Colleen Green has always been cool, but on 2015’s I Want To Grow Up, she didn’t necessarily feel it. Too young to be free of insecurities but old enough to be sick of them running her life, Green was experiencing an existential crisis. Five years and a new album later, we find her parsing out what it means to be grown-up—and realizing that it’s actually pretty Cool.
Opener “Someone Else” is a paean to power in which Green lets a lover know that double standards can go both ways. A groovy bass loop and zig-zagging guitar lines underscore her realization that happiness is in her own hands, and the vibe is set. Next up is the witty, catchy “I Wanna Be A Dog,” where Green celebrates the simplicity of a canine life and questions why she’s still overcomplicating her own. Dark and slinky “Highway” uses ruthless driving as a metaphor for a lifestyle that no longer interests her.
Burnt out on bad feelings and ready to have fun with melodies and beats, Green enlisted producer Gordon Raphael (The Strokes) to take her songs to higher ground while keeping her lo-fi aesthetic intact. Raphael was already a fan, having caught a show in L.A. and finding himself “struck by how confident and powerful she looked, even though she was the only one onstage.” He agreed to take the gig, and together with drummer Brendan Eder and hip hop producer Aqua over a few weeks in Los Angeles, “Cool” was created.
The album’s themes come together on the anthemic “It’s Nice to Be Nice,” Green’s reminder to herself that you get what you give, so it’s important to try and be the best person you can—a hard-won but essential lesson in the emotional maturity that defines Cool.
We’re rapidly approaching the 40th anniversary of R.E.M.’s debut single, the epochal “Radio Free Europe,” released on July 8, 1981. The band has a few things in the works to celebrate, but in the meantime, let’s dip into the band’s live archive. The band ha a few things in the works, but in the meantime, let’s dip into the band’s live archive. It’s always fun to hear Stipe, Buck, Mills and Berry in their revved-up early days and this excellent audience tape from late ’81 does not disappoint. R.E.M. had only been together since April of the previous year, but they already have a surprisingly rich repertoire, with a distinctive sound firmly in place. Mills and Berry are a dream rhythm section, buoyant and danceable, while Buck jangles majestically over the top. Stipe is a deeply unique vocalist, but he’s never alienating in the way that other singers of the era often could be. He really leans into those soaring choruses with gusto. R.E.M. were just getting started at this point, but they’d already come so far.
Set One: 01. Just A Touch 02. Burning Down 03. Shaking Through 04. (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville 05. There She Goes Again 06. Permanent Vacation 07. Pretty Persuasion 08. That Beat 09. Mystery To Me 10. Carnival Of Sorts | Set Two: 11. Ages Of You 12. I Can’t Control Myself 13. Ha (We Get Paid For It) 14. Laughing 15. Romance 16. Sitting Still 17. Wolves, Lower 18. Gardening at Night 19. 9-9 20. Windout 21. 1,000,000 22. Radio Free Europe
Bleachers are set to release their highly anticipated 3rd album “Take The Sadness Out Of Saturday Night” due out July 30th 2021 via RCA Records. In late 2020 they offered up the first taste of new music to preview the album with the release of “Chinatown” ft. Bruce Springsteen and “45”. This music is the follow up to their critically acclaimed second album, “Gone Now“, which came out on June 2nd, 2017. The first single “Don’t Take The Money” hit #3 at Alternative Radio. Ahead of the album release, The New York Times put out a piece that called Bleachers’ new music “anthemic life-affirming pop-rock”. Bleachers, who are known for their incredible live shows, headlined a North American tour in support of the album, which included a number of major festival dates like Sasquatch Festival, Governor’s Ball, and Firefly Music Festival. Five-time GrammyAward-winning singer, songwriter, musician, and producer, Jack Antonoff, is the creative force behind Bleachers.
Bleachers the recording project of singer, songwriter, and producer Jack Antonoff has announced a new album. “Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night” is out July 30th via RCA Records. It follows his 2017 album Gone Now. He’s also shared a video for the new single “Stop Making This Hurt” and announced that he’s touring the United States later this year. The album features the two songs. The first date of the upcoming tour takes place at Antonoff’s Shadow Of the City Festival in Asbury Park, New Jersey.
Bleachers will perform “Stop Making This Hurt” on the May 26th episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon; they’ll be the first full band (other than the Roots) to perform on Fallon in-studio in over a year.
Between 2017 and 2021, Antonoff has been part of multiple high-profile collaborations, working on records with Lana Del Rey, Taylor Swift, St Vincent, and Kevin Abstract. Earlier this year he won a Grammy Award for Album Of The Year for his work with Swift and Aaron Dessner on “Folklore”.
Bleachers“Take The Sadness Out Of Saturday Night” The New Album from Bleachers Available 7.30.21
When The Kinks released “Sleepwalker”, It was their first album for the Arista label, Released in February 1977, they hadn’t significantly bothered the U.S. single or album charts in quite a few years (when their 1970 single “Lola” had hit the top 10). Many had written them off as hopelessly old-fashioned. Their leader, singer and main songwriter, Ray Davies, had spent most of the ’70s on a series of theatrical concept albums that never caught fire in the studio or in live performance, and his addition of back-up singers, brass section and costumes to the Kinks’ presentation failed to excite. Their glory days seemed over before they pulled off one of rock’s greatest comebacks and launched a successful “arena rock” phase that even they didn’t see coming.
As part of the British Invasion in the ’60s, the Kinks had their share of U.S. top 20 hit singles, including “You Really Got Me,” “All Day and All of the Night,” “Tired of Waiting for You” and “A Well RespectedMan,” all written by Ray. Other strong recordings issued as singles (“Till the End of the Day,” “Set Me Free,” “Dedicated Follower of Fashion”) got lots of national airplay too. Ray provided the clever lyrics, which often referenced youth culture and hip London locations, and his brother Dave Davies supplied the primitive yet highly effective guitar parts. With solid bassist Pete Quaife and drummer Mick Avory, they had the whole package: catchy melodies, smart wordsmithing, memorable riffs and sex appeal. (They sometimes couldn’t stand each other though, and got into fistfights on stage and off—this was one conflicted band!)
Despite the success with singles during their 1964-66 heyday, their albums never sold very well. 1966’s excellent music-hall-style 45 “Sunny Afternoon” was their last ’60s hit, but the excellent album it appeared on, “Face to Face“, Their next three albums are all now considered classics, but sold even worse: “Something Else”, “The Village Green Preservation Society” and “Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)“. Back home, the British hit singles never stopped, but did nothing or weren’t even released in America: “Waterloo Sunset,” “Days,” “Deadend Street,” “Autumn Almanac.”
After Columbia Records squeezed out its top executive Clive Davis in a scandal in 1973, he launched the Arista label the following year, subsisting on lightweights like Barry Manilow and the Bay City Rollers until he began to sign important artists: Patti Smith, Lou Reed and, eventually the Kinks, who had been dropped by RCA after six sometimes interesting but commercially weak-selling albums.
In May 1976, the brothers Davies and Avory joined keyboardist John Gosling and John Dalton on bass (he’d replaced Quaife in 1969) at the newly built, Kinks-owned Konk Studios in London. Producing himself and working with a new 24-track system, Ray had over two dozen new songs to consider. The band worked on them for the rest of the year, rejecting many (some, like “Black Messiah” and “Hay Fever,” showed up on later Kinks albums). Clearly, Ray Davies was determined to deliver a high-quality set with a direct, lean instrumental approach, knowing it might be his last chance to re-establish the band as a serious commercial attraction.
The resulting “Sleepwalker” album was just what the band needed. “Life on the Road” is a very strong lead-off. Despite the title, it’s not a “gee, touring is tough” complaint, but a touching tale of a naïve small-town kid who finds the big city of London both exciting and frightening: “Mama always told me the city ladies were bawdy and bold/And so I searched night and day to catch a kissable lady/But all that I caught was a cold.” The narrator, not unlike other Davies protagonists over the years, can be read as sexually ambiguous: “I was standing with the punks in Praed Street when a muscle man came my way/He said ‘Hey, are you gay? Can you come out and play?’/And like a fool, I went and said ‘Okay’.” Musically, it starts as a ballad with a gorgeous, wistful melody, and then jumps up into an energetic Chuck Berry-inspired rocker, before a punchy ending that combines both. Ray does some of the best singing of his career, and his brother’s shouted harmonies bring back the ’60s template.
Released as a single the title track helped the album to climb the album chart. Here the lyrics are nothing special; it’s a basic meat-and-potatoes mid-tempo rocker with some terrific multi-tracked guitar work from Dave. “Sleepwalker” also contains several characteristic Ray-penned changes in tempo and dynamics, and features another versatile Ray vocal. He might struggle with pitch on occasion, but you always feel he’s singing directly to you.
Clive Davis reportedly wanted “Brother” to be released as a single (he compared it to “Bridge Over Troubled Water” but in places it sounds more like the Beach Boys doing “Waterloo Sunset”). It’s an impressive cut, with finely arranged strings, vocal harmonies and biting guitar licks from the reliable Dave. You’d think a song with that title might address Ray’s love-hate relationship with his sibling, and maybe it does in disguised form: “The world’s going crazy and nobody gives a damn anymore/And they’re breaking off relationships and/Leaving on sailing ships for far and distant shores/For them it’s all over, but I’m gonna stay…’Cause I’m your brother, though I don’t even know your name/I’ve discovered that deep down inside you feel the same.”
Mick Avory starts off “Jukebox Music,” joined by Dave setting up the churning tempo. The instrumental production perhaps owes a bit to Bad Company, Bachman-Turner Overdrive and other popular rock bands of the period. Ray wisely gives plenty of room for his brother’s guitar work, on both acoustic and electric. The lyrics are rousing but negligible compared to the power of the band. Tailor-made for live performance, it’s an example of how Ray recognized a certain simplicity was going to aid the group’s return to relevance. You can almost hear him thinking, “Sure, I’m a genius songwriter, but this one’s going to put food on the table.”
The album concludes with “Life Goes On,” expressing a common Davies sentiment, that normal existence requires forbearance, equanimity and appreciation of simple things, but can also seem futile: “Life will hit you when you least expect it/And one day when you are gone/You know that life will still go on/But no one’ll care if you’ve been good, bad, right or wrong/Life will still go on.”
Ray, always a superb front man, wore funny suits and hats, and created a playful atmosphere in which audience sing-alongs like “Lola,” “Alcohol” and “Sunny Afternoon” meshed with their new material. He kept “Waterloo Sunset” and “Celluloid Heroes” (one of the few big songs from the RCA days) in the set. Dave revelled in striking rock-god poses and turning up the volume.
The Kinks appeared on television’s Midnight Special, The Mike Douglas Show and other programs, and word spread that this band was a lot of fun to see live. “Sleepwalker” kept selling to teenagers who barely remembered the Kinks of the previous decade, or thought they were a new band.
The follow-up Arista albums “Misfits”, “Low Budget”, “Give the People What They Want” and “State of Confusion” saw the Kinks returning to serious chart success and gold records. Their pleasantly sloppy attitude gave them street cred with emerging punk bands like the Jam and the Clash, and they never suffered from the new wave backlash against the likes of “dinosaurs” Pink Floyd or Genesis. By the time their lovely single “Come Dancing” went top 10 in 1983, the Kinks were once again considered a must-see attraction onstage, and Ray was lauded as a songwriter who compared to Lennon-McCartney, Townshend, Goffin-King and Jagger-Richards.
“Sleepwalker” is thesixteenth studio album by the English rock group, the Kinks, released in 1977.
Esther Rose just keeps on running and running at a steady and consistent pace. The alt country upstart has been building out a gorgeous catalogue that ranges from stripped down freak folk (“Don’t Blame it on the Moon”, “Songs Remain”) to summer love indie pop (“Only Loving You”, “Keeps Me Running”) and everything in between. She’s paid homage to some of her musical heroes with her My Favourite Mistakes EP which features a cool batch of covers of artists like Sheryl Crow, Nick Lowe, and Hank Williams. And most recently she’s been back on the map with her latest critically acclaimed album “How Many Times”.
Esther takes the concept of a breakup album and flips it ever so slightly into a collection of songs that are bursting with colour, sly humor, and just plain fun. For her most recent project she decided to call in an eclectic group of artists to reimagine some of her favourite songs from the record. That idea morphed into How Many More Times which includes covers from indie scene luminaries Shamir, Anjimile, Twain, Tasha, Stef Chura, and an early-evening techno remix from producer Field Supervisor.
Shamir’s take on “Songs Remain” and Twain’s spin on the album’s title track both lean into a character based energy that breathes fresh air into each song. Anjimile’s amber-hued vocals work perfectly for “Coyote Creek” and Tasha’s big sky sound stretches the album deep cut “Are You Out There” to new and soaring heights. Stef Chura brings the weirdness and a sense of beautiful chaos with her blown out version of “Good Time”. It’s a breezy listening experience that shows the unwavering strength of Esther’s song writing and just how far her voice can go.
Worriers are a band from Brooklyn, New York, centered around the song writing of Lauren Denitzio, with the help of friends Mikey Erg, Nick Psillas, and more. They released their 2nd LP “Survival Pop” with SideOneDummy Records and have toured with John K Samson, Against Me!, Julien Baker, Anti Flag, and more.
Worriers’ debut album “Imaginary Life” was produced by Laura Jane Grace of Against Me!
This is an acoustic version of our song “They / Them / Theirs” that originally appeared on our debut LP Imaginary Life.
“Everything has to be said.” This is the conviction guiding Indigo De Souza’s sophomore album, “Any Shape You Take”. This dynamic record successfully creates a container for the full spectrum—pushing through and against every emotion: “I wanted this album to give a feeling of shifting with and embracing change. These songs came from a turbulent time when I was coming to self-love through many existential crises and shifts in perspective.”
Faithful to its name, “Any Shape You Take” changes form to match the tenor of each story it tells. “The album title is a nod to the many shapes I take musically. I don’t feel that I fully embody any particular genre—all of the music just comes from the universe that is my ever-shifting brain/heart/world,” says Indigo. This sonic range isunified by Indigo’s strikingly confessional and effortless approach to song writing, a signature first introduced in her debut, self-released LP, I Love My Mom. Written in quick succession, Indigo sees these two records as companion pieces, both distinct but in communion with each other: “Many of the songs on these two records came from the same season in my life and a certain version of myself which I feel much further from now.”
Throughout Any Shape You Take, Indigo reflects on her relationships as she reckons with a deeper need to redefine how to fully inhabit spaces of love and connection. “It feels so important for me to see people through change. To accept people for the many shapes they take, whether those shapes fit into your life or not. This album is a reflection of that. I have undergone so much change in my life and I am so deeply grateful to the people who have seen me through it without judgment and without attachment to skins I’m shifting out of.”
Growing up in a conservative small town in the mountains of North Carolina, Indigo started playing guitar when she was nine years old. “Music was a natural occurrence in my life. My dad is a bossa nova guitarist and singer from Brazil and so I think I just had it in my blood from birth.” It wasn’t until moving to Asheville, NC that Indigo began to move into her current sound, developing a writing practice that feeds from the currents that surround her: “Sometimes it feels like I am soaking up the energies of people around me and making art from a space that is more a collective body than just my own.”
At the forefront of all De Souza’s projects is her magnetism—her unique quality of spirit that is both buoyant and wise. While her backing band has undergone shifts between releases, her sound has stayed tethered to her vision. Any Shape You Takeis the first full-length album that Indigo produced herself. Teaming up with executive producer Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Waxahatchee, The War on Drugs) and engineers/producers Alex Farrar and Adam McDaniel, Indigo recorded the album at Betty’s, Sylvan Esso’s studio in Chapel Hill, NC and finished it with additional production and mixing at Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville. Moving past the limitations of a home studio, Indigo could finally embody the full reach of her sound: “It felt really exciting to lean into my pop tendencies more than I have in the past and to trust my intuition to take the songs where I felt they should go. I had the tools to do it and collaborators who were willing to go there with me.”
“I feel very much like a shape-shifter with my music, I’m always trying to embody a balance between the existential weight and the overflowing sense of love I feel in the world.” It is exactly this balance that Indigo strikes in her SaddleCreek debut, Any Shape You Take. A listening experience that gives back, as you shed and shape-shift along with her.
“hurt,” is Ada Lea’s (the moniker of Alexandra Levy) first new piece of music since 2020’s woman, here EP. “hurt” lives in a snowy Montreal winter, a city that Levy calls home and lives and breathes through her music. It thrums with bass and brooding keys, as Levy uses frank language and imagery: “somebody hurt me badly, now I’m stuck in a rut // now I don’t know my body // I could say it or say nothing at all // take a walk or take none at all // get on a bus back to montreal // tell my friends or say nothing at all.” When the song hits its peak, her voice is carried by a swirl of strings and quick-tempoed keys.
“I wanted to find a way to communicate complicated feelings using the simplest language possible,” says Levy. “I came with a narrative and removed almost every detail, so as not to obfuscate the feeling – but left it open in terms of a resolution: was this hurt necessarily a bad thing?”
“hurt” follows Levy’s woman, here EP (2020) and her debut, what we say in private (2019), a collection of raw, confessional, and at times messy emotions, presented through beautifully colourful pop songs. “hurt” is a first taste of what’s to come.
Focusing on their craft, staying out of the fray, and holding fast their faith to find new ways to express the discord and delight of being alive, to turn the duality of existence into hymns we can share, Low present “Hey What”. These ten pieces—each built around their own instantaneous, undeniable hook—are turbocharged by the vivid textures that surround them. The ineffable, familiar harmonies of Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker break through the chaos like a life raft. Layers of distorted sound accrete with each new verse – building, breaking, colossal then restrained, a solemn vow only whispered. There will be time to unravel and attribute meaning to the music and art of these times, but the creative moment looks FORWARD, with teeth.
“Hey What” is Low’s thirteenth full-length release in twenty-seven years, and their third with producer BJ Burton.
News available Today Digitally With Five Unreleased Tracks From The Making Of Blue That Will Also Appear On Next Joni Mitchell Archive Release- Debuting On October 29th, The 5-CD And Digital Collection ‘Joni Mitchell Archives Vol. 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971)’ Will Explore The Period Leading Up To “Blue” Through Nearly Six Hours Of Unreleased Home, Studio, And Live Recordings-
A Limited Edition 10-LP Version Of Archives Vol. 2 will be made available For Pre-Order Now Exclusively At JoniMitchell.com
Tomorrow will be the 50th anniversary of Joni Mitchell’s masterpiece, “Blue”. To celebrate, Rhino is releasing two new collections that offer different perspectives on one of the greatest albums ever made and the inspired period of creativity that made it possible. Rhino kicks off the celebration today with the release of “BLUE 50 (DEMOS & OUTTAKES”), a digital EP that debuts five unreleased recordings from the making of Blue that will appear on the upcoming Archives collection.
The striking cover of the Blue 50 EP features the original Blue colour treatment with a previously unseen alternate photo of Mitchell by Tim Considine from the same session as the original. Each track on BLUE 50 (DEMOS & OUTTAKES) is a standout, including the demos for “California” and an early version of “A Case Of You” that features different lyrics from those heard on the final album. There are also two alternate takes on the EP. The first is a version of “River” that adds French horns, unlike the album version, which features Mitchell solo on piano. The other alternate take is for “Urge For Going.” Mitchell originally wrote the song in the mid-Sixties and often included in her early live sets. She later revisited the song during the sessions for Blue, recording a version that included strings, that differs from the version that was later released as the b-side to her 1972 hit “You Turn Me On, I’m A Radio.” The final unreleased song is the studio recording for “Hunter,” another song that was cut from Blue at the last minute that Mitchell later performed live but never officially released on an album.
All five of these tracks will also be included in JONI MITCHELL Archives Vol. 2 : THE REPRISE YEARS (1968-1971), which will be released on October 29th as a 5-CD set as well as digitally. The music will be available the same day exclusively at www.JoniMitchell.com as a 10-LP set on 180-gram vinyl that will be limited to 4,000 copies. Any Archives Vol. 2 music product purchased on the official Joni Mitchell store comes with an exclusive 7”x7” art print featuring a never-before-seen illustration by Mitchell from the era.
The tracks on Archives Vol. 2 have been sequenced chronologically to follow Mitchell in real time through one of the most creative periods of her career. The collection uncovers several unreleased Mitchell originals, including “Jesus” recorded in 1969 at her friend Jane Lurie’s New York apartment in Chelsea, which also served as the setting for the song “Chelsea Morning.” Other highlights include Mitchell’s performance at Le Hibou Coffee House in Ottawa on March 19th, 1968 that was recorded by Jimi Hendrix and a concert at the Paris Theatre in London on October 29th, 1970 that was broadcast on the BBC. The latter includes several songs destined to appear on Blue the following year: “Carey,” “River” and “My Old Man.” In addition, singer-songwriter James Taylor joined Mitchell to perform with her during the second half of the show.
Among the other treasures on Archives Vol. 2 is Mitchell’s complete Carnegie Hall debut, recorded on February 1st, 1969, a few months before the release of her second album, “Clouds”, which would win Mitchell her first of nine Grammy Awards. In addition to its inclusion on Archives Vol. 2, the concert will also be released separately on October 29th as a 3-LP set on 180-gram vinyl , with an exclusive 180-gram, white vinyl version, limited to 3,000 copies, also available at www.JoniMitchell.com.Like its predecessor, Archives Vol. 2 includes a booklet illustrated with many unseen photos from Mitchell’s personal collection as well as new liner notes featuring conversations about the time period between writer/filmmaker Cameron Crowe and Mitchell.
Archives Vol. 2 serves a companion to The Reprise Albums (1968-1971) boxed set, which arrives on July 2nd in 4-CD, 4-LP, and digital versions. It includes newly remastered versions of “Blue” (1971) and the three albums that came before it: “Song To A Seagull” (1968), “Clouds” (1969), and “Ladies Of The Canyon” (1970).
JONI MITCHELL BLUE 50 (DEMOS & OUTTAKES)Digital EP Track Listing1. “A Case Of You” (Demo)2. “California” (Demo)3. “Hunter”4. “River” (With French Horns)5. “Urge For Going” (With Strings).
JONI MITCHELL ARCHIVES VOL. 2: THE REPRISE YEARS (1968 TO 1971)
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