British indie band Goat Girl will kick off 2021 with a brand new album, “On All Fours”. We have already heard lead single “Sad Cowboy” and today brings the arrival of its follow-up, “The Crack.”
Produced by Dan Carey, “The Crack” is written from the perspective of someone starting a new life on a planet free from the problems and injustices facing the one we currently share. The whirl of synths and buzzing guitars remain a constant from the band’s 2018 debut but there’s a new found space and authority to Goat Girl on “The Crack” as they look increasingly outwards in their songwriting. Naturally, for a song about our close relationship with our climate, the band headed to the shore to film “The Crack” video. All four members of the group, plus a selection of dancers, donned the wild outfits you can see below in an effort to portray a journey through a land lost to time.
Speaking about the new song, lead vocalist L.E.D. told us “‘The Crack’ emerged from an imagined post-apocalyptic world whereby people flee into space for a new life on an unruined planet, as the result of the pillaging of Earth. This song transformed from a simple electronic demo with synth bass and electronic drums, to the embellished version that it is now. For recording, we kept it in the family, enlisting Lottie’s Dad Nic Pendlebury to play viola and our good friend Charlie Loane to play trumpet on the chorus, further expanding the collaborative feel of the track. The music video made by Lottie’s sister, Molly Pendlebury, was filmed over two days at Botany Bay, where we shuffled barefoot across the beautifully rugged landscape. The masks and costumes made by Molly really add a surreal edge and a comical undertone to the video.”
On All Fours is out on January 29th via Rough Trade Records.
Death Valley Girls have again dipped into their sacred well of mystical music, pulling from its murky waters a new incantation with a sweeping title, “The Universe,” and their deliciously droney sound (with some twists). Yes, it still feels as if the L.A. quartet is casting spells as much as making rock ’n’ roll.
With 2018 album Darkness Rains, Los Angeles garage rockers Death Valley Girls gave us a clever flat-Earther parody and the unforgettable image of Iggy Pop eating a hamburger, Andy Warhol-style. Today they’re back to announce their new album Under the Spell Of Joy. This time there’s no comparable iconic imagery attached to speak of — unless you count their incredible new band photo below — but lead single “The Universe” more than holds its own as a blast of hypnotic, sax-blaring rock ‘n’ roll.
The band’s Bonnie Bloomgarden offered this statement on the new album, which was initially inspired by Ethiopian funk records, and “The Universe” in particular:
Under the Spell of Joy is a space-gospel record. We believe we served as channels for what we think are guides. As we learn what the songs are about we realize they are meant to be sang like chants, hymns, or spells. Most of the songs were recorded with 12 voices, including a kids choir! We are learning that words with intention and energy hold so much power, especially when said or sang with a group. “The Universe” is a song to sing, a space to be, a time to think, remember, and truly feel that not only are we all connected, but we are also being guided.
Death Valley Girls“Under the Spell of Joy” out October 2nd, 2020, on Suicide Squeeze Records
The Hold Steady have announced their eighth studio album, “Open Door Policy”. The new record will be released on their own Positive Jams label on February 19th, 2021. In addition to the album announcement, the band also shared the first single, “Family Farm.”
“Songs are created a bunch of different ways in The Hold Steady, but to me, our most classic songs are driving rock songs with piano breaks,” said singer Craig Finn of the new single (via press release). “‘Family Farm’ fits the bill. The genesis of the song was the guitar riff that starts it. Tad Kubler played a home demo for me and our producer Josh Kaufman, and we thought it was worth pursuing. At this point it had the working title ‘August’. We brought it to the band and Franz had the idea for the bridge. This seemed like a ‘scene change’ of sorts, and gave the song more depth and intrigue. We recorded it in December 2019 at the Clubhouse in upstate NY, just after our annual run of shows at the Brooklyn Bowl. Our friends Stuart Bogie and Jordan McLean added horns a bit later. I was personally happy to get a mention of Van Halen’s ‘Eruption’ in the lyrics, and I appreciate it even more after Eddie Van Halen’s unfortunate recent passing. Overall, it feels like a song that will be fun to play live – uptempo, dynamic, and a chorus with shout-along potential.”
The album was recorded at The Clubhouse in Rhinebeck, N.Y. It was produced by Kaufman and engineered by D. James Goodwin. In addition to The Hold Steady, the album features Stuart Bogie and Jordan McLean on horns, Cassandra Jenkins and Annie Nero on backup vocals, and Matt Barrick on percussion.
“Open Door Policy was very much approached as an album vs. a collection of individual songs, and it feels like our most musically expansive record,” said Finn. “This album was written and almost entirely recorded before the pandemic started, but the songs and stories explore power, wealth, mental health, technology, capitalism, consumerism, and survival – issues which have compounded in 2020.”
The unveiling of Open Door Policy comes on the heels of the band’s announcement of their virtual Massive Nights shows at Brooklyn Bowl. “Set for December 3rd, 4th, and 5th, this very special Massive Nights will be live-streamed around the world, allowing everyone everywhere to raise a glass and sing a favourite song alongside fellow fans far and wide,” read a press release.
What we’re possibly more excited about is ending 2020 by bringing you new music and starting off 2021 with a brand new album! Open Door Policy is our 8th studio album and will be released on February 19th, 2021 via our own label, Positive Jams, in association with Thirty Tigers. You can pre-order it here! http://shop.theholdsteady.net We recorded Open Door Policy in two different sessions in the back half of 2019. Once again we teamed with producer Josh Kaufman and engineer Dan Goodwin, this time at the Clubhouse studio in upstate NY. Our intention was to create an album that worked as a grand piece, rather than a collection of songs. 2019 was an active year for The Hold Steady — our writing was consistent, and new songs were coming in pretty regularly. The recording process was creative, open and fun. We were pretty much done with the record by the time we played a few of the new songs in London the first week of March 2020, as the unease of the pandemic was setting in. Not long after we got back from London, NYC shut down and we began to see our 2020 shows postponed. Over the next months, it became obvious that timing this album’s release to specific weekend celebrations wouldn’t be a possibility in the near future. But we were still excited to share it. The songs on Open Door Policy are about power, wealth, & mental health.
They’re about technology, occupation, consumerism, freedom, fandom and escape. And although the album was written and recorded in 2019, the themes of this record seem to be underscored and highlighted by this year of virus and quarantine. Big thanks to Dave McLaughlin for his photo on the album cover, which appears above. “Family Farm” is the first song from the album we’re sharing. It originated from a demo Tad brought in, with Franz adding a classic THS bridge. Our friends Stuart Bogie and Jordan McLean came in with the horns. The song even includes a mention of the great Eddie Van Halen solo “Eruption”, an unintended tribute to a great rock hero in light of his recent passing.
TRACKLIST: The Feelers Spices Lanyards Family Farm Unpleasant Breakfast Heavy Covenant The Prior Procedure RiptownMe & Magdalena Hanover Camera Parade Days
Available on limited edition colored vinyl (blue!), standard vinyl, and limited edition CD. You will receive an instant grat of “Family Farm” with your purchase and digital download of the full album on release date, February 19th, 2021. Of course we have lots of other new Open Door Policy goodies to order with the music at The Hold Steady online shops: t-shirts, infant clothing, winter hats and anything you may have missed. To celebrate the new album and Massive Nights 2020, we’re running a sale in The Hold Steady online shops.
Thanks for listening. Thanks for understanding. We’re really glad that you’re here.
Slow Pulp’s remarkable full-length debut Moveys is a testament to hard-fought personal growth. In the process of making their new record, the Chicago-based indie rock band powered through health challenges, personal upheaval, and a pandemic, all while learning how to be better songwriters and friends. Full of blistering energy and emotional catharsis, this compelling 10-track collection highlights the band’s resourcefulness and resilience to come together even when they were states away.
Slow Pulp’s journey towards their debut album has been an unexpected one for the Chicago band. Through personal tragedies and health issues, “Moveys” became something entirely different from what the band had initially planned. The initial blow being singer Emily Massey receiving a diagnosis of Lyme disease and chronic mono. To add further insult, one week before the pandemic loomed, Massey’s parents were involved in a serious car crash.
But out of this personal upheaval, their debut album was formed through the most difficult of circumstances and as a result is a telling testament towards the collectivism within Slow Pulp. Through these experiences and writing simultaneously Massey was able to find space to process her thoughts and undergo a healing process. That process is transcendent throughout the record and a key crux as to how their music can have such profound effect. With some of the album’s material being recorded and written after lockdown, you would think that there would be a bit of a logistical headache when trying to piece an album together. Although an isolated experience wasn’t too different to their usual process as Emily explains. “We write separately from each other and usually send ideas through a Google Drive link. So, it wasn’t too crazy different, I did end up recording my vocals with my dad, which was really fun, he engineered my vocals”.
Writing with her dad Michael provided a mutual sense of healing between the pair. This is cemented on Whispers (In The Outfield), a wonderful instrumental track that merges piano and synth to create something which sounds texturally ethereal yet manages to maintain a very human level of wonderment and warmth. “That was the first piece of music that he played since the accident. Just the fact that he was able to work on the album with me was pretty special after an event where he almost lost his life” Emily said.
Shoegaze was one particular tag that the band were given after their earlier work, yet Moveys is much more dynamic in the genres it pays homage to. Their evolution was not planned as guitarist/producer Henry explained, “It was kind of an accident. We all kind of projected that it was going to be pretty heavy and blown out and it just didn’t happen like that. It wasn’t a conscious decision; I think we were following our gut”. One of their biggest achievements as a result of following this instinct is that Moveys has a consistent tone throughout yet each track still maintains a sense of individualism.
Absolutely delicious indie-rock that hits the perfect balance of complexity and straightforward song writing excellence.
Poster artist Justin Helton releases the newest screen print in his Grateful Dead Milestones series the Europe ’72 Tour! The series highlights “Milestone” moments of the Dead’s career.
This isn’t a reject from Raw Power. It came out in 1977 after Raw Power on the demo record released by Iggy Pop and James Williamson. This is actually the original mix of this track from the demo tape of the “Kill City” record that was sent out in the hope of getting them signed. From what I understand they sent this version out to labels, they then remixed the album when it got released as Kill City on the Bomp! label and Williamson released a remaster recently. Of the original mixes, this is one of the only tracks available to us through compilations such as this (Original Punks) and it fucking rules in my opinion.
“Down but not out, Iggy and James record lost treasure in decadent L.A.” This current remastered edition derives from the rediscovered masters and was prepared for release by James Williamson, who again tours with the Stooges in 2010. Since the Stooges circle has been squared its only fitting that this missing link be finally, beautifully restored for posterity. – KC Press
“The sound is 100% clearer, the levels are pushed and the instruments stretch and slide at higher, bulkier levels. This is a Detroit rawk muscle record as it was meant to be heard 33 years ago. All raucous garage born out of sweat, blood and bad times.” – WNnG
Kill City is Iggy Pop and James Williamson’s often overlooked, yet ultimately essential album. Originally recorded in 1975 and later released by Bomp! in ’77, critics have long lauded the songs and performances but have also regarded the overall sound as “sludgy.” The sound quality of Kill City was compromised from the get-go, as it originally suffered from a bad pressing (on the infamous green vinyl), and over the years the quality of the record itself managed to get even worse. When the original distributor went out of business, the 2-track album production masters vanished and every subsequent pressing of the album – on record, cassette and CD – used a copy of that deficient green vinyl as its master.
Now 33 years later, here is the long overdue restored, re-mixed and remastered version of this historically important record. Producer James Williamson remixed the album with engineer Ed Cherney at Capitol Records in Hollywood, and as the guitarist states, “He just made this record sound, well, like it should have sounded all along. It has finally reached its full potential.”
I like what this album has to say.
It is rather high concept, and the music is well thought out.
It adheres to no particular genre.
A lot of people have borrowed its ideas.
It’s one of the very first independent LPs I know of.
I hope you like it.
— IGGY POP
Kill City was by all measures a desperate effort, a singularly honest and heartfelt performance, a genuine progression of our song writing, and another in a long line of flops that were later resurrected and heralded as masterpieces. By the time it was released as a record, both Iggy and I were off doing other things with our lives, but with this re-release we are not only reunited in our musical endeavors but in our appreciation of this album, its remix, and its importance to us as artists.
— JAMES WILLIAMSON
RESTORED, RE-MIXED & REMASTERED edition, approved for the first time by both Iggy Pop and James Williamson. New Clear Red Vinyl Limited Edition of 150
The Smashing Pumpkins released their new album, “Cyr”, which marks the second studio project from the mostly-reunited line-up. The core group of Billy Corgan, James Iha, and Jimmy Chamberlin previously came together in 2018 the follow-up to 2018’s Rick Rubin–produced “Shiny And Oh So Bright Vol. 1: No Past. No Future. No Sun”.
Billy Corgan has produced the Smashing Pumpkins’ Cyr, is also the second project from the group since Corgan reunited with founding band members. A double album, it’s also accompanied by a five-part animated series titled “In Ashes” which pairs the singles with a linear storyline of a dystopian society. The fourth installment, “Owl Wait“, premiered on Tuesday and the fifth has yet to be revealed. With Billy Corgan having overseen numerous works of myth-laden grunge rock and spent much of the past decade releasing chunks and snippets of an unfinished 44-song concept album called Teargarden By Kaleidyscope,
This album’s release marks the latest checkmark for The Smashing Pumpkins, who have ramped up production on a bevy of new projects. Last month, the band revealed plans for a sequel to their classic 2000’s Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness, as well as an elaborate 25th Anniversary tour whenever such a feat is possible. Corgan has also stated that Cyr is merely part two of a three-album cycle that began with Shiny And Oh So Bright and will come to a conclusion with a future record.
Apparently bassist D’arcy Wretzky has claimed she was excluded from sessions, in interviews detailing the unbearable stresses of being in the band in the 90s. While Iha’s guitars remain satisfyingly gnarled for most of the 20 tracks on Cyr, Corgan’s runic lyricism (Minerva is named after the Roman goddess of war, Ramona and Wyttch come packed with hexes and spell-craft) largely comes attached to upbeat, enigmatic synth-pop. It’s kind of Arcadian electro, There are moments of harder hitting electro-rock, such as Wyttch and The Colour Of Love, and even some industrial grinding on Anno Satana (which translates as – gulp – ‘year of Satan’),
And the traditional comeback nostalgia tour – the Pumpkins’ will be themed around their Melon Collie And The Infinite Sadness commercial peak – will have to wait until the release of a 33-track concept album sequel to Melon Collie and 2000’s Machina/The Machines Of God, due in 2021.
Back in August, The Smashing Pumpkins began releasing singles from the 20-track album on a regular basis. In all, the 90s pop-grunge powerhouse put out eight singles ahead of the official release of Cyr.
Taken together, all of the singles and In Ashes episodes delivered fragments of the Cyr picture. In these pieces of the portrait, The Smashing Pumpkins are shown to be looking ahead based on the futuristic, techno-pop influences found on many of the singles.
However, on songs like “Wyttch”, the band is still able to tap into the heavier influences that fans identify them with from the 1990s. With the full release of Cyr, audiences can now hear how all of these influences fit together to carve the path forward for the group.
Double album, CYR, coming Friday, November 27th, via Sumerian Records.
On this day (November. 28th) in 1980: The Jam released their 5th studio album, ‘Sound Affects’, on Polydor Records…(This photo: my Canadian pressing of the album signed l-r by Paul Weller, Bruce Foxton & Rick Buckler…) It featured the group’s second UK #1 single, “Start!”; as well as other excellent Jam gems such as the funky “Pretty Green”, the raging “Set The House Ablaze”, ballad “That’s Entertainment” & the horn-driven “Boy About Town”; one side of the cover design was a pastiche of the artwork used on various sound effects records produced by the BBC during the ’70s; Paul Weller later cited it as his favourite Jam album in a BBC documentary; in 2006, ‘Q’ magazine ranked it #15 in its list of ‘The 40 Best Albums of the ’80s’…
Today would have been the 78th birthday of the great Jimi Hendrix. Born James Marshall Hendrix on November 27th, 1942, the guitar god rose to fame for his insane guitar playing abilities during the British blues revival period of the mid-1960s. Hendrix was a powerhouse musical entity, commanding attention with his unique style like never before. He redefined the instrument, and what it meant to perform with it.
Though Hendrix only lived until the age of 27, his influence on music has been enormous ever since. His work with the Jimi Hendrix Experience was second to none, and perhaps no performance captures the essence of his abilities better than his apperance at Woodstock. Though it may not have been his best show of all time, Jimi Hendrix took the stage at 9AM on August 18th, 1969, launching into otherworldly versions of well known jams like “Fire,” “Izabella” and the famed “Star Spangled Banner.”
Few performances in the history of rock ‘n’ roll are more iconic than when Jimi Hendrix cemented his legendary status and delivered the show of his career on the biggest stage of them all, a moment when the mercurial artist headlined the inaugural Woodstock Festival in 1969.
The whole weekend was a watershed moment for music, but one specific part was the most poignant of all. As the subversive edge of America’s youth descended upon a small town, with fear of crime and panic sweeping the outer limits, Hendrix paid tribute to his country. One of the most enigmatic performances of the weekend came when Hendrix rolled out an unexpected, distorted rendition of the US national anthem. The performance was considered as an offensive moment and it sent a ripple through America and when he appeared on the Dick Cavett show some months after his headline show — he had to answer why he made this statement on such a grand stage.
Hendrix cunningly decided to use the music’s own bombastic nature to project the violence carried out under his nation’s flag. He managed to do this by holding a keynote longer than he usually would and also applied a little more pressure to his Stratocaster’s tremolo bar which then created an unsettling effect. With a guitar in his hands, he was more effective than his words could ever be. He then stopped playing the song in its original form and just turned the lyrics about bombs bursting in air and rockets lighting up the night into music.
This was Hendrix’s way of kicking back at the idea of military power being the only thing that is great about America and, through the use of just his instrument, he managed to evoke the opposite feeling of what the anthem was intended to cause and is one of the great political statements in the music history.
“I don’t know, man,” Hendrix said on his decision to play the track before adding, “I’m an American, so I played it. They made me sing it in school, so it was a flashback.” Cavett then pointed out that Hendrix is likely to find himself on the receiving end of a barrage of hate mail because of his decision to cover the national anthem in an unorthodox manner, to which Hendrix proudly stated, “It’s not unorthodox, I thought it was beautiful.” Cavett would later reflect on the interview years later and said that he should have supported Hendrix’s version rather than opening him up for criticism: “I suppose I could have added that since we somehow acquired the most dismal, virtually unsingable dirge of a national anthem of any known nation, we should decorate Hendrix for turning it into music.”
The band was scheduled as the last performance of the festival, Sunday night. Due to several delays, they eventually played on Monday morning, 9:00 am, when most of the audience had already left.
Hendrix’s performance at Woodstock came at a major transition point in his life since the Jimi Hendrix Experience disbanded earlier that summer. He took to the stage with his newly formed band Gypsy Sun and Rainbows, a.k.a. a Band of Gypsys — consisting of Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell, bassist Billy Cox, guitarist Larry Lee and percussionists Juma Sultan and Jerry Velez.
The irony about the legendary performance is that few people actually saw it in person since so many fans had fled the upstate New York farm by that point. He went on late because he wanted to be the final act, not realizing that would mean playing on Monday morning to a virtually empty audience. The crowd had gone from “half a million strong” to a handful of diehard fans sitting in a giant ocean of garbage.
1. Hendrix performed with a temporary band. The Jimi Hendrix Experience, with which he had recorded three smash albums and electrified crowds at the Monterey Pop Festival two summers before, had broken up. Hendrix assembled a group he called Gypsy Suns and Rainbows, which included two musicians he had played with at the start of his career on the Chitlin’ Circuit in Nashville: bassist Billy Cox and guitarist Larry Lee. Neither had ever performed in front of a large crowd before. Drummer Mitch Mitchell, who was part of the Experience, and two percussionists rounded out the band, one of the largest Hendrix ever appeared with. The group performed just twice more before disbanding.
2. It was the only Hendrix band that included a second guitarist. Larry Lee backed up Hendrix on a number of songs, played some lead on Jam Back at the House, and contributed several lead choruses to the 12-bar blues Red House. He played some lead on both Voodoo Child (slight return) and Spanish Castle Magic and sang lead on two numbers. Lee’s solo guitar work accounts for much of the footage of the Hendrix Woodstock set that has never been made public. In fact, no recordings, audio or visual, have ever been officially released of Lee’s two featured numbers: Mastermind and a medley of Gypsy Woman and Aware of Love.
3. It was the only major performance that Hendrix gave in the morning. By 1969, Hendrix was a major star who had earned the traditional headliner’s position: playing last. Technical and weather delays caused the festival to stretch into Monday morning. The organizers had given Hendrix the opportunity to go on at midnight, but he opted to be the closer. One benefit of the delay: the morning light made for excellent filming conditions, which may be part of the reason this particular Hendrix performance is so well known.
4. Hendrix did not perform for half a million people. In fact, when he took to the stage at 9 a.m., the crowd, which once numbered 500,000, had dwindled to fewer than 200,000–perhaps considerably fewer. With the demands of work and school weighing on them, many of those fans waited just long enough to see Hendrix begin his set, and then departed themselves.
5. The Woodstock performance had the potential to be a disaster for Hendrix. Recordings made at the house in upstate New York where Hendrix and the Gypsy Suns and Rainbows rehearsed and of a performance they gave at the Tinker Street Cinema in Woodstock show that the band “simply could not play well together,” Brattin says. “After listening to those tapes, you would not have guessed that the Woodstock performance would be so good. The credit has to go to Jimi and the strength of his onstage presence.”
6. Woodstock was a time of transition for Hendrix. He had left behind one long-term band and not yet formed another. He was beginning a period of musical experimentation that was risky from a commercial perspective. While the Experience was dominated by white musicians (both his bandmates were white Englishmen), he was now appearing with more black performers (bassist Cox, guitarist Lee, and percussionist Juma Sultan were all African American). It is interesting, Brattin notes, that while so much of the Woodstock set pointed to Hendrix’s future, the performance also included songs that harked back to his beginnings. In particular, two of the songs Lee sang, Gypsy Woman and Aware of Love, were written or co-written by Curtis Mayfield, with whom Hendrix had performed within the early 1960s. It was the only Hendrix concert that included these songs.
7. The Star-Spangled Banner was not played on its own. It was part of a medley lasting over half an hour, one of the longest such medleys. The medley also included hits like Voodoo Child (slight return) and Purple Haze, and an unaccompanied improvisation lasting nearly five minutes. Hendrix performed the national anthem as a solo in the midst of this medley.
8. It was not the first time Hendrix had performed the Star Bangled Banner–by a long shot. In fact, there are nearly 50 live recordings of Hendrix playing the national anthem, 28 made before Woodstock. They range from about a minute to more than six minutes; the Woodstock version was three minutes and 46 seconds. It was among the best, Brattin says. “And, certainly, no other version is so iconic.”
9. Hendrix performed an encore, a rarity. He almost never performed encores, but at Woodstock, despite the vanishing crowd, he did. On recordings, he can be heard considering Valleys of Neptune, which he never performed publicly, before or after Woodstock. He opted, instead, for Hey Joe, his first hit song.
10. Hendrix was not supposed to close Woodstock. Steeped in childhood memories of the song, Woodstock organizer Michael Lang wanted Roy Rogers to come on after Hendrix and play Happy Trails. The cowboy crooner declined.
In 2002 and 2003, following the release of his album UP, Peter Gabriel went on the road with his Growing Up tour, once again collaborating with production designer Robert Lepage to create a spectacular and theatrical live experience. The tour took in thirty-two cities across the USA, Canada and Europe and this concert performance was recorded over two nights at the Filaforum in Milan in May 2003, with Peter Gabriel and the band performing in the round at the centre of the arena.
A concert film capturing the live show was released in late 2003, but Growing Up Live has never been a stand alone audio release, until now. It was the beginning of 2002 that we decided to go out on the road. I hadn’t been out for 10 years so it was going to be interesting to see if there were any fans still out there, if we could sell any tickets and how it would all work on-stage.
The fourth, and last, of this autumn’s series of live LP releases, “Growing Up Live”, is released today. Like Live In Athens 1987 and Secret World Live, this is the first time on vinyl for Growing UpLive, but this concert is presented as a 3LP set in a gatefold sleeve and full colour printed inner bags. The LP has been Half-Speed Remastered and cut to lacquers at 33RPM by Matt Colton at Alchemy Mastering and comes with a hi-res audio download code (24bit or 16bit).
“It was the beginning of 2002 that we decided to go out on the road. I hadn’t been out for 10 years so it was going to be interesting to see if there were any fans still out there and how it would all work on-stage. Last time [Secret World tour] we had two stages, a male stage and a female stage, and they were representing different things, urban, rural and this time we have moved the axis vertically, and it’s a sky stage and an earth stage. The album title had been UP, so there was a certain logic to this vertical translation onto the stage.” – pg
The touring band you will hear on this recording consists of Ged Lynch (drums), Tony Levin (bass, vocals), David Rhodes (guitar, vocals), Richard Evans (guitar, mandolin, whistle, vocals), Rachel Z (keyboards, vocals), Melanie Gabriel (vocals) and Peter Gabriel (vocals, keyboards).
“The band is a mixture of old and new. In the tried and tested friend department there’s David Rhodes on guitar who I’ve played with for many years, since his band Random Hold supported me on a tour way back. He began life as a sculptor, never wanted to be a professional musician, but sort of fell into it.
Tony Levin, who’s on bass, was actually on the first record that I did after I left Genesis. He’s the longest serving member, but obviously he does so many other things on his own, with King Crimson and many other people over the years. I think he is one of the most respected bass players in the world, so I feel very lucky that he is always out with me.
Rachel Z who is a very able keyboard player. She is better known in the jazz world but has been developing her own sort of rock stuff and has just put out an album of Joni Mitchell covers too. She’s very good. She’s also the daughter of an opera singer and has a very useful set of pipes on her as well.
I’ve worked in the studio with Richard Evans many times, but this is the first time live. He plays numerous instrument; mandolin, flutes, whistles, guitar. So that’s fun.
The drummer Ged Lynch. When we were making the album, Manu (Katché) was away on tour for some of the time so Ged came in. Manu’s a brilliant player but he is quite a decorator in some ways so it’s always beautifully and very musically done. Ged, on the other hand, sits in this tight box and there’s this sort of powerhouse driving things forward. It felt good for me to try and make the band focus more direct this time out. Ged is also a great percussionist and did a lot of percussion on the record as well.
Then, my daughter Melanie is out with me singing, and that’s a real pleasure for Dad.”
“Growing Up Live” – on vinyl for the first time – chronicles a Peter Gabriel performance from May 2003. Featuring PG with Ged Lynch, Tony Levin, David Rhodes, Richard Evans, Rachel Z, Melanie Gabriel and special guest appearances by The Blind Boys of Alabama, Sevara Nazarkhan, Dr Hukwe Zawose and Charles Zawose (plus the voice of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan). Triple vinyl in gatefold sleeve with printed inners. Half-speed remastered and cut to lacquers at 33RPM, across 2x heavyweight LPs. Vinyl cut by Matt Colton at Alchemy Mastering, mastered by Tony Cousins at Metropolis and overseen by Peter’s main sound engineer Richard Chappell.
The Fat Angel Sings 