We just asked ChatGPT to tell us the three biggest rock music stories of the week, and it came back with tales of Twenty One Pilots (#1 album in the US), Chicago punk and garage-rock label Trouble in Mind (which has sadly ceased operations) and Louisville's Louder Than Life Festival, which, AI tells us, "affirms rock’s ongoing vigour."
Appallingly, it failed to mention our most recent Tracks Of The Week contest, which was won by Des Rocs after a surprisingly epic online battle with Chez Kane, while Luna Marble limped home in a relatively distant third place.
Below, you'll find another eight hopefuls, all keen to triumph as a new battle gets underway. Don't forget to vote for your favourite.
Creeper - Prey For The Night
Will Gould and his vampiric compadres go full Billy Idol on the seductively smoky verses of this latest taste of their forthcoming album Sanguivore II: Mistress Of Death. So far so sensual, so ‘cool’ even, until the chorus kicks and it’s all strident, sing-your-heart-out rock’n’roll theatre, lashings of Jim Steinman-esque bravado and saxophones for days. All of it delivered with the combination of finesse, humour and heart that resonates so deeply with their growing fanbase.
Henry’s Funeral Shoe - Hey!!! (What’s Your Pleasure?)
They’re back! Having largely retreated from band life in order to care for their terminally ill mother (she sadly passed away in 2023), and in the shadow of the pandemic, the Welsh brother duo have seemingly lost none of their mojo – based on this insistent, toe-tapping blues rocker. “We wanted it to sound like something on a gravedigger’s playlist,” they reason. “Dark enough to accompany the surroundings, energetic enough to keep you digging and groovy enough to help you dance on the way home”.
Demob Happy – Who Should I Say Is Calling?
Brighton-based alt/psych rocking trio Demob Happy return, two years on from their last release and raring to go with this louche yet snappy lil’ rocker – all funky Beatles-y atmosphere with stabbing sides of garage-sizzled riffing. “It's a conversation between me and myself,” frontman Mark Marcantonio says, “all the parts I sought to destroy-the roguish energy I thought was doing me no good. But it argued back, saying you need a bit of that to write rock and roll-so it's an ode to both.
Gluecifer - The Idiot
Heroes in their Norwegian homeland (we saw them at Oslo’s Tons of Rock festival last year, and they drew one of the biggest crowds of the weekend) Gluecifer have a comparatively lower profile in the rest of the world, but that doesn’t mean they should. Certainly not with pacey, dirty punk’n’roll headbangers like this up their sleeves, the appeal of which is beautifully uncomplicated and instant. There’s a new album, Same Drug New High, coming out in January.
The Lancasters - Rules Of The Road
Not actually from Lancaster (they’re four Italian blokes), these guys make 60s/early 70s-hewed sounds, psychedelic but full of grit and groove alongside ample dreamy freak-out textures on Rules Of The Road. Hippies with teeth. Flower power children with their boots planted firmly in a garage somewhere with Led Zeppelin, The Kinks and early The Who. Like the sound of that? There’s a new album, The Word of the Mistral, coming out in October.
Bywater Call - Hold Me Down
More unicorns for you now (in costume form that is), this time served up with a gorgeous hybrid of 60s soul and rootsy, Tedeschi Trucks-esque rock’n’roll – richly layered and rousing (that chorus especially…) but pulled with a deft lightness of touch. A charmingly goofy bit of single/video action that puts an extra twinkle in the eye of this already lush track from the Canadian band of brothers and sisters. Catch them on the road in the UK with South African blues star Dan Patlansky in November.
The Overjoyed - Don’t Listen!
These powerpop/punk Greeks are on zingy form on this bright-eyed, high-caffeine rock’n’roller – the sort that could comfortably hold its own on big stages, facing waves of dancing punters and flying beers. “This song is pure instinct and we didn’t overthink this one,” singer Leo Overjoyed says. “Punk energy, powerpop hooks, and a lot of emotion packed into two and a half minutes. ‘Don’t Listen!’ is what happens when you stop filtering your thoughts and let the truth come out loud.”
The Hot Damn! - About Last Night
Taken from last year's all-colours-blazing debut Dancing On The Milky Way, and now given the full single/video treatment – complete with plush unicorns, paddling pools and the sort of silliness that falls somewhere between a heavy student night out and a children’s party – About Last Night finds the fantastic foursome having a marvellous time, and working to ensure their listeners do likewise. Proof that you can be daft as a brush and deliver a really good, well-written piece of pop rock. Their UK headline tour starts this weekend, highly recommended for an escapist, feel-good night out.
