LOTS of new music local and otherwise for you this week, kicking off with a man who could hardly be less local if he tried, the one and only CW Stoneking.
This singular Aussie bluesman is back in our neck of the woods next Saturday (as in June 25, not tomorrow – that would be 'this' Saturday) for a show at The Black Box, at which he will dazzle and delight the audience with tunes from his recent LP Gon' Boogaloo.
This is CW's first record to feature the sound of an electric guitar, from which the Melbourne-based muso conjures forth primitive swampy boogies like The Thing I Done, The Zombie, We Got The Swing, The Jungle Swing and Get On The Floor.
As those titles suggest, it's also maybe the first CW Stoneking record you can actually dance to, all recorded live to tape with the help of a bass player, drummer and four backing singers.
Get an earful of him now at CWStoneking.bandcamp.com, then proceed to Strangevictory.co.uk to get yourself some £16.50 tickets for the live show.
Onwards to one of our most promising homegrown rock acts, Goons, whom we haven't actually heard too much from yet.
Formed from the rubble of Fighting With Wire (singer/guitarist Cahir O'Doherty) and LaFaro (drummer Alan Lynn, bassist Herb McGee and guitar-slinging brother Dave) with keyboard-based input courtesy of synth-wrangler Allan 'Rupture Dogs' McGreevy, the band got together last year.
After playing a couple of well-received shows, including a debut outing with mighty Kilkenny noise abusers Kerbdog, they finally shared a catchy big-riffing/key-bashing tune called Lizardmen on their page at Soundcloud.com/GoonsBelfast back in February.
It all went worryingly quiet after that – but thankfully they haven't gone away, you know.
Indeed, Goons have just added the new tune Bump In The Night to Soundcloud, instantly doubling their recorded output with this melodic, riff/jangle-based rocker with a pleasingly off-kilter edge and a catchy chorus which finds Cahir declaring "this is something / maybe it's a haunting?".
Who ya gonna call? On the evidence to date, you'd be better of with Goons than the new Ghostbusters, that's for sure.
Keeping it local, you've surely heard Derry punk kids Touts by now – or at least heard of them, given the buzz surrounding their raucous early live shows and not-even-released-yet debut single Marty, which recently became the first song to be played twice back-to-back on Radio 1 since our lord John Peel famously doubled-down on Teenage Kicks.
This teen trio look and sound refreshingly out of step with the rest of the millennial hoarde, taking musical and stylistic cues from the 20th century likes of pub rocking proto punks Dr Feelgood, the early r'n'b-loving Stones and fellow Derryites like The Undertones and Moondogs.
Recorded pretty much live by Rocky O'Reilly at Start Together Studios, Marty offers a spiky three-chord energy blast on which Touts singer/gutarist Matty Crossan trades hollers with nimble-fingered bassist Miceál Sammon, whose melodic playing cuts nicely through the buzzsaw din of his comrade's Telecaster-attack and the clatter of drummer Jason's enthusiastic snare abuse.
Crossan looks like a young Paul Weller and sounds like an old Shane MacGowan, his slurry-mouthed diction rendering the words to their debut release pretty much inpenetrable.
It's not quite in the same league as Teenage Kicks (like most music, then), but Marty is still an exciting debut effort that crackles with a rough 'n' ready visceral vitality sorely lacking in so much of today's painstakingly polished new tuneage.
When can you actually buy this hair-raising punk rock platter? Well, you'd best ask the band that – which you can do in person when Touts play a hometown show at Derry's Craft Village next Friday.
Like and message them at FB.com/Toutsband now to reserve your £5 ticket for this all-ages affair, which features support from Derry indie kids Shoot The Messenger.
And, while you await Marty's release, there's a good live session version recently recorded for Relocation Recordings for you to watch at Tinyurl.com/martysesh.
