Les Becasses: 'Bloody Winter' album
From the French underground squat circuit, Paris-based Les Becasses - Marion (vox, guitar), Christophe (bass) and Aurelie (drums/bvs) - visited England for a mini-tour in 2019, playing with Liverpudlian-based Blang Records band, Sheepy. Blang planned to release its first European record on January 1st in response to Brexit, but Brexit and Covid intervened. They are now excited to announce the UK vinyl release of ‘Bloody Winter’. The album is in shops on June 4th but avalable now from the Blang shop.
For fans of The 5.6.7.8’s, The Ramones & Les Wampas, ‘Bloody Winter’ is an eight track mini-album clocking in at twenty minutes and was recorded in just two days. The band named the record in the Autumn of 2020 as they braced themselves for the bloody winter they saw coming to Paris.
The title track borrows from The Rock-A-Teens 1959 rockabilly classic ‘Woo Hoo’. All tracks are sung in English. The record makes us look forward longingly to a summer of bloody loud gigs where we can jump around and spill beer to sounds like these two minute nuggets of female vocal-led razor pop energy.
“For this disc, we decided to print our lyrics as we thought they were rather fun and French people generally need to have them written down to appreciate and understand English texts. Les Becasses’ songs use very classical themes in the pure tradition of Pop music (love, parties, freedom…) although we like to use a bit of humour especially in these dark times. Brexit is a sad thing to us and our friends in general as we love the UK and want to think a part of her loves us back!! It seems that Boris Johnson would have been a perfect prime minister in a Monty Python movie, not real life. Anyway, after Brexit we now have to face the Covid restrictions. We really hope we can come back to the UK, we all had such a great time and were very proud of the English audience's response to our shows!”
Marion, Les Becasses
Flying Chaucers Single
All together now: "you need a personality sir, to go with that disorder".
Fasten your seatbelts for The Flying Chaucers, the new solo lockdown project from Joe Murphy of Sergeant Buzfuz and Blang. During lockdown Joe has been learning to record on an 8-track portastudio at his home in Sheffield. ‘Down With The Creeps' is available across all the usual platforms, including
Spotify Apple Music Deezer Bandcamp
Watch 'Down With The Creeps' video here.
"The title is from four words an autistic girl wrote on a piece of paper in a class I was supply teaching in. She was non-verbal and could barely produce any written work but had produced these four words. I figured she must have got the phrase from a TV show or book, but I couldn't find any reference to it. It's kind of a goofy phrase but I like it and was amused by the idea of using it for a song about various bosses I've had in day jobs over the years. Writing the song in lockdown, politicians kept barging into it as well as college managers. So the characters are fictional mash-ups of various real arseholes." - Joe
'Down With The Creeps' is an addictive brass-driven earworm made with the help of two other members of Sergeant Buzfuz. Joe's wife Polly MacLean (Slate Islands) sang bvs and Ian Button (Papernut Cambridge/Gare du Nord Records) remixed and mastered.
Awkward Silences new album
How many albums get compared to Leonard Cohen, PiL and The Village People? The new eponymous album by The Awkward Silences is the answer (see first review below). The long-awaited follow-up to Outsider Pop develops the post-punk leanings of that album into sparser territory; the drums, bass and two guitars building interlocking angular riffs with economy and space to provide a taut canvas for the pointed musings of disability campaigner Paul Hawkins. In record shops now and from our shop here.
"a damn fine record; an indictment on the state of dysfunctional Britain. It’s good to have them back and on form; as unique and rebellious as ever." MONOLITH COCKTAIL
"mischievous melodies...daring lyrics... this album has found a special place in my heart. 5/5" ALTREVIEW