Release Day Picks: March 17th 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 Tedeschi Trucks Band, Spoon, Real Estate, Conor Oberst and The Werks. Read on for more insight into the records we have all queued up to spin.

Tedeschi Trucks Band – Live From The Fox Oakland

The Scoop: The Tedeschi Trucks Band continue to up their game with each passing tour, especially after a 2015 lineup change that now finds guitarists Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi joined by 10 dynamic musicians. On Live From The Fox Oakland, a new concert film and live album, the powerhouse 12-piece unit flexes its musical muscle during a September 9th, 2016 concert at Oakland’s Fox Theater. Live From The Fox Oakland features over a dozen live tracks, never-before-seen behind the scenes footage and interviews with both Marc Maron and David Fricke. In addition, Fricke contributed liner notes to the set, calling it “an authentic, widescreen group portrait…simply the truth of what happened, in all of its shared glory.” Here’s their cover of “Keep On Growing”:

Label: Fantasy Records

Producer: Derek Trucks

Number Of Tracks: 17

Running Time: 2:01:07

Guest Musicians: Chris Robinson, Alam Khan

Tracklist:

1. Don’t Know What It Means
2. Keep On Growing
3. Bird On The Wire
4. Within You, Without You
5. Just As Strange
6. Crying Over You
7. Color Of The Blues **Film only
8. These Walls (featuring Alam Khan)
9. Anyhow
10. Right On Time **CD only
11. Leavin’ Trunk
12. Don’t Drift Away
13. I Want More (Soul Sacrifice outro)
14. I Pity The Fool
15. Ali ** CD only
16. Let Me Get By
17. You Ain’t Going Nowhere **film only

Stream / Download / CD/LP

Spoon – Hot Thoughts

The Scoop: For their ninth full length release Hot Thoughts, Austin, Texas-based rockers Spoon returned to Matador Records, the label that issued their debut album Telephono in 1996. The group again worked with producer Dave Friedman who also produced 2014’s They Want My Soul. Frontman Britt Daniel, along with multi-instrumentalists Jim Eno, Alex Fischel and Rob Pope, recorded Hot Thoughts without the assistance of longtime keyboardist Eric Harvey who’s been performing with Hamilton Leithauser of late. Here’s the video for the single “Can I Sit Next To You”:

Label: Matador Records

Producer: Dave Friedman, Spoon

Number Of Tracks: 10

Running Time: 41:52

Guest Musicians: Blair Robbins, Sharon Van Etten, Brad Shenfeld, Stephen Patterson, Blair Robbins, Sara Houser, Sabrina Ellis, Ted Taforo

Tracklist:

1. Hot Thoughts
2. WhisperI’lllistentohearit
3. Do I Have To Talk You Into It
4. First Caress
5. Pink Up
6. Can I Sit Next To You
7. I Ain’t The One
8. Tear It Down
9. Shotgun
10. Us

Stream / Download / CD/LP

Real Estate – In Mind

The Scoop: The fourth album from New Jersey’s Real Estate brings a couple of interesting storylines in tow. First, they parted ways with founding member and guitarist Matt Mondanile, who opted to focus on his other successful band – Ducktails. In his absence, Real Estate added solo musician Julian Lynch on guitar and expanded the role of keyboardist Matt Kallman. The other notable aside is that Real Estate gave their first true producer credit to Cole M.G.N. who is best known for his production work with Beck and as a member of Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti. The band sought to really take advantage of the studio as a tool to enhance the songs and hence they wanted a reputable producer in the chair. For these two seemingly big changes in direction, the consensus on the new album is that Real Estate continues to stay in their lane and not deviate too much from the relaxed mid-tempo indie rock that has made the first three albums a rousing success.

Have a listen to “Stained Glass” off In Mind:

Label: Domino

Producer: Cole M. Greif-Neill

Number Of Tracks: 11

Running Time: 45:30

Guest Musicians: N/A

Tracklist:

• 01. Darling
• 02. Serve the Song
• 03. Stained Glass
• 04. After the Moon
• 05. Two Arrows
• 06. White Light
• 07. Holding Pattern
• 08. Time
• 09. Diamond Eyes
• 10. Same Sun
• 11. Saturday

Stream / Download / Vinyl, CD, and Digital

Conor Oberst – Salutations

The Scoop: Last year Conor Oberst released his first true solo album, Ruminations, a sparse acoustic set of deeply-personal songs that where originally intended to be demos. For the follow-up, Salutations, the singer-songwriter decided to revisit those tunes, along with writing seven more, giving them all a full-band treatment. Backed by his longtime friends and occasional touring band The Felice Brothers, the album is an instant modern Americana classic that hearkens back to Oberst’s early 2000s output. The 17 tracks are punctuated by the sounds of Mexican border town country music, 1970s Bob Dylan snarl, John Prine-esqe ruminations and introspective Laurel Canyon folk. Check out the video for “Till St. Dymphna Kicks Us Out”:

Label: Nonesuch Records

Producer: Conor Oberst, Jim Keltner

Number Of Tracks: 17

Running Time: 1:07:20

Guest Musicians: The Felice Brothers, Jim Keltner, Gillian Welch, M. Ward, Jim James, Maria Taylor

Tracklist:

1. Too Late to Fixate
2. Gossamer Thin
3. Overdue
4. Afterthought
5. Next of Kin
6. Napalm
7. Mamath Borthwick (A Sketch)
8. Till St. Dymphna Kicks Us Out
9. Barbary Coast (Later)
10. Too Late to Fixate
11. Tachycardia
12. Empty Hotel By the Sea
13. Anytime Soon
14. Counting Sheep
15. Rain Follows the Plow
16. You All Loved Him Once
17. A Little Uncanny
18. Salutations

Stream / Download / CD/LP

The Werks – Magic

The Scoop: Ohio-based jam act The Werks aim to capture the spirit of their live shows on the group’s fifth studio album, Magic. The Werks started by having band members sketch out the songs on the LP individually and then came together at their “The Werkspace” sonic dojo to collaborate on taking the compositions to the next level. Once the songwriting was finished, The Werks headed to Sonic Lounge where lead engineer/co-producer Joe Viers settled down to work with only one of 13 Amek/Neve 9098i mixing consoles in the world. The final piece of Magic was the addition of the horn section from Columbus’s Hoodoo Soul Band. Give the opening track “Wide Awake” a listen:

Label: [Self-released]

Producer: Joe Viers, Aaron Oakley, B.J. Davis

Number Of Tracks: 8

Guest Musicians: Hoodoo Soul Band: Chris Young, Kevin O’Neil, Phil Clark

Tracklist:

1. Wide Awake
2. Magic
3. Into the Moss
4. Slab
5. Moonset
6. Compares to You
7. Moving On
8. Lights Out

Stream / Download

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