We listen to a lot of new music, but often it's with headphones clamped to skull. So this week, we decided to actually talk to each other and find out what's been lighting our individual fires.
Kongos feature two sons of John Kongos, whose 1971 single He’s Gonna Step On You Again was used by Happy Mondays as the foundation for their baggytastic Step On hit. I’m Only Joking sounds like neither, but does sound like the Bad Seeds crossed with Mumford & Sons crossed with the Glitter Band crossed with Atlas by Battles. But in a good way.[](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ip1irYWXck)
Rival Sons: They’re back, they’re looking good, and the drums on Open My Eyes are sounding absolutely fearsome. A blueprint for Modern Classic Rock. [](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umrIUDOo-aM)
Wovenhand’s new album Refractory Obdurate has been the recipient of much excited attention here at Classic Rock HQ. Singer David Eugene Edwards will be familiar to many in his alternative guise as that bloke out of 16 Horsepower.[](https://soundcloud.com/deathwishinc/wovenhand-good-shepherd)
Gentleman Husbands’ Come Down bears more than a passing resemblance to Tom Petty’s I Won’t Back Down, but there’s nothing wrong with that. Also: they’re Canadian, so they have a ready excuse.[](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCPKIhBHcDk)
Benjamin Booker is described by his record company as “a well-mixed musical cocktail of punk, folk, and New Orleans blues”, and we’d struggle to describe Violent Shiver any more accurately ourselves. [](https://soundcloud.com/benjamin-booker/benjamin-booker-violent-shiver)
Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires. We’ve no idea what happened to Lee Bains or Lee Bains II, but number three is making up for things on the Alabama country stomp of The Weeds Downtown. And it’s on Sup Pop.[](https://soundcloud.com/subpop/lee-bains-iii-the-glory-weeds-downtown)
The Menzingers new video for I Don’t Wanna Be An Asshole Anymore is worth watching. It features a slasher movie anti-hero going through a personal crisis. Watch out for the scene with the lettuce and the machete. [](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQBG7wAVWAA)
Mount Carmel could be named after the compound at the centre of the 1993 Waco massacre, or the mountain in Israel, or the block of flats in Holloway, north London. We have no idea. Either way, Back On It is a fine potion of sludgy modern blues.[](https://soundcloud.com/alivenaturalsound/mount-carmel-back-on-it)
