A decade-plus into his career and it seems that Kristian Matsson aka The Tallest Man On Earth is re-finding his voice. “The Running Styles of New York” finds its footing somewhere in the sweet spot between the raw, urgent work of Matsson’s early work and the lush-sounding output from his last few full-lengths, much like the songs on the tremendous EP he slowly revealed last year. It’s weird to say this after all this time, but I think this might be the best The Tallest Man on Earth has ever sounded.
Head and shoulders above the rest, Swedish indie folk star Kristian Matsson is The Tallest Man on Earth. Having got everyone excited with his newly released single ‘The Running Styles Of New York’, Matsson also announces a UK tour following his slot support Bon Ivor at All Points East.
“The Running Styles Of New York” is from The Tallest Man On Earth’s forthcoming album ‘I Love You. It’s A Fever Dream.’ out in April.
Rosie Tucker’s songs can be wry and funny, but they’re always sincere, with a gift for metaphor and a clear understanding of just how precarious life can be. Tucker examines the aftermath of a painful loss in “Lauren,” interrogates a hard-wired tendency to stay quiet in “Habit” and paints a loving everyday portrait of crucial safe spaces in “Gay Bar,” which closes with a pointedly chosen Dusty Springfield sample.
Goodness, this one came out of nowhere and absolutely punched me right in the face. There’s something so engrossing about those moments when everything cuts out and Rosie starts rattling off her pointed observations, memories and/or grievances with old loves that won’t die (and maybe never fully will, honestly). They are my favorite moments in a song so far in 2019.
If I were Wolfy I’d know how to deliver a disarmingly funny & deceptively heartfelt thank you in ten words or less. Given that I’m stuck being myself, bear with … thank you to Wolfy for being objectively good at art, to Jessica Reed for being one take wonderful, to Anna Arboles for being the Tegan to my Sara and the Brandi to my Carlile. Greg Katz, thank you for insisting that these songs are worth the work. This album wouldn’t have reason to exist without listeners like you. -Ro
Written and performed by Rosie Tucker
Produced by Wolfy
Guitars by Anna Arboles
Drums by Jessica Reed
Psych-stalwarts Brian Jonestown Massacre will release their 18th full-length album on Anton Newcombe’s own A Recordings label on the 15th March. The self-titled nine track record comes just seven months after their last one.
This is “Tombes Oubliées” from it. Brian Jonestown Massacre will release of their 18th full-length album, just 7 months after their last one. The self-titled 9-track album is released on A Recordings on 15th March 2019. It was recorded and produced at Anton’s Cobra Studio in Berlin. Recorded this time last year, the album features Sara Neidorf on drums, Heike Marie Radeker (LeVent) on bass, Hakon Adalsteinsson (BJM / Third Sound & Gunman & Holy Ghost) on guitar and Anton Newcombe on multiple instruments. Also making a guest vocal appearance on ‘Tombes Oubliées’ is Rike Bienert who has sung on previous BJM albums. The band performed songs from the album throughout the European leg of the 2018 tour.
Anton Newcombe has been a very busy man these past 5 years, having released 4 critically acclaimed Brian Jonestown Massacre albums and an EP, 1 soundtrack album and 2 albums with Tess Parks. All releases were fully recorded and produced at Anton’s studio.
The ever-evolving musical vehicle for notorious psych-rock brain trust Anton Newcombe, the Brian Jonestown Massacre has endured numerous phases and iterations since arriving in the mid-’90s, becoming something of an independent institution in the process.
Larissa Sapko had set two goals for herself in the summer of 2013: find a job, and start a band. Once she got a job, the band wasn’t far behind. She asked her friend Kian Sorouri if he would like to play guitar (he did), and he in turn asked Jim Dobrowolski if he would like to play drums (he learned how, and he did). What It Is came out in December 2013, and Loose Tooth enjoyed a year of playing local shows and weekenders in the Northeast.
After hearing that Jimmy was moving to Costa Rica, Christian Bach and Kyle Laganella stepped forward and volunteered their shredding skills to keep Loose Tooth moving up and onward. After reworking their first EP What It Is and writing some new songs in the process, the band’s debut record Easy Easy East was ready to rip.
After touring on Easy Easy East throughout 2015, the band came together to start writing their follow up record Big Day. The songs on Big Day developed a more cohesive feeling as the four became more comfortable playing together. Big Day is set to be released in April of 2017 on Father/Daughter Records and Lame-O Records.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard return on Friday April 26th 2019 with a new album “Fishing for Fishies”, perhaps their most perfectly-realised album to date. Released on Flightless Records world-wide, here is a world where the organic meets the automated; where the rustic meets the robotic. Where the past and future collide in the beautiful present. Having returned in late January with a regulation mind-blowing video to Cyboogie, the first track to be taken from the album, the band have today shared their latest Jason Galea directed video to the album’s title track, Fishing For Fishies.
The fourteenth album since their 2012 debut – and their first following the release of five vastly different albums in 2017 – Fishing for Fishies is a blues-infused blast of sonic boogie that struts and shimmies through several moods and terrains. From the soft shuffle Outback country of the opening title track through the sunny easy listening of ‘The Bird Song’ (think the lysergically-soaked Laurel Canyon circa 1973) and on through the party funk of ‘Plastic Boogie’ (which somehow summons the spirit of Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions) the road-trucking, Doors-like highway rock of ‘The Cruel Millennial’ and ‘Real’s Not Real’ – it’s a dizzying, dazzling display which addresses a number of pertinent environmental issues along the way.
“We tried to make a blues record,” says frontman Stu Mackenzie. “A blues-boogie-shuffle-kinda-thing, but the songs kept fighting it – or maybe it was us fighting them. Ultimately though we let the songs guide us this time; we let them have their own personalities and forge their own path. Paths of light, paths of darkness. This is a collection of songs that went on wild journeys of transformation.”
Quiet though it was on the record front, 2018 was hardly a year of rest – almost in perpetual motion, they continued their un-stoppable rise as their juggernaut of a live show grew, and grew, and grew with a mind-blowing headline slot at last year’s Green Man Festival, a massive sold-out U.S. tour in the summer which saw them play their biggest venues to date, a brain-frying sold out Brixton Academy show, 2 gigs in Russia & Istanbul in March where they played in front of over 15,000 people and putting on the 4th edition of their annual ‘Gizzfest’ in Melbourne amongst the highlights.
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard are: Stu Mackenzie (vocals/guitar/flute), Ambrose Kenny-Smith (harmonica/vocals), Cook Craig (guitar/vocals), Eric Moore (drums), Joey Walker (guitar), Lucas Skinner (bass) & Michael Cavanagh (drums).
Psychedelic Porn Crumpets may have the greatest band name of all time, but beyond that they’re also pretty damn good at throwing down some impressive guitar work. This seven minute long masterpiece opens slowly and hypnotically with some crisp, easy listening chords.
This track reaches absolute climax around minute four and stays strong for the remainder – they’ll have you holding on from note to note. The squeaky clean and ever-evolving riff work here is guaranteed to command your complete attention from start to finish.
Real Gone Music has announced its offerings for the 2019 Record Store Day celebration, taking place at your local brick-and-mortar shop Saturday, April 13th, and they include a pair of rarities releases from two beloved bands,
Badfinger, So Fine–The Warner Bros. Rarities(2-LP Red Vinyl Edition) (2,000 copies)
Most folks point to Badfinger as the greatest power pop band of all time. But, with four accomplished songwriters in Tom Evans, Mike Gibbins, Pete Ham, and Joey Molland, and the creative assistance and imprimatur of The Beatles, Badfinger should have been bigger stars than they were. Their four albums for The Beatles’ Applelabel get most of the attention, and understandably so, with hits like “Come and Get It,” “No Matter What,” “Day by Day,” and “Baby Blue.” But their subsequent two albums for Warner Bros. represent their true creative peak, reached even as the band–and the lives of the members of the band–fell apart.
In late 2018, Real Gone Music, together with Badfinger biographer Dan Matovina, took a fresh look at Badfinger’s brilliant but ill-fated Warner Bros. albums, Badfinger and Wish You Were Here. Not only did the two CD releases offer the first new remastering of the original albums since their maiden release on CD, but they also each boasted an extra album’s worth of unreleased bonus material featuring alternate mixes and newly-discovered songs. The releases caused a flurry of fresh interest in the band, and a furor among Badfinger fans, who to this day rank as some of the most passionate in all of rock and roll.
Now, exclusively for Record Store Day, Real Gone Music is bringing the previously unreleased material that premiered on its Badfinger CD releases to vinyl for the first time. Each disc on the 2-LP set, So Fine–The Warner Bros.Rarities, presents the alternate versions of the songs on each album in the order they originally appeared, followed by one previously unreleased song (in the case of Badfinger, “Love My Lady”; in the case of Wish You Were Here, “Queen of Darkness”). Along with piquant quotes from producer Chris Thomas, Matovina’s liner notes include for the first time track-by-track breakdowns of the differences between the alternate and original mixes. John Golden has cut the lacquers for these releases at Golden Mastering.
The hard stuff saga continues with Brown Acid – The Eighth Trip! Yet again, we’ve searched high and low to bring you ten tracks of straight blue flame fire from the golden age of heaviness. As usual, these rare tracks have been carefully curated, analogically sourced, and fully licensed so you can listen guilt free and save a lot of time and money tracking down the original copies. This Eighth Trip comes straight at ya with an all out attack, quite literally. The residents of St. Clair Shores should consider themselves lucky to have been so close to the greatness of Attack!“School Daze” kicks out the jams Detroit-style, but has enough flair and style to have our main man Jimi rolling over in his grave. Another prime example of why Detroit is known as Rock City!
Speaking of rock, White Rock will knock your stank-ass socks off with their 1972 burner “Please Don’t Run Away”. This 45 was privately released by this Houston-based band that reportedly played shows with Josefus, Stone Axe, and Purple Sun. And it was basically unknown until it surfaced at the Austin Record Convention in 2018! The fact that there are still completely unknown records out there to be discovered never ceases to amaze us. They don’t say “Don’t Mess With Texas” for nothin’! Riverside called Austin home way before anyone was worried about keeping it weird. This two-sider from 1974 rips from front to back. It’s also exclusively available here and is virtually unknown. Go ahead, try to look for it anywhere. Currently, there’s no proof anywhere online that it exists.
From our neighbours up north, we bring you Luke and the Apostles! Don’t be fooled by the name, this ain’t no Xian group, even though this 45 is of biblical proportions. The flip of this single “You Make Me High” is a Faces-esque ballad of the highest caliber that will move you to tears if you’re not careful with it, but “Not Far Off” isn’t about moving you emotionally; it’s about moving you physically. Fuck jam? We think so. The Doors and Elektra Records’ producer Paul Rothchild called the Luke and the Apostles LP the “greatest album [he] never got to make”. The lyrics to this 1977 single on Vacation Records are about as boneheaded as it gets. Hard rock songs from working class men about working hard and letting loose is a common theme in the Brown Acid realm, and “I Need My Music” by Mine Hill, New Jersey’s Tourists, is yet another great one to get you through the work week. I think we can all agree: we need our music too…among other things! Ohio strikes again. This time a bit later than the other Buckeye State singles we’ve comped, but no less bangin’! On the Chance record label, the Bartos Brothers Band is billed as Gambler, but post-release, the band covered at least some of the copies with stickers that corrected this. There’s very little information about the Bartos Brothers Band online, and as of this writing, the release date is incorrect on Discogs and the Popsike hit very wrongly lists the genre as “Glam/Hair Metal” from the 1980s. We’re stoked to be compiling this single for the first time ever and to be setting the record straight.
And yet again, Ohio brings the thunder! We brought you the B-side of Inside Experience’s sole 45 back on the ThirdTrip and now we exhaust the band’s output by presenting their especially psychedelic cover of Cream’s “Tales of Brave Ulysses”. The band pressed and sold out of 500 copies of this record back in 1968 thanks to some airplay on Detroit’s CKLW, but they never recorded again. However, Inside Experience’s lead guitarist and singer, Marty Soski, went on to play in Lance (as heard on the Fifth Trip) and two metal bands which you will be hearing sooner than later… Karma, slightly better known as The Contents Are, released an LP and a 45 in 1967 and then followed up with their swan song “New Mexico” in 1969. The single was oddly released under Karma on the Onk Enterprizez label with “N.S.U.” as the B-side and on Rok Records as the flip to “Future Days” as The Contents Are. Apparently, Mercury Records bought the rights to the Rok 45 with the intention to release it nationally, but never actually got around to it. Their loss!
Obviously we don’t need to go into how much great music Memphis, Tennessee has brought us over the years, but Moloch doesn’t usually get mentioned when we’re talking about the “Home of the Blues” and the “Birthplace of Rock and Roll.” Maybe we should change that. Moloch played with The MC5 and The Stooges and recorded an LP in 1969 for the Stax subsidiary, Enterprise Records. Although the band made a great blues rock record, it sadly didn’t get the love it deserved and the band folded. Moloch guitarist, Lee Baker, reformed the band with a slightly different line-up and released this 45 in 1972 against great odds. It too was unfairly overlooked…until now.
While we’re still talking about Memphis, y’all ever heard of this guy, Elvis Presley? Apparently, he was kind of a big deal and popularized a song called “Heartbreak Hotel” back in 1956. That’s cool and all, but damn us if we don’t dig Grump’s 1969 take on the song a whole hell of a lot more than the King’s version. Maybe that’s sacrilege, but nothing’s sacred when it comes to Brown Acid.
Some of the best thrills of the Internet music revolution is the ability to find extremely rare music with great ease. But even with such vast archives to draw from, quite a lot of great songs have gone undiscovered for nearly half a century — particularly in genres that lacked hifalutin arty pretense. Previously, only the most extremely dedicated and passionate record collectors had the stamina and prowess to hunt down long forgotten wonders in dusty record bins — often hoarding them in private collections, or selling at ridiculous collector’s prices. Legendary compilations like Nuggets, Pebbles, ad nauseum, have exhausted the mines of early garage rock and proto-punk, keeping alive a large cross-section of underground ephemera. However, few have delved into and expertly archived the wealth of proto-metal, pre-stoner rock tracks collected on Brown Acid. Lance Barresi, co-owner of L.A./Chicago retailer Permanent Records has shown incredible persistence in tracking down a stellar collection of rare singles from the 60s and 70s for the growing compilation series. Partnered with Daniel Hall of RidingEasy Records, the two have assembled a selection of songs that’s hard to believe have remained unheard for so long.
“I essentially go through hell and high water just to find these records,” Barresi says. “Once I find a record worthy of tracking, I begin the (sometimes) extremely arduous process of contacting the band members and encouraging them to take part. Daniel and I agree that licensing all the tracks we’re using for Brown Acid is best for everyone involved,” rather than simply bootlegging the tracks. When all of the bands and labels haven’t existed for 30-40 years or more, tracking down the creators gives all of these tunes a real second chance at success.
“There’s a long list of songs that we’d love to include,” Barresi says. “But we just can’t track the bands down. I like the idea that Brown Acid is getting so much attention, so people might reach out to us.”
Brown Acid: The Eighth Trip will be available everywhere on LP, CD and download on April 20th, 2019.
Already a tremendous star, 1969 was a year of change for Janis Joplin. Her legendary performance at WoodstockFestival came just weeks before the release of her first solo album, “I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama!” Both that record and this live set, which is available on vinyl for the first time, pointed to the new, exciting direction her music would take and helped define an incredible moment in music history.
To celebrate 50 years since the Woodstock Festival , Legacy Recordings will release Janis Joplin’s full set from the iconic festival on vinyl for the first time. Joplin had already had significant success by the time she performed there. Her first albums had established her as one of the best in the psych-rock scene. By 1969, she was changing directions with her first-ever solo effort, I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama! which would arrive a few weeks after her performance.
Together, the album and the Woodstock set saw Joplin performing in full gear, but shifting toward soul and blues music, rather than the psychedelic fare that had brought her stardom. Tracks like “Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)” and her cover of The Bee Gees’ “To Love Somebody” are soul-stirrers on the studio album, and at Woodstock, she imbued them with even more passion and intensity. Already a tremendous star, 1969 was a year of change for Janis Joplin. Her legendary performance at Woodstock came just weeks before the release of her first solo album, I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama! Both that record and this live set, available on vinyl for the first time on Record Store Day 2019, pointed to the new, exciting direction her music would take and helped define an incredible moment in music history.
Lucinda Williams recently sat down with Jessie Scott to talk about the 20th anniversary of her groundbreaking album ‘Car Wheels On A Gravel Road’. Williams is touring with her band in celebration of the 20 years of the songs like “Jackson” and “Drunken Angel” which she played and recorded for a session at Colin Linden’s Nashville studio.
It was her fifth studio album by the singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams. It was recorded and co-produced by Williams in Nashville, Tennessee and Canoga Park, California, before being released on June 30th, 1998, by Mercury Records. The album features guest appearances by Steve Earle and Emmylou Harris. It was Willams’ first album to go gold, She also won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album, and received a nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for the single “Can’t Let Go”.
Lucinda Williams makes this whole music thing seem so simple: Write in plain language about the people and places that crowd your memory; add subtle flavors of a mandolin here, a Dobro there, perhaps an accordion or slide guitar; above all, sing as honestly and naturally as you can. Of course, it took her six years to achieve this simplicity, an amazing achievement considering the number of knobs that were turned. Her exquisite voice moans and groans and slips and slides–she delivers a polished tone in a coarse manner. On the superb “Concrete and Barbed Wire”, soft acoustic guitars are punctuated by electric slide, accordion, mandolin, and Steve Earle’s harmony. Williams’s deeply personal stories are matched with bluesy rumbles, raunchy grooves, and plaintive whispers. The entire Deep South is reduced to a sleepy small town filled with ex-lovers, dive bars, and endless gravel roads.
Williams’s evocations of rural rootlessness–about juke joints, macho guitarists, alcoholic poets, loved ones locked away in prison, loved ones locked away even more irreparably in the past–are always engaging in themselves. And they mean even more as a whole, demonstrating not that old ways are best,
It isn’t surprising that Lucinda Williams‘ level of craft takes time to assemble, but the six-year wait between “Sweet Old World” and its 1998 follow-up, “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road”, still raised eyebrows. The delay stemmed both from label difficulties and Williams‘ meticulous perfectionism, the latter reportedly over a too-produced sound and her own vocals. Listening to the record, one can understand why both might have concerned Williams. Car Wheels is far and away her most produced album to date, which is something of a mixed blessing.
Its surfaces are clean and contemporary, with something in the timbres of the instruments (especially the drums) sounding extremely typical of a late-’90s major-label roots-rock album. While that might subtly alter the timeless qualities of Williams‘ writing, there’s also no denying that her sound is punchier and livelier. The production also throws Williams‘ idiosyncratic voice into sharp relief, to the point where it’s noticeably separate from the band. As a result, every inflection and slight tonal alteration is captured, and it would hardly be surprising if Williams did obsess over those small details. But whether or not you miss the earthiness of Car Wheels‘ predecessors, it’s ultimately the material that matters, and Williams‘ songwriting is as captivating as ever. Intentionally or not, the album’s common thread seems to be its strongly grounded sense of place — specifically, the Deep South, conveyed through images and numerous references to specific towns. Many songs are set, in some way, in the middle or aftermath of not-quite-resolved love affairs, as Williams meditates on the complexities of human passion.
The final version of Car Wheels on a Gravel Road was produced by E.Street Band Roy Bittan
