Archive for the ‘MUSIC’ Category

The BLACK ANGELS – ” Live At Levitation “

Posted: January 12, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Recorded over the history of the world renowned psychedlica event, professionally mixed and mastered, this series represents a valuable moment in time for live music in Austin, Tx.

The bands showcased here are performing at their strongest and with something to prove. this series captures key moments in modern rock and roll history, and live music in Austin, Texas. The artists and sets showcased here are the best of the best, with key artists performing for a crowd of their peers and fans who gather at “Levitation” annually from all over the world. this specific album captures a slice of the early days of the festival, and the band as a psychedelic rock powerhouse with tracks from the Black Angels 1st two lps – with 6 tracks recorded at Austin Psych Fest 2010, 2011 and 2012.

The artists and sets showcased on Live at Levitation have been chosen from over a decade of recordings at the world-renowned event, and documents key artists in the scene performing for a crowd of their peers and fans who gather at Levitation annually from all over the world. The Black Angels’ Christian Bland explains, “Since the beginning… The Black Angels were meant to be heard live. This record captures the rumble of the drums and amps, and the very essence of the way it should sound. Now future generations and new listeners can now hear how these songs were meant to be heard.”

The Black Angels – “Live at Levitation” sees its release March 26th via The Reverberation Society on vinyl and digital formats. The LP has been given deluxe treatment, with three mind melting vinyl options available exclusively through the Levitation webstore, plus two Indie Store exclusive versions: one available at your favourite record stores in the USA and Canada, and one for the UK and Europe. 

For an incoming ‘Live At Levitation’ album from the mighty The Black Angels. The Reverberation Appreciation Society has recently launched the “Live At Levitation” series. Recorded over the history of the world-renowned event, professionally mixed and mastered, this series represents a valuable moment in time for live music in Austin, TX. The bands showcased here are performing at their strongest and with something to prove. This series captures key moments in modern rock and roll history, and live music in Austin, Texas. Get a taste of the LP with a live cut of  “Manipulation”, filmed at Austin’s Seaholm Powerplant and captures a hypnotic performance and collaboration with sitarist Rishi Dhir.

Levitation (formerly known as Austin Psych Fest) began as a simple idea in a Black Angels tour van in 2007 — let’s invite all our favourite bands and all our friends, for our version of a music festival.  The first Austin Psych Fest was held in March 2008, and expanded to a 3 day event the following year. From there, the festival quickly developed into an international destination for psychedelic rock fans, with line-ups spanning the fringes of indie rock, from up-and-comers to vintage legends, and capped off with headlining performances from The Black Angels each year. The Black Angels and Levitation helped spark a movement, inspiring the creation of similar events across the globe and a burgeoning psych scene that would soon ignite.

“Austin’s importance as the breeding ground for psych is finally on people’s radars thanks to Levitation.” – The Guardian
“The lineup is adventurous and well-curated… one of the best boutique festivals in the country” – Austin Statesman
“Austin Psych Fest has developed from a 10 band bill of like-minded acts in a small venue, to a 3-day celebration of the finest mind-expanding sounds currently being made.”  – Consequence of Sound
“The annual Austin Psych Fest is becoming the All Tomorrow’s Parties of the South… with a lineup that traces a new psychedelic era.” – The Austin Chronicle

“Each year we get to see our friends and music community from around the world gathered in Austin, and we’ve been able to share the stage with many of our music heroes. Playing at Levitation is like playing at the psychedelic Olympics, and everyone walks away with a gold medal.” – The Black Angels’ Alex Maas

Due for release March 26th, this specific LP captures a slice of the early days of the festival, and the band as a psychedelic rock powerhouse with tracks from The Black Angels 1st two LPs – with 6 tracks recorded at Austin Psych Fest 2010, 2011 and 2012.

IAN SWEET – ” Show Me How You Disappear “

Posted: January 12, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Reciting mantras is a form of teaching — leaning into the repetition, retraining your brain, learning new realities. For Jilian Medford, it was a way to fight through her anxieties. And here, on “Show Me How You Disappear”, through a haze of tangled, inverted pop, her new truths push their way to the surface.

Mesmeric and kaleidoscopic, shimmering with electrified unease, Show Me How You Disappear is both an exercise in self-forgiveness and an eventual understanding of unresolved trauma. Medford’s third record as IAN SWEET unfolds at an acute juncture in her life, charting from a mental health crisis to an intensive healing process and what comes after. How do you control the thoughts that control you? What does it mean to get better? What does it mean to have a relationship with yourself?

The inklings for the record began slowly. In 2018, Medford wrote “Dumb Driver” on an acoustic guitar while living in a “hobbit hole” back house in Los Angeles. Skeletal, stripped-back versions of the undulating, amorphous “My Favorite Cloud” and “Power” emerged next. Mentally she was in a dark place. By January 2020, following increasingly severe panic attacks, Medford began a two-month intensive outpatient program, including six-hour days of therapy. It yielded an unprecedented level of self-reflection for Medford, who already plumbs the depths of her emotions for her song writing. She took a step back from music to completely immerse herself in the program, and once she felt ready to move on at the end of February, the rest of the songs poured out of her.

Recorded with Andrew Sarlo (Big Thief, Empress Of), Andy Seltzer (Maggie Rogers), and Daniel Fox, among others, Medford approached this album as a curator. She handpicked the producers that fit each song, which explains the range and experimentation showcased. Medford then recruited Chris Coady to mix and tie everything together into one cohesive piece.

The resulting record envelops both Medford and the listener like water: its ebb and flow, the ease with which it can switch from nourishing to endangering you. Fully immersive, with guitar lines as quick to sound grungy as they are to ascend to astral distortion, it’s a lush cacophony of experimentation. While writing the record, Medford revisited the discography of her forever favourite band, Coldplay and noted inspiration from Young Thug’s bizarre and magical vocal delivery. With these influences and many more, Medford’s pop melodies are inverted by the freak world she builds around them.

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The cyclical nature of obsessive thought patterns shapes Show Me How You Disappear. It’s self-referential, each song in conversation with one another, tracing the same relationship and the desire to be an escape artist from your own life. But there’s also the repetition Medford learned to help herself via Emotional Freedom Technique tapping, which involves tapping pressure points on the body and repeating mantras to curb anxiety.

“Since I learned that method in therapy, it has saved my life and seeped into my music,” she says. “Song writing has always been a tool for me to process my emotions. But this technique has allowed me to apply more intention to that practice.”

For her, the refrain of “Get Better” hits that hardest, a sort of emotional thesis of the album. She explains, “This song came from being stuck in an infinite loop of destructive thoughts and the only way to get out of my head was to repeat my goal over and over. By saying ‘I want to get better, better, better’ out loud, I started to feel something.”

Show Me How You Disappear also offered a certain liberation to Medford. As personal as it is — like preceding albums Shapeshifter and Crush Crusher — here, post-therapy, Medford was able to approach her song writing in a new way. She learned how to distance herself from the immediacy of her work, to put space between her personal identity and her art. There was less concern about fitting every piece of her story into the lyrics. Instead, this time, she held back. “I think there’s something to be said for leaving things out,” Medford says. “This is the first record that I leave that space for myself. I feel a freedom on this one that I haven’t felt with the others. People always say ‘I put all of me into this’, but I actually didn’t this time — I left space.”

Dizzying and enthralling, Show Me How You Disappear is the sound of someone coming apart and putting themselves back together  the moment an old mantra, repeated into the mirror time and time again, finally clicks. To look at your reflection, and finally feel seen. 

Releases March 5th, 2021

PEEL DREAM MAGAZINE – ” Agitprop Alterna “

Posted: January 12, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Peel Dream Magazine is the musical vehicle for NYC’s Joe Stevens, who launched the band in 2018 with the critically acclaimed album “Modern Meta Physic,” a mysterious, liminal tribute to the hazy end of ‘90s dream-pop that found its place on numerous “Best of 2018” lists. Now Peel Dream are back with “Agitprop Alterna,” an album that pays homage to sonic and spiritual influences ranging from early Stereolab and Broadcast through stateside groups like Lilys and Yo La Tengo.. “Agitprop Alterna” finds Stevens channeling the collaborative spirit of the band’s live incarnation in the studio, deepening the connection between the existential and the interpretive first explored on “Modern Meta Physic.” It is a rejection of manipulation in all its forms and a buzzsaw against complacency; it’s a rare trick to agitate without being obvious, and perhaps that makes “Agitprop Alterna” the most Peel Dream Magazine-like statement yet.

What have you wound up doing with your free time during lockdown? Some online yoga classes? A walk in the park? Maybe finish the the novel that’s been lying beside your bed?

Well, New York outfit Peel Dream Magazine embarked on an intimidating creative pull. Their rightly lauded album ‘Agitprop Alterna’ was a significant statement, a sign that their dreamy, effects-laden guitar pop contained some unexpected depths, as well as a commitment to emotional rigour.

Mere weeks later, however, Peel Dream Magazine dropped a surprise – an eight track EP that drew upon those same sessions, acting as a kind of parallel statement to ‘Agitprop Alterna’.

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Taken as a whole, that’s more than 20 songs, a universe that moves from neat Neu!-esque cosmiche moments through to My Bloody Valentine leaning pedal stompers. Something to adore.

Joe Stevens – Vocals, Guitars, Organ, Synth, Drones, Drum Machine
Jo-Anne Hyun – Vocals
Brian Alvarez – Drums on Pill, Escalator Ism, Too Dumb, Do It, and Eyeballs
Kelly Winrich – Drums on Emotional Devotion Creator, Brief Inner Mission, NYC Illuminati, and Up and Up

All songs written by Peel Dream Magazine
Mixed by Peel Dream Magazine and Kelly Winrich

Released April 3rd, 2020

JAPAN – ” Quiet Life ” Box Set

Posted: January 12, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Late ’70s English New Wave was added to with the arrival of Japan. This band featured David Sylvian, who changed the band to Rain Tree Crow before its demise back in 1991. With their third studio album ‘Quiet Life’, David Sylvian and Japan completed their transition from glammy punk naifs to sleek art-house pop stars. Containing a stylish take on the Velvets’ ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’. Before they left for other fields, Japan issued five classic studio sets and one as Rain Tree Crow (for six). A handful of successful singles furthers the legacy of Japan.

On January 22nd of 2021, What was the third album from Japan, “Quiet Life”, originally issued in 1979, will be remembered with a 3CD/1LP Boxed set. The music will be half-speed remastered. The first CD contains the original album remastered as does the heavy-grade vinyl LP. CDs 2/3 contain a collection of alternative mixes, rarities, the remastered “Live In Japan” 4-track EP, and the rare “Live At Budokan” 16-performance track se from a March 1980 show. (Live in Japan was the cherry-pick of that live performance.) There will be a single CD issue of Quiet Life along with a 12-page booklet, and a single LP (heavyweight vinyl/gatefold jacket) with a four-page insert. DD will also be issued. All will feature photos, new liner notes, and more.

 It’s also a solid proto-New Romantic synthesizer record, enhanced by Mick Karn’s superb fretless bass work and David Sylvian’s smooth, sneering vocals spread over pop hits like the title track and “Fall in Love with Me.”

Japan’s classic album ‘Quiet Life’ is the subject of a major new Deluxe reissue coming out on 5th March. Available to Order Here: https://Japanband.lnk.to/QuietLifeID​ ​ Japan’s classic album Quiet Life metaphorically and literally ended the 70s and kick-started the 80s due to being released in the run-up to Christmas the album was released in certain countries in 1979 and others in 1980. Quiet Life was the third, final and most successful release for the band on the Hansa Records label. The album and its attendant singles; Quiet Life & All Tomorrow’s Parties as well as other non-album singles included on the new deluxe version; Life In Tokyo, European Son & I Second That Emotion acted as a forerunner for the alternative, new wave & new romantic sound of the early 80s. Quiet Life is now the subject of a major new reissue featuring a brand new half-speed remaster of the original album, alternate mixes, b-sides, singles, rarities and live material including an audience recording of the sought after ‘lost’ Live at Budokan show from March 1980 previously only available as the 4 track EP ‘Live in Japan’. The release features newly restored original album artwork, exclusive new liner notes with a foreword by original producer, John Punter, rare and unseen photography and memorabilia.

WIDOWSPEAK – ” Plum “

Posted: January 12, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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At the core of Widowspeak’s allure is the creative chemistry between singer-songwriter Molly Hamilton and guitarist Robert Earl Thomas, perennially anchored by warm, expansive arrangements, references to 90’s dream pop, 60’s psychedelia, and a certain unshakeable Pacific-Northwestness. It’s comfortable, lived-in: humble in structure, heavy on mood.

“The stone that’s buried: what the fruit is for.” So goes the title track from “Plum”!, Widowspeak’s fifth album. The line serves as an apt analogy for the record itself: the self-aware sweetness that the band employs to deliver the seed of a harder, sharper idea. Singer Molly Hamilton coats wry observations in a voice as honeyed as the sun-ripened fruit, and Widowspeak have always made a bitter pill much easier to swallow. From its opening strum, there’s a palpable warmth and familiarity to the music even as it hints at darker truths below the surface, questions about inherent worth. What value and meaning do we assign ourselves, our time, and how do we spend it?

With Plum, the song writing partnership rooted in the creative rapport between Molly Hamilton and guitarist Robert Earl Thomas continues to expand on shared visions, delving deeper into what was always there: dusty guitars, ear-worm melodies, warm expansive arrangements. Each entry to their catalogue has marked a subtle reimagining of Widowspeak’s sound, though perennial points of reference remain the same: 90’s dream pop, 60’s psych rock, a certain unshakeable Pacific-Northwestness. Speaking to the timeless feeling of each, the albums continue to be discovered well beyond their respective PR cycles, made beloved by new listeners through word of mouth.

More akin to the sunny spaciousness of “All Yours” (2015) than the darker, denser “Expect the Best” (2017), “Plum” carries a sense of unhurried self-awareness. It feels comfortable and lived-in: humble in structure, heavy on mood. Perhaps that came taking time off from the touring grind, instead working full-time jobs and settling into the rhythm of daily life in a small upstate New York town. Plum was recorded over a handful of weekends last winter by Sam Evian (Cass McCombs, Kazu Makino, Hannah Cohen) at his Flying Cloud studio in the Catskills, and was mixed by Ali Chant (PJ Harvey, Aldous Harding, Perfume Genius). In addition to Hamilton (vocals, guitar) and Thomas (guitars, bass, synth), it features instrumental contributions by Andy Weaver (drums), Michael Hess (piano), and Sam himself (bass, synth). Plum nestles into the band’s canon like it was always there, but with new textures coming to the fore, like the polyrhythmic pulse of “Amy” and “The Good Ones”, or the watery, Terry Riley-influenced track “Jeanie”

The broader themes that run through Plum are almost eerily prescient for the time of its release, written and recorded in the eve of a global pandemic. Hamilton couldn’t have predicted the relevancy of mesmerizing track “Breadwinner”, with its central analogy of bread as time as money, or the song’s yearning pleas to a partner who’s “always bringing their work home”. And on “Even True Love”, Hamilton acknowledges the imminent loss of those closest to us: “In the deepest wells, in the shallow sick/I can see you shaking in the great unknown/Will you learn to live with what you chose?/Even true love, you can’t take it with you”. They’re songs for our time to be sure, but Plum reckons with existential pain that was always there, that will endure well beyond social distancing and into our collective new reality.

Still, Plum isn’t weighed down by crushing angst. The approach is humble and frank, like a friend sharing intimacies. These are songs made to be listened to, enjoyed. “Money” is particularly hypnotic, built around a repeating, cyclical motif that serves as both skeleton and body. “Will you get back what you put in?” Hamilton asks over an insistent guitar riff. The line is delivered with a knowingness that transcends its surface critiques of late-stage capitalism, asking both herself and the listener whether this is, in fact, the world we want to live in. A world that increasingly sees monetization as the greatest goal, even at such great expense to ourselves, and especially our future. What does it mean to contribute? And what is the cost of “selling out”?

Hamilton cites a crisis of meaning as being central to the origins of Plum. “I didn’t want to write for a long time; I didn’t even really want to listen. I stopped believing in ‘music as a career’ and the distorted idea of what it had become in my mind: building and projecting a personality, promoting it, selling it. Losing that sense of purpose… it made me question my own value, usefulness.” She looked methodically for ways to reframe those thoughts about overconsumption, and found inspiration in the writings of MFK Fisher, in the Danish film “Babette’s Feast” and David Byrne’s “True Stories”, and in YouTube playlists of pop songs remixed to sound like they’re being played in abandoned malls. She also found a book about wabi-sabi principles by Leonard Koren (who founded WET magazine): “So much of it is centered around allowing things to be what they are, and just noticing. I tried to notice more, and I think those observations became the songs.”

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Plum is an album that navigates the spaces between the lesser emotions of modern life. From the creeping dread that “things are getting worse” to the resigned but sanguine recognition that “no one is old, nothing is young,” Hamilton’s lyrics speak to the unique turmoil of anyone who creates as their work, who must somehow survive off such “fruits of their labour.” With its release, Widowspeak have brought something into the world that seems to know its own worth, even as it wonders aloud about what is to come. Like the wabi-sabi tenant that lead to the song that became the album, all things are devolving to, or evolving from, nothingness.

“You’re a peach and I’m a plum.” 

Their fifth album “Plum” was released 28th August

LANDE HEKT – ” 80 Days of Rain “

Posted: January 12, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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This record was recorded, mixed and mastered by Ben David in his studio house in the Adelaide Hills in Australia in February 2020. Lande Hekt of UK based punk band Muncie Girls has released a new song. The song is called “80 Days of Rain” and is off of her upcoming solo album Going to Hell due out January 22, 2021 via Get Better Records. Lande Hekt released her last album  Gigantic Disappointment in 2019.

All instruments were played by me except for percussion which was by Ben. He also sang on the songs.  “80 Days of Rain” is a chiming track about a constant downpour that keeps you down. Its chorus is especially gripping, Hekt’s muffled voice singing: “Is this another string of bad luck?/ Is this just another week where we don’t fuck?/ This is where I think I go insane/ I can’t do this again/ 80 days of rain, 80 days of rain.” Hekt says the track “is about moving away and missing someone, and how that person taught me to get angry about climate change,”

Get Better Records 2021 Releases January 22nd, 2021

JANIS JOPLIN – ” Pearl ” 50th Anniversary

Posted: January 12, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Janis Joplin’s final studio album, “Pearl”, will be the subject of a variety of 50th Anniversary releases, overseen by the Joplin Estate and Columbia/Legacy Recordings, a division of Sony Music.  The album, her final studio LP, was originally issued on January 11th, 1971, via Columbia Records it was released three months after Joplin‘s passing on October 4th, 1970, and eight days before what would have been her 28th birthday on January 19th.

JanisJoplin.com will be releasing an exclusive capsule collection which includes a fine art collaboration with the estate of Barry Feinstein, the acclaimed celebrity photographer who lensed the iconic Pearl album cover; further details will be announced soon. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland is also curating a special exhibit devoted to Joplin, “Pearl” and more, scheduled to open May 21st, 2021.

Genesis Publications has announced the upcoming publication of a new limited edition book, Janis Joplin: Days &Summers – Scrapbook 1966-68. During her career, Joplin created a personal record of her meteoric rise to fame and the flowering of Sixties counterculture, including posters, souvenirs, press clippings, photographs and records, and annotated them with her comments. Featured alongside are previously unpublished items from her personal archive, including letters she wrote home to her family and a preceding scrapbook from her senior high school years, 1956-59. The book’s in-depth text provides a new account of the singer’s extraordinary life. It’s available to order at Joplin’s above website.

From the January. 8th announcement: The only album Joplin ever recorded with the Full Tilt Boogie Band, the touring ensemble that had backed her on the Festival Express (a mythic 1970 concert tour by railroad across Canada with the Grateful Dead, the Band and others), “Pearl” included canonical studio recordings of songs she’d introduced to audiences on tour.

Peaking at #1, a position it held for nine weeks, Pearl showcased some of Janis’s most familiar and best-loved performances including her cover of Kris Kristofferson’s “Me and Bobby McGee” and the off-the-cuff a cappella “Mercedes Benz,” the last song she ever recorded.

Pearl has been certified 4 times Platinum by the RIAA with Janis Joplin’s overall album catalogue–including greatest hits compilations–accounting for 17 Platinum and 3 Gold certifications (approximately 18.5 million records) in the United States. Janis Joplin’s Greatest Hits was RIAA certified 9x Platinum on November 22, 2019 while “Piece of My Heart” (her breakout single from Big Brother & The Holding Company’s Cheap Thrills, one of 1968’s top-selling albums) More than 31 million Joplin albums have been sold worldwide.

Scheduled release for April 2021, Vinyl Me, Please, the “best damn record club out there,” in association with Columbia/Legacy, will release a collectible 50th anniversary limited edition of Pearl pressed on white “Pearl” colour 180g vinyl. 

In July 2021, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, in association with Columbia/Legacy, will also release a limited edition 50th Anniversary Edition of Pearl as an UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2-LP box set. Mastered from the Original Master Tapes with Mobile Fidelity’s One-Step process.

Janis Joplin: Days & Summers

Janis Joplin: Days & Summers Scrapbook 1966-68

‘I’m sure you’ve heard that I’m a new breed swinger now, the idol of my generation, a rock’n’roll singer. Yes fans, yes, it’s true.’ – Janis Joplin

As the first-ever female rock star who dazzled listeners with her powerful voice and fierce uninhibited style, few musicians have attained the same iconic status as Janis Joplin. Now, Janis’s personal scrapbook is revealed for the first time, compiled between 1966-1968, as the singer found her star rising.

‘We’ve had Janis’s scrapbook for a long time. It was really important to her. Scrapbooks may sound quaint and old-fashioned today, but by sitting down, cutting these things out, sticking them in place and annotating them, Janis has given us a unique record of the period.’ – Michael Joplin

In her handmade scrapbook Janis Joplin created a personal record of her meteoric rise to fame and the flowering of Sixties counterculture in which she was to play a lead role. From the singer’s earliest intimate blues gigs in local coffee houses, to her first appearances with Big Brother and the Holding Company, to the band’s breakthrough performance at Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967, Janis’s story is remarkable. Throughout it all, she collected posters, souvenirs, press clippings, photographs and records, and annotated them with her comments.

More than 50 years later, Janis’s scrapbook is revealed for the first time. Featured alongside are previously unpublished items from her personal archive, including letters she wrote home to her family and a preceding scrapbook from her senior high school years, 1956-59. Collectively, they offer a brand new perspective on the Port Arthur girl that transformed into a rock goddess, setting the world on fire with her talent.

‘Her voice was so powerful it would cut through a rock… Right away we knew she was the one. We said to her, ‘We’re working next weekend, hope you’re ready.’ – Peter Albin, Big Brother and the Holding Company

Written by the people who really knew Janis and those inspired by her, the book’s in-depth text provides a fascinating, new account of the singer’s extraordinary life. With an introduction by Grace Slick and an afterword by Kris Kristofferson, the book’s list of nearly 40 contributors includes Big Brother bandmates Peter Albin and Dave Getz, Jefferson Airplane members Jack Casady and Jorma Kaukonen, musicians Mick Fleetwood, Chrissie Hynde, Tom Jones, Taj Mahal, Michelle Philips and Jimmy Page, talk show host Dick Cavett, as well as siblings Laura and Michael Joplin.

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Other figures interviewed exclusively for the project include Woodstock Festival organiser Michael Lang, American artist Stanley Mouse, writers Ben Fong-Torres, Richard Goldstein and David Dalton, plus legendary rock photographers Henry Diltz, Bob Gruen and Elliott Landy.

‘An amazingly talented human tornado who just whirled her way into our consciousness. We try to describe her but, like being in love, it’s difficult telling someone else how stunning the impact is. You know when you feel it, and Janis was probably the best at translating those all-consuming emotions.’ – Grace Slick

Janis Joplin was an American singer, songwriter and arranger, from Port Arthur, Texas, who moved to San Francisco in 1966 to join local band Big Brother and the Holding Company and pursue her dream of becoming a musician. She died aged 27 on October 4th, 1970. She is one of the most influential icons from the Sixties and considered one of the best female blues singers ever. ‘There was just nothing else like her – total rebelliousness, abandon, musical excellence, and connection with everyone in the audience. Pure magic. Everybody just loved her. She gave us a voice that was anti-establishment, and I’ve lived by it ever since.’ – Chrissie Hynde

THE SIGNATORIES

Each book in the Days & Summers edition is estate-stamped with Janis Joplin’s signature, and hand-signed by the following contributors:

Laura Joplin: Janis Joplin’s sister
Michael Joplin: Janis Joplin’s brother
Peter Albin: American musician, guitarist and bassist. Founding member of Big Brother and the Holding Company
Dave Getz: American musician, teacher and visual artist. Drummer in Big Brother and the Holding Company
Jorma Kaukonen: American blues, folk, and rock guitarist. Founding member of Jefferson Airplane

THE COLLECTOR COPIES

Collector copies are numbered from 351 to 2,000, authenticated with the Janis Joplin estate stamp, and hand-signed by the contributors.

Limited to only 2,000 copies worldwide, each book in the Days & Summers edition is hand-numbered, estate-stamped with Janis Joplin’s signature, and hand-signed by her Big Brother bandmates Peter Albin and Dave Getz, Jefferson Airplane’s Jorma Kaukonen, and Janis’s siblings, Laura Joplin and Michael Joplin.

The large-format book (325mm x 305mm / 12¾” x 12″) is printed on heavyweight 200gsm paper with gilt and deckled page edging. Collector copies are quarter-bound in a navy, vegan leather, and light blue binding cloth blocked with gold, pink and blue foiling. Days & Summers is the name Janis Joplin gave to the scrapbook she kept during her high school years, and the book’s cover design is similarly inspired by Janis, featuring her own hand-drawn lettering and decorative linework.

All copies in the limited edition include a special 7″ single containing two exceptionally rare recordings: two blues tracks from The Typewriter Tape recorded in 1964 by Janis Joplin and Jorma Kaukonen (‘Daddy Daddy Daddy’ by Janis Joplin, and the blues standard ‘Trouble In Mind’). Capturing Joplin at a pivotal moment, before joining Big Brother & the Holding Company, The Typewriter Tape has attained mythic status among bootleg recordings. Given the historic nature of the two tracks, the single is pressed on 180-gram audiophile vinyl.

The Collector signed book and vinyl record set is presented in a navy, cloth-bound slipcase.

  • Extras:
    7″ vinyl with two blues tracks from The Typewriter Tape recorded in 1964 in Santa Clara, California by Janis Joplin and Jorma Kaukonen: ‘Daddy Daddy Daddy’ by Janis Joplin and ‘Trouble In Mind’. Foreword by Grace Slick and Afterword by Kris Kristofferson with a stamp of his signature.

MOSELEY FOLK and ARTS FESTIVAL 3rd-5th September 2021

Posted: January 12, 2021 in MUSIC
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KEATON HENSON – ” Monument “

Posted: January 11, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The porcelain figurine on the cover of this album tells you enough: if you want to smile, you better not do it with this music in your ears. We don’t expect anything else from Keaton Henson. This troubled musician always brings us convulsive emotions into his compositions, but oh, he always does that more than well. He agrees in opener “Ambulance”, where he sighs: ‘I’m empty but don’t it sound so good?’ “Monument” released through Play It Again Sam is Keaton’s first album since 2016’s Kindly Now. Keaton Henson’s new album “Monument” is a rare thing. It is an album about loss, and dealing with losing the ones we love, but told, in incredibly candid detail, through the aspects of our lives that surround the trauma itself, about love, ageing, recovery, life, seen through the prism of grief.

With the posting of an enigmatic and cryptic goodbye in 2016; Epilogue, Henson’s next project ended up becoming Six Lethargies, a complex and ambitious symphony for string orchestra, dealing with the minutiae of mental illness. He put away the guitar and retreated to his home for three years to compose it. Monument now finds Keaton re-emerging with an album of songs about grief, and how it permeates our lives. The record began when, having recovered from both Six Lethargies and the circumstances that inspired it, Henson moved from London to the wilds of the English countryside, spending long days outside chopping wood, tending to the grounds, and watching birds of prey soaring above. It was from this remote outpost that he finally felt ready to look at a subject he had been avoiding for his entire song writing career; the decades long illness, and imminent death of his father, who passed two days before he finished recording the album.

While the singer normally opens up about heartache or fear of people in his lyrics, Monument has a possible even more personal theme: the death of his increasingly ill father. This is most strongly confirmed in “The Grand Old Reason”, where he writes some of his most heart breaking sentences: ‘But like you / I have tried for so long not to cry / That I don’t even know if I can when you die’. Yet we gasp most when, after “Prayer,” an excerpt from an old home video is heard saying Keaton’s father “Keaton, wave to daddy.” This spirited, delicate folk hits a whole new set of strings, with Henson only expanding his emotional empire even more.

Monument” released through Play It Again Sam Records,

PROTOMARTYR – ” Ultimate Success Today “

Posted: January 11, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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“Dull ache turned sharp / Short breath, never caught,” Joe Casey repeats through the closing minute of “Day Without End,” his voice turning from detachment to anger, struggling above the hammering drums, guitars and horns as they remain largely unchanged except in their steadily building, brutally indifferent noise. This begins Protomartyr’s fifth album, Ultimate Success Today, and in many respects encapsulates the mission of the Detroit post-punk veterans’ music. From their first LP No Passion All Technique to their latest release especially, Protomartyr have had a preoccupation with failure, the volcanic eruption of small, petty lives confronting the overwhelming forces, both external and internal, that bind them to their insignificance and vice versa. Ultimate Success Today places that theme on an apocalyptic and disturbingly prescient scale. These tracks paint sketches of authoritarianism creeping dully into everyday life, soulless populism rooting its way into confused masses, animals trapped between choosing death or the pain that comes with surviving, and above all, the illusory promise of success in a world collapsing in on itself. It is, to put it lightly, not a happy world for Protomartyr. 

Protomartyr’s fifth album is perhaps the most accurate representation of the protest year we’ve heard. It is an emotional rollercoaster of sheer aggression, chaos, stuffiness and sorrow. The occasional rest points only contrast with the continuous tension that is present on Ultimate Success Today. For the rest, screeching guitars and tight drum lines are ubiquitous, complemented by the talking vocals of Joe Casey and on occasion a groovy bass line. For the first time there are also woodwinds present, which provide an extra dimension. The nihilistic atmosphere and intense instrumentation fit with the dystopian story that the record tells. A story that, eerily enough, has been written for corona for a while. The best moment is the seamless transition between “Tranquilizer” and “Modern Business Hymn,”, which makes up for some fatigue among all that threat of war. At least one of the more interesting albums of the year.

Protomartyr – “Bridge & Crown”, taken from ‘Ultimate Success Today’, out now on Domino Record Co.

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