Charming Arson - Cabare Apocalypse

 


The introduction of The Listening To This Week has divided opinion. Some love it. others think it takes the focus away from the Album Reviews (primarily what we still do), but I wanted us to evolve and find an easy way to cover single songs without taking up lots of time that should be devoted to Album Reviews. There is no doubt that it has taken IDHAS into a bigger area and engaged many new followers.

I mention this because without LTTW, I would never have discovered Charming Arson and part of its remit was to discover new artists that were not in our usual channels. The Boston quartet could be classed as Indie Rock, but that would be a bit lazy, because the band are all over the place in a wonderful way.

Dave Cameron and Dave Gould were part of the Alt Prog Rock Trio Zoot in the late 90s and there are big glimpses of that here, although it is rocked and guitar popped up. Alice Has A Metonome threatens Prog but transforms into a complete rock out with a blistering Guitar solo.

But compare that to Queen Of The Fading Star which is incredibly delicate, part Radiohead, part Syd Barrett and totally splendid. Hayley, You're My Comet is great Psych Pop, yet also very Brit Pop and these mixtures are really what makes the band.

Crazy Jane Gets God is very Toytown with big nods to Pop Rock and 60s Psych. It reminds me a lot of my 90s faves, Octopus. No One Gets Nowhere is where Charming Arson lays into Pop Rock with a Noo Yawk chit chat inserted with a Jazz groove. 

How To Fight It is a really strange choice as an opener and the loosest that the band get, it is almost a Jam, almost Alt Metal for a while. Across there the six songs, there is a lot to take in due to the rapid changes, but it is definitely worth it. I've had this for a while and been dying to tell you about it. Something a bit different, but something very fulfilling. 

You can listen to and buy the album here. You can find out more about the band here.

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Glitter Wizard - Kiss The Boot

 

We're back, but not as the man in the mask, more as in the New York Groove and so it seems apt to start with San Francisco's Glitter Wizard. As you'd expect there are plenty of nods to the 1973 - 1974 UK Glam Rock scene and it is done really well.

This isn't a new idea to plenty of I Don't Hear A Single followers with both The Darkness and Ulysses. Glitter Wizard however add something with different, Whereas The Darkness are more theatrical with a multi range lead vocalist, Ulysses mastered Pomp Rock, here there is far more instrument wise.

This allows the band to follow heavier directions and the synth takes them in more Space Rock areas. The base is the drum sound of The Glitter Band and everything else spreads its tentacles far and wide. Sugar Beat is pure Glitter Band throughout.

She's A Star starts all Glam, but heads more into 70s Rock with added synth, drum and guitar solos. Glitterati leads with a BBC Sci Fi Series theme like affair, but the vocal and Guitar are heavier. A little like Black Sabbath Never Say Die times and the Guitar solo is very Tony Iommi.

Sequins And Leather has that Glam Rock chug, but also Boogie Rock's a bit more. Pogo Tonight even has a synth run, very close to Sweet's Fox On The Run. There is also cover of Bowie's Suffragette City which does Glam Pop it up a bit, but seems a bit pointless. There are some songs that should be left alone, this being one.

Yes Kiss The Boot is very derivative, but that's the point. The genre was never gonna change the musical world, but it was pure fun and bringing it to a new audience is just the job as well as allowing fans my age to remember the Flares and the Butterfly Collars is a great Nostalgia vibe. 2023 really does need more fun and Glitter Wizard aim to please.

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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Back Tomorrow (Updated)

 

Update :  As with all these things, the update has taken longer than expected. So, we will be returning tomorrow now as there is another couple of hours to completion. 

The oldest server is being retired. There is a good deal of sadness with this beast having started with us at the beginning of I Don’t Hear A Single. So there is a party planned for it with butterfly cakes and Trifle and everything to celebrate its excellent seven year as of hard work………………

We haven't gone anywhere. There have been Server Problems at IDHAS Country Park for the past couple of days, mainly due to the oldest server getting a digital case of dementia, meaning we have been checking back ups are ok furiously.

We are now having to move away from our largely wireless world to going back to USB temporarily. Meaning that I've had to order some USB cables that will arrive tomorrow. They will be set up tomorrow evening after work and then we can trip over wires and bruise our knees and encourage PM Me Babe messages on Facebook.

Reviews will be back at some stage tomorrow night, the only downside will be the delay of the new IDHAS 10 Song Mix as a review catch up is the most pressing. In the meantime, perhaps look at some older reviews or give the new Listening To This Week a good ole listen, Be There or Be Square tomorrow night blah blah etc etc.

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Listening To This Week Playlist

 

Welcome to this week's LTTW playlist. 24 songs this week that show new music is thriving and this helps prove why. A splendid selection awaits your ears. Play them all at once or dig in and out because they are up for a week. We are amazed at how popular this feature has become.

This weekly fayre 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. Please try and support the artists!

circle round a sphere - code

Royal Castles - Sweet

Spidercat - Look At The Moon

Borderlines - F.B.T.

Department S (Featuring Baz Warne) - So Far Away

morph - nothing's real

The Pigeon Detectives - Summer Girl

Black Suit Youth - Outsiders

Tough Ship - Annie

Sea Glass With Sky Adler - Weekend

Harvey Drive - Dead Sleepyhead

The Survival Code - Built To Break

Leogluck - No Conventions

Leo Paterniti - Nerv

The Transcontinentals - This Ride

The Vone - We Are Alive

The Forest And The Tree - Bleeding 

The Sugar Hold - City Summer Nights

hotplug - Mass Transit

Stone Fabel - The Sword (amber mix)

The Living Memories - Eulogy

Dorene - Wait for Me 

NALGO BAY - Strangers

Gregor McEwan - Summer Breeze

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The High Strung - Address Unknown

 

I was a late convert to Detroit's The High Strung as my 2019 review of Quiet Riots explains and I then embarked on a mission to grab everything. It is fair to say that few bands have touched me in that manner. You can read that review here. 

You only have to listen to the opening title track to understand why I became so obsessed. It is a thing of great beauty that just sends you into a a magnificent dream world, washing over you and then allows you to realise the delight that there are 11 songs to follow.

The band deliver beautifully played and arranged arrangements in their advanced Indie Pop that are pastoral at times, but cross into Piano Pop, Pop Rock, Psych Pop and even Americana. Yet they remain lyrically adept with arrangements that are very different in a musical world where so much is musically the same and trend led.

Although there isn't an XTC comparison here, the vibe is similar to the one you feel when listen to Skylarking. The absolute magnificence of a song like Telescope mixes Village Green type lyrics and verges on Toytown whilst remaining great Piano Pop.

Then there is the feel of 70s Classic Pop Rock on So Lonely, Basement Lear's Housemartins' nod and Yr Brother's 70s Country Rock feel. Lazy Days is almost 60s UK Beat, but could easily be West Coast Summer Pop. Run It Back is Ben Folds like Piano Pop with a killer chorus. 

Overcoat And Skies is beautifully put together Pop, yet Northern Pygmy Owl is splendid Americana. Just as Address Unknown opens the album wonderfully, there is similar strength in the closing Baroque Pop of The Pop which may be the best song on here, certainly atmospherically.

I've embedded three songs, but to be honest, I could have easily embedded all 12. This is an album that lots promise, but few deliver. It is everything that is great about I Don't Hear A Single. An album that all should listen to. Complex, yet simple to listen to. Intricate, yet full of hooks. Pop doesn't get any better. Truly Superb!

You can listen to the album on all the streaming sites. You can buy the album here and on the likes of Amazon. You listen to the full album song by song here. You can find out more about the band here. I am hoping that the band open up the listening part of Bandcamp and have more places to buy the album including the band's website shop. 

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King Lemon - Matinee

 

Michigan quartet Lemon King offer up an excellent five song debut. Great Pop Rock that threatens Big Rock without ever thankfully quite reaching it. The melody and catchiness dominates, but the background synth also gives big hints of 80s Pop Rock.

It is an album that is beautifully put together. King Lemon, however, are no one trick pony, they have an ability to appeal to fans of The Killers earlier anthemic joy, whilst grabbing Melodic Pop Rock fans and in particular fans of the better end of 80s Melodic Rock, a sort of US New Wave Guitar Pop.

Nothing To Look Forever is a cracking opener with a cracking chorus that forces you to sing along to. Rock music that you can dance to with a big Guitar solo and a Cars like synth that adds to the melody. Space Hands follows a similar path, but is pacier, but the other three songs follow different paths. 

Uncanny Valleys is built around a Riff that grips you and comes across like a solo Phil Lynott fronting a New Wave band. There is also a breakout synth riff that ventures into Space Rock and even Prog, whilst remaining dominated by that killer riff.

Note To Self slows things down with a UK Glam Rock riff accompanying a Lighters in the air vibe. Spearmint is very Bates Motel, particularly when they accompanied Sparks, but the chorus is massive. Matinee is a great debut and the hope is that we get more and more as time progresses.

You can listen to and buy the EP here.

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IDHAS Ten Songs Mix 57 - Back To The Future Special

Something a bit different this week. I've gotten all nostalgic today, thinking about Power Pop, the Anything Should Happen days and before, So with it being IDHAS 10 Song Mix day, I came up with the Wizzo idea of doing a special this week. So here are 10 songs that I have adored from primarily the second half of the 90s. 

It is Power Pop dominated and bar the first two songs, British. A cracking 37 minute listen and a reminder for me, that life isn't all about the new, although this is a rare departure. The songs are not placed in the order of preference, just in a way that flows.

 Here is the playlist of the ten songs this week :

01 Tsar - I Don't Wanna Break-Up

02 Cotton Mather - 40 Watt Solution

03 Silver Sun - I'll See You Around

04 Ian McNabb - (I Wish I Was In) California

05 The Supernaturals - The Day Before Yesterday's Man

06 Terrorvision - Perseverance

07 Dodgy - Making The Most Of

08 Ash - Envy

09 Northern Uproar - Anyway You Look

10 Octopus - Your Smile

IDHAS Ten Songs Mix 57

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