Release Day Picks: August 26th 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 Prophets Of Rage, Big Gigantic, Cass McCombs and The Bad Plus. Read on for more insight into the records we have all queued up to spin.

Prophets Of Rage – The Party’s Over

The Scoop: At face value, the new release from the supergroup featuring members of Rage Against The Machine, Cypress Hill and Public Enemy smells like a cash grab. The Party’s Over is a five song EP with just one new song (the rest come from the various different back catalogs) and three of the five tunes are live recordings. In other words, this feels more like a business decision to get some music out during the peak of election season more so than a necessary release, but for folks who haven’t yet heard anything from Prophets Of Rage yet this should be a good introduction. The band sounds the most like Rage Against the Machine due to Tom Morello’s guitar presence, but the arrangements on classic Cypress Hill and Public Enemy cuts make for perhaps the most entertaining listens. Have a listen to “Prophets Of Rage” (the song) off the new record:

Label: Prophets Of Rage

Producer: Brendan O’Brien

Number Of Tracks: 5

Running Time: 20:47

Guest Musicians: N/A

Tracklist:

1. Prophets Of Rage
2. The Party’s Over
3. Killing in the Name (Live)
4. Shut Em Down (Live)
5. No Sleep Til Cleveland (Live)

Stream / Download / CD and Digital

Big Gigantic – Brighter Future

The Scoop: More than two years after the release of 2014’s The Night Is Young Colorado livetronica act Big Gigantic have unveiled a guest-filled studio album titled Brighter Future. Producer/saxophonist Dominic Lalli and drummer Jeremy Salken are joined by a bevy of their musical friends over the course of the LP’s 13 tracks including Jennifer Hartswick, Natalie Cressman, Waka Flocka Flame, Cherub and Naaz. The album is the perfect antidote for these often volatile times with plenty of upbeat sax and anthemic beats included within. Listen to Big Gigantic’s “All Of Me” featuring Logic and Rozes:

Label: Big Gigantic

Producer: Dominic Lalli

Number Of Tracks: 13

Running Time: 49:12

Guest Musicians: Angela McCluskey, Pell, GriZ, Logic, Rozes, Jennifer Hartswick, Natalie Cressman, Waka Flocka Flame, Cherub, Naaz

Tracklist:

1. Odyssey Pt. 1
2. The Little Things (Feat. Angela McCluskey)
3. Miss Primetime (Feat. Pell)
4. C’mon (Feat. GRiZ)
5. All Of Me (Feat. Logic and Rozes)
6. Got The Love (Feat. Jennifer Hartswick)
7. Highly Possible (Feat. Waka Flocka Flame)
8. I’ve Gotta Know (Feat. Jennifer Hartswick)
9. No Apologies (Feat. Natalie Cressman)
10. Bring The Funk Back
11. Wide Open (Feat. Cherub)
12. Brighter Future (Feat. Naaz)
13. Long Time Coming

Stream / Download / CD/LP

Cass McCombs – Mangy Love

The Scoop: Singer-songwriter Cass McCombs makes his ANTI- Records debut with Mangy Love. The follow-up to his sprawling 2014 LP Big Wheel and Others features a varied collection of guests ranging from Mike Gordon and Joe Russo to Blake Mills, Angel Olsen and several others. The new songs on the record were primarily written during a harsh New York winter and while McCombs traveled in Ireland. Here’s “Opposite House” featuring Olsen:

Label: ANTI-

Producer: Rob Schnapf, Dan Horne

Number Of Tracks: 12

Running Time: 59:11

Guest Musicians: Stuart Bogie, Rev. Goat Carson, Mike Gordon, Kurt Heasley, HOOPS, Dan Horne, Dan Iead, Jesse Lee, Blake Mills, Jack Name, Angel Olsen, Lee Pardini, Ariel Rechtshaid, Joe Russo, Ryan Sawyer, Farmer Dave Scher, Jon Shaw, Bongo Sidibe, Aaron Sperske, Maxwell Wang, Wilder Zoby

Tracklist:

1. Bum Bum Bum
2. Rancid Girl
3. Laughter Is The Best Medicine
4. Opposite House
5. Medusa’s Outhouse
6. Low Flyin Bird
7. Cry
8. Run Sister Run
9. In A Chinese Alley
10. It
11. Switch
12. I’m A Shoe

Stream / Download / CD/LP

The Bad Plus – It’s Hard

The Scoop: Bassist Reid Anderson, pianist Ethan Iverson and drummer David King are following up collaborative LP with saxophonist Joshua Redman and the trio’s 2014 studio album Inevitable Western with a new full lenght made up entirely of cover songs. A diverse group of artists were selected for the record’s source material, including songs by Johnny Cash, Prince, Peter Gabriel, Kraftwerk, Ornette Coleman, TV On The Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Cyndi Lauper, Crowded House and Barry Manilow. It’s Hard was recorded this spring with engineer Pete Rende at Brooklyn Recording in New York City. Stream Prince’s “The Beautiful Ones” here:

Label: OKeh Records

Producer: The Bad Plus

Number Of Tracks: 11

Running Time: 49:18

Guest Musicians: N/A

Tracklist:

1. Maps (Yeah Yeah Yeahs)
2. Games Without Frontiers (Peter Gabriel)
3. Time After Time (Cyndi Lauper)
4. I Walk The Line (Johnny Cash)
5. Alfombra Magica (Bill McHenry)
6. The Beautiful Ones (Prince)
7. Don’t Dream It’s Over (Crowded House)
8. Staring At The Sun (TV on the Radio)
9. Mandy (Barry Manilow)
10. The Robots (Kraftwerk)
11. Broken Shadows (Ornette Coleman)

Stream / Download / CD/LP

Compiled by Ryan Dembinsky, Andy Kahn and Scott Bernstein