Millions of music fans around the world are eagerly awaiting new releases from Ariana Grande and Sam Smith in the coming days. Clearly I’m not one of them. I’m much more interested in these albums instead:
Eels
Earth To Dora
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Recorded at the Eels’ Los Feliz, California studio, their 13th album Earth to Dora was produced by bandleader Mark Oliver Everett aka. E, and performed by E, Koool G Murder, The Chet and P-Boo. E says: “These songs came about just before the pandemic hit and changed everything. I’m hoping they can be, maybe kind of soothing or something. To hear songs dealing with things we are dreaming about getting back to. Or maybe people are dealing with some of the topics right now as well. Just one song was done in the thick of the early pandemic days, Are We Alright Again, which is kind of a quarantine daydream I desperately needed to have.”
Elvis Costello
Hey Clockface
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Hey Clockface was recorded in Helsinki, Paris and New York and mixed by Sebastian Krys in Los Angeles. The New York sessions were produced by composer, arranger and trumpet player, Michael Leonhart. Says Costello: “I wanted to write “Helsinki-Paris-???” on the record jacket like this was a perfume or an advertising agency. London was a possibility for the third city but London is forever. We’ll be there again. Michael sent this music to me from New York at the perfect time. It connected to elements in both of the previous sessions and completed the picture.” Speaking of the emotional and dynamic range of the record, he said, “I wanted the record to be vivid, whether the songs demanded playing that was loud and jagged or intimate and beautiful.”
Mr. Bungle
The Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny Demo
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The first release from Mr. Bungle since 1999. The Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny Demo is a re-recording of the band’s 1986 high school thrash metal demo along with songs written then, but never recorded. The record also features covers of classics by S.O.D. and Corrosion Of Conformity. This version of Mr. Bungle is original members Mike Patton, Trey Spruance and Trevor Dunn, joined by Scott Ian of Anthrax and Dave Lombardo of Slayer and Dead Cross.”
The OBGMs
The Ends
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “This is rock music that hits differently. It’s Kurt Cobain shit. It’s Jimi Hendrix shit. It’s the Steve Jobs of this rock shit.” That’s vocalist/guitarist Densil McFarlane talking about his band The OBGMs (that’s The oOoh Baby Gimme Mores) and their new album The Ends. If he sounds like a man who doesn’t lack confidence, that’s because he doesn’t. “The whole album is about not being bashful and just going out and getting it,” he says. “A lot of people who do music sink into self-deprecation, but we’re comfortable telling people how we feel about ourselves — good and bad — and the good is: I don’t think there’s a band that does what we do on a record.”
Puscifer
Existential Reckoning
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Reports out of Jerome, Ariz. confirm the impending arrival of Existential Reckoning, a 12-song album from the special agents operating under code name Puscifer: Mat Mitchell (guitar, bass, keys) and Carina Round (vocals, keys), with agent-in-training Maynard James Keenan (vocals, stories) aka Dick Merkin. The agents recruited back-up: Greg Edwards (an experienced agent having worked in operations classified as Failure and Autolux; bass, guitar, keys), Gunnar Olsen (drums) and Sarah Jones (drums). [REDACTED]. Existential Reckoning was produced by Mat Mitchell and Puscifer. The album was recorded and mixed by Mat Mitchell at Puscifer Studios in North Hollywood, Calif.”
Jim White
Misfit’s Jubilee
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The ever-elusive Americana maverick Jim White returns with his most upbeat, hallucinogenic record to date. Known for his catalog of dark ruminations on all things Southern, White’s latest outing Misfit’s Jubilee features a nonstop parade of manic, blue-collar conflagrations exploring realms dark and light, mystic and mundane, cynical and heartfelt; all presented within a buoyant, hook-laden sonic framework. Recorded primarily at Studio Caporal in Antwerp, Belgium, this record marks a departure from White’s usual hopscotch approach to collaboration. The pared-down chemistry on display here lends Misfit’s Jubilee a sonic integrity that far exceeds any of White’s previous efforts. Get ready to be dazzled.”
