Singer songwriter Holly Humberstone has officially announced her highly anticipated debut album “Paint My Bedroom Black”, set to arrive on October 13th via Darkroom/Geffen/Polydor Records.
Alongside the announcement, Holly has released “Antichrist” and “Room Service” today, the double A-Side singles that serve as the first tastes of “Paint My Bedroom Black”. “I feel like two different people half the time,” she said. “I love everything I’ve released, but the biggest challenge is always to make something I feel I haven’t done before, that reflects new parts of me.”
Always inspired by her environment and how that affects her sense of self and identity, from her parent’s Haunted House to flat-shares in London with The Walls Are Way To Thin, “Paint My Bedroom Black” represents Holly’s coming of age, growing from unknown singer at her parent’s piano to the most exciting alternative pop stars of her generation.
Holly will perform songs from “Paint My Bedroom Black” in the US for the first time at her recently announced show’s this summer.
Dark Horse Records releases Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros iconic “Live at Acton Town Hall” concert, remastered by Grammy Award Winner Paul Hicks (The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, George Harrison) and available on 2LP clear vinyl and CD. Recorded on November 15th, 2002, the concert was a benefit for striking firefighters and would be one of Joe’s last performances (he passed away a month later.) The performance features a 3-song reunion with Strummer’s former bandmate from The Clash, Mick Jones, who reunited on stage for the first time in almost twenty years. It would also be their last time on stage together. Vinyl is packaged in a gatefold sleeve featuring never-before-seen photos from the show, plus new liner notes from former Fire Brigade Union Secretary Andy Gilchrist, who introduced the band at the show and led the strikes Joe was supporting.
This will be the first time the concert has been properly released with full packaging on vinyl, with its extremely limited previous incarnation as a Record Store Day exclusive in 2012 featuring just a DIY-inspired clear sleeve, and the first time it has ever been released
American singer-songwriter Johanna Samuels made her debut in 2021 with the pleasant and quirky sounding “Excelsior!” and takes some extra steps on her even better second album “Bystander” Johanna Samuels is not yet very well known, but she has been working in a small circle for a while. Her beautiful debut album “Excelsior!” deserved a bit more attention in 2021 and the “Bystander” released this week the album deserves that, because “Bystander”, made together with Bonny Light Horseman JoshKaufman, this is not only an excellent album, but also an album that sounds different from most of the other albums in the genre.
During her darkest moments, while writing in isolation, her old friends in the band Bonny Light Horseman offered to take her out on tour in early 2020. “They re-contextualized music for me all over again,” she says. Observing a truly kind and compassionate music community brought Samuels out of herself even more. Inspired by conversations with producer Josh Kaufman (The Hold Steady, Bob Weir, Cassandra Jenkins) on the road, Samuels took him up on his offer to produce her new songs and retreated to Isokon Studios in Woodstock, NY in the summer of 2021.
Johanna Samuels writes songs full of melancholy, but they often sound surprisingly sunny. They are songs that draw on the past and the present and that are not averse to influences outside of American roots music.
She really is a great talent Johanna Samuels. released June 23rd, 2023
Gillian Welch has unfortunately hardly been productive in the past twenty years, but before this she made a pile of beautiful albums, of which the “Time (The Revelator)” released in 2001 is in many ways her best album. When Gillian Welch left the Berklee School Of Music in the mid-90s in Boston, Massachusetts in the early ’90s, where she shared a love of ancient folk and bluegrass with fellow student David Rawlings. , no one was waiting for her music, Welch mainly influenced by old folk and bluegrass.
After college, the pair moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where they caught the attention of none other than producer T-Bone Burnett, who helped Gillian Welch get a record deal. T-Bone Burnett produced her 1996 debut album “Revival” and was also featured on Hell Among The Yearlings, released two years later.
Both albums came at a time when the love of old folk and bluegrass was reserved for a relatively small group of music lovers. However, that changed with the success of the film O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the soundtrack to this film, on which Gillian Welch could also be heard.
At that time the music she was playing began to rise around the turn of the century, so Gillian Welch was suddenly prominently in the spotlight. All her talents come together on the 2001 release “Time (The Revelator)”. It is a very soberly coloured album with mainly influences from Appalachian folk and bluegrass, but it is also an album full of beautiful songs, in which the characteristic voice of Gillian Welch plays the leading role. On that album on which the unique Gillian Welch sound comes into its own. It’s a pretty sobre album, because there’s not much more than two acoustic guitars, a banjo, the voice of Gillian Welch and the occasional backing vocals from David Rawlings on the album, which was produced by Rawlings and T-Bone Burnett.
Two years ago, the Brooklyn quintet—vocalist Cameron Winter, guitarists Gus Green and Foster Hudson, bassist Dom DiGesu and drummer Max Bassin—exploded onto the scene with “Projector”, a daring, awing debut that everyone in music circles became (rightfully) obsessed with—to some degree or another. With an artillery of post-punk, stadium anthems and energetic, Y2K garage rock, Geese perfected a sound that is as meticulous as krautrock and as titanic as cowboy chords set ablaze by 10-foot-tall amplifiers. Fast-forward to 2023, and the band’s second offering “3D Country” obliterates any notion of a “sophomore slump,” as the Brooklynites have crafted an ambitious, intricate and far-ranging LP of seismic proportions.
Standout tracks like “Cowboy Nudes,” “Crusades” and “Mysterious Love” dazzle in how unbound to each other they are. Surfing between remnants of Squid and the Rolling Stones, Geese never linger too long in any artifact they may decide to hold up to the light. It’s all vignettes of brief experimentation that coalesce into a greater vision: No influence is off-limits, nor is what Geese may begin to transform their palette into. The centerpiece of the album is the seven-minute concerto “Undoer,” which combs through trash-rock textures, abrasive drums and soloing axes while Winter cuts glass with a piercing octave that is as noble as it is spell-binding to witness unfold in real time.
All at once theatrical, vicious, heartfelt and daring, “3D Country” is a brilliant, miraculous assemblage of stone cold rock ‘n’ roll.
“3D Country” out now on Partisan Records and Play It Again Sam
“Deep Routed,” the lead single off Ezra Williams’ debut album “Supernumeraries”, is a lovely, tender folk-pop track about overcoming a fear of intimacy at the genesis of a relationship—with Williams transcribing their own perspective as an autistic person tasked with navigating social cues and attitude shifts while dating. “Something’s stopping me / Something’s shutting my mouth / Every time you say things first / I say them back, but it doesn’t count,” they sing atop an acoustic strum that quickly pales beneath a tranquil electric riff. When they unravel in the song’s breakdown, questioning “Is this how it is? / Is this who I am?” in a layered vocal with their collaborator GHRIAN, something clicked.
It was clear to me that this artist—who, by the age of 18, had already racked up over 5-million streams across 92 countries—was not just generational, but here to stay. Williams has gifted us a collection of 12 songs that surf between the soft and heavy. “Supernumeraries” is a collage of different genres and experiments, ranging from delicate synth-pop to singer/songwriter alt-rock. Songs like “Skin” and “Bleed” and “Don’t Wake Me Up” are visceral thematically but lush, daunting and fallible.
“Supernumeraries” is a stark portrait of candid, blunt reflections; an album that will endure long after we’re all gone
In 2008 they busted out of the box and easily reached first with their “Frozen Ropes And Dying Quails”. The Baseball Project was on base and immediately posed a threat to go further.
In 2011, they moved on to second with some wildness aptly called “High And Inside”. They were halfway home. Three years later in 2014, the quintet of Big Stars moved on down the line to the aptly titled “3rd“, an epic double dip delight of craftsmanship and savvy. And there they stayed. For nine long years at the hot corner, but we’re happy to say that The Baseball Project is finally coming home, scoring big and touching ’em all with their fourth album “Grand Salami Time”.
It’s the fourth album from this baseball-obsessed band featuring Steve Wynn, Scott McCaughey and half of REM. Even if you’re not a fan of the national pastime of America,
But I did enjoy Friday Night Lights, The Natural and Field Of Dreams. The Baseball Project is the alt-rock supergroup led by Steve Wynn (The Dream Syndicate) and Scott McCaughey (The Minus Five, Young Fresh Fellows) that also features R.E.M.’s Peter Buck and Mike Mills, along with drummer Linda Pitmon.
“Grand Salami Time” is The Baseball Project’s fourth album, first in nine years, and and given the “round the bases” implications of the title, maybe their last. Like their three previous albums, all the songs are about the American national pastime, at least tangentially, and this time they’ve got a couple pinch-hitters on deck in Stephen McCarthy (The Long Ryders) and Steve Berlin (Los Lobos).
Music nerds will find stuff to love, too: “Disco Demolition” tells the infamous and regrettable true story of July 12th, 1979 at Chicago’s Comiskey Park when thousands of disco records were blown up as part of a Major League Baseball promotion that ended in a riot. You’ll certainly get a lot more out of “Grand Salami Time” if you are a baseball follower. The album was recorded at Mitch Easter’s fabled Fidelitorium Studios in Kernersville, North Carolina, with the entire band performing live together in the same room, a joyous experience that seemed impossible to imagine only one year before. Mitch adds guitar on a few tracks
Few artists have had the cultural impact of Bob Dylan, and his discography is filled with terrific albums. While there are additional highly-rated compilations, “Bootleg Series“, and boxed sets, These are the highlights of his 5-star main albums .
The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, 1963.
It’s hard to overestimate the importance of “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan”, the record that firmly established Dylan as an unparalleled songwriter, one of considerable skill, imagination, and vision. At the time, folk had been quite popular on college campuses and bohemian circles, making headway onto the pop charts in diluted form, and while there certainly were a number of gifted songwriters, nobody had transcended the scene as Dylan did with this record.
Another Side of Bob Dylan, 1964.
The other side of Bob Dylan referred to in the title is presumably his romantic, absurdist, and whimsical one anything that wasn’t featured on the staunchly folky, protest-heavy “Times They Are a-Changin'”, really. Because of this, “Another Side of Bob Dylan” is a more varied record and it’s more successful, too, since it captures Dylan expanding his music, turning in imaginative, poetic performances on love songs and protest tunes alike.
Bringing It All Back Home, 1965.
With “Another Side of Bob Dylan”, Dylan had begun pushing past folk, and with “Bringing It All BackHome”, he exploded the boundaries, producing an album of boundless imagination and skill. And it’s not just that he went electric, either, rocking hard on “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” “Maggie’s Farm,” and “Outlaw Blues”; it’s that he’s exploding with imagination throughout the record.
Highway 61 Revisited, 1965.
Taking the first, electric side of “Bringing It All Back Home” to its logical conclusion, Bob Dylan hired a full rock & roll band, featuring guitarist Michael Bloomfield, for “Highway 61 Revisited”. Dylan had not only changed his sound, but his persona, trading the folk troubadour for a streetwise, cynical hipster. Throughout the album, he embraces druggy, surreal imagery, which can either have a sense of menace or beauty, and the music reflects that, jumping between soothing melodies to hard, bluesy rock.
Blonde on Blonde, 1966.
If “Highway 61 Revisited” played as a garage rock record, the double album “Blonde on Blonde” inverted that sound, blending blues, country, rock, and folk into a wild, careening, and dense sound. Replacing the fiery Michael Bloomfield with the intense, weaving guitar of Robbie Robertson, Bob Dylan led a group comprised of his touring band the Hawks and session musicians through his richest set of songs. “Blonde on Blonde” is an album of enormous depth, providing endless lyrical and musical revelations on each play.
John Wesley Harding, 1967.
“John Wesley Harding” is informed by the rustic sound of country, as well as many rural myths, with seemingly simple songs like “All Along the Watchtower,” “I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine,” and “The Wicked Messenger” revealing several layers of meaning with repeated plays. Although the lyrics are somewhat enigmatic, the music is simple, direct, and melodic, providing a touchstone for the country-rock revolution that swept through rock in the late ’60s.
Nashville Skyline, 1969.
“John Wesley Harding” suggested country with its textures and structures, but “Nashville Skyline” was a full-fledged country album, complete with steel guitars and brief, direct songs. It’s a warm, friendly album, particularly since Bob Dylan is singing in a previously unheard gentle croon — the sound of his voice is so different it may be disarming upon first listen, but it suits the songs.
Blood on the Tracks, 1975.
Following on the heels of an album where he repudiated his past with his greatest backing band, “Blood on the Tracks” finds Bob Dylan, in a way, retreating to the past, recording a largely quiet, acoustic-based album. But this is hardly nostalgia — this is the sound of an artist returning to his strengths, what feels most familiar, as he accepts a traumatic situation, namely the breakdown of his marriage. This is an album alternately bitter, sorrowful, regretful, and peaceful, easily the closest he ever came to wearing his emotions on his sleeve.
The Basement Tapes, 1975.
The official release of “The Basement Tapes” which were first heard on a 1968 bootleg called The Great White Wonder — plays with history somewhat, as Robbie Robertson overemphasizes the Band’s status in the sessions, making them out to be equally active to Dylan, adding in demos not cut at the sessions and overdubbing their recordings to flesh them out. As many bootlegs (most notably the complete five-disc series) reveal, this isn’t entirely true and the Band were nowhere near as active as Dylan, but that ultimately is a bit like nitpicking, since the music here (including the Band’s) is astonishingly good.
Craft Recordings will reissue two more R.E.M. albums on vinyl, in August and September.
It was something of a return to what you might call the band’s ‘classic’ sound. Released in 2001, “Reveal” was co-produced with long-time collaborator Patrick McCarthy.
The album sees R.E.M. experiment with synthesized sound, but also make “a conscious return to their classic sound” . The record features hits “Imitation of Life” and “All the Way to Reno (You’re Gonna Be a Star).R.E.M. delivered “Reveal”, an album that feels like their stab at All That You Can’t Leave Behind — a conscious return to their classic sound.
Because “Reveal” is song-oriented, it initially plays more accessibly than “Up”, but these songs are cloaked in the same kind of deliberate studiocraft that made “Up” feel stilted. It’s not as overt, of course – the drum machines and loops have taken a backseat — but it’s still possible to hear the clipped Pro Tools effects on “Summer Turns to High,” for instance, and most tracks are a little fussy.
That prevents “Reveal” from being an album to wholeheartedly embrace, even if it attempts to be as rich as “Automatic” and even if it succeeds on occasion. There are some very good pop songs here — windswept and sun-bleached beauties like “Imitation of Life,” the dusty “All the Way to Reno (You’re Gonna Be a Star),” and “Beachball,” the one time their Beach Boys obsessions click. “Reveal” winds up sharing the same strangely distant feel of “Up”, even if it’s a tighter, better record. When R.E.M. weren’t trying as hard, when they weren’t meticulously crafting their sound, they made records that were as moody, evocative, and bracing as “Reveal” intended to be.
Since they’re fiercely protective of their anointed position of underground pioneers, they’re not content to sit still and spin their wheels, turning out a record that apes “Automatic for the People“. So, they return to the lushness of “Out of Time“, melding it with the song-oriented “Automatic” undercutting it all with the sober sonic trickery of Up and “New Adventures in Hi-Fi“.
Released in 2008, “Accelerate” The band’s penultimate studio album was intended as a departure from R.E.M.’s previous album, “Around the Sun”,and was lauded for the aggressive, purposeful sound of the songs. The album was described by Rolling Stone as “one of the best records R.E.M. has ever made.” It debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 and stayed on the chart for 18 weeks. The LP contains fan favourite “Supernatural Superserious.”
For years, R.E.M. promised that their next album would be a rocker, an oath to fans that perhaps made sense during the early ’90s, when they were exploring the pastoral fields of “Out of Time” and the gloomy folk of “Automatic for the People”, but in the years after Bill Berry’s 1997 departure, the desire of longtime fans for the group to rock again was merely a code word for the wish that R.E.M. would sound like a band again. Apart from a few fleeting moments “The Great Beyond,” their “Man in the Moon” re-write for the 1999 Andy Kaufman biopic, Man in the Moon; “Bad Day,” a mid-’80s outtake revived for a greatest-hits album R.E.M. not only didn’t sound like a band, but they seemed at odds with themselves and their very strengths, culminating in the amorphous, mummified “Around the Sun”, a record so polished and overworked it didn’t sound a bit like R.E.M., It was a situation so dire that the band recognized the need for corrective steering, so they stripped themselves down to bare-bones for 2008’s “Accelerate”.
In every way “Accelerate” is the opposite of “Around the Sun” at 36 minutes, it’s defiantly lean, it’s heavy on Peter Buck’s guitars and Mike Mills backing vocals, its songs don’t drift, they attack. Even the songs constructed on acoustics feel like they’re rockers, maybe because they hearken back to the eerie, ramshackle grace of “Swan Swan H” whose riff echoes through both “Houston” and “Until the Day Is Done.” This is not the only time that R.E.M. deliberately refers to the past on “Accelerate”, but reverential self-reference is the whole idea of this project: they’re embracing their past, building upon the legacy and the very sound of such underground rock landmarks as “Lifes Rich Pageant” and “Document”.
“Accelerate” benefits greatly from its concentrated blast of guitars, as the brevity of the album makes R.E.M. seem vital even as they’re dredging up the past. By no longer denying the jangle and pop that provided a foundation for the group’s success, they do sound like a band again.
“Accelerate” finds R.E.M. attempting to reconnect with their music, with what made them play rock & roll in the first place, instead of methodically resurrecting a faded myth. “Accelerate” is what makes it such a successful rebirth as R.E.M. no longer denies what they were or what they are, and, in doing so, they offer a glimpse of what they could be once again.
The previously announced vinyl reissues of “Collapse Into Now” and “Around the Sun” have gone back to 1st September, so they’ll come out in between these two newly announced titles!
No longer a traditional estate, Wasing is breaking the mould and offering a different narrative to the connection between people and the planet. The spectacular woodland venue hosts healing retreats enriched with nature immersion, wellbeing festivals, and restorative events.
Wasing previously hosted the Glade dance music festival in the mid-late 2000’s, and currently hosts the Medicine Festival, a unique remedial festival experience which invites people to come together and envision a more enlightened, peaceful and sustainable world.
