Release Day Picks: April 1st New Releases

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 Marco Benevento, Charles Bradley, Weezer, Andrew Bird, Explosions in the Sky and Pigeons Playing Ping Pong. Read on for more insight into the records we have all queued up to spin.

Marco Benevento – The Story Of Fred Short

The Scoop: The Story Of Fred Short follows a three-album trend for Marco Benevento of increasingly embracing the vocal performance. With Tigerface, he first dabbled with guest vocals on a couple of songs performed by Kal Traver from Rubblebucket. On Swift, he took the reins and added his own vocals for the first time. Now, on Fred Short he’s taking it further with added confidence and writing songs around the singing. The album is structured around shorter pop song formats which allow the record to come in at a vinyl-friendly 35 minutes. So, who is Fred Short and what’s his story? Well, he started out as just the name of Marco Benevento’s street in Saugerties, New York, but he’s morphed into much more: he’s a fictional musical shaman, a messenger of a looming environmental disaster, the namesake of the Saugerties recording studio and the backdrop for the next phase in Macro Benevento’s ongoing musical evolution. Have a listen to the lead single “Dropkick” below:

Label: Royal Potato Family

Producer: Marco Benevento with Kenny Siegal

Number Of Tracks: 11

Running Time: 34:59

Guest Musicians: Dave Dreiwitz (bass), Andy Borger (drums), Brad Barr (Guitar), Andrew Barr (drums, percussion), Michael Didonna (shaker, vocals), Tracy Bohnam (vocals), Katie Benevento (vocals), Carla Luffe Heintzelmann (vocals), Simone Didonna (vocals), Ruthie Ungar (vocals), Mike Miranda (vocals), Jeremy Bernstein (vocals) and Chris Maxwell (vocals)

Tracklist:

1. In The Afternoon Tomorrow
2. Dropkick
3. All The Other Dreams
4. Heavy Metal Floating Upstream
5. I Intro: The Story of Fred Short
6. II Seven Twenty Two
7. III Walking With Tyrone
8. IV Live A Certain Life
9. V Stay In Line
10. VI I Can’t See The Light
11. VII Follow The Arrow

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Charles Bradley – Changes

The Scoop: It seems only fitting that Charles Bradley’s latest studio album, Changes, kicks off with a short inspirational message followed by a brief rendition of “God Bless America,” as the 67-year-old singer is in the midst of living his version of the American Dream. The “Screaming Eagle Of Soul,” who spent many years as a James Brown impersonator before signing to Daptone Records, is all about spreading love on his third full-length album. Bradley pours his heart and soul into the 10-track effort, which oozes with heartache and redemption, but most of all carries Bradley’s message of positivity throughout it all. Check out the video for the album’s title track:

Label: Daptone Records/Dunham Records

Number Of Tracks: 10

Running Time: 40:18

Guest Musicians: N/A

Tracklist:

1. God Bless America
2. Good to Be Back Home
3. Nobody But You
4. Ain’t Gonna Give It Up
5. Changes
6. Thing We Do For Love
7. Crazy For Your Love
8. You Think I Don’t Know (But I Know)
9. Changed For the World
10. Slow Love

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Weezer – The White Album

The Scoop: The consensus on Weezer’s fourth self titled and tenth total LP, The White Album , is that that Weezer has finally rebounded from their mid-career creative gutter and they are now two albums into the process of clawing their way back to being a band people should give a shit about again. They haven’t quite returned to where they started with the Blue Album, but they aren’t that far off either. The White Album is the band’s first concept album since Pinkerton and judging by the singles there are some genuine keepers on the new effort. Have a listen to the “King of the World” below:

Label: Crush Music (Atlantic)

Producer: Jake Sinclair

Number Of Tracks: 10

Running Time: 34:05

Guest Musicians: N/A

Tracklist:

1. California Kids
2. Wind in Our Sail
3. Thank God for Girls
4. (Girl We Got A) Good Thing
5. Do You Wanna Get High?
6. King of the World
7. Summer Elaine and Drunk Dori
8. L.A. Girlz
9. Jacked Up
10. Endless Bummer

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Andrew Bird – Are You Serious

The Scoop: Teaming again with Tony Berg who also produced 2005’s well-received Mysterious Production of Eggs, multi-instrumentalist Andrew Bird set out to create “a record that’s different than any I’ve made before,” doing so at the famed Sound City recording studio in Los Angeles while backed by drummer Ted Poor and bassist Alan Hampton. Coming in the wake of getting married and becoming a father, for the follow-up to 2012’s Break It Yourself Bird got the help of vocalist Fiona Apple who contributed to a late-night, whiskey-fueled recording session as well as master guitarist/arranger/producer Blake Mills. Both the physical and digital deluxe editions feature bonus tracks including “Shoulder Mountain” and “Pulaski.” Watch the video for “Left Handed Kisses” featuring Fiona Apple below:

Label: Loma Vista

Producer: Tony Berg

Number Of Tracks: 11

Running Time: 42:39

Guest Musicians: Blake Mills, Fiona Apple

Tracklist:

1. Capsized
2. Roma Fade
3. Truth Lies Low
4. Puma
5. Chemical Switches
6. Left Handed Kisses
7. Are You Serious
8. Saints Preservus
9. The New Saint Jude
10. Valleys Of The Young
11. Bellevue

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Explosions In The Sky – The Wilderness

The Scoop: The first non-soundtrack release since 2011’s Take Care, Take Care, Take Care, the sixth studio LP from the Austin, Texas-based post-rock group for the first time was not a completely self-produced record, the band instead enlisting longtime collaborator John Congleton as co-producer. The self-described “re-defining” album finds the instrumental quartet refocused after several years delving further into soundtracks for film and television, exploring themes of various definitions of space across the new record’s sprawling nine tracks. Here’s the lead single “Disintegration Anxiety”:

Label: Temporary Residence Ltd.

Producer: John Congleton

Number Of Tracks: 9

Running Time: 46:20

Guest Musicians: N/A

Tracklist:

1. Wilderness
2. The Ecstatics
3. Tangle Formations
4. Logic of a Dream
5. Disintegration Anxiety
6. Losing the Light
7. Infinite Orbit
8. Colors in Space
9. Landing Cliffs

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Pigeons Playing Ping Pong – Pleasure

The Scoop: Up-and-coming electro-funk act Pigeons Playing Ping Pong today release Pleasure, their first studio album since 2014’s Psychology. The foursome featuring Greg Ormont (vocals, guitar), Jeremy Schon (guitar, vocals), Ben Carrey (bass, vocals) and Alex Petropulos (drumagic, electro-swag) recorded the self-released effort at WrightWay Studios in their hometown of Baltimore. Pigeons mix funk workouts with more electro-tinged numbers on the high-energy, 10-track affair. The Hornitz are the only guests on the LP as they contributed to the horn-driven “Whoopie.” Check out the first single off Pleasure, the party anthem “Live It Up”:

Label: Self-Released

Production Team: Engineered, edited and mixed by Steve Wright / Mastered by Tony Eichler

Number Of Tracks: 10

Running Time: 56:11

Guest Musicians: The Hornitz are featured on “Whoopie”

Tracklist:

1. Live It Up
2. Walk Outside
3. Burning Up My Time
4. Condenser
5. Fade Fast
6. Pop Off
7. Bad For You
8. Whoopie
9. Kiwi
10. Penguins

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Compiled by Ryan Dembinsky, Jeffrey Greenblatt, Andy Kahn and Scott Bernstein