My name is A. A. Khan (a.k.a. “King Khan” or “the artist formerly known as The Blacksnake“). Welcome to the Art of Khannibalism… featuring music I have recorded and produced from my Moon Studios in Berlin, Germany. Music is my religion and can heal all wounds…. Enjoy these sounds and share them with the ones you love.
King Khan has worn many hats over the years and this year he has added jazz artist to that hat collection. With members of Sun Ra Arkestra and Calexico, as well as some regular collaborators, King Khan goes all-in right off the bat. Opening with “Wait Till The Stars Burn” a song that has a psychedelic tribal acid free-form jazz to it that only King Khan could cook up in his bag of tricks, we know we’re in for a ride immediately. I mean this record goes far out into the realms of space and never touches down to Earth. If you listen closely throughout the album, there are hints of Ennio Morricone sprinkled about, which feels like a beautiful tribute for an absolute legend that we lost this year. While the record is only 37 minutes long, it feels far longer, in a good way, as not a single track is in a rush to leave your ears. The trumpet playing by Martin Wenk in “Theme of Yahya” just envelopes your ears like a hug. “Mister Mystery” is freeform jazz meeting garage rock in an intertwining tussle where everyone wins. “Follow the Mantis” feels like film noir, but in a song. Go in with an open mind and let this band of misfits into your soul.
Sometimes a work of art comes unintentionally from a place from deep within the soul. It meanders and flops onto a table and sits and waits for its birth. The album begins with “Wait Till The Stars Burn”, a planetary ode to the Sun. The second track “Tribute to the Pharoahs Den”, is a requiem for Danny Ray Thompson (R.I.P.) of the Sun Ra Arkestra, his music and legacy now floating above us in the infinity of space. Both tracks and featuring Marshall Allen and Knoel Scott (of the Sun Ra Arkestra).
The song “Theme of Yahya” was a song I wrote for Yahya El Majid who played for many years with the Arkestra. I met Yahya in 2005 during my first meeting with the Arkestra. He shared many stories with me about the teachings of Sun Ra, the discipline he learned from him, and the many adventures he had all over the world travelling with the Arkestra. He told me these tales while playing a chinese harp, jamming to the sounds of Tuvaan Throat Singers, while burning a large amount of frankincense and myrrh. When I recorded the song I had four harps panned in stereo to form a sonic flower. When Yahya heard the track he telephoned me and told me that he was really moved by the piece and was proud of me. Yahya had been struggling for years with cancer and sadly passed away late August, 2020. I did not realize that my tribute to him would become a requiem, and it means the world to me that he was able to hear his tribute before he left the planet.
feat. Marshall Allen & Knoel Scott (Sun Ra Arkestra)
John Convertino & Martin Wenk (Calexico) Brontez Purnell (Younger Lovers) Ben Ra (King Khan & The Shrines) Davide Zolli (The Mojomatics)
The album ends with a requiem for Hal Willner (R.I.P.) whose devotion to celebrating the weird and insane was like an insatiable thirst leading to deep introspection and joy in harmony and sonic dissidence.
Little Steven and the Disciples Of Soul’s Thrilling tribute to the Beatles, “Macca To Mecca”, Recieving wide release on CD/DVD anda newly expanded “Soulfire Live” die out January 29 Via Wicked Cool Records/UMe
Los Angeles – December 4th – In the fall of 2017, when Little Steven landed in Liverpool on his sold out European tour with his newly reformed band the Disciples of Soul in support of “Soulfire”, his first new album in nearly two decades, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame musician, songwriter and lifelong Beatles fan played an extraordinary surprise set outside of the legendary Cavern Club as a tribute to the seminal band that inspired him and so many others to pick up a guitar and start a band after witnessing their musical revolution on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1964. The intimate lunchtime gig saw Little Steven aka Stevie Van Zandt lead his 15-strong band through rocking renditions of “Magical Mystery Tour,” “Good Morning, Good Morning,” “Got To Get You Into My Life,” and “All You Need Is Love,” alongside iconic songs famously performed by the nascent Fab Four, including “Boys” (originally by The Shirelles), “Slow Down” (by Larry Williams) and “Soldier Of Love” (first recorded by Arthur Alexander).
“Playing in the same venue where The Beatles started their careers was a childhood dream of mine come true,” says Van Zandt. “This was a band that set me on course for a life of music. For my rock ‘n’ roll religion, The Cavern is the first sacred site (after the 4 clubs in Hamburg they played!). It was an honour – no, make that an epiphany – to perform there.”
Fortunately for those that weren’t there to witness this once-in-a-lifetime event, the concert was professionally filmed and expertly recorded by Van Zandt’s touring film and audio crew and is now slated for wide release on CD/DVD as “Macca To Mecca” on January 29th via Wicked Cool Records/UMe. The 13-song love letter to the Beatles kicks off with a riveting performance of “I Saw Her Standing There” recorded at The Roundhouse in London in November of 2017 with a special appearance by Paul McCartney.
Macca To Mecca, which was previously only available as part of the vinyl box set and Blu-ray editions of his concert album, Soulfire Live!, includes the complete Cavern Club concert in both video and audio, exclusive interviews, behind-the-scenes footage and a special documentary that sees Van Zandt honoured with a brick in the club’s hallowed Wall of Fame before leading his band through swift rehearsals of Beatles songs mere minutes ahead of their performance.
The Macca To Mecca concert audio has also been added to a newly expanded 4CD version of “Soulfire Live!”, which will be also be released on January 29th. Culled from the best performances from the band’s North American and European concerts, this live collection features Van Zandt and the Disciples of Soul taking listeners through a musical history lesson as they blast through an arsenal of songs spanning rock, pop, soul, blues, funk, doo-wop, reggae and everything in between. Nearly every song from his 2016 album Soulfire is represented along with inspired covers and classic tracks from his early catalogue. Among the album’s many highlights are original songs from throughout Little Steven’s illustrious solo career – including classics like “Standing In The Line Of Fire” and “I Don’t Want To Go Home” – alongside a number of favourite cover versions like The Electric Flag’s “Groovin’ Is Easy,” Etta James’ “Blues Is My Business,” and James Brown’s “Down And Out In New York City. In addition, Soulfire Live! includes Van Zandt’s inimitable introductions, detailing each song’s unique history and singular spot in his life and illustrious career. Disc 3 showcases special guest appearances from some of Van Zand’ts closest friends, collaborators, and favourite artists and includes inspired versions of Moby Grape’s “Can’t Be So Bad” performed with the legendary San Francisco band’s founding member, Jerry Miller; the Motown classic, “Can I Get A Witness,” performed with New Jersey’s own Richie Sambora; The J. Geils Band’s “Freeze Frame” with vocals from the one and only Peter Wolf; and “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” and Little Steven’s own “I Don’t Want To Go Home,” both joined by Bruce Springsteen.
In a year like no other, Van Zandt has kept extraordinarily busy with a slew of releases and projects, including the release of Rock N Roll Rebel – The Early Work, a multi-format box set that collects together all of his pioneering early solo career albums between 1982 and 1999, as well as the landmark protest album, Sun City, by Artists United Against Apartheid, the supergroup of musicians brought together by Van Zandt and record producer Arthur Baker to fight racial injustice in South Africa; an acclaimed new record with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band; and an exuberant new holiday song penned for Netflix’s just-released movie, “The Christmas Chronicles 2,” directed by Chris Columbus. The joyous, soul-filled romp, “The Spirit Of Christmas,” sees him reuniting with his friend, the incomparable Darlene Love, who he worked with on their holiday hit “All Alone on Christmas” for “Home Alone 2: Lost In New York,” and her raved about 2015 album, Introducing Darlene Love, which he produced. The song is featured prominently in the sequel with a joyous onscreen musical number performed by Love and Kurt Russell who bring some Christmas magic to weary holiday travellers in a bustling airport terminal in the 1990s.
In celebration of “The Spirit of Christmas” and the Christmas spirit, Van Zandt, who regularly DJs on his Little Steven’s Underground Garage channel on SiriusXM and the nationally syndicated show of the same name, has put together a playlist featuring some of his favourite holiday songs. Kicking off with Chuck Berry’s immortal “Run Rudolph Run,” “Little Steven’s Christmas Party Playlist” mixes up Christmas classics with lesser known gems and includes songs by Bob Seger, The Kinks, Slade, Brian Setzer, Jan & Dean, Louis Prima, Joe Pesci, Dion and Ringo Starr alongside Van Zandt’s original Christmas tunes, “The Spirit Of Christmas,” “All Alone on Christmas” and his inspired, horn-drenched rendition of The Ramones’ “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want To Fight Tonight).”
MACCA TO MECCA TRACKLISTING
CD
I Saw Her Standing There Intro 2. I Saw Her Standing There 3. Cavern Club Intro 4. Magical Mystery Tour 5. Boys 6. Slow Down Intro
Slow Down 8. Some Other Guy 9. Soldier Of Love Intro 10. Soldier Of Love (Lay Down Your Arms) 11. Good Morning Good Morning 12. Got To Get You Into My Life 13. All You Need Is Love 14. Birthday
DVD 1. I Saw Her Standing There Intro 2. I Saw Her Standing There 3. Cavern Club Featurette 4. Cavern Club 5. Magical Mystery Tour 6. Boys 7. Slow Down Intro 8. Slow Down 9. Some Other Guy 10. Soldier Of Love Intro 11. Soldier Of Love (Lay Down Your Arms) 12. Good Morning Good Morning 13. Got To Get You Into My Life 14. All You Need Is Love 15. Birthday
While Foo Fighters may not have put on a New Year’s Eve livestream like so many other acts, the alt-rockers did provide a musical send off to 2020 with a new single, “No Son Of Mine”. The song, released last Thursday, comes as the second single from the new album “Medicine At Midnight” following “Shame Shame“. According to a handwritten statement from frontman Dave Grohl posted to social media, the band had originally intended to release Medicine At Midnight prior to mounting its 25th anniversary Van Tour. After that got postponed—along with every other tour—Foo Fighters decided to wait out the storm. And that’s what they did: wait. However, Grohl now says that “the wait is over.”
‘Medicine at Midnight’ will be released on February. 5th, nearly a year after frontman Dave Grohl announced that the Foo Fighters‘ 10th album was completed. Its nine songs include the lead single “Shame Shame,” which they premiered on ‘Saturday Night Live’ in early November. Guitarist Chris Shifflet said a lot of the songs are “groove-based,” adding that Grohl’s background as a drummer means “he’s always coming up with rhythmic twists and riffs based on rhythms that he hears in his head.”
As expected, “No Son Of Mine” is a rocker. Between an earworm Motörhead guitar riff and pulsating drums, Grohl’s lyrics come out to the forefront to lay out fatherly expectations of kin devoid of evildoing. Grohl said of the song, and the album, in his statement,
Dear Everyone, It was almost exactly a year ago that we finished recording our “new” record Medicine At Midnight, with a massive world tour planned that would have taken us around the globe celebrating our 25th anniversary as a band. But, well…you know…Until we finally realized that our music is made to be heard, whether it’s in a festival field with 50,000 our of closest friends, or alone in your living room on a Saturday night with a stiff cocktail. So, the wait is over.
As we say goodbye (f*ck you) to 2020, and flip the calendar page to 2021, let’s ring in the new year with a new rocker, “No Son Of Mine”. Pour a drink, turn it up, close your eyes and imagine that festival field blowing up to this. Because it f*cking will.
Happy New Year, Dave
Medicine At Midnight // The New Album Available February.5th 2021
Oceanator is one of our favourite NYC bands. Elise & Co. have been playing livestreams since the pandemic started, and hopefully you’ve caught them and gotten a glimpse at some of the amazing new songs off their upcoming album “Things I Never Said.”
Late summer rock and roll is always a reason to celebrate. Hitting the internet, and your local record stores, in late August was Oceanator’s debut record. It was originally going to be released on Tiny Engines, but when that ship went down she saved it and put it out on her own, and next year Polyvinyl is going to be re-releasing it. Pretty good turn of events honestly. “Crack in the World” hits a little harder this year with Elise Okusami belting out “and I’m still trying my best you know it keeps getting harder and harder every day”. She sings this while the music thrashes you around, much as this year has. This record screams to be played live with tracks like “Hide Away” and “January 21st” just wanting to bust out of their confines.
The main guitar riff in “Heartbeat” is one of the most uplifting of the year and the song itself is straight out of a late 90’s or early 00’s movie montage. Elise sings with and over herself on “I Would Find You” and it’s strangely hypnotic. “The Sky is Falling” begins quietly as anger slowly builds up until the music cannot be held back any longer and the guitar swoops in to get it out all as the rest of the band picks up as well. It’s the heaviest song on the album. We are left with “Sunshine” telling us we can be ok on our own. It may not be ideal this year, but self-love is something we all need sometimes.
William Tyler is a Nashville guitarist and composer. He spent years woodshedding and touring with Nashville groups like Lambchop and Silver Jews before breaking away to focus on his own version of instrumental guitar music. The concept of “vanitas” in medieval art refers to the juxtaposition of macabre symbols of death with material ephemera in order to illustrate the impermanence of earthly things. What struck me about this was not the representation of death in a macabre/morbid way, but rather that very sense of ephemerality and impermanence. Reading an article about the history of ephemera in art led me to the concept of vanitas, and I wanted to find a way to pivot that in a more, well, hopeful direction. But these paintings force us to bear witness to the contrasts of life, death, and impermanence, and if 2020 has taught me about anything, it is this concept of “bearing witness” both on a personal and political level.
If you don’t know William Tyler you really should by now. He’s been around for a bit and has been releasing solo work for a decade. This was his second effort of the year and this seven-song set is out there. The record is all about life and death and how they are separate but also one continuous thing. On the opening track “With News From Heaven” Tyler loops chords, riffs, and sonic scapes from his guitar over one another and as they brightly jangle around one another they bring the listener into a new realm that will take them through the rest of the record. There are weird radio broadcasts on a number of songs that fade in and out, which truly make you feel like you may not be on this planet anymore even though it’s clearly a familiar signal you’re hearing.
The sprawling 12-minute epic “Slow Night’s Static” is a guitar that drones in and out of focus as more of these distorted radio signal broadcasts are just out of reach of your ear behind the guitar. It’s hypnotic, beautiful, and like nothing, William Tyler has done before. This serene track must be that feeling of literally being between life and death, just waves of ease washing over you. He leaves us with “Pisces Backroads”, another euphoric track that feels hymnal and ends on a high note. As the record ends you might feel like you have reached a spiritual awakening or wonder where you just travelled to over the last 39 minutes.
Released September 4th, 2020
Recorded and produced by William Tyler except “Four Corners” by Scott Hirsch
Ganser released their debut LP Odd Talk in 2018 to favourable coverage from The New York Times, Billboard, and Stereogum. Building on their dissociative disorder namesake, the album’s tone vacillated between frenzied and contemplative, probing on questions of communication, intimacy, and avoidance. On Just Look at That Sky, Ganser further explores the personal inner climate of uncertain times.
Just Look at That Sky is full of poetic recitations about maintaining one’s sanity while the world caves in. The Chicago outfit’s second album contains the wide-eyed glare and off-the-wall energy of someone who’s close to the final straw and searching for the best way to cope. Its on-edge nature is quelled by surreal humour and dark playfulness, though Ganser leave plenty of room for existential spiralling, too. Meshing noise, art rock and post-punk, there’s a palpable sense of forward motion and doom, but it’s not a resigned doom—it’s a contemplative, purposeful doom that wouldn’t dare waste space on nihilism. This record starts strong with the pummeling “Lucky” and never lets up. Over nine tracks, Alicia Gaines, Nadia Garofalo, Brian Cundiff, & Charlie Landsman just batter you to death with good old fashioned punk rock, with a little bit of psychedelia and noise thrown in for good measure. With two lead vocalists, Alicia and Nadia, they put themselves above most other punk bands right away.
Either one can hold down that position with ease, and they even share duties on “Bad Form”. Punk isn’t really known for its great-sounding vocals, but Ganser is here to make you listen. Like most punk albums, this record can put you on the edge, and this year with most of us being there already, it feels like a fitting release. With witty and surreal lyrics dealing with many of the world’s problems today, Ganser tackles it all in stride. The record ends with “Bags For Life” bringing it all to a head speaking directly about the problems of how much the online world has taken over our daily lives.
And then there’s Ganser’s lyrics: manic explorations of worry and dread mark this record, the epic messiness of daily life in our damaged times attacked with sardonic specificity as often as generalized doom. Just Look at That Sky isn’t afraid to acknowledge that we’re all Extremely Online all the time, but rather explicitly owns it. These songs chart inner monologues of emphatic confusion, emotions already deeply felt further ratcheted up by the anxiety of always having too much information about other people, and always being just one tweet or status update away from knowing what everyone really thinks about us. This culminates in closing track “Bags for Life,” which imagines how online discourse might tackle a front-row seat for the end of the world.
These are songs that never shy away from ugliness and confusion, that believe embracing the totality of the self sometimes means leaning into our dickish behavior. In the past, some listeners have had trouble reconciling non-male voices with the sorts of topics Ganser writes about, but that comes to an end with Just Look at That Sky. Co-produced with Electrelane’s Mia Clarke and engineer Brian Fox, this is an assured, fully realized triumph of a record from an art-punk band that’s figured out how to focus on making great art, even if everything else around them falls apart.
Single taken from Ganser’s ‘Just Look At That Sky’ Album Ganser is Alicia Gaines, Nadia Garofalo, Brian Cundiff, & Charlie Landsman.
Nadia Garofalo (keyboards/vocals) and Alicia Gaines (bass/vocals) met in art school, bonding over their shared love of The Residents, outsider communities, and transgressive filmmakers like John Waters and David Lynch. The hands-on, DIY craftsmanship honed in those years has carried over into a group that shares writing duties, collaborates closely on music videos and album art, and crafts Brechtian visuals to accompany their maximalist live show. Having shared stages with the likes of Daughters, Oh Sees, Algiers, as well as Modern English, Ganser is a band that refuses to be pinned down, four individuals of diverse backgrounds functioning with the collective consciousness of four people in uncertain times.
Will Butler has been a member of the band Arcade Fire for over 10 years. A few years ago Will Butler put out one of the best rock records of the year and he returned this year with one that explores what it is to be American. It also contemplates what one can do to help and how to be better from day-to-day. On “I Don’t Know What I Can Do” this seems pretty self-explanatory. “Close My Eyes” has this feeling of despair while trying to figure out how to not only combat that, but the daily struggle of the news constantly coming at you with no end in sight. There are foot-stomping rockers like the 50’s era “Surrender” and the more punk rock vibe of “Bethelhem”. The background singers Sara Dobbs, Julie Shore, and Jenny Shore shape this album with their harmonies and clapping almost as much as Will himself.
“Hide It Away” would have felt right in place on “Everything Now” by that other band he’s in. The beat and production on Will’s voice on “Hard Times” feels like he was listening to Billie Eilish while making this song. It’s an interesting outlier on the album and shows that he’s always up for experimenting. “Promised” could have easily fit onto his first record musically. “Not Gonna Die” a disco-laden tune and “Fine” a quiet story of a song close the record out. Will usually gets overshadowed by his brother, but his two solo efforts have truly been great.
Policy is American music—in the tradition of the Violent Femmes, The Breeders, The Modern Lovers, Bob Dylan, Smokey Robinson, The Magnetic Fields, Ghostface Killah. And John Lennon (I know, but it counts). Music where the holy fool runs afoul of the casual world.
Garcia Peoples have been a magnetic north for me since I first saw the name a few years ago, loved the suspected pun in there (I’m old enough to remember the wisecracks on the Beatles’ Christmas fan club singles), then heard the psychedelic mission and improvising nerve on the records, the circulating gig tapes and finally in the first-person high of live performance. But in a season of fear and profound loss with no clear way ahead, Garcia Peoples rolled up that night with an uncanny medicine that shook me forward and keeps this album within reach, in a high rotation of assuring message and serial discovery. First impressions count a lot when you find a new, favourite record. But the ones that stick around don’t give you everything at once. Nightcap at Wits’ End has a lot of what I need right now – then brings something new every time I play it.
It turns out there is a real-life Wit’s End, a tavern of the band’s acquaintance in rural New York, along the state line not far from Black Dirt Studios where Garcia Peoples made their 2018 album, Cosmic Cash, and the epic-title-track adventure, 2019’s One Step Behind. The duality here runs deep: almost 50 minutes of intricately arranged composition and kinetic guitar chorales christened in tribute to both a familiar place of refuge and that ragged state of mind beyond all common sense, when you keep on going even after you’ve run out of rope and road. The music itself is a double image: one album-length side of songs that advance the crisp momentum and tangled jangle of early-2019’s Natural Facts; and a second half that extends the medley action on Cosmic Cash with the long reach of One Step Behind in a suite of dynamic writing and bonded, instrumental charge, connected by live-to-tape jams – the band’s first time exercising that second-nature-on-stage in a studio.
The juxtaposition affirms what I wrote in the opening line when I reviewed Natural Facts for Rolling Stone: “Expect the unexpected.” And expect it right away. The great crash of guitars at the end of “Gliding Through” suddenly turns into “Wasted Time,” a dream state of rippled-water singing that escalates into its own incandescent guitar argument. Halfway into “Painting a Vision That Carries,” the music hovers in a suspense of acoustic strum and fuzz-buster chords – “Way out there on the brink,” as the lyric goes – before the charging, instrumental climax. Over in the suite, “One at a Time” is slippery bass and swimming guitars; one improvisation sounds like treble prayer winging through a Marin County mist; and there is a minute-and-change of wah-wah brutality before the striking finish of “Shadow,” a quiet hymn for rising through wreckage.
Nightcap at Wits’ End was a long time coming: more than nine months in Philadelphia with Jeff Zeigler, who recorded Natural Facts – from the first work in August, 2019 to the final mix, only a few weeks before I heard it in that eerie midnight. But this album has arrived as if absolutely destined for right now. I am tempted to say it is the band’s best record, except Garcia Peoples are too restless to settle for plateaus. Just do as the title says. Raise a glass at your wit’s end, and let the music blow away the night.
By now, it has been well documented how affecting Le Ren’s Morning & Melancholiais. The powerful emotional response to these four folk songs is in part the result of Lauren Spear’s sharp song writing, which allows her to, at once, fill your heart with love and snap it in half.
A stunning four-song EP that feels like the end of the world is taking place. What actually happened is an ex-boyfriend died in a car crash and these songs are the healing that Le Ren, whose real name is Lauren Spear, needed to get out into the world. The songs are beautiful and heart breaking and a hell of an introduction in the world as this is her debut. “Love Can’t Be The Only Reason To Stay” kicks us off with a lullaby about loving someone so much but ultimately having to leave that person because there is more than just love going on.
The healing process of life after this tragic death begins with “How to Begin to Say Goodbye”. The way she harmonizes with herself is just gorgeous. “If I Had Wings” is Lauren trying to figure out a way to see this person one more time to say goodbye. “The Day I Lose My Mind” sounds like a song you’d hear coming out of a Texas Honky Tonk, not from Montreal. The pain in her voice though can be felt universally though. The four songs go by quickly, but be prepared for a lot of feelings to bubble up, especially with what has happened throughout this year.
This five-song EP completely missed my radar until I began compiling what you’re currently reading. Coming out right before the election, I think it got swallowed up by the news. It kicks off with a scorching take on Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child” where he does all of his tricks of the trade while still honouring the original song and the absolute legend who made it. He then teams with Slash on “Interstate 80” which has the two of them going back and forth ripping solo after solo to see who could outdo who. It’s impossible not to smile as you hear the two of them pushing one another to go for broke. Morello then gives us a tribute to another guitar legend who has just passed with “Secretariat (For EVH)” and even throws some of Van Halen’s “Cathedral” in for good measure. He closes out the EP with “Suburban Guerilla” and “Cato Stedman & Neptune Frost” which again have him showing off his licks that let you know exactly who is playing the instrument. Morello is a singular voice on the instrument and I hope we are all able to enjoy the Rage Against the Machine reunion that was supposed to happen this year as soon as possible.
Tom Morello battles Slash in the guitar duel of the century in the new song “Interstate 80”, from Tom’s new EP “Comandante” out everywhere now
The Fat Angel Sings 