Release Day Picks: April 6th New Album Highlights

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 Blackberry Smoke, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, The California Honeydrops, Slim Wednesday, TAUK and Mipso. Read on for more insight into the records we have all queued up to spin.

---

Blackberry Smoke – Find A Light

The Scoop: Over the course of five studio albums Blackberry Smoke have fine-tuned their take on Southern rock, becoming one the of the preeminent modern torchbearers for the genre finding cross-over success with both country and rock fans. The Atlanta-based band’s latest Find A Light should net them their biggest audience yet with lead singer and guitarist Charlie Starr describing it as “A melting pot of Blackberry Smoke music with a wide range of sound and emotion.” The 12-song, self-produced release features guest appearances from sacred-steel wiz Robert Randolph , singer-fiddle player Amanda Shires as well as The Wood Brothers giving the record a healthy dose of roots rock and Americana flavor. Check out the live in-studio music video for “Let Me Down Easy”:

Label: 3 Legged Records/Thirty Tigers

Producer: Blackberry Smoke

Number Of Tracks: 12

Running Time: 53:00

Guest Musicians: Amanda Shires, Robert Randolph, The Wood Brothers

Tracklist:

1. Flesh And Bone
2. Run Away From It All
3. The Crooked Kind
4. Medicate My Mind
5. I’ve Got This Song
6. I’ll Keep Ramblin’
7. Seems So Far I’ll Keep Ramblin’
8. Lord Strike Me Deaad
9. Let Me Down Easy
10. Nobody Gives A Damn
11. Till The Wheels Fall Off
12. Mother Mountain

Stream / Download / CD/LP

---

Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Sex & Food

The Scoop: Unknown Moral Orchestra went globe-hopping to record their first album in three years. The psychedelic rock act logged time in studios in Portland, Oregon, New Zealand, South Korea, Vietnam and Iceland. The results can be heard throughout the 12 tracks on Sex & Food. The New Zealand-native band has gone the stoner-rock route with their latest, layering crunchy guitar licks over fuzzed-out vocals and heavy primal drumming. Check out the music video for “We’re Not In Love We’re Just High”:

Label: Jagjaguwar

Producer: Ruban Nielson, Jacob Portrait

Number Of Tracks: 12

Running Time: 43:18

Guest Musicians: Quincy McCrary, Chris Nielson, Naomi Win,

Tracklist:

1. A God Called Hubris
2. Major League Chemicals
3. Ministry of Alienation
4. Hunnybee
5. Chronos Feasts on His Children
6. American Guilt
7. The Internet of Love (That Way)
8. Everyone Acts Crazy Nowadays
9. This Doomsday
10. How Many Zeros
11. Not In Love We’re Just High
12. If You’re Going To Break Yourself

Stream / Download / CD/LP

---

The California Honeydrops – Call It Home: Vol. 1 & 2

The Scoop: Bay Area-based The California Honeydrops went down the “concept album” path for their latest studio effort, the double LP Call It Home: Vol. 1 & 2. Warsaw, Poland-native frontman Lech Wierzynski stated, “My parents brought me here as a kid and we moved around a lot. They were always talking about missing where they were from and I was always wondering who I was in that way; the question of whether I was Polish or American or both. I didn’t set out to make an album about that, but these songs just started coming out that way…” The group enlisted touring mate, guitarist Bonnie Raitt and her keyboardist Mike Finnigan, as well as Bay Area bassist/guitarist Kid Anderson and drummer Nicky Otis to contribute to the double album. Stream the title track featuring Raitt below:

Label: Tubtone Records

Number Of Tracks: 16

Guest Musicians: Bonnie Raitt, Mike Finnigan, Kid Anderson, Nicky Otis

Tracklist:

Vol. 1

1. Call It Home
2. Coming Around
3. Cry For Me
4. Standin’ Still Blues
5. Hold It Down
6. Your Sweet Love
7. Those Days
8. Live Learn

Vol. 2

9. Only Home I’ve Ever Known
10. Silicon World
11. Tell Me (I Wanna Know)
12. Drop By Drop
13. Good Good Lovin’
14. Things We Used To Do
15. In My Baby’s Arms
16. Starr Child

Stream / Download / CD/LP

---

Slim Wednesday – Reptile Show

The Scoop: Widespread Panic keyboardist JoJo Hermann shows off his love of New Orleans music with the side project Slim Wednesday. The band mixes the traditional NOLA sound pioneered by Professor Longhair, Lee Dorsey and Allen Toussaint with ‘70s soul and funky overtones. JoJo is joined in Slim Wednesday by Bill Elder, Jonathan Jackson, Ben Clark, Greg Bryant, Jovan Quallo and Kevin Mabin and today the group issues their debut full-length studio album Reptile Show. “This just makes me wanna go jump in Lake Pontchartrain!” said Hermann of the music on the LP. Listen to the title track:

Label: Gemco Records

Producer: Bill Elder

Number Of Tracks: 8

Running Time: 43:13

Tracklist:

1. You Want Some Love
2. Stone Lover
3. Reptile Show
4. No So Good
5. Shangri-La
6. Dark Bar
7. Leigh-Sheri’s Dilemma
8. Go Ahead

Stream / Download

---

TAUK – Shapeshifter I: Construct

The Scoop: Instrumental quartet TAUK devated from their previous process of tracking songs in various studio facilites, recording their new EP Shapshifter I: Construct with producer Robert Carranza at a house they converted into a recording space. Guitarist Matt Jalbert, bassist Charlie Dolan, keyboardist Alric “A.C.” Carter, and drummer Isaac Teel also recorded a future full length release during those same sessions that generated the EP out today. “Everything just happened so naturally this time around,” said Jalbert. “I can’t think of one moment where it felt like anything was forced. We were all just completely focused and in the same mindset, which made this an incredibly fun and smooth experience.” Here’s the lead single “Premises”:

Label: (Self-Released)

Producer: Robert Carranza

Number Of Tracks: 5

Running Time: 27:51

Guest Musicians: N/A

Tracklist:

1. Square 2
2. Premises
3. For Laughing out Loud
4. Stranger Danger
5. Malware

Stream / Download / CD/LP

Mipso – Edges Run

The Scoop: North Carolina-based quartet Mipso left the comfort of home to record Edges Run, their fourth album, in Oregon. The band spent two weeks in the dead of winter for what were “heavy sessions” produced by Todd Sickafoose (Ani DiFranco, Anais Mitchell). Mipso returned with a 12-track effort that is deeply personal and marks their debut album with the AntiFragile Music label. “We decided to let ourselves explore new ideas and new sounds for this album, not knowing quite what that would feel like. We had to trust that the end result would sound honest, would sound like us,” Joseph Terrell (vocalist, guitarist and songwriter) said about the LP. Listen to “People Change,” the lead single:

Label: AntiFragile Music

Producer: Todd Sickafoose

Number Of Tracks: 12

Running Time: 43:18

Guest Musicians: N/A

Tracklist:

1. Take Your Records Home
2. Didn’t Know Love
3. Servant To It
4. Edges Run
5. Pay In Full
6. People Change
7. Moonlight
8. All Behind Me Now
9. Golden Kettle
10. Weeper’s Woe
11. Oceans
12. Sleep, Little Dreamer

Stream / Download / CD/LP

---

Compiled by Jeffrey Greenblatt, Andy Kahn and Scott Bernstein.