This is something for fans of Nick Cave and related. Chicago-based artist Leon Frear presents the single “Secret Second Moon”, along with a comic strip-styled video created by French animator Ronald Grandpey. This album represents a new start for him under this moniker. Frear has a voice which somewhat recalls Marty Willson-Piper of The Church fame and his side project Nocturum.

“Secret Second Moon” is the first offering from his debut album “Wild Rice”. The album is lyrically based on his own personal experience, Frear’s speaks of love, lust, broken promises, broken phones, and multiple incinerated bridges. This 10-track collection was produced by Frear in his home studio in Chicago, playing every instrument during a recording process that took years in isolation to complete.

“I picked up my belongings, changed my name and moved to Chicago. I just wanted to get lost in the crowd. It took a decade to get sober, restore my health, sanity and put together enough equipment to make this record,” says Leon Frear. “Wild Rice is the story of those times, but told in reflection. The songs came from a place of true grief, regret and a little bit of anger. But through all of those things, I gained wisdom and became a better person. And while the details may be different, I think every human on this planet shares in the experience of feelings of grief. Ultimately, I think it is an album about empathy.”

Sonically, he was inspired to make “Wild Rice” while listening to old Leonard Cohen albums, Harvest by Neil Young, Stories from the City by PJ Harvey and lots of old ballads by Nick Cave.

As of November 21, “Secret Second Moon” is out, the album will be available from all music platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music and Bandcamp. The “Wild Rice” album will be released – on vinyl and digitally – on February 2, 2024.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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(Photo by Matt Vardy) This will interest some of you for sure. The Toronto-London ensemble, The Flowers of Hell, have announced the inaugural vinyl release of their album “Odes”, set for April 22nd in celebration of UK Record Store Day. The 180-gram red coloured vinyl will be issued through Space Age Recordings and presented in a luxurious die-cut sleeve.

The record showcases orchestral-pop interpretations of tracks by some of the group’s most admired artists, such as Joy Division, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Bob Dylan, Klaatu, Stereolab, Laurie Anderson, The Velvet Underground, and Neutral Milk Hotel. Featured on the album are Sea Power’s Neil ‘Hamilton’ Wilkinson and Abi Fry (Bat For Lashes, Sea Power), Ivo Pospíšil, a renowned figure in the Prague underground scene, and the Plastic People Of The Universe. “Odes” was recorded in Toronto and co-produced with Grammy-winning engineer Peter J. Moore (Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Joe Strummer), who also remastered the album for vinyl.

The band has now released videos of their versions of Joy Division’s “Atmosphere” and “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft,” a song popularised by Toronto prog-rock group Klaatu (once believed to be The Beatles under a pseudonym) and later, The Carpenters. Written in the early 1970s, the song was influenced by the 1950s International Flying Saucer Society’s attempt to synchronise their global membership to telepathically transmit a specific message to extraterrestrial life, hoping for a response. “Calling Occupants” is now the official anthem of World Contact Day.

On May 12th, The Flowers of Hell will release their sixth studio album, “Keshakhtaran,” and their first in six years. The 42-minute psilocybin meditation piece, comprised of two sections, features contributions from 20 artists, including Rishi Dhir (Elephant Stone, Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Black Angels, Beck) and avant-accordion virtuoso Angel Corpus Christi (Suicide, Spiritualized, Dean Wareham). The preview single “Foray Through Keshakhtaran” is now available on digital platforms such as Apple Music, Spotify, and Bandcamp.

For more on Joy Division, see When members of Killing Joke and Joy Division collaborate you get K÷93 on Side-Line.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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David J’s latest album, “What The Patrons Heard”, will be a storied collection of originals and covers recorded over the timespan of 34 years. These 10 songs were originally only available digitally to David J’s Patreon subscribers.

The founding member of Bauhaus was one of the first of Bauhaus’ members to actively release music outside of the band. He went on to put out solo work and collaborations with various authors, poets and indies such as 4AD. In 1985, David regrouped with two former Bauhaus members to form Love and Rockets.

“What The Patrons Heard” includes a rendition of Neil Young’s “Vampire Blues”, the John Lennon classic “Gimme Some Truth” and the folk punk track “Lay Over And Lay” plus 7 other tracks.

The release will be available as download, on CD and on vinyl, a limited numbered edition snow white vinyl that is. The CD and digital formats will be available worldwide on March 25th, 2022 with the vinyl shipping as soon as it becomes available.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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(By our Norwegian correspondent Jan Ronald Stange) Out on November 12 is the new album “Imposter”, a collection of songs from Dave Gahan & Soulsavers. This is Dave Gahan’s third collaboration with the Soulsavers, following their releases “Angels & Ghosts” in 2015 and “The Light the Dead See” in 2012. 

As stated in their press info: “They didn’t write these songs, but listened to them, studied them, and gave them new life. It is a reflection of Dave’s life, a story told by others, but in his own distinct voice.

Recorded at the legendary Shangri-La Studios in Malibu, these versions of songs you know and some you might not range from sparse to lush, somber to joyful. The choices and sequencing were deliberate and meaningful, It shines a light on the enduring strength of poignant lyrics and well-executed melodies.“

We’ll get the first taste of “Imposter” on October 8^th with the release of “Metal Heart”, written by Chan Marshall (Cat Power), first released in 1998.

Tracklist:

1. The Dark End of the Street (Chips Moman/Dan Penn)
2. Strange Religion (Mark Lanegan)
3. Lilac Wine (James Shelton)
4. I Held My Baby Last Night  (Jules Bihari/Elmore James)
5. A Man Needs a Maid (Neil Young)
6. Metal Heart (Cat Power)
7. Shut Me Down (Rowland S. Howard)
8. Where My Love Lies Asleep (Gene Clark)
9. Smile (Charlie Chaplin, John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons)
10. The Desperate Kingdom of Love (PJ Harvey)
11. Not Dark Yet (Bob Dylan)
12. Always on My Mind (John Lee Christopher, Jr., Mark James & Wayne Thompson)
    

More info at http://davegahan.com / https://www.instagram.com/theimposter/

Jan Ronald Stange

Sometimes – when I’m not cooking, biking, listening to music or attending concerts, I write stuff for Side-Line.com. Mostly about Norwegian bands, but it’s been some Swedish, English, American, Danish, German and others too… 😉

www.facebook.com/jrstange

Genre/Influences: Punk-rock.

Background/Info: British punk legends U.K. Subs are now active for more than 40 years. They belong to the collective memory of the Punks. It’s hard to compare the glorious 70s punk years with today, but the band never stopped releasing new material. They last year released “Subversions” and are now back on track with the second chapter of this ‘cover-series’.

Content: Twelve songs have been chosen and covered/adapted into the punk-rock style of the band. This opus features songs that were originally composed by The Equals, The Velvet Underground, Led Zeppelin, Joe Jackson, Donovan, The Stooges, The Kids, The Who, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Neil Young, Queen and The Rolling Stones.

+ + + : It always is a risky business and for some fans of the original artists a blasphemy to cover famous hits, but when it’s accomplished by a band such as U.K. Subs is just fun and party music. You clearly can feel they’d some fun covering these songs. Even if most of the original songs are pretty ‘rock’ like, U.K. Subs transposed them into a raw punk-rock style. I think they did a great job covering “White Light, White Heat” from The Velvet Underground and “This Is Rock ‘N’ Roll” from The Kids. I can imagine this is pure party on stage!

– – – : I’m not convinced by some of the songs and that’s maybe because some tracks feel a bit like sacred sonic anthems. I’m not convinced by their edits of Queen (cf. “We Will Rock You”) and The Rolling Stones (cf. “The Last Time”).

Conclusion: Original 70s punk music is probably dead and gone forever, but the spirit is still alive even when U.K. Subs are busy covering famous rock ‘n’ roll artists.

Best songs: “White Light, White Heat”, “This Is Rock ‘N’ Roll”, “Rockin’ In The Free World”, “One More Time”. 

Rate: (7).

Artist: www.uksubs.co.uk / www.facebook.com/UKSubs

Label: www.cleropatrarecords.com / www.facebook.com/CleopatraRecords

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

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Trentemøller has crafted a special cover of a Neil Young song as part of his upcoming “Harbour Boat Trips Vol. 2: Copenhagen” compilation due this Fall. “Transformer Man” is most notorious for being part of the 1982 album “Trans” that got Neil Young sued by his label for not sounding enough like himself, or in legal speak, being ‘musically uncharacteristic of Young’s previous recordings’.

When Trentemøller collaborator Marie Fisker suggested covering the song, it took him a while to get on board: “Although I’m a huge Neil Young fan, I actually didn’t know about this song until Marie Fisker played it to me when we sat down and thought about some songs that would be fun to cover for the new Harbour Boat Trip Mix that I was working on. I wasn’t a fan of the song and its sound in the first place, but the melody, especially the hook line, somehow caught me. The song is quite far away from what I normally would listen to and so it wasn’t an obvious choice. Instead I took it as a challenge to see in which direction we could take the song. I thought it could be interesting to get rid of all that disco/vocoder stuff and focus on the song itself and suddenly it shined in new splendor. Marie interprets the song in such a personal way that it feels like, for us at least, it’s nearly a brand new tune. That’s what she’s really good at. I also felt it fits perfectly into the whole mix.”

The single “Transformer Man” will be out on the 26th of October. Below is the original by Neil Young.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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