Photo Gallery: The Flaming Sideburns live in Turku (November 2018)

Yesterday, a video with some live snippets from the Flaming Sideburns show at "Dynamo Klubi" in Turku / Finland on last week's Saturday (10th November 2018) was published on this blog. Today, there are some snapshots of the very same gig... Enjoy! ♥

 

 

 

 

 

 

Video: The Flaming Sideburns live in Turku (November 2018)

Some live snippets from the Flaming Sideburns show at "Dynamo Klubi" in Turku / Finland on 10th November 2018, featuring "Up In Flames", "Blow The Roof" and "Street Survivor".

Further pictures of the event can be found here: https://sound-kitchen-archives.blogspot.com/2018/11/photo-gallery-flaming-sideburns-live-in.html.

CD review: Trench Dogs - "Fashionably Late"

The following CD review was originally published in March 2016 in the print issue of "Utropia" (Issue no.2-44.Årgang), Northern Norway's biggest student magazine at that time.

They don't reinvent the wheel of glam rock - but they rock! 

TEXT: Stefanie Singh

Artist: Trench Dogs

Album: Fashionably Late

Record Label: Trench Dogs

Rating: 5/6 

Two Utropians in Sweden's capital, Stockholm, for New Year's Eve, ended up at the gig of a Stockholm-based glam rock band. This is how we became aware of the "Trench Dogs" in the first place.

The band consists of Swedes Mattias Johansson (Guitar) and Martin Andersson (Drums), and Australians Andy Hekkandi (Vocals) and Li Sick (Bass), In actual fact, Li Sick is originally from Greece, and Andy moved first to Norway (namely to Stathelle), before heading to Sweden. Probably around the same time, Mattias Johansson was still acting front man for "In Vaïn". Soon after, the Trench Dogs were founded and their first songs produced by no-less than Crashdïet guitarist, Martin Sweet.

Now the first EP, "Fashionably Late", is out alongside a music video for the opener "Self-Sabotage" - and, Jesus, it rocks! Both the song AND the music video. One might argue that the quartet does not reinvent the wheel of glam rock - which they really don't, and yet they acquit themselves quite well. For this reason, we can ignore the fact that the beginning of "Thunder In The Badlands" is slightly reminiscent of Hardcore Superstar's "Wild Boys". It rocks anyway. "Ode To Ashes" is the obligatory "let's wave the lighters" ballad, yet it's well done. And then there is the final "Silver Tongue", which probably works quite well as an encore at the live shows, thanks to its wacky touch.

Trench Dogs' "Fashionably Late" is a self-produced mini album and can be ordered directly from the band via email (trenchmerch.se@gmail.com). And with a price of 70 SEK plus postage, it doesn't cost the earth either. 

CD review: Barbe-Q-Barbies - "Driven"

The following CD review was originally published in November 2015 in the print issue of "Utropia" (Issue no.7-41.Årgang), Northern Norway's biggest student magazine at that time.  

Heavier than ever and ready for the final breakthrough

TEXT: Stefanie Singh

Artist: Barbe-Q-Barbies

Album: Driven

Record Label: Sound Of Finland

Rating: 5/6 

Hard to believe, but true: The Barbe-Q-Barbies are in the Rock'n'Roll business for almost 15 years now. Hailing from Finland's capital Helsinki, the five "femme fatales" Niki Rock (Vocals), Kaisa (Guitar), Ekkis (Guitar), Niina (Drums) and Minttu (Bass) released their long awaited debut album "All Over You" in October 2010. Two and a half years later, the more radio-friendly "Breaking All The Rules" followed. Now, another two and a half years later, the third opus "Driven" hits the record stores, and it was unpredictable whether Finland's hottest girl rock band would continue to walk the path of more radio airplay and thus towards the alleged masses, or go "back to the rockier roots". Well, the good news is that they have opted for the latter. And the even better news is that "Driven" is even heavier than the very felicitous debut "All Over You".

Already the opener "Babylon" is quite a rock smasher and was wisely chosen as the first single release, followed by "Under My Skin". The third and brand new single release is "Stone Cold". While listening to this song, you can here and there imagine quite well how Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose would interpret it. That's quite an achievement because the AC/DC sound in songs like "Queen Deadly" accompanies the Barbe-Q-Barbies already since their debut.

With "Driven", Niki Rock & Co. have clearly opted for the rockier path en route to the final breakthrough, and that's a good thing. The majority of the audience at live concerts consists anyway of male metalheads and not of little girls. Norway's capital Oslo already had the pleasure. In Tromsø, you can at least order "Driven" easily via "Backbeat - Kaffe & Vinyl". 

 

CD review: Jesse Malin - "The Fine Art Of Self Destruction (Reissue)"

The following CD review was originally published in March 2016 in the print issue of "Utropia" (Issue no.2-44.Årgang), Northern Norway's biggest student magazine at that time. 

Compositions of timeless beauty, reissued for the younger generation

TEXT: Stefanie Singh

Artist: Jesse Malin

Album: The Fine Art Of Self Destruction (Reissue)

Record Label: One Little Indian Records

Rating: 5/6

Early in March 2016, two Utropians ended up at a gig of Jesse Malin in Sweden's capital Stockholm (In Norway, he stopped by in the capital Oslo, also at the beginning of March 2016). The live qualities were considered as very good - and the same applies to the reissue of his debut album "The Fine Art Of Self Destruction" from the year 2002.

One is tempted to label the American as a singer / songwriter, but this is just one of the many facets of the musician who amongst others made a splash as the frontman of the glam punk band D Generation in the 1990s. As a solo artist, he not only delivers a very felicitous cover version of Bruce Springsteen's "Hungry Heart" on the bonus disc of the reissued "The Fine Art..."; it's the very same Bruce Springsteen who took the opportunity to collaborate with Jesse Malin in 2007. The result was the duet "Broken Radio".

But let's stay on track with the reissue of "The Fine Art...": "Solitaire" and "Brooklyn" are originally from Jesse Malin's era with the band Bellvue, and on the bonus disc, even "Sorrow" can be found which turns out to be one of the highlights of this re-release. And the demo version of "TKO" sounds almost better than the version on the regular album while the regular disc consists of catchy songs such as "Riding On The Subway".

The purchase of the reissue pays off also for those who already have the original version from 2002, not least due to the additional 11 tracks on the bonus disc which were obviously compiled with love. And after 14 years, one can certainly gain new fans with old material. 

Introduction

"Sound Kitchen Archives" is, as the name suggests, first and foremost an archive of my older works, particularly works that cannot be found on the world wide web (anymore). 

Since I started to work as a music journalist and photographer in April 2010, I have been active for different online music magazines and print magazines all over Europe. In the course of time, the production of many of those magazines has been discontinued, and with it, the availability of the work I contributed to those magazines vanished into thin air as well. With "Sound Kitchen Archives", I aim to counteract this development. While some may view the old works as "outdated", others may be grateful for their preservation. 

In order to make sure that "Sound Kitchen Archives" won't become too dusty, some brand new stuff will be published here as well, e.g. news and photo galleries, so it pays off to stick around. 

Rock'n'Roll! 

Stefanie Nysand (née Singh), in November 2018