Release Day Picks: May 11th 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 Beach House, La Luz, CBDB and Jerry Garcia. Read on for more insight into the records we have all queued up to spin.

Beach House – 7

The Scoop: The aptly titled seventh Beach House album, 7 finds the Baltimore-based duo of Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally for the first time working with co-producer Sonic Bloom (Peter Kember) — though not “in the traditional sense.” For this record, Legrand and Scally also for the first time iniatited songwriting at their new recording studio. Songs were then completed with their touring drummer James Barone in small batches at Carriage House in Stamford, Connecticut and at Palmetto Studio in Los Angeles. Beach House explained 7, stating “Thematically, this record often deals with the beauty that arises in dealing with darkness; the empathy and love that grows from collective trauma; the place one reaches when they accept rather than deny (see ‘Dark Spring,’ ‘Pay No Mind,’ ‘Lemon Glow,’ ‘Dive,’ ‘Black Car,’ ‘Lose Your Smile’). The twisted double edge of glamour, with its perils and perfect moments, was also an endless source (see ‘L’Inconnue,’ ‘Drunk In LA,’ ‘Woo,’ ‘Girl Of The Year,’ ‘Last Ride’).” Here’s the video for “Black Car”:

Label: Sub Pop/Bella Union/Mistletone

Producer: Beach House, Sonic Boom

Number Of Tracks: 11

Running Time: 47:04

Guest Musicians: James Barone

Tracklist:

1. Dark Spring
2. Pay No Mind
3. Lemon Glow
4. L’Inconnue
5. Drunk in LA
6. Dive
7. Black Car
8. Lose Your Smile
9. Woo
10. Girl Of The Year
11. Last Ride

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La Luz – Floating Features

The Scoop: A relocation from Seattle to Los Angeles informed much of what became the third La Luz full lenghth Floating Features. The surf-doo-wop quartet of vocalist/guitarist Shana Cleveland, drummer Marian Li Pino, keyboardist Alice Sandahl and bassist Lena Simon called this 11-song LP “their most ambitious release yet.” The follow-up to 2015’s Ty Segall-produced Weirdo Shrine features many references to dreams through the group’s infectiously dreamy harmonies. Watch the video the lead single “Cicada” below:

Label: Hardly Art

Number Of Tracks: 11

Running Time: 35:42

Guest Musicians: N/A

Tracklist:

1. Floating Features
2. Cicada
3. Loose Teeth
4. Mean Dream
5. California Finally
6. The Creature
7. My Golden One
8. Lonely Dozer
9. Greed Machine
10. Walking Into the Sun
11. Don’t Leave Me on The Earth

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CBDB – Out Of Line

The Scoop: Alabama rockers CBDB grew from Tuscaloosa favorites to nationally-touring act who scored gigs at such acclaimed festivals as Summer Camp, Electric Forest and Okeechobee since forming in 2011. The band recently issued (unlike most new releases, this one came out on a Saturday) Out Of Line, their third full-length album. Guitarist/vocalist Cy Simonton, guitarist/vocalist Kris Gottlieb, multi-instrumentalist Glenn Dillard, drummer Paul Oliver and bassist/vocalist Mike Sinopole spend plenty of time on the road and had been stockpiling riffs and melodies since Sinople joined the group in 2016. CBDB took the material they had developed the road and entered Zac Brown’s famed Southern Ground Nashville studios late last year. The five-piece entrusted producer Dan Davis to help them refine the batch of songs and show off the sound of their current lineup. Listen to the Out Of Line track “Fine Line”:

Label: Self-Released

Producer: Dan Davis

Number Of Tracks: 7

Running Time: 32:14

Guest Musicians: N/A

Tracklist:

1. Patterns
2. Mumble Bull
3. Unintentional Liar
4. Opelika Yella
5. Unaware
6. Fine Line
7. Feel So Far

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Jerry Garcia – Before The Dead

The Scoop: Jerry Garcia’s pre-Grateful Dead days have been one of the eras of the guitarist’s legendary career that have only occasionally been explored. Back in 1999, Grateful Dead Records issued Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions, a live album from the jug band, which featured both Bob Weir and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, from a 1964 performance at Top of the Tangent coffee house in Palo Alto, California. Two years ago an unearthed radio broadcast from Jerry’s days as a bluegrass picker with the Heart Valley Drifters was released. Now comes Before The Dead, a massive box set compiled by former longtime Grateful Dead publicist Dennis McNally and documentarian Brian Miksis that takes a deep dive on Garcia’s early days playing in and around the Bay Area. Before The Dead contains some of the earliest known recordings that date all the way back to a 1961 performance at Jerry’s then girlfriend’s 16th birthday party up through the summer of 1964 prior to his first gigs with any members of the Dead. The compilation explores Jerry’s lifelong love of traditional music, both folk and bluegrass, something that he would later revisit with Old & In The Way in the early 1970s and explore again with both the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band and David Grisman in the 1980’s and 90’s respectively. Give a listen to Jerry & Sara performing “Deep Elem Blues” at the Top of the Tangent from May 1963:

Label: Round Records

Producers: Dennis McNally & Brian Miksis

Number Of Tracks: 84

Running Time: 3:42:04

Guest Musicians: Robert Hunter, Marshall Leicester, Dick Arnold, Ken Frankel, Norm Van Maastricht, David Nelson, Sara Garcia, Eric Thompson, Geoff Levin, Sandy Rothman, Herb Pedersen, Jody Stecher, Butch Waller

Before The Dead Tracklist

SIDE ONE:

Bob and Jerry
May 26, 1961
Brigid Meier’s Sixteenth Birthday Party
Menlo Park, California

1. Santy Anno
2. I Got A Home In That Rock
3. Oh, Mary Don’t You Weep
4. All My Trials
5. I Was Born Ten Thousand Years Ago
6. Blow The Candles Out
7. Rake And A Rambling Boy
8. Trouble In Mind

SIDE TWO:

Jerry Garcia, Marshall Leicester, and Robert Hunter
July 1961
Boar’s Head Coffeehouse, Carlos Book Stall
San Carlos, California

1. Brown’s Ferry Blues
2. Jesse James

Jerry Garcia and Unknown Musician
Summer or Fall 1961
Boar’s Head Coffeehouse, Carlos Book Stall
San Carlos, California

3. Down In The Willow Garden
4. Long Lonesome Road
5. Railroad Bill
6. The Wagoner’s Lad
7. Katie Cruel

SIDE THREE:

Sleepy Hollow Hog Stompers
June 11, 1962
Boar’s Head Coffeehouse, Peninsula Jewish Community Center
San Carlos, California

1. Cannonball Blues
2. Little Birdie
3. Sally Goodin
4. Hold That Woodpile Down
5. Legend Of The Johnson Boys
6. Shady Grove
7. Sweet Sunny South
8. Man Of Constant Sorrow

SIDE FOUR & FIVE

Hart Valley Drifters
Fall 1962
KZSU Radio Studio A, Stanford University
Stanford, California

1. Band Introductions
2. Roving Gambler
3. Ground Speed
4. Pig In A Pen
5. Standing In The Need Of Prayer
6. Flint Hill Special
7. Nine Pound Hammer
8. Handsome Molly
9. Clinch Mountain Backstep

1. Think Of What You’ve Done
2. Cripple Creek
3. All The Good Times Have Past And Gone
4. Billy Grimes, The Rover
5. Paddy On The Turnpike (Boys, My Money’s All Gone)
6. Run Mountain
7. Sugar Baby
8. Sitting On Top Of The World

SIDE SIX:

The Wildwood Boys
February 23, 1963
Top of the Tangent
Palo Alto, California

1. Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms
2. Jerry’s Breakdown
3. Standing In The Need Of Prayer
4. Mule Skinner Blues
5. Saturday Night Shuffle
6. Pike County Breakdown
7. The Little Sparrow
8. We Shall Not Be Moved

SIDE SEVEN:

Jerry and Sara
May 4, 1963
Top of the Tangent
Palo Alto, California

1. Deep Elem Blues
2. Will The Weaver
3. I Truly Understand
4. Long Black Veil
5. The Man That Wrote That Home Sweet Home Never Was A Married Man
6. Foggy Mountain Top

SIDE EIGHT:

Black Mountain Boys
Fall 1963
Top of the Tangent
Palo Alto, California

1. Barefoot Nellie
2. She’s More To Be Pitied
3. Noah’s Breakdown
4. Who Will Sing For Me?

Black Mountain Boys
January 10, 1964
Top of the Tangent
Palo Alto, California

5. Salt Creek
6. Monroe’s Hornpipe (Jody’s Hornpipe)
7. Rosa Lee McFall
8. John Hardy/Closing Theme

Black Mountain Boys
March 6, 1964
Top of the Tangent
Palo Alto, California

9. Katie Kline
10. Walkin’ The Dog

SIDE NINE:

Black Mountain Boys
March 6, 1964
Top of the Tangent
Palo Alto, California

1. Paddy On The Turnpike (Boys, My Money’s All Gone)
2. Love And Wealth
3. Sourwood Mountain
4. If I Lose
5. Homestead On The Farm (I Wonder How The Old Folks Are At Home)
6. Stoney Creek
7. Salty Dog Blues
8. Love Please Come Home
9. Make Me A Pallet On The Floor
10. Darlin’ Allalee

SIDE TEN:

Black Mountain Boys
March 6, 1964
Top of the Tangent
Palo Alto, California

1. In The Pines
2. Raw Hide
3. Black Mountain Rag
4. True Life Blues
5. Medley: Devil’s Dream–Sailor’s Hornpipe

Black Mountain Boys
Spring 1964
Top of the Tangent
Palo Alto, California

6. Drink Up And Go Home

Asphalt Jungle Mountain Boys
Summer 1964
Top of the Tangent
Palo Alto, California

7. These Men Of God
8. Roll On Buddy
9. Goodbye Old Pal
10. Back Up And Push

Note: The 4-CD Edition is comprised of the following – CD 1: Sides 1 & 2; CD 2: Sides 3, 4 & 5; CD 3: Sides 6, 7; and CD 4: Sides 8, 9 & 10

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Compiled by Jeffrey Greenblatt, Andy Kahn and Scott Bernstein.