Posts Tagged ‘Jagjaguwar Recordings.’

PINK MOUNTAINTOPS – ” Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasies: The First Demos “

Posted: May 2, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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In early 2003 a young Steve McBean was living in Vancouver and in the midst of a transition from his sorely overlooked rock band Jerk With A Bomb into an auspicious new chapter. JWAB was his umpteenth band in as many years woodshedding as both a front-man and a supporting musician in countless punk & hard core bands in the Canadian wilds starting in his teens and going through his twenties. JWAB was arguably the band in which he’d finally found his signature singing voice and started collaborating with drummer Joshua Wells and vocalist Amber Webber.

Around this time his friend Dan Bejar (Destroyer, New Pornographers) sent to Jagjaguwar a demo tape of new songs that Steve had been writing. He wasn’t sure if it they were JWAB songs or something new entirely. The songs were randy & ribald, with a primitive drum machine beat and a Bo Diddley guitar swagger. They were scintillating and taught us things that our parents were too scared to teach. These were the demos for the songs that would be re-recorded as the debut album by Pink Mountaintops, a sister project to the other McBean-fronted rock band that was being born at the same time — Black Mountain. This was an exciting time not only for McBean — who was bubbling with songs & ideas — but a turning point for Jagjaguwar, thrilled to sign two of its most significant projects simultaneously.

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We’re very pleased to be able to share these first demos which bred so much inspiration and provided a horny clarion call for things to come.

released May 1, 2020

OKAY KAYA – ” Watch This Liquid Pour Itself “

Posted: January 30, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Kaya Wilkins—under the moniker Okay Kaya—is one of indie label Jagjaguwar’s freshest faces, but her latest single “Baby Little Tween” puts the new artist right at the level of her beloved labelmates Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen. The single is just one piece of her debut project on Jagjaguwar, Watch This Liquid Pour Itself, which shows Wilkins coming to terms with a former identity.

Album opener “Baby Little Tween” rests upon delicate, watery synths that cradle Wilkins’ half-whispered realizations. As the song picks up into a groove, she self-harmonizes, singing, “I used to be inspired / Used to feel something / I used to fight the feeling always let it win.” Sung through Wilkins’ multiple voices, these lyrical bridges between her two identities become even more apparent.

Baby Little Tween’ from ‘Watch This Liquid Pour Itself’ by Okay Kaya, available January 24th, 2020 on Jagjaguwar

NAP EYES – ” Mark Zuckerberg “

Posted: January 25, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Nap Eyes will release their new album, “Snapshot of a Beginner”, their most concentrated and hi-fi effort to date, on March 27th via Jagjaguwar / Royal Mountain, in partnership with Paradise of Bachelors. Throughout the album, there’s an immediately noticeable leap in arrangement and muscle, one that still holds the raw, nervous energy and the earnest, self-deprecating poetry that make Nap Eyes an enduring cult favorite. The music still brings to mind the bucolic ennui of the Silver Jews and Daniel Johnston’s jittery naïveté, but the new sheen and maturity also now brings to mind the wide-angle appeal of The Jayhawks and the addictive brightness of Green Day’s Kerplunk!.

Lead single “Mark Zuckerberg” is a hi-fi jangle-pop earworm that, at its outset, sounds like it could be the theme song from Party of Five. Less a takedown of any one specific, capitalist tech fascist than it is a poem about the confounding and beautiful swirl of modern life, it is their thoughtful, incisive Hit for The People. “Transcendence is all around us,” Chapman repeats, a freeing incantation and a gift to us all as the coda slows and expands.

On the video, the band notes: “People are scared of Mark Zuckerberg. You look at him before Congress and think, ‘Is this the bogeyman? Is he a CIA plant? Can he read my mind with some sort of God-mode search feature in all my chat transcripts?’ This video leads us to believe that Mark wants to enjoy and surveil whatever world he inhabits, whether it’s starting a band with ghastly apparitions in the spirit realm or changing size according to his whim while observing natural and urban landscapes with equal awe. He wants you to accept his friend request and let him watch over you. ‘When there was only one set of footprints in the sand…’”

Almost all the songs of Nap Eyes are whittled into their final form from frontman Nigel Chapman’s unspooling, 20-minute voice-and-guitar free-writing sessions. Each member — drummer Seamus Dalton, bassist Josh Salter and guitarist Brad Loughead — then plays a crucial role in song development, composing around the idiosyncratic structures and directing the overall sound and feel of the songs.

‘Mark Zuckerberg’ from ’Snapshot of a Beginner’ by Nap Eyes, available March 27th, 2020 on Jagjaguwar

BON IVER – ” Blood Bank ” Reissue

Posted: January 25, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Bon Iver’s “Blood Bank” is “arguably the most consequential EP of the 2000s” and now, the group announces its 10th Anniversary  reissue. Released 11 years ago yesterday (we know), and coming March 27th on Jagjaguwar, the package pairs each of the original four songs with brand new live renditions recorded during shows in Stockholm, Dallas, London, and Paris.

Similar to how the first Blood Bank followed For Emma, Forever Ago, the reissue forecasts the evolution of Bon Iver as the project expands to new breadths of sound and community. In its new liner notes, Wisconsinite Ryan Matteson reflects on the mantras of Blood Bank and the growth of Bon Iver, writing how songs like “Woods” heralded “not just a new direction but a new beginning entirely. A place where boundaries don’t exist. It was a signal change of things to come, laying the groundwork for new collaborations.”

Bon Iver performed music from Blood Bank throughout their 2019 arena tour supporting new album i,i. That tour will extend through November 2020 with a series of just-added European dates

The reissue will feature new artwork by Eric Timothy Carlson, both original and brand new live renditions of each track, and an in-depth essay written by longtime Bon Iver friend Ryan Matteson.

Side A:
01 – Blood Bank
02 – Beach Baby
03 – Babys
04 – Woods

Side B:
05 – Blood Bank (Live from Ericsson Globe, Stockholm SE, Oct 31 2018)
06 – Beach Baby (Live from The Bomb Factory, Dallas TX, Jan 23 2018)
07 – Babys (Live from Eventim Apollo Hammersmith, London UK, Mar 4 2018)
08 – Woods (Live from Pitchfork Paris Presented by La Blogothèque, Nov 3 2018)

Blood Bank (10th Anniversary Edition) – out March 27, 2020 via Jagjaguwar Recordings.

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