Hildebrandt – Another Bastard List Poem About Liverpool.

‘Another Bastard List Poem About Liverpool’

STRUMMERCAMP FESTIVAL 2023

STRUMMERCAMP FESTIVAL 2023

17 years and counting, Strummercamp- the local family friendly festival in tribute to the late Joe Strummer and The Clash is back again at Oldham Rugby Club from 26-28 May- bank holiday weekend.. Everyone is welcome at this truly independent, not for profit event run entirely by volunteers, with prices kept deliberately affordable..

Dozens of acts playing over the weekend under our large covered marquee, from punk, reggae and Rock n Roll to Ska, blues, funk and acoustic.

Saturday sees ex Public Image Ltd bassist Jah Wobble & The Invaders of the Heart bringing his unique post punk dub and experimental world music vibe .. A poignant tribute to the late Terry Hall will see the Specials covers band, 2 Hot make a Two Tone night to remember ..

Sunday headliners are Random Hand, West Yorkshire’s finest ska/punk/ metal/ hip hop/dub specialists are celebrating their 20 year anniversary..

Other acts include George Borowski, Blackballed, Carol Hodge Band, Nosebleed, SWJ Band… also Clash, Ramones and Punk classics tributes..

Tickets include free camping on site, free parking on site ( including camper vans).
> Adult weekend £60
> Family (2 adults/2 children) £120
> Day tickets £30
> No big festival rip off prices- club house bar open all weekend at pub prices- great value catering including vegan options

Website/ tickets : www.strummercampfestival.com
Facebook: Strummercamp Festival Official

Venue: Oldham Rugby Club, Byrth Road,
Oldham, OL8 2TJ

Aggressive Soccer Mums – ‘That’s How I Feel’ (single)

Following the band’s summer success of their single “It’s Not Love” Stockholm post punk duo Aggressive Soccer Mums release this excellent, groove laden new single, “That’s How I Feel”. It’s a solid taster from their forthcoming seventh album “Quint” which will be available on Pipaluckbolaget, February 2023

In the duo’s own words : “The ambition was that the music would become a bit “jazzy” and “extreme”, but we continue as before. Monotonous and annoying. Headstrong and personal. Of course, the group has gained another dimension when a saxophone is added. The music is now a bit more interesting. More will be heard on the album. “Quint” contains a lot of saxophones. And well, it has become a bit “jazzy”. But it’s still Post Punk that rules.”

Aggressive Soccer Moms are a Lo-Fi Post Punk duo from Stockholm, Sweden. “ASM”. They formed in 2018 and consist of the original duo,Anders Bergström, Thomas Wahlström and have recently added Stefan Wistrand to the line-up. They cite their influences as the early punk movement of the late Seventies.

Instagram:        https://www.instagram.com/aggressive_soccer_moms_band/

Facebook:        https://www.facebook.com/aggressivesm

Twitter:             https://twitter.com/moms_soccer

Bandcamp:       https://aggressivesm.bandcamp.com/

Distance from Zero – Can’t Stop Christmas

Canned Static

Yes you guessed it… it’s a Christmas song and its about as Chrismasy as DFZ will get. There’s always a sting in the tail, or is it a curved snowball. Anyway, defiantly another CRACKER…

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Adrian Collier – ‘Found Sounds’

Found Sounds: Ambient / Offbeat / Underscore / Label – Score/247

Yorkshire based electronic artist and composer Adrian Collier returns with ‘Found Sounds’ – a hypnotically dark and mesmerising collection of textural atmospheres, which embraces the use and sampling of non-musical objects.

In this collection of twelve ambient compositions Adrian’s love of experimentation is revealed. Sounds from nature and obscure locations such as bleak wastelands and industrialised sites include the cooing of a pigeon in ‘Garden of Sound’ whilst ‘Washed Away’ features a washing machine warped in as a drone. The samples used throughout are both unexpected and hauntingly beautiful.

Adrian has previously released seven albums worldwide through various labels. His work has featured on radio and TV, gaining recognition and awards across Europe, including One World Music’s Best Ambient Album of the Year, 2018 for the excellent ‘Lost In Fractal Forest’, released under his artist name Auto-Pilot.

Found Sounds has been produced by: Adrian Collier and David Walter for Score Production Music.

songwhip.com/adriancollier/found-sounds – all the links to the platforms to access the album

Bandcamp – Check out Adrian’s previous seven albums here.

Facebook

Score Production Website

HOLY COVES NEW ALBUM ‘DRUIDS AND BARDS’

Holy Coves, Holyhead’s psychedelic indie rockers return with blistering new album of hook laden tunes. Check it out here.

HOLY COVES NEW ‘DRUIDS AND BARDS’ ALBUM RELEASED VIA YR WYDDFA RECORDS ON THE 14TH OCTOBER  Artist:  Holy Coves Album Title: ‘Druids And Bards’ Album Release Date: 14th October 2022  Format: Digital Album / CD / Vinyl  PRS/CAE NUMBER: 1160564670 Location: Holy Island, Anglesey Genre: Psychedelic / Indie / Rock Artwork: ‘Jon Safari Art’ Photo Credits: Dai Eastwood  Label: Yr Wyddfa Records Social Links: @HolyCoves @Beastpruk @Yrwyddfarecords  Championed by Gary Crowley on BBC Radio London and Playlisted on Amazing Radio’s A List, with BBC Radio Wales support from Huw Stephens and Adam Walton, North Wales Indie-Psych Band Holy Coves have had quite a year so far. They share a brand new single called ‘Away We Go’ alongside their highly anticipated new ‘Druids And Bards’ album was released via Yr Wyddfa Records on the 14th of October. Through long time friend and Producer David Wrench, ‘Holy Coves’ were put in touch with Texan Producer Erik Wofford (The Black Angels / Explosions In The Sky) and have built quite a magical working relationship, one where Wofford found himself on Mixing and Mastering duties for the material and certainly contributes to their new sound. Photo Credits: Dai Eastwood Art: Jon Reynolds Design: Beth Morris BAM Create All songs written: Scott Marsden Lyrics: Scott Marsden Produced: Scott Marsden & John Lawrence Engineered: John Lawrence Mixed and Mastered: Erik Wofford (Bill Callaghan / The Black Angels)Scott Marsden – Vocals, & Guitar John Lawrence – Guitar (Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci) Owain Ginsberg – Guitar & Synths (WE//ARE//ANIMAL / Hippies Vs Ghosts) Jason Hughes – Bass (The Painkillers) Spike T Smith – Drums (Morrissey / The Damned) Recorded at Penhesgyn Hall Studio, Menai Bridge, Isle of Anglesey. Mixed and Mastered at Cacophony Recorders, Austin, Texas USA Aled Thomas (He/Him)

https://www.facebook.com/holycovesband/

https://www.instagram.com/holycoves

Tweets by HolyCoves

The State of Independence

With more and more independent bands calling it a day through becoming disheartened and the basic fatigue of fighting for survival in an industry that is increasingly suffocating under the stranglehold of big shareholder corporations squeezing every last pound and dollar from the public, Distance From Zero ask “What can we all do about it?” They do have some suggestions!

From the band’s Facebook Page:-

I keep seeing  YouTube ‘influencers’ asking people to Watch, Follow, Like, Hit the alarm bell, Share and Comment on their videos. To be fair there are some really good creators out there even if many are simply egotists with little worthy of note to say.  And yet, despite this, they gain some serious traction.  As writers and musicians I’m pretty sure we would like something similar so we clearly need to start doing things differently.

Sadly, musicians are often scorned for looking needy when trying to launch a new song or video.  It’s not seen as ‘cool’ to be asking for support so we all have to pretend we’re successful and above that kind of thing.  News alert – we’re not!!  Most of us are broke, putting a massive effort into making music, spending any spare cash and more on recording it, rehearsing it and getting it out there. We survive on the passion and love of a handful of loyal friends and enlightened new music supporters and for which most musicians are very grateful.  

A few years ago another musician criticised me for sharing these kinds of thoughts. His view was that I was damaging the scene because both the public and the music community don’t want the layers peeling back to reveal  uncomfortable truths.   Well I’m sorry, the uncomfortable truth is that most small independent artists sell next to no music at all online. The majority of the public have largely been socially engineered to only like something if they’re exposed to it over and over again whilst simultaneously being told it’s great.  Hype is an incredible tool and is at the core of all successful advertising.

Spoiler alert. The so- called ‘music industry revolution of the Internet’ is over folks and I, for one, am not convinced it was ever real. The corporate giants have sucked the life out of the independent sector where great new talent developed and thrived.  Now it’s over-priced tickets for live shows, saturating markets with advertising and don’t expect to get heard on major reach radio stations without paying £1000’s to a radio plugger, the person who knows everyone, takes them to lunch, flies them to shows and (allegedly) drops them a back-hander.  All of which means, of course, that small independents don’t get a look in. Pluggers exist for press, radio and TV. They service the  ‘gatekeepers’ keeping the great un-corporates out.  It’s a scam and arguably a class system in its own right. I will add that there are some decent, honest people doing this job but I doubt they’re doing much in the way of corporate work.

Supporting major acts on the live circuit is an excellent way to get your music in front of a new audience, but very few of the big players offer this opportunity out of the goodness of their hearts. Charging support acts to play to the headliner’s own audience can hardly be seen as putting anything back in.  So-called ‘tour support’ is the exclusive domain of the corporate companies who can afford this kind of expense.

Which brings me neatly on to “click factories.” While small independent bands scratch around and are positively stoked over getting a few hundred plays, there are other people with huge budgets , aka  The Corporates, who can pay click factories to rack up thousands of plays and get the algorithms whirring.  Ask yourself why it is that after playing a relatively unknown band a few times, they don’t come up in your YouTube feeds, whilst the new Adele or ABBA videos do,  despite your death metal, goth, post punk obsession?  It’s a multi-million pound industry, completely stacked against the independent sector.  Of course there’s a tiny percentage who break through on their own merit, but the numbers are shrinking at an alarming rate.

Facebook drew in a lot of bands with promises of fabulous exposure.  Many of us were sucked in, including me, and here we all are, still desperately trying to get heard.  Then they gave us all a £30 free advertising budget.   I tried it, it worked quite nicely at first, until they doctored the algorithms to suppress posts on band and business pages.  We have 450 followers and are lucky if 30 are allowed to see our posts.  Facebook ask us for money every time we make a post. I paid up in good faith after reading several articles singing its praises but then the question becomes who’s funding the articles?  Unless you pay £100’s it doesn’t work and Facebook do not respond to questions.  I am happy to pay for something that works efficiently and fairly.  I experimented and paid them simply to enable everyone who follows us on this page to see a post but it didn’t work and when I asked why there was still no answer.  The sad reality is that small bands get screwed all the time.  We all know about the infamous ‘pay to play’ gigs.  And don’t get me started about ‘BBC Introducing’ which is a way of diverting you from trying to contact the producers directly, a smokescreen used to ignore the majority.  Our full and honest disclosure here with regard to our own lack of success there is that they have reportedly listened to 20 of our ‘Introducing’ uploads and passed on all of them.  Must’ve all be crap then I guess, but we’ll keep  going.  I’m personally shooting for 30 rejections and then I’ll put it on a tee shirt.

So what can any of us do about any of it?  Well quite a lot actually, starting with clicking on and sharing links, following and hitting ‘Like’ on videos.  If you do like something then create a playlist and add your amazing little band find to it.  Tell people about them, see them live if you can, it will be for pennies if not for free.  Just a 1 minute play of a YouTube video racks up as a play for the artist. We notice it, we appreciate it, it helps us and costs nothing other than clicking a button now and again.

There’s something else I have noticed, and for reasons that I can never work out,  which is that many musicians don’t Like, Share or support other bands in this way.  To those who do, we know who you are and we love you for it.  The independent band sector could help itself massively in getting the algorithms working by supporting each another.  I do regularly do this but confess that I get disheartened and feel like a mug if it’s not reciprocated.   FFS, it’s not a competition, is it?  The independent sector needs independently- minded people who are prepared not only to help others but to help itself.

I’ll wrap this up with by saying that we absolutely love creating and playing music, but I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t care about it being heard outside of our own small studio space.  I know it’s a privilege if people want to buy it, share it and support our efforts. We’re not putting out the begging bowl via  ‘buy me a kofi’ or a Patreon account or even an Amazon wish list, we’re just trying to offer something real, a fair exchange, an honest deal.

If you’ve read this far you are amazing and thank you for sticking with it.  It’s not intended as a meaningless rant from an armchair critic.  Music has been an enduring  45 year passion for me and has led me to be directly involved in the music scene for over 30 years.  This post is an attempt to challenge the stagnant status quo.  I accept that it can feel rather uncomfortable to read and as a music maker it is uncomfortable for me to be saying it.  But it needs saying –  over and over again – or nothing will change for the many talented, independent musicians out there.  We need to stop pretending that everything is amazing when it isn’t.  The unpalatable truth is that musicians, including us, need you.

Nice one SJ Collier.

Distance From Zero are a Mancunian, husband and wife, post punk duo; SJ Collier – Bass/Vocals/Guitar and Donna-Marie Stevens – Vocals and Keyboards. They have released 2 albums ‘Pilot Error’ and ‘Collateral Damage’ along with 3 EP’s documenting the news of 2021 on a monthly basis and a further EP earlier this year.

https://www.facebook.com/distancefromzero

https://distancefromzero.bandcamp.com/

Distance From Zero -‘ Shame on You’ – new single

Distance From Zero – ‘Shame on You’ new single September 2022
A hard hitting lyric painting the stark picture of the governance of the UK during the last decade. A call to arms for the working 99%. it’s a time for change and the change will only happen if the people stand up for themselves. Imagine the likes of Joe Strummer delivering this message, it would be heard, it should be heard. Enough is Enough.

Musically it’s an anthemic melodic dub with a punk rock heart.

Available from all major digital outlets, streaming services and direct from bandcamp.

Distance From Zero are a Mancunian husband and wife post punk duo, featuring SJ Collier (ex SupaJamma) on bass, vocals and guitars and Donna-Marie Stevens on vocals and keys.

Also check out their recent EP ‘Bass Beats Noise Melody EP1’ on Bandcamp
https://distancefromzero.bandcamp.com/album/bass-beats-noise-melody-ep1

Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8jOCVfbAwo
Bandcamp – www.distancefromzero.bandcamp.com
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/distancefromzero
Twitter – https://twitter.com/DistanceFromZe1

DEAD CAPTAIN – KINK IN MY CALM

The incredible and unpredictable Dead captain are back with a startling new single.

Kink in my Calm

The world’s a magical place if you get to stare at it from the right angle, but sometimes little things keep getting in the way, like squashed insects on the windscreen of life.

Tameside three-piece, Dead Captain’s new single, ‘Kink In My Calm’ is a heady slice of kitchen sink psychedelia – but it’s also the kind the of song that could be easily whistled by your postman. It tips a hat to the brightly coloured, head-wobbling hippy songs of the late 60’s and neo-psych icons like Echo & The Bunnymen, Mercury Rev and The Flaming Lips, but it’s still very much the Captain’s own offspring.

‘Kink In My Calm’ is Dead Captain’s fourth release via Forest Den Records and it’ll be followed by two more single releases over the coming months, before the band’s debut album is released in early summer.

The Dead Captain project started when founding members, Dan and Dunstan found a brightly coloured shoe box outside a pub in Ashton-Under-Lyne a few years back. They rummaged through the box and found notes, old photos, drawings and grainy yoga sessions on old VHS tapes.

They still don’t know the exact origins of the box but one thing they found taped to it did strike an immediate chord. A blue post-it note that simply read, “DO SOMETHING WITH THIS”.

Dead Captain has been CPR-ed back to life by multi-instrumentalist Dan Adams, singer and artist, Dunstan Carter and multifaceted synth man-handler, John Havelock.

KINK IN MY CALM IS OUT NOW!

Twitter: @deadcaptain2    

Facebook: /deadcaptainsongsThe incredible and unpredictable Dead captain are back with an i

Bandcamp

youtube

Northern Embezzlers – New Release – ‘Four to the Fore’

Rochdale based post punk band The Northern Embezzlers are releasing their long awaited first music in over 3 years titled  ‘Four To The Fore’

The band cite influences by such bands as The Clash, Buzzcocks, Bob Marley and loads more beside but also have their own very individual vibe.

So after 2 years of pandemic driven interruption, frustration and sporadic rehearsals the band finally got themselves back in the studio to record a blistering new record.

The long awaited release comes in the form of a 4 track EP which will be available from the 23^rd April, initially it will be exclusively available via the Northern Embezzlers  Facebook page.

Recorded at Spiderstudio Rochdale and mastered at Pro 2 Studio Wakefield it is an insight into the style and social consciousness of The Northern Embezzlers 

The first 50 copies will come with a limited edition Blue disc, so get in quickly whilst they’re still available.

Catch the band live at this years Strummercamp Festival 2 / 3/ 4 June 2022

https://www.facebook.com/thenorthernembezzlers

TKBR