If it was down to me, I’d listen to and write about music 24/7, but unfortunately, that doesn’t pay the bills, it only adds to them! So work has to take priority which doesn’t help when you have to burn the candle at both ends just to stand still…
Anyway if I don’t change the way I do these singles round ups it’ll be July before I’m done with February.
So here goes…
All the way from Brazil, Signo 13 served up another slice of moody gothic post punk with Onironautus while The Faint revival continued apace with an unreleased single, Brokers, Priests and Analysts, from their reissue of Blank-Wave Arcade.
Closer to home SAMA award winners Bottle Rockets released another hauntingly charismatic and darkly alluring single in Video Call while Glasgow’s Chin Up! hit the ground running with the fast-paced hard rocking energetic pop-punk of their debut single Bring out your dead. Sparks released another strikingly humorous earworm in the shape of JanSport Backpack and we circle back round to Glasgow again for the pounding fiery vivacity of Poster Club’s Circuits
Another taster for the April release from Miki Berenyi Trio, Tripla came in the form of Big I Am, while one of my new favourite bands, Y released the louche and moody sax laden Hate, the second track from their forthcoming EP and When Rivers Meet shared their highly charged bluesy single Addicted to You.
Tombstones in Their Eyes contributed the hypnotic dreamlike tranquillity that is the tender and honest Gimme Some Pain and Skunk Anansie said Cheers with another single from forthcoming album The Painful Truth. The Murder Capital continue to prove there is life beyond Fontaines DC with the confident swagger of A Distant Life while Edinburgh’s Shock and Awe continued their run of excellent single releases with what is possibly the pick of the bunch so far in the nostalgic sounds of Yesterdays Kids
The Concrete Boys shared another quirky left field single that straddles the line between Sparks and Devo in Stop Flattening the Baby while more home grown talent was on show from St Dukes with their high octane romp Aimless in Blue that still somehow managed to be lusciously dreamy sat the same time and The Cowboy Mouth released Haunt You, another superb single from their faultless Faultlines album. Tha Flicker followed up their beautiful January single Faded Flowers with another gorgeously addictive single in Laugh and Fraser McCallum proved there is no end to his talents by releasing solo single Goat on a Tower to consolidate what we already know about his top class playing from the likes of Middle Class Guilt, Sister Madds and beyond. Twat Union flawlessly tackled the sexism still faced regularly by female musicians with the acerbic wit of Singer of the Band with Chris Reeve releasing another playfully quirky and gloriously laidback single in Drifter and the Ragman
Macclesfield’s Queen Cult continued to impress with their latest riff laden single Figure it Out, Billy Idol is Still Dancing, not sure if it’s with himself or anyone else, but it is undoubtedly a Billy idol track and Chicago’s Smoking Popes go from taunting Republicans to the sublime positivity of Racine. Talking of sublime, you can’t get much more wondrously fabulous than the Dumb Poets who have pulled it out of the bag again with the quite stunning multi textured epic Honeysuckle. Thanks to House Guest in March I finally got to see Bandit Country live after having heard great things, they didn’t disappoint, Loathsome Tonight is earnest and severe without being po-faced, talking of great live acts, last word on February’s round up (which feels even more relevant now that I’ve just typed that) is the magnificent alt-country of Jenny Don’t and the Spurs, who rocked The Rum Shack earlier this year, and their attitude infused Sidewinder single.
Singles (with videos where available) all below… as well as full February round up playlist.
Full February playlist ….
https://listen.tidal.com/playlist/02a5fab9-4748-4fb2-a6e8-7434da90d875