once again very much a going concern. A long strange trip indeed!

The band will launch the release with two shows in London in April....

Sat 5 April         The Betsey Trotwood, 56 Farringdon Road, Clerkenwell EC1
Fri 25 April       The Victoria, 451 Queensbridge Road, Dalston E8


Tuesday 21 January 2014

LIE DOWN WITH THE LOW AND THE LUCKY

In the spirit of cross-continental musical camaraderie, two of Europe’s hottest roots-rock and Americana bands are embarking on a set of very special live dates in their respective homelands. At the end of February, fast-rising Essex band The Lucky Strikes will fly to northern Italy to support the country’s number one roots-rock band Lowlands at two shows outside Milan. The following weekend, the Italians will head to the UK where they’ll support The Lucky Strikes at two shows, culminating with a performance at London’s long-running Americana club Come Down And Meet The Folks. Full dates are as follows….
  
Fri 28 Feb     All’ 1 & 35, Cantù, Lombardia
Sat 1 Mar     Spaziomusica, Pavia, Lombardia

Sat 8 Mar      The Railway Hotel, Southend-on-Sea, Essex
Sun 9 Mar     CDAMTF @ The Apple Tree, Clerkenwell, London (5pm kick-off)

The dates will be celebrated with The Low & Lucky EP, a strictly limited featuring both bands covering each others' songs, on sale at gigs and via the Harbour Song Records website.

Lowlands’ current album is Beyond (Stovepony). Frontman Edward Abbiati will be releasing a new album in collaboration with Green On Red’s Chris Cacavas in the summer. The Lucky Strikes’ current album is The Exile And The Sea (Harbour Song). A single from it ‘New Avalon’ will be released in the spring.

Here’s what they said about Lowlands…..

“...a versatility that most bands can only dream of..." 8/10 Vive Le Rock

Here’s what they said about The Lucky Strikes…..

"The stuff of whispers in the corners of dark pubs... musical excellence" 8/10 Americana-UK.com




Saturday 11 January 2014

STIV CANTARELLI - FROM THE MUDDY BANKS OF THE LEA

Stiv Cantarelli & The Silent Strangers return to London in March for three special shows. The Italian band who last year released their debut album Black Music/White Music to considerable praise, play...

Wed 5        What’s Cookin’ @ Ex-Servicemen’s Club, Leytonstone E11
Thur 6        The Blues Kitchen, High Street, Camden NW1
Sat 8          The Others, Manor Rd, Stoke Newington N16    

While they’re here, the band will be recording their follow-up album at East London’s Gizzard studio (Cribs, Mudhoney, Billy Childish, Slow Club), with Pete Bennett of acclaimed London folk/Americana trio Morning Bride and garage-blues bands Monkey Island and The Dublo producing. The location marks a stark contrast to the abandoned church in Tuscany’s picturesque Romagna hills where they recorded their debut. The album is expected to be released in the Summer.

Stiv Cantarelli initially came to prominence as leader of Italy’s number one alt.country band Satellite Inn, who were recruited by North Carolina label MoodFood as a replacement for the ascendant Whiskeytown. Touring the length and breadth of the US, Cantarelli became firm friends with Portland, Oregon roots legends Richmond Fontaine, which has led to him releasing several records on their El Cortez label and employing them as his backing band on his solo debut Innerstate. It was this connection that found him supporting and tour managing Bob Mould on his Italian dates of 2010.

In the Silent Strangers, Stiv is joined by former Satellite Inn rhythm section Fabrizio Gramellini (bass) and Antonio Perugini (drums) along with new member Roberto Villa (guitar and sax).




Praise for Black Music / White Music….

A long night’s ramble through the musical fleshpots of the soul… The urge to listen again is powerful. 4/5  R2
Destined to be a seminal classic 9/10 Vive Le Rock
An overwhelming success… 9/10 Americana-UK.com
This is bluesy country punk for grown-ups Q
An exciting mix of post punk rock and desert blues  4/5  AAAmusic.co.uk
A really fascinating album…. It will reward the time you give it. Stiv Cantarelli & The Silent Strangers take a no compromise approach to their recording and long term it definitely pays off.  FATEA
Cantarelli has grown into a bluesman whose songs can break your heart, while also sounding like they could handle themselves in a barroom brawl. Classic Rock Blues
Fantastic album… Absolute killer.  Pennyblackmusic.co.uk