Archive for the ‘CLASSIC ALBUMS’ Category

NATALIE PRASS – ” Natalie Prass ” Best Albums Of 2015

Posted: March 13, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Welcome to the world of Natalie Prass co-produced by Matthew E. White. It looks a lot like our own, but it’s all painted in bright smears of blue and light pink. There are a lot more horns this time. The year of the ’70s singer-songwriter never really took off again, but Prass album certainly did, and that’s mainly due to the boundless creative energy she exhibits on her debut, where the limits are only as high as her ambition. The 2015 album from the Nashville-based singer/songwriter. Not only one of the sharpest up-and-coming songwriters in Nashville, Natalie Prass possesses a rare artistic method she infuses into all her endeavors. She handcrafts album artwork and flyers and organizes local vinyl listening parties/drawing sessions, and there appears to be little end to the homespun creativity of this bright young talent. She’s also no slouch in the pipes department either — the girl can sing. While her delicate alto evokes clear benchmarks of influence — see early Rilo Kiley, Feist, Karen Carpenter, etc. Natalie Prass never seems weighed down by the artists she’s absorbed. Instead, she has developed a refreshing guitar-grounded musical vocabulary and a knack for infectious and entrancing tunes. Still, it’s a spirit of invitation and friendship that continues to be Prass’ most pronounced attribute.

By crafting ornate, grandiose arrangements about heartbreak and loss and desire, she imbues all of these emotions with the dramatic flair they deserve.

Natalie’s live set also got better as the year went on, but she was never short of surprises throughout it all. One night at the Los Angeles’ Troubadour, Prass brought out Ryan Adams on stage for a couple songs that left the crowd speechless (and she was opening for San Fermin mind you). Prass essentially courses through the entirety of her brilliant debut album (Top Albums of 2015) and her incredible backing band is just as mesmerizing as she is. Trey Pollard on guitar, Michael Libramento on bass and Scott Clark on drums all—like Prass—hail from Richmond, Va. and are all essential to enacting Prass’s live experience. In late October, Natalie performed at a few of our festivals this year, her set was highly intimate. She had a few drinks in her and the confidence of her budding career came through with every joke and every gorgeous note as she was among  one of the best live performances I saw all year

JEFFERSON AIRPLANE – ” Bless Its Pointed Little Head ” (1969) Classic Live Album

Posted: March 13, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Jefferson Airplane’s contribution, the immense “Bless Its Pointed Little Head”, seems to have gone oddly un-heralded, despite being one of the very best of the period. Jefferson Airplane were -and remain- legends of the hippie counter-culture that sprang up in the mid-sixties in San Francisco. Their politically-charged and drug-tinged anthems touched a deep chord in the hearts and minds of California’s youth, whilst the charisma and beauty of singer Grace Slick made them perhaps the most media-friendly of all the West Coast bands bar The Byrds. Their 1967 hits ‘Somebody to Love’ and ‘White Rabbit’ became staples and signatures for an entire generation of American refuseniks.”

No ’60s concert scene was better documented than the San Francisco explosion . But of the official releases that came out at the time, the one to have is this Jefferson Airplane set, recorded during October ’68 dates at SF’s Fillmore West and a month later at Fillmore East in NYC. Here in that time between Monterey and Woodstock, between the albums “Crown Of Creation” and “Volunteers” , the band was growing daily in confidence, muscle and a knack for making the most of the moment. The constantly shifting dynamic of vocal triad Grace Slick, Marty Balin and Paul Kantner was a nimble beast, but more evident than ever was how much the tandem of guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and bassist Jack Casady formed the beating heart of this band.

Must-hear song: Balin’s “Plastic Fantastic Lover” has fury only hinted at on the Surrealistic Pillow studio version . But the real treasure is the version of folk figure Fred Neil’s written staunch and steely “The Other Side Of This Life” , a live Airplane staple from the early days, but never before seeing official release.

The cheat: Not only was it pieced together from several dates, some of the songs themselves are multi-date spliced jobs.

The live rock album really took flight at the end of the decade with Bay Area bands like The Grateful Dead “Live/ Dead”  Quicksilver Messenger Service  “Happy trails” , Big Brother & the Holding  Company(parts of ’68’s ) Cheap Thrills . It made perfect sense: part of the San Francisco mystique was the live experience, the sense of community and unpredictability, bands being given the space—and the state-of-the-art sound systems to take winding (and long) musical trips. With , a combination of 1968 recordings from the Fillmores East and West on both coasts,

The Airplane

Jefferson Airplane made one of the defining albums of the band’s career, with dynamic vocal interplay among its three singers (Marty Balin, Grace Slick, Paul Kantner), a blues spotlight for guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and Rock Me  , a swirling rendition of Donovan’s “Fat Angel” (“Fly Jefferson Airplane, gets you there on time,” it goes, making this a self-referential self-tribute), and a soaring 3/5 of a Mile In Ten Seconds . The Airplane were a strange amalgam, part post-folk (there’s a terrific take on Fred Neil’s “The Other Side Of Life” on ‘Pointed Little Head’), part psychedelic rock, part electric blues, and it could all get scattered, but when it locked in, they were one of the more mesmeric of the groups who came out of San Francisco scene. If you want to get a sense of what made them, on a good night, so special, you can start here.

The OUTDOOR TYPE – ” The Outdoor Type EP “

Posted: March 13, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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It’s just a single 19 minute EP, rather than a full album. But the first recordings by Melbourne Australia’s The Outdoor Type will make you thirst for more. The group has a bright alterna-pop-rock sound, made intimate by folky harmonicas and sweet melodies. Zack Buchanan leads the five man band, using conversational vocals that make obvious his Aussie accent. He’s at his most earnest in “Day To Day”,which features a Groundhog Day-like plot. Even better is the single, “On My Mind”  which may be the catchiest song of this summer. It has a witty, deadpan vocal and a Velvet Underground riff that’s pure bliss.

JESSE BAYLIN – ” Supermoon “

Posted: March 12, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Jessie Baylin laid down tracks with producer Richard Swift, “It’s the truth of my life right now,” Baylin tells us about motherhood , she and her husband, Nathan Followill of Kings of Leon,  I got pregnant through the process [of making the album], and it feels like divine timing. I don’t want [motherhood] to completely define me, because I felt like the message was more vast, but once I started writing these songs, it was, ‘oh this is exactly what needs to be happening for me. I can own all of this and get behind it completely.'”

What makes Strawberry Wind different is that it approaches children’s music in a way that trusts kids to be more mature than we give them credit for, and lets adults be more whimsical than usually permitted. Songs like “Supermoon,” with a visually vibrant video directed by Steven Mertens, is a taste of this unique, youthful dreamland and part of a five-song mini-film that will accompany the release. Baylin wrote the song about her love affair with all things lunar.

“I feel like over the past few years, the moon has hired a publicist,” she says. “I’ve never seen so many super moons and blood moons. I’ve always been a fan of the moon. It’s something that holds a lot of magic and mystery, and the song really wrote itself.”

Like Baylin’s 2015 LP Dark Place, which was written as a reaction to the uncharted and sometimes terrifying waters that come with the birth of a child, Strawberry Wind is deeply connected to motherhood, and to the promises and puzzles presented to parents as they navigate raising the next generation.

 

“The timing of this feels incredibly important,” Baylin says. “Lord knows we could all use some joy and wonder right now.”

 

NAKED GIANTS – ” Sluff “

Posted: March 12, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Naked Giants third single is “Sluff” the title track from their forthcoming album due March 30th.

Everyone is asking Naked Giants what “Sluff,” the title track of the Seattle trio’s debut album means ,The short answer is “everything and nothing,” and it largely came out of nowhere.

“I just needed a word for the chorus of that song,” bassist Gianni Aiello says “I knew I wanted to shout something, but I didn’t know what. I was hanging out with my girlfriend and I said, ‘Hey, what’s a good grunge-sounding word?’ She thought for a minute and then said ‘Sluff!’ I said, ‘That’s perfect!’ It sounds like something Soundgarden might do. It’s just a nonsense word.” Sluff has taken on a life of its own since then,

“People started scribing different meanings to it,” Aiello notes. “Grant (Mullen, Naked Guns’ guitarist) thought of it as when a snake sheds his skin. Steve Fisk, who produced us, said in truly grunge sense it’s the black gunk on the back of your Doc Martens in a Seattle winter, sluffing through the snow.

But once the Sluff album is released on March 30th, Mullen, Aiello and drummer Henry LaVallee hope people are talking as much about the band as the title.

The three got together during 2014, with childhood friends Mullen and LaVallee playing music together since they were teenagers. They were a two-piece until meeting Aiello at a battle of the bands, and as a trio they fashioned the propulsive grunge/power pop blend — with a bit of kinetic indie rock and R&B thrown in — that’s heard on Sluff’s 12 tracks. “It’s just what feels natural to us,” Mullen says. “Its birth was just a spirit of jamming with no purpose and just making songs that go from one dynamic to another. It’s felt like a natural progression; The more years we played and the more shows we played we’ve adjusted our sound to excite people. The goal was just wanting to have fun playing music, and this is how it’s ended up.”

Along the way Naked Giants became part of Car Seat Headrest’s expanded concert lineup after befriending frontman Will Toledo several years ago. “Is has been weird to know how to deal with that,” Mullen says of the duality of the two bands. “I think it’s been pretty fun, though, kind of like a big boost. We get to play way bigger shows than we would by ourselves. We open for them, too, so it’s a lot of hard work. We’re playing two and a half hours a night, but it’s worth it. It’s what we signed up for.”

Naked Giants will showcase at South By Southwest and then continue with Car Seat Headrest for shows in the U.S. and Europe. And the group is looking forward to getting its own due as Sluff finds its audience.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Mullen says. “We’ve had a lot of these songs for a long time. We’ve wanted them to be released on a big platform. It took a long time to find a label. We finally did (New West) and it’s really satisfying. We’re excited to see what it does, what people think of it. I don’t know what it’s gonna do, but I think it will do something.”From the album ‘SLUFF,’ available March 30th:

KILO TANGO – ” It Was All A Dream “

Posted: March 12, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Kilo Tango is the Jane to your Daria, that stylishly cynical best friend that always has your back and who’s way cooler than your actual older sister. A Florida native now residing in Los Angeles, it’s no wonder lead singer Katie Mitchell has truly mastered the sandy, glimmering garage pop sound so fitting for both seaside landscapes.

Surf rock siren and Kilo Tango frontwoman Katie Mitchell’s music is atmospherically a day at Malibu circa 1960s. Her knack for capturing Americana-centric heartbreak feelings wax and wane from dreamy boy-meets-girl romanticism to kick him to the curb. This track combines Mitchell’s specialties and tells the story of a brooding bad boy she knows is no good.

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Written by Katie Mitchell
Vocals/Rhythm Guitar: Katie Mitchell
Lead Guitar: Nick Chacon
Bass: Zachary Mouton

OF MONTREAL – ” Soft Music/Juno Portraits Of The Jovian Sky “

Posted: March 12, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Of Montreal Kevin Barnes is back to working mostly alone but has shared their latest White Is Relic/Irrealis Mood EP in full. While that fact alone doesn’t indicate anything about the quality level of the record, it is usually an indication that Barnes will be stretching the track length and experimenting more. Both of those things are the case here. There are six songs here, all over five minutes in length, and two of them crest the eight-minute mark.

The EP includes tracks and the single “Paranoiac Intervals/Body Dysmorphia,” as well as “Plateau Phase/No Careerism No Corruption,” and serves as a follow-up to the band’s 2017 EP Rune Husk. The latest release flirts with club melodies and heavy synthesizers that embrace the dancier side of the once-whimsical indie pop project. Listen below and catch them on tour very soon.

Soft Music/Juno Portraits Of The Jovian Sky” is taken from of Montreal’s new album and their 15th album release, White Is Relic/Irrealis Mood, out 9th March.

BERRIES – ” Faults “

Posted: March 12, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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London trio Berries boast a distinctive sound and styling that allows them to call on a selection of smooth and punch-packing instrumentals to accompany both their reflective and raw alt-rock moments. They don’t miss a beat and neither does new single ‘Faults‘.

It’s always nice to have a fresh blast of Berries and new serving ‘Faults‘ is certainly well placed to build upon the momentum they’ve collected through last years fantastic Those Funny Things EP and belting previous single ‘Wild Vow‘.

It locks you in within seconds; the opening riff, the bluesy-rock beat and then Holly Carter’s distinctive, smouldering, tongue-in-cheek vocals. They’ve long showcased their knack for an addictive, frenzied chorus but here they add another string to their bow. ‘Faults‘ still offers up more frenzied, pulsating moments, featuring a chorus kick and breakdowns reminiscent of its predecessors whilst also bringing a dose of bluesy edges to proceedings.

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It’s big stage ready, radio ready and er…faultless for Berries.

CABBAGE – ” Preach to the Converted “

Posted: March 12, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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With their debut album ‘Nihilistic Glamour Shots’ fast approaching, Mossley indie rockers Cabbage have released a new track, Preach to the Converted. It follows previous singles ‘Celebration of a disease’, ‘Gibralter Ape’ and the current, 6Music playlisted ‘Arms of Pleonexia’. It’s full of (suprisingly enough) nihilistic post-punk energy, almost horror show theatrical in its accompanyment, while over the top the vocals bark out the message, and the singalong chorus.

Cabbage performing ‘Preach To The Converted’ from their upcoming debut LP ‘Nihilistic Glamour Shots’ Out 30/3/18

JULIE BYRNE – ” Natural Blue “

Posted: March 12, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Not Even Happiness is lyrical nourishment for the soul. Throughout the album, Byrne’s deep, resounding voice melts into orchestral arrangements like waves lapping on a shore, as the aptly named, ‘The Sea As It Glides’ suggests. Meanwhile, the gentle pluck of guitar strings brings an earthy twang to Byrne’s solemn ode to dual existence. There is both vulnerability and quiet strength in Byrne’s observations of the natural world and her place within it. The listener is immersed in the sprawling landscapes of America’s mid-west: its vast prairies and ‘That long-forgotten feeling of silence’ that overwhelms mind, body, and soul. Byrne sings of love and heartbreak, but the album is ultimately a journey of self-discovery and self-preservation, with traces of a spiritual awakening and renewed faith in God: ‘I’ve been sitting in the garden / Singing to the wind / I’ve been searching for an anchor / I’ve been seeking God within.’

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