LTW Newsletter 118

Warriors!

Hope you have all survived your mid winter lull - that time of hibernation when small mammals scurry to their burrows and slumber in a semi comatose state in front of the flickering embers of their TV’s permanently locked into seventies cathode ray adventures and the so called ‘golden age of television’.  Sat by a mouldy evergreen dragged into their earthy lairs and covered by trinkets their heartbeats are slowed down and the world becomes a daze. The hibernating beasts are safe if semi comatose as the world goes crazy outside their self made constructs of roots and soil. Meanwhile outside their burrows the deranged wild eyed predators like the Trump beast and other dictatorial creatures are running amok but in the burrow all is good in the world and the self hypnosis is a perfect illusion of being safe and sound as the maniacs run amok.

But!

It’s now January and you have to get ready to face the world again but at least we have a great sound track to haul us back out into the rain and snow pelted streets to seek some action or as the Flaming Groovies once so beautifully sang in one of those songs that should have been a hit but wasn't ‘shake some action…’

And we’ve been shakin’… 

At LTW we like to be straight back out of the blocks so it was good to be back on a train on Jan 2nd for the long and weary journey into the deep south to Bognor Regis for our annual dose of the Rockaway Beach festival where we met a couple of our subscribers and thank them profusely for helping keep this damn ship afloat. Rockaway Beach is held at Butlins so its a chalet with heater and big venues stuffed with great bands old and new nearby kinda shindig which is perfect and there is a beach as well and William Blake’s house is next door - it sounds like the perfect start to the year…and it is!

Speaking of festivals, the first Louder Than War Live festival will be held in March this year - headlined by Sea Power, Pale Blue Eyes, Benefits, Evil Blizzard and Immersion it’s going to be both a celebration of our 15th anniversary as a website and also of great bands playing by their own rules…the kind of bands that we like!

In that strange limbo of time between Xmas and New Year we were treated to Public Image Limited playing in town. Maybe like some kind of pantomime villain uncle Johnny likes to tour through the crimble interzone but we applaud him for his tenacity and also for a stunningly great gig whilst wrestling with his current, ahem, public image. 

January is a good time to get great music out - and our album of the week is a perfect jolt to the tired system. Sleaford Mods have been genius in somehow working within their own minimalistic framework and always coming up with new ways to explore the sound and make it feel fresh and urgent and the new album is yet another great combination of anger as an energy, off kilter tunes, dark humour and musical twists and turns.

Long term indie perennials the Cribs have been doing plenty of good work in the decades since the three brothers escaped their home town of Wakefield for top ten indie success. Years later and they still haven't lost the knack of creating music with both a melody and an urgency. 

Being a new year its probably a good time to remind you that we have our own Louder Than War radio station with some really good shows on it covering all types of music and curated by knowledgeable geeks who are just trying to turn you onto stuff…

Without Ziggy none of us would probably be here in our pop culture vision and in many ways punk was the children of Ziggy rebelling like dystopian diamond dogs. It’s fair to say the Bowie was a big shadow over of our fellow generational droogs and it’s only fitting that he has become part of British history and that his childhood home has been restored for the public as one of those national trust type things…