Welcome everyone to another edition of our weekly music News Report!
This week we begin with festival announcements and start off with the incredible first line-up reveal for 2000trees Festival.
Headlining the Saturday night will be Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes. They’ll be joined across the weekend by the likes of Hundred Reasons, Rival Schools, The Wonder Years, Bob Vylan, Holding Absence, Cancer Bats, Dream State, No Devotion, Saint Agnes, Press To Meco and many more!
We move our News Report on now to the best tour announcements from the past week and begin with the iconic Duran Duran.
The group have announced a run of UK and Ireland Arena shows for next year.
Simon Le Bon said: â2022 has been an extraordinary year for Duran Duran – mainly down to the incredible fans we have around the world. In July we celebrated our years together at Hyde Park as part of the British Summer Time Festival. Next Spring we will be back on home soil once again to continue the party. Itâs remarkable to me that as a band, we are still hitting new milestones, still able to introduce the sound of DD to new generations of music lovers. We are truly grateful that we get to do what we do on a daily basis, and that we still love our job as much as we did when we started out some four decades ago.”
The final tour announcement in our News Report comes from The Sherlocks who will be out on the road later in the year with an October/November tour revealed this week.
We turn our attention now to the best new releases from the past week in our News Report. Just the one to highlight this week with the new single, ‘On The Up’ from Sean McGowan.
Listen to the track above, and head here for more.
Scotland’s Dancing On Tables have released their debut album, ‘Colour In The Grey’, including the single, ‘So What’!
The band says, “It feels like the last 3 years of our life have all been building up to this album. You can hear the journey that weâve been on as a group as you go through the tracks, with stories of love, happiness, loss and frustration sang on top of a sound that we have worked hard to define by combining our original rock influences with our favourite modern music alt-pop styles.
The album is a collection of songs that were put together over a time where as musicians, we were suddenly stuck at home after being used to being on the road for most of the year. Like most people, it was tough for us to stay motivated during this, but working together (remotely) on music was the highlight of each day and left us with over 70 tracks to choose from for this album.
For us, writing and recording this album really was the ‘colour in the grey’ of every day life at this point.”
Humour – ‘Jeans’
Fellow Scots Humour have released, ‘Jeans’, the final single from their EP, ‘Pure Misery’.
The band had the following to say about the single:
“Jeans is about a character who is internally trying to build himself up and convince himself that heâs a successful and confident no-nonsense man. But he periodically has lapses in this forced self-assuredness and realises that he is not any of those things and is in fact quite a sad, pathetic and laughable character. Much like myself.”
Jamie Beale – ‘Champagne People’
Jamie Beale has released debut album, ‘Hello Nimbus’ featuring the single ‘Champagne People’.
Speaking about the inspiration for the single, Jamie says: â I feel that we are living in this weird age where people are willing to do anything for fame. You see it all the time on social media – itâs so easy to put up a veil and hide all the realities and imperfections of life that ultimately make us human. Quite often, in these industries that promote the idea of fame as success, people surround themselves with an entourage of fake people; people that are only really there to further their own careers. On the outside looking in, it seems that no-one in these circles are truly content, but instead are lonely and looking to fill that void with possessions or short lived moments of attention and gratification.
âI guess I canât help but feel for these people, so I wrote a song about someone whoâs trying to climb the social ladder, and ends up alone, hiding behind a pretty picture of how they want their life to look.â
Broadcast details and additional guests for the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Show
Welcome everyone to another edition of our weekly music News Report!
We start this week with an update on the two Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concerts scheduled to take place next month in London and Los Angeles.
The two shows promise to deliver a spectacular celebration of the life of the legendary drummer. The already stacked list of special guests joining Foo Fighters grew this week with London additions including the likes of Travis Barker, Justin Hawkins, Brian Johnson and Lars Ulrich.
Those not lucky enough to have tickets were also provided details this week of both livestream and on demand options to watch the London show as below:
A singular piece of festival news in our News Report this week and it comes from Croydon event Cro Cro Land!
Our recent ‘Discover’ New Music Podcast guests BERRIES have joined a packed line-up with the likes of She Drew The Gun, Dream Wife, Bang Bang Romeo, Big Joanie, Wooze, Fraulein and more!
Red Hot Chili Peppers debut new single ‘Tippa My Tongue’
Red Hot Chili Peppers – ‘Tippa My Tongue’
We move our News Report on now to the best new releases from the past week and where better to start than with the new single from Red Hot Chili Peppers?
The group surprised fans recently with the announcement that new album, ‘Return of the Dream Canteen’, will be released on October 14th.
Now the iconic band have given the first taste of what to expect with new track, ‘Tippa My Tongue’, which you can check out above.
The Struts shared their new single, ‘Fallin’ With Me’, this week, and you can give it a listen above.
âThe songâs lyrics were written down whilst on numerous nights out with someone that I was seeing at the time,â frontman Luke Spiller says. âWe always kept meeting at the same place on the Sunset Strip and after a while I had a collection of phrases and lines that all had a certain feel to them.â
âThe songâs lyrics were written down whilst on numerous nights out with someone that I was seeing at the time,â Spiller says. âWe always kept meeting at the same place on the Sunset Strip and after a while I had a collection of phrases and lines that all had a certain feel to them.â
âFallinâ With Meâ is something that The Struts have never done before. We’ve done a lot of straight-up rock, but this feels different,â Spiller says. âThe response we have been getting while performing it live has been electric, so I’m excited for everyone to hear the studio version!â
As they prepare for the main stage at Reading & Leeds Festivals, DMA’s have shared their brand new single, ‘I Don’t Need To Hide’, which you can check out above.
Guitarist Jonny Took comments: âThereâs a confidence you obtain when you find someone who loves you for all your faults, quirks and obscurities. They make you feel like you donât need to hide anything from anyone anymore.â
The Murder Capital share video for single ‘Only Good Things’
The Murder Capital – ‘Only Good Things’
Our News report continues with news that The Murder Capital have shared the video for their single, ‘Only Good Things’, which you can watch above.
Speaking on the new single, front man James McGovern says,
âThis track for us has been an exciting evolution for the band. Itâs so bright. Itâs so colorful. This is a part of the narrative of the overall record that we feel reaches a real place of inner calm, inner peace but at its core, itâs a love song. You get a song like this where, the protagonist in this song is quite simply asking – not pleading – just willing to ask their counterpart to rid them of their intrusive thoughts, the devils on their shoulders and to be truly vulnerable.
Weâre so excited to go to a place like this because perhaps itâs not what is expected of us. It stood out to me during the creation of this record that it is more about the friends that are still here and celebrating those connections, those relationships and being unafraid of life and itâs many seasons. Where âOnly Good Thingsâ stands within the record is at a moment where the sonic and the lyrical narrative especially, are of newfound joy.â
Beth Orton has shared her new single, ‘Friday Night’, which you can listen to above. The track will feature on new album, ‘Weather Alive’, which is out September 23rd.
Orton states, âFriday Night is someone reflecting on, and trying to decide, what to give up or what to surrender to. Passion or ambivalence? Whether to âbleed or rust in the rain.â
âMost of us are struggling to make sense of where to put the love we have for those that are lost to us, let alone the ones that remain. Sometimes there is no right answer except to find the wisdom in the spaces between the endings and beginnings, in the remembrance of things past or in search of lost time, there are always re-percussions to the choices we make. We are listening to the internal dialogue of someone living it out, what is futile and what is worth fighting for, and trying to do as little damage along the way. Friday night being the night that makes the week more bearable, there is hope.
âComing to realise what is real and what is out of reach can be unbelievably painful, waking up to the love that remains can be the greatest gift and the most wonderful surprise. Even in absence there is presence, there is no escape but to look for where the love is still alive within us.â
As ‘Discover’ New Music Playlist alumni, Liverpool’s Courting prepare to release their debut album, ‘Guitar Music’, on September 23rd, the group have dropped a new single.
You can listen to that single, ‘Jumper’, above.
Speaking on the new single, frontman Murphy-OâNeill says, âJumper is an outlier on the album. It is a gentle story of true unrequited love, meant to playout like a 2006 romcom. It is about growing old and believing everything will fall into place, the mundanity of doing dishes, and leaving oppositional film reviews.â
There was new music on offer this week from The Skinner Brothers, who debuted the title track of their upcoming EP, ‘Lonedon’.
Zac Skinner says, âI wanted the EP to have a mixtape kind of feel. Itâs four different songs which I feel captures the essence of the band at this point.â
You can listen to the track above, and pre-order the EP here.
Many Reading & Leeds performers are sharing new music, another being Witch Fever. The band has debuted their latest single, ‘I Saw You Dancing’, which you can check out above.
The song will feature on their debut album, ‘Congregation’, which is out October 21st.
On the track Amy Walpole says, âThis is a song on the album that weâre really excited about as really itâs the first time weâve written and allowed a song to have space and time to breathe! Weâve been so used to writing quick thrashy tunes it was fun to experiment and write slower ones for the album. We really love the drone of the guitar, the rattle of the bass and the reverb on the snare drum, as well as the vocals being a little more relaxed and expressiveâ.
Speaking on the video Amy adds, âHorror has always been a genre that weâve drawn inspiration from for lyrics and artwork because itâs such a potent and multi-layered genre. Horror has such a potential for holding a mirror up to society to reveal the oppression it continues to uphold. Typical elements of horror include violence, suspense, fear and the abject which are powerful fictional tools to expose the dark underbelly of society. Horror isnât known for being the most progressive or inclusive genre, often centring straight white men, and portraying women and people of colour as either helpless victims, monstrous villains, or a side story to push the male characters plot line forward. Furthermore horror has also historically ignored the existence of marginalised genders and members of the LGBTQ+ community.â
Walpole says on the album, âAs our first album weâre really excited to just get it out there. We feel that itâs a step above what weâve done before as we had a chance to experiment with sound and structure. It was our first opportunity to explore writing a body of work which was challenging but has been so rewarding!â
She continues, âIt pushed our creative process because we also had to think about the songs sitting side by side on an album! We tried to break out of what makes a typical âwitch feverâ song whilst still being true to what makes our sound what it is.â
South London trio PVA have shared a new single titled, ‘Bad Dad’, which you can listen to above. The track comes ahead of new album, ‘Blush’, which is out October 14th.
Speaking on the themes of the single, Ella Harris says âBad Dad explores the internal world of a new father checking in on his son at night, afraid of the lineage of masculinity and how it might impact someone so untainted.â
On their debut album: âWe wanted to surprise people and do something more than just get across how we sound at a gig,â explains drummer Louis Satchell. âItâs quite an anxious record sometimes that is relating to mental health issues and carries within it the anxiety of making an album. Itâs been a rocky ride but we always pick ourselves up.â
The new music continues in our News Report as this week The Beths presented their new single, ‘Knees Deep’, which you can check out above.
The track comes from forthcoming album, ‘Expert In A Dying Field’, which is out September 16th.
Liz Stokes shares: âI’m the kind of person who wants to go swimming, but takes like ten minutes to get all the way into the cold water, slowly and painfully. I hate this about myself, and am kind of envious of people who can just jump straight in the deep end. In a shocking twist, this is also a metaphor?! For how I wish I was the kind of person who was brave and decisive instead of cautious and scared.â
Glasgow’s Humour share their latest single, ‘live and well’.
Frontman Andreas had the following to say about how the song came together:
“Alive and Well came together quite suddenly after a prolonged period of trying to make it work. Jack and Ross had written the bones of the song, and showed it to me with the music in a more or less complete form. They sent me a voice note in which they were muttering along to the music, saying things like âI was so confused, I couldnât understand it. Everyoneâs pissed off at me,â and I could hear laughing, and didnât think they were that serious about those being the lyrics.
Jack then suggested that I scream the lyrics as loudly as I could, which sounded right for the song when I did. I wanted the vocal to sound like somebody drunk and feeling sorry for themselves. I then wrote the lyrics to the chorus, which are loosely about getting away from a place and a feeling, but sensing that you wonât ever manage to.”
Dog Race – ‘Terror’
Bedford’s Dog Race have shared their debut single, ‘Terror’.
Vocalist Katie Healy had the following to say about the themes behind the single:
“Terror was written during a time of DPDR and anxiety episodes where I would frequently wake up screaming in the night due to night terrors. I tried to encapsulate something that spoke of a period of turmoil but important growth in my early 20âs, an experimental experience where I thought if Iâd embrace these night terrors instead of hiding from them in the hope I could put them to rest completely.”
Young Fatigue – ‘love/them’
Punk trio Young Fatigue return with their latest single, ‘love/them’.
âlove/them is a protest song against the parents of LGBTQ+ children who fail to accept and embrace their kids. It’s something that particularly enrages me because I remember when my mum came out to me and my siblings when I was a teenager. We found it so overwhelmingly easy to embrace and celebrate her; after all, she was our mum.
Yet time and time again I’ve watched as the families of my friends have failed to accept their sexuality and/or gender identity. My mumâs also an artist and kindly allowed us to use one of her wonderful pieces for the songâs artwork. She created it during a particularly difficult stage in her life and we felt it perfectly represented the power of turning something dark into something truly beautiful.â – Ash Dixon (Lead singer and Guitarist)
The Cult have announced the October 7th release of new album, ‘Under The Midnight Sun’.
To celebrate, the band have also shared their new single, ‘Give Me Mercy’, which you can listen to above.
Ian Astbury comments, âI was absolutely enamoured with this piece of music Billy had written, and it perfectly fit these thoughts Iâd been having about our cultureâs need to move past assumptions of duality. We need new language because words canât express where weâre going.â
Billy Duffy adds, ââGive Me Mercyâ has all the hallmarks of the new classic Cult to my ears ⊠fresh yet familiar.â
There was also new music on offer this week from The HU. The band continue to build towards their second album, ‘Rumble of Thunder’, which is out September 2nd.
You can listen to their latest single, ‘Black Thunder’, above.
Vocalist Gala shared, ââBlack Thunderâ is the crown jewel of our second album. The music video is split into two parts and conveys the core values of men through visuals. Our producer Dashka chose a unique location in Mongolia to shoot the video, where we had a great time riding the horses in the vast grassland of our countryside. We hope that our pride in our culture shines through, as we aimed to bring viewers joy and a piece of our culture through this video.â
Speaking on their next studio album, he continued, âOur second album will include âBlack Thunderâ, along with many new songs. We canât wait for you to listen and enjoy it as much as we enjoyed recording it.â
It was a big week for Massive Wagons as the band shared their latest single, ‘Fuck the Haters’, which you can click through to listen to on Youtube above.
The track will feature on their brand new album, ‘TRIGGERED!’, which is out October 28th.
We move our News Report on now to the best tour announcements from the past week, and we start with a special acoustic tour from Levellers.
The band comment, âWe are really excited to be recording a new acoustic album, going through some of our old material, rearranging it for today and doing some new stuff too. Also massively pleased to introduce new member Dan Donnelly to the recording world, and to be working with members of the âcollectiveâ again – and some new guys. Then weâre looking forward to touring it! Going around the countryâs most beautiful old theatres and some unique and different other venues too. Hopefully see you all there!â
Stray From The Path announce intimate album release shows
To mark the upcoming release of their new album, ‘Euthanasia’, set for release on September 9th, Stray From The Path, have announced a celebratory tour of intimate album release shows for October.
Speaking of tour, guitarist, Tom Williams, says, “We are stoked to return back to the UK and mainland Europe to do some small and intimate album release shows for our new record, ‘Euthanasia’.
By the time we get there, it will be almost three years since we’ve been back. We’ve dropped ‘Guillotine’ and ‘III’ and our UK/EU people have been wanting us back ASAP, I’m glad we can get back there for them.
We’re bringing with us a brand new album, two amazing up and coming bands in Vatican and Guilt Trip, and three years of too much time spent away from some of our favourite places on earth.”
The Native share their brand new single â20 Somethingâ.
Frontman Charlie Noordewier says, “This song is about a person who is ruining their life with addiction. It started as self medicating at weekends trying to escape from their job and slowly declined into more drink and drugs. Theyâre working a hard job all week and then blowing all their cash at the weekend to distract themselves from their unhappiness – rather than escaping from the rut they have created.”
Jack Valero – ‘Hollow Warmth’
Jack Valero has shared his second single, ‘Hollow Warmth’.
Jack says, âThis continues the abstract motifs of the previous video with a little bleak humour added in. It’s supposed to be a classic breakup narrative, but with a dark twist that can be interpreted in many different ways.
We touch on the ideas of isolation again, but this time dive more into the sometimes dark privacy of a person. It can be taken metaphorically or literally, but either way it should make you feel like you’re getting a peek into someone’s very private world and maybe make you feel a little uncomfortable.â
Humour – ‘yeah, mud!’
Humour share their debut single, ‘yeah, mud!’, an early live favourite, with the band saying the following on the themes behind the track:
“This song was one that just came to us. I think it came together in less than an hour and everything just seemed to fit first time. A lot of the lyrics are inspired by an old book Andreas read. In this book a soldier realises heâs about to die and writes his mother a note.
I think itâs interesting to think about what you might have to say if you realised you were going to die in a few minutes, and what youâd then say to your mother. Lots of pressure to come up with something important.”
