Monster Inks

Love Inks
From: Austin, United States

On Blackeye Austin minimalists Love Inks channel the haunting post-punk of Young Marble Giants with a short, sweet and melodic tune masking a dark and brutal tale of domestic violence. It's one of the best tracks I've heard all year and a real contender for the Devil's top 10 of 2011. You could say Blackeye pees all over the opposition.

Go Try


Love Inks - Blackeye (Hell, Yes!) by cityslang

Go Visit

Love Inks - Myspace : Website : Last.FM

Go View

Love Inks
Blackeye

Good Pool Rising

For more than 40 years there's been a shadow hanging over the Liverpool music scene, a shadow with a mop top and a ready line in humorous scouse quips. Occassionally the bands and artists by the Mersey cast the shadow aside and make the world briefly forget the fab four ever happened. It happened in the early 80s with the emergence of The Bunnymen, Wah Heat, Dead or Alive, Orchestral Manouevres In The Dark and the Teardrop Explodes. It happened again towards the end of the 90s with the rise of Space, The Coral, The Zutons and The Rascals. Well it's happening again. As Liverpool council prepare to demolish Ringo Starr's birthplace it's fitting that the city's bands and artists are demolishing the Beatles legacy and creating their own history.

Thanks to Pete Guy of the excellent Liverpool website Get Into This for his help on this post.

We Came Out Like Tigers

First up is We Came Out Like Tigers who are just about as far from the Beatles as it's possible to be unless you happen to have a tape of John Lennon's primal scream therapy sessions. They're loud, ear achingly loud, battering you into submission with a musical assault that in an earlier age would probably have had them up on a charge of GBH. Strangely cathartic.

Go Try

Breathe in, though you barely believe in it by We Came Out Like Tigers

Mugstar

Hypnotic thunderous psychedelic grooves sprinkled with the space dust from a yet to be discovered galaxy. Dazzlingly creative and uncategorisable like the White Album taken to it's logical extreme with the benefit of 21st century technology.

Go Try

Technical Knowledge As A Weapon by MUGSTAR

Ex-Easter Island Head

Minimalist, ambient drone rock that sounds like Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club band tuning up before the big event.

Go Try

Mallet Guitars Two (Live) by Ex-Easter Island Head

Sun Drums

Derek Achora's not the only scouser who makes a living out of haunting. Check out the ghostly Dry Chalk Bone from Sun Drums which sounds like the soundtrack to a seance with Grizzly Bear and Bon Iver.

Go Try

Dry Chalk Bone (Unmastered) by SUN DRUMS

Forest Swords

What is it with the new breed of Liverpool bands/artists and their love of haunting, chilled out dub? Rattling Cage drifts on the air like a call to prayer for the musically dispossessed.

Go Try

Rattling Cage by Forest Swords

AutoSon

In a world of bleeps and glitches, of dub and drone it's good to stumble upon a band who doff their cap to the greats of the post punk era. If Autoson were a pie chart they'd be two-fifths Killing Joke, two-fifths The Sound and one-fifth REM and one-fifth Liverpool legends Echo & The Bunnymen. I know that doesn't quite add up but this is a music site. If you want mathematical accuracy you should head over to Stephen Hawkings site.

Go Try

Sylvia - AutoSon by Liverpool Bands

Capac

Capac's panoramic electronica with a post-rock fringe throbs and pulses like a healthy heart after an amphetamine injection.

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Palindrome by Capac

Outfit

With their neo psych ode to wardrobe pilfering Outfit occupy the space previously occupied by the Coral at their strangest.

Go Try

Every Night I Dress Up As You by OUTFIT

The Rialto Burns

Scouse classicists channel the dynamic moodiness and edgy romanticism of the great Liverpool bands from the 80s.

Go Try

The Rialto Burns - For the asking by Gung-HoRecordings

Oh and yes I do recognise the irony of frequently referencing the Beatles in a post about bands demolishing their legacy.

Right Royal Knees Up

The Devil's invite to the Royal Wedding must have got lost in the post so, like Barack Obama, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown I'm having to sit it out at home. But to show I'm not bitter this post is dedicated to the happy couple.

Go Try

Telegram From The Queen - Bulldozer (Free 320 Download!) by JUVENILE SCUM RECORDS

Telegram From The Queen - Dethroned (On Beatport | May 23rd) by JUVENILE SCUM RECORDS

Alistair Albrecht vs Billy Idol - White Wedding (Bootleg) by Alistair Albrecht

Lewis Floyd Henry - White Wedding (Billy Idol Cover) by rocketpr

The Whip -- White Wedding by rrafferty

Chant No.1

Street Chant
From: Auckland, New Zealand

There's something stirring in the south-western Pacific. I've already covered the Christchurch scene (Christ You Know It Ain't Easy) and brought you the joys of that same city's Bachelorette (Bachelor Girl) well tonight it's the turn of the North Island with Auckland's Street Chant (first featured on the Devil's blog back in March, If Cinderella Can't Go To The Ball).

Formed in 2007 from bits and pieces of Cock Destroyer and The DHDFD's Street Chant are an Auckland snotty punk supergroup with a fine line in raw, frantic angsty toons infused with a unique Kiwi melody handed down across the generations of New Zealands indie scene. It's life affirming chicken soup for the ears.


Go Try
MP3 - Street Chant - Less Chat More Sewing
MP3 - Street Chant - The Fatigues
These tracks are publushed with the permission of TeamClermont so please don't claim breach of copyright

Go Visit

Street Chant - Myspace : Website : Last.FM

Go View

Street Chant
Scream Walk

German Engineering

German Error Message

From: Murfreesboro, Tennessee, United States

Lo-fi doesn't get much lower, or slower than this. Slow-fi anyone? It's a whisper in a world of shouting, a brief respite from the incessant noise of modern life. It's better than paracetemol for a headache.

Go Try

MP3 - German Error Message - Reaching Out
MP3 - German Error Message - We Arose
These tracks are published with the permission of BanterMedia so please don't claim breach of copyright
MP3 - German Error Message - Remember Your Entire Life
This track is linked from the German Error Message Last.FM site and is therefore already freely available so please don't claim breach of copyright

Go Visit

German Error Message - Myspace : Last.FM : Bandcamp

Go View

German Error Message
We Arose

It's My Birthday

It's my birthday today so I've decided to give myself a few presents. Being a kind little Devil I thought I'd share them with you all.

Go Try

Golden Birthday by Golden Birthday

Let's Take This Party Downstairs by Birthday Girls

Happy Birthday by Röyksopp

Jesus Came To My Birthday Party by tmemusic

Birthday Party by unouomedude by Gluttony Is The New Black

The World Just Turned A Little Less Dayglo

Marianne Joan Elliott-Said
RIP
3 July 1957 – 25 April 2011

I was heartbroken to learn that one of my musical heroines Marian Joan Elliott-Said, better known as Poly Styrene the high priestess of punk, passed away last night after a short battle with cancer. I was fortunate enough to interview Marian earlier this year and feel honoured and humbled that such a legend would take time out despite her illness to respond . Goodnight Marian the world turned a little less dayglo last night go rock heaven and give John Peel a hug while you're there.

Once Bitten Twice Shy

The Keys
From: Wales

After taking a month off the Devil's album of the month is back and it's another cracker. ‘Bitten By Wolves’, the new album from (obligatory cliché warning) Welsh wizards The Keys, finds the band at a crossroads, not quite sure whether to shake off their earlier incarnation as John Peel favourites Murry the Hump and embrace a tighter, more mature, more mainstream sound. It’s an album that finds them feeling their way, trying out various styles to see which one fits them best, an album that wears it’s eclecticism on its sleeve.

On the upbeat, and really rather brilliant, I Tried To Find It In Books and the more laid back, cooler but equally brilliant The Color Red you can hear echoes of their former band. They’re both packed to the gills with the effortless cool of the early Dandy Warhols. But then, without warning, they go all trad rock on us unleashing their inner Rolling Stones with Everyone Loves You, a dressed down, denim clad dirty rocker before slipping in Transformation, one and half minutes of ambient electro that wouldn’t sound out of place as an OMD b-side. As they used to say on the 1970s soap opera parody Soap, ‘Confused? You soon Will Be’.

You certainly can’t accuse The Keys of adopting a formulaic approach to their craft. These are no fly by night bandwagon jumpers looking to make a quick buck by hitching themselves to any old passing trend. Not content with serving up the trad rock and reverb soaked vocals of Crackin Up (not to be confused with the Murry the Hunp track of the same name) and the drifting, AOR of title track Bitten By Wolves their eclectic menu includes When You’re Young, an echo from the summer of love. It conjures up images of lithesome barefoot hippies with flowers in their hair making shapes in fields of poppies. Then Heads of the Valleys comes galloping in with a refreshing dose of understated, almost pastoral, psychedelia. The album closes with the acoustic I Just Can’t Convince Myself, a ballad that sounds like a refugee Paul McCartney smuggled from the White album. A pleasant, yet curiously inconsequential, end to an album where the sum of the parts is better than the whole.

Bitten By Wolves is a promising, and occasionally brilliant, album that falls a little short of classic as a result of their schizophrenic genre hopping.

7/10

This article was originally written by the Devil for The 405 and is published with permission.

Go Try

The Keys - I Try To Find It In Books by 9PR

The Keys - Cracking Up by 9PR

The Keys - Myspace : Website : Last.FM

Go View
The Keys Fire Inside



If you've never succumbed to the delights of Murry The Hump then get your chops around this from a time before they went all serious on us...

Murry The Hump
Kebab or Shag

Video Killed The Radio Star 24th April 2011

Here are the videos that caught the Devil's eye this week...

Delay Trees
About Brothers

Delay Trees "About Brothers" from friendly fire recordings on Vimeo.

Common Tongues
Jumping Ships



I'm Not A Band
Black Horses



Lorena B
Swallow My Gum

The Devil's Round Up 24th April 2011

This weeks round up of the tracks that I haven't had the space to post...

United Fruit
From: Glasgow, Scotland

Discordant post rock that'll tear your ears from your head and leave them in a bleeding heap on the floor.

Go Try

MP3 - United Fruit - Liar

This track is published with the permission of Undress To Win Press so please don't claim breach of copyright

Death To The Brutes
From: Italy

Take a walk on electro's dark side with Death to the Brutes the side project of Nac/Hut Report's Brigitte Roussel

Go Try

Death to the Brutes - Red Dust by BR_nachutreport

Waylayers
From: London, United Kingdom

Waylayers nice, easy going, bright and breezy pop make a nice counterbalance to the dark electro of Death to the Brutes and the discordant rock of United Fruit. Big Machines is taken from their new ep 'Weightless', a perfect title for music that simply floats like a wisp cloud in a clear blue sky.

Go Try

Waylayers - Big Machines by Joe1988

The Natural Shocks

From: Toronto, Canada

Canadian power pop with more hooks than a curtain makers convention.

Go Try

Heavier Than Heavy by The Natural Shocks

The Android Angel
From: Surrey, United Kingdom

The Android Angel is the serious side project of Free Swim's Paul Coltofeanu (Swimming Against The Tide). It's worth checking out for those moments when you're all smiled out and you want to get in touch with your serious side.

Go Try

Long Meadow by The Android Angel

Trails
From: Guildford, United Kingdom

Trails launch an all out assault on your eardrums with their latest track All The Other Humans. There is no defence so book your appointment with your local Otologist now.

Go Try

All The Other Humans by Trailscloud

Easter Rising

Happy Easter to all the Devil's readers.

It's Easter and what better way to enjoy the crucifixion and subsequent resurrection of Jesus than to indulge in some egg related music?

Go Try

Tear Zero - Eggs (an original) by Tear Zero

Egg Brains - Moon Bear The Bizarre Ursine (Live) by FatCat Records

All Work/No Play by EasterEgg

Gretchen - Easter Egg by Gretchen.

The Scrambled Eggs - Omelette (Original mix) by The Scrambled Eggs

No Reason To Stay by The Tired Eggs

Fight Like Apes - Poached Eggs by stripeyjumper

Mammal Mia

Mammal Club
From: Newcastle, United Kingdom

Mammal Club, featured on the Devil's recent review of the Newcastle scene, Newcastle United, have emerged blinking from the darkest recesses of their north-east lock up with a copy of their debut release, The Au EP, in their tired but exhilarated hands. It's a quite stunning debut full of alt pop so complicated you need a degree in alt pop just to pass the listening test.

The band are going to spend most of their time beating off the Sparks comparisons with a stick and they really don't help themselves with an EP jam packed with dramatic high pitch vocals that sound like they've taken an exam in the history of Sparks b-sides.

Opening track 'Otter' is a blast of math pop so inscrutable that it could scramble the brain of confucious himself and vocals pitched so high they can cut glass. Out of the Playground is no less complex with singer Wilson Astley spilling out his words like his life depends upon it while the band furiously beat their instruments into submission. I hope that the EP comes equipped with the lyrics as keeping up with Astley's frentic delivery is beyond my limited powers.

Hang is more of the same frenetic alt pop that demands more of the listener than your usual run of the mill indie band. It poses a particularly difficult math pop problem and then asks, with an air of professorial confidence, 'will you ever really solve any of this'. Not without a spreadsheet you won't!

The EP draws to a close with Picket which slows the pace down a little from supersonic to merely break-neck. It's a welcome change of pace, the musical equivalent of a warm down after a particularly strenuous run. It's an impressive end to an impressive debut, one which announces Mammal Club as real contenders.

It's time you joined the Mammal Club just make sure you're wearing your lab coat.

Go Try

Mammal Club - Otter by everybodysstalking


Go Visit

Mammal Club - Myspace : Facebook : Last.FM


Go View

Mammal Club
Double Double

It's A Kinda Magic

Hazel Savage, a music encoder with Shazam the world's most popular mobile phone app for hunting down elusive song titles or artists has taken time out from encoding music (aka witchcraft) to chat to the Devil about the Shazam sessions, the music that brings her joy and her love of roller disco.

The Devil: If Shazam had been invented in the middle ages you'd have all been burned as witches. Tell me how the app works?

Hazel: Well there is a distinct rumour going around that it is actually magic, or that there are 1000s of us sat in a call centre recognising millions of songs in our heads, neither of these are true....it’s the miracle of super computers and algorithms....if I tell you anything else I’ll have to kill you.

The Devil: If the Shazam app was an animal which animal would it be?

Hazel: Hummm tough one, I’m gonna say Aardvark, nifty, resilient & tough and also they very first...in the dictionary, or in our case the music recognition arena!

The Devil: Tell me more about the Shazam sessions

Hazel: The Shazam sessions are stripped down acoustic session of the best and most exciting global artists. We want them to offer additional content to our customers and also give artists a new way to reach our 1 million daily users.

The Devil: What is your favourite Shazam session?

Hazel: That is like asking me to pick a favourite child! There are so many good ones, a few favourites would be Dinosaur Pile Up, Buck 65 & Men, especially MEN as I’m a huge JD Samson fan! But, if I could only pick one it would be Foxy Shazam, they blew me away with their talent; it was also the 1st session we ever did, if I was filming it again I’d do some things different....but I still love it.

The Devil: What would be your ultimate Shazam session? Which bands/artists would you love to feature on a Shazam session

Hazel: I’d love to get some of the greats in like Bruce Springsteen, Debbie Harry, Dave Grohl oh and Bon Jovi, I think I’d die, I’m a huge closet fan, don’t tell anyone! But I am also more than happy to hear all the new artists coming through.

The Devil: Which bands/artists on the current music scene makes your spine tingle with joy?

Hazel: My favourite bands, well currently I have Against Me! The Peacocks and Alkaline Trio on rotation, that’s right....I’m a rocker!

The Devil: What was the first artist/band you had a crush on?

Hazel: Humm I don’t really crush on the famous....my first musical idols were Abba though, me and my friend used to dress up as the two girls and perform the songs.

The Devil: What was the first record you bought?

Hazel: This is not good, I was really into roller disco at the time and I bought “Total Eclipse of the Heart” not even the original, the Nicki French version...for my next interview I’m going to make something cooler up.

The Devil: Favourite song?

Hazel: This depends what day you ask me...there is generally a top five, Older Than Punk by the Peacocks and Time to Waste by Alkaline Trio are battling for the top spot today!

The Devil: Favourite book?

Hazel: Nevil Shute ‘On The Beach’ possibly the finest work of post apocalyptic fiction ever

The Devil: Favourite Movie?

Hazel: Cube, love the whole trilogy!

The Devil: Favourite word?

Hazel: For my sins I say Awesome! A LOT

The Devil: Tell me something that you've never told anyone before.

Hazel: Impossible, I’m a real gobshite, I have kept no secrets sorry!

The Devil: What's next for Shazam?

Hazel: More social integration and the tagging of TV shows for additional content, it’s the future!

The Devil: If you were interviewing yourself what would your killer question be and how would you answer it?

Hazel: My killer question is to ask someone if they could’ve written one song from history what would they pick, dont steal my question! (the Devil can I borrow it then?) And the answer....well i’ll refer you back to my favourite song choice above!

The Devil: Is there anything else you'd like to tell the Devil Has The Best Tuna readers?

Hazel: Well since your readers seem to love music discovery and so do we, I’d like to advise them just to keep on keeping on!

Go Visit

Shazam Sessions - YouTube

Go View

Buck 65
Gee Whizz



Foxy Shazam
Oh Lord



Go Try

Here are a couple of tracks by bands that have featured on the Shazam Sessions.

Wanna-Be Angel by Foxy Shazam by divisionpromotions

SUMMER HIT SINGLE by DINOSAUR PILE-UP

MEN- Credit Card Babie$ by Anorak London

Heavy Petting

Pet Scenes
From: London, United Kingdom

London combo (I just love that word, don't know why I just do!) Pet Scenes have taken time out from single handedly saving music from the fakes, the posers and the over sexualised bump 'n grind merchants to talk, and possibly fib, to the Devil.

The Devil: Why Pet Scenes?

Pet Scenes: Because it is ambiguous and doesn't include "the" or "one syllable plural".

The Devil: What other names did you ponder before deciding it had to be Pet Scenes?

Pet Scenes: Jesus Lizard, Big Black, Sonic Youth, but we found out that all of these had been taken already.

The Devil: Who are the biggest influences in your life and on your music?

Pet Scenes: Roy Sullivan. He was hit by lightning 7 times in his life and survived each time. The odds are insane, I think it's proof of an infinite Universe. Ironically, he died by way of a self inflicted gun shot wound. So it goes.

The Devil: What was the first record you owned and what was the first record you ever bought with your own money?

Pet Scenes: Probably something cool like Nirvana's Nevermind.

The Devil: What makes Pet Scenes stand out from the millions of other bands across the world? What makes you unique?

Pet Scenes: Ah we're not that unique, we just make loud, fast music.

The Devil: Which bands or artists on the current music scene make your spine tingle with joy?

Pet Scenes: We played with Bitches recently who were immense. Also we're in about 3 bands each and these are all INCREDIBLE: Satellites Of Love, Vad Vacker, Facel Vega, Vis Vicis, Bob Constant and The Goodbye Horses, A Sofa Made of Dust, BonBonJoviJovi.

The Devil: Favourite song?

Pet Scenes: I Wanna Be Your Dog by Iggy and the Stooges

The Devil: Favourite book?

Pet Scenes: Animal Farm by George Orwell

The Devil: Favourite Movie?

Pet Scenes: Ace Ventura

The Devil: Favourite word?

Pet Scenes: Flippant

The Devil: Tell me something that you've never told anyone before.

Pet Scenes: I am Spartacus

The Devil: If you weren't in Pet Scenes how would you keep yourself occupied?

Pet Scenes: I'd just be crying relentlessly

The Devil: If you were interviewing yourself what would your killer question be and how would you answer it?

Pet Scenes: Q: Do you dig graves? A: Yeah, yeah they're alright, yeah

The Devil: Is there anything else you'd like to tell the Devil Has The Best Tuna readers?

Pet Scenes: One of us is lying

Go Try

M.S.B by Pet Scenes

That Thing On His Face by Pet Scenes

Go Visit

Pet Scenes - Myspace : Last.FM : Soundcloud

Go View

Pet Scenes
M.S.B



If Pet Scenes tickle your belly then check out their other bands...

Go Try

Screaming Sound by Satellites of Love

Vad Vacker - Make Me A Diamond by vadvacker

Facel Vega - Living Dead by staterunrecords

Tobacco Smoke Ghosts by Bob Constant & The Goodbye Horses by Bob Constant

Six Canadian Bands You Need To Hear

2011 is turning into a real globe trotting year for the Devil. So far there have been features on the music scenes of Newcastle and Christchurch and tonight's post takes a trip across the Atlantic for a peak at the Montreal scene with 6 bands you really need to hear as suggested by baebelmusic.

Valleys

Beautiful is a word that is far too easily thrown around in the blogosphere but 'Ordinary Dream' is truly beautiful. It sounds like the noise leaking out of the head of Kevin Shields.

Go Try

Valleys - Ordinary Dream by kgwightman

Reversing Falls

Alt-pop with more energy than a Canadian beaver from the Canadian cousins of Idlewild.

Go Try

Little Goodbye by reversingfalls

Sean Nicholas Savage

Soulful pop that has international hit written all over it from the prolific Savage.

Go Try

Sean Nicholas Savage - Someones Got A Secret by Arbutus Records

First You Get The Sugar

Unashamed, unabashed pop that heads straight for the gap in your life that's never been filled since the Beatles split up. If every Canadian postman isn't humming 'Sabre Rattling' by this time next week then they need to get their hearing checked.

Go Try

Sabre Rattlin' by FirstYouGetTheSugar

The Wind Up Radio Sessions

The Wind Up Radio Sessions sound like the progeny of seeds sown long ago by Canadian grand master Neil Young.

Go Try

06 Nairobi by TheWindUpRadioSessions

Pop Winds

Looking for the missing link between Grizzly Bear and Animal Collective? The answer my dear is blowing in Pop Winds.

Go Try

Sight by Pop Winds