Monthly Archives: February 2018

VIA PRESS RELEASE | It’s been 50 years since Steve Miller Band’s first two Capitol Records albums were released in 1968, and now Miller and Capitol/UMe are incredibly excited to announce the May 18 release of the legendary Steve Miller Band’s first nine studio albums in an unprecedented new 180-gram vinyl box set collection called Complete Albums Volume 1 (1968-1976).

Spanning the band’s first studio album, Children of the Future, through 1976’s multiplatinum masterpiece Fly Like an Eagle, the albums have all been remastered and are available now for preorder. Each album is also available for preorder as individual 180-gram black LPs to be released on the same date, as well as limited edition 180-gram color vinyl LPs for sale exclusively via uDiscoverMusic.us.

The Steve Miller Band’s first nine studio albums have also been newly remastered for HD digital audio (96kHz/24-bit). Starting with today’s global release of Children of the Future, the albums’ HD digital audio debuts will continue weekly in chronological order ahead of the Complete Albums Volume 1 vinyl release.

A much-loved summer tradition, the iconic Steve Miller Band has been performing inspired versions of Miller’s incomparable songbook to legions of fans across the globe for many years. Among the many highlights of the tour, the SMB will be performing at the legendary Radio City Music Hall in New York City, the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, CA, and will be closing out the final day of New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

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Good news! You don’t have to fear the Reaper! Blue Öyster Cult were only joking!

For years morons like yours truly were so wrapped up in Blue Öyster Cult’s ethos (evil as career choice) that we never caught on to the (manifestly obvious in hindsight) fact that the band was pulling our collective leg!

That’s right. Here we hayseeds thought they were, like, a bunch of Satan-worshipping Aleister Crowleys dabbling in Nazism and S&M when in reality they were just a coupla nice Jewish boys from Long Island sniggering down their collective sleeve at the hard-rock-loving suckers retarded enough to take them seriously. As occasional lyrics contributor and full-time rock critic Richard Meltzer said of the boys’ music, “This is really hard rock comedy.”

I don’t want you to get the impression that I’m some kind of terminal moron; I caught on to the joke a long, long time ago, and would have never fallen for it in the first place if I hadn’t been spending all my time smoking pot with pig farmers. Pig farmers and bikers make up the bulk of the Blue Öyster Cult fan base, and by that I don’t mean to imply pig farmers and bikers are stupid. Most of them are in on the joke too, and love it, because not only were Blue Öyster Cult funny back in 1972, they were one hotshit boogie band writing great songs that sounded even better after you drank a bottle of Wild Turkey and popped a few Placidyl.

Blue Öyster Cult’s eponymous 1972 debut may have less laughs than some of their later LPs, but it’s heavy on screaming diz-busters, inspiring anthems, a lil taste of the rock ’n’ roll apocalypse, and one very cool psychedelic threnody to a foot. In short it’s one helluva rock record, and well deserved the plaudits it received from just about every critical luminary (Christgau, Bangs, etc.) of the time.

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Mark Renner’s name may not ring a multitude of bells, but for those hungering for unearthed ’80s sounds, RVNG Intl.’s release of Few Traces might just change that; influenced by John Foxx-era Ultravox, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Bill Nelson, The Skids, The Associates, and Van Morrison’s mid-’80s period, Baltimorean Renner fully embraced the smart pop possibilities of the era. The maturity should stoke fans of the above names, as well as David Sylvian, Cocteau Twins, and even Felt, as the impact of the written word (from Herman Hesse to William Butler Yeats to John Greanleaf Whittier) helps the whole in standing out. Available now on compact disc and digital, the double vinyl arrives February 23.

Although Mark Renner’s entry into musicmaking began by answering an ad to join a band (the enticing factor in his case was the mention of big fave Ultravox), the music collected on Few Traces was recorded later and largely solo, with the artist utilizing a four-track recorder, voice, electric guitar, and a Casio CZ101 synthesizer.

Renner debuted in 1986 with the self-released All Walks of this Life. Most of that album is included here, and along with early singles, compilation tracks, and unreleased material, there appears to be one cut from his full-length follow-up Painter’s Joy, which came out on ’88 through the partnership of the labels Dimension and Restless. Decades later, RVNG Intl.’s Matt Werth picked up a copy of Renner’s debut at a Philadelphia flea market, and the seed of Few Traces was planted.

This is not to suggest that Renner hung it up creatively after Painter’s Joy. While he’s been more active recently as a painter and printmaker, there are a handful of releases available digitally via Bandcamp. I’ve not heard those, but the consistent high quality of Few Traces does instill interest in checking them out, and Maia Stern’s upcoming documentary on Renner, as well.

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In a partnership with Country Music Television, ACM, and CMA Award winning country music artist Sara Evans took the stage at Albany’s Palace Theatre Thursday, February 15 as part of the Next Women of Country: All The Love Tour. The Palace is one of 15 shows in her coast to coast travels featuring artists RaeLynn and Kalie Shorr.

“We’re doing this tour because there ain’t enough country women on the radio,” said Evans smiling. “I grew up singing country music from the age of four years old and I’ve built my entire life around it so I’m so incredibly grateful that you’re here tonight.”

The tour recently kicked off in New York City, where Shorr (“Fight Like A Girl,” “Two Hands”), who opened the show, got to see her name in Time Square for the first time. “It was amazing,” she said. “I’m so excited to be here with these amazing, inspirational girls and to do something I care a lot about and that’s women supporting other women.”

RaeLynn whose current singles include “Lonely Call,” and “Love Triangle” shared that her first album WildHorse, recently debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Albums chart. “Only a few females have done that, one of those is Shania Twain—I can die a happy girl,” she said. “I’m so honored to be a woman in country music right now.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | It’s a tough call which is the bigger cult classic, the Tank Girl movie or its accompanying soundtrack, but on balance, we’d have to go for the soundtrack.

Yeah, the film had a cast composed of some of the most colorful characters (Iggy Pop, Ann Magnuson) and character actors (Malcolm McDowell, Ice-T, and of course the almighty Lori Petty!) in show biz. And, its dystopic, resource-starved desert setting, intense action sequences, and lead female character mark it as a feminist (albeit funnier) precursor to Mad Max: Fury Road.

But check out the soundtrack’s bonafides: assembled by Courtney Love herself, it features a Who’s Who of ‘90s female rock including Hole, Björk, L7, Veruca Salt, and Belly among others.

Plus, it even has tracks that were exclusive to its release, like a unique version of Devo’s “Girl U Want,” “Mockingbird Girl” by The Magnificent Bastards (a side project of the late Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots), and a duet of “Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love” between Joan Jett and The Replacements’ Paul Westerberg.

There’s one more thing, though, that elevates this particular release from the mere cultish curio to gotta-have-it collectible: because it came out in 1995, the Tank Girl soundtrack NEVER came out on LP! Yup…this marks the first-ever release of Tank Girl on vinyl, and if there ever was a score that needs to be on wax, this would be it.

“I was born in Tucson, AZ where records melt. In the summer the heat would rise to 117 degrees sometimes, so both people and vinyl had to be stored in a cool, dry place.”

“My father was a musician turned businessman and avid record collector. He made a media center with our record player in the cool and dim living room of the house I was born in. I’m not sure if I’ve been told the story a million times or if I have retained the actually memory of my mother rocking me before bed in an old wood rocking chair while she played Joni Mitchell’s Blue.

When I close my eyes I can see the electric melon color of the dial in radio lit up in the dark and I can remember the needle on vinyl’s subtle fuzz as an indicator that I going to be wrapped up safely in loving arms and carried peacefully into sleep. Even though I wasn’t a crier (then), she rocked me every night to their collection of Joni Mitchell, Emmy Lou Harris, Crystal Gayle, Juice Newton, The Beach Boys, and The Beatles to ensure we bonded. From time to time, a song comes up on the radio that I feel like I’ve never heard before and somehow I know all the words. Most likely, those are songs my parents put on the turntable before bed.

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Press Play is our Monday recap (on Tuesday this week) of the new and FREE tracks received last week to inform the next trip to your local indie record store.

Belle of the Fall – Rise Up
Nathaniel Bellows – How High
Lowpines – Broken Wing
Candace – Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Irma Thomas cover)
Red Black Red – The Scientist
Moviestar – Technology NWOBHM – version
Fovea – Cost Of
Jeremy Bass – The Greatest Fire

TVD SINGLE OF THE WEEK:
The Orange Peels – Running Away

Berel – Blind Man (Xavier Omär Cover)
Jason S. Matuskiewicz – Can We Put Out The Flames?
Peelander-Z – Yeah Yeah Yeah
Boy Rex – Golden Standard
Youth Man – I Don’t Know
Soul Mate – Chris Rivers
Frank Knight – Black Panther Music
Bingo Players – Devotion (Boehm Remix)

If you’ve a hankering for unadulterated improvisation, the new record featuring the talents of multi-instrumentalist YoshimiO, avant drum titan Susie Ibarra, and multidisciplinary artist Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe will likely sate that need, if only for a little while. Documenting the meeting of the three in performance in front of an audience at Brooklyn’s Roulette, Flower of Sulphur isn’t likely to convert those agnostic to improv’s qualities, but for ears just growing accustomed to abstract ambiance, it could prove inviting and ultimately satisfying as it reaches a bit beyond the style’s norms. It’s out February 23 on double opaque lavender vinyl and compact disc through Thrill Jockey of Chicago.

As a fan from back in the days of Boredoms, I’m eager to soak up any project with YoshimiO’s name on it, mainly because she’s yet to disappoint. Amongst other activities, there was U.F.O. or Die with Boredoms cohort Yamataka Eye; the indie supergroup Free Kitten, which teamed her with Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon, Pussy Galore’s Julia Cafritz and later, Pavement’s Mark Ibold; and the ample discography her own group OOIOO. Last year, she debuted SAICOBAB, a quartet combining ancient Indian traditional music with contempo methods and sounds.

Unsurprising for an artist frequently identified as belonging to the jazz realm, Susie Ibarra’s appearances on record are considerable, though her discography is nowhere near as daunting as some of her peers. She’s played with David S. Ware, John Zorn, Wadada Leo Smith, Sylvie Courvoisier, William Parker, Dave Douglas, Eugene Chadbourne, Mark Dresser, Marc Ribot, and Matthew Shipp, in duo with Denis Charles, Assif Tsahar, and Derek Bailey, and to move outside the jazz/ improv zone, Yo La Tengo. Having witnessed her at the kit behind Prefuse 73, I can attest that she can kill it in a variety of contexts.

Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe first emerged through the post-HC band 90 Day Men, then lit out on his own as Lichens and eventually under an expanded moniker (initially, he went by just Robert Lowe). Like Ibarra and YoshimiO, his collaborations have been wide-ranging, including The Cairo Gang, Om, and Rhys Chatham, plus co-credited releases with artist Rose Lazar (’08’s “Gyromancy” and ’10’s Eclipses, both for Thrill Jockey) and the early electronic-proto New Ager Ariel Kalma (’15’s very cool We Know Each Other Somehow, for RVNG).

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We’ve closed up the shop for the President’s Day holiday. While we’re away, why not fire up our free Record Store Locator app and visit one of your local indie record stores?

Perhaps there’s an interview, review, or feature you might have missed? Catch up and we’ll see you back here on Tuesday, 2/20.