Very excited to hear that Somehow Jo are releasing their debut album. It seems impossible that three years has passed since their amazing single, ‘Go With The Jo’. 

Descriobed as “an alternative-progressive band wrapped in a metal jacket” from Tampere, Finland, the band is four friends who come with different backgrounds and musical influences each bringing their own flavour to the stew. Active from 2013 with the current lineup, the band charms with super-energetic shows, tight playing and a touch of humour. Somehow Jo keeps crafting their personal sound release after release to keeping it fresh.

The recording process started in the Autumn of 2017 with the drum tracks, while shaping up the last parts of guitars and bass. “After we got all the bass and guitar parts down and executed them the right way, we wanted some synth gravy on top. Saku started to play and offered us ideas that reeked that same creative quality that we were after. So he got promoted as a producer for the album. We spent many weekends and drank all the coffee in Kouvola while shaping up the record to its final form. Every time on the bus back home we were exhausted but all of us just knew that something original and truly beautiful was made again. We finished the recording process just in time for Christmas in 2018.” More news when I have it.

TRACK LIST:

1. Alcoholiday

2. The Fear

3. Mad Town

4. 404

5. Heads and Tails

6. And the Oscar goes to

7. Waiting for midnight

8. Under the setting sun

9. 10 000

Philadelphia-based punk band, The Menzingers, share the music video for the song 'Strangers Forever,' a track off the band’s forthcoming record, Hello Exile, out October 4 via Epitaph. The track is a searing tribute to parting ways, backing their spiky guitars with brilliantly barbed lyrics.

“Lyrically, the song is inspired by Leo Tolstoy's classic novel, Anna Karenina. In it, the character Darya Alexandrovna learns of her husband’s infidelity and declares: ‘Even if we remain in the same house, we are strangers — strangers forever!’” explains vocalist Greg Barnett. “The idea of becoming a stranger to someone you so intimately know stuck with me and became the overarching narrative to this song.”

Since forming as teenagers in 2006, The Menzingers have shown their strength as rough-and-tumble storytellers, turning out songs equally rooted in frenetic energy and lifelike detail. The forthcoming sixth studio album, Hello Exile sees The Menzingers take their lyrical narrative to a whole new level and share their reflections on moments from the past and present: high-school hellraising, troubled relationships, aging and alcohol and political ennui. With the band achieving that soul-baring intimacy all throughout the album, Hello Exile emerges as The Menzingers’ most emotionally daring work to date.

The Menzingers will hit the road early 2020 in Europe and the UK. Tickets are on sale now.

UK & EUROPEAN HEADLINE TOUR:

06/02    Southampton, UK Engine Rooms

07/02    Bristol, UK SWX

08/02    Manchester, UK Albert Hall

10/02    Dublin, Ireland Whelan’s

11/02    Glasgow, UK QMU

12/02    Newcastle, UK The Riverside

14/02    Birmingham, UK The Asylum

15/02    London, UK O2 Forum Kentish town