Between all the regular releases coming next Friday and the hundreds of Record Store Day offerings arriving on Saturday, I could have easily come up with a few dozen albums I’m interested in hearing. But since we all have better things to do with our lives, I kept it to 10. You’re welcome. And the winners are:
Beautiful People
If ’60s Were ’90s Deluxe Edition
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Beautiful People return with a boxset centred around their ground-breaking record If ’60s Were ’90s, the original Jimi Hendrix remix opus. It will feature a remastered version of the classic 1994 album, a triple CD selection of the best remixes, a DVD of all the band’s live TV performances and music videos, an interview with Alan Douglas, and scrapbook coffee table book put together by acclaimed producer Mike Bennett. If ’60s were ’90s utilises guitar riffs and vocal cutouts from Jimi Hendrix and blues guitarist Mike Bloomfield amongst many more, cutting to the very apex of ’60s psychedelic sound and melding it with the high-energy trends of ’90s dance. What emerges is an album that combines the two eras in an unforgettable new age offering, bringing retro guitars into dance music while still retaining the psychedelic rock majesty of one of the greatest guitarists of the 20th century. Now re-released for the digital age, the album retains its freshness and originality — proving that If ’60s Were ’90s provides a sound that transcends the limits of time and appeals to every generation.”
Boy Golden
Church of Better Daze
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Boy Golden is a new artist from Winnipeg. A chrysalis in a 1940s lemon lounge suit, Boy Golden is poised to emerge fully formed from the pandopolis deep freeze with his charismatic vision of good vibes, even in hard times. A charming dealer of laid-back devil on your shoulder advice for life, Boy Golden’s worldview is located somewhere between ‘work hard everyday’ and ‘quit that job!’ With a soundcloud link and a 1995 Toyota Previa-sized personality, Boy Golden has a purpose: Enjoy each day and make good music. Founder and minister of The Church of Better Daze, he wants to help people seeking to improve on yesterday’s themes. His songs, like hymns, are hopeful, fresh and upbeat. Redefining jam band and stoner cultures by turning dead heads into lively brains, Boy Golden wants to unite us all in a hazy dream under one roof. If you’re open to learn, and can speak your truth, you can blaze and still get paid in Boy Golden’s Church of Better Daze.”
Dee Gees (Foo Fighters)
Hail Satin
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “It’s Record Store Day Night Fever as the Brothers Foo Gibb it to you good with Hail Satin, the high Travoltage debut album of Foo Fighters’ disco alter ego Dee Gees. A limited edition vinyl album packaged era-appropriately in a dazzling rainbow mylar sleeve, Hail Satin is the bipolar party record of the summer. Side A features Grohl, Hawkins, Mendel, Smear, Shiflett and Jaffee lighting up the floor at Foo Fighters’ 606 studios with faithful renditions of five stone-cold Gibb classics — Bee Gees bangers You Should Be Dancing, Night Fever, Tragedy, More Than A Woman and Andy Gibb’s Shadow Dancing — while side B rocks the party with live-at-606 renditions of roughly half of Foo Fighters pandemic panacea album Medicine At Midnight. For optimal results, listen with exposed chest hair and little gold spoon necklace (if you know, you know…).”
Ida Mae
Click Click Domino
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “For nearly two straight years following the release of their critically acclaimed debut, Chasing Lights, Ida Mae — the husband-wife duo of Chris Turpin and Stephanie Jean — lived on the road, crisscrossing the U.S. from coast to coast as they performed hundreds of dates. While those shows were electrifying for the duo, it was what happened in between — the countless hours spent driving through small towns and big cities, past sprawling suburbs and forgotten ghost towns, across deserts and mountains and forests and prairies — that truly laid the creative groundwork for Click Click Domino. Written primarily in the backseat of a moving car, Click Click Domino embodies all the momentum and possibility of the great American unknown, offering up a series of cinematic vignettes full of hope and disappointment, promise and regret, connection and loneliness. The songs here are raw and direct, fueled by an innovative mix of vintage instruments and modern electronics, and the performances are loose and exhilarating to match, drawing on early rock and roll, classic country, British folk, and ’50s soul to forge a sound that’s equal parts Alan Lomax field recording and 21st century garage band.”
John Mayer
Sob Rock
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “After teasing its arrival on social media, on billboards, and in print, Grammy-winning artist, guitarist, and producer John Mayer will finally unveil his eighth full-length album Sob Rock. Produced by Mayer and Don Was, and recorded at Henson Studios in Los Angeles, the album marks Mayer’s first solo offering since 2017’s gold-selling The Search for Everything.”
Laura Nyro
Trees of the Ages: Live in Japan
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “A member of both the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Laura Nyro not only wrote songs that became hits for acts including The 5th Dimension, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Three Dog Night, Barbra Streisand, and many more, but has been cited as a major influence by Kate Bush, Elton John, Elvis Costello, Cyndi Lauper, Todd Rundgren and countless others. She recorded 10 studio albums (one released posthumously), but a live performance was always an event. Originally issued only in Japan in 2003, the 16 tracks recorded at Kintetsu Hall, plus five recorded at On Air West return as Trees Of The Ages: Laura Nyro Live In Japan. It runs the gamut of her career, from Nyro-penned hits including And When I Die, Wedding Bell Blues, and Save The Country, to covers of Bacharach/David, Smokey Robinson, and Phil Spector classics.”
Tedeschi Trucks Band
Layla Revisited (Live At LOCKN’)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Tedeschi Trucks Band’s Layla Revisited (Live At LOCKN’) is a one-off live recording of the seminal Derek & The Dominos album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, performed in its entirety with special guest Trey Anastasio. Recorded on August 24, 2019 in Virginia, Layla Revisited captures Tedeschi Trucks Band at their incendiary best, with Anastasio proving the perfect foil to the transcendent musical union of guitarist Derek Trucks and guitarist/vocalist Susan Tedeschi, and frequent collaborator Doyle Bramhall II. The performance came as a complete surprise to fans. The artists made no mention of the set of music they diligently rehearsed and planned ahead of time. But the links between the band and the album are deeply woven into the fabric of their existence. Propelled by two of the 20th century’s greatest guitarists, Eric Clapton and Duane Allman, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs was serendipitously released on Nov. 9,1970, the day Tedeschi was born. Later, Chris and Debbie Trucks were such fans of the album that they were inspired to name their firstborn son Derek. Decades later, Trucks would enjoy a 15-year tenure as a member of The Allman Brothers Band, and tour extensively with Clapton. Such is the depth of connection between the music and the performers that this album feels almost preordained.”
Umphrey’s McGee
You Walked Up Shaking in Your Boots But You Stood Tall and Left a Raging Bull
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The volume of crowd chatter grows, the temperature rises, and the buzz in the room grows palpable. House lights dim and the walk-on music starts flying from stacks of speakers flanking the stage. One by one, the band members of Umphrey’s McGee settle into their respective places on stage, tuning their instruments and taking that final sip of water or something stronger in preparation for the rock show ahead. Suddenly they’re playing along with the pre-recorded intro music, reaching into its existing themes and adding new parts as they see fit, building and intensifying until the bottom drops out and the band executes a classic Umphrey’s segue into one of their 100+ beloved album tracks. This is the diving board from which Umphrey’s McGee jump — the start of their show — and now twelve of these fan-favorite intro songs have gotten the full studio treatment. On July 16, Umphrey’s McGee will release them on an album called You Walked Up Shaking In Your Boots But You Stood Tall And Left A Raging Bull.”
Wavves
Hideaway
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Across Hideaway‘s brief but impactful nine tracks, the album, produced by Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio, is about what happens when you get old enough to take stock of the world around you and realize that no one is going to save you but yourself, and even that might be a tall order. “It’s real peaks and valleys with me,” Wavves’ Nathan Williams says. “I can be super optimistic and I can feel really good, and then I can hit a skid and it’s like an earthquake hits my life, and everything just falls apart. Some of it is my own doing, of course.” It’s this self awareness that permeates each of Hideaway’s songs, marking them each as mature reckonings with who he is. Hideaway features Williams’ most universal and urgent songs yet.”
Thalia Zedek Band
Perfect Vision
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Perfect Vision follows the Thalia Zedek Band’s 2018 album Fighting Season, created in the midst of growing tensions across the U.S. On Fighting Season Zedek sought resistance, where on Perfect Vision Zedek searches for clarity during a time of exponential isolation and doubt. Zedek composed the bulk of Perfect Vision remotely from her band. Lockdowns allowed Zedek to take more time working on arrangements as well as to collaborate remotely with artists from across the country. They completed the album on Jan. 6 as the U.S. Capitol was under insurrection. Perfect Vision is an album fully willing to see, acknowledge and address the insidious forces of the modern world. Zedek brings considerable skills as a musician and as a groundbreaking advocate for both women in music and LGBTQ rights to face emotional and political obstacles with unblinking, steadfast determination. The sharp and diverse songs across Perfect Vision stand as profoundly reflective, moving anthems to purging malevolence.”
