Darker Waves

Morrissey

The Smashing Pumpkins

Smashing Pumpkins (formed in 1988) is an American alternative rock band formed by frontman Billy Corgan and guitarist James Iha.

Simple Minds

Widely popular Scottish art rock outfit, Simple Minds found huge fame in the 1980s, best known for their breakthrough hit single, "Don't You (Forget About Me)" which established the act on both sides of the Atlantic.

Bad Religion

They say rock’n’roll is a young man’s game. Imagine what they say about punk.

Bad Religion never worried much about what “they” say, and neither should you. Go by the energy, go by the intent, go by the WORK – of which this classic, groundbreaking hardcore band could never be accused of avoiding.

Aside from essentially defining the California half-pipe punk blueprint, Bad Religion has defied the usual trend-shifts or values-ditched ubiquities of the usual punk band storyline and morphed along with challenging album after challenging album amid astoundingly consistent touring, retaining their core audience while roping in subsequent generations of anxiously energetic kids.

The band has long settled into the current lineup who have arguably enacted to most muscular Bad Religion to ever kick empties across a stage: Greg Graffin (vocals) and Jay Bentley (bass) join Brian Baker (guitarist since ’94), guitarist Mike Dimkich (8 years in), and drummer Jamie Miller, who’s already been with the band for six years.

Bad Religion is in an almost singular position in the history of punk. Having formed right on the heels of the original explosion, they led the west coast arm of hardcore’s birth, adding their chunky riffs, zooming harmonies, and viciously verbose lyrical punch to the basic bash of hardcore. Then the band continued to expand their pop-punk template through the ‘80s and into the indebted “neo-punk” sound of the early ‘90s and weathered the questionable dichotomies of the “alternative rock” era by doing what they’ve always done – releasing explosive album after album to consistent acclaim from fans and critics.

And if you’re positive there is no way they could keep doing the same thing all these years, you’d be right. They haven’t. They’ve continued to throw songwriting and production wrenches into the works so’s not to bore themselves or their never-diminishing following.

The re-rejuvenation started around 2007’s New Maps of Hell, with its titular nod to their classic debut album (How Could Hell Be Any Worse), matching that youthful fire with a deeper burn born of growing up through all the actual pain you worried might happen when you were a teen.

The Dissent of Man (2010) had the increasingly active professional author Greg Graffin unleash all the verbal venom he could most freely spew with his beloved punk band, while musically, the band delved into some varying tempos. Then, with True North (2013), Graffin got even madder, and the band followed suit. Then they immediately followed up with an album of rabid runs through holiday classics, Christmas Songs (2013), because why the fuck not. When Bad Religion is often described as “intellectual,” that doesn’t mean just their lyrics, it means their musical choices, like whipping up a completely unexpected and heartfelt Xmas record.

Six years passed, and one might’ve worried the band had been beaten down like every other good thing during the Trump years. But no! on 2019’s Age of Unreason, they gathered together 15 tracks of some of the best material of their career, adding a wee more production gleam suited to amping up the songs to get through all the dispirited noise of that time and mixing their perfect balance of dystopian dread and future hope into Age of Unreason.

Not that they had gone anywhere for those six years, except on tour, a lot. The current seven-year-running lineup can flesh out any of the band’s eras, but they seem perfectly suited for the band’s latter-day catalog that’s so vehemently fueled by the third-gear aggression of a punk band who is still out there playing with, gathering energy from, and inspiring the newest punk bands -- keeping these elder statesmen of punk sharp, incensed, and ready to go forward.

The band’s rep, as socially aware thought-provokers, can obscure the fact they’ve remained one of the most viscerally powerful live bands on the planet, remembering it’s the beats and riffs that get your ass off the couch in the first place.

Of course, being stuck to the couch was sometimes inescapable during our last terrible year of COVID fear. So once again, leaning into their smarts, Bad Religion concocted a recent online run of eight, chronologically curated, streaming live show docuseries, recorded at the Roxy in Hollywood as COVID reared its ugly ass. Two seasons of career-highlighting, fan-thanking ballyhoo, featuring reminders of the band’s development in the face of often simplistic skate punk pigeonholing.

When he’s not stomping on some festival stage in front of thousands somewhere, singer Greg Graffin is a professor and author who has released numerous books on history and personal survival. He even garnered the prestigious Rushdie Award for Cultural Humanism from the Harvard Humanist Chaplaincy in 2008.

And now, in 2021, Bad Religion has finally received its own long-awaited autobiography, Do What You Want: The Story of Bad Religion (out soon on paperback), credited to, of course, the whole band. While propped up on the band’s egalitarian legend, its focus is the long and moshing road of a band who probably would’ve laughed if you’d told their 20-something selves they’d be celebrating their 40th anniversary. Laughed, then strapped on their guitars and jumped out on stage again.

If you get to see Bad Religion – as they plan upcoming tours and festival shows by the end of the year – you’ll see that snotty 20-something is still kicking its way out.

Adam Ant

Psychedelic Furs

The Psychedelic Furs Official Facebook Page

Soft Cell

*Happiness now completed available for the first time on vinyl on Record Store Day from 12th April!

The Damned

Led by lead vocalist, Dave Vanian, The Damned is a punk rock/ goth rock band from London, England founded in 1976.

Manic Street Preachers

‘Critical Thinking' Out Now.

https://ManicStreetPreachers.lnk.to/critical-thinkingPF

Gary Numan

May, 1979. It’s an ordinary Thursday evening, which means it’s time for Top of the Pops. Amidst a zeitgeist of punk and disco, the show suddenly appears to be interrupted by a transmission from the future. A luminous synth riff echoes out, a beat drives on and upsteps an otherworldly figure - part robot, part alien - to deliver an enigmatic lyric depicting some kind of android existence in a dystopian future. It’s Gary Numan fronting Tubeway Army for their breakthrough hit ‘Are ‘Friends’ Electric?’.

Of the millions that are watching, few would’ve recognised that this moment foreshadows the shape of music to come, from synth-pop to industrial and alt-pop. That, however, can’t stop it igniting the imagination of an audience that would swell into a devoted following.

Fast-forward to January, 2021. Numan’s latest single ‘Intruder’ pulsates ominously as if it’s soundtracking an imminent threat. As austere synths loom like shadows and industrial beats are detonated, the beguiling hook towers like a beacon in the darkness. It’s visionary and venomous, with a narrative that imagines the Earth growing angry at mankind's actions, and more than willing to fight back. In the accompanying video, Numan looks even more out of time than he did back in 1979, like an intergalactic refugee fighting for his own existence.

Those two songs show how Numan has consistently fought against the grain to stick resolutely to his creative vision. In a career that spans over forty years, the music evolves and the themes change. But fans remain fascinated by Numan for the very fact that he’s so uncompromising.

Any story charting four decades will be a mixed blessing of momentous highs and meagre lows. The achievements are remarkable for someone who never made any concessions to mainstream success. Seven Top 10 singles, including ‘Are ‘Friends’ Electric?’ and the debut solo hit ‘Cars’; seven Top 10 albums, three of which topped the charts; and huge critical acclaim, most notably with the Inspiration Award at the prestigious Ivor Novellos.

Naturally, there were times when Numan was very much not in vogue. Sure, there would be ripples of rediscovery but there were years when his increasingly conceptual albums were primarily embraced by hardcore fans. He wasn’t troubling the charts, but audiences were still flocking to see him perform - almost every UK tour would include a sold-out show at the 5000 capacity Hammersmith Apollo.

Gradually, though, praise from Nine Inch Nails, Prince and David Bowie led to a reappraisal of his work. And that has been magnified in recent years with Kanye West, Lady Gaga and Dave Grohil citing him as an influence.

And so, a new narrative emerged. An unlikely icon returned to the top while making music that was darker, fiercer and more inventive than ever.

‘Splinter (Songs From A Broken Mind)’ set the ball rolling by peaking at #20 in 2013, its precise, post-industrial sound delving into Numan’s experiences with depression. He started a new deal with BMG in 2017 and released ‘Savage (Songs From A Broken World)’, an album which depicted earth as a barren wasteland in which humanity and culture had been largely crushed by the effects of global warming.

His forthcoming album ‘Intruder’ presents a fresh but complementary narrative. It’s a philosophical examination of a potential future apocalypse: the planet can only survive by purging its inhabitants.

Numan explains: “‘Intruder’ looks at climate change from the planet’s point of view. If Earth could speak, and feel things the way we do, what would it say? How would it feel? The songs, for the most part, attempt to be that voice, or at least try to express what I believe the earth must feel at the moment.

The planet sees us as its children now grown into callous selfishness, with a total disregard for it’s well being. It feels betrayed, hurt and ravaged. Disillusioned and heartbroken it is now fighting back. Essentially, it considers human kind to be a virus attacking the planet. Climate change is the undeniable sign of the Earth saying enough is enough, and finally doing what it needs to do to get rid of us, and explaining why it feels it has to do it.”

Partially written and recorded during lockdown, it’s no surprise that current circumstances have been assimilated into its themes. It’s especially evident in ‘The Gift’, which evolves from a sparse introduction into a resonant Middle-Eastern sonic motif. It imagines Covid-19 as the first weapon that the planet deploys in order to eradicate mankind and once again flourish.

While anger and vengeance rage in its opening chapters, ‘Intruder’ charts a wider spectrum of emotions. ‘Is This World Not Enough’ and ‘A Black Sun’ exude regret and then despair that this fate could’ve been avoided. The finale presents a black-hearted double-bill to bring the curtain down on the tale. First ‘Now And Forever’ offers a hope of eternity in the end days during its theatrical intensity, before the sparse, sorrowful ‘The End Of Dragons’ ends on the chilling reminder that what’s broken can’t always be fixed.

Collectively the album proves that Numan’s creative spark shows no sign of being extinguished.

That’s just a snapshot of the tale behind one of music’s most singular talents. The full story can be found in Numan’s critically acclaimed autobiography ‘(R)evolution’, which The Observer described as an, “exhaustive, entertaining and often poignant life story.” What comes next will surely be just as intriguing.