Our weekly fix of the best new music as Julia Mason (aka The Decibel Decoder) brings us her review of new music with singles from GIRLBAND! 21st Century Suffragette and Seasick Steve Internet Cowboys
Artist: GIRLBAND!
Track: 21st Century Suffragette
GIRLBAND! share new single 21st Century Suffragette via Soul Kitchen/EMI North. The track is rock 'n' roll at its heart with a clear message of individual empowerment. The lead vocal is akin to Joan Jett, loud and proud, delivered with power and pitch perfect.
The Nottingham-based three-piece voice both truth and rebellion. 21st Century Suffragette has the scuzzy thrashing guitars of Georgie and Kay combined with propulsive rhythms from drummer Jada. The chorus encourages an attitude of us all being in this together.
GIRLBAND! are a band already starting to create a bit of noise and on the evidence of this single it’s easy to see why. The band share the following on the track: “21st Century Suffragette is about being told who to be by society or maybe even someone closer and finding the empowerment in rebelling against that. Especially as a woman! People see the word ‘suffragette’ and think of the early 20th century which is of course true and they set the way but this song is about the importance of still fighting for rights that go against the system and in our opinion socially just. The song was truthfully inspired about finding that on a very personal level and as the songwriter I just needed to get some angst out of my system after getting to a point where I was like ‘f you enough is enough’.”
GIRLBAND! will be on tour throughout May, kicking off at Deaf Institute (The Lodge) in Manchester and taking in Sound City, Teddy Rocks and Block Party in Paris along the way. All confirmed shows to date are below with many more to be announced across UK/EUR in 2024 (tour headline shows in bold).
Friday 3 May – Deaf Institute - The Lodge, Manchester
Saturday 4 May – Sound City, Liverpool
Sunday 5 May – Teddy Rocks, Blandford
Thursday 9 May – The Grace, London
Saturday 11 May – Louisiana, Bristol
Thursday 16 May – The Joiners, Southampton
Saturday 18 May – Rescue Rooms, Nottingham
Thursday 30 May – Block Party, Paris, France
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Artist: Seasick Steve
Track: Internet Cowboys
Seasick Steve has released his new single Internet Cowboys taken from his new album A Trip A Stumble A Fall Down On Your Knees, which is out 7 June via SO Recordings. The track takes its inspiration from the scams perpetuated by Internet cowboys.
Of course this is a modern-day issue which has heart-breaking consequences. Seasick Steve acknowledges that these modern cowboys come right into your home, without a physical presence, but this can be overcome by not being on the Internet. To hear this all contained within the swampy blues of Seasick Steve is its joy, taking a musical genre embedded in the past and pulling it right up to date with lyrics which reflect contemporary challenges.
Seasick Steve had the following to say about Internet Cowboys: "Am I getting paranoid? Ha! Well Internet Cowboys is about scams, about people trying to rob you via the Internet and maybe if you weren’t on the web all day maybe you wouldn’t get scammed? That’s where the lyric “Get yourself a record player or maybe a guitar” came from."
It's been almost 20 years since Seasick Steve's celebrated appearance on Jools Holland's Hootenanny launched the unknown American singer-songwriter to worldwide fame with his beat-up three-string Japanese guitar and old wooden stompbox.
Expanding on the new album A Trip A Stumble A Fall Down On Your Knees, Seasick Steve shares: “This album was made by mistake, as the title suggests we just tripped and stumbled into it, and it became my favourite album ever and the piece of work I’m most proud of to date. There’s not a week goes by that I don’t thank my lucky stars for that night on the Hootenanny which has brought us here to this record”.
Seasick Steve instores for new album
June 6th | Banquet Records @ Pryzm, Kingston - SOLD OUT
June 7th | Rough Trade East, London - SOLD OUT
June 8th | HMV Oxford Street, London (2pm)
June 9th | Rough Trade, Bristol - SOLD OUT
June 10th | Rough Trade, Nottingham - SOLD OUT
Tuesday 11th June | Rough Trade, Liverpool (7pm)
June 12th | Crash Records @ Brudenell Social Club, Leeds - SOLD OUT
June 13th | Resident Records @ Chalk, Brighton (7pm)
Seasick Steve summer festivals
June 2nd | Wychwood Festival, Cheltenham Racecourse, UK
June 15th | Black Deer Festival, Eridge Park, Kent, UK
July 19th | Beach Festival, Nieuwpoort, Belgium
July 23rd | Podium Victorie, Alkmaar, NL
July 25th | Tivolivredenberg (Ronda), Utrecht, NL
July 27th | Latitude Festival, Henham Park, Suffolk, UK
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