FOXWARREN – ” Sunset Canyon “

Posted: May 6, 2019 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Foxwarren’s backstory reads like a page torn from the manual of rock & roll authenticity, as this group of siblings and childhood friends originally formed more than a decade ago. Growing up in scattered small towns across the Canadian prairies, Andy Shauf (guitars/keys/vocals), Dallas Bryson (guitar/vocals), and brothers Darryl Kissick (bass) and Avery Kissick (drums & percussion) eventually found themselves in Regina, Saskatchewan. The initial sessions for their self-titled debut began in the Kissicks’ parents’ farmhouse while they were away on vacation. Upon their return, Foxwarren were forced to relocate and recording resumed back in Regina in a rented house where the members lived as roommates. The band’s name comes from the Kissick brothers’ family home in Foxwarren, Manitoba.

Foxwarren initially bonded over Pedro the Lion and drew influence from The Band and Paul Simon. Now a decade in to the project, Shauf reflects on their debut release: “So much time and effort went into making this album; it’s something I think we’re all really proud of. My touring and recording schedule got pretty wild over the past three or four years, so it put the Foxwarren album on the backburner. Making the album was such an enjoyable time – the collaboration and frustration of it all. All of us trying to make something better than we previously had. I’m excited to get it out into the world and have other people listen to it. We’ve been a band for 10 years or so and never properly released an album, so this is special for the four of us.” The self-titled album will be released on November 30th, 2018 via ANTI- Records.

The infectious first single “Everything Apart” is built around a robotic bass line and came together very quickly. “We wrote it late one night,” remembers Darryl, “Andy was home between tours, and the skeleton of the song came together really quickly. This one felt like a real experiment and was almost left off the album; it seemed like an outlier.”

In contrast, the second single “To Be” was one of the first songs written for the project. “We tinkered with it for ages and ended up drastically reworking it the weekend it was recorded. We knew early on that it was going to be the opening song on the record,” states Darryl.

“It was a guitar riff that I’d been playing for a few years at least, trying to figure out what to do with it,”adds Shauf. “It went through quite a few versions if I remember correctly. Foxwarren have a bad habit of never finishing vocal melodies and lyrics before we finish the music, so it made it a bit tricky and ended up being overhauled at the last minute.”

Subtle and thoughtful, it draws parallels to frontman Andy Shauf’s solo work while leaning on collaboration and looseness rather than Shauf’s meticulous arrangements. Where Shauf leaves space for orchestration, Foxwarren take time to ruminate on passages and themes. Propped up by warm driving rhythms and a familiar voice, and coloured with soft electronics and coarse guitars, it’s a record that ultimately hinges on sincerity. It captures the feeling of friends pushing each other, of a band looking inward for inspiration instead of outward for influence.

The Band : Andy Shauf / D.A. Kissick / Avery Koissick / Dallas Bryson

“Sunset Canyon” by Foxwarren from the self-titled album, available now on Anti- and Arts & Crafts

FILTHY FRIENDS – ” Emerald Valley “

Posted: May 5, 2019 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The first releases from Filthy Friends, the scorchingly melodic rock group whose membership consists of some of the most original musical voices of the past three decades, came as a small, delightful shock to the system. Not only because of the names associated with the project, including Sleater-Kinney co-founder Corin Tucker, R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck and indie stalwarts Scott McCaughey and Kurt Bloch, but also because of how ably they were able to mesh their individual sounds into a crackling melodic whole on debut album Invitation.

Now, with their follow-up—Emerald Valley, out on Kill Rock Stars on May 3rd—the Friends have proven their collective mettle, crafting a thematic suite of songs that finds the quintet digging deeper into their bag of musical tricks and giving Tucker room to rage about and mourn the fate of our planet and the people who inhabit it.

The core idea came from a demo Buck shared with Tucker for a grinding blues song that eventually turned into this new album’s title track. The minute she heard it, Tucker says, it sparked something within her: “I had this long poem growing in my brain,” she says. “It turned into a sort of manifesto about the kind of place we are at as a country but also as a region. Just taking stock of where we’re at and feeling like I can’t believe we let things get this bad.”

While Emerald Valley starts off with idyllic imagery (“Rolling fields, they speak your name/vibrant green is here again”), the album and its title track slowly reveal the ugly underneath, with human arrogance and hubris hurting the Earth and the people who take on “backbreaking work for little pay.”

From there, the Friends address growing concerns over oil production and distribution (“Pipeline”), gentrification and income inequality within the band’s hometown of Portland, Oregon (“One Flew East”), and taking on the voice of the desperate souls that are getting crushed under the wheels of capitalism (“Last Chance County”). The band paints these themes with many different shades of the rock palette, nestling a snapping punk tune between a bit of jangly pop and an almost-shoegaze ballad, with stops along the way for songs that burn as hot and move as slow as lava and tunes that stay steady and fast as a rocket launch.

Emerald Valley is also a testament the indefatigable spirit of the Filthy Friends themselves. Scott McCaughey bounced back from a stroke he suffered in late 2017, which curtailed the band’s tour plans and is playing with more fire than ever. As well, Corin Tucker and Peter Buck were able to devise some amazing work even as their creative energies were being pulled toward other projects like Arthur Buck and Sleater-Kinney. Too, the band was able to bring a new member into the fold with drummer Linda Pitmon coming on board to replace Bill Rieflin without losing an ounce of their power.

We could all take a lesson from Filthy Friends. As proven by Emerald Valley, when a group of like-minded people gather their individual strengths together and point them toward a singular goal, there’s no telling how powerful they can become and what an impact they can make on the world at large.

Released May 3rd, 2019

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN and the SEEGER SESSION BAND – ” New Orleans JazzFest ” April 30th 2006

Posted: May 5, 2019 in MUSIC
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Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen recently surprised the attendees at the Asbury Park Music and Film Festival by announcing that he would be releasing a concert film from the epic show that The Boss delivered to a 2006 Fest pummeled, bruised and beaten by Hurricane Katrina just eight months prior.

This was the first time Bruce had debuted his Seeger Sessions Bands, and there are many people that would argue that it was one of the most important sets ever delivered during the entire history of the festival. Springsteen devotes four full pages of “Born to Run” to his 2006 Jazz Fest experience. For many of those who stood on the Acura Stage field at the Fair Grounds that day, Springsteen’s show was a watershed event, an emotional meeting of music and moment.

He apparently felt the same way. He prefaces his account with, “There was one show in America that stood out as not only one of the finest but one of the most meaningful of my work life: New Orleans.”

He recounts arriving at the Fair Grounds at 8:30 a.m. for a sound check before the festival opened. U2 guitarist The Edge, an old friend, was there bright and early, as well, watching from the side of the Acura Stage as the Seeger Sessions Band rehearsed. He concludes, “I’ve played, many, many, many shows, but few like this one. …You cannot book, manufacture or contrive these dates. It’s a matter of moment, place, need, and a desire to serve in your own small way the events of the day. There, in New Orleans, there was a real job to do.”

Springsteen emphasizes how critical performing is to his existence; it is his primary drug. “I’ve never gotten anywhere near as far or as high as when I count the band in and feel what seems like all life itself and a small flash of eternity pulsing through me. It’s the way I’m built.”

Springsteen said he to release a film of his April 30th, 2006 performance with the Seeger Sessions Band at the New Orleans JazzFest. He considers that show, he said, to be among his Top 5, ever. He also said, about that rootsy Seeger Sessions project, “I wanna do that again sometime.”

Bruce Springsteen ranking that show as quite likely the best, and certainly most emotional, musical experience.

As Bruce Springsteen led his sprawling Seeger Sessions Band onto the Acura Stage on the Sunday, he confessed to a hint of trepidation. “It’s our first gig, ” he said. “Let’s hope it goes well.” Moments later, he encountered a “technical problem” with his pants. Grinning, the embarrassed Boss turned his back to the vast audience and made the necessary adjustments. “It’s not just a new band, ” he later explained, “but a new belt.”

That was his first, and final, glitch. For two hours, Springsteen and his glorious Seeger Sessions ensemble — six horns, a banjo, accordion, pedal steel, fiddles, piano — rendered vintage folk and protest songs stirringly alive and relevant in a tour de force performance. Like few others in popular music could, he crafted a show that spoke eloquently to the city’s struggles, both welcome distraction and poignant reminder.

The opening “O Mary Don’t You Weep” set the tone. Springsteen led, then the full ensemble swung in behind him. A muted trumpet, a trombone and a saloon piano all took solos. Springsteen, as usual, heaved himself into the material at hand. The gravel in his voice stamped a ragged glory on “John Henry” over banjos and accordion. “Old Dan Tucker” and “Open All Night” were each a hoot. Big horn swells lit up a gritty “Jesse James.”

The best folk songs transcend time. In the old Irish anti-war ballad “Mrs. McGrath, “ a cannonball claims her son’s “two fine legs”; it could just as easily have been an improvised explosive device.

Certain lyrics resonated more directly for locals: “There’ll be better times by and by.” “God gave Noah a rainbow sign, no more water, but fire next time.” “The bank holds my mortgage and they want to take my house away.” “The only thing we did right was the day we started to fight.” And it was easy to imagine “Louisiana” swapped into the lyrics to “My Oklahoma Home, ” which was “blown away” in a natural disaster.

In his most overtly political statement, Springsteen recalled his visit the previous afternoon to the 9th Ward. “I saw some sights I never thought I’d see in an American city, ” he said. “The criminal ineptitude makes you furious.” In response, he adapted Blind Alfred Reed’s “How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live” with new lyrics dedicated to “President Bystander”: “My old school pals had some high times there/What happened to you folks is too bad, ” he sang, mocking President Bush’s comments in the early days after Hurricane Katrina.

The set’s watershed moment, literally, was “My City of Ruins.” Originally written for his adopted hometown of Asbury Park, N.J., he dedicated it to New Orleans. To a hushed audience, Springsteen closed his eyes and began: “There’s a blood red circle on the cold dark ground, and the rain is falling down/The church door’s blown open, I can hear the organ’s sound, but the congregation’s gone . . . the boarded-up windows, the hustlers and the thieves, while my brother’s down on his knees . . . now tell me how do I began again? My city of ruins. . .” And then the refrain: “Come on, rise up! Rise up!” Thousands lifted their hands to the sky.

Just as quickly, Springsteen kicked back into good-time gear with “Buffalo Gals” and a zydeco rubboard and accordion reimagining of “You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch), “ from his 1980 album, “The River.” A tuba, improbably enough, was the final instrument onstage before the encore at a Springsteen show.

Then he presented one last gift. A hundred bands in New Orleans, Springsteen said, could play this last song better than he. But he had come across two lesser-known verses that he thought might be appropriate. With that, he unspooled “When the Saints Go Marching In, “ not as a boisterous, high-kicking second-line, but as an acoustic prayer, delivered in a desperate hour. Face clenched, he sought the promised land: “Now some say this world of trouble is the only world we’ll ever see/But I’m waiting for that moment when the new world is revealed.”

No other artist could have spoken to, and for, the city of New Orleans at this most important of Jazzfests more purposefully, more passionately and more effectively than Bruce Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions Band.

DAUGHTER of SWORDS – ” Dawnbreaker “

Posted: May 5, 2019 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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We are very pleased to introduce you all to Daughter of Swords, the solo project from Mountain Man’s Alexandra Sauser-Monnig. Listen to the beautiful first single “Gem” now + stay tuned for more news.

Mountain Man’s Alexandra Sauser-Monnig is stepping out on her own with her debut solo album, titled Dawnbreaker(out June 28th on Nonesuch Records), also her first full-length under the Daughter of Swords name. “Dawnbreaker” is an airy acoustic dream track with rumbling chords so warm and inviting you’ll want to sink into them like a bath. Sauser-Monnig, who wrote many of Dawnbreaker’s 10 tracks while anticipating the dissolution of a relationship, sees life mirrored in nature, likening herself to “a white rose,” “red hawk,” “hollow reed” or even “just a leaf” at different points in the song.

“Dawnbreaker” is on the debut album from Daughter of Swords, out 28th june via Nonesuch Records.

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MATT KIVEL – ” Radiance “

Posted: May 5, 2019 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Singer/songwriter Matt Kivel shared a new single, “Radiance,” taken from his forthcoming album, Last Night In America, out on May 10th via Cascine Records. Kivel has been releasing music under his own name since 2012. He’s put out four solo albums over the years—Double Exposure in 2013 on Olde English Spelling Bee, Days of Being Wildin 2014 on Woodsist, and Janus and Fires on the Plain, both released in 2016 on Driftless Records. With a minimalist foundation of hushed vocals, a gentle drum machine and gusty synths, “Radiance” pairs ambient folk-pop with the good-natured acceptance of life’s inevitable yet resplendent gear-turning.

“Radiance” comes from ‘Last Night in America’ by Matt Kivel, out on Cascine Records

CATE LE BON – ” Reward “

Posted: May 5, 2019 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Welsh singer/songwriter/guitarist Cate Le Bon is releasing a new album, “Reward”, on May 24th via Mexican Summer. This week she shared another song from the album, “The Light.”

Previously Le Bon shared Reward’s first single, “Daylight Matters,” as well as a video for “Daylight Matters.” Then she shared another new song from the album, “Home to You,” via a video for the track. Le Bon doesn’t feature in the video directed by Phil Collins (no, not that Phil Collins). It was filmed in Lunik IX neighborhood of Košice (Eastern Slovakia), which houses a Roma community who, as a press release states, “due to successive governmental and municipal policies, often live in slums and on isolated, dilapidated estates.

In terms of her solo work, “Reward” is the follow-up to 2016’s Crab Day, although last year she released Hippo Lite, as her second album with DRINKS, a collaboration with Tim Presley of White Fence. Le Bon also produced Deerhunter’s recent album.

Le Bon spent a year living in isolation in the Lake District in the UK, by day making wood furniture and by night playing piano and writing songs. “There’s a strange romanticism to going a little bit crazy and playing the piano to yourself and singing into the night,” Le Bon said in a previous press release.

Of the album title, Le Bon said: “People hear the word ‘reward’ and they think that it’s a positive word, and to me it’s quite a sinister word in that it depends on the relationship between the giver and the receiver. I feel like it’s really indicative of the times we’re living in where words are used as slogans, and everything is slowly losing its meaning.”

The album features Stella Mozgawa of Warpaint, H. Hawkline, and Samur Khouja. The latter co-produced Reward with Le Bon.

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NEIL YOUNG – To Feel The Music

Posted: May 5, 2019 in MUSIC
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Neil Young To Feel The Music Book

Neil Young‘s latest book To Feel The Music is due out September 9th via Benbella Books. Young co-wrote the tome with Phil Baker about his efforts to provide high-quality music to listeners.

To Feel The Music is Neil’s third book. The Rock & Roll Hall Of Famer wrote Waging Heavy Peace: A Hippie Dream in 2012 and Special Deluxe: A Memoir Of Life & Cars in 2014. Young posted a note about the forthcoming volume on his Neil Young Archives website:
My new book, To Feel The Music, co-written with Phil Baker, has been announced and is now available for pre-order on numerous book sites.

To Feel The Music is the story of my efforts to improve the quality of audio that you hear. It takes you through how the sound was and is compromised by the tech and record companies, and instead of improving over time like other technologies, it has become worse. Our book also tells the business and development story behind Pono, and then, when people wanted the convenience of streaming, how we developed Xstream high resolution streaming, the highest quality streaming in the world, as you hear it on NYA.

The issue of improving audio quality has been one of the most important things we’ve been doing for decacdes, and something I focus on every day. We spent a year writing this and I think you’ll find it interesting and informative.

The book will be released on September 9th

BARRIE – ” Darjeeling “

Posted: May 5, 2019 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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There’s a lot to like about new indie pop Brooklyn collective Barrie. Lead by frontwoman Barrie Lindsay, the five some hail from all over the world, with members from London, Brazil as well as a criss-cross of the US. They’ve been delighting us over the last few months with a series of excellent singles and now it’s finally timed for their debut LP. Lindsay takes a fresh, dreamy approach to classic pop that’s at its most captivating on their debut record “Happy to Be Here”. Awash with major-key synth hooks, and tight, discerning lyrics about moving to New York and finding your people, Happy to be Here is a record you won’t want to miss.

Co-produced by Lindsay and Snail Mail/Solange knob twiddler Jake Aron, their debut album Happy To Be Here is a joyful collision, a carnival of sound and an awful lot of fun.

This Brooklyn based five-piece Barrie have released their debut album, Happy to Be Here, this week. Barrie’s leader Barrie Lindsay wrote the album’s songs late at night alone in her apartment, plays various instruments on the album (guitar, piano, synth, and bass), and co-produced the album with Jake Aron (Snail Mail, Solange, Grizzly Bear). But Barrie is not simply a solo project, the band also features Dominic Apa, Spurge Carter, Noah Prebish, and Sabine Holler, who had to record her backing vocals remotely from Germany due to visa issues. The band members are from all over, having previously lived in Boston, Baltimore, Upstate New York, London, and São Paulo via Berlin, but came together in New York. Barrie’s pleasing dream pop/indie pop that would appeal to fans of Yumi Zouma, among others.

“The scaffolding of this album is moving to New York and finding these people that make up the band,” Barrie said in a press release announcing the album. “We’re very different, but we cover each other’s gaps personally and creatively, and are eager to learn from each other.”

Barrie’s debut album Happy To Be Here is out May 03rd, 2019 via Winspear.

OMNI – ” Delicacy / I Don’t Dance “

Posted: May 5, 2019 in MUSIC
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For a few years now, we’ve been fond of the Atlanta trio Omni since they played a wonderful set of songs at the End of the Road Festival. The former Deerhunter guitarist Frankie Broyles plays in the band, and they make sharp and catchy post-punk. These Atlanta post-punks Omni signed to Seattle institution Sub Pop Records and marked the occasion with two new songs as part of the storied Sub Pop Singles Club series (recently revived after a 10-year absence), “Delicacy” and “I Don’t Dance,” and they are currently at work on their third album—Sub Pop’s presser promises more new music “in the near future.” Omni frontman Philip Frobos explains in a statement that a-side “Delicacy” was “one of the first songs we wrote after a couple of years of non-stop touring behind Deluxe and Multi-task. It came naturally to [guitarist Frankie Broyles] and I felt like we were headed someplace new. It’s written about falling in love, with who would become my wife, on a 23-hour layover in Casablanca, exploring a new continent, feeling intrigued and truly alive.

Omni’s new single “Delicacy” b/w “I Don’t Dance” (Release Date: April 12th, 2019) is available now on all streaming services and is a part of the latest edition of the iconic Sub Pop Singles Club series.

STEVE GUNN – ” Morning Is Mended ” Toutpartout Sessions

Posted: May 5, 2019 in MUSIC
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STEVE GUNN promo photo

A new TOUTPARTOUT sessions with Steve Gunn. Say what! He brings ‘Morning Is Mended’ solo on his guitar. The virtuoso sounds he creates almost multiply in the vaults of Kunsthal Ghent.

For over a decade, guitarist/vocalist Steve Gunn has been one the American music’s most pivotal figures – conjuring immersive and psychedelic sonic landscapes both live and on record, releasing revered solo albums ranking high on in-the-know end of year lists, alongside exploratory collaborations with artists as diverse as Mike Cooper, Kurt Vile, and Michael Chapman (whose most recent studio album he produced). Gunn is known for telling other people’s stories, but on his breakthrough fourth album, The Unseen In Between, he explores his own emotional landscapes with his most complex, fully realized songs to date. The lyrics evoke voyages, tempests (actual and emotional), and a rich cast of characters met along the way — the work of an artist finding a place of calm in the midst of a storm. Produced by frequent collaborator James Elkington and engineered by Daniel Schlett, the immaculately recorded Unseen forces a reassessment of Gunn’s standing in the pantheon of the era’s great songwriters.

Getting to The Unseen In Between itself was not easy for Gunn. In the summer of 2016, Gunn released Eyes On The Lines, his winning and elliptical debut for Matador Records. It should have been a triumphant moment, but exactly two weeks later, Gunn’s father and namesake died following a two-year struggle with cancer. During his sickness, he and his son had connected as never before, listening to one another’s experiences and understanding one another’s perspectives; they became not father and son but real friends.

This experience yielded the emotional centerpiece of the album. “Stonehurst Cowboy” is a duet for Gunn’s raw acoustic guitar and spare basslines by Bob Dylan’s musical director Tony Garnier, whose featured throughout the album. The song distills the lessons Gunn learned from his father and it is a solemn but tender remembrance, a tribute to his father’s reputation as a tough, wise, and witty guy from far west Philadelphia.

TOUTPARTOUT sessions is a project by Toutpartout , We want to share our passion for live music and bring it to the streets. The streets of our hometown in Ghent. That’s why we decided to start shooting intimate sessions with the city as a background. We record live sessions with the artists that pass by Ghent while being on tour. We collaborate with noteworthy music photographer Anton Coene, who is the creative director of the project.

“Morning is Mended” is an acoustic beauty so resplendent it ranks alongside Sandy Denny or Jackson C. Frank. Buoyed by a melody that sparkles like sunlight on still water, Gunn acknowledges the hardships around him, the feeling of being a “nothing sky,” and then moves forward into the world, walking tall into the fresh morning. The song is an apt encapsulation of The Unseen In Between, a gorgeously empathetic record that attempts to recognize the worries of the world and offer some timely assurance. It is a revelatory and redemptive set, offering the balm of understanding at a time when that seems in very short supply.

Steve Gunn brings a breathtaking version of ‘Morning Is Mended’ that sticks to your heart. The virtuoso sounds he creates almost multiply in the vaults of Kunsthal Ghent.

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