It’s taken five relatively unappreciated albums, but on “Lateness Of Dancers”, M.C Taylor’s band otherwise known as Hiss Golden Messengerseems to have finally found an audience for their rootsy-Americana style. Well received by many critics, and absolutely adored by Uncut Magazine, the timing of his new found audience might just be perfect, as his music has never sounded better, fitting neatly alongside the likes of Bill Callahan, JonathanWilson and Bonnie “Prince” Billy at the very top of the genre.
His seemingly mundane tales of being “a grown up US male with a couple of kids and a marginally successful career” may not sound that promising a starting point, but the honesty and relatable nature of his words make for a more intriguing listen than you’d imagine. His way with words allows him to be rueful and contemplative without ever getting too downbeat or miserable.
The music fluctuates from little more than a vocal and an acoustic guitar, to rich full bands tracks that showcase the quality of his musical companions, from the spectacular organ that closes “Lucida”, to the surprisingly tasteful banjo in the title track or the impressively meaty guitar riff in “I’m A Raven (Shake Children)” It’s a truly majestic album from a musician at the top of his game!
The Beach Boys“Holland” album was released this day in 1973. Brian’s contributions included “Sail on Sailor, “Funky Pretty” and the extended suite “Mount Vernon and Fairway (A Fairy Tale).” The album also featured Al Jardine’s “California Saga: California” with an intro vocal by Brian. I love Holland. I consider it one of the band’s best Albums. Blondie and Ricky’s contributions to the Beach Boys were underappeciated. Huge fan of The Trader by Carl. Blondie’s vocal on “Sail on Sailor” is superb.
Holland was the nineteenth studio album by the American rock group The Beach Boys, released in January 1973. It was recorded in Baambrugge, Netherlands over the summer of 1972 using a reconstructed studio sent from California, and with two Brian Wilson tracks rush-recorded in Los Angeles and added to the album at the last minute. The photograph on the album’s front cover is an upside down image of the Kromme Waal, a canal that runs through the center of Amsterdam.
Holland included a bonus EP, Mount Vernon and Fairway (A Fairy Tale), a musical fairy tale written by Brian Wilson about a magical transistor radio who appears to a young prince. Narration was provided by the group’s manager: Jack Rieley.
The last several days, a number of music blogs were abuzz with the song “Time To Go Home,” the title song to the new album by the Chastity Belt which cameout on March 24th on Hardly Art records.
Featuring guitarists Julia Shapiro (the singer and primary songwriter) and Lydia Lund, bassist Annie Truscott, and drummer Gretchen Grimm, the band are from the Seattle area, Walla Walla, Washington. They released their debut album, “No Regrets”, which got favourable reviews when it was self-released in 2013, Then following two EPs they released in 2012 (available on their Bandcamp page). About their new album, The music is an indie-rock swirl of guitars and careening drums that recalls the team efforts of classic bands like the Raincoats.
title song “Time To Go.” It’s a heartfelt, straight forward rock and roll song, touched by punk, fuzzy guitars, and reverbed vocals that just hits all the right chords.
On the surface, Seattle punk band Chastity Belt is just plain silly. Its members wear mom jeans and turtle necks in its press shots, for crying out loud. But there’s more than just frivolous nostalgia at play on the group’s Hardly Art debut, Time to Go Home.
The song that rightfully gets the most attention is “Cool Slut,” as guitarist and vocalist Julia Schapiro trashes tired rock tropes that cast sexual conquests as a measure of manhood and point of shame for women. Satire gives way to solemnity on other standout tracks, as “IDC” (“I got drunk out of boredom/I did not want to be there”) and the title-track sum up the end of the night, when regret sets in and there’s a chance you’ll be holding back a puking friend’s hair.
While the lyrics are strong, the music itself will hook in repeat listeners. “Lydia” is wistful enough to have been from a popular indie songstresses’ songbook, while “The Thing” is lightning-fast West Coast punk that begins and ends with a blood-curdling scream. Sure, other well-written, feminist friendly albums have been released in 2015, but those artists are not likely as clever, fun, and free as these girls.
Led Zeppelin continue their extensive reissue campaign with PHYSICAL GRAFFITI being released exactly 40 years after its debut, on February 24.
The Led Zeppelin reissue series will continue with the re-release of the legendary English rockers’ 1975 double album “Physical Graffiti”. The remastered deluxe edition of the band’s sixth studio album will drop on February 24th, exactly 40 years after the original debuted.
The new edition of “Physical Graffiti” comes after the reissue of Led Zeppelin’s first five albums in 2014. As with the previous deluxe editions, “Physical Graffiti” has been newly remastered by guitarist and producer JimmyPage and is accompanied by a companion disc filled with previously unreleased music.
Physical Graffiti track listing:
Disc One
1. “Custard Pie”
2. “The Rover”
3. “In My Time Of Dying”
4. “Houses Of The Holy”
5. “Trampled Under Foot”
6. “Kashmir”
Disc Two:
1. “In The Light”
2. “Bron-Yr-Aur”
3. “Down By The Seaside”
4. “Ten Years Gone”
5. “Night Flight”
6. “The Wanton Song”
7. “Boogie With Stu”
8. “Black Country Woman”
9. “Sick Again”
Companion Audio Disc:
1. “Brandy & Coke” (Trampled Under Foot – Initial Rough Mix)
2. “Sick Again” (Early Version)
3. “In My Time Of Dying” (Initial Rough Mix)
4. “Houses Of The Holy” (Rough Mix With Overdubs)
5. “Everybody Makes It Through” (In The Light Early Version/In Transit)
6. “Boogie With Stu“ (Sunset Sound Mix)
7. “Driving Through Kashmir” (Kashmir Rough Orchestra Mix)
The album will be released on multiple CD, vinyl and digital formats as well as a Limited Edition Super Deluxe Box.
Kindness is streaming his remix EP “Who Do You Love?” based around the barnstorming single of the same name that features pop svengali Robyn on vocal duties is a single from “Otherness“, Kindness‘slatest full-length record. The EP sees it get reworked by Joakim, Jam City and Jeremy Sylvester, with each artist offering a different take on the original’s tormented theme and crisp-cut melodies. the album Otherness is out now on Female Energy.
SPC ECO — The Art of Pop
This shoegaze/electronic band pronounce it like “Space Echo” is centered around the pair of Dean Garcia (of Curve fame) and his daughter Rose Berlin. They’ve been crazily prolific over the last four or five years. This is their fifth full-length album in as many years and they’ve also done a boatload of singles and EPs. Dean also has a couple of other side projects. This one is quite different from the rest, though. SPC ECO has been trademarked by Dean’s guitars and walls of sound, but this album doesn’t have guitars at all. It’s all electronic even when it sounds guitar-ish. And it’s great. But we expect nothing less than greatness from Garcia and Berlin.
This is another of the fantastic releases from Saint Marie Records this year.
Their 3rd album, 3 years in the making, deviates substantially from both their fuzz-pop classic self-titled 2009 debut and 2011’s also excellent but very different Belong (an album that came off like a love letter to early ’90s shoegaze and ’90s alternative radio in general). Instead, what we have here is the most ornate, mannered, prettiest and perhaps even catchiest pop music they have ever made. They are also helped tremendously by the addition of vocalist Jen Goma, who shines spectacularly on several songs here.
As 2015 marks ten years since the release of The White Stripesalbum “Get Behind Me Satan” album & tour, we are proud to use that as the focus of our 23rd Vault package. Completely dedicated to The White Stripes and highlighting their time in South America in 2005, this package should leave fans beyond satisfied. Learn more: http://thirdmanrecords.com/news/introducing-vault-package-23/
With apologies to the Nobel Prize-winning scientists who developed super-resolved fluorescence microscopy, The Both is this year’s most successful chemistry experiment. The pairing of Aimee Mann and Ted Leo did not result in a violent reaction—if that’s your thing, Instead, the two musicians complement each other in subtle and restrained ways, with Mann’s placid, noble strum blanketing Leo’s rougher electric-guitar edges. The Both suggests that almost any song in the universe could be improved upon by Aimee Mann’s vocal harmonies; she glides effortlessly where Leo has to lift a little harder to carry his end of the tune. The two sometimes sound like an un-decaffeinated New Pornographers—they are blatantly enamored with Thin Lizzy, and one song on the album (“You Can’t Help Me Now”) is so sad that you worry about the severity of the situation for all parties involved. Finding a mid-career musical foil—one who not only masks flaws, but plays to strengths— is rare, and to make it all sound so natural on the first attempt is rarer still
“Greetings from Asbury Park NJ” is the first studio album by Bruce Springsteen, released in 1973. It only sold about 25,000 copies in the first year of its release, but had significant critical impact. It was ranked at #379 by Rolling Stone on its list of 500 greatest albums of all time. Released 6th January 1973 on Columbia/CBS Records recorded between July and September 1972 at Sound Studios in Blauvelt New York City and produced by Mike Appel and Jim Cretecos,
I think it’s an album brimming with potential. It has many great songs but I think it sounds under produced. I like the record, but I just think that it should have been so much better given the material.The best things about it are the lyrics, the humour and the promise of things to come.
Springsteen and his first manager Mike Appel decided to record the album at the low-priced, out-of-the-way 914 Sound Studios to save as much as possible of the Columbia Recordsadvance and cut most of the songs in a single week. There was a dispute not long after the record was recorded—Appel and John Hammond preferred the solo tracks, while Springsteen preferred the band songs. As such, a compromise was reached—the album was to have five songs with the band (“For You”, “Growin’ Up”, “Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?” “It’s Hard to be a Saint in the City”, and “Lost in the Flood”) and five solo songs (“Mary Queen of Arkansas”, “The Angel”, “Jazz Musician”, “Arabian Nights”, and “Visitation at Fort Horn”
However, when Columbia Records president Clive Davis heard the album, he felt that it lacked a hit single. As such, Springsteen wrote and recorded “Blinded by the Light” and “Spirit in the Night“. Because pianist David Sancious and bassist Garry Tallent were unavailable to record these songs, a three man band was used—Vini Lopez on drums, Springsteen on guitar, bass, and piano, and the previously missing Clarence Clemons on saxophone
These two songs bumped “Jazz Musician”, “Arabian Nights”, and “Visitation at Fort Horn”, leaving a total of seven band songs and two solo songs. The album was originally slated to be released in the fall of 1972, but it was moved back to early 1973 to avoid the pre-Christmas crush.
