Release Day Picks: November 8th New Album Highlights
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Each week Release Day Picks profiles new LPs and EPs Team JamBase will be checking out on release day Friday. This week we highlight new albums by Fruition, Kitchen Dwellers, Lucy Dacus, Sting, Taylor Hawkins & The Coattail Riders, Aqueous, Ryley Walker & Charles Rumback, FITTED and charity compilation for Blanket The Homeless. Read on for more insight into the records we have all queued up to spin.
Fruition – Wild As The Night
The Scoop: Fruition used a rare break in their relentless touring schedule to work on a new album. Recorded at Denver’s Silo Sound Studio in Denver, Wild As The Night features seven new original compositions. With multiple songwriters and vocalists in the band, there’s never been a lack of material. Fruition already followed the 2018 release of the Tucker Martine-produced full-length Watching It All Fall Apart with an EP and series of 45s. “We were exhausted, but musically firing on all cylinders,” said drummer Tyler Thompson of Wild As The Night. “It’s extremely diverse Americana, with a focus on great songwriting and harmonies. We weren’t going for a particular sound, just something that’s honest to our live sound along with a few tricks we learned from our last producer, Tucker Martine.” As Thompson implied, Fruition produced the album themselves this time around.
Kitchen Dwellers – Muir Maid
The Scoop: Earlier this year, Montana-bred string band Kitchen Dwellers reached out to fans to help fund a new studio album. The Kickstarter campaign was a success and the result is Muir Maid, an LP produced by The Infamous Stringdusters’ Chris Pandolfi. The follow-up to 2017’s Ghost In The Bottle was recorded in Colorado after the band assembled at a cabin in New Hampshire to work out the arrangements. “Chris Pandolfi was our ideal producer and we were lucky enough to have him interested in the project,” the band said in a statement. “He brought a level of excitement and helped us lay down something that we feel represents the energy and power of our live shows. Just by hanging out with a musician like Chris, you absorb what he says and how he approaches songs, and all of a sudden you’re a better musician for it.”
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Lucy Dacus – 2019
The Scoop: Lucy Dacus is back with a holiday-inspired EP titled simply, 2019, out now on Matador. The singer-songwriter previewed the follow-up to her critically acclaimed 2018 breakout LP Historian with four singles: “La Vie En Rose,” “My Mother & I,” “Forever Half Mast” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing In The Dark,” the latter of which found success on the college radio. On Halloween, Dacus released a cover of Phil Collins’ “In The Air Tonight,” taking the already ominous song and making it an even spookier homage. Dacus rounds out the EP with two tunes about the winter holidays with a cover of Wham!’s “Last Christmas” and a New Year’s-inspired original song titled “Fool’s Gold.” “What is going on?” Dacus wondered in a statement. “I’ve collected some songs from trying to answer that question … This series seems like the right place to put them next to each other. These songs are self-contained, not indicative of a new direction, just a willingness to do something different and sometimes even out of character.”
Sting – My Songs: Live
The Scoop: On May 24, Sting released a career-spanning compilation of “contemporary interpretations of his most celebrated hits” entitled My Songs. The legendary singer-songwriter and bassist then took the tunes out on the road with an ace band — consisting of guitarists Dominic Miller and Rufus Miller, drummer Josh Freese, keyboardist Kevon Webster, harmonica player Shane Sager and backing vocalists Gene Noble and Melissa Musique — for the My Songs World Tour. Culled from the best of the best and mixed by Grammy award-winner Tony Lake, Sting has now shared the digital live album My Songs: Live featuring hits and deeper cuts alike.
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Taylor Hawkins & The Coattail Riders – Get The Money
The Scoop: Taylor Hawkins & The Coattail Riders return with the follow up to their 2016 six-song mini-LP KOTA. On Get The Money, Hawkins enlisted the help of an all-star cast of rock royalty including his Foo Fighters band mates Dave Grohl and Pat Smear, Queen’s Roger Taylor, as wella as Joe Walsh, Nancy Wilson, Duff McKagan, Chrissie Hynde, LeAnn Rimes, Perry Farrel and more. Not only does the album feature some of rock’s biggest names, but it’s also an ode to rock itself with swaggering takes on classic, glam and prog varieties as well as everything in between.
Aqueous – Burn It Down
The Scoop: The four-song Burn It Down EP is the first studio release from Aqueous since 2018’s full-length Color Wheel. The four-piece from Rochester, New York posted a Spotify Playlist of songs that inspired the new EP. Aqueous also assembled a live compilation playlist on nugs.net of songs they’ve covered live that informed the songs on the EP. Tracks by Queens of the Stone Age, Tame Impala, Green Day, Nine Inch Nails, Vampire Weekend, Goldfinger, The Raconteurs, Chromeo, Blink-182, Foo Fighters, Weezer and others inspired Burn It Down. None of the four songs on the EP — “Burn It Down,” “Little Something To Me,” “Come and Go” and “On the Edge” — have been played live by Aqueous, but they did tease the title track at a show on November 2.
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Ryley Walker & Charles Rumback – Little Common Twist
The Scoop: Guitarist Ryley Walker and drummer Charles Rumback previously collaborated on the 2016 album, Cannots. Three years later the duo returns on the Thrill Jockey label with the eight-song Little Common Twist. Produced by John Hughes, Little Common Twist was recorded during improvised recording sessions held in 2017 and 2018. The album, “compiles introspective and expansive instrumental pieces that convey a striking range of emotions, with a delicate interplay that delights as they move with ease across a spectrum of styles” and features Nick Macri on bass on “Idiot Parade.”
FITTED – First Fits
The Scoop: First Fits is the first relase by the supergroup calling themselves FITTED. The band formed for what was to be a one-off performance at Wire’s 2017 DRILLED festival at The Echo in Los Angeles. Rather than shuttering the project after the set, Wire members Graham Lewis and Matthew Simms, bassist Mike Watt (Minutemen, Stooges, fIREHOSE) and drummer Bob Lee (Fearless Leader, The Freeks) came together to record their debut album. Watt and Lewis share lead vocals across the six tracks on the “freewheelin’ pysch-pop powerhouse” First Fits.
Various Artists – Blanket The Homeless
The Scoop: Charity organization Blanket The Homeless tapped San Francisco-based musicians to contribute to a studio album of the same name featuring 15 original songs, nearly all of which weren’t previously released. Blanket The Homeless helps to fight the homelessness crisis in the city by partnering with 501(c)(3) non-profit the St. Vincent de Paul Society of San Francisco to deliver care packages to those living on the streets and publishes a resource guide that includes information on where to get free food and shelter. Marin’s own Scott Mickelson produced the 15-track LP featuring songs from such artists as Con Brio, John Craigie, Rainbow Girls, The Brothers Comatose, The Stone Foxes, Fantastic Negrito and his own Mickelson project. “So many incredible artists contributed their time and heart to this great record, and we now can have that money filter directly into care packages that will be handed out to the community,” said of the album, which benefits Blanket The Homeless. “It feels like a good way to have a positive affect with our music.”
Compiled by Scott Bernstein, Nate Todd and Andy Kahn.
