Check out the new Pearl Charles/Michael Rault song "Smoke In The Limousine" followed by a recent performance in London.
Here's the scoop...
Smoke In the Limousine, like a tarot card spread or a palm reading, speaks of our past, present and future, as well as the conscious and subconscious interpretations we project onto all three states of time. And just like these traditional forms of divination, it doesn’t speak in absolutes, leaving unclear “golden hazy dreams” loosely defined, projected from the liminal space of cloudy rooms. Envisioned “smoke and mirrors” inside limousines that both promise grandeur and luxury, but also may not be all that they initially seem to be - if they ever even come to be at all. Still, we find ourselves hanging onto hope for the future, even if it may turn out to be entirely illusory, “who’s to say it’ll never be…”
Check out Pearl Charles' recording of "Smoke In The Limousine" – with a fab string arrangement by producer Lewis Pesacov and Michael Rault performed by the Magic Mirror Quartet – along with a recent performance in London below. Get a copy of the track via Bandcamp right here.
Left Lane Cruiser's Freddy J IV and Brenn "Sausage Paw" Beck are releasing Bayport BBQ Blues on June 7th. See 'em in Montreal!
Here's the scoop...
Bayport BBQ Blues is the new studio album by Indiana’s favorite blues duo Left Lane Cruiser, featuring Freddy J IV on guitar and vocals, and Brenn “Sausage Paw” Beck on drums, washboard and trash kit. The album blends Freddy’s commanding, gritty vocal rasp and positively nasty hoodoo slide guitar work with Sausage Paw’s rhythmic stomp to make for a heady fire-starter for your next house party, backyard barbecue or juke joint get-down. Bayport BBQ Blues is dedicated to the memory of the late Chris Johnson, creator of the Deep Blues Festival.
Hot on the heels of their lead single “Turkey Vulture,” LLC have just dropped their follow-up "Big Momma Shake." A black-snake-moan of a blues-rock scorcher if there ever was one, complete with a white lightning-soaked slide guitar solo from Freddy that'd make Jack White wonder why he ever left the exciting world of furniture upholstery.
Says Freddy: "The track “Big Momma Shake” is the sequel to our song "Big Momma." It's all about the love for a full-bodied woman shaking that ass. Twerk it. Back it up. Drop it down. Shake it all around. I want a whole lotta Momma, a whole lotta shake, a whole lotta Momma gettin down on the brakes."
Left Lane Cruiser's new single "Big Momma Shake" and prior release "Turkey Vulture" are both out now on digital and streaming platforms. Have a listen following the tracklisting from their new album Bayport BBQ Blues which drops June 7th via Alive Naturalsound Records. You can catch 'em live at Club Soda with John Garcia (formerly of Kyuss) in Montreal on May 25th since no Toronto date has been scheduled. See the rest of their tour dates below.
The new Redd Kross double album is out June 28th. They're coming back to Toronto for a Lee's Palace show on July 29th.
Here's the scoop...
Mere mortal words could only fail to truly convey our excitement and gratitude as we reveal this stunning cover and drop the first single from our newest record, a self titled double album - REDD KROSS. You can pre-order it today from the most badass people in this bizness of show In The Red Recordings who’s label boss Larry Hardy was actually present at our nightclub debut at the infamous #HongKongCafe in Los Angeles, September 1979. RESPECT!! (we should add, we were all children, Larry included. Ha! ;))
Though you will have to wait til June 28th to experience all 18 of it’s lovingly crafted bangers, today we get to treat you to the record’s lead track, the sticky, icky and dangerously addictive “Candy Coloured Catastrophe.” Watch the catastrophically awesome video directed by thee one and only Gilbert Trejo below. And then if that doesn’t blow your mind enough, check out the full list of summer North American Tour Dates!!! Tickets go on sale Friday, May 3rd at 10am Local Time. OK breathe….
Carrying on with our glorious embarrassment of great news, our memoir ’Now You’re One Of Us’ by Jeff & Steven McDonald with Dan Epstein will be hitting shelves this October via Omnibus Press and the Andrew Reich directed ‘Born Innocent: The Redd Kross Story’ continues to screen internationally at festivals, with an eye to a full feature release later in the year. Much more can and will be said about all of these exciting projects as we move forward into arguably the most exhilarating period of our 45 year history.
For now we will leave it simply at, check out links and have a great fucking week!!!⚡️❤️⚡️❤️
"Eno," Gary Hustwit's new look at musician/producer Brian Eno is presented by the director tonight at 6:30 pm. Watch a chat below.
Here's the scoop...
Famed producer, musician, and artist Brian Eno (Talking Heads, David Bowie) is no ordinary creator. To tell the story of his 50-year career, acclaimed director Gary Hustwit had to do something different. Using generative technology, Hustwit constructs the film on stage, live in real-time. This groundbreaking new technology constructs an evergreen performance and a different cinematic experience at each screening, Eno reveals new, previously unreleased music and artworks from over 500 hours of archive to track a creative evolution from art student to ambient music pioneer. Eno is principled, engaged and playful as he guides us through a life that uses art as its guiding principle.Join this original documentary filmmaking process underlining the relationship between technology and creativity.
Accompanying the new film is a soundtrack that serves as a companion audio journey touching on Eno’s output throughout his rich career. The 17 tracks included on the album feature work from Eno's early solo outings such as 1974’s ‘Taking Tiger Mountain’ and 75’s ‘Another Green World’, acclaimed collaborations with the likes of David Byrne, John Cale, Cluster and more recently, Fred again… all the way through to music from his latest album, ‘FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE’, and a live recording of "By This River" from his 2021 appearance at the Acropolis in Athens with brother, Roger (watch a clip below). Eno: The Official Motion Picture Soundtrack is available right here. Check out the new Brian Eno recording "All I Remember" which closes the film following a chat with director Gary Hustwit below.
Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema
Monday, April 29, 6:30 PM
Guest: Director Gary Hustwit
For more info, visit the Hot Docs site right here.
Nick Waterhouse returns to Toronto to present songs from his latest album, The Fooler at Lee's Palace on Sunday night.
Here's the scoop on The Fooler...
The title of the sixth album from Californian singer-songwriter Nick Waterhouse is more than just the name of one of its tracks. The Fooler is both a clue and a red herring. The Fooler is the observed and the observer, narrator and subject, truth and lie. The Fooler is the shadow and reflection of a city the artist knows sufficiently well to wander with his eyes closed, and a place which very possibly never even existed. The Fooler is not so much an unreliable narrator as a constantly shifting perspective.
The Fooler is the new album by Nick Waterhouse, and it’s a lot. Recorded by Mark Neill (Black Keys; Los Straightjackets; Dave Cobb) in Valdosta, Georgia, it’s a song-cycle of sorts, the arc of the album telling a tale of a city and its denizens. “Many of the stories come from a feeling of plasticity,” says Waterhouse. “What is memory? What is time? What is love between two human beings like in this imaginary city? A phase shift occurred writing this record. I had a breakthrough in how to tell stories in songs, like an epiphany. I started realising how I could bend time in a lot of the things that weave through the record. I have a perspective as a narrator now, instead of being the occupant of the songs.”
Waterhouse released his debut album, Time’s All Gone, in 2012. His last record, Promenade Blue, came out in 2021. In his music you will hear echoes of things you might think you know, or believe you remember, filtered through the lens of a unique artistic perspective. You will hear rhythm and blues, garage rock, radio soul and wee-small-hours balladry – but reconfigured, made new. In Waterhouse’s music, the time is both now and then. The past is the present is the future. The sound is classic yet unclassifiable.
The Fooler was produced by Neill in his Soil of the South studio in Valdosta, Georgia. A former room in a ballet school, Soil of the South is in the great tradition of American studios such as Chess and Sun. “Not the place that looks like a spaceship, more like the place that looks like a dentist office in 1965,” says Waterhouse. They tracked the album fast near the end of 2021. A further handful of days for overdubs and mixing early in 2022 and it was finished. “Making this record was like going to see the kung fu master on the mountain,” says Waterhouse. “You can probably draw a through line from my first record to this one, but this is something else entirely. The sonic landscape Mark designed is so much further into space, with reverb and depth.”
The result is a record that offers up new riches and fresh perspectives with every spin. From the hidden corners of ‘Hide & Seek’ and the roadhouse soul of ‘Play To Win’ to the primitive, attitudinal, chugging two-chord thrill of ‘Late In The Garden’, it builds inexorably to the drama of the title track and pulsing roll-and-rock of the final pay off, ‘Unreal, Immaterial’. Play it once and it sounds immediately like a collection of great songs. Play it again – and you will – and it feels like a novel or film slowly unveiling its secrets, kaleidoscopic in its narrative complexity. “Especially during this record, I started just becoming what Allen Ginsberg called a pure breath,” says the artist. “I was becoming pure breath with my ideas.”
Get tickets for Nick Waterhouse's show at Lee's Palace on Sunday (April 28) right here. Check out a couple of clips below.
The 30th anniversary edition of The Bottle Rockets' classic 1994 album The Brooklyn Side boasts six bonus tracks!
Here's the scoop from Bottle Rockets HQ...
Our landmark 1994 album "The Brooklyn Side" (produced by Eric "Roscoe" Ambel) will be released on vinyl for the very first time for Record Store Day on Saturday, April 20.
Real Gone Music spared no expense to create a beautiful and definitive version of this beloved album. 2-LP Set. All analog pressing! Mastered for vinyl and lacquer cutting from the original tapes by Scott Hull at Masterdisk. Includes an entire side of bonus tracks. Pressed on fire orange coloured vinyl. Limited to 1500 copies worldwide! And a special shout out to Eric Ambel for his much appreciated work on this album and pulling everything together for the reissue. It wouldn't have happened without him.
The Bottle Rockets - The Brooklyn Side 2LP
Welfare Music/ Gravity Fails/ I’ll Be Comin’ Around/ Radar Gun/ Sunday Sports/ Pot Of Gold/ 1000 Dollar Car/ Idiot’s Revenge/ Young Lovers In Town/ Take Me To The Bank/ What More Can I Do?/ Stuck In A Rut/ I Wanna Come Home/ Queen Of The World/ Truck Driving Man (Album Outtake)/ Get Down River (Thirsty Ears Radio Performance)/ This Is What It Sounds Like When You’re Listening To Lindsey Buckingham/ Building Chryslers (Album Demo)/ Smokin' 100's Alone (Album Demo) / Indianapolis (Bonus Track)
Tuareg guitar shredder Mdou Moctar releases Funeral For Justice via Matador on May 3. Check out the title track and more.
Here's the scoop...
The songs on ‘Funeral For Justice’ speak unflinchingly to the plight of Niger and of the Tuareg people. “This album is really different for me,” explains Moctar, the band’s singer, namesake, and indisputably iconic guitarist. “Now the problems of terrorist violence are more serious in Africa. When the US and Europe came here, they said they’re going to help us, but what we see is really different. They never help us to find a solution.”
“Mdou Moctar has been a strong anti-colonial band ever since I’ve been a part of it,” says producer and bassist Mikey Coltun, who has been playing with Moctar since 2017. On the lead single and title track, Moctar addresses African leaders directly, bidding them: “Retake control of your countries, rich in resources / Build them and quit sleeping”. The song ‘Sousoume Tamacheq’ deals with the plight of the Tuareg people to which the band belong, and who are mainly spread across three countries: Niger, Mali and Algeria.” Oppressed in all three / In addition to lack of unity, ignorance is the third issue.”
Mdou Moctar in its current iteration is first and foremost a band. Alongside Moctar, it consists of rhythm guitarist Ahmoudou Madassane, drummer Souleymane Ibrahim, and American bassist and producer Mikey Coltun. The band got their start performing at traditional weddings. These are high energy events – amps are dialed to 11 and the whole town is invited to attend. Their first concerts in the US were sometimes, mistakenly, organized to be tame seated affairs. That’s no longer the case. Over 100s of shows, they’ve proven themselves as one of the world’s most vital rock bands – a group rooted in Tuareg tradition, but undeniably its own singular organism. An Mdou Moctar concert is now recognized to be a place for dancing, if not full-force moshing. Get a copy from Matador right here.
Ace/Kent's seven 7" box of highly sought-after Shrine Records material "Rare Soul Sides" is due out May 31.
Shrine Records - Rare Soul Sides: Washington DC 1965-1967
Set up by Eddie Singleton with Berry Gordy’s ex-wife and co-founder of Motown, Raynoma (Miss Ray) in 1964, the Shrine label, based in Washington DC, has been a buzzword for collectors for over fifty years. Shrine had no hits; in fact very few sales at all. What it did have was musical talent and a business plan that ended in glorious failure - inadvertently making the twenty singles that were pressed highly sought after by collectors.
Interest was first stirred when a few of the uptempo numbers were played on the Northern Soul scene of the 70s, notably Eddie Daye’s pounding ‘Guess Who Loves You’ spun by DJ Richard Searling at Wigan Casino. Then young Turk DJs like Keb Darge and Guy Hennigan at Stafford’s Top Of The World all-nighters in the 80s really took up Shrine’s cause and the search for the hidden gems was on. “People were buying the known records on Shrine, but no-one was buying the unknowns,” recalls Darge. Soon, copies of singles by the Cautions, Cairos and Les Chansonettes went “massive” on the scene - J.D. Bryant’s big ballad ‘I Won’t Be Coming Back’ sold for a fortune.
When the label went out of business in 1966, Singleton left the remaining stock in the office, before locking the door for the last time. Years later, after being introduced to Kent Records’ Ady Croasdell by Ian Levine, Eddie retrieved the original masters from the studio. These tapes revealed unissued gems from the Prophets (later to emerge as a 7”), Tippie & the Wisemen, Traci, Jimmy Armstrong and others.
Those first tape reissues came out on the short-lived Horace’s label and later Ace more comprehensively issued them on CD. Other labels intervened but now Shrine is back in its rightful home. To celebrate this, we issued “Shrine Northern - The 60s Rarest Dance Label” Kent LP, KENT 526 last year. We have looked at the tapes again, in greater depth, and found another 14 sides worthy of single releases.
Barbara Long’s great, but elusive, Shrine recording - issued on sister-label Jet Set - deservedly leads off the package and is coupled with the previously CD-only ‘Take It From Me’ by the mysterious Traci – an early tape find. Like Barbara Long, the Epsilons ‘Mind In A Bind’ was issued just after the label folded and sneaked out on Washington’s Hem imprint. It is re-released for the first time as a 7” with their ‘Mad At The World’ debuting as a UK 45. The same scenario applies to the Cautions’ marvellous mid-tempo single ‘Watch Your Step’. We have coupled it with their ever-in-demand ‘No Other Way’; long deleted from its 2009 repress.
Despite Shrine’s reputation for dance tracks, one of the labels most-revered recordings is the beautiful Tippie & The Wisemen ballad ‘Wait Til I Get There’. That previously unissued number came out on the first Horace’s LP in 1990. A decade later Ady Croasdell found the tape of their ‘I Wouldn’t Mind Crying’ in the Universal Studios vaults in Hollywood. This pleased the song’s writer Eddie Singleton who hadn’t heard this particular favourite of his since the recording date. Sidney Hall (of the Enjoyables) cut the impassioned beat ballad ‘I’m A Lover’ as a solo act; it has its first UK 45 release here. We have coupled it with the catchy, raucous groove of the incredibly rare Cavaliers Shrine 45 ‘Do What I Want’. this has improved audio from its previous releases.
The Prophets gorgeous harmony ballad ‘Huh Baby’ gets its first 45 re-release too and we have put a slightly alternate version, found in the tapes, of ‘If I Had One Gold Piece’, the original B side. Finally, another Shrine-recorded Jet Set 45 by Jimmy Armstrong ‘I Won’t Believe It Till I See It’ makes its Kent debut, along with his killer blues ballad ‘It’s Gonna Take Time’ which has never been released before.
Seven new Shrine 45s, complete with an attractively packaged box containing rarely seen photos; soul heaven! – Ady Croasdell
The 26-track Dr. John singles collection Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya – issued as a limited RSD 2LP set – is out on CD April 26.
Here's the scoop...
Dr. John has proven to be one of music’s foremost generalists, a primary-care cat whose practice extends back some 60 years. The awards (six Grammys and counting) and accolades validated the quality of his output, but it’s the range of what he’s done that truly impresses. These Atco and Atlantic sides were clearly the right-place right-time recordings. They put Dr. John on the map and into the ears and minds of music enthusiasts the world over. —excerpt from liner notes by Gene Sculatti
Malcolm John Rebennack, Jr. lived an extraordinary life, from which we all benefitted. His combination of New Orleans R&B, blues, jazz, funk, and rock permeated the musical landscape of the late ’60s and beyond. While quite young, he was influenced by piano players, including Professor Longhair. As a teenage musical prodigy, Mac was a songwriter, arranger, A&R guy, and a producer for Ace Records, running sessions with legendary artists. During the 1960s, as a “first call” Los Angeles studio musician, he honed his chops doing session work for artists including Sonny & Cher, Canned Heat, and Frank Zappa.
Years later, he developed his persona of Dr. John The Night Tripper and his 1968 debut album, Gris Gris, was a phenomenon, attracting fans across the musical spectrum. Its “I Walk On Guilded Splinters” has been covered by The Allman Brothers, Cher, Paul Weller, The Neville Brothers, and was a centerpiece of Humble Pie’s classic Performance Rockin’ The Fillmore.
More singles and albums followed including “Iko Iko” (from Dr. John’s Gumbo) and “Right Place Wrong Time” (which hit #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1973.) Both Gris Gris and Gumbo were listed on Rolling Stone’s Top 500 Albums of All Time, and Dr. John performed In The Right Place’s “Such A Night” at The Band’s 1976 farewell concert—immortalized in The Last Waltz. He would go on to win six Grammy awards and in 2011 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by John Legend.
Now, his singles from those early and influential Atco/Atlantic years have been collected on Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya: Singles 1968–1974. 26 sides of pure musical medicine from Dr. John. Available as a 2-LP on double Opaque Purple Vinyl for Record Store Day (CD to follow), the packaging contains liner notes from Gene Sculatti. Featuring the hits “Right Place Wrong Time,” “Iko Iko,” “Such A Night,” and rare single edits of other classics, Gris Gris Gumbo Ya Ya: Singles 1968–1974 is not only the right place to start your Dr. John journey, but the perfect place to relive the classic Atco/Atlantic albums.
Get a copy directly from Omnivore Recordings right here. Check the track list below followed by the title track and a collection of Dr. John interview footage.
Dr. John – Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya: Singles 1968-1974
GRIS-GRIS GUMBO YA YA Dr. John The Night Tripper
I WALK ON GUILDED SPLINTERS (Part I)* Dr. – John The Night Tripper
I WALK ON GUILDED SPLINTERS (Part II)* – Dr. John The Night Tripper
MAMA ROUX – Dr. John The Night Tripper
JUMP STURDY – Dr. John The Night Tripper
THE PATRIOTIC FLAG WAVER (Mono Short Version)* – Dr. John The Night Tripper
WASH MAMA WASH – Dr. John The Night Tripper
LOOP GAROO – Dr. John The Night Tripper
IKO IKO*
HUEY SMITH MEDLEY: “HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE” “DON’T YOU JUST KNOW IT” “WELL I’LL BE JOHN BROWN”*
WANG DANG DOODLE
BIG CHIEF
A MAN OF MANY WORDS – Buddy Guy with Dr. John & Eric Clapton
Singer/songwriter Jadea Kelly chats with frequent collaborator Ryan O'Reilly for the first episode of Fairy Pod Mother.
Here's the scoop from Jadea...
"My goal for this year was to interview everyone involved in my upcoming album (Weather Girl), and who better to rip the bandaid off than the man who named me Weather Girl, Ryan O'Reilly . Ryan and I co wrote two of the songs on my upcoming release (Start With Sorry & Saint Hubert’s Eve) and I’m beyond grateful to have him in studio."
Sadly, jazz historian Michael Cuscuna – who documented, restored and preserved much of the jazz we enjoy today – has passed away. He'll be greatly missed.
Don't miss the jukejoint rock 'n' roll throwdown over at the Dakota Tavern with Catl and the Kewpie Dolls starting at 10 pm.
Catl & The Kewpie Dolls
with DJ Hideki
The Dakota Tavern (249 Ossington at Dundas)
$15 advance, $20 door.
Get ready for an intimate night of stripped down, juke-joint blues and rock n roll with Toronto’s top blues rockin' duo Catl, who will make sure you drink and sweat 'til you can’t drink and sweat no more! Catl are briefly back in town after a successful trip down to Mississippi. This will likely be Catl's only Toronto show before heading off to Europe for a tour through the month of June – so you won't want to miss it! Opening for Catl will be Toronto’s newest all-female garage whumpers, The Kewpie Dolls.
DJ Hideki will be spinning rockin' 45s all night long. Tickets are going fast so grab some while you can right here. Check out some recent clips of Catl down in Mississippi along with an early show by the Kewpie Dolls.
