Custard - Suburban Curtains

 

This year has been, far more than usual. a remembering of Anything Should Happen. our old place. It was a members only thing and it concentrated more on the under appreciated than the new. No one was more unfairly ignored than Custard. We loved 'em.

We could never understand how bands like Crowded House burst out of Australia, but the more inventive Custard never seemed to travel the world. I know you always feel like your favourite bands should be bigger (except of course for the fans who want bands to be their secret and lose interest when they get larger).

Custard where and are ace. It is also bizarre that David McCormack has become more famous as the voice of Bluey's dad, Bandit Heeler in the cartoon series and for a soundtrack career than his Group adventures, also with The Polaroids and fine solo albums. 

Custard returned in 2015, just before we started here, and they are just as great now as they were then. Without the need to write Radio Hits, the true inventiveness is allowed to shine through. Suburban Curtains is a real tour de force.

It is a double album and 21 songs is ideal for me, I'd have more, but a big listen for the newcomer. But I urge those newbies to dig in, there is so much variety amongst the great Guitar Pop Rock, that the album needs a complete listen at every juncture.

From the New Wave, Costello like, Pushing All The Buttons to the UK Beat of Black Rinse. Heart Attacks is fine Power Pop and Fifty Plus is all Merseybeat. Molecules Colliding is great 80s US New Wave and No Pay No Delicious is great frantic melodic Post Punk.

There is even time for a slightly Music Hall ditty in The Leisurely Everly, (fourth time I've heard whistling this week). It sounds slightly Bonzo, slightly Pulp. Custard are magnificent and after all this time to be so original is noteworthy. Absolutely splendid stuff!

You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available as a Double Vinyl album, CD, Cassette (Yes I said Cassette) and as a download.

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The Hard-Ons - I Like You A Lot Getting Older

Now celebrating their 40th Anniversary. The Hard-Ons have earned the right to do whatever they want, not that they have ever needed or wanted your permission. They may less Punk and more Guitar Pop Rock these days, but they were always great at both.

That's not to say that they have lost their noisy bite. One listen to These Days Are Long proves that. Yet that is counterbalanced by the Power Pop of Because You're Mine. The pace of Happy Accidents is mighty fine Indie Rock, almost AOR.

Operation Lightning is incredibly in your face, but Getting Older is part New Wave, part 70s Pop Rock with Thin Lizzy Type Riffing. However, the one minute of Doesn't Look Like Me At All is aggressive Garage Punk of the highest order. 

Ride To The Station is essentially Summer Pop, but interspersed with chaotic interludes. Incredibly Pop, but like a lot of the band's songs, different directions come in part way through songs. They start as one thing and change into something else before reverting back.

I Like You A Lot reminds me a lot of a band like Vanilla, great melodic Pop Rock. But the best is saved until last. Pushover is magnificent. For a band that has songs that usually come in `t under 3 minutes, it is a surprise to hear something that is over 6.

Pushover shows an even different side to the band, it is epic.with an extended hypnotic fade. This album will suit old and new fans alike. There is enough of the old slightly angry vibe, but also plenty that shows how melodic and catchy that the Oz quartet can be. Wonderful!

 

You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available on Vinyl, CD and as a download.

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Listening To This Week Playlist

28 songs on the new Listening To This Week Playlist. Aural Delight, as ever, is assured.

I do hope that you can listen to all the songs across this week. The last listed is as great as the first and you have plenty of time to listen. This weekly playlist is solely for submissions, not the usual stuff that we dig out ourselves. 

All embeds open in new windows to aid scrolling. Links to the artists will also appear on I Don't Hear A Single Social Media sites over the next 24 hours. This will help you to discover more about the artists who appear here. 

Boyracer - Boosey And Hawkes Childhood

Erik Voeks And The Ghosters - Hieronymus

The Warhawks - Secondhand Promised Land

The Modbeats - Fairweather Friends

October Man - Sunken Vatican

Rick White And The Sadies - Standing In The Yard

John Greska - Sweater Aesthetic

These Dead Machines - Phantoms https://thesedeadmachines.bandcamp.com/track/phantoms

Saige Sage - The Bad Professor (Straight Out Of Montessori Mix)

The Neuroplastic - Tinpanzee

The Unsundered - Cirque Des USA

The Tisburys - The Anniversaries

Chris Pellnat - We Are Not Robots

Gavin Bowles & The Distractions - She Hates My Guts

Stone Branches - With Or Without

The Farsiders - Fast Rain (Noir Remix 2024)

Jason Sinay - High Plains Drifter

One Up - Take The Stage

The Spyrals - DREAM BELIEVIN'

Black Moon Howl - Shoot From The Hip

Late Check Out - Control

Late Check Out · Control

The Skinks - The Last Time

Luna Honey - Kerosene

Monti Kingu - Losing Your Doubt

Girl For Samson - Cigarette

John Calvin - Rest Of My Roads

Casino Havana - Black And White Love

Casino Havana · Black and White Love

Project HAWK - Hero

Shuta Yamanaka - Jean Machine (Radio Edit)

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Boyracer - Seaside Riot

 

Nick at the excellent Add To Wantlist suggests that Boyracer were always destined to write about and he's right. I look at Indie and it has become a catch all term for anything and everything. This is an album that defines what Indie should be about.

It is wonderfully chaotic instrumentally. Guitar riffs all over the place, wonderfully muddy at times, but incredibly melodic. If you like the Guitar, you will love this. The vocals are deliberately lower in the mix which allows you to appreciate the wonderful Guitar attack.

Those vocals are shared excellently between Stewart Anderson and Christina Riley, sometimes separately, sometimes together and even delivered alternatively by verse. It is a crack 5 piece outfit that not only fleshes out the sound, but allows departures into surprising areas.

There is the ace mix of 60s Pop and R and B of You Don't Love Me as an interesting departure, all fuzzed up of course. The Garage Rock of Rails is superb, the instrumental on Larkin could be prime time Blondie and the Bassline on Unknown Frequencies is totally hypnotic.

Boyracer rarely come up for air and here save it for the wonderful closer Homemade Fireworks which shows a different side to the band, a restraint that works beautifully. Incidentally, I mentioned that I hadn't heard whistling on an album for a long time and I've heard it for the third time in a few days now.

I suppose that you would call the band veterans now. There is something apt about their 15th album containing 15 songs. To be fair though, every album sounds as exciting as a debut and for that they deserve a big round of applause.

You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available on Vinyl or as a download.

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Bluesky

 

I have joined Bluesky. 

@hearasingle.bsky.social 

I was reluctant to join another platform. So although it has the IDHAS handle, it will not be used for promoting the place. There will also be the cynical humour of course.

 
Hoping for it to be more chatting about old and new music and ideas. No submissions please! Submissions are via any of the other contact places. 

But all are welcome.

Erik Voeks & The Ghosters - It Means Nothing Now

 

I missed this at the end of last year, but thankfully, the 2024 Vinyl release allows it to qualify it for this year. Kansas City's Erik Voeks is primarily noted as a solo artist, most known for the excellent Sandbox album which has just been remixed for a re-release.

His forming of a quartet with The Ghosters really produces a great Pop Rock glow. Written by all four, the Jangle Pop count is wonderfully heavy, but the move away from that genre is just as fine. A song like Hieronyous steps magnificently into intelligent Gravitas Pop.

There are hints of Elvis Costello on the verse of The Most Confusing Part which is accompanied by a stellar arrangement with added top notch Guitar riffing. Suck It Up even gets all UK Glam Rock at times and adds a killer chorus. Yet more Intelligent Guitar Pop.

Slowness Of The Moment is ace 70s Pop Rock to a tee and the weeping Guitar riff on Break Away is awesome. Instrumentally, it is more than a little XTC. There's even a potential Sitcom Theme Song in the jaunty altogether now-ness of Love You Anyway.

It Means Nothing Now has an hypnotic Jangle and yet Hazy Maze mixes UK New Wave with US 60s Sunshine Pop. The whole album is a joy, beautifully performed and lyrically adept throughout. The big reveal is how uplifting Pop Rock can be.

You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available on Vinyl, CD and as a download.

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Rick White And The Sadies - Rick White And The Sadies

 

"Mum! Dad is in the Psych Pop room again!" With all the Orgone Box activity, I'm in danger of turning here into a genre appreciation club. I make no apologies though. For all my musical adventures, I have always had a special place for Psych Pop.

Through all my departures across IDHAS and non IDHAS lands, I am also most happy in this destination. Of course, both Rick White and The Sadies themselves have always trod much further afield too, there are real Folk and Jangle elements, as well as UK Beat and Pop Rock.

For this new material, White gathers The Sadies up again and the results are masterful. White's back catalogue through Eric's Trip and Elevator To Hell has always been exceptional as have his albums with the magnificent delights of The Sadies.

The bond with the sadly missed Dallas Good was incredibly song and Good's spirit still feels present here. As you might expect, the Psychedelic Folk is exceptional, but there is an ease in moving to Classic Rock and even Pop Rock.

White's gentle melodic vocal suits the material perfectly and the playing from all is out of this world. Whether a song is groove led or riff heavy, every song holds its own. You just don't want the album to end and there are a surprising amount of choruses.

I've made the surprising decision of not mentioning any of songs. I've chosen my three favourite songs to embed, but your three will probably be completely different. So get yourself over to the album and witness masters of their trade, excelling at what they do all these years on.

You can listen to and buy the album here. The Vinyl can be bought here and here from Bluefog.

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