Bright Hopes! is the third release from Mike Crawford & His Secret Siblings. The collective spent three years recording 16 songs with 50 people and over 100 minutes of music. From the start Bright Hopes! has been a gigantic community art project. The 16 songs fill three LPs with accompanying triple-gatefold artwork and 12 page booklet. Available now!
Lead singer and rhythm guitarist Mic Harrison, lead guitarist Robbie Trosper, bassist Vance Hillard, acoustic guitarist Chad Pelton and drummer Don Coffey, Jr., have a chemistry that can only come from long term friendships and shared experiences. Harrison, who started his young adulthood working in a saw mill in Bradford, Tenn., a town so small it barely shows up on the map between Memphis and Jackson. He moved to Knoxville in the 1990s to become co-lead singer-songwriter (with Scott Miller) in The V-Roys, a band that defined “Americana” before it was genre. After that group split, he teamed with Trosper in the short-lived favorites The Faults and, later, teamed with Coffey in the now legendary power pop act Superdrag. When Superdrag ended, Harrison enlisted established Knoxville rock act The High Score to back up a tour and the chemistry was so good that the partnership never ended.
In the past 12 years or so, Mic and the guys have traveled the country, performing at festivals from Bonnaroo to Easyriders Rodeos, headlining bills from concert halls to the stickiest bars, opening shows for everyone from Billy Joe Shaver to Huey Lewis and the News to ZZ Top, and recording a terrific single with classic country singer Con Hunley.
The new album – Vanishing South – is available on vinyl in a limited edition of 300, 180 gram audiophile pressing, tip-on gatefold jacket, hand numbered.
William Ryan Fritch is a composer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer currently based in Oakland, California. His compositions are characterized by his unique range as a multi-instrumentalist and audio engineer, allowing him to realize large ensemble arrangements found in folk, Indie-rock, electronica, hip-hop, World and orchestral music as a solo endeavor.
Subscribe to the Lost Tribe Sound: Prelude to the Decline (Subscription Series) to receive ‘Eagle Hunters’ at a discount and a whole lot more here: losttribesound.bandcamp.com/album/prelude-to-the-decline-subscription-series.
Mother Evergreen is the musical project of Evan Loritsch. Brought up in, on, and around the Great Lakes and impacted by similar processes of glaciation, he explores themes of memory, escapism, attachment, impermanence, and the complicated quiltwork thereof. One of the most memorable initial releases from a Chicago artist in recent times, Mother Evergreen’s self-titled debut is available on 150-gram, 12-inch Vinyl from Sooper Records. Select from Colored Vinyl (Coke Bottle Clear) or Black Vinyl. Album includes four inserts handmade by the artist, Evan Loritsch. Purchase of album includes immediate digital download.
Even today, it’s possible to write songs honestly and intelligently, arrange them with a sensitive ear and sing in a way that brings their stories to life. We know this, in part, because that’s what Mark Erelli does. In his quiet way, the Boston-based singer/songwriter has gathered and grown a following that values these qualities. Which is why it’s seemed too long to too many since Erelli’s last album of original material. The long wait is over with the release of For A Song, a bouquet of new songs that reflect where this artist has arrived, personally and professionally. From introspective ballads to celebrations of love’s allure, these 12 songs stand-alone as eloquent statements and together as a meditation on life in all its dimensions. Grab it now!
Drab Majesty began as a warbled transmission received via 4-track cassette in a dim, Los Angeles bedroom in 2012. The entity known as Deb Demure, an interdimensional muse of sorts, lent an otherworldly vision to a human contact; one to be realized through meticulously composed lo-fi recordings. Focusing on the aesthetics of cult ritual and the devastating power of music, Deb sought an alternative way to share the cosmic agenda. Culminating in a cassette titled Unarian Dances, Drab Majesty’s manifesto to humanity was revealed: revel in the power of artistic influences that reside beyond the self.
The tape circulated through Los Angeles, catching the attention of local tastemakers like the heads at Lollipop Records in Echo Park. It quickly found a place on the shelves of LA’s underground musical seekers. After a gauntlet of performances and late night manifestations, Drab Majesty came on the radar of DAIS Records.
In 2015, Drab Majesty released Careless, the first LP which was received and recorded solely by Demure on living room floors and in cluttered spaces across the city. After three pressings and an imminent fourth, Careless remains a fixture in LA’s somber yet sublime nightlife and a noted contribution to the murkier subcultures abroad.
Wielding a left-handed guitar, Deb employs a unique style of
arpeggiated finger picking, producing vast and organic musical textures reminiscent of Vinny Reilly (Durutti Column) with the anthemic power of Sisters of Mercy and Cocteau Twins. In the past two years Deb has been invited to support bands such as Cold Cave, Psychic TV, Clan of Xymox, The Frozen Autumn, Prayers, and label mates Youth Code and King Dude.
From its incarnation, Drab Majesty was a solo act; an interplay between guitar and triggered machines. In 2016, with growing audiences and heightened interest, Drab expanded into a duo, employing the keyboard accompaniment of far-out twin, Mona D – filling out frequencies and upping the spectacle of the live performance.
Vinyl edition will include a MP3 download card with the full album and also includes two additional bonus tracks as well as four exclusive remixes by Cold Cave, Drew McDowall, Silent Servant and Martial Canterel that are featured on the CD/digital versions.
Grammy award winning bassist Phil Palombi is “one of the most sought after bass players in New York City”, according to Steely Dan tenor saxophonist and renowned jazz musician Walt Weiskopf. His performance and recording credits include such players as, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker, George Coleman, Maynard Ferguson, Billy Hart, Louis Hayes, Vincent Herring, Etta Jones, Billy Kilson, Joe Lovano, Dave Liebman, Harold Mabern, Steve Smith, Curtis Stigers, Lew Tabackin, Mark Turner, Chucho Valdes, and The Village Vanguard Orchestra to name a few. Upon moving to New York City in 1997, he immediately began working full time performing at many of the city’s venues.
Holly Bowling’s Better Left Unsung is a collection of classical solo piano arrangements of the music of The Grateful Dead. A classically trained pianist, Bowling possesses one distinction that sets her apart from similarly studied musicians—a devotion to improvisational rock music and the vision to painstakingly transcribe “jam” masterworks note-for-note, arranging them for solo piano and improvising upon what was already written. Last year, Bowling released Distillation Of A Dream: The Music Of Phish Reimagined For Solo Piano to wide acclaim. So it only seems fitting that she turns her attention to the music of The Grateful Dead for her second album. Containing over two hours worth of music, Better Left Unsung is available as a triple-LP set.
“Franklin’s Tower,” “The Other One” and “China Doll,” are among the songs Bowling recorded for the album, in addition to an entire solo piano arrangement of the “Terrapin Station” suite. Bowling’s favorite version of “Eyes Of The World” from Louisville’s Freedom Hall in 1974 receives a complete transcription, as well.
Phish song, “Tweezer,” is what first inspired Bowling to begin transcribing and arranging the music of her favorite artists for solo piano. After witnessing a moving performance of the song at Lake Tahoe on July 31, 2013, Bowling sat down and transcribed the 37-minute performance note-for-note. When performing these pieces, Bowling uses her classical piano technique to make each song her own work of art.
Brutal Juice — Their most sprawling and ambitious effort to date: Old-school molten metal, Gothic Dream Interpretation, Full-on Thrash, and a shit-ton of face melting guitar wizardry accompany you on this journey through Profane and Paranoid Alternate Histories, Psychedelic Nightmares, Oppressive Futuroid Dystopias and Finally Revolution, Scorched Earth and Catharsis.
About Same Animal, Different Cages: “Sometime in the late winter of 2014 I began experiencing a certain nagging artistic malaise. I felt like I was spending too much energy on live performances and not being as creatively vital as I’d like. With that in mind, I resolved to cut some cords in the New Year and get back to the aspects of the process I’d been missing – learning new things and creating and recording new work. I also decided to challenge myself, without running roughshod, to not get bogged down in the ‘revising, editing and perfecting’ of things – always a potential pitfall in this digital age – and make ‘honest’, unmediated tracks that would directly reflect what I’d discover. Choosing an instrument a month, through a regimen of daily practice, I would develop and record material that would result in an album by month’s end.” – David First
The first four volumes in the series will include explorations on acoustic guitar, analog modular synthesizer, harmonica, and sitar. Available as a subscription from Fabrica Records.