Album Of The Day

THE SMILE Mesmerize With Their 3rd And Best Album In Just 2 Years – ‘CUTOUTS’ Out Now

Posted on by JL

New notable longplayers

5 October 2024

The creativity of THE SMILE, featuring radioheads Thom Yorke and
Jonny Greenwood and drummer Tom Skinner is pretty impressive.

With CUTOUTS the trio launch their 3rd LP in just 2 years.

Press info: “Cutouts was recorded in Oxford and at Abbey Road Studios during the same period of time as Wall Of Eyes. The album features string arrangements by the London Contemporary Orchestra and the album art was painted during the recording process by Stanley Donwood and Thom Yorke.”

NME: “The Smile return for more jazz-influenced, experimental rock and they seem to be
having more fun than ever. Eschewing any grand, overarching statement, The Smile sound – whisper it – quite comfortable within what is now their established aesthetic. But Radiohead recently entered the rehearsal studio together, which begs the question: will there be a fourth album from this curious trio? Either way, don’t be surprised if it’s now time for a total reinvention.”

TUTV: By far their best to my ears. On the previous 2 ones they tried too hard
to not sound like Radiohead (which they did frequently anyway) and did it with
too many redundant orchestrations, too many unnecessary layers and a bit of
arty farty structures here end there.

Mind you they are good LPs but on this one they keep it far more simple resulting
in 10 very arresting pieces of mesmerizing music. Trippy fast ones alternate with slow
musing ones and throughout the arrangements are subtle, direct and most entertaining with Thom Yorke sounding, yes, at ease, not forcing his compassionate voice/vocals. It all feels tremendously natural and blithely .

I played this record 5 times in a row. Say no more.

KEY SINGLE

ALBUM


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Instagram – Spotify

BEAK> – Out Of The Blue English Electro-Kraut-Rock Act Drop New Album Titled ‘>>>>’ – Join Their Trip Here

Posted on by JL

29 May 2024

A couple of weeks ago Portishead‘s vocalist Beth Gibbons launched her debut LP
and now Geoff Barrow, founder of Portishead drops, out of the blue a new album
with his BEAK> project. It’s the trio’s 4th full length titled >>>>.


A > fight

Beak> : “At its core we always wanted it to be head music – listened to as an album,
not as individual songs. This is why we are releasing this album with no singles or
promo tracks.

The recording and writing initially began in a house called Pen Y Bryn in Talsarnau, Wales
in the fallout from the weirdness of the COVID days. Remote and with only ourselves
and the view of Portmeirion in the distance, we got to work.

With the opening track, “Strawberry Line” (our tribute to our dear furry friend Alfie Barrow,
who appears on the albums cover) as the metronomic guide for the album, we then resumed recording, as before, at Invada studios in Bristol, whilst still touring around Europe and North/South America.

After playing hundreds of gigs and festivals over the years we felt that touring had started to influence our writing to the point we weren’t sure who we were anymore. So we decided to go back to the origins of where we were at on our first album – with zero expectations and just playing together in a room.

Hopefully we have achieved this.

We begin touring the album in November playing the album in full, which
we’ve never done before. Yes, we will probably still play “Wulfstan II”
at the end.

See you there.”

TUTV‘s first impression: BEAK> do what they do best. Playing with your mind
and your ears with alternating repetitive Krautrock-driven trips, otherworldly
meditations, and trip-hop vibes.

The layered soundcapes resonate both versatile and coherent and danceable at times, but as >>>> just dropped out of the sky unannounced and without warm-up tracks, I need more spins to really get my head around it. Join me if you want. Btw, they will play the album in full on their upcoming Fall tour.

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THE LEMON TWIGS – 60s Pop Addicted Bros Entertain Retro-Loving Ears Once Again With New LP ‘DREAM IS ALL I KNOW’

Posted on by JL

6 May 2024


Promo press

As a fanatic Beatles fan (and of lots of other 60s heroes) I dig Long Island‘s
brothers (Brian and Michael D’Addario) THE LEMON TWIGS‘s fab four and
beach boys retro bliss since they released their debut LP Do Hollywood back
in 2016.

Last year they scored big time with their 4th full length Everything Harmony
which resoantes like a lost McCartney album to my ears and almost exactly one
year later the bros have their 5th one out, named DREAM IS ALL WE KNOW.


Album artwork

The Telegraph (British newspaper): “A Dream Is All We Know is that rare thing: a perfectly crafted, concise collection of 12 songs that brim over with good-will and optimism. It’s their fifth album, and although their harking back to the glory days of the Fab Four (or Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, or the Beach Boys) may be inferred by some snooty critics as pastiche, their whimsical lyrics, off-kilter melodies and Chuck Berry-esque riffs are difficult to resist.”

TUTV: Once again New York-based brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario show their
aural love for that swinging 60s pop decade. Dreaming, mostly, about the Beach Boys
and The Beatles is all they know. Mellow melodies, zippy harmonies, titillating tunes is
what we get. No more, no less.

The Lemon Twigs are here first and foremost to entertain all retro-directed ears. At times the new songs sound like old ones from one of their 4 precedent albums. Don’t expect spectacular stuff here, it’s all about simple, feel good, greatly orchestrated pop-ular music to whistle/hum/sing along and that’s very fine by me. TUTV’s fav tracks: My Golden Years / Sweet Vibration / How Can I Love More / Peppermint Roses / Rock On (Over And Over).

Key singles/clips: Golden Years / Dream Is All I Know

– GOLDEN YEARS –

– DREAM IS ALL I KNOW –

ALBUM


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LEMON TWIGS: Instagram – All Albums

NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE – New Double Live Album ‘FU##IN’ UP’ Out Now

Posted on by JL

30 April 2024

NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE released a new double LP, titled FU##IN’ UP (named
after the song of the same title from 1990 album Ragged Gloryon Record Store Day, April 20, on a limited edition color vinyl pressing. The record is credited to Neil & The Horse.

It’s now available worldwide on black vinyl. Order details here.

The double LP contains nine songs, different
takes of old ones, from their long collaboration.

Young: “In the spirit it’s offered…made this for the Horse lovers. I can’t stop it.
The horse is runnin’. What a ride we have. I don’t want to mess with the vibe.
I am so happy to have this to share.”


Photo by Joey Martinez / Warner Music

TRACKLIST

01. To Follow One’s Own Dream (Days That Used to Be)
02. Walkin’ In My Place (Road of Tears) (Mansion on the Hill)
03. Farmer John
04. Valley of Hearts (Love To Burn)
05. Broken Circle (Over And Over)
06. Heart of Steel (F.U.)
07. Feels Like a Railroad (River Of Pride) (White Line)
08. City Life (Country Home)
09. A Chance on Love (Love and Only Love)

ALBUM

Vintage live Young + Crazy Horse electricity.


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Young and his horses are on the road now for a string of North
American shows in April and May. It’s baptized Love Earth Tour.

May 01 – Austin, TX – Germania Insurance Amphitheater
May 02 – Dallas, TX – Dos Equis Pavilion
May 05 – Huntsville, AL – Orion Amphitheater
May 07 – Atlanta, GA – Ameris Bank Amphitheatre
May 08 – Franklin, TN – FirstBank Amphitheater
May 11 – Bristow, VA – Jiffy Lube Live
May 12 – Camden, NJ – Freedom Mortgage Pavilion
May 14 – Queens, NY – Forest Hills Stadium
May 17 – Mansfield, MA – Xfinity Center
May 18 – Bridgeport, CT – Hartford Healthcare Amphitheater
May 20 – Toronto, ON – Budweiser Stage
May 22 – Clarkston, MI – Pine Knob Music Theatre
May 23 – Chicago, IL – Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island

Neil Young: Website

IMUST BE LEONARDO – Italian Singer/Songwriter Spellbinds With New Album ‘NOT TO BE SCARED OF WEEKEND’

Posted on by JL

Rad longplayers

27 April 2024

Artist: IMUSTBE LEONARDO
Who: Berlin-based Italian singer-songwriter who, since 2016,
has composed, recorded, and played songs around Europe and
America. He has, so far, 2 albums and 2 EPs on his résumé.

And here’s number 3.
NOT TO BE SCARED OF WEEKEND

TUTV: As usual the Italy-born singer/songwriter alternates acoustic tracks with
electrical renditions while his voice spellbinds throughout. He starts with moody
musing All The Poets Here about numb poets hiding in their empty brains. Next up
is a bold song that criticizes, rightly so, Nick Cave for attending King Charles’s
coronation.

The star crooner gets an electrically powered mid-tempo treatment. Another legend
is also in the spotlight on Kim Gordon. “Why should you need gods when you have John
Peel or PJ Harvey or Meryl Streep and Stanley Kubrick and Kim Gordon?”. Can’t agree more.

He tackles war-greedy politicians with sparkling as well as distorted guitars on the pretty catchy Government Press Office’s New Rattle. He has the Perfect Pop Song with string-picking playfulness. Vocally and Berlin melodically, Lou Reed comes to mind. Yes, the late musical genius Lou Reed.

Leonardo closes this notable record with the 17-minute introspective reverie It Was Taking
A Long Time which resonates like a funeral procession with its mourning horns. The track goes silent around the 3-minute mark for about 7 minutes and then restarts with an invitation to support musicians.A bit weird, but honest and spot-on..

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IMBL: Instagram

PINK SUITS – Two British Punk Hellraisers Run Amok On Their New Doomsday Album ‘DYSTOPIAN HELLSCAPE’

Posted on by JL

Top longlayers

25 April 2024

Band: PINK SUITS
Who: A British rowdy queer
punk duo from Margate, UK.

New album: DYSTOPIAN HELLSCAPE
Their second, following the 2021 debut
Political Child.


Amazing album artwork

TUTV: Rumour goes that this is a lost album by legendary blues-rock duo The White Stripes,
yep our beloved Meg and Jack. It went missing just after the recordings were finished.

The tapes showed up recently in a public dustbin somewhere by the sea in Margate (UK), where they were found by these two pink punk madcaps. They took them to their creepy bat cave, where they trashed, slashed and smashed the whole shebang until it all sounded like THEY wanted. Unpolished, queazy and out-of-their-fucking-heads.

Imagine Meg replaced by Bikini Kill‘s Kathleen Hannah in her teens, bashing the shit out of
a drum and screaming like she’s forced to listen to Taylor Swift on repeat, and Jack White replaced by the Damned’s Captain Sensible back in the days when he was a new rose in town. Together the pink suits fabricate 50 minutes of barbed wire garage punk anarchism and wailing duet chaos.

Deafening loud and deafening clear. To hell with the Brexshit Tories, to hell with Fascists,
to hell with all right-wing scum and to hell with football. Advice: before you throw these two hysteric hellraisers on your stereo, in your bathroom, make sure that you warn your neighbours. Then lock yourself up, turn up the volume to the max so you won’t hear the anti-decibels police when they try to smash your front door in. Hells bloody bells yeah.
Run amok. This is your new Doomsday soundtrack.

SINGLE/CLIP

Comprehensive Breakdown Of How Trickle​-Down Economics Works in 0,05 seconds.


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Pink Suits: Linktree

LOU REED – Star-Studded Tribute Album ‘THE POWER OF THE HEART’ Out Now

Posted on by JL

22 April 2024

The tribute album for the late genial rock star LOU REED,
titled The Power Of The Heart: A Lou Reed Tribute
is out now.

It features a cast of stars such as Keith Richards, Joan Jett
Rufus Wainwright, Rickie Lee Jones, and The Afghan Whigs.

TUTV: There are some really notable performances (Richards, Wainwright,
The Afghan Whigs and Rickie Lee Jones) on the album, but no one, whoever,
can match the late genial legend’s masterly exploits with his unique and
utterly cool voice, his superb and solid rock/pop compositions, arrangements, orchestrations and his New York swagger. Lou Reed is an exceptional artist,
for eternity.

KEITH RICHARDS – I’m Waiting For The Man

RUFUS WAINWRIGHTPerfect Day

It’s a special edition pressed on Silver Nugget wax and housed in a silver laminated jacket. The booklet features liner notes by compilation producer & former Lou Reed publicist Bill Bentley, featuring photos by Mick Rock and Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. A CD version is also available.

TRACKLIST

1. Keith Richards – ‘I’m Waiting for the Man’
2. Maxim Ludwig & Angel Olsen – I Can’t Stand It
3. Rufus Wainwright – Perfect Day
4. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts – I’m So Free
5. Bobby Rush – Sally Can’t Dance
6. Rickie Lee Jones – Walk on the Wild Side
7. The Afghan Whigs – I Love You, Suzanne
8. Mary Gauthier – Coney Island Baby
9. Lucinda Williams – Legendary Hearts
10. Automatic – New Sensations
11. Rosanne Cash – Magician
12. Brogan Bentley – The Power of the Heart (Bonus track CD/Digital Only)

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LOU REED: Story – All Albums

PEARL JAM – Seattle’s Grunge Rock Veterans Bite Like Young Punk Dogs Again On New LP ‘DARK MATTER’

Posted on by JL

19 April 2024


New album artwork

Seattle‘s grunge rock veterans PEARL JAM led by titanic voice Eddie Vedder are back
in business with their 12th album, their first in 4 years, baptized DARK MATTER.

Press info: “PJ retreated to the Shangri-La Studios in Malibu where they simply plugged in and played under the watch of producer Andrew Watt. Writing and recording in a burst of inspiration, Dark Matter was born in just three weeks. As a result, it channels the shared spirit of a group of lifelong creative confidants and brothers in one room playing as if their very lives depended on it.”

Rolling Stone says: “Dark Matter is jam-packed with fist-pumping rockers, stunning songwriting, and melodies tailor-made to be shouted with the windows down.”

TUTV: My oh my, is this 2024 or 1991, the year that Pearl Jam shook the grunge world
with their debut blockbuster Ten. The veterans bark and bite again like young punk dogs. Even when they slow down (Wreckage / Won’t Tell / Waiting For Stevie) the decibels fly around.

The band go berserk on several nasty barnstormers such
as Scared Of Fear, React Respond, Running and Got To Give.

In the eye of the ruthless storm is Eddie Vedder’s sky-scraping vox sounding at times
like the young Springsteen‘s one, as monumental as the Empire State Building. Never expected that, in their 50s they would steam like in their 20s, with unbridled confidence and the amps to the max. Holy smoke! Definitely alive again

Key singles/clips: Running / Dark Matter

– RUNNING –

– DARK MATTER –

ALBUM


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TOUR 2024

PJ: Instagram – All Albums

Italian Songstress SLEAP-E Nails It With Her Second Rattle And Roll Album ‘8106’

Posted on by JL

9 April 2024

Artist: SLEAP-E
Who: Moniker of Italian songstress
Asia Martina Morabito.

New album: 8106
Her 2nd one, order details here.
(Note to myself: ask what ‘8106’ stands for).

Press info: The Italian singer-songwriter’s second album, 8106, captures the spirit
of play; the child-like instinct to pursue what you love without compromise – and
here it is, that particular magic that rarely survives adulthood, remarkably intact.

Each of its eleven songs are sharp, vibrant shards which, when you step back, build
a mosaic of Asia Martina Morabito’s world: the growing pains of your early twenties, remaining faithful to your dreams despite the hostility of adulthood, places of escape
both real and imagined – and the pulse of Bologna, her home and north star.

Asia: “I was a child who would never shut up. I was always singing.”


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Top single – Bossanova vibe ‘No Joke’

TUTV: Sleap-e nails it with bravado on her second full-length effort. She’s a solo punk,
a jingle jangle addict (just to name a few examples: leave my bum alone / wolf / poetry /
no joke / english countryside), a Mark E. Smith/The Fall fan, a folky slacker rocker.

Think Courtney Barnett on fire and produced by Parquet Courts. Or early R.E.M. days fronted by early Cat Power days. And when she slows down (dyin’ of old / go alone / 8106) she spellbinds your aural focus.

The pop melodiousness at the core of several tracks surrounded in raw and rough
guitar riffage is the seamless, gluing factor on this rattle-and-roll record. Sleap-e’s
edgy and expressive voice matches the music, and vice versa, just perfectly. Also, it
all resonates as if Sleap-e performed all songs live in the studio and did it in one take.
Naturally genuine, for real, and direct. No arty farty BS for her.

What you hear is what you get. And that’s quite remarkable.

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Portland’s Groove Masters THE DANDY WARHOLS Welcome You To Their Psychedelic Terrordome On New LP ‘ROCKMAKER’

Posted on by JL

19 March 2024


Album artwork

Portland‘s groove masters THE DANDY WARHOLS have their new LP ROCKMAKER out.

Press-info: The cheekiest band in the land is back with ROCKMAKER, The Dandy Warhols‘ 12th studio album. Produced and recorded by the band at their studio/funhouse The Odditorium in Portland, ROCKMAKER sees the “Bohemian Like You” hitmakers celebrate their 30th year together with a sprinkle of glitter on their grime.

Accompanied by guests Debbie Harry, Slash, and Pixies’ Frank Black, The Dandy Warhols wrangle paranoia, untangle anxious discontent, and lust after life while the dance grooves go deeper, heady drones get weirder, and riffage fit for bong rips hammers. ROCKMAKER is the Dandy’s clearest statement yet, at no sacrifice to their outré leanings. This is the sound of outsider alt-psych fixtures looking in as the walls come down.”

Courtney Taylor-Taylor (frontman): Overall, Rockmaker is the manifestation
of our desire to hear a record of heavy raw punk and metal guitar riffs, but it has
its own alley.”

TUTV: As a long-time fan I like the smell of a new Warhols album all day long.
Their 12th one, titled Rockmaker has, overall, a dark psychedelic timbre and a
twilight tone with industrial rock shadows all over it. The distortion mixer and
eerie stories take them to a pretty obscure territory (Doomsday Bells / Danzig
With Myself / The Cross / Real People) where the sun isn’t invited.

Mind you, Portland‘s trailblazers still are, first and foremost, a mean riff-loaded groove machine (Summer Of Hate / Root Of Evil / I’d Like To Help You With Your Problem and the other 8 tracks) with an instant impact on your hips, but this trance-infused longplayer sounds as if it was recorded in a batcave, with Trent Reznor taking care of the production, rather than in a conventional studio with a sane engineer.

As we know, heroine is so passé, but it looks like the band will have a feel good summer of hate filled with alcohol, marijuana, (lou) weed, cocaine, nicotine, LSD and mushrooms. All future illegal raves will start and end with Rockmaker. Welcome to the Dandy Warhols‘ psychedelic Terrordome. Be ready for a wild ride.

Singles/clips: Danzig With Myself / I’d Like To Help You With Your Problem /
I Will Never Stop Loving You

– DANZIG WITH MYSELF –
Featuring Pixies’ maestro Black Francis

– I’D LIKE TO HELP YOU WITH YOUR PROBLEM –
Featuring Guns N’ Roses’ guitar hero Slash

– I WILL NEVER STOP LOVING YOU –
Featuring eternal glam star Debbie Harry

ALBUM


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New TOUR dates