From The In-Box

The Telescopes are a band that is active since more than 30 years with different settings but always lead by Stephan Lawry. It is a bit of a psychedelic experience on The Desert In Your Heart and sometimes it reminds me to Velvet Underground playing in a very slow way. Totally different is Silent Water when they add rhythm and an acoustic guitar to their sound. I listened to various psychedelic bands this year but The Telescopes are far better than the average.



From the big reservoir of fantastic Scottish bands The Decrees held up the flag of power-pop with indie-rock influences. It is the sound of a bygone era and they are much inspired by Big Country. They show that this kind of music will never die.



Jenn Vix is another new artist to me. Based in Rhode Island she impressed me with an unique voice and some good songs. It is a combination of crunchy guitars, simple melodies and discreet beats. Her songs have a blackly mood but somehow in a powerful, sexy and catchy way.

Swamp Thing

In connection with yesterday's post I found a few records in my collection once again that I almost forgot. As I wrote about many bands from the early British post-punk bands it is incredibly that I never lost any word about The Chameleons so far. Formed in 1981 in the Great Manchester area they arrived with their first album Script From The Bridge to my ears. It was an impressive guitar sound with great hooks and I listened often to it. I missed their second record and came back to them with their third album Strange Times. They still had their dark-melancholy sound with gloomy double-guitars and sadly they never got the recognition other bands from this era had. After Swamp Thing reached the charts they disbanded.

The Chameleons - Swamp Thing

Sons And Fascination

A few days ago JC started a new series True Confessions and he had a big response to his main intention. The idea is to offer up some thoughts on a song that, to most reasonably-minded individuals, is held up as a classic but to the ears of the contributor is completely overrated.

My first thoughts went to Simple Minds and I named Don't You (Forget About Me) as an popular and overrated song compared to their first ones. I followed the discussion and took time to listen to Simple Minds again and I have to say that I wouldn't name this song again because it is in a very own tradition of their sound according to their finest moments. Anyway, Simple Minds made great records in their early days and I used to play songs by their 1981 record Sons And Fascination often when I was DJing at this time. So for you who will spent the time to this sound I give you the chance to listen one hour to this record at a stretch (including Sister Feelings Call).

Full English Brexit

Since decades I followed Billy Bragg and his music for his straight attitude and giving me very heartfelt songs. During the last years he did some collaborations far away from actual politics. But now he returned with an EP and he walks right back to his years of being a protest singer. His words says all.

Jamaica The Right Way

After the last election in Germany a few weeks ago our politicians trying to built a new administration on the so called Jamaican coalition of Christian Democrats, Free Democrats and Greens. Named by the colours of the parties black, yellow and green. Since one week exploratory talks take place and in my opinion they are just talking like every time and there will be no final solutions for the problems we have in these times like climate, environment, retirement pay, poverty etc. So I take the chance to write about an artist that is new to me. Junior Natural is a 22 year old Swede and in music business for almost 10 years. When  he went to Kingston he almost drew attention in the local scene. There he met the legendary Robbie Shakespeare, who auditioned him the old-school way: in a parking lot, giving him one chance and one minute. The young singer blew Robbie away: 'Come back with 12 songs and we'll take care of you' was all he told to Junior Natural. The rest is history and the result you can hear on his latest record Militant. The songs are lead by Dunbar's drum sound and Shakespeare's driving bass. Listening to this songs it reminds me to Black Uhuru one of the leading reggae artists in the late 70's/early 80's.

The Pub On The Corner

A few days ago The Singing Loins, a London based trash-folk duo shuffled up at my player and I appreciated much to listen to The Pub On The Corner once again. I always had a favour to simple, bare and honest songs outside of any specific style. Of course their songs were made for beer drinking people in the pub later on the evening when lots of people join the chorus. But wasn't it one of the ideas of punk? Anyway good music for good people.

Later this day I will go for a lecture about the fact that the SPIEGEL, Germany's most significant news magazine exists 70 years now. One of the editors is a native from my hometown and he will tell us about the work on a magazine and about investigative journalism. Seems like it will be a very interesting evening.

Something New To Explore

Today I will feature a band that was totally new to me. A few days ago a fried recommended Legendary Shack Shakers as one of the finest Southern bands from the United States. To be honest - I am not the one that loves blues much but sometimes when it is combined with other genres it can make fun listen to. LSS are active since the mid 90's and inspired by classic rock 'n' roll, country blues and swamp rock. The band is known for great live concerts notably for singer and harp player J.D. Wilkes. Jello Biafra named him the last great Rock and Roll frontman. Form a view about this sentence by yourself.