
The Palava – He Fell At The First Hurdle
The UK music press had been waiting for the new Stone Roses so long that they nearly missed Oasis. They then focused on finding a worthy successor to their monobrowed Mancunians and could have missed out on the Arctic Monkeys.
They’re still on the prowl, and, we hope they don’t miss out on the Palava. Three-minute guitar-singles in England are still as popular as public inebriation and deplorable dental hygiene. The Brits will even burst out into a spontaneous rendition of a Noel Gallagher once in a while, usually in connection to public mourning, or the Three Lions knocking a ball about.
We think the Palava could be part of the solution to the music-related issues. They have many of the qualities of the aforementioned bands, but they’re quirkier and moodier, like Mark E. Smith fronting Razorlight. (I shudder to think) He Fell At The First Hurdle is a very promising start.
Radar & Satellite – Blasphemous Warranty
For all of their despair and woe, Nirvana were a pretty fun-loving bunch, rarely taking rock n’ roll cliches seriously, often emphasizing their relative lack of playing abilities, and, occasionally, introducing, humor to their lyrics.
Their mixture of Sabbath and Beatles may have seemed like an odd mixture for the radio stations to pick up on. Still, it wasn’t wholly unique, with Cobain’s favourites the Melvins and Soundgarden doing the same, albeit to less fanfare, years earlier.
We live in a post-Nirvana world where the combination of Iommy guitar sludge, cheerful garage rock, and silly humor aren’t likely to raise an eyebrow. Radar & Satellite are that sort of unit. Here’s a stoner-jam band that keeps its songs tight and its words light on the deep philosophical meaning. It’s the band that many, less talented musicians, wish they could have started.