The Hot Puppies release their long-awaited album ‘Under the Crooked Moon’ on 24th July via Fierce Panda Records, featuring their critically acclaimed singles ‘Terry’, ‘The Girl Who Was Too Beautiful’, and the new single ‘How Come You Don’t Hold Me No More’, released 17th July, 2006. Recorded above a Boxing Club in Newport’s ‘Not In Pil’, strain your ears for the sounds of the heavyweights battling it out in the background!

Originally formed in Aberystwyth and now based in Cardiff, THE HOT PUPPIES consist of Becki Newman (vocals), Beth Gibson (Keyboards, vocals, theremin, cello, violin, glockenspiel, marimba, guitar & percussion), Luke Taylor (guitar, vocals), Rupert (Bert) Wood (drums, percussion & marimba) and Ben Faircloth (bass).

Having already supported Art Brut, The Chalets and The Crimea, come check them out for yourselves at the following venues…

JUNE
Thurs 1st       LIVERPOOL, The Magnet
Fri 2nd           MANCHESTER, Dry Bar
Fri 9th            NOTTINGHAM, Junktion 7
Thurs 15th     LONDON, The Garage (9.30pm)
Fri 16th          BATH, Invention Arts
Sat 17th         SOUTHAMPTON, The Joiners
Thurs 22nd     SHEFFIELD, Leadmill
Fri 30th          PORT TALBOT, Tapestry West Festival

JULY
Sun 2nd         LLANFYLLIN, Workhouse Festival
Thurs 6th      BRISTOL, Louisiana

AUGUST
Sun 6th         KENT, Electric Gardens Festival

Tracklisting
1. Terry                               08.     The Girl Who Was Too Beautiful
2. The Bottled Ship Song     09.      Love or Trial
3. Green Eyeliner               10.    Love in Practice, Not Theory
4. Bonnie and Me                11.    Baptist Boy
5. The Drowsing Nymph      12.    How Come You Don’t Hold Me No More?
6. Heartbreak Soup            13.    Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall
7. Theda Bara

What the critics said…
“Best Bar None… OMM’s hot tips for 2006” OBSERVER MUSIC MONTHLY

“Cardiff’s hottest new act… expect big things in the future” MUSIC WEEK

“…as fantastic as waking up in a sea of Oreo cookies with no option but to eat your way to safety”      NME

 “…This could be the start of something rather impressive”     THE FLY

"The Hot Puppies have the potential to be massive…we’re talking classic stuff here"       ARTROCKER

"Not since the heady days of Blondie at their nonchalant best has there been a band to get so coolly thrilled about."    DISORDER

“Mark my words… everyone will have heard of The Hot Puppies…”         DROWNED IN SOUND

“Hooray! then, for mighty indie superheroes The Hot Puppies”  PLAYLOUDER

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Slap bang in the middle of a sell out tour and an album that has gone gold in the U.K, Mozzer releases one of Ringleader’s finest moments. The Youngest was the most loved complete with an almost threatening children’s choir who echo the words “There is no such thing in life as normal” is perhaps his finest single since Let Me Kiss You. Not that Radio One or Virgin Radio care, as it has been ridiculously excluded from their playlists.

In true Morrissey style he has kept back some gems from the album sessions for B-sides, the best of which is Ganglord, an epic thundering affair complete with lush melodic twists and devilishly sharp lyrics. “Ganglord, the clock on the wall makes fun of us all” he sings before launching into a climatic chorus of “save me, save me…..” A track who’s music is penned by Alain Whyte proves ever more he is a vital cog in the Morrissey machine.
 
There’s also a brilliant rendition of the Magazine classic ‘A Song From Under The Floorboards, which he’s performed live on the current tour, as well as, If You Don’t Like Me Don’t Look At Me, a brilliant semi self deprecating number, making these songs some of the finest e.p tracks he’s ever released.

10/10

James Heward

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In the early nineties we were suffering from a particularly dower legion of hideous European acts, Ace of Base, 2 Unlimited, Haddaway. They clogged up the charts and sent a clear message to banal record producers that there was a real market for this shit and that they could churn out as much as they pleased. What with that and Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston’s frighteningly insipid warbling ballads, it’s a miracle I ever survived those days….
 
The antidote though quite simply saved me. The music press called it shoegazing, but for me bands such as Ride, Slowdive, and My Bloody Valentine offered something overwhelmingly exciting. They had created a unique sound that stood unchallenged in its occasional visits to the mainstream pop charts. The wall of industrial feedback from the likes of The Jesus and Mary Chain and the sleazy rock n roll antics of Primal Scream, showed a very different side to the UK’s music scene.
 
15 years on…..and a scene that lay unappreciated for over a decade has returned, but it took an act from New York to spearhead the movement, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club took the baton and gave a new generation a taste of the glory days. So it was only a matter of time before an outfit came along with all the perfect credentials……….

……….The Morning After Girls who clearly are in love with rock n roll from the outset have influences that can be pinned down instantly. Where as this can often be seen as mill stone for many bands it is ultimately endearing to see an act in 2006 with such good taste. This their debut album is the missing link between The Brian Jones Town Massacre and Primal Screams more drug addled era. The dirty bass, howling pitch bended feedback, and casually tapped tambourine rhythms have brought a fresh face to a musical phenomena that has been screaming to be revived.
 
The recent single Hi-Skies that lechers its way along in true fag at the corner of the mouth conceitedness and boasts a screaming chorus line to bring the neighbors to tears is just one of many highlights from their stunning debut. Although the general tone of the album is pitched very close to The Dandy Warhol’s better days, tracks such as , Always Mine and Shadows Evolve dive into My Bloody Valentine guitar sliding mayhem, and steal the breath for a moment or too.
 
The Morning After Girls should without doubt be the dictionary definition of cool. The ‘we don’t give a fuck what you think’ attitude and unstructured basement band production make them a total find in what is usually a carefully orchestrated industry. Its really is hard to explain just how important they are

 9/10

James Heward

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1. Guillemots who turned the lights off,  baby?

A sweet as ramshackle track from their recent ‘From the cliffs’ compilation shows a new band full of wide eyed wonder at the brilliant sounds they are capable of making together. They even manage to make a saxophone solo in a track not sound shit…brilliant! 

2. Raconteurs – Level

3. Dirty Pretty Things – If you were wondering

4. Ed Harcourt – You only call me when you’re drunk

5. Primal Scream – Country girl

6. Morrissey Life is a pigsty

7. The Flaming Lips – Vein of stars

8. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Cheated Hearts

9. The Automatic - Monster

10. Casino running on back to you

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In the days before the Arctic Monkeys, people used to do some quite different things with guitars. Robin Guthrie’s Cocteau Twins spearheaded a mystical movement of ethereal sounds in the mid nineties, influencing a whole legion of important acts.

Since then he’s set up the well respected label, Belle Union, that has spurned the likes of  The Dears, and Howling Bells, whilst tinkering away in his home studio creating fascinating instrumental albums.‘Continental’, like The Cocteau Twins later works, is steeped in dreamy trance like atmosphere’s, swirling guitar effects, and heavily reverbed guitars, depicting delicate melody. It isn’t a radical departure from those early shoegazey ethics, all that is missing is Liz Frazer’s mesmerising vocals.

Despite being only aided occasionally by distant choral collaborations These songs are both beautiful and relaxing without plummeting into easy listening territory. Think Sigur Ros dancing on the clouds with Lush and as well as having a totally ludicrous pretentious image, you are kind of on the right lines.  In an industry obsessed with angular guitar acts and ridiculous sounding vocalists, Robin Guthrie’s spacey sonic adventures are ever more important…

James Heward

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"What the fuck do you have to do to get played on the radio?"

These are the words Morrissey spat out early in his set and his mood darkened even more when he let out his displeasure at the sound quality at this cavernous venue, even stopping singing halfway through songs to say ‘that sounds horrible’, asking the audience if it sounded rubbish and covering his ears from time to time.

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Album number way too many from the stalwarts of baggy sees The Charlatans bereft of any more decent new ideas and sees them treading so much water they could pass off as Jesus….or something.

So you get tracks they thought were funky like ‘NYC’ sounding like an embarrassing Clash pastiche and pseudo dubby tracks like ‘For your entertainment’ which almost works but then you remember the brilliant Dead 60’s album of last year and it’s like comparing Bob Marley to Ace of Base and when they try it again on ‘City of the dead’ with Tim Burgess even trying to sing black but sounding like Sting you forget that even as recent as 2001’s Wonderland, they had the ability to knock out the odd good tune but now they now need to just stop it.

Not what the world is waiting for, not even what Charlatans fans were waiting for. 3/10
 

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‘We Are The Pipettes’
The debut album released 17TH July 2006 on Memphis Industries

MI072CD/LP/D

Polka dot princesses, The Pipettes (Rosay, Gwenno & RiotBecki) have announced the release of their eagerly awaited debut album, ‘We Are The Pipettes’ on July 17th through Memphis Industries. Available on CD, Vinyl and Digital the album includes all the singles, ‘Pull Shapes’ (released July 3rd), Top 40 hit ‘Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me’ and ‘Dirty Mind’ as well as 11 other smashes.

A glorious, Technicolor knee in pop’s groin. ‘We Are The Pipettes’ over the course of 14 tracks invents the kind of girl-power The Spice Girls could only dream of. Whilst referencing the likes of The Shangri-La’s, The Crystals, The Shirelles, et al, both sonically and in style, whereas the girls of yesteryear were happy to defer to the men in their lives (He Hit Me It Felt Like A Kiss, Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?) on tracks such as One Night Stand (I left You Alone/At four in the morning / not a stitch to wear/ because you ignored my warning) or Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me (Can’t You See We’re Through/Boy get out of my face!) it’s plain to see The Pipettes are calling the shots. Although Brill-building, Motown and Spector references are inevitable (The Pipettes understand who made the greatest pop music) perhaps the most apt comparison would be with The Ramones. Like da bruddas, these sisters have created a record that whilst understanding pop music’s past are forging ahead in their own image.

‘We Are The Pipettes’ is an album written by teenagers for teenagers. An album that understands the heartbreak of leaving the disco alone (It Hurts To See You Dance So Well), tells stories of befriending the school’s outcast (Judy) and the older boyfriend who only wants one thing (Sex). However it’s the tunes that are most important – quite simply nobody is writing more infectious melodies than The Pipettes right now. Whether it be the string-drenched, four to the floor, call to the dance-floor that is lead single, Pull Shapes or the lonesome melancholy of A Winter’s Sky this is a record that attaches itself to your subconscious and refuses to let go…

Tracklisting:
1   We Are The Pipettes       
2   Pull Shapes 
3   Why Did You Stay?
4   Dirty Mind   
5   It Hurts to See you Dance So Well
6   Judy  
7   A Winter’s Sky
8   Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me
9   Tell Me What You Want
10  Because It’s Not Love (But It’s Still A Feeling)
11  Sex
12  One Night Stand
13  ABC
14  I Love You

See The Pipettes live at these venues and festivals over the Summer:

19/05/2006  GREAT ESCAPE FESTIVAL, BRIGHTON 

29/05/2006 NOTTINGHAM, ROCK CITY, DOT 2 DOT FESTIVAL

07/06/2006, LONDON, THE BARFLY XFM XPOSURE Night HEADLINE

01/07/2006, BARCELONA, Faraday Festival

03/07/2006  LONDON, CARGO HEADLINE

04/07/2006  SOUTHAMPTON, JOINERS HEADLINE

05/07/2006  BOURNEMOUTH, OPERA HOUSE HEADLINE

06/07/2006  LEICESTER, THE CHARLOTTE HEADLINE

07/07/2006  STOKE ON TRENT, THE UNDERGROUND HEADLINE

08/07/2006  COTSWOLDS, STANWAY HOUSE - VICE 24 HOUR FESTIVAL

10/07/2006  MANCHESTER, LATE ROOMS HEADLINE

12/07/2006  GLASGOW, KINGS TUTS WAH WAH HUTHEADLINE

13/07/2006  ABERDEEN, TUNNELS HEADLINE

14-16/07/2006  LATITUDE FESTIVAL, SOUTHWOLD, SUFFOLK

22/07/2006  FRANCE, PARIS, SOUS LA PLAGUE @ PARK OF PARIS

29/07/2006  LONDON, BEN & JEERY’S FESTIVAL, CLAPHAM COMMOM

05/08/2006  MANCHESTER, DEPERCUSSION FESTIVAL with Field Music  

06/08/2006  CORNWALL, BOARDMASTERS FESTIVAL

11/08/2006  SWEDEN, EMMABDOA FESTIVAL  

18/08/2006  BELGIUM, PUKKLEPOP

26/08/2006  CARDIFF, GET LOADED IN THE PARK 

27/08/2006  LONDON, GET LOADED IN THE PARK

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So is it a vanity trip? A supergroup? A side project or just four blokes with guitars? Who knows? Who cares?

Now overshadowed by the ugly spectre of a coca cola advert, this album started off as a mess about in Brendan Bensons bedroom studio long before then and promises so much, Jack Whites consistent rock brilliance and Bensons pop sensibilities make a mouth watering prospect on paper and for most of this album, it manages to deliver. 

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So, Doctor Who isn’t fulfilling your Saturday night entertainment? You go to bed at 10.30 feeling cheated and wanting more? Well more is what you can have this Saturday with the third installment of the REJECT MUSICAL TRASH CLUB NIGHT

We return for another night of alternative and indie classics new and old with a sprinkling of electroclash punk and dodgy pop all played as badly as you like, we aim to please but please…no more U2 or Razorlight requests, we haven’t got it and they’re shite!

This Saturday May 13th 2006) at Old Parrs Head Upper Street (near the fire station) Islington London, N1 9pm til late (FREE!!!)

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