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Post by Kapitan on Feb 28, 2020 13:53:26 GMT
After a few dry weeks, this morning was a fun one for me.
Vampire Weekend released a few bonus tracks from their excellent 2019 Father of the Bride.
The aforementioned Magnetic Fields announced a new album and this morning released "The Day the Politicians Died." ("billions laughed and no one cried the day the politicians died / celebrations spread worldwide the day the politicians died / even their own mothers, their husbands and their wives...")
Rufus Wainwright announced his first pop album in eight years, produced by Mitchell Froom (Elvis Costello, Crowded House, the Bangles, among many, many others) and with such studio help as Jim Keltner and Blake Mills. The new single, and to some degree the album, is said to be inspired by Joni Mitchell in part. Here is "Damsel in Distress."
And I discovered another cool Scottish indie band, though apparently they also had a short run in the late '80s. (I had never heard of them, as my musical universe at that time consisted of MTV videos, heavy metal magazines, and classic rock.) But the Close Lobsters released a nice little jangle-rock album with an awful title, Post Neo Anti: Arte Povera in the Forest of Symbols.
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bellbottoms
Pacific Coast Highway
Posts: 727
Likes: 201
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Post by bellbottoms on Feb 29, 2020 17:27:13 GMT
Magnetic Fields, (rightly) best known for the massive 1999 album 69 Love Songs, announced a new album. Ever dedicated to gimmicks, this time around Stephin Merritt has an album of exclusively short songs. Quickies is out in May. I have to say, some of the song titles are glorious. Those song titles are amusing enough to make me want to give this a listen EDIT: The Day the Politicians Died is not what I expected! I like the simplicity of it. Beautiful melody.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 4, 2020 23:15:37 GMT
One of my favorite bands announced a new album scheduled for April release and put out a new single, too. HAIM (which I am not writing anymore ... sorry, ladies, but it's Haim from now on) released "The Steps" and announced Women in Music pt III. It will also include their three most recent singles--another example of those drawn-out releases I posted about a few days ago--from the last summer through roughly the new year, "Summer Girl," "Now I'm In It," and "Hallelujah."
Here's the new one, "The Steps," yet again directed by PT Anderson. With its distorted lead guitar line (and chorus (?) other guitar riff), it's a bit rockier than some of their stuff--especially when those garage-band sounding drums kick in about a minute into it.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 13, 2020 13:08:07 GMT
The Lemon Twigs have released a pre-album single from their upcoming Songs For the General Public, "The One." It's a refreshing piece of classic rock-pop, the sort of thing one expects from this glam-and-classic-rock-derivative but talented group. Two and a half minutes of melodic, uptempo, string-tinged rock and roll.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 25, 2020 12:32:39 GMT
The omnipresent coronavirus is now affecting the recorded music industry as well as tours: both Haim and Lady Gaga have announced their upcoming new albums will be delayed. Both were scheduled to drop in April. Haim's album will now be released "later this summer" and Gaga has yet to announce a new release date but says 2020.
Presumably there will be others meeting a similar fate.
But thinking about it, I am guessing it is mostly major-label artists whose albums are expected to do well commercially and whose albums were being supported by major tours. I'd guess most indie types, whose albums tend to be slow burners and who tend to tour nonstop anyway, are just proceeding. Could be wrong of course.
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Post by kds on Mar 25, 2020 12:39:02 GMT
Hardly new music, but the live release of Nick Mason's A Saucerful of Secrets band has been moved from April to September.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 25, 2020 12:41:53 GMT
That's interesting: do you know whether they were going to be touring it? If not, I don't understand the delays, especially with most people consuming music at home online anyway. If so, though, it makes sense because of corresponding tour dates being postponed or canceled.
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Post by kds on Mar 25, 2020 12:45:02 GMT
That's interesting: do you know whether they were going to be touring it? If not, I don't understand the delays, especially with most people consuming music at home online anyway. If so, though, it makes sense because of corresponding tour dates being postponed or canceled. I think Mason has planned on touring this summer. My guess is that maybe they wanted to hold the release back a few months as people are likely prioritizing spending disposable income on groceries and household items.
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Post by kds on Mar 25, 2020 14:55:10 GMT
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Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Mar 25, 2020 15:27:41 GMT
That's interesting: do you know whether they were going to be touring it? If not, I don't understand the delays, especially with most people consuming music at home online anyway. If so, though, it makes sense because of corresponding tour dates being postponed or canceled. I've read that streaming and actual sales are down. It kind of makes sense when you realize a lot of people are no longer driving to work, working out at the gym, etc. That's how a lot of music is consumed. There aren't as many people like us who listen to a lot of music regardless of where we are. You mentioned touring, but promotion isn't possible in a lot of cases, either. Artists who would've made the rounds on late night talk shows and the like no longer can. With that said, it appears Dua Lipa is going ahead with her much anticipated album.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 25, 2020 15:32:21 GMT
Good point about non-touring promotion. Talk shows, in-store appearances, photo shoots, etc., would certainly accompany major-label artists' releases, and would presumably be canceled.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 27, 2020 11:30:54 GMT
Woke up to learn of the first new Bob Dylan song in years, the 17-minute Kennedy assassination song "Murder Most Foul." Fell asleep about a minute in. (That's a joke. Sort of.)
This comment was posted by his YouTube account with the song.
"Greetings to my fans and followers with gratitude for all your support and loyalty across the years. This is an unreleased song we recorded a while back that you might find interesting. Stay safe, stay observant and may God be with you. - Bob Dylan"
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 1, 2020 18:13:46 GMT
The prolific indie rocker Ty Segall is putting his down-time to good use: he released a free 6-song EP of Harry Nilsson Nilsson Schmilsson covers (titled Segall Smeagol, which gets a lol from me) via his BandCamp page. Songs covered are:
"Coconut" "Gotta Get Up" "Drivin Along" "Early in the Morning" "The Moonbeam Song" "Jump Into the Fire"
It's mostly heavier, more guitar-focused, and sounds druggier (though unlikely actually druggier...) than Nilsson's takes on the songs. But it's fun to hear, especially for free. "The Moonbeam Song" is the lightest of the bunch, an a cappella take with vocal harmonies for the backgrounds. Conversely, "Jump Into the Fire" kicks off with a fuzz bass soon joined by some ultra-distorted guitars and ends with 3+ minutes of guitar solo and other instrumental work.
Again, it's free! Nice gift from Mr. Segall. (I'm not especially familiar with his work, actually. But the headline caught my attention.)
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 2, 2020 12:46:06 GMT
Fiona Apple reportedly will release a new album, Fetch the Bolt Cutters, two weeks from tomorrow (April 17). It's her first album since 2012, The Idler Wheel... (which itself came seven years after its predecessor).
While I wasn't a fan of her early on, I came to really respect her and flat-out loved The Idler Wheel.... In fact, I now consider her one of the brilliant songwriters of the era.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 3, 2020 15:17:53 GMT
I posted a song from this in the instrumentals thread, but more generally...
I learned this morning of a new album by James Elkington, Ever-Roving Eye, through a review on AllMusic.com. (Actually I also learned of Mr. Elkington himself through the same review; I'd never heard of him.) The review struck a few chords with me and so I sampled the music, and this is a delightful little (as in, brief) album.
Elkington is a British-born, Chicago-based singer-songwriter whose acoustic folk guitar-playing is fantastic throughout. His baritone voice is nice enough, nothing I'd necessarily seek out otherwise. Sometimes the music brings to my mind Nick Drake. Richard Thompson is also mentioned as relevant, though I'm not familiar with him other than in name and reputation.
The arrangements are primarily acoustic guitar, stand-up bass, and some surprisingly subtle and classy drumming by Spencer Tweedy. (No disrespect in "surprisingly," but I only know Tweedy as the son of Wilco's Jeff and drummer for Jeff's low-fi, rough-around-the-edges solo work, which is more rock in style. It just wasn't what I'd guess. It's like finding out Steve Jones plays a mean jazz guitar.) There are also some occasional chamber instrument arrangements courtesy of another Chicagoan we all know: Paul Mertens!
Here's one tune; others are easily locatable online.
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