CONTENT WARNING: This week;s show contains adult themes and content.

Alongside the usual plethora of new music, I stole at least part of the format for this week's show from the Come Curious podcast.  So it's all about looking back on the last year and looking forward to 2025.  I also get to have a bit of a rant about transphobia and whorephobia.  Just to give you a clue, I'm not on the sides of the phobics.  The Wyrd Ways Rock Show is a safe space for women, sex workers and queer people of ALL kinds.  TERFs and SWERFs can go f*ck themselves.

So here it is.

The last Wyrd Ways Rock Show of 2024.

This one focusses on the bands I discovered in the last 12 months, so may not be what you might have expected.  Then again, with me, what's "the expected"?

Thanks for listening during this year and I hope that continues into 2025.

Welcome to what's probably the final Wyrd Ways Rock Show of 2024.

Some of you will, no doubt, be glad to know there's no Christmas music in this week's show. As per usual, it's all new music.

While I'm here, there's some people who need some help.

Studio Sevvven in north London is at risk of closure because their local council don't like kinsksters, sex workers and queers having somewhere safe to do what they do. The council have decided to change the goalposts and are saying the studio needs a different type of licence than the one they have. They need money to pay a lawyer to put the council straight and more money to apply for the correct licence. Here's the link to the GoFundMe.

Some of you may be wondering what this has to do with the Metal community. Well, aside from the fact that some of us are in the kink, sex worker and queer communities, there's the issue of councils going after people who aren't doing anything illegal for "moral" reasons, usually hand-in-hand with extreme right wing politics. It has to stop and we need to be part of stopping it by standing up for our fellow outsiders. Because that's what we are in the Metal community - we're outsiders, and thanks to Rob Halford and others, a bit part of our aesthetic comes from kink. OK, we don't get it in the neck as badly as the queer and sex-worker communities especially do, but somebody's got to start fighting back, and it might as well be us.

CONTENT WARNING: THIS WEEK'S WYRD WAYS ROCK SHOW CONTAINS ADULT LANGUAGE AND TOPICS

Running a bit late this week thanks to Apple Music being a c*nt.

What do I mean by that?

One of the tracks I wanted to play on the show is only available to buy via Apple Music.  So I downloaded Apple Music, bought the track and tried to download it... but it turns out they won't let you do that.  I've bought the f*cking thing, doesn't that mean I can do what I want with it?  Apparently not. So as well as ripping off the artist by only giving them a fraction of a penny per stream, streamers also rip off the customers by not letting them own the thing they've bought.  It took me several hours of faffing about to discover that, thanks to outdated instructions on t'internet, which had the knock-on effect of meaning that I couldn't record when I normally would.

This is why I'm a big proponent of the likes of Bandcamp for bands and artists who aren't signed anywhere. Not only do they get something like 80% of the money spent (according to Bandcamp's website, so that may not be strictly accurate) on their product, but the customer gets a copy of the files to store on their own drives or equipment.

Anyway...

Aside from a hefty slab of good music from those ridiculously talented people listed below, there's also a request in there for help for a North London kink/lgbtqia+/sex-friendly establishment by the name of Studio Sevvven.  Their local council seems to be doing their level best to shut the place down for spurious "moral" reasons.  It's time for us, members of the Alt/Metal community, to stand with our kinky/queer/sex-worker brothers and sisters to resist this new wave of puritanism that seems to be trying to take us back to the 1950's.  And you know we'll be next, don't you?  Anyone with tattoos, piercings or even long hair (if AMAB) will be targeted.

We're in the final month of 2024.  From a personal standpoint, it's not been a good year.  From a musical standpoint it's been pretty amazing, proving yet again that Gene Simmons is an idiot.  Yet again, he's spouting that "Rock is dead".  He couldn't be more wrong if he tried.  One look at the Wyrd Ways Rock Show playlists from the last couple of weeks would show him how wrong he is.  It's not dead.  Rock has done what it has been doing for the past 50-odd years - it's evolved.

That's what I love about Rock and Metal. That's why I'm still a Metalhead after over 35 years. If Rock and Metal didn't change, I would have got bored by now.  It's constantly changing and evolving, which is part of the reason I love it so much, and why it's also part of the therapy I use to help with my depression and anxiety.

Play it loud.  Let's make the Black Dog's ears bleed.

This is probably the most musically diverse show I've ever done.  It's certainly the most non-traditional, I think.

I'm finding a lot of interesting stuff by surfing Stories and Reels on Instagram.  Of course, as longtime listeners will already know, if I find something interesting, that I like, I'll play it on the show.  That means there's a bit more than expected from Australia.  My continuing support of women and queer musicians is leading down some fascinating side roads in the Alt and Metal sphere.

And that only makes for a better show, am I right?

I'm also going to put a couple of requests out to any Rock and Metal musicians or fans of Rock/Metal reading this who might be interested in being interviewed for the show or website, especially if you're a vagina-owner, queer or a current or former sex worker (that includes stripping and OnlyFans etc): send me a message and we'll get something set up.  I'm wanting to get more diverse perspectives, especially with people in those particular communities coming under increasing attack from the right-wingers.  As a neurodivergent Metalhead with mental health problems, I've ended up on the outside and us outsiders should be sticking together, right?

Music submissions from the aformentioned groups are also extremely welcome (as are all music submissions).  Message me on this link and we'll talk.

If you've not already subscribed to the podcast, here's the player with another subscribe link on it. Subscribing and rating gets the podcast into more ears, which helps the bands I'm playing, so please give us a few clicks:

The weekly Wyrd Ways Rock Show is back for the time being!

There's been so much good music I've been finding recently, I'm making a lot more shows than normal.  Not bad, eh?

Anyway... if you need it, there's a bit of a TW for mental health problems (mine!) and sex.  They're linked together and I've been talking to Alice Lovegood of the Better Sx Academy.  She gets a mention and also a track played (that's why there's some classic Black Sabbath in this week's playlist). 

Shall we get on with this?

This is an unusual situation, isn't it? Two Wyrd Ways Rock Shows, two weeks in a row?! Is it a sign of The End Times?!

With the political situation in the US, it might just be that.

Anyway, continuing the policy of getting more women and marginalized communities onto the show (so long as they're making good music), there's loads of new stuff about to pour out of your earphones, or whatever it is you're listening on.

This week's show was helped into being by all the PRs who send me music to play to you, the members of Vanitas, the ComeCurious podcast and the Instagram and OF presences of @hoopsydaisy, @MercedesValentine, @Raven_alternative and @AliceLovegood.

Not done one of these since July, and it's now November.  Oops.

Been a busy few months at Castle Wyrd Ways.  That's why there's been a big delay.  You've listened to the interviews I did at at Stonedead, right?

Anyway.  As usual, there's loads of new stuff, including tracks from Celavi, Grand Magus and loads of others.  You can see it in the tracklisting on the Wyrd Ways Rock Show website.

There's another reason I got this finished this weekend.  Anger.  Anger at what's happened in America.  How can over half the voting population of the country be so damned stupid, racist, homophobic and just plain wrong?  I suppose this is what happens when the religious fundies kicked out of Europe create their own country.

So as from now, The Wyrd Ways Rock Show is going to be platforming women, sex workers and members of the BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities.  We are Metal.  We are the outsiders and outsiders have to stick together.  If you voted for Trump, I don't want you listening to my show anymore.  You spread hate?  You're not welcome here.

Welcome to the latest edition of The Wyrd Ways Rock Show.

This month (although I may try to get another one out this month before Stonedead), we’re bringing you a solid lineup of new music from across the metal spectrum. As always, we’re keeping it real – mistakes, verbal hiccups, and all.  But not literally hiccups this time out.

We’ve got fresh tracks from experienced heads like Deep Purple, Powerwolf, Flotsam and Jetsam and Anvil and emerging talent, namely Defences, Alt Blk Era, Scene Queen and Soulfracture, showcasing the diversity of today’s metal scene. Expect about two hours of hard-hitting tunes that’ll keep your Mosh Buffer working overtime.

So turn it up and enjoy another round of The Wyrd Ways Rock Show – where the music does the talking. Except when I’m doing it.