The Über Rock Singles Club: Frantic February (Part Two)

Curated by Monk

It’s been a busy start to the year here at the refurbished Singles Club, with our new PA system being pushed to the limits by our new daily opening schedule. In fact, so popular has our new #DailyPick feature become in such a short time that, after a high level management meeting involving, well, just me sitting down in a darkened room and making an executive decision, we’ve decided to return to fortnightly opening in order to catch up with the vast array of hot new sounds doing the rounds and gracing our playlists…

So, let’s dive straight in shall we, with our selection of the other tunes that have stood out for us and found their way onto oyr ever revolving death decks over the past two weeks:

Sick N’ Beautiful – ‘My Wounds’ (Frontiers Music)

The sci-fi obsessed alt-metallers return with the powerful lead cut from their forthcoming new album, ‘Horror Vacui’, which is due for release some time in the Spring. The five-piece are currently on the road across Europe with Cradle Of Filth and Wednesday 13:

September Again – ‘Caged’ (Self-Released)

The French alt-rockers blend trip-hop, metal, post-rock and electronica on their first new song in four years, which in turn is a preview of their third album, due to be released later in the year. The band describe the song as being about “silence and noise, matter and void, all the paradoxal messages that shape our inner parts. It’s a fight between essence and image, in the gaps”:

Lords Of Black – ‘I Want The Darkness To Stop’ (Frontiers Music)

Best known for a being one of a number of rock bands who grabbed last year’s Eurovision Song Contest by the balls and gave it a fucking good shaking, the German prog=powermeisters return with the latest single from their forthcoming sixth album. ‘Mechanics Of Predacity’, which will be released on 15 March:

Acid Snot – ‘Rise’ (Self-Released)

The Barcelona quartet combine skatepunk and hardcore with this rambunctious call to action in a world plagued by the echoes of neoliberalism and the alarming ascent of alt-right political ideologies, which draws inspiration from the harrowing legacy of Franco’s dictatorship, which cast a shadow over Spain for decades after the Spanish Civil War and thrusts the dangers of colonialism, imperialism, and fascism into the spotlight:

Mad Caddies – ‘Green Eyes’ (SBÄM Records)

The Californian ska punks celebrate their 30th anniversary next year, but show no signs of slowing down or compromising their sound with this little ditty about travelling the world and seeing it through someone else’s eyes. It’s also the lead cut from the band’s forthcoming new album, their first in six years. out next month:

Midas Falls – ‘I Am Wrong’ (Monotreme Records)

The Scottish post-alt progressive trio take us to a dark and angry place with the third single to be lifted from their new album, ‘Cold Waves Divide Us’, which sees the light of day (see what we did there) in just under two weeks’ time…

Leather Lung – ‘Guilty Pleasure’ (Magnetic Eye)

The Boston MA five-piece unleash their debut album, ‘Graveside Grin’, next month, but in the meantime re inviting us to throw aside our inhibitions and make falling in love fun again with this slice of psych-infused boogie sludge:

Drip Fed Empire – ‘Give Me More’ (Self-Released)

We admired the emotional commitment displayed by DFE on their debut album, released earlier this month, and they once again demonstrate why you need to get all over them like a rash on a prostitute’s fanny with the latest standalone cut to be offered up from it:

Suicidal Angels – ‘Virtues Of Destruction’ (Nuclear Blast)

The Greek thrashers, who hit the Über Kingdom in April for a run of dates with Dudst Bolt, serves up another slice of profanity with this latest cut from their debut album, which is released this coming Friday:

VR Sex – ‘Inanimate Love’ (Dais Records)

Initially a one-man side project from Drab Majesty’s Andrew Clinco, but now a fully-fledged, living, breathing entity in its own right, this is the latest taste from album that promises to deliver “10 tracks of sneering psychedelic punk streaked with Chrome-damaged freak-outs and snotty power pop harmonies” when it is released next month:

standards – ‘Big Bad’ (Self-Released)

The Los Angeles math rock duo are preparing to take us on a trip to the ‘Fruit Galaxy’ with their third album, due for release next month and for which this serves as the latest hors d’oeuvre:

Beans – ‘Dreaming Daisy’ (Fuzz Club)

These Melbourne alt-rockers blend organ-driven garage-rock wig-outs, breeze psych-pop and groovy funk instrumentals, and are set to do so once again on their upcoming third album; ‘Boots N’ Cats’, when it comes out next month:

Aerial Salad – ‘Tied To Pieces Of Paper’ (Venn Records)

This trio describe their sound as “Madchester punk”, drawing as much from Happy Mondays and Stone Roses as much as The Fall or The Buzzcocks. Their second album, ‘R.O.I.’, is due out in April, and this is a frenetic, Steve Ignorant-inspired 160-second long preview of what to expect:

Dez Dare – ‘Gotta Cold Feeling’ (God Unknown)

The latest slice of anarchic mastery from the DIY Aussie psych-punk legend really needs no further introduction apart from saying that he’s also got a new album coming out and is heading our way for a handful of dates in April:

Chief State – ‘Living Out A Lie’ (Mutant League Records)

These Vancouver pop punks take a slightly different slant on the genre formula by delivering it acoustically with this lead cut of their new EP, released in April:

Ivy Gardens – ‘Boner’ (Self-Released)

This Canadian trio are promising us a debut album that is “a relentless onslaught of vulgar, belligerent punk, sludge and sweat” when it is released in April. If this lead single is anything to go by, things are going to get very belligerent and sweaty when the full-lengther finally hits our death decks:

ERRA – ‘Blue Reverie’ (UNFD)

The progressive metalcore maestros will be providing us with the ‘Cure’ to all life’s travails when they release their sixth album on 5 April.

North Sea Echoes – ‘Empty’ (Metal Blade)

This new project featuring Fates Warning members Ray Alder and Jim Matheos released their debut full-length, ’Really Good Terrible Things‘, just this past week:

Sum 41 – ‘Waiting On A Twist Of Fate’ (Rise Records)

The pop punk/metal crossover act recently announced that their forthcoming ‘Heaven :x: Hell’, will be their last. It will be a double album package, with one half focussed on their pop punk side, the other on their more metallic demeanour. The second single is taken from the ‘Heaven’ half of the album:

Susan Santos – ‘Snakebite’ (Self-Released)

Our penultimate offering this time comes from Spanish blues guitarist extraordinaire Susan Santos who returns to our playlist to once again evoke the dusty spirit of the desert with the latest preview of her forthcoming sixth album. Sonora’, which comes our way at the beginning of April:

Nervous Eaters – ‘Vampire’ (Self-Released)

Our final offering this time around sees these Boston proto-punk exponents bringing us Halloween ten months early with this suitably gnarly and grunting tale of life in a small Californian town where everyone comes to life after sundown…

And with that we bid you adieu for another fortnight, when we’ll back with another rocktastic rundown of the hottest pops and sounds around. Until then – keep ‘er lit, keep ‘er between the hedges and keep on (Über) rockin’…