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In 1975, young illustrator Colin Elgie was approached with a brief he couldn’t resist: to design the cover for Genesis’ first post-Peter Gabriel album A Trick Of The Tail. The catch – there were no songs, no lyrics and he hadn’t even met the band. Marking the record’s 50th anniversay, Elgie looked back on the commission that helped establish his career.

Colin Elgie is, as he cheerfully admits, “a lucky bugger.” As a young man he studied at East Ham Technical College under the tutorship of George Hardie, the graphic designer and Hipgnosis affiliate behind covers for the first Led Zeppelin album, Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon and Wish You Were Here, and 10cc’s Sheet Music.

Elgie recalls that “prospects for getting work were not very good” as he neared the end of his course – but some helpful advice from his teacher provided a handy shortcut to employment.

“When I left the college after three years, Hardie said, ‘Go and see the guys at Hipgnosis,’ so I did, and that was about it! Over the course of 10 years I worked freelance. I was never part of the inner circle, but I was often there or thereabouts!”

In 1975 a particularly appealing assignment dropped into Elgie’s lap – Genesis were looking for someone to provide artwork for A Trick Of The Tail, their first album after Peter Gabriel’s departure. “They had always had illustrated covers,” says Elgie. “They had the Betty Swanwick one [Selling England By The Pound], which I loved. Before that they had the trilogy of Paul Whitehead designs, and those were really nice.

“But Hipgnosis were photographers, so it wasn’t something they could really do. I remember Storm Thorgerson saying, ‘The album’s got all these different characters, so make it a theatrical thing, like they’re all in a row, taking a bow.’ That’s what I went with.”

While Genesis were beavering away in Trident Studios on their new material, Elgie had virtually no contact with the band. Instead he was given a few song titles and the rest was left to his imagination.

“I’d worked out the characters I wanted to draw, but really they have nothing to do with the characters in the songs. I got a tracklisting – because there was nothing to listen to yet – and maybe some brief notes about what each track was about. I don’t even think there were lyrics; it was really vague!

“I now realise that their squonk looks nothing like my squonk! But I put together scenes with two or three characters interacting, and the band liked it. I did a rough version of the cover and they said, ‘Fine – go with it!’”

In contrast to previous outing The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway’s modernist imagery, A Trick Of The Tail’s rabble of eccentric characters was purposefully designed with an quasi-Victorian feel. “I always loved those kinds of engraved cartoons and illustrations,” says Elgie. “I’ve got loads of books about old Punch magazines with lovely engravings in them and the satirical prints you used to get. I love the texture of it. It was a perfect fit for the music, I think.

“It was all done with a pen, and the background was done separately. The characters were done in black and white, and then toned into sepia or whatever it was.”

Elgie did finally get to meet Genesis at the Hipgnosis office in London’s Denmark Street, sometime after A Trick Of The Tail was released. “They were in for a photoshoot, I believe. They were very nice; very charming. Subsequently I did some work for Mike Rutherford on his solo album, Smallcreep’s Day – which he rejected!

The music and the artwork was a perfect marriage. That’s why those things have lived on

“The only time I ever saw Genesis play was when they gave me a freebie ticket. They weren’t my favourite type of music at the time; I was into more bluesy stuff. But I was knocked out by their show.”

Genesis would employ Elgie again for their next album, Wind & Wuthering. He also found himself in demand with other artists, notably Al Stewart for his big-selling Year Of The Cat album, and Renaissance’s Scheherazade And Other Stories.

“Wind & Wuthering was completely different,” he says. “It’s a watercolour with a tree – very wild and very free. Then I did Year Of The Cat in another style I was into at the time; this very airbrushed look. If you saw all three of them, you wouldn’t think the same guy had done them at all. I like that.

“With the Renaissance album, the miniatures were so detailed, so beautiful, and I could’ve spent a lot more time doing it. But in all the time I was doing albums, no one ever wanted me to change anything. The bands were always far more concerned with the music!”

Still busy with an assortment of projects, Elgie quit the album cover game over 40 years ago, but has subsequently contributed to occasional reissues and box sets, Wishbone Ash’s Live Dates included. Meanwhile, he admits to being thrilled to be talking about A Trick Of The Tail 50 years on.

“I’ve realised lately that 1976 was an amazing year for me! The music and the artwork was a perfect marriage. That’s why those things have lived on. At the time I probably wouldn’t have expected them to last the way they have. If I’d known, I would have tried to do it all better than I did! The bands might say that about the music too; it’s all easy with hindsight!”

This American vocal soul group originated in Rochester, New York, and were originally billed as The Bandwagons (and subsequently The Bandwagon).

Led by lead singer Johnny Johnson, they also comprised singers Bill Bradley; Artie Fullilove; and Terry Lewis.

In March 1968, they recorded “Breakin’ Down the Walls of Heartache”, which reached number 4 on the British charts in October of that year.

This resulted in their first British tour before the year was out. Melody Maker’s 26 October 1968 issue lists the tour dates from 27 November to 22 December on page 23. The same magazine’s 23 November 1968 issue confirms the above line-up on page 14.

Although billed initially as The Bandwagon, a Melody Maker advert (possibly the 30 November issue) notes that the group is called Johnny Johnson & The Bandwagon.

It also says the soul quartet will be backed by two groups – Enfield, north London soul band Grand Union and a Reading, Berkshire outfit called Oedipus Complex. I’ve not been able to find out much about the latter but Grand Union comprised Richie Thorpe (guitar/vocals), Dick Winters (keyboards/vocals), Tom Maudlin (bass/vocals) and Paul Thorpe (drums/vocals).

When I met Tom Maudlin in Toronto in May this year, he confirmed that, despite Melody Maker listing the gigs the two bands played below, Grand Union, in fact, did the entire tour.

Melody Maker suggested that Grand Union backed Johnny Johnson & The Bandwagon on the following dates.

Tour dates:

28 November 1968 – Revolution Club, Bruton Place, Mayfair, central London (Melody Maker)

29 November 1968 – Hillside Ballroom, Hereford, Herefordshire (Melody Maker)

30 November 1968 – Ritz Ballroom, Bournemouth, Dorset and Corn Exchange, Devizes, Wiltshire (Melody Maker)

1 December 1968 – Surrey Rooms, Oval, south London and Blaises, Kensington, west London (Melody Maker)

2 December 1968 – Pavilion, Bath (Melody Maker)

3 December 1968 – Down Broadway, Sheffield, South Yorkshire and Attic Club, Doncaster, South Yorkshire (Melody Maker)

4 December 1968 – Whittingdon Hotel, Pinner, northwest London (Melody Maker)

5 December 1968 – Gig in Cheam, Surrey (Melody Maker)

5 December 1968 – Whisky A Go Go, Wardour Street, Soho, central London (Melody Maker)

6 December 1968 – Avery Hill College, Eltham, southeast London (Melody Maker)

7 December 1968 – Clockwork Orange, Chester, Cheshire, Civic Hall, Nantwich, Cheshire and Twisted Wheel, Manchester (Melody Maker)

8 December 1968 – Black Prince Hotel, Bexley, southeast London (Melody Maker)

9 December 1968 – Orchid Ballroom, Purley, Surrey (Beckenham & Penge Advertiser)

10 December 1968 – Guildhall, Southampton, Hants with The Pyramids (Southern Evening Echo)

11 December 1968 – Bligh Hotel, Sevenoaks, Kent and Samantha’s, central London (Melody Maker)

12 December 1968 – Kursaal, Southend-on-Sea, Essex and Cue Club, Praed Street, Paddington, west London (Melody Maker)

13 December 1968 – White Lion, Edgware, north London and Cue Club, Praed Street, Paddington, west London (Melody Maker)

14 December 1968 – Nottingham Boat Club, Nottingham and Clouds, Derby (Melody Maker)

15 December 1968 – Toby Jug, Tolworth, Surrey (Melody Maker)

16 December 1968 – Golden Torch, Tunstall, Staffordshire and Cedar Club, Birmingham (Melody Maker)

17 December 1968 – Town Hall, High Wycombe, Bucks and Scotch of St James, Mayfair, central London (Melody Maker)

18 December 1968 – Majestic, Wellington, Shropshire (Melody Maker)

19 December 1968 – Guildhall, Plymouth, Devon and 400 Ballroom, Torquay, Devon (Melody Maker)

 

Melody Maker suggested these dates were with Oedipus Complex but Tom Maudlin confirms that Grand Union did the entire tour.

Tour dates:

20 December 1968 – George Inn, Kettering, Northamptonshire and Hatchetts Playground, Piccadilly, central London (Melody Maker)

21 December 1968 – Imperial Ballroom, Nelson, Lancashire (Melody Maker)

22 December 1968 – Tabernacle, Stockport, Greater Manchester and Beau Brummell Club, Nantwich, Cheshire (Melody Maker) Record Retailer only lists the Beau Brummell Club in Nantwich on this date

23 December 1968 – Loyola Hall, Stamford Hill, north London with Pure Medicine (Melody Maker)

24 December 1968 – Gala Ballroom, Norwich, Norfolk (Melody Maker)

25 December 1968 – Sherwood Rooms, Nottingham (Melody Maker) Record Retailer lists Lypla in Stamford possibly as a second gig on this date

26 December 1968 – Locarno, Stevenage, Herts (Melody Maker)

27 December 1968 – Victorianna and Mardi Gras, Liverpool (Melody Maker)

28 December 1968 – New Astoria, Rawtenstall and Twisted Wheel, Manchester (Melody Maker)

29 December 1968 – Locarno, Wakefield, West Yorkshire (Melody Maker)

31 December 1968 – New Century Hall, Manchester and Nevada Ballroom, Bolton, Lancashire (Melody Maker)

 

1 January 1969 – Top Rank, Preston, Lancashire (Melody Maker)

2 January 1969 – Assembly Hall, Worthing, West Sussex (Melody Maker)

3 January 1969 – Tofts, Folkestone, Kent (Melody Maker)

4 January 1969 – Boston Gliderdrome, Boston, Lincolnshire (Melody Maker)

5 January 1969 – Crystal Palace Hotel, south London and Jewish Youth Club, Fillebrook, Leyton, east London (Melody Maker)

6 January 1969 – St Matthew’s Bath, Ipswich, Suffolk (Melody Maker)

Melody Maker notes in early January that Johnny Johnson & The Bandwagon’s British tour was extended.

The music magazine reports that from 7-11 January they played in Ireland and then did cabaret at the Fiesta in Stockton and the Showboat in Middlesbrough from 12-18 January. They then toured Scotland from 22-26 January.

Tour dates:

30 January 1969 – Skyline Ballroom, Hull (Melody Maker)

31 January 1969 – Scene Two, Scarborough, North Yorkshire (Melody Maker)

 

1 February 1969 – California Ballroom, Dunstable, Bedfordshire (Melody Maker)

2 February 1969 – Bellevue, Manchester (Melody Maker)

3 February 1969 – Golden Torch, Tunstall, Staffordshire (Melody Maker)

4 February 1969 – Majestic, Wellington, Shropshire (Record Retailer)

6 February 1969 – Old Time Barn, Abergavenny, Wales (Record Retailer)

7 February 1969 – Princess Theatre, Chorlton, Greater Manchester and Domino Club, Openshaw, Greater Manchester (Record Retailer)

8 February 1969 – Imperial Ballroom, Nelson, Lancashire (Record Retailer)

13 February 1969 – Sloopy’s, Manchester (Record Retailer)

14 February 1969 – Royal, Tottenham, north London (Record Retailer)

15 February 1969 – Elms Court, Oxford (Record Retailer)

Melody Maker reports that they returned to Ireland from 13-17 February but this needs confirmation.

17 February 1969 – Orchid Ballroom, Purley, Surrey (Chris Broom’s book Rockin’ and around Croydon)

After returning to the United States, Johnny Johnson & The Bandwagon returned to Britain for a second tour in spring 1969. Grand Union were once again used as the backing band. Due to their success in Britain, the soul group relocated here and based themselves in London.

Before the second tour starts, Les Lambert, who used to be the group’s amp repair expert, takes over from Dick Winters on keyboards

These dates are incomplete

Tour dates:

1 April 1969 – Gaumont Theatre, Wolverhampton, West Midlands with Martha Reeves & The Vandellas and guest star Marv Johnson (Poster)

2 April 1969 – Orchid Ballroom, Purley, Surrey with Martha Reeves & The Vandellas (Chris Broom’s book Rockin’ and around Croydon)

26 April 1969 – California Ballroom, Dunstable, Bedfordshire with Soft Sensation (http://www.california-ballroom.info/gigs/)

 

16 May 1969 – Flamingo, Wardour Street, Soho, central London (Melody Maker)

17 May 1969 – Cue Club, Praed Street, Paddington, west London (Melody Maker)

21 June 1969 – Music Hall, Shrewsbury with The Klubs (North Shropshire Journal)

26 July 1969 – Queen’s Hall, Narbeth, west Wales with Tin Foil (Pembroke & West Wales Guardian)

These dates are incomplete

Tour dates:

2 August 1969 – California Ballroom, Dunstable, Bedfordshire with The Sun and First Back from Heaven (http://www.california-ballroom.info/gigs/)

30 August 1969 – Royal Lancashire Showground, Blackpool, Lancashire with Amen Corner, The Casuals, Vanity Fayre and many others (Melody Maker)

 

20 September 1969 – Flamingo, Wardour Street, Soho, west London with Justin Tyme (Melody Maker)

Around this time, Tom Maudlin leaves and relocates to Toronto in October 1969. He is replaced by bass player/singer Roger Flavell from west London group, The Magic Roundabout.

These dates are incomplete

Tour dates:

10 October 1969 – Starlite Ballroom, Sudbury, northwest London with Sir Coxsone (Melody Maker)

31 October 1969 – Oakengates Tow Hall, Oakengates, Shropshire with Grand Union and Jigsaw (North Shropshire Journal)

Melody Maker reports that another British tour (with Grand Union) commences on 16 January 1970.

These dates are incomplete

Tour dates:

10 January 1970 – Central Hall, Chatham, Kent with Desmond Dekker & The Aces and The Pyramids (Chatham, Rochester and Gillingham Evening Post)

7 March 1970 – Wem Town Hall, Wem, Shropshire with Grand Union and Street (North Shropshire Journal)

 

2 May 1970 – California Ballroom, Dunstable, Bedfordshire with The Invitations and supporting groups (http://www.california-ballroom.info/gigs/)

 

4 July 1970 – California Ballroom, Dunstable, Bedfordshire with The Pyramids and supporting groups (http://www.california-ballroom.info/gigs/)

 

31 December 1970 – California Ballroom, Dunstable, Bedfordshire with The Pioneers (http://www.california-ballroom.info/gigs/)

When the band broke up in early 1971, the Thorpe brothers played in the bands Moonstone and Life.  Roger Flavell briefly joined Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band and then played with The Tommy Hunt Band among others.

Thanks to Tom Maudlin and Roger Flavell for information about the band. Thanks to Tom for the posters.

In 1996, while discussing ZZ Top’s career-reviving MTV surge circa Eliminator more than a decade earlier, Billy Gibbons was asked if he and bandmate Dusty Hill had considered shaving off their beards and becoming Duran Duran.

“For about this long,” replied the guitarist, holding his thumb and forefinger a smidgeon apart. “One look in the mirror and we ain’t gonna make that one!”

Watching videos for Eliminator songs on MTV at the time, ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill concurred with Gibbons’ grave assessment of their looks.

“I don’t belong on TV, I should be in a circus!” he told his bandmate, lamenting his “17-inch neck”.

In lieu of chiselled jawlines, peroxide-blond highlights and guy-liner, ZZ Top had charisma, eccentricity and raw talent. With various leggy models starring alongside them in their promo-videos, moreover, ZZ’s dearth of sex-appeal scarcely mattered.

Self-aware and business savvy, Gibbons, Hill and drummer Frank Beard weren’t done with MTV yet. More importantly, MTV wasn’t yet done with ZZ Top. It helped that Eliminator’s 1985 follow-up, Afterburner, also traded
in playful, sassy videos, and was again big on gritty ‘cyber-blues’ part built upon sequenced synthesiser and drum-machine.

Better yet, Gibbons and Hill weren’t for shaving. Their sizeable beards weren’t just camouflage; they were key to the look that made them so recognisable. So as Afterburner launched – replete with futuristic cover-art that saw ZZ’s 1933 Ford Coupe hot rod morph into a space shuttle – that little ol’ band from Texas still had pep, momentum and commercial appeal.

MTV’s support for the album’s US No.8 single Sleeping Bag said as much. Its attendant video reprised visual tropes from the promos that had helped propel Eliminator, and again featured statuesque actress and model Kymberly Herrin, who had starred in the video for ZZ’s 1984 single Legs. Eliminator and Afterburner’s titles, meanwhile, chimed and felt sequential; crafty record company-speak for ‘here’s more of what you loved before’.

It was all clever, somewhat calculated stuff, but few folks if any begrudged Gibbons, Hill and Beard more music-television-fuelled celebrity. Madonna’s rep as ruler of 80s MTV was hardly under threat, but the better singles from
ZZ Top’s ninth LP – Sleeping Bag; Rough Boy; Velcro Fly – kept them on-screen and in households. Fun, too, to watch three gnarly dudes in shades and Stetsons disrupt Madge’s reign every hour or so, their videos on heavy rotation.

Afterburner was the first ZZ Top LP since 1972’s Rio Grande Mud not to feature input from trusted engineer Terry Manning, who was unavailable. Recorded from March-July 1985 at Ardent Recording in Memphis with long-term producer Bill Ham, it peaked with the down-tempo power ballad Rough Boy. The album’s third single thrived on the contrast between its poppy keyboards and Gibbons’ filthy, pinch-harmonic-spitting guitar.

“The pretty music had to have a rough boy in it,” the guitarist told Spin in 1985, while Dusty Hill later recalled “I like that song so much, I had it played at my wedding.” Hill and his wife Charleen McCrory had been an item for at least
a decade before they married in 2002. Rough Boy’s lyric about a guy who thinks he’s punching above his weight girlfriend-wise might explain why it took Hill so long to pop the question.

Elsewhere on Afterburner, things were more typically ZZ Top, i.e. graphic rather than romantic. It’s safe to assume that straight-ahead, synth-bass-underpinned rocker Woke Up With Wood isn’t about a sleepover at the abode of a certain Rolling Stones guitarist, while Dipping Low (In The Lap Of Luxury) is unadulterated filth set to a riff that shares DNA with that of Eliminator’s Gimme All Your Lovin’.

Afterburner reached No.2 in the UK Album Charts and would eventually go five times platinum, but it didn’t have as much wit, imagination and quality-control as Eliminator. The title Afterburner made perfect sense, moreover, since it was primarily the residual white heat of Eliminator’s success that steered folks to the follow-up. But Rough Boy was genius; right up there with the Eliminator hits.

Remarkably, ZZ Top’s May 16, 1986 slot on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was the trio’s first ever live TV performance. Carson’s musicians, The NBC Orchestra, supplied ZZ with a brass section, while bandleader Doc Severinsen and Carson himself sported fake beards and shades for the occasion.

A nervous Billy Gibbons fluffed his vocal entry on Sharp Dressed Man, but he soon recovered for some synchronised choreography with Dusty Hill. The pair wore shades, sharp suits and pink baseball caps, and had matching Gibson Explorer-shaped guitars. Beard’s fingerless leather gloves were as close as he got to sartorial excess.

The Afterburner World Tour stretched well into 1987. Its futuristic, state of the art stage set was designed in conjunction with Ty Reveen, son of Australian illusionist Peter Reveen, and the pièce de résistance was a 20-foot-tall longhorn skull with laser beams for eyes. At curtain-up, the bull skull would snort up the white sheet covering Frank Beard’s drums. Hey presto: a playful simulation of the era’s ‘chop ’em out’ excesses.

Meanwhile Warner Bros released The Six Pack, a box-set of ZZ Top’s first five albums plus 1981’s El Loco. All six LPs had been bastardised with new, ‘more contemporary’ drums and guitar effects, in a misguided attempt to milk the Afterburner effect.

It was perhaps wise that ZZ now laid somewhat low until 1990’s Recycler. The record’s title suggested it was part of a stylistic triptych with Eliminator and Afterburner, but though it had been envisaged as such, it marked a change of direction.

“Under the microscope, the previous two albums would be classified as our most production-orientated records,” said Gibbons. “We really were getting experimental. But with Recycler, we set up in the studio in Memphis and the first thing we did was My Head’s In Mississippi, our homage to Howlin’ Wolf and the gang. We’d been to the Delta Blues Museum [in Clarksdale, Mississippi] and it influenced us quite a bit. We got a bit bluesier again.”

A longer version of this feature appears in Classic Rock Presents ZZ Top, a brand new magazine dedicated to the Little Ol’ Band From Texas. Order it online and have it delivered straight to your door.

Lost Fire kick the doors open with Have A Good Time, a blistering fusion of garage rock, indie rock, and fuzz-drenched alternative grit. Explosive guitar riffs, pounding rhythms, and a raw, unfiltered vocal performance give the track an electrifying live-wire energy that never lets up. Beneath its raucous exterior lies a strong melodic core, balancing reckless abandon with memorable hooks and sharp songwriting. Captured with an organic, no-frills approach, the song radiates authenticity and urgency. Loud, gritty, and irresistibly infectious, Have A Good Time is a high-octane anthem built to be played at maximum volume.

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She has since issued a statement on the matter.

The post Poppy’s Band Performed At This Weekend’s ‘Upheaval Festival’ Without Her Due To Air Quality Concerns appeared first on Theprp.com.

After twelve years spent carrying one of post-punk’s great catalogues through theatres, festivals, and anniversary tours, Echo & The Bunnymen have reopened the door to the studio. The Liverpool band have announced Apples for Isaac, their thirteenth album and first full-length collection of newly written material since 2014’s Meteorites. The album arrives on September 18th via BMG.

Its first single, “Brussels Is Haunted,” received its initial radio play on BBC Radio 6 Music from Chris Hawkins before appearing on streaming services, accompanied by an animated video directed by Belgian filmmaker Jef De Smet.

Behind the kit is the late Clem Burke of Blondie, whose performance on “Brussels Is Haunted” was recorded before his death in April 2025 and stands among his final studio work. His punchy, propulsive drumming combines with McCulloch’s strummed guitar to give the song its forward motion, while broad sheets of Will Sergeant’s electric guitar supply that unmistakable Bunnymen scale. McCulloch moves through the verses in a slightly gruff, poetic cadence in between the song’s bright, reverbed refrain built around its title. The song’s backing “sha-la-la-las” add a distinctly ’60s pop lift, allowing the chorus to sweep away some of the tension gathered in the verses.

At times its retro contours occasionally point toward sounds that Britpop would later revisit, although Liverpool’s Sergeant and McCulloch had been folding ’60s pop and psychedelia into post-punk years before Madchester went shopping for flares.

As the first glimpse of the band’s next chapter, “Brussels Is Haunted” makes a persuasive follow-up to Meteorites. And to our ears, it lands—by a hare’s breadth—closer to the polished psychedelic pop of their 1987 self-titled album. There is also a pleasing geographical echo to the comparison: portions of that 1987 album were recorded at ICP Studios in Brussels.

Lyrically, McCulloch casts Brussels as a city crowded with the people, places, and events lodged in its collective memory. Waterloo and two world wars share the frame with romance, nightlife, frozen vodka, and Belgian pop eccentric Plastic Bertrand. Private recollection brushes against European history until the capital becomes a civic séance, calling its former inhabitants back to haunt its streets.

De Smet’s accompanying visual extends that idea into an animated portrait of Brussels occupied by its monuments, famous visitors, cultural memory, and accumulated dead. History, art, romance, and war pass through the city as overlapping layers, turning its streets and squares into repositories for lives that have disappeared. The video’s credits acknowledge the use of AI in portions of its imagery.

Watch the video below:

Speaking recently with MOJO, McCulloch attributed part of the long interval between Bunnymen albums to the pandemic. The greater concern was lyrical: he wanted each song to make sense or remain, in his phrase, “cryptically important.” McCulloch also said that Apples for Isaac sounds closer to what he originally heard in his head than any record he can remember making.

Burke’s performance on “Brussels is Haunted” forms part of a larger contribution to Apples for Isaac: the Blondie drummer appears on ten of its eleven songs. Echo & The Bunnymen described their longtime friend as “integral to the making of the album,” closing their dedication with the simple farewell: “Love you Clem X.”

Apples for Isaac will be available on black vinyl, picture disc, signed test pressing, CD, and digital formats, with clothing and tote-bag bundles also available. Orders placed through the band’s store include an exclusive print signed by Ian McCulloch.

Pre-order or pre-save the album here.

Apples for Isaac tracklist:

1. Take Me By The Hand
2. Can’t Be Sold
3. Brussels Is Haunted
4. I’ll Be Your Sunshine
5. Hijacked
6. The Honey
7. Unstoppable Force
8. The Light That Surrounds You
9. Lab Rats Ran
10. Asimov
11. We Prayed In The Dark

Echo & The Bunnymen live dates:

• July 24–26 — Forest Fest, County Laois, Ireland
• August 7 — Fiesta de Begoña, Gijón, Spain
• August 8 — Festival Noroeste Estrella Galicia, A Coruña, Spain
• September 22 — Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, London, UK — Sold Out
• September 23 — Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, London, UK
• December 20 — Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow, UK
• December 22 — Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow, UK

Find ticket information through the band’s official website.

Follow Echo & The Bunnymen:

• Official website
• Instagram
• Facebook
• X / Twitter
• YouTube
• TikTok

The post Echo & The Bunnymen Announce First Album of New Songs in 12 Years: “Apples for Isaac” — Watch Video for “Brussels is Haunted” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Carmine Vincent is best known for being Biohazard’s roadie turned guitarist. Though his stint with them was short-lived, way back in 2003, he performed on the legendary band’s remarkable album “Kill Or Be Killed.” The bulk of his career, however, has been with bands further underground, including the burly death metal ensemble Grim Legion. The Nort… Read More/Discuss on Metal Underground.com

I wanna run, I wanna hide
When I tried to fix you, it made me die
No joy, only pain
Never asked for much, just what it takes

A burden, a caress, and then nothing more: the title of Hungarian outfit Choke City’s latest EP reduces the course of a damaged relationship to three stark stages. Across these songs, devotion becomes obligation, physical desire offers temporary relief, and familial love reaches the point where survival requires a departure. The Budapest quartet gives each emotional state its own weight, moving between post-punk, shoegaze, and heavy alternative rock while maintaining a remarkably unified atmosphere.

Released through Budapest’s Corbata Records, Burden. Caress. Nothing More. finds vocalist Richárd Géczi, guitarist Barnabás Kiss, bassist Szabolcs Szűcs, and drummer Gáspár Binder working with density and scale. Their music feels physically imposing, though its force comes as much from accumulated emotion as from volume. Guitars spread across the mix in broad sheets, the bass establishes a dark romantic pull, and Binder’s drums give even the quietest passages a sense of approaching consequence.

“The Burden of Serving You” opens beneath thick drums, strummed chords, and sustained guitar tones. Géczi initially sings with wounded tenderness, describing devotion as something holy that has gradually become unbearable. His repeated admission that serving another person has overwhelmed him gives the song its central conflict: love remains sacred even after it has become a form of submission.

As the arrangement rises, Géczi’s voice gains power and the track expands into a cascade of guitars and percussion. Choke City wisely interrupt that ascent about two-thirds of the way through. A few sparse strokes across the guitar strings leave the singer momentarily exposed, underlining the shame and exhaustion running through the lyrics. When the full band returns, the emotional release feels earned rather than automatic.

“Caress,” featuring St. Martin, begins with a metallic bass melody before drums and droning shoegaze guitars fill the available space. The guitars quiver inside the distortion while the vocal remains close and clear, delivering the song’s invitation with sensual confidence and a trace of alt-rock sleaze. Its language is tactile—silk, honey, closed eyes, hands—and the directness provides a welcome change after the self-sacrifice of the opening track.

The repeated “Believe me” marks a striking turn. The bassline acquires a Cure-like romantic sweep, changing the song’s temperature without disturbing its heaviness. Seduction gives way to surrender, and the caress promised by the title begins to carry its own risk. Desire here offers intimacy, though the music suggests how easily intimacy can become another loss of control.

The closing “Nothing More” begins with distorted guitar that seems to be playing through an old Victrola. That murky transmission soon clears, preserving the same strummed figure as the band opens into a dreamy alt-rock ballad. Géczi’s breathy vocal sits high in the mix while guitar accents pass through the central melody like gusts through heavy rain.

The lyrics shift from romantic entanglement toward a painful confrontation between a son and a parent. The singer recalls trying to rescue someone from what they had become, only to be pushed away and left wondering whether their relationship had ever been honest. His recurring question—whether the other person ever cried as he still does—carries anger, grief, and a final appeal for recognition.

Near the midpoint, a sustained guitar figure intensifies the song’s sorrow before the arrangement swells around it. The instruments grow larger while the vocal remains fragile above them, creating a severe contrast between inner vulnerability and outward force. By the final declaration, leaving has become a necessity. There is no victory in the decision, only the knowledge that remaining would continue the damage.

Choke City describe their current work as a break with their musical past, and this EP supports that sense of renewal. Since 2021, the band have released a full-length album alongside eight singles and EPs, as well as a live set recorded at the House of Arts in Szekszárd. Here, their various influences settle into a focused language of their own. Burden. Caress. Nothing More. traces three forms of surrender, ending at the difficult moment when letting go becomes the last available act of love.

Listen to the Burden. Caress. Nothing More. EP below, and order it here.

Follow Choke City:

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• Linktree

The post “Tell Me If You Ever Cried…” — Budapest’s Choke City Share “Burden. Caress. Nothing More” EP appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Boundaries’ eagerly-awaited new album Yearning: The Unbeautiful After is out now via Sumerian Records. Stream it HERE. “With the record, we aimed to be uncompromising and really plant our flag,” vocalist Matthew McDougal explains. “As more time passes, heavy music continues to lose its teeth. This genre is supposed to be threatening; it should have […]