The National’s massive triple-disc Grateful Dead tribute album “Day Of The Dead” still keeps throwing out some classic covers. It’s took me an age to get through this album and still I keep discovering some beautiful gems. Already we’ve heard a whole pile of songs from it. the people behind the album have shared most of the tracks, and there are some heavyweights on them. For our purposes, the biggest of these is probably the version of “To Lay Me Down,” done as a funeral duet from Perfume Genius and Sharon Van Etten. Also we get to hear My MorningJacket frontman Jim James doing “Candyman,”
‘Candyman’ by Jim James & Friends, from ‘Day of the Dead’, is a tribute album to the Grateful Dead curated by Aaron and Bryce Dessner of The National, with all profits going to Red Hot Organization. ‘Day of the Dead’ was released on 20th May via 4AD Records. Featuring an incredible cast list, the compilation is a wide-ranging tribute to the songwriting and experimentalism of The Grateful Dead which took four years to record and features over 60 artists from varied musical backgrounds, with 59 tracks and a duration of almost six hours. The limited edition 10xLP ‘Day of the Dead’ LP boxed set is released today via 4Ad Records, on individually coloured vinyl.
Among others are Unknown Mortal Orchestra covering “Shakedown Street,” Bonnie “Prince” Billy singing “Rubin & Cherise,” and old-school soul howler Charles Bradley teaming up with soul/funk revivalists the Menahan Street Band for “Cumberland Blues.”
The tracks curated from Bryce & Aaron Dessner ,The compilation was produced by Aaron Dessner and co-produced by Bryce Dessner and Josh Kaufman. Grateful Dead tribute album were released a year ago. Considering the album has 59 tracks, this is just a small sampling. Last March, a whole bumch of coversfrom the record were released, including takes from the National, Courtney Barnett, the War on Drugs, Bruce Hornsby with Justin Vernon’s band DeYarmond Edison, and Phosphorescent with Jenny Lewis., the National and Grizzly Bear members also performed a’ 17-minute cover of “Terrapin Station Suite” .
An artist of rare calibre, Aldous Harding does more than sing; she conjures a singular intensity. Her body and face a weapon of theatre, Harding dances with steeled fervor, baring her teeth like a Bunraku puppet’s gnashing grin.
Her debut release with 4AD Records, “Party”(produced with the award-winning John Parish; PJ Harvey,Sparklehorse) introduces a new pulse to the stark and unpopulated dramatic realm where the likes of Kate Bush and Scott Walker reside.
Comprising a formidable clutch of songs, 2017’s Party sees Harding shape-shift through a variety of roles: chanteuse, folk singer and balladeer – all executed with her twisted touch of humour, hubris and quiet horror. In other words, she’s having a good time. Stretching her limbs with playful cunning; every note, word and arrangement posed with intellect and inventiveness.
Created in Parish’s hometown of Bristol, “Party” saw Aldous Harding depart her New Zealand base in the antipodes for an intensive two-week immersion in the studio. Articulating her ambitions for “Party” to Parish was a galvanizing process for Harding, met with stunning results. The pair developed a near non-verbal shorthand, audibly evident in a raft of musical contributions from Parish. Alongside such special guests as Perfume Genius’Mike Hadreas (having worked with Parish and toured with Aldous, it only took asking once), there is an exhilarating sense of risk throughout the record as Harding’s muscular wingspan extends. Teased out with inflections of experimental instrumentation and arrangements; “Party” is always anchored by Aldous’s intimidating command of her own songs.
First single ‘Horizon’ is a lover’s call to arms, powerful for its brutal simplicity and rawness of feeling, love and loathing colliding to devastating effect. “Aldous Harding repeats the line as a mantra, as a truth, as a reality. It’s as if the gift of life is right here, with all its beauty and its limitations”, said NPR.
‘Imagining My Man’ commands an air of delicacy as Aldous explores the curiosity of a lover’s idiosyncrasies; steering listeners into a state of intense intimacy laced with hyperactive shots, dirgey saxophone and Harding’s aching voice. The track is one of two that Mike Hadreas lends his inimitably sultry vocals to, the other being the intimate Party closer ‘Swell Does The Skull’.
‘Blend’ sensitively ushers the mood of Harding’s flourishment throughout Party. Its opening lines a nod to the mood of Harding’s last record; sameness is quickly quashed with an electronic drumbeat and the announcement of Aldous Harding as an artist of stirring ambition and trajectory.
The album’s eponymous single ‘Party’ harks to Aldous’ earlier work; delicately pulling at the threads of a seemingly late-night love affair. Again, it’s not long until the rug is pulled out, with a searing chorus – Harding’s electrifying vocal accompanied by a choir of women and waves of percussive bass clarinet – piercing the balloon of expectations around Harding’s new record with effortless vigour.
Big Bad Luv – the new album from John Moreland – is an honest, bruising experience. A record about love, faith and the human condition, it’s his debut for 4AD Records and the first full-length released to worldwide anticipation on May 5th 2017
His fourth album and first with international ambition, Big Bad Luv, was recorded in Little Rock, AK, and mostly with a crew of Tulsa friends: John Calvin Abney (piano and guitar), Aaron Boehler (bass), Paddy Ryan (drums), Jared Tyler (dobro) and Lucero’s Rick Steff (piano). Coming together in three sessions over ten months, which were sandwiched between touring dates and life, the final album was then mixed by GRAMMY winning Tchad Blake, who has worked with iconic acts from Al Green to Tom Waits.
Planetarium is an album co-composed by four musicians: Bryce Dessner, James McAlister, Nico Muhly, and Sufjan Stevens. Flanked by a string quartet and a consort of seven trombones, this unique collaborative ensemble has assembled an expansive song cycle that explores the Sun, the Moon, the planets and other celestial bodies of our solar system (and beyond) through soundscape, song, science and myth.
The subject of the album is not just the wilderness of outer space, but the interior space of human consciousness and how it engages with divinity, depravity, society and self—what does it mean to be human? This existential question rings clear from the opening lyric: “What’s right and what’s wrong?” The 75 minutes of music that follow provide a complex thesis: to be human is to be a total mess. The result of this creative alliance is a musical and aesthetic journey as far-reaching as its subject: from lush piano ballads to prog-rock political anthems, curious electronic back-beats to classical cadenzas, the vast musical styles seek to explore the diversity and mystery of our cosmos.
Planetarium is a concept album that occasionally gives way to ambient interludes and majestic brass chorales, buttressed by a percussive drive that keeps the momentum skyward. In spite of all the experimentation in sound and style, Sufjan’s vocals provide a clear and coherent center of gravity. The album includes some of his most diverse vocal performances to date (from soft hush to guttural scream), and whether he’s singing through effects pedals, vocoders, auto-tune or not, his voice delivers an ambitious flight map through the cosmos.
The project started when the Dutch concert hall Muziekgebouw Eindhoven commissioned Nico Muhly to create a new piece for their audience, and Nico immediately thought of his friends Bryce and Sufjan.
‘Mercury’ by Sufjan Stevens, Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly, James McAlister. Taken from the album ‘Planetarium’, released 9th June on 4AD Records:
“I’d known Sufjan for years,” says Nico, “and Bryce and I had been in each other’s business” — but, says Bryce, “we’d never worked on something this ambitious together.” Each of the four brought their discrete and complementary strengths to the project. Nico’s experience with composing music for cathedral choirs and symphony orchestras provided the framework for the piece, while Bryce brought his own sense of composition and orchestral color.
“Of the three of us, Bryce is the most virtuosic at his instrument,” said Nico. A studied and accomplished classical musician, Bryce was also fluent in Nico’s unique musical language, and added a layer of rhythmic complexity to the songs.”
Sufjan became the driver behind the “song” part of the song cycle. (Bryce: “I think ‘seven trombones’ was enough to lure Sufjan into it.”) Sufjan also brought lyrics, and with them, the larger ideas around which Planetarium revolves: mythology and astrology, the ancient concept that stars and planets of the night sky represent gods, heroes and monsters. As the project evolved, the group expanded the idea to encompass science and astronomy.
Sufjan also introduced frequent collaborator James McAlister to Bryce and Nico, and James brought the beats—drums, percussion and electronic sequencing.
In addition to the previously announced Paris show, Sufjan Stevens, Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly, James McAlisterwill perform music from ‘Planetarium’ live at three special US concerts this summer. Listen to new track ‘Mercury’,
If you’re looking for something a little more real, raw, and just damn good let us present Sallisaw Blue (4AD/Remote Control) a stomping road song of weight and presence, and we’re referring to John Moreland . Call it alt-Country or whatever you like, or simply just some form of country and those aforementioned blues coming as delivered through a helluva voice. Yes, the stomp and feeling of this is real. That it was recorded in a dive bar in Tulsa before opening time, with plumbers working on the pipes in the background, just makes it seem even more right.
‘Sallisaw Blue’ by John Moreland, from new album ‘Big Bad Luv’, released May 5th on 4AD Records
John Moreland’s network television debut is…glorious and affirming and a sucker punch. He is announced by Stephen Colbert, lights dissolve, and the camera slowly focuses on the person midway across the unadorned stage, revealing him beneath muted blue lights.He is a big man. Seated, alone, cradling his acoustic guitar.He looks like nobody who is famous. He sings directly from his heart, with none of the restraint and filters and caution the rest of us would apply for public protection. He sings with resolute courage.
Then he begins to sing, to caress the song “Break My Heart Sweetly,” and all that remains is to whisper, “Oh, my god.” In Colbert’s studio everybody stood, like they were in church.
Sallisaw, Oklahoma, is famous as the homeplace of the Joad clan in John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, but in this Okie punk-turned-folkie’s song, it’s just another American small town dying a slow death. There’s some optimism and even humor in John Moreland’s depiction, as thought he might remake these empty burgs into something new and vivid and as American as ever.
Since the announcement of their new album “Everything Is Forgotten”which comes out next week via 4ADRecords, we have been chomping at the bit for some new material. Luckily following the brilliant ‘Ubu’ the band have released new track ‘L’Heure des Sorcieres’.
The track is a dancefloor hit, merging the great and the good of Methyl Ethel with a nuanced electronic sound which spells only good things for the forthcoming album. The Perth band have given us a real glimpse of their artistic heart and it looks like a beat we can all enjoy. Everything Is Forgotten is out on March 3rd via 4AD Records
L’Heure des Sorcières’ by Methyl Ethel.
New album ‘Everything Is Forgotten’ is released 3rd March 2017
Methyl Ethel have announced details of their new album, Everything Is Forgotten, alongside a new track and video, plus European and North American tour dates.
Released on 3rd March, Everything Is Forgotten is a vivid, compelling and mysterious creature, all sinewy, curvaceous pop nuggets and enigmatic currents. Written and recorded by Perth-based frontman Jake Webb, the album was brought to life by acclaimed British producer James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Foals). As demonstrated by last year’s single ‘No. 28.’, the pair’s collaboration has infused Methyl Ethel’s shoegaze dream-pop palate with electronic and polyrhythmic flourishes, allowing Webb’s keening, gender-fluid vocals and searing poetry to take centre stage. Today the band have also shared new single ‘Ubu’, a frenetic pop song inspired by Alfred Jarry’s surrealist play Ubu Roi. A self-portrait of self-flagellation and guilt, its companion video, directed by Paxi, takes some of its absurdist cues from Jarry.
You can find all details on the record, plus newly announced international tour dates,
Everything Is Forgotten, released 3rd March,
Pre-order from 4AD Records on limited edition magenta vinyl, and CD,
Liima is a new band formed by Finnish percussionist Tatu Rönkkö plus Mads Brauer, Casper Clausen and Rasmus Stolberg of Danish act Efterklang.
‘Post-millennial’ – a phrase which in cultural terms resonates like some digital pestilence. Anxiety, bank crashes, moral panics, technological warfare, Thom Yorke – we’re all in the suffocating grip of some inexplicable dystopian crisis and all we can do is keep legging it round that hamster wheel called Life.
Liima feel our pain exuding chronic unease and fidgety emotive angst channeling it through their profoundly affecting groove-orientated cyborg rock. The band, which unites Finnish percussionist Tatu Rönkkö and Danish outfit Efterklang, come off like Talk Talk jamming with Yeasayer; it’s an intense, seductive ride with enough understated euphoria amid the gloom.
Tracks Trains in the Dark and 513 are foreboding grinders while Amerika wouldn’t sound out of place on Achtung Baby such is it’s epic electronic balladry. In short, 4AD have unearthed another gem which will keep you buzzing.
Nordic four-piece Liima have premiered the video for their debut single ‘Amerika’, from their forthcoming album ii, out on March 18th.
The short film was directed by Olivier Groulx and filmed on America’s West Coast in Palmdale, CA. It was shot entirely on smart phones and features all four members of Liima.
This is a highly promising debut. It plays like a brain chemistry experiment gone horribly right.” Methyl Ethel makes dream-pop for insomniacs with shadowy, nocturnal music whose surfaces shimmer barely conceals the fidgety, restless soul lurking underneath. After causing a storm at Brisbane’s Big Sound festival late last year, as a trio Methyl Ethel were snapped up by 4AD Records. They come from the same town as Tame Impala and write similarly infectious psych pop, albeit with a chorus-friendly twist on it.
Today marks the global release of “Oh Inhuman Spectacle”, the crepuscular debut album by Australian trio Methyl Ethel. To celebrate, the band have launched a video to their latest single ‘Twilight Driving’, which you can watch here,.
Methyl Ethel are currently on their maiden UK and European tour, with a number of shows in London and Brighton at The Great Escape within the next week.
You can now buy Oh Inhuman Spectacle on LP/CD from the 4AD Store
On May 20th, 4AD will release “Day of the Dead” – a celebration of the Grateful Dead’s music created and curated by brothers Aaron and Bryce Dessner of The National.
It has been a massive undertaking. The compilation is a wide-ranging tribute to the songwriting and experimentalism of the Grateful Dead, which took four years to record, features over 60 artists from varied musical backgrounds, 59 tracks and is almost 6 hours long.
Day of the Dead will be released digitally, on a 5 X CD, and as a limited edition vinyl boxed set. All profits will help fight for AIDS/ HIV and related health issues around the world through the Red Hot Organisation.
Among the first five songs shared from it today include the first new music from The War on Drugs since 2014’s brilliant Lost In The Dream with their cover of the Dead’s 1987 hit “Touch of Grey”.
Phosphorescent and Jenny Lewis combine with the backing of the in-house band (featuring 4/5 of the National) that contributed to numerous recordings on the compilation, to cover 1971’s “Sugaree”.
Courtney Barnett puts her characteristic slant on New Speedway Boogie,
The National cover Bonnie Dobson’s Morning Dew, a Grateful Dead staple since 1967, one of two songs that they contributed to the compilation.
Black Muddy River’ by Bruce Hornsby and DeYarmond Edison, from ‘Day of the Dead’, a tribute album to the Grateful Dead curated by Aaron and Bryce Dessner of The National, with all profits going to Red Hot Organization.
‘Day of the Dead’ is released on 20th May via 4AD.
After much anticipation and years of work, the massive tribute to the Grateful Dead organized by The National’sAaron and Bryce Dessner has finally been officially announced. Titled Day Of The Dead, the 59-track playlist features over 60 guests, and is split into three parts: “Thunder,” “Lightning,” and “Sunshine.”
The album is full of an incredible listing of special guests, including The War On Drugs, Jim James, Phosphorescent, Jenny Lewis, Courtne Barnett, Wilco, The Lone Bellow, Bruce Hornsby, Charles Bradley, Local Natives, Kurt Vile, The Flaming Lips, Lucinda Williams, Mumford & Sons, Joe Russo, Lucius, Perfume Genius, Stephen Malkmus, Bela Fleck, Tallest Man On Earth, Richard Reed Parry, and more! Bob Weir makes a handful of appearances throughout, including collaborations with Wilco and The National.
ABOUT RED HOT ORGANIZATION:
Red Hot is a not-for-profit, 501(c) 3 organization dedicated to fighting HIV/AIDS through pop culture. Its mission is to raise awareness and money around the AIDS crisis and related health issues. It was started in 1990 by Leigh Blake and John Carlin with the Cole Porter tribute album Red Hot + Blue, which raised millions of dollars, helped reduce the stigma around AIDS at the time and supported organizations and efforts such as ACT UP and T.A.G., which took a stand and made the world pay attention and develop medication that let people with AIDS survive.
Over the past 25 years, over 500 artists, producers and directors have contributed to 20 compilation albums of original music, videos, events and media to keep people thinking about the implications of the AIDS epidemic as well as donate millions to organizations around the world.
Day of the Dead Tracklist:
“Thunder” (Volume One)
Touch of Grey (The War on Drugs)
Sugaree (Phosphorescent, Jenny Lewis & Friends)
Candyman (Jim James & Friends)
Cassidy (Moses Sumney, Jenny Lewis & Friends)
Black Muddy River (Bruce Hornsby and DeYarmond Edison feat. Justin Vernon and Megafaun)
Loser (Ed Droste, Binki Shapiro & Friends)
Peggy-O (The National)
Box of Rain (Kurt Vile and the Violators feat. J Mascis)
Rubin and Cherise (Bonnie “Prince” Billy & Friends)
To Lay Me Down (Perfume Genius, Sharon Van Etten & Friends)
New Speedway Boogie (Courtney Barnett)
Friend of the Devil (Mumford & Sons)
Uncle John’s Band (Lucius)
Me and My Uncle (The Lone Bellow & Friends)
Mountains of the Moon (Lee Ranaldo, Lisa Hannigan & Friends)
Black Peter (Anohni and yMusic)
Garcia Counterpoint (Bryce Dessner)
Terrapin Station (Suite) (Daniel Rossen, Christopher Bear, The National feat. Josh Kaufman, Conrad Doucette, So Percussion and Brooklyn Youth Chorus)
Attics of My Life (Angel Olsen)
St. Stephen (live) (Wilco feat. Bob Weir)
“Lightning” (Volume Two) If I Had the World to Give (Bonnie “Prince” Billy)
Standing on the Moon (Phosphorescent & Friends)
Cumberland Blues (Charles Bradley and Menahan Street Band)
Ship of Fools (Tallest Man on Earth & Friends)
Bird Song (Bonnie “Prince” Billy & Friends)
Morning Dew (The National)
Truckin’ (Marijuana Deathsquads)
Dark Star (Cass McCombs, Joe Russo & Friends)
Nightfall of Diamonds (Nightfall of Diamonds)
Transitive Refraction Axis for John Oswald (Tim Hecker)
Going Down the Road Feelin’ Bad (Lucinda Williams & Friends)
Playing in the Band (Tunde Adebimpe, Lee Ranaldo & Friends)
Stella Blue (Local Natives)
Eyes of the World (Tal National)
Help On the Way (Bela Fleck)
Franklin’s Tower (Orchestra Baobob)
Till the Morning Comes (Luluc with Xylouris White)
Ripple (The Walkmen)
Brokedown Palace (Richard Reed Parry with Caroline Shaw and Little Scream feat. Garth Hudson)
“Sunshine” (Volume Three) Here Comes Sunshine (Real Estate)
Shakedown Street (Unknown Mortal Orchestra)
Brown-Eyed Women (Hiss Golden Messenger)
Jack-A-Roe (This is the Kit)
High Time (Daniel Rossen and Christopher Bear)
Dire Wolf (The Lone Bellow & Friends)
Althea (Winston Marshall, Kodiak Blue and Shura)
Clementine Jam (Orchestra Baobob)
China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider (Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks)
Easy Wind (Bill Callahan)
Wharf Rat (Ira Kaplan & Friends)
Estimated Prophet (The Rileys)
Drums > Space (Man Forever, So Percussion and Oneida)
Cream Puff War (Fucked Up)
Dark Star (The Flaming Lips)
What’s Become of the Baby (s t a r g a z e)
King Solomon’s Marbles (Vijay Iyer)
Rosemary (Mina Tindle & Friends)
And We Bid You Goodnight (Sam Amidon)
I Know You Rider (live) (The National with Bob Weir)
The Fat Angel Sings 