Classic Rock's Tracks of the Week

A great fever has swept through the Classic Rock office this week, laying waste to all those in its path, but it hasn’t prevented us continuing our tireless quest for new music. Here, poking its head out from behind several phials of medicine, are the results of our questing.

The Darkness - Barbarian Yikes! The Darkness have returned from the darkness, emerging into the light with a new drummer, a pet owl, and an absolute beast of a tune, one that documents “the Viking invasion of East Anglia which culminated in the decapitation of Edmund the Martyr”. The video, as you might expect, is demented.

Mammoth Mammoth - Lookin’ Down The Barrel From Barbarians to mammoths, as Mammoth Mammoth pay tribute to one of the greatest (and saddest) documentary scenes in the entire history of rock: Chris Holmes’s pool performance from The Decline Of Western Civilization.

Whitesnake - Stormbringer

From mammoths to snakes, as David Coverdale steps out of his speedos and silk and into his stagewear to herald the arrival of The Purple Album, wherein Whitesnake pay tribute to the band that took the Yorkshire maestro out of the boutique and ferried him on his journey towards the stars.

Ian Paice’s Sunflower Superjam - This Wheel’s On Fire From one Purple performer to another, as we mark the DVD release of Ian Paice’s 2012 Jon Lord tribute show with this, a cover version of the Bob Dylan song made famous by Brian Auger and Trinity back on 1968. Sandi Thom fills in for Julie Driscoll. It’s out on Monday.

Stark - Tunnel Vision Now for some rather good alt blues/rock from Brighton. Stark may take leads from olde bluesers like Robert Johnson, but the end result is a clearly modern, gritty but groovy affair. Altogether now: “We’re all lab rats with wires in our brains!”

Lieutenant — Bell Epoque He grew up inspired by 80s punk and hardcore, then became the Foo Fighters’ bassist, and now Nate Mendel is turning his hand to a prettier brand of rock. Gauzy harmonies and soft rocking guitar characterise this lovely slice from his forthcoming solo debut, due in March. The album is called If I Kill This Thing We’re All Going To Eat For A Week. Must be a big ‘thing’…

FM - Diggin’ Up The Dirt According to FM’s Steve Overland, Diggin’ Up The Dirt is about “sleaze and the gutter press, and how they’re not really interested in real news, just celebrity”, a statement we’d agree with entirely were we not too busy watching that video of Madonna falling over at the Brits. Have you seen it? It’s excellent!

Gun - Labour Of Love When we included Gun’s Taking On The World in our list of the 150 Greatest Debut Albums of All Time, we spoke of the band in the past tense, because it was October 2010 and Gun had disappeared into the great rock graveyard in the sky, never to be seen again. Less than five year’s later, they’re back with their second album since rising, zombie-like, from the grave, apparently no worse for wear. Remarkable stuff indeed.

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