Hello again Steevl Urmack here, PieAtNight’s resident (very amateur) music journalist…
Following on from yesterday’s hip-hip/soul/jazz heavy section of my favourite albums of the year, today I thought it only fair that I give you some white boys with guitars. Because as we all know, just like middle aged white men are vastly underrepresented in the world of business and politics, white boys with guitars are a minority in the world of music. Anyway I digress, so without further ado, let’s get started…
Phase Zero
by Morgan Delt
Over the past few years there’s been something of a bit of a psychedelia / garage revival with bands such as Tame Impala, Wooden Shjips, Thee Oh Sees, Allah Las to name a few producing a sound harking back to the 60s and 70s; pastiche without becoming parody. Phase Zero, Delt’s second album (his first since signing to Sub Pop) is a perfect representation of the genre; shimmering guitars and floaty vocals combine to take the listener on a trip through a dream. Tune in, get on the magic mushies and lie back and sink into the floor.
Nonagon Infinity
by King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizzard
Nonagon Infinity is the Australian mentalists fifth album since 2014, and arguably their best to date. Picking up where ‘I’m In Your Mind Fuzz‘ left off, the album opens at a frenetic pace with a whirlwind of drums and guitars, and shows no signs of letting up. I defy anyone not to get their arse moving and their head nodding along to this. Recorded as an infinite loop, each of the 9 tracks blends seamlessly into the next, including the end of the last and the start of the first. They’ve already announced they are to release another 5 albums throughout 2017, it’ll be a shame if they don’t hit the heights they do here.
Who Sold My Generation
by Night Beats
Night Beats offer straight up garage rock and roll in the vein of The Jesus & Mary Chain, The Black Angels or Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. (What is it with rock bands being obsessed with the colour black?). Hailing from Texas, USA, this album could easily be the soundtrack to a 1980s Americana film along the lines of Vanishing Point. Think fast cars and open dusty roads, backwater towns and bar room brawls. An anti-hero on a mission leading an anarchic crusade against rules and The Man. Wailing guitars, crashing drums and driving bass lines. The standout track is ‘No Cops’ – about the recent spate of deaths at the hands of the police, and in a time of increasing ignorance/apathy, it’s nice to hear a band stand up and say something about it.
Never Enough
by Public Access T.V.
The Strokes… Remember them? It seems an age since they burst onto the scene and almost singlehandedly reignited a flagging indie rock n roll genre with their angular stop-start guitar rhythms. Feels like there hasn’t been a proper New York guitar band since, (I’m not counting Interpol, as I wouldn’t class them as a ‘rock band’ per se) but the wait may be over. Public Access T.V. are following the NY garage rock lineage (Television, New York Dolls, The Strokes) by stripping it back to the simple guitar-bass-drums-vocals, in the time honoured verse-chorus-verse fashion, and doing it to perfection. Melodies, hooks and choruses that stick in your head for days. They may not be reinventing the wheel, but they’re certainly keeping it turning.
https://open.spotify.com/track/2x70GxaiWBOE5b3wim5rqg
You can hear more of our musical suggestions, usually interspersed with some light hearted conversation* on the Pie At Night podcast.
[buzzsprout episode=’456134′ player=’true’]
*opinionated bollocks.
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