As Kiss depart in a ball of fire only to re-emerge as skillfully constructed avatars built by a Swedish software company, it looks like we can finally confirm that Gene Simmons' hoary old 'Rock Is Dead' theory is the kind of nonsense we always thought it was. What's more, Gene has actually proved it. Not only is rock not dead, it's eternal, and it's three-dimensional. Huzzah! Bring on the future!
Meanwhile, back on Planet Now, we'd like to congratulate Sardinian masked metallers AJO for winning out latest Tracks Of The Week competition, beating the late Bernie Marsden and the excellent Elles Bailey in the process. Their video is below, and then it's on with this week's battle.
This week's contenders follow, and don't forget to vote when you reach the foot of the page, because that's why we're here. Thank you.
The Bites - Dirty City
The Hollywood-ites’ new track finds them mixing 60s pop beachiness with chunky rock guitars, like the Ramones going for milkshakes with Van Halen. “Dirty City is all about the dirty, rotten, filthy, stinkin’ city the five of us in the band call home,” livewire frontman Jordan Tyler says. “Despite all the reasons we love to hate Hollywood, it’s where we got our start as a band and couldn’t be more thankful to be here. It was also the first song we ever performed live together at our debut show at the Viper Room on the Sunset Strip. Doesn’t get much more rock and roll than that, does it?” In the strictly 80s-worshipping, big-haired, shiny-trousered sense of the word…no, it probably doesn’t.
Ferris & Sylvester - Mother
And now for something completely different. British husband-and-wife duo Ferris & Sylvester make stylish indie folk with a classic americana heartbeat. On Mother, a stirring highlight from their upcoming LP Otherness (out in March), they bring some gauzy, summery warmth to these sub-zero days. It calls to mind the delicate introspection of Laura Marling, but with a rich earthiness that’s more ‘Laurel Canyon circa 1970’ than ‘millennial Londoners’. Close your eyes and you’re in a cornfield at dusk, or looking out at the Pacific, in midsummer.
The Pineapple Thief - The Frost
The first single from these 21st century alt/prog luminaries’ new record is a banger. Beautifully moody, intelligent and brimming with delicate twists and touches (clever drums, exquisite harmonies, warm synths…), but with such a fat, juicy opening riff ‘banger’ still feels like the operative word. Music to rock out to and get lost in. “Conceptually it continues my desire to observe and (try to) make sense of life and the world around me,” frontman Bruce Soord says of the full album, It Leads To This, which comes out in February. “It’s all there in the lyrics.”
Kris Barras Band - Unbreakable
On his last album, Death Valley Paradise, MMA fighter-turned-musician Kris Barras found a heavier new groove – all taut, metallic brawn and Americanised arena chants. Now he’s well and truly into it, as shown by this first slice of his next album, Halo Effect (his first with Earache Records). The melodic, Bon Jovi bent of his earlier, rootsier stuff hasn’t vanished, but now it comes with a layer of fresh steel and a pair of sharp, thick-set jaws. You could see him opening for Shinedown with this, or challenging Brent Smith to a fight.
Robert Jon & The Wreck - Help Yourself
Following in Blackberry Smoke’s southern rock revivalist footsteps (they’ll actually head out on tour with them in 2024), Robert Jon & The Wreck’s latest single is a cosy, soulful marriage of honkytonk piano lines, Allmans-y guitars and swampy slide notes. "Help Yourself is a song about the importance of self-help and taking care of yourself,” says Robert Jon. “It’s hard to help others unless you help yourself and take care of yourself first.”
The Dust Coda - Edge Of The Knife
A ragged, noisy, GN’R-esque boogie with its roots in a wild night out in Brooklyn, Edge Of The Knife (a cut from the bonus edition of The Dust Coda’s Loco Paradise record) rocks, rolls, growls and roars like a stampede of liquored-up bikers headed for Happy Hour at the Heavy Metal Parking Lot. “We really wanted to capture that chaos and raw energy in how we recorded and delivered the song,” singer John Drake says, “full blooded and no holds barred!”
Ace Frehley - 10,000 Volts
It cannot be a coincidence that Ace Frehley's new single 10,000 Volts dropped just as Kiss were about to trot off into the sunset, as if the Spaceman was claiming the future at the very moment his old paymasters were consigning their physical manifestations to the past. Built on a chugging riff and a proper earworm of a chorus, 10,000 Volts sounds like Ace is having an absolute ball, and the solo conjures up some of that old, fleet-fingered magic.
David Lee Roth - Jump
David Lee Roth continues his occasional series of Van Halen covers with a largely faithful rendition of the 1984 classic Jump, recorded last year with Al Estrada – formerly of the Van Halen tribute band Eruption – replicating the EVH guitar parts. It's a curiosity rather than a necessity, and Roth's vocal sounds a little forced in places, as if its been assembled from different takes rather than recorded in one go. File under "We're not sure why he's doing this, but it's kinda interesting actually, and hey, as long as he's having fun we're not going to complain."
