the nomads

2018 kicked off with the release of Amy Rigby’s “The Old Guys” (Southern Domestic). That was probably my outright, most spun album of the year and always played from start to finish in its proper sequence. Produced by Wreckless Eric, this really should be on every year end list. I hope that one day, the world will catch on because it could sure use her music as a balm right about now.

The Dahlmanns “American Heartbeat” mini album (Beluga/Ghost Highway) features  six songs whereupon Moss Rock City’s finest team up with Björne Fröberg (Nomads) and Chips Kiesbye (Sator) to deliver another chapter in timeless pop. It has a semi-baroque, almost folk quality. Line’s voice really has that Linda Thompson quality come to the fore. When I say folk of course I mean the LOUD variety, not that finger in one ear malarkey. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

My patience with one and two-person acts is often stretched but The Courettes are the exception to that rule. This fuzztastic duo make records that actually live up to the dynamite show. It’s nice to see them receiving the praise they deserve and how things are actually growing for them. “We are The Courettes” is their latest and unreservedly recommended album.

Lucy and The Rats, who are in Australia as I tap away, were the best thing I saw at the Wurlitzer Anniversary weekend in Madrid this past September.

That's a helluva title. It's also a limited edition split single featuring Sweden's Nomads and Norwegian power pop wonders The Dahlmanns, put together for the 60th birthday party in Spain of Next Big Thing zine creator and all-round top bloke, Scotsman Lindsay Hutton.

Just 500 were pressed up for the shindig in Madrid and only a handful remain available...

If you don't know, The Dahlmanns are the World's Best Power Pop Band. No arguments, thank you very much. "Fireball" is the theme song of a Gerry and Sylvia Anderson pre-Thunderbirds TV show ("Fireball XL5") and it was the first 45 that a pre-pubescent Lindsay ever bought in the early 1960s.