Random Youtube: The Winter Sounds – Shoulders Above
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
I've been a fan of The Winter Sounds since their last album came out a few years ago. In that time period, they came to Cleveland and I missed the show, which is something that I've regretted nearly daily each day since then. (And as it turns out, I apparently missed a show in Canton in December. Arrrrgh!) Periodically, I'd check to see if they had a new album out and finally, this past fall, that wish came true.
Runner is the name of the newest release from the New Orleans-based band (seriously, it blows my mind that this band came out of New Orleans) and as was the case with 2009's Church Of The Haunted South, the new album does not disappoint. These guys are unashamedly retro in all of the best ways -- take four or five of your favorite '80s bands and you'll probably find elements of what you loved about those bands in the music of The Winter Sounds.
Their videos are just as cool as the music -- and they've got a brand new video for "Shoulders Above" which you can watch below.
And here's a video for my personal jam from the new album, "The Sun Also Rises," which is the lead-off track on the album.
Download music from the band via their official Bandcamp page here.
They don't appear to be on the road currently, but you can check out their website for the latest info and any future tour dates that might pop up.
zeroAn Introduction To Michael McDermott
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
The fine folks over at Noisetrade are giving away a free download titled "An Introduction To Michael McDermott." Strangely, it seems to contain a selection of 12 tracks designed to do just that - introduce you to the music of Michael McDermott.
From the Noisetrade site:
It's been quite a ride since Michael McDermott unleashed his debut, 620 West Surf, some twenty years ago, but his forthcoming 2012 release, Hit Me Back, represents the work of a new artist. This Noisetrade compilation spans Michael's career and was put together especially for music lovers like you to discover the artist that mega-author Stephen King has called “one of the best songwriters in the world and possibly the greatest undiscovered rock ‘n’ roll talent of the last 20 years.” Michael is a Raconteur and a Troubadour. He has lived a life full of the experiences that qualify him as such. With inspiration drawn from rock n’ roll’s great storytellers - Springsteen, Dylan and Van Morrison – McDermott’s lifelong connection with fans comes from his uncanny ability to communicate universal truths through his own personal experiences. Discover Michael through these songs and if you like what you hear let him know. Come see a show. Become a Facebook friend. Thanks for listening!
Within the download are three tracks from the new album, so you'll get a taste of what you can expect from Hit Me Back when it lands in stores in about a week, on September 25th. This is McDermott's first release on Rock Ridge Music and the project was funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign.
At the time of the campaign launch, McDermott shared the following thoughts regarding his planned new album:
It's been 4 years since my last recording venture. Much has happened in the last 4 years. Got married, had a daughter, played over 300 shows, wrote over 200 songs, traveled to Italy 3 times, England, Ireland, East Coast , West Coast, made many friends, made many lifelong friends. I NEVER go into the studio too soon. I always make sure that the songs are ready. The stories are ready. The chapter is ready for this never ending book. In this batch of songs we will have to pull from, there are songs of high drama, there are songs on international intrigue, philosophical meanderings, hijinks gone awry, love, loss, redemption and like any great rock record.... a song about a train.
Hearing the three songs that are on the above sampler, I'll look forward to finding out how the rest of Hit Me Back will play out. As mentioned previously, it's been quite a ride for McDermott in the past 20+ years, but there's been a lot of good music that has come our way as a result of his trip.
Thankfully, he's still here with stories to tell.
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Jefferson Starship Announce New ‘Tales From The Mothership’ Live CD
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
With a band name like Jefferson Starship, it's only natural that at some point, you should find a way to record a live CD in Roswell, New Mexico.
The San Francisco psychedelic veterans did exactly that, pointing their tour bus towards Roswell in 2009 to be part of the city's annual UFO Parade event. The Starship brought their "Sci-Fi Extravaganza" to Roswell for a show with special guests which included former Grateful Dead keyboardist Tom Constanten.
The city rolled out their space age red carpet in return, making the Starship members their "Grand Martians" for that year's parade, which meant that the members of Jefferson Starship got to ride on a special float in the parade...and presumably, they might have also gotten the keys to Area 51?
The concert portion of the event was recorded and filmed and is being issued now by Gonzo Multimedia as a four CD set featuring the entire concert, plus soundcheck and rehearsal recordings recorded prior to the show.
Along with Paul Kantner and David Frieberg, Jefferson Starship also features lead singer Cathy Richardson (who played Janis Joplin on Broadway in 'Love, Janis') and longtime band members Slick Aguilar, Chris Smith and Donny Baldwin. In addition to Grateful Dead's Tom Constanten, special guests include Pete Sears (the band's former bass & keyboard player on all their hits), Barry Sless (guitar & pedal steel with Phil Lesh & Friends), former lead vocalist Darby Gould and legendary folk artist Jack Taylor, one of Paul Kantner's early musical influences.
The show found the band running through a diverse set which of course included many of their legendary hits ("Somebody To Love," White Rabbit," Volunteers" and "Wooden Ships," to name a few) plus some material which hadn't ever been performed live.
Check out the full track listing and order your copy here.
Marty Stuart Aims To ‘Tear The Woodpile Down’ With New Album
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
Many, many moons ago, I got a promo of Marty Stuart's newest album at the time, This One's Gonna Hurt You. With titles like "Me & Hank & Jumpin' Jack Flash," I could tell that for a country guy, Stuart probably liked to rock.
So I put the album on and for approximately one album, I became a huge Marty Stuart fan. I kind of lost track of Stuart after that, although I always kept an eye and ear trained to see what he was up to. A few years ago, he was back in Cleveland for a fascinating evening of conversation at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that included stories of his time spent as a member of Johnny Cash's band as Johnny was preparing for his final "victory lap" that would come around in the '90s.
One thing that has always impressed me about Stuart is that he puts his cards right out there on the table. You never really have to guess who Marty Stuart is trying to be from album to album. He just sounds an awful lot like Marty Stuart, with a clearly defined definition laying out what that is.
On his new album Tear The Woodpile Down, Stuart defines that by saying that "today, the most outlaw thing you can do in Nashville, Tennessee is play country music."
But it wasn't always that way, because as he notes, "when I first came to Nashville . . . the most outlaw thing you could possibly do around here was to take country music and blow it up into rock & roll. Mission accomplished!"
So Marty Stuart has made a great country album, 10 tracks deep and to take his outlaw ways even further, he wrote most of the songs himself. Recorded with his band, the Fabulous Superlatives, Stuart is joined by some special guests (including Hank III and Lorrie Carter Bennett), but he doesn't need any of them - Tear The Woodpile Down stands as the same kind of great Marty Stuart album that I heard back in 1992, no enhancements needed and it's highly recommended.
Hear four tracks from the album here and if you dig it, you can grab a free download of the title track via the widget below. [And if you reaaaaalllly like it, Marty won't mind it a bit if you should decide to buy the whole dang thing, which is in stores tomorrow (Tuesday, April 24th).]
zeroNew B.B. King Live Album Is Today’s Amazon Daily Deal
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
Today's Amazon MP3 deal is a can't miss affair for lovers of the blues. B.B. King's new live album, Live at the Royal Albert Hall 2011 makes its release debut and for today only, it's $3.99 at Amazon MP3.
B.B. is joined by Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, Slash and Ronnie Wood. The release is a good primer for anyone who might be planning to catch B.B. this fall when he pairs up with Tedeschi-Trucks Band for a string of dates. At 86 years old, we're lucky to have B.B. still taking the stage and I'm glad that he's still playing music.
BTW, speaking of Amazon, they're putting some extra eyeballs on their daily deal website today by offering $10 Amazon gift certificates for $5 (limit one per household).
moreThe Original 7ven – #Trendin
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
Morris Day and the complete original lineup of The Time recently released a new album called 'Condensate,' but if you missed the news, don't feel too bad. The album has been released under the banner of "The Original 7ven" due to former Time associate Prince (he of the symbol, artist formerly known as, etc.) letting the band know that he wouldn't allow them to use the name "The Time."
Jimmy Jam looks at the change as a positive one, telling Billboard that "we sound like ourselves because we have a sound, for sure, when we get together, but we certainly didn't have the constraints of the name, and therefore we felt we could do music that represented where we're at right now. So we just kind of embraced it rather than getting all involved in legal stuff."
No matter what they're calling it, 'Condensate' is a mighty fine batch of funky goodness and the physical edition of the album, which is exclusive to Best Buy, comes with a bonus DVD that contains a 90 minute documentary covering the 30 year history of the group. It's seriously not to be missed and for $9.99, how can you resist?
Give a listen to the first single '#Trendin' and you'll hear that they're in fine form.
moreUnboxing the new Pearl Jam ‘Twenty’ soundtrack
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
Yeah, I'd love to tell you that this is me, holding a copy of Pearl Jam's new 'Twenty' soundtrack/rarities collection but alas, I'm here with you, waiting not so patiently for my copy.
Adam Tutty of Easy Street Records in Seattle, which has long been the official Pearl Jam base for record shopping, pulls a copy of 'Twenty' out of what appears to be a box full of the CDs. While it's not the most thrilling reveal out of all of the unboxing videos that I've seen (love whoever thought of the concept by the way - hey, let's open stuff and film ourselves doing it), it is pretty cool to see the massive amounts of Pearl Jam in stock at Easy Street....and the whole joint just looks generally cool.
I'm really looking forward to seeing the film, which screens here in Cleveland (and lots of other places too) on 9/20, which unfortunately is the same night that the Foo Fighters are in town. So I guess I'll be catching it on PBS when it airs in October and of course, picking up the DVD when it's released a few days later! (And oh yeah, don't forget about the book!)
The band is celebrating their 20th anniversary with a weekend's worth of music right now at Alpine Valley. The Twitter scoop coming down minute by minute is pretty awesome....apparently, Chris Cornell will help them turn up the Temple of the Dog factor - he's set to perform at least a couple of songs with the band, having soundchecked 'Hunger Strike' and 'Say Hello 2 Heaven.' Follow the action here for the latest updates. (#PJ20 is the hashtag for show-related updates on Twitter.)
zeroNew from Ben Folds Five, ‘House’
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
It feels so good to type the words "new Ben Folds Five." For those of you living under that proverbial rock, Folds has an awesome rarities collection coming out that for some reason, we have to wait patiently until October to hear.
We're not so good with the whole waiting thing.
Three newly completed Ben Folds Five tracks are part of the collection and one of them, a tune called 'House' makes its premiere via the NBC website for 'The Sing-Off.'
You can stream the new song here.
Allegedly, Ben Folds Five will come together in December to record a new album. How great would that be?
Pre-order 'The Best Imitation of Myself: A Retrospective.'
moreJourney to Steve Perry: Let’s hang out, bro.
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
I had to laugh when I saw this:
Steve Perry is welcome back on stage with Journey any time, guitarist Neal Schon said in a recent interview. In fact, current lead singer and Perry soundalike Arnel Pineda would be “overjoyed” if Perry were to show up for one of the band’s tour stops.
I was discussing the recently announced 'Greatest Hits Volume 2' release with good ol Mike Duquette of The Second Disc recently, admitting that it's very likely that I'll need to own it (it's coming out on vinyl, btw) despite the fact that I own all of the songs featured on the compilation. What's up with that?
One of my coolest acquisitions of the past year? Getting a DVD copy of the 'Frontiers & Beyond' home video, thanks to a cool ATV reader who saw my plea for a copy. Even though I have it, I'd still welcome an official DVD version of it, perhaps with bonus footage?
We can dream, right?
moreNew Matthew Sweet album set for release on September 20th
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
Modern rock, pop....hell, whatever you want to call it, you'll probably be happy to know that Matthew Sweet has a new album coming out on September 20th. And perhaps, you'll be even happier to know that to these ears at least, the album sounds pretty damn good. Sweet's last album 'Sunshine Lies' didn't quite hit it with me, but I was still interested to hear new music when I heard that it was on the way.
Titled 'Modern Art,' after a few initial listens, I'd call it worth the wait and it's a collection of music that sits quite well sonically with his past work. So if you dig the classic era Sweet stuff, this album seems like it has legs to stand quite nicely with his output to date.
Here's a preview of the title track:
Also, it appears that if you thought his last few releases were too damn loud, they've addressed that and given a special shout out to vinyl lovers as well:
"Modern Art’s inventiveness extends to its final stages: mastering engineer Glenn Schick employed his unique “triple analog” process, whereby the masters for the album were cut to virgin lacquer acetates and meticulously transferred back to digital, resulting in a rich, full-bodied, “vinyl” sound. “It’s not too loud, because we wanted to allow the dynamics to breathe,” Schick explains."
For more Sweet-related fun, you can look forward to a new Sweet-produced album from the Bangles called 'Sweetheart of the Sun,' which will be released on September 13th.....which means that it will be a pretty good month for music fans, especially if you like Matthew Sweet and the Bangles!
Here's the complete press release for the Matthew Sweet album:
On September 20, 2012, Matthew Sweet will release Modern Art (Missing Piece Records), the eagerly anticipated follow-up to 2008’s Sunshine Lies.
Throughout a career that stretches back to the mid-‘80s, Matthew Sweet has never followed trends, though his landmark 1991 album Girlfriend was responsible for starting one: in fact, many critics note that most power pop records made during the ‘90s owe a tremendous debt to Sweet. Two decades after the release of that iconic album, Sweet has once again swung for the fences – and connected – with the boldly experimental, yet deeply personal Modern Art.
Defiantly unorthodox, but often playfully so, Modern Art features 12 new compositions of Sweet’s trademark wistful, yearning pop that recall some of Sweet’s touchstones: the Beatles, Beach Boys and Big Star. “She Walks the Night” is reminiscent of early-period Byrds, while “Ladyfingers” stomps along with the authority of T. Rex. Other standout tracks include the swirling, psychedelic “Oh, Oldendaze!,” the ruggedly assertive “Late Nights With the Power Pop,” the acerbically witty “Evil By Design, Goodbye Nature” and the sweetly soulful “Modern Art.”
For this record, Sweet discarded his normal process of laying down ideas as they came to him and shaping them into songs. Instead, he allowed these spontaneous kernels of music dictate the direction of each piece. “In the past, I’d make deliberate changes of structures and normalize things, but this time, I wanted to make it abstract but still human and natural.” He reflects “That approach gave it a super-personal feel that was really melodic and musical but still different, so I ran with it. And in an odd way, this record feels more like me than anything I’ve done.”
Longtime musical cohort Ric Menck (Velvet Crush) does all the drumming on the album (except for “Ivory Tower,” which is built on a random drum pattern supplied by Sweet’s friend, actor/musician Fred Armisen). Dennis Taylor’s deft and urgent guitar lines serve as a running commentary to Sweet’s introspective singing.
Sweet expounds on the genesis of the album’s title: “I first wrote down the phrase ‘modern art’ as a possible song title, and it struck a chord with me because of its similarity to ‘modern heart’ – like a stare-down between the strange newness of time and the living and feeling-filled but surely doomed heart.”
Modern Art’s inventiveness extends to its final stages: mastering engineer Glenn Schick employed his unique “triple analog” process, whereby the masters for the album were cut to virgin lacquer acetates and meticulously transferred back to digital, resulting in a rich, full-bodied, “vinyl” sound. “It’s not too loud, because we wanted to allow the dynamics to breathe,” Schick explains. Modern Art will be available on all formats (vinyl, CD and digital) on September 20, 2011. The vinyl version of the album will feature an exclusive bonus track, “At the Screen (With the World Flowing In)” as well as a digital album download.
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