Our weekly fix of the best new music as Julia Mason (aka The Decibel Decoder) brings us her reviews of new music with singles from Avalanche Party Nureyev Said It Best, Ex-Giant Feed Me and Winona Fighter Wlbrn St Tvrn
Artist: Avalanche Party
Track: Nureyev Said It Best
Only Yorkshire feral garage-punk band Avalanche Party could create a sonic hallucination of famed dancer Rudolf Nureyev appearing on the streets of Middlesbrough. And so it is on their new single Nureyev Said It Best.
Vocalist and guitarist Jordan Ray expands on the origins of the track: “The lyrics were written on a walk home from our studio through the centre of Middlesbrough between the hours of 2am and 5am, a classically electric time of night. Lot of people out there on the hunt. It’s Tarkovsky’s zone honed by years of the struggle. Instinct. No questions. It’s a strong walking tempo so the lyrics came easily, just had to look around. It's a true story. You are where your brain thinks you are so it also happened in Berlin, Mad Max, Bladerunner and Skid Row.
"We built our own rehearsal room in the basement of a venue called Basecamp in Middlesbrough. Everything from concreting the floors to painting to tinfoil wallpaper and plasterboarding. Me and Jos did a lot of sessions in there with me on drums and him on bass working through ideas and building them up, this one came out of one of those nights. It’s a live smash alright”.
Nureyev Said It Best is a fabulously, funky slice of off kilter exuberance. It canters along at pace, until it doesn't! Unexpected twists and turns are loaded within the track. And do listen to the very end! Avalanche Party recently announced their signing to AMK, Kartel Music Group’s alternative music imprint and it is a delight to see them get this support. Both Nureyev Said It Best and previous single Collateral Damage were produced by Dave Catching and recorded at the hallowed Rancho De La Luna studio in California’s Joshua Tree, whose previous clientele include the likes of Queens Of The Stone Age, Arctic Monkeys, Amyl & The Sniffers, Iggy Pop, PJ Harvey, Peaches and Foo Fighters.
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Artist: Ex-Giant
Track: Feed Me
South London sextet Ex-Giant have released their new single Feed Me which as the band share "is an ode to excess, an elegy to insatiable consumption". It's a wonderfully epic track which is led by a duet between vocalists Joel Paul and Suzie Creevey.
The power in the vocals grow as the track progresses, until everything calms before the pressure builds again; spiky electric guitar and a chaotic saxophone part add to the ever-increasing mayhem towards the end.
Led by a husband-and-wife duo, and featuring an ever-expanding cast of friends, Ex-Giant formed during lockdown producing their first EP Sprocketland in December 2021. Intriguingly it is described as "a noise-rock statement of claustrophobic terror propped up by spidery guitar lines and nonsense poetry". Definitely one to check out.
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Artist: Winona Fighter
Track: Wlbrn St Tvrn
Punk rock act Winona Fighter share a new video for their single Wlbrn St Tvrn. Composed of live footage from their spring tour with Bayside and Armor For Sleep, the video displays the band’s explosive live energy and captivating stage presence.
Frontwoman and multi-instrumentalist Coco Kinnon shares the following on the track: “Wlbrn St Tvrn was written at a time when we were really struggling to fit into the Nashville non-country scene. Around the time I wrote it, it seemed like there was this abundance of Tik Tok popular “punk-rock” artists that just wouldn’t bat an eye at a raw act like us. I couldn’t get anyone to write with me, listen to our songs, or remember my name even though we had been on the same show bills before. Winona Fighter had been DIY touring and grinding for YEARS, had a solid local following, and an EP (now known as Father Figure) that I thought rocked. Sure we recorded the whole thing in our spare bedroom (drums and all) but we were a serious, truly authentic band. However, I often felt met with a 'kick rocks' attitude. I was at my whits end and when I got to a session with what felt like the only people who WOULD write with me (Austin Luther, Johnny Gates, and Justin Mark Richards), I had to get out all my frustration.”
She continues: “I knew I wanted Wlbrn St Tvrn to have a thrash punk vibe from the start. What better way to get the point across than big drums, fat riffs, and truth bomb lyrics. We also wanted to make it a tad satirical to honor some of my favorite punk tunes. Bands like The Descendents, The Dead Kennedys, NOFX, and more always impressed me with how some of there songs went hard but were also just a touch comical.
"Since this track was written to open our show and literally open up the pit, what better way to honor that than to do a live performance music video. I love this song. Some people say some of the lyrics are embarrassing but I don’t care. They ARE embarrassing! But in a scene where I felt like there wasn’t a lot of truth, I will never be embarrassed singing about it.”
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