Month: June 2016

Watts “The Black Heart of Rock-N-Roll”

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Boston’s WATTS are bringing us a healthy dose of straight up rock’n’roll with this 10 song album. From AC/DC (“The Black Heart Of Rock’n’Roll”, “Strut (Like a Champ)”) to The STONES (“Sunset”) with an obvious AEROSMITH influence (especially in the vocals in songs like “Bring On The Lights” or “The B Side”), this is the kind of music that can only make your head and feet move ; and when WATTS decide to boogie, they deliver us “Up All Night”, all in groove and style.
These guys are also great at writing slower songs like “Bye & Bye”, bringing images of long and lonely car drives on never ending dusty American roads. WATTS sometimes put a bit of British glam rock in their American rock’n’roll (there’s a bit of The SWEET in “Fast & Loose”), so they can’t be wrong!
Rum Bar Records definitley have good tastes in rock’n’roll./Laurent C.

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Iron Lizards “Red” EP

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First (digital) release of this new band from Paris. “Ladies Night In Hell”, and “Midnight Queen” both display strong HELLACOPTERS influences, you’ll also find a bit of BACKYARD BABIES in “Garbage City”, and early TURBONEGRO sometimes comes to mind (especially in the guitar solos.) These guys also love ZEKE and PETER PAN SPEEDROCK, and you can hear this in “Doppelgänger.”
6 songs you should check out if you miss the early 00s punk’n’roll scene, or if you’re into high energy rock’n’roll. I guess the next step for IRON LIZARDS is to release a physical release./Laurent C.

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Medicine Ball Caravan “Keep Goin’ ‘Til The Next Stop”

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This second album is out 6 years after the band’ split! Singer Matt decided it would be a pity not to release these 8 songs, and had a few guests to help him and make it happen, including drummer Danny Fury (The LORDS OF THE NEW CHURCH, KILL CITY DRAGONS, VAIN, TANGO PIRATES…)
MEDICINE BALL CARAVAN is mostly influenced by 70s rock (“If I’m Lucky, I might Get Picked Up”, “Back Again”…), but also grunge, especially on songs like “Unleash The Dog” and “Girl” that sound like a mix of STONE TEMPLE PILOTS and ALICE IN CHAINS. The atmosphere gets close to BLACK SABBATH on “In Limbo”, harmonica and boogie drum beats add a good dose of dirty dusty rock’n’roll in “On The Road”, and “Will You Be There” definitely has a STONES touch.
If you weren’t familiar with these rock’n’rollers from Paris, then this album is a good occasion to change that. Moreover, if you want to get more into their music, their 2008 album “Crossing The Seas… Spreading The Sins” is being re-released by Alive and Kickin’ Records./Laurent C.

https://medicineballcaravan.bandcamp.com/
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Les Suzards – Sons of the Dogs

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After reviewing their debut album out on Wanda Records, we decided to send a few questions to Les SUZARDS in order to know more about them. T Boy Stoogeling (vocals/guitar) tells us about the band’s history, French rock’n’roll, their last tour and influences…

Can you tell us a bit about the history of the band and this name choice? You’re sometimes called Les SUZARDS or The SUZARDS… Which one should we use?

Well the very begining was early 2013, I met Bibi (the drummer) and we started playing together, then, a few months after that, McFly (bassist) joined us, and so the band was born ! Then, we made an EP on Adrenalin Fix/ Barbarella Records, and now the LP is out…
We decided to call our band Les Suzards probably when we were drunk, don’t remember exactly, it’s a name made mixing two French alcoholic drinks, Suze and Ricard… You can use Les Suzards, I love the French touch of it, but The Suzards is funny because it of course doesn’t mean anything in english.

Your first album is out on German record label Wanda records. How did that happen?

Well he allready knew our band because he has our first EP for sale in his mailorder, thanks to Adrenalin Fix, so when I was looking for a label, I sent him an email, and he was ok to do it ! And that’s so cool, because he released bands i really like, Ricky C Quartet, Gaggers, La Flingue among others, and Monster is just an amazing guy!

Tell us a bit about the recording of the album…

It was recorded in Toulouse by Lo Spider, in three days it was almost all done, just had to do two additional session to add the piano on « Business Kids », acoustic guitar on « I Tell lies », that kind of stuff you know ? And I remade some voices on some songs, and of course, our friend Romeo from Rythm’n’blues band Les Grys-Grys played guitar on « Searchin’ », that was so cool ! Lo Spider also plays guitar on « You kill me », I think it helps to give different colours to the record. It was all recorded on analog equipement.

The DOGS influence is pretty obvious in your music. While it’s not rare to find foreign rock’n’roll bands who talk about the DOGS influence in their music, it’s quite rare to find French bands who do the same. Is there an explanation for this to you?

I don’t know… But I saw that many French people like to hate French bands haha… So maybe it’s part of the explanation? I’m personally a lot into French bands, there’s some very good stuff, Dogs, Little Bob, Coronados, Olivensteins, etc etc… But Dogs have the little something that makes the difference between a good band and a really great band, they are obviously more than a curiosity like « ho, a French band ! nice », they are part of rock’n’roll history, they have that strangeness, that little something you can’t explain that’s typical of every great and important band… Something magic, something special, something else, something else, something that’s rock’n’roll, something magic, something strange, something real, something that moves my soul…

Any other French rock’n’roll bands you like these days?

Hell yeah ! Asphalt from Toulouse, La Flingue, Sun Sick, Tomy and the Cougars all from Marseille, Cheap Riot from Paris, Scaners from Lyon, Les Grys-Grys from Montpellier, Avenue Z, Magnetix, Videodrome, Cockpit from Bordeaux, Dragster from Rennes (now Bruxelles) and I’m pretty sure I forgot some…

You were on tour on a few weeks ago. How was it? Places you’ve enjoyed the most? Any anecdotes?

LesSuzards02That was fucking amazing man !!! Really mind blowing !!! Except Italy that was not that good, we had very cool audiences, sometimes really packed, it was honestly fun everywhere, of course Germany is one of my favourite country to play, but Belgium, Netherlands, Croatia, France, it was cool everywhere !!! By the way, I wanna say thanks a lot to our driver Jojo who did an awesome job on the tour. Anecdotes, well there’s a lot, you know, drinking, doing drugs, playing in a band, there’s like hundreds of anecdotes haha, Amsterdam speed is very good, Zagreb weed is very strong, Bruxelles audience is so cool, we met so many incredible and nice people !!!

5 albums you couldn’t live without?

Well, “Funhouse” by The Stooges, it’s probably my favourite album ever ; Dogs “Too Much Class For The Neighborhood”, a fantastic and underrated album ! “Crack In The System” by Dead Moon, I’m a huge fan of Dead Moon and Fred Cole’s bands in general, that album is my favourite, listen to the song « Unknown passage », always blows my mind… “Radios Appears” by Radio Birdman, of course !!! Fantastic band, incredible record, it got everything : Detroit like energy, 60’s garage influence, surf references, Blue Oyster Cult strangeness like on “Secret Treaties”… Then maybe “5th Dimension” by The Byrds, one of my favourite bands ever, but I could pick “Forever Changes” by Love as well… It’s hard to stay with only 5 records haha

Thoughts about the 40th Anniversary of Punk?

That’s corporate bullshit. Who gives a fuck ?

What’s next for the band?

We just recorded new songs after the tour, we have a pair of festivals this summer, a French tour would be nice, Spain again and Portugal, and Germany I hope, next year probably.

http://thesuzards.bandcamp.com/

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