Archive for the ‘MUSIC’ Category

GEESE – ” Projector  ” Best Albums Of 2021

Posted: October 29, 2021 in MUSIC
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It’s been a minute since there’s been a New York band has hyped as Geese, who were the subject of a label bidding war before they graduated high school. It’s part of a compelling story that includes how they recorded and produced their debut album, “Projector,” on their own at their home studio in the hours after school and before a hard 10 PM curfew instituted by their parents. Once signed to Partisan (and PIAS in the UK), the album was handed over to the very talented Dan Carey (Squid, Kae Tempest, Hot Chip) for mixing and mastering. It’s a slick sounding record that doesn’t sound like it was made in a basement. On “Projector”, Geese distill the last 50 years of New York rock, from Television and Talking Heads to The Strokes and Interpol.

While they haven’t quite figured out their own sound just yet, the album was clearly made by five very talented musicians who know how to construct a song. There’s a lot of The Strokes here from the guitar interplay to the attitude in singer/songwriter Cameron Winter’s vocals, and the ’00s in general seem like a strong influence. Geese would’ve fit comfortably on a bill between Foals and Tom Vek in 2006. While “Projector” might not live up to the hype that comes with it, impressive, swaggering songs like “Low Era” hold a lot of promise for a band whose members have yet to hit their 20s.

Geese is a band that begins and ends in Brooklyn, as a project between friends to build a home studio out of a basement. Their songs are born from the same ambition: make music by any means necessary. They began recording together with sneakers as mic stands and blankets draped over the amps, all within the afternoon following a school day, up until they ran the risk of noise complaints. Recently, they signed a record deal, so they are thinking about moving on from sneaker-laden mics and blanketed amps, but their musical ethos has not changed a bit. Curiously alien, yet strangely familiar, the band’s debut album, “Projector“, is a product of five teenagers whose love of music touches every part of their lives: their restless anxiety about their futures, and their pent-up frustration with their present-a perspective all too familiar in today’s uncertain world.

“Projector” will be released digitally on October 29 and physically on December 3rd, 2021 on Partisan Records and Play It Again Sam

Released October 29th, 2021

BILLY BRAGG – ” The Million Things That Never Happened “

Posted: October 29, 2021 in MUSIC
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One of the great human beings of Planet Earth, Billy Bragg has been mixing pop and politics with compassion and wit for 40 years and, unlike some of his contemporaries, has continued to evolve, look forward and consider the bigger picture. “As a mid century modern geezer, I’m aware that my notions of personal relationships were formed almost fifty years ago, likewise my politics,” Billy says. “To cling to that and imagine that you’ve nothing to learn from younger generations, you’re in danger of becoming a dinosaur. Kids have got new priorities and new ideas. Thatcher’s dead. The world has moved on. I’m trying to respond to the things I’m hearing now, rather than reminding folk of ‘the good old days’.”

One thing that Bragg does better than almost anyone is mix the personal with the political, bringing a relatable point of view to his most strident material, as well as his tender love songs (few are as observant to the slings and arrows of relationships). Written and recorded during the 2020 of the pandemic, Black Lives Matter, Brexit and the U.S. presidential election, The Million Things That Never Happened has the personal and the politically intertwined like never before. There are songs about personal accountability (“Shoulda Seen it Coming,” “The Buck Doesn’t Stop Here No More’), aging and death (“Pass it On,” the title track), and changing with the changing times (“Mid Century Modern,” “Ten Mysterious Photos That Can’t Be Explained.”).

The production on the album by The Magic Numbers’ Romeo Stodart and Dave Izumi is warm and soulful, like Billy’s voice, with mellotron giving songs a surreal thread that fits the times in which it was created, the weirdest two years most of us have ever experienced. The album’s most effective moment, though, is also its most simple and direct. “I Will Be Your Shield” is a song about the power of love and friendship in the times of deepest strife, that is little more than Billy and a piano. “When things start to unravel / And days fill you with dread / When comments dent your confidence / Confide in me instead.” While the world changes by the minute, Billy’s empathy remains steadfast.

Releases October 29th, 2021

Billy Bragg under exclusive licence to Cooking Vinyl Limited

TIM HEIDECKER – ” Dark Days “

Posted: October 29, 2021 in MUSIC
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Tim Heidecker is back with a new single, “Dark Days,” an anthemic heartland rock number about pandemic times that was co-produced Eric D. Johnson (Fruit Bats, Bonny Light Horseman) and Drew Erickson, who worked on Tim’s 2020 album, “Fear of Death”.

“I wrote this in the darkest days of the pandemic when things really felt unhinged, and it’s filled with little Easter eggs of the moment… baking bread and all that stuff,” says Tim. “At the last minute I changed the last line to be a question rather than a statement because I didn’t want it to be a total bummer. I hope it doesn’t ruin anyone’s day! Also I don’t think there’s a way to sing ‘this world’s on fire’ and Not sound like Bruce Springsteen.”

You can listen to “Dark Days” below. Tim has also announced his first-ever NYC show with his band — “Tim Heidecker And His Very Good Band” to be specific –

“Fear of Death” is a Serious Album about Serious Topics – a doomed future, abandoning life in the city, and the inevitability of death. It’s Heidecker’s biggest sounding and most fleshed out album yet featuring an all star band comprised of Weyes Blood’s Natalie Mering (vocals and piano), Drew Erickson (Jonathan Wilson, Dawes), The Lemon Twigs’ Brian and Michael D’Addario, Jonathan Rado, and string arrangements by Spacebomb’s Trey Pollard (Foxygen, Bedouine, The Waterboys, Natalie Prass).

“Dark Days” from Tim Heidecker out now on Spacebomb Records

DINOSAUR Jr – ” Emptiness at The Sinclair “

Posted: October 29, 2021 in MUSIC
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Dinosaur Jr have just released a new live album, Emptiness at The Sinclair. It was recorded at Boston’s The Sinclair for a livestream show back in May that, as the title suggests, had them playing to largely empty room. “Playing for a livestream is like pushing a rock up a hill trying to recreate the vibe of a real show,” says Lou Barlow. “The isolation of the last year had made me nervous about performing again, especially in the context of Dinosaur Jr. where I typically rely on the energy of our crowd. Playing to an invisible audience and a real-time sparsely populated room of people doing their jobs (running lights, sound and staring at screens) was something different and, again, weird.”

Lou continues, “Despite all my lockdown doubts once we started playing things clicked. My mind didn’t hijack me and it quickly began to feel like a real show. Having a few decent gigs on the Sinclair stage before, it began to feel familiar and, for lack of a better word, friendly. It will be much more of a relief to get back on tour but, this Sinclair show was a good band-aid, so to speak.“

“Emptiness at The Sinclair” has J, Lou and Murph ripping through songs from throughout their catalogue, including classics like “Freak Scene,” “Feel the Pain,” and their cover of The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven” to songs from this year’s great Sweep it Into Space.

You can pick up “Sweep it Into Space” on translucent purple vinyl, and “Hand it Over” on deluxe 2-LP purple vinyl, along with other Dinosaur Jr vinyl,

SCRUFFPUPPIE – ” Paint ” 

Posted: October 29, 2021 in MUSIC
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Born in Paris, Texas, JJ – who uses the pronouns she/her and they/them –  spent much of her adolescent life in a state of uproot, moving from town to town as her parents’ jobs required. After spending the first 12-odd years of her life in Texas, JJ and her family moved to Georgia; a year after that, Utah. At 15, JJ and her family finally moved to Wisconsin, where they would end up spending the rest of JJ’s adolescence.

 Along with a talent for skateboarding, she began to foster a love of film, taking joy in writing scripts and making short films with their friends; music became a significant part of her life. Slowly, JJ started to post videos of herself playing songs on YouTube, eventually finding that she could make enough money to support herself from that alone; her videos would frequently garner over 100K views, with some of them reaching over 3M or 4M. At 16, she quit her job at the local pizza shop and started focusing on music. She released “Zombie Boy”, her debut project, on Bandcamp, in 2018.

 Around the same time that they were becoming known for her rough-hewn, spellbinding YouTube videos, JJ began experimenting with drugs. Amidst it all, Scruffpuppie began to take off and she started traveling around the Midwest to play shows. At 18, she dropped out of high school; completely unmoored, but still always creating. It was her summer 2019 track “Never Coming Home” that caught the attention of Phoebe Bridgers and the wider team at Saddest Factory Records.“Never Coming Home” (1M views and counting) was the last video JJ posted online before entering rehab.

JJ Shurbet, who records as Scruffpuppie, has released their newest song “paint” on Saddest Factory Records. At just-turned 20, JJ has already released a string of performances and music videos for the last few years, garnering an army of ardent fans and millions of views. The latest track is an introspective piano ballad reflecting on her history of drug abuse. The visual for the song – directed by Mowgly Lee – follows a similar tone, spotlighting JJ for an emotional performance. Produced by frequent Phoebe Bridgers song writing collaborator, Marshall Vore, the track is JJ’s second release on Saddest Factory Records, following last month’s “assignment Song”.

Says JJ,“‘paint’ is an emotional ballad, talking a lot about the relationship I had with drugs, and how they controlled the other relationships I had in my life,” “In the song I say ‘how am I the bigger one, when I never took out my gun, and played along to all your games, but never really felt the same’ which draws a lot from how my relationship with drugs was so one sided, how I never meant to play along to the game they put in front of me, but how it was almost impossible not to.”

“paint” the new song by Scruffpuppie, out now on Saddest Factory Records.

MITSKI – ” Working For The Knife “

Posted: October 29, 2021 in MUSIC
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Mitski makes a daring return with “Working for the Knife,” a new single/video and the announcement of a spring 2022 North American tour. “Working for the Knife” surges with synth and a syncopated beat, driven by Mitski’s tenor and production by longtime collaborator Patrick Hyland. “It’s about going from being a kid with a dream, to a grown up with a job, and feeling that somewhere along the way you got left behind. It’s being confronted with a world that doesn’t seem to recognize your humanity, and seeing no way out of it,” explains Mitski.

The video, filmed at The Egg in Albany, NY and directed by Zia Anger with Ashley Connor directing photography, presents a performer returning to the same cruel world that gave birth to her. Mitski’s dedication to both sonic and physical presentation is on full display — every muscle is activated and purposeful, giving itself over to the story of the choreography. It’s dynamic and gritty with a new intensity we haven’t yet seen from Mitski.

“Working for the Knife” the new song by Mitski out now on Dead Oceans.

EPIC SOUNDTRACKS – ” Sleeping Star ” (Re-Issue)

Posted: October 29, 2021 in MUSIC
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The magnificent second album by Epic Soundtracks is issued on vinyl for the first time. The original vinyl project was discontinued after Epic’s death. Insert with unseen pictures and liner notes by Chris Coleman.

“I still remember it like it was yesterday. I was playing in Koln, Germany when I heard “Sleeping Star” – I was so cynical about “new” music by then that it took a lot to catch my ear. But I was so enamoured of Epic’s blend of Todd Rundgren meets Carole King piano based ballads that I called Bar None the next day and made arrangements to release the CD in Europe…..you need to hear this, it’s the missing link between Pet Sounds and Big Star’s Third.” (Pat Thomas. Writer, musician and music archivist.)

Epic Soundtracks was the stage name of the British musician Kevin Paul Godfrey. Born in Croydon, Surrey, he was brought up in Solihull, Midlands with his brother Adrian Nicholas Godfrey, who was known as Nikki Sudden.

In 1972, Kevin and Adrian formed the nucleus of what was to become the post-punk rock group Swell Maps, with “Soundtracks” on drums and piano, and “Sudden” on guitar and vocals. Notable fans of Soundtracks‘ solo work include Evan Dando and Thurston Moore. Dave Graney paid tribute to Soundtracks with the song “A Boy Named Epic”.  The Brother Who Lived. Arthur Lee’s backing band, Baby Lemonade, paid tribute as well, with a song off their 2001 High Life Suite LP called,“Song for Epic”

“A laconic sweetness and oblique humor mixed with melancholy characterises Sleeping Star’s shaggy blue-eyed pop-soul, which is filled with echoes of Laura Nyro, Carole King and Wild Honey era Brian Wilson. He writes songs at the piano, fooling with chords until they suggest a lyric fragment. (Request magazine, 1995)

“Sleeping Star” is a more spare album than Rise Above adorned with haunting violin and cello. A devastating romantic break up inspired songs on both LPs” (Holly George Warren , Option magazine )

Epic Soundtracks later played drums for Crime & the City Solution and These Immortal Souls. In 1991, Soundtracks decided to focus on his own song writing career, and began the series of recordings that comprised his three solo records. As a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist he released three critically acclaimed solo albums, and two more were released posthumously.

Epic Soundtracks died in his sleep on 6th November 1997, at his flat in West Hampstead, London.

The dbs – ” I Thought You Wanted To Know: 1978-1981 “

Posted: October 29, 2021 in MUSIC
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New Wave and power-pop greats The dB’s are releasing a double album of early demos, titled “I Thought You Wanted to Know”, that will be out October 15th via newly launched Propeller Sound Recordings. “What we have here are home and field recordings of the dB’s,” says the band’s Peter Holsapple. “Most of these tracks predate the release of “Stands for deciBels” by two to three years, and were the basis of the signing of the band to Albion Records UK in 1980.”

Many of The dB’s early classics are here in rawer form, with a few of them seeing the light for the first time ever; it’s also the first time most of them have ever been made available on vinyl. You can listen to the “NY Rocker Sessions” demo of “Bad Reputation” (which ended up on their 1981 debut) 

dB’s member Chris Stamey just reissued The Robust Beauty of Improper Linear Models in Decision Making Vol 1 & 2 and is part of the upcoming live tribute to Big Star in NYC.

23 Tracks of Remastered Early Singles, Demos, and Live Recordings with insert or booklet.

“What we have here are home and field recordings of The dB’s. Most of these tracks predate the release of “Stands For Decibels” by two to three years and were the basis of the signing of the band to Albion Records (UK) in 1980. Some songs are being released to the public for the first time in this package. Now, almost thirty years after a number of these tracks first saw the light of day on Rhino Records, we find ourselves in the position of releasing the earliest of these selections from our archives to a whole new audience. It’s the first time most have been on vinyl. The live recordings were found after months of Chris sifting through a trove of ancient cassettes, and we are glad to be able to include these key songs from those early years.”
– Peter Holsapple, The dB’s – Durham, NC – 2021

Bad Reputation (New York Rocker Sessions) · The dB’s Bad Reputation Holsapple Music / Lovolar Music BMI, admin. by Concord Music Publishing Released on: 2021-08-17

Really sad, heartbreaking news to report. Bobby Sutcliff of The Windbreakers has passed away tonight as Tim Lee posted. This breaks my heart. Not only was Bobby an amazing guy, but The Windbreakers (and his solo recordings) were cornerstones to my musical library. RIP Bobby – we love you and will never forget you!

Our heroes, The dB’S, are always lumped in with R.E.M. etc. in my truly humble opinion, R.E.M. can not even hold a candle to the shear brilliant songwriting of Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple ! Their entire catalog can’t even stack to say Black and white or From a window. I am so pro Sneakers/dB’S/solo stuff it’s not even funny.

BILLY JOEL – ” New York State of Mind ” (Live at the Great American Music Hall – 1975)

Posted: October 29, 2021 in MUSIC
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Billy Joel has released an early version of his iconic song “New York State of Mind,” recorded live during a 1975 San Francisco performance.

This recording predates the official release of “New York State of Mind,” which would not occur until it appeared on Joel’s 1976 album, “Turnstiles”.

“We were all living in California in 1974-75,” Brian Ruggles, who was then Joel’s engineer and live sound producer, . “Billy was in Malibu and I was living in Hollywood. He’d been in California for a few years and was really homesick for New York. He wanted to get back there. His roots are in New York and he missed it a lot.

“He came up with the idea for the song as he rode — on the Hudson River Line, actually — to his house in Highland Falls, New York,” Ruggles added. “He wrote the song down when he got home. This was months before we recorded “Turnstiles.”

The live version will appear on Joel’s forthcoming box “The Vinyl Collection, Vol. 1“. The set arrives on November. 5th and includes an unreleased live album, “Live at the Great American Music Hall – 1975“, in addition to his first six LPs.

Joel can be heard making a few spontaneous quips while performing “New York State of Mind.” “That’s where John Denver is, I’ve heard,” he jokes after singing the line “Been high in the Rockies under the evergreens.” After rehearsing the song and performing it live, Joel decided to take a similar approach on the subsequent studio version.

“Billy liked the arrangement, so they recorded it that way on the album,” Ruggles said. “I remember that the recording truck was owned by the drummer of Creedence Clearwater Revival, and it was parked outside the Great American Music Hall. It was old-school recording, but we were able to put together a pretty good recording for this special release. It stands up really well after almost 46 years or so.”

Billy Joel’s 50 years as a songwriter, performer and recording artist has gifted the world with countless hits and classics.Celebrate his music with The Vinyl Collection, Vol. 1 — consisting of first six solo studio albums (‘Cold Spring Harbor,’ ‘Piano Man,’ ‘Streetlife Serenade,’ ‘Turnstiles,’ ‘The Stranger,’ ‘52nd Street’), his first live album (‘Songs in the Attic’) and an exclusive pressing of the previously unreleased ‘Live at The Great American Music Hall – 1975!’

 With countless hits and influence that spans the globe Legacy will be highlighting Billy Joel’s catalogue for the remainder of the year, with a focus on his early career.  

One aspect of the campaign will be The Vinyl Collection, Vol. 1, an 8 album (9-LP) boxset that includes Joel’s albums from the 1970s  Also included is a previously unreleased live album, Live at The Great American Music Hall, which will only be available in the boxset.  

Though Legacy Recordings insists its exclusive 1975 live disc in their new Billy Joel vinyl box set will not be available outside of the project, they’ve made two tracks from that set available digitally, and it makes us wish it was broken out from the expensive box. It’s one of the better Billy concerts we’ve sampled! (Check out this neat original promo video of “Everybody Loves You Now” the Billy camp has unearthed, too.)

The boxset includes a 50+ page booklet that highlights Joel’s early career through photos, quotes, and an essay.  This project is a wonderful opportunity to remind core fans about Joel’s discography while capturing a new, younger audience, digitally.  Recently Joel’s influence on Gen Z has been showcased through TikTok trend for “Zanzibar,” name-checked in Olivia Rodrigo’s smash “deja vu” lyrics I’ll bet that she knows Billy Joel / ‘Cause you played her Uptown Girl (co-writer and producer Dan Nigro wrote the line and is the Billy Joel fan) and sited as an influence for BTS’ “Butter” video.  The physical product will be for Joel’s established fans,

LAUREL PREMO – ” Golden Loam “

Posted: October 29, 2021 in MUSIC
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Michigan-based multi-instrumentalist Laurel Premo plays American roots music on fiddle and banjo, but transfers those old tunes to electric guitar and lap steel guitar – reshaping and recasting them along the way. She joins us remotely to play songs from her latest, “Golden Loam”, for the Soundcheck Podcast.

Multi-instrumentalist Laurel Premo’s latest solo album, Golden Loam, out October 8th, 2021, presents original and traditional music voiced on finger-style electric guitar and lap steel. Perhaps by its most honest classification “roots guitar,” the sonic vocabulary of Golden Loam is informed by guitar’s antecedents in American traditions – fiddle and banjo, the rhythms, melody and intonation therein, as well as that music’s relationship to movement. Glowing, droning, tugging, scraping, revolving, Premo bears renewed electric dirt, the golden loam layered by centuries of folk.

Premo channels a stirring live performance while the saturated lights shine down.  “This original guitar piece nods to sounds from a very specific fiddle tuning traditional to Norwegian hardanger fiddle music,” Premo says. “The tuning is FDAE, and is named “gorrlaus” which translates to “very loose” (referring to that lowest string being very low). There’s some mythology around a few of these hardanger fiddle tunings, involving a sort of sonic alchemy and thinning of the veil between the musician and supernatural forces. The gorrlaus melodies are also called ‘strong tunes’ and melodically can seem infinitely looping. The lore goes that the fiddler is endangering themselves of trance by entering in to this practice. I’ve performed this tune on a slack-tuned guitar to follow suit.

The meaning of my title here, “Ma’s Maw” is simply referring to some great throat of the earth herself. I’m certain it’s an awe-filled image I gained hiking on the sand dunes nearby my home here in the northern lower peninsula of Michigan, where there are mountains of sand on the edge of the Great Lake. Sneaking down into some sandy crater and being held in the basket of grizzled herbaceous dune plants seemed an inviting cradle to just go disappear into in 2020.”

“Golden Loam” was self produced and recorded during the pandemic lockdown of summer/fall 2020. The majority of the record is solo performance, but two featured collaborators are woven in to this embodied rhythmic collection. Percussive dancer Nic Gareiss (Michigan) and bones player Eric Breton (Quebec) are also highlighted.

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