‘Nothing Else Matters’ is from AJ McLovely’s new album, ‘Under the Covers’.

AJ is a singer-songwriter from Aberdeenshire, Scotland and an ambassador for mental health. She has recently released her début album, ‘Under The Covers’. It is a collection of fan favourite cover songs, featuring pop, country and rock tracks.

AJ has previously released four, multi-genre, singles and her début EP, ‘Healing’ in late 2021. It featured her collaborations with Angelo-K, Richard Barribal, Aberdeen Wedding Pianist, Dennis Douglas and guitarist, Kevin Buchan. The tracks featured on the EP are; ‘Born To Make A Difference’, ‘Hold On’, ‘Bleeding Heart’ and ‘Breathe’, which we heard back in September 2021 (Week 14).

AJ has built up a worldwide fan base via social media, primarily on her Facebook page. She is currently working on her new single, a country covers album and a country EP of self-penned songs. All due for release in late 2023 or early 2024.

AJ has a website, at ajmclovely.com and is on Facebook, YouTube and Spotify.

 

The Aces have released ‘Always Get This Way’.

Beloved indie-pop band The Aces announced their highly anticipated, third, full-length album, ‘I’ve Loved You For So Long’. It is due for release on June 2 on Red Bull Records. They usher in the project with their latest single, ‘Always Get This Way’.

Giving fans a taste of what’s to come, ‘Always Get This Way’ sees them confront anxiety and mental health in their most vulnerable offering to date. While the lyrics stem from internalized pain, The Aces find solace in the studio through searing guitar chords and retro keys that make for a striking slice of polished pop-rock.

Sharing the deeply personal message behind the song, Cristal Ramirez says, “I was in the worst mental state of my life when we wrote ‘Always Get This Way.’ Filled with anxiety, and having panic attacks almost every night, it took everything in me to make the 45-minute drive to the studio that day. I was just there to make something. I was just there to feel better. Alisa, as she always has been, was a strong voice encouraging me to explore how I was feeling through a song. At first, I was hesitant and embarrassed, but pretty soon ‘Always Get This Way’ was unraveling quickly through the speakers.

This song is about shame, panic, and struggle. It’s about the fact that we hold no space for those struggling mentally in our society, and we just kind of wish they’d get over it and quit being an inconvenience. It was the song that felt like it granted us permission to make what would become our upcoming album. It’s one of the most vulnerable songs I’ve ever written.”

The Aces have a website, at theacesofficial.com, and are on YouTube, Insta, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook.

 

The release of ‘The Weather at World’s End: 1997–2022’ was on 7th April. ‘Better Weather’ is from that album.

‘The Weather at World’s End: 1997–2022’ anthologises 20 songs from 25 years of Colin Harper’s under-the-radar ‘studio band’ the Legends of Tomorrow. Dozens of musicians and recording artists from Northern Ireland’s rock, blues, folk, punk, jazz and traditional music communities and guests from further afield have joyously contributed to Legends’ recordings. Only a few of which have received a national release, and this anthology features 50 of these collaborators.

Of the 20 tracks, 18 are Harper compositions and the others are by 60s British folk enigma Anne Briggs and 70s Australian rock god Billy Thorpe. There are two 2023 remixes of 1997 tracks, one previously unreleased track and two new tracks: ‘Better Weather’, featuring rising Yorkshire folk sensation Katie Spencer (vocals) plus jazz stars Linley Hamilton (flugelhorn) and Scott Flanigan (piano); and ‘All We Need is Love’, featuring soulful Americana recording artist Janet Henry (vocals) in her first new collaboration with Colin in 15 years, plus Belfast guitar hero Norman Boyd and, on BVs, Alison O’Donnell and Joby Fox .

The anthology majors on the ‘classic rock’ aspect of the Legends’ canon and features 14 lead vocalists. The 32-page booklet includes Harper’s telling of the secret history of the ensemble.

The album is available from Talking Elephant.

 

On 7^th April Coastal Fire Dept released ‘Cry Your Heart Out’.

Formed in 2013 in the Vale, Guernsey, Coastal Fire Dept. serves as a throwback to the heady days of 90s alt rock & grunge guitar bands with a modern twist & other influences thrown in from time to time. They are all about big driving melodic guitars with catchy choruses that stick in your head.

The band first started releasing music in 2019 with their mini-album ‘Control’ & have pushed themselves ever since. Keen to evolve their sound, 2021 saw a move towards a harder guitar driven vibe. It also saw the band record three singles with Kellii Scott on drums. All three singles took on different grunge influences and lead to much more radio play and press coverage globally.

Now Coastal Fire Dept are getting up a head of steam as they release the new single ‘Cry Your Heart Out’ plus their new album, ‘Outsiders’, on 14th April 2023.

About the new track, the band say, “‘Cry Your Heart Out’ is a gritty post grunge/alt rock track set in the here and now. It’s about people who give themselves & everything they own to others in need until there is nothing left to give. Lyrically it’s influenced by an Oscar Wilde short story & sonically US guitar driven bands such as Nirvana, Failure, Balance & Composure and Teenage Wrist.

A song hugely influenced by US bands recorded by an under the radar band about to break cover. Enjoy the gritty verses, love the guitars and singalong with the choruses.”

Coastal Fire Dept have a website, at coastalfiredept.com, and are on Insta, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and Bandcamp.

 

The Broken Creels released ‘Friend or Foe’ on 7th April.

Aberdeenshire alt-rock band, The Broken Creels have released their début single ‘Friend of Foe’.

The Broken Creels comprises Daz Alexander on drums; Colin Clyne on vocals, guitar, harmonica; Lee Heinemann on bass and Tom Ward on guitar / keys. Describing themselves as a “collaborative catch pulled from the depths of the North Sea,” the band is brimming with influences such as Humble Pie, Bob Dylan, The Stone Roses, and John Fogarty.

Energetic, melodic and anthemic; ‘Friend or Foe’ takes its inspiration from the 1990’s indie rock scene, but its contemporary production ensures it sits perfectly in its modern surrounds. Lyrically, the song touches on the times of turbulence, fear, and misinformation we live in; and how, when surrounded by such division, the lines blur seamlessly between friend and foe.

You can follow The Broken Creels on Facebook and Insta.

 

Sarah McQuaid has released a new single and announced a UK tour.

Ahead of a 21-show April-May UK tour that takes her from the West Country to Aberdeenshire and from Cumbria to Kent, folk singer-songwriter Sarah McQuaid has joined forces with Tim Norman of 1990s acid and ambient dub duo UVX for ‘If We DUB Any Deeper It Could Get Dangerous’. It’s a new remix of the title track from her 2018 album ‘If We Dig Any Deeper It Could Get Dangerous’.

“It all started with a tongue-in-cheek conversation when we were on tour in the USA to promote the album back in 2018,” explains Sarah’s long-time manager, producer and sound engineer, Martin Stansbury. “Long drives and longer days led, as they often do, to rambling chats that were occasionally intense and often frivolous in nature.”

One such conversation featured the development of a less-than-serious concept in which ‘If We Dig Any Deeper It Could Get Dangerous’ could be re-imagined as a dub album, akin to the Easy Star All-Stars’ classic ‘Dub Side of the Moon’.

The “dub remix” idea continued to pop up from time to time as a jokey reference over the ensuing years, until one day Tim Norman asked Martin to master a dub remix he’d done for a US-based singer/songwriter. This transformed into a simple labour exchange, and ‘If We DUB Any Deeper It Could Get Dangerous’ became a reality.

Tour Dates:

4 May 2023: The Witham — 3 Horse Market, Barnard Castle, DL12 8LY
5 May 2023: Alne Music Club — Alne Village Hall, Main Street, Alne, York, YO61 1RT
6 May 2023: The Salt Works Sessions — Lion Salt Works, Ollershaw Lane, Marston, Northwich, Cheshire CW9 9ES
7 May 2023: Water Yeat Village Hall — Water Yeat, Ulverston LA12 8DJ
8 May 2023: Almost a House Concert — The Hopetoun Arms Hotel, 37 Main Street, Leadhills, Biggar ML12 6XP
11 May 2023: Kilbrannan Sound Events at Carradale Village Hall — B879, Carradale, Campbeltown, Kintyre PA28 6SB
13 May 2023: Tin Hut Sessions — Gartly Community Hall, Gartly, Aberdeenshire AB54 4PX
14 May 2023: Craigmonie Centre — Glen Urquhart High School, Drumnadrochit, Inverness-shire IV63 6XA
15 May 2023: The Stables at Cromarty Arts Trust — Cromarty IV11 8XS
16 May 2023: Aberdeen Arts Centre — 33 King Street, Aberdeen, AB24 5AA
17 May 2023: Irvine Folk Club — Vineburgh Community Centre, Quarry Rd, Irvine KA12 0PS
19 May 2023: Seaside Folk — Saltburn Community Theatre, Albion Terrace, Saltburn by the Sea, TS12 1JW
20 May 2023: Wainsgate Chapel — Wainsgate Lane, Old Town, Hebden Bridge HX7 8SU
21 May 2023: Burton in Lonsdale Village Hall — High Street, Burton in Lonsdale, Carnforth LA6 3JU
26 May 2023: Roots Music Club Doncaster — Ukrainian Centre,  48 Beckett Road, Doncaster DN2 4AD
27 May 2023: Fulbourn Arts — Fulbourn United Reformed Church, Home End, Fulbourn, Cambridge CB21 5BS
29 May 2023: St Mary of Charity Church — Church Road, Faversham, Kent ME13 8GZ
Full details of Sarah’s tour are on her website, at sarahmcquaid.com. She is also on Facebook, Insta and Twitter.

 

Pocket Lint released their new album ‘Gallery’ on 7th April. ‘Motorboot’ is the third track on that album.

Pocket Lint is the genre-defying musical vehicle for former Remodel guitarist Mark Heffernan. Creating vignettes through the medium of music, Pocket Lint will draw the listener into a vivid world full of noir imagery and kaleidoscopic shifts in style. Using synths, pianos, guitars and found sounds, referred to as ‘aural bonbons’, Pocket Lint paints in sound.

Soundtrack to an imaginary film ‘Themes for Silcaville’ realised this vividly, by conjuring images, sights and sounds from the silver screen of the imagination. Whilst working on Silcaville, Pocket Lint participated in the successful REM covers project – which was endorsed by the band – ‘A Carnival of Sorts’. Silcaville was then followed by EP4, an aural investigation of colour, which was his first release through Deliberator Records.

The next offering was the album ‘A Grey Opaque’ and this is now to be followed by the imminent release of a collection simply known as ‘Gallery’. Each song is based on an individual work of art, and taken as a whole they guide us through an ever-shifting musical journey of a dream like gallery space with no one definable genre of sound, except the unmistakable focal point that is Pocket Lint.

Pocket Line are on Bandcamp, Facebook and YouTube.

 

Eimear Quinn and Gavan Ring released ‘Peace Upon This Land’ on 7th April.

In 1996, two years before the 1998, Good Friday Agreement, Eimear Quinn, as ‘the voice’ of Ireland sang the following words to Europe and the world:

“I am the voice of the past that will always be,
Filled with my sorrows and blood in my fields;
I am the voice of the future…bring me your peace…
Bring me your peace…and my wounds they will heal.“

This year of 2023, being the 25th Anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, the song – ‘Peace Upon This Land’ – celebrates and commemorates the answer to that earlier calling which the Good Friday Agreement brought to the island of Ireland.

Now Eimear Quinn, with Gavan Ring and the Dublin Brass Ensemble, sings:

“There is peace upon this land,
When we in silence stand
When you take my hand…
There’s peace upon this land.”

While the song has a personal intimacy as in, “when you take my hand”, it also references the bigger picture of people who, once not at peace, by taking each other’s hands now – finally – come together in peace.

Soprano, Eimear Quinn has a website, at eimearquinn.com, tenor, Gavan Ring has a website at gavanring.com and the ensemble, Brass Warriors, have a website at brasswarriors.com.

 

Imperial Leisure released ‘Wiggle’ on 9^th April.

From their humble beginnings in London as a party band born out of school friendships, Imperial Leisure have continued to go from strength to strength, forever evolving their style but sticking true to their reputation for delivering fun and high energy live performances. Taking influences from all around, the music in part is a fun-loving throwback to the British 2-tone ska era delivered with 90s punk and hip-hop attitude.

After 10 years of releasing music and touring, they took a break. But, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it proved to be the shake-up founding members, Scott Vining and Denis Smith, required. Oddly encouraged by the ensuing macabre events and chaos surrounding them, Imperial Leisure reforms and arrange a series of recording sessions to be carried out only at the time of a full moon.

Suitably lubricated, like a gaggle of cackling hags stooped over a cauldron they experiment with ideas, creating musical recipes to later draw upon. Those recipes manifest as a demo aptly named ‘The Full Moon Sessions’. The demo forms the structure from which the new album emerges. ’Through The Mountain’, albeit unexpected, is the 4th studio album by Imperial Leisure. The new album is written and produced in Cornwall at Propagation House.

Live dates:

21 May 2023 Cotham Hill Street Party Oxfam – Bristol
26 May 2023 Cursus Cider & Music Festival – Salisbury
30 June 2023 Settle Down Fest – Settle
1 July 2023 Nibley Festival – North Nibley
1 July 2023 Woodfest – Alresford
21 July 2023 Whiskers Cornwall
22 July 2023 Reggae & Rum Festival
22 July 2023 My Dads Bigger Than Your Dad, Swindon
4 August 2023 Knot Tied Festival – Sheffield
26 August 2023 Camper Calling – Warwickshire

Imperial Leisure have a website, at imperial-leisure.co.uk, and you can follow them on Facebook, Insta, Twitter, YouTube and Spotify.

 

On 11th April Devin James Fry released his album ‘Black Rainbow’.

Devin James Fry is pleased to announce the release of his new album Retrellion. It is a departure from his previous sound, which typically featured him finger-picking a guitar, either alone or in the context of Name Sayers, the adventurous psychedelic rock band he fronts. The new album, which was produced, recorded, and mixed by Fry, features punchy, hip hop-influenced songs that are difficult to classify into a single genre, with otherworldly synths and glitchy electronics throughout.

The album’s title reflects that it is the product of a time (the COVID-19 pandemic) when societal norms broke down and expectations could be set aside.

About ‘Black Rainbow’:

Devin says, “Black Rainbow is a nontheistic elegiac banger inspired by a physics textbook. Reading about electromagnetic fields one night, I felt like a tiny glitch on this impossibly grand, mostly invisible spectrum of no one’s design, where no one knows what happens when we die, and to be humbled like that was liberating. That kind of knowledge makes me want to freak out and dance. So I made whatever beat came to mind and sang the hook. My partner Cassandra Hayes kicked in backing vocals. All this was recorded in my home studio.

To take it a new direction, I hit up non-binary plus-size queer Brooklyn rapper Chris Conde after the head of their label, Fake Four, told me he thought Chris would kill this track. Kill it they did. It was uncanny to share a song so offbeat and esoteric and have someone come back with a verse so perfect. I think Chris and I both felt a spark of understanding in that moment.

Since then, we’ve collaborated on two more tracks, both of which come out later this summer on a new record by my band Name Sayers. So beyond being incredibly fun and liberating to make, this song was a powerful meeting.”

Retrellion’s merchandise is as offbeat and finely crafted as the music. It includes a 180-gram LP, colouring books, incense, lathe-cut 7” singles, soap, and match-books.

Devin is on YouTube, Spotify and Facebook.

 

A recording of the show is available on MixCloud

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