Release Day Picks: April 8th 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 , Woods, The Lumineers and Parquet Courts. Read on for more insight into the records we have all queued up to spin.

Ben Harper And The Innocent Criminals – Call It What It Is

The Scoop: Call It What It Is brings Ben Harper back together with his The Innocent Criminals backing band for the first time in almost nine years. The new album highlights a variety of Ben’s distinctive earmarks like soft soulful vocals, gritty lap steel playing, and socially charged lyrics. Racism and police brutality drive the message of Call It What It Is, in part due to a formative experience with both on the way to a recording session in California. While most of the new album takes Ben Harper and the band back to their early sound, it’s worth taking a listen to the opening track “When Sex Was Dirty,“ which is an uncharacteristic 1970s rocker that sounds more like Boston or ELO than it does Ben Harper. Watch Ben Harper And The Innocent Criminals perform “Shine” on SportsCenter below (with Ben & Co. wearing Stuart Scott t-shirts):

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=15071193

Label: Stax/Concord Music Group

Producer: Ben Harper, Ethan Allen, Juan Nelson, Leon Mobley, Oliver Charles, Jason Yates, Michael Ward

Number Of Tracks: 11

Running Time: 41:50

Guest Musicians: Juan Nelson (bass, vocals), Leon Mobley (percussion, vocals), Oliver Charles (drums, vocals), Jason Yates (organs, guitar, vocals), Michael Ward (guitars, vocals), Jaclyn Harper (vocals) and Claire Wadsworth (vocals)

Tracklist:

1. When Sex Was Dirty
2. Deeper and Deeper
3. Call It What It Is
4. How Dark Is Gone
5. Shine
6. All That Has Grown
7. Pink Balloon
8. Finding Our Way
9. Bones
10. Dance Like Fire
11. Goodbye To You

Stream / Download / CD/ LP

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Woods – City Sun Eater In The River Of Light

The Scoop: It’s not much of a stretch to make a comparison between Woods and the Grateful Dead, heck the band even sells their own Steal Your Face merch with their logo emblazoned in it. The two bands started out as acid-drenched freak-out warriors and gradually morphed into psychedelic folk acts. With their latest, City Sun Eater In The River Of Light, the Brooklyn-based band have reached their Blues for Allah period that sees them fusing their brand of shimmering psych-folk with jazz-fusion and world music. The 10-track effort once again shows off the band’s Technicolor instrumental prowess and lead singer Jeremy Earl’s ethereal vocals making for dreamy record perfect for late-nights or early mornings. While we wait for Woods to give us their much needed version of Live/Dead, give a listen to “Creature Comfort”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLCePMoGzgo

Label:Woodsist

Producer: Jeremy Earl, Jarvis Taveniere

Number Of Tracks: 10

Running Time: 42:19

Guest Musicians: Alec Spiegelman, Cole Karmen-Green, Jon Catfish DeLorme

Tracklist:

1. Sun City Creeps
2. Creature Comfort
3. Morning Light
4. Can’t See At All
5. Hang It On Your Wall
6. The Take
7. I See In The Dark
8. Politics Of Free
9. The Other Side
10. Hollow Home

Stream / Download / CD/LP

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The Lumineers – Cleopatra

The Scoop: The Lumineers achieved massive success from their 2012 self-titled debut album as the LP peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart. There was a time it seemed as if the band’s catchy first single “Ho Hey” was everywhere. Nearly five years later The Lumineers have finally returned with their sophomore effort, Cleopatra. All songs on the 11-track effort were written by the band’s songwriting team of Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites, while The Lumineers enlisted Ryan Hadlock to reprise his role as producer. Listen to Cleopatra’s first single, “Ophelia”:

Label: Dualtone

Producer: Ryan Hadlock

Number Of Tracks: 11

Running Time: 31:47

Guest Musicians: N/A

Tracklist:

1. Sleep On The Floor
2. Ophelia
3. Cleopatra
4. Gun Song
5. Angela
6. In The Light
7. Gale Song
8. Long Way From Home
9. Sick In The Head
10. My Eyes
11. Patience

Stream / Download / CD/LP

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Parquet Courts – Human Performance

The Scoop: Following-up a pair of buzz-generating releases in 2014, the latest full-length from Brooklyn-based garage/post-punk/noise rock outfit Parquet Courts found the group taking their time creating Human Performance, spending entire year making the LP which in the past would have likely taken months or even days. Recorded at various locales, including with Justin Pizzoferrato at his Sonelab in Western Massachusetts, with Tom Schick and Jeff Tweedy at Wilco’s The Loft studio in Chicago and at Dreamland Studios – a renovated Pentecostal church in Upstate New York – the group tapped Tweedy to lend his guitar to a couple of the album’s songs. Give a listen to the title track from the latest from the foursome:

Label: Rough Trade Records

Producer: Austin Brown

Number Of Tracks: 14

Running Time: 46:11

Guest Musicians: Jeff Tweedy, Dewtch Crystal, Justin Pizzoferrato

Tracklist:

1. Dust
2. Human Performance
3. Outside
4. I Was Just Here
5. Paraphrased
6. Captive Of The Sun
7. Steady On My Mindv
8. On Man, No City
9. Berlin Got Blurry
10. Keep It Even
11. Two Dead Cops
12. Pathos Prairie
13. It’s Gonna Happen

Stream / Download / CD/LP

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