PLUS: Honduras-born singer Aurelio Martínez will be in Cape Town to perform alongside maverick South African musician Neo Muyanga

Cape Town hard rock and metal circuit regulars (and Rolling Stone WeekendAlumni) Junkyard Lipstick release their album this week.

Hellbent reflects the war-band of angry she-beasts (note vocalist Tazz-O’s leather one-piece and flaming head of blonde fire) as a thrashy punk rock outfit that is simultaneously fun and aggressive with their live act.

They make a music they love, in much the same post-punk (or maybe proto-punk, actually), 70s-style thrash vein as the co-incidentally all-female group Mitsoo  did in the mid-2000s; in that respect their play-it-like-you-say-it feel is tough to not enjoy. The album is available for purchase now at shows and digitally.

The official launch date is March 29, but grab a listen here:

Honduras-born singer Aurelio Martínez will be in Cape Town to perform alongside maverick South African musician Neo Muyanga as part of the Rolex Mentors & Protégés Arts Initiative weekend on 5 April 2013.

Martínez is an a major exponent of the Garifuna culture of Central America that fuses African and Caribbean-Indian roots.

Muyanga co-founded the PASS (Pan African Space Station) in 2008 with Chimurenga’s publishing editor, Ntone Edjabe, as a continually evolving host of cutting-edge pan-African music and sound art on the internet and across stages in Cape Town and other parts of the globe.

Happy Birthday to Mariah Carey (b. March 27, 1970). The 200 million-plus selling pop diva debuted in 1990, and has never looked back. Her finest moment? Arguably, the rediscovery of a Jackson 5 soul classic at her MTV Unplugged taping.

It would have been Teddy Pendergrass‘ birthday on March 26. He was born in 1950, and enjoyed success as a singer with Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, then as a solo artist before a motor accident paralysed him in 1982. He was nominated for a Grammy 5 times.