"Love Letter From A Red Roof Inn" is off St. Paul & The Broken Bones' forthcoming album The Alien Coast out January 28th.
Here's the scoop...
St. Paul & The Broken Bones have just released “Love Letter From a Red Roof Inn,” the newest single from their ambitious forthcoming album The Alien Coast—out January 28 on ATO Records.
“Love Letter From a Red Roof Inn” showcases lead singer/lyricist Paul Janeway’s falsetto as he soars over a slow burning sweet soul groove. Janeway says, “I remember writing sketches for this song on some hotel notepad. I was lost in thought while looking at the ceiling and just missing home. I was trying not to write in cliches but ended up doing it anyway. The song is meant to sound like someone talking softly over a telephone call. A very hard song to sing because it has to be so delicately done.”
The track’s accompanying live video released today—filmed in a single take—features the band performing at Ol Elegante studios in their hometown of Birmingham, AL in the studio where they made some of their earliest recordings.
Watch “Love Letter From A Red Roof Inn” below.
“Love Letter,” the final song on the 11-track The Alien Coast (the band’s first for ATO Records), provides the perfect closure to the album’s vivid dreamscape, with its musical convergence of soul and psychedelia, stoner metal and funk. “The album was birthed through the idea of falling asleep in a hotel and having a sequence of nightmares, says Janeway, “then waking up and missing home so badly.” Among the album’s surprising range of inspirations: Greek mythology, dystopian sci-fi, 17th-century Italian sculpture, and colonial-period history books.
The Alien Coast defies expectations yet reflects the galvanizing musicianship that has earned the band massive acclaim, three Billboard 200 debuts, an opening slot with the Rolling Stones, a legendary NPR Tiny Desk performance with over seven million views, and multiple national tv bookings including the first-ever musical performance on Stephen Colbert’s Late Show and a Daytime EMMY nomination for one of their CBS Saturday Morning appearances.
The album’s recently released “The Last Dance” considers “the juxtaposition of dancing while facing certain doom,” says Janeway. Its video was directed by Machete Bang Bang (Coldplay, Jeff Goldblum, Evan Rachel Wood) and features dancer Liv Mai. The band also recently shared a one-take live version of “The Last Dance.”
St. Paul & The Broken Bones is Paul Janeway, Jesse Phillips (bass), Browan Lollar (guitar), Kevin Leon (drums), Al Gamble (keyboards), Allen Branstetter (trumpet), Chad Fisher (trombone), and Amari Ansari (saxophone). The band is preparing for a 45-date international tour featuring some of their biggest headlining shows to date including The Beacon Theatre in New York City on March 11 followed by a Toronto show with Thee Sacred Souls at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on March 18. One of the great live bands to emerge in the past few years, St. Paul & The Broken Bones have toured the globe many times over, delivering a “potent live show that knocks audiences on their ass” (Esquire).
St. Paul & The Broken Bones – The Alien Coast
1. 3000 AD Mass
2. Bermejo and The Devil
3. Minotaur
4. Atlas
5. The Last Dance
6. Ghost In Smoke
7. Alien Coast
8. Hunter and His Hounds
9. Tin Man Love
10. Popcorn Ceiling
11. Love Letter From A Red Roof Inn
St. Paul & The Broken Bones on tour
December 3 – Athens, GA – Georgia Theatre
December 4 – Columbia, SC – The Senate
December 30 – Nashville, TN – Brooklyn Bowl Nashville
Welcome to the Russian cinematic sound of The Diasonics: a mix of infectious grooves, instrumental hip-hop and soviet psychedelia. The limited edition 45 vinyl featuring the Moscow-based band's first captivating single "Gurami" on side A and the instrumental soul track "Gradients" on the flipside is out now in a limited vinyl edition of only 500 copies. Listen to both sides of the 45 below.
The Diasonics will also release their debut album "Origin of Forms" on January 28th on LP, CD and digital format which you can pre-order right here. Read all about it after the clips.
The Diasonics – Origin of Forms (Record Kicks)
Welcome to "hussar funk", that's what The Diasonics call their music: a style that blends infectious deep funk instrumentals, East European flavours, hip-hop rhythms and psychedelia. Firmly rooted in the late 60s and early 70s, their debut album "Origin of Forms" was recorded on an 8-channel Japanese Otari MX-5050 MK III tape recorder at The Diasonics HQ's Magnetone Studio in Moscow and was mixed by Henry Jenkins (The Cactus Channel / Karate Boogaloo) in Melbourne. All the band's influences are well reflected in the heavy cinematic sound of the 12 tracks of their debut LP.
From the Eastern funk atmosphere of tracks such as "Almandine" and "Salmanazar" to the trip-hoppish solid groove of "Spiders" and "Andromeda"; from the 70s heavy cinematic moods of "Origin" and "Affair", to instrumental soul gems such as "Kayana" and "Balance", "Origin of Forms" has the power to hypnotize you, captivating you from start to finish. Built on dope funk (in the truest sense), supplemented by raw soul and deep wicked Eastern grooves, the 40+ minutes of "Origin Of Forms" can either plunge the listener into a comfortable melancholy, or cause them unstoppable dance impulses.
The Diasonics are one of the latest additions to the Russian instrumental funk scene. The band was only formed in 2019 and it's made of five young and seriously talented Muscovite musicians: Anton Moskvin (drums), Maxim Brusov (bass guitar), Anton Katyrin (percussion), Daniil Lutsenko (electric guitar) and Kamil Gzizov (keyboards). In just a couple of years the band has amassed a sizeable cult following, releasing a shower of ten celebrated singles on various labels such as Funk Night Records and Mocambo Records. Listen to a preview of the track "Andromeda" below.
The new Trio album from Finnish tenor titan Timo Lassy is out now on Helsinki's We Jazz Records.
Here's the scoop...
Tenor saxophonist Timo Lassy, one of Finland's leading jazz artists, is back with a new album release Trio on We Jazz Records. The album introduces Lassy's new combo with bassist Ville Herrala and drummer Jaska Lukkarinen.
The new Lassy sound is tight, swinging and funky, led by the strong and riff-ready sax of the tenorman. That being said, the album's sound is not limited to that of the swinging trio. Lassy's new vision also brings in some subtle electronics (played by Lassy, Dalindèo frontman Valtteri Laurell Pöyhönen and Ilmiliekki Quartet pianist Tuomo Prättälä) and lush strings performed by Budapest Art Orchestra as arranged by Finnish artist Marzi Nyman. It's a new sound for Lassy, but one which keeps true to his no-nonsense cookin' on the tenor.
This combination proves to be a winning one on the album, ranging from the more solemn moments on tracks such as "Sunday 20" and "Sointu" to the all out groovers like "Pumping C" and "Subtropical". The basic three sylinders of the band tenor sax, bass and drums, are strong throughout and the strings add air beneath the wings to really lift things off. Electronics are used as a tasty condiment, not taking over the main course but adding to it just right.
"We began the process with the bare bones trio but along the way, the sound started evolving into something else" Lassy explains. "That's how I like to work, anyway, while the trio can take this music to great lengths live, on the album I like to paint a fuller, more colourful picture sonically."
Speaking of painting, the sleeve of the album features the original artwork "Subtropic" by Finnish artist Ilari Hautamäki. "Trio" by Timo Lassy will be released by We Jazz Records as blue and black vinyl editions complete with a heavy duty tip-on sleeve, on CD and digitally.
Get a copy of Timo Lassy's new Trio album via Bandcamp right here. Watch the video for "Foreign Bodies" and check the audio clips for "Pumping C" and "Subtropical" below.
Then new BGP comp The World Needs Changing gets it's name from a 1970 funk gem Hank Jacobs & Don Malone for Call Me.
Various Artists – The World Needs Changing (BGP)
The world needs changing? Well, we’re pretty sure it already has, and one of those changes is that we’re not quite as likely to release a various artists compilation on BGP as we used to. In-depth looks at some of our favourite artists are more the order of the day. Fortunately for those of you who like multi-artist collections, we’re sending a couple your way in the next two months, starting off with this wonderful look at black American music from the late 60s to the mid-1970s – basically from the start of funk to the rise of disco.
The music within brings together a cross section of great sounds that would grace – and in many cases already have – any DJ’s record box. Take Little Eva, whose medley of ‘Get Ready / Uptight’ was championed by Eddie Piller at Snowboy’s Goodfoot Night at Madam Jo Jo’s and is now a clubland staple. Willard Posey’s medley was a big Keb Darge spin at the same venue a decade earlier, whilst Esther Marrow’s wondrous vocal version of ‘Walk Tall’ has for a long time been one of my DJ secret weapons.
Some of our tunes haven’t really made it onto club playlists as they are too rare or simply unreleased. Hank Jacobs and Don Malone provide our title track (listen below), for many years an unheard release on the Call Me label. Huck Daniels’ creations are rarer than hen’s teeth, while Tina Bryant and George Jackson give us two previously unreleased cuts recorded at Fame’s short-lived Memphis-based studio. Elaine Armstrong, with the forceful ‘That’s The Way It Goes’, and Melvin Sparks conclude the tunes you will never have heard before.
There is some great funky soul from Cesar 830, Gil Scott-Heron and Darrow Fletcher with ‘Now Is The Time For Love’, one of his most underrated numbers. Lonnie Liston Smith’s ‘Expansions’ is well-known, but how often do you get to hear the crisp and succinct 7-inch version? Lonnie’s label Flying Dutchman tried to repeat his success with others and one of the best attempts, Brenda Jones and Groove Holmes’ ‘This Is The Me Me (Not The You You)’, is included here.
We’ve also got some fantastic instrumentals – or almost instrumentals – from jazz saxophonist Harold Alexander, Joe Savage and the Soul People and Funk Brother Johnny Griffith. Alexander’s break-beat heavy ‘Mama Soul’ is an explosive groove topped by some vibrant flute playing. Producer Bob Thiele’s group Emergency open things up with the filmic ‘Head Start’.
I’d like to say it’s all housed in the best sleeve we’ve done for a while, but that would be to do a disservice to our other recent releases, so let’s just say that this is just as good. I think you’ll be glad to have a new BGP comp in your home. – Dean Rudland
Get the BGP comp The World Needs Changing: Street Funk & Jazz Grooves 1967-1976 right here here. Listen to the title track below.
"Suffolk" is off Jeff Parker's new album Forfolks out Dec 10th via International Anthem/Nonesuch. Watch Cauleen's video below.
Here's the scoop from video director/editor Cauleen Smith...
"Back in 2018 I invited an intergenerational group of women to help me make some moving-images in Noah Purifoy’s Desert Museum in Joshua Tree. The resulting film, 'Sojourner,' contemplates centuries of black feminist mysticism and cultural production. Something about Jeff’s 'Suffolk' reminded me of waking up at four in the morning so that we could catch that sun rise, then napping until 4 pm so that we could ready for sunset. Our film depended on being sensitive to and present for the orbit of our planet, the loop around the sun."
Jeff Parker and Steve Gunn kick off a co-headlining tour in December. For tickets and info go here.
Check out Nat Birchall's stellar 2hr vinyl mix of spiritual jazz and vintage roots reggae below.
Here's the scoop from Nat Birchall...
"On my latest 1BTN show, I investigate the majestic and heavenly sounds of both John and Alice Coltrane with strings. Also music from Egypt with Ali Ismail, Salah Ragab, Sun Ra and Salah Ragab with Sun Ra! Plus some deadly Roots Rock Reggae with Jimmy Dean, David Madden and Cedric Brooks."
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss sang "Can't Let Go" and "Trouble With My Lover" off their new Raise The Roof album.
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Robert Plant and Alison Krauss just released Raise The Roof, the long-awaited successor to their monumental 2007 album, Raising Sand, and to celebrate the occasion the duo have announced their first tour in 12 years.
Beginning on June 1, 2022, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and 27x Grammy-winner will bring their brand new music to an international run of bandshell shows. Tickets for U.S. dates go on sale December 3rd at 10 a.m. local time, following a series of pre-sales starting November 29th. European dates go on sale at 9 a.m. CET on November 26th, with pre-sales beginning November 24th.
The release of Raise The Roof has been accompanied by a host of major appearances and performances from Plant and Krauss. Last night they performed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, fans can see the two icons play a few of the new songs on Live From Sound Emporium and then join a breathless Ann Powers for an NPR listening party which you can check out after the list of upcoming tour dates.
In the weeks leading up to Raise The Roof, the album has been celebrated with a New York Times Sunday Arts & Leisure profile, a multi-page spread in Vanity Fair, as well as features in Variety, Entertainment Weekly, People, Associated Press and far beyond. Says the New York Times, “Raise The Roof almost magically reclaims the spectral tone of Raising Sand, then finds ways to expand on it, delving further into both quiet subtleties and wailing intensity.”
Recorded at Nashville’s Sound Emporium Studios, sessions for Raise The Roof began in late 2019 and wrapped just weeks before the world went into lockdown. Like Raising Sand, T Bone Burnett produced the collection, which delivers a cosmic collision of early blues, country deep cuts, revolutionary folk-rock and lost soul music written by legends and unsung heroes like Merle Haggard, Allen Toussaint, The Everly Brothers, Anne Briggs, Geeshie Wiley, Bert Jansch, Ola Belle Reed, Brenda Burns and more. Get a copy of Raise The Roof right here.
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss Tour Dates
6/1 - Canandaigua, NY - CMAC
6/3 - Saratoga Springs, NY - Saratoga Performing Arts Center
6/4 - Forest Hills, NY - Forest Hills Stadium
6/6 - Clarkston, MI - DTE Energy Music Theatre
6/7 - Chicago, IL - Jay Pritzker Pavilion
6/9 - Indianapolis, IN - TCU Amphitheater at White River State Park
6/11 - Columbia, MD - Merriweather Post Pavilion
6/12 - Philadelphia, PA - TD Pavilion @ The Mann
6/14 - Cary, NC - Koka Booth Amphitheatre*
6/16 - Atlanta, GA - Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park*
6/26 - London, UK - BST Hyde Park
7/1 - Hamar, NO - Tjuvholmen Arena
7/2 - Bergen, NO - Bergenhus Fortress
7/5 - Rättvik, SE - Dalhalla
7/14 - Lucca, IT - Lucca Summer Festival - Piazza Napoleone
Check out the clip for Aesop Rock & Blockhead "Flamingo Pink," directed by Rob Shaw, off their new Garbology album.
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Last week Aesop Rock and longtime ally Blockhead released Garbology, their first full length collaboration following decades of features across one another’s projects. Now they’re sharing a Rob Shaw-directed music video for album standout “Flamingo Pink,” with a visual treatment that metaphorically hones in on the album’s thematic backbone. “Garbology is defined as the study of the material discarded by a society to learn what it reveals about social or cultural patterns,” explains Aesop. “I find a lot of parallels between that and the idea of picking up the pieces after a loss or period of intense unrest, and seeing what’s really there.”
Garbology is a new apex in the pair’s longstanding collaborative relationship, which stretches back to the start of their respective music careers in the late 90’s. The album came together in the midst of Aesop processing the loss of a close friend in January of 2020, which had resulted in a creative lull. “The world got real weird during those months,” recalls Aesop. “I knew at some point I had to get back to making something. Make a beat. Draw a picture. Write. Just go.” Having decided on writing as the path forward, Aesop hit up Blockhead for some beats and it wasn’t long before they’d amassed an album’s worth of material.
Get Garbology right here. Check out "Flamingo Pink" below.
Sadly, rock photographer extraordinaire Mick Rock has passed away at the age of 72. He'll be greatly missed.
"You’ll notice that my most famous pictures are very simple. You’re not going to find lot of props in them, it’ll all be done by lighting, attitude, angle, energy and focus. These are all the important things for me." – Mick Rock
The song "Jeff Goldblum" is off Mattiel's new album Georgia Gothic out March 18, following their Garrison show March 6th.
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Atlanta-based duo Mattiel announces their new album Georgia Gothic will be out March 18th via ATO Records. The group's announcement of their third full-length album arrives in tandem with their lead single "Jeff Goldblum," which was born out of front-woman and vocalist Mattiel Brown's crush on the song's namesake and is accompanied by a visual montage of scenes from the movies Earth Girls Are Easy and The Fly.
"Well, my crush on Jeff Goldblum is very real," Says vocalist Mattiel Brown about the track. "He inspired the words - but this is more of a dream where a Jeff look-a-like meets me in a bathroom."
In a sense, Georgia Gothic serves as a re-introduction to the Georgia duo as collaborators, but also as a pair whose tastes, inspirations and mutual adoration of their shared home state of Georgia intertwine with the music they make. With much of it recorded free of distractions and surrounded by northern Georgia forest, the album hones in on Mattiel and Jonah's collective identity as a duo, working together and challenging one another to develop the sound that feels like home. The result is an album that embodies the otherworldly range and lovable oddity of their state's musical tapestry, from country guitar and crooning Americana to shimmering pop rock and hints of Atlanta hip-hop's lasting influence, Georgia Gothic is Mattiel's ode to home and how it shaped them.
Preceded by a pair of hometown shows at the Earl this week to celebrate the announcement of their new album, Mattiel will embark on a North American tour in 2022 beginning in February in Washington, DC, with stops in Montreal, Toronto for a show at The Garrison on March 6th and SXSW before wrapping up April 8th in Los Angeles.
Watch Mattiel's video for "Jeff Goldblum" followed by a list of their upcoming tour dates.
Mattiel on tour 11/18/2021 - Atlanta, GA @ The EARL 11/19/2021 - Atlanta, GA @ The EARL 2/25/2022 - Asheville, NC @ Fleetwoods 2/26/2022 - Raleigh, NC @ The Pinhook 2/28/2022 - Washington, DC @ Union Stage 3/1/2022 - Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s 3/3/2022 - Brooklyn, NY @ Union Pool 3/4/2022 - Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right 3/5/2022 - Montreal, QC @ L’Esco 3/6/2022 - Toronto, ON @ The Garrison 3/7/2022 - Detroit, MI @ El Club 3/9/2022 - Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Tavern 3/10/2022 - Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club 3/11/2022 - Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle 3/13/2022 - Nashville, TN @ Exit In 3/14/2022 - New Orleans, LA @ Gasa Gasa 3/15-19/2022 - Austin, TX @ SXSW 4/8/2022 - Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room