Canadian alt-folkies Cowboy Junkies are back with a new studio album that’s due to be released in June, a 10-song collection called “Such Ferocious Beauty” which is the group’s fourth album since ending a six-year break in recording in 2018.
The band consisting of Margo Timmins, Michael Timmins, Peter Timmins and Alan Anton will release the new album June 2nd on Cooking Vinyl.
The first track to be released off the album “What I Lost” Of that video, Michael Timmins writes: “The new video was created by brother Pete and features our Dad as well as some super 8 footage of our Dad and Mom and family from the late 50’s and early 60’s. It’s an intense video for an intense song about an intense subject.”
This is the band’s first release of new material in five years following their heralded 2022 collection of covers. The first song, ‘What I Lost’, explores the struggles involved with dementia – influenced by band member Michael Timmins’ conversations with his father.
Musicians Margo Timmins (vocals) Michael Timmins (guitar) Peter Timmins (drums) Alan Anton (bass and keyboards) Janes McKie: (fiddle, and electric guitar )
Cowboy Junkies announce their upcoming album ‘Such Ferocious Beauty’ releasing on June 2nd, 2023.
The Connells have released their first new album in two decades in 2021 “Steadman’s Wake” and they’re now following that up with the first-ever live album in the band’s 37-year history, a 12-song collection called “Set the Stage” due out next month.
The new live set, to be released May 5th by Missing Piece Group, was recorded at a variety of shows between 2014 and 2022. This new live recording of the band’s early single “Hats Off,” recorded last year.
Of that recording, singer-guitarist/songwriter Mike Connell says: “‘Hats Off’ was one of the first songs we ever released. This was back in 1985, and it became a staple of our live shows in the early days of the band… The version on ‘Set the Stage’ is from a show we played in Columbia, South Carolina… it was one of the highlights from that show and I think Doug (vocals) should be given his props for leaning into it that night.”
The Connells formed in at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in 1984, and released their first album, “Darker Days”, in 1985, and continued making records through the 1980s and ’90s, up through 2001’s “Old School Dropouts”. Though the band never broke up, the line-up changed and they played more sporadically in the ensuing decades, not releasing new a new album until 2021.
The current lineup features original members David Connell, Mike Connell and Doug MacMillan, plus keyboardist Steve Potak, who joined in 1991, guitarist Mike Ayers, who came on board in 2001, and the most recent addition, drummer Rob Ladd, who joined the band in 2012.
As for why a live album now, Mike Connell says: “Over the years fans have asked why we haven’t released a live record. The best explanation I can give is that when we walked off the stage on any given night, I was ready to move on from what we had just done. Maybe more to the point, I was scared of listening to what we had just done. I tend to fixate on the mistakes — the flat notes and the clams. Recently though, I was encouraged to finally listen to some performances we had in the vault and I liked a lot of what I heard. With ‘Set the Stage’ I think we finally captured ‘the loose precision’ that is a Connells show and I am grateful that some steadfast friends of the band want to hear it.”
Recently, XTC’s Andy Partridge said he no longer writes new songs and is “waiting for my music mojo to return, in between researching UFO events.” I guess his music mojo returned? Patridge has a new band called the 3 Clubmen, and their debut single is out now.
Britain’s Lighterthieflabel has announced an exciting new project. The 3 Clubmen – a new project comprised of Andy Partridge, Jen Olive and Stu Rowe – will release their eponymous debut EP on June 30th. The first taste is ‘Aviatrix’, an avant-pop delight offering a strange, seductive blend of experimental pop, jazz and sci-fi cinema excellence.
I throw paint, Jen throws paint, Stu throws paint…and we walk away. If, when we return, something in there calls to us, we’ll move heaven and earth to get it out and let it breath. Using whatever it takes, be it contrary musical ideas, parts in clashing keys incongruous sounds, contradictory words/phrases. It’s all clay to us.
The 3 Clubmen is the culmination of a decade of antics from these long time collaborators, who started writing and recording this material years ago. While each artist has worked with the others in some form since 2008, The 3 Clubmen marks the first time that Stu, Andy and Jen have combined forces as a trio, an inevitable partnership once described as “a three-headed Frankenstein’s monster dancing at a neurodivergent singles club”.
“Like an ‘action painter’ throws colour at a canvas, we tend to throw musical and sound things, knowing that we’ll cut through this seemingly insane mess later, to hopefully find some beautiful garden, hiding there,” says Andy Partridge.
“Aviatrix” is out now on Lighterthief.
The 3 Clubmen brings together Partridge plus Jen Olive and Stu Rowe.
The Lemonheads’ 1993 album “Come On Feel The Lemonheads” will be reissued for its 30th anniversary in May.
The Expanded 30th anniversary re-issue of The Lemonheads’ classic 1993 album. The breakthrough record that took American alt rock global and catapulted Evan Dando into the hearts of a generation. With a wealth of unreleased demos, alternative versions and rarities – including covers of Victoria Williams, Buddy Holly and The Flying Burrito Brothers plus The Lemonhead’s take on the Cole Porter standard ‘Miss Otis Regrets’.
“Come On Feel” was home to some of his best, sharpest writing – fabulous sunny powerpop and beautiful ballads” The Guardian
In the 90’s Evan’s Lemonheads produced hit after a hit, a string of super cool singles: ‘Big Gay Heart’, ‘Into Your Arms’, ‘It’s About Time’, and ‘The Great Big NO’. Pure genius filling the radio waves and taking the stage… Some 30 years on; Evan is still knocking that song writing thing out of the park and ‘Come On Feel The Lemonheads’ sounds as fresh and perky as it ever did. Amid the hits on the original record are stencils and outlines for yet more magical music and now this deluxe edition adds a second disc of demos and acoustic versions, plus a host of one-offs from sessions and compilations that add further colour to the myth and how it was created.
There’s the in-demand combo lovingly covering Victoria Williams’ ‘Frying Pan’ from her ‘Sweet Relief’ album, which is joined by an eclectic set of flipsides and out-takes, like their version of original garage punk nugget ‘Little Black Egg’ by The Nightcrawlers, Evan’s homage to Gram Parsons on the winsome ‘Streets Of Baltimore’ and Buddy Holly’s melancholy ‘Learning The Game’. Evan knows a good song when he hears it, as ‘Come On Feel The Lemonheads’ certainly proved.
“’Come On Feel The Lemonheads’ is all it purports to be: a chance to dip into Evan’s jumbled-up, dope-smoking love-buggy of a life and celebrate it” NME
The album was the follow-up to 1992’s “It’s A Shame About Ray” and features the singles ‘Into Your Arms’, ‘It’s About Time’ and ‘Big Gay Heart’.
The reissue offers a selection of alternative/acoustic tracks and covers and curiosities on the bonus LP or CD. Both the 2CD and 2LP sets are available as deluxe ‘bookback’ (hardcover book) editions, as well as standard offerings.
Rough Trade in the UK have two special vinyl editions a 2LP black vinyl with a strawberry ‘Scratch N Sniff’ sleeve and a 2LP yellow and red vinyl edition.
“Come On Feel The Lemonheads” will be reissued on 15th May 2023, via Fire Records.
One of the most influential bands of the 80s British underground, the number of bands with a sonic debt to the Kember/Pierce partnership seems to grow every year. Like a lot of bands that have forged iconic status in the guitar world, even though they were much more than a noisy guitar band, they reinvented noise in music.
An exclusive release for Record Store Day 2014. This title may be available on sale one week after the event on Monday 28th April, dependant on availability.
Fire Records bring together Spacemen 3’s ultra rare first three singles as “Translucent Flashbacks” – each of the 3x 12″s are individually packaged and bundled into a wide spine outer sleeve including the singles ‘Walkin’ with Jesus’, ‘Transparent Radiation’ and ‘Take Me to the Other Side’ on 180gram vinyl of all three releases.
Spacemen 3 were a band from Rugby in Warwickshire who formed in 1982 and went on to become one of the most distinctive and influential bands from that era or any other. Led by Pete Kember (Sonic Boom) and Jason Pierce, Spacemen 3 have never been more important and Fire Records are running a series of reissues of some of the band’s earliest material including these special Record Store Day Releases.
Glam and glitter popsmiths Temples from Kettering, England formed in 2012 by charismatic frontman James Bagshawand bassist Tom Walmsle. “Indie rockers Temples demonstrate an illustrious way forward for traditional guitar music. Taking place in a mystical, dream-like utopia, this supremely ambitious sixteen track presentation is the broadest, most eclectic palette of sound yet to be released by the neo-psychedelic, alternative ensemble. There are no bounds. ‘Exotico’ let’s go of control, so remarkable things can happen. It’s the closest Temples have been to releasing a masterpiece, and that’s saying something.”
Their 2014 debut album “Sun Structures”. A psych retro pop record sounding like 5-star sonic sugar. But the weirdest thing happened now with this new long player. This album grew on me spin after spin. It’s still a mellow, laid-back, and familiar-sounding collection of music. But its sunlit spirit, its vivid vibe, its infectious melodies are superb. Let your thoughts ignore reality and drift away in your happy-go-lucky cocoon.
“Afterlife” is off Temples’ upcoming album “Exotico”, produced by Sean Ono Lennon.
“Exotico” is out now • Here we are in the desert last Summer, reflection hit and we celebrated 10 years since Temples came to life. We’ve traveled far from the East Midlands in the time between, what feels even further in the last 2 years and when the world stopped moving, “Exotico” began. Making this record with Sean Lennon was like starting anew, and we couldn’t be happier to return back to you with something we’re truly proud of. Your response so far has been amazing.
Singer Songwriter Julie Byrne has announced her first new album in six years. The follow-up to 2017’s “Not Even Happiness” is called “The Greater Wings”, and it comes out July 7th via Ghostly International. Its first single, ‘Summer Glass’, is out today alongside an accompanying video
Byrne started recording “The Greater Wings” with her long time collaborator Eric Littmann, who passed away in 2021. She completed the album with producer Alex Somers in the Catskills.
“My hope for “The Greater Wings” is that it lives as a love letter to my chosen family and as an expression of the depth of my commitment to our shared future,” Byrne shared in a statement. “Being reshaped by grief also has me more aware of what death does not take from me. I commit that to heart, to words, to sound. Music is not bound to any kind of linear time, so in the capacity to record and speak to the future: This is what it felt like to me, when we were simultaneous, alive, occurring all at once. What it has felt like to go up against my edge and push, the love that has made it worth all this fight. These memories are my values, they belong with me.”
“Summer Glass” lyrics by Julie Byrne Prophet Rev 4 & Piano by Eric Littmann Strings & Aelita by Jake Falby Harp by Marilu Donovan Paraphonic by Alex Somers
For Eric Reuss Littmann, Always. releases July 7th, 2023
“Red Sun Titans”, the new album from Gengahr comes on red and orange ‘corona’ effect LP, limited to 300 copies and hand-numbered to order.
The record is the sound of a band reborn – harnessing the energy and inspiration of their past but with a bold and fiercely independent vision for the future. It’s an album “caught in between two worlds,” as frontman Felix Bushe puts it – a colourful celebration where you’ve come from, and dreaming of where you could go from here.
Entering the studio with Matt Glasbey (alt-J, Coldplay) producing and mixing – with executive production by Charlie Andrew (Wolf Alice, London Grammar, all three alt-J albums) – the band saw a chance to revisit the origins of where their creativity came from. The album developed out of self-analysis and resultingly is one of two distinct sides: one a naive counterpart longing to exist in a simpler state, and another about checking your ego and coming to terms with great loss.
“Red Sun Titans” sits at that crossroads where the past is still in view and to be learned from, but the future is there for the taking. It’s the ambitious, unrestrained and widescreen statement Gengahr have always threatened to make.
“Weathervanes”, Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit’s eighth album, arrives via Southeastern Records/Thirty Tigers on June 9th. Produced by Isbell with Matt Pence providing additional production on five songs, the follow-up to 2020’s “Reunions” and the 2021 covers album “Georgia Blue” features 13 new originals.
“Cast Iron Skillet” is a beautiful acoustic song that features Jason Isbell‘s wife, Amanda Shires on fiddle. 400 Unit member Derry DeBorja provides accents on the accordion as Isbell sings masterful lyrics that paint a picture of a protagonist going through a rough stretch.
“Cast Iron Skillet,” the third single from their forthcoming studio album, “Weathervanes”.Southeastern Records marketed and distributed by Thirty Tigers
Not long after he was unceremoniously booted from the Sex Pistols, bassist Glen Matlock turned right around and hooked up with guitarists Midge Ure and Steve New, and drummer Rusty Egan, to form Rich Kids, a snotty punk combo to rival anything coming out of the U.K. in the late ’70s. At the time, the group didn’t connect with folks in spite of their punchy, poppy sound mining the same territory as Buzzcocks and Dr. Feelgood. The years have been kind to their lone studio album. It has grown in stature among punk enthusiasts, which makes its first-ever U.S. reissue seem both exciting and like a ridiculous oversight. Produced by former Spider From Mars Mick Ronson, the 11 tracks here are unrelentingly catchy and defined by an energy and attitude that will quickly shatter your resolve and any sense of cool you may be holding on to.
“Ghosts of Princes in Towers” is the only studio album by British band Rich Kids, founded in 1977 by Glen Matlock (ex Sex Pistols) and Midge Ure (Ultravox) and Rusty Egan released in August 1978 and produced by ex-Bowie guitarist Mick Ronson. Exclusive for RSD 2023, the original album will be newly remastered. Release overseen by Rich Kids’ Rusty Egan.
New wave supergroup Rich Kids burned briefly but brightly. Featuring ex-Sex Pistol Glen Matlock and future Ultravox frontman Midge Ure, the band’s lone album,“Ghosts Of Princes In Towers”, was produced by David Bowie’s former right-hand man, Mick Ronson, and released in August 1978. It featured the group’s sole Top 30 hit, Rich Kids, alongside a slew of incendiary pop tunes such as “Marching Men”, “Burning Sounds” and “Cheap Emotions”, but it became the group’s epitaph when they split just months later. Still essential, this newly remastered edition comfortably sits among the best Record Store Day2023 releases.
