In The Groove
Ghosts of West Virginia centers on the Upper Big Branch coal mine explosion that killed twenty-nine men in that state in 2010, making it one of the worst mining disasters in American history. In ten deftly drawn sonic portraits, Earle and his band the Dukes explore the historical role of coal in rural communities. More than merely a question of jobs and income, mining has provided a sense of unity and meaning, patriotic pride and purpose.
Hamilton Leithauser has proven himself as a master collaborator and solo artist throughout his nearly 20 year career. Following his time as the frontman of the Walkmen, Leithauser released the critically acclaimed collaboration with Rostam "I Had a Dream That You Were Mine" in 2016. The album debuted at #1 on Billboard's Heatseekers Chart, #1 New Artist Album, and was named one of the Year's Best by Pitchfork, Esquire, NPR, and more. His latest work and second solo record "The Loves of Your Life" is set to be released on April 10, 2020. It was written and produced by Hamilton in his home studio and is a collection of stories about real people he's met over his years living in New York City.
2020 release. Louis Prince is the moniker of Orange County, CA artist Jake McMullen, and serves as the new platform for his debut record, Thirteen. Pushing back against the modern convention of singles-based releases, Thirteen is an album in the classic sense, with a beginning, middle and end and a central theme. Exploring the human struggle of fear in the face failure and the role of friendship in maintaining sanity, Thirteen in a search for catharsis in the midst of the madness, the sadness and the hope of life.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have announced Chunky Shrapnel, a new music documentary film and accompanying double-LP live album. The new album features 13 live performances hand-picked from the band’s 2019 UK and European tour, and includes three new musical scores written by Stu Mackenzie that add a magical touch of an alien melancholy throughout the record. Chunky Shrapnel is an experience geared towards not only recreating the energy of a live concert, but creating something tailored and unique to the King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard.
Digitally remastered and expanded edition, released in celebration of the 60th Anniversary of Frank Sinatra's Nice 'n' Easy. Features the original 12 tracks like "The Nearness of You", as well as full sessions of "I've Got A Crush on You" and "Nice 'n' Easy" that include previously unreleased alternate takes and reveals Sinatra studio chatter.
If there’s one lesson to be gleaned from Jamie Wyatts latest album, Neon Cross, it’s that life goes on. And through it all—good times and bad, dreaming and desperation, there is truth. When it came to capturing that truth on tape, Wyatt had some assistance from Shooter Jennings, who produced Neon Cross. Together, she and Jennings boldly color outside the country lines, taking a wide-lens sonic and stylistic approach to the songs on Neon Cross.
Norah Jones’ seventh solo studio album Pick Me Up Off The Floor features collaborators from Brian Blade to Jeff Tweedy, and grew out of her acclaimed singles series of the past 2 years as the songs she hadn’t yet released unexpectedly congealed into an album of tremendous depth and beauty connected by the sly groove of her piano trios, lyrics that confront loss and portend hope, and a mood that leans into darkness before ultimately finding the light.
Do You Turn Red? is both a guidepost pointing toward what may come — such rich mood and color practically begs for transmedia worldbuilding — and a snapshot of this moment. Peter Manos is at the front of his career, full of ideas, and all of them tangibly intimate. Despite joining Capitol in 2019 and relocating from Dallas to the heart of LA, Manos still makes music in a vacuum of sorts. He works almost exclusively solo out of his apartment, in a bedroom turned recording den.
Love, Death & Dancing is British artist Jack Garratt’s highly anticipated upcoming new album. The album contains 12 tracks produced by Jack with additional production on several tracks by Jacknife Lee, long-time friend James Flannigan, and Brett Cox. The album compiles all four individual volumes of Love, Death & Dancing and kicks off with the lead single “Time.” Garratt showcased many of the new songs earlier this year at two special underplays in the US before a UK and European tour in February and March 2020. He’ll also appear at Splendour in the Grass in Australia in July.
Ambrose Akinmusire follows his acclaimed, genre-busting 2018 manifesto, Origami Harvest, with another visionary statement on his new album `on the tender spot of every calloused moment'. The trumpeter examines blackness on an uncompromising set of modern jazz laced with a heavy blues feeling. The album presents 11 new compositions by Akinmusire, featuring his quartet - pianist Sam Harris, bassist Harish Raghavan, drummer Justin Brown - with guest vocals from Genevieve Artadi and Jesus Diaz.
“Music has just been a part of my life since I was very young—it's been like my football or my soccer,” says Sammy Brue. “I stopped going to school to do it. Because I thought, If I could put seven hours a day into music, imagine where it's going to take me…”
Imagine, indeed. Since writing his first song at the age of 11, Brue has released three homespun EPs, his New West full-length debut, I Am Nice and a 2018 EP, Down with Desperation. In the process, the Ogden, Utah native has been hailed as an “Americana prodigy” by Rolling Stone and one of the “teenagers shaping pop” by The New Yorker.
But these myriad accomplishments may have just been the setup for what is arguably his finest work to date, Crash Test Kid. Brue has always been an artist seemingly wise beyond his years, but on Crash Test Kid he often gets at the heart of a matter or melody with just a simple but insightful turn of phrase or cleverly-picked guitar.
Unlike previous albums, Braids decided to stay close to home for the recording of Shadow Offering. Taking over a spacious sound recording studio tucked in an old warehouse, the band were able to slow down and creatively rediscover themselves. 'With this album, we wanted to give ourselves time to achieve a higher caliber of artistry and collaboration,' Tufts says. No longer riding the novelty of youth, the band deliberately took time to recommit to themselves and their craft, and channel new energy into their music. They wrote 40 songs. They went through their Saturn Returns. They learnt how to support one another better. They drank a lot of La Croix. The band sketched and re-sketched new material for eighteen months before lucky circumstance found Chris Walla (Death Cab For Cutie) renting out space in their studio. The four began wandering into each others' rooms, curious about each others' projects. Typically opting for a private and insular creation process, the friendship between the four saw the band sharing their songs with Walla, and naturally resulted in Walla co-producing and engineering Shadow Offering. Pushing the band out of their comfort zone, he at once broke and unified the band's dynamic, unearthing individual creative energy long buried over the years. With a new sense of confidence, listeners will find Braids at their most personal, unabashedly flexing through their new music. A luscious and expansive release, Shadow Offering leads us through a sonic tapestry of narrative. With heart-breaking honesty and precision, listeners traverse a nuanced and complicated world: one full of beautiful contradiction. Although the album directs itself at the failures of people to love and be loved, it also seeks to restore justice and attain blissful union. Its arc crests through the dark towards the light and learns how to dance with the dizzying rhythms of the heart. The songs bubble, sustain, dissolve, expand, retract.