Blog: SoundsXP

80s indiepop pioneers The Chefs have a 24 track compilation of everything they ever did on the way, titled Records & Tea: the Best of the Chefs. It includes 2 John Peel sessions, one Richard Skinner session and all their Attrix Records recordings and will be released on 23 April 2012. It was also feature sleeve notes by Everett True. After The Chefs had morphed into Skat they disbanded and Helen went onto success and a major label deal with Helen And The Horns, she now plays solo and has released several [...]

SoundsXP's favourite South London venue, Brixton's The Windmill, has a comeback gig by The Three Johns looming. The trio of Jo(h)n Langford, John Hyatt, Phillip 'John' Brennan who comprised one of the most important agitrock bands of the 80s. The Three Johns appeared regularly in the UK Indie Chart with singles such as "A.W.O.L.", "Death of the European" (an NME 'Single of the Week'), and "Brainbox". The band's left wing leanings were further evidenced by the Atom Drum Bop album, the sleeve carrying the words "Rock 'n' Roll Versus Thaatchiism". Formed in [...]

The Secret Garden Party has announced some of this year's line-up. The event takes place at Mill Hill Field in Abbots Ripton on 19TH - 22ND July 2012. Acts confirmed so far: Orbital Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros KT Tunstall Little Roy The Jim Jones Revue King Charles Jenny O Duke Spirit Vintage Trouble Soko Beth Jeans Houghton and The Hooves of Destiny Hyde And The Beast North Mississippi Allstars Duo Casio Kids [...]

'Dig Your Grave' is a piece of modern day garage in a similar vein to early Strokes and is from Seattle band The Pharmacy .

Two old Medway heroes Billy Childish and Sexton Ming ahve joined up again for one last time to record. Titled Dung Beetle Rolls Again, it'll be released on double vinyl LP only and limited to 500 copies on 23 April 2012. Childish (Buff Medways / Headcoats / Milkshakes) and Ming (Diamond Gussets / Tasty Ones / TV Personalities) have been writing poetry, playing music and painting pictures together since 1979 when they formed Phyroid Press. Their work together, documented by several LPs and 25 small press publications, is [...]

Medway garage queen, Holly Golightly has a new album out on 16th April. It features The Brokeoffs, is titled Long Distance and is being released by Damaged Goods label. Holly was asked about her reasons for making this album: "After many requests to incorporate the best of the solo Holly Golightly songs into the live set, with top-notch backing provided by The Brokeoffs, I have picked some of my original band favourites and recorded this collection for old and new fans alike. The [...]

We all know the clichés about making second albums. Rush releasing a watered-down version of the debut to wring a few extra quid out of the initial hype; radically changing your sound to avoid being stereotyped; taking too long fretting over it so that people have stopped caring by the time it sees light of day; leaving both fans and critics scratching their heads as they attempt 'get' the new direction a la Klaxons; totally upping your game to morph from also-rans into stadium slaying behemoths like Radiohead... the list goes on. The follow-up has been the make [...]

Taken from the EP 'Mystic Places' by US psychedelic Krautrock band Woodsman here's 'In Circles'.

Richard Hawley has a new album out on the 7th of May, on Parlophone, titled, 'Standing At The Sky's Edge'. Recorded at Sheffield's Yellow Arch Studio in 2011, 'Standing At The Sky's Edge' marks a shift in direction for Hawley. The album channels elements of psychedelia, space rock and rages with heavy riffs and raw, visceral guitar solos – as well as more familiar, tender moments – which may surprise Hawley's fans. In the tradition of Hawley's previous albums, the title is inspired by an area of Sheffield. Hawley says of the [...]

Tindersticks have made a download of a track and a new film available in advance of forthcoming album, The Something Rain. Ahead of the release of the LP's release on 20th February, and their Soho Theatre residency, Tindersticks release a second film and offer fans the chance to download album track 'Frozen' via their website . The LP is being released on the band's label Lucky Dog and the week it comes out, the band play a very special and intimate four-night residency at Soho Theatre, London from Wednesday 22nd - [...]

Darren Hayman has re-recorded his recent stunning lo-fi Ship's Piano album and made it available as a budget price offering. Where the original versions were produced using a vintage piano, the twist is that he's performed them using a Casio keyboard this time, giving them something of bedroom troubadour appeal. Anyway they're much better than Hayman's tongue in cheek title (The Shit Piano) and you can listen to the tracks for free or download in various formats for £3 from here .

Black Tambourine are looking for backers to help them out with playing some reunion shows in Washington DC and NYC at the beginning of April as part of the Chickfactor magazine 20th anniversary parties, and to release a newly recorded double-seven inch made by all four original members of the band. This what the band said on Kickstarter , the site that helps projects find funds: The four of us haven't played a live show together in 21 years! And while Archie and Brian still live in the DC metro area, [...]

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Kevin Rowland Dexys ahve unveiled the opening 2 minutes of the first track from their new album "One Day I'm Going To Soar" which will be released later this year. Titled Now, you can see it below.

It's been four years since 'Spending Cash, Talking Trash', the last long-player from Southampton combo Thee Exciters , and since then southern England's garage (and with a name like that, they had to be garage, right?) scene has remained in rude health with a veritable banquet of retro rockers to feast upon for music fans of that persuasion. Being less one dimensional than many of their contemporaries is what gives this quartet (drums, bass, guitar, vocals, natch) an advantage, drawing from many facets as oppose to picking a time/band/style and sticking to it rigidly. 'Perpetual Happening' doesn't [...]

Toronto band Bishop Morocco have finally signed a deal to Arts & Crafts who are putting out their debut EP proper, 'Old Boys'. Stream the title track below and grab it free from their website.

Rather than a proto-punk song by Love, '7 and 7 Is' could describe the first two releases in the WIAIWYA 2012 Singles Club, which will release 7 singles on 7" in editions of 777 in 2012. I hope John Jervis has more success with his numerology than Canvey Island harmonica-slinger Lew Lewis, who released a single on Stiff called 'Lucky Seven' in 1978 and received a 7 year stretch for armed robbery in 1987. The first 7", on pea green vinyl, is the Wave Pictures at their most winsome. [...]

Imagine Jimmy Pursey trying to sing the sort of inoffensively chirpy skiffle punk you hear on XfM and you get 'Simon D'. It falls on the irritating side of catchy, with Simon D's ridiculous brought-up-in-a-dustbin vocals telling of how he was no good at football so learned the piano. It wants to be Jamie T but it's more like the cor-blimey-guvnor chimney-sweep-pop of the Holloways. The riffy piano of 'Girl' on the flip is quite intriguing, before the rough-boy vocals smash in, trying too hard for proletarian credibility.

Fanfarlo have revealed a sparse new track from the special edition of their second album, Rooms Filled With Light. The album will be released on February 28th and the track is titled 'Vostok, I Know You Are Waiting'.

A new Drugstore single 'Aquamarine' will be released on 2nd April 2012. The song involves a duet with a 24 year old newcomer. Isabel Monteiro, Drugstore's head-honcho, explains: "Everyone had this idea about who I should duet with, from famous dinosaurs to even dead people! When Rolf Harris was mentioned, that was it, I had to take control of the situation, so I spent 48hours on MySpace looking for something special, heard over 500 bands, famous and obscure, then I came across this beautiful voice, from this totally unknown guy called Chris [...]