Ice-T and Ice Cube. Father John Misty and Papa M. U2 and 10,000 Years. Can and Cracker. Kim Deal and Dean & Britta. Coilguns and Sonic Boom. Elvis Costello and T Bone Burnett. Marilyn Manson and Crossbone Skully. And more where they came from. Good things are coming in pairs next week. See (and hear) for yourself:
Body Count
Merciless
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The title of Body Count’s latest album sums up Ice-T and his Grammy-grabbing crew to a T. They’ve persevered over social opposition, numerous personal tragedies, and an army of naysayers to emerge bloody but unbroken. In fact, they’re stronger than ever for it: Just check Body Count’s latest 11 tracks in the clip, Merciless. “We had a string of one-word albums,” says Ice-T. “We had Bloodlust, we had Carnivore and that word, Merciless, just bumped into my head. It’s really about that point where you can’t take any more and you’re done. Like the song says, ‘I got no more fucks to give.’ When you push a person to that point, it’s too late to ask for mercy. I was watching a lot of movies like Hostel — a lot of cruel torture movies — when I was writing the album, and I was like, ‘These people are cold-blooded.’ That’s what triggered that whole energy.”
Bill Callahan
The Holy Grail – Bill Callahan’s Smog, Dec. 10 2001 Peel Session
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “December 2001, Maida Vale: Bill Callahan’s Smog perform with demonstrative zeal for their British witnesses at the BBC, shimmering and hissing with a Lynchian vibe of U.S. darkness in the invariable shadows of the fallen towers. Callahan and band (Jessica Billey, Mike Saenz and Jim White) play songs by Stevie Nicks, Lou Reed and Smog with grey, ashen resolve and tour-torn flexibility, amassing a bruised, plaintive essence of humanity with their efforts. “This one to me is a time capsule more than most any of my recordings. All music is a time trapped in time that preaches timelessness — preaching either convincingly or not,” Callahan says. “But with a radio session such as this, there is a different aspect. It’s all live, all first take, no overdubs. Also I think having the BBC engineers at the controls, with their own aesthetic, not one I am bringing to the studio, that makes it more encapsulated — ‘Remember that day we did that?’ The circumstances and the memory of the smell of the studio makes it stand out. So it’s more of a performance maybe than a usual recording, because the audience (engineer and producer) were foreign to us. British, milk in tea. So we gave them something to show them who WE were — Dale Coopers with our black coffees.”
Can
Live In Keele 1977
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Live In Keele 1977 is a dynamic document of late-period Can. Recorded in March 1977, the core line up of Irmin Schmidt, Jaki Liebezeit, Michael Karoli and Holger Czukay are augmented by the addition of Rosko Gee (Traffic) on bass. Gee’s recent addition to the lineup meant that Czukay was freed up from bass duties to perform “waveform radio and spec. sounds”, manifesting here as otherworldly sounds, samples and what one reviewer of a later show described as “moontalk to a white continental telephone.” The new album is the final release in the current series of live documents that launched with Live In Stuttgart 1975, followed by Live In Cuxhaven 1976, Live In Brighton 1975, Live In Paris 1973 (the first of the series to feature the late Damo Suzuki), and Live In Aston 1977.”
Coilguns
Odd Love
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Odd Love is a way to summarize our relationship with music in itself, the overall music business and our band life,” says Coilguns’ Louis Jucker. “We’re amazed how long this band has lasted so far and the importance is has taken in our life, knowing how randomly it started. Our music has always been a sane yet intense way to process all the light and deep things we were going through in ou personal lives. Oddness is our nomality and love is our motor to achieve it. It took us a long time to fit somewhere in a scene, since we never believed and cared so much about scenes. Our drive was to get on stage and tore it down, and we found out pretty quickly that it would be hard to turn this energy into a business plan. Through the years we tried to cherish this strangeness while adapting to this gigantic chaos that is music today. This has for instance seen us start our own label and create most of our tools from scratch. We’ve obviously learned a lot together, and this whole process has taught us to love ourselves for what we are: a noisy odd band from a tidy watchmaking city.”
The Coward Brothers
The Coward Brothers
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The exact relationship between Henry (T Bone Burnett) and Howard Coward (Elvis Costello) remains ambiguous. They often referred to themselves as “one and a half brothers,” which might hint at their height difference — or imply they were not actually siblings but were involved in an elaborate ruse. Costello and Burnett have used the names as occasional noms de plume, dating back to the 1980s. But not until now did they turn the pseudonymous singing siblings of their imaginations into fully fledged characters. The duo’s first recorded appearance came when two of their songs surfaced on the bonus disc for a reissue of Costello’s 1986 album The King Of America — which Burnett produced in the wake of several tours with Costello. Their music, from early rock ’n’ roll hits to later, more introspective songs, is compiled in the upcoming album The Coward Brothers. After years of silence, their story was explored in a radio program, revealing the complexity of their relationship and their enduring bond. Despite their tumultuous history, their music remains a testament to their unyielding spirit.”
Cracker
Alternative History: A Retrospective
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “To the uninitiated Cracker might seem to be just another ’90s alt-rock band. However, fans recognize that the band is much more than that, having skillfully explored a wide array of styles over nearly 35 years. There are a few greatest-hits compilations for Cracker available, but these, at best, cover only the first third of the band’s 35-year career. In response to this, the band started a discussion to see if they could rectify the situation by producing a retrospective that would encompass the band’s entire career. Unfortunately, it became apparent that the cost of licensing tracks would be prohibitive. Undeterred, the band began to catalog the recordings they controlled, and a more promising idea emerged. They realized they had a collection of re-recordings, demos, outtakes, collaborations, and live tracks that told an alternate history of the band. And this collection would not only serve as an introduction to the band for new fans, but also provide long-time, hardcore fans with access to some rare and unreleased recordings. Thus, Alternative History was born.”
Crossbone Skully
Evil World Machine
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Crossbone Skully is an avenging superhero from outer space, returning to Earth to save the world and reconnect with his lost deity love Piper and Kyd, the son he never knew he had. Evil World Machine is a rock concept album that echoes similar dystopian visions such as Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars and Diamond Dogs. The project, influenced by larger-than-life bands such as AC/DC, Alice Cooper, KISS, Iron Maiden and even The Sex Pistols, is the work of a collaborative team headed by veteran rock session bassist/guitarist Tommy Henriksen and Tommy Denander alongside the legendary Mutt Lange, who emerged from retirement to executive produce the project. With a long history, Henriksen has also had a successful side career as a producer/mixer/arranger and songwriter for the likes of Lady Gaga, Meat Loaf, Lou Reed, Halestorm, Ke$ha and Daughtry. His metamorphosis into Crossbone Skully started when Alice Cooper’s lighting man, who used to work for AC/DC, heard him singing like Bon Scott and Brian Johnson during a sound check and suggested he build a solo project around it.”
Kim Deal
Nobody Loves You More
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Nobody Loves You More is Kim Deal’s debut album, although it’s technically not her first release under her own name — she self-released a five-part, 10-song 7” vinyl series in 2013, and beyond that, she’s earned her stripes as early as the late ’80s with bands Pixies and The Breeders. This record’s creation began with its oldest songs, Are You Mine? and Wish I Was, which were written and originally recorded in 2011 and included in said vinyl series, shortly after Deal concluded Pixies’ Lost Cities Tour and relocated to L.A. In the years since, the record took shape in pieces, coming to light with a variety of collaborators, including Breeders past and present (Mando Lopez, Kelley Deal, Jim Macpherson and Britt Walford), as well as new friends like Jack Lawrence (The Greenhornes) and Savages’ Fay Milton and Ayse Hassan. Tracked over the last several years, the record’s last recording was helmed by iconic engineer and Deal’s close friend Steve Albini.”
Dean & Britta & Sonic Boom
A Peace Of Us
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In a season where we all seek comfort, tradition, and a return to a home of sorts, a trio composed of indie music’s foundational members have gifted us A Peace of Us — an album of diverse holiday tunes filtered through their musical imaginations. Dean & Britta, well-known from their work defining a genre with Galaxie 500 and Luna, join Spacemen 3’s Sonic Boom, another bastion of indie’s collective adolescence, to bring to life a collection that draws from early ’60s pop, garage, country, James Bond soundtracks, Christmas carols, and electronica. Dean Wareham recalls a sentiment from a DJ friend: “You can experience all the emotions of Christmas through music — love and hate, joy and heartache, nostalgia, regret, anticipation, and frustration.” Their venture into a holiday album was organic, spurred by cover tunes over the years, a Christmas special during the pandemic, and collaborative sessions in L.A. and Portugal. The trio all contributed vocals, with guitars by Wareham, bass and keyboards by Britta Phillips, effects, and mixes by Sonic. The result is an album of exploration as well as comfort, “like Bing Crosby… on acid,” Britta adds, a reminder that the holidays are complex and tragicomic.”
Heavy Moss
Dead Slow
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Dead Slow’s first single Star draws the listener in with a mellow groove, driven by Rhodes keys and fuzzy lead guitar, before opening up into five minutes of lush, melodic dreampop. The track nods to Real Estate and My Morning Jacket along the way, winding towards its cosmic instrumental outro. The accompanying music video mirrors this trajectory, with the band hatching a conspiratorial plot to make contact with two black-eyed aliens by branding their patch of earth with the shape of a star. Treadmills, the second single, is a jangly waltz that dances through several motifs before layering on woozy psychedelia as Flaming Lips might have done. The two tracks tease out the dynamism of Lucas Harwood and Kyle Tickell’s songwriting; Tickell lets his jangly pop envelop the listener, while Harwood’s songs are more ’60s inflected, stitching together disparate ideas in the spirit of Elephant 6. Adding to the songwriting oeuvre is drummer Sam Ingles’ offering Melt — a woozy, ambling epic nodding to early ’00s psych-pop of The Black Angels and Dead Meadow. They’re drawn together in a coherent whole, though, through jammy, motorik-driven outros and an ambient haze that hovers over the album’s eight tracks.”
Ice Cube
Man Down
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Six years since his last solo album, one of Hip Hop’s living legends returns with a conceptual body of work in Man Down. This 19-song collection examines the status of manhood in the present day and offers wisdom and criticism from a steadfast alpha male of the entertainment industry. Man Down focuses on overcoming adversity and standing back up when life knocks you down. As Cube recently shared: “I just think men gotta stand up nowadays. You know, we taking hits in all kind of areas and directions. Manhood is being, you know, really called toxic, which I don’t subscribe to. I think being a man is great, masculinity is great… If you listen to the album, there’s sprinkles of why the record is called Man Down, and what we need to do as men to stand back up.”
Michael Kiwanuka
Small Changes
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Small Changes” is the followup to Michael’s eponymous third LP, the Mercury Prize-winning and Grammy-nominated Kiwanuka. Small Changes was produced alongside Danger Mouse and Inflo, the team behind the globally acclaimed Kiwanuka and its equally acclaimed predecessor Love & Hate. The new record was recorded between London and Los Angeles. The core trio made up of Kiwanuka and his trusty co-producers expanded into a wish-list ensemble that featured bassist Pino Palladino (D’Angelo, John Mayer, Beyoncé) and Jimmy Jam of the iconic songwriting and production duo Jam and Lewis (Janet Jackson, Prince, SOS Band). It marks a welcome return for one of Britain’s most talented of songwriters, most recognisable of vocalists, and most virtuosic of guitarists.”
Marilyn Manson
One Assassination Under God Chapter 1
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “One Assassination Under God Chapter 1 is the 12th album by Marilyn Manson. It features the singles As Sick As The Secrets Within, Raise The Red Flag and Sacrilegious, and will be released via Nuclear Blast Records.”
Father John Misty
Mahashmashana
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “After a decade being born, Josh Tillman is finally busy dying. Mahashmashana is the sixth album by Father John Misty. It was produced by Tillman and Drew Erickson. It was engineered and additionally produced by Michael Harris. It was arranged by Drew Erickson. It was performed by Tillman, Erickson, Jonathan Wilson, Dan Bailey, Eli Thomson, David Vandervelde, Chris Dixie Darley, Jon Titterington and Kyle Flynn. It was executive produced by Jonathan Wilson. It was recorded and mixed at Five Star and East/West, United Studios and Drew’s House. Mahāśmaśāna (महामशान) is the great cremation ground, with all things going thither.”
Opeth
The Last Will And Testament
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Opeth are one of the most important bands in metal music. Their unique sound and compelling storytelling made them a genre leader and highly respected artists among musicians and audiences alike. Their 14th album The Last Will And Testament was written by Mikael Åkerfeldt, with lyrics with Klara Rönnqvist Fors. Åkerfeldt rolls out the red carpet for storied flutist and Jethro Tull leader Ian Anderson. Not only do Anderson’s signature notes fly on two songs, he narrates four others. The Last Will & Testament is gripping from start to finish, jaw-dropping inside and out, representing some of Opeth’s finest material to date. Just as Opeth welcomed many into its distressed arms over the years, the Swedes again deliver on the promise that great music always tells a compelling story — this time with growls we had not heard since the 2008 Watershed.”
Papa M
Ballads Of Harry Houdini
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The great escape artist is back! No, not THAT one — dude’s dead! We’re talking about Papa M. And HE’s talking ‘bout Harry Houdini — in the album title, anyway, not sure about anywhere else. So, six years since his last LP, the all-acoustic A Broke Moon Rises, Papa M rolls into the shred zone, buns glazing, with his fifth full-length in 25 years. It has six fat-assed songs — a couple ballads, yeah, but mostly real all-out groovers here.”
10,000 Years
All Quiet On The Final Frontier
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Formed in The Year Of The Plague, 2020, 10,000 Years have since churned out their signature brand of skullcrushing stonermetal at a relentless pace, releasing records in 2020, 2021 and 2022. As 10,000 Years now ready their return, they leave the complex concepts of the Albatross Trilogy behind to explore new frontiers both musically and thematically, focusing on standalone songs and compiling them into the absolute beast that is All Quiet On The Final Frontier. While still very much in the business of stoner metal, and with The Riff still reigning supreme, All Quiet On The Final Frontier boasts a more melodic approach. It is a natural evolution while staying true to the essence of the band and the sharply focused songwriting makes for 10,000 Years strongest effort yet.”
U2
How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb 20th Anniversary Edition
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “To mark the 20th anniversary of U2’s critically acclaimed eight-time Grammy-winning album How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, it has been remastered for the first time, a process which saw the band go back to the vault to revisit those early ’00s recording sessions, a period of intense creativity for U2 in the studio as well as a time of deep personal and artistic reflection following the passing of Bono’s father Bob in 2001. This special edition will include the bonus track Fast Cars, and the shadow album How To Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb, which includes new unreleased songs discovered in the archive of the original recording sessions. “I went into my personal archive to see if there were any unreleased gems and I hit the jackpot,” says The Edge. “We chose ten that really spoke to us. Although at the time we left these songs to one side, with the benefit of hindsight we recognize that our initial instincts about them being contenders for the album were right, we were onto something. What you’re getting on this shadow album is that raw energy of discovery, the visceral impact of the music, a sonic narrative, a moment in time, the exploration and interaction of four musicians playing together in a room… this is the pure U2 drop.”
