BLACK KEYS - Live on FabChannel

BRIMSTONE HOWL - Magnet

BLACK DIAMOND HEAVIES UK tour dates in March

Mar 1 @ What's Cookin? - Leytonstone - London
Mar 2 @ The Junction - York
Mar 3 @ Doc Brown's - Middlesbrough
Mar 4 @ Pack Horse - Leeds
Mar 5 @ Shakespere Public House - Sheffield
Mar 6 @ The Musician - Leicester
Mar 7 @ Dirty Water Club - London
Mar 8 @ Mr Wolf's - Bristol
Mar 9 @ Riff's Bar - Swindon

SSM - Metro Times

Is this album a self-inflicted test to see if de-evolution can be willed into being? An admission of futility in the face of a dearth of other options? An inspired experiment?

Well, as evidenced on SSM's second proper full-length — let's go with "all the above." The record starts simply enough, with a quasi-conventional rough house analog throwback stomper called "Déjà Vu." It's a Farfisa-and-"punk-as-shit"-monotone-vocals-led number that reels and spirals as it rocks along. After that, Break Your Arm... throws you in the deep water of wildly inventive, wildly unpredictable jams that alternately leave you stunned, dancing, bent, sweating or hitting "repeat" to try to figure out just what exactly they were doing on that last track. This is a rock record that could absolutely only be made by people from Detroit, circa now. SSM throw away the rawk rules here (although "Emotional Tourist" is a full-sprint, bleeding overdrive banger), remaining true to their subversive spirit.

After the woozy march of "Johnny's Holding for the First Time" (ha!), you get nailed with the first of the album's trio of centerpiece jams. "Start Dancing" kicks it off, hitting you with Morris intoning and then repeating the cryptic, downbeat refrain "Daddy won't leave/If you don't stop dancing"

Not content to merely pollute your buzz with introspection, the album's centerpiece trilogy then really takes off with "Marian." The latter's a post-post-industrial Madchester workout that starts with a sound reminiscent of hyperactive whales mating, before locking into the kind of groove the Stone Roses would have killed for — that is, the kind of swing that blurs the line between dance music, practice space rock 'n' roll freakout, mechanics and magic. It's good. It's that good. They then return to planet earth for the spacious robo-boogie of "Let's Make a Baby," neatly rounding out the libidinal conflict with lyrics that read alternately '60s garage naïve and then emotionally (and astrologically) warped.

SSM pump up the volume not simply to be loud, but to amplify a freaked-out perspective, chronicling the modern sound of a fucked-up place with as much honest idiosyncrasy as Joy Division did in 1980 Manchester, Os Mutantes did in Brazil '68 or, well, Black Merda did in 1970s Detroit. If anything, Break Your Arm For Evolution is the sound of enlightened craftsmen working their machines over, extracting sweat and bile, paranoia, swing and joy from the guts of organs, drums, guitars, digital toys and seemingly any other knob within reaching distance. As recorded by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, Break Your Arm is more immediate and forceful than SSM's debut album. That immediacy is in the songs, and this set is as fine and full of powerful strangeness and truth as any you're apt to hear. Now, go and get it at your local record shop. - Chris Handyside / Metro Times

RON FRANKLIN : live dates in Paris

RON FRANKLIN Live in Paris, France - Feb 26, 27, 28, 29 and March 1 @ L'européen. As a singer-songwriter-guitarist from his adopted hometown of Memphis TN, Ron Franklin's music brings you back to the time when the urban and the rural, the folk and the blues were not far apart. With an impeccable underground pedigree which includes bands such as The Natural Kicks and The Entertainers, as well as a brief stint with Love and the late Arthur Lee, Ron's music is part of the legacy of the wellspring of Southern sound.

RADIO MOSCOW : European dates (updated)

Feb 9 @ Appels D'airs, St Brieuc - Alligators Night (France)
Feb 10 @ La Maroquinerie, Paris - Alligators Night (France)
Feb 12 @ Last Train, Oslo (Norway)
Feb 14 @ Trix, Antwerpen (Belgium)
Feb 15 @ Purple Bar, Chalon s/Saone (France)
Feb 16 @ Cooperative De Mai, Clermont Ferrand (France)
Feb 17 @ La Nef, Angouleme (France)
Feb 18 @ Son'art, Bordeaux (France)
Feb 20 @ L'Abordage, Evreux (France)
Feb 22 @ Menza Dri Koritu, Lubjana (Slovenia)
Feb 23 @ Dom Kulture, Pirot (Serbia)
Feb 24 @ Feedback, Nis (Serbia)
Feb 25 @ SKC, Belgrade (Serbia)
Feb 26 @ KSET, Zagreb (Croatia)
Feb 27 @ Secret Place, Montpellier (France)
Feb 28 @ Tulle - Festival (France)
Feb 29 @ Le Reservoir, Perigueux (France)
March 1 @ Double Six, Lyon (France)
March 2 @ El Che, Lachaux De Fonds (Swiss)
March 4 @ My Way, Freiburg (Germany)
March 5 @ Biel Etage, St. Gervais (Swiss)
March 6 @ Zelig Cafe, Lausanne (Swiss)
March 7 @ Confort Moderne, Poitiers (France)
March 8 @ Ouvre Boite - Festival, Beauvais (France)

TURPENTINE BROTHERS European dates

Feb 6 @ L'Excalibur, Reims (France)
Feb 7 @ Sonic Ballroom, Koln (Germany)
Feb 8 @ Theaterkeller, Gottingen (Germany)
Feb 9 @ Kiste, Stuttgart (Germany)
Feb 10 @ Corso Barm, Konstanz (Germany)
Feb 11 @ My Way, Freiburg (Germany)
Feb 12 @ Salon Hansen, Neu-Ulm (Germany)
Feb 13 @ Forum Stadtpark Keller, Graz (Austria)
Feb 14 - TBA (Yugoslavia)
Feb 15 - TBA (Yugoslavia)
Feb 16 - TBA (Yugoslavia)
Feb 17 - TBA (Yugoslavia)
Feb 18 - TBA (Yugoslavia)
Feb 20 @ Soultrain, Trento (Italy)
Feb 21 @ Magazinno Parallelo Cesena (Italy)
Feb 22 @ Pieffe Factory, Lucinico -- Gorizia (Italy)
Feb 23 @ Acrikroen, Villafranca Di Verona (Italy)
Feb 24 @ Ungawa! Tiki Bar, Bergantino -- Rovigo (Italy)
Feb 26 @ Carlo Levi, Liege (Belgium)
Feb 27 @ Alte Haeckerei, Karlsruhe (Germany)
Feb 28 @ Altstadt, Eindhoven (Netherlands)
Feb 29 @ Huehnermanhattan, Halle (Germany)
March 1 @ White Trash Fast Food, Berlin (Germany)
March 3 - TBC - Bremen (Germany)
March 4 @ German Jazzchamber, Aarhus (Denmark)
March 5 @ Elvaerket, Helsingor (Denmark)
March 6 @ Garage, Oslo (Norway)
March 7 @ Debaser, Stockholm (Sweden)
March 8 - TBC - Goteborg (Sweden)
March 12 @ The Pit's, Kortrijk (Belgium)
March 13 @ Patronaat Café, Haarlem (Netherlands)
March 14 @ Druckluft, Oberhausen (Germany)
March 15 @ Soapbox, Laxou (France)
March 17 @ La Mecanique Ondulatoire, Paris (France)

SSM - Detour

SSM’s 2006 debut totally forced the issue, ramming a prog proboscis into any available garage rock orifice. Gross, right? But the record totally worked, particularly when the Detroit trio’s flair for the lyrical fantastic really jibed with Marty Morris’s rock-n-roll moan (he’s from the Cyril Lords, remember), John Szymanski’s rack of vintage keys (Szymanski from the Hentchman, that is), and drummer-about-town Dave Shettler, who propelled the whole bit from an electro-disco land of willing women and readily available drugs. Shit was addicting, especially live.

Now, remember what was written about the band’s set at the Detour Launch Party. “If psyche-garage-stoner-disco isn’t an official genre, it will be by the time SSM release their new record in 2008.” No lie there. The mechanized and caterwauling center riff of “Deja Vu” is what plays in the heads of those who do the robot, or maybe the tin heads of all robots, while “Regenerate Your Face” builds from blowsy-stoned riffs that ooze off the fruit of the moon. “Start Dancing” threads a motorik beat into a chiming chorus built from 60s garage rock, then dissipates like oxygen released in a vacuum, while “Now We’re Six” and the anxious gas pedal headache of “Emotional Tourist” wind some hooky crackle into the mix to ensure a little of what the first album’s experiments occasionally lacked. Break Your Arm for Evolution still turns star charts into question marks, but it grooves clean like the 2.0 version of anything. SSM aren’t just talking about an evolution. — Johnny Loftus

Tags: SSM, John Szymanski, Dave Shettler, Marty Morris, Break Your Arm for Evolution, Alive Records, Cyril Lords, Hentchmen