The Margots (featuring John D. on guitar and Adrienne P. on vocals) will be hosting a listening party at the Palm Tavern (Milwaukee, WI) on Tuesday, June 11th at 9pm. Tim Daisy (drums) and Ken Vandermark (reeds) will also be present. Their new album Pescado will be shipping soon from Okka Disk!
Classixx have been intent on their debut Hanging Gardens, whittling the LP down from hundreds of sessions to a svelte 12 songs. At once beaming, breezy and wistful, Hanging Gardens features a variety of coastal summer anthems, from haunting collaborations with Active Child and Super humanoids singer Sarah Chernoff, to the gleefully catchy Nancy Whang-featuring “All You’re Waiting For,” French Touch inspired gem “Holding On” and sublime chords of “Dominoes.” Playing a wide array of instruments on Hanging Gardens, Classixx’ full-length debut features impossibly sunny grooves, blithe melodies bred by the coast, coaxed out by the surf, expertly crafted for road trips, pool parties and dance clubs.
Stone Titan‘s Scratch N’ Sniff LP is launching soon via Safety Meeting Records! But – if you can hit up the band’s tour stops, you can grab a copy early:
5/31 Lima, OH @ The Leathershop
6/1 Fowlerville, MI @ Papa Chinn’s Chili Emporium w/ THC
6/2 day off
6/3 Oshkosh, WI @ Trash House Early Show
6/3 Appleton, WI @ Maritime Late Show w/ TECHNICOLOR TEETH
6/4 Minneapolis, MN @ Medusa
6/5 Iowa City, IA Gabes Downstairs w/ THEE NODES
6/6 Kansas City, MO ?
6/7 Little Rock, AR 8-Bit Taproom w/ CHRONIC RITUAL
6/8 Dallas, TX @ 406 Haskell w/ CHRONIC RITUAL
6/9 Houston, TX @ The White Swan w/ SCAPHE
6/10 New Orleans, LA @ Red Haus w/ SCAPHE
6/11 Birmingham, AL w/ SCAPHE
6/12 Jackson, MS @ Morningbell Records
6/13 Tuscaloosa, AL ?
6/14 Knoxville, TN @ The Poison Lawn
6/15 Columbia, SC @ Queen Punx Palace
6/16 Wilmington, NC @ Reggies
6/17 Day off
6/18 Harrisonburg, VA w/ IRON HAND
6/19 Philadelphia, PA @ JRs Bar w/ IRON HAND
6/20 Jersey City, New Jersey @ The Lamp Post w/ IRON HAND
6/21 New York, New York @ The Acheron w/ IRON HAND
Available very soon from BLVD Records, New Canyons’ Everyone Is Dark is the Chicago band’ new full length album. You can hit up their FREE record release party on June 3rd at Empty Bottle (Chicago).
The Torches were cobbled together by Stephen Guidry in the late winter of 2009 as his other band, The Cassettes retreated into hibernation. Hoping to find a repository and hopefully fertile crescent for the music that had been shaking around behind his eyes for sometime, the net was cast wide and drew in both old friends and new to create a ramshackle group, including banjo, oboe, harmonica, several-part vocal harmonies and cacophony, as well as some hollaring and stomping. If you insist, they have been described as a combination of “Tom Waits, The Make-Up, the Sex Pistols and Temple of the Dog.” The Torches played their first show without ever having all been in the same room at once. Watch Lujo Records for updates on the new album – The Authority Of.
D-Town Brass’s name is only an indication of what you might expect to hear from this savory jazz outfit: The 14-piece ensemble indeed spouts a great deal of brass, along with drums, marimba, bass, keys and vibraphone. Every D-Town Brass composition is so deliciously distinct, you’d never know you were listening to the same collection of crazy cats. Since D-Town Brass doesn’t fit snuggly into any cohesive genre, it is more prudent to highlight the diversity among their scintillating selections. Check out their album Golden Belt — available on 180 gram wax now!
Borne Away, the new 14-song “solo acoustic” album from Jesse Harris, was never meant to be an album at all. Why solo-acoustic in quotations? Because added to the basic live tracks of Harris with his guitar are light overdubs he plays almost entirely himself.
In the Summer of 2012, in a burst of inspiration, mostly while on tour promoting his last release Sub Rosa, he wrote about 30 new songs. Of his process, Harris explains, “I wanted to strip away the luxury of time and thought that goes so often into songwriting and write as quickly as possible.” Coming from someone who makes an album a year, while also writing for and producing other artists, that may sound a bit surprising. Harris counters, “Duke Ellington wrote thousands of songs, so to come up with one album of original material a year is really not so much.”
To document everything he had, in a two-day session this past September, he recorded his new tunes on the same 1969 Martin nylon string on which he composed them. Every couple of weeks, returning to the studio, usually with another one or two new ones, he would add touches of Hammond organ, Casio keyboard, harmony vocals, kalimba, glockenspiel, and percussion. The only other musician to participate was friend Charlotte Kemp Muhl (Ghost Of A Saber Tooth Tiger, Kemp and Eden), whose haunting vocal arrangement on the title track and harmonies on the album’s final song, The Silent Sea, recall the music of classic horror films, 60s folk, and exotica. Although this was their first musical collaboration, Harris and Muhl have worked together before, with her playing the role of the “Succubus” in several DIY iPhone videos he made last year.
Sitting suddenly on top of a pile of recordings, Harris culled the 14 for this album. “Eventually I’d like to release another volume from this series. I chose these first 14 because they belonged together and seemed to tell a story.”
Available on tour, and very soon from Secret Sun Recordings.
The Watchers is a historic collaboration between Lubomyr Melnyk and James Blackshaw. Both artists are well known as composers, but on this record, it is their improvisational skills that are on display. First 200 copies of the LP will ship on blue vinyl. Purchase from Important Records.
The Steel Wheels have captured audiences across the country with their heady brew of original soulful mountain music and their deep commitment to roots and community. Based in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, this dynamic four-piece string band marries old-time musical traditions with their own innovative sound and lifestyle, generating a truly magnetic revival. You can pre-order their new LP – No More Rain now, and be sure to check them out on tour!
Windmill Of The Autumn Sky is the new EP LP from Philadelphia Psych/Folk band The Asteroid #4, and it is being released by Doc Ellis Records.
The EP consists of six songs of a large batch recorded over 2012, and is the first release of a string of planned releases for 2013. Pressed on limited edition clear vinyl.
