Archive for the ‘CLASSIC ALBUMS’ Category

PALEHOUND – ” If You Met Her “

Posted: December 12, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Boston’s Palehound, lead by fierce vocalist and prolific creative force Ellen Kempner, has announced the sophomore album “A Place I’ll Always Go”, released in June on Polyvinyl Record Co. The collection is a frank look at love and loss, cushioned by indelible hooks and gently propulsive, fuzzed-out rock. As Kempner explains, “A lot of it is about loss and learning how to let yourself evolve past the pain and the weird guilt that comes along with grief.” 

This year has really probably been the best year of my life, especially as a musician. I can honestly say that almost every show was great. At the end of 2016, right after recording A Place I’ll Always Go, I was feeling super anxious and unsure about touring a lot. Playing shows and travelling used to make me feel super vulnerable and paranoid. I can truly say that this year has turned my relationship to touring around and I feel the opposite about it, I am so excited to tour more. A lot of this is because ya’ll were so amazing and supportive and made us feel really special at shows. Thank you so much for that. Cannot wait to tour with Weaves in February, I love that band a lot and have a really good feeling about that tour.

Also wanna say that this wraps up our first year with Larz touring with us. Jesse and I have been touring together for 3 years and the addition of Larz to our band has been hugely awesome for us. I love Jesse and Larz so much and can’t wait to keep working with them on touring and new material.

Happy holidays, hope everyone has a pleasant end to their year. Sending extra love to all the beautiful people reading this who may have a hard time with the holidays and going home to family.
Love, Ellen

FLORIST – ” What I Wanted to Hold “

Posted: December 12, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Among sparsely arranged, deeply personal albums that revolve around the death of a loved one, for example Mount Eerie’s A Crow Looked at Me got a lot of attention this year . “If Blue Could Be Happiness”, the 2017 LP by Florist, a New York-based “friendship project” (not band) fronted by Emily Sprague, who lost her mother recently and suddenly. It’s not just a mournful collection of gentle indie-pop songs, it is a tiny, welcoming sound world where anyone can enter and feel loved and supported and understood. It is sonic salve for a heart roughened up by life’s challenges. It is beautiful and calming and necessary.

Florist are a self-styled, “soft-synthesizer-folk band”, hailing from Upstate New York. This week they’ve shared their new single, What I Wanted To Hold, as well as detailing the release of their new record. If Blue Could Be Happiness, the band’s second full length album is out September 29th via Double Double Whammy Records.

MELKBELLY – ” Nothing Valley “

Posted: December 11, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Chicago rockers Melkbelly are as close as family thats because they are. Frontwoman Miranda Winters is married to guitarist Bart Winters, brother Liam plays bass, and they’re rounded out by chosen fam, friend and drummer James Wetzel. The detail is only relevant because it speaks to the sense of connectedness at the heart of their pure punk physicality:  Debut album “Nothing Valley” shreds, as evidenced in the first few seconds of the knife-sharp opener “Off The Lot.” If experimental, messy rock ‘n’ roll is your bag, look no further.

If “Nothing Valley” were a real place, it’d be mossy, verdant, and a little bit strange.

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Melkbelly, was formed by vets of Chicago’s experimental and DIY scene champions, organized noise and thoughtful freneticism on its debut full-length, “Nothing Valley,” fusing dreamy vocal lines and cantankerous guitar racket. Its songs clang and bang in stripped-down production that highlights the band’s sharp edges; multi-faceted slabs of sound serve harmonious, such immediate songs. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that the band members’ tastes run obscure as they tell us, “bands and musicians that draw on a sense of adventure.” The quartet’s membership overlaps with several Chicago noise and experimental bands and art collectives.

An efficient one-day recording session resulted in Melkbelly’s first EP, 2014’s “Pennsylvania,” which opened the door to touring and opening slots for Speedy Ortiz, Magik Markers and Built to Spill, The Chicago Reader calling Melkbelly “one of the most exciting new sounds out of Chicago.” Next, Melkbelly got back to writing and working, recording a pair of 7-inches with Dave Vettraino at Chicago’s Public House where it had made its first recordings ever for Public House’s Digital Singles Series and a Public House compilation tape. The sessions gave the band a chance to deepen its collaboration with Vettraino.

Miranda writes most of Melkbelly’s tunes on guitar and brings them to the band who puts them through the ringer, where they morph into a Melkbelly arrangement. Often, however, the band will take a guitar riff or two from an open jam recorded at practice and spin it into a song.
“Nothing Valley” was recorded in early 2016 in Vettraino’s basement studio to 8-track analog tape. Fresh off a West Coast tour, the band let the hours on the road and missed art tourism opportunities at Spiral Jetty shape the songs as well as the recording process itself, writing half the album material in the studio. “Nothing Valley” breezes gust fresh and forcefully.

JETHRO TULL – ” Heavy Horses ” New Shoes Edition

Posted: December 11, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Steven Wilson 5.1 and stereo mixes • 96-page booklet • Incredible value

The latest in a run of fine Jethro Tull deluxe reissues gallops into view this February – “Heavy Horses: New Shoes Edition”. Just like the 40th anniversary edition of Songs From The Wood released in May, this one also marks four decades since the original album’s release and is a five-disc bookset.

Heavy Horses was the second in a trilogy of folk rock albums by the progressive folk-rockers – following Songs From The Wood (1977) and preceding Stormwatch (1979) – and its songs inspired by horses and agricultural life went down well on both sides of the Atlantic. Top 20 chart positions in the UK and America were backed up by critical praise for its melodies and instrumentation, and the flute-playing of lead singer and flautist Ian Anderson.

“As a child, my big passion was to get off the leash and explore the local wooded and leafy suburbs,” recalls Anderson. “So it didn’t suddenly become new in 1977, it was just that the subject matter fitted what I wanted to write about at the time.”

The ‘New Shoes Edition’ kicks off with a Steve Wilson stereo remix of the original album plus nine ‘associated recordings’ (seven of which are previously unreleased) on the first CD, and a live 1978 concert from Berne, Switzerland is spread across CDs two and three.

The two DVDs feature 97 audio and video tracks, with studio work (including bonus tracks) remixed to 5.1 (and stereo) by Steven Wilson and live material handled similarly by Jakko Jakszyk. These discs also include a flat transfer of the original mix of the album and promotional video footage and two period TV ads.

All of this is packaged up in a 96-page book, featuring a written history of the album and corresponding tour, including complete lyrics for the album and bonus tracks, track-by-track annotation by Ian Anderson, rare photos and exclusive interviews with musicians Maddy Prior and Darryl Way, and studio engineer Colin Leggett.

“Heavy Horses: New Shoes Edition” is released on 9th February 2018.

PSYCHIC MARKERS – ” Hardly Strangers “

Posted: December 11, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Psychic Markers are a quartet consisting of Alannah Ashworth, Lewis Baker, Steven Dove, Leon Dufficy and Luke Jarvis – will make their debut on the Bella Union label early next year with the release of new album Hardly Strangers.

Premiering is the album’s title track which marries motorik influences from key proponents of Krautrock with the indie-pop of acts like Stereolab. The release of Hardly Strangers follows on from 2014’s Scrapbook No. 1, which marked the group’s debut full-length outing. The new album was crafted over the course of a week spent holed up in Devon writing and recording.

“It’s more of an unwritten understanding between ourselves,” the band’s Steven Dove says, expanding of their songwriting process. “If something doesn’t feel right for the band, we lose it.”

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Taken from the upcoming Psychic Markers album “Hardly Strangers”, due 23rd February 2018 on Bella Union Records. 

CREEP SHOW – ” Pink Squirrel “

Posted: December 11, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Creep Show

Creep Show brings together John Grant with the dark analogue electro of Wrangler (Stephen Mallinder / Phil Winter / Benge) to create the debut album Mr Dynamite packed with experimental pop and surreal funk.

John Grant hooks up with a few friends on new project titled Creep Show.

The four piece features two producers and two singers, with John Grant and former Cabaret Voltaire frontman Stephen Mallinder sharing the microphone. other members Phil Winter and Benge battle the machines, with Creep Show releasing their debut album ‘Mr Dynamite’ on March 16th through Bella Union Records.

John Grant comments: “I do like theatre of the absurd and some of it is that, but most of it is just having fun. We did a lot of laughing and just had a blast doing it.”

debut track ‘Pink Squirrel’ is available now, with the woozy analogue synths sitting against an incredibly infectious melody.

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JONATHAN WILSON – ” Rare Birds “

Posted: December 11, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Jonathan Wilson is the goods. He’s a phenomenal guitar player, singer, producer and rumor has it; the man makes a top-notch guacomole as well. “Rare Birds” will be the follow up to one of my favorite albums of 2013, Fanfare. Father John Misty, Lucius, Laraaji and Lana Del Rey all chipped in to help on this new album. Here’s a little more on the album and the lead track.

Although much of the album is comprised lyrically of meditations on a failed relationship and its aftermath, Wilson insists that Rare Birds is not really a concept album. “It’s meant more as a healing affair, a rejuvenation, a reconciliation, for others, and for me. I wanted to balance personal narrative with the need I feel for calming, healing music. I think we need journeys in sound, psychedelic gossamer-winged music, to incite hope, positivity, longing, reckless abandon and regret. It’s all in there.”

And, for this one, music critics will need to retire the comparisons to heritage rockers and Laurel Canyon troubadours as they’re hardly useful anymore. Wilson’s new sound takes a synthetic/acoustic, best-of-both-worlds analog/digital hybrid approach to achieve the complexity, sonic density and glossy hi-fi coating of Rare Birds. Heard for the first time on a Jonathan Wilson album are the sounds of synthesizers and drum machines.

RON GALLO – ” Sorry Not Everybody Is You “

Posted: December 10, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Anyone who thinks the days of glam, garage and blistering rock and roll are relegated to classic rock “deep tracks” satellite stations hasn’t spun Ron Gallo’s solo debut. The young ex-Toy Soldiers guitar-slinging singer-songwriter brought his tough Philadelphia bona fides when he relocated to Nashville, churning up a rugged racket of riveting riffs without the tentative self-consciousness you might expect from a first album. When he closes the set asserting “All the Punks are Domesticated,” with a laconic talk-sung sneer, it’s clear he won’t be ending up there. These songs, full of sweat and swagger, show why. check out the single release another new 7” coming out . This one is a split with our dear friends Naked Giants. Then we go on tour together

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NICOLE ATKINS – ” Goodnight Rhonda Lee “

Posted: December 10, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Featured PledgeMusic Offers from Nicole Atkins

We reintroduced you to a favorite songstress of ours, Nicole Atkins, with her live EP Live from The Eldon Thacker Show at City Winery Nashville a few months back. A performer that Spin magazine once called “the best live band of the festival” at SXSW 2011, Nicole’s charisma has always kept her fans coming back for more.

Now, with her new album Goodnight Rhonda Lee, she’s put that glittering personality of hers on full display, and get more than a dozen zany, sincere, and fascinating updates from in the studio; taking you behind-the-scenes with every step of her creative process.

The titular Rhonda Lee is Atkins’ alter-ego, the one-time alcoholic she leaves behind on this stunning, almost wincingly personal set. Her fourth album, three years in the making, was worth the wait. Atkins has never been a traditional singer-songwriter. Here she shifts to full chanteuse mode, mixing country-politan with a ’60s, Phil Spector-styled approach that sounds like nothing else in contemporary music. It’s big, bold, cinematic and manages to be both sprawling and introspective. She combines Patsy Cline with Nancy Sinatra, k.d. lang and Chris Isaak, the latter who contributes songwriting to a spectacularly original, compelling work that is exhilarating and timeless.

The KILLERS – ” Wonderful Wonderful “

Posted: December 10, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The Killers

The Killers have dropped a new album the first track to premier was, ‘Run For Cover’, along with a few more details of the record it’s taken from, their fifth album Wonderful Wonderful.

We now know that the album, produced by Jacknife Lee and recorded at the band’s own Vegas studio, released through Island Records, and the album art and tracklist includes some choice remixes from Duke Dumont and Jacques Lu Cont.

The lead single “The Man” unveiled  a month before release, featured Brandon Flowers letting us in on the extent of his ego – after all, he did claim The Killers were the best band of the last 15 years, so we know he’s not short on confidence.

Being grandiose in ironic times ensures that The Killers will always have doubters. Those folks are missing the unapologetic peaks of Wonderful Wonderful. Producer Jacknife Lee provides the luscious gloss, while Brandon Flowers pushes every melody to the rafters so he can hang out up there with Bono. “The Man” expertly mimics Freddie Mercury’s cheeky bravado, while “Rut” soars out of one via the strength of its will. Mark Knopfler and Woody Harrelson make appearances, because, why not, and the closing track somehow overcomes the Manilow-esque title “Have All The Songs Been Written?” Grandiose, yes, but mostly plain grand.

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