Weekly digest #45

Featuring The Replacements, Momma, Gene, Idlewild, Show Me The Body and more

📷 The Replacements

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 Sunday morning.

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).

Extras

Before we get to the usual headlines, new releases, things to watch/listen to and longer reads, here’s a few extras for you. This week it’s a handful of videos posted to YouTube in the last seven days that I didn’t see picked up anywhere else (though, with over 2,000 videos uploaded to the platform every second, it’s no surprise mainstream publications tend to be drawn to those featuring an unusual cover version, guest appearance, first play of a song etc).

First up, a live rendition of Horsegirl’s ‘Julie’ from the C86/lo-fi indie popsters’ second album Phonetics On and On. A song about infatuation and uncertainty, it had a long evolution with some of its many working versions captured in the forthcoming Julie in Twos release (pre-order that from Bandcamp).

From a new band to some older ones as the ever-reliable Scottish Tee Vee account on YouTube unearthed a copy of a TV show first broadcast in Northern Ireland in March 2007. So Hard to Beat features interviews with members of The Undertones, Rudi, Stiff Little Fingers, The Outcasts and The Starjets.

Finally, a blast of modern DIY punk from the UK, but probably not punk as you expect it. The Manchester Punk Festival shared a three-song blast from the ever-eclectric Wonk Unit. MPF also does a great series of name-your-price compilations of bands they’ve booked, including this one featuring X Ray Vez, the keyboardist from Wonk’s current incarnation.

Headlines

The Replacements’ biography Trouble Boys to be turned into biopic by Finn Wolfhard (Consequence of Sound)

Smashing Pumpkins plump Mellon Collie for 30th birthday (Spin)

Ramones, Bad Brains, Billy Idol, Ween, Alice Cooper, David Jo, English Beat on RSD Black Friday List (Punk News)

Foo Fighters release Are Playing Where ??? Vol. 1 live album exclusively on Bandcamp (Consequence of Sound)

Momma expand Sky with outtakes, Heatmiser cover (Spin)

New releases

London shoegazers Whitelands announce new album Sunlight Echoes: hear ‘Glance’ (Stereogum)

Australian hardcore band Speed unleash new single ‘Ain’t My Game’ (The Punk Site)

Show Me the Body fire off cover of Beastie Boys’ ‘Sabotage’ (Consequence of Sound)

Garage punks Split System release ‘No Cops in Heaven’ and ‘Pull the Trigger’ (Stereogum)

Meet Me @ The Altar announce new EP, release video for ‘Straight Up (Needy)’ (Punk News)

Listen/watch

Pennywise take on Motorhead’s ‘Ace Of Spades’ (The Punk Site)

Super Furry Animals share previously unreleased 2005 song ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Flu’ (Stereogum)

The Last Dinner Party share powerful new single ‘Second Best’ (NME)

Watch Britpop vets Gene play their first show in 21 years - setlist, video (Brooklyn Vegan)

Eddie Vedder covers Led Zeppelin, Devo, The Who, and Neil Young at 2025 Ohana Fest (Consequence of Sound)

Long reads

John Reis is headed to the San Diego Music Hall of Fame (Times of San Diego)

Photographic outtakes: Soundgarden (Spin)

Idlewild’s Roddy Woomble on living in Iona (The Quietus)

Broken Social Scene‘s Broken Social Scene turns 20 (Stereogum)

Roger O’Donnell talks beating cancer, new solo album ‘Projections’, and what’s next for The Cure (NME)

Elsewhere on Substack

The 2005 Dance-Punk Album That Sounds Like Controlled Lightning

And finally…

Mariah Carey is unveiling her secret ‘90s grunge album with lead vocals restored (Stereogum)

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.)