Feature - The Ginger Quiff

Jo Jo & the Teeth – No More Good News – album review

January 16, 2023 By neilho27@sky.com

This album already appeared in my round up review of 2022 as one of my top 30 albums of the year, despite not having posted a review earlier in the year. The album was on heavy rotation towards the end of the 2022 and since the turn of the year, it has been my go to album virtually every day. I can’t get enough of it. No More Good News? While that album title pretty much sums up exactly how I felt about 2022, it certainly doesn’t sum up the music of Jo Jo and the Teeth – the music on this album is ALL Good News.… Read the rest

Music – A Matter of Taste

January 14, 2023 By neilho27@sky.com

Good morning from this “wank stain” and my “shite blog”, apparently I’m a waste of “sperm and an egg” but I’m here anyway, so I’ll just have to live with the fact that I’ll have to spend the rest of my life as a “cock”.

Interesting how some people respond to flippant throwaway comments about a band or their music. As if I’d murdered their whole family and pissed on their graves.

I’d seen a few posts on social media about the anniversary of a gig played by Ocean Colour Scene, a band who, from the off, I had no clue why they were so popular.… Read the rest

Bikini Body/Water Machine/Jock Fox/Sacred Noise – First Footing – live in The Hug and Pint

January 8, 2023 By neilho27@sky.com

This gig was brought to you by 432 presents. And COWBELLS!

In my world you can never have too many cowbells so this gig felt like cowbell utopia.

All joking aside, the abundance of cowbells that ran throughout most of the bands sets tonight was only a small contributing part of what made this the perfect gig to start my music year off with a bang.

Tonight was the perfect tonic for the January blues. Despite being known as Mr Christmas in some quarters, I didn’t really “feel” Christmas last year, so there wasn’t the usual post Christmas comedown, just a general feeling of malaise and relief that the shitshow of 2022 is now in the past.… Read the rest

Review of the Year – 2022

January 7, 2023 By neilho27@sky.com

If I don’t get my arse in gear, it’ll be February before I publish my round up of 2022. To be honest, I’ve still got a (virtual) pile of albums still to review… as a result, some of my favourite records of 2022 will be in the lists but remain unreviewed!

Singles of the Year

I already published my top 15 singles of the year (well actually I published a list of 80 songs…. but my top 15 were as follows:

15 – Dumb Poets – Magic Happens

14 – Dream Wife – Leech

13 – Syvdoh – As I Lay Dying

12 – The Bobby Lees – Monkey Mind

11 – Collars – Baby I’m Bored

10 – Keeley – Shadows on the Hill

9 – His Lordship – All Cranked Up

8 – Brontes – First Hand Arrogance

7 – Jemma Freeman and the Cosmic Something Easy Peelers

6 – Sacred Noise – Part of Me

5 – Junk Pups – Miss Behave

4 – Horsegirl – Anti Glory

3 – Pizza Crunch – Wilting Youth

2 – Water Machine – Hot Real Estate

1 – Monica Queen – What is Home?

… Read the rest

Introducing Water Machine – Band Interview

January 7, 2023 By neilho27@sky.com

On the eve of their first gig of 2023 and following a series of much talked about gigs towards the end of last year, I caught up with Water Machine to talk about the band, their music, gigs and their upcoming plans. The band were in high spirits when I met them, after a rehearsal prior to their gig with Bikini Body in the Hug and Pint, their good humour and infectious sunny disposition entirely contagious and a much needed tonic, so I was keen to find out more about the band members and how the band came together.

Introducing the Band

Jimmy: I did this solo thing for years called Passion Pusher, we done an album, I wasn’t happy with it, we did a tour and only played one song from the album, I took a long break from music and now I do this and I’ve just started a band called Goodbody with Rachel and we’re going into La Chunky at the end of the month with Paul Thomson to do tape loops and stuff.… Read the rest

Singles Round up of the Year – 2022

January 2, 2023 By neilho27@sky.com

I published 12 singles round ups for 2022, one per month (OK, so maybe some were slightly delayed…) which amount to a rough total of 350 – 400 songs in total. The fact that I featured the songs meant I liked all the songs in each list, so when I thought – I’ll do a Festive 50 like John Peel used to do, I failed miserably, so here is my Effervescent Eighty, first off, my top 15, then the rest in no particular order…

Monica Queen – Where is Home?
Water Machine -Hot Real Estate
Pizza Crunch – Wilting Youth
Horsegirl – Anti Glory
Junk Pups – Miss Behave
Sacred Noise – Part of Me
Jemma Freeman and the Cosmic Something – Easy Peelers
Brontes – First Hand Arrogance
His Lordship – All Cranked Up
Keeley – Shadows on the Hill
Collars – Baby I’m Bored
The Bobby Lees – Monkey Mind
Syvdoh – As I Lay Dying
Dream Wife -Leech
Dumb Poets – Magic Happens

The rest (in no particular order)

Sloan Brothers – Songs Like This
Wife Guys of Reddit – Pig Fat
Dead Pony – Bullet Farm
Bikini Bottoms – The Game
Port Sulphur – Kone Trips
pMad – Broken
Gentle Sinners – Face to Fire (After Nyman)
Earl of Hell – Hang ’em High
The Kaplans – Get Inside It
Jill Lorean – Black Dog
Run into the Night – Common Stream of Consciousness
Panic Shack – Mannequin Man
Savage Cut – The Debt
Sister John – Young at Heart/The Bluebells – Glasgow is a Rainbow
Trashcan Sinatras – Lay of the Land
Bunkhouse – RIP ie
Katherine Aly – Hype Up
Tallies – Special
Spyres – Honestly
Butcher Boy – So Far So What
HiFi Sean and David McAlmont – The Skin I’m In
Dead Thatchers – Nae Pasaran
Jo Jo and the Teeth – Don’t Get Too Heavy
London Plane – Come Out of the Dark
bdrmm – Three
Marianne Dissard – When Somebody Thinks You’re Wonderful
The Best Bad Influence – Boomstick
Vulture Party – Bad Wolf Moon
The Courettes – Daydream
Deux Furieuses – Bring Down the Government
Cloth – Lucid
Simon Bromide – Not That Type
Scorpio Leisure – Give Us Our Space
The Claudettes – Exposure
Suede -15 Again
Pete Astor- Fine and Dandy
Girls in Synthesis – Watch with Mother
Lloyds House – Heather
Tina Sandwich – Fast Cars (and Movie Stars)
Simon Love – L.O.T.H.A.R.I.O.

… Read the rest

The Claudettes – Go Out – album review

December 31, 2022 By neilho27@sky.com

With a title that reflects the long yearned for post pandemic freedom, Chicago’s The Claudettes have once again hit the mother lode with a selection of new songs packed with the extraordinary musicianship I’ve come to expect from Johnny Iguana and co. The ten songs on Go Out pack an hefty emotional punch too, by virtue of the elegantly alluring and impassioned vocal delivery from Berit Ulseth.

Go Out opens in style with a song of unrequited desire and love, the subject of the desirous affection observed from afar. Berit’s wistfully plaintive vocal delivered atop an equally melancholic melody driven by Johnny’s heart-rending piano playing, Michael Caskey and Zach Verdoorn layering gloriously textured instruments to create an incandescently pulsating climax.… Read the rest

23 for ‘23

December 28, 2022 By neilho27@sky.com

I may have made it difficult for myself by starting this last year. I’ll need to come up with one more band, album or gig I’m looking forward to next year. Mind you, judging by the sheer volume of amazing new music that is out there, it shouldn’t be too much of a challenge. So here is my list of music related stuff I’m looking forward to next year so far…

In no particular order, but I’ve got quite an easy place to start.

1. Sacred Noise

One of the bands I’d listed in my 22 for ‘22 are back in for my list of great hopes for 2023.… Read the rest

The Filthy Tongues – In These Dark Places – album review

December 23, 2022 By neilho27@sky.com

It feels like forever since Back to Hell, the second instalment in The Filthy Tongues dark trilogy exploring the gloomier, murkier aspects of Auld Reekie. The final instalment, In These Dark Places is a flawless ending to the remarkable triumvirate continuing the caliginous tales of the less salubrious side of life in the capital city, but ending with perhaps a chink of light, a certain element of positivity and hope of a rebirth shrouded in desperation and regret?

We’ve been through a rough few years since the last instalment, reflected on the album in singles Gas Mask Blues and Pandemic Pete, both of which display an element of dark humour, which I’m sure we all can relate to in surviving the days of lockdown that felt like aeons, as we all found our own coping mechanisms in getting through.… Read the rest

Jemma Freeman and the Cosmic Something – Miffed – album review

December 22, 2022 By neilho27@sky.com

If there is one thing for certain, after listening to this album, your feeling will be anything but Miffed, as Jemma Freeman and the Cosmic Something follow up their 2019 debut, Oh Really, What’s That Then? with this colossal selection of ten astronomically epic and exhilaratingly life affirming songs.

Having been introduced to the music of Jemma and co in 2019 by Ged Babey, the debut album appeared in my top ten albums of that year, and was a fixture on my turntable for some time. I finally got to experience the Jemma Freeman live show earlier this year when they played Broadcast with Glasgow’s very own Run Into The Night.… Read the rest