Archive for the ‘CLASSIC ALBUMS’ Category

PAUL RODGERS – ” All Right Now “

Posted: June 26, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Paul Rodgers, "Free Spirit"

Paul Rodgers is returning to where it all began, The legendary rocker, known for his work with Free and then later Bad Company, is celebrating the golden anniversary of Free with a new release, Free Spirit: Celebrating The Music of Free, which was recorded at the historic Royal Albert Hall in London.

Being back at a venue that he has played many times was special to Rodgers. “It was wonderful and received so well. There’s a lot of love for the music, and I was very touched by the response.” In addition to CD/DVD and Blu-ray, and album will be released on a medium that was fashionable when he first recorded with Free some five decades ago – vinyl.

“I have a lot of analog. I think a lot of people do. There are a lot of people that are re-discovering it. I still have a lot of my old records from back in the day. It’s a joy to play things like Junior Wells’ ‘Hoodoo Man Blues,’ and John Mayall & The Blues Breakers “Beano” album with Eric Clapton. There’s a warmth that you can still feel. I do think that the ear detects this on some level.”

The song “All Right Now,” which became the band’s signature tune in 1970, Rodgers says it’s a song that has aged well – but one he actually went for years without playing. “When I left Free back in 1972, I didn’t play ‘All Right Now’ until about 1996, when I was touring with Jason Bonham, and we were supporting the tribute record we had done to Muddy Waters. We got calls from the audience to do the song, and I hadn’t done it in so long. Then, the band started calling for it. So, people were calling for it in front of and behind me. I said ‘Okay. Let’s do it.’ It was so refreshing to play, and it has wound up staying in the set. I am amazed at the song and its longevity.”

Between that iconic song, as well as Bad Company hits like “Feel Like Makin’ Love,”, Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Free, captured in front of a sold out crowd during the Free Spirit “Celebrating the Music of Free” Tour at London’s Royal Albert Hall, Paul Rodgers and band perform Free’s greatest hit “All Right Now”.

Rodgers says that playing the songs of Free on the collection was as refreshing as it ever was – with one of the reasons being some of the songs the band never played in concert before. “A lot of the songs we recorded, we’d put the basic track down, then I’d go write the lyrics in the control room, and I’d put the vocal on it, and walk away. That was it. We never performed it live. There were so many tracks like that – ‘Love You So,’ ‘Catch The Train’ – a lot of these songs we were focused on recording, but we didn’t play any of them live. It’s amazing to play them live now and re-discover them now.”

In a career that has seen many highlights, what are some of the moments that stand out for Rodgers? He doesn’t hesitate.

“When I played with Jimmy Page, he would take a solo, and lift the roof off of the building. You would just pinch yourself that you were witnessing it. There were moments with Queen where I would be surrounded by sixty thousand people, and people would be singing along, and you’d think ‘Wow. Am I really here?’ Then, doing the album at Albert Hall, I stood about ten feet back from the mic because the dynamics of the band were so focused. They could play – and you could hear a pin drop. They had the attention of the audience. I was standing back, and singing ‘Be My Friend,’ and it was also a pinch me moment. To promote the release, Rodgers is taking the music to the people. “We’re getting ready to go on tour with Free Spirit, and Jeff Beck is also going to be on the bill.

While his resume includes stints with some of rock’s greatest groups, there was one band that was interested in his services – but couldn’t find him.

“I didn’t know it at the time, but I did a show with a reformed version of The Doors. They came up to me, and said ‘You might not know this, but when Jim Morrison died, we flew over to England, and were looking for you to join us. But, we couldn’t find you.’ I was gobsmacked. I told them that I was in the country hiding away writing with Mick Ralphs writing songs for Bad Company. That was really amazing.

GOVERNESS – ” Zero “

Posted: June 26, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Governess

Since the release of their first single three years ago, the Washington D.C.-based three-piece Governess have become a bit more mellow, adding dreamy power pop to the mix. Bassist Kieca Mahoney, drummer Erin McCarley, and guitarist Kim Weeks all contribute vocals, which frequently blend together in beautiful, haunting harmonies à la Grass Widow. But their shoegazey guitar melodies and sweet-sounding voices often betray the stories behind the songs—see the despairing “Decay,” filled with images of hopelessness. If there is a theme to Zero, released via Sister Polygon Records, it is frustration with the inanity and difficulty of life. “This life is panic / We’re sinking in dark water,” McCarley sings on “Gaslit.” On “Space Garbage,” a droney, atmospheric track, the trio contemplate our existence on Earth as the floating trash of the galaxy. Governess may find existence exhausting, but Zero helps sweeten the here and now.

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New album ZERO
out now on Sister Polygon Records

FLORENCE and the MACHINE – ” Big God “

Posted: June 26, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The band’s previous music has always been opulent, anthemic quality but that is missing from their new track. “Big God” it is sparser, but gorgeously so. If Florence Welch’s ethereal vocals made her sound like a goddess on previous tracks, she’s a distinctly grounded one on “Big God” as she sings of messages left on read and a lopsided relationship. “Is it just part of the process? / Jesus Christ, it hurts,” she asks, and the small wounds feel all too real.

Florence Welch has opened up in a personal interview to The Guardian about why she has given up alcohol after a period of non-stop partying and also about the impact of her Grandmother taking her own life.

Welch is due to release her fourth album High As Hope with Florence + The Machine this Friday and has revealed she drank because she “didn’t know how to come down from touring” as well as heavy drinking before performances to combat her “shyness“.

“That’s when the drinking and the partying exploded, as a way to hide from it,” She added: “I was drunk a lot of the time, on extra dirty Martinis – my way of drinking three shots at once. I was never interested in a nice glass of wine.”

She also spoke of how she ‘rarely slept’ in the early years  with Florence + The Machine and how she would often end up going on ‘two day parties’ and waking up in weird locations wearing other peoples’ clothes.

“The partying was about me not wanting to deal with the fact my life had changed, not wanting to come down” the 31-year-old said. She added: “It always felt like something had picked me up and thrown me around various rooms and houses, then gone ‘boom!’ It happened every time, and every time it was shocking.”

She continued: “When I realised I could perform without the booze it was a revelation. There’s discomfort and rage, and the moment when they meet is when you break open. You’re free.”

The Londoner also opened up about her Grandmother’s tragic suicide and how this has changed her outlook on life. She said: “My mother’s mother committed suicide. And the way she was loved by her mother has related to the way she loves us, which then is the way we love others.”

Before adding: “My grandmother fell, so sometimes I feel like we’re all still in this loop, falling with her. The trickle-down of tragedies.”

ALEX G (SANDY) – ” Live at Third Man Records “

Posted: June 25, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Third Man Records is absolutely ecstatic to be releasing the excellent live document of (Sandy) Alex G’s Blue Room performance. Recorded on the 2017 US tour supporting his critically-acclaimed album Rocket (voted among the best albums of that year) and not long after a notable feature on Frank Ocean’s album Blonde, this standalone LP is his first live set to be captured and made widely available for his very loyal fan base to enjoy.

Featuring work from self-released tapes, Lucky Number, Orchid Tapes and Domino Recordings, this daydreamy and intricate retrospective opens a private window into (Sandy) Alex G’s lovely lyrical wordplay and cozy stage persona.

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CULTURE ABUSE – ” Bee Kind To The Bees “

Posted: June 25, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Culture-Abuse

Culture Abuse, the San Fransisco band who play ratty garage-punk with ridiculously strong melodic hooks, The band’s 2016 debut album Peach was an under-the-radar monster. They’ve collaborated with Wavves a couple of times, a combination that makes a lot of sense. They also just got off tour with Turnstile and Touché Amoré, and that combination makes sense, too. Their music works just fine for moshing, but it’ll rattle around in your head all day, too.

Culture Abuse are part of the Epitaph roster now, and their new album Bay Dream is released very soon. They issued a earlier single “Calm E,” which is good. And now they’ve shared another new song called “Bee Kind To The Bees,” which is even better.

“Bee Kind To The Bees” is a sharp, polished piece of driving, guitar-centric power-pop. If it existed in the age of ’90s alt-pop radio, it might’ve turned Culture Abuse into Better Than Ezra. But as catchy as it might be, it has a messy lovable-loser thing going for it, too.

“Bee Kind To The Bugs” by Culture Abuse from the album ‘Bay Dream,’ available now

STEPHEN MALKMUS And The JICKS — ” Sparkle Hard “

Posted: June 25, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Modesty and plain good manners might prevent them from saying so themselves, but the fact that Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks have thrived, rather than simply endured over 17 years and delivered six albums of buzzy, sub-cultural significance, constitutes an impressive legacy. The challenge with album number seven is one that any successful band with integrity faces: how to safeguard that legacy and hold on to their identity without rehashing old ground (unthinkable), and also say something meaningful while (crucially) having fun doing it? Meeting that issue head on in the run up to The Jicks’ seventh record involved some “navel gazing”, according to singer, songwriter, and guitarist Malkmus and not only in terms of what it means to be releasing music in 2018. If, like him, you’re a voracious consumer of all kinds of culture and feel the need to interact with it, rather than just react, then inevitably “there’s a world that prompts you to put your best foot forward”. With Sparkle Hard Malkmus, Mike Clark (keyboards), Joanna Bolme (bass) and Jake Morris (drums) do exactly that. And they hit the ground running – on air treads.

The former Pavement frontman offers up a collection of simultaneously effortless and intricate songs, reaffirming his ability to write hook-heavy indie rock, and throwing in a few new tricks (vocoder!) along the way. Between a fiddle-fueled duet with Kim Gordon (“Refute”), a chugging rumination on police brutality (“Bike Lane”), and gloaming guitar riffs (“Shiggy,” “Future Suite”), Sparkle Hardis Malkmus’s finest offering with the Jicks so far. And in addition to his melodic triumphs, Malkmus hasn’t lost any of his verbal wit since his last album, 2014’s Wig Out at Jagbags. “You know you should be blushin’ / To a hue of Robitussin” he sings on “Middle America,” while on “Solid Silk,” Malkmus observes that a working man will “Never see the butter side of his daily bread.” Overall, Sparkle Hardis a landmark offering from one of rock and roll’s most enduring figures.

 

MIRANDA WINTERS – ” Xobeci, What Grows Here? “

Posted: June 25, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Image may contain: 1 person, on stage and playing a musical instrument

Miranda Winters is a song-writer and musician best known for her role as the indomitable vocalist / guitarist of Chicago powerhouse, Melkbelly. Drawing on deep roots as a song-writer in Chicago DIY, Winters continues to evolve a signature sound by pursuing her music as a solo artist.

Miranda Winters currently fronts the chaotically good Chicago band Melkbelly, and before that she had her hand in a number of other different projects, including Coffin Ships and a solo endeavor called Flowers Everywhere. Last week, she released the first tape under her own name, titled Xobeci, What Grows Here?.

The songs on it have the same confidence that she exhibits while helming Melkbelly, but distill that into songs that sound skeletal but textured. There’s a sense that some of these, like the penultimate “Glitter House” or “With Love From St. Fake, WI (P.A.M.),” could mutate into one of Melkbelly’s signature squalls with the right ingredients, but the restraint that Winters demonstrates allows her lyricism and sour melodicism to really shine.

They also all act as showcases for Winters’ circuitous guitar skills, which can get lost amongst her main band, but here serve as particular highlights, like on the wiry outro to “A Handy Garden Plot” or with the gentle pluckings of closer “O.T.O Revised.” Winters’ solo material has a way of hooking you in

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Released June 15th, 2018

All songs by Miranda Winters
Miranda Winters – guitar and vocals

Xobeci, What Grows Here? is out now via Sooper Records.

EELS – ” Rusty Pipes “

Posted: June 25, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Eels thedeconstruction cover 3000x3000

After a four year wait, Eels release their highly-anticipated new album The Deconstruction via E Works. “Here are 15 new Eels tracks that may or may not inspire, rock, or not rock you. The world is going nuts. But if you look for it, there is still great beauty to be found. Sometimes you don’t even have to look for it. Other times you have to try to make it yourself. And then there are times you have to tear something apart to find something beautiful inside.” Eels singer-songwriter E (Mark Oliver Everett).

Official video for “Rusty Pipes” from THE DECONSTRUCTION-– Out Now!

Wild Pink – “ Jewels Drossed In The Runoff ”

Posted: June 25, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Wild Pink

Wild Pink have steered their meditative indie rock toward the big sky over the heartland on their new album Yolk In The Fur, which is to say that in addition to sounding like Death Cab For Cutie they also now sound like the War On Drugs. We’ve heard that creative exploration play out on two songs so far, and now we hear a third.

“Jewels Drossed In The Runoff,” a gently swaying guitar ballad with planetarium keyboards, basically skips past the Adam Granduciel worship and goes straight to the source, landing on something like slowcore Tom Petty — appropriate given that Wild Pink frontman John Ross originally hailed from Petty’s home state of Florida. For what it’s worth, Ross tells us, it was mostly inspired by his love for Cocteau Twins. He adds, “It is one of my favorite songs to play live and is partly inspired by growing up in Florida. The song is for all the great people in my life.”

Wild Pink “Yolk In The Fur” out 20th July on Tiny Engines

TUNNG – ” Crow “

Posted: June 25, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Tunng syman fth314 sleeve preview

Some musical partnerships are so strong, intuitive and natural that they almost can’t be separated due to the natural magnetism present in the relationship. One such tight knit songwriting family are Tunng, and their new album Songs You Make At Night reunites founding members Sam Genders and Mike Lindsay (fresh from his LUMP side project with Laura Marling) and the rest of the Tunng gang for the first time since 2007’s Good Arrows. “We really wanted to do a Tunng record going back to the original line up,” Lindsay says. “there was a real magic in the early records that we all wanted to capture again in this one.”

Since forming in 2003 and over the course of five albums, Tunng are a group that have explored the boundaries between acoustic and electronic music, becoming synonymous with the folktronica genre before moving into territory that managed to both evade that label and continue to redefine it. Songs You Make At Night finds a group of people reconnecting with a previous collective state to bring out something new and forward-looking. “We’re all so different but each bring something essential, something Tunng to the party. Be that to the studio, to the stage, to the van, or to the pub. I think that the new songs Mike and Sam have crafted between them have brought out the best in all of us.” confirms singer Becky Jacobs.

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Taken from the forthcoming album “Songs You Make at Night” out 24th August 2018.

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