Weekly digest #24
Featuring Placebo, Lush, Dead Kennedys, Beck, Edwyn Collins, and more
📷 Placebo backdrop, Brixton Academy London, 2017
Welcome to Fire Red Sky’s latest weekly digest of punk rock, alt rock and indie music news and writing.
It’s a light read, a quick catch up on the week that lands with you every weekend.
The links are mainly taken from my social media feeds, so if you want more of this sort of thing than you can follow me on Facebook, Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon (I’m also on Instagram).
Headlines
Placebo’s Brian Molko charged with defamation for calling right-wing Italian Prime Minister, whose political career began in neo-fascist and 'post-fascist' parties, “fascist, racist” (Pitchfork)
Dead Kennedys’ Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables is now a gold record (Punk News)
Layne Staley’s lost journals to be published as book titled This Angry Pen (Consequence of Sound)
Two songs on the way from trio The Martha’s Vineyard Ferries (Bob Weston - Shellac, Chris Brokaw - Codeine, Come, and Elisha Weisner - Kahoots (Scene Point Blank)
Melvins to release new Melvins 1983 album (Punk News)
New releases
Connecticut punks Anxious share ‘Never Said’ from upcoming Bambi album (The Punk Site)
Mandy, Indiana’s Scott Fair shares 'Class Valedictorian', his doomy indie debut single as Set Dressing (Stereogum)
Snowing's John Galm re-activates solo project with ‘Summer After Work’ (Brooklyn Vegan)
Triathalon release ‘euphoric shoegaze’ track ‘RIP’ (Stereogum)
Trans Panic issue debut EP Smile For Me (The Punk Site)
Listen/watch
Watch Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy perform ‘Feeling Gravitys Pull’ at their latest R.E.M. covers tour kickoff (Stereogum)
Post Malone joins reunited Nirvana at Saturday Night Live 50th anniversary concert (The Independent)
Watch Los Campesinos! play deep cut 'Tiptoe Through the True Bits' live for the first time (Stereogum)
Beck played Bowery Ballroom, covered Daniel Johnstone - video, setlist (Brooklyn Vegan)
Watch the manic first trailer for Sister Midnight – soundtracked by Interpol’s Paul Banks (NME)
Long reads
Edwyn Collins: "If I come across awkwardly – so what?" (The Independent)
Billy Corgan on his new podcast ‘The Magnificent Others’: “I’d like to celebrate people in the culture who are misunderstood” (NME)
Indie legend Miki Berenyi: ‘There was a falling out in Lush. And, if I’m honest, it still hurts’ (The Guardian)
Richard Foster on the art of punk rock birdwatching (The Quietus)
Elsewhere on Substack
And finally…
Red Hot Chili Peppers reportedly seeking $350m for their recorded music catalogue (Consequence of Sound)
Do you have a Substack article, news tip or other piece of writing you’d like to be considered for the digest? Send it to tangleofwires@gmail.com (same goes for press releases etc.)
A punk rock chart from London
Punk and Camden are inextricably linked and there’s nothing that gentrification or a Disney docuseries on the capital’s North London music hub can do to change that.