The Good Water - Mansaid

It was the opening rhyming couplet that really drew us in to "Mansaid", the latest single from Birmingham duo The Good Water. After hearing it for the first time, "Now is the time to be intelligent, that's what the man said to his elephant", we found ourselves chuckling internally at its unexpectedness. It's a great blues-rock song, underpinned by a simple yet effective guitar riff, wryfully humorous lyrics, and the occasional slip into psychedelic moments.

"Mansaid" is out now.

Dirt Farmers - Alibi For The Silent Guy

A second trip to Melbourne in the space of a day? Why not?

Australian 5-piece Dirt Farmer are a blues country-rock band with a penchant for the sound of 60s and 70s Los Angeles. Their latest single is "Alibi For The Silent Guy", a song which sounds quite a bit like Alabama Shakes both in terms of their overall sound, and also in their vocal similarities (despite the gender flip). It's also got a pretty wonderful saxophone interlude, which has more than a little Clarence Clemons to it. You've got to love a band who make much which sounds so timeless.

"Alibi For The Silent Guy" is taken from their début album "Free BBQ", which is out now.

Southern - Where I Want To Be

As much as I enjoyed this year's Great Escape Festival, it doesn't mean that it didn't leave me disappointed. Before the festival, one of the bands that I really wanted to see was the Belfast duo Southern, whom this blog has followed more or less since its inception. However, when I went to Sticky Mike's Frog Bar to catch them, there was already a queue snaking around the block to get in, so alas, I went Southernless that weekend. Not that I should have been surprised, mind you. Their stars have been burning brightly recently since the release of their rather magnificent "Where The Wild Are" E.P, which has seen them pick up major radio play and earned them a slot at this year's Reading & Leeds Festival. Oh well, at least when they're playing to thousands I will be able to boast about seeing them perform in the upstairs of a back-alley pub to to no more than ten punters.

But back to the present, for the duo have just announced the release of their brand new single, "Where I Want To Be". The song follows on quite well from the lead track from their last E.P, with its bluesy yet muscular guitar riffs and intertwining vocals from the Southern siblings. There's shades of the Rolling Stones and "Riot City Blues"-era Primal Scream in there, and is a great demonstration of the band's heavy face (we're informed that the song's b-side, "The Way You Breathe", is a demonstration of the band's softer, croonier side, like "Oh Won't You Go" from the last E.P, but as that song has yet to be made public, we cannot confirm nor deny that this is indeed the case).

On a "thinking to myself out loud notes", one wonders whether the band will continue to record under the name Southern in the future. Even though they have built a profile for themselves, one can only imagine that their name might cause them problems in the future due to the chance of other artists using a similar name, or due to their name not being the easiest to Google (they're nowhere to be found when typing "southern" into the site, although admittedly they're the top search for "southern band"). If they were to change their name, I imagine The Southern Siblings could work, as it keeps the Southern part whilst rolling well off the tongue, although they would have some unfortunate abbreviation if they did. Or maybe they don't need to change anything, what do I know? They've done this well without needing to change much.

"Where I Want To Be" will be released on August 18th.

Southern - Where The Wild Are (E.P)

To say that this blog has something of a fondness for Southern, the Belfast bred, Liverpool based sibling duo, would be something of an understatement. They were the first local band we re-discovered after returning from a year spent in the Midwestern wilderness, they were the second Northern Irish group this blog wrote about when we started way back on July 2011 (the first being Yes Cadets, who are still going strong), and we have revisited them on several occasions, watching them as they have grown in maturity and in terms of their fanbase.

The past 6 months or so however has seem them take massive leaps and bounds forward, with the band seemingly finding the sound that they're most comfortable - a combination of rock, blues, folk and country, all tied up by the intertwining vocals of the duo. This has seen them rewarded with a record deal which has made them label mates of Jagwar Ma and Childhood, featured on a Kitsuné compilation album, and receive extensive airplay on Radio 1 and XFM among others.

It is off the back of this that the band have released their latest E.P, "Where The Wild Are". If the name sounds familiar to you, there's a reason for that - the song was originally released as a free single back in May 2012, causing a few minor ripples on the blogosphere at the time. If you think this is merely a re-release of that song, then you'd be dead wrong - for this version is a radical re-imagining of the original recording in a style that better suits the band's current musical style. It's no longer a breezy, cute, acoustic number, instead it's a slide guitar led blues rocker which, for lack of a better phrase, has a lot of balls.

When I first heard the new version, it didn't click straight away, as the original version of "Where The Wild Are" had been my favourite Southern tune to date, and I wasn't too impressed that the new version only bore a passing resemblance to the original. However, over the past few days it has completely clicked - this is how the song needs to be presented, and deserves to be presented.

The other two songs on the E.P show different aspects to the band. "Oh Won't You Go" sees Lucy take sole lead vocals, and shows of the band's more tender, Mazzy Star-like side, whilst "Four Days" could perhaps be best described as heavy country. Neither of the two songs are a match for the title track, but still show the band's knack for crafting rather decent songs.

Southern have come on leaps and bounds in the few years since they first came to our attention. 2014 could be the year where they burst their way into the big leagues, which if this E.P is anything to go by, is not empty hyperbole.

The "Where The Wild Are" E.P will be released on April 14th.

Black Joe Lewis - Skulldiggin

Having recently signed to Vagrant Records (the home of Eels among others). Texan sextet Black Joe Lewis will be releasing their next album later this summer. In anticipation of this, the band have made the first track from that record available for download. "Skulldiggin" is a great slice of guttural, primal blues-rock, centred around an overdriven guitar riff, which wouldn't sound out of place in Jack White's record collection.

"Skulldiggin" is taken from the album "Electric Slave", which is released on August 27th.


Photo is © Keith Davis Young

Valerie June - You Can't Be Told

Memphis born singer Valerie June is due to support Jake Bugg on his upcoming autumn tour, having played with him on a few dates this year. I'm slightly disappointed that their marketing departments appear to have missed a trick by not labeling it the "June-Bugg Tour", but then again what do I know? I'm just a humble blogger.

But anyway, Valerie June is due to release her debut album, "Pushin' Against A Stone" sometime this spring. Before that, she is due to release her latest single. Co-written with Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, "You Can't Be Told" is a sumptuous slice of old-school delta blues which is boosted by June's gospel-inflected vocals, calling to mind artists such as Alabama Shakes.

"You Can't Be Told" will be released on March 4th on limited edition 7".

Crow Black Chicken - Murmuration

 

How do you like your blues-rock served? Polished like a 24 carat diamond? More easy going than a Dutch McDonald's worker? Or do you prefer it scuzzy, hard hitting and raucous? If it's the latter, then hard working Irish trio Crow Black Chicken are right up your metaphorical street. 

For a band that have over 100 gigs in the past year, including a prestigious slot at BBC Introducing stage at the Glastonbury Festival, it could be quite difficult to cross it over to a studio setting. Thankfully on "Murmuration", their latest single, the band have nailed it rather well, with the powerful, whiskey-soaked vocals and scuzzy blues guitar work of Christy O'Hanlon really shining through. It's an exciting single, as if someone's managed to bottle a hurricane.

"Murmuration" is available as a free download, and will feature on Crow Black Chicken's debut album, due out in May.