Peace – Gen Strange
Indie club night White Heat at Madam Jojo’s may be going under, but B-Town’s Peace are still flying the flag for the traditional, four-blokes-in-a-rock-band racket. The quartet return in 2015 with their second album Happy People – and while their music’s always been of the all-embracing, sing-along variety, their new material sounds as if they’re intent on a more earnest, socially conscious form of songwriting: take Money – a thinly veiled attack on the grip of capitalism, or their new single, Gen Strange, which is an upbeat ditty about the general pressures of modern society in the grip of a recession. But unless they’ve got something mightily aggressive tucked away on the new album, Sleaford Mods shouldn’t be too nervous about their place as the voice of austerity Britain.
Only Real – Yesterdays
If Jamie T’s Carry on the Grudge stoked your desire for cockney teens hellbent on telling the story of a generation’s dissent, then west London’s Only Real may be your cup of grit. Niall Galvin cites US rap as his main influence, but previous singles recall the serene, stoned glaze of Real Estate and the artwork for his new single is pure slacker Best Coast, with its vintage Californian typeface. Taken from his debut album, described as “a hypercolour, sideways look at the world” and out early next year – here’s his latest, Yesterdays, produced by Dan Carey, wizard of a very British-sounding brand of indie pop, from Franz, to Hot Chip, Kate Tempest and Django Django.
Pulled Apart By Horses – Merry Christmas
Nobody’s penned a great original Christmas track since, unfortunately, the Darkness’s Christmas Time (Don’t Let the Bells End). So instead of attempting to create a festive masterpiece, Too Pure are putting out a couple of Christmas covers instead – with Leeds’ Pulled Apart By Horses following in the footsteps of Noel Gallagher and terrorising the spirit of Slade. A perfect gift for gran.
Wilco – The Lonely 1 (White Hen version)
A four-disc box set of live and alternate versions of Wilco songs entitled Alpha Mike Foxtrot (Adios Motherfucker in army slang) is out today. Taken from it is The Lonely 1, which actually featured on Being There, Wilco’s second album from 1999, but this slightly reworked take was the trigger for most of the songwriting process behind their definitive record, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Originally called the White Hen version, it was recorded haphazardly on a journey to buy fags in Chicago, before they took the tape, unspooled it, stepped on it and cut it all back together in random strips. To their astonishment, it sounded great: “That was a nice surprise – just discovering that sound can have such powerful connections with a track even in randomness,” Jeff Tweedy explained, in the album’s liner notes. “Randomness can actually provide a lot of meaning somehow. It was a first step in having some faith in a process as opposed to faith in your ego or faith in your artistic vision.” The box sets are being streamed across the internet today, but you can here a snippet below.
Mark Ronson and Kevin Parker – Daffodils
While Michael Cragg’s pop playlist shone a light on the sizzling vintage funk of first single Uptight Funk, Mark Ronson’s forthcoming album, Uptown Special, features Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker – so the indie world can stake a claim on it, too. On the track Daffodils, Ronson fleshes out the bulbous groove of Parker’s original version, first played during sets with the Impala frontman’s sub-group Kevin Spacey. Like Ground Force on LSD.
