The sixth studio album from Valley Of The Sun is The Blacklight Sessions.
Valley Of The Sun started out on the banks of the Ohio River in 2010, or thereabouts. I first heard them a few years ago and immediately jumped on the bandwagon. They have released five earlier studio albums, recently Quintessence (2024), and one that really got to me, The Chariot (2022). This new one, though, The Blacklight Sessions, is their best so far. The band is Ryan Ferrier (guitar, vocals), Chris Sweeney (bass), and Johnny Kathman (drums).
The six-song set starts off cranked up with “The Whiskey Elf.” The first time I heard it I thought immediately this has to be my favorite on the album. The riff is a killer, and it continues to innovate even early on. The lead guitar wails and slays before we ever hear any vocals. Indeed, we never do hear vocals on this song – it is an instrumental juggernaut. The first singing pops up on “Low Not Slow,” and it is a gritty groove. Fast and charging, the momentum is relentless. “The Long Song” is that and a whole lot more. This one starts slow and rumbles on for more than ten minutes, as advertised. Two and a half minutes in the music rips a hole in reality and makes its own new thing. The song is stunning.
Side two starts out with “A Greater Meaning,” a crackling radio song with sharp riffery and earnest vocals. “Mountain” goes long form with a quiet start and a loud booming center. “No Hope” brings us to the end. Another long piece, it has ponderous moments and passages of doom that resonate with your inner self. This is the best album I have heard all year. Drop everything and listen to it now. The Blacklight Sessions gets our highest recommendation.
The Blacklight Sessions is out on Friday, October 2nd from Heavy Psych Sounds Records. Listen and buy at the links below.
Keo are currently on track for their first Number One album, with the band’s debut ‘Put A Smile On For Me’ topping the midweek chart.
The Official Charts Company have reported that the band are currently in the No.1 position midweek, with Nothing But Thieves sitting at No.2 with their latest album ‘Stray Dogs’.
If things stay as they are, the London-based four-piece are set to take their debut album straight to Number 1, which is a truly remarkable feat.
The album includes the singles ‘That’s Me’, ‘Pistol’ and ‘Bird On The Wire’.
Find out where ‘Put A Smile On For Me’ finishes in the UK album chart when it is revealed in full this Friday (October 02).
Nashville rock outfit Leo Duke & The North Wind are rapidly establishing themselves as one of Music City’s most formidable new acts. Powered by a heavyweight lineup—featuring bassist Shannon Wilk, guitarist Jacob Lott, and drummer Sam Wall—the band delivers high-octane live shows that echo the swagger of Aerosmith, Guns N’ Roses, Dirty Honey, and Mammoth WVH. Having commanded stages at premier venues like The Cowan, The Basement East, The Vinyl Lounge, and Eastside Bowl, their explosive sound has already earned high praise from rock royalty like Lzzy Hale of Halestorm, Todd Kerns, and Marty Schwartz.
Their standout new single “Coming Home” is a complete triumph from start to finish, channeling the emotional and relentless struggle of breaking out of your comfort zone and betting everything on yourself. Musically, the track hits with razor-sharp production, a stellar overall performance, a blazing solo section, and a insanely catchy chorus that hooks you instantly. Driven by pristine musicianship and raw, heart-on-the-sleeve determination, “Coming Home” captures a rising rock band operating at the absolute top of their game.
The song is part of the playlist Rock Rotation. Give it a go by clicking on the Spotify player below and follow the band if you like what you hear.
Spanish Love Songs have given us another taste of their fifth full-length album ‘Future Nausea’, and this one is a gorgeously shimmering pop song.
Titled ‘Doom Tripping’, it’s a gloriously optimistic track all about perseverance and fighting through life’s toughest moments in order to find the brighter ones.
Here’s what vocalist/guitarist Dylan Slocum had to say about it:
“This song is my attempt to make a shimmering pop song that evokes how it feels to be inside my brain right now. I wrote a good chunk of it while I had to taper off antidepressants for awhile and started suffering from severe vertigo and the return of symptoms that had previously made me lose my voice for 3 months.
“Meredith and I often joke about glitches in the simulation. This song is entirely made up of these glitches. Moments in life so surreal they made me go “what the hell is happening?”. That exasperation defines a lot of my life these days.But it’s ultimately a song about not giving up. It’s about recognising this all might be a bad trip, hoping it’ll be over soon, and clinging to the idea of building something better when it’s done.”
Spanish Love Songs’ latest album ‘Future Nausea’ is set to arrive on November 06 via Pure Noise Records.
Speaking about the record, Dylan has said:
“When I first sat down to work on the record, I basically told everybody I just wanted to make a big rock record, whatever our version of something like Born in the U.S.A. would feel like if it could exist. But as much as I wanted to make a major-key-sounding album, I wanted it to be as angry politically as it could be. More angry than sad. I actually think this is the least sad record we’ve ever made.”
Take a look at the artwork and tracklisting for ‘Future Nausea’ below.
1. Future Nausea 2. Good American 3. Welcome To Hell 4. New Fears 5. Living Blues 6. Jan666 7. Doom Tripping 8. Shadowland 9. No Dreams 10. Future Nausea Pt.2 11. See You on the Way Out 12. Until the Sun Explodes
The band have also recently announced their biggest ever headline shows iun Europe and the UK, along with their first ever shows in Spain.
2: BOLOGNA Locomotiv Club 3: ZURICH Plaza 4: MUNICH Strom 6: KARLSRUHE P8 7: NIJMEGEN Doornroosje 9: ANTWERP Kavka Oudaan 11: SOUTHAMPTON Engine Rooms 12: BRISTOL The Prospect Building 13: LEEDS Project House 14: GLASGOW Queen Margaret Union (QMU) 16: NOTTINGHAM Palais 17: MANCHESTER O2 Ritz 19: BIRMINGHAM O2 Academy 2 20: LONDON O2 Forum Kentish Town 24: MADRID Sala Copérnico 25: BARCELONA Sala Boveda
Fontaines D.C. formed in Dublin in 2014 after Grian Chatten, Conor Curley, Conor Deegan III, Tom Coll, and Carlos O’Connell met while studying music at BIMM Dublin. The musicians bonded over poetry as much as rock and roll, and that literary streak became central to the band’s identity. Their early singles carried a raw post-punk urgency shaped by Dublin streets, working-class imagery, spoken-word rhythms, and a guitar sound that could move from abrasive repetition to unexpected melody. The band signed with Partisan Records and released Dogrel in 2019 after several independent and early-label singles, including “Liberty Belle,” “Hurricane Laughter,” “Chequeless
NWOBHM legends Iron Maiden released their album Somewhere In Time on this day in 1986. It’s one of their most intricately detailed album covers, layered with many in-jokes and nods to their past.
Artist Derek Riggs spent weeks on the 32-inch by 15-inch painting.
“It wore me out quite severely,” Riggs revealed in Martin Popoff’s book Run For Cover: The Art Of Derek Riggs. “I was living in London at the time, and working on that for two months, and it took three months in all – I just had to stop, because I had had enough. It got into my head and I just couldn’t see anything else. I couldn’t think about anything else. It did my head in, because there’re all these little details.”
We’ve stared at the front and back cover for what feels like days to bring you 39 of those little details…
1) Riggs’ stylised signature can be seen as a badge on Eddie’s chest.
2) Eddie is posed next to a street sign which partially reads Acacia. We can only assume it’s a reference to The Number Of The Beast song 22 Acacia Avenue.
3) Next to him is a poster from the band’s 1980 debut album.
4) To the left of Eddie’s gun, there’s an Eye Of Horus placed at the top of a skyscraper. This ancient Egyptian protection symbol is mentioned in the title track of 1984’s Powerslave.
5) Behind Eddie’s right leg, reflected in the window of the Bradbury Towers Hotel International, there’s a sign that reads ‘This is a very boring painting’. Speak for yourself, there’s plenty of references to go.
6) The biohazard sign on Eddie’s crotch? “He’s got a nuclear-powered willy,” says Riggs. Quite.
7) Next to Eddie’s left leg, there’s a plastic yellow bin fixed to a lamppost, referencing the cover of Iron Maiden’s self-titled debut album.
8) Aw. Who’s this? It’s the black cat from the Live After Death artwork. Name unknown.
9) Who’s Webster? Charlie Webster was EMI’s art director.
10) Hungry? There’s a Pizza Hot which can be seen through Eddie’s legs. “The Cyrillic above the words Pizza Hot? I think it says sour milk in Russian,” remembers Riggs. The perfect drink to wash down a Meat Feast.
BACK COVER – SECTION ONE
1) Fancy a pint before jumping in the cockpit and starting up the engines? Try the Aces High Bar.
2) There’s a spitfire from the single cover twisting overhead.
3) In the skies beyond the city, all you can see are pyramids. That’s all to do with Powerslave.
4) L’Amours was a Brooklyn venue which Maiden played often. They returned to play a secret show in 1988 under the name Charlotte and The Harlots.
BACK COVER – SECTION TWO
1) Long Beach Arena is where Maiden recorded Live After Death.
2) Hammerjacks is a Baltimore nightclub they used to visit.
3) Below Hammerjacks reads a sign for Tehe’s Bar, where the gang vocals for Heaven Can Wait were recorded.
4) The angel plummeting down the side of Bradbury Towers is Icarus. Still not having much luck there. It’s not even sunny this time. It’s also a nod to Led Zeppelin.
BACK COVER – SECTION THREE
1) Iron Maiden filmed a 1980 concert at the Rainbow in London’s Finsbury Park. It’s now a Christian church.
2) See the sign saying Sand Dune over the bridge? That’s in reference to To Tame A Land, from 1983’s Piece Of Mind album, which was based on Frank Herbert’s novel Dune.
3) The band called up the author to ask his permission to name the song after the book. His reply? “No, you can’t call it Dune. And you can’t do anything based on my book, because I think rock ‘n’ roll is decadent and corrupt”, remembers Riggs. “So they put Herbert Ails [on the bridge], as in, Herbert’s not very well.”
4) Next to that is a sign for the Marquee Club, which looks bigger than the original venue in London.
6) The Ruskin Arms was an East End pub where Maiden cut their teeth.
7) Above the pub, there’s a prostitute in a red room. That’s probably Charlotte The Harlot, still on the game after all those years. Good grief.
8) On the bridge across the road, there’s a digital clock reading 23:58. Two minutes to midnight. See?
9) ‘The Philip K. Dick Cinema’ is a nod to the author whose book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? inspired the film Blade Runner.
10) That’ll explain the Dekkers Department Stores and Tyrell Corp signs in the background.
11) Asimov Foundation is a nod to the sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov.
12) There’s the Grim Reaper from the Live After Death and The Trooper artwork.
13) The Phantom Opera House refers to the band’s song and one-time Lucozade soundtrack Phantom of the Opera.
14) Another West Ham reference on the bridge. According to the scoreboard, the Hammers appear to have given Arsenal a spanking. As we said, this is the future and all just fantasy.
15) Down the road, there’s a neon sign saying that Gypsy’s Kiss are performing that evening. They were Steve Harris’ first band. It’s also Cockney rhyming slang for piss.
BACK COVER – SECTION FOUR
1) Fancy a fish dish that takes around 14 minutes to prepare? Head to the Ancient Mariner Seafood Restaurant.
2) Bradbury Towers can be found on Upton Park, once the home of Steve Harris’ beloved football team West Ham United.
3) Under the Bradbury Towers sign reads ‘Maggie’s Revenge’, the now-dead Tory Prime Minister whose nickname was ‘The Iron Maiden’. She fucking loved her metal.
4) Batman can be seen lurking in the shadows on the bridge.
5) Nicko McBrain’s t-shirt says ‘Iron Wha?’. “They complained because they didn’t look exactly like them. Hello? They’re inches tall. They’re the size of postage stamps,” said Riggs.
6) Bruce Dickinson is holding a brain, a reference to the band’s 1983 album Piece Of Mind.
Back with an addendum to last year’s dandy full-length The Life of a Showgirl, Glenn Robinson delivers a new EP of snappy, crackling, poppy punk rock from his stellar one-man project Pavid Vermin. You know what to expect: crisp, hard-hitting pop-punk tunes with killer hooks and lyrics that are sure to make you chuckle. And this release, with lyrics inspired by Robinson’s pals Joey Herbz and Ryan Minter, is particularly well-suited for those with limited attention spans or limited time. With four songs in four minutes, he’s not fooling around! You’ve got songs about barfing up a co-worker’s contribution to the company potluck, the city of Cleveland, the dangers of inhaling iodine vapors, and a ’90s porn flick called Babylon. Yes, it’s clear that Glenn Robinson can write a catchy tune about any topic under the sun! He literally wrote and recorded this EP in just a little over two hours last Thursday morning. I hate to overuse the term “genius,” but sometimes it’s apropos.
Two new albums in six months? It seems we might have entered a portal to 1981, but Little Spells is no contractual obligation from Josephine Network. It just shows that Josephine is on a creative roll, and we are all very fortunate to be able to enjoy it!
If the last album Hooked was Josephine’s lean into the louder, more arena-rocking side of power pop, Little Spells is more of a pure pop record — albeit one that isn’t afraid to rock when it needs to. Recorded with Olive Faber from Sunflower Bean over the winter/spring of 2024-25, Little Spells is a charming little guitar pop record that deserves to be appreciated in its own right. Of course Hooked is a hard act to follow, but if you’re a Josephine Network fan, Little Spells will not leave you wanting. I might, in fact, like this album a little more than Hooked since I’m such a geek for that ’70s by way of the ’60s classic power pop sound that looms large here.
Josephine’s knack for writing melodious two-minute pop songs with infectious hooks and clever lyrics is on display from start to finish. “Gotta Get Outta My Heart” is vintage Josephine and a perfect tone-setter. With its blend of sweet melody and playful sexual energy, “Bumpin’ Into You” would not have sounded out of place on Hooked. “He’s Not Mine” could almost be The Monkees, and I mean that as nothing less than a supreme compliment. “Music Turns Me Round” is giving Stones meet Big Star, and I’ve got no complaints. The album’s middle section finds Josephine in her sweet spot of Beatles-influenced textbook power pop. If you listen to this record, be ready for the jangly “Put A Guitar In Her Hands” to be stuck in your head all week. “I Could Say No” kicks up some Raspberries-style harmonies via George Harrison pop majesty. “Little Spell” is gentle and sweet and simply makes my heart smile. The appropriately-titled “Magnificent” walks a delicate line between ’60s pop and ’70s AM radio/soft rock. Then to finish the record, we get some pleasing changes of pace with the thoughtful rocker “Tall Buildings” and the stripped-down, piano-driven “Sisters” — an anthem of love and affirmation.
This 2026 is turning into one for the history books for fans of power pop & indie pop, and my attitude is that we should take the time to appreciate the embarrassment of riches that the music gods have blessed us with. “Too much” good music is an absolutely wonderful problem to have. I may have not set any records for speed in getting this review of Little Spells into public view, but the silver lining is that I had a few weeks to simply enjoy the record before I had to start thinking about what I wanted to say about it. If one new album from Josephine Network this year was a cause for celebration, two is even better! There are a few things in life that I literally never get tired of, and a well-written pop song with hummable melodies and an earworm chorus is certainly one of them. And I appreciate how Josephine wears her love for recording and performing on her sleeve. A great pop-rock record ought to be something that you can turn to when you want to feel good, and Little Spells definitely falls into that category. What a gem!
