The news that no festivals would be taking place this year is truly upsetting but necessary as we’re fighting the current Covid-19 pandemic.
While the Leeds & Reading festivals is showcasing the different sets which have been recorded over the years, there’s been some development onto the comeback in 2021 as the boss, Melvin Benn says:
“COVID has given us a year off, so the innovation for next year is testing – everybody will be tested,” he tells NME of Reading & Leeds 2021. “We’re also going to reproduce the main stage twice. What was the second stage is going to be elevated to an equal stage with the same presentation. What that really allows us to do is book six acts that are headliners.”
He continues: “When we first took over Reading Festival in 1989, the idea that there would even be two stages of acts playing at the same time was innovative. People were like, ‘Two bands playing at once? You can’t do that, Melvin.’ We were like, ‘Yeah we can, just watch.’ Now festivals have hundreds of stages at once.”
There’s more as he comments on the 2021 expectations for next years bands.
“The idea that the 2020 line-up would work perfectly well for 2021? No, it’s not happening – not for Reading & Leeds,” he confirms. “We just wiped the slate clean and started again. There will be one headliner that will repeat, but that’s the only one. Someone asked if we should just book the same thing, but we’ve never done that so why would we start now? We’d be a year out of date.”
Special #RandL21 ANNOUNCEMENT 📣 Monday on @BBCR1 📻 Tune in to Jack Saunders' show from 6:30pm to find out MORE 😮 Trust us, you won't want to miss it 👌
That’s not what both Dying Wish and Sharptone Records are thinking as the record company have announced they’ve signed the Portland based band!
On becoming the latest addition to the roster, here’s what Emm Boster (Vocals) had to say:
“We are very excited to have signed to SharpTone. From the beginning this label has shown us that they truly believe in us and what we can do. As a newer band, it’s cool to see a label that’s home to some of our inspiration in Bleeding Through, choose to invest a lot in us. Even with the stress of COVID-19 impacting the music industry this year, they have not slowed their momentum on our deal or on our plans to record our debut LP.”
In addition to the news of the signing, the band have also released a brand new track which could feature on the aforementioned debut record.
Hello everyone. I do apologise for not posting in the last week. As some of you might not know, I’m a one person operation on this blog and things just got away from me in the last few weeks where I’ve been applying for more jobs as well as working at my part time place of work so things have been a touch hectic for me at the time of writing. But enough of that real life stuff, let’s get to the music side of things.
The first pick of this week is Thousand Below. They have a animated video is a reworked version of their track ‘Chemical’. The track originaly featured on last year’s ‘Gone In Your Wake’.
This new version featured guest vocals from Dead Lakes frontman Sumner Peterson and is off their recent EP, ‘Let Go Of Your Love’ which does feature more reworked tracks off ‘Gone In Your Wake’.
Next we move to Australia. The heavy hitters in Alpha Wolf have their latest video for ‘Bleed 4 You’, which is the third single off their upcoming ‘A Quiet Place to Die’.
Sabian Lynch (Guitar) says on the track:
“This song is a little out of our comfort zone but upon completion we feel we created something special. We’re not a band who wants to stick solely to one sound, we have a wide variety of influences and we want each song to stand up on its own.
We initially had written pages of lyrics for this song. It seems most people have a story of meeting the exact right person at the exact wrong time, so there was no short supply of input. However the further we delved into the song, the more apparent it came that we didn’t need pages of lyrics, just a handful of the right words. Originally the track was a lot heavier, which shouldn’t come as a surprise, but once we had the lyrical theme in mind we revisited the song and it evolved into something none of us expected.”
Heading to the British waters for a bit of Punk this time in the form of Milk Teeth.
‘Sharks’ is off their recently released self-titled record where this video sees their fans assist in some clips.
“The video for ‘Sharks’ was put together to show fans and friends having fun during lockdown,” Becky explains. “It’s been a really weird few months globally and incredibly isolating for many, the aim of the video was to bring the music community together while we aren’t able be together in person. The submissions brought a lot of joy – a huge thank you to those who took part. Sharks is lyrically a very dark song juxtaposed against a catchy melody and tempo.
“Originally written on the piano, it’s about when I was being bullied for almost 2 years after a bad breakup and having to stay strong and determined even though I was getting swarmed by “sharks”. The “I need you like the air that I breathe” symbolises the unhealthy connection I had to the person involved – they were being abusive but I’d still feel like I needed them and their approval no matter how badly I was treated.
“The last verse is about how resilience is so important and that they may have left me vulnerable and metaphorically “exposed “ but that I wouldn’t be made to disappear until my bones have rusted out (resilience) and that even the wear and tear wouldn’t beat me.”
Keeping the next pick on British soil, Norwich’s Other Half released their debut record, ‘Big Twenty’ out into the world via Venn Records on the 21st August 2020.
Before that happened however, they dropped ‘Sameness Without End’ into the world for everyone to enjoy.
On the video, the band say:
“As nice as it’s been making all our previous videos ourselves, it’s pretty hard to get us all playing together when Sophie has to be stood behind the camera the whole time. I think we operate at our best when we’re actually making a din together, so we asked our friend Tom from Road Mutant to make us a video where we do just that.
We recorded the video at Sick Room, the studio where we recorded ‘Big Twenty’. Owen who runs Sick Room was such an important part of making the record so it was nice to come back and spend some quality time at the studio playing the same song over and over again in 33 degree heat.”
Now, in much anticipation of their upcoming record, ‘Ohmns’, Deftones have the title track in music video for for up. This is the first offering for us in four years since the release of their record ‘Gore’.
Moving onto the German progessive metal band The Ocean. they have a video for the track, ‘Oilgocene’ which is set to come on their upcoming record, ‘Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic’.
The video was filmed by Loïc Rossetti (Vocals) and David Åhfeldt (Guitar) and Robin Staps (Guitar) , the video was shot in the Aragats mountains in Armenia during one of their tours last summer.
On the video Staps says:
“We found this place by accident: the dilapidated ruins of a soviet observatory & research station for cosmic radiation. The building itself looked like a spaceship that had crash-landed up high in the mountains, but there were lots of interesting structures scattered across the landscape: concrete cubes, underground tunnels, rusted machinery, fallen power poles and watchtowers. It all looked like taken straight out of Andrej Tarkovsky’s ‘Stalker’ movie.”
Heading over to Little Rock, Arkansas for our next pick in the quartet Pallbearer for the video of ‘Rite Of Passage’, the second single off their upcoming record, ‘Forgotten Days’.
Joseph Rowland (Bass) says:
“‘Rite Of Passage’ is both a reflection and a confessional. The toll that loss has taken on my life often finds ways to remind me that I may never feel whole, and the song’s purpose is to express and embody that emptiness. It felt totally appropriate to wrap it in reimagined trappings of our earliest doom-leaning material.”
Vegas anyone? That’s the destination of the Post-Hardcore Amarionette whom have the video for their title – track off their latest record, ‘Sunset On This Generation’.
How about a Philadelphia band?
The up and coming group Neverkept have a new single out in the world titled as ‘Sundown Somehow’ alongside the accompanying video.
It’s uncertain if the track is a stand along single or if it’ll be part of a larger EP or Record.
The band explain:
“We wanted to write something that would sound like the ups and downs you face in recovery or struggles in any capacity, for that matter, through the sound of pissed off guitars, room rocking drums, and intimate vocals.”
Toning things down slightly, we have the Chicago Singer/Songwriter Into It. Over It with the new track and accompanying video for ‘We Prefer Indoors’.
This is off the upcoming fourth record, ‘Figure’ set to be released via Big Scary Monsters / Triple Crown Records which will be the follow up to the 2016 effort, ‘Standards’.
And lastly we have the ever incredible Normandie, which is one of the EU’s best exports as well as their home country of Sweden.
They have for us ‘Jericho’ which is the bands first new music in two years since the release of their record, ‘White Flag’.
We all have our secrets. Whether we’re ready to face them or not, each and every one of us has something buried deep down inside that we desperately keep hidden away from the prying, judging eyes of the rest of the world. But sometimes those secrets become so powerful that they can no longer stay buried, festering and gnawing at our souls so much that they can stop us from living life to the fullest. He didn’t realise it until recently, but singer Philip Strand was harbouring one such secret for the longest time.
“When we first wrote Jericho I was actually singing about something else,” he begins. “It was originally about a relationship where the other person was very cold hearted and they didn’t really give away any emotions but it became increasingly clear that something else was driving the song.”
“Writing became like a therapy session for me, all of a sudden,” he explains, “I felt like there was something deeper I wanted to touch on. I wanted to touch base and just really go into this emotion. Something was driving me down there, into myself. So I made a conscious decision to write about my personal experiences for the first time. I felt like it was time. I went back and I switched some words around so that the entire meaning of the song shifted. It’s became about breaking down the old to give way and form something completely new…”
And that’s it for another week of the music video countdown. Be sure to check back next-time for another round of great music videos. If you have any suggestions for me to check out, be sure to send an email or message us via the socials on Facebook or Twitter!
Hello everyone. I do apologise for not posting in the last week. As some of you might not know, I’m a one person operation on this blog and things just got away from me in the last few weeks where I’ve been applying for more jobs as well as working at my part time place of work so things have been a touch hectic for me at the time of writing. But enough of that real life stuff, let’s get to the music side of things.
Bully’s latest single, ‘Prism’ arrived ahead of the release of their latest record, ‘Sugaregg’ which was released on the 21st August but I had to pick this track as a standout and this weeks first pick of the roundup!
The new record was produced and mixed by John Congleton and Bully’s Alicia Bognanno, with additional production and mixing by Graham Walsh, recorded at Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, and Palace Sound in Toronto, Ontario, and mastered by Heba Kadry.
The next choice this week are the British Metalcore foursome Death Blooms. Vocalist Paul Barrow had the following to say on the release of ‘Anger’, the second track the band have released in 2020 and the second since their signing to Adventure Cat Records.
“‘Anger’ is about our fear and frailties and how it’s so easy for every single one of us to project all of that into our relationships and to the people closest to us. We can all become a product of our anxieties and our insecurities; feeling afraid to make changes and feeling so lost within it all. It can become so frustrating existing in this perpetual loop of uncertainty and it becomes all we feel and know. It’s impossible to let anybody else in when we’re stuck in this cycle and, unfortunately, our fear becomes our loneliness. We find it hard to believe, but some people do care and do want to help us. We just need to help ourselves.”
Next on this week’s New Music Roundup, we have the trap metal titan Ghostmane. There’s a new track called ‘AL’, which was released recently and is the lead single from the upcoming record, ‘ANTI-ICON’.
Right, we have come to the penultimate track of the week and a newish artist who’s gaining some traction this year. I present to you, JJ Wilde.
In just over a year, JJ Wilde has gone from paying her dues and playing whatever shows she could to become the first female artist to have a debut single go No. 1 on all three Canadian rock radio formats – while on equal footing with The Killers, The Black Keys, and Billy Talent. Now, JJ is back with a new song that marks the next chapter of her evolution from fan-favourite underdog touring alongside The Struts, Incubus, The Blue Stones, and The Glorious Sons to a beloved chart-topper.
On the track she says: “For me, this song is about trying to change the narrative that society has accepted about women” says JJ. “It is clear, especially in the music industry that women are viewed more like objects a lot of the time than actual humans — seen not heard type of thing. Well, I want that to change – what women “should and shouldn’t do”, what society deems acceptable, what women are shamed for. All of the above. We are beautiful creatures. And I don’t think we should feel ashamed to express that. This song is taking a stab at what men have always been free to talk about in songs — doing whatever they want with whoever they want — but from a woman’s perspective.”
And lastly this week we have the final track as the return of the incredible You Me At Six.
The band debuted their latest track, ‘MAKEMEFEELALIVE’ which is expected to be the lead single of their upcoming TBA seventh record. This track follows on from the release of ‘Our House (The Mess We Made) which was released earlier in 2020.
This release is definitely a different turn of things for the band and if anything’s to go by, is going to be the heaviest record since they released Sinners Never Sleep around nine years ago.
And that’s it for another week of a countdown of the best singles out in the world in the last week. Be sure to check back next-time for another round of great music videos. If you have any suggestions for me to check out, be sure to send an email or message us via the socials on Facebook or Twitter!
Elder Brother have annonced the details of their upcoming third record, ‘I Won’t Fade On You’, which is the follow up to their 2018 record, ‘Stay Inside’.
It’s set to be released on October 2nd 2020 via Pure Noise Records where the band have released who tracks with the news of the album announcement.
The Cover Artwork, Tracklisting, Streaming of ‘I Get So Tired Of You’ and ‘The Champion Of The East Bay’ as well as Pre-Order options below.
01.) I Won’t Fade On You 02.) Halloween 03.) If You Love Me (Like You Say) 04.) I Get So Tired Of You [stream] 05.) Projector 06.) OK, Alright 07.) The Champion Of The East Bay [stream] 08.) The War Is Over 09.) Hair 10.) High 11.) Washed
The up and coming doom trap artist Mimi Barks has officially been signed.
The artist shared the news that she has signed a deal with Century Media Records.
“To be honest, I never wanted to work with a label. Experiences got me thinking they are all crooks. I hate that sassy, know-it-all industry attitude. Tryna enforce their idea of what an artist should look like and deliver musically, making sure it fits right into the charts zeitgeist.
I got the feeling Century Media sees artists and they work with them because they actually fuck with their music, not coz they see potential to mold that person to their liking. If they wouldn’t fuck with the music, they wouldn’t team up. Straight forward and no shit talk. I trust that they won’t interfere, but execute my vision.
Eventually they got me when we were on a night out in Berlin, getting lit till 5AM/6AM, when on our way home they were like, ‘Why we going home? I’d love to go on a rave right now’. It’s a match.”
No new material has been released at the moment but any material released will be confirmed as it develops.
Earlier this year, Evanescence announce that they would be finally releasing a brand new record into the world. That record is ‘The Bitter Truth’ where they would release it incrementally in 2020.
But just why is there no release date.
That’s because they’ve been writing and recording as the year has been going.
Despite Covid-19 as well as life getting in the way, they’re still making some progress with the record where vocalist Amy Lee speaks to SiriusXM in a new interview.
“We’re still ongoing. We don’t have a release date, but I like to look at it like it’s happening now.
“The idea behind this whole thing was always to go one song at a time, release it in real time with the fans while it’s still going on and it’s still fresh and live in the moment more.
“So, in my mind it is being released. This is part of it. We live in a new world where it’s not all about just dropping a big pile of music all at once. People don’t always consume music that way. I don’t.
“I still want to make an album, that’s a part of who we are and I think that’s important to our fans, so we’re doing that. We will drop the back half or whatever soon, but I don’t have a date because I never want to put a date down when I’m still writing. I don’t want to get to the end and say, ‘Eh anything. Just throw some words down’. I can’t do that. It has to be right. Sometimes it takes a minute.”
So we’re getting the new tracks literally as fresh as they come? Cool!
Man With A Mission are continuing their 10 year anniversary celebrations evebn in lockdown.
The band have announced the details of ‘MAN WITH A “REBOOT LIVE & STREAMING” MISSION’ filmed at Zepp Tokyo on August 29th 2020 from 12PM BST.
Jean-Ken Johnny (Vocals) says:
“We’ve missed playing for you guys, but we hope this will bring us closer together. It’s taken us a while to prepare for this but we’re glad we’ve made it here and we’re looking forward to enjoying some live music together.”
After much anticipation, Lonely The Brave have announced the details of their upcoming third record.
‘The Hope List’ is set to be released via Easy Life Records on January 22nd 2021. This will be the first the feature their vocalist Jack Bennett.
Mark Trotter (Guitar) says on the record:
“Given everything that’s happened to this band, it would have been remiss of us to try rushing into this or do something that wasn’t right. It takes time.
“We’ve been a band for over 10 years and stuck in our ways a lot. There has been a huge shift in dynamic now. It’s a completely different vibe from where we were before. There’s a renewed energy and a renewed focus.
Everything feels very positive in the Lonely The Brave camp.”
The Album Artwork, Tracklisting, Streaming of ‘Open Door’ as well as ‘Distant Light’ and ‘Bound’ can be found below. Pre-order options are available below as well.
1. Bound 2. Distant Light 3. Bright Eyes 4. Chasing Knives 5. The Hope List 6. Keeper 7. (Untitled) 8. Something I Said 9. Open Door 10. Your Heavy Heart 11. The Harrow
Almost Anything Music 