Music Releases 03-03-23
Morgan Wallen's 3rd studio album, One Thing At A Time, is set for release via Big Loud/Mercury/Republic on 3/3/23. Wallen's 36-song, deeply personal album combines his musical influences (country/alternative/hip-hop). With so much new music, the stage is set for his 63-date/30 stadium One Night At A Time World Tour. This album follows the success of his 4x platinum, Dangerous: The Double Album, which notched historical chart status at Billboard's longest running Top 10 album for a solo artist.
Grammy Award-winner Kali Uchis’ third studio album, Red Moon In Venus, will be released on March 3, 2022, via Geffen Records. It features the new single, “I Wish You Roses.”
Zappa '80: Mudd Club/Munich combines 2 historical performances from the 1980 spring/summer tour. The first is a set at FZ's favorite NYC nightclub, the famous Mudd Club, presented from a hi-res transfer of the original master tape. The second, from Olympiahalle in Munich, is the first-ever direct-to-digital live stereo recording of Zappa. Mastered by Bernie Grundman in 2022, with photography and memoir from George Alper, and liner notes from Arthur Barrow, Steve Vai & `Vaultmeister' Joe Travers.
Also Available: Zappa ’80: Munich [3LP], Zappa ’80: Mudd Club [2LP]
3 Feet High and Rising is the debut studio album by hip hop trio de la Soul and was released on March 3, 1989. It marked the first of three full-length collaborations with producer Prince Paul, which would become the critical and commercial peak of both parties. Critically, as well as commercially, the album was a success. It contains the singles, "Me Myself and I", "The Magic Number, " "Buddy, " and "Eye Know". The album title came from the Johnny Cash song "Five Feet High and Rising". It is listed on Rolling Stone's 200 Essential Rock Records and The Source's 100 Best Rap Albums. When Village Voice held it's annual Pazz & Jop Critics Poll for 1989, 3 Feet High and Rising was ranked #1. It was also listed on the Rolling Stone's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Released amid the 1989 boom in gangsta rap, which gravitated towards hardcore, confrontational, violent lyrics, de la Soul's uniquely positive style made them an oddity beginning with the first single, "Me, Myself and I". Their positivity meant many observers labeled them a "hippie" group, based on their declaration of the "D.A.I.S.Y. Age" (Da. Inner. Soul. Yall). Sampling artists as diverse as Hall & Oates, Steely Dan and The Turtles, 3 Feet High and Rising is often viewed as the stylistic beginning of 1990s alternative hip hop (and especially jazz rap).
Elvis Costello & Burt Bacharach
The Songs Of Bacharach & Costello [Super Deluxe 2LP/4CD]
“FOREGROUND MUSIC”, the title of Ron Gallo’s 4th LP, and debut for Kill Rock Stars might also be a suitable name for his own genre. In simplest terms it’s the opposite of background music - unavoidable, urgent, in your face - Gallo’s consistent theme is to confront, disrupt and sometimes even confuse people into a sense of awareness. The intention to steer away from apathy and self-empower by focusing on what we can control and make light of in a world designed to take it away. The guitar is less an instrument and more of a primal noise machine. This record is a challenge to everything and everyone, including his own self, who is holding back the progress of humanity (especially in America) into a more open, empathetic and collective unit - the words delivered with a punkish tenacity and lining even the heaviest topics with an ever-present sense of humor. It covers the full spectrum of emotion. This music feels like life feels right now. In his eyes, how could it not? Clad in caution tape and construction orange color scheme, much like his surrounding neighborhood in Philadelphia where it was written and recorded. Gallo doesn’t see now (or ever) as the time to sit back and chill - this is going to be what we make it. Over the course of the record traversing between sounds akin to an exploding NYC subway station, oddball dance-punk, noise pop, even the more grave moments would sit well in whatever a modern version of CBGB’s 1975 would be - in 11 songs Gallo shares detailed anecdotes and takes on male entitlement, the age of anxiety, apathy vs. action, gentrification, narcissism, retail therapy, xenophobia, the dread of future generations, right wing extremists in giant pickup trucks, capitalism, climate change and the experience
Daisy Jones & The Six
Aurora [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Deep Blue Clear LP]
Daisy Jones & The Six Amazon Prime Marquee Television Series based on the book, “Daisy Jones & The Six”.
Produced by Lauren & Scott Neustadter with Hello Sunshine (Reese Witherspoon’s Production Company).
The “Daisy Jones & The Six” Show Cast includes, Sebastian Chacon, Reiley Keough, Sam Claflin, Suki Waterhouse, Camila Morrone, Josh Whitehouse, Nabiyah Be, Will Harrison, and Ayesha Harris.
Four Year Strong
Enemy of the World: Re-Recorded [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Orange w/ Brown Splatter LP]
New England rock band Four Year Strong have announced a re-recorded version of "Enemy of the World” complete with an updated depiction of the album art. The album originally came out over 10 years ago and was a breakout record for the band. Now it sees new production and 4 extra b-sides. "We decided to re record EOTW first and foremost to be as cool as Taylor Swift, but secondly because we wanted to be able to repress the vinyl and offer it to fans that haven’t been able to get it since the record came out." says Alan Day. He continues "It was really interesting to revisit all of the songs down to every detail, getting to kind of relive it in a way. We recorded the drums with Will Putney (who worked on the original EOTW as a engineer), did the rest by ourselves at Dan's house, and then had Will work his magic on it and mix and master it. We had just worked with Will for the first time since 2010 on our new album Brain Pain, and figured it would be perfect to work with Will as he knows FYS old and new more than anyone. So give it a listen, come out to the tour, and party like it’s 2010 again."
If you’re talking about modern progressive rock and don’t bring up Haken, you’re doing it wrong. Since the south English sextet started jamming together in 2004, they’ve been one of their genre’s most loyal yet, simultaneously, adventurous forces. And how do you honour such an eclectic, unpredictable career? You make Fauna: Haken’s most genre-busting and conceptually fascinating album to date. “The premise of the album when we started writing it was that every song would have an animal assigned to it,” explains singer and co-founder Ross Jennings. “They all have something related to the animal kingdom that we could write about, but they also connect to the human world. Each track has layers, and some of them are more obvious than others.”
Kate NV’s WOW offers listeners a prismatic shift in perspective and scale, a parallel dimension in which the mundane becomes funny, unfamiliar, and altogether sensational. Turning the contents of her 2020 album Room for the Moon upside down and spilling them across a floor checkered with intrigue and surprise, Kate places sound, object, and ritual under the microscope to magnify the delight hidden in plain sight of everyday life.
WOW is Kate Shilonosova’s fourth full-length release as Kate NV in six years, and third for RVNG Intl. Her prolific musical output aligns with a highly attuned aesthetic and a deep commitment to visual world building. WOW is one of many of these worlds in which music is fully saturated with color, deeply tactile and textural. Shiny, sproingy, plastic. Where Room for the Moon embraced structure (abstractly speaking) and veered pop, WOW happily abandons conventional song shapes, parsing the experience of musical time into ecstatic fragments.
NCT 127's 4th full-length repackage "Ay-Yo" release news! NCT 127's 4th regular album repackage, "Ay-Yo," presents 3 new songs including the title song "Ay-Yo." These new songs make up, along with the 12 songs from the original fourth full-length album, a total of 15 songs. In addition, hit makers KENZIE, Dem Jointz, Andreas Öberg, and Simon Petrén joined again to set the music trend once again with the synergy created with NCT 127.
Meanwhile, NCT 127's fourth full-length repackage "Ay-Yo" will be released on various music platforms on January 30, and the album will be released on March 3 in the United States.
Amongst the nearly 150 albums that Willie Nelson has released, he has a number of amazing full-album tributes to songwriters from Kris Kristofferson and George Gershwin to Ray Price and Cindy Walker. Adding to that list is a new studio album dedicated to songwriting legend Harlen Howard who has scores of country hits including a number that crossed over to pop and even R&B charts. A member of both the Country Music Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall Of Fame, Howard wrote hits for Ray Charles (“Busted”), Buck Owens (“I’ve Got A Tiger By The Tail”), Conway Twitty (the title track), Bobby Bare (“The Streets Of Baltimore”) and so many more. Produced by longtime collaborator Buddy Cannon and featuring a murderers’ row of crack Nashville musicians, I Don’t Know A Thing About Love is an amazing addition to Willie’s unparalleled catalog.
Inspired by the likes of Amy Winehouse and Sam Smith, Mimi Webb started writing songs of her own at 13-years-old in diaries before eventually learning guitar. In 2019, she uploaded a handful of early compositions and collaborations online, landed management, and inked a deal with Epic Records. Mimi’s impromptu acapella videos exploded with over 20 million views on TikTok, paving the way for a string of original fan favorites such as “Before I Go,” “Reasons,” and “Good Without.” She’s been featured in Wonderland, Teen VOGUE, Refinery 29, Euphoria, CLASH, FLAUNT and Consequence of Sound, to name a few. Describing her forthcoming debut album, Amelia, Mimi says “The album is named Amelia, my full first name, as there are two sides of me that I want people to get to know. There’s Amelia, the girl from the UK countryside who loves to be at home with her family, friends, and dogs; and Mimi, the pop artist who loves to be up on stage traveling the world. It was important for me to capture this duality with songs written for both of those girls, and I’m excited for you all to get to know them!”
Over the last half decade, the music collective Constant Smiles has produced a prolific output of acclaimed music, culminating in their forthcoming record Kenneth Anger, masterfully brought to life by engineer Jonathan Schenke (Parquet Courts, Liars, Dougie Pool). The group is known most recently for their much-praised debut album for Sacred Bones records, Paragons, an emotionally resonant offering of indie folk masterpieces that all confront the internal ways we process our struggles with intimacies, addiction and human-ity—produced by Ben Greenberg.
Constant Smiles’ primary singer/songwriter Ben Jones uses the creative process as a tool for working through deeply transformative periods in his life. The band’s indie folk music lays bare this internal process, but on Kenneth Anger, the music shifts to synth pop and looks externally, examining creativity, community, ritual, and their place in the healing process. Ritual takes a primary role in the eponymous Kenneth Anger. Not only is auteur Kenneth Anger himself known for his sensorial depictions of ritual, Jones often used the films as a silent visual back drop during his song writing sessions, a ritual that grounded the creation of the album. And while the director’s use of saturated color inspired the warm ‘80s synth style production, the director’s trailblazing spirit of authenticity also pushed Jones through his most vulnerable expression to date.
Alabama native Drayton Farley has as honest a voice as you're likely to hear in this burgeoning scene of country, folk, roots, and Americana music we're all wrapped up in. With songs and lyrics pulled from real life experience, there's a grounded feeling to his stories, a confessional quality that rings true to those who know. His voice fills the room like cigarette smoke, curling into every corner of you, with a fine grit rasp that smooths out every rough edge. It lingers hours, days, after you've left the bar - turns of phrase that tumble around your mind, bittersweet and familiar. He sings as deeply about the love he holds as the love he's lost and there's something so broken-in and comfortable about that Southern inflection that every song feels like coming home. Sharing stages with musicians on the rise such as Zach Bryan, Arlo McKinley and Mike and the Moonpies, Drayton has quickly gained a loyal fan base.
North Georgia Rounder is strongly related to Pony Bradshaw's last album (Calico Jim) but also stretches its legs into different territory. Place/region/localism/history has been a focus of Bradshaw's over the past few years and he has continued that focus with North Georgia Rounder. But as the album title (Rounder) suggests, it’s also about life on the road: in taverns, in vans, sleeping on floors, meeting good folks, etc. Bradshaw notes how he longs for a well-ordered life and acknowledges the struggle to reconcile that instinct with spending half of it on the road. “But stories need to be told,” he said, “and somehow I’ve finagled my way into a position to tell a few."
Genesis ‘BBC Broadcasts’ is an extensive collection of broadcast material from one of the biggest selling recording artists of all time and one of Britain's most internationally renowned bands. Curated by founder member Tony Banks and the group’s long-time engineer and producer Nick Davis it is available as a 53-track 5-CD set and 24-track triple LP. These collections represent the cream of the group’s work recorded by the BBC between 1970 and 1998, and it includes contributions from all three of the group’s vocalists, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins and Ray Wilson. With notes by author Michael Hann, and packaged with a 40-page booklet, ‘BBC Broadcasts’ contains favourites such as ‘Home By The Sea’, ‘Mama’, ‘Duchess’, ‘Carpet Crawlers’, ‘No Son Of Mine’ ‘Turn It On Again’ and many more. With only a handful of these tracks previously officially available, Genesis ‘BBC Broadcasts’ acts as both a collector’s cornucopia and an alternative “greatest hits”. Stretching from the very beginnings of the band’s career via appearances on ‘Night Ride’ and John Peel, the set encompasses both of the group’s Knebworth performances (78 and 92) as well as their much-loved 1980 show at London’s Lyceum, and triumphant sell-out run of shows at Wembley in 1987. Rounded out by material from the NEC in 1998 and Paris Theatre and Nightride sessions from the early 70s, as well as the much sought-after encore version of ‘Watcher Of The Skies’ at Wembley Empire Pool in 1975, Genesis ‘BBC Broadcasts’ is a veritable treasure trove.
The strictly limited 7” Vinyl Single includes two songs and features a powerful – and previously unseen – artwork by Matt’s late brother, Andy Dog. The title track features contributions from THE THE, Eric Schermerhorn on guitar, Earl Harvin on drums, Barrie Cadogan and Gillian Glover on backing vocals. Recorded by Bruce Lampcov and Mark Allaway and mixed by Mark Allaway at Studio Cinéola.
The B-side features a real gem, true die-hard fans are certainly already familiar with. Although “MRS MAC” was originally released as a download-only single on THE THE’s website back in 2007 it has never – until now – had a physical release. All instruments are played by Matt Johnson himself and the song was recorded and mixed by Bruce Lampcov.
This is what happens when the band doesn’t break up: a lifetime of shared effort and camaraderie coming to fruition. Four master collaborators at the peak of their craft with near-telepathic cohesion. Silver Saturdays features 10 new songs that pay homage to a 25-year journey. All four members lend their distinctive vocals. Their concise, meticulously crafted songwriting is interwoven with Lebo’s soaring acoustic-electric guitar. Gill’s tasty keyboard comping and Adams’ bass groove married to Lipp’s rhythmic flourishes. Clear 180-gram LP.