DMA’S – ” Dawning “

Posted: January 19, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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One of Liam Gallagher’s fave Aussie bands, The DMA’S have grown their global fanbase exponentially by sonically planting themselves squarely in the sweet spot where Oasis and The Go-Betweens overlap on Hill’s End, then touring relentlessly behind it. Now the follow-up is “done and coming soon”, according to the band’s label I OH YOU. Recorded in a studio above a pub in Sydney’s Inner-West, the trio have retained the DIY attitude of their bedroom-recorded debut EP but with The Presets’ Kim Moyes manning the desk, brought some shiny hi-fi production nous to their output. Just give ‘Dawning’ another spin and picture the potential festival sing-alongs to come.

DMA’S Debut Album “Hills End” is available now:

CAMP COPE – ” Footscray Station “

Posted: January 19, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Let’s not pretend there is a more socially impactful band in Australia right now than Camp Cope are knocking down the interior walls of the Australian music industry and renovating it with sledgehammers, Australia’s most melodic bass player, and a brand-new blueprint. This is a band that refuses to settle for anything less than revolution, and you’re going to hear about it on their second album. Expect broadened subject matter – devastatingly smart songs about friendship and about coping with loss, in addition to a entire fistful of middle fingers raised at all those who stand against. Camp Cope

Camp Cope / Cayetana Split Single release

Alongside two sold-out performances as part of Vivid LIVE last year, Camp Cope filmed their new single ‘The Opener’ live in the stunning Utzon Room at the Sydney Opera House. The Melbourne punk trio are no strangers to confronting contemporary issues head on, and their latest single does just that. The alt-rockers are now preparing for a March tour in support of their forthcoming sophomore album, How To Socialise & Make Friends. The video shows Camp Cope playing against views of Sydney Harbour and the Royal Botanic Garden, the vibrant tapestry of Utzon’s own design which adorns the western wall, and the dramatic concrete beams of the sails across the ceiling.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN and the SEEGER SESSIONS BAND – ” New Orleans Jazz And Heritage Festival New Orleans, L.A April 30th 2006

Posted: January 19, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Heralded by Springsteen himself as one of his finest and most meaningful shows, Jazz Fest ’06 beautifully captures Bruce and the Seeger Sessions Band opening their tour with a cathartic performance just months after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.

Some things are meant to be. That Bruce Springsteen’s immersion into roots music, The Seeger Sessions, was released just six days before he and the band of the same name appeared at the first New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival post-Hurricane Katrina had to be an act of benevolent fate. Rarely has the subject matter and style of a particular set of music felt so apropos to a moment.

Often it is the confluence of occasion and performance that distinguishes a great show from an all-timer and on those grounds, Jazz Fest 2006 has come to be considered one for the ages. “This…felt even above and beyond Springsteen’s high performance standards,” wrote LA Times critic Randy Lewis in his contemporary review, “a concert infused with the shout-out jubilation of an unfettered hootenanny.”

Reverent reflections on Bruce’s Jazz Fest performance have continued ever since. “I am not alone in ranking that show as quite likely the best, and certainly most emotional, musical experience of my life,” wrote New Orleans Times-Picyune critic Keith Spera in 2012. Spera’s opinion is shared by none other than Springsteen himself, who wrote in Born to Run, “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.”

With such heady endorsements, Jazz Fest 2006 fully merits inclusion as the latest release in the archival download series. For those not lucky enough to witness the show in person, the official recording also represents a fresh opportunity to re-experience the performance, previously only available via audience recording. The sound here, mixed from multi-tracks by Jon Altschiller, is full-bodied and warm, with a wide-stereo mix that gives space to all 20 or so players and singers on stage, and just the right amount of crowd response to capture the full bilateral experience.

“Alright, this is our first gig, let’s hope it goes well,” Bruce says at the top, summing up a spirit that’s equal parts purpose and looseness. The former comes from being in New Orleans, post Katrina, a subject Bruce addresses head-on, notably in his intro to “How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?,” reflecting on the devastation he witnessed while touring the city the day before the show and calling out the failure of government officials, from then President Bush on down, to address the situation. He goes so far as to dedicate the song to “President Bystander.”

The looseness is there by design in the very act of assembling and bringing this seemingly unwieldy number of accomplished players to the stage to play timeless folk and protest music (save for a few reworkings of Bruce’s own songs) for the first time on the road, as Jazz Fest also doubled as opening night of the Seeger Sessions tour.

The result is a Springsteen performance that’s fully in the moment and delightfully off the cuff. One minute he’s solemnly addressing the difficult times many in the Jazz Fest audience were experiencing, the next he’s mocking his own inability to tune a guitar or having an amusing wardrobe malfunction with his belt.

The music follows the same recipe for catharsis. “We Shall Overcome” is majestic and poignant, “Eyes On the Prize” elegiac and “How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?” triumphant, each brilliantly arranged to showcase the capabilities of the band. Elsewhere singalong songs like “Buffalo Gals” and “Pay Me My Money Down” offer rollicking fun and feel right at home on the Jazz Fest stage. As Springsteen himself wrote in Born to Run: “I finally had a band that I felt would contextually fit Jazz Fest and might be able to pull the weight of that position.”

Of the Seeger-ized originals played here, “Open All Night,” reimagined as a big-band rave-up, is the standout, but another of Bruce’s own compositions, written with this kind of band already in mind, provided the night’s emotional crescendo. “This is a song I originally wrote for my adopted hometown, Asbury Park,” Springsteen says introducing “My City of Ruins.” “Parts of it look a lot like parts of New Orleans right now….so I wanna sing this and dedicate it to the people and the city of New Orleans tonight.”

The fitting question the song asks, “How will I begin again?”, and the empowering answer, “Come on, rise up,” struck a deep chord with many in attendance. Wrote Spera in his original Times-Picyune review, “Thousands lifted their hands to the sky. I wept, my wife wept. And we were not alone.” Throughout the set, lyric after lyric from the Seeger Sessions material feels penned for the New Orleans audience. “What happened to you poor folks just ain’t fair,” Springsteen declares in “How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?,” while “O Mary Don’t You Weep” prophesies, “Brothers and sisters don’t you cry, there’ll be good times by and by.” Hearing such words of acknowledgement and hope sung out in such a musically engaging performance translates wonderfully in the Jazz Fest 2006 recording.

Perhaps the LA Times’ Randy Lewis summed it up best: “One concert, of course, cannot even begin to undo such monumental destruction as Katrina left, but Springsteen seemed to understand that even a moment of renewal can make a huge difference.” Amen to that.

VIOLENT FEMMES – ” Violent Femmes ” Classic Album Released April 1983

Posted: January 19, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Violent Femmes is the band’s most successful album to date and achieved a rare feat by going gold, four years after its release, and then later platinum, four years after that, without ever having yet made an appearance on the  album chart. After achieving platinum certification on February 1st, 1991, eight years after its initial release the album finally entered the Billboard album chart for the first time on August 3, 1991″. Quite simply ,the Violent Femmes’ self-titled album was the quintessential hymnal for the disaffected youth of America in the ’80s. With its jangly folk-punk frustration and venom-spitting lyrics, the debut featured tracks  “Blister in The Sun,” “Kiss Off” and “Add it Up,” arguably the three best Anthems of the proudly maladjusted ever penned.

Most of the songs on both this album and its follow-up were written when the songwriter, Gordon Gano, was 18 years old and still in high school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Its one of the most distinctive records of the early alternative movement and an enduring cult classic”, noting that “the music also owes something to the Modern Lovers’ minimalism, but powered by Brian Ritchie’s busy acoustic bass riffing and the urgency and wild abandon of punk rock, the Femmes forged a sound all their own

Nothing sounded like it before and nothing has since captured the sublime and perverse joy of teenage angst and adolescent anarchy like the Violent Femmes. In fact, just listening to “Add it Up” has been known to cause acne, awkward haircuts and ripped jeans

In 2002, Rhino Records remastered the album, filled out the disc’s length with demos, and added another disc of live tracks and a radio interview for a 20th anniversary special edition, with liner notes by Michael Azerrad.

Violent Femmes
  • Victor DeLorenzo – snare drum, tranceaphone, drum set, bass drum, backing vocals
  • Gordon Gano – acoustic and electric guitars, violin, lead vocals
  • Brian Ritchie – acoustic and electric bass guitars, xylophone, backing vocals

GOLDEN SMOG – ” Weird Tales “

Posted: January 19, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Weird Tales is a bit of a misnomer for a collection of songs about the triumphs and tragedies of everyday life. The title, however, does lend itself to some great packaging and artwork. On this second full-length outing from Golden Smog, the band (featuring members of the Jayhawks, Wilco, Soul Asylum and Run Westy Run) is joined by former Big Star drummer Jody Stephens. Weird Tales is American band Golden Smog’s second album, released in 1998. The title comes from the pulp magazine Weird Tales, the cover art being from the October 1933 issue, by Margaret Brundage.

With members from three of the best little big bands of the last 30 years of rock music. Members of these bands, plus other,equally worthy musicians, came together to form Golden Smog, a loose, brilliant alt-country supergroup comprising of like minded individuals. Weird Tales, was their third album, it is their masterpiece, and a finer album of Americana I’ve yet to hear this side of Stranger’s Almanac.
The music ebbs and flows with a gentle purpose- angst ridden and meloncholic in places,peaceful and accepting in others. Particular highlights include Gary Louris’ Until You Came Along, Tweedy’s Please Tell My Brother and the wonderful Jennifer Save Me.

Featuring songwriters (Gary Louris of the Jayhawks and Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy) both contribute Weird Tales’ most solid tracks. A pet project aimed more toward fans of the genre than the casual listener, Golden Smog nonetheless deliver the goods with a good deal of twangy heart and soul.” It’s  a first-rate collaboration among differing band members that’s unified in both vision and spirit.

the band ;

  • Kraig Johnson
  • Dan Murphy
  • Gary Louris
  • Marc Perlman
  • Chris Mars
  • Noah Levy
  • Jeff Tweedy
  • Jody Stephens

JOSIENNE CLARKE & BEN WALKER – ” Chicago “

Posted: January 19, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Today our favourite musical folksters Josienne Clarke & Ben Walker have announced that they will release their fifth album ‘Seedlings All’ on 23rd March on Rough Trade Records.

’Seedlings All’ is Josienne & Ben’s first album to be made up of all original songs and is songwriter Clarke’s most autobiographical work to date. She explains: “For the first time I’m out there alone with a bunch of songs that expose my insecurities, fears of failure and inflated pride. They deal with my own specific thoughts and feelings about the reality of pursuing this kind of career, the cost to personal relationships, circumstance and lifestyle, and asking the question – “Is this still worth it?”

It’s this theme that informs the album’s stunning opening track “Chicago”, which the duo have unveiled today along with a video by filmmaker Bob Gallagher (the man behind many of Girl Band’s visuals).

Of the track, Josienne explains: “We drove all day to get to Chicago, but then NO ONE came to the gig. It was one of those gigs where you wonder whether it’s even worth going on, but we’re sticklers for a contractual obligation, so we played.  After our set one of the guys from the support band said to me that he thought an hour set of our music was “a bit long” because “it’s the kind of music you have to listen to and think about and it’s Saturday and no one wants to do that”.  So I was sitting at the bar drinking my quadruple Bulliet bourbon thinking “fuck this, I’m not doing it anymore, the world is not made for my gift!” and then I realised that I was being a knob and that’s just how it is, we’re not the fucking Beatles and we have to start somewhere, we played to no one in the UK and we’d have to get used to it here too. So I wrote this song mainly to have a word with myself about not being a massive diva….”

Having spent last Autumn honing their already incredible live show supporting Richard Thompson across the UK, we’re sure there won’t be any empty venues on the BBC Folk Award-winning pair’s upcoming European tour

Taken from Josienne Clarke & Ben Walker’s album ‘Seedlings All’, out 23rd March on Rough Trade Records

H.C. McENTIRE – ” Quartz in the Valley “

Posted: January 18, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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You might not have heard of H.C. McEntire, but you’ll almost certainly know her collaborators; Kathleen Hanna, William Tyler and Angel Olsen to name just a few of the stellar accompanying cast. Currently best known as frontwoman of Mount Moriah, stepping out solo feels like a logical next step for H.C, a songwriter with the noble aim of reclaiming country music from, “the hetero-normative, homogenous schtick of tailgates and six-packs and men chasing women”.

The resultant album, “Lionheart”, is undeniably a record of turbulence and change how could any album about America released this year not be – but more than that it is a record about reclaiming your own power. Lionheart takes all the traditions of the American South, and sets about tearing them to pieces. As H.C. McEntire explains, “in music, there are no rules. You make your own language. You can be both the Southern rock outlier and the twangy gospel conduit. You can be both the cherubic, honey-tongued innocent and the ardent punk. To get here—to find my lion heart—I had to become them all”. Mainly though on Lionheart, despite all her influences, all her outfits, all her collaborators, H.C. McEntire sounds entirely like herself, and it doesn’t get much better than that.

THIS WEEKS ESSENTIAL NEW RELEASES Friday 19th January 2018

Posted: January 18, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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This week releases include First Aid Kit’s newest outing, with swooning folky rock refrains, sliding guitars and beautiful two-part harmonies abound. Speaking of folky rocking guitars, yer’ man Ryan Adams has produced the debut outing from frankly terrifying youngsters, Starcrawler. they’re terrifically talented, and they trade in very concise and punky indie-rock territory. Great stuff. What else? Well, lots of stuff. the new Liminanas LP is out and again, superbly reminiscent of their earlier work whilst bringing things up to date. New (reversed) Shins, and reissues from The Residents,

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The Limiñanas – Shadow People

French psych duo The Limiñanas have announced their new album ‘Shadow People’ which will be released on 19th January on Because Music. One of France’s most beloved treasures, The Limiñanas are Marie (drums/vocals) and Lionel (guitar, bass, keyboards and vocals). Hailing from Perpignan, the duo straddles the boundary between psych, shoegaze, and yé-yé. With hazy, reverb-laden hooks, combined at times with noisy distortion, and fronted by effortlessly cool vocals, reminiscent of Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot, the band is at once timeless and quintessentially French.

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The Shins –  The Worms Heart

When James Mercer was recording his latest Shins LP Heart Worms as a creative exercise he decided to re-record the songs in the opposite way of the originals. Songs that were more rock and uptempo became more acoustic and slow, and songs that were acoustic and slow in tempo became more upbeat. They were flipped. The result of those sessions he calls, The Worms Heart. What began as an exercise in songwriting transformed into a commentary on what it means to be a songwriter. After writing the first track for Heartworms (released 10 March 2017), James Mercer decided to recreate each song from scratch. Driven by its malleability, its ability to be foundationally identical, yet aesthetically and sonically utterly new, Mercer continued experimenting until he had two complete albums: one original and one “flipped”. Mercer’s ability to create two totally divergent albums from the same underlying compositions not only highlights his immense capability as a songwriter, but also functions as a reminder of what it means to be an artist, how an artist acts as both the master and facilitator of his artistic product.

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Shopping  –  The Official Body

Their first release since 2015’s Why Choose and their second album to be released on FatCat Records, Post-Punk trio Shopping return with an album that fans of their earlier records will undoubtedly find satisfying. Recorded over 10 days by Edwyn Collins, the latest album stays true to the minimal dance-punk ethos of Shopping’s previous efforts, but seeks to”amp up the party vibe”.

Coming off the back of an unrelenting cycle of touring, having made their way across the UK, Europe, and the US, the band found themselves without a natural home as the band’s London rehearsal and writing space closed down. Then their drummer, Andrew Milk, relocated to Glasgow, and the band could suddenly no longer spontaneously get together to practice or write. The distance added an element of pressure: “As a band that only ever writes collaboratively, it’s essential for us to actually be together in the room before any songs start to formulate. It can be a little daunting when we all turn up, and we only have an afternoon to pull a song out of thin air”. Add to that a sprinkling of Brexit, Trump, a principally imploding world, and you’ve got yourself The Official Body— Shopping’s second album to be released on FatCat Records.

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First Aid Kit  –  Ruins

Swedish siblings Klara & Johanna Soderberg, release their eagerly anticipated new album “Ruins” via Columbia Records. This will be the girls’ 4th studio album & a follow up to the critically acclaimed breakthrough album “Stay Gold”, released in 2014. “Ruins” is a 10 song album, recorded in Portland, USA & produced by Tucker Martine (My Morning Jacket, Laura Veirs). Collaborators include Peter Buck (REM), Glenn Kotche (Wilco) & McKenzie Smith (Midlake).

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Starcrawler  –  Starcrawler

Starcrawler are a Los Angeles rock band who formed in 2015 when 18-year-old lead vocalist Arrow de Wilde first met guitarist Henri Cash at their Echo Park high school. Shortly thereafter they were joined by the rhythm section of Austin Smith (drums) and Tim Franco (bass). The foursome play with squalling riffs and thundering beats, and their incendiary live shows, fronted by de Wilde’s otherworldly magnetism, are truly captivating. Gigwise (UK) recently stated that “Starcrawler are simply the most exciting – and best – band Rough Trade have signed in years.”

Recorded by Ryan Adams on analog tape at his Pax-Am studio, the 10 songs on the album prove that yes, they ARE making rock and roll exciting again! Ryan has been tweeting up a storm about them saying things like “This starcrawler record is gonna peel the paint off your brain!” and “Starcrawler are so fucking insanely good. Soon they will rule this galaxy.”

The first single from the album is “I Love LA” and the video, directed by famed music photographer Autumn de Wilde (AKA Arrow’s mum) is a fun and feisty homage to the city of dreamers

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After signing to Rough Trade earlier this year, they quickly released their debut single “Ants”, which caught the ear of Elton John who played the track on his Beats 1 radio show. Soon after, they were on the cover of LA Weekly – their hometown paper. The headline was “With Fake Blood and Frenetic Songs, Starcrawler make rock feel dangerous again”. In the article, Arrow describes that “bands are boring nowadays” and that “there’s no mystery”. That helps explain a little bit of why their shows have become the stuff of legend. They also recently played LA’s CalJam Festival, which is curated by Dave Grohl (Starcrawler was the first band he reached out to, and he raved about them the next day on KROQ.) Gerard Way is also a fan, describing them as a “mix of 70’s theatricality and Stooges electricity.

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Fleetwood Mac  –  Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac reissue their 1975 eponymous album. This album was the first of the most successful incarnation of Fleetwood Mac, where Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Christine McVie to form the legendary band who continues to be highly successful to this day. The album introduced a smoother more radio-friendly sound and a new beginning and by 1977 the emotional monolith of Rumours would make them one of the biggest bands on the planet.

CD – Newly remastered version.

2CD – Expanded edition. The first CD features the original album with newly remastered audio, as well as single mixes of Over My Head, Rhiannon, Say You Love Me and Blue Letter. CD2 features an alternate version of the album comprised of unreleased outtakes for each track, as well as previously unreleased live versions from 1976.

5CD – Deluxe 3 CD / 1 DVD and 1 LP Set. Comes packaged in a 12×12 embossed sleeve with rare and unseen photos along with in-depth liner notes written by David Wild, as well as new interviews with all the band members. The deluxe editions features a newly remastered version of the original album along with single mixes for Over My Head, Rhiannon and Say You Love Me. Also included is a second disc with an alternate version of the complete album comprised of unreleased outtakes for each album track, plus several unreleased live performances from 1976. The third disc includes even more unreleased live recordings, including stellar performances of Landslide, Oh Well and World Turning. Also included in the deluxe edition set is the original album pressed on 180-gram vinyl, as well as a DVD featuring 5.1 Surround Sound and high-resolution 24/96 Stereo Audio mixes of the original album and four single mixes.

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The XX  –  On Hold (Jamie XX Remix) / A Violent Noise (Four Tet Remix)

Limited 12″ featuring Jamie’s own Remix of On Hold. It’s comes across like Daft Punk dropping Homework on a Ibiza terrace. Four Tet is on the flip with a fresh re-rub of A Violent Noise. Mr Hebden takes the track to Berghain and drops it at 4am.

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Moon Duo  –  Jukebox Babe / No Fun

Following the resounding success of their two-volume, Yin-and-Yang song cycle Occult Architecture, the Portland psych heroes in Moon Duo return with a limited edition 12″ paying tribute to two of their musical heroes — Iggy Pop and Alan Vega. Moon Duo’s versions of these classic songs push them into bold new sonic territory, and show that Ripley Johnson and Sanae Yamada’s expansive musical imaginations are still firing on all cylinders.“We started playing No Fun after BBC6 Radio asked us to record an Iggy song for his 70th birthday. We added it to our set to work it out for the session and kept playing it every night because everyone loves that song. We worked up a version of Jukebox Babe because our sound engineer Larry got it stuck in his head and was singing it all the time. We figured, we may as well play it if we’re going to hear it all the time. The Stooges and Iggy, and Suicide / Alan Vega / Martin Rev, are all huge influences on us. But we never want to do faithful covers of great songs, because what’s the point? So we tried to push both of the tracks in less obvious directions, incorporating other influences, like California psych and cosmic disco, giving them more of a summer vibe. We knew Sonic Boom was working outside of Lisbon, so we asked him to produce the tracks, recording them in August for maximal summer heat.”

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Slothrust  – Show Me How You Want It To Be EP

A collection of unexpected and inventive takes on classics by icons as diverse as Al Green and Britney Spears, Marcy Playground and Louis Armstrong. Led by guitarist and vocalist Leah Wellbaum, with bassist Kyle Bann and drummer WiIl Gorin, Slothrust form one of the most exciting and agile trios in recent memory. The selections on Show Me How You Want It To Be showcase the diverse and discerning musicianship that has earned Slothrust an army of admirers that first began building with their song 7:30 AM, featured as the theme song for 4 seasons of the FX Network show You’re The Worst.

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Belle and Sebastian  –  How To Solve Our Human Problems (Part 2)

Harkening back to their 1997 release of three consecutive EPs (Dog On Wheels, Lazy Line Painter Jane, and 3.. 6.. 9 Seconds Of Light), Belle and Sebastian release three new EPs under the umbrella title How To Solve Our Human Problems. Just as those three early EPs are at the very heart of the Belle and Sebastian canon, so these three new releases deserve to be treated not as a stopgap, but as definitive releases in their own right. How To Solve Our Human Problems is both an era of its own, and part of a long, rich history. How To Solve Our Human Problems is, if you like, Belle and Sebastian Redux.

TY SEGALL – ” Freedom’s Goblin “

Posted: January 18, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Having conquered a variety of genre albums in recent years, the genre this time around is that there isn’t a genre—just a dedication to the sanctity of the music and music alone.

Ty Segall has only tweeted once since 2014. He averages about one Facebook post per three months—and even then, it’s almost exclusively advertising a show. Every “Ty Segall” Instagram account is a fan-made page with a couple dozen photos or fewer. He’s not on Snapchat. His website is updated with only bare-bones contact info, a couple videos, and a simple discography. Even his current label, Drag City Records, doesn’t post its catalog to Spotify or Apple Music or Tidal, thereby making it impossible to hear the majority of Segall’s studio albums via any streaming service. Ty Segall indeed embraces an old-school rock and roll sensibility, from a firm belief in the sanctity of the full-length record to his fuzz-heavy analog aesthetic. But, more accurately put, he merely holds one specific thing in much higher regard than the influence of changing business models or technological advances: personal freedom.

Freedom’s Goblin is the latest among many Ty Segall albums: 19 tracks strong, filling four sides of vinyl nonstop, with an unrestricted sense of coming together to make an album. It wants you to get your head straight — but first, the process will make your head spin! Back in the Twins days, we talked about the schizophrenia of Ty’s outlook; today, it’s super-dual, with loads of realities all folding back on each other. On any given side, we’re tracking five or six full-blown personalities, unconcerned with convention or continuity.

This is Freedom’s Goblin — one track engendering, the next one oppressing, violence up in the mix — a look at everything around that Ty used to make the songs.  The songs came in the flow of the year: days of vomit and days of ecstasy and escape too, and days between. The rulebook may have been tossed, but Freedom’s Goblin is thick with deep songwriting resources, be it stomper, weeper, ballad, screamer, banger or funker-upper, all diverted into new Tydentities — each one marking a different style. Freedom’s Goblin wears a twisted production coat: tracks were cut all around, from L.A. to Chicago to Memphis, whether chilling at home or touring with the Freedom Band. Five studios were required to get all the sounds down, engineered by Steve Albini, F. Bermudez, Lawrence “Boo” Mitchell and of course, Ty himself.

The goal was getting free, embracing any approach necessary to communicate new heights and depths, new places for the fuzz to land among octaving harmonies, dancefloor grooves, synths, saxes and horns, jams, post-Nicky-Hopkins r’n’b electric piano vibes, children-of-the-corn psycho-rebellions, old country waltzes and down-by-the-river shuffles. Basically, the free-est pop songs Ty’s ever put on tape. And one about his dog, too! .

We all want our Freedom. The freedom to love or to be alone; to be pretty or pretty ugly; the freedom to turn the other cheek or to turn up the volume. And of course, the freedom to make just about any kind of song you think will free people when they hear it. But there’s that goblin of freedom too — and once you let it out of the bottle, it can fuck with you, so . . . take it or leave it. Go away or go all the way in. Live free and die! BUT be careful what you wish for .  .

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TRACK LISTING

1 Fanny Dog
2 Rain
3 Every 1’s A Winner
4 Despoiler Of Cadaver
5 When Mommy Kills You
6 My Lady’s On Fire
7 Alta
8 Meaning
9 Cry Cry Cry
10 Shoot You Up
11 You Say All The Nice Things
12 The Last Waltz
13 She
14 Prison
15 Talkin’ 3
16 The Main Pretender
17 I’m Free
18 5 Ft. Tall
19 And, Goodnight

The DECEMBERISTS – ” Severed “

Posted: January 18, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The Decemberists  are exploring a new sound alongside a new producer on their eighth studio album, “I’ll Be Your Girl”, due out on March 16th via Capitol Records. The Colin Meloy-led, Portland-based band have detailed their John Congleton-produced new album and shared its first single, the swaggering, synth-driven track “Severed.”

If “Severed”—and the band’s I’ll Be Your Girl announcement, which cites influences like Roxy Music and New Order—is any indication, the album will be a somewhat radical departure for The Decemberists. Their new single builds from a dance floor-ready synth and percussion combo, soon adding dark guitar notes. Even Meloy’s familiar singing voice is subtly distorted, lending a swaggering attitude to lines like, “I alone am the answer / I alone will make wrongs right.”

“When you’ve been a band for 17 years, inevitably there are habits you fall into,” says Meloy in a statement. “So our ambition this time was really just to get out of our comfort zone. That’s what prompted working with a different producer and using a different studio. We wanted to free ourselves from old patterns and give ourselves permission to try something different.” Meloy recalled falling into such patterns on the group’s last record, 2015’s acclaimed What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World.

WIth this freedom to push boundaries came an increased emphasis on collaboration. Speaking specifically to the process of writing and recording “Severed,” Meloy recalls, “That was written as a punk song, but wasn’t really working. [keyboardist] Jenny [Conlee] set this arpeggio throughout it, and it became like an early New Order song. And I had forgotten that when we made the demo, I also started a file to turn it into more of a Depeche Mode song—I actually wanted it to be a synth song all along.”

The Decemberists  will embark on the Your Girl / Your Ghost 2018 World Tour in March, with stops all around the globe.

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