The Pretenders never say die, Willie Nelson rolls up a different strain of grass, Brian Setzer goes to the devil, Beaches share the blame, The Who and Steve Miller hit replay — and I haven’t even mentioned Bahamas, Bombino, Corey Taylor, The Record Company, Thirty Seconds To Mars and the rest of the best new music on the way. Here are your plays of the week:
Bahamas
Boot Cut
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Recorded in Nashville, Boot Cut, the new album from acclaimed, award-winning artist Bahamas (aka Afie Jurvanen), seamlessly combines his signature, genre-bending blend of quirky pop, R&B, folk, soul, alternative and dashes of clever wit with Jurvanen’s love of classic country music. With Grammy-nominated producer/engineer Robbie Lackritz (Feist, Jack Johnson, Alvvays) and Dan Knobler (Allison Russell, Rodney Crowell) at the helm, Jurvanen enlisted a who’s who of Nashville, including icon/guitarist Vince Gill, harmonica wizard Mickey Raphael (Willie Nelson), pedal steel maestro Russ Pahl (Sturgill Simpson), legendary bassist Dave Roe (Johnny Cash, Dwight Yoakam), mandolin master Sam Bush, keyboardist Jen Gunderman (Jayhawks), and drummer Jon Radford (Brendan Benson, Nikki Lane).”
Baroness
Stone
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Grammy-nominated heavy rock band Baroness are back with their new album Stone. The Philly quartet of John Baizley (guitar/vocals/illustration), Gina Gleason (guitar), Nick Jost (bass) and Sebastian Thomson (drums) embrace a vast multi-genre vocabulary on their sixth album. This is still very much Baroness — just refocused to be more efficient and rethought for stability. While writing, Baizley recorded and premixed the album. After the group finished recording the drums, guitars and bass, they took everything back to Baizley’s basement — which is also where parts of Gold & Gray were recorded — to record the vocals and add other details. Stone was then turned over to Grammy-nominated mixmaster Joe Barresi (Kyuss, Alice In Chains) and Grammy-winning mastering guru Bob Ludwig (Led Zeppelin, Nirvana) at Gateway Mastering Studios for final mixing and polishing.”
The Beaches
Blame My Ex
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “With their new album, Blame My Ex — their first independent album — The Beaches crack their brazen shell to reveal a more vulnerable inside. Eliza Enman-McDaniel (drums), Leandra Earl (keys/guitar), and sisters Jordan and Kylie Miller (lead vocals/bass and guitar respectively) are letting a real-life heartache lead the way. When the heart splits open, it unleashes all kinds of love; from platonic to queer and everything in between. The Beaches uncover it all on this album, while managing to keep it “equal parts silly party beaches, and heartbroken emotional girls,” says Kylie. The band paired with executive producer Lowell (Madison Beer, Nessa Barrett), Juno-nominated producer Gus Van Go (Arkells, Sam Roberts), and producer Sam Willows (Ruby Waters) to maintain their electric spirit. They’ve been dead-set on focusing on songwriting and melody to channel their live energy into this album for a more authentic sound.”
Beck, Bogert & Appice
Live In Japan 1973 & Live In London 1974
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Before his death in January, legendary guitarist Jeff Beck revisited concert recordings made by Beck, Bogert & Appice, the power trio he formed in 1972 with drummer/singer Carmine Appice and bassist/singer Tim Bogert. The live music captures the band at the beginning and end of its short-but-influential partnership, with two shows in Japan in 1973 and one of the group’s final performances in London a year later. Beck and Appice mixed all the concerts in this set from the original multi-tracks that had been in Beck’s archive for almost 50 years, thus knocking the many bootleg-quality releases that Beck hated out of the park! The two performances at Koseinenkin Hall in Osaka, Japan (recorded May 18 and 19, 1973) were released exclusively in Japan a few months after the shows, but never in the U.S. The complete concert at the Rainbow Theatre in London, England (recorded January 26, 1974) has never been released anywhere.”
Bombino | Sahel
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Sahel is Bombino’s first full album in over five years, and follows 2018’s Deran — the album that turned the guitar luminary and Tuareg folk hero into the first Grammy-nominated artist from Niger. Sahel’ was produced by produced by David Wrench (David Byrne, Frank Ocean) and was recorded in Casablanca. Born in 1980 in a nomadic Tuareg encampment, Bombino (born Goumour Almoctar, also known as Oumara Moctar) came of age during much political upheaval, fleeing with his family to Algeria by 1990, teaching himself guitar by watching videos of his heroes Jimi Hendrix, Dire Straits, Ali Farka Toure and Tinariwen, and returning to northern Niger’s largest city, Agadez, seven years later, when he took on music professionally. After years of honing his skills back home and spending time as a shepherd in Libya, he first left Africa and traveled to California in 2006 as lead soloist on tour with Tidawt. There he recorded a desert blues take on the Rolling Stones classic Hey Negrita alongside Keith Richards and Charlie Watts. The following year, filmmaker Hisham Mayet captured Bombino and his electric band for the recording Music from Niger: Guitars from Agadez, Vol. 2, released in 2009, Bombino’s first official album release.”
Dengue Fever
Ting Mong
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “As they celebrate the 20th anniversary of their self-titled debut, Dengue Fever emerge with their most cohesive and immersive album to date. It’s been eight years since the release of The Deepest Lake; during this time new generations have been catching up to the same omnivorous music taste the band has practiced since its inception. Full-length No. 7 Ting Mong captures yet another enthralling dimension of their genre-defying journey. A lot of groups working on their first new collection of songs in eight years would probably favour clamour and bombast — by contrast, Ting Mong seeks the sonic balm these times so desperately need. In Cambodian culture, a Ting Mong is an effigy of protection, a scarecrow-like figure usually placed at the entrance of a village or a home. It wards off diseases and evil spirits. We’re all in desperate need of a Ting Mong, band members occurred. Here is Dengue Fever’s take on the concept of Ting Mong, then: A half hour of mellow, soothing music.”
Explosions in the Sky
End
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “End, the enigmatic seventh album by Explosions In The Sky, was inspired by darkness, but became a loud, dramatic, wild rumination on life and death. “Our starting point was the concept of an ending — death, or the end of a friendship or relationship,” they say. “Every song comes from a story, or an idea one of us has had that we’ve all expanded on and made its own world. Maybe it’s our nature, but we kept feeling that the album title was ultimately open to a lot more interpretation — the end of a thing or a time can mean a stop, but it can also mean a beginning, and what happens after one thing ends might pale in comparison to what it becomes next.” End is perhaps the “grandest” Explosions in the Sky album — melding the quiet restraint and crushing feel of their early releases with the sonic texturing and ornate experimentation of their later releases, and their increasingly deep film and television scoring catalog, influenced by personal tastes stretching from classical to soul to experimental ambient music. End is the band’s seventh, but not final, studio album.”
Shakey Graves
Movie Of The Week
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In late 2018, some friends of mine were making a movie, and they asked if I would do the soundtrack for it,” says Alejandro Rose-Garcia, aka Shakey Graves. “I started recording music along to footage, but when I started to turn a lot of it in, I realized that the director and I did not see the movie in the same way. A lot of the music was turned away. But I made all this really cool stuff and felt really invigorated.” When Rose-Garcia went into the studio with his band, he realized he didn’t have songs, but rather soundtrack ideas. “I sent them all a link to some of the soundtrack stuff. We came up with this way to record where we went through them like themes. I came up with the plot of an imaginary movie. And we started to treat it like a soundtrack to a movie. Movie Of The Week is definitely more on the lush side,” he continues. “I’m really excited about making this more like a project than an album.”
Danko Jones
Electric Sounds
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Are you ready to rock? Do you want a good time? Do you want to get high? If the answer to any of those questions is yes (and it really should be), then the undisputed kings of balls-out rock’n’roll are back to provide maximum satisfaction! An elite, three-man squad, dedicated to the noble art of riffs, melodies and life-affirming rock anthems, Danko Jones are ready to serve up all the Electric Sounds you could possibly need! Armed with yet another stone cold classic, Danko Jones are on a renewed mission to rock the living shit-lights out of anyone and everyone that wants to join the party. After 27 years of active service, the trio’s commitment and intensity continues to grow, and their popularity and prominence continues to follow an upward route.”
Jim Lauderdale & The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys
The Long And Lonesome Letting Go
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Whether as co-writer, bandleader, master of ceremonies or musical ambassador for musical styles or states, Jim Lauderdale has been one of Americana music’s all-time great collaborators. And his new album with The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys, The Long and Lonesome Letting Go, stands as one of the best collaborative works in his 36-album discography. “Po’ Ramblin’ Boys just really speak to and resonate with me,” says Lauderdale. “I hear so much of the great traditional bluegrass sound in them and it makes me so happy to see a younger band of their generation carrying the style forward so well. They’re all so great in what they all do, both individually and as a performing band. I’ve always been blown away by them, so I was just very excited that they were interested in collaborating with me.”
Steve Miller
J50: The Evolution Of The Joker
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Steve Miller is honoring the 50th anniversary of his chart-topping, platinum eighth studio album The Joker with a new box set chronicling the artistic journey that led to its creation. J50: The Evolution of The Joker showcases Miller’s process as he expands and reimagines his craft, ultimately finding a strikingly original new sound that brought him to a wider audience than ever before and set the stage for even greater successes to come. Curated by Miller himself, J50 dives deep into the creative process of writing and assembling The Joker and amplifies its enduring magic by chronologically placing the original album tracks alongside 27 previously unreleased recordings from Miller’s personal archive — including songwriting tapes made by Miller on his TEAC four-track in hotel rooms on the road and at live performances, plus studio outtakes and rehearsals — as well as six audio commentary tracks from Miller and exclusive liner notes.
Willie Nelson
Bluegrass
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Willie Nelson’s new studio album Bluegrass features a dozen of his favorite self-penned classics recorded with a bluegrass ensemble. Bluegrass (his 151st album, according to Texas Monthly’s interactive All Willie Nelson Albums Ranked list) presents 12 classic Willie cuts — including On the Road Again, Yesterday’s Wine, Still is Still Moving to Me, Good Hearted Woman and more — freshly interpreted by Nelson and his bluegrass ensemble. All the songs on Bluegrass were written by Nelson except Good Hearted Woman which was co-written with Waylon Jennings. Produced by longtime collaborator Buddy Cannon, Bluegrass features Barry Bales (upright bass), Ron Block (banjo), Aubrey Haynie (fiddle), Rob Ickes (dobro), Josh Martin (acoustic guitar), Mickey Raphael (harmonica), Seth Taylor (mandolin), Bobby Terry (acoustic guitar), Dan Tyminski (mandolin), backing vocals by Wyatt Beard, Buddy and Melonie Cannon, and cover art by Micah Nelson.”
The Pretenders
Relentless
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Relentless, The Pretenders’ 14th studio album, is a clearly defined snapshot of where the band are in 2023, delivering the impulsiveness and attitude that at once defines their eternal spirit. Speaking about the album title, singer-guitarist and sonwriter Chrissie Hynde said: “I enjoy seeing the various meanings and origins of a word. And I liked the definition: ‘Showing no abatement of intensity.’ It’s the life of the artist. You never retire. You become relentless.. Relentless is the second consecutive Pretenders album to be written as a collaboration between Hynde and the band’s resident guitar hero James Walbourne. He is especially sought after in his own right, having recorded with Dave Gahan, Jerry Lee Lewis and The Rails, amongst many more. “We had developed this method of working remotely and it seemed like we just kept on doing it for this album,” Hynde says. “This is something that we’ve honed down to an art in the last few years. He always comes up with something I wouldn’t have thought of myself and I love surprises.”
The Record Company
The 4th Album
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “When The Record Company pick up their instruments, the members — Chris Vos (guitar, lead vocals, harmonica), Alex Stiff (bass, backing vocals), and Marc Cazorla (drums, backing vocals) — participate in a musical back-and-forth akin to a formative and supportive conversation among siblings. The nuances of their personalities seep through loose, bluesy guitar leads, airtight drum grooves, thick bass, and vividly evocative lyrics. With such fluidity, the musicians respond to one another so instinctually you’d swear they were telepathically linked. However, there’s no such superpower necessary when you’ve got the closest thing to a brotherhood that three musicians unrelated by blood can share… On The 4th Album, The Record Company head back to their roots, creating the raw, self-produced, blues-based music that in past years earned them two No. 1 songs, a Grammy nomination and brought them from playing small clubs to arena tours supporting John Mayer and Bob Seger.”
Brian Setzer
The Devil Always Collects
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Creative sparks and killer riffs are flying everywhere on Brian Setzer’s new album The Devil Always Collects. Setzer’s guitar work is virtuosic on the new album’s 11 tracks, and his vocals deliver the clever storylines of catchy songs like The Devil Always Collects, Girl On The Billboard, Black Leather Jacket and Rock Boys Rock. Add in non-stop freight train rhythms, and you have an album — produced by Setzer and Julian Raymond and mixed by Chris Lord-Alge — that stands with Setzer’s best, showcasing his special talent to inject the roots of rock with a contemporary freshness that unites fans of rock, Americana, rockabilly, and punk.”
Corey Taylor
CMF2
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “I have no fear when it comes to music. None,” Corey Taylor declares. “It feels so good to really lean into the things that I’ve been chomping at the bit to do.” Those “things”? The 13 diverse, unforgettable songs on CMF2, ranging from the punchy, timeless first single Beyond to Someday I’ll Change Your Mind, a soaring, sentimental stunner with an infectious chorus. The songs move seamlessly from the punk rawness and anthemic rallying cry of We Are The Rest to the acoustic lament Breath Of Fresh Smoke to Post Traumatic Blues, which has a wild sensibility that echoes the lyrical topic of PTSD. “My first solo album was kind of where I was coming from. This album is more where we’re going,” he explains. For CMF2 — where Taylor sings and plays lead and rhythm guitar, piano, and mandolin — packs the energy, experimentation and forthrightness that’s defined a career which has seen him sell more than 12 million albums with his Grammy-winning band Slipknot, and several million with chart-toppers Stone Sour.”
Thirty Seconds To Mars
It’s The End Of The World But It’s A Beautiful Day
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “It’s The End Of The World But It’s A Beautiful Day is a triumphant new musical offering from Thirty Seconds To Mars, which Jared Leto co-founded with his brother Shannon and has been driven by their intuitive creative interplay ever since. The siblings wrote hundreds of new songs over the last several years and specifically carved out these 10 for the album, inspired by the gamut of emotions and experiences through which they’ve navigated in the five years since the release of their chart-topping previous album America. “Shannon and I wanted to make an album that speaks to who we are now,” Jared says. “The connective threads are a sense of optimism, celebration, vulnerability, and simplicity too. We didn’t want to return to something we’re familiar with, and I think we did that.”
Wheeler Walker Jr.
Ram
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Country singer-turned-rock rebel Wheeler Walker Jr. wails wryly in the opening line of his new song, Money ‘N’ Bitches, that “Some people work ‘cause they like their job, but I’m only here so I can feed my hog.” Money ‘N’ Bitches is the first cut off the outlaw journeyman’s forthcoming album Ram, his boldest effort yet — a hard-charging hurricane of a rock album that’s every bit as pummeling, raunchy and riotous as his best work to date. “It’s pretty intense,” Wheeler says of the 10-track, Dave Cobb-produced LP full of ass-kicking anthems with titles including Born to F—, F— This Job and Fingerblast. The album is the followup to last year’s Sex, Drugs & Country Music. “I used to be the king of country. Now I’m gonna be the king of rock ‘n’ roll,” proclaims Walker Jr. He continues, “Dan + Shay used to be my competition. Now it’s Greta Van Fleet. Same shit, different day.”
The Who
Who’s Next / Life House
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The suite of songs by The Who on which, more than half a century ago, Pete Townshend foresaw the invention of the internet, of virtual reality and pandemic-style lockdown, is to be heard as he intended for the first time as Who’s Next / Life House, a lavish, multi-format set. Featuring 155 tracks, of which 89 are previously unreleased and 57 feature fresh remixes, the set will delight longtime Who fans with its long-sought, complete picture of Townshend’s incredibly prescient songwriting, while captivating a new audience with his visionary description of a future that has, in many ways, come true. It features all of his songs, in their many stages of development, from the abandoned, audacious Life House project, started in 1970 as a followup to The Who’s epic Tommy, and from the undisputed rock classic of 1971 that it evolved into, Who’s Next.” Listeners will hear, for the first time, how that concept folded into Who’s Next, widely regarded as not only one of the greatest albums in the band’s astonishing catalogue, but a seminal moment in music history. Here, The Who’s instinctive, scintillating cohesion reached new peaks, Townshend’s brilliant creativity as one of rock’s great auteurs brought thrillingly to life by Roger Daltrey’s unsurpassed vocal performances, John Entwistle’s visceral, fluid basslines and Keith Moon’s fiery potency on the drums.”
