HOW do you feel about fuzz? Personally, I’m a fan.
By ‘fuzz’, I don’t mean cops, facial hair or the bobbly bits that blight your favourite woolly jumper: I’m referring to the deliciously dirty, gritty/grotty guitar sound invented by the Kinks on You Really Got Me utilising an artfully vandalised amplifier and pedalled – literally – by all manner of rock outfits ever since whenever they want to come across all ‘nasty’.
Those who know their Super Fuzz from their Big Muff will definitely get off on the latest tune from Noise Annoys faves The Bonnevilles, who are in fabulously nasty form on the excellent first single from their forthcoming new album, Age of Monsters.
The Bonnevilles – Age of Monsters (Motor Sounds Records)
“The first single and title track off our new album, Age Of Monsters, is an anti-war song, with its second verse a ‘repurposed’ poem from Lurgan’s own favourite son, George AE Russell,” explain Lurgan/Banbridge exports The Bonnevilles of their latest tune – a slow-building, head-nodding garage fuzz blues groover that comes thickly caked in slide guitar ‘n’ righteous organ-powered wooziness as frontman Andy sings a lament of violence, death and revenge tied to how “masters of war make profit for brutality”.
“The song itself is about the current ongoing nightmare in Palestine and our hearts are broken as we watch a live action genocide being played out on our phones.
“One-hundred per cent of all proceeds from this single will be donated to Irish aid organisation Uisce for Gaza [which helps provide Gazans with clean water].
“We’re also going to be offering an online guitar lesson with Andy to learn how to play the riff for Age Of Monsters, which will also contribute to the fundraiser.”
Go and buy the single right now via thebonnevilles.bandcamp.com, then make sure you pre-order its parent album via thebonnevilles.co.uk/age-of-monsters-pre-sales to ensure you get your mitts on a vinyl or CD copy well before its official July 12 release date.
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That’s not who you think it is on the album cover, by the way (don’t worry, I was sucked in too) – though no doubt there’s every chance that the usual knee-jerk reaction types will still kick up a fuss and maybe even stage some sort of protest outside the band’s album launch show in Belfast at The Limelight on August 8.
Hey, all publicity is good publicity, right?
Junk Drawer – Loughgall Circus (single, Pizza Pizza)
“I’M GOING down the chip shop and I’m taking you all with me…” croon Belfast‘s Junk Drawer on the oddly threatening opening line of their psychedelic new single Loughgall Circus, a wonderfully woozy ode to strange places, characters and happenings in the band’s favourite staunchly loyal Co Armagh village, “where the laughter of our children is the silence of our men“.
This shimmering, heatwave friendly number also comes equipped with a great music video in which Stevie from the band gradually transmogrifies from a boozy, sash-sporting showband Elvis into a black robe-clad prophet of an alternative, cosmic mid-Ulster, on a mission to open the third eyes of his flock.
“We kind of have an obsession with the place,” comment the Drawer in the official statement accompanying the new single from their forthcoming second LP, Days of Heaven.
“We love it so much. How could we not? ‘A pebbledash wonderland’, where history, class and context seeps into every piece of language, from your choice of enunciation to delivery of a joke, in the most macro ways.
“Place names that exist more in cultural memory for what happened there than for the land and people they represented, and yet they’ll just throw a shopping centre or plant a circus there. I suppose ‘Loughgall Circus’ is a rumination on that idea.
“I think one of the biggest, but darkest laughs I’ve ever gotten from the band was when I presented them the opening line of the song and they all knew exactly what I was referring to.”
If you know, you know: your answers on a postcard for the chance to win absolutely nothing.
Loughghall Circus is currently streaming on all platforms and can be had directly from the band via linktr.ee/Junk_Drawer, where you can also pre-order Days of Heaven prior to its release on June 7.
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In and indeed around that momentous occasion, you can catch the band live on a co-headlining tour of Ireland with Cola and M(h)aol – including at The Black Box in Belfast on May 28 and Sandino’s in Derry on May 29.
Be there and be part of the cosmic Ulster revolution…
Gama Bomb: Survival of The Fastest – May 18, 19 & 22, QFT Belfast / Limelight 2
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OK, so a couple of these dates aren’t actually gigs, but rather a trio of chances to see the excellent documentary about Newry-bred thrashers Gama Bomb.
However, the band will be on-hand for a Q&A following the May 18 screening, after which you can then catch them blowing the doors off the Limelight with their reliably raucous, sci-fi/horror-informed strain of anti-fascist, faster-is-gooder metal with support from Acid Age and Raised By Owls.
Tickets: queensfilmtheatre.com and ticketmaster.ie
Wine Lips – May 21, The Deer’s Head, Belfast
The Canadian psych-garage sensations make their Belfast debut in the city’s loudest room, with support from Stratford Rise.
Ear protection is advised.
Tickets: thedeersheadbelfast.com
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Wes Banderson – Saturday May 17, The Black Box, Belfast
Wes Anderson is very much a love-him-or-hate-him kind of film-maker, so a group calling themselves Wes Banderson who dress like characters from The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou while performing favourite pieces from the master of cinematic quirk’s largely Mark Mothersbaugh-scored soundtracks are also going to be a Marmite proposition.
Indeed, you’ve probably already decided whether or not you have any interest in seeing them perform live in Belfast.
Tickets: gigantic.com
Supergrass – May 27, The Telegraph Building, Belfast
Good god, is it really 30 years since this lot released their debut album, I Should Coco?.
Gaz and co are currently touring to celebrate that fine first offering, which marked Supergrass out as the punky young upstarts of Britpop (see also Elastica, Kenickie and Ash, sort of) with killer singles like Caught By The Fuzz, Mansize Rooster and the once inescapable indie disco anthem, Alright.
Expect to hear the whole album done live, plus all your other ‘Grass faves too.
Tickets: ticketmaster.ie
Need a refresh ahead of the tour? Check out the 'I Should Coco' tour setlist now on streaming, listen here https://t.co/gbnIDXIhp6 pic.twitter.com/SFpm6y2x7k
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Essential new music from The Bonnevilles and Junk Drawer, plus unmissable gigs – The Irish News
