As another week of righteous and rowdy rockin' gets underway, we offer our heartiest congratulations to SKAM, who were so dominant in last week's contest that they scored almost as many votes as the rest of the field put together, smiting them usunder.
So condolences to everyone else, not least the beleaguered runners-up Texas Hippie Coalition, and the even more beleaguered runners-up to the runners-up, Giant Walker.
Here's this week's selection, for the enjoyment of humanity.
The Sheepdogs - Take Me For A Ride
The rollicking opener for the surprise new mini-album from Saskatoon’s finest (Paradise Alone, just out now) is described by frontman Ewan Currie as “a good old fashioned, dumb rock song”. It is that, in the best way possible. Gloriously catchy with a sunny, almost glam 70s stomp, you can practically hear the palm trees in the guitars from Currie’s soul-searching visit to the Florida Keys, before work began on the record. If you’re a fan already, you’ll bloody love this. If you’re new to ‘em, this is a good place to start.
Von Hertzen Brothers - Starlings
Following the moody, lush stylings of 2022’s Red Alert In The Blue Forest, Finland’s enigmatic sibling trio are back with something shorter and brighter – though no less intriguing. Part alt. pop rock banger, part prog epic in miniature, Starlings pads its soaring, melodic heart with clever Nordic and Eastern-flavoured twists. More to come on In Murmuration, which comes out in October. “Essentially, it’s a song about how there is power and beauty in teamwork,” the band say, “and how the individual elbowing and struggle to succeed is unappealing, ugly and tiring. Of course, we tried to write it in a funny, relatable way."
The Hot Damn! - Can You Hear Me Now
One of the more tender but still uptempo moments on the British foursome’s debut, Dancing On The Milky Way (yours in full next month), Can You Hear Me Now is a rainbow cloud of glossy harmonies, 80s power-pop and rock feels with a huggable chorus. A band with this many inflatable unicorns (all of them called Neil, apparently), beach balls and bucket hats in their collective mix ought to feel like more of a joke… but with king-sized tunes like this, they really don’t.
Lions In The Street - Moving Along
These Canadian classic rockers make a deliciously retro racket (not so much flirting with the Rolling Stones as shacking up with them and pledging to ‘go steady’) on the keys-thumping, blues-grooving opening/title track of their new album. Following some ‘almost-made-it’ moments in the music industry, they wound up in a series of life curveballs including a battle with cancer, working as a garbageman, near-fatal car accidents and going back to school. On Moving Along they sound totally fired up to be back in the saddle, like a time machine just landed from the early 70s and ready to rock out.
The New Roses - When You Fall In Love
Hitting notes of Rainbow’s Since You’ve Been Gone, plus a shitload of anthemic 80s vibes, German rockers The New Roses have a recipe for good-time singalongs right here – plus a juicy little minor-ley twist in the chorus that keeps the whole thing ever-so-slightly off-centre. “I just played around with that riff and then imagined us in the middle of a live show,” the band say, of the song’s origins. “I thought, 'what should happen now to put a smile on everybody’s face, but make them wanna rock out at the same time?’ After that, the song kind of wrote itself and I just had to pick it like a flower…”
Amyl & The Sniffers - Chewing Gum
Aussie punks A&TS pave the way for their next album, Cartoon Darkness, with this woozy, gnarly yet big-sounding new mix of ‘young dumb’ energy and existential darkness. “Surrendering to joy, surrendering to being a vision, in your own power, because making decisions based on emotion rather than logic is liberating,” singer Amy Taylor says of the song, “and despite the external inferno, you walk away unscathed, through flames, burnt but only superficially, unstopped, unaffected, unhuman. Life is work, life is not free, we can never work enough because the end goal doesn't exist, so all we can do is choose to be wrong.”
Devin Townsend - PowerNerd
According to Devid Townsend, a PowerNerd is a) A person of any gender who has, through tenacity and perseverance, turned what society may deem as a ‘weakness’ into a superpower, b) A total fucking badass and c) You. Which is all rather lovely and inclusive. The song, meanwhile, is a blast, with an atmospheric intro giving way to a riff that thunders and races like the best racing and thundering thing ever. It comes from the guitar maestro's upcoming album of the same name, which, we're reliably informed, is "noticeably heavier" than his last release. It's out on October 25.
Laura Jane Grace - Baby, Baby
Against Me!'s Laura Jane Grace has a new band, the Mississippi Medicals, in which she's joined by Matt Patton of Drive-By Truckers, Mikey Erg of The Ergs and Paris Campbell Grace. Their debut EP Give An Inch is out early next month, but, confusingly, this song – a cover of Baby, Baby, a 2012 single by now-defunct Ohio alt.rockers The Sidekicks – isn't actually on it. Instead, it comes from 20 Years Of Dreaming And Scheming, a forthcoming compilation from The Sidekicks' old label Red Scare Industries. But enough of the blurb: Baby, Baby is glorious and upbeat and deserves every second of your attention.
