The Wood Burning Savages - Hand To Mouth (album, self-released)
WE KICK off in fine style this week with Derry alt-rockers The Wood Burning Savages, who are giving us something to look forward to in the form of their imminent second album, Hand To Mouth.
The long-awaited follow-up to 2018’s incendiary debut Stability is due out on February 7 and can be pre-ordered now on environmentally friendly eco-mix vinyl and digital download via thewoodburningsavages.bandcamp.com.
Ponying up now will allow you to download and stream the band’s trio of teaser tunes from the album which they’ve released over the past 18 months.
In case you missed ‘em, let’s recap: musically, the title tune Hand To Mouth clangs and churns with a sense of deep-seated unease as bandleader Paul Connolly snarls up a storm about teflon-coated charlatans subjecting “generation backburner” to death by a thousand cuts.
Similarly, album opener Grind Your Teeth pummels its way out of the speakers with the open wound rawness of wits-end fury and frustration, recalling the Manics at their most potently vitriolic.
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Mid-album moment Climb The Ladder is one of the best things TWBS have done to date, with the band locked into a head-nodding Queens of The Stone Age style motorik groove that’s heavy and danceable before the catchy choruses erupt in a surge of spiralling guitar abuse.
Mid-album moment Climb The Ladder is one of the best things The Wood Burning Savages have done to date
“Rung by rung, watch me climb the ladder” intones Connolly, sounding very much like a man who’s resigned himself to climbing out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Like their debut, Hand To Mouth has been birthed at Start Together Studio in Belfast by Rocky O’Reilly, who knows exactly how to ensure the Savages live up to the visceral promise of their moniker.
The band say this album features the “darkest, heaviest and most visceral songs TWBS have put to tape, charting a hellish few years. 11 songs for the times we’re in.
“If there’s a message to be gleaned from it, it’s that life is short and kindness in a world as hellish as this is never a wasted thing.”
Sounds about right to me. Make sure you’re on the right side of history by pre-ordering today, and expect a full review to appear on these pages to coincide with the album ‘drop’.
Out To Lunch Festival
BELFAST’S Out to Lunch Festival has been serving up cool cultural events with a side-order of hot food through early January for almost 20 years now, all while delivering a strong complement of evening entertainment just for good measure.
2025 is no exception, and with the festival having got underway last weekend, many shows are already sold-out in the programme which runs until January 26.
However, there are still quite a few day and night-time events for which tickets can still be purchased: the following are some of the shows relevant to a Noise Annoys audience...
- Pauline Black: A 2-Tone Story + Boss Sound DJ Set - tonight, 7.30pm, The Black Box
- The Zac Schulze Gang - Saturday January 11, 2pm/8pm, The Deer’s Head
- Ursula Burns: The Secret Melodies of Trees Album Launch - Thursday January 16, The Black Box, 1pm
- Katharine Timoney - Friday January 17, The Black Box, 1pm/8pm
- 808 State - Friday January 17, Mandela Hall, QUBSU, 8pm
- Ron Pope - Saturday January 18, The Black Box, 8pm
- Dani Larkin - Sunday January 19, The Deer’s Head, 7.30pm
- John Craigie - Monday January 20, The Deer’s Head, 8pm
- The Special Consensus: 50th Anniversary Tour - Wednesday January 22, The Black Box, 1pm/8pm
- Tim O’Brien & Jan Fabricius with Dermot Byrne and Seamie O’Dowd - Thursday January 23, The Black Box, 8pm
- Emily Barker, Liz Stringer - Thursday January 23, The Deer’s Head, 8pm
- Joel Harkin and Band: 20 years of Bright Eyes' I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning - Friday January 24, Oh Yeah, 8pm
- Lindisfarne - Friday January 24, Mandela Hall, QUBSU, 8pm
- Nosferatu: A Symphony Of Horror – Live Performed Score by Documenta - Friday January 24, The Black Box, 8pm
- Explosion Sound System meets MC Cheshire Cat: A Night of Reggae, Dub, and Jungle - Friday January 24, The Deer’s Head, 9pm
- New Street Adventure, Carmy Love, The Gold Tips etc - Saturday January 25, Oh Yeah, 7pm
- Curepedia: An A–Z of The Cure with author Simon Price - Saturday January 25, The Black Box, 8pm
Ticket info and full festival programme available at cqaf.com
GIG OF THE WEEK
The Jesus Lizard, Tuesday January 14, The Limelight, Belfast
AS IF getting to see the mighty, unexpectedly reactivated (again) Jesus Lizard making their Belfast debut wasn’t exciting enough, the fact that promoters to the stars Strange Victory had the foresight to book said gig at the Limelight on my birthday is the jagged alt-rock icing on the (birthday) cake.
Having caught David Yow and co for the first time in Dublin on their last Irish visit – almost literally, given that the Jesus Lizard man crowd surfed the length and breadth of the venue multiple times – they immediately went on my ‘must see again’ list, so what better time to do that than while simultaneously lamenting my long lost youth amongst other jaded middle-aged types?
This time around, the Lizard aren’t just celebrating their formidable back catalogue - they’re also proudly touting their first new album for almost 30 years.
Released back in September, Rack blasts out of your speakers/earbuds with the energised ferocity of a band who somehow sound like they never stopped making music.
Between this and the Descendents finally playing in Belfast in March, it’s almost as if the Great Gig Gods have finally decided to repay me for having travelled hundreds of miles to see the latter Californian legends performing elsewhere over the past two decades, including one gig in London which was cancelled just an hour before showtime.
Next thing you know, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin will be announcing a double-headliner at The Empire with Pop Will Eat Itself, Mudhoney will be booked for a month-long residency at The Deer’s Head with Problem Patterns and Therapy? as support and The Wedding Present will be staging live performances of their first five albums (featuring the original band line-ups for each ‘era’) down at Oh Yeah on consecutive Saturday nights with a 10.45pm curfew to guarantee I won’t miss the last bus home.
Hey, an old man can dream.
