It would appear that Jonny B has somehow ended up with some kind of reputation at ÜRHQ which has resulted in him being the first port of call for this album from self-styled “Beavergrind” band, Belarus Beaver. He did think that he might lodge a complaint about this prejudice but decided instead that he might as well get his teeth into this (sic) and see what the fuss is about…
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It says a lot when an album all but relies on the notoriety of its creator to garner any form of interest in the resulting product. Even more so when its release comes complete with a childish and cringe-worthy “publicity stunt” involving the wife of the artist concerned allegedly trashing her husband’s favourite Rolls Royce by emblazoning it in the rather garish artwork of said album. But, that is exactly the strategy the geniuses behind the PR campaign for the launch of Motley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee’s latest solo album came up with… and, to be honest, and speaking as someone who has worked in PR for the best part of 25 years, if that was their best effort (especially when you consider that the impact of said “stunt” was completely watered down by the inclusion of the car in one of the promo videos) then boss man Monk reckons they’re vastly overpaid and underworked… whether or not this bright spark idea subsequently translated into justifiable bucketloads of album sales remains to be seen…
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ÜS pop punk heroes Bowling For Soup have confirmed details of their livestream shows, originally planned for earlier this month. The shows were originally postponed when frontman Jaret Reddick had to self-isolate following close contact with a confirmed case of COVID. Thankfully, Jaret and his family all tested negative, remained healthy and things are back on track.
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Just a year after the group’s much celebrated ‘Waiting For Miracles’, much loved prog merchants The Flower Kings are back with a new album ‘Islands’. Due to the Covid-19-pandemic, the album comes out quite a bit sooner than originally planned. With festivals and live shows obviously not possible, rather than sit on their collective backsides the band decided to plough ahead with a new album, created remotely by sending files back and forth from their different bases in the USA, Italy, Austria and Sweden, resulting in this mammoth double album of 21 songs clocking in at a huge 92 minutes.
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If there was band for whom it could be argued that 2020 seemed destined to be year for consolidation and building on previously established momentum, then it could well be Spirit Adrift. Not only were they riding on the back of a breakthrough album, last year’s stunning ‘Divided By Darkness’ but they were destined to undertake not one but two ÜK tours which would undoubtedly have cemented their reputation in this particular corner of the Überverse. Said tours, first with Corrosion Of Conformity at the start of the summer and subsequently supporting Orange Goblin on the latter’s planned 25th anniversary jaunt, would have book-ended the release of this, their latest album. But we all know what happened…
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