High Watt Electrocutions is the project of one Ryan Settee, a thirty-something volume dealer from Canada. Armed with racks of vintage gear and a fierce vision of deep space and all the horrors it contains, Ryan has been developing this sometimes mournful, often bracing sound that incorporates Desert Punk, Stoner Meral, Doom Rock, and Space Scuzz, wrapping it all up in a woozy, fever-dreamy atmosphere, not unlike Spacemen 3, if Spacemen 3 often found themselves trapped in Lovecraftian nightmares.

Settee may or may not create all this madness on his own. Mostly he does, but I figure demons are also involved somehow. High Watt’s debut album, Night Songs, hit the bins in 2007, although the roots of the band stretch all the way back to the mid 1990’s. After making a sizable splash in the stoner rock/doom-drone underground, High Watt Electrocutions is back with another dose of the holy ghost, the mammoth, inky-black, no-hope-in-sight Desert Opuses. Yes, it’s a concept record, and the concept is this: Total F*&king Blowout.

I have two versions of Desert Opuses. One’s a CD, the other a still smoking chunk of heavy gold wax that rumbles menacingly, like an earthquake aftershock, even at sensible volumes. These songs, these lurching, skittering, ocean-wide behemoths-of-heavy, appear to wander in whatever direction pleases them, regardless of Mr. Electrocution’s intent or the comfort of your/my ears. Listen closely, late at night, and you may hear Desert Opuses wheeze and shudder all on it’s own. It will kill your summer dead, and may even cause an early frost.

Or perhaps I’ve just gone crazy. Maybe you’d like to sample these unearthly delights for yourself to see, what it’s all about. Here, courtesy the band, is the eleventeen-minute long instrumental psyche-doom brain-boiler Headphone Opus.

Just do as it asks, and everything should workout fine.

If you find yourself wanting/needing more, then voyage to http://www.highwattelectrocutions.com/, where you can buy either/both versions of the album and dig a little deeper into this curious case.

- Sleaze

Gang Of Four celebrate the 30th anniversary of their seminal debut ‘entertainment!’ by giving away a free rerecorded version of their classic track “Glass” from said album. The band are expected to play a small London show this coming Monday (August 24th) and will play UK dates in September. Check out Glass here and get the dates below:

SEPTEMBER
18 – HMV Picture House, Edinburgh
19 – ABC1, Glasgow
25 – The Assembly, Leamington Spa
26 – HMV Forum, London

Radiohead will round-up August by headlining this year’s Reading/Leeds festivals. The band are heavily expected to be debuting new material at the festival and were also rumoured to be making a new EP available for download this week. this is yet to materialise but you can download ‘These Are My Twisted Words’ right now!

The last time I saw the Sex Slaves play was about five or so years ago. It was at a shabby sex/goth/S&M club, which I realize are fairly common in sophisticated places like Merry Olde, but are pretty rare in a place as panicky as the USA. The whole night was sponsored by a lesbian sex shop, if I remember right. Deep Throat was playing on a loop on all the TV monitors. There were sex toy raffles. One of the bands had a topless middle-aged chick that may or may not have been an ex-porn star up front. They’re broken up now. One of the other bands was comprised of pill-popping sociopaths disguised as glam rockers. They were signed to my go-nowhere record label for awhile, but that naturally fell apart. They’re broken up now, too. The Sex Slaves put on the kind of show that – I am loathe to admit, being from Boston –only New York bands can really pull off. They oozed a sort of visceral sleaziness, like you were watching authentic deviants, not just dress-up deviants, and they delivered their rubber-legged Guns/Crue cock rock with stunning professionalism. You gotta be good to make it in NYC, and these crazy-haired scuzzballs were tremendous. They even got a couple straight girls in the front row to make-out. That kinda shit never happens in Boston. Everybody’s pretty stiff in this town, and not in the good way. We had some dealings along the way, the Sex Slaves and I.  They were either on my Cock N’ Roll compilation from forever ago or the first Sons of Guns CD for Classic, I forget which. But I don’t remember seeing much of ‘em after that night. The club closed down soon after. The Sex Slaves are pretty much the only entity that survived that gig.

I didn’t really know what was up with them, but I’ve got a friend in LA who somehow ended up managing them. They’ve got this new record, Wasted Angels, which we will soon be sampling. It’s their first record in four years, since 2005’s Bite Your Tongue. So, where have they been all this time? Jail? Coma? Tijuana? Well, turns out they’ve been on the road. On the road for four years. Can you imagine how crazy that would make somebody?

Somewhere along the way, they managed to write and record thirteen blazing new tracks, tracks that pay homage to all the sleaze-gods of yore, from Iggy to Axl and every leather-trousered fall-down drunk in-between. It’s sledgehammer heavy and as slithery as a politician, but it’s also got epic, arena-rattling songs that’ll sit happily in your guts for hours, like slow-burning bourbon. They shot an amazing video for “Long Live the Dead” (it’s included on the CD), and they’ve got big plans for this year, including trips to your corner of the Earth – wherever that might be.  It’s your basic full-scale rock n’ roll assault. I feel good about that, because these fuckers are the real deal.

Here, courtesy the band, is “Ssssay What?” from Wasted Angel. It will rock you with an alarming ferocity.

For much more, please visit their website.

It’s got links to where you can buy their record, see their videos, and find out the next dive bar they’ll be destroying.

- Sleaze

It appears as though Them Crooked Vultures may be making their UK debut a little earlier than expected. Yesterday, Metal Hammer broke the news that the band may arrive at this year’s Reading festival but it appears as though the band may be playing a London show next week.

According to this posting on the SongKick website, Them Crooked Vultures are to play the Islington Academy next Monday, August 24th.

Classic Rock will bring you more on this news as we get it.

The leather-bound bottle is described as being ‘a tribute to the vibrant and irreverent music genre that rocked the world’ and will be launched in the UK exclusively at Selfridges from September 1st and in the rest of the country from the beginning of October and will cost £19.99.

Doctors have ordered that Tyler should allow enough time to let his wounds heal after he broke his shoulder and received 20 stitches into the back of his head.

“Words can’t express the sadness I feel for having to cancel this tour,” guitarist Joe Perry said. “We hope we can get the Aerosmith machine up and running again as soon as possible.”

Steven Tyler has also released the following statement about the accident! “A major thunderstorm had delayed the show for an hour, but after it passed through, the full moon and tens of thousands of my biker buddies were ready to rock! It was one of the best shows we’ve played in a long time! The band was slammin’ and I was lovin’ every minute of it!

“And just as I’m thinking, ‘It doesn’t get any better than this’… FUSES BLOW! We have an COMPLETE AUDIO SOUND SYSTEM FAILURE! (You can even see one of the amps frying on YouTube.)

“We were in the middle of ‘Love In An Elevator’, and the band slowly realized something was up. Well, I wasn’t gonna go hide under the big top and play ROCK STAR and wait for everything to be fixed.

“I wanted to go out to the crowd to continue the show… so, the Train Kept A- Rollin’ and I ran out on the cat walk and grabbed my mic to finish the song. I was doing the Tyler shuffle and then I zigged when I should have zagged…AND I slipped, and as I live on the edge…I fell off the edge!

“I landed upside down, and after twenty stitches on the back of my head, and a broken left shoulder, I just want to say that I’m plain grateful that I didn’t break my neck! In truth, after thousands of live shows, falling off the edge four times ain’t too bad.

“I want to thank all of the fans for your love and support. I also want to thank the Aerosmith crew and the Buffalo Chip staff for taking care of me in a time of need… and the Sturgis Police Department and the Medvac helicopter crew for getting me outta there before I bled to death… and all the doctors and nurses at the Rapid City Hospital for putting my Humpty Dumpty ass back together again.

“And most of all… I want to thank the angel on my shoulder.”

The following tributes have poured in since the death of Les Paul:

Slash
“Les Paul was a shining example of how full one’s life can be, he was so vibrant & full of positive energy. I’m honored & humbled to have known & played with him over the years, he was an exceptionally brilliant man.”

Billy Gibbons
“Les Paul brought six strings to electricity and electricity to six strings. Les Paul was an innovator, a groundbreaker, a risk taker, a mentor and a friend. Try to imagine what we’d be doing if hadn’t come along and changed the world. There will always be more Les to come. That’s certified.”

Ace Frehley
“The music industry has lost a giant! I’m very saddened by the news of Les Paul’s passing. I was lucky enough to have known Les as a friend, and admired him as a musician and innovator. He forever changed the way we listen to music.”

Joan Jett
“I, and everyone at Blackheart Records, mourn the passing of our dear friend, Les Paul. He was a genius inventor, musical innovator, and a wonderful person. Without the advances he pioneered, the recording sciences and the electric guitar would have been left years behind. I will miss him so much.”

Rickey Medlocke of Lynyrd Skynryd
“I’m so thankful that this guy was such an incredible genius for developing such a great guitar. I am a 3rd generation Gibson user and I always will be. God bless Les Paul.”

Blabbermouth report that guitarist/vocalist Jerry Cantrell has said: “We were thinking about adding piano to the track and a friend suggested we call Elton. I remember laughing and saying, ‘Yeah, I’ll get right on that.’ But I decided it was worth trying and wrote Elton an email explaining what that song means to us — that it’s a real, raw openhearted song for Layne. We sent him the track and got a call shortly after saying he thought it was beautiful and that he wanted to play on it. We were blown away. Elton John is a huge influence on me as a songwriter and having him on that song is an amazing honour for us.”

“I’ve long been an admirer of Jerry Cantrell and when he asked me to play on ‘Black Gives Way To Blue’, I was very flattered and couldn’t resist,” says John. “It was a great recording session with Alice In Chains for a beautiful song.”

“Elton was finishing his Red Piano run in Vegas, so we flew there and hung out for a few hours,” continues Cantrell. “Walking into a studio and seeing the sheet music for that song on Elton’s piano made it meaningful on so many different levels. The whole experience was pretty magical.”

Alice In Chains will release ‘Black Gives Way To Blue’ through EMI on September 28th.

We brought you the news and setlist of the debut live outing from Them Crooked Vultures yesterday and now you can check out these high-res images of the performance that we found online.

While it was initially thought that the band’s debut album would be called ‘Never Deserved The Future’ and would come out on Friday, October 23rd, this appears to not be the case. More on this as it happens.