Leatherface - Mush

This could well be the best album you've never heard !!!

It's not quite punk, its not rock either, it's as hard as some hardcore, and while the songs are certainly tuneful and catchy, it's definitely not "pop punk". Green Day can get to fuck basically

There are subtleties in the interplay of Frankie Stubbs and Dickie Hammonds guitars (while they still thrash and rage away), and, not to put too fine a point on it, Stubbs is a soulful, thoughtful songwriter with the heart of a working class, home-spun poet. Yeah, his voice sounds like a bucket of gravel and fag-ends, but so did Louis Armstrong and Tom Waits. Imagine the bastard offspring of Lemmy and Bob Mould. And Leatherface do hit as hard as old Hüsker Dü crossed with Motorhead.

If you like tuneful hardcore, lyrics that aren't your standard fuck the system or emo crap, then you owe it to youself to listen to this album

I want the moon

How lonely

I don't want to be the one to say it

Pandora's box

Not a day goes by

Not superstitious

Springtime

Winning

In the real world

Baked potato

Bowl of flies

Dead industrial atmosphere

Trenchfoot

Scheme of things

Message in a bottle

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Verve - A Northen Soul

It makes my blood boil when people talk about this album as a warm up or a lead up to Urban Hymns. This was the album Verve were born to make. and its Verve not "The" Verve yea....  It's the sound of a band locked on a collision course to the bottom of their souls (I nicked that from 'This is Music', my favourite track here).

The band shine on this album, i saw them play it at Glastonbury 1995, middle of the afternoon , fucking hot as fuck, Ashcroft on one , no shoes, dripping in sweat, totally immersed in everything the band are doing, the guitar amp breaks down mid set, the bass and drums jam for 15 mins while Ashcroft chants,sings and ad libs lyrics like some shaman preaching to the perverted ...... amazing my friends......

 Salisbury's rock solid rolling drums, Jones' rumbling bass grooves, McCabe's fucking brilliant vast guitar, and Ashcroft's raw bottled pain. It's also produced perfectly with a real gritty sound throughout (especially the vocals - I can hardly listen to the blandified sugary production of the vocals on Urban Hymns, actually think it was played it twice and then filed rather quickly to gather dust because, lets face it, its fucking shite compared to this album , and yea , i don't really care how many people bought Urban Hymns you are fucking wrong if you think otherwise.

The slower tracks on this are worth the asking price alone, under rated classics but for me this album is all about the white noise, anger, energy and pure adrenalin of openers A New Decade and This is Music and the ear-bleeding feedback of the last track.

This album is Verve at there best.

A New Decade

This Is Music

On Your Own

So It Goes

A Northern Soul

Brainstorm Interlude

Drive You Home

History

No Knock on My Door

Life's an Ocean

Stormy Clouds

(Reprise)

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The Seahorses - 2nd Album

The Seahorses never really stood a chance, the weigh of expectation on debut album "Do It Yourself" was enormous, it was actually a great record and this the second one was all right too, it remained unreleased however as the band called it as day before it had chance to be heard.

John Squire was of course the guitar slinger from a certain band called The Stone Roses so you can imagine how it went, the singer Chris Helme was apparently found busking on the streets of York, as a band in there own right they were great,if indie britpop singalong anthems are your thing but the spectre of the roses loomed large over everything they did

Night Train

Anamorphosis

700 Horses

Dolphin

Something Tells Me

What Can You See?

Cocksucker Blues

I Want You

Tombraid

Reach Out

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Space - Spiders

Things from Liverpool and its near neighbour,yet fierce rival Manchester are usually good and this is no exception. Beautifully made, great instrumentation, witty lyrics and off kilter vocals make this an interesting listen. Listening to Spiders, the debut album by the Liverpool four-piece Space, you've got to wonder: Is there space enough in Space for each member's musical ambitions? 

They've got a singer/bassist named Tommy Scott who writes uniquely British pop songs filled with eccentric characters and dark humor (think Ray Davies), but who splits his musical fixations between Burt Bacharach-influenced orchestral pop and edgy new wave. There's also lead guitarist, Jamie Murphy, who writes more mainstream guitar rock, with crunching chords and glam lyrics like, "voodoo roller lives in solar." And then there's technophile keyboardist Franny Griffiths, who laces together both of his partners' songs with samples, synth warbles, scratches, and dance beats. At any given point Space can take on characteristics of pop eras from the early '60s to the late '90s, and often more than one at a time.

Mix it all together, though, and the band comes off sounding like a low rent version of Happy Mondays, with their dance grooves and rock guitars dominating the mix. Particularly on Murphy-penned tracks like "Major Pager" and "Lovechild of the Queen" (both pretty rubbish attempts at political commentary actually)

But if ever an album (and a band) were saved on the strength of a few good singles, this is it. The hits "Neighborhood," "Me & You vs. the World," and especially the third single but forst big hit, "Female of the Species"--all Scott compositions--are so damn catchy and lively and clever and dynamic they almost create the impression that Spiders is a great album, when in fact it's only half great.

Neighbourhood

Mister Psycho

Female of the Species

Money

Me and You Versus the World

Lovechild of the Queen

No One Understands

Voodoo Roller

Drop Dead

Dark Clouds

Major Pager

Kill Me

Charlie M

Growler

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Six.By Seven - The Way I Feel Today

Fans of this blog will know im a fan of the excellent Six.By Seven and here Nottingham's finest do it again, bringing together the raucous punk / alt-rock of their first two albums with a bittersweet wistful vibe..... and its loud !!

 So Close and American Beer are amazing songs and right up there as my own personal favourites, Chris Olley sings and leads the band superbly throughout this raucous noise,  The loss of lead guitarist Sam hempton isnt noticed as the playing is tight and well balanced. it was recorded pretty much live with no overdubs or re takes.... and its all the better for it

So Close

I.O.U. Love

All My New Best Friends

Flypaper for Freaks

Speed Is in, Speed Is Out

Karen O

American Beer

Anyway

The Way I Feel Today

Cafeteria Rats

Bad Man

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The Stone Roses - Heaton Park - I Wanna Be Adored

21 years since Glasgow Green and the last true Roses gig that Reni played.... Friday the 29th June 2012 came Heaton Park... im sure you've read the reviews , checked out the setlists etc so il not blather on, suffice to say fucking emotional wasn't the word.... perfect perfect perfect in every way.

There will be other gigs of course.......  there will never be anything as good.

Enjoy the sound of 75,000 folk going fucking ape at the most iconic of British bands.