DEAD NEIGHBORS – ” Less “

Posted: March 3, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Athens post-punk trio Dead Neighbors have kept their sophomore LP on the shelf for nearly a year. While the band was busy touring and trying to find a label, its most poignant and compelling work to date has been floating just beneath the surface, waiting to emerge.

Vocalist and guitarist Sebastian Marquez describes performing in Dead Neighbors as “primal scream therapy,” and in that spirit, Less seems like a necessary emotional step. The majority of the songwriting was done in the wake of Marquez’s stepfather’s death, and the album is dedicated to his memory. Its lyrics are heavy with the frustration and fear that come with the loss of a loved one; Marquez seems to be seeking catharsis by putting his feelings on public display.

Sonically, Dead Neighbors remain anchored by a slack-rock sound that occasionally veers into the realms of emo and punk. Marquez is hardly a masterful vocalist, but his delivery feels honest and raw and is backed up by his and his bandmates’ instrumental acumen. Highlights like “Same Thing” and “No Escape” start small and (relatively) quiet before ratcheting up the tension and eventually exploding into a cacophony of sloppy and effective noise. The album’s final two tracks—the eight-minute ambient interlude “(d)” and haunting “Indifference”—bring the 30-minute therapy session to a stunning close.

“Less” (quotation marks included) is the 2nd full-length from Dead Neighbors, a punk trio that hails from Athens, Georgia Their self-titled debut album was recorded in a bedroom in Athens, GA..
Released March 3, 2018

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Band Members
Sebastian Marquez (Vocals/Guitar), Hale Johnson (Drums), Owen Hunt (Bass)

U2 – ” Pop , All That You Can’t Leave Behind , Wide Awake In America EP ” Vinyl Reissues

Posted: March 3, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Universal Music/Island Records will reissue remastered vinyl versions of U2‘s Pop and All That You Can’t Leave Behind albums next month, alongside a vinyl reissue of the 1985 Wide Awake In America EP.

“Pop” was the band’s ninth studio album and was originally issued in 1997, reaching number one in over 30 countries around the world, including the UK and America. It continued U2’s ‘reinvention’ – which started in the early nineties with Achtung Baby and Zooropa – and was produced by Flood with Howie B and Steve Osbourne. Pop delivered four top ten singles in the UK, but despite this success the band were apparently not totally satisfied with the final product, and post release they constantly fiddled with tracks, re-recording and remixing many of the songs for various single and compilation releases.

The new reissue is remastered and pressed on double black 180g vinyl. It comes in a gatefold sleeve and has as download card.

 

All That You Can’t Leave Behind was the first U2 album of the new millennium, issued three and a half years after Pop. Their 10th studio album pulled back from all the experimentation and returned to a more traditional sound. It was no coincidence that the album was produced by old muckers Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno. The album benefitted from the enormous success of the first single Beautiful Day which was a massive hit virtually everywhere (except in the USA, interestingly).

Like Pop, the vinyl reissue is newly remastered and pressed on 180g black vinyl. It comes with a 16-page booklet and a download card.

 

The Wide Awake In America EP was only ever issued in America and Japan, in 1985, although it was reissued internationally on CD in the late eighties. Two tracks (A Sort Of Homecoming and Bad) are live recordings from the The Unforgettable Fire tour in late ’84 while the other two (The Three Sunrises and Love Comes Tumbling) are studio recordings issued as B-sides on the 12-inch of The Unforgettable Fire single. The vinyl reissue uses the 2009 remasters created for the The Unforgettable Fire reissue of that same year. Again, 180g black vinyl and a download card.

All three vinyl reissues will be released on 13th April 2018. Pop is rather pricey in the UK at the moment, but that’s likely to come down fairly quickly (with Amazon’s pre-order price guarantee you’ll only pay the cheapest price between ordering and shipping, of course).

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN and the E.STREET BAND – ” Brendan Byrne Arena, New Jersey ” 20th August 1984

Posted: March 3, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Nearly three years ago, Bruce Springsteen’s archival download series delivered a previously un-bootlegged gem: Brendan Byrne Arena, August 5th, 1984, the first high-quality Born in the U.S.A. tour soundboard from multi-tracks and opening night of the ten-show New Jersey homecoming run. Now, the stunning complement arrives, August 20th, 1984, final night of that Brendan Byrne stand.

The latest archival release from Bruce Springsteen finds him at the peak of his commercial powers, performing in support of Born in the U.S.A.in 1984. This is the first complete recording to be officially issued from that tour.

This 1984 concert, taped at Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, N.J., follows earlier releases focusing on shows at Cleveland in 1978 and Springsteen’s most recent concerts in support of 2014’s High Hopes. Thirty of that tour’s 35 stops were also made available via live.brucespringsteen.net.

On August. 5th, 1984, Springsteen and the E Street Band played songs from Born in the U.S.A.album, which was release two months earlier, as well as a bunch of older favorites. The concert also featured their take on Tom Waits’ “Jersey Girl.” . The E Street Band had recently been remade during this period following Steven Van Zandt’s departure. Springsteen had added both Nils Lofgren and Patti Scialfa, who would eventually become Springsteen’s wife, to the lineup. The August 5th show also marked the first of 10 nights at Brendan Byrne. Now we have the final night of those landmark shows featuring memorable guest appearances by Stevie Van Zandt and the Miami Horns, 20th August 84 is justifiably regarded as one of the best shows of the tour and earns a place on the short list of Bruce’s most celebrated shows of all time as much because of what it represented as the music performed. 

Mixed by Jon Altschiller and mastered at Gateway.
SET ONE
BORN IN THE USA
OUT IN THE STREET
SPIRIT IN THE NIGHT
ATLANTIC CITY
JOHNNY 99
HIGHWAY PATROLMAN
I’M GOIN’ DOWN
DARLINGTON COUNTY
GLORY DAYS
THE PROMISED LAND
MY HOMETOWN
DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN
BADLANDS
THUNDER ROAD
SET TWO
HUNGRY HEART
DANCING IN THE DARK
CADILLAC RANCH
TENTH AVENUE FREEZE-OUT
NO SURRENDER
COVER ME
PROVE IT ALL NIGHT
PINK CADILLAC
GROWIN’ UP
BOBBY JEAN
BACKSTREETS
ROSALITA (COME OUT TONIGHTENCORE
JUNGLELAND
TWO HEARTS
DRIFT AWAY
BORN TO RUN
DETROIT MEDLEY
TWIST AND SHOUT – DO YOU LOVE ME

FIELD REPORT – ” If I Knew / Blind Spot “

Posted: March 3, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The Milwaukee musicians first drew attention back in 2012, when the unsigned group performed at the South by Southwest festival. Things took off later that year with the release of their self-titled debut album. The band’s third full-length album, “Summertime Songs” comes out next month. Field Report, fronted by Chris Porterfield (a former member of Justin Vernon’s DeYarmond Edison), released their self-titled debut album in 2012 and Marigolden in 2014.

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Wisconsin-based group Field Report will release their new album Summertime Songs on March 23rd via Verve Forecast, and here is the album track “Blind Spot,” a song about realizing our connection to those around us. ‘Blind Spot’ is about being reminded that we don’t live in a vacuum,” the band says. “Self-destruction doesn’t just destroy ourselves. There are a lot of open spaces that we think are empty only to realize that we aren’t alone. And that our self-focus can take others out in the process.”

Blind Spot is about being surprised to discover that other people are suffering the consequences of our actions too, and how naive it is that it can us take so long to realize that.

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SIMPLY SAUCER – ” Cyborgs Revisited “

Posted: March 3, 2018 in MUSIC
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Simply Saucer’s Cyborgs Revisited is an explosive time capsule from one of the great Canadian cult rock ‘n’ roll groups. Formed in Hamilton, Ontario, these sci-fried proto-punks created a sound fusing Hawkwind, The Kinks, Pink Fairies, Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, and the omnipresent Velvet Underground.

Originally recorded from 1974-1975, the album became a critically revered classic when it was finally unearthed in 1989 by Mole Records. Now, In The Red is proud to release the definitive, remastered double album edition featuring new liner notes by band biographer Jesse Locke, unseen images, and the complete live recordings available as a second album for the first time ever. As a means to escape his oppressive experiences while living in a practice space surrounded by biker gangs, singer and fretboard-shredding guitarist Edgar Breau wrote a set of songs filled with dystopian visions of the future, conjuring metalloid thugs, Eva Braun’s cyanide love affair, and “dancing the mutation.” With nimble-fingered bassist Kevin Christoff, clatterwauling drummer Neil DeMerchant, and electronic cosmonaut John Ping Romany LaPlante (Breau’s foster brother and answer to Pere Ubu’s Allen Ravenstine), his lyrics were launched into a sonic supernova. Their first recording session took place in the basement of brothers Bob and future superstar producer Daniel Lanois and was initially intended as a demo. Naturally, interest was non-existent for the sneering six-song set. It’s shocking how anyone could have overlooked Bullet Proof Nothing, an undeniably catchy VU-swiping anthem for the used, abused, and confused. Shelving these sessions, the band ascended into the future with 15-year-old drummer Tony Cutaia. This set off a series of gigs before the band touched down on the roof of a local shopping center!

YO LA TENGO – ” For You Too “

Posted: March 3, 2018 in MUSIC
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The band named its latest record There’s a Riot Going On, ruefully echoing Sly & The Family Stone’s 1971 LP title. But instead of facing the tribulations of our times with vitriol and barricade-storming, Yo La Tengo offers an aural panacea for the soul, a place where those wearied and wounded by the struggles of the day can soak up some warmth, placidity, and humanity. And “For You Too” takes a hands-on approach to the healing.

With fat, fuzzy bass, gently jangling guitar arpeggios, and an amiably loping beat, Ira Kaplan’s friendly, reverb-soaked murmur purposefully but unassumingly delivers a message of proactive, one-to-one compassion. He allows from the start that his communiqué isn’t coming from a place of perfection—”I’m just some guy, barely polite,” he begins, eventually adding “too much pride” and “way too snide” to his tally of personal flaws.

But after a few guitar flurries, Kaplan’s aqueous tones start to rise slightly as he avows his altruistic intentions. Emotional protection is what he’s putting forward, “whenever there’s hurt and when things are uncertain.” And while that would certainly sound like a welcome offer at any time, Kaplan and company know full well that things are more uncertain in their homeland than ever these days. So his words are likely to fall upon ears that need them now more than ever.

From the forthcoming album, ‘There’s a Riot Going On.’ Out March 16th on Matador Records

HORSE FEATHERS – ” Without Applause “

Posted: March 3, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Horse Feathers‘ music has always revolved around specific, distinctive ingredients, from Justin Ringle’s sandy-voiced warmth to lush string arrangements to fatalistic lyrics that undercut the surrounding swirl of sonic comfort food. The group has served as a living embodiment of beardy Pacific Northwest folk-pop, a style it’s consistently elevated through the uncommon beauty of its songs.

On May 4th, Horse Feathers will return with Appreciation, and its music has taken a turn: The fundamental building blocks remain after six albums, but the songs have a strummier, kickier quality to them. Horse Feathers‘ most recent material has sped up a bit, and Appreciation feels like the logical conclusion of that drift.

“Without Applause,” the new album’s first single: replaces Horse Feathers‘ ornate deliberation with surging folk-rock that’s suffused with soul and just a hint of country. It’s a fleshing-out more than a reinvention — an approach Ringle, describes as “a fresh take on how my songs can come across. With this incarnation [of Horse Feathers], it’s OK if what I’m doing right now is, in fact, kind of a pop song. I can have a chorus and repeat something. I’m more aware of that and enjoy it.”

MARGARET GLASPY – ” Born Yesterday ” EP

Posted: March 3, 2018 in MUSIC
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Margaret Glaspy has just surprised fans with three new songs on a brand new EP called Born Yesterday. She describes it as a bookend to Emotions And Math which was the stunning, 2016 debut full-length that launched her career, a world tour and landed on many top 10 lists for the year.

Margaret Glaspy said of these new songs, how they end one chapter of her life but also lead to the next adventure. “I was on the road so much — in a bus, in the van, on the train, in the cab — over these last two years, I had these few songs that I’d written. It didn’t feel like it was really the next record. It just felt pretty intuitive to release them as what I had accomplished since [Emotions And Math], which I’m very proud of. But it is hard to write on the road.”

“It will be a little bit of a departure from this material and that was kind of the impetus for putting out this EP.

“I’ve started to write a little bit with other instruments and in more of a MIDI world, which has been a really fun departure and has challenged me. I suppose everyone, in some way, has their ceiling in what they’re able to do on an instrument. I think that I’ve been excited to try different things lately because I’ve been playing so much guitar in these tours and it’s been fun to try other things, other processes.”

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STEREO HONEYS – ” Monuments ” Acoustic EP

Posted: March 3, 2018 in MUSIC
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It’s been somewhat of a sudden and rapid rise for London quartet Stereo Honey in 2017. Having introduced themselves at the start of the year with a stunning debut track ‘Where No One Knows Your Name’ the band made it clear that they were here to lead the resurgence of soulful Indie guitar music, driven by the solid beats of Jake Black, accentuated by the intricate guitar soundscapes of Nicky Boiardi, guided by the grooves of bassist Ben Edwards and always framed by the stunning vocal delivery of singer Pete Restrick.

Stereo Honey spent 2017 playing shows in the farthest corners of the country with the directive of making sure their name was consistently on the lips of all of who happened to be in the audience, people who left unquestionably proclaiming them as a serious contender to be one of the acts that starts the rise to the top in 2018.
On 1st December, the band finish their 2017 with the crescendo of releasing their debut EP ‘Monuments’ on Beatnik Creative.

The EP features the lead track ‘The Bay’ which was released earlier this Autumn and went to #1 on the Hype Machine ‘Most Popular’ chart and made it’s way up to #3 Spotify’s Hot New Band playlist and #4 on The Indie List. The track caught the attention of BBC introducing and was soon moving its way all the way up to BBC Radio 1’s Annie Mac who announced the band and as one of her ‘New Names’ while Radio X placed the track into their evening playlist as soon as it was in their hands, giving it regular rotation.

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For their debut EP the band chose four songs which circulate around a common theme: the idea of a Monument. Monuments typically refer to grandiose, classical structures commemorating historical events and achievements, but can also refer to landmarks, places of pilgrimage and worship, and sites of historical memory and mourning.

“We unintentionally ended up with this theme for the EP” the band said “ The tracks are, essentially, monuments of youth, geographical landmarks of personal and autobiographical memory.” 

Stereo Honey are:
Pete Restrick: Vocals & Guitar
Nicky Boiardi: Guitars & Keys
Ben Edwards: Bass
Jake Black: Drums

 

TABLE SCRAPS – ” Autonomy “

Posted: March 3, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Birmingham’s Table Scraps are a scuzzy, uncompromising, and more than a little tongue in cheek. As such, Their second album, ‘Autonomy’, harbours many of those same traits, and though its clattering garage rock may feel familiar for those who spent any time with the band’s debut, it does just enough to distance itself from its predecessor.

Where ‘More Time For Strangers’ possessed an almost anarchic sense of youthful abandon, ‘Autonomy’ feels more structured, streamlined even. And while one can’t go as far as to say that Table Scraps have undergone a complete maturing process between records – each snarled lyric still feels brattish and uncouth – there’s a definite feeling that the band’s approach to their songwriting is coming from a more considered place.

‘I’m a Failure’ and ‘Frankenstein’ bristle with an undeniable punk energy that’s more ‘60s New York than ‘70s London. And while fast and loose will almost certainly be anyone’s first impression of ‘Autonomy’, a definite blues influence emerges as the record progresses. It’s something of a double-edged sword however, working in favour of the likes of ‘More Than You Need Me’ or ‘Do It All Over Again’ while stymying the pace on ‘Takin’ Out the Trash’ or ‘My Obsession’.

It’s a shame, as ‘Autonomy’ is a record that gallops more than canters, yet occasionally falls victim to its own inherent sludge; bogged down by the murky waters of the Mississippi delta when it should be doing speedballs in an NYC dive bar. That said, it’s also one with more than its fair share of potential, suggesting that there’s plenty more to come from the Birmingham trio.

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the new LP ‘Autonomy’ – Released Feb 23rd on Zen Ten

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