Tony Valentino of 60s garage rock/proto-punk band The Standells is releasing a new album on May 26th called Dirty Water Revisited. Much like artists Rick Springfield and Taylor Swift, he’s revisiting his back catalogue as a way to reclaim the songs and have control over them after all these years. He is a rock and roll history book and his music has inspired countless musicians. He is still an active musician and producer. Three years ago he released an album called A Suitecase Full of Dreams with the title coming from his journey from a small farming community in Sicily to Hollywood, coming t ..read more

Les Lullies are a garage rock/punk band founded in Montpellier, France in 2016. The group were formed by Roméo and Manu, former members of Les Grys-Grys, a 60s inspired R&B act reminiscent of The Pretty Things – definitely another band worth checking out if you prefer a more surf-rock sound – fellow fuzz guitar fans will love their cover of “Got Love If You Want It”, along with T.Boy from punk band Flying Over. These musicians wanted to start a band for fun, not knowing where it would take them, just going with the flow, but they found success. They released their debut EP, Don’t Look Twic ..read more

NB: The Crystal Teardrop generously sent me an MP3 copy of their debut single. Thank you so much! The Crystal Teardrop are a new band from England made up of Alexandra Rose Mason, Leon Jones, Stuart Gray, Caitlin Hare, and Connor Wells. Their biggest inspirations are psychedelic and garage rock music from the 60s and it shows in the band’s dress sense and in their debut single “Nine Times Nine”, which will be coming out on April 7th. The band will also be making their live debut at this year’s Le Beat Bespoke Festival in London. The band members are all passionate fans of classic rock and vint ..read more

The Vaughan Building are a blues/garage rock band from Chicago. The band’s lineup are Michael McInerney on lead vocals and guitar, Crispin Dorvak on bass, Johnny Hix on drums, and Nicholas Chomko on keyboards. All four contribute vocals. They recently released their debut single, which is now out on Bandcamp and Spotify called “You Don’t Know Nothin’ Yet”, a song that lead singer Michael McInerney wrote in 2016 while still in secondary school. It’s the first original song the band learned and a staple of their live shows. It’s an energetic song that exemplifies what they’re all about: a fresh ..read more

This is a blog post I’ve been meaning to write for a while now. I’ve been meaning to share old things from my archives. Things I wrote early on. So don’t be surprised if the writing isn’t my best, it’s all part of the journey and there are many cool stories. I hope you enjoy them! Of course being a classic rock fans and being on a bit of a Byrds and Bob Dylan kick lately, why not name this series “My Back Pages” – thinking of this lyric: “Ah but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now”. Not sure what it has to do with my writing, but I always loved that lyric. This is one of the c ..read more

Welcome back to another quarterly new music feature! This is just a short roundup of new releases from the past few months that I’ve been enjoying and I share my thoughts and some information on the musicians and the music. If that sounds like something you’d enjoy, keep on reading! 1. A New Beginning – Man Tau I was lucky enough to get an advance copy to listen to, thank you Man Tau! Man Tau is a musician who takes a DIY to his music, which he describes as Rainbow Rock. What does that mean? Rainbows are colourful, and so is life. Our emotions, feelings, and moods are the colours. He has been ..read more

You may know that I’m originally from the Chicago area, even though I don’t sound like it. I left five years ago and I remember being happy to go somewhere new because I don’t like to stay in one place for long. You know the saying “distance makes the heart grow fonder”, well that’s how I feel about Chicago now. I look at my years there in a more positive way, thinking of all the happier times: hanging out with friends, spending time with family, going to restaurants, going to concerts, going to the museums, going to the record store, walking around Millennium Park, going thrifting, and taking ..read more

I had the idea for this blog post for a while but kept it in my back pocket and I asked my followers about this and they said it was a good idea. My obsession with classic rock really took off when I was 14 or 15 thanks to movies like Austin Powers and The Boat That Rocked. Those movies were two of my biggest influences in who I am and a big part of that was the music. I guess teenage me would be happy because I have Austin Powers like clothes and I had a classic rock radio show in uni. Unlike a lot of millennial classic rock fans, it wasn’t my parents who pushed me into loving classic rock, i ..read more

The Moons are an indie rock band from Northampton. Andy Crofts formed the band in 2008. He also works with Paul Weller as a touring musician and Paul Weller has collaborated with The Moons on the song “Something Soon”. They’ve gotten praise from Mojo Magazine, opened for Ocean Colour Scene, The Rifles, and Beady Eye; chosen by Mani from The Stone Roses for a tribute to Morrissey, and have had their music featured in a Jack Wills fashion campaign. If you like psychedelia, garage rock, Britpop, and mod culture, you’ll absolutely love The Moons. Other songs I enjoy by The Moons include:”Chinese ..read more

The Heavy North are a garage rock/blues rock band from Liverpool that formed in 2018. They released their first two singles in November of that year, “Don’t You Wait For Me” and “The Night Don’t Give No Love”.  They have played shows in cities all over the north of England like Manchester, Leeds, and Blackpool. Last summer has been a great year as far as live performances go because they played the Liverpool International Music Festival and gave a sold out headliner performance at Jimmy’s. They’ve also opened for Temples (a favourite band of mine), Saint Agnes, and Cut Glass Kings. The ba ..read more