JJ MCCANN TRANSMISSION Releases Single “Forces At Work” Off Next Album ‘Hit With Love’

JJ McCANN TRANSMISSION – AKA VETERAN UNDERGROUND ROCKER JAMES McCANN – ANNOUNCES NEW ALBUM HIT WITH LOVE AND RELEASES FIRST SINGLE “FORCES AT WORK”

NEW ALBUM PRODUCED BY ROB YOUNGER OF RADIO BIRDMAN & NEW CHRISTS, WHO HAS PRODUCED COUNTLESS GREAT AUSTRALIAN ROCK RECORDS, FROM DIED PRETTY TO CIVIC

JJ McCann Transmission – aka James McCann – has a long history in Australian rock circles (in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne) and has had a bunch of releases out in France and Spain. James’ new album – his first under the new JJ McCann Transmission moniker – is called Hit With Love and it was produced by Rob Younger of Radio Birdman and the New Christs who produced every second great Australian rock record in the 80s and 90s (Died Pretty, Hard-Ons, Lime Spiders, Celibate Rifles, Hoodoo Gurus etc)  and who more recently produced Civic‘s Taken By Force. It is a scorcher. It’s out September 15. First single ‘Forces At Work’ is out today.

The new single and album are McCann’s first new releases since he co-produced the acclaimed tribute to his old mate Spencer P Jones, All The Way With SPJ, which included Chris Bailey of The Saints, Kid Congo, Adalita, Violent Femmes, Alejandro Escovedo, Jim Moginie of Midnight Oil, The Drones, Hoss and more.

“If you’re going play in a band, you’ve got to piss on demand”. So sings James McCann on ‘Piss on Demand’, a shredding punk rock track co-written with the late Spencer P Jones taken from McCann’s new album, Hit With Love.

A 30-year veteran of the Australian rock’n’roll scene, McCann knows something about the brutal reality of the independent music scene. After cutting his teeth in the vibrant Perth music community, McCann moved to Sydney in the early 1990s where he joined the Hard-Ons spin-off outfit Nunchukka Superfly and formed Harpoon before moving back to Perth and the first line up of The Drones and an association with Kill Devil Hills. 

He moved to Melbourne in the mid 2000s to pursue a variety of solo and collaborative projects – early solo albums were recorded by and featured Gareth Liddiard of The Drones and a young Aaron Cupples and also featured Jim Selene of Bloodloss – punctuated with Europe tours to support releases on Bang! Records and Beast Records.

Hit With Love, McCann’s first album released under the JJ McCann Transmission moniker, was produced by legendary Radio Birdman and New Christs front man Rob Younger, and features contributions from members of Bitter Sweet Kicks, Ron S Peno and the Superstitions, Los Dominados and The Happy Lonesome.

Songs like ‘Forces at Work’, ‘Don’t Bother Me’, ‘She’s Repatriated’ and ‘Blindsided’ would be at home in the booze stained venues and shagpile carpet sharehouses of Australian inner-city music scenes of yore. ‘Amphibious Skin’ and ‘New Machine’ pack an angular post-punk punch, while ‘Sentimental Crap’ takes a booze and blues-stained axe to misconceived nostalgia.

This is an album that drips with reverence for the past and bursts with passion for the future of rock’n’roll. Get it now and feel the love.

“James’ first impressed me years ago fronting Harpoon. I told him it was ‘Outlaw Rock’. The bastards had blown my band off the stage. Mean as cat-shit and instinctive, uncontrived, unpredictable. That was his vibe then as now: implacable and impeccable in articulation, blessed with a genuine sneer; not mannerism passing for attitude. Vision, not a version. and not without humour when the occasion warrants, like, when he sees fit.

“James is right in the centre of everything he’s putting out when singing, hacking away at the guitar and songwriting. There is no affectation, no half-arsed attempting to convince – he’s the real article in a cluttered field where a good many pretend. Get behind James McCann before he gets behind you” – Rob Younger (Radio Birdman, New Christs)

“James McCann’s well-crafted ballads and catchy hooks have a punk rock edge that is seriously addictive. There is something wild and exciting about his performances. He is an all-rounder, equally adept as a guitarist, singer, and songwriter” – Penny Ikinger (Wet Taxis, Penny Ikinger Band)

“James McCann can do it all – blues, country, punk, even a hint of pop when he’s in a good mood. In a just world, he’d be feted as a legend of the Australian independent rock’n’roll scene. But McCann’s talent as a songwriter and musician hides in plain sight, which only adds to the significance of his rich and diverse musical catalogue.” – Patrick Emery (music journalist, author of Execution Days: The Life & Times of Spencer P. Jones)  

JJ McCANN TRANSMISSION’s new single “FORCES AT WORK” is out today
https://jamesmccann.bandcamp.com/track/forces-at-work
https://www.cheersquad.com.au/releases/forcesatwork/

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