Thing of the Day 

A bunch of retro flavoured things beginning with a forty-two minute one track album from The Atomic Bitchwax...

March 24th 2011

Retro kind of things of the day today...  the actual Thing Of The Day today is the heavy retro rock monster that is The Atomic Bitchwax, we also have a bit of Jefferson Airplane flavoured Narcotic Daffodil fot you, and the great nostalgic sound of Mott, Roxy and Bowie… We’re just calling it as we see it here.

THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX – The Local Fuzz  (Tee Pee) – New Jersey hard rock outfit The Atomic Bitchwax are back, with more of the trio’s stoner fuzz flavours. Actually not so much of a stoner sound, more a drench of retro heavy rock riffs, vibes, tunes… well, one tune, one forty-two minute piece of extremely retro, slightly jazzy, prog flavoured, guitar led, proper heavy rock. Not quite jamming - sounds too focused, to precise, too lean, to thought out and considered, a vivid piece of instrumental heavy rock that’s always on the move, always flowing at considerable pace, always in a hurry to get somewhere, no stoners here this time. 
    A high-octane groove, “rush-like riff mazes”, weaving naturally through a seemingly effortless structure of forward-surging non-more-retro heavy rock. There is light and shade, they do undertake a healthy amount of change of pace, slower moments of Floyd-ness and guitar lines made for hand-gliding documentaries, bits of Mountain, bits of Lynyryd Skynyrd flavouring, those Monster Magnet things, the occasional hints of a fuzzy space rock synthwind blowing though that adds a much needed change of texture from the guitar riffs. Forty-two minute piece of lean instrumental retro 70’s heavy rock and fifty back to back riffs flowing through in a non-stop rush or non more retro non-stop head-rushing retro-riffling lip-smacking thirst-quenching, fuzz-packing... ..
The Local Fuzz is out in the UK via Cargo Distribution on April 4th
Atomic Bitchwax play the Camden Underworld, London, on April 27th
www.theatomicbitchwax.com
www.teepeerecords.com
www.cargorecords.co.uk

About THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX:
New Jersey's Chris Kosnik, Finn Ryan and Bob Pantella first started plotting their musical careers back in the mid '90s influenced by '70s rock and progressive groups ranging from Black Sabbath to Parliament Funkadelic. Simultaneously all three members were already playing for major labels in separate bands: Godspeed (Atlantic), Monster Magnet (A&M) and Core (Atlantic). TAB has continually evolved over the past two decades, becoming widely recognized amongst rock musicians as "a player's band". The unit's self-described mantra is "play what you want" and its music is a combination of '60s psychedelic rock and '70s riff-rock filtered though the widening eye of progressive rock influences. Since the release of the band's self-titled debut in 1999, THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX has toured every year in both North America and Europe, performing in over 15 countries to widespread fan and critical acclaim. In that time the band has released the full length albums TAB-2 (2000), TAB-3 (2005) and TAB-4 (2009)as well the EP's Spit Blood (2002) and Boxriff (2006) which included a live DVD filmed in Seattle, WA. The music of THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX has also crossed over to pop culture, appearing in the popular TV shows "Jackass", "Homewrecker" and "Fox Sports".  

And while things are getting all retro (yet again), check out some Daffodil growth and some Roxy flavourings…

THE NARCOTIC DAFFODILS – The Narcotic Daffodils (self release) – Female fronted “neo-psychedelic” (their own description) band from Belgium. Very blues based and very Jefferson Airplane flavoured, Hammond organ driven psychedelic blues and all very authentically sunny.  Mellow sunny full-bodied authentic San Francisco late 60’s Surrealistic Pillow of a sound, touch of Focus flavoured early 70’s prog in there along with their Indian sitars, flutes, chimes, double bass, bouzouki, aforementioned Hammond organ all alongside a ‘standard’ rhythm section of electric guitar, smooth Fender bass and jazzy drums. All makes for an authentic brew of blues-driven, organ fuelled psychedelic retro rock. www.thenarcoticdaffodils.be
The album is out now, the band have a one-off UK date this week, Friday March 25th at the Blues Kitchen in Camden

THE GREAT NOSTALGIC – Hope We Live Like We Promised (self release) – The great nostalgic indeed, if you idea of the nostalgic is listening to Benny And The Jets, the strange details in classic early Roxy Music, bits of Beatles flavoured Cars, Mott The Hoople,  early/mid 70’s Bowie, those strange phrasings of Robert Calvert’s Hype and the adventures of Tom Mahler and his band, a health touch of Sparks excentricity, little magid words, come on, let’s go, stretch out those legs of yours, travelling little tiny worlds. Well actually mostly Bowie and Roxy, and taking off my tie while you put on your robe. Robert Palmer and Seventies concept flavoured pop rock ‘n roll. He sounds rather Bryan Ferry in a youthful kind of way, they’ve got these great details, subtle twists, straightforward sounding songs are never that straight forward, there’s some very clever playing, some accomplished writing, a couple of pages of the story he wrote to himself (dare we mention the touches of Cardiacs in those almost orchestrated bits?) They’re from Austin, Texas, they are the great nostalgic, classic pop rock (and faces painted green to hide in the trees) from those early mid 70’s days of Bowie, Roxy, Sparks and Mott. 

http://thegreatnostalgic.com  
http://www.youtube.com/user/thegreatnostalgic

Now, as fine as all this is, and as much as will like a bit of heavy rock and a touch on Mott The Hoople or Grace Slick, can we have something that isn’t so retro flowing this way now please?…Yet DEATH GRIPS tomorrow…