New Music: Depeche Mode- Soothe My Soul + Other Recent Releases and News

Depeche Mode have just released a second single from their upcoming LP Delta Machine. The busy band have been making the rounds of TV talk shows, played SXSW the other day, and now have  put out "Soothe My Soul", the second track to be previewed from their new album. The song reminds of their glory days when they regularly played to a 100,000 people in big stadiums- kinda electro arena rock: Listen below:

Delta Machine is out March 26th

Stream: Depeche Mode- Soothe My Soul



It was a little bit of a slow week for new music buzz. Maybe everybody is too busy having a good time down at SXSW. However, there was some interesting stuff that came out:

Hot on the heels of the new heels of the new Wire track comes fellow post punk pioneers Gang Of Four and their new song "Broken Talk". They are planning a new EP which will be released some time this spring and this song is the first preview of it. Listen to the song over at Soundcloud:

Gang Of Four- Broken Talk


I love Foals, but hate the fact that I have to wait until Record Store Day to buy the vinyl release of their new album Holy Fire. In the mean time, I can bide my time by watching their creative videos. Here's a new one for the Holy Fire track "Late Night". Watch the NSFW clip that features explicit sex, suicide, child birth and a just a little bit of blood.

Video: Foals- Late Night

The clip for the new Strokes single, "All The Time" is a reminder of how great this band used to be...and in some ways still are. Go down down memory lane with the band and watch the video that features edited clips of live performances from the past ten years.

The Strokes new LP Comedown Machine will be out March 26th.

Video: The Strokes- All The Time 


This is a great promotion!!! Suede are set to release their brand new album next week and to promote the LP they are giving away a live version of their classic track "Film Star". The song was originally recorded at a charity gig for XFM. Grab the song below:

Suede will release Bloodsports on March 19th





I guess School Of Seven Bells singer Benjamin Curtis is having an obvious tough time battling cancer right now. So tough that the band have set up a website to help pay for his treatment. Fellow musician Teen Daze is also pitching in and has a brand new song on Bandcamp in honour of Curtis. All proceeds from the sale of the song will be donated to Curtis to help with his recovery.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Gives Away Free EP + Other Music News

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club will be releasing their sixth studio album, Specter At The Feast, on March 19th and to celebrate the band are giving away a free EP. The EP, which is available now at the band's website, contains two songs and a live track.

"Let The Day Begin" was originally recorded by The Call, whose frontman, Michael Been, is the dad of BRMC lead singer of Robert Levon Been. The other songs on the EP are "Returning" and a live version of the latter track.

Download for the price of giving up your E-mail address over at blackrebelmotorcycleclub.com.



This post was originally written on Friday but through a technical difficulty with Blogger all the the information was erased before I got  a chance to publish. 

Frightened Rabbit debuted a new video last week for their track "Backyard Skulls" from Pedestrian Verse. Watch as the band play to an almost empty school auditorium.

Frightened Rabbit- Backyard Skulls

Not really a big fan of the noise punk band The Men, but this track is pretty good. It rocks like Neil Young and Crazy Horse. "I Saw Her Face" is from the forthcoming new album, New Moon, out March 5th via Sacred Bones.

The Men- I Saw Her Face

Ex-Das Racist rapper Heems has put out a video for his shoegaze inspired track "Desi Shoegaze Taiko". The clip is not very original as it just shows the opening scene from the movie Blade, but the song is pretty cool.

Heems- Desi Shoegaze Taiko

Entertainment Weekly reported last week that Martin Gore of Depeche Mode is working on a song with R&B songsmith Frank Ocean for his next album. Apparently Ocean is a big fan of DM. Read more on EW"s website which also includes an extensive interview with Gore.

Depeche Mode- Master & Servant
Frank Ocean- Pyramids

Sad to hear that one time Cold Cave musician Justin Benoit passed away last week. The announcement was made on the band's Facebook page which you can read here. No cause of death was given.

Cold Cave- Love Comes Close

NME featured another episode of one it's excellent Song Stories segments. Watch as Brett Anderson and Matt Osman of Suede discuss the writing and recording of their classic song "Animal Nitrate".

MBV Release New Album (Finally) + Other New Music Releases and News

If you haven't heard the news yet (you might be living on the moon), 90's shoegaze genius Kevin Shields and his band My Bloody Valentine have finally, after 22 years, put the finishing touches on their new album m.b.v. The album was released on midnight Saturday (UK time) on their website and after initial problems due to their website crashing, I was finally able to download and listen the LP before midnight (EST). The album is absolutely spectacular and should be deemed mandatory listening for all shoegaze fans.. You can purchase the the album here or listen to the entire record on youtube.

My Bloody Valentine- She Found Now

And speaking of My Bloody Valentine, up and coming Canadian/British artist Rachel Zeffira has recorded a  beautiful acoustic cover of MBV's To Here Knows When for her debut album The Deserters which will be released on March 12th. See the studio recorded video for the track below:

Rachel Zeffira- To Here Knows When

Suede share a new track and video: Watch It Starts and End With You is from their upcoming album, Bloodsports, which is out in March. Watch below:

Suede- It Starts and Ends With You

80's synth pop legends Depeche Mode share a new track and video: Heaven is from the band's forthcoming LP, Delta Machine, out March 26th

Depeche Mode- Heaven

Another great 80's synth pop band Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark share a new track, and music video plus announce a world tour that includes a stop in Toronto on July 11th. Atomic Ranch is taken from the LP English Electric which comes out April 9th.

OMD- Atomic Ranch

Former goth king Nick Cave shares a new video for the track Jubilee Street. The video is directed by Cave's friend John Hillcoat and features English bad ass actor Ray Winstone. The track appears on The Bad Seeds new album Push The Sky Away which is out February 19th.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds- Jubilee Street

British indie rock band Coves share a great new song and video:

Coves- Last Desire

Tame Impala psychedelic side project POND share a new track: The band have a new album coming out this spring titled Hobo Rocket.



New York indie rock band Caveman share a new track from sophomore LP. In The City will appear on the band's new s/t album, out April 2nd via Fat Possum.


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Finally. so sorry to here about the death of Troggs lead singer Reg Presley. The frontman died today at the age of 71 after suffering from lung cancer. This song is awesome:

The Troggs- I Can't Control Myself

Five Star Songs- Depeche Mode- Fly On The Windscreen

Depeche Mode held a news conference last Tuesday in Paris, in part to announce the European leg of their 2013 world tour, but also to tease their fans (including myself) with a new song from their forthcoming new untitled album. Martin Gore stated that the band had just finished the album about a week ago and that the songs feel like a cross between the sound of Violator and the sound of The Songs of Faith and Devotion. The new album will be out in the spring. The new song is rumoured to be titled Angel of Love (not confirmed). Listen to the new song below along with a video showing the band preparing for the new album.

The track is okay, but once again David Gahans' raspy voice kind of brings it down. After years of drug abuse and near death experiences the lead singer's voice is not what it used to be.

Also, after he worked with Martin Gore on the techno VCMG project, there was great hope that original member Vince Clarke might be somehow involved on the new album. Judging by the news conference, there is no sign of that happening.

In high school me, my brother and my friends worshipped Depeche Mode. There were a couple of years where we had to attend summer school in Peterborough, Ontario. The drive from my hometown of Lindsay to Peterborough would take 45 minutes and it was always soundtracked by Depeche Mode-singles, albums, extended mixes, remixes, you name it we played it.

We saw them in concert twice in that time period, once at Kingswood Music Theatre at Canada's Wonderland for the Black Celebration tour and the other time at Maple Leaf Gardens (Yes, the place where I now buy groceries!!!) for the Music For The Masses tour.

The chameleon like band started out as a synth pop new romantic band, before going in a slightly darker direction with Some Great Reward, and Black Celebration. The band then exploded in popularity with the release of Music for The Masses and Violator, with the help of slick videos directed by Anton Corbijn, they became one of the best selling concert draws of the late 80's.

The band started to add more guitar to the repetoire in the 90's and became an alt rock group. This is when all of the trouble started for Gahan and his well documented battle with drug addiction and near death experiences. The guy wanted to be the biggest rock star in the world. lived in Los Angeles and would party with Guns 'n Roses and Janes Addiction. There was also an ill fated tour with Primal Scream where Gahan was involved in numerous drug binges with Bobby Gillespie's band. At this point, sick of Gahan's shenanigans, original member Alan Wilder left the band and never returned.

Their latter years have seen the band release some terrible albums including 1997's Ultra. Although, I did slightly enjoy their last couple of albums, Playing the Angel and Sounds of the Universe, as the band started to get back to their roots in synth pop.

My favourite period for Depeche Mode music was their dark wave era albums, Some Great Reward and Black Celebration. In my opinion the singles that they released in this period were by far their best songs. These include classics like Blasphemous Rumours, Master & Servant, People are People, Somebody, A Question of Lust, Stripped and my favourite track Fly On The Windscreen.

Fly On The Windscreen was originally released as a B-Side on the single It's Called a Heart. The dark and disturbing imagery of the song was the total opposite to the crappy A-side track. The Martin Gore penned song dealt with the issue of death and desire and was foreboding to the troubles that lead singer David Gahan would have in the decade to come. The song was also included on the Black Celebration album.

Depeche Mode recently re-issued Black Celebration and you can pick the vinyl up on Amazon or check your local record store.