Release Day Picks: August 2nd 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 Tyler Childers, Cory Wong, Ty Segall and Russian Circles. Read on for more insight into the records we have all queued up to spin.

Tyler Childers – Country Squire

The Scoop: For the follow-up to his breakout 2017 album Purgatory, Kentucky-native Tyler Childers tapped the same producers – Sturgill Simpson and David Ferguson – and returned to the same Nashville reocrding studio – The Butcher Shoppe – to make Country Squire.Comprised of nine new Childers originals, Country Squire features Stuart Duncan (fiddle, mandolin, banjo), Miles Miller (drums, background vocals), Russ Pahl (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, pedal steel, Jaw harp, baritone) and several others. “I hope that people in the area that I grew up in find something they can relate to,” Childers said of the album. “I hope that I’m doing my people justice and I hope that maybe someone from somewhere else can get a glimpse of the life of a Kentucky boy.”

Cory Wong – Motivational Music For The Syncopated Soul

The Scoop: Less than a year after the release of The Optimist, guitarist Cory Wong returns with his third studio album, Motivational Music For The Syncopated Soul. The Minneapolis native recorded the LP over the course of a year at four different sessions held in his hometown, Los Angeles and New York City. Contributors include guitarist Charlie Hunter, pianist Jon Batiste, guitarist/producer Tom Misch, singer-songwriter Caleb Hawley and vocalist Emily Browning. Cory also enlisted his fellow frequent Vulfpeck collaborator Antwaun Stanley and Fearless Flyers band mate Nate Smith. “For me, it’s about the listener’s experience,” Wong explained in a statement. “I want them to have a visceral response like: ‘I feel better,’ ‘That was really fun,’ or ‘I got to escape for an hour.’ You’ll hear my voice through the guitar, but I’m just a hype man. To uplift audiences with instrumental music that has no singing or lyrics is a fun challenge. I’m trying to solve the riddle. If I can get one person to feel good this way, it’s a success.”

Ty Segall – First Taste

The Scoop: Garage rocker Ty Segall is back with his 12th studio album of original material, First Taste. The new LP follows Segall’s 2018 release Freedom’s Goblin. First Taste shows off the prolific singer-songwriter’s versatility and willingness to experiment as Segall wades into uncharted waters with instruments like koto and bouzouki as well as mandolin, saxophones and brass, recorder and some keyboards, while eschewing the use of electric guitar. “Ice Plant,” is mostly acapella save for some shamanistic shakers and a piano outro. Lyrically, the album sees Segall turning his nasal croon and pleading screams into a feedback loop of introspection between musician and listener. Listen closely, drums heard in the left channel were played by Segall, while right channel drumming was played by Charles Moothart.

Russian Circles – Blood Year

The Scoop: Chicago-based post-rock trio Russian Circles returns with their first full-length since 2016’s Guidance. Their seventh LP, the seven-track Blood Year, finds bassist Brian Cook, guitarist Mike Sullivan and drummer Dave Turncrantz again working with Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou as producer. The instrumental trio recorded the new album in their hometown at Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio facility. Taking a different approach from their previous studio efforts, Russian Circles sought to capture their live sound on Blood Year, with the three members recording together in the same room without the use of click tracks.

Compiled by Scott Bernstein, Nate Todd and Andy Kahn.