May 9 is going to be a grand, great and glorious day. Why? Because it’s the day the new mclusky album arrives. If you don’t know who mclusky are, I pity you as I would the village idiot. But take heart; you can begin to right that shameful wrong by watching their new video for People Person. It will tell you almost everything you need to know about them. And me, for that matter. Enough talking; back to work. Coffee is for closers:
mclusky | People Person
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “mclusky are a band with a new song called People Person. The single follows their recent announcement of mclusky‘s first album in 20 years; The World Is Still Here And So Are We (May 9). Andrew Falkous says; “People Person is the song that gave me tinnitus, so asking me about it is really cruel. It’s probably about being overwhelmed by the world because that’s what all of our songs are about. As the song itself says; ‘A lot of people like to be wise after the event.’ ” It’s important to state that The World Is Still Here And So Are We is the fourth mclusky album (no qualification being needed). They had an asterisk next to the name for a bit — out of respect for past band members and the precious memorial glue of teenage musical crushes — but fuck that, in for a penny, in for a pound. Lyrically it touches on subjects as rich and as varied as work-it-out-yourself and impenetrable-inside-joke-for-the-band, but one thing is clear, all of the songs have different words. All hilarious joking aside, the best songs are about things without being precisely about them. mclusky endorse this sentiment. they positively insist on it.”
Sex Beat | This Machine Kills No One
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Berlin’s Sex Beat return with This Machine Kills No One, the latest single from their upcoming album Crack (out this June via This Charming Man Records). A raw, stripped-down punk assault, the track embodies the band’s radical reductionist approach — recorded DIY-style in their rehearsal space with zero frills, just pure energy. Channelling the ferocity of ’90s Dischord bands and the grit of acts like Hot Snakes and Suicide, Sex Beat delivers a sharp, unfiltered take on a fractured world. With lyrics biting into political and personal decay, Crack is punk at its most urgent and uncompromising.”
Night Beats | Behind The Green Door
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Under the moniker of Night Beats, Texas native Danny Lee Blackwell has spent the last 15 years exploring a nexus of vintage R&B, after-midnight soul, and sun-scorched psychedelia. Night Beats’ latest offering is Behind the Green Door. We’re treated to a down-tempo, minor key track drenched in the haze of vice, as if some aspiring Motor City outfit had traveled down to Austin and snuck into the studio to cut a song while The 13th Floor Elevators were on a smoke break. Or perhaps it’s more akin to a meeting between Ray Charles, Skip Pence and Link Wray. Or maybe it’s Joe Tex grappling with Gram Parsons. Or Duane Eddy pairing up with Cedric Bixler-Zavala. Or maybe it’s just years of Blackwell distilling and translating the sounds around him into his own concoction. Ultimately, Behind the Green Door is an invitation to enter the kingdom and dwell in the garden while the shadow of doubt looms nearby, a subconscious journey into the delights and pitfalls of unknown territories made manifest in the music of Night Beats. Blackwell says: “This song started as a lone star instrumental, something I pieced together in my studio in 2024. I imagined dusty roads and dimly lit dance halls. I wanted the guitars to shimmer like heat waves on an open road. The rhythm to pull like footsteps across a wooden floor, soaked in smoke and neon. The lyrics followed, drawn from past and present —unwavering love, transcendence. The ‘green door’ is that threshold between devotion and disillusionment. The story lives not just in the words, but in the tones and textures, if uncovered.”
