Green Day and Sleater-Kinney kick 2024 into gear, Lil Dicky unveils his shortcomings, Nick Oliveri hits you twice and more. Welcome to your plays of the week:
Black Grape
Orange Head
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Black Grape could only have been made in Manchester. The swagger, fun and cryptic humour seem hewn from a city historian AJP Taylor once described as offering an archetypally different way of English urban life to London. Both Shaun Ryder and Paul Leveridge, known as Kermit, came from edgy-but-cool parts of the city. In Shaun’s case Salford, with Kermit originating from Moss Side. For those unfamiliar, ‘the Moss’ lay in the shadow of Manchester City’s old stadium at Maine Road, and was one of the first multi-ethnic areas in Manchester. Ryder has grown from a wild young tearaway into a British national treasure. Black Grape always were a grimily cosmic musical jigsaw, melding rock, hip-hop, acid house, psychedelic pop and reggae with Ryder’s gutter poetry, delivered in his inimitable shyster’s bark.
Green Day
Saviors
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Right from The American Dream Is Killing Me — the first single and opening track from Saviors — Green Day are sending out a fiery SOS for these troubled times. Amazingly, Saviors represents Green Day’s 14th studio album, yet somehow this enduring power trio — Billie Joe Armstrong, Tré Cool and Mike Dirnt — remain devoted to their defiant craft that has fueled their career-long destruction of every boundary bestowed on the genre, and landed 3 East Bay punks in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. So even as the band acknowledge their illustrious past — such as with the 30th anniversary of their now-classic Dookie album and the 20th anniversary of American Idiot coming in 2024 — Green Day remain firmly focused on the here and now. The album was recorded in London and Los Angeles under the audacious ear and rock prowess of longtime friend and collaborator, Grammy-winning producer Rob Cavallo. Need a little inspiration to live on to fight the good fight another day? Fear not. Saviors is coming soon.”
Lil Dicky
Penith: The Dave Soundtrack
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Platinum-selling and acclaimed rapper Lil Dicky (aka Dave Burd) is set to make a triumphant return with the release of Penith (The Dave Soundtrack), a collection of 22 songs featured across three seasons of his hit show. Eight years since his last studio album, Penith is more than just a compilation from the series. The album represents a complete and cherished body of work, showcasing Lil Dicky’s unique artistic journey and dedication. Fans have long awaited his musical comeback, and this is the first step, with big plans for more original music on the horizon. Penith is not only a reflection of Lil Dicky’s evolution as an artist but also a celebration of his creative vision, marrying the essence of his show with his broader musical ambitions.”
The Long Ryders
Native Sons Expanded Edition
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Released in October 1984 Native Sons was the debut album by American band The Long Ryders. Musically, the album fuses 1960s style garage-rock and folk-rock with country-rock. This new three-CD edition compiled in conjunction with founding member Sid Griffin contains the original album alongside a raft of demos and a live recording from 1985. Described at the time as a modern American classic, this version brings together all the tracks that defined the start of alt-country with a new package containing sleeve notes by Anthony DeCurtis and design by Phil Smee.”
Nick Oliveri
N.O. Hits At All Vols. 8 & 9
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Californian stoner rock and punk icon Nick Oliveri (ex-Kyuss, Queens of The Stone Age) recently announced the release of the eighth and ninth chapters of his N.O. Hits At All compilations, featuring previously unreleased and brand new songs from his many projects such as Death Acoustic, Death Machine and Mondo Generator, as well as special appearances on Slash or Nebula tracks.”
Sleater-Kinney
Little Rope
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “There is about grief the necessary aftertaste of dreaming. In the wake of sudden loss — a moment, a person, a way of being brought violently to an end — the thing lost is gone but not its outline, a strange unstable place in which festers all manner of strange unstable thinking. The rules of reality temporarily subside, and mourning makes of the world a negative space. Plunged without warning into that space, Sleater-Kinney returns with Little Rope, one of the finest, most delicately layered records in the band’s nearly 30-year career. To call the album flawless feels like an insult to its intent — it careens headfirst into flaw, into brokenness, a meditation on what living in a world of perpetual crisis has done to us, and what we do to the world in return. On the surface, the album’s 10 songs veer from spare to anthemic, catchy to deliberately hard-turning. But beneath that are perhaps the most complex and subtle arrangements of any Sleater-Kinney record, and a lyrical and emotional compass pointed firmly in the direction of something both liberating and terrifying: the sense that only way to gain control is to let it go.”
