The Kinkster and Clipping, Jimmy and Jim and another Jimmy, Dark Mark and Refused — who needs big-name major-label releases when you’ve got these options? Looks like seven is a lucky number after all. At least this week. See (and hear) for yourself:
Clipping
There Existed an Addiction to Blood
THE PRESS RELEASE: “The science-fiction visionary Octavia Butler once declared that “there is nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns.” The aphorism could apply to any art form where the basic contours are fixed, but the appetite for innovation remains infinite. Enter Clipping, flash fiction genre masters in a hip-hop world firmly rooted in memoir. If first person confessionals historically reign, the mid-city Los Angeles trio of rapper Daveed Diggs and producers William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes have spent the last half-decade terraforming their own patch of soil, replete with conceptual labyrinths and industrial chaos. They have conjured a mutant emanation of the future, built at odd angles atop the hallowed foundation of the past. Their third album for Sub Pop, There Existed an Addiction to Blood, finds them interpreting another rap splinter sect through their singular lens. This is clipping’s transmutation of horrorcore, a purposefully absurdist and creatively significant sub-genre that flourished in the mid-90s. If some of its most notable pioneers included Brotha Lynch Hung and Gravediggaz, it also encompasses seminal works from the Geto Boys, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, and the near-entirety of classic Memphis cassette tape rap. The most subversive and experimental rap has often presented itself as an “alternative” to conventional sounds, but Clipping respectfully warp them into new constellations. There Existed an Addiction to Blood absorbs the hyper-violent horror tropes of the Murder Dog era, but re-imagines them in a new light: still darkly-tinted and somber, but in a weirder and more vivid hue. If traditional horrorcore was akin to Blacula, the hugely popular blaxploitation flick from the early 70s, Clipping’s latest is analogous to Ganja & Hess, the blood-sipping 1973 cult classic regarded as an unsung landmark of black independent cinema, whose score the band samples on Blood of the Fang.”
Kinky Friedman
Resurrection
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Yes, Kinky Friedman has been resurrected, with perhaps his greatest work ever, the CD Resurrection. In working with superstar producer, multi-instrumentalist and three-time Grammy winner Larry Campbell, Kinky has finally found the perfect compliment to his jagged edge Texas Hill Country persona. Together with fellow three-time Grammy winning engineer Justin Guip, they have produced eleven amazing cuts that speak to the legends and myths of the great southwest with an inner conviction that belies the raucous days of Kinky’s youth.”
Jimmy “Duck” Holmes
Cypress Grove
THE PRESS RELEASE: “72-year-old bluesman Jimmy “Duck” Holmes’ new album, the Dan Auerbach produced Cypress Grove, captures the raw, explosive sound of real Mississippi Juke-Joint Blues today. Cypress Grove is an aural postcard of a typical Saturday night at Holmes’ Blue Front Café, America’s longest operating juke joint. The album is anchored by tradition – which is natural, since Holmes is the last of the original torchbearers of the rural style known as Bentonia blues — but it’s also explosive, raw, and unpredictably in the moment. Featuring an all-star cast of players including Auerbach, Marcus King, Eric Deaton and Sam Bacco, as well as Holmes’ repertoire of songs spanning nearly a century, the adventurous 11-song set is an untamed bridge between the present and the classic sounds of the Delta.”
Jim James, Teddy Abrams & Louisville Orchestra
The Order of Nature
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Jim James, acclaimed genre-bending solo artist, passionate social activist and leader of legendary rock band My Morning Jacket, and conductor/composer Teddy Abrams & The Louisville Orchestra announce the release of their collaborative project, The Order of Nature. As two of the world’s most vibrant and versatile musicians, neither James nor Abrams shies away from a challenge, and with The Order of Nature they’ve crafted a large-scale symphonic suite that has James’ evocative songs as its foundation. Abrams built a grand orchestral house on that foundation, and the result is an explosion of music that boldly synthesizes rock and classical while taking advantage of orchestral music’s inherently cinematic nature. “The core idea to me is trying to reflect on the fact that nature doesn’t know how to hate,” says James. “Humans are part of nature obviously, but why do we have this thing called hatred and how do we get rid of it? We’re fighting nature and thinking we can prevail over nature, but we’re killing each other and killing the planet.”
Jimmy Eat World
Surviving
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Surviving is the band’s most personal, ambitious album to date and front man Jim Adkins once again proves himself as one of the most prolific songwriters in rock & roll. As Adkins himself puts it, “Surviving explores some of the different kinds of weights my ego tells me I have to carry, what I see people around me choosing to carry and what I have found to be the truth when I choose to let go”. The 10-track album was produced by the band and Integrity Blues producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen. Surviving is a timely reminder of just why Jimmy Eat World are still selling out venues, headlining festivals and scoring top 10 albums as new generations of fans adopt their songs as the soundtrack to their lives.”
Mark Lanegan
Somebody’s Knocking
THE PRESS RELEASE: “From the opening bars onwards, it’s clear that Somebody’s Knocking is an album made by someone deeply obsessed with how music – with all its primal, spiritual healing power – truly penetrates the soul. As a result, there’s joy in the music, as if created from a perfect set of inspirations smashed and grabbed from God’s own record shop. Some of the influences are oblique, others direct and fully respectful. From the Raw Power-esque garage metal grind of that opener to Letter Never Sent’s rocket-powered take on Love-era kaleidoscope-psych, through the pensive subterranean murk of Dark Disco Jag and on to Playing Nero’s sun-bleached riff on Joy Division’s Atmosphere, there’s the glee of infatuation running deep in the tracks. And, in some ways, that display of infatuation serves to change the very perception of Mark Lanegan the artist – this album being less the tale of a brooding, crepuscular rock’n’roll veteran and more that of someone consumed by a lifelong love of words and sound fused together. Like Lanegan’s best work, it tells its own stories and weaves its own wonders, conjuring up feverish hallucinogenic visions to sit atop roughly hewn rock and glassy, brilliant bright electronics. And then it leaves them to penetrate their own ways right down to our deepest, darkest roots.”
Refused
War Music
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Formed in Umeå, Sweden in 1991, hardcore-punk legends Refused are one of the most influential rock bands of the early ‘00s. Artists as diverse as Linkin Park, Frank Turner, Steve Aoki, Duff McKagan and Paramore have been heavily cited crediting the 1998 album The Shape Of Punk To Come as being a fundamental influence on their musical styles. That album has become a cultural touchstone for the entire post-hardcore generation as the origination of stylistic genre-bending — including electronics, jazz and slick production for the first time — tent-poled by politically progressive lyrical intent and further strengthened through the use of album artwork and energetic live shows to spread their message. After a 14-year pause, the band reunited in 2012 playing much-anticipated shows like mainstream festival Coachella and were subsequently awarded the “Special Prize for Music Exports” by the Swedish Ministry of Trade in 2013. In 2015, they released their fourth studio album Freedom which was recorded with Nick Launay (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Killing Joke), while also turning to Swedish pop/producer Shellback –whose credits include Taylor Swift and Britney Spears –for the lead single Elektra. War Music will be their fifth full-length studio album and will be accompanied by a Worldwide concert tour, which began in May 2019 with a US tour with The Hives and three major European music festivals in June.”
