I was driving to work on a Monday morning a little while ago. On the car stereo was a USB stick with the mp3s I was transferring to work. Amongst other music, I had a few review submissions, some Dead Boys albums, and Silverhead’s 16 and Savaged that I hadn’t heard for 35 years. A song came on that I didn’t know. It was fast and furious and sounded great (the video for this song Explode is above) with it’s riffing guitar but I couldn’t figure out who the band were. I couldn’t even figure out the decade - there was trashy guitar from 70s Glam Rock but then it sounded like Aerosmith, then 90s Grunge. One thing I did know was that I liked it.

I got to the office and quickly found it was Smilex, who are an Oxford Alternative Rock band (with the emphasis on rock). Their current release is “7″, a CD of seven songs based on the Seven Deadly Sins. They are the band that the “Parental Advisory Explicit Lyrics” sticker was designed for. The songs are an orgiastic high-speed drive into depravity but with humour such as the line ‘nobody leaves in their own underwear’ - remember parties like that?

This is definitely an album for when you feel like bouncing off the walls. There are wonderful screams on Sex For Sale and For What It’s Worth. The constant attack of distorted guitar and desperate vocals do mean it can only be played when in the right mood. The exception to that is the track that, for me, stands out above all others on the album. Syllabus is loud and heavy to begin with but relaxes into a protest against school/church/government and this world in general before rising to a blood pumping chorus. It even spends the last minute quietly with strings and a refrain of ‘I have faith in these desolate times’. This track really speaks to me on every level and goes into my collection of favourite songs of all time.

Syllabus by Smilex (Clip)

The Oolites are a bit clever. By choosing the name of a type of rock, it gives them a chance to write about themselves in a detached, arty way like this: “…oolitic rock is not the heaviest or hardest, but instead intricately and interestingly formed… when studied live the dynamics of the formation can be very powerful.” One thing lads, if you are going to be smartarses then you had better be good enough to back it up.

Astonishingly enough, they are good enough. The Oolites have come out with a demo EP of such verve and confidence that it leaves me floundering for ways to describe it. The roots of the music seem to be back in the mists of time - I keep on thinking of Bowie’s “Man Who Sold The World” album (She Shook Me Cold and Black Country Rock in particular) coupled with the Art Punk of Wire.

Last Night’s Song by The Oolites (Clip)

This three piece are really tight - a quality rhythm unit who leave space for the sharp guitar and outstanding vocals. There’s a touch of 70’s rock with added funky guitar at times and it just sounds great when mixed with songwriting of such quality. The lyrics are intriguing and rooted in real life. Clever, yes, but in a way that makes you wonder just how the hell someone can come up with such words that combine so well with the music.

Abbey Fields by The Oolites (Clip)

I’m beaten into submission. I’ll join in. It took 170 million years for The Oolites to form…it was worth every minute.

The Oolites

Paul Evans is a 53 year old musician living in New Jersey USA. I first heard him on the Americana OK podcast and immediately bought His latest album “Agua Noir”. It is real Country music that concentrates on the song as the peak of the artform. Paul Evans has a voice that resonates with more than just age and experience, it seems to have more textures than other voices like a 12-string guitar compared to a 6-string.

One track in particular, The Screamin’ Holler Inn, is just wonderful. It speaks of an Inn where “there’s no denying that you’ve reached the end of the line when they call you a regular here”. and “the fistholes in the wall cry ‘what if’ and ‘what for’”. These lyrics are evocative and rooted in observation. This is combined with some beautiful twangy guitar and, of course, that wonderful voice.

There is also a photo of the place that paul Evans based the song on - I wonder if he has been back to play since?

The Screamin’ Holler Inn by Paul Evans

Agua Noir on CDBaby

Sometimes there’s an assumption that Rock/Pop music can only be made by good looking young people with tuneful voices, when the truth is most are not worthy of cleaning Mark E Smith’s toilet seat. A lot of people will find it astonishing that Paul Hawkins is allowed to make records with a nasal whine that hits few notes. But, the truth is that he is one of the few original voices in music today and what’s more…he even writes about Real Life (or something pretty close to it).

There is an honesty about Paul Hawkins’ songwriting that marks him out as different. While earnest singer/songwriters write songs that show how sensitive and intelligent they are, Paul almost revels in portraying himself in a harsh light and is not afraid of appearing a complete arsehole. It was an approach used by Patrik Fitzgerald back in Punk times. There are musical parallels with Punk in songs like There Ain’t No Carrot, There Ain’t No Stick but mostly it is in the in-your-face vocals and fearless lyrics that the Punk spirit continues. As an album, We Are Not Other People is uneven and can annoy, amuse or fascinate at different times - but it just won’t allow itself to be treated as background.

I Had A Friend In Sarah Vincent is a near ten minute song about murder and betrayal set in the early years of the 20th Century. Throwing in the claustrophobia of village life, animal passion, unrequited love, and jealousy, Paul Hawkins leads you into a story that ends in a hanging, like all good stories do…

I Had A Friend In Sarah Vincent by Paul Hawkins & Thee Awkward Silences (clip)

On The Battle Is Over Paul comes right up to date and sings about a soldier returning from a war in foreign lands. Problem is his wife won’t have him back. The song contains some great male:female duelling vocals - courtesy of Diana De Cabarrus from Candythief - with lines like “I went and fought a war for you” vs “Well I never, ever asked you to” and “I defended my country in it’s hour of need” vs “It was hardly on its knees”.

The Battle Is Over by Paul Hawkins & Thee Awkward Silences (clip)

Big Dave described this track as “like Jilted John trying to do Nick Cave with a backing by the Invisible Girls”. I think he meant it as a criticism - but I’m quite happy with that as a description of Paul Hawkins & The Awkward Silences.

Paul Hawkins & Thee Awkward Silences

David Eugene Edwards often throws in a cover version on an album. I well remember 16 Horsepower doing Dylan’s Nobody ‘Cept You on their “Secret South” album in 2000 - my first reaction was nausea. Later this would lead to abject horror as I realised there was not one single redeeming feature of the song and this is perhaps the reason why I didn’t buy the follow up “Folklore” until this year. I did however get hold of two live albums in between times, both of which featured Joy Division covers and found both 24 Hours and Day Of The Lords magnificent.

I’ve been listening to the David Eugene Edwards latest release: “Ten Stones” by Woven Hand. It’s a very good album full of accomplished menacing Gothic. But it does have one track, Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars, that is a cover of a song once performed by Frank Sinatra. Look, it’s a great album but this particular part is a real stinker and has even reminded me of ‘Big Band Night’ on X-Factor.

Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars by Woven Hand

When I grow up, I’d like to be in a band. That band would be modest, humble yet personable, and make epic sonic soundscapes that move from quieter than a frozen leaf in winter to an aural assault that would bring down the walls of Jericho. Simple yet complex. Slow yet fast. Quiet then loud (and then louder still). That band would be Mogwai. I can’t remember the last time I saw a band where every second of every song banished all extraneous thought (actually, it was probably the last time I saw them) and where for 90-odd minutes I just lived for the moment. Maybe in my advanced years I should have left for a cocoa and a chocolate hobnob rather than stayed for the encore and emerged bleeding from all orifices after a double whammy of ‘Like Herod’ and ‘Batcat’. (‘Mogwai fear Satan’ has now been downgraded to earlier in the set…).

I have a problem with Mogwai and song titles, and tend to refer to them as ‘that one’ or ‘this one’, but have managed to remember that my new best all-time fave track is ‘Scotland’s Shame’. This was my personal highlight. It demonstrates the later maturity of Mogwai’s work – in contrast to quickfire quiet/loud/quiet/loud contrasts, this builds from a simple keyboard motif, growing in stature and grandeur as the various instruments are introduced and make their presence felt, over a thumpingly martial tom-tom/bass beat growing to a crescendo before gradually fading away to leave a final plaintive keyboard. No lyrics? None needed. Currently number one on my funeral playlist.

Oh, and the Fuck Buttons? Sounded like the early Human League, or Dave and I pissing about with our synthmaker packages for half an hour. Inoffensive, unoriginal, nothing to get excited about. And that name’s not big or clever…

Review by Big Dave

This is the debut album for Toronto’s Ten Kens on Fat Cat records. They produce a BIG sound, particularly for a three piece, and work in an area where the music is more important than any singing, as with Arcade Fire. They are not afraid to mix radically different styles whether it be the clear melodies of Prodigal Son, the Duanne Eddy guitar on Alternate Biker, or the twisted Tex-Mex shout and singalong of Spanish Fly.

Spanish Fly by Ten Kens (clip)

There are many incredible sections of sound on this album but, for me, not one track that is wholly satisfying. This perhaps reflects my own love of the narrative ’song’ as much as the Ten Kens penchant for mixing everything up. I’ve got this funny suspicion that Ten Kens are going to make a great album and that this debut is going to be loved in retrospect, like Bleach was after Nevermind with Nirvana.

The Whore Of Revelation by Ten Kens (clip)

Ten Kens