The family of the Louisiana-born musician known as Dr. John says the celebrated singer and piano player who blended black and white musical influence with a hoodoo-infused stage persona and gravelly bayou drawl, has died. He was 77. A family statement released by his publicist says Dr. John, who was born Mac Rebennack, died early Thursday of a heart attack.
His spooky “Gris Gris Gumbo Ya Ya” slithered onto the pop-dominated market in 1968, startling listeners with its sinister implications of other-worldly magic..
In the summer of ‘97, the love of indie music was at its most highpoint with Spiritualized’s Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space. Dr John plays on the awesome “Cop Shoot Cop,”.
Dr John classic vinyl of Gris Gris. Mac Reddenback recorded it in L.A. with some NOLA studio musicians its a melange of psychedelic choogle with swamp gas vocals. It is one of the truly original listens in pop history. It’s singualar in the way Astral Weeks doesn’t really have a parallel, or the first Suicide album is true standalone.
the startling brew of voodoo funk and strange incantations, epitomised by the eerie eight-minute mantra “I Walk on Guilded Splinters”. Nobody had heard anything like it, including his label boss, Ahmet Ertegun. “Ahmet asked me: ‘What is this record you gave me … Why didn’t you give me a record that we could sell?’” Dr John recalled. He took the album on tour with a show resembling a bayou magic act, decking himself out in outlandish feathers, witch-doctor robes and headdresses.
Two follow-up albums to Gris-Gris – Babylon (1969) and Remedies (1970) – began to make him influential friends, including Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger, who both appeared on The Sun, Moon & Herbs (1971), After The Sun, Moon & Herbs he brought out the album Dr John’s Gumbo (1972), conceived as a tribute to New Orleans music, particularly the compositions of Professor Longhair . In 1973 he released the biggest selling album of his career, In the Right Place. Produced by Allen Toussaint and with the Meters as backing band, gave him a US Top 10 hit single with Right Place, Wrong Time. It also included Such a Night, which Dr John would perform at the Band’s 1976 farewell concert, filmed by Martin Scorsese as The Last Waltz.
Born Malcolm John Rebennack in 1941 in New Orleans, he began taking music lessons as a teenager and was exposed to jazz and early rock ‘n’ roll at a young age. In 1965, he moved to Los Angeles, where he developed the Dr. John persona, inspired by New Orleans voodoo. His style of music initially blended New Orleans R&B with psychedelic rock, and his debut album “Gris Gris” was released in 1968, which was a bold and strange introduction to his singular sound. In 1973, he released what would become his biggest hit, “Right Place, Wrong Time,” and over the course of his career he released two dozen albums. In 1997, he also collaborated with Spiritualized, performing piano on their sprawling track “Cop Shoot Cop.”
In 2011, Dr. John was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His last album was 2014′s Ske-Dat-De-Dat: The Spirit of Satch,
Empath’s stellar noise pop is a shimmering genre collage, cut with zig-zag scissors and pasted with a super-sized tube of glitter glue. The Philadelphian quartet’s forward thinking tunes continue to sound refreshing as ever on “Active Listening: Night on Earth”, dilating the infectious atmosphere of last year’s Liberating Guilt and Fear. Key cuts like the jolting opener “Soft Shape” and hands-down highlight “Roses that Cry” stitch synth bass and distorted samples, crooning vocals and inescapable melodies. It’s a slapdash scramble to “Rodeo Fever,” the stunning dream pop closer for Empath’s very solid debut release.
2019 is shaping up to be quite the year for Shab Ferdowsi, who is the singer/songwriter behind the “fuzzy guitar pop” act Blushh. With a headlining/festival run coming up in a few days in Los Angeles, Blushh has decided to grace us with a brand new single ahead of their upcoming tour dates. Blushh gave listeners an inkling of what to expect from future releases with their one-off single, “All My Friends.”
The poignant, yet melodic, new single follows the release of the band’s latest EPs, 2017’s It’s Fine and 2018’s Thx 4 Asking. Of the new song, Shab Ferdowsi shared in a press release:
“Last year I moved back into my parent’s house for about 10 months. I was 20 miles away from all my friends, and I slowly but surely started spending more nights at home than I did hanging out. I was caught between not wanting to go out to begin with and starting to feel detached, both physically and emotionally, from my social life. Safe to say that’s probably where this song stemmed from, lyrically.
Sonically, this is the beginning of the most collaborative work Blushh has seen to date. I spent months with my band working on a batch of new songs, which is something I’ve never done before. The gang vocals kill me every time and I hope they rip your hearts out too.”
“All My Friends” marks our first taste of new music since 2018, and it looks as though we won’t have to wait much longer for new releases from the group. Per the press release, the band recently completed recording on their first full-length album
Trouble In Mind Records is extremely honored to re-release Melbourne band Possible Humans‘ debut album “Everybody Split”. After selling out (in 24-hours no less) of it’s original 200-copy LP run on Melbourne label-du-jour Hobbies Galore, we are releasing it in hopes of getting this amazing album into more people’s record collections! ~ Pressed on Limited Red vinyl while supplies last (& unlimited Black Vinyl after that disappears!).
“It’s so easygoing that one might overlook its fascinating warps of a traditional jangle sound. There’s a beauty in that quality; Possible Humans never demand attention, but they deserve it anyway.”
“It’s a hell of a debut…they’re branching out from the expectations built up among an underground that’s constantly intriguing, but has also cannibalized its influences a few times over. Though the LP was scant, this one’s worth it in any format.”
the album “Everybody Split” (releases April 1, 2019 ) Label: Hobbies Galore
Haybaby is a band of total babes that play honey-ass heartbreak crooning sometimes screamy sludgy pop & slop rock that willmake you have some feelings. They are “weird and magnetic” and “heavy as shit,” according to Time Out NY and some guy on the internet. These are well-executed, razor-sharp punk songs that are as itchy and nervy as they are a blast to listen to. These songs are built on a foundation of anxiety and disquiet, but they come across as self-assured and in control, at least as far as the music goes.
“Animosity,” is a prickly song about that bitter feeling inside that just won’t seem to go away. Leslie Hong begins with a full-band address: “Haybaby, why can’t you keep it together for a minute?/ The whole world’s falling apart and you’re so caught up in it,” before sliding into a more personal reckoning. The new songs have grown a pricklier layer of skin as a result, Lead single “Total Bore” keeps the same twitching underbelly of their earlier stuff but expands into glittering heights a sense of tenderness towards themselves and the world is still in abundance.. The second single from the band’s sophomore effort is “Get Down,” a cathartic indie-rock ode to self-sufficiency.
“Joke/Rope” rocks above an abyss between laughter and total misery. There’s no surface level here; we’re deep in the depths of gripping anguish, and Haybaby rock hard enough to carry it. The DIY regulars play with suspense…through ever-foreboding melodies and fluctuating murmurs and howls.
Haybaby are everything you love about grunge, punk, art rock, indie rock and riot grrrl rolled into one adorable three piece band. Brooklyn sludge punk trio Haybaby pack a punch of bombastic, lively melodies that are sweet enough to rot out all of your teeth. Haybaby hold the knack for crafting distorted, fuzzy guitar riffs with heartfelt and sincere songwriting.
Today’s the day for a new archival release from Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band! East Rutherford, NJ 7/22/12 is available now in a variety of options including CD and digital download!
On a long, special night that rolled into his 63rd birthday the following day, Bruce dials up a spirited, 34-song set brimming with Wrecking Ball material; tour premieres for “Cynthia” and a moving “Into The Fire”; the first “In The Midnight Hour” since New Year’s Eve 1980; a rare coupling of “Meeting Across The River” into “Jungleland”; “Janey, Don’t You Lose Heart,” “Downbound Train” and “It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City”; plus special guest Gary U.S. Bonds on “Jolé Blon” and “This Little Girl.”
Part of what draws us to Springsteen concerts is the range of emotions they deliver over the course of a single evening. Songs of hardship and heartbreak intermix with those of liberation, love, and celebration. But on occasion, the mood leans strongly in one direction. Playing the third of three stadium shows on the eve of his 63rd birthday, and following a 120-minute weather delay, Bruce was of a mind to surprise and delight his hometown fans and set the energy dial to HIGH.
When attempting to describe the E Street Band in peak tour form, as we find them here, it can be difficult to resist cliches. East Rutherford 2012 evokes “well-oiled machine,” the attributes of which are fitting: smooth, powerful, polished, built to last. Jon Altschiller’s vibrant mix spotlights their outstanding playing and grabs the listener right out of the gate, an apt choice of words, as if there were a track announcer at MetLife she would surely be shouting, “They’re off and running.”
East Rutherford 2012 opens with ten straight, dare I say, bangers, ignoring any “it’s a marathon, not a sprint” advice in an effort to rouse fans who had been waiting patiently for hours.
The proceedings commence with the open invitation of “Out in the Street,” and the band-fan partnership is further reinforced via “The Ties That Bind” before a horns-accented “Cynthia” makes clear Stevie had a hand in this appetizing 34-song setlist. Bruce calls the Born in the U.S.A. outtake a Van Zandt favorite and a little bit of “E Street from the Underground Garage,” in reference to his pal’s Sirius XM radio show and channel. Lots of rockers + lots of rarities = Stevie’s unmistakable influence.
Turns out we’re just getting started. From there, “Badlands” into a fine “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” followed by guitar-crunching versions of “Cover Me” and “Downbound Train,” and the new-album three-pack: “We Take Care of Our Own,” “Wrecking Ball,” and “Death to My Hometown.” With that, the ten-track onslaught relents, and we catch our breath during a moving “My City of Ruins.”
The pace of the show picks back up with “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City,” still packing plenty of heat and preceded by an abridged version of Bruce’s Columbia Records audition story. A double shot with guest Gary U.S. Bonds (in fine voice) is another special treat, and the spirit of ‘81 is in full effect for a duet on “Jolé Blon” and a Bonds lead vocal on “This Little Girl.” The latter, a Springsteen-penned solo hit for Bonds, is performed for surprisingly only the fourth time ever with the E Street Band, which played on the original sessions.
After a Seeger Sessions-inspired “Pay Me My Money Down” come more rarities. As other live download releases have shown, “Janey, Don’t You Lose Heart” is a surprisingly tricky song to nail; this is a good one, riding an excellent Springsteen vocal. After “Janey,” Bruce realizes the clock has struck midnight, which means it is now officially his birthday. He asks the crowd for his song, and a stadium full of fans sings “Happy Birthday” back to him. Then, reaching all the way back to 12/31/80 without a soundcheck safety net, Springsteen summons up WilsonPickett’s “In the Midnight Hour,” and damn if they don’t nail it. Sure, any self-respected horn section would know those parts by heart, but one can still marvel that an audible unplayed for more than 30 years can come off so strong.
The spiritual highlight of the night is the first and only Wrecking Ball tour performance of “Into the Fire” from The Rising. With MetLife mere miles from Ground Zero, the vividly detailed lyrics resonate deeply, and the richly layered arrangement, led by Springsteen’s tender, heartfelt vocals, reminds us this is one of his modern classics.
The third reel of this epic New Jersey tale continues apace, with “Because the Night” and “She’s the One” doing heavy lifting, “Working on the Highway” keeping things loose, and “Shackled and Drawn” making sure we’re grounded, too. The denouement arrives in the precious pairing of “Meeting Across the River” and “Jungleland” for the first time on the tour. With the stage bathed in indigo light, Curt Ramm’s bold trumpet refrain and RoyBittan’s understated piano intertwine achingly, and Bruce’s vocal is on point: rich, measured, and world-weary. The passion surges to crescendo in the ensuing “Jungleland,” and like a dramatic stage revival, the Jersey street opera remains arresting.
“Thunder Road” provides release, “Rocky Ground” solemnity, and then party mode takes over. The rest of a lively encore romps through “Born to Run,” “Glory Days, “Seven Nights to Rock,” and “Dancing in the Dark” before we get to our final memorable moment.
“The boss of bosses has just come on stage,” Bruce says by way of introducing his mother Adele. Along with his in-laws the Scialfas and other family friends, she has come out to deliver a cake and sing a proper “Happy Birthday.” The birthday party ends the only way it could, with “Twist and Shout.”
“Thanks for a memorable birthday,” Bruce tells the crowd as he walks off stage. “My mother is for rent for $2.50 an hour for parties and Bar Mitzvahs.” A pretty good joke for two in the morning, and a funny, fitting end to one of the most electrifying shows on the Wrecking Ball tour.
Bruce Springsteen – Lead vocal, guitar, harmonica; Roy Bittan – Piano, keyboards, accordion; Nils Lofgren – Guitar, lap steel, backing vocal; Garry Tallent – Bass; Stevie Van Zandt – Electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin, backing vocal; Max Weinberg – Drums; Jake Clemons – Tenor saxophone, percussion, backing vocal; Charlie Giordano – Organ, keyboards, accordion; Soozie Tyrell – Violin, acoustic guitar, percussion, backing vocal; Everett Bradley – Percussion, backing vocal; Curtis King – Backing vocal, percussion; Cindy Mizelle – Backing vocal; Michelle Moore – Backing vocal; Barry Danielian – Trumpet; Clark Gayton – Trombone; Eddie Manion – Baritone and tenor saxophone; Curt Ramm – Trumpet
Additional Musicians: Gary U.S. Bonds co-lead vocal on “Jolé Blon,” lead vocal on “This Little Girl,” backing vocal on “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out,” “Happy Birthday” and “Twist and Shout”; Mike Scialfa, Patricia Scialfa, Adele Springsteen, Ginny Springsteen and Maureen Van Zandt backing vocals on “Happy Birthday” and “Twist and Shout.”
On their new album “Problems” their first full-length in eight years The Get Up Kids examine everything from life-changing loss to loneliness to the inevitable anxiety of existing in 2019. But by sustaining the essence of their sound anthemic choruses with sing-along-ready melodies the band highlights those troubles as a shared experience, giving way to an unbreakable solidarity. And at the heart of Problems is an invaluable element the band’s embodied since their 1997 debutFour Minute Mile: a penetrating lyricism that’s both acutely introspective and indelibly resonant.
The follow-up to 2018’s Kicker EP, Problems came to life in Bridgeport, Connecticut, with the band holing up together for a three-week span. Working with Grammy Award-winning producer Peter Katis (Kurt Vile, Japandroids, The National), The Get Up Kids took a characteristically riff-driven yet decidedly pop-minded approach to song structure, while also allowing themselves a new sense of creative freedom. “At one point with this band, if we came up with something that felt too much like when we first started out, we would’ve said, ‘No, we can’t do that anymore,’” says Pryor. “These days we’ve learned how to write without roadblocking the ideas that come naturally to us.”
Kicking off with lead single “Satellite,” Problems opens on a stark arrangement of acoustic guitar and stripped-bare vocals, then bursts into brightly crashing rhythms and lyrics revealing the time-bending quality of The Get Up Kids’ songwriting. “I started writing ‘Satellite’ about my son who’s 14 and a total introvert—not antisocial, he just genuinely likes to keep to himself,” says Pryor. “But then somewhere down the line I started singing about myself—about how even when you’re playing a show to a room full of people, I can still feel anxious and isolated.”
Throughout Problems, The Get Up Kids again prove themselves attuned to the nuance of highly specific emotions, and ultimately validate the messiest and most nebulous of feelings. On the joyfully swinging, piano-heavy “The Problem Is Me,” for instance, the band explores the notion of embracing your own romantic dysfunction, while “Salina” captures a small moment of melancholy with sweeping intensity and sprawling guitar work. Later, on “Your Ghost Is Gone,” The Get Up Kids deliver a gently devastating piano ballad sparked from an instrumental piece Dewees wrote soon after his mother’s death.
Through the years, The Get Up Kids have purposely pushed themselves toward previously unexplored songwriting material. “I’m 41 now, I could never write a song like when I was 19—all those ‘I miss my girlfriend’ kind of songs,” Suptic says. “It’s always important to us to write about wherever we are right now.” As shown on Problems, the resulting output both preserves the beloved spirit of The Get Up Kids and creates an entirely new context for their music. “A big part of the reason why we started writing new songs in the first place is that we have things we want to say about this moment in time,” says Pryor. “We’re still so connected to our past and where this all came from—it’s definitely a celebration of the fact that we still get to do this.”
Band Members
Matt Pryor – Vocals/Guitars
Jim Suptic – Guitar
Rob Pope – Bass
James Dewees – Keyboards
Ryan Pope – Drums
One of the most delightful discoveries of my year so far, this Australian duo made a very good record full of dusty tunes and tremendously lovely harmonies. RIYL coffee and quiet mornings and, sure, quiet snowy May mornings
The Mae’s Trio is a Melbourne-based band of three young musicians fast making a name for themselves in the Australian music scene. Maggie Rigby, Elsie Rigby and Anita Hillman started playing music together late 2011. All three members of the trio write their own songs and these are tastefully arranged to suit the group’s diverse instrumental talents and love of three part vocal harmony.
Just over a decade into beloved rock band Pile’s existence, something amazing happened for frontman RickMaguire: Finally, after six albums that all drew more critical acclaim than their predecessors, while slowly reaching more and more listeners outside the national underground, Maguire was able to make his band a full-time pursuit. He didn’t necessarily expect to get here, and many of Pile’s contemporaries didn’t.
Shelving all day jobs and side gigs, Maguire says, “was definitely the objective from day one. I was totally cool with the idea of it not getting to that point,” he clarifies, “but I’m happy that it has.”
“Green and Gray”, Pile’s upcoming seventh album and their fourth for every garage rock fan’s favorite truly independent label, Exploding in Sound Records, is the band’s first release during Maguire’s full-time era. Across the LP’s nearly hour-long runtime, Maguire reflects on growing older—he was twenty-one when he self-released Pile’s 2007 debut album, Demonstration—and how he feels about committing so wholly to Pile at an age when some people leave music behind.
“When I was younger,” he says, “I was pretty well convinced that I was going to front Pile until I was physically unable to. And now I still feel that way, but it’s not something in my imagination anymore.” As a result, on Green and Gray he “can point to things more directly” about aging than on past albums, on which this topic was, at most, “addressed in broader strokes.”
“I [couldn’t] go forward trying to juggle a job [with music],” he says of going full-time. “I have to be mentally and physically available,” he continues, plus he “wanted to spend full days trying to write.” Even if focusing solely on Pile pushes Maguire into an especially vulnerable space—see his depiction of himself as a public figure “trying to convince everybody that I’m a worthy candidate for their time and attention” on the acidly sauntering “Your Performance,” or having a surgeon expose his insides to everyone on the manic “On a Bigger Screen”—he wouldn’t have it any other way. “It doesn’t come without its stressors,” Maguire says of being in a band and only being in a band, “but I’m really grateful that I’m able to do this and that it’s able to sustain me.
This record is powerful and different and I think about how one of my favorite bands is changing and still growing. There is a distance and darkness to this recording but it also makes me feel less alone. The strings add an exciting and beautiful element.
the Band:
Chappy Hull – guitar and background vocals
Kris Kuss – drums
Rick Maguire – guitar and vocals
Alex Molini – bass
Unspeakable is proud to welcome singer-songwriter and activist Nora Rothman to their artist roster this season! Keep an ear out for her newest single “Strange” (produced by Dot) out May 17th, and her latest EP “Nothing New” coming July 2019.
Nora Rothman is a singer-songwriter and activist making music for social good. Blending Joni Mitchell-eqsue songwriting with James Blake-inspired beats, her folk-soul sound is nostalgic yet contemporary. She seeks to raise marginalized voices in the music industry by creating “mesmerizing” art with womxn all around the world.
After graduating from Brown with honors in poetry, Nora moved back to Los Angeles and played music while appearing as an actress on stage and screen. In 2016, she took a hiatus to work as a Field Organizer on the Clinton campaign. The day of Trump’s inauguration, she made a promise to continue her fight for women’s rights through music. After releasing her debut EP in July to praise, she made a commitment to work with female-identifying artists. In 2018, Nora expanded her equity work by founding Earhart, a community uplifting female, trans, and gender nonconforming music artists. Since then, Earhart has celebrated over 50 different artists through their weekly playlist and interview series.
“Nothing New” is her second EP and first off the female-run label Unspeakable Records. It is produced by LosAngeles-based Kate Ellwanger (aka Dot), and features collaborations with poet Sarah Kay and indie musician CapeFrancis. This collection of five songs takes Nora’s confessional songwriting and plates it with Dot’s imaginative sounds.
