April 3, 2011

Today's Hotness: Johnny Foreigner, Adebisi Shank, Dananananaykroyd

Johnny Foreigner -- Certain Songs Are Cursed, art by Lewes Herriot
>> Oh the things we've wanted to tell you of late. We're going to start making up for lost time right now. Like, did you know that the planned single from Birmingham, England-based noise pop titans Johnny Foreigner is no longer a single but an EP? We hope you did, because it was a limited edition physical release, a CD affixed to a frisbee, for God's sake. The thing sold out in fewer than 24 hours, there having been only 250 on offer. Fans can still buy the MP3s from Alcopop! right here, which label -- along with kindred operation Big Scary Monsters and upstart phenomenon Audio Antihero -- sits firmly among the only labels worth a damn anymore. The Johnny Foreigner EP is titled Certain Songs Are Cursed, and it contains four tracks: "What Drummers Get," "Twin Sisterzz," "Johnny Foreigner vs. You (Cursed Version)," and "Certain Songs." We've heard the EP, it's characteristically brilliant. The official release date is 18 April. Two of the tracks are already streaming on Soundcloud, and you need to hear them, so hitch your wagon to the streams embedded below. Something else we missed: Johnny Foreigner have compiled all of their b-sides released from 2008 through 2010 under the title European Disco - Collected B​-​sides and Remixes, 2008​-2010 and they are being sold at Bandcamp for five pounds. Which is nothing -- the song "I Heard, He Ties Up Cats" alone is worth five pounds. So if for some inexplicable reason you've not been obsessively collecting Johnny Foreigner songs since 2007 like we have, well, here's your chance to (try to) catch up.

What Drummers Get by Johnny Foreigner

Johnny Foreigner Vs You (Cursed Version) by Johnny Foreigner

>> This is also true: Northern Ireland-based spazzcore savants Adebisi Shank's transcendent -- transcendent, we said -- second record This Is The Second Album Of A Band Called Adebisi Shank was released worldwide last month by the ever-tasteful Sargent House label (you know the label, they also picked up the Maps & Atlases record and released that way back?). The collection was previously released last June by Big Scary Monsters in the UK. As we quipped elsewhere, the record is every single record you wished Trans Am had released after its tour de force Surrender To The Night. The most mind-blowing track on the Adebisi Shank record is the impenetrably titled "(-_-)," but the entire thing is wonderful. Free music, you say? Sure. Here's track three from This Is The Second Album Of A Band Called Adebisi Shank, "Ghenki Shank." It's got more of a later Trans Am vibe (read: vocoder).

Adebisi Shank -- "Ghenki Shank" -- The Is The Second Album Of A Band Called Adebisi Shank
[right click and save as]
[buy This Is The Second Album Of A Band Called Adebisi Shank right here]

>> Oh yeah, so Dananananaykroyd are back. The always-quality Another Form Of Relief blog has all the details here, but we'll recount the highlights, which are these: the Glaswegian fight-pop standard bearers' forthcoming sophomore set is titled There Is A Way; There Is A Way is being released on the band's own label Pizza College June 13. According to Dananananaykroyd's Internet Home Page, There Is A Way has 11 tracks and was produced in California by Ross Robinson. Ross Robinson, at least at Wikipedia, is referred to as the "Godfather of Nu Metal." And yes, he is the guy who produced that really flat-sounding The Cure record from 2004. On the upside, Mr. Robinson produced At The Drive-In's towering swan song Relationship Of Command [this is one of the greatest late-night TV performances ever]. We'll be very interested to hear this thing. Hit the link to AFOR for an MP3 of the new track "E Numbers."

>> And have you heard the new Yuck b-side? It's called "Doctors In My Bed," it's the flip to a planned forthcoming single release for the the lead track from the London-based quartets phenomenal self-titled debut, which lead track is "Get Away," in case you didn't know. The "Get Away" single is slated for release in late April, during the band's upcoming U.S. tour that commences April 13 in Los Angeles, although said single is not listed on the Fat Possum site -- perhaps it is tour-only? Yuck, as we've been saying for months, will play Paradise Rock Club in Boston April 28, and Clicky Clicky will be there. As far as "Doctors In My Bed" goes, well, it may be the first Yuck song we've heard that we do not love. But they've put out so many awesome songs, you can't hold this one against them. It's not bad, it just lacks the sort of melodic magic we've learned to expect from the band. Just buy the single for the A-side, it's a scorcher.

Doctors In My Bed by Yuck

No comments: