Warriors!

Sorry about the delay in this communication - who claimed that January was a quiet month - it’s been hectic! I have been crazy busy on a book edit for my upcoming memoirs which has chewed up all my time like a pack of wild dogs. It’s been a week of crazed corrections but the book is looking good and will be out in May with the upcoming tour…more details here!

It’s going to be a busy year for Louder Than War - we have our upcoming Louder Than War Live festival headlined by Sea Power, Pale Blue Eyes, Evil Blizzard, House of All and Immersion - it’s going to be a great day out and we hope to see you there!

Another festival we are helping out with is the Scotland Calling punk festival which is a pick n mix of old school classic and new bands in a noisy day out… 

The Smashing Pumpkins have a mystery hidden album and Billy Corgan was in touch with LTW to tell us all about it. Did you know that the band had put a new album out at the end of 2025? It’s a good one too. Zodeon at Crystal Hall is a collection of loose, sixties-influenced neo-psychedelic pop recorded during the pandemic and left in the vault while Billy Corgan and co concentrated on grander projects. Chances are you haven’t heard about it. And Corgan is fine with that. “I almost like the idea of, ‘okay, there it is‘. And eventually people will figure it out” he says, down the line from LA, “I’m not being coy about it. I’m just saying it’s okay that nobody pays attention to it. They’ll get around to it.”

This week we got to celebrate a new release from Kim Gordon announcing a new single and a new album returning with a brilliant slice of Krautrock motorik that only she can produce with her warped visionary sound. First single out today is an instant ear worm as you’ll find out below. Read on…

Dutch punk legend Peter ten Seldam has died at 82. Peter was one of those seminal rockers that every country seemed to have  in the post sixties/pre punk interzone doing their homegrown Iggy thing. Peter was instrumental in the early Dutch punk scene when rock n roll outrage and wild stage performance was the key…

Bob Mould’s legendary second act, Sugar have announced with a second helping of new material post re-release of Copper Blue and it’s a great riff fuelled piece of beauty to compliment House Of Dead Memories for the vinyl release in May. The power trio are back and ready for action! Read on…

The big loss this week in our world was the death of Kenny Morris from Siouxsie and the Banshees. We had got to know Kenny really well in the last decade and met him several times in Cork where he lived as an artist. He was a gentle man possibly too sensitive for the world but somehow left a legacy of great drumming and great art. 

It was sad to lose Kenny and we were touched to receive this great tribute from the man who replaced him in the Banshees, Budgie, after the famous split. 

Missing in action for three decades, The Wolfgang Press are back, with fresh material and dark sonic tales to tell. It’s always amazing when some long lost cult band emerged blinking from collecting dust for decades and is somehow as good if not better than when they disappeared. Wolfgang Press made some great noise back in the day twisting post punk into new shapes and have returned playing a gig in London which was both a reminder of their twisted genius and a pointer to a potential future. Or as a our reviewer points out ‘The sound is both ancient and modern, the trio unabashedly, uncompromisingly themselves. Though they place demands on the listener – the technical quirks offering another challenge – a rich dividend is returned. Like a bite of the bitterest chocolate, there’s a sweet essence to savour.’ 

Funky prog rock Brighton trio Plantoid return after their acclaimed debut Terrapath with a nine track beauty of complicated sound that soars with layers of innovative psych without sounding like a ‘boardroom of chin stroking beards’.