Joined by her band Golden Highway and slew of guests like Margo Price, Gillian Welch, and Old Crow Medicine Show, Tuttle pays homage to her familial bluegrass history on “Crooked Tree”. The songs are vibrant and move as quickly as your heart does when you’re doing something you love, but the most compelling quality of the record is how fun it sounds.
Acclaimed singer, songwriter and musician Molly Tuttle releases her anticipated Nonesuch Records debut, “Crooked Tree”, with her new bluegrass collective Golden Highway. Recorded live at Nashville’s Oceanway Studios, “Crooked Tree” was produced by Tuttle and Jerry Douglas and features collaborations with Sierra Hull, Old Crow Medicine Show, Margo Price, Billy Strings, Dan Tyminski and Gillian Welch. The album explores Tuttle’s love of bluegrass, which she discovered through her father, a music teacher and multi-instrumentalist, and her grandfather, a banjo player. Across these thirteen tracks, all of which were written / co-written by Tuttle, she honours the bluegrass tradition while also pushing the genre in new directions.
Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway’s “Nashville Mess Around,” from their debut album, ‘Crooked Tree,’ out now on Nonesuch Records
New releases and current inspirations from your hosts Jonnine Standish and Nigel Yang aka HTRK.‘Sunlight Feels Like Bee Stings’ new HTRK music video by Charlie Grant and Guilherme Santos
Friendship interpreted through keepsakes, a hidden diary, a cursed CD and a photograph Jonnine and Nigel have an encounter at a desert highway motel with a handsome cowboy.
Subterranean grooves and spectral electro vibes, What better way to sink into the subterranean vibes than with the slinky, sonic shadowplay of cult legends HTRK?
Known for its shape-shifting sensuality and spectral sound, the beloved Melbourne duo of Jonnine Standish and Nigel Yang has been stunning audiences for nearly two decades, transforming from skeletal noise to brooding, seductive soundscapes.
“What’s the Worst Thing You Heard?”, he asks. Certainly not this… Glenn and outfit have put out no fewer than *eight* separate releases in 2022, not counting bespoke live treats on top of that. Melancholy but far from depressive, every track on here and every other RP&P release brings sonic joy at every listen. I’ve been buying these on sight and never once regretted.
free 5-song EP.
released December 23rd, 2022
songs & sounds by Glenn Donaldson except lead guitar on 1 & 2 by Lewis Gallardo
“Heaven Tonight”, Cheap Trick’s third album overall and second (of three) to be produced by Tom Werman, continued the band’s ascent onto the charts.
Their self-titled debut album had merely bubbled under the charts . “In Color”, also under Werman’s auspices, reached a lower position. So “Heaven Tonight’s“ just under the top 50 was no slouch, and 1979’s “Dream Police”, the third and final album of the Werman production trilogy got into the top10,
It is one of Cheap Trick’s all-time classics; it remains the band’s usual set closer (pre-encore) to this date, usually positioned prior to “Auf Wiedersehen,” also from the album, which is not a casual “see you soon” kind of goodbye but rather a song about suicide, one of two on the album. The second death-related song is the lush title track (“Heaven Tonight”) which, with a degree more subtlety, chronicles a drug-related death (“there’s a limit, you went over”).
(These, of course, follow in the tradition of “Oh Candy” from their debut album, in which the speaker attempts to talk a depressed photographer friend out of ending it all—sadly, that was a true song and the suicide was real.)
“Heaven Tonight” combines some of the last unrecorded songs from the band’s pre-record contract club days (“Surrender,” “Auf Wiedersehen,” “High Roller,” plus their cover of Roy Wood’s “California Man,” and the bonus track instrumental “Oh Claire” which is not listed in the sequence).
The band paid homage to its musical roots with the Move’s “California Man,” penned by Roy Wood, Cheap Trick’s version famously punctuated with the guitar riff from another Wood/Move song, “Brontosaurus.” The song had double meaning as Cheap Trick by then had built a respectable following in the Golden State, one of their L.A. shows from the previous year having been released on vinyl and (as of this past December 16th, as a 4-CD set) as “Out to Get You! Live at the Whisky 1977”. It depicts the electricity of the band’s early club days in a way the far-better-selling “At Budokan” does not. (I hold out the hope that they’ll one day release a live album recorded at the Brat Stop in Kenosha, all of which set the stage for some of Cheap Trick’s most roof-raising live performances.
Among the newer songs, the layered title track “Heaven Tonight” was a standout. The band’s love for the later-period Beatles was fully on display, with Nielsen playing mandocello, harpsichord and cello on the track, which he has described as an “anti-drug song,” and one of two songs about mortality on the album. Played in a minor key, it’s been likened to the Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever,” Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” and the Beatles’ “I Want You (She’s So Heavy).”
“Heaven Tonight” was one of three songs on its namesake album that evoked the Fab Four, others including “Takin’ Me Back” and the closer (excluding the unlisted bonus track that follows) “How Are You.” The latter track playfully alludes to lyrics from “I Want You to Want Me,” the band’s single from “In Color” and the live version from “At Budokan“: “I said I want you, need you, love you, want you to want me…remember?”
One of the album’s deeper tracks is also one of the band’s earliest songs, “High Roller,” co-written by Nielsen, singer Robin Zander and bassist Tom Petersson. It’s reportedly the story of a drug dealer in Lake Geneva, Wis., a self-proclaimed high-roller, who “always get the things that I choose.”
While just about every song in Cheap Trick’s repertoire is a showcase for Zander’s voice, the track “On Top of the World” displays his gift for delivering Nielsen’s often humorous lyrics, especially in the line “I got lucky with the girl next door/She was lonely and didn’t care.”
The balance of the album consisted of six songs their early club-going fans hadn’t yet heard, which, with one exception, landed on side two (“On Top of the World,” “Takin’ Me Back,” “On the Radio,” “Heaven Tonight,” “Stiff Competition,” and “How Are You”).
Werman’s touch would later cause the band a degree of regret; they commissioned Steve Albini of the post-punk bands Big Black and Shellac—and producer of Nirvana’s multiplatinum Nevermind—to re-record “In Color” as a straight-ahead rock record. As for “Heaven Tonight”, we’ll just need to imagine what a stripped-down version might sound like. Or, we can bask in its intricacy, and its keen sense of space between notes. Where “In Color” often sounded emasculated, “Heaven Tonight” regains the powerful, arena-ready punch of Cheap Trick, but crosses it with a clever radio-friendly production that relies both on synthesizers and studio effects.”
Countering the old record executive cliché of “I don’t hear a single,” nearly every song on “Heaven Tonight”might have been a single—even if the overall sound was still a little left-of-center in relation to the corporate-rock sounds favored by FM rock stations of the day, while somehow more mainstream and radio-ready than the bulk of indie punk and new wave recordings also being released that year.
It probably hurt their radio relations none to have included an outright love song to radio, “On the Radio”: “All of the rock and roll DJs got their fingers on the world/‘Cause they play the songs that make you and me feel so good.” That song stood in stark contrast to Elvis Costello’s “Radio Radio” (“I wanna bite the hand that feeds me/I wanna make them wish they’d never seen me”), released that same year. In this writer’s 1978 review of “Heaven Tonight” in Lively Times, the weekly entertainment newspaper in the band’s hometown Rockford, Ill., I wrote: “For Costello, radio’s a sad salvation, while for Cheap Trick, it’s peachy.”
Forever to its credit, “Heaven Tonight”, released in mid May 1978, contained the track that would fast become one of the band’s signature songs, “Surrender.” The song, in which a boomer describes his army brat mother (“served with the WACs in the Philippines”) who warns her son to “stay away from girls” like the one he’s addressing because “you’ll never know what you’ll catch.” By the end of the song, the generation gap has been bridged, with “Then I woke up, Mom and Dad are rolling on the couch/Rolling numbers, rock and rolling/Got my Kiss records out.”
As Zander sings in the closing chorale of “Surrender”: “Bun E.’s alright, Tom’s alright, Robin’s alright, Rick’s alright.” Truth in advertising—Cheap Trick sounds consistently alright throughout “Heaven Tonight”. Go ahead and surrender to its greatness. Just don’t give yourself away.
“Surrender” is a Rick Nielsen original that Cheap Trick had waited three albums to release—it was a standout in their three-sets-per-night shows in the Midwest as far back as 1975…two years prior to signing with Epic Records. It is also one of the catchiest power pop songs ever, with added interest from its mid-song key changes (from B-flat major to B major to C major). In his 2007 book Shake Some Action: The Ultimate Power Pop Guide, author John Borack called it “a stone classic for the ages.”
Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn started SST Records to put out his band’s music — because nobody else wanted it. Yet SST became the most legendary of American punk labels, the one every outlaw band wanted to be on. (Until they saw their royalty checks — or didn’t.) Jim Ruland tells the whole messy saga in his un-put-downable “Corporate Rock Sucks”. You might expect it to focus on the big names: Hüsker Dü, Sonic Youth, The Minutemen. But it covers every record by every obscure punk band in the story, upholding the legacy of Saccharine Trust and Würm. All these years, fans always wondered why the hell SST released so many Zoogz Rift albums, but it turns out most of the SST crew wondered the same thing. (“Sweet Nausea Lick” is still a banger, though.) A classic story: It begins with punk ideals, then ends with everyone hating each other and lawyering up. But in between, a heroic shitload of music.
Pink Floyd quietly released 18 previously unreleased “Dark Side Of The Moon” era live shows on to streaming services, There are 18 previously unreleased Pink Floyd concerts have suddenly appeared unannounced on streaming services over the last few days, all centred around the band’s live activity in 1972 as they road-tested what would become their groundbreaking “The DarkSide Of The Moon” album.
The releases include the band’s four dates at London’s Rainbow Theatre in February of that year and a collection of alternative tracks from the “Dark Side…” album, simply titled “Alternative Tracks 1972“, which features trance remixes and ‘ultra rare’ alternative versions of five of “Dark Side’s” songs, including a rough demo of “On The Run“.
It is widely believed that the band, who also released a slew of live concerts from the early 1970s at this time last year, have released the shows in order to extend the copyright of the recordings.
Fans should be warned that last year the collection of releases disappeared as quietly as they appeared so our suggestion is to make the most of them while you can.
The full list of releases is as follows:
Alternative Tracks 1972
Live At Southampton Guildhall, UK, 23rd January 1972
Live At Carnegie Hall, New York, 5th Feb 1972
Live At The Rainbow Theatre, London 17th February 1972
Live At The Rainbow Theatre, London 18th Feb 1972
Live At The Rainbow Theatre, London 19th Feb 1972
Live At The Rainbow Theatre, London 20th Feb 1972
Live At The Taiikukan, Tokyo, Japan, 3rd Mar 1972
Live At Osaka Festival Hall, Japan, 8th Mar 1972
Live At Nakajima Sports Centre, Sapporo, Japan, 13th Mar 1972
Live At Chicago Auditorium Theatre, USA, 28th April 1972
Live At The Deutschlandhalle, Berlin, Germany, 18th May 1972
Live At The Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, 22nd Sept 1972
Live At The Empire Pool, Wembley, London, 21st Oct 1972
Live At Ernst-Merck Halle, Hamburg, Germany, 12th Nov 1972
Live At The Palais des Sports, Poitiers, France 29th Nov 1972
Live At The Palais des Sports de L’Ile de la Jatte, Saint Ouen, France, 1st Dec 1972
Live At The Vorst Nationaal, Brussels, Belgium, 5th Dec 1972
Live At The Hallenstadion, Zurich, Switzerland 9th Dec 72
As Idles get more and more serious with each release, there’s a void that calls for a band that’s capable of metaphorically either breaking your bones while tickling your funny bone at the same time. Enter the Chats, specifically their second album “Get Fucked”. The riffs are about as subtle as the title, and for 27 minutes, you’re treated to pogoing odes to literally getting struck by lightning to spitting laments about how “the price of smokes are going up again.”
The Australian “shed” rockers make few adjustments from their 2020 debut “High Risk Behavior”, but “Get Fucked” proves there’s still plenty of material that can be mined from being broke, run-ins with the law, and class resentment. If you’re a fan of brutal, hard-edged punk, “Get Fucked” doesn’t offer too much in the way of new surprises, but it’s delivered with such gleeful confidence that you don’t care if the tune is familiar. The Chats provide a much-needed, cathartic jolt of joy with just the right amount of sneering, nihilistic anger.
I absolutely love these drunk crazy Aussie bastards. the pure unfiltered raw energy from these lads is so infectious. I can’t wait to see them live straight bangers.
On the heels of their critically acclaimed self-titled record, La Luz has announced the release of a new single entitled “EndlessAfternoon,” available worldwide on all DSPs. Shana Cleveland of La Luz says that “Endless Afternoon” is a “California lullaby.
The melody for this song came to me while I was hiking in the hills above the Yuba River. About the sweetness found in slow days close to home.” This song is the a-side of a physical 7” that is b/w the track “San Fernando Shadow Blues” (available digitally on June 14th) with both songs physically available on July 7th.
Echo & The Bunnymen’s brilliant 1997 album ‘Evergreen’ is issued on vinyl for the first time, and as a 2CD deluxe.
London Records are to reissue Echo & The Bunnymen’s triumphant 1997 ‘comeback’ album “Evergreen”, which was notable for featuring the UK hit ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’.
The album has been remastered and will be issued on vinyl for the very first time. It will also be available as an expanded 2CD deluxe edition with 21 bonus tracks. Exclusive is a 4-track CD EP called “Peel Session 1997“. This features four tracks recorded at Maida Vale and broadcast on 16th September 1997, three of which are previously unreleased (‘Rescue’ was on CD 2 of the of 1997 2CD special edition).
“Evergreen” marked a critical and commercial renaissance for the band after more than half a decade’s hiatus. In January 1997 Will Sergeant, Les Pattinson and Ian McCulloch came back together in a recording studio for the first time in ten years. The band entered Doghouse studios in Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, as fate would have it at the same time as Oasis, leading to ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ featuring a 24-year-old Liam Gallagher on backing “yeah, yeah, yeah!”s and tambourine shakes.
The album entered the UK chart at number eight, in July 1997 and while the two further singles may not have repeated the success of the first, they were certainly popular enough and well played on the radio at the time (they were ‘I Want To Be There (WhenYou Come)’ and ‘Don’t Let It Get You Down’
This was the era in the UK of releasing two CD singles (CD 1 & CD 2) and so there were plenty of bonus tracks to go around. In fact remarkably, ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ had six new studio recordings across the seven-inch vinyl and both CD singles. All six of those tracks are appended to the album on the first disc in the forthcoming 2CD deluxe edition. The second disc consists of live tracks and some radio sessions (mostly acoustic).
Speaking about the album today, Ian McCulloch is modest enough. He says it contains “at least three great songs, which is three more than most bands have in their entire catalogue”. He’s referring to ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’, ‘Forgiven’ and ‘Just A Touch Away’.
“Evergreen” will be reissued on 18th November 2022, via London Records. The exclusive Peel Session 1997 CD is limited and numbered and is supplied FREE with any order of the 2CD, vinyl or the bundle.
Wednesday’s first single for Dead Oceans is such a spectacular maelstrom of emotion that it’s hard to know where to even begin: Its winding, multi-part journey? Those overpowering yet strikingly textured guitars? Karly Hartzman’s blood-curdling yet exultant screams? Absolutely everything about that outro? The lyrics of ‘Bull Believer’ alone, so dense in their imagery and seemingly disparate references, are worth poring over. But you don’t need to listen to the episode of the country music podcast Cocaine & Rhinestones that the band has cited as an inspiration to be swept away by it.
Wednesday’s approach is visceral, not analytical. Bullfighting becomes a potent metaphor for exploring the cycle of addiction and the intoxication of violence: “God, make me good but not quite yet,” she implores, wounded in a daze, before projecting her anger through a video game: “Finish him!” It’s up to you to figure out how it all bleeds together, but best surrender to the noise – it might just flicker into silence.
