Kicking things off with Cambridge rockers R J Archer & the Painful Memories there’s a journey through new releases, and a themed trio of tunes built around “Pilgrims”. Also featuring Paragnosis, Desolat, The Speed of Sound, Bruce Logfren Group, The Jesus Lizard, SnarskiCircusLindyBand, Dave Graney Show, E Gone, Elkhorn, David Torn, JC Miller, Madeleine Peyroux, Sharon Isbin, Sir Robert Orange Peel, Yosef Gutman, Bryan Hayslett, Smokers, Van Der Graaf Generator, Wishbone Ash, El Drugstore, and , Nyctronix.
SHOW
PLAYLIST
RJ Archer & the Painful Memories - Got To Leave - Single
Paragnosis - Learned Behavior - Paragnosis
Desolat - This Band Is Your Yoga - Get Sick And Let Me Watch You Die
The Speed of Sound - Mind Palace - A Cornucopia Minerva
Bruce Logfren Group - Red Shift - Earthly And Cosmic Tales
The Jesus Lizard - Hide And Seek - Rack
SnarskiCircusLindyBand - Watching Re-Runs On My TV - I Know I Know
Dave Graney Show - Am I Wearing Something Of Yours - The Dave Graney Show
E Gone - Adventures Before The Body - Adventures Before The Body
Elkhorn - Magellanic Clouds - Other Worlds
David Torn - fall to rise, so fell to feel - fall to rise, so fell to feel
JC Miller - Before Nightfall - Before Nightfall
Madeleine Peyroux - Showman Dan - Let’s Walk
Sharon Isbin - By the Moon (Alap Behag) – - Live In Aspen
Sir Robert Orange Peel - Tiktok is frying my brain! - Single
Yosef Gutman - Rushing Rapid - Why Ten?
Bryan Hayslett - The Wind Blows East - Cello Unlocked
Smokers - Pilgrim - The Rat That Gnawed The Rope
Van Der Graaf Generator - Pilgrims (2005 Digital Remaster) - Still Life
Wishbone Ash - The Pilgrim - Pilgrimage
El Drugstore - Rural Ecstasy - Burn After Hearing
Nyctronix - Nebulae
SHOW NOTES
RJ Archer & The Painful Memories : A new single released on 27th June 2024 through Spotify, Apple and all the major digital platforms. It is the lead track from their forthcoming third album which they are currently recording. Always reliable, this Cambridge band deliver an exciting bluesy rock package
Paragnosis : New York City-based progressive/instrumental metal trio who released their eponymous second EP in June. The term “paragnosis” means knowledge obtained from a higher power; in the eyes of this band, this power is music. Native New Yorkers Christian Realmuto and Moïse Scott started playing music together when they met in elementary school. Over the years the two stayed close, growing together through music. In 2012, Thomas Salyer moved to New York and met Realmuto at The New School For Jazz And Contemporary Music. The two connected quickly through their mutual love for both jazz and metal and the three musicians formed the band in 2015. After seeing the band perform live, Silver Cord Studio co-owner Jamie Uertz – who owns and operates the studio with Gojira’s Joe Duplantier – wanted to capture their live experience in the studio. The band recorded six songs live in the studio, which were produced, mixed, and mastered by Uertz.
Desolat : Austrian trio with their second LP released on June 14th through the roster of long-running noise rock experts, Reptilian Records. Established in 2018, their grimy noise rock is rooted in hardcore/punk and infused with elements of sludge, crust, and death metal. It is created by three veterans of the Viennese DIY anarcho punk scene, current and former members of Phal:Angst, Cyruss, Dim Prospects, La Ligne Maginot, Gfrast, Face The Owl, Radikalkur, E.M.S., and others. The band’s beginning days were cut short as COVID-19 lockdowns were put into place after playing only three shows. Nevertheless, they have since managed to release two EPs and one LP, with album number two now on the way.
The Speed of Sound : One of the most bracing tracks on the Manchester band's warmly-received new album A Cornucopia : Minerva it's a prime example of their garage-psych future-retro-modernist sound.
Bruce Logfren Group - A change in direction from Bruce who has previously released music with much larger ensembles - rhythm is delivered uniquely with hand percussion instruments only in this inventive band.
The Jesus Lizard - One of the most iconic and influential bands to emerge in the late 20th century, return with Rack, their first new album since 1998’s Blue, on Sept. 13 via Ipecac Recordings. A preview of the 11-song album comes with the release of “Hide & Seek,” a track David Yow describes as “a perky ditty about a witch who can’t behave, and it’s got nearly as many hooks as a Mike Tyson fight.” An accompanying video captures the foursome of Duane Denison, Mac McNeilly, David Wm. Sims, and Yow as they recorded the “ditty” with Producer Paul Allen at Nashville’s Audio Eagle Studio.
SnarskiCircusLindyBand - Another track from the new EP which I have been featuring.
Dave Graney Show - Continuing to feature this album from November 1998. Of this tune Dave says “This is the kind of tune that shows how Clare starts off a few miles ahead of most programmers and sequence freaks. Instead of sampling a groove and hanging everything around it she can play a rhythm on the keyboard like she plays a kit, the bass drum, the hi hats, the cymbals, she has the skills in the real dimension as well. It's a tough talkin tune , delivered in a Clint Eastwood style clenched tooth whisper. When I was a kid "am I wearing something of yours was something a person would say to another as a preamble to a fight. Offence had been taken”.
E Gone - This is Daniel Westerlund from Stockholm, Sweden. ‘Adventures Before the Body’ is his latest excursion into “cosmically earthy musical alchemy”, rounding out a trilogy of albums begun in 2013 with ‘All the Suns of the Earth,’ and continuing with ‘Advice to Hill Walkers’ in 2016 . Musically, ‘Adventures…’ builds on its predecessors’ eclecticism and love of sonic juxtapositions— psychedelic guitar lines swirled together with exotic instrumentation and modal motifs, rock riffs alongside ethnic percussion and old-school beats, drones and atmospheric effects blending into electronic deep dives. It is released by Cardinal Fuzz / Feeding Tube Records, in collaboration with Deep Water Acres, and in tribute to Sunrise Ocean Bender Records and Kevin McFadin.
Elkhorn - more from Cardinal Fuzz / Feeding Tube Records in collaboration with Deep Water Acres and another nod to Sunrise Ocean Bender Records. ‘Other Worlds’ is the work of Drew Gardner and Jesse Sheppard. The two-guitar duo of Elkhorn, shares a musical brotherhood that spans several decades. From their nascent high school post-punk band Mayfirst, to teenage scavenger trips to the Princeton Record Exchange and City Gardens, the two came of age goofing along to the Dead Kennedys, the Butthole Surfers, and Sonic Youth in the dank Jersey/Philly-scene music holes. Elkhorn has dabbled in cosmic psychedelia and American Primitive, particularly the latter style’s reverence for a wide range of folk and blues idioms ranging from County Records compilations to the Mississippi Sheiks. While the pair is best known for their acoustic guitar explorations, ‘Other Worlds’ continues their recent experiments with other instrumental possibilities and is perhaps their heaviest offering to date.
David Torn - David Torn is a film composer guitarist & producer renowned for his unique musical voice which seems to span & un-define a range of idioms and styles. Released early May without any promo this latest offering is mesmerising. Worth exploring is his work with Tim Berne where they explore unique sonic possibilities.
JC Miller - Detroit-born Southern California-based guitarist and songwriter, long driven and inspired by vintage Americana, he explores the atmosphere and mood of history in a tremendously catchy track. Evoking a grounded sense of place, Miller's music has a Southern-fried edge and an authenticity, making songs that feel at home in neon-lit diners, long highway drives, desert expanses, and sun-soaked small towns.
Madeleine Peyroux - Renowned singer/songwriter Madeleine Peyroux has released a touching video for her new track “Showman Dan,” which appears on her forthcoming album Let’s Walk (out June 28th on Thirty Tigers). Peyroux wrote the song in honor of her longtime friend and mentor Daniel William Fitzgerald, aka Showman Dan, who passed away in 2017. The video features performance footage, joyful home movies and personal photos honoring the charismatic and giving entertainer. The moving tribute shows Showman Dan through years performing all over and collaborating with up-and-coming musicians, including a young, yet-to-be-discovered Peyroux. From 1975 until his death, Dan toured across the US and Europe as the leader of the Lost Wandering Blues and Jazz Band. They performed just about everywhere and anywhere, including the streets, public squares, the underground, small theatres, jazz clubs and even the private homes of royalty. Dan had a profound impact on Peyroux as an artist and as a human being, which cannot be overstated.
Sharon Isbin - of this release Sharon says “The Aspen Music Festival, one of North America’s largest and most beloved summer classical festivals, celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2024. My cherished collaborators, India’s great sarod master Amjad Ali Khan, his brilliant sons Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash, tabla virtuoso Amit Kavthekar and I are honored to share in this historic milestone with LIVE IN ASPEN, our sold-out concert performed at the festival in August 2022. The program was inspired by our album STRINGS FOR PEACE recorded in 2019 following a tour in India and released by ZOHO in 2020. We have been performing together ever since!”
Sir Robert Orange Peel - Metal Postcard are notoriously short on information about their releases, which sort of adds to the mystery/fun. This one comments on social media in a less than favourable light. Electronica for people who don’t like conventional stuff.
Yosef Gutman Levitt - "In what promises to be a prolific 2024 for the recently formed Soul Song Records, bassist and composer Yosef Gutman Levitt is proud to announce the release of Why Ten? featuring one of the world’s finest jazz guitarists, the renowned Gilad Hekselman. Why Ten? follows up Levitt’s captivating 2023 release Soul Song, an inspired outing with the great Lionel Loueke on guitar. This remarkable showcase finds the Tel Aviv–born, New York–based Hekselman in the company of Levitt on upright and acoustic-electric bass, Ofri Nehemya on drums and Gilad Ronen on additional woodwinds, playing mainly Levitt-Ronen originals in a refined and deeply melodic setting. Award-winning engineer Stefano Amerio recorded and mixed the album."
Bryan Hayslett - Cello Unlocked is a foray into the synthesis of language and melody, blurring the lines between speech and music in new ways. The album is a bold declaration of the instrument’s – and the player’s – versatility, extending beyond classical boundaries into the realms where music and language converge. From pieces that involve the cellist singing to transcriptions that transform spoken word into melodic lines, each work delves into the inherent musicality of language and the rhythmic underpinnings of speech. Each composer was chosen for their unique ability to interpret text through the cello. Recorded by Hayslett as both cellist and vocalist – and co-produced with creative mastering engineer, Erdem Helvacioglu, and Jonathan Heyward, music director of the Baltimore Symphony – Cello Unlocked reimagines the solo recital. The album marks Hayslett’s debut as an artist committed to pushing the avant-garde while staying rooted in tradition, offering a fresh perspective on both new and established musical forms.
Smokers - Oakland California’s premiere punk rock ‘n’ rollers, have just released their debut LP, “The Rat That Gnawed the Rope”. The new album appeared worldwide on digital and vinyl formats via Oakland-based Mouth Magazine Records on June 14th, 2024. The band’s sound is inspired by classics such as The Stranglers, Minutemen, and early Replacements, and brought to life by the collective talents of Andy Asp (Nuisance, The Pattern), Cyrus Comiskey (Black Fork, Drunk Horse), Jim Nastic (Talk is Poison, Year Future), and Omen Starr (St. James Infirmary). Garage Rock, East Bay Punk, Pub Rock, Vintage Street Rock. And the song title led me back to two classic tracks from Van Der Graaf Generator and Wishbone Ash
El Drugstore - Nefarious Industries proudly celebrates 100 catalog releases with NEF100: Burn After Hearing, a compilation of fourteen exclusive tracks that showcase their eclectic roster. Originally founded as a collective of like-minded individuals seeking an outlet to release off-kilter music, Nefarious Industries has grown into a label that exhibits the most adventurous and challenging artists it can manage to locate. Includes new and exclusive songs from these instrumental deviants and label co-founders.
Nyctronix - and to conclude another in Jed Stephens new run of single releases.