Stream New Releases From My Morning Jacket, Guided By Voices + Raze Regal & White Denim

Don’t miss these new Black Friday releases available today, November 24.

By Team JamBase Nov 24, 2023 7:19 am PST

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 My Morning Jacket, Guided By Voices and Raze Regal & White Denim. Read on for more insight into the records we have ready to spin.


My Morning Jacket – Happy Holiday!

My Morning Jacket gifted an album celebrating the holidays, aptly titled Happy Holiday!, through ATO Records. Originally recorded in 2011 for digital release, the nine-track Happy Holiday! is comprised of two previously unreleased songs and seven holiday classics of the season, including “Christmas Must Be Tonight,” “Please Come Home For Christmas” and “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.” MMJ also tapped The Head and the Heart for collaborative takes on “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” and “When The Bells Start Ringing.” My Morning Jacket rounded out the anthology with “snowy” versions of their original songs, “Wonderful” and “Welcome Home,” and the group recorded a new original entitled “Feelin Sorry.” Frontman Jim James shared the below message regarding Happy Holiday!:

“Years ago we recorded a christmas EP for iTunes which we were always really proud of. We had a beautiful time recording out in the countryside at a studio in the Netherlands and our pals from The Head And The Heart even stopped by to hang and lend their beautiful voices to a few tunes. Last year someone brought up the fact that it had never been pressed on vinyl and also was not available to stream on all services, so we decided to do a re-issue of the EP and add a few new tunes to make it a full album!

I have always loved the songwriting of Scott McMicken so much and his tune ‘Oh My christmas Tree’ has long been one of my holiday favorites, so we decided to cover that one, and we decided to include a new original song as well- entitled ‘Feelin Sorry.’ I know that for so many of us the holidays can be quite a complex and emotional time. I wrote this tune while feeling out of sorts a few years back and was just reflecting on the fact that if I ever wanted things to change I had to face myself and try to find some inner peace before I could ever expect to feel peaceful out in the world. I hope this music brings some joy to your world this holiday season or any old time!”


Guided by Voices – Nowhere To Go But Up

Guided By Voices, who this year marked their 40th anniversary, have released their third album of 2023, Nowhere To Go But Up. The record is the prolific Ohio-born rockers’ 39th album overall and follows 2023’s Welshpool Frillies and La La Land, and last year’s pair of full length releases, Crystal Nuns Cathedral and Tremblers and Goggles by Rank. GBV has issued nine new albums in the past three years. The current lineup of Robert Pollard, Bobby Bare Jr., Doug Gillard, Kevin March and Mark Shue once again worked with long-time producer/engineer Travis Harrison. A description accompanying the album’s announcement stated:

This record is massive and amazing. Nowhere To Go But Up is Guided By Voices’ third album of 2023 (and 39th overall) and is a sprawling, wild adventure. With virtually no choruses and just two repeated lyrics in 40 minutes, GBV is audacious and unafraid. One of the most fully realized works that Guided By Voices has created, Nowhere To Go But Up showcases an expert rock band at the top of their game.

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Raze Regal & White Denim – Raze Regal & White Denim Inc

White Denim’s James Petralli teamed up with guitarist and songwriter Raze Regal to record a collaborative album, Raze Regal & White Denim Inc. Petralli and Regal met during a 2019 White Denim West Coast tour when Raze was playing with “a fantastic outfit from the Bay Area called The Once and Future Band.” The two musicians formed a close bond during the pandemic as Raze moved to White Denim’s hometown of Austin, Texas in 2020. It was a difficult time for both artists as the pandemic sidelined live music and also as a long term relationship ended for Raze along with the dissolution of his previous band back in Oakland, California. The duo cemented their bond through their eclectic musical tastes, with James praising Raze’s deep knowledge of music as well as film.

“James and I were talking, and he was like, ‘Come up to Austin!’ and I was like, ‘Maybe I should,” Raze recalled of the transitional period. “We would just kind of hang out in those early days, and then I started writing these tunes, and I started presenting them to James. They were just sketches of ideas I had, and he was like, ‘You know these are really good. What if we worked on these together?’ And I was like, ‘Absolutely.’”

Petralli also recalled the difficult but fruitful time:

“The week Raze arrived in Austin he joined my family/creative bubble, and we began writing and cutting music together. Through these initial sessions I learned that Raze possesses a unique gift as a lyricist and songwriter as well as a striking and colourful chord vocabulary. He naturally led these writing sessions and I supported him as an editor, instrumentalist, and engineer. We quickly developed an easy flow together in the studio. Which was refreshing for both of us. These were particularly hard times: Raze and I became close friends and helped each other get to the other side.

“Raze has encyclopaedic knowledge of modern music and is an avid collector. I thought I was a pretty voracious consumer of music but compared to Raze I’m still scratching the surface. Dude has heard every record and seen every film. Throughout the pandemic I would teach my kids during the day and on at least a couple nights a week get schooled by Regal in front of the turntable at the studio.”


Compiled by Team JamBase.

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