2021 October November December

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wk4 = Nova Twins Antagonist

Nova Twins are an English rock duo formed in London, England, in 2014, consisting of vocalist/guitarist Amy Love and bassist Georgia South.

Their debut album Who Are the Girls? was one of my favourites of 2020. Front to back it’s explosive, utterly fearless debut. They recorded the album live and don’t add anything in post-production that they can’t throw down live. It’s a must-listen. Much like their new single Antagonist.

They said to Philip Trapp of Loudwire

“Antagonist is a defiant tune about self-belief, how you can summon the inner strength to be ready for whatever comes at you.

It's the army that surrounds you wherever you go. The entire song was pulled together during a jam session. Having spent all of lockdown writing tracks remotely over computers, it was really exciting to capture this spontaneous energy together in the studio, as well as the nuances coming from our boards. We made sure not to lose any of this magic.”

Further to Damien Jones of NME

“We’re definitely experimenting with things, and it sounds more like us than ever, in a way,” said Georgia South. “All those little details and the scrappiness of things, that’s what feels ‘Nova’. To stay DIY but to keep progressing, it’s cool to send a message that anyone can do it… Just get grafting, and you can make magic.

Our thing has always been that if you can’t play it yourself on guitar, drums and bass, it’s not going on the record,” added Amy Love. “We’re not saying that we’ll never go bigger, but for where we’re at with a second record, it’s nice to feel like it’s still a ‘come as you are’ kind of thing. We don’t want to say too much just yet, but trust us – when this album comes out, we feel like you’ll know about it!”

wk5 = Press To MECO Sabotage

Press To MECO has been a band for a decade after meeting at college in 2011. Harnessing the darkness and disillusionment of their journey so far, their third album Transmute drives into more turbulent, soul-searching territory than before. This is an explosive album that is utterly world-class. The openness of their songwriting, to the bludgeoning riffs throughout. It’s clinical.

I could make every track a Song of The Week, ha. For me a great starting point is Sabotage.

They said to Jack Rogers of Rock Sound

“The big loud section at the end of this song is something we kept on coming back to. We knew that we had these huge riffs, but initially, I had written down the idea of this big stupid gang vocal chant where we chant out our name. in a lot of ways, this album was a real, ‘Fuck it’ moment, and we almost kept that in because we did start to like it. The thing is that this album is full of those down moments, but there are those glimmers of hope that sneak throughout. I’m still very much in the mindset that we can overcome these things that we face, which is why that moment feels the way it does.

In general, this song is about how we can self-sabotage things as a society and repeat the same patterns repeatedly. This is also a track that stems back to how the cover art looks, in terms of the spiral representing a passage of time, and we are just going in circles again and again. But this song also tries to show some positivity in there, even if it feels like there isn’t sometimes.”

wk6 = Bexley Sick

The Law of Attraction. Mysterious, yet undeniable. A kind of magic. How else does one explain the union of three gifted musicians from far-flung locations and diverse influences? Seattle-born Amanda Hardy, finding her considerable voice and songwriting skills in the works of Alice in Chains and Chris Cornell. Canadian Steve Costello, accomplished blues/rock guitarist, inspired by the likes of Led Zeppelin and Queens of the Stone Age. And Tosh Peterson, SoCal drummer and Jaws fan, reaching fresh heights in the art form through supernatural focus and self-discipline, fast outgrowing his iconic influences.

Tip all this into the mix and what do you get? Grungy, melodic, distortion-driven rock with heartfelt lyrics and myriad vocal layers. Bexley. A uniquely original vibe.

“Sick was one of those songs that’s written in a flash. We were messing around on guitars trying to figure out a part for a different song when we stumbled on that intro riff and thought hey this could be something too It was inspired by Stone by Alice In Chains. Lyrically I wanted it to be a single captured emotion, mostly anger toward oneself for being depressed or apathetic. The whole record goes through different emotions, this is the angry one!”

wk7 = LOSER Skyward

I adore this band from Melbourne, Australia. Their second record All The Rage was self-recorded out of their newly launched Restless Noise Studios and mixed by Anton Hagop (Silverchair, Powderfinger). All The Rage draws on the band's penchant for nostalgic rock, pummeling riffs, and sheer authenticity. I could have chosen multiple songs off this record to potentially introduce you to this band, but it had to be Skyward.

Bass player Craig Selak says

“It’s about aliens, but it’s also about feeling like when shit’s hitting the fan, you can step out and just focus on yourself...I think that’s the overarching theme of the album: you don’t have to step away and hide from the world, you can look within and find something that makes you feel more comfortable. And that really sums up the personal growth we all went through in trying to record this album, learning not to overthink things, and Tim’s personal journey with his mental health over the pandemic.”

wk8 = BRKN LOVE Dead Weight

They call Toronto home and are one of Canada’s most exciting emerging rock bands for me.

Frontman Justin Benlolo says

“We all had a moment in the last few years where we felt useless. There was nowhere to go and nothing to do. I had been sitting on this song idea, but I never knew what it meant to me until everything disappeared. What I had once felt as an angst-ridden teenager was coming back again and this song became a way to channel my inner dialogue.

In a sense, the song is really about the dangers of your own mind and the places that it goes when you least expect it. Sometimes it feels good to lean into the darkness and know that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. That being said, we’ve been dying to get this out and show the world what the next step of BRKN LOVE sounds like! Coupled with a music video we literally shot within three days of changing our lead single, I have to say that this is my favorite thing that we’ve done so far. Stay tuned for what’s to come next because we have a whole lot more. Let’s rock and roll.”

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wk9 = The Mysterines Hung Up

They’re from Liverpool in the North of England, and The Mysterines will release their upcoming debut album “Reeling” on March 11, 2022.

Frontwoman Lia Metcalfe says

“Nothing seemed more fitting than to record an album about self-destruction whilst the world itself entered into what seemed like a brief apocalypse.

As a band, we were really grateful to still be able to create during such bleak times. Our wonderful producer Catherine Marks, who put everything she had into the record, turned my songs into perfect pictures of themselves, with both the most frightening and beautiful reflections.

Hung Up is pretty self-explanatory and I intended it to be that way. It's also a very revengeful song.”

wk10 = Combos Mad Beef

I have discovered so many incredible bands out of Norway this year, and punks Combos have to be the most bonkers of them all, haha. Their debut album Steelo was one of my favourites in 2021. It oozes relentless release and authenticity. It’s superbly quirky and downright fun. These gents are extremely talented musicians, and I yearn to see them live one day. If things go well for WWTR I’ll absolutely fly them over here, haha.

Lead singer Axel had this to say of the song

“For those that don’t know us combos are an odd bunch. We got a prog skater, a soccer punk, a sneaker baller, an acid master of the arts, and a black metal C.E.O.

Our single Mad Beef is about beef and slurpy and getting lost in the soup. The perfect backdrop for scalding fuck boys and inserting chopsticks to the iris for the spectacular motion.

Check it out, and peace, Jonnnnnnn.”

wk11 Tired Lion Lie To Me

I found a brilliant breakdown of one of my favourite records of 2020 by Hayden Davies for Pilerats.com.

“In the space of just three years, a lot has happened for Tired Lion. In 2017, the formerly Perth-based group were ushered into the spotlight thanks to their debut album Dumb Days, a striking collection of 11 tracks that pushed them from being a local Perth favourite to a group that'd come to blossom even internationally, with shows at Primavera Sound and Reading & Leeds amongst sold-out headline tours and more.

With that, however, came things like additional pressure and the relentlessness of that aforementioned touring, creating the need for personal change to prevent all the usual things that bands encounter as they hit the unexpected break-out. So, things changed. Sophie Hopes - the band's lead vocalist and now, core member - moved on from her bandmates and moved across the country to Brisbane, where she navigated things like anxiety and depression with the added emphasis of loneliness and separation from her friends and family; a turbulent time, but a necessary one too, to avoid the stagnation that haunts so many artists at their creative prime.

As it seems, music became a powerful tool for Sophie to process and reflect on her changing life. It brought opportunities to look into herself just as much as it did to dissect the world around her; a platform for her to evaluate the moments of change happening in her life, and how she could build herself up - more potently, intimate and vulnerable, now as a solo musician - to overcome it.”

Sophie shared her thoughts on each song within this brilliant record rundown.

She said of Lie To Me

“Lie to Me must be the most literal song I’ve ever written. I guess I've been in a few situations where I've had people trying to provide validation to me in all the wrong ways and it just comes across as super condescending.

It's really a song that comes from a female perspective. If I'm upset, it's not because I need you to comfort me. I need you to stop thinking you have the answer for everything and I can’t handle myself.”

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wk12 Kid Kapichi feat. Bob Vylan New England

Kid Kapichi’s debut album This Time Next Year is a gritty, snarling effort, that contrasts dreams with the harsh reality of them being out of reach for the working class. I have opened that can of sardines over and over again, and it is utterly brilliant. Bobby Vylan is also an artist that seemingly writes with accelerated fire and fury about the UK's ugly realities, including police brutality, the racism – both institutional and personal – faced by Britain's communities of colour, and the government's poor treatment of the working classes.

This song is utterly spot on.

Here’s what lead singer Jack Wilson said to NME

“New England is a song that targets the blindly patriotic, grabs them by the shoulders, shakes them and shouts ‘wake up’. We’re living in scary times where the top of society have found a way to turn the working class against themselves. We become more confident in our xenophobia as it’s only reinforced by our government on a daily basis.

We’ve been mugged off and sold a lie time and time again and the scary thing is people seem to still be making the same mistakes. Maybe out of pure ignorance or maybe in a stubborn act of defiance. Either way it’s hard to watch.”

Please also consider checking his open letter via Kerrang Magazine about the UK’s new Nationality and Borders Bill.

wk13 Dead Sara - Heroes

Emily and Siouxsie Medley met through mutual friends in 2002 as teenagers and began writing together soon after. A few years later they made their live debut, with Sean Friday joining as the drummer in 2009, and in 2012 they released the self-entitled debut album. However, in 2014 label issues stunted their flow and led to them forming their own in order to release their second album.

Six years later and Ain’t It Tragic appears. It’s explosive, invigorating, and one of my favourites of the year. Emily is one of the best singers I’ve ever heard, lord knows how much compression was needed in the studio to contain her unrelenting power and passion. However, she is just as hair-raising when dialing back. I can’t wait to see them live, I just know she’s got the ability to pierce eardrums and simultaneously rebuild them leaving the listener in a state of euphoria. Siouxsie and Sean are also exceptional musicians I could wax lyrical about too, it’s all in the intricacies of their compositions that showcase how good they are. There is a ferocious assured swagger about this band.

“I just happened to read [that line] down on my list of lyrics that I have. I just started singing that, and I was, like, ‘Oh, that’s the song.’ We had a shell of a song, but then it really made sense when we started actually honing in on what the album was gonna be.

From there, everything else just kind of rolled out.

As a kid, all the stuff you’re gonna fight for and fight just in life, and nobody’s really gonna be there. When you’re an adult, you just go, ‘Oh, f***, I’m here. It’s just me.'“- Emily Armstrong via ABC Audio

wk14 Bad Nerves - Don’t Stop

These five move at a furious pace.

They’re the sort of band I imagine you’d get a nosebleed watching them, regardless of whether you move or not.

“It’s an observation of the grey sludge that oozes from all corners of a society run by cash cow psychopaths.
It’s Monopoly on speed, fed through a meat-grinder and shoved down your throat, day in, day out. Eat up and shut up. This is a call to action to peacefully oppose the status quo before it turns us all into jellified pulp.” - Bobby Nerves

wk15 Cassyette - Petrichor

Cassyette is just ferocious.

Her parents always encouraged her to sing when growing up, one day a musical neighbour asked if she’d be interested in coming over to record some vocals. After that, she knew it was music and only music. She started writing her own songs, taught herself to DJ and started a girl band. As she matured in her teens she would study music at uni and once she graduated threw all of her energy into the DJ and songwriting community around her. I love how she has and continues to grow and bounce between characters/extensions of her consciousness. Her music is extremely diverse and while for the most part, it comes back to a delightfully heavy sound, she can have you in tears when she flips the script. She is a huge talent and I’m extremely intrigued to see what comes next.

“Petrichor means the smell in the air after it’s been raining. After losing my dad and being unable to see anyone over lockdown I spiralled into a dark place. I took a lot for me to feel happiness again. A few months back my best friend had a baby (my god daughter) and when she was born I wrote Petrichor. How we have the power to regenerate our mind set and push ourselves through dark times because there is light at the end of the tunnel. It’s about turning over a new leaf. A fresh start. One life ends and another begins.” - Cassyette

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wk16 Electric Enemy - Sweet Tooth

Where Do We Go From Here? was my introduction to Electric Enemy and in turn, I became utterly obsessed with them. The rich guitars, the brilliant choral backing vocals, and that cheeky whistle accent in the first verse add a bit of unpredictable flair when it comes to their song creations. It’s always the small details that hook me, intrigue me, and leave me yearning to learn more of the creators.

The band had spent the year prior to the pandemic preparing their debut album, but when the world hit the pause button they took a step back to do as many artists have had to, re-plan and reshape their future and go with a new ever-changing flow. This in turn saw them record more songs, split some of the planned work into a variety of single and EP releases, and keep honing their craft.

Sweet Tooth is about love and lust at first sight. it is about being in love with, or very attracted to, a powerful person or force. the subject is almost vampiric in their qualities, so the song is about being completely captivated by someone’s light and shade and the depth that we can find in another.

“I think we initially launched into it with the intention of writing something fun, dirty, and moshable, however, as is always the case in Electric Enemy, a message found its way in. Love comes in all shapes and sizes, sometimes it's Hallmark and sometimes its a badass in a leather jacket.” - Jim

wk17 Mothica - Casualty

I initially came across Mothica on Tik Tok and in early 2020. She wears her heart on her sleeve lyrically and creates dark moody textures sonically.

“On the way to the studio, I was thinking about how many things in my life were set up to destroy me. Like, alcoholism and depression that runs in my family. I suffer from both, and I really hate the idea of either of these things being the reason I give up on life. The word 'casualty' refers more to the numbers to represent how fatal a war is, and doesn’t really consider the individuality of each life lost.

With over two years sober, this song was an empowered response, that I didn’t want to let these inherited destructive diseases control me anymore. A promise to not die by suicide or drug overdose, which was a very real trajectory for me in the past. It’s one of those songs that just sets my soul on fire in the best way.” - Mothica Press Release

wk18 Spiral Drive Illusion

This band is the closest I’ll come to feeling like I’m smoking a blunt on Mars. They’re psychedelic transporters who warmly welcome you on board and then despite the extreme force required to blast into space and hurtle across the galaxy, somehow you don’t feel a thing. It’s like you never left the couch.

Their creations have such a freeing motion to them. The haunting tones, the fuzzy guitars, the hypnotizing rhythm section. They keep asking where I’ve gone, I’m just blissed out at the back waiting to land, thoroughly lost in enjoyment and dodgy dance moves.

“It’s a song about people changing, and sometimes they change so dramatically that you can’t identify them anymore at all. It’s like they’re not there, although they’re physically present.” - Raphael Neikes

wk19 Momma Rockstar

Several years ago Etta Friedman was writing and performing under the name Momma when she asked classmate Allegra Weingarten if she’d be interested in filling in on guitar for an upcoming show. As they rehearsed they quickly felt they had more of a connection than first realised, in turn causing them to lose focus on the batch of songs they were rehearsing in order to write new originals together. After about a year of playing as a two-piece, they met drummer Zach CapittiFenton through the LA music scene. Aron Kobayashi Ritch (producer/bassist) produced the last LP Two of Me, and then last year we all decided to start writing more collaboratively as a 4 piece.

“Etta and I wanted to write a song about making it big, and becoming rockstars. We didn’t want to take anything too seriously, lyrically or musically. We just wanted the song to sound big.

We thought it would be cool to have our own little rockumentary condensed in a three-minute music video. It’s also kind of like a manifestation. I think we shamelessly want all of these things to happen in our careers.” - Allegra Weingarten

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wk20 Baby Strange Under The Surface

I’ve been following this scintillating three-piece from Edinburgh, Scotland, for just short of a decade now and my goodness have they hit their stride in the last two years. Their second record is going to be ferocious.

“Under The Surface is a song about feeling trapped and wanting to find a way out of whatever is holding you back. It’s about paranoia, dark thoughts and the need to get over them. It’s a powerful song for me, writing it was a total release and when we finished it in the studio I felt a weight was lifted from my shoulders.” - Johnny Madden

wk21 Francis of Delirium The Funhouse

Luxembourg-based artist Jana Bahrich’s indie-rock project Francis of Delirium caught my attention with their debut EP All Change.

I adore the juxtaposition between Jana’s delicate emotive storytelling and the wall of distorted guitars.

“The Funhouse is largely about how we are adapting to the chaos that is present in our everyday lives.

The way it can feel that the world is crashing down around us and in order to protect ourselves, we become numb to the sheer terror of it all.” - Jana Bahrich

wk22 VUKOVI Lasso

Janine Shilstone and Hamish Reilly produce thunderous and rousing walls of delightfully distorted creations. Every song is dripping in hooks and a memorable melody. I’ve become utterly addicted to their confidence the last few years, and I cannot wait to see what else is to come in 2022 from these two. Strap. The f*ck. In!

"Lasso is about being blinded by perception. People not seeing or understanding the real person underneath their 'Popstar' status. Being pulled in all directions to please others only looking to gain from your success". - Janine Shilstone

wk23 Dead Pony Bullet Farm

This three-piece from Glasgow, Scotland, utterly rip. They caught my intention with their debut release Sex Rich in 2019, and cross the next twelve months they released five further singles before the pandemic struck. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve listened to Everything Is Easy and 23, Never Me, and I’m so thrilled Bullet Farm has appeared. It’s urgent, sharp, and heavily inspired by Mad Max.

"The idea for Bullet Farm came during a night watching the new Mad Max film. I remember during one of the gripping chase scenes, I was washed over by inspiration for a riff and I ran downstairs to record it into my phone quickly. The chaotic and rebellious vibe of the song is mirroring the movie and it is fast-paced and hectic with just a small break to catch your breath.

Bullet Farm is about excitement, turbulent energy and defiance similar to what I felt whilst watching that movie. I really want whoever listens to this song to feel like they have fallen straight into the middle of a Mad Max chase scene and to be immersed in the adrenaline and rebelliousness of the song." - Anna Shields

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wk24 LOWLIVES Misery

LOWLIVES are a stand-and-deliver rock band that I cannot get enough of.

They created one of my favourite songs of 2021, “I Don’t Like You”. I wrote the following about it in my Best of 2021 rundown.

One day Lee Downer realised he had a go-to riff when trying out guitars that he hadn’t worked into a song yet. A huge batch of songs were written, and he identified an area that was missing, and he wanted to lean into more. Coupled with relatable lyrics about people you come across that in time you realize are doing more damage to your happiness than good.

Lead singer/guitar player Lee Villain had this to say of the song.

“Misery was written and recorded as a stand-alone single whilst we finish off our Debut Full Length.

Obviously, times are bleak with Covid still ruining our livelihoods with apparently no end in sight with all tours being postponed and cancelled again. Being in a band has been extremely tough throughout this and Misery is just a reflection of that. No rainbows on the horizon stories here just a harsh reality that we’ve grown accustom to.”

wk25 Bongloard I’m Staying In Bed Today

Bongloard are a frantic three-piece from Holland that I cannot get enough of.

They’ve only released three songs thus far, each is utterly bonkers and exhilarating. Make sure to also check out Whoo Yeah and I Want It Now.

Here’s what the band had to say via their press release ahead of their debut album, People Overreacting To My Behavior.

You may recognise that primal feeling of being completely at your wits' end. All you can do is simulate a nuclear explosion overhead as an expression of that utter despair. Bongloard is something of an extension of that in the form of a band. The trio of Jannes van Kaam, Ties Bogers and Jan Van Asch fires razor-sharp noise-punk/garage rock projectiles with demented fury.

According to band-founder Van Kaam, debut LP People Overreacting To My Behavior is about the act of  “falling face-first”, a musical torrent of piss that arises from the sheer need to vent the most persistent of frustrations. On neurotic first single, I'm Staying In Bed Today, we find Van Kaam driven up the ceiling during the ongoing pandemic, as the walls of your room inch a little closer every day.

People Overreacting To My Behaviour offers you a burst of noise that courts fear, discomfort and frustration: about what a person reflects from the inside and experiences from the outside. How do you deal with unbridgeable chasms, and how do you confront and interrogate your own value system? Bongloard's answer, for now, is to channel that accumulation of modern frustrations through their high-wired punk rock anthems.

The band themselves don’t emerge unscathed in the heat of that skirmish, but nevertheless, court the battlefield stubbornly like a deranged stunt team out of abject necessity. By embracing that hot-blooded damned if you/ damned if you don’t-energy, Bongloard prove themselves as one of the most exciting, combustible units to charge the stages.

wk26 Coach Party Weird Me Out

I discovered this four-piece from the Isle of Wight thanks to a feature by Thomas Smith of NME three years ago now. Their quirky personalities shone through in what was most likely a set of questions fired off via email for them to respond to, ha. From Oh Lola to their most recent EP, Nothing Is Real, they’ve matured tenfold. This is a band that writes from the heart, sharing authentic experiences, coupled with solid hooks.

Frontwoman Jess Eastwood says:

“If you take standards as set by the media too seriously, which is easily done, you end up with a very unrealistic idea of what a relationship should look like. Weird Me Out is about the desire to change someone (or yourself) to fit that image you have of a perfect relationship, but also stepping back and remembering to stop comparing yourself to manufactured ideals, and put yourself on a well-deserved pedestal.”

wk27 Viagra Boys “I Ain’t No Thief”

I utterly adore the scandalous, quirky, and dark humoured creations of these bonkers Swedes.

I was laughing uncontrollably while listening to this for the first time. It immediately transported me to my youth when I would do my utmost to convince someone that what they thought they knew or even witnessed me do, was completely wrong. The more I listened the more it filled me with joy as my mind stumbled through other examples across the years. Like the person that always has to outdo someone at the dinner table, “Oh I’ve broken every bone in my body! Didn’t you know”. This is one of those songs I wish I had written, it so brilliantly reminds us of how fucking ridiculous humans can be.

"The misconception…That humanity is moving forward. I just wrote down, ‘Who is the true ape?’. People look down at apes as primitive life forms, but we’re just this horrible, lazy society killing each other and starting wars, while they’re able to love and feel. Does that make them the true ape or us?" - Sebastian Murphy