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  • SAMANTHA MARTIN & DELTA SUGAR Release “The Shape I’m In” Single From “A Beautiful Buzz” Live Album

    Photo: Renan Yildizdogan

    Two-time JUNO Nominee ‘Samantha Martin & Delta Sugar’ release their second single “The Shape I’m In” from their upcoming record A Beautiful Buzz. The single is available on Friday March 27 on all available platforms HERE. Stream the YouTube audio HERE.

    Originally written and recorded by legendary Canadian rock outfit The Band, “The Shape I’m In” stands as one of this country’s most electrifying musical exports—though many listeners don’t realize the song’s deep Canadian roots. Samantha Martin & Delta Sugar reclaim the classic with a bold, full-bodied reinterpretation, transforming it into a fiery, soul-drenched revival powered by their explosive 10-piece line-up.

    Featuring searing horn arrangements, gospel-charged backing vocals, and Samantha’s powerhouse, southern-revival delivery, the track surges with grit, swagger, and raw emotional release. Adding even more star power, JUNO Award-winning multi-instrumentalist Steve Marriner (MonkeyJunk) joins the band, bringing his unmistakable tone and roots authenticity to a performance that feels both reverent and radically alive.

    The result is a triumphant celebration of a Canadian classic—reimagined with the sweat, soul, and unrelenting energy that has made Samantha Martin & Delta Sugar a must-see force on international stages.

    Samantha Martin & Delta Sugar are set to release their new live album A Beautiful Buzz via Gypsy Soul Records on May 22, 2026. Captured during the band’s Love Is All Around Tour across Western Canada in 2022, the album documents the raw power, soul, and communal energy that have made Samantha Martin & Delta Sugar one of Canada’s most electrifying live acts.

    The CD and limited edition gatefold double vinyl editions of the album are available via www.samanthamartinmusic.com/store with the digital edition available on all streaming platforms HERE.

    Samantha Martin & Delta Sugar occupy a rare space in modern roots blues music: deeply reverent of soul and gospel tradition, yet unafraid to push those forms into something louder, sweatier, and fiercely alive. Led by Martin’s unmistakable, powerhouse vocal delivery, the band has earned a reputation as one of Canada’s most commanding live acts, equal parts grit, grace, and emotional force.

    A two-time JUNO Award nominee and seven-time Canadian Blues Award nominee for Female Vocalist of the Year, Samantha Martin has long drawn comparisons to the great soul shouters of the past. As Rhythm & Booze put it, “Samantha Martin’s name can be talked of in the same sentence as Etta James, Tina Turner, and Aretha Franklin. It’s soul for the modern age with a turbocharger.” Paris Move (France) went further, calling her “indispensable, Samantha Martin, the new Southern soul tornado.”

    Those comparisons aren’t casual. Over the course of their catalogue, discerning listeners will hear echoes of Mavis Staples, Sharon Jones, Otis Redding, Booker T. & the MG’s, and the Memphis Horns, all filtered through a modern, road-hardened sensibility. It’s classic soul DNA delivered with contemporary urgency and volume. As Glide Magazine noted, “a jaw-dropping display of vocal prowess that highlights this band’s brand of supercharged blues. Comparisons of soul greats run rampant, but like Brittany Howard, Samantha Martin might be the next musical game changer.”

    Mixed by Renan Yildizdogan and Ross Hayes Citrullo, the in-house team at Gypsy Soul Records, A Beautiful Buzz marks a first for the band: a long-overdue live album capturing the raw electricity that has defined Samantha Martin & Delta Sugar onstage for over a decade.

    Recorded during the band’s Love Is All Around Tour across Western Canada in 2022, A Beautiful Buzz was born under extraordinary circumstances. Originally scheduled for January and repeatedly delayed by the final wave of COVID-era disruptions, the tour finally launched in November, with Martin six months pregnant. Undeterred, a 13-person touring party loaded into a sprinter and rental car and pushed west from the sub-zero cold of Saskatoon toward the West Coast.

    Photo: Paul Wright

    Night after night, the shows carried a heightened emotional charge, but one final performance stood apart, crackling with urgency, joy, and the awareness that one chapter was closing just as another was about to begin. That moment became A Beautiful Buzz, a testament to resilience, love, and transformation, capturing a band at full throttle and an artist on the edge of profound personal change.

    For many listeners, the album lands somewhere in the lineage of Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs & Englishmen, a communal, unrestrained live soul revue where horns, grit, gospel, and sweat collide. It’s not a polished live souvenir; it’s the sound of a band at peak intensity, feeding off the room and giving it everything back.

    With a new studio album already in development for 2027, A Beautiful Buzz stands not as a detour or placeholder, but as a deliberate statement, finally committing to record the live force that made Samantha Martin & Delta Sugar essential in the first place.

    “The Love Is All Around tour, initially set for January 2022, faced the trials of postponement until November 2022—marking the closing chapter of COVID-era delays. By the time the tour kicked off, I was six months pregnant with my son. I’ve never been one to be easily deterred. So, clad in a winter jacket that barely zipped, our 13-person touring party loaded into a sprinter and a rental car and embarked on a tour from the sub-zero temperatures of Saskatoon to the balmy West Coast of Canada. Each show was a whirlwind of energy and emotion, but one stood out above the rest. Perhaps it was the excitement of the final show, or maybe it was the realization that my life was about to change in a big way. Whatever the reason, the atmosphere was electric, filled with a beautiful buzz that I wanted to share with you. This album captures the magic I felt, and is a testament to resilience, love, and the power of music amidst life’s transformations.” – Samantha Martin

    SAMANTHA MARTIN & DELTA SUGAR
    WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | SPOTIFY | INSTAGRAM | APPLE | YOUTUBE

    The post SAMANTHA MARTIN & DELTA SUGAR Release “The Shape I’m In” Single From “A Beautiful Buzz” Live Album appeared first on The Rockpit.

  • Award-Winning British Blues And Roots Artist SUNJAY Releases New Single & Video “That’s Love” From His Tenth Studio Album, “Split The Sheets”

    Photo: Jane Jordan

    “That’s Love” (written by Stephen Bruton) is a song that immediately resonated with Sunjay for its honesty and perspective. Rather than presenting it as a gentle roots’ interpretation, Sunjay wanted his version to feel alive and full-bodied, leaning into groove, energy, and warmth.

    Built around a dynamic band performance, the arrangement blends blues, Americana, and classic pop influences. The production avoids overcomplication and Sunjay lets the song’s message speak directly to lived experience.

    Commenting on the single Sunjay says, “This song captures love exactly as it is,  joyful, chaotic, and impossible to control. We wanted the recording to feel just as alive as the lyric.”

    Drawing on a rich musical and cultural background, Sunjay has quickly established himself as one of the UK’s rising stars in the blues and roots scene. His performances have been praised as “mature and confident,” while his guitar playing has been described as “superb, brilliant, experienced, intricate, and faultless.” His style moves effortlessly between folk and blues, creating a sound that is both authentic and distinctive.

    “That’s Love” follows the release of Sunjay’s first single, “Take Out Some Insurance,” which has already received airplay on BBC Radio 2. Sunjay is also set to appear on The Blues Show with Cerys Matthews on Monday 30th.

    LIVE DATES 2026  
    17 MAY – FOREST FOLK CLUB, FOREST OF DEAN
    18 MAY – WARWICK FOLK CLUB
    20 MAY – BANBURY FOLK CLUB
    21 MAY – ANCHOR FOLK CLUB, SURREY
    29 MAY – STABLES 2, MILTON KEYNES
    31 MAY – SALTBURN BLUES CLUB
    2 JUNE – SWALLOW THEATRE, DUMFRIES
    3 JUNE – DUNFERMLINE FOLK CLUB
    6 JUNE – NETTLEHAM LIVE, LINCOLNSHIRE

    “That’s Love” OUT NOW on all digital platforms HERE

    Split The Sheets will be released September 18th, 2026
    Pre-orders now open via https://www.sunjay.tv/

    WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM |  YOUTUBE

    The post Award-Winning British Blues And Roots Artist SUNJAY Releases New Single & Video “That’s Love” From His Tenth Studio Album, “Split The Sheets” appeared first on The Rockpit.

  • MOODRING Release New Album ‘death fetish’ Out Now Via SharpTone Records + Band Shares Visualizer For ‘STFA’

    Moodring symbolizes transformation.

    The musical entity’s name hints at volatility — color, emotion, and temperature in flux. Nowhere is that more evident than in death fetish, a defining album for a haunting and defiant new chapter. For founder and frontman Hunter Young, this is more than a record.

    It’s survival, reflection, and metamorphosis. It is art made from the raw materials of pain, purpose, and persistence.

    The album, steeped in nu metal, alt, and industrial influences is out now via SharpTone Records. Get it here.

    The moment is big for Moodring, whose sole goal was being as real as it gets. That might cause some discomfort, sure, but it’s also the raw material for an incredibly genuine record.

    “I just want to make authentic records,” says Young. “I don’t care about trends. I’m a producer, so I know when something’s fake. I know when the drums are programmed, when the vocals are tuned to death. I didn’t want to put out an album about the most human experience —losing control of your body and mind — and have it be fake. We did the whole thing with real amps, drums, and takes. I just wanted to make a dark, honest record, and if people don’t like it, I don’t really care. I had to do it for myself.”

    The band has also dropped the visualizer for STFA.

    The Moodring origin story puts the timber and tone of the music in clear view.

    Young conceived Moodring alone, in his bedroom, an exercise in catharsis through art. The resulting debut EP, 2021’s Showmetherealyou, resonated with a surprising number of diverse listeners. That connection inspired Moodring to evolve into a creative outlet that transcended its simple origins.  Both sensual and suffocating, the Stargazer album followed in 2022. In a glowing review, Kerrang! praised the full-length as “hefty from the get-go” and likened it to “a cool wave of water lapping over you.” The album’s “vivacious” vocal work and vibe made new Moodring fans around the world.

    The following year’s EP, Your Light Fades Away, expanded the palette further, fusing ferocity, shimmering melody, and nü-metal groove into something equally cinematic and claustrophobic.  The “black-velvet nu-metal melodies and bleak-booming breakdowns” (Revolver) of 2025’s half-life were, sadly, inspired by a life-changing medical diagnosis that left Young unable to tour with Moodring or his accomplished deathcore outfit, SharpTone Records labelmates PSYCHO-FRAME.

    Unable to tour and unwilling to compromise, Young focused on writing and recording new music. death fetish  is the sound of transcendence—an artist refusing to disappear, even as the light fades.

    For all its darkness, death fetish is not a surrender. It’s a reclamation. It’s Young taking back control of his narrative — body failing, mind racing, still creating, still here. “I just wanted to make a dark, honest record,” he says. “And if people don’t like it, I don’t really care. I had to do it for myself.”

    Moodring, once a more traditional “band”, now exists as something far more elusive and infinite: A vessel for transformation, a mirror for mortality, and a living testament to pain and creation.

    DEATH FETISH TRACK LISTING:
    01. Half-Life
    02. Cannibal
    03. Masochist Machine
    04. Gunplay (Suicidal 3way)
    05. Ketamine
    06. Anywhere By Here
    07. STFA
    08. Oxidiezed
    09. Bleed Enough
    10. Sickf_ck
    11. Die Slow
    12. ColdMetalKiss

    DEATH FETISH – OUT NOW
    https://bfan.link/death-fetish

    The post MOODRING Release New Album ‘death fetish’ Out Now Via SharpTone Records + Band Shares Visualizer For ‘STFA’ appeared first on The Rockpit.

  • INEPSY: No Speed Limit For Destruction Reissue From Canadian Crust Punks, Out Now via Tankcrimes

    On their third album, No Speed Limit For Destruction, Canada’s INEPSY leave the d-beat behind in favor of some Tank-meets-Motӧrhead NWOBHM influenced hard rock/metal/punk. Initially released in 2007, the final full-length from Canada’s now legendary rock ‘n’ roll crust punks released on Friday, March 27th, on CD and limited-edition vinyl via Tankcrimes.

    INEPSY notoriously existed from 1999 to 2011, unloading a barrage of EPs and LPs in their twelve years of activity. Now, Tankcrimes honors the band’s revered legacy with physical reissues of their entire catalog.

    “We wanted to do something different,” said bassist J.P. Hearse of No Speed Limit For Destruction in an interview with Bandcamp Daily last year. “We were always known for our d-beat/rock ‘n’ roll sound, but we wanted to focus more on the rock ’n’ roll side – mid-tempo stuff. When [late guitarist] Steve [Bennett] left the band, we brought in [guitarist] Bob-E to take over [on] rhythm guitar. The album wasn’t well received at first, but over time, we realized either people hated it, or they thought it was our best material. There was no middle ground. Looking back, we discovered there was an issue with one of the guitar tracks. It wasn’t loud enough, so without realizing it, we had unintentionally dialed back the distortion, shifting the overall sound of the band a bit. Despite all that, we still loved the album and had a blast playing those songs live.”

    “That was courage on a fucking twelve-inch, dude,” said Tankcrimes owner Scotty Heath. “They were the kings of crust and had ushered in an entire new style of music.” [Read the full interview HERE].

    The No Speed Limit For Destruction vinyl edition is available in the following color variants:

    Crystal Clear (Ltd. 100)
    Splatter (Ltd. 250)
    Blood Red (1500)

    Order yours today at the Tankcrimes webshop HERE where the band’s See You In Hell debut EP (2002), Rock ‘N’ Roll Babylon debut LP (2003), and City Weapons (2005) releases can also be purchased.

    Stream the entire INEPSY catalog at Bandcamp HERE.

    No Speed Limit For Destruction – Track Listing:

    1. Rock N Roll Is The Only Way
    2. No Speed Limit For Destruction
    3. Among The Remains
    4. 10 Packs Of Smokes
    5. Run Away
    6. Time Bomb!
    7. Warriors Of The Wasteland
    8. Fast Way To Die
    9. Wild City Night

    https://www.tankcrimes.com

    https://www.facebook.com/tankcrimes

    https://www.instagram.com/tankcrimes

    Source: EARSPLIT PR

  • The Dark Mofo 2026 Program Has Been Announced

    Dark Mofo returns to Hobart between 11 – 22 June 2026 for another season of dark art, performance and culture.

    Tickets will be on sale from April 1 for the extended feast that will include performances and appearances by Power Trip, Chat Pile, Acid Mothers Temple, Dry Cleaning, The Black Angels, Blackwater Holylight, Protomartyr, Lord Spikeheart and more, a truly international spread of metal, punk and musical extremity. Added to that is Hymns to the Dead, Mofo’s evening of metal this year featuring Tiamat, Negative Plain, Emasculator and Grave Upheaval.

    Beyond the music, there are art installations, performance art, spoken word and the Nude Solstice Swim in the Derwent to also look forward to – sign up to the website for all information and ticketing.

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  • New Single for Asteroid B-612

    Early 90s Sydney rock institution Asteroid B-612 came streaking back last year with their first album in decades.

    Now the garage rockers are back with a new original, Fallen Slow, backed with a classic Easybeats cover, St. Louis. Available from April 10, the songs can be pre-ordered now.

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  • Joe Bonamassa celebrates Rory Gallagher with new live album and film

    The titan of modern blues-rock, Joe Bonamassa, has just announced a project that’s clearly very close to his heart. On 19th June, he’ll be releasing The Spirit Of Rory Live From Cork via J&R Adventures. It’s a massive tribute to the legendary Rory Gallagher, recorded right in Rory’s hometown of Cork during a run of … Continue reading Joe Bonamassa celebrates Rory Gallagher with new live album and film
  • Devil Electric Release Tahlia

    Melbourne vintage rockers Devil Electric have released their first album in five years.

    The follow-up to 2021’s Godless, Tahlia is out on all digital platforms and available in physical form from the band’s BandCamp page. New single Weirdos is also out – check it out below.

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