Archive for the ‘CLASSIC ALBUMS’ Category

FLEET FOXES – ” Shore “

Posted: September 22, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , ,
0

Fleet Foxes have annouced the release of their surprise new album titled ‘Shore’.  The album news was shared today (September 22nd) to mark the beginning of the autumnal equinox. It was first teased with posters displayed around Paris at the weekend. ‘Shore’ follows the band’s 2017 album ‘Crack-Up’, and was recorded in New York, Paris, Hudson, Los Angeles and Long Island City between September 2018 and September 2020. The band’s fourth record features contributions from Uwade Akhere, Hamilton Leithauser, Grizzly Bear’s Chris Bear and Daniel Rossen, Kevin Morby, and others

“I see “Shore” as a place of safety on the edge of something uncertain, staring at Whitman’s waves reciting ‘death’,” frontman Robin Pecknold said of the new album in a statement. “Tempted by the adventure of the unknown at the same time you are relishing the comfort of the stable ground beneath you. This was the mindset I found, the fuel I found, for making this album.”

The album comes complete with an accompanying film, also entitled Shore. It was shot in Washington, Oregon and Idaho on 16mm film by Kersti Jan Werdal. “I listened to the album while driving, and observationally shot landscapes that I felt resonated with the music, yet also stood on their own,” Werdal explained.

“The film is intended to co-exist and engage with the album, rather than be in a direct and symbiotic relationship with it. The urban and narrative scenes interact with the more surreal landscapes, rather than sit in opposition of one another. My hope is that the film, much like the album does, reflects optimism and strength.”

Speaking of the new album, Pecknold added: “Since the unexpected success of the first Fleet Foxes album over a decade ago, I have spent more time than I’m happy to admit in a state of constant worry and anxiety. Worried about what I should make, how it will be received, worried about the moves of other artists, my place amongst them, worried about my singing voice and mental health on long tours. I’ve never let myself enjoy this process as much as I could, or as much as I should. “By February 2020, I was again consumed with worry and anxiety over this
album and how I would finish it. But since March, with a pandemic spiralling out of control, living in a failed state, watching and participating in a rash of protests and marches against systemic injustice, most of my anxiety around the album disappeared. It just came to seem so small in comparison to what we were all experiencing together.

“In its place came a gratitude, a joy at having the time and resources to devote to making sound, and a different perspective on how important or not this music was in the grand
scheme of things. Music is both the most inessential and the most essential thing. We don’t need music to live, but I couldn’t imagine life without it. It became a great gift to no longer carry any worry or anxiety around the album, in light of everything that is going on.”

Fleet Foxes’ last album, 2017’s ‘Crack-Up’, was given the four-star album review, writing: “Some may be unconvinced by the ambitious leap Fleet Foxes have made on album three, but there’s really no doubting the first-rate intelligence behind this uncompromising and ever-changing piece of work.” Pecknold:  I wanted to make an album that celebrated life in the face of death, honouring our lost musical heroes explicitly in the lyrics and carrying them with me musically, committing to living fully and vibrantly in a way they no longer can, in a way they maybe couldn’t even when they were with us, despite the joy they brought to so many. I wanted to make an album that felt like a relief, like your toes finally touching sand after being caught in a rip current. I wanted the album to exist in a liminal space outside of time, inhabiting both the future and the past, accessing something spiritual or personal that is untouchable by whatever the state of the world may be at a given moment, whatever our season. I see “shore” as a place of safety on the edge of something uncertain, staring at Whitman’s waves reciting “death,” tempted by the adventure of the unknown at the same time you are relishing the comfort of the stable ground beneath you. This was the mindset I found, the fuel I found, for making this album.

Elsewhere in the statement, Pecknold wrote that, next year, the band will release nine more songs, “co-written from the ground up with [Fleet Foxes members] Morgan Henderson, Skyler Skjelset, Casey Wescott, and Christian Wargo.”

Fleet Foxes are to release their fourth studio album “Shore” . The bright and hopeful album, released via Anti-Records, for a February 5th street date. In addition to the album, a 16 mm road movie of the same name by Kersti Jan Werdal that showcases the landscapes of the Pacific Northwest.

L7 – ” Smell the Magic ” 30th Anniversary Edition

Posted: September 22, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , , , , , ,
0

On Friday, September 18th, 2020, Sub Pop will release L7’s “Smell the Magic:” 30th Anniversary Edition, the fiery, American grunge pioneers’ second album. L7 were formed by Donita Sparks and Suzi Gardner in 1985 Of their meeting and on hearing Gardner play a tape of her songs in progress, Sparks described it as “one of the happiest days of my life” with a clear synchronicity in the music they were each interested in creating. At the time, Gardner was also active as a poet. The punk rock duo brought Jennifer Finch on board as bass guitarist and Anne Anderson on drums.

This 30th-anniversary edition of the ‘90s underground rock classic includes all 9 songs from the album, remastered and available together on vinyl for the first time ever! A multitude of rock music scenes populated the expanse of Los Angeles in 1989: hardcore punk, industrial goth, roots rock, and Sunset Strip hair metal, to name a few. L7 fit into none of them, creating their own unique blend of punk and hard, hooky rock loaded with humour and cultural commentary. Originally released in 1990, Smell the Magic is a landmark of ’90s feminist rock.

But making a mark on the LA underground rock scene was more challenging than it seemed.
Originating out of art punk circles in 1985, L7 played countless poetry readings, drag shows, art happenings and punk rock dive bars. They were nothing short of perseverant.

Having already released one album, eponymously titled, L7, the band was touring up the West Coast when they began to meet like minded artists affiliated with Sub Pop Records. The band managed to score a phone number for the imprint, and convinced label founders Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman to come see them live.

That show would take place a couple of weeks later in 1989 at an arts center in Seattle. The stage was finagled out of folding tables, and friends recruited to work a smoke machine (members of the group Cat Butt) decided to drop acid before attending to their duties. This led to a thick fog filling the entire venue and the band’s performance could hardly even be seen. L7 were convinced they blew it. Instead, they got signed: Sub Pop may not have been able to see them, yet, but they could hear them and asked if L7 would do a recording for their monthly Singles Club.

Later in the year, the band went into the label’s go-to studio in Seattle, Reciprocal Recording and in one day recorded “Shove,” “Packin’ a Rod,” and “Fast and Frightening.”

Released in January, the single’s A-side “Shove” would kick off the 1990’s with a bang and L7 would have an underground hit on their hands.

The band was then given the go ahead to record a full EP. The buzz from their Sub Pop’s Singles Club release was almost immediately palpable.

A few months after “Shove,” L7 continued with recording the EP—later expanded into a full-length album with three cover songs (“Packin’ a Rod,” “Just Like Me,” and “American Society”). They recorded again with Reciprocal’s producer, Jack Endino, and later Michael James and Ramones-producer Daniel Rey in Los Angeles.

This 30th-anniversary edition of the ‘90s underground rock classic Smell the Magic includes all 9 songs from the album, remastered and available together on vinyl for the first time ever! Originally released in 1990, Smell the Magic is a landmark of ’90s feminist rock.

http://

This 30th-anniversary edition of the ‘90s underground rock classic Smell The Magic (which originally came out as a six-track 12″/nine-track CD) includes all nine songs from the album, remastered and available together on vinyl for the first time. A multitude of rock music scenes populated the expanse of Los Angeles in 1989: hardcore punk, industrial goth, roots rock, and Sunset Strip hair metal, to name a few. L7 fit into none of them, creating their own unique blend of punk and hard, hooky rock loaded with humor and cultural commentary. Originally released in 1990, Smell The Magic is a landmark of ’90s feminist rock.

“Smell the Magic: 30th Anniversary Edition” is now available from Sub Pop. LP preorders through megamart.subpop.com and select retailers in North America will receive the limited Loser edition on clear with high melt orange, blue, and grey vinyl.

Releases September 18th, 2020 Sub Pop Records

CULTS – ” Host “

Posted: September 22, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , , ,
0

A5c4deb2 d5a8 4811 b9ba 7015971c0b04

Cults’ utterly mesmerizing new album, “Host”, was written more collaboratively than ever before and recorded primarily with live instruments for the first time. The collection marks the start of a bold new chapter for the band, one fuelled by an ever-deepening trust and a boundless appetite for growth and experimentation. The songs here are deceptively charming, with lush, airy arrangements that belie their dark, weighty lyrics, and the production is rich and multifaceted to match, blending retro and futuristic palettes into a spellbinding swirl of high-def indie rock and lo-fi bedroom pop. As its title suggests, Host is an exploration of the sinister dynamics at play in a parasitic relationship, but rather than dwell in the discomfort, the record charts a cathartic journey towards freedom and self-reliance, revelling in the power that comes from standing your ground and declaring independence in the face of exploitation and manipulation.

Cults have embarked on a radical reimagining, both of the band’s sound and its dynamic, and the result is the NYC indie duo’s utterly mesmerizing fourth album, Host. Written more collaboratively than ever before and recorded primarily with live instruments for the first time, the collection marks the start of a bold new chapter for the band. The songs here are deceptively charming, with lush, airy arrangements that belie their dark, weighty lyrics. The production is rich and multifaceted to match, blending retro and futuristic palettes into a spellbinding swirl of high-def indie rock and lo-fi bedroom pop. As its title suggests, “Host” is an exploration of the sinister dynamics at play in a parasitic relationship, but rather than dwell in the discomfort, the record charts a cathartic journey towards freedom and self-reliance,

New York duo Cults struggled to piece together their fourth album. After all of the music was recorded, something wasn’t working and the two artists weren’t happy with it. “It just didn’t feel like an album yet,” says singer Madeline Follin. It wasn’t until she—for the first time—brought her own songs to the table that the album started to become more like what they’d envisioned.

The title Host is partly inspired by this newfound collaborative effort, while also playing with ideas of power dynamics and independence. Multi-instrumentalist/singer Brian Oblivion said of Follin’s contributions: “The music just floored us, and suddenly everything started to click.” the duo broke down every track on Host, explaining themes of exploitation, addiction, relationships, and more.

1. “Trials”

Focuses on the power that addictions and harmful ideologies have to transform. The chorus walks a tight rope between a metaphor for gaslighting and a despairing worry about the person you still hold out hope for.

2. “8th Ave”

A song we wrote a long time ago at our old studio on Eight Avenue across from Port Authority. It’s an area with a well documented history of exploitation and corruption, but freedom and acceptance as well. Sonically it sounded like what we saw out the window and the lyrics flowed from there.

3. “Spit You Out”

This the first song we wrote for this record, trying on some of our more left field influences from the exotica sounds of Esquivel to Nine Inch Nails–style heaviness. It focuses on parasitic relationships and breaking away from toxic patterns of interaction. We never imagined it would relate to a worldwide pandemic.

4. “A Low”

One of the few romanitic-ish songs on the record. It starts with a kind of Greek chorus, setting the scene for the narrator to step in. From there the song tries to explain how transformative relationships can be even in the deepest depression, and even when the other party isn’t aware.

5. “Honest Love”

A quick tune that harks back to our first show at the Mercury Lounge. It draws on the metaphor that the fear of unpreparedness to perform a show shares with feeling unprepared to form a new connection. It also explores the vulnerability that comes with singing a personal song to strangers and how that relates to having intimacy with a new person.

6. “Working It Over”

This is our power ballad and end of side A of the record. The song centers on the importance of holding close to personal support systems and fighting against escapism in the face of hopelessness. It’s a reminder that the past is not greater than the present, and the future is unknowable. You’re probably not going to live in space, so we have to work together to deal with the problems of right now if we want to find satisfaction.

7. “A Purgatory”

Cutting the strings on a manipulative relationship and exiting the purgatory that could have continued without action.

8. “Masquerading”

Impostor Syndrome is the name of the game here. There’s a particular fear you experience every time you hear your words and songs anywhere in public—that fear of inadequacy haunts every new effort. Masquerading is a kind of acceptance that you’ll always have to play different roles as this will likely never go away.

9. “No Risk”

Antithetical to the title, the song is all about the benefits of taking risks, and how difficult that can be as a woman when being constantly told in both transparent and subliminal ways that you’re “second best” or not worthy of the same voice. The song transforms the title from a place of complacency to a challenge to empower yourself.

10. “Like I Do”

The song starts with a boast (“Can’t nobody sleep like I do”), and gradually transforms into a song about self destructively sweeping your problems off to side so you can keep moving forward.

11. “Shoulders to My Feet”

Touches on the difficulty of fending off intrusive thoughts of the past or fears of the future that get in the way of pursuing something positive.

12. “Monolithic”

A kind of happy ending. Its about giving in, and getting outside yourself even if you aren’t sure what the outcome will be in the end. After a record of pain and self doubt, it’s a jump into the abyss.

Trials” is from Cults’ upcoming album ‘Host’, out September 18th via Sinderlyn Records

LAMBCHOP – ” Reservations “

Posted: September 20, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , ,
0

Lambchop

Kurt Wagner, and his rotating cast of musicians who’ve make up Lambchop at one point or another have been making music since the mid-1980’s and have tried their hand at pretty much every style going. Back in the autumn of 2019, Kurt had an idea, instead of heading out on a financially unviable tour, he would instead invite his current band into the studio to make a covers record. Each member would bring a track of their choosing and in a single day, take control over recording their chosen song. The result is the upcoming album, “Trip”, out in November, and previewed this week in the shape of the band’s take on the Wilco-classic, “Reservations”. Lambchop announced a new covers record. Titled Trip, the album includes six cover songs, each selected by a different member of the band.

In addition to songs popularized by the Supremes, George Jones, and Stevie Wonder, Trip includes “Weather Blues,” a previously unreleased song written by Yo La Tengo bassist James McNew.

“Reservations” was picked by Matthew McCaughan, after much stressing about his choice, “I decided I would pick a song that, while I love it, and know it, it wasn’t one that had been on repeat for months at some point in my life, nor was it one that is permanently tied to some memory of my own“. Part of the thinking behind the choice was not so much about the original, but instead what Lambchop could make of it, here Kurt’s vocal is pushed up in the mix, with the fizz and the hum of the original chorus replaced by cooed vocal harmonies and dancing woodwind melodies. What Lambchop’s version hangs onto is the beautiful simplicity of Jeff Tweedy’s lyrics, the line, “I’ve got reservations about so many things, but not about you”, still every bit as wonderful as the first time you heard it. As Kurt says of the project, and his career as a whole, “it’s been a trip”, if they also sound this enticing it’s a journey we’re going to want to make many more times.

Taken from Trip, out November 13th, 2020 on Merge and City Slang.

FENNE LILY – ” Breach “

Posted: September 20, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , , , ,
0

There are 1,271 words on this record but it’s hard to find the right ones to send it into the world with. I’ve been waiting for this day to come for a long time and it feels surreal to say that “Breach” is yours now — I hope it gives you something. it’s given me a lot. Isolation is nothing new for Fenne Lily – in fact, she’s written an album of songs all about it. “It’s kind of like writing a letter, and leaving it in a book that you know you’ll get out when you’re sad – like a message to yourself in the future,” she says, referring to Breach, her Dead Oceans debut she wrote during a period of self-enforced isolation pre-COVID. It’s an expansive, diaristic, frequently sardonic record that deals with the mess and the catharsis of entering your 20s and finding peace while being alone.

Fenne was born in London and moved to Dorset as a toddler, where she grew up in the picturesque English countryside. She was a “free range kid,” as she calls it, after her parents took her out of school for a period at the age of seven. Over the following year, they taught her while the family travelled Europe in a live-in bus. Even after she returned to traditional school at 9, her home education never ended, extending to music. Her mother gifted Fenne with her old record collection, through which she discovered her love for T-Rex and the Velvet Underground and Nico.

Soon after she fell for the strange genius of PJ Harvey and came to worship Nick Drake, Joni Mitchell, and the richly crafted worlds of Feist, which inspired Fenne to pick up a guitar. It’s that journey to find peace inside herself that underpins the whole of Fenne’s second album. Its title, Breach, occurred to Fenne after deep conversations with her mum about her birth, during which she was breech, or upside down in the womb. The slippery double-sidedness of the word – which, spelled with an “A”, means to “break through” – drew her in. “That feels like what I was doing in this record; I was breaking through a wall that I built for myself, keeping myself safe, and dealing with the downside of feeling lonely and alone. I realized that I am comfortable in myself, and I don’t need to fixate on relationships to make myself feel like I have something to talk about. I felt like I broke through a mental barrier in that respect.” Even though it also carries implications of awkwardness, rebellion, and breakage, it’s a widereaching word, representing new beginnings and birth.

http://

Breach is out on Dead Oceans
thank you to everyone who worked on this with me,

Released September 18th, 2020

ELTON JOHN – ” Jewel Box ” 9LP Boxset + Limited Edition Poster

Posted: September 20, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , ,
0

This 9LP set gathers together all three of the ‘Jewel Box’ vinyl breakouts housed in one box. Curated by Elton himself and taken from the ‘Jewel Box’ 8-CD boxset, this 4LP gatefold black vinyl album takes a trip through a glittering career encompassing hidden gems and overlooked classics from a staggering body of work. which features an astonishing amount of rarities, deep cuts and B-sides.

Elton John recorded significantly more music in the Sixties and Seventies than the public ever got a chance to hear, and on November 13th, he’s finally sharing much of it with the world with the release of his 8-disc collection Elton: Jewel Box.

The latest preview from the set is John’s lost 1968 tune “Regimental Sgt. Zippo,” which has been paired with a new animated video. “The title track of an unreleased debut album, this track captures Elton and Bernie in full 60s psychedelic mode,” reads a press release. “Recorded and produced at the DJM studios, the same building that housed the Beatles’ publishing company, Northern Songs, the song is an affectionate nod to Sgt Pepper and the era.”

Fans can also hear “Les Aveux,” “Stone’s Throw from Hurtin’,” “(Gotta Get A) Meal Ticket,” a demo of “Sing Me No Sad Songs” and “Snow Queen” from the forthcoming box set on streaming services now.

Elton: Jewel Box begins with John’s 1965 work in his early band Bluesology and goes all the way to his Academy Award-winning song “(I’m Gonna) Love Me” from the soundtrack of his 2019 biopic Rocketman. There are 148 songs in total and several of them have never been released or even bootlegged prior to this box.

Deep Cuts 4LP Vinyl curated Rarities And B-Side Highlights 3LP Vinyl. This gatefold 3-LP set brings together highlights from the ‘Jewel Box’ 8-CD box set and includes selections of Elton’s much sought-after 1960s and early 1970s demos, never previously released, and a series of Elton’s non-album B-sides “And This Is Me” 2LP Vinyl.

This collection contains 148 songs spanning 1965 to 2019, of which 60 are previously unreleased. The first two CDs feature ‘Deep Cuts‘, a selection of personal favourites curated by Elton himself and what follows that are three CDs of Rarities. The rarities include many, many piano demos and band demos mostly recorded before he was signed or had released his first album, Empty Sky, in 1969.

There are 65 tracks in total across the three rarities discs, including the first song ever written by Elton and his debut appearance on a record (both ‘Come Back Baby’– 1965), Elton and Bernie’s first composition (‘Scarecrow’ – 1967), and newly-unearthed piano/vocal demos of some of Elton’s most acclaimed songs from his early albums.

Coinciding with the release of the updated paperback edition of Me, and taken from the 8-disc CD box set ‘Jewel Box’,‘And This Is Me’ celebrates the songs mentioned by name by Elton in his acclaimed memoir, closing with the Elton and Bernie Taupin’s 2020 Academy Award winning ‘(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again’ – a duet with Taron Egerton.

Discs six and seven are B-sides compiled together for the first time. These start from 1976 and go all the way through to 2005. Many of these are being offered on CD for the first time.

The eighth and final disc is Elton’s ‘Mike Yarwood’ CD, it’s called ‘And This Is Me‘. It’s a bit of an excuse to sneak a few proper hits into this set although the justification is to collection songs that are mentioned in Elton’s biography, Me, which is coming out as a paperback edition soon.

The CD set comes in hardcover book-style packaging (it’s not totally clear how big this is) which slots into an outer slipcase. Each section comes accompanied with extensive notes including a track-by-track commentary by Elton for his ‘Deep Cuts’.

In terms of vinyl, you have three options: all 31 ‘Deep Cuts‘ from the first two CDs in the box set are available as a 4LP set. Additionally there is a ‘Rarities & B-sides 3LP vinyl package. This features just over half (‘highlights’) of the 65 rarities from the CD box and just five of the 36 B-sides from the eight-CD box. Finally the ‘And This Is Me‘ compilation which completes the box set is also available as a 2LP vinyl package. Speaking about this Jewel Box release Elton says:

“To delve back through every period of my career in such detail for Jewel Box has been an absolute pleasure. Hearing these long lost tracks again, I find it hard to comprehend just how prolific Bernie and I were during the early days. The songs just poured out of us and the band were just unbelievable in the studio. I always want to push forward with everything I do and look to the future, but having time during lockdown to take stock and pull these moments from my memory from each era has been a joy. As a devout record collector myself, this project has really excited me and I couldn’t be happier with the level of craft involved in such a carefully curated, lovingly constructed box set. I’m sure my fans will enjoy it as much as I have.”

All the audio for Jewel Box was mastered by Sean Magee at Abbey Road Studios and all formats will be released on 13th November via UMC/EMI.

ELVIS COSTELLO – ” Hey Clockface “

Posted: September 20, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , ,
0

Elvis Costello / Hey Clockface

Elvis Costello returns with a new album, Hey Clockface, in October.

It was recorded in Helsinki, Paris and New York and mixed in Los Angeles. The album features the songs ‘No Flag’, ‘Hetty O’Hara Confidential’ and ‘We Are All Cowards Now’. Following the solo recording of those three tracks at Suomenlinnan Studio, Helsinki in February 2020, Costello immediately travelled to Paris for a weekend session at Les Studios Saint Germain. Costello says: “I sang live on the studio floor, directing from the vocal booth. We cut nine songs in two days. We spoke very little. Almost everything the musicians played was a spontaneous response to the song I was singing. I’d had a dream of recording in Paris like this, one day.”

Like 2018’s Look Now, the album is produced by Elvis Costello and Sebastian Krys. It’s available as a 2LP vinyl set and on CD. The official (US-based) store has an enormous array of bundles, with some signed options.

Elvis Costello is also working with Universal Music on a major reissue campaign which will start with a six-record set based on his 1979 album “Armed Forces”.

Speaking to promote the forthcoming album Hey Clockface, Costello said that his “catalogue has been in some disarray for a number of years” and that he recently “went to a meeting at a record company for the first time since the ’90s” to discuss reissue plans”.

He added: “who better than the person who wrote the songs to tell you what else is there [in the archive] – things that I never released, live recordings”.

He tells  us that Armed Forces will be “the first” thing to come out and that “the package will include three live recordings ranging from the summer of ’78 to the summer of ’79, so it traces the development of the Attractions as a live act, from a club combo to a successful pop group – it’s quite interesting to hear. I had expert help in photographing my handwritten notebooks. So you’re getting something”

Curiously, Elvis also says: “We’ve done a new version of one of my albums from my  back catalogue, and that’s going to come out next April. And we’re making a compilation based on [1998 album with Burt Bachararch] Painted From Memory in the hope that we’ll complete the picture with some other songs we’ve written that people still haven’t heard”.

When asked if he was going to do this with all his albums, the response was “If we can”.

Interesting stuff. Elvis Costello and Demon Records were early pioneers of the expanded CD reissue’s Of Costello Albums with a series of excellent releases in early-to-mid 1990s. The same albums were reissued about 10 years later with even more material – an extra CD’s worth. Despite these seemingly exhaustive reissues, Universal Music still managed to release new 2CD deluxe editions of My Aim Is True and This Year’s Model in 2008.

Elvis Costello’s new album, Hey Clockface will be released on 30th October 2020.

SON VOLT – ” Notes Of Blue “

Posted: September 20, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , ,
0

You could say that 2013’s “Honky Tonk” was Son Volt’s “country” album, and the group’s latest is its “blues” album. Reality is rarely that cut and dried, however. So it’s probably best to say that the new “Notes Of Blue” on Thirty Tigers  toys with the achy bluster of ’90s Son Volt—though within an intermittent blues framework. “Overall, the end result winds up being more of an exploration of how various styles intersect with the blues,” says Jay Farrar of the band’s eighth studio release.

Twenty-two years ago, Son Volt kicked off Farrar’s post-Uncle Tupelo run with a definitive bang. Equal to or greater than anything his former group could muster, Trace has been a tough act to follow and it doesn’t help that the album sounds as wrenchingly relevant now as it did in 1995.

As if to simultaneously acknowledge and contain Trace’s considerable shadow, Farrar embarked on a series of subdued shows in 2015 to promote an expanded 20th-anniversary reissue. This was not the Son Volt of old. “It was a good opportunity to reassess those songs and present them in a different way,” says Jay Farrar of his last tour.

Self-produced with help from the revered John Agnello, Notes Of Blue actually benefits from some bait-and-switch tactics. After opening with a pair of tunes—“Promise The World” and “Back Against The Wall”—that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on Trace, Farrar abruptly puts on his blues big-boy pants for a series of songs that are as much a departure from the SV formula as you’re likely to hear. On “Cherokee Street,” “Midnight” and the skull-rattling “Static” and “Lost Souls,” Farrar’s sheer determination to work within the limitations of the idiom—the alternate tunings; the simple, succinct lyrics addressing sin, struggle, escape and redemption—actually frees him up to explore new instrumental textures and vocal approaches. Nothing dramatic, mind you just enough to signal growth and evolution for a guy who just turned 50.

To keep things honest, Farrar adhered to the tunings of Mississippi Fred McDowell and Skip James, even cribbing lyrical snippets from old blues numbers as starting points. For further inspiration, he turned to the ragged rural beauty witnessed in the field recordings of music historian George Mitchell (think R.L. Burnside). “The guys at Fat Possum gave me that box set years ago,” says Farrar. “It’s that cross-pollination over centuries that sparks such creativity in music.”

On Notes Of Blue, it all comes together with ferocious perfection on “Sinking Down,” courtesy of Farrar’s darkly orchestral slide guitar and a relief valve of a bridge that emerges with all the beauty of an unexpected vista on a long, unrelenting drive through our country’s Trump-crazed midsection. “After doing those acoustic Trace shows, I definitely wanted to get back to playing some electric guitar,” says Farrar. “I even brought out the Webster Chicago amp used in the photograph for Trace, and this is also the first time I’ve played lead since Trace. So there’s a thread of continuity there.”

ROYAL GREEN – ” Royal Green ” Bryan Devendorf of The National

Posted: September 20, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , ,
0

The National's Bryan Devendorf. Credit: Graham MacIndoe

Although The National are not slated to be releasing music in 2020, the members have been keeping more than busy. Aaron Dessner has worked with Taylor Swift on Folklore, Matt Berninger has a new solo album out in October, and now the band’s drummer Bryan Devendorf has released his debut solo album under the name Royal Green. The album takes on a more electronic, experimental approach, and features contributions from Aaron Dessner and Muzz’s Josh Kaufman. The eight-song effort showcases Devendorf’s individual strength as a songwriter, with each track containing multitudes of instrumental and lyrical depth.

Considering that The National are taking some time off, you’ve probably seen their name mentioned a lot lately – what with frontman Matt Berninger‘s anticipated solo record and guitarist Aaron Dessner having a big hand in Taylor Swift‘s latest release, drummer Bryan Devendorf arrives with the surprise release of his new project Royal Green, but he’s not here for any headlines or glory!

“I’m trying to keep it low-key,” before the record is due to drop. “I’m just the drummer checking in!”. The self-titled album consists of four originals and three covers of the likes of The Beatles, Bob Dylan and Fleetwood Mac. The lyrics were written by a friend, and I adapted them. I definitely relate to them. It’s quite introspective. It’s trying to not take itself too seriously, but be serious about it! There’s a nostalgia theme to the whole album. I’m taking stock of my life and memories and putting them to song.” ‘Dreams’ by Fleetwood Mac is one of those songs I heard on the radio when I was three or four. It blew me away – her voice, the drumming, it was all so appealing. As for The Beatles song, well, all my life I’ve been accosted by people saying, ‘Hey man – you look like John Lennon!’ I liked The Beatles as a kid and thought this song was cool so I set it to different chords. The Dylan song reminds me of a transitional time in my life when I was trying to develop a more permanent relationship with my current spouse.”

Royal Green, the debut album from Bryan Devendorf (The National, LNZNDRF) with sound designer Nate Martinez.

TOLD SLANT – ” Point The Flashlight and Walk “

Posted: September 20, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , , , ,
0

Told Slant is Felix Walworth’s dark and evil band, Told Slant, the solo project of Brooklyn songwriter Felix Walworth, has announced a new album “Point the Flashlight and Walk”, out on November 13th via Double Double Whammy. It’s the follow-up to 2016’s Going By. Told Slant also unveiled two singles from the new album— “Family Still” and “No Backpack”—which come with lyric videos shot by Emily Sprague (Florist).

“Family Still” is a poetic exploration of interpersonal dynamics. “Power isn’t taking / It’s making you give in freely / And I hope you don’t come home / and think it’s enough to be near me,” Walworth sings in a gentle tone. This layered acoustic track excels in its dissection of the complicated shades of intimacy: “What can be said of desire / when every longing instilled in my heart was instilled in such a violent world?”

“No Backpack” also delves into closeness, mixing in both cynicism and romanticism. There’s cherished imagery of angled zippers on a leather jacket and a life packed inside a Honda, which plays into the song’s core conflict—its competing views of love: cautious and self-protective or idealized and reckless. “I don’t want to run with you / when there’s someone you’re devoted to / You’re always living with a trapdoor under you,” Walworth sings.

Walworth said of the new songs:

“Family Still” and “No Backpack” are meant to be listened to in succession. They explore the concepts of devotion and togetherness as both liberatory and self-negating, and mount these explorations from a place of sober reflection and indulgent fantasy.

http://

Releases November 13th, 2020

instruments and words by Felix Walworth
arranged, performed, and recorded by Felix Walworth

Older Entries
Newer Entries