LTW Newsletter 115

Warriors!

We are now trapped in the Xmas zone! That Crimble cromble scramble and seemingly endless mania that erupts every December. As ever it traditionally starts with the cries of ‘they are trying to ban Xmas’ from slightly paranoid Farage types who are getting hot under their collective collars over made up internet rumours that so called ‘woke’ councils want to ban a two thousand year old Middle Eastern cult religion called Christianity from hi jacking the pagan mid winter festival. 

Admittedly it has always amazed us that Jesus was born on the midwinter solstice but then so was Lemmy and we are all for a good old time midwinter festival full of bacchanalian spirit and ribald tomfoolery like office parties gone wrong! This rubbish too of random traditions and made up hoo ha is fascinating with even modern Christmas standbys like decorating trees, feasting, and gift-giving have roots in ancient pagan celebrations, particularly the Roman festival of Saturnalia and the Germanic/Nordic Yule festival, which coincided with the winter solstice. None of it had much to do with Jesus! 

I guess it ends up being a reflection of the times we are living in with our current era reflected in the manic capitalism of the now. Yet the xmas they are ‘trying to ban’ is far more mundane and less about god stuff than the recent accusers claim with reruns of 1974 Morecambe and Wise Xmas specials part of the never ending forced TV watching you are trapped into on what is often the dullest day of the year soundtracked by never ending cathode ray exposure!

Xmas dear reader is a multi faceted mish mash of bits and bobs of old and new and maybe is a bit like our Louder Than War Albums of the year which of course is mainly new bands or sometimes old bands with new records or just a list of what our team of 30 thought were the best albums this year.

Perhaps defining cult and defying time Gary Numan just gets better and better. At LTW we have always embraced him as an innovator. In his early days we liked his semi detached suburban alien blues and as the decades have passed we have thrilled to his next phase industrial energy overload and now his emotion drenched shows that have found the human in the machine as he deals with brother’s recent death with startling live shows.

Wolf Alice have always had it in them to become an arena band. They had the songs and the hooks and the desire and now they have the audience! Their latest record, The Clearing, is a lush dive into ’70s pop, warm soft rock, dusty Americana, and that unmistakable Carpenters-meets-Fleetwood Mac glow. It recently took them to the top of the UK charts and into a new chapter of creative fearlessness. Tonight, those influences shimmer as subtle undercurrents in a set that’s beautifully orchestrated and joyously alive.

A paired celebration of indie’s shimmering brilliance, these two books by Tim Blanchard trace the poetic bite and quiet beauty of bands from Orange Juice and the Smiths to Prefab Sprout and the Trashcan Sinatras, capturing how their music reshaped the emotional landscape of the 1980s and beyond. His books take an in-depth look at some key 80s/90s indie groups and albums, using them as a standpoint for a wider perspective of the social and political atmosphere of the time. This takes in the political, social and cultural scenes and entwines it with the music. 

Can it really be 50 years since rock n roll behemoth Bruce Springsteen released Born To Run? At the time he was touted as the future of rock n roll and Bruce has certainly played his part in joining the pantheon of greats with his gigantic bellowing anthems. Born To Run was when he hit the magic formulae with huge sounding songs that were as big as the big sky of America and evoked a post war past whilst peering into a future whilst singing of broken hearted streets. A few months later punk broke out, and for many of us, Bruce never had the urgency of the class of 77 but he was on his own thunder row of high decibel future - maybe it was just another another future?

The hottest new noise band on the block are Prostitute who wear their multi racial Muslim punk rock hardcore hearts on their sleeves. The band make the most ferocious and thrilling noise since Big Black poked a high decibel stick in everybody's ears and eyes and have just signed to Mute records and are about to make a big bad noise in 2026.

Late 80s John Peel-endorsed indie legends BOB have reissued their 1988 compilation Swag Sack in a newly remastered and expanded vinyl format to (belatedly) commemorate the album’s 35th anniversary, Martin Gray clambers on his trusty old two wheeler and takes a welcome breeze back down a memory lane littered with discarded flexi discs and transfer lettering kits.

 For the last three years, Swansea Sound, made up of Indie Legends – Fletcher, Williams, Button, Collins and Pursey – have released a Yuletide single, and they’ve done it again this year, with two new songs. BUT! Unlike previous seasonal offerings, which have manifested as CDs inside greetings cards, this year, the new tracks are presented on vinyl along with the previous six songs, creating a perfect soundtrack for anyone hoping for a sad and angry Christmas.

There used to be a maxim that you could tell what a band sounded like from their name and GoGo Penguin underline this with you instantly thinking ‘modern jazz’! Not that penguins themselves play jazz being more content to slide across the ice on their bellies but it’s the wonk nature of the bird’s monicker that is attractive to these jazz dudes who sold out the 1600 Albert Hall in Manchester and enchanted the audience with their free form free thinking take on the vintage form.