Tracks of the Week: new music from ZZ Prime, Steve Vai, RHCP and extra
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We do not often do controversy in our Tracks Of The Week roundup, however this week we’ve some.
An evaluation of final week’s voting – during which rowdy Liverpudlians The Imbeciles and Nashville rock’n’rollers The Bloody Nerve collected over 90% of the votes between them – has thrown up what election observers confer with as “suspicious” voting patterns. Hundreds of votes had been posted for every artist in alarmingly quick intervals of time, suggesting {that a} huge military of robotic monkeys had been engaged to maintain the help coming.
We’re not suggesting that both band had been personally engaged in any nefarious exercise – and in the event that they had been, congratulations on such digital crafty – however neither will we permit their medal positions to face.
So congratulations to Xander & The Peace Pirates, who completed a distant third within the standings however are additionally this week’s winners. Hooray!
And now, on with this week’s competitors.
Whiskey Myers – Antioch
Texas’s gnarliest bunch of southern rock renegades are again, and this time they arrive bearing horns – plus colossal backing vocals for a wealthy, swampy rock n’ gospel punch. It’s nonetheless the gritty, real-deal style of the American south that we beloved them for initially, however with new layers of ambition. The primary style of their subsequent album Tornillo (out in July) it conjures photographs of scorching, sweaty summers and buzzing competition crowds at sundown.
H.E.A.T – Nationwide
You want velocity? Oh we’ll offer you velocity. Again with a bang – and with authentic singer Kenny Leckremo in tow, after Erik Grönwall’s departure in 2020 (he’s now fronting Skid Row) – the melodic rock Swedes have launched this breakneck first single from their new album Drive Majeure, out in full in August. Laden with jet-powered synths, it’s so 80s it ought to include its personal cherry purple open-topped Camaro, pushed by Joey Tempest and Kenny Loggins. Yeah, image that.
ZZ Prime – Brown Sugar
Sure, it’s a brand new launch from ZZ-fucking-Prime! No, it’s not a canopy of the Rolling Stones basic – au contraire, this unhealthy boy is a low-slung, greasy fireball that initially noticed the sunshine of day in January 1971. Now, it’s the opening observe of the band’s upcoming document, RAW, an homage to their early days. “Brown Sugar has been sweetening our live performance units for a lot of many years now,” Billy F Gibbons says, “so it appeared like the appropriate track to kick off RAW.” Nicely, fairly.
Church of the Cosmic Cranium – Now’s the Time
Time to get divine, within the firm of Nottingham’s sublimely psychedelic freakniks, the Church Of The Cosmic Cranium. However that is no band of aimless, bong-smoked wanderers, as this new observe confirms. Harmonies, organ whirls, wah-wah guitars and different violin touches are thoughtfully layered, making a heady but good, candy affect. Take a look at this and extra on There Is No Time, which comes out in Might. Be part of the church. Resistance is futile.
Dorothy – Black Sheep
Constructed on a refrain you’ll be buzzing for days, Black Sheep has the arena-courting stomp n’ clap swagger of Halestorm and Shinedown (at their rockiest), loosened up with streaks of California hippie sunshine. Following the near-death of her guitar tech from an overdose three years in the past, the Hungarian-born singer/songwriter underwent a reawakening of her personal, pouring it into her music. The ensuing album, Items From The Holy Ghost, is out 22 April.
Seashore Bunny – Hearth Escape
On the indie finish of our spectrum however nonetheless good and crunchy, the most recent single from this Chicago troupe (initially the solo undertaking of singer/songwriter Lili Trifilio) is a neat, more-ish little marriage of pop punk, moody lyrics and surf vibes – sugar with a subversive shadow. Proof, if it was wanted, that the 90s by no means actually died – plus a hefty TikTok following. New album Emotional Creature comes out on July twenty second.
Steve Vai – Tooth of the Hydra
Finally! An opportunity to gaze with awe upon the alien majesty of Steve Vai’s much-heralded Hydra guitar. And boy, is it one thing, with a zither-type attachment, plus dials and lights and issues that make surprising noises as Vai whips round its multi-necked magnificence, twiddling and noodling and swooping and widdling and making noises past the ken of us mere mortals. Watch and tremble.
Pink Sizzling Chili Peppers – These Are The Methods
Whereas the brand new Pink Sizzling Chili Peppers album has obtained the standard bag of “combined” opinions from these unwilling to recognise the band’s mastery of melancholy, we’re delighted that new single These Are The Methods is extra of the type of factor they do higher than virtually anybody else. So it is a track with that mournful Hollywood noir vibe, however this time they’re doing it with extra chunk than on earlier singles Black Summer time and Poster Little one. In different phrases, it begins off unhappy after which is not.
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