Yet another totally underrated band, Six By Seven could change style at the flick of a switch sometimes slow melodic soundscapes sometimes rock beasts and occasionally indie rockers. ‘Candlelight’ falls mostly into the last category and should have made them huge, their contrasting styles probably stopped them obtaining a bigger fan base but something tells me that wasn’t the point. On the flipside you have ‘Young Man’s Stride’ a Mercury Rev cover done in Sx7s own unique style with great use of brass section.
Single sided 7” records only make a few brief appearances on this list and generally only if they’re an exclusive song not on an album. ‘Red Death At 6:14’ makes the list for a few reasons, one it was only on the Sympathetic Sounds Of Detroit compilation and two it was mail order only through Mojo magazine, and three it rocks like a SOB! Jack White is at his best here spitting out lyrics over loud as fuck guitar, showing even his non-album material of that era surpassed all his contemporaries.
The first single from Weezer and what a start, you get the best track IMO from their debut album ‘Undone’ which takes quiet loud dynamics to another level but that alone wouldn’t do, on this UK version of the single you get the unreleased b-sides ‘Susanne’ and should have been a single in its own right ‘Mykel & Carli’ these songs are just the best you could expect from a band and for a first single is remarkable. Topping this off you get album track ‘Holiday’ the perfect ending to a literally perfect single!
22-20’s what happened? You could have been big and I mean massive big, you had huge songs you had an amazing debut album which had just as good b-sides and you decided you didn’t want to play blues infused music anymore and quit, mental! Anyway this cut from their debut is one of the heavier songs and a corker of a single, but it’s on b-side ‘Cut You Down’ that the band truly shine with a stomping blues infused rocker that leaves you gawping at the sheer talent of it all.
Third single this year from one of the best new bands I've heard in quite some time, don't get me wrong, there's some amazing bands out at the moment, but there's something special about Hyena that tells me they're going to get much bigger. Having caught them live at this years Camden Rocks festival, they laid waste to the tiny Stillery early in the day and were the best band of the day in my opinion and i also saw Dolomite Minor and The St. Pierre Snake Invasion that day! At that point i'd already heard the excellent debut single 'Mental Home' and it's follow up 'Come Down To Hilo' both crammed full of energy and melody not mixed this good since the great 90's days of Sub Pop and Amphetamine Reptile. However Hyena don't tread old ground like some grunge copyists I've been hearing lately, they sound like an undiscovered gem from that era that you've just come across and can't believe your luck. Latest single 'Forget My Name' takes what they've done so far and ramps it up a few more notches further, even louder more immediate riffs, massive melodies, huge chorus... it's got the lot. As usual link below to soundcloud page, discover the next big thing and tell 'em happydays sent you.
Yeah Amy Winehouse did a cover of it and everyone loved it, The Zutons owned it and did a way better version IMO anyway. So what you get here is a complete classic that hasn’t been Mark Ronson’d or raped of all originality and talent as I like to call it and an even bigger catchier flipside in the bouncy as hell ‘Get Up and Dance’ which shows when The Zutons were on form there was no touching them.
I saw a recent news item in the NME that claimed that Alex James from Blur had announced that independent music was dead and his cheese business was the way to go, who knows if it was actually true i have a feeling they lie a lot over there, why am i bringing this up? Good question, time to introduce another stupendous new independent band Vulgarians, who join the ranks of many more amazing bands emerging these days such as The Wytches, Eagulls, The Fat White Family, Post War Glamour Girls, Hyena and many many more. Bands of this ilk are proving that there's still hope out there, cutting their teeth on previous demo's 'Autocratic' and 'Naturally Nothing', they now unleash their official debut 'Wet Juice' showing that we can expect great things from these Hull based noise rockers, the link to download for free is below, yes all for the princely sum of fuck all. Like a hybrid of Nirvana jamming with early-mid The Horrors shot through with a strong post-punk leaning, this gives me hope for the future, Alex James, smell my cheese!
