Fave boxed sets this year?
Happy Listening!
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Just picked up Black Swan Lane's "Under My Fallen Sky" Definitely one of my favorites of the year. BSL is an indie band based in Atlanta. Originally the band had members of The Chameleons UK and the Sun and Moon so they have that Manchester shoegaze vibe like Morrissey or Australia's The Church. BSL's music is beautiful in its simplicity with layers and layers of sound. I have a pair of magnepan 3.7i and rarely have they sounded so impressive with such a wall of sound. BSL's music can be found on their website, iTunes, or cdbaby. They are consistently one of cdbaby's top sellers. |
here is an interesting new release scheduled for 8/25: Filthy Friends- "Invitation" This is an alternative super group with members of REM, and Sleater-Kinney. You can definitely hear Peter Buck's guitar influence. https://youtu.be/ee26M542XUg |
Here is another new release worth noting from Strand of Oaks called "Hard Love". I think that they are from Seattle and remind me of My Morning Jacket, electric Neil Young with a bit of Screaming Trees grunge thrown in. They opened for MMJ this Spring and will open for the Drive-By-Truckers this Fall. This is "Rest Of It". Good one to turn up a bit. https://youtu.be/9Fdp1D-1p34 |
https://youtu.be/cv2nK0X8pCM Here is the first single from the Dream Syndicates’ first album since 1988 called "How Did I find myself Here". Clocking in at 11 minutes, it probably won’t get radio airplay. However, if you like the paisley underground vibe, the new material will be a pleasant reminder of the past. I also saw today that Steve Winwood has a 4 LP/2 CD package of live recordings from his personal archives coming out in Sept. It includes works from Spencer Davis Group, Blind Faith, Traffic, and Winwood’s solo career. Depending on the recording quality, this should be a good one. |
Very cool thread, I love the suggestions and side stories. I'm glad to hear something positive about the Newvelle work as well. I picked up an Italian press of Little Village some years back that's wonderful. Luaka Bop is coming out with an Alice Coltrane comp next month from not widely circulated recordings made around the 80's & 90's when she had established her ashram in L.A. There will be a 2lp edition as well. |
I never bothered to give Bob's Sinatra-themed album a listen---it just didn't interest me. I also feel ambivalent about the American Standards album. It appears that when his writing-mojo fails him, he records the songs of others, to keep the cash coming in. He did the same back in the early 90's with his Good As I Been to You and World Gone Wrong albums. I saw him live during that period, and he was awful. I didn't see him again for ten years, but that time it was a very different story. Fantastic! |
I have to agree with gpgr4blu's assessment of Bob Dylan's standards releases. No one else could get away with such. While I respect his desire to honor this song canon that he loves, the results are kind of cringe-inducing...leastways are for me. Witness that performance on the last Letterman show. Dylan's voice always has been something of an acquired taste. Even more so in later years. While the "been-garglin' with-razor-blades" sound works just fine for me on his own compositions (e.g., Cold Irons Bound) or on folk standards as on Good As I Been To You and World Gone Wrong, it doesn't seem well suited to material I'm more used to hearing from crooners. But then again, what do I know. He's Bob Dylan. |
I am a huge Dylan fan, but let's be honest-- if the albums of standards he has recently released were put out by any other human alive--that human would be laughed out of the room. He sings off key so much, its laughable. The albums are only "interesting" because Its Bob Dylan. As much as I care for Bob and his most recent albums of original songs which remain strong, I refuse to rummage through his garbage. |
The new Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors is off the chart good! https://smile.amazon.com/Souvenir-Drew-Holcomb-Neighbors/dp/B06X8ZH7TR/ref=pd_sbs_15_5?_encoding=UTF... Ive never heard them before today, so I'm a new fan. I found out about them because their new album popped up in Tidal's new releases and I played it just for the hell of it and instantly knew that this was something very special. |
I just ordered Malcolm Holcombe's new disc. I anxiously await its arrival on or before release date Apr 7. Another month for the Taj Mahal / Keb Mo disc. Tony Furtado "Cider House Sessions". A collection of live songs from Nat's Cider House recorded in 12/2015 & 9/2016. My favorite local disc is by The Mallett Brothers - "The Falling of the Pine" songs from the Maine woods. |
MoD on SACD! Gotta get me one. It was Jim KELTNER who was in Little Village of course, not Jim GORDON. They were good friends and L.A. studio drummers, Ry Cooder arranging his recordings around Keltners availability, he's that good. They were both in Joe Cockers Mad Dogs & Englishmen band, then Gordon joined Delaney & Bonnies road band, where he met Eric Clapton, who also played in that band after breaking up Cream (prompted by hearing The Bands Music From Big Pink album). Eric and Gordon were in Derek & The Dominoes together (Gordon composed and played the beautiful piano part in the middle "breakdown" section of "Layla"), then Gordon joined Traffic for a while. That's Jim Gordon playing on Dave Masons Alone Together album, really fine drumming. They met when Dave was very briefly a member of D & TD. Jim Gordon was a master drummer, really, really, really good, but had mental problems which were exacerbated by the drug use rampant in the 1970's. He started hearing voices (as has Brian Wilson), and one day the voices told him to kill his mother, which he did, with a butcher knife. Yow! He's in Camarillo State Hospital for the criminally insane now, and I have one of his Camco drumsets, left in a storage space when they sent him away. It's not for sale! |
Yeah jafant, it’s nice. If you don’t have Rodneys Houston Kid album, it’s absolutely stellar, the equal of John Hiatts Bring The Family, which for me is about as good as it gets. Rodney wrote a book related to the subject matter of the album (autobiographical), entitled Chinaberry Sidewalks. I love it too. |
emb, sad! Just listened to the new Beth Hart. I knew I would not be disappointed. SQ is very, very good. I have several BH lps, I prefer "Better Than Home", if I had to make a definitive choice. The vocals on that lp are OUTSTANDING!!! If you have a great lp based system..get "Better Than Home"! Going to put on "Prisoner" later. |