“Big Colors” was all done two years ago. When Ryan Adams announced his new album with the song of the day named “Fuck The Rain” and the circulating messages that two more records were also already recorded. Then with accusations of sexual misconduct towards the female sex by, among others, Phoebe Bridgers and his ex-wife Mandy Moore prevented the release of the albums. After a letter of apology and councilling the first part of the planned album trilogy was first published in digital at the end of 2020, and in March of this year also haptically with the release of “Wednesdays”.
Emerging from the depths of the 2019 #MeToo scandal, Ryan Adams is back and ready to rock. While his most recent record, “Wednesdays,” was a lesson in acoustic soul-baring, “Big Colors” goes in a completely different direction with it’s 80s rock vibes.
it is his 18th studio album and is a striking change of direction from the last, an upbeat record rich in drums and synth encapsulating the 1980’s vibe spectacularly and produced with Don Was and Beatriz Artola. The now 46-year-old American has never disappointed. Adams has released seventeen albums since 2000, a bad one wasn’t included, but some great ones like “Heartbreaker”, “Gold”, “Love Is Hell” and “Cold Roses”. His 18th album “Big Colors” has mostly the better songs than the original predecessor “Prisoner”, released in 2017 and tested by us. The relaxed, mentioned at the beginning “Fuck The Rain” is certainly one of them, but is surpassed by the subsequent “Manchester”, which once again shows what swarming rock music Ryan Adams is capable of. Even more smouldering is the stringed “It’s So Quiet, It’s Loud”, a not even insanely spectacular song, but with its catchiness and its dreamy euphoria suitable as a potential single.
There are many standout tracks on this album. “It’s so Quiet, it’s Loud” echoes back to Easy Tiger/ Cardinology era with its jangly guitars and soaring vocals at the end of the song. With “What am I?”, Adams is showing us that he still knows how to croon with his beautiful acoustic accompaniment and stop me in my tracks. “I Surrender” and “Middle of the Line” are classic Adams rockers and the ones I keep replaying. But we have to talk about “Power.” From its first 80s electric guitar line and Adams’ raspy voice, It’s not a new vibe, but Adams does it well. The 80s are a good look for him and he described the whole record as “the soundtrack to a movie from 1984 that only exists in my soul.” While he had dipped his toes in the water for his reimagined version of Taylor Swift’s “1989” record, now Adams has jumped all the way in.
With the title track as an opener as well as “What Am I” and “In It For The Pleasure”, Adams proves his art in restrained and subtle song writing, while the “I Surrender”, equipped with clanking and radiant guitar riffs, pushes into anthemic Springsteen areas. And if you want to hear a noble and elegant pop-rock song again, you can enjoy “Showtime” to the fullest. Musically, Ryan Adams does everything right again. “Big Colors” belongs in the front third of his best albums.
“I’m just dreaming in big colors now, loading my brushes with this love I found, so where do we go from here?” Well Ryan, we go on whatever journey you take us on next. It’s been bumpy, but I’m hanging on for the ride.
This item is a pre-order and has an expected ship date of August 18th, 2021
Some time in the spring of 1966, Al Kooper, a musician who’d recently supplied the signature organ riff to Bob Dylan’s ground breaking track “Like a Rolling Stone,” was invited to Brian Wilson’s home to hear some new Beach Boys music, an album called “Pet Sounds”, still a few weeks away from release. “He played it for me,” remembers Kooper, “and then he played it again, which did not bother me. Little did I know that it would receive more plays than anything else in my house for the rest of my life. It’s still my favourite album. Brian was in a world of music that no one else dwelled in.”
Al Kooper is not alone in his assessment. Mojo magazine has named Pet Sounds, the Beach Boys’ 11th album, the greatest LP of all time and Rolling Stone placed it at number two in its original top 500 list, just behind Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Conceived, written, produced and arranged by Wilson, with lyrics primarily by advertising copywriter Tony Asher – with whom Wilson had never previously collaborated – Pet Sounds was released by Capitol Records on May 16th, 1966, more than a half-century ago. Its impact has only swelled over the years and it was celebrated in 2016 by Capitol via Pet Sounds (50th Anniversary Collectors Edition), a box set housing four CDs and a Blu-ray audio disc. The package, which both reprises and expands upon The Pet Sounds Sessions, released 20+ years ago, includes the original album in stereo and mono, various other mixes, session outtakes and previously unreleased live recordings. It provides deep insight into the making of a landmark recording.
While much of the box set’ may appeal only to diehard fans and audiophiles, the original 13-track album, which features such Beach Boys classics as “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “God Only Knows” and “Caroline, No,” continues to find new fans. A key recurring plot point in 2015’s Brian Wilson biopic,Love & Mercy, revolved around the heady, intense Los Angeles sessions for the album, the creative genius directing the ace studio musicians known as the Wrecking Crew while butting up against the other group members, who, the film alleges, felt that his new compositions were not representative of their trademark, best-selling sound. Those oft-repeated qualms, say Beach BoysMike Love and Al Jardine, never existed.
Adds Love, “One thing I’ve been quoted as saying was, ‘Don’t fuck with the formula.’ But I never said that! It’s the most famous thing I said that I never said. First of all, I named the album. Second, all of us – Carl [Wilson], Al, Bruce, myself – all worked really hard on the harmonies. Pet Sounds is awesome for so many reasons. It was a big leap from where we were,” says Jardine. “We’d been out on tour for a long time [minus Brian, who’d stopped traveling with the band in 1964 to concentrate on writing and recording, his place in the road band taken by new recruit Bruce Johnston]. There was a lot of adjustment. But it wasn’t that we didn’t want to do it.”
Not all Beach Boys fans did initially fall for it though. On its release, Pet Sounds, despite garnering raves from the nascent rock press, It was a lesser performance than most of their previous albums, among them 1965’s Beach Boys Party! and Summer Days (And Summer Nights). Whether or not Brian Wilson and the other Beach Boys felt they’d created a defining work, Capitol Records balked, its executives complaining that the new music – much of it lush, soft, ambitious and introspective, Brian’s response to the Beatles’ new, more sophisticated direction on Rubber Soul – was too far removed from the music the public had come to expect from them.
“We played the album for Karl Engemann, the A&R [artists and repertoire] guy at Capitol responsible for the Beach Boys,” says Love, “and he listened and said, ‘Gee, guys, that’s great, but couldn’t we get something more like “California Girls” or “I Get Around” or “Fun, Fun, Fun”?’” The label’s solution was to tack on to the end of the album’s first side the group’s most recent hit single, “Sloop John B.” Stylistically, it seemed at odds with Wilson and Asher’s more reflective compositions, among them “That’s Not Me,” “I’m Waiting for the Day,” “Here Today,” “I Just Wasn’tMade for These Times,” “You Still Believe In Me” and the achingly beautiful, Carl Wilson-sung “God Only Knows,” a romantic gem that Paul McCartney has cited as one of his favourite ever songs. The album also included two instrumentals, a head-scratcher to the company brass who’d only seen the Beach Boys as a vocal group.
“It didn’t meet their expectations so they took Pet Sounds off the market and quickly put out a best-of album that took the wind out of our sails,” says Jardine. “We really didn’t have a chance to exploit it or perform it.
“Brian raised the bar with Pet Sounds,” says Jardine. “People play off that ingeniousness that he has. He hears things and phrases things in a way that you wouldn’t expect.”
For Brian Wilson, who turned 78 on June 20th, 2020, the album represents part of a continuum, the latest development in his evolution as an artist. By the time Pet Sounds was released he was deeply involved in perfecting his next masterpiece, the single “Good Vibrations,” which he’d hoped to include on the album but continued to fine-tune for months. “I decided to experiment with a new kind of music,” Wilson said. “I was young and creative and we really did good. I’m glad that people still like the album.
Bruce Springsteen slyly revealed a new album at a virtual concert performance presented last night (May 13, 2021). The occasion marked his honor as the latest recipient of the Woody Guthrie Prize.
In an hour-long taped presentation for Guthrie Center members from his home in Colts Neck, NJ, Springsteen, said “California was an enormous influence on some of my most topical writing, through my ’90s, through 2000s, and even now, on a record coming out soon that’s set largely in the West. I got very involved in telling those Western stories through my work.”
Springsteen later played four songs at the event: Guthrie’s “Tom Joad” and “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos),” plus his own “Across the Border” and “The Ghost of Tom Joad.”
“I’m honoured to receive the 2021 Woody Guthrie Prize,” Springsteen said. “Woody wrote some of the greatest songs about America’s struggle to live up its ideals in convincing fashion. He is one of my most important influences and inspirations.”
Springsteen frequently discusses how Guthrie’s work inspired his own music. He performs Guthrie songs regularly, including “This Land is Your Land”. Springsteen has sold 120 million records worldwide, has earned 20 GRAMMY Awards, an Oscar and a Tony Award, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999, received the Kennedy Center Honors 10 years later and in 2016, was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
With over 20 studio albums, Springsteen, who will turn 72 on September. 23rd, has used his storytelling ability to write songs that connect with people who faced the hard times and celebrated the good times. Often backed by the E Street Band, Springsteen’s music provides a soundtrack of resilience, strength, heart, and joy despite or even in spite of the struggles thrown our way. Drawing from his experiences growing up in New Jersey, Springsteen’s songs have connected on a universal level with fans worldwide. And those who have seen Springsteen perform live have seen his sweat, drive, and dedication to music and to his fans.
The Woody Guthrie Prize is given to an artist of any medium who continues in the footsteps of Guthrie, a champion for the voiceless with an understanding of how a platform can be used to shine a light on our world, showing us what needs to be fixed and how to fix it. Past recipients of the award include Joan Baez, Chuck D, John Mellencamp, Norman Lear, Kris Kristofferson, Mavis Staples, and Pete Seeger.
The Woody Guthrie Centre opened in 2013 in Tulsa, Okla., to preserves his legacy. It presents the social, political, and cultural values found in his vast body of work through curated exhibits, programs, and outreach.
“We’ve been hoping that Bruce would join our extended family – which includes the spirit sons and daughters of Woody, Pete Seeger and Lead Belly – as we gather this year to say “thank you for caring and for speaking out.” Welcome, brother!” said Nora Guthrie, president of Woody Guthrie Publications and Woody’s daughter.
Bruce Springsteen receives the 2021 Woodie Guthrie prize.
full setlist: 1) Tom Joad 00:00 2) Deportee 07:06 3) Across the border 11:46 4) The ghost of Tom Joad 16:17
Here we are “2020”, exploding like a dream. Processing today’s numbed nation, considering mysteries of growing up and being older (like a memory of the future from your youth (not how you expected, but still your life)), Magik Markers rub upon their roots, art-noise jamming their way into non-linear song-sense and raw, beautiful music all at once.
2020’s done come and gone; a fuzzy void of lost time and lost opportunity. But just when you thought you were safe, Magik Markers 2020 release is back, in the form of a long-awaited repress of Magik Markers‘ all-new album from last fall.2020offers proof positive that work born of uncertain times can transcend the untethered ether of those dark days. The Markers built 2020 in this same timeless fashion they’ve always worked in – fighting like fungi through the cracks in the sidewalk of the past 50 years. A thinking fungi – one that will outlive us all!
In honour of this moment of eternity passing us by, like a near-miss meteor 2020 quicksilver ripper “Find You Ride”, receives the video treatment – better late than never, wink wink! – with a bouncy shakedown from an assembled dream team of Chris Kerr and Jay Meyers streaming directly to the bleeding edge of your orbitofrontal cortex.
The imitable Chris Kerr’s (aka Neo Country) surrealist imagery roils and revels in a synthetic animation from worlds unknown. Coalescing with shards of guitar and motorik grooves both improvised and planned, Kerr/Meyers‘ video and the Markers’ music represent for a sound “that existed before there were mouths…before there were ears”.
Track from “2020,” available on LP, CD & Streaming from Drag City Inc., released 23rd october 2020. the second LP pressing of “2020″. Items will ship out/or around May 11th.
50 years ago, deep in the Welsh countryside, two brothers were milking cows on their family farm – but dreamed of making music. They had the audacious idea to build a studio right there – animals were kicked out of barns and musicians were moved into Nan’s spare bedroom. Inadvertently, they’d launched the world’s first independent residential recording studio. Black Sabbath, Queen, Robert Plant, Iggy Pop, Simple Minds, Oasis, The Stone Roses, and Coldplay have all recorded at Rockfield. This is a story of rock and roll dreams intertwined with a family business’s fight for survival in the face of an ever-changing music landscape.
By 1983, the Violent Femmes, newly signed to Slash Records, the punk label that was already home to bands like X and The Germs, released their self-titled debut. Written by frontman Gordon Gano while he was still in high school, the seminal release spewed the anthemic punk of “Blister in the Sun,” “Add it Up,” and “Gone Daddy Gone,” cementing the Milwaukee-bred trio, then composed of founding members Gano, bassist Brian Ritchie, and drummer Victor DeLorenzo, as folk-punk pioneers.
Commemorating the 40th anniversary of the band’s original inception in 1981—when the band were “discovered” while busking outside the Oriental Theatre by The Pretenders’ guitarist James Honeyman-Scott, who invited them on stage later that evening Craft Recordings is reissuing the band’s out-of-print vinyl “Add It Up 1981-1993” out May 21st.
The 23-track compilation also features Femmes’ hits “Blister in the Sun,” “American Music,” “Gone Daddy,” and more pulled from the band’s first five albums ending with Why Do Birds Sing? in 1991 (also the band’s final album with DeLorenzo), in addition to live recordings, b-sides, demos, voice recordings, and import rarities, including “I Hate the TV,” “Gimme The Car,” and “Dance, M.F., Dance!”
Pressed at Memphis Records Pressing, the two-LP set is housed in a gatefold jacket with lacquers cut by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. In addition to the standard black vinyl, is a special “Blister Red Marble” edition (limited to 500 worldwide), along with an Aqua and Violet variants at exclusive retailers.
Following a hiatus after the 2000 release of Freak Magnet, Gano and Ritchie revived the ViolentFemmes in 2013, releasing “We Can Do Anything” in 2016. By 2019, the band, now featuring drummer John Sparrow and keyboardist Blaise Garza, released their 10th album, “Hotel Last Resort”.
Announcing the long out-of-print vinyl reissue of Add It Up (1981–1993). In stores May 21st 2021, the popular retrospective collection will also make its return to digital and streaming platforms, while fans can stream the instant single “Add It Up (Live)” above. The 23-track compilation features Violent Femmes’ biggest hits, including “Blister in the Sun,” “American Music,” and “Gone Daddy Gone,” plus live recordings of favourites like “Add It Up,” and “Kiss Off,” alongside a trove of demos, B-sides, interstitial voice recordings, and rarities.
Edgar Wright turns documentarian with The Sparks Brothers, a documentary about the rock band Sparks which just unveiled an official trailer. The film premiered at Sundance, was picked up by Focus Features, and then screened at SXSW. Those who didn’t catch it during its festival run can watch it in Cinema theatres from June 18th, 2021.
The just-released trailer features Beck, Jason Schwartzmann, Jack Antonoff, Todd Rundgren, Giorgio Moroder, Flea, and the Go-Go’s Jane Wiedlin talking about Sparks – a band that’s described as “your favorite band’s favorite band.”
Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Baby Driver) directed and produced, with Nira Park, George Hencken, and Laura Richardson also producing. How can one rock band be successful, underrated, hugely influential, and criminally overlooked all at the same time? Edgar Wright’s debut documentary takes audiences on a musical odyssey through five weird and wonderful decades with brothers/bandmates Ron and Russell Mael celebrating the inspiring legacy of Sparks.
The brothers have been making music for 50 years and have released 24 albums, with their 25th in the works.
THE SPARKS BROTHERS ★ Directed by Edgar Wright. In theaters 2021: US & Canada – June 18 Australia – June 24 UK & Ireland – July 30th
Sparks are rock’s perennial outsiders, coming of age as ardent Anglophiles in hippy-dippy late-‘60s L.A. before finding an audience for their erudite art-pop overseas. Of all the preening glam rockers beamed into British living rooms during the early ‘70s, Sparks undoubtedly cast the strangest figures, even if they shirked the gender-bending costumery flaunted by peers like Bowie and Roxy Music. Though Russell boasted de rigueur Bolan curls and a glass-shattering voice that made Freddie Mercury sound timid, his pop-idol visage was undercut by a disarming bug-eyed intensity. The buttoned-up Ron, meanwhile, was the ultimate anti-rock-star, perched behind his keyboard like a schoolmaster at his desk, his creepy toothbrush moustache and disinterested scowls oozing an authoritarian disdain for the kids in the crowd. Exhibiting a performance style more in tune with vaudeville tradition than pop-star posturing, the Maels seemed less like leaders of a rock band than a 1940s comedy double act who were teleported three decades into the future, thrust onto a soundstage and forced to perform their idea of rock‘n’roll on the spot.
But for all their raging irreverence, Sparks have managed to remain novel without lapsing into novelty. They’re not so much trendsetters as trend upsetters.
“This Town Ain’t Big Enough for Both of Us” (1974)
To capitalize on overseas interest, the Maels moved to England in 1973 and rebuilt Sparks with British players for their breakthrough album, Kimono My House. For a certain generation of Brits, Sparks’ performance of the album’s lead single—a #2 hit in the UK—on “The Top of the Pops” was as transformative as the Beatles’ 1964 appearance on “Ed Sullivan” was for a previous generation of Americans. But even if it’s been bouncing around your brain for 40 years, “This Town Ain’t Big Enough for Both of Us” remains resolutely unkaraokeable—its zig-zagging melody, rollercoaster pitch shifts, and overstuffed stanzas still feel as difficult to grasp as flapping fish.
“Girl From Germany” (1973)
After their Todd Rundgren-produced debut album as Halfnelson flopped in America, the newly rebranded five-piece found more sympathetic audiences overseas while touring their second album, A Woofer in Tweeter’s Clothing. Following their British television debut in November 1972 on “The Old Grey Whistle Test”, word began to spread on the Isles of this weird band from Los Angeles with a keyboardist that looked like Hitler. Ron Mael claims he grew his infamous mini-moustache in tribute to silent-film stars like Charlie Chaplin and Oliver Hardy, however, the waters were muddied by Woofer’s opening track. An outrageous but incisive satire of the post-war prejudices that still lingered in America three decades after WWII, “Girl From Germany” depicts the awkwardness of bringing a German girlfriend home to meet your Jewish parents, whose disapproval is matched only by the hypocrisy of having a Benz in the driveway. (“Well, the car I drive is parked outside/ It’s German-made/ They resent that less than the people/ Who are German-made.”) It’s a prime early example of Sparks’ eagerness to toy with taboos rarely addressed in pop songs, let alone exceedingly cheery ones.
“Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth” (1974)
Sparks’ urbane sarcasm is the aesthetic opposite of tree-hugging hippie earnestness. However, this resplendent piano ballad from 1974’s Propaganda adroitly addressed our planet’s fragile nature—and our collective duty to protect it—long before “global warming” became a catchphrase. Its undiminished topical currency has made it a popular cover choice over the years for everyone from Martin Gore (who recorded separate versions within and without his Depeche Mode bandmates) to Neko Case (whose reading forms the thematic centerpiece of her eco-conscious 2009 album, Middle Cyclone).
“Get in the Swing” (1975)
Sparks’ transgressive presence and provocative lyricism made them heroes to first-wave punks like the Ramones and Siouxsie Sioux. However, just as their influence was taking root underground in mid-‘70s London and New York, Sparks’ music was turning ever more fanciful, flitting from their ragtime romps, to arena rock, to Beach Boys homages. The circus-like “Get in the Swing”, from 1975’s appropriately titled Indiscreet, typifies the excess of this period, though its pomped-up parade proved to be more a funeral march for the band’s commercial prospects, precipitating a late-‘70s slide down the UK charts that would necessitate a dramatic shift in course.
“Angst in My Pants” (1982)
After their dalliances with disco, Sparks reverted back to standard rock-band formation, reportedly because touring with (then extremely cumbersome) beat-making equipment proved to be a logistical nightmare. Ironically, with a flesh-and-blood group behind them once again, the Maels’ music turned even more mechanistic. Their new wave singles pretty much all locked into the same zippy 4/4 snare beat, but the formula worked, resulting in respectable showings on the stateside charts for the first time in their career. The best of the bunch is the title track of 1982’s Angst in My Pants, where that omnipresent rhythm forms the ticking-time-bomb soundtrack to some yacht-riding yuppie bastard’s impotence-induced midlife crisis.
“Police Encounters” (2015)
In self-referential Sparks fashion, the band’s foray with Franz Ferdinand climaxes with a multi-sectional suite called “Collaborations Don’t Work”. But the best tracks on FFS feel less like collaborations than full-on genetic fusions. On jaunty highlight “Police Encounters”, Russell and Alex Kapranos bound through the song’s brisk verses and call-back choruses with a finish-each-others-sentences sense of intuition, while Ron’s electric-piano taps and synth textures get hardwired into Franz’s vacuum-sealed rhythm section. Despite the seemingly topical title, don’t expect any political analysis here—the song is a cheeky romp about catching a soft-focus glimpse of a lawman’s fetching wife while getting thrown in the drunk tank. But, coming on the heels of the Maels’ stripped-down Two Hands One Mouth duo tours, FFS heralds Sparks’ resounding return to frantic, futurist rock‘n’roll.
For nearly 50 years, brothers Russell and Ron Mael have made a sport of crashing the zeitgeist, producing brilliantly skewed songs that both revel in and poke fun at pop convention.
The Immediate Family premiere’s a new video from the band’s current single “3:45 Comin’ Through” from the new EP “Can’t Stop Progress”via Quarto Valley Records. The new EP, produced by The Immediate Family, is the follow-up release to the band’s 2020 U.S. EP debut Slippin’ and Slidin’.
Immediate Family’s guitarist Steve Postell says this about “3:45 Coming Through”: “What could give you the blues more than thinking about a lost love as a train rolls by at 3:45am? That’s what I was thinking when I wrote ‘3:45 Coming Through,’ and I’m thrilled that the band could finally get together in person to make the video for this tune which we release as our next single.”
These guys have played with all my favourite pop musicians. James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Stevie Nicks just to name a few!!!
Danny Kortchmar, Waddy Wachtel, Leland Sklar, Russ Kunkel & Steve Postell
Angel Olsen and Hand Habits cover Tom Petty’s “Walls” for Cosmic Stream 2. Filmed at the Masonic Temple in Asheville, NC. Olsen’s flight is both upward and inward. On her vulnerable, The Big Mood new album, we can see her taking anintrospective deep dive towards internal destinations and revelations. In the process of making this album, she found a new sound and voice, a blast of fury mixed with hard won self-acceptance.
First started listening to Angel Olsen with the “Woman”, which is I believe is a classic from 2016, which also included another classic, “All Mirrors,” was another strong release from Olsen & music. I got the vinyl and 24-bit wav files of WNM, and both are stunning. WNM will be among the favourites of 2020. Olsen’s music gives hope to all who suffer hurt, emotional and physical, from ones we love or thought we loved.
Micro-legendary DIY Garage-Pop-Psych provocateurs! Evolutionary genre grinders practicing art-damaged power pop, rock, crunch, jangle and general mind-infiltration.
Pandemics rage, the climate boils, politics putrefy, economies rot, and mass culture crumbles. Luckily, The Prefab Messiahs ring in their 40th(!) anniversary with a timely new batch of mind-expanding, genre-twisting sonic nuggets to distract us — and with any luck, to help inspire some fair turnabout. ‘Music For Concerned Citizens’ the perfect prescription to pop your brain’s socially-distanced bubble!
RIYL: Oh Sees, The Kinks, King Tuff, Dukes of Stratosphear, Ty Segall, Electric Prunes, Television Personalities, The Soft Boys
The Fat Angel Sings 