The editorial, the introduction bit and the Five music things thing for whatever it is all about. Five? There’s something rather compelling about five. Cross-pollination? Five more? Do we need to do the editorial bit again? Is there another way? A cure for pulling cats out of hats? Is there a rhyme? Is there a reason? Was there ever? What do reasons make? Five more, everything must go and same as last time (and the time before) five, and no, we never do and the proof of the pudding is in that proof reading. When we started this thing, oh never mind, it doesn’t matter and like we asked last time, does anyone bother reading the editorial? Does anyone ever actually look down the rabbit hole or is it all just method acting? We do listen to everything that comes in, we do it so you don’t have to, we are very (very) very very picky about what we actually post on these fractured pages or what gets played on the radio or what we hang in a gallery. Cut to the chase, never mind the editorial there’s loads of music further down the page, well five or so pieces of music that have come our way in the last few days and cut cut slash and cut to the damn chase, who needs an editorial or words in general? Just facts and links then, here you go, grab your five, eat your greens, go eat some art, go ride a ghost car, no that’s not right, go glory in the new wave punk rock goodness of Ghost Car, no, that was last time – Five music things – Punk quartet Ghost Car announce their feisty new album, Modern Woman have a new single, Waterbaby, more from Sky Creature, some Humour and… and this is this time, have another five…

1: Kill Your Boyfriend – The first single from the upcoming album “Voodoo” out the 14th Octbor 2022 via Sister9 Recordings here in the UK. There a couple of tracks and the details via the Sister 9 Bandcamp page

“Treviso, Italy-based two piece Kill Your Boyfriend will release their fourth album ‘Voodoo’ on October 14th via Sister 9 Recordings (Europe), Little Cloud Records (North America) and Shyrec (ItaLy). A frantic and hypnothising bacchanalia of Psych & Industrial tinged soundwaves, the new album is a collection of reverb laden necromantic charms, summoning the souls and bones of the greats in the Rock & Roll pantheon of the 1950s. The duo delivers such glittery dark enchantment via 7 hoodoo hymns, travelling with a crumbling, ghostly and magically whizzing Rocket 88, in the company of Marie Laveau and madame Lalaurie. It’s a relentless whirl of Voodoo-Psych, Industrial-Billy, Electro-GrisGris, which you can dance to. Today they share their first single ‘The King'”

2: Fiona Brice Is a British composer, orchestral arranger & violinist living in Glasgow. Her biog talks of “modern classical tracks with a reflective, meditative, cinematic quality”. Fiona is also known for collaborations with John Grant, Placebo, Roy Harper, Anna Calvi and quite a few more, she’s just announced a new album, And You Know I Care, due out in october of this year, here’s a first rather beautiful taste, more details on her Bandcamp page. The deliciously rich slice of new music and indeed the new video will tell you far more about Fiona Brice than we can…

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3: Junior Brother – No Snitch is taken from Junior Brother’s upcoming album “The Great Irish Famine” Out 2nd September on Strange Brew, more on the other side of the video

“Following both a global pandemic and an acclaimed, landmark debut album, inimitable Irish Alt-Folk act Junior Brother returns today with details of his new album “The Great Irish Famine”, and a new single titled “No Snitch”. The album comes on the heels of his lauded 2019 album “Pull The Right Rope” and is out 2^nd September via multidisciplinary Irish label Strange Brew”.

If this here video is your first taste then Junior Brother’s back catalogue is well worth exploring, give him your time now, the best music isn’t always instant and obvious and well, play the video three times and then go explore the back catalogue. No Snitch does feel like his best work is still to come, it feels a more full-bodied, it has us looking forward to what we expect will be a rather fine rather different album, hrave knows why, but heaven does know a lot of things…

“An idiosyncratic, challenging and richly lyrical singer/ songwriter, Junior Brother is the pseudonym of Co. Kerry, Ireland singer Ronan Kealy. Chosen as The Irish Times’ Best Irish Act of 2019 and nominated for the 2019 Choice Music Prize for Album of the Year, Junior Brother has built a rabid following thanks to unmissable live shows, and music both excitingly forward-looking and anciently evocative. His strange stories unfold with reckless abandon upon a distinctive guitar and foot tambourine accompaniment, influenced as much by the avant-garde as music from the Middle Ages and his home place in rural Ireland.

In addition to earning a Choice Music Prize nomination, Junior Brother’s trailblazing debut album “Pull The Right Rope”, also saw Kealy garner two nominations at the 2019 RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards, for Best Folk Album and Best Emerging Folk Act. Similarly, vigorous approval from modern-day Irish figureheads such as the Rubberbandits and Cillian Murphy has furthered Junior Brother’s stock, the latter playing Junior Brother several times on his BBC Radio 6 Music Show. Along-side further airplay, his television performances include appearances on RTÉ’s the Tommy Tiernan show, Other Voices and the Choice Music Prize Awards night in Vicar Street.

“The Great Irish Famine” leaps boldly forward into an exciting new chapter, and into a shaken new world – staggeringly profound, brutally beautiful in its epic sweep. The lead single “No Snitch” – which is released digitally today with a 7” release to follow – is an intoxicating first taste of this new material. A track of towering, bruised catharsis, Kealy’s emotive and powerful vocals fluctuate across the tracks temperamental instrumentation which is both at once tumultuous and calming”

“Speaking about the themes across the album Kealy further explains, “I was very conscious to bring each element of the debut into this follow-up, but dramatically dig ten times deeper and stretch ten times further down into each avenue”. “No Snitch” soars amidst darkly comic self-reflection (“This Is My Body”), anxious reflexes on modern living (“No Country For Young Men”), and the painful role the past plays in a nation’s present (“King Jessup’s Nine Trials”).

Both startlingly dynamic and profoundly accomplished, “The Great Irish Famine” reflects fall-out of trauma both personal and universal, national, and international, minor, and mountainous, historic, and contemporary – all uncompromisingly conveyed through the magnetic, emotionally potent vision of a one-of-a-kind artist at the top of his game.

In addition to his new release, Junior Brother is currently also set to play several shows and festivals across Ireland this year with further dates TBA. Kealy has been steadily building a fanbase around Ireland and beyond for his mesmerising live shows, winning hearts in iconic venues such as Vicar Street (Dublin), The Beacon Theatre (New York), Cork Opera House (Cork), Blackpool Opera House (UK) to name just a few. He has played support for a variety of like-minded acts such as The Proclaimers and Glen Hansard, the latter bringing him on a tour of the US East Coast in July 2019″.

Album details here or via Bandcamp

4: David Jackson – in the words of Donatelo, the person who filmed and psoted this piece of beauty, “June 18, 2022 on the occasion of the musical tribute to the 50th anniversary of the Villa Pamphilj rock concert in Rome where he participated with the Van Der Graaf Generator”. How good is that gloriously raw version? March with a smile on your face!

5: Andy Clockwise – This just landed, we like it so we’re sharing it. “Andy Clockwise has returned with his first single of 2022 called ‘Gonna Get It‘, which tells us a story about the consequences of modern boredom and existential dread but does so with influences of opera, disco, new wave & post-punk to deliver a melancholic, but danceable Indie Opus. Equal parts CHIC and Punk Poetry”.

Here’s the press release

Andy Clockwise has delivered a Psychedelic Punk-Disco Odyssey into the current state of affairs, with signature Clockwise enigmatic storytelling for fans of Talking Heads, Malcolm Mclaren, ESG, LCD Soundsystem Feat. a host of secret Indie Collaborators.

Andy Clockwise has returned with his first single of 2022 “Gonna Get It, (Just What We Deserve)” The song tells us a story about the consequences of modern boredom and existential dread but does so with influences of opera, disco, new wave & post punk to deliver a melancholic, but danceable Indie Opus. Equal parts CHIC and Punk Poetry.

If this single is anything to go by, Andy’s 4 volume record War Stories could be looking like Andy’s most pivotal release to date. From the hints we have received and music we have heard so far, Andy seems to have mined what makes popular music so great whilst still remaining recklessly creative, free, and deep. Is this not the sound we have been missing for Indie music for a while? Ambitious music? Thrilling, but not pretentious? Sound good?

In the lead-up to this single we have released “On The Waterfront,” a Peter Gabriel Roxy Music-style lament for times passed — “Money Power Sex & Fame,” hailed by Buzzbands LA as “an ’80s dance-floor banger that covers better than half of the seven deadly sins” — and the title track “War Stories,” which was described by Grimy Goods as “Splitting the difference between the massive sonics of 80s electro-ballads and the expansive storytelling of rock and roll, Andy Clockwise makes an ambitious attempt to tackle the sheer breadth of life —and boy, does he nail it….. LCD Soundsystem meets Springsteen collision of sound and style, aided by the thrilling energy of Clockwise’s anthemic crooning and riveting electronica.”

Clockwise has not only found his voice, he has found his sound. A down-to-earth pastiche of new wave, classic Bowie style pop, and heart-wrenching poetry of Leonard Cohen & Nick Cave. Although touching on classic references Andy Clockwise is unabashedly original, with a sound and vision years in the making and a message all his own. This is an artist at that moment in his career that people talk about in the annals of Rock & Roll & Indie folklore.

“I hate talking about about music these days it all seems like buzz words “engagement” and “personal brands”. Cry while ya dancing I say. To me its becoming evident that life is how well you suck, so if you can suck pretty good or in a fantastic way or at least spend a lot of time trying something then maybe you are in with a chance? This is me sucking at indie disco with opera , so that maybe one day with a bit of luck i can write something as good as bizarre love triangle or the flower duet” – says clockwise

War Stories is a several-volume odyssey about the battles that we put ourselves through. Real and unreal. Written, produced, and all instruments played by Clockwise himself, this is an odyssey, spanning 36 tracks. Created in his Hollywood Hills studio and Boulevard Recording (Pink Floyd/Fleetwood Mac) in LA, as well as during stints in London and Sydney, it features work by Omar Yakar (War On Drugs), Drew Erickson (Tim Heidecker, Roger Waters), JT Thomas (Captain Beefheart), Stella Mozgawa (Warpaint, Kurt Vile), and Jade Macrae. War Stories will be released this year on Exhibition Records. This will be accompanied by the re-release of Andy’s extensive catalog to streaming services & Vinyl”.

And while we’re here, did someone just mention Peter Gabriel up there? Here’s The one time Genesis frontman doing something with the Sham 69 frontman back in the last century…

And from 2017

Meanwhile in Germany in 1977…