Archive for the ‘CLASSIC ALBUMS’ Category

BONNIE WHITMORE – ” Last Will & Testament “

Posted: December 21, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , ,
0
bonnie whitmore music magazine

Best described as a roots or Americana artist, Austin, Texas’ Bonnie Whitmore is a veteran musician who has trod the boards throughout North America as an in-demand session and stage bassist for more than two decades. But she has also developed a unique musical compositional style all her own – one that combines many elements of the music she loves, regardless of genre, and a lyrical directness and powerful honestly that makes for a truly compelling listening experience.

Whitmore released her latest album, “Last Will & Testament” in October, through her own label, and Whitmore herself co-produced the 10-song release alongside Scott Davis, working out of the Ramble Creek Recording Studio. Although the word eclectic can sometimes be over-used or mis-used, it is rather appropriate for Last Will & Testament, as Whitmore is unafraid to mix and meld styles and genres to suit the emotional and lyrical tapestry she weaves with each individual song.

“To me as an artist, it’s about the creation of whatever it’s going to be, and not to make it form into something that’s supposed to be more marketable, which I know goes against everything you’re supposed to be doing in music if music is your livelihood,” she said, from her home in Austin, where she is doing her best to stay busy writing new material and promoting the album during the Covid-19 lockdown.

“I think I have a very eclectic taste, so I am not surprised that my music is eclectic within itself. I do like to take things that are sort of polar opposites of each other and mix them together. As a bass player, my influences are [legendary session player] Carol Kaye and Kim Deal of the Pixies – very different bass players, but both are integral parts of where I come at it musically. Americana is just sort of the all-encompassing, ‘everybody’s welcome,’ kind of genre, because they accept everybody into it.”

With the release of Bonnie Whitmore’s latest record, the celebrated Texas-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist borrows just enough stylistic “ingredients” from just enough musical “neighbours,” she succeeds in baking one of the tastiest confections of 2020 — a soaring seduction that owns roadhouse authenticity and drips cathouse allure. Among the record’s many highlights, “Time to Shoot” shines brightly. 

Written by Bonnie Whitmore From the album “Last Will & Testament” (2020) CD Baby (on behalf of Aviatrix Records)

BDRMM – ” The Bedroom Tapes “

Posted: December 21, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , , , , ,
0

With comparisons to bands like DIIV, Beach Fossils, Deerhunter, The Cure, Radiohead, and Ride, I think the best descriptor for the band could be something like: “BDRMM: Recommended if you like good music.” In all seriousness, though, BDRMM frontman Ryan Smith started writing his early material solo in his bedroom. Smith then added his brother Jordan on bass, Joe Vickers on guitar, Danny Hull on synths, and Luke Irvin on drums. This current five-piece British band with an ear for atmospheric dream-pop is one of THE bands to watch in 2020.

All BDRMM physical product has been selling out online as quickly as it can be produced. To my ear, the ten tracks on Bedroom draw inspiration from all the best elements of the shoegazer bands dominating the UK alternative scene from 1990-1993. Anyone into shoegazer will love this record a minute into “Momo,” the first track on the album. Crank it up and let that hair fall forward over your eyes!!

We’re delighted to announce our new 7-track EP, ‘the bedroom tapes’ out on Sonic Cathedral on white 12” vinyl and black cassette, released on october 23rd. The five-piece guitar driven rockers bdrmm blend nineties inspired songcraft and lush contemporary production to create an exhilarating blend of shoegaze, dream-pop and new wave. The second single taken from bdrmm’s debut album ‘Bedroom’.

http://

Speaking on July release A Reason To Celebrate, bdrmm’s Ryan Smith explains: ‘The lyrics come from a place of realisation and understanding. It’s a battle between what you want and what you need to do. It’s about proudly, yet stupidly, letting go – and the voice in your head giving you all the different reasons why you should.’ This features 4 stripped down versions of previous releases that were recorded during lockdown between Ryan & Jordan, they are the most natural and raw versions of themselves they possibly can be, which we felt was fitting for the current situation,

On the b-side, we have included all the remixes that we have been blessed with by some outstanding artists, including Andy Bell, DITZ and International Teachers of Pop.

the artwork, as always (col), is a gorgeous creation from our very own jordan!

SWEATER CURSE – ” Push/Pull ” EP

Posted: December 20, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , ,
0
Image may contain: 2 people, people playing musical instruments, people dancing, people standing, people on stage and night

Monica Sottile, co-lead singer and songwriter in Brisbane trio Sweater Curse, describes Australian indie rock as “an extension of domestic life.” There’s certainly truth to that assessment, as the country has a great tradition of guitar-pop songs about charming, comforting scenes. Brisbane indie trio Sweater Curse released their debut EP See You in 2019, which featured the girl-boy lead vocals of bassist Monica Sottile and guitarist Chris Langenberg, and their versatile sound that ranges from distorted and punk-ish to sweet and sentimental. They followed it up with a 2020 EP titled Push/Pull, which packs their best songs yet. “Close” is a succulent indie-pop gem with an unforgettable chorus, and “All The Same” is a serrated rock rollercoaster.

The Go-Betweens sang about “fireplaces and rocking chairs” and “showering for an hour,” while contemporary acts like Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever and Courtney Barnett write about things like “satin sheets” and “Vegemite crumbs.” Sweater Curse don’t write songs with that kind of precision, but they do write about the haunting thoughts that exist in those spaces—when you’re tossing and turning at night, making French press coffee in the morning or leaving a house party more lonely than when you arrived.

For their second EP “Push/Pull”, Sweater Curse really come out of their shell, amplifying their faint post-punk tinges and sky-high pop hooks.

MAXBAND – ” Cut It Loose “

Posted: December 20, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
0

Image may contain: 4 people

New York’s Maxband, the newest project featuring Max Savage of Parquet Courts and Patrick Smith of A Beacon School, first debuted in 2018 with its low-key tape release Perfect Strangers. The band has since played support slots for Sports Team, Bambara, Tokyo Police Club, The Men, and others. The band recently returned to the studio to record their forthcoming EP, Top of The Stairs, out November 20th, and have released the first single from the project, “Cut It Loose”.

Savage, the longtime drummer of Parquet Courts, takes the lead with Maxband, playing guitar and splitting vocal duties with Patrick Smith who also plays bass. Long time friends Tim Nelson and Eric Read fill out the line up on lead guitar and drums respectively. Considering the band sports his name, it would be easy to pigeonhole Maxband as a Max Savage showcase yet, if “Cut It Loose” is anything to go off of, the band seems to be taking a more collaborative approach while carving their own lane independent of the nervy punk rock of Parquet Courts.  

The rapid-fire palm-mutes and clean guitar tone give the track a bright indie flavour, bolstered by Smith’s buoyant vocals. Savage’s vocals on the chorus offer a strong counterpoint, sounding not unlike his brother Andrew’s vocals with Parquet Courts. Add in some razor-sharp call and response guitar leads and the track has an undeniable hook. At the climax, the hook gains even more urgency as the whole band locks into the groove, and Savage’s vocals gain even more of a punk edge. Yet, the band keeps the energy locked down, striking a perfect balance between breezy and fervent attitude.

The band says, “‘Cut It Loose’ was the first song we wrote for Top of the Stairs, and it functions as a good mission statement for where we are as a band: it was our first fully collaborative effort that was fleshed out from an idea that Patrick brought into a practice space, and the first song where Max and Patrick split vocal duties.”

The New York City outfit released their debut EP “Top Of The Stairs” via Holm Front, a label run by U.K. indie band Sports Team. Maxband features lead vocalist Max Savage (Parquet Courts), bassist/vocalist Patrick Smith (A Beacon School), along with drummer Eric Read and lead guitarist Tim Nelson. The five-track EP was produced by Doug Schadt (Maggie Rogers, Ashe), and recorded in Brooklyn in late 2019 and early 2020. It follows their 2018 debut album Perfect Strangers. Top Of The Stairs is imbued with an effortless confidence. Both their vocals and guitars oscillate between gentle and vehement, creating this satisfying contradiction of steady and unsteady. With shades of misty indie rock and driving post-punk, Maxband create something special out of familiar elements. 

From ‘Top Of The Stairs’ EP out November 20th

The DIRTY PROJECTORS – ” 5EPs “

Posted: December 20, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , , , , ,
0

The entire sequence of EPs is available as a single cohesive twenty-song anthology. Titled “5EPs”, the collection spans the existential folk of Windows Open sung by Friedman, Douglass’s future soul on Flight Tower, Longstreth’s endless melody on Super João, and the recomposed orchestral glitch that backs Slipp across Earth Crisis. As everyone trades verses on Ring Road, these closing four songs serve as conversations among a group where “every member is talented enough to be the lead” (Time). With three- and four-part harmonies, dual guitar lines, ecstatic hooks and the propulsive drumming of Mike Johnson, the emotional and sonic threads of the previous entries are filtered through classic signatures of full-band Dirty Projectors. As Entertainment Weekly says, “[5EPs] captures a more intangible motif: the celebration of creativity and the fortuitous bonds that form.”

It’s a strange coincidence that Dirty Projectors’ founder and sole core member David Longstreth would switch up his approach in 2020. As a musician and songwriter whose defining modus operandi for the last eighteen years has been that of multi-personnel collaboration (save for 2017’s self-titled, which is the project’s only solo album to date), he found himself increasingly drawn toward changing the band’s sound to one that emphasizes its individual members, rather than the sum of its parts, following the release of 2018’s Lamp Lit Prose. 

This question of whether “[everyone] could be the lead singer of this band” eventually fermented into the project’s latest release, 5EPs,wherein Longstreth sat for individual sessions with each of the group’s singing members, working both musically and lyrically to create four-track extended plays that highlight each performer’s abilities. The end result is a varied final effort, one that represents the project’s most diverse offering to date. From the stripped-down acoustics of Maia Friedman’s Windows Open, to the cool electro of Felicia Douglass’ Flight Tower, to the glitching orchestral fanfare of Kristin Slipp’s Earth Crisis, the landscape of 5EPs feels like a decidedly focused experiment in honing the outfit’s scattered, genre-averse sound into concise suites.

Moreover, 5EPs represents, in Longstreth’s view, a novel approach toward song writing, one that involves “trusting where the words fall” and enabling lyrical improvisation that’s porous and non-meticulous—a decisive break from his methods on the last two records.

Documenting a series of slow-motion smiles, spinning heads and splashes of water to the face, “My Possession” marks the sixth official music video Dirty Projectors have shared since the start of this new chapter. They’ve also released a breathtaking short film for Earth Crisis, remixes from Chromeo and Felicia’s father Jimmy “The Senator” Douglass, a timely and tasteful cover of John Lennon’s “Isolation,” and a multitude of live performances ranging from pre-pandemic acoustic jams in Dave’s living room to remotely-recorded productions for Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, NPR’s Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts and more.

5EPs was produced, mixed and recorded by Dave Longstreth, and lyrics were written in collaboration with the respective band member featured on each installment. While the limited edition, foiled and numbered box set has now sold out, 5EPs is available as a standard black double LP,

Band Members: Mike Johnson (drums), Felicia Douglass (percussion/vocals), Maia Friedman (guitar/vocals) and Kristin Slipp (keyboards, vocals), and David Longstreth (bandleader, guitarist, and lead vocalist).

Dirty Projectors – My Possession (Official Video) Out now on Domino Record Co.

BOB DYLAN – ” Bob Dylan – 1970 ” 50th Anniversary Collection

Posted: December 20, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , ,
0

By Popular Demand, Bob Dylan – 1970 (50th Anniversary Collection) to Be Widely Released by Columbia Records/Legacy Recordings on February 26, 2021

Bob Dylan will release a new compilation, Bob Dylan – 1970 (50th Anniversary Collection), featuring studio performances with George Harrison and more. The set will arrive on February 26th, 2021 via Columbia Records/Legacy Recordings.

Recordings from the three-disc set were released in a limited edition on December 4th as part of the Bob Dylan – 50th Anniversary Collection copyright extension series. The buzz around the recordings, especially those with George Harrison, garnered the recordings a wider release.  

Still, arguably the most notable material on the three-disc collection is the complete May 1st, 1970 studio recordings alongside George Harrison. They performed a total of nine tracks together, including Dylan originals, cover songs and even a rendition of the Beatles classic “Yesterday.” Dylan and Harrison sat down in the studio and performed Dylan originals including “One Too Many Mornings,” “Gates of Eden” and “Mama, You Been On My Mind” along with covers like the Everly Brothers’ “All I Have to Do Is Dream,” Carl Perkins’ “Matchbox” and more. The set also features outtakes from the sessions around Dylan’s Self Portrait and New Morning albums, which feature frequent Dylan collaborators like drummer Russ Kunkel and Al Kooper on organ along with renowned session guitarist and singer-songwriter David Bromberg.

The material has never seen wide public release, but this isn’t the first time it has seen the light of day. These songs were earlier put on sale in a very limited edition in the U.K. to circumvent a European law stipulating that recordings enter the public domain 50 years after their creation if they aren’t officially released by their copyright holder. The collection sold out in seconds, as Dylan continues issuing archival material in order to avoid the legal distribution of third-party bootleg.

A 50th anniversary collection of recordings by Bob Dylan is scheduled for release on February 26th.

ZACHARY CALE – ” False Spring “

Posted: December 20, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , , , , , ,
0

Zachary Cale is an American songwriter/musician based in NYC. “False Spring” is his 6th full length album. To be released May 29th, 2020.

“False Spring”, Zachary Cale’s sixth full-length album, explores the spaces between the cold we left behind and the uncertainty ahead, between that fleeting, green warmth and its lack. “Shine a light on the path so I can see,” Cale sings on the album opener, “Shine,” making a plea for hope and happiness rather than merely claiming it, starting the search for whatever possibility may exist. And the album explores so many possible paths in ever-shifting textures. On “Come Morning,” Cale admits “I’m just sitting on a fence, two fingers out to test the wind” while on others songs — the disorienting anxiety of “Mad Season”; the bittersweet travel of “By Starlight”; the mix of hope and regret that comes from staying afloat on “Slide” — False Spring vacillates between facing down the troubling now, reckoning with and paying tribute to then, and sifting through the dark to find the faintest match-head of light for tomorrow.

Cale’s poetic lyrics etches out all these themes in complex layers and careful melodies, but the band he assembled for False Spring drives home the sense of openness and possibility in these songs. Cale is accompanied here by Brent Cordero on piano, Wurlitzer and organ, James Preston on bass, and Charles Burst and Jason Labbe on drums. Cale brought the songs to the studio and enlisted the players to flesh them out. He didn’t write parts for the musicians; they figured out their own way through these tunes. The record is the sound of the band finding itself, capturing these songs live in all their subtle, ragged glory. The album’s 16 songs run just over an hour, but the expansive record is, at every turn, an intimate affair, the listener invited in as these players find connections between this part and that, between one song and another, between melody and feeling.

Stylistically, the band never hems itself in, expanding its sound and morphing it over the album’s extended playing time. Early tracks set up shop within lean, dusty folk rock, but things change from there. There are touches of cosmic Americana and country and some Petty-esque tight yet gauzy rompers. Several tracks are instrumentals, acknowledging roots and stretching exercises for Cale and the band. The sweet, solo guitar of the title track, for instance, uncovers some of the early country-blues sounds humming under these tunes, while “Magnetic North” whips up a full-band blues stomper. These instrumentals, and the album as a whole, explore tangents and push at borders, but while they add variety they also — on a more fundamental level — suggest cohesion at the heart of the album’s wide-open sound and aesthetic.

http://

False Spring is Cale’s first album in five years, since the gauzy and atmospheric gem, “Duskland”. The album was received well, a tour followed but within the year Cale refocused his energy on writing new material. In 2016 he went on a solo tour opening for Dan Bejar of Destroyer in smaller cities across America. More recently he’s been playing in a spattering of other bands and supporting other musical projects.

And all that time, he’s kept one foot in the studio, recording lots of material, several albums worth. And all of this on top of a full-time job. In short, like so many independent musicians, Zachary Cale has been working.

This new album, though, isn’t the sound of work at all. It’s the sound of setting thought aside to feel the music. This doesn’t set out to make a product; this album explores a process. And, as a result, these dusty, bittersweet tunes stretch out, they breathe. They live in all the in-between spaces Cale evokes so beautifully in his lyrics. The fleeting spring can leave, the new growth may get marred by frost, but the warmth of these songs — in all their hope and worry and anxiety and open possibility — will stay with you long after the final note ripples out of the speaker.

Released May 29th, 2020

Performed by:

Zachary Cale: vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, electric piano, synthesizer
James Preston: bass
Brent Cordero: piano, wurlitzer, organ
Jason Labbe: drums, percussion
Charles Burst: drums, percussion

PERFUME GENIUS – ” Describe “

Posted: December 19, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , ,
0

We’re not entirely sure what we are seeing in Perfume Genius’ “Describe” but we’re digging it nonetheless. Set on a dusty ranch, the music video shows the life of a cult-like group of people who eat, dance, and apparently sleep on the floor together. The video gives off major Midsommar and Wild Wild Country vibes (albeit with a much happier ending). Mike Hadreas has stated that the song is about being in a dark place and needing someone to describe what goodness feels like, which explains the overall introspective feel to the music video.  

Mid-lockdown, here was my reminder that the world out there is vast and oppressive, beautiful and foul, almost psychedelically diverse and yet the very definition of mundane; sometimes fun, sometimes shit, always confusing. Perfume Genius has a way of capturing what feels like the whole human experience in a single album – heck, even a single song. Gone are the minimalist confessionals that made his name. On ‘Set My Heart on Fire Immediately’, grand, melodramatic laments on earthly fragility and the passage of time rub up against snatched reminiscences of hook-ups. It’s a sprawling, detailed masterpiece, shot through with typical Mike Hadreas yearning, that embodies just how rich and radiant and fucked up life can be.

Like an oil puddle rainbow, it shimmers. He shimmies. Hope seems to be a waking dream. It simmers. Elongates. Reverberates. You’re cradled by sumptuous arrangements, whilst sadness slow dances in the shadows. There are glimmers that you can’t quite discern. Björk? Eno’s ambient chambers? Soap&Skin? Zola Jesus? John Grant’s molten disco? There’s a sensation of the weight of the world being lifted and, just for a moment, the pins and needles leave you frozen. It’s murmurations of doves scattering to the four corners, bright white wings flapping gracefully against an ominous sky. It’s some kind of wonderful.

Listen, if you haven’t depression-fucked the love of your life to “Describe,” I’m extremely sorry. This album lights up every individual nerve ending, sometimes all at once. 
From Perfume Genius’ new album ‘Set My Heart On Fire Immediately” released on May 15th, 2020 on Matador Records.

THIS IS THE KIT – ” Bad Feeling ” Muzz Cover

Posted: December 19, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , , ,
0
THISISTHEKIT_CARDS_TSHIRT

I know I’m not the only one for whom ‘Bad Feeling’ by Muzz has been one hell of a soothing balm through this tumultuous year. And so this summer we learnt how to play it with our pals Roamin Vasset and Lucien Chatin. It was recorded and filmed by our friends Matteo Fabbri, Anne-Laure Etienne and Pierre Paturel, and edited by our very own Jesse D Vernon. And seeing as Muzz have released their covers EP, it seems like a suitable time to share with you our own Muzz cover.

The Band: Guitar: Jesse D. Vernon Bass: Romain Vasset Drums: Lucien Chatin

PALBERTA – ” Palberta5000 “

Posted: December 19, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , , , ,
0

While punk music was our first love, pop music has become our fixation. Throughout the making of ‘Palberta5000,’ we were focused on making music that people could not only sing along to but get stuck in their heads… that and attempting to make songs longer than 50 seconds…While our melodies have gotten more melodic and our singing less harsh, we haven’t strayed too far from who Palberta is, defiantly Palberta. And no one will shape us to be otherwise.” – Palberta

Two years removed from their triumphant 2018 LP Roach Going Down, described as “a leap to another level” from the beloved NYC trio, Palberta are returning to deliver their clear-eyed fifth album, ‘Palberta5000,’ a collection of adventurous, hyper-melodic songs that will excite their devoted following while welcoming new fans along for the ride. While long heralded as one of the most original and idiosyncratic bands in the East Coast DIY scene, earning regular comparisons to ESG, Captain Beefheart (Pitchfork) and CAN (FADER), on ‘Palberta5000,’ Ani Ivry-Block, Lily Konigsberg, and Nina Ryser max out traditional pop forms—creating hits that catch in listeners’ brains while blowing the genre out into lush, kinetic extensions that morph into absurdist outros and haptic breakdowns—to create their own hardcore style of popular music. In doing so, they have made their most accessible album by a far measure—one that is bursting at the seams with vocal hooks and exuberant playing.

‘Palberta5000’ was recorded with Matt Labozza (PALM, Shimmer), whose Peekskill, New York, studio is located in the original home and family lamp-store of Paul Reuben (Pee Wee Herman). Fuelled by carrots, celery, radishes, and peanut-butter-and-jelly bagels, they diligently tracked ‘Palberta5000’s well-rehearsed songs in four days, never putting down more than three takes. Labozza’s recording and mix capture the band’s rollicking instrumentation and vocal precision.

The first single, “Before I Got Here,” features a charging and emotionally chaotic intro verse—building to the frantic ear-worm lyrics “if you want to talk about it / then we can talk about it / I’m just so sick about it / don’t blame me”—that stops on a dime for a three-part vocal harmony breakdown, then seamlessly rushes off again. The song conveys the raw emotions that can accompany letting someone into your life before pumping the brakes and settling into a hypnotic krout-surf outro, garnished with horns from Matt Norman that reinforce and swell the melody.

“High speed, fast track, slow prose.” ‘Palberta5000’ punctuates its jagged edges with ebullient cries of “Hey!” and rounds its corners with angelic harmonies, while marching-band snares propel the album forward with a metronomic intensity that belies the sixteen tracks’ diverse time signatures and fevered pacing. Hardcore fans will recognize the band’s live staple “Corner Store,” whose heart-melting harmonies layer over irresistible croons of “I meet you anywhere you are”—a promise kept by an album that meets listeners where they are. “Big Bad Want,” another notable piece from the band’s pre-COVID sets, is Palberta’s version of fast punk, with a zig-zag bassline and a call-and-response nursery-rhyme chorus that returns for the song’s outro, stretching defiantly past the three-minute mark with the repeated mantra “Yeah (yeah) I can’t pretend what I want.”

http://

Although Palberta have toyed with repetition and longer song structures on past recordings, ‘Palberta5000’ masterfully digs into a groove and transforms repeated phrases with a cult-like frenzy to hypnotic effect. On their slow waltz, “The Way That You Do,” and the enchanting “Red Antz,” Palberta bring the tempo down for lavish slow jams only hinted at on past efforts like Bye Bye Berta’s “Why Didn’t I.” Such tracks add a variation to ‘Palberta5000’s well thought-out song cycle and contribute to a full album experience that will leave listeners breathless. In the fitful sleeper “Cow,” Palberta sing, “I will be there with my hand on your chest / I feel your rumbling internal mess.” In a time of exhausting disappointment, ‘Palberta5000’ is an album that sees our internal and external messes, openly displays its fragile places, and acts as an energetic complement to the movement for positive change. 

Releases January 22nd, 2021

Older Entries
Newer Entries