Category Archives: Fresh Juice

Old Fruit

Old Fruit 16th May 2025

The Renegades – Thirteen Women

It’s a sixties garage rock themed half dozen track selections this week beginning with this, a raucous and still ever-so-slightly cheesy version of a song that, up to that point, was maybe best known as a Bill Haley b-side. It has a special place in my garage rock heart for it was a routine enquiry about this tune, being played by a dealer at a Record Fair, that led to him giving me a cassette tape compilation he’d made of similar tracks which proved to be my gateway to a lifetime of sixties garage and psych collecting. I think it might have been that little keyboard riff that hooked me in with this one? The Renegades were from Birmingham but had their biggest success in Finland and they are just one of hundreds of under-the-radar Beatles / Stones inspired bands from the era who put out killer 45s…. (more to follow, but first)…

The Sonics – Strychnine

This, now legendary in the right circles, band from Tacoma, Washington, produced a raw and ragged, totally aggressive sound that was punk by any other name. Their debut album ‘Here Are The Sonics’ seems so ahead of its time for a 1964 release with singer / main songwriter Gerry Roslie attacking his vocals with a pure venom that must have sent a lightning jolt through any of the middle America populace that encountered this at the time. Original film material is scarce but I am good with this later clip from The Sonics 21st century reformation; if nothing else, the gig they played in London sometime around 2008 remains one of my all time definitive life-affirming gigs…

The Lemon Drops – I live In The Springtime

Chicago’s The Lemon Drops only issued one 45 in 1967 but, despite that, they still managed to release more incredible singles than Spandau Ballet and Heaven 17 combined (in my opinion). In fact this rather delicious fuzzy guitar explosion of sound on the Rembrandt label was something of a curio in its own right because there was a version released, which was actually the more common, or at least more frequently heard version, that was issued as a mix without the bass and drums. The track presented here has the full mix although weirdly the edition without the full range of instruments remains satisfyingly hypnotic and glows with a dawn-of-summer hazy warmth. Just goes to show what a good song it is then doesn’t it?

The Smoke – My Friend Jack

The Smoke were an English psych band from York who played with a pure garage energy and it is indeed a treat to find some film footage of them that captures the Mod edge in their style. This one was an outstanding 1967 45 that effectively bottles the spirit of the period; inevitably it was banned by the BBC and therefore received very limited exposure. Sometimes the British institution could be a little too trigger happy with their black listings, a mere hint of a drug reference needlessly halting a promising tune at birth, but here I suppose you have to admit the lyric goes beyond a vague suggestion of chemical stimulants. At least they had a number 2 hit in Germany though, a great single will always find a way eventually…

Rupert’s People – Dream On My Mind

It is hard to definitively define who Rupert’s People really were or who they were supposed to be. Songwriter Rod Lynton’s original band, the Extraverts, had split but he gained a management contract as part of a new act called Sweet Feeling at which point an acetate, including a song called Charles Brown, was advised to be re-written to the tune of Air on a G String, reflecting the classical ambitions acts like Procol Harum and the Moody Blues were flexing successfully at the time. The band Les Fleur de Lys were involved in the recording but then backed out necessitating the formation of a new group for Lynton’s work, which is where Rupert’s People arrive. By the time of this track they were deep diving into the flowery, childhood memory referencing psychedelia stylings of the period which, bizarrely, left a groovy little psych-rocker like this languishing as a 1967 b-side…

Ty Wagner – I’m A No Count

This was one of only two 45s that fell under the garage umbrella issued by Wagner, ‘I’m A No Count’ being the first from 1966 on the Chattahoochee label. It is an out-and-out sleazy and scuzzy outsider bluesy rock classic; no wonder Jon Spencer was happy to showcase Ty on the, actually quite recent, clip below. What I love about this is how Ty comes across as completely and utterly the cool real deal, he does not break into a smile even for a split second! If you enjoy this you need to check out the original recording (it’s findable, as most things are online nowadays) but for now, let me sign off this weeks dig into the audio / visual archives with a performance that is about as real as you can get…

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Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 12th May 2025

Galactic & Irma Thomas – Puppet On Your String

Irma Thomas is the goddess of New Orleans soul music, in fact you can go even further than that and claim she is the true queen of soul. It seems barely comprehensible that she was making classic R&B as far back as the fifties and can still, in 2025 at the age of 84, be involved in a collaboration project like this and deliver vocals with that voice still sounding as devastatingly wonderful as it ever did. She has made an album with fellow New Orleans chameleons Galactic called ‘Audience With The Queen’ and it is possibly already the essential soul release of the year. If you don’t know Irma Thomas then I urge you to go deeper, music does not get much better than that which has her name attached to it; maybe start with ‘It’s Raining’ and then move on from there but do not ignore this, a 2025 pleasing teaser for sure…

The Waterboys – Hopper’s On Top

Mike Scott’s Waterboys have just released a concept album built around the life, work, reputation and legacy of Dennis Hopper and despite my initial reservations, it has proved to be a well structured, frequently deviating and surprising journey in song and sound. I think my initial caution might have had something to do with this video, packed with magic carpet riding cliches and literal lyrical representations but then I have to remember, it is often the direct route that Mike Scott takes with his writing that results in so many songs that I love. And so it is here, if Mike wants us to know he thinks Hopper was a genius he’s not going to subtly weave it into a poetic yarn with indeterminate meaning, he is just going to come right out and sing it; but then love, sincerity and focus are all ingredients that have fed into the greatest Waterboys tracks of our lives and that is no different here, genius!

Samantha Crain – B-Attitudes

Taken from her new album ‘Gumshoe’, this track seems to be about the feeling you get when the idea of finding your own home, your own little space in the world speaks to you the loudest and you set about realising it. That is definitely something I am experiencing in recent times after finally settling in a town and a home that feels like me. Samantha is dependably addictive here, clearly still in command of her easy fluency in singer-songwriter craft that has been under serious threat in recent years, not least after a car accident left her unable to play her guitar, an injury that thankfully she was able to find a long path to recovery with. Here is a singer working out her life stuff through music that is regularly a thrill to hear…

Neil Young & The Chrome Hearts – Big Change

This is Neil’s first release backed by the Chrome Hearts, taken from the forthcoming album ‘Talkin To The Trees’. It feels absurd that in such unsettling economic and political times, especially in the US and Canada, that it is still the old guard like Neil Young who are planting their flags in the protest ground. He is whipping up a storm here, offering a rallying cry of big change in a moment when it’s inevitably going to come along anyway whether you like it or not so you might as well try and fight for something good to emerge. Like the late great Phil Ochs, Neil Young really cares a lot and badly wants his music to get inside folks heads and make something happen. Unlike Phil though, he can accept that the preferred option may not necessarily arrive and so can console himself with the visceral thrill of a loudly cranked guitar and amp to get him through the day. Whatever it takes…

White Rose Motor Oil – Hit In The Face

If the previous track feels like a bit of a slap in the face to shake some action, then this tune is the soundtrack to the moment of impact and the reverberations of all that follow. It is a rollin’ and tumblin’ rockin’ rockabilly thunder crack of a tune that revs its engine delightfully with every repeat of the “you’re gonna get hit in the face” chorus line. They are a red hot duo from Denver with a fire lighting zipper of a female vocalist and a love of playing fast and loud. Together they surf the waves between cowpunk and garage rock which is a pretty exhilarating place to be if you can manage to catch it, so do not miss out on this one…

Silver Synthetic – Rosalie

A couple of years ago Silver Synthetic caught my ear with a debut album that occupied a very pleasing little side street situated between the late period of the Velvet Underground and seventies FM country rock. It was a lush sound that they played with belief and proficiency and it is a welcome return that I flag up here as the band offer similarly breezy Americana on a brand new song, which also happens to be the title track of the new Silver Synthetic album…

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Old Fruit

Old Fruit 9th May 2025

Ivor Cutler – Shoplifters

One of the true British eccentrics of the twentieth century, Ivor Cutler could make records that seemed primitive and childlike in their execution but somehow snuck some depth in through the back door of your mind and could have you think about things in a whole new way. He would mostly accompany himself on harmonium, as seen in this clip, and was beloved by the late night outposts of BBC radio, in fact his radio appearances from the late fifties right through to regular appearances on the John Peel Radio One show probably leant him a relevance that his actual record sales may never have afforded him. I give his work some time whenever I come across it…

The Easybeats – Friday On My Mind

If you think talk about pop music being better in the sixties is all just a bit overblown then try and argue against the merits of a track like this. From 1966, these were an Australian beat group who scored big in the charts with one of the most piledriving, adrenalin fuelled, pop rockers imaginable and underneath it all they wrote a great song, with all due consideration given to structure, melody and dynamic punch. Wow! Fab! Groovy! Yeah, I love sixties pop…

Bob Wills – Take Me Back To Tulsa

It’s all about the sound, all about the western swing and the hard to resist rhythm. This is what country was defined by in the forties and fifties when the genre still had its rough and ready roots fully visible. The vocalist here is Luke Wills while bandleader Bob is easily identifiable as he’s the one with the unexpectedly high pitched voice who frequently calls out between the verses. Some ears find Bob Wills a bit much on his recordings because he could not stop calling out, mostly without any need, the music was uplifting and infectious enough in itself, he did not need to whip it up and solicit the attention quite as much as this, but then you could argue that the band would not have been quite so well drilled without his exacting standards…

Albert Lee – Tear It Up

Not that anyone should need convincing about the guitar playing and authenticity of Albert Lee but here is some undeniable evidence of his genius anyway. It was said by a favourite radio DJ of mine once that Rock n Roll is basically just Country music played faster and while that generalisation fails to account for the evolutions in Rock music that would explode in the sixties and seventies, there is an essentially correct element to the roots of the statement. And with a performance like this, it is roots that Albert Lee is working with, ‘Tear It Up’ is a ripper of a performance that pulls in original seeds of country, bluegrass and rockabilly and boils it all up into a barnstorm of raw and ready musical delight… tear it up!

Blossom Dearie – 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)

Blossom, seen here performing on the David Frost show in 1971, could so easily be written about as though she were a contemporary and equal in talent to someone like Nina Simone. She was a fine pianist who rarely showed off her true prowess and a warm, sincere interpreter of popular songs of the day who could pull in a jazzier element without losing touch with the songs soul. She was a demanding performer too who would not settle for anything less than the exact playing conditions she required, so photographers, chatters and smokers would be challenged without room for compromise. But Blossom was a very different beast to Nina, with her childlike voice, grandmotherly warmth and fondness for the twee (as heard here). But a phenomenal talent more than capable of a heart-wrenching performance and an ability to capture both innocence and refinement in the same breath…

Paul Simon – American Tune

So let’s finish this week with a classic selection from the writer of the previous tune. Paul Simon’s ‘American Tune’, heard here in a fifty year old TV performance, sounds like a prayer for America as much as its a weary lament. The sad thing is he could have written it last year as there are lines in there that still retain that level of contemporary relevance. I guess that does at least go to show what a genius songwriter Simon has always been, that a tune like this, which was probably thinking about Watergate and Vietnam, was written with such universal, ageless language that it can still work today. His guitar playing is pretty tasty too, something that maybe gets overlooked a little too much.

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Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 5th May 2025

Jeffrey Lewis – Sometimes Life Hits You

Here is some welcome new music, accompanied by a UK tour I should add, from a US cult songwriter whose superb DIY aesthetic, whose biting satirical lyrics and observational dexterity, not to mention his effortless facility to grab an earworm melody or hook, has seen his catalogue grow to near iconic status. He is pitched somewhere between the English whimsy of a Robyn Hitchcock or the charming outsider wackiness of a Jonathan Richman without being too much like either. He comes packed with visual stimuli as well thanks to a prolific dedication to creating comic book art. Jeffrey is a one off basically, criminally under-rated to this day but to paraphrase the mans own ‘Cult Boyfriend’, even if he never fully makes it out of the club gig circuit you can guarantee there will always be some people in the know who are really going to love his work. I count myself among them…

Oracle Sisters – Riverside

I was previously writing about this trio on this site in 2023 when their debut record caught my attention thanks to its subtle reliance on quiet melodicism and gentle contours of lift and abandon to grab the listener, rather than more blunt attention grabbing techniques. Later that year I would catch them at the End Of The Road festival and was rather blown away with how their delicate charms could still command the attention of a sizeable crowd and convincingly occupy a large main stage. They are back in 2025 with a new album called ‘Divinations’ and continue to display their deceptively modest musical loveliness here, down on the riverside…

Joy Crookes – I Know You’d Kill

I first encountered Joy Crookes by accident back in 2016 when she was supporting Benedict Benjamin in a small London club venue aged just seventeen. I remember writing back then about how much promise she showed as well as noting an impressively eclectic blend of influences from soul to jazz to hip-hop, all collected up in a joyous melting pot all of her own making. Today Joy continues tapping into a retro soul groove and summoning the vocal style, a little of the attitude too, of Amy Winehouse which is wonderful to hear nine years down the line. How great, not to mention important, it is that there is still space and time for an artist like this to grow and find their own voice. Joy Crookes is really starting to deliver now…

Lael Neale – Tell Me How To Be Here

I have written about the new Lael Neale album over at KLOF Mag a couple of days ago and correctly, I believe, identified it as the must-hear new release of the week. On the record, ‘Altogether Stranger’, this track works as the emotional centrepiece in a dizzying and yet refreshingly concise collection of songs that meditate on various states of belonging and isolation. As before with Lael, the sound is a heady mix of Velvets drone and minimalism with a definite retro pop sheen and an all encompassing shimmer. See exactly what I mean with this…

Blake, Butler & Grant – Bring An End

This new trio of old hands are Bernard Butler, a celebrated guitarist with numerous credits to his name but most notably Suede and McCalmont & Butler in the nineties; Scottish songwriter James Butler, best known for fronting the band Love & Money in the mid-eighties to the nineties and Norman Blake who is, of course, best known as the ever-present front man of Teenage Fanclub. I caught the trio last summer when playing an ear catching set at the Cambridge Folk Festival and noted then how well their newly composed material sat alongside well known hits and covers. This track demonstrates exactly what I was talking about and can be heard on the new self titled album, already released on 355 Recordings…

Alabaster DePlume – Invincibility

Taken from the new ‘A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole’ album and as a complete work it is quite a different beast to what one might expect from a jazz saxophonist. It is far more geared towards the poetic composer and even activism strain of DePlume’s work as the entire album plays like something of a healing mechanism for the troubled modern times we live in. Not quite a protest album, certainly not a political statement but a meditation on the feeling of, well, everything not being quite right with the world and as the title itself ponders, if something is not whole it cannot fulfil its intended purpose. Oh and I probably should warn you, as wonderful as the video below is, it is definitely a bit of a heartbreaker so tread carefully…

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Old Fruit

Old Fruit 2nd May 2025

Genesis – The Musical Box

As a new feature for this website and as a companion piece for the half a dozen Fresh Juice offerings of new music, Old Fruit is a selection of half a dozen older music clips presented here because they either have some current relevance, they are newly discovered archive material or simply that I just like them a lot and want to share. As is the case with this super high quality picture of Genesis in 1974, performing their epic ‘Musical Box’ number for the TV cameras, capturing Peter Gabriel in a moment where his theatrical stage craft was perfectly pitched. It is fair to say that by the end of 1974 his ideas were over stretching a little and fellow band members would complain that costumes and the focus on visuals were over shadowing the music. But equally, they probably would not have won the attention they enjoyed in the early part of the seventies without Gabriel’s weird aura but whatever, it retains a curious eccentric English charm on show to full effect here…

Crowded House – Distant Sun

There have been many songwriters who benefit from comparisons to either Lennon or McCartney but its the ones that get favourable mentions in the same breath as Lennon & McCartney that are the ones to pay special attention to. Neil Finn of Crowded House is one such performer and he has written many hit singles, some like ‘Weather With You’ or ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ shine brightly but ‘Distant Sun’ is truly one of the best even though it slides a little under the radar by comparison. The way it pulls in a spoonful of McCartney melodicism and sprinkles a pinch of Lennon angst is really quite powerful…

The Roches – Mr. Sellack

This three sibling combo were, especially during the eighties, one of the most vital acts on the folk scene. They released albums, some of which (including the 1979 self-titled release that this song is taken from) were produced by Robert Fripp, that would almost unanimously get healthy critical receptions but underwhelm in terms of sales. A travesty really for, as this clip so vividly demonstrates, they were capable of hitting spectacular three part ranges vocally and their songs had a natural lyrical flare, wit and bite. The Roches were a folkin’ phenomenon alright…

Question Mark & The Mysterians – 96 Tears

Question Mark was the stage alter ego of Rudy Martinez and his band, also named after a 1957 Japanese science fiction film of the same name, scored a US number one hit with this their debut single released on the Pa-Go-Go Records label. It has equally been identified as an early influence on the punk scene as much as it has been associated with the Nuggets driven garage rock scene that, like Northern Soul, would start to catch an identity for its genre only when compilations started putting together similarly styled collections under the ‘garage’ banner in the seventies and beyond. Unlike many records that would become garage and psych collectables, this one was actually pretty popular and well known so it has remained an outlier, never appearing on the ‘Nuggets’ series for example. Whatever, it’s a garage psych classic from 1966 so just dig it!

Link Wray – Rumble

Sadly there is no actual 1958 footage that I can find of Link Wray performing his instrumental classic the year it came out, but this 1974 live clip is still pretty amazing. The thunderous crash that introduced this number originally lays to waste any claim sixties acts like The Kinks or Led Zeppelin can make to having invented Heavy Metal, it was already there in the aggressive playing and amped up grungy sound of Link Wray. And look at this film, witness that gum chewing strut, he knew it too!

Roberta Flack – Compared To What

This was the first track on the debut album by Roberta Flack and talk about a statement of intent. Obviously she would end her career with a pair of classic songs that she’ll forever be associated with but this one, for me, best brings the essence of Roberta. It is a sensational fusion of jazz, funk and soul and where the lyric talks of making it real, well look no further, it is all in this piece of film from 1970. Eyes shut, head swaying, totally lost and transported in the performance and the song, it does not get any more real than this!

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Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 28th April 2025

Echolalia – In The Pub

To mark the regular return of this sites Fresh Juice feature, I would ideally have liked to follow the tradition of sourcing the best video clips to represent the song choice but for this, I also wanted to return with something that has a bit of punch and this certainly has that. Echolalia are Spencer Cullum, Andrew Combs, Dominic Billet, Jason Lehning, Eli Beaird, Jordan Lehning and Juan Solorzano and their debut album is a thing of pastoral beauty and strong songwriting, with each of the four writers among the collective getting an equal portion of the album track space. But tucked away right at the close of the record is this hilariously sparky hidden treasure. Quite out of sync with the remainder of the album, this is reminiscent of a mockney Britpop classic, all boozed up geezerish chat that brilliantly captures the alcoholic fog of an afternoon in a spit and sawdust old English ale house. Maybe its best explained by Spencer Cullum, who for all his current residential status as a Tennessean was actually born and raised in Romford. If that is his voice to the forefront of this track, that kind of explains it all really. Let’s get emotional.l.l.l Terry!!!!

Pulp – Spike Island

Talking of Britpop, this a welcome return from some veterans of the era. Pulp have reformed and are set to release their first new album in 24 years and there is something that feels rather good about this one. It could be that the vast majority of nineties indie band resurrections rarely bring anything to enhance their legacy, more often merely adding fuel to the detractors argument that Britpop was a musically backward looking, conservative misstep. But for all that I can see their point, that is not how I remember it thirty years ago. I was rather swept up in the waves of optimism splashing in from the likes of Blur, Supergrass and the Charlatans. That unfiltered ambition Oasis spouted I got right behind, I wanted all that bland generic boyband shit shoulder barged out of the pop charts by acts writing great pop songs. I remember a time when the radio was reliably peppered with a drip feed of memorable tunes; I am inclined to think Pulp have revived just that on ‘Spike Island’. This is a song on regular radio rotation right now and every play grows on me a little more, just as a killer pop song should. It makes me feel Britpop is ripe for a reassessment, if people think its legacy is merely laying a platform for a band like Coldplay to exist then think again, the industry built the Coldplay monstrosity, Britpop’s incubation was from a far more musically inspired place as we are brilliantly reminded here with Pulp

The Pale White – Final Exit

The Pale White are set to release their ‘The Big Sad’ album, a record that the band themselves say looked like it might not come out for a time. We should be gratified they did find a way to set sail on this ship. Their sound may be out of step with that of a new rock band in 2025 but the feeling of being outsiders they project, something which is heavily emphasized in both this song and video, is offset by some wonderfully inviting and invigorating music. They are not quite a repro of the past even though those late sixties reference points are audible, neither are they a one dimensional rockist assault despite a tendency to grab hold of you and wrestle your senses to the floor until they submit to The Pale White energy. There’s something happening here…

Ty Segall – Another California Song

An artist like Ty Segall makes the others all look like also-rans, especially in terms of his creative work ethic. He has yet another new album coming out on the 30th May called ‘Possession’ and is just about to complete a series of solo acoustic dates which have kept him occupied for most of the past three months, but he won’t be out of view for long as from 5th July he’s off on a full electric band tour that will take care of the largest chunk of the summer. As can be heard here, even when he’s playing with just an acoustic guitar, there is still a kind of liquid energy pumping through every second of his playing and he continues to knock out good songs too. Could he be a little too prolific perhaps? I am as guilty as anyone of paying less attention to an artist who is always producing over one making a rarer, occasional appearance. But ignore Ty Segall and it’s you, the listener, who misses out. You have been warned…

Villagers – I Want What I Don’t Need

Taken from the most recent Villagers album ‘That Golden Time’ which has been out for a while but is being toured right now and well worth investigating by anyone with an ear for acoustic singer-songwriting played by a genuine craftsman. Villagers are the performing name for Conor O’Brien who has been playing under this banner, following the break up of his first band The Immediate, for fifteen years now. In that time he has deservedly won acclaim for the economical poetic flare in his lyric writing in addition to the delicate, refined touch and tone of his guitar playing. Both are on full display here in a song that is a potent reflection on the impulses that drive an individual to passionately achieve the gratification of desires that will ultimately be rendered meaningless whilst acknowledging he will go after them all the same. This is song composing as a very real art form.

Ringo Starr – Look Up

We will end this return edition of Fresh Juice with one more welcome return to the saddle from a much loved pop cowboy with the title track from his latest record. Obviously I have a massive Beatles bias which runs through all my music writing but I have never really had the blinkers on, especially where the solo albums of Ringo are concerned. But this one, with the production muscle and co-writing chops of T-Bone Burnette in its arsenal as well as a cast of top drawer country and bluegrass names like Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle and Alison Krauss among the credits, is credibly being hailed as Ringo’s best ever solo album. Even on the gushing vinyl liner notes written by Elvis Costello, the suggestion is put forth that the ‘Look Up’ album is the natural follow up to ‘Beatles For Sale’. Well that particular claim might not stick but this is as strong a selection of songs that Ringo has ever sung as a solo artist and how great is it that we can still hear a Beatle in this fine a voice in 2025? Did the Beatles era every really end? This one argues persuasively the magic is still alive in ’25….

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Fresh Juice

29th April 2024

Leyla McCalla – Scaled To Survive

Leyla has, during the past ten years of solo releases after raising her profile as part of Carolina Chocolate Drops, released some essential albums often thematically linked, be it a tribute to the writer Langston Hughes or a deep dive into the history of Haiti’s first Kreyol-language radio station. However, for her incredible new album ‘Sun Without The Heat’ she has parked the conceptual approach and made space for her more personal singer-songwriter instincts to find a path. And because this multi-instrumentalist, who in a past life would busk Bach on a cello, is so kaleidoscopic in her natural range the resulting album is a pure delight, including this gently lilting song about motherhood…

La Luz – Strange World

Ahead of the release of new album ‘News Of The Universe’ La Luz tease this, a track that suggests the often used “always the same but always different” phrase could easily apply. Some changes are obvious for whilst Shana Cleveland remains at the core this is clearly a different line-up to the last configuration of La Luzers heard on 2021’s brilliant self titled album. Other evolutions are hazier for while that distinct surf-noir sound remains this is definitely a band looking to a more electro-friendly future; albeit a future rooted in the past as it tries to imagine the coming decades through the lens of a 1970s disco flavoured starship trooper…

The Losin’ Streaks – The Slink

This bands 2024 album ‘Last House’ is the record I have heard this year that most authentically captures that scuzzy garage band sound I love so much. If you check out the record I’d suggest going for ‘Last House On The Block’ as the must-hear modern day nugget but as I could not find a video of that online I offer instead this recent live film which deceptively weaves in sixties crowd footage but belongs very much in the hear and now…

AC Sapphire – Weed Money

From the ‘Dec 32nd’ album that I have already predicted on klofmag.com will be one of this years new releases that enjoys a shelf life way beyond 2024. It is a songwriters album that is wonderfully diverse, being neither Americana, folk, desert haze or indie pop even though it has echoes of all and much more besides. ‘Weed Money’ is one of the albums more straight-ahead acoustic troubadour numbers but be sure to go to the long player for the full cosmic road-trip experience…

Pokey LaFarge – One You One Me

Always a delight to report that Pokey has new old-time music on the way. He is a performer who cannot help but put a smile on the face of an audience and so even when he offers up a video of grainy loved-up footage from his wedding day, rather than reach for the sick bag you feel the joy too. After being in the same room as him last year and grinning like an idiot for ninety minutes, I don’t think I’ll ever try and resist the charming sounds of Pokey, now with added rhumba…

Parsnip – Turn To Love

There simply aren’t enough Australian and yet curiously Welsh sounding bands prepared to wear am-dram headwear, pull Wicker Man dance moves and detonate their song with one harmoniously trippy blast in the middle before returning to the church organ hymn-like mantra of the opening never to hit full bloom again. I mean a chorus this grand and lush deserves more than one serving so the only thing to do is go back to the start and bathe in the whole thing all over again…

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Fresh Juice

15th April 2024

Waxahatchee ft. M J Lenderman – Right Back To It

The new Waxahatchee album ‘Tiger Blood’ is out now and a must hear if some springtime alt-country promise is your bag. More than that though, this song especially flows so naturally it instantly sounds like a lolling western standard, so sweetly do the verses sail by ahead of that ear worm chorus. Is it a song of long term loving commitment or the sound of someone with too many questions about the routine of longevity? The key line seems to be “you just settle in like a song with no end, if I can keep up we’ll get right back to it” but I admit I haven’t dissected these lyrics anywhere near enough yet, the music is just too irresistible and seems to say enough anyway. Wonderful song…

Adrianne Lenker – Fool

The new solo album by Big Thief’s Adrianne is called ‘Bright Future’ and already sounds like one of the records of 2024 to me. It is clearly an act of necessity that she keeps a second outlet for her songwriting because Lenker has absolutely been boiling over with new music these last few years. Big Thief’s last long player alone was a bumper fun 20 song effort but following them as I do via live concert clips online, there is rarely any evidence in a slowing up of new ideas. Just like her songs with the band, solo Adrianne presents music that is not always immediate but still gives the listener a desire to keep on playing, allowing her songs to present their many charms over time as layer after layer slowly rises into view…

Charlie Parr – Little Sun

Superb live rendition of the title track on Charlie’s new Smithsonian Folkways released album. This is his eighteenth album and as before, his recording process has focused on capturing the raw and ready feel of live performance. Never a man for lingering studio indulgences, he has all the same admitted that for this record hanging out in the studio felt more comfortable, something which may be attributed to the presence of a producer, Tucker Martine. It is the first Charlie Parr record with such a studio focal point and it has to be said, the end results make for a rather fine singer-songwriter album in the Americana vein, well worth checking out…

Shannon & The Clams – The Moon Is In The Wrong Place

Another title track from a new album, this time a band who I have previously associated with a more retro fifties kind of sound. Here however, the textures have far more of a sixties feel. A sixties guitar band with an eager fascination for science fiction too, think of The Byrds doing ‘Mr Spaceman’, something which can especially be heard in the crackly wireless-like guitar sounds that feature heavily. Later though, the fuzz guitar plugs in and suddenly this is an out-and-out garage rocker. Shannon & The Clams are taking it to other planets…

Keith Richards – I’m Waiting For The Man

There is a new Lou Reed tribute album coming out called ‘Power Of The Heart’ featuring Lou’s music played by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Rufus Wainwright, Lucinda Williams, Maxim Ludwig & Angel Olsen, Rickie Lee Jones, Mary Gauthier, Bobby Rush, Automatic, The Afghan Whigs and Rosanne Cash as well as this incredible version of a Velvet Underground classic by Keith. If ever there was a man who is a nailed on obvious choice to cover this number, they probably found him here and what a job he has done. Every sweaty palmed detail of the after hours back street deal going down in the songs lyric is lived and tasted in Richards vocal, walk it home…

Beth Gibbons – Floating On A Moment

We do not hear from Beth anywhere near enough but at least when that voice does resurface, it is with music that wholly justifies the wait. Be warned though, this song is probably not what you need to hear if you are feeling low or depressed, the message in it is heavy and the sadness in the music does feel low and helpless. But something in Beth’s voice carries it, makes it moving rather than bleak and when the “all we have is here and now” lyric is sung, rather than acutely sensing the emptiness that lies ahead, you might just want to squeeze every last drop out of the here and now and grab life with both hands. Music this good is like magic, it can pull you in opposite directions…

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Fresh Juice

8th April 2024

Hannah Frances – Vacant Intimacies

Hannah has many facets to her art and performance being simultaneously a composer, guitarist, poet, singer and movement artist. Her latest and third album ‘Keeper Of The Shepherd’, released by the Ruination Record Co., is a mesmerising set which manages to pull in influences as diverse as freak folk, progressive rock and free jazz into a set that demands repeated plays. On this new release it is the strength and conviction in that voice that really pulls you in, something definitively on display in this live performance of one of the albums outstanding numbers. All the aforementioned reference points are in evidence here, the untethered spirit of freak folk, the expansiveness and unpredictable melodic changes of prog and indeed some brass embellishments straight out of the jazz bop sound book but this is in no way a mish-mash, it is a fully contained song that rises to a pitch then recedes in a rather irresistible manner. The rest of the album is essential listening too, a strong LP release that we will still be talking about by the years end…

Sabatta – Take You There

Sabatta are a London duo who have been churning up the capitol rock scene for more than ten years now with a vital take on passionate, dirty and loud guitar music. They are Yinka Oyewole on guitar and vocals with Debbie Dee on bass and backing vocals. This track, taken from their most recent ‘How To Get Even’ album, is a firecracker of an electric instrumental with some undeniable echoes of garage rock fuelled with primal blues energy. But it sounds modern too, it is music for the here and now, music that demands to be blasted out of every electric vehicle skimming by in the 21st century city centre. Play this loud…

The Mellons – Make Me Feel

Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, I think it is reasonable to say that The Mellons, who have been on the scene since 2020, have soaked up the rainy day melancholy of the UK every bit as much as they have bathed in the sun drenched warmth of their own back yard. Of course, one listen to this places and you know they are positioned firmly under the sunshine pop umbrella but there is more going on both musically and visually. It is the Beach Boys harmonising to the sound of tea and biscuits late 60s UK psychedelia. Furthermore, there is more than a hint of the Magical Mystery Tour to this play school ram raid of a video. A splendid time is guaranteed for all however because The Mellons have not neglected the most vital component, they have written a quite lovely pop song in the traditional vein…

Nadine Shah – Topless Mother

This attention grabbing first single from Nadine’s latest album ‘Filthy Underneath’ was perhaps the only track sounding connected to her earlier releases. Elsewhere on the album she does push her musical palette into newer, lusher areas but nevertheless, this is arguably the song that shouts loudest and clearest just why she remains an artist worth paying attention to. The period of personal turbulence around the making of the record inevitably looms large, but the way she can channel this raw material into songs with a keen eye for the absurd and humour in otherwise unfunny situations is very well balanced. In this song alone the experience of dark sessions with a counsellor and dead end word association tasks leads to a chorus line that sings “Sinatra; Viagra; Iguana; Sharia; Diana; Samosa; Varuca; Tequila; Banana; Alaska; Medusa; Gorilla”…

Camera Obscura – Big Love

Here are a band we are lucky to still have around for after the death of long standing keyboardist Carey Lander in 2015 they understandably went on an indefinite hiatus. Even though they never officially declared an end to Camera Obscura and have played live recently, it would have been no surprise if that had been the end but no, they are about to return with a new album entitled ‘Look To The East Look To The West’ which is set for release next month. As you can hear, none of Tracyanne Campbell’s facility for carving a bittersweet melancholic pop hook has been lost and that voice remains a thing of bruised magnificence. They seem to be making a comeback because the music is sufficiently vital to justify the reappearance, at least that is how it sounds to me, which makes this a resurrection as welcome as it is necessary…

Norah Jones – Staring At The Wall

From the new album ‘Visions’ released on the Blue Note label, which is about as close as you get to an identifiably Jazz reference point in anything Norah does these days. She is far more of an Alt-Rock, Indie-Pop shapeshifter than people often give her credit for. This track is a good example, the rolling momentum of the electric guitar rhythm chunders in and out of focus whilst a howling, whooping lyric-less chorus echoes and thunders as if descending like a cloud of thick smog. Her music probes and cross-fertilizes across the genres and the song writing back bone always remains top drawer. Just like when I talked up the new Billy Joel release a few weeks ago, I am aware that a Norah Jones recommendation steers too close to the middle-of-the-road for some but, for me, there is far more cutting edge in this than your average The Streets release or (insert similar over-praised toss) so have it…

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Fresh Juice

19th February 2024

Kitty Liv – The Sun And The Rain

This is an absolute corker of a tune from the Camden singer-songwriter probably best known as part of the vintage family trio Kitty Daisy & Lewis. When they first got deserved attention on the music scene there was perhaps too much focus on how young they were, just as later the talk would often focus on their clothes and fifties style when really we should all have just been delighting in what incredible songs they were coming up with. We can assume from her solo work that Kitty was central to this creativity, because her own tunes are similarly fuelled by a classic R&B sensibility and an ear for a irresistible melodic hook…

Lavinia Blackwall – Morning To Remember

There’s an altogether different kind of retro vibe on this bouncy new gem but it’s equally as charming and delightful. Lavinia makes a unique brand of folk-pop that appears at first to be structured in a conventional manner and yet her senses are spinning with colours and smells and her surrounding environment which has a splendidly dizzying effect on the music. Perhaps that is best illustrated in this video by some of the dancing, which looks simultaneously all over the place but also exactly in tune with the overall spirited approach…

The Zutons – Creeping On The Dancefloor

Twenty years after these groovy cosmic scousers first shook our trees, what a thrill to have them shimmying back into the spotlight like this, reminding us all what a winning way they had with a killer pop tune. There always was a sense of unfinished business with The Zutons, especially after they vanished from view after their third album release in 2009, which is why it is so great not merely to have them back again but proving right from the off that they really are one of the all time Liverpool greats la…

The Black Keys – Beautiful People (Stay High)

Now this from another great band who began causing a stir over two decades ago and are clearly, if this recent live clip is anything to go by, still cooking today. They have a new album called ‘Ohio Players’ out in April and as always with this dynamic duo, that is cause for eager anticipation…

Katherine Priddy – First House On The Left

Katherine’s new album, ‘The Pendulum Swing’, is a lush and cohesive meditation on the loves, memories, losses and overwhelming melange of feelings that are evoked when returning to an old family or childhood home. This song specifically addresses that very thing but the album as a whole is wonderfully connected in its explorations on these themes, playing with a neatly rounded start and finish point which enriches the whole experience similar to a great book or movie…

Mitski – I’m Your Man

Last years Mitski album ‘This Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We’ was undoubtedly one of the records of the year and this haunting live video performance of one of the stand out tracks really manages to stretch every last fibre of tension out of the song. This film, complete with a wonderful element of hammer horror drama at the end, also proves that you do not always need to crank up the volume to punch hard, sometimes the silence can be just as loud…

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