New Music: Day In The Sun

           

Teenage Fanclub have announced their new album, Do Not Dare To Dream, out 9th October, and shared its lead single, Day In The Sun, with a video by Donald Milne filmed at Black Bay Studio on Great Bernera in the Outer Hebrides. The album is the band's thirteenth and follows the melancholic warmth of 2023’s Nothing Lasts Forever, whose lingering understated vibe makes Day In The Sun all the brighter. Those lush multi-part harmonies, 60s jangle, rich acoustic textures, and organ are still there in abundance alongside some really nice flourishes — that really subtle vox wah in the back and that harp opening, all accentuate that Californian psych glow, presenting a playful sparkling optimism that leans towards The Byrds.

New Music: Sounds We Cannot Hear

           

Protomartyr are back with their first album in three years. It’s titled Hotel Usona and will be out September 25. The first single from Hotel Usona is "Sounds We Cannot Hear"  which has Protomartyr’s signature sound augmented with horns, tubular bells, xylophone, and more, with Casey's lyrics setting a dark tone from the start. The video, a disquieting psychological thriller set at a hibachi restaurant, was directed by Danny Scharar & Harris Mayersohn and features comedian and actor Nate Varrone.

New Music: Blue Shadows

           

The Avalanches are back and now shares "Blue Shadows" the second collaboration between The Avalanches and Karen O, the solo artist and Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman having featured on "Dial D For Devotion" from the band’s 2020 album We Will Always Love You. “Blue Shadows” also marks the third single from The Avalanches in 2026, the track follows "Every Single Weekend" with Jamie xx and "Together" with Nikki Nair, Jessy Lanza and Prentiss.

Rocktrospectiva: The Mature And Thoughtful "Play" Turns 35

Released on 23 July 1991 "Play" was the 9th., studio album by the British new wave group Squeeze. Back in the day was the first LP in the Squeeze discography to feature only four official members instead of five. Tony Berg produced the album. The album spawned the singles "Sunday Street", "Satisfied" & "Crying In My Sleep".  The album spent one week at number 41 in the UK Albums Chart in September 1991.

Considered one of Squeeze's most mature and thoughtful albums in which the liner notes are written out as a theatre script, with the songs laid out as dialogue. Play was a simple and low-key collection of songs charting the dissolution of a love affair. Reduced to a quartet by Jools Holland's departure for a career as a BBC television presenter, this aided the group to play with a loose, R&B-inflected casualness. 

Play may be one of Squeeze's greatest late period works. Producer Tony Berg, who'd just scored a sizable U.S. hit with the irresistible Michael Penn cut "No Myth." His studio wizardry meshed well with a collection of tunes that tackled various vagaries of love and loss, from breakups (the upbeat "Crying in My Sleep," the downbeat "Letting Go" to keeping it honest "The Truth," "House of Love", slice-of-life scenes "Sunday Street," "Satisfied" and even a relaxed celebration of coming back from a concert tour "The Day I Get Home". 

Though Play was only a moderate success in England, just missing the Top 40 of the British charts, the period is looked on warmly by both fans and even the band themselves, despite a challenging time behind-the-scenes where Difford entered rehab to address his relationship to alcohol. The album also received some positive reception from critics by proclaiming the record to be probably Squeeze's best post-reunion album. 

 

Play Track List:  

 

1. Satisfied

2. Crying In My Sleep

3. Letting Go

4. The Day I Get Home

5. The Truth

6. House Of Love

7. Cupid's Toy

8. Gone To The Dogs

9. Walk A Straight Line

10. Sunday Street

11. There Is A Voice 

New Music: All Falls To Me

            

Jesus Jones shares their new single "All Falls To Me" is the second track to be taken from the upcoming Jesus Jones album "Twilight" to be released in September 2026, the visuals are taken from the band's travels, on the world tour they did in 2023/2024. The tune start with a Flamenco intro and the goes into transition to a dancy sound pretty much as Jesus Jones trademark.

Rocktrospectiva: The Outstanding "Panic" Turns 40

Released on 21 July 1986, "Panic" was a song by the English rock band the Smiths, written by lead vocalist Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr. It was the band's first recording as a five-piece featuring new member Craig Gannon, "Panic" bemoans the state of contemporary pop music, exhorting listeners to "burn down the disco" and "hang the DJ" in retaliation. 

The song was released by Rough Trade as a single and reached No. 7 on the Irish Singles Chart and No. 11 in the UK Chart. Morrissey considered the song's appearance on daytime British radio a "tiny revolution" in its own way, as it aired amongst the very music it criticised. It was later included in the compilation albums The World Won't Listen and Louder Than Bombs both from 1987.

"Panic" was recorded at London's Livingston Studios in May 1986. It was the group's first recording sessions since they completed work on their third album The Queen Is Dead six months earlier. During the interim period, bassist Andy Rourke had been fired due to his heroin addiction, which had interfered with his playing. The band hired Craig Gannon to replace him, but after they rehired Rourke, guitarist Johnny Marr offered Gannon a position as second guitarist.

The then five-piece band worked with producer John Porter; this was his first work with the group in two years. He was concerned that the song was too short, so he copied the band's first take from 5 May and spliced a repetition of the first verse at the end to increase its length. The group was unimpressed and opted to leave the song as they originally structured it.

A story circulated as the basis for the song holds that Marr and Morrissey were listening to BBC Radio 1 when a news report announced the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Straight afterwards, BBC disc jockey Steve Wright played the song "I'm Your Man" by pop duo Wham! "I remember actually saying, 'What the fuck has this got to do with people's lives?'" Marr recalled. "We hear about Chernobyl, then, seconds later, we're expected to jump around to 'I'm Your Man'". While Marr subsequently stated that the account was exaggerated, he commented that it was a likely influence on Morrissey's lyrics. The band later commissioned a T-shirt featuring Wright's portrait and the phrase "Hang the DJ!"

Now "the anecdote might well be true," writes Tony Fletcher in A Light That Never Goes Out, his biography of the Smiths, but he states that "I'm Your Man" had been off the UK pop charts for several months by the time of the Chernobyl disaster and that "Morrissey hardly needed further provocation to attack Wright, whose highly ranked afternoon show treated all popular music as secondary to his madcap party format". The antagonism was apparently mutual; former Smiths manager Scott Piering says that at a 1985 meeting, Wright and his producer both made clear that they disliked the band's music. Moreover, the song itself makes no mention of the radio.

The song began with Morrissey mentioning chaos unravelling throughout Britain and Ireland (specifically mentioning London, Birmingham, Leeds, Grasmere, Carlisle, Dublin, Dundee, and Humberside). In the second part of the song, he revealed that the source of this chaos is pop music, which "says nothing to [him] about [his] life". In reaction, he implores listeners to "burn down the disco" and "hang the DJ", the latter lyrics repeated with the addition of a chorus of schoolchildren. Journalist Nick Kent described "Panic" as a mandate for "rock terrorism". John Luerssen calls it a "commentary on the tepid state of pop music in 1986" and a "chiming guitar song," based around a rotation between the G major and E minor chords.

"Panic" drew negative reaction from some critics who construed Morrissey's lyrics to have a racist connotation. Paolo Hewitt in the NME wrote, "If Morrissey wants to have a go at Radio 1 and Steve Wright, then fine [but] when he starts using words like disco and DJ, with all the attendant imagery that brings up for what is a predominantly white audience, he is being imprecise and offensive". Fletcher says that the lack of any explicit indication the song was about radio meant "Panic" "could be construed as reviving the racist and homophobic 'Disco Sucks' campaign of late 1970s America".

Morrissey denied the accusation, and in a September 1986 Melody Maker interview with Frank Owen decried Owen's suggestion that he was leading a "black pop conspiracy". Additional criticism was sparked by the same interview, wherein Morrissey was quoted naming reggae as "the most racist music in the entire world". Marr, in particular, was incensed by the article and in a 1987 NME interview threatened to "kick the living shit" out of the writer if he met him, such was his anger at the article's slant. He also countered that "disco music" could not be simply equated with "black music", saying, "To those who took offence at the 'burn down the disco' line [...] I'd say please show me the black members of New Order!"

The single cover had an image of a young Richard Bradford, known for his lead role as private eye McGill in the 1960s British TV adventure series Man in a Suitcase, features on the sleeve cover. Etching in the runout on the British 7" single reads "I DREAMT ABOUT STEW LAST NIGHT", a pun on a lyric from "Reel Around the Fountain" ("I dreamt about you last night"), while the 12" version did not have a matrix message. The German 12" runout reads "HANG THEM HIGH MONIKA/HANG THEM HIGH MONIKA

Two music videos were released for "Panic", both of which were directed by Derek Jarman. The first, which the band does not appear in, saw the song used in medley with "The Queen is Dead" and "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" in promotion of the band's then-recent studio album of the former's same name (although "Panic" does not appear on the aforementioned album), which Jarman created as a short film for the 1986 Edinburgh Festival. The second, better-known video for "Panic", in promotion of its release as a single, sees footage of the band performing the song at a gig overlayed with footage from its segment in Jarman's film.

 

Panic Track List

 

7-inch Vinyl record

 

1. Panic

2. Vicar In A Tutu

 

12-inch vinyl record and CD

 

1. Panic

2. Vicar In A Tutu

3. The Draize Train (Instrumental) 

In Memoriam: The Influential Bassist "Jennifer Finch" Dies Aged 59

Jennifer Finch, the longtime bassist for influential grunge rock group L7, has died. Finch, who had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2011, revealed she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer last week. She was 59.

Finch's bandmates shared the news of her death on Saturday on Instagram, calling her a "beloved bandmate, friend, and fellow troublemaker".

"She had a long courageous fight with brain cancer and was loved by many wonderful friends, musical peers and fans worldwide," wrote L7's Donita Sparks, Suzi Gardner and Demetra "Dee" Plakas.

Finch was due to join L7 on the feminist rock band's The Last Hurrah farewell tour this year, however, she pulled out last week after revealing her brain cancer diagnosis, giving the band her blessing to forge ahead.

A GoFundMe campaign to help pay for her treatment, launched by friends and family, swiftly surpassed its goal and raised nearly $US400,000. Despite initial radiation treatment, "unforeseen complications" led to Finch enduring "multiple surgeries and a string of difficult setbacks".

Born on August 5, 1966, and raised by her adoptive parents in Los Angeles, Finch had a passion for photography, often documenting the city's burgeoning punk and alt-rock scenes, snapping influential groups like The Cramps and Bad Religion.

In the early 80s, Finch played bass in Sugar Babydoll, led by future Hole frontwoman Courtney Love, and The Pandoras.

Finch joined L7 in 1986, a year after Donita Sparks and Suzi Gardner formed the band. They released their self-titled debut in 1988 via influential independent record label Epitaph.

After adding Dee Plakas on drums, the group's 1990 album Smell The Magic made them one of the few non-Seattle bands signed to Sub Pop and earliest all-female groups in the grunge explosion. Finch even dated Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl for a time.

Their 1992 album Bricks Are Heavy is considered one of the era's most significant, featuring L7's biggest crossover hit Pretend We're Dead, a searing political commentary on the marginalisation of women in society inserted into a hooky anthem.

Fiercely rejecting traditional beauty standards and fearlessly advocating for women's rights, L7 co-founded Rock for Choice in 1991, a concert series raising funds and awareness for reproductive rights.

Four women playing loud, aggressive tunes confronting sexism and political disillusion was considered a feminist statement in and of itself. But L7 did not actively try to be a feminist band.

"We don't write in any contrived way," Sparks told Double J in 2019. "We write from very personal experiences and they just morph into something else. "We're not writing feminist lyrics. We're writing L7 lyrics and I think they speak to everybody."

In 1996, two years after their fourth album Hungry for Stink, Finch left the band and played in other groups, namely OtherStarPeople and The Shocker, and launched her own label, Little Pusher Records.

Following an acrimonious split in 2001, L7 reunited in 2014 and Finch rejoined, playing on their 2019 reunion album Scatter The Rats.

The band then toured regularly, playing headline shows and festivals throughout the US, UK and Australia where, in 2023, they performed Bricks Are Heavy in full on tour.

New Music: In Blood

           

British band Ladytron shares "In Blood" the second track on band's nww studio album "Paradises", the synth-pop track features their signature dark, electronic sound, and its official music video was directed by band member Daniel Hunt

New Music: Martini Me Fasto

           

The National frontman Matt Berninger has a new solo single "Martini Me Fatso" the tune is not quite like anything Berninger has released before, perhaps his side project EL VY might be the closest parallel. The song swings and the arrangement is closer to jazz-rock or bluesy adult contemporary than usual. The lyrics and vocal performance, though, are unmistakably Berninger, 

New Music: Stand Together

            

Shed Seven return in pure indie style with their new single ‘Stand Together’, their first single since 2024 and the lead track from their forthcoming, self-titled album. It’s a confident statement of intent from the York outfit, signalling both a return to their roots as well as the broadening of their sound. Opening with a classic Britpop-inspired guitar riff, the track evokes the spirit of the 90s and recalls a similar tone to that of The Seahorses. Rick Witter’s unmistakable vocals remain as clear and sharp as ever, carrying the same urgency that helped to define Shed Seven’s original success. Alongside this,  the gripping soul of Mary Pearce and Beverley Skeete adds another dimension entirely to the chorus. With gospel-inspired flourishes that reinforce the song's overarching theme of togetherness. It’s an unexpected but effective pairing, lending the track a sense of scale without losing the gritty, guitar-led identity of the band.