Week three of Louder's new (ish) Tracks Of The Week features some familiar names (Bring Me The Horizon, The Hives), a Faith No More side project, an unexpected and exhilarating reworking of a nu metal banger, and a heavyweight love song featuring a tip of the hat to late Power Trip frontman Riley Gale. And we want you to tell us which of the eight tracks below you believe to be the finest of them all, by casting your vote at the bottom of the page.
But first - insert drum roll - last week's results. In joint third position, Tigercub's Swoon tied with Palehound's The Clutch, both songs polling 11.3% of the vote. In second place, you plumped for returning New Jersey punk 'n' rollers The Gaslight Anthem, with their comeback single Positive Change taking 12.9% of the votes cast.
And last week's winner? That will be nu gen star Bambie Thug, who swept up 51.6% of the vote with the intense Egregore.
Thank you to everyone who made their voice heard with a vote, and congrats to Bambie Thug.
Right then, let's get stuck into the new noise, shall we?
Bring Me The Horizon - Lost
“Watching Evangelion, with a big fat slug of ketamine”. Ah, yes, we’ve all been there, haven't we? Or perhaps not. The excessively bloody, relentlessly brutal and hugely entertaining B-movie-style video for Lost, Bring Me The Horizon's first single of 2023, was shot in Los Angeles by Ukrainian director Jensen Noen, who has previously worked with Demi Lovato, Ice Nine Kills, Kim Dracula and more, and features Oli Sykes wreaking vengeance on shady staff at a high security hospital/asylum after waking up scalped with four surgeons prodding around in his brain. We’d be pissed off too, to be fair.
Poppy - Spit
The ever-unpredictable and unclassifiable Poppy returns with a splendidly left-field single choice in Spit, a re-imagining of the title track of the 1999 debut album from Canadian nu-metallers Kittie. Morgan and Mercedes Landers' band have already given the cover their seal of approval, reacting to a teaser clip on Instagram by posting a 'black heart' and 'fire' emoji. Impressively, Poppy's digi-metal remake actually goes harder and nastier than the original, further enhancing Moriah Rose Pereira's reputation as one of the most fascinating, singular artists of her generation. Second-guessing where she might go next is a mug's game, and how many artists can you genuinely say that about?
The Dirty Nil - Celebration
The first taste of The Dirty Nil's forthcoming fourth album, Free Rein to Passions, the punchy Celebration features a dirty, serrated metal riff as a subtle tribute to one of the Ontario trio's influences, Power Trip’s late frontman Riley Gale. “This is our purest love song, unconditional and without mercy,” says frontman Luke Bentham, who delivers lyrics such as "I would fight God with my hands behind me, if that would make you happy" with commendable and entirely believable zeal. A tasty teaser then for Free Rein to Passions, which is scheduled for a May 26 release on Dine Alone Records.
Grian Chatten - Fairlies
Having released his seductive Elliott Smith-esque solo single, The Score, just three weeks ago, Fontaines D.C. frontman Grian Chatten has wasted no time in issuing a second preview of his first solo album Chaos For The Fly, due on June 30 via Partisan Records.
On the surface, Fairlies is a sunnier, perkier affair than the singer's collaborative work with the Dublin post-punks, but lyrics such as "When the devil takes your soul, he does not care / If you’re shot down like a dog, or expired on the stairs" hint at darker thoughts. "I wrote Fairlies in intense heat," he reveals. "Partly in Jerez, Spain, partly in LA a couple of days before a Fontaines D.C. tour kicked off. It was a quick write, and I believe I celebrated each line with a beer." An intriguing brand extension.
Man On Man - Showgirls
As with the under-rated Imperial Teen, Man On Man is an outlet for Faith No More keyboard maestro Roddy Bottum to indulge his unashamed love of pop music, this time alongside his boyfriend Joey Holman. Sadly unrelated to Paul Verhoeven's 1995 kitsch cult classic 'erotic thriller', Showgirls is a fuzzed-up, fizzing and hook-laden indie-pop celebration of LGBTQ+ love and pride, with a passionate video to match. "As we lean into what Man On Man is and will be, two things immediately come up. Energy and community,” says Bottum. “Showgirls is all that.” If you're feeling it, here's your reminder that the duo will deliver their new album Provincetown next month.
The Hives - Bogus Operandi
The first new Hives music in over a decade, the irresistible Bogus Operandi arrives with a typically hyperbolic mission statement from fabulously mouthy frontman Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist. "Who the fuck wants mature rock ’n’ roll?,” he asks rhetorically. "That’s always where people go wrong, I feel. ‘It’s like rock ’n’ roll but adult,’ nobody wants that! That’s literally taking the good shit out of it." Preach brother, preach! If you like the cut of their collective jib here, and you really should do, the Swedish garage punks' intriguingly-titled new album, The Death Of Randy Fitzsimmons, is incoming on August 11. Welcome back gentlemen, always a pleasure.
TEKE::TEKE - Doppelganger
A preview of the Montreal-based Japanese psych-rockers' forthcoming second album, Hagata, Doppelganger is themed around the duality in day to day immigrant life. "Being of mixed Japanese and French-Canadian culture, I always feel like in some way I’m living two parallel lives: a big part of me is here in Canada, obviously, but another part of me is on the other side of the planet," says guitarist Sei Nakauchi Pelletier. The song's video was shot in Kyoto, Kamakura, and Chiba - locations where the band have family ties - and incorporates footage of the band members as children.
Heavy Lungs - Dancing Man
The first fruit of their newly-announced union with Alcopop Records!, Bristol punk/noise rock quartet Heavy Lungs' new single Dancing Man is odd, off-kilter and unsettling sludge rock, with frontman Danny Nedelko - yep, the titular hero of that IDLES single from Joy as an Act of Resistance - repeatedly intoning, "Some sort of dancing man who dances in my hand." Giving a deeper insight into the track, “Dancing Man came about from a conversation that left me and George [Garratt, Heavy Lungs drummer] crying on the floor with laughter at rehearsal. The end result is an abstract tale about a sinister character." We're gonna go out on a limb here, and say that Heavy Lungs won't be going toe-to-toe with Ed Sheeran in a battle for next week's UK number one single.
