Five Favourites: Zombina and the Skeletones

Having initially blasted onto the Liverpool scene back in 1998, local ‘horror-rockers’ Zombina and the Skeletones have previously wowed audiences with their eccentric energy and intoxicating fusion of sounds supporting the likes of Shonen Knife, The Damned and Misfits. Now, having officially come out of retirement last year, the band have just released their first full-length album in ten years, The Call Of Zombina. Interweaving an eclectic array of sounds, from uptempo garage-punk and girl group pop leanings, to haunting baroque-inspired goth-rock and a swirling punk energy, the album offers a fierce return to form from the Merseryside legends; an exquisite, immersive cacophony that’s not for the faint-hearted. 

We think one of the best ways to get to know a band is by asking what music inspires them. So, following the album’s release, we spoke to Zombina and Dr Horror from ZATS about some of the albums that have influenced them the most. Have a read, and then watch the video for immense new single ‘Don’t Kick My Coffin‘ below, before listening to the full new album in all its glory. 

Zombina’s Picks:

Cocteau Twins – Heaven Or Las Vegas
This is a weird one for me, because I’m not a huge album listener. I’ve always been into bands and artists, and songs in a standalone sense, but poverty and ADHD impatience have always had me flitting around mixtapes and ‘Best Of’ compilations. I’d never have described Cocteau Twins sound as my main kind of thing, but yet I’ve returned to this record again and again and again over the years. It’s been the soundtrack for more scenes in my life’s journey than I can believe: it’s been playing whilst I’m de-cluttering, breastfeeding through the night, working out, reading my bestie’s tarot, shopping, grieving a loss, fucking OR making love (two very different things, and it works for both for me, which is no mean feat!), walking to job interviews, hungover in the tour bus, the list goes on… I genuinely listen to it several times a week. I’m Neurodivergent and I recognise this is one of my top comfort albums. The two times I have managed to write and record music as a solo project, I have only been able to eschew writer’s block by taking a “Cocteau Twins approach” to lyrics, and just letting word sounds tumble out ad-hoc. As someone who has spent a lifetime singing lyrics I rate super highly, written by my best friend, I really think was the only way I could have got past the inner critic to explore the musicality I was trying to access, and I credit this album for that.

Roky Erikson – The Evil One
I don’t remember how soon into our BFF-ship Doc Horror and I started listening to this… Oh shit, wait, yes I do – it must have been almost right away aged fifteen and sixteen, because we recorded a cover of ‘I Walked With A Zombie’ from this album on our home 4-track for the very first Zombina and the Skeletones demo! I’ve still never watched the film about Roky. I think it would upset me too much. I’m a real sucker for the under-dog, people that have struggled and suffered injustices, especially surrounding mental health. I was already floundering my way into the mental healthcare system myself by fifteen. I remember hearing about Roky’s story, and it was never extricable from how I felt listening to his music. I heard the deepest pain and the most jubilant perseverance in his voice; I held on to the thought that he had come out the other side of a dark and brutal life chapter, and still had this creative passion bursting out of him, and sounding so fucking GOOD! He was also someone who had paved the way before us. We were teenage horror movie fanatics, trying to form a band around that shared passion, and then we discover this guy and the genre he named himself – Horror Rock! I was planning to choose my top five tracks from the album, but it’s too hard. Just listen to it. Many times. Let it permeate you like it has me. I implore you!!!

Doc Horror’s Picks:

The B-52’s – The B-52’s
Zombina introduced me to the B-52’s via Cosmic Thing back when we were in school, and that was revelatory enough, but their self-titled debut turned out to really be where it’s at for me. For our generation B-52’s meant ‘Love Shack’ and ‘Rocko’s Modern Life’ and, like, ‘The Flintstones Theme’, not that there’s nothing wrong with that, obviously – but this album is something else entirely. We found it on cassette in a charity shop sometime in the late ’90s and I couldn’t believe how punk-rock this thing is. It’s got this sort of proto-Riot Rrrrl quality to it, but somehow also sounds like flying saucers coming over the horizon. They’ve somehow got way more depth than they get credited for, but are also exactly as silly as they seem. Cindy Wilson’s vocal on ‘Hero Worship’ is possibly the best vocal on anything ever! We caught them live in Manchester years later when they did Funplex and they were still phenomenal. Experiences like that are great training for staving off the I’M GETTING TOO OLD FOR THIS SHIT feeling that can come twenty odd years into being a band. Fun is fun, no matter who you are. Everybody goes to parties!

45 Grave – Sleep In Safety
I remember coming across this LP when Zombina and the Skeletones was very new, and seeing that amazing band photo on the back cover and immediately finding new role models in 45 Grave before I even heard their music. I purchased it at the next opportunity and found myself utterly baffled by the music on first listen. From what I’ve heard, it seems like I’m not alone in that. A lot of people find Sleep In Safety quite difficult to get into, but you have to stick with it!  Once you get past the tonal whiplash of the whole “oh it’s a sort of dark prog record… no wait it’s hardcore punk… oh what’s this surf instrumental doing here?” experience, it’s actually incredibly rewarding – and very much ended up as a template for what we do, in a lot of ways. It was like suddenly being given a license to disregard the constraints of genre. And then you get to the chorus in ‘Partytime’ and realise that this was the song that seemed to be coming out of that skeleton’s mouth in that one scene in The Return Of The Living Dead – the movie that you and Zombina watched alongside The Rocky Horror Picture Show a few months back and that’s what inspired you to start a spooky band in the first place -, and it’s all come full circle… But you never would have guessed that it was the same band because the chorus from ‘Partytime’ sounds like some AC/DC pastiche. Again… baffling. A couple of years later, one of our first European shows was opening for Dinah Cancer’s post-45 Grave band Penis Flytrap. She turned out to be really nice. Not nearly as scary as you’d think. Whenever I put on Sleep In Safety, I find myself transported to ZATS year one and I’m filled with the excitement of future possibilities. It’s still a weird listen even now. Our track ‘Dead Birds’ on The Call Of Zombina is a bit of a love letter to this sound.

Girls At Our Best – Pleasure
I don’t really ever discover new current music. Instead, my version of that seems to be stumbling across things from the eighties that are at least new to me – often from bands like Girls At Our Best, who split up around the time I was born. I have no clue how Pleasure even ended up on my radar. It seemed to just appear in my life a couple of years ago without me really noticing and I just kept finding the various tracks stuck in my head and before long I was just binging it daily and playing it to people, like “check this out…”. I’m not sure if I’ve successfully converted any fans yet. I ended up listening to it constantly while writing The Call Of Zombina but if you were to play to our record side by side with this one you probably wouldn’t make any connection between the two. Pleasure is all major key sunshine and The Call Of Zombina is more like a night in Dracula’s castle… But it was very subtly informed by Pleasure on some subliminal level. It’s just great. Every song has about 20 legitimate hooks apiece, loads of inventiveness, earworms and strange instrumental choices. You have to wonder who they were and what happened to them. They made this one excellent album then fucked off.

Huge thanks to Zombina and Doc Horror for sharing their Five Favourites with us! Watch the new video for ‘Don’t Kick My Coffin’ below:

The Call Of Zombina, the brand new album from Zombina and the Skeletones, is out now via 9×9 Records. Buy it now.

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Five Favourites: Brennan Wedl

Following 2019 album Holy Water Branch, New York artist Brennan Wedl has now signed with legendary label Kill Rock Stars and has recently shared a series of glistening new singles, including latest offering ‘Fake Cowboy’. A heartfelt ode to the infamous Nashville Honky Tonk bar, the track showcases the raw emotion of Wedl’s luscious vocals as Americana-tinged stripped-back strumming builds to a gritty, fuzz-filled anthem. I’m quite late to the Brennan Wedl party, but this track prompted me to delve deeper into their rich lyrical storytelling and silky smooth alternative country musicality. A new favourite for sure, I can’t wait to hear more from this exquisite raconteur.

We think one of the best ways to get to know an artist is by asking what music inspires them. So, to celebrate the release of ‘Fake Cowboy’, I caught up with Brennan to find out about the music that inspires her the most. Read about her five favourite albums and watch the beautiful video for ‘Fake Cowboy‘ below! 

Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto – Getz/Gilberto
This album is delightful drama – it is romance, it is night-time, and it is what falling in love sounds like to me. So straight-ahead but has layers, twists and turns of red and orange. I love to play this album on vinyl while making romantic dinners, and it still hits through phone speakers. This album makes me think long-term. It makes me feel domestic bliss. It makes me want to get married. I hope to have the first dance at my wedding to ‘Para Machuchar Meu Coracao’, so hopefully my future spouse will be down. This song is pure love, hope, joy, delight. Favourite album of all time. 

King Woman – Celestial Blues
I was first introduced to King Woman by someone posting a story on Instagram from their show and tagging them. We see hundreds of these clips, but I’m pretty sure King Woman is the only band that has stopped me in my mindless story scroll enough to listen to their records. Celestial Blues quickly became an album that defined a season of my life. I am a sucker for religious references and imagery, and this album has it. It’s got scary hell, it’s got sexy hell; it’s got original sin, it’s got flames. Favourite track from this album is ‘Boghz’.

Rufus Wainwright – Wants Two
A super dreamy, dripping, cinematic album. It’s horny, it’s tragic and it is gay af. My favourite track is ‘The Art Teacher’, which inspired my song ‘Fake Cowboy’. So many juicy details in this album; it has a comedic edge, on the edge of being a bit bratty. The longing is there. “Here I am in this uniform-ish pantsuit sorta thing” – I can see this character he’s describing so vividly, which is something I strive for in my own lyrics. I want the visuals to be undeniable. 

Bruce Springsteen – Nebraska
You can tell a lot about someone by their favourite Boss record. I am a die-hard Nebraska-head and I am NOT ALONE. This album makes me hold my hand over my heart. Not in a patriotic way, maybe though? I feel like I have a cock when I listen to this album. When I meet another Nebraska-head in the wild, they often agree that it’s The Boss’ best. Having to pick my favourite song from this record feels like damnation, but like the true masochist, manic-depressive freak that I am, I choose ‘My Father’s House’. Listening makes me shake my head back and forth laughing because it is so effed up. Exceptional use of the tambourine.

Tom Waits – Real Gone
Whenever something really inconvenient happens on tour, it is required according to BW law that we play ‘Hoist That Rag’ to shake off the bad energy and move on. I don’t know if I’ve ever heard of anyone having a neutral opinion to Tom Waits. Either you worship him, or you despise him. His range inspires me, we don’t need to stick to one sound. Also, he’s got the craziest song titles in the game – ‘Don’t Go into That Barn’, ‘The Earth Died Screaming’, ‘Chick A Boom’ to name a few. Real Gone is an album that’s kind of like being on a haunted hayride. You see the terrors, but they legally can’t touch you.

Huge thanks to Brennan for sharing her five favourites with us! Watch the beautiful video for ‘Fake Cowboy’ here:

‘Scorpio’, the upcoming new single from Brennan Wedl, is set for release on 9th May via Kill Rock Stars.

Photo Credit: Blaire Beamer

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Five Favourites: Atka

Having just released her debut EP, The Eye Against The Ashen Sky, London-based, Brandenburg-born artist Atka creates captivating cinematic soundscapes. Drawing on her studies into philosophy, intertwined with personal reflections on shame and paranoia, the EP shimmers with a dark, haunting energy throughout. A truly stirring collection showcasing the beguiling majesty of this innovative artist.

We think one of the best ways to get to know a band is by asking what music inspires them. So, to celebrate the release of The Eye Against The Ashen Sky, we caught up with Atka to ask about the music that has inspired her the most. Read about her five favourite albums and watch the video for latest single ‘Eye In The Sky’ below!

Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures 
I’m gonna be honest, it was H&M who introduced me to Unknown Pleasures. I must have been fourteen or fifteen when they started printing the album logo on t-shirts everywhere in Germany. At the time, I was very into metal and hardcore, particularly System Of A Down. That was what was big in Germany, and classic rock of course. I hadn’t come across a lot of British music until then, particularly British post-punk. It took me a few attempts to listen to it and get what the whole genre is about, but once I understood it, it completely changed how I listened to and made music. I felt as if, for the first time, I gave myself permission to let myself be taken somewhere by music instead of stubbornly steering the ship to make something “good”, nails digging into the wheel and all.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=oo7lt0lLOvg%3Fsi%3D56TeYaZZL5yd98PS

Kraftwerk – Kraftwerk 1 
Growing up in Germany obviously the name “Kraftwerk” has been floating around my orbit for as long as I can remember, though not as frequently as one might think. However, it was only a few years ago that I made an effort digging through the Kraftwerkian back catalogue and that’s when I discovered their first album, Kraftwerk 1. I remember sitting on the couch listening to it and my eyes just widening and jaw dropping further with every passing minute. I couldn’t believe it. They were constructing this electronic feeling music with orchestral instruments, flutes and all. This was exactly what I was trying to do with my record but reversed. I instead took electronic signals and gave them an organic, wood-like, orchestral touch – like in ‘Child of Rage’ – wanting to create a middle ground between the artificial and the organic.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=E4b0-juTiQ8%3Fsi%3DvvxgjZDy9IYmpsar

Broadcast – Tender Buttons 
I started listening to Broadcast about three years ago and got addicted to their whole catalogue. Each album is so very different, but Tender Buttons is definitely my favourite. Trish’s vocals are magically swaying over the beautifully organic, rough and sometimes distorted instrumentals, giving it the perfect balance – tender is really the perfect word for it. And the lyrics are straight up brilliant, I mean: “awkwardness happening to someone you love”. I aspire to one day make something that is only half as good as what they did. They are probably my biggest inspiration. And I think that their influence on me will become only more evident as I put more music out. I am still digesting, if you know what I mean.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=z79T8CUpksE%3Fsi%3De51BtZ-kgc7iiEGu

Perfume Genius – No Shape 
This is a truly spectral piece of work, in terms of production and experiments in song structure. I don’t know how they achieved half of the sounds on this record – hats off to Blake Mills, what a brilliant producer! Perfume Genius’ music has inspired me to just do whatever the heck I want – out of the window with standard song structure. Do I really want to have the drums to come in at only 1.30min? Definitely! Do I really need one minute of instrumental tail at the end of every other track? Yes I do. Does a song need a goddamn pay-off at some point? Hell no.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=0JvOYbjw8V0%3Fsi%3DeBTuTyzjpR4W2gLX

LCD Soundsystem – This is Happening 
LCD Soundsystem to me is pure ecstasy. Every time I listen to this record I hear something new and I draw a lot of inspiration for instrumentation and what kind of backdrop suits which kind of song. I heard ‘Dance Yourself Clean’ for the first time when I was twenty one driving on a road trip through Scandinavia with my family, in a VW Transporter that I’d converted. I was driving for three weeks from Berlin to Aarhus, Gothenburg, up to Bergen and all the way back – it was a hell of a drive, jamming out to this record. I saw them live at Brixton Academy and they were phenomenal – it was just one big party!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=2WC35_-CthE%3Fsi%3DXsICKHubdtpoDMyr

Huge thanks to Atka for sharing her five favourites with us!

The Eye Of The Ashen Storm is out now. Catch her live tonight in London at Studio 9294 supporting Lucrecia Dalt.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=HuAgEDfaEis%3Fsi%3Di4wp_FRow-cy6swh

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Five Favourites: Ratboys

After more than ten years together, Chicago’s Ratboys have now announced their fourth album, The Window, set for release on 25th August. I’m not quite sure how or why I’ve only just come across Ratboys, but they’re new favourites for sure! Taken from the upcoming album, recent single ‘It’s Alive!’ is filled with all the dreamy, lilting hooks and fuzzy allure I could ever need, and Julia Steiner’s vocals are sugar sweet perfection.

We think one of the best ways to get to know an artist is by asking what music inspires them. So, to celebrate the release of The Window, we caught up with Julia from Ratboys to ask about the music that has inspired her the most. So, read about her five favourite albums, and make sure you check out the album next month, and watch the video for ‘It’s Alive!’ below!

Sufjan Stevens – Age Of Adz
Without thinking too hard, I can honestly say that this is my favourite album of all time. For a long time I kept a CD copy with me anywhere I went, in my purse. It almost felt like a totem, like something to ground myself against and remind myself in weird times – “Okay, this amazing, insane thing still exists and will always continue to exist.” The mix of soulfulness and coldness and playfulness on this record continues to baffle me every time I listen. Like, the stakes seem sky high, but Sufjan is clearly having a blast. Talk about a fully-realized, simply maxed-out piece of work. What the hell?? The final song on the record – ‘Impossible Soul’ – clocks in at slightly more than 25 minutes long and honestly sounds like an entire album unto itself. Sufjan’s at the height of his powers on this one y’all, highly recommended.

The Dodos – Visiter
When I first met our guitarist Dave in college, we did the classic millennial early friendship move of burning CDs for each other. We made mixes, and we also burned full albums for each other – ones that we thought the other hadn’t heard before and might like. I remember that Dave burned me a CD with this entire album on it, and I’ve loved it ever since. This record, maybe more than any other, reminds me viscerally of a time of year (Autumn) and of a time in my life (specifically late 2010, when I was 18). I love how sparse and yet totally complete it sounds. I love how deceptively fast the songs are. I love how the acoustic guitar takes centre stage on every song and also how so many of the songs go places you wouldn’t expect them too. What a perfect tracklist and album sequence. What a lovely trip.  

Deerhoof – Apple O’
This is an album where I remember the exact moment I discovered it. I was in San Francisco in 2013 doing sports coverage for our college magazine, and I managed to get over to Amoeba Records during some downtime. I found this CD in the “local favourites” section and bought it impulsively based on the album art alone. I’ll never forget sliding it into my car when I got back home and getting completely sucked in by the whirl of drums and guitars that came tumbling out of the speakers, like a cyclone. There is so much joy and so much fun apparent in every song on this record… It just sounds like the love of music-making distilled, like four friends having the best time ever in a room together with their instruments. I’ve seen Deerhoof live many times since then, and they always make me smile like an idiot, without fail. Continually the best reminder that making music should be fun!


Juliana Hatfield – Blood
This was probably my most-listened-to album during the era of the pandemic. I simply couldn’t get enough of it (probably much to the annoyance of my bandmates… sorry! Haha). I first heard ‘Had a Dream’ on a college radio station here in Chicago, and I remember I pulled off into a parking lot to Shazam the song and look up the artist. I hadn’t heard of Juliana Hatfield before this album, but I found out that this is her nineteenth album. I was so late to the party, but better late than never, right? This album is truly wild. A lot of it was recorded using drum presets in Garageband. I just love the way it sounds; I love Juliana’s voice and the biting lyrics and the off-the-wall instrumentation. For an artist this far into her career, this record is almost unbelievably adventurous. Who else is making music that sounds like this?? I’m seriously asking, I want more. Also, this record was a great gateway for getting into the rest of Juliana Hatfield’s discography – it’s well worth a deep dive. 


NNAMDÏ – Please Have A Seat
For lists like this, I’ll always include whatever the latest record is from Chicago legend Nnamdi Ogbonnaya aka NNAMDÏ. We’ve been friends with Nnamdi for a long time, ever since Dave and Sean started playing and going to shows at his former DIY house venue, Nnamdi’s Pancake Haus. Nnamdi is one of the most talented drummers ever, and he was always in a million bands, but he started releasing his own music on Bandcamp sometime in 2013 I think. Each album captures his big heart, brilliant instincts, and wide-ranging musical interests, in such a way that I genuinely can’t wait to hear whatever he makes next. You never know what the next record will sound like, and within those records what the next song will sound like, and within that what the next section of each song will sound like. I love artists that do whatever the fuck they want, who aren’t bound by genre concerns or hangups about aesthetic consistency… Nnamdi is the G.O.A.T. in that respect, both in Chicago and everywhere he goes. This latest record is no exception- check out ‘Dibs’ – you’ll see what I mean.


Massive thanks to Julia from Ratboys for sharing her Five Favourites!

The Window, the upcoming fourth album from Ratboys, is set for release on 25th August via Topshelf Records. Pre-order here. And watch the recent video for ‘It’s Alive!’ below:

Photo Credit: Alexa Viscius 

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