Tiny Banshee – Space Harpies
People who like to spend their evenings relaxing at the sight of a horror film classic aren’t just choosing to make gore the thing that soothes their troubled nerves. They are also making a constant choice not to pick the kind of film that typical audiences would enjoy.
There’s a great freedom in this, I think. And it is one of the reasons why so many of the population that is dissatisfied with the ways of the world tend to gravitate toward rock music, horror films and alternative lifestyles.
There aren’t a lot of ways to tell the world that it can’t control you. There aren’t a lot of strategies that one can employ to avoid mass manipulation. Only a very few times can you show your true colours by declaring your opposition to the norm, and this is the idea that stoner rock group Tiny Banshee adheres to.
That’s why, in its humble but fun way, Tiny Banshee’s “Space Harpies” can’t be anything but a protest song. Of course, what drives the tune are headbanging, doomish riffs and piercing vocals. However, Tiny Banshee also have the time to take aim at the global industry of manufactured, loved and expensive chocolate boxes. If that’s what the world wants, that won’t do!
The Marigolds – Friends
You were probably one of the millions of kids stuck inside a bedroom with some kind of device that played music, and dreaming about the days when you could live out the adventures that you heard about in songs or read about in novels.
Those days did arrive, and unless you were blessed with great bravery or suffering from some strange ailment, you quickly realised that people actually get hurt, become painfully lonely and die terrible deaths in the real world.
But the spirit still yearns for freedom, thrills and a way out of the mundane, even after the mind has soaked in all of the gruesome statistics about what happens to world-class adventurers. The Marigolds desperately want to find out what exists beyond regular life, and have found the perfect way to do it.
Maybe sitting in your room, dreaming up colossal Hollywood-sized dramas wasn’t so bad after all. “Friends” is a grungey-sounding garage-rock tune about floating away and losing contact with loved ones, old habits, and the thought of ever leading a normal life again. It’s a glorious childhood fantasy brought to life through the use of big choruses and resonant guitars.
