Indie rock veteran Hamilton Leithauser follows his earlier studio release “The Loves of Your Life” with a new live album featuring selections from his annual residencies at New York City’s iconic Cafe Carlyle. Each is from January’s performance. Hello world! My live record is now streaming everywhere. There is also a handsome white vinyl edition now available here. I invite you to please pull up a chair and escape today’s worries with a listen.
“I didn’t realize at the time that the 5 shows I played in January at Cafe Carlyle would be the only live shows I would do in 2020,” he said in a press statement. “I’m glad I recorded one of them. I found the tapes a few months later during this quarantine, and realized I wanted to share a bunch of them with a wider audience. I’m glad I recorded one of them. I found the tapes a few months later during this quarantine, and realized I wanted to share a bunch of them with a wider audience. The band was awesome, and it’s the closest thing to playing live I have right now, so it really was a fun thing to put together. I’ve only ever played most of these songs 4-5 times, so we were really still learning them that night. Playing live is such a big part of my life, and I don’t know when I’ll actually be able to do it again, so in the meantime, I hope this record might transport the listener for 30 minutes to a small, candle-lit cafe table in an overcrowded room while my band is ripping it up.
Very excited to announce that those tapes make up Live! at the Café Carlyle LP, which will be yours on Friday, September 4th
Hamilton Leithauser performing “Isabella” from his upcoming album “The Loves of Your Life” at The Carlyle Hotel in New York City.
“Here They Come” performed by Hamilton Leithauser live @ the Carlyle Hotel in NYC
Wish You Hadn’t, was the debut EP from Philadelphia’s Corey Flood, was both unnerving and calm—hushed vocals and plaintive pop melodies softened their brooding guitars. Now, two years later, their debut full-length “Hanging Garden” is out, and it has a similar wired fuzziness, but their melodies are a bit sunnier this time. Although their distorted post-punk is still fairly grey-skied, their classic indie-pop sweetness is a small break in the clouds. Lines like “Maybe it is really nothing / but I was in love” from the driving jam “Down the Hill” underscore their melancholia perfectly. Their abstract, evocative lyrics are deeply contemplative cyclones—just like their saw-toothed guitars will rattle around your brain, thoughts swirl until they begin to fester, gnawing at one’s psyche.
Corey Flood’s first EP was self-described as “basement goth”: a dark, brooding rock record that nestled itself in the corners of the listener’s mind. Their debut full-length, out today on Fire Talks, follows along a similar path, but given the extra room to move around, the Philly-based trio (Ivy Gray-Klein on vocals and bass; Em Boltz on vocals and guitar; Juliette Rando on drums) take the time to explore a wider range of sounds and lend a depth to their lyrics.
With simple melodies repeated in each song, Hanging Garden can put the listener in a dream-like state and flow seamlessly from one song into another, but listen closer and you can hear ideas running throughout the album: an atmosphere of distrust, strained relationships, and recklessness versus caution.
From Corey Flood’s debut album ‘Hanging Garden’ Out September 4th 2020 on Fire Talk.
The Allman Betts Band has returned with their stunning sophomore album “Bless Your Heart”. The band recorded at Muscle Shoals Sounds Studio on two-inch tape, just as they did with their debut, Down To The River. The band enlisted veteran producer Matt-Ross Spang (Jason Isbell, Margo Price, John Prine and Elvis Presley) who also produced Down To The River. Bless YourHeart shows the band stretching their musical legs making it quite apparent that they have gelled into a tour de force. The musical themes in their latest effort hit on everything from serious and deeply personal themes, to light-hearted music that will make you want to boogie.
If Down To The River was the sound of the band’s combustible sparks igniting, then Bless Your Heart is their bonfire, built for the summer of 2020 and beyond; a double-album follow-up fuelled by road-forged camaraderie and telepathic musical intensity, vibrantly reflecting the individual and collective experiences of these seven, all drawing inspiration from the band’s symbolic hometown—a place Devon Allman calls “the United States of Americana.
Although I liked The Allman Betts Band debut album, it did not leave a real lasting impression. This album is a very different story. I love it. The musical inspirations are obvious but Devon Allman and Duane Betts are not slaves to it and add their own take on the Allman Brothers Band musical legacy. Devon and Duane are joined by another musical family member Berry Duane Oakley on bass, honouring his late father Berry Oakley. This being a Southern Rock tinged effort, you need three guitars and Devon and Duane are joined by Johnny Stachela on the slippery slide guitar. Also noted keys player John Ginty adds some great background colouring on the Hammond and the Rhodes. Of course there had to be two drummers, stand up John Lum and R Scott Bryan.
The opening track ‘Pale Horse Rider’ really sets the mood and proves that Devon Allman is a fine singer, a broody and stormy piece with the guitars all combining perfectly. ‘King Crawler’ could easily pass for a track off ‘Exile on Main Street’ by the Stones with great sax work by Art Edmaiston . The 12 minute instrumental ‘Savannah’s Dream’ brings back memories of the Allman Brothers debut, Devon and Duane plus Johnny do Duane and Dickey proud with their guitar work. Devon and Duane’s singing impresses throughout.
There is so much to enjoy here as the long running time of 13 tracks and 71.15 minutes really give the songs a chance to breath and the band the opportunity to flex their considerable musical muscles.
This is a very good album by any classic rock standard.
Picking up from where the Allman Brothers Band left off, Devon Allman (son of Gregg), Duane Betts (son of Dickey) and Berry Duane Oakley establish their own identity on their sophomore release.
One of the more difficult side effects of this very strange year is bidding farewell to a number of musical luminaries due to the COVID-19 pandemic. John Prine‘s passing looms large among them, not only as one of the first cases but in light of the incredible few years he’d had: in 2018, his 18th album The Tree of Forgiveness became his first-ever Top 5 album, and in February 2020, only two months before he died, he earned a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
On October 23rd, fans new and old will have the chance to discover or rediscover what made him such an enduring legend of folk music with the release of a new box set from Rhino Records.Crooked Piece of Time: The Atlantic & Asylum Albums collates his first seven releases from 1971 to 1980, newly remastered and packaged in mini replicas of the original LP jackets. The box, featuring a new painting of Prine by Joshua Petker (inspired by a photo of him taken by Jim Shea), will also include a 20-page booklet featuring new liner notes by David Fricke and poster inserts.
Though an incredibly gifted songwriter, Prine was hiding in plain sight through the late ’60s and early ’70s, delivering mail in Chicago after serving in Vietnam and performing open-mic gigs on the side. But only a few months into his time at the small folk club The Fifth Peg, Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert happened to be in attendance for one of his gigs, and wrote a rapturous review that put Prine on the map. A year later, Kris Kristofferson happened upon a gig, and invited Prine to open for him at The Bitter End in New York City; Jerry Wexler signed him to Atlantic Records off the strength of that performance.
Prine’s song writing catalogue remains among the most evocative American folk music of the late 20th century, and many of his most beloved songs are on this collection, including “Angel From Montgomery,” “Paradise,” “Sam Stone,” “The Great Compromise,” “Christmas In Prison,” “That’s The Way That The World Goes ‘Round” and many more. A host of luminaries have covered his songs over the years, spreading their influence far beyond his original albums, including Johnny Cash, Bonnie Raitt, John Denver, George Strait, Norah Jones, The Everly Brothers, Bette Midler and Tammy Wynette.
Pre-order Crooked Piece of Time at the links below and check out a list of each album included in the set below. Additionally, links are live for new vinyl pressings of the first four albums in this set, due out September 18th.
Crooked Piece of Time: The Atlantic & Asylum Albums (Rhino, 2020)
Disc 1: John Prine (Atlantic SD 8296, 1971) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
Disc 2: Diamonds In The Rough (Atlantic SD 7240, 1972) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
Disc 3: Sweet Revenge (Atlantic SD 7274, 1973) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
Disc 4: Common Sense (Atlantic SD 18127, 1975) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
Disc 5: Bruised Orange (Asylum 6E-139, 1978)
Disc 6: Pink Cadillac (Asylum 6E-222, 1979)
Disc 7: Storm Windows (Asylum 6E-286, 1980)
Wilco’s third album “Summerteeth” is Rhino Record’s latest offering in 2020’s holiday box set season. A 4CD and 5LP edition of the 1999 release, packed with unreleased material, will be issued November 6th.
Wilco have announced that their third LP, 1999’s Summerteeth, will be receiving the Deluxe Edition treatment, set for a November. 6th release. The updated and expanded edition will come in a four-CD or five-LP set.
The four-CD version included a remastered version of the original album and “an entire disc of unreleased studio outtakes, alternate versions and demos that chart the making of the album from song writing demos to alternate studio arrangements to finished masters.” (Quote via press release.) The remaining two discs will be dedicated to a never-before-released live show: “The concert took place late in the Summerteeth tour, on November 1st, 1999 in Colorado at The Boulder Theatre, when the new songs had been road-tested and the band was in top form. Sourced from an uncirculated soundboard recording, it features band members Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, Ken Coomer and Jay Bennett.” (Press release.)
The 5-LP vinyl version will not include the Colorado show; instead, it will feature “a special, exclusive performance from early 1999 titled ‘An Unmitigated Disaster,’ a previously unreleased live in-store performance at Tower Records on March 11th, 1999, just two days after the album was released.” (Quote via press release.) The show will only be available in the LP set.
Both physical and digital formats feature a brand-new remaster of the original album by Bob Ludwig, plus two dozen previously unreleased demos, outtakes and alternate versions. Each set features an unreleased live show as well: the CD featuring an extended, soundboard-sourced set at Colorado’s Boulder Theatre recorded on November 1st, 1999 (well into the band’s tour to promote the album), while the LP includes a Tower Records gig in Chicago the week of Summerteeth‘s release, broadcast on radio station WXRT-FM and labeled here as An Unmitigated Disaster. A “Slow Rhodes Version” of the title track, included on the outtakes set,
Recorded through 1997 and 1998 in Willie Nelson’s Texas recording studio and Chicago’s Kingsize Soundlabs – during which, separately, Wilco recorded and released Mermaid Avenue with Billy Bragg, consisting of unused Woody Guthrie lyrics – the follow-up to 1996’s Being There was markedly different from anything Wilco had ever released. Most of the tunes were written by Jeff Tweedy and company in the studio, and for the first time, the band achieved their desired sound with overdubs. While Summerteeth didn’t outsell Being There, it was critically lauded, making No. 8 on the Village Voice‘s annual Pazz & Jop poll that year.
The deluxe Summerteeth features revisited cover artwork with metallic foil packaging by the band’s Grammy-winning art director Lawrence Azerrad. The band’s official store will also sell a limited colour-vinyl edition of the LP box, topping out at 2000 copies. (The general vinyl box will also be limited to 6500 copies.)
The moniker is simply explained: A phonetic spelling of singer-songwriter Lauren Tarver’s initials. El Tee’s music itself, however, takes a little more elaboration. It’s centred in the realm of indie-rock, but creates an atmosphere that immediately deviates from the norm. Tarver’s vocals know their way around arresting melodies, her words striking a chord with each line pulling at the heartstrings. El Tee writes honest songs about the perennial push-and-pull of holding space for yourself and giving it up for others. Listeners are swept up in stories delivered via introspective lyrics embedded in warm and nostalgic tones of instrumentation. El Tee’s songs saunter through intimate moments, and then drive hard and fast straight into the pit of your heart – all within the same few minutes.
Comparisons to Julia Jacklin and Stella Donnelly are inevitable on ‘Everything Is Fine’, but considering how excellent they’ve been of late, it’s worth keeping an eye on El Tee. A similar trajectory to stardom isn’t out of the question.
El Tee’s forthcoming debut album, ‘Everything Is Fine’, is out 18th September, 2020.
Guitar (rhythm) by Lauren Tarver
Guitar (lead) by Tim Scott
Drums by Andrew McEwan
Bass and BVs by Mimi Gilbert
A decade and a half after their only studio album, Minimum Chips’ Nicole Thibault returns with a brilliant debut solo record. Featuring contributions by members of ORB, Parsnip, The OceanParty and Minimum Chips bandmate Julian Patterson, the melodic avant-pop on ‘Or Not Thibault’ is equally captivating.
With its modestly-constructed yet warm, layered palette of analogue sound and baroque-psych arrangements, the album’s immediate charm underscores its heart: Thibault’s softly sung reflections on often painful circumstances are tender, direct and refreshingly real. In their day, Minimum Chips were thoughtful and deliberate in their movements, releasing their debut full-length some 11 years after forming. Thibault’s debut feels similarly unhurried – and it’s well worth the wait.
New single from Thibault album Or Not Thibault, out 4th September 2020 on pink+black vinyl
Athens, Georgia art rock group Pylon have announced a new 4xLP box set. “Pylon Box” arrives November 6th via New West Records. The set includes remastered versions of both of their studio albums—1980’s “Gyrate” and 1983’s “Chomp”—as well as the group’s first-ever recording, Razz Tape, and more. Listen to “The Human Body” (from Razz Tape) and a live version of “3 x 3”, and scroll down to see a teaser video for the box set. band that married post-punk, new wave, dance and funk, will be celebrated this fall with a new box vinyl box set that collects newly remastered pressings of their first two albums and adds two records of rarities and early recordings.
The songs on Gyrate and Chomp have been remastered from the original tapes and pressed to vinyl for the first time in roughly 35 years. 18 of Pylon Box’s 47 tracks are previously unreleased recordings. A limited number of box sets will be issued with coloured vinyl.
The set also includes an 11-song collection titled Extra, which features a recording from the group before frontwoman Vanessa Briscoe Hay joined the band, as well as a 200-page hardbound, full-colour book with archival images. It features writing by the B-52’s’ Fred Schneider and Kate Pierson, members of Gang of Four, Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein, SteveAlbini, and more. Each copy of “Pylon Box” will be autographed by Pylon’s surviving members: Vanessa Briscoe Hay, Michael Lachowski, and Curtis Crowe.
Pylon spoke about the new box, their influences early on, and more. Here’s an excerpt of what Vanessa Briscoe Hay said about Razz Tape:
Chris [Razz] wanted to record us. He’d recorded us at Chapter Three or at a party or something. He was just a nut about wanting to record things. And so we said sure. I don’t remember that we ever used this for anything, but it was late summer or early fall because it was so warm. I remember that.
I was set up in the hall outside of where [Michael] and Curtis and Randy were. And he kept the tape machine in the hall, which was outside of Michael in my studio, and it was also the band’s practice space. He set the mic up for me in the hall. There were two mics in the room: one was for the drums and the other mic was shared by both the bass and the guitar. Y’all couldn’t see me; I couldn’t see you.
We had some songs that we were trying out that were very recently written. “Read a Book” has the instrumental version; I hadn’t written the lyrics for it, yet. And we’d just written “Cool.” We just went through it. We just plowed through it. It’s not overdubbed, but that’s just what it is. And I cringe at some of the things, but the overall sound and feeling of it is very spontaneous. It’s a beautiful record just because of that and, of course, we threw out a bunch of those songs and they were never recorded.
Pylon formed in 1979 at the University of Georgia. They were contemporaries of Athens groups like the B-52’s, R.E.M., and others. Pylon Box’ is coming November 6th, Colour Vinyl Version Limited to 500 Copies Worldwide.
This comprehensive set includes:
The studio albums ‘Gyrate’ and ‘Chomp’ – newly remastered from the original tapes, and available on vinyl for the first time in more than 30 years ‘Extra’ – a collection of singles, B-sides, rarities and live recordings ‘Razz Tape’ – the first-ever Pylon recording, a 13-song unreleased session that predates our 1979 debut single, “Cool”/”Dub”
Plus a 200 page, full-colour, hardbound book featuring a treasure trove of never before seen images and artifacts from the band’s personal archives, and writings by R.E.M., Kate Pierson of The B-52’s, Corin Tucker & Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney, Steve Albini, Jon King & Hugo Burnham of Gang of Four, and many more
47 tracks including 18 unreleased recordings ‘Gyrate’ and ‘Chomp’ are also available in exclusive coloured vinyl from New West Records (clear editions), Vinyl Me, Please (marble handpour editions), and from independent record stores (opaque red and teal editions).
”Like the Velvet Underground before them, Pylon could be your favourite band’s favourite band.” – NPR Music
Big Thief’s Adrianne Lenker has announced two new albums: songs and instrumentals are both out on October 23rd via 4AD Records. Listen to the new single “Anything” (from songs) below.
Find physical editions of songs and instrumentals at Rough Trade. The albums were recorded in April after Big Thief’s tour was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic. She recorded them entirely analogue in a cabin with engineer Philip Weinrobe. “I grew really connected to the space itself,” Lenker said in a statement. “The one room cabin felt like the inside of an acoustic guitar—it was such a joy to hear the notes reverberate in the space.” She continued:
I had a handful of songs that I was planning on recording, but by the time Phil arrived I was on a whole new level of heartsick and the songs were flying through my ears. I was basically lying in the dirt half the time. We went with the flow. A lot of the focus was on getting nourishment from our meals. We cooked directly on the woodstove, and we went on walks to the creek every day to bathe. I’m grateful that this music has come into existence. These songs have helped me heal. I hope that at least in some small way this music can be a friend to you.
from
Adrianne Lenker,
I’m writing to you from the windy California desert. today i am releasing a body of music that is very dear to me. I feel grateful and fortunate to have had the support of family and friends to make this possible. there is a complete list of credits and the story about making the records if you swipe to the right, which is a copy of what is contained within the folds of the vinyl cover.
amidst globally trying times, this music is merely a tiny drop of an offering. it is a small moment along my own reflective journey, the road of which is ever-widening. there is so much to learn, and I hope to continue to grow in my own compassion and empathy, education and comprehension of humanness and everything beyond. most of the songs are questions more than they are answers. I want to contribute to a more loving and peaceful world in any way I can for as long as I’m alive, I am dedicated to the endless excavation, and I hope my tools for doing so become ever more refined. for now, this is what {‘ve got. some songs and instrumentals. I want to give special thanks to my grandmother for her beautiful artwork, which she always has so dedicatedly tended to. and to Phil Weinrobe for capturing this music and helping me to set it free.
sending love from my speck of dust to yours, as we hurl through space inside of this tiny sphere called earth headed who knows where with each other.
yours,
annie.
Adrianne Lenker’s albums “Songs” and “instrumentals” are out October 23rd, 2020 on 4AD Records.
Lomelda, the stage name of Hannah Read, this month shared the new single “Hannah Sun.” After releasing “Wonder” and “It’s Infinite,” this is Hannah’s third and final preview of her upcoming album, “Hannah”, out Sept. 4 via Double Double Whammy. “This song was written for 3 maybe 4 listeners to hear,” Read said. “But boomer Hannah forgot how the internet works and performed it on YouTube. Now it is for everyone. I am glad that people want to listen to this song, but I don’t understand why they want to.”
Hannah Read takes a breath, counts in “one, two, one, two,” and lets out a sigh. The first moments of Lomelda’s latest album Hannah are not for us but for her. It’s a subtle reset. There’s relief and resignation in having another opportunity to excavate the deepest, stickiest parts of one’s soul again, in a recorded musical form. Since she started putting out music in 2015, one of Read’s goals with Lomelda has been to be honest, with both the audience and herself.
“Hannah Sun” is undoubtedly the centerpiece of Lomelda’s Hannah. It’s a relaxed late-summer jam bristling with woodwinds and a brightness that’s hard to place, but undeniably present. She floats through various locales (“my hometown,” “Chicago,” “Atlanta” and “Jersey,” to name a few) while reminiscing on the lessons learned through a particular relationship (“Glad you held me too, though I didn’t know how to be closer to you,” she sings) before addressing herself directly (“Hannah, do no harm”). Like so many painters and poets have done before her, Hannah Read creates a self-portrait in “Hannah Sun,” and it’s a dazzling thesis for this record.
“The songs on “Hannah” sound unhurried, like they have nothing to prove; even when they’re busy and brash, they feel elementally simple. And there’s perfection in that simplicity.”
Written by Hannah Read Produced by Tommy Read and Hannah Read Vocals, acoustic guitar, bass, piano, fx and synths by Hannah Read Electric guitar by Andrew Hulett 12-string guitar by Tommy Read Drums by Charlie Martin
“Hannah Sun” by Lomelda From ‘Hannah’ out September 4th, 2020 on Double Double Whammy
