Duff McKagan. Guns N’ Roses. Velvet Revolver. These are all names familiar to rock fans worldwide. But behind the music, Duff McKagan struggled to stay afloat and alive even as he stood at the peak of rock bass stardom.
Fortunately, Duff has kept not only rocking, but also living. His story – chronicled in his autobiography It’s So Easy (And Other Lies) and a new accompanying DVD – is seriously inspiring. Duff also has much to teach, many lessons to pass on to any rock aficionados who are willing to listen.
Here are five things you’ll learn from Duff McKagan… Read more…
If you’re a UK-based rock, metal, and/or punk fan, you need to be at Camden Rocks Festival this year. The lineup is fucking ear-watering, totalling 200 bands performing live and in your face over the course of one single day and multiple London venues.
At the time of writing, 80 bands still have yet to be announced – but of those we do know about, here are seven of my personal favourites:
SikTh
As any self-respecting tech-metal fan knows, SikTh are absolutely sick. Returning to shatter minds after an extended split via a series of rapturously received reunion shows and last December’s awe-inspiring Opacities, SikTh are continuing to Read more…
I’ve ranted and raved about these guys for years – and frankly, they fucking deserve it. Dorje are an industry unto themselves, topping album charts across the Internet with their latest Catalyst EP, racking up some 800,000 YouTube views for their signature song Aeromancy, and nailing one of Indiegogo’s top crowdfunding campaigns while handling everything in-house with zero label backing.
Respect is due here – and this year will see a second EP alongside much touring. By the time Dorje are done, their peers will be craning their necks to catch a glimpse of them.
If you just can’t cram enough mind-ruining math rock into your day, Black Peaks’ latest single Saviour is a must-listen. A massively improved version of an already epic track from early EP Closer To The Sun, and a mouth-watering taste of what to expect from Black Peaks’ upcoming album Statues, Saviour will blow you away. Play loud.
As with Dorje and Black Peaks, I’ve written many an evangelical word about Signals over the years. Breaking fresh ground with every note, this Southampton-based math-pop quartet are genuinely unique. Hard-earned technical skills, thoughtful musicianship, never-less-than-perfect production, and an instantly recognisable sound topped off with Ellie Price’s consistently passionate vocals all add up to an act capable of cutting the mustard like a legendary ninja.
When they’re not inducing jawbreaking gurns in Dorje, guitarist Rabea Massaad, drummer Ben Minal, and bassist Dave Hollingworth can be found frying facial features as Toska. Instrumental progressive metal is the name of the game here, departing from the standard Periphery-aping clone formula employed by many of their peers in favour of a genuinely new vibe. Toska’s debut EP Ode To The Author does contain hints of Karnivool, Porcupine Tree, Tesseract, and even Incubus – but more than that, it represents the birth of a meditatively immersive New Sound.
More to come on this one – but for now, just trust me. This will be frickin’ special.
Hatton Manor – aka Matt and Hannah – are in the earliest of early days right now. But they are still one of the most flat-out superior acoustic guitar-and-vocal duos I’ve ever heard. Dipping their toes into the live and festival circuits during 2015, as well as releasing their debut EP Eden, Hatton Manor are moving into a new phase full of experimentation. By turns graceful, gritty, joyful and dark, Hatton Manor know how to strap you into an emotional rollercoaster from note one. Awesome.
Thoughtful EDM might seem like an oxymoron – but Princess Slayer make it work through a creative approach that blends hedonistic playfulness with ruminative sincerity. Drummer and producer Vince Welch digs up gut-rumbling grooves, cute melodies, and carefully constructed sonic strata while vocalist Casey Lim thinks out loud through an intimate and vulnerable yet confident vocal. With many collaborations and their Living EP behind them, a Princess Slayer album is rumoured to be on the way. With any luck, 2016 will be the year it surfaces – and when it does, expect something exceptional and exceptionally cool.
As we saw yesterday via TMMP’s Top Albums Of 2015 feature, the last year has seen some absolutely amazing music released into the world. In case the 50 albums on yesterday’s list weren’t enough, here’s the cream of 2015’s shorter-form releases. TMMP’s Top EPs & Songs Of 2015 is a little less hefty, but no less inspiring.
Considering the meteoric rise of Catalyst, Dorje’s none-more-hench slab of riff-rocking audiojoy – not to mention the fact that it’s been my wakeup music since the day I downloaded it – it ultimately had to come out on top. But that fact does nothing to detract from the awesomeness of the bands, artists, songs, and EPs who’ve all been given second place since you’d need to nitpick to an insane degree if you were to try to rank them in some kind of chart-style order.
Every moment of music this list contains is top-notch. For further explanation, click the relevant links for more words and music – and follow TMMP via Twitter and my brand new Facebook page for more from the world of world-class music in 2016!
2015 has been a big year, soundtracked by a slew of spectacular albums. Picking an overall favourite was a pretty stressful task – and in the end, Jon Gomm’s gorgeous collection of live fan picks and what is, in my opinion, the definitive modern-day Joe Satriani album both had to go on top.
Deciding who would ultimately top the tree was made infinitely easier by putting them in alphabetical order by surname; if you put a gun to my head and demanded I choose between Jon Gomm and Joe Satriani in terms of quality, you’d just have to shoot me. They’re two sides of the same coin, Jon Gomm representing the acoustic world, Satriani the electric. Put together, these guys represent almost unparalleled guitaristic virtuosity.
In joint second place, you’ll find a whole host of alphabetised winners who would each be done a terrible injustice were they to be placed in a lower position. From legends with glittering careers spanning decades to stunning comeback albums and a fair few brand new names facing bright and hopeful futures, TMMP’s top albums of 2015 are all here.
Dive in – there’s a lot to get stuck into – and follow TMMP via Twitter for more from the world of world-class music in 2016!
Our culture is obsessed with superheroes, ordinary people gifted with beyond-human powers. The X-Men, the Avengers, and their peers dominate minds and screens across the Western world. Small wonder, then, that the Aristocrats have achieved such popularity in so little time.
Formed following a fateful and rapturously received jam at a NAMM show, the Aristocrats are guitarist Guthrie Govan, bassist Bryan Beller, and drummist Marco Minnemann. Beyond the band (named after a dirty joke you can read more about here), each member has paid his dues via a star-studded solo and sideman career. Govan and Minnemann both currently Read more…
Some musicians are impossible to forget. They leave an indelible imprint on your memory, permanently branding their art on your brain. For TMMP, Beardyman is that kind of artist – and here are a few reasons why you, the open-minded, intelligent, and no doubt deeply attractive regular reader and boundary-free music fan, are more than a little likely to feel the same way:
He’s more than just a beatboxer.
Beardyman was the first beatboxer to win the UK Beatbox Championships two years in a row, and spent the time between the 2006 and 2007 championships honing his skills to the point of Jedidom. He was also the guy behind the Kitchen Diaries YouTube video, through which Beardyman has taken over five million viewers step by step through the birth of a sick break:
But Beardyman is no one-trick pony. While a quick stroll around central London will quickly yield a bunch of Read more…
If you’ve never heard of Arcane Roots, believe me – you’re missing out. As you read this, the prog-enamoured London-based trio are in the process of making big waves in the UK’s underground rock scene, winning fans left, right, centre, up, down, forward, backward, diagonally, and maybe inside-out if that’s even possible. Here are a few reasons why TMMP is set on raving about these guys until grey hair and the grave begin to beckon…
1) In This Town Of Such Weather.
You can be certain that sooner or later, Arcane Roots are going to drop a massive breakout hit – and when that time comes, it’ll be important to remind the world that their back catalogue is all killer, no filler too. For TMMP, In This Town Of Such Weather (from 2011 mini-album Left Fire) is a Read more…
Since 2013, Black Peaks have wasted little time in establishing themselves as math-rock stars in the making. TMMP has championed them for some time, and for many a good reason. Here are five of them:
1) Their tracks are fully immersive.
Some bands soundtrack your life in a nostalgic sense, pushing and pulling you into the past, running over pains, worries, and victories alike. The music’s there, right in your ears – but so are some things you might rather forget.
Black Peaks’ tracks take a different tack. Songs like Glass Built Castles and Saviour will use up all your mental bandwidth, pushing the world away and allowing real relief from everyday stresses and strains. These guys will bend your brain into a mind-pretzel, twisting time in ways that would leave Stephen Hawking Read more…
