Now Hear This
2x GRAMMY Award-winning artist Patty Griffin has announced the upcoming release of TAPE, a collection of rare demos and home recordings to be released on her own PGM Recordings label via Thirty Tigers. "At some point in the pandemic, I was digging through my own music streaming to relearn some of my own oldies and found something that had been compiled (perhaps by a computed algorithm) that was titled as a 'rarities' or 'deep cuts' collection," Griffin says. "I looked of course, and it was a pretty boring list for the most part. I later dug through some recordings I had done on cheap home recording apps, including my favorite one called TapeDeck which I'm not sure exists anymore. I really liked some of the songs. They were better than I had remembered. I dug around some more and found things from some GarageBand recordings, and then also a couple of things from an in-studio demo session in Nashville that were pretty interesting, including a duet I did with Robert Plant when we first met. It all seemed worth listening to. Back then I didn't think so, but I do now."
"The sound quality of the majority of things on TAPE is pretty low, but the performances are what really matter to me. My home recordings are almost always my favorite recordings, as far as capturing a fresh, direct feeling. The shy introvert's dilemma...I've always had a hard time creating that same feeling in a studio full of people whose talent is in sound quality. These songs have a feel you can only get when you're by yourself at three o'clock in the morning. To listen to the bulk of these recordings, you do have to let go of the idea of good sound quality and just listen to the performance. I feel better getting some true rarities out there for people to listen to...not compiled by a computer algorithm."
Vaxis II: A Window of the Waking Mind welcomes us back to “The Amory Wars” as the 2nd installment of the new five-part “Vaxis” arc about a couple on the run from tyrannical forces and their mysterious new addition.
Joan Shelley returns with "The Spur" her first new album in three years. The twelve song set is a profound meditation on light and darkness, recorded in the spring of 2021 at Earthwave Farm in the Kentucky countryside. James Elkington serves as co-producer (alongside Shelley) and the album features collaborations with Bill Callahan, Meg Baird and the British novelist Max Porter along with Shelley’s musical partner Nathan Salsburg.
Eric Clapton’s lifelong passion for the blues burns brightly inNothing But The Blues. The CD of the soundtrack features 17 previously unreleased live performances recorded in 1994 during the legendary guitarist’s tour supportingFrom The Cradle, his GrammyÒ-winning, multi-platinum blues album. Clapton’s longtime co-producer, Simon Climie, has remixed the audio from those performances from the original multi-tracking recordings. -The previously unreleased live performances onNothing But the Bluesserve as a vital counterpart toFrom The Cradle, which was recorded in the studio. While several songs appear on both (“Motherless Child,” “Standing ’Round Crying,” and “I’m Tore Down”), the performances are entirely different. The release also includes songs that did not appear onFrom the Cradle, including Jimmy Rogers’ “Blues All Day Long” and Robert Johnson’s “Malted Milk,” as well as the standards “Every Day I Have The Blues” and “Forty-Four.”
Bob Marley with the Chineke! Orchestra reimagines some of Bob Marley’s most recognized and listened to songs with contemporary classical orchestration. The Chineke! Orchestra provides opportunities to a diverse range of up-and-coming and internationally respected classical musicians.
Stay Proud of Me is the debut album from LA-based Korean-American artist NoSo (real name, Abby Hwong). Their stage name is shorthand for North/South: a nod to their Korean heritage, and the inane origin question (""Which Korea are you from?"") that so many Korean Americans inevitably face at some point in their lives. Across 10 tracks, NoSo indirectly grapples with the insecurities and frustrations that can arise from the Asian American experience, with the end result feeling like a balm for the alienated.
Stay Proud of Me offers a deeply earnest coming-of-age story, a nuanced introduction to NoSo's universe and Hwong's rapidly expanding musical abilities. The marriage of their lyrics and captivating guitar performance feels magical, as if NoSo can open up portals to fantastic new realms, guided by an emotional honesty that breaks you down in one moment and fills you with joy in the next.
'Heart Under', Just Mustard's second album, asks you to forget what you know. At every turn, this remarkable record reconfigures and stretches the ideas and ambition of a rock band, and turns a year of lockdown and personal struggles into a breathtaking artistic statement. The music the five friends from Dundalk, Ireland make is strikingly untraditional. Though to look at them, it appears that the band are a five-piece with uniform make-up of a vocalist, two guitarists, a bassist and a drummer, not a single one of them utilizes their instrument in a confined or regular fashion. Guitarists David Noonan and Mete Kalyoncuoglu make their six-strings shriek and wail, the sounds produced sounding like everything from whirring machinery to horror movie monsters. Behind them, drummer Shane Maguire uses the rim of his drums almost as much as the skins, providing a clattering, metallic backbeat. Most of the melodies on offer poke through from Rob Clarke's inventive, nodding bass lines. Then there's Katie on vocals; she's the transfixing focal point of the band. Across its 10 tracks, the album presents a coherent style and ethos ' those scything guitars, Katie's magical vocals ' but still incorporates a wide and untethered vision. There are brooding, atmospheric rock songs and others that apply a lighter, dreamier touch, all tied together with impeccable instrumentation and a united vision. 'Heart Under' serves as the next stage of this development, with every instrument brilliantly pushed to its limit and every boundary of the band stretched.
Set It Off has never been your standard emo band. Or pop group. Or pop-punk band. They are all of those things and more. Just listen to the lead singles from the new album Elsewhere - moody, melodious pop-rock with fast rapping tearing up the break. The album is about embracing who you are unapologetically and without filters. Elsewhere epitomizes Set It Off now - a group both fully committed to its roots and diving into its future by embracing inevitable change.