Oakland Hiero heroes Souls Of Mischief @ The Phoenix, Saturday

Bay Area hip hop legends Souls Of Mischief make a rare T.O. appearance at the Phoenix tonight – get tickets right here. 

Hieroglyphics hip hop crew w/ Del, Souls of Mischief, Casual, Domino @ Opera House, Wednesday

Here's a rare chance to see Oaktown's finest – Del the Funky Homosapien, Souls Of Mischief, Casual, Domino & Pep Love – together! Get tickets right here. 

Happy 90th Birthday Shirley Collins!

Celebrating the 90th birthday of British folk legend Shirley Collins with an interview, a couple performances and more.

LINKS

The Ballad of Shirley Collins documentary

Expanded reissues of John Cale's Paris 1919 & The Academy In Peril due Nov 15

The new 16-track double vinyl edition of Paris 1919 includes the new John Cale recording "Fever Dream 2024: You're A Ghost." 

Here's the scoop...

Following the release of POPtical Illusion earlier this year, John Cale announces the Paris 1919 Deluxe Edition and The Academy in Peril reissue, out November 15th via Domino. Both remastered by Heba Kadry, this is the first artist sanctioned reissue of these beloved records. Paris 1919 includes previously unreleased outtakes and liner notes by Grayson Haver Currin, and features a brand new recording, “Fever Dream 2024: You’re a Ghost,” and The Academy of Peril includes bonus track, “Temper.” Both will be available on CD, vinyl and digitally. You can pre-order directly from Domino right here. Watch John Cale's 2011 performance of Paris 1919 with Malmö Operaorkester in Sweden following the tracklisting of Paris 1919 Deluxe Edition below.

 “Revisiting work from the past is a double-edged sword for me. Of course, it’s bound to happen when you've been making music for 60 years or so. . . What's unique about this process with Domino, is their desire to get it right.  Not merely re-issue something for the sake of an anniversary or racking up a catalogue favorite - but finding new treasures and highlighting what made it special in the first place.  After hearing the test pressings, it occurred to me that the new mastering was a major part of how these works will be presented, rather than simply being preserved. There are moments of clarity and even a laugh or two had by revisiting not only the music, but recalling the sessions (and antics) that made up what became these two recordings. It is my pleasure to share these with you . . . again.” – John Cale, September 2024

John Cale – Paris 1919 Deluxe Edition

1 Child's Christmas in Wales (Remastered)

2 Hanky Panky Nohow (Remastered)

3 The Endless Plain of Fortune (Remastered)

4 Andalucia (Remastered)

5 Macbeth (Remastered)

6 Paris 1919 (Remastered)

7 Graham Greene (Remastered)

8 Half Past France (Remastered)

9 Antarctica Starts Here (Remastered)

10 I Must Not Sniff Cocaine (Remastered)

11 Hanky Panky Nohow (Drone Mix) (Remastered)

12 Child's Christmas in Wales (Rehearsal 1) (Remastered)

13 Half Past France (Intro Chat) (Remastered)

14 Macbeth (Take 11) (Remastered)

15 Hanky Panky Nohow (Guitar Mix) (Remastered)

16 Fever Dream 2024: You're a Ghost

  

One For The Weekend: Peter Perrett

Watch the video for "I Wanna Go Out With Dignity" off Peter Perrett's forthcoming album The Cleansing out November 1. 

One For The Weekend: John Cale

John Cale's new album POPtical Illusion is out June 14th. Check out Abigail Portner's nutty video for "Shark-Shark" below.

Here's the scoop...

John Cale just released a new single/video for “Shark-Shark” off his new album, POPtical Illusion, out June 14th via Domino. Following lead single “How We See The Light,” “Shark-Shark” is a slightly menacing, yet wholly delightful, heavy dance jam. Various versions of Cale’s voice cut under and across a throbbing industrial beat made rich with punchy drum machines, before ending with a scabrous guitar solo as mean as something Cale might have made in the inchoate days of punk. The video sees Cale collaborating once again with director Abigail Portner.

“Sometimes you write a song purely for a mood,” Cale explains. “‘Shark-Shark’ has two versions - both a nod to finding humour in music. When you’re feeling too much of the real world, the best diversion is something that puts a grin on your face. I don’t know how Abby & team kept this shoot together - being ‘unserious’ was a lot of fun!”

On the video, Portner states “When I first heard this song the first thing that struck me was this vibe of gentle chaos, a chaos that's not dangerous but a playfulness that happens at a sleepover party or in an 80s comedy. I was in Oslo last summer with John and I had taken a bunch of pictures of the band in the National Museum standing in the hall of busts, looking very stark and cold. This idea popped into my head of what if the chaos in this song was sculptures coming to life and breaking all the rules! The concept of taking something like the National Museum or Swan Lake and having the art itself turn it upside down seemed fitting for this song.” Watch The Video For John Cale’s “Shark-Shark” below. 

 

 Despite the playful title, POPtical Illusion, Cale’s second album in just over a year still contains the same feelings of fierce and inquisitive rage that were present in last year’s much-lauded MERCY. He remains angry, still incensed by the willful destruction that unchecked capitalists and unrepentant con-men have hoisted upon the wonders of this world and the goodness of its people. In a period of a little over a year, Cale wrote more than 80 songs collectively surveying the range of human experience, and in the process—humor bled into frustration, regret gave way to forgiveness, sadness tangled with surrealism. POPtical Illusion synthesizes those emotions and enthusiasms into a dozen electronic playgrounds, Cale’s magisterial voice webbing across it all with puns and insights, grievances and quips, and some version of truth.

As throughout his career of more than six decades, Cale has never been much for repetition. His vanguard-shaping enthusiasms have shifted among ecstatic classicism and unbound rock, classic songcraft and electronic reimagination with proud restlessness. And so, on POPtical Illusion, he foregoes the illustrious cast to burrow mostly alone into mazes of synthesizers and samples, organs and pianos, with words that, as far as Cale goes, constitute a sort of swirling hope, a sage insistence that change is yet possible. Produced by Cale and longtime artistic partner Nita Scott in his Los Angeles studio, POPtical Illusion is the work of someone trying to turn toward the future – exactly as Cale always has.

POPtical Illusion will be available on 2xLP, CD, and digitally. The Domino Mart pink & mint vinyl 2xLP edition pressing of 1000 includes a 7" featuring 2 exclusive tracks, and a POPitem – a limited edition illusionary twirling paper Objet. You can pre-order the double LP right here. Check out the "Shark-Shark" video below. 

Beth Gibbons shares trippy interactive video for "Reaching Out"

"Reaching Out" is taken from Beth Gibbons' new album Lives Outgrown out May 17th from Domino.

Here's the scoop...

Rather than approaching the video for "Reaching Out" as a standard format visual, Beth worked with visual artist Weirdcore (Aphex Twin, Arca) to create an interactive video. The video features 4D models of Beth freefalling through a kinetic sci-fi spacescape. As the video progresses the models of Beth change to represent the different stages in her life, echoing the Lives Outgrown of the album title.

 

If you click and hold down on your mouse button this allows you to interact and rotate the models to have a sense of trying to reach each other in impossible ways. Watch the conventional clip for "Reaching Out" below. Experience the interactive version right here: https://reachingout.bethgibbons.net/. 

 

Long overdue solo debut from Portishead's Beth Gibbons out May 17

Beth Gibbons' highly-anticipated Lives Outgrown album was produced with James Ford and Lee Harris.    Photo: Netti Habel

Here's the scoop...

Beth Gibbons releases her debut solo album Lives Outgrown on May 17th via Domino Records. Featuring 10 beautiful new tracks recorded over a period of 10 years, the album was produced by James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Depeche Mode, The Last Dinner Party) & Beth Gibbons with additional production by Lee Harris (Talk Talk).

Lives Outgrown is, by some measure, Beth’s most personal work to date, the result of a period of sustained reflection and change — “lots of goodbyes,” in Beth’s words. Farewells to family, to friends, even to her former self. These are songs from the mid-course of life, when looking ahead no longer yields what it used to, and looking back has a sudden, sharper focus.

“I realised what life was like with no hope,” says Beth. “And that was a sadness I’d never felt. Before, I had the ability to change my future, but when you’re up against your body, you can’t make it do something it doesn’t want to do.”

Songs also touch on motherhood, anxiety and the menopause (which Beth describes variously as “a massive audit” and “a massive comedown” which “cuts you at the knees”) as well as, inevitably, mortality.

“People started dying,” says Beth. “When you’re young, you never know the endings, you don’t know how it’s going to pan out. You think: we’re going to get beyond this. It’s going to get better. Some endings are hard to digest.”

But emerging from this decade of change and realignment has left Beth with what feels like a renewed purpose. “Now I’ve come out of the other end, I just think, you’ve got to be brave,” she says.

The video for first single “Floating On A Moment” (view the clip following a performance of the song on Later... with Jools Holland) was directed by acclaimed multi-media artist and director Tony Oursler (the man responsible for David Bowie’s “Where Are We Now?” video).

"When I first heard ‘Floating On A Moment,’ recalls Tony Oursler, "it literally transported me from place to place, filling me with kaleidoscopic emotions and visions. If possible, I wanted to capture that psychic liquid in this video. Beth's work is so powerful it can lead us through life's forests and fires, revealing glimpses of possible futures. With a voice and music like that I knew we had to make images which are open, somehow speculative." 

Beth Gibbons – Lives Outgrown

1. Tell Me Who You Are Today

2. Floating On A Moment

3. Burden Of Life

4. Lost Changes

5. Rewind

6. Reaching Out

7. Oceans

8. For Sale

9. Beyond The Sun

10. Whispering Love

 

Beth Gibbons will be returning to the live arena to perform the following concerts in the UK and Europe in June. Tickets will be available from Beth’s website: https://bethgibbons.net.

June

2nd      Sunday          Uber Eats Music Hall                Berlin

3rd       Monday         Falkonersalen                        Copenhagen

5th       Wednesday    Tivoli Vredenburg (Main Hall) Utrecht

6th       Thursday        Cirque Royal                          Brussels

9th       Sunday          The Barbican Centre             London

10th     Monday         Albert Hall                              Manchester

11th     Tuesday          Usher Hall                             Edinburgh

Cat Power reimagines Bob Dylan's 1966 Manchester Free Trade Hall show

Chan Marshall felt that the songs Bob Dylan played at Manchester Free Trade Hall in 1966 could use a Cat Power-style update. 

Here's the scoop...

Recorded November 5, 2022 at London’s vaunted Royal Albert Hall, Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert sees Marshall paying tribute to Bob Dylan with a complete live reimagining of his legendary performance at the Manchester Free Trade Hall in May 1966. Long known as the “Royal Albert Hall Concert” due to a mislabeled bootleg, the original performance saw Dylan switching from acoustic to electric midway through the show, drawing the ire of folk purists and forever altering the course of rock ‘n’ roll. Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert both lovingly honors Dylan’s imprint on history and brings a stunning new vitality to many of his most revered songs, including the recently released “She Belongs to Me” and “Ballad of a Thin Man,” both available everywhere now.

“More than the work of any other songwriter,” says Chan Marshall, “Dylan’s songs have spoken to me, and inspired me since I first began hearing them at 5 years old.”

The artist otherwise known as Chan Marshall will mark the new album’s arrival with three sold-out West Coast performances of Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert, set for West Hollywood, CA’s world-renowned Troubadour (November 6 and 7) and Los Angeles’s historic Palace Theatre (November 8). The upcoming dates mark the show’s first-ever U.S. performances following sold-out shows at London’s Royal Albert Hall in November 2022 and Sydney, Australia’s famed Sydney Opera House in May 2023. “Now we know how much applause it takes to lift the Albert Hall,” wrote The London Times of the debut performance, while The Telegraph summed it up as “pure celebration” in its 4-out-of-5-starred review. Sydney’s Time Out praised “the sheer transcendence” of this spring’s Opera House performance, hailing the experience as “spiked with a deep and enduring sense of timelessness, made all the more potent through Power’s pure vocals. We could’ve been anywhere, at any point in history, anywhere in the solar system…Magnificent.”

There are few voices more deeply embedded in the iconography and mythology of American indie rock than that of Chan Marshall. Under the musical nom de plume of Cat Power, Marshall has released music for nearly 25 years now and her prowess as a songwriter, a producer, and most notably – as a voice – has only grown more influential with time. Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert marks the latest in a series of albums that see Marshall reimagining classics from the American Songbook, rock ‘n’ roll history, and beyond, including 2000’s The Covers Record, 2008’s Jukebox, and 2022’s Covers, the latter of which was hailed by Pitchfork as “her widest ranging yet, illustrating her talent for radical reinvention.”

Now Cat Power recreates Dylan’s epochal 1966 concert – a 15-song set featuring classics like “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” “Mr. Tambourine Man,“ “Like A Rolling Stone” as well as several cuts from Blonde on Blonde including “Just Like A Woman” – with both heartfelt reverence and a deep understanding of the delicate nature of song interpretation. Like the original concert (and all of Dylan’s 1966 world tour), Marshall kept the first half of her set entirely acoustic, then went electric for the second half with the help of a full band including guitarist Arsun Sorrenti, bassist Erik Paparozzi, multi-instrumentalists Aaron Embry (harmonica, piano) and Jordan Summers (organ, Wurlitzer), and drummer Josh Adams. In her own rendition of that historic night, Marshall inhabits each song with equal parts conviction and grace and a palpable sense of protectiveness, ultimately transposing the anarchic tension of Dylan’s set with a warm and luminous joy.

“I had and still have such respect for the man who crafted so many songs that helped develop conscious thinking in millions of people, helped shape the way they see the world,” says Marshall. “So even though my hands were shaking so much I had to keep them in my pockets, I felt real dignity for myself. It felt like a real honor for me to stand there.”

 

Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert

She Belongs To Me 

Fourth Time Around 

Visions Of Johanna 

It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue 

Desolation Row 

Just Like A Woman 

Mr. Tambourine Man 

Tell Me, Momma 

I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met) 

Baby, Let Me Follow You Down 

Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues 

Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat 

One Too Many Mornings 

Ballad Of A Thin Man 

Like A Rolling Stone 

Cat Power on tour:

Renowned singer-songwriter Cat Power has announced a wide-ranging headline tour that will see her celebrating her acclaimed new live album, Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert, with complete performances of the 15-song concert around the world. North American dates get underway February 12, 2024 at Red Bank, NJ’s historic Count Basie Theater and then continue through mid-March. Highlights include a sold-out performance at New York’s legendary Carnegie Hall (February 14) as well as newly announced shows at Nashville, TN’s Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s CMA Theater (February 25), Los Angeles, CA’s The Theatre at Ace Hotel (March 7), San Francisco, CA’s Herbst Theatre (March 8), and Portland, OR’s Revolution Hall (March 11). EU/UK dates follow in April, with stops set for prestigious venues in Sweden, Norway, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. North American tickets go on sale this Friday, November 17 at 10am (local). For complete details and ticket information, please see www.catpowermusic.com/#tour.

In case you missed it,  Cat Power performed “Like A Rolling Stone” on NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon which you can watch below. 

Ella Thompson releases 70s giallo soundtrack-inspired Domino album

Ella Thompson collaborated with Frollen Music Library to get all the right Piero Piccioni moves for her new Domino album.

Here's the scoop...

Ella Thompson’s Domino is a spooky, bittersweet collection of cinematic soul cuts influenced by 1970s Italian 'giallo' film scores, with luminous vocals that draw a line between 60s icons like Nancy Sinatra and contemporary soul artists like Kadhja Bonet. Ella’s effortless singing and haunting lyrics paint angular pictures in the moody darkness. In her words: “The original instrumental of the song ‘Domino’ is titled ‘Swimming in a cold lake at night’ this kind of sums up the feeling of many of the songs on the record….seeing light in dark places, freedom and anxiety of the unknown, curiosity, never regretting a swim and the euphoria you get when you come out the other end.” 

The sparse production is intentionally cinematic, inspired by the music of 1970s giallo films, particularly by composers like Piero Piccioni but comparable to current artists like Adrian Younge or Bad Bad Not Good in a meditative mood. Minimal but propulsive bass and drums know when to hang back, as they do in the title track and when to step forward as they do in the chugging, deep and funky rhythm section work on the single Never Fight The Way You Feel. Choral vocal textures by Ella’s backing vocalists Rita Stach and Hailey Cramer create deep harmonic backgrounds, sometimes sounding like an epic ensemble of voices, sometimes laying down ethereal and delicate parts, almost imperceptible. Nylon string guitar features prominently, creating hypnotic chordal beds as sparse piano and tuned percussion pick out minimal, evocative melodies. 

All the instrumentation used in Domino was created by Frollen Music Library, a sound library music project by the musicians behind Karate Boogaloo, Henry Jenkins, Hudson Whitlock and Darvid Thor, all long term collaborators and friends of Ella’s. When she heard their take on 1960s and 1970s soundtracks, Ella had an immediate creative response: “My ears lit up when I heard these cinematic melodies, and I couldn’t help but turn them into something else for words and voices.” She recorded all her vocals, and those of her backing singers, with Frollen engineer Henry Jenkins in a two day whirlwind, eschewing perfectionism and striking before the magic of the moment faded. The result is sublime. In Henry’s words: “When I first heard what she had written I was floored. She completely reimagined the instrumental pieces of music we had composed and took them to new heights”. 

Ella has returned to making music under her own name in 2023 after years releasing music with her electro pop duo GL and cult indie band Dorsal Fins. One of Australia’s truly accomplished singers, Ella’s range reaches from art music to cinematic soul, jazz and pop. In addition to her solo project and bands she has been a featured artist for numerous acts most notably, deep funk pioneers The Bamboos and Mark Ronson. Domino is available now through Hopestreet Recordings on Vinyl LP & digital formats. Get a copy via Bandcamp right here. Listen to the title track below. 

Brit folk icon Shirley Collins chats about her new album Archangel Hill

Listen to the amazing Shirley Collins discuss her colourful career in folk music on the Don't Assume podcast right here. 

Protomartyr shares "Make Way" off new album Formal Growth In The Desert

Protomartyr's new album Formal Growth In The Desert is out June 2. They play the Horseshoe June 13th. Listen to "Make Way"

Happy Birthday Alex Chilton!

Remembering Alex Chilton on his birthday with the trailer for the documentary "Why Should I Care?" and a couple of clips. 

Watch Cat Power's video for her version of "I'll Be Seeing You"

Cat Power's wistful reading of "I'll Be Seeing You" is off her forthcoming Covers album out January 14th.

Here's the scoop...

Cat Power, the singer/songwriter/producer Chan Marshall, previews her forthcoming album Covers (Domino) with a fresh interpretation of Billie Holiday's "I'll Be Seeing You" accompanied by a music video. Directed by Greg Hunt, the clip nods to Lady Day as Marshall sings behind a classic 1940’s-style Shure microphone in a cabaret hall evoking the jazz legend’s beautifully restrained vocals.  

“I’ll Be Seeing You” was inspired by recent losses surrounding Marshall’s inner circle of life—including Sun collaborator Philippe Zdar, who tragically passed in 2019.

 

“When people who you love have been taken from you, there’s always a song that holds their memory in your mind,” Marshall ruminates while talking about the importance that the cover itself holds in her heart. “It’s a conversation with those on the other side, and it’s really important for me to reach out to people that way.”

You can pre-order Cat Power's Covers album right here. Watch the video for "I'll Be Seeing You" followed by Billie Holiday's 1944 version for Commodore backed by Eddie Heywood's Orchestra below. 

 

Franz Ferdinand previews Hits To The Head comp with "Billy Goodbye"

Just a week after the departure of longtime drummer Paul Thomson, Franz Ferdinand are announcing a 20 track best-of collection.  

Here's the scoop...

Franz Ferdinand have announced a 20-track greatest hits collection Hits To The Head showcasing the world-conquering success of the band’s career to date.

Set for release on March 11, 2022 via Domino, Hits To The Head also features two brand-new tracks “Billy Goodbye” and “Curious,” produced by Alex Kapranos, Julian Corrie and Stuart Price (Dua Lipa, Madonna, Pet Shop Boys). “Billy Goodbye” also comes with a video directed by Diane Martel, Alex Kapranos and Ben Cale. Watch it below. 

Talking about the process of picking tracks for the album, lead singer Alex Kapranos said:

"It's the same as writing a set-list for a festival: you want to play the songs you know people want to hear. The hits. Bring the hits to the head. The heart. The feet. That means obvious singles, but also songs you know have a special meaning for both band and audience like Outsiders. We also added two new songs, recorded last year: 'Billy Goodbye' and 'Curious,' both co-produced at the last stage with Stuart Price. I have friends who believe you’re somehow not a “real” fan if you own a best of rather than a discography. I disagree. I think of my parents’ record collection as a kid. I loved their compilation LPs. I am so grateful that they had Changes or Rolled Gold. Those LPs were my entrance point. My introduction."

Co-founder Paul Thomson is being replaced by Audrey Tait. Read all about the shocker right here. 

Hits To The Head is available on CD, deluxe CD, double gatefold 2LP, limited edition indies only gatefold red 2LP, limited edition D2C exclusive gatefold gold 2LP vinyl and cassette. CD and LP formats feature extensive liner notes from JD Beauvallet (former editor of Les Inrockuptibles) and exclusive, unseen photographs. The album is also available digitally. Check the clip for  "Billy Goodbye" followed by the track listing for Hits To The Head. 

Franz Ferdinand – Hits To The Head
1. Darts Of Pleasure
2. Take Me Out
3. The Dark Of The Matinée
4. Michael
5. This Fire
6. Do You Want To
7. Walk Away
8. The Fallen
9. Outsiders
10. Lucid Dreams
11. Ulysses
12. No You Girls
13. Right Action
14. Evil Eye
15. Love Illumination
16. Stand On The Horizon
17. Always Ascending
18. Glimpse Of Love
19. Curious
20. Billy Goodbye

Shirley Collins returns to the cliffs for Crowlink EP

Shirley Collins has a new five-track EP of field recordings featuring "My  Sailor Boy" (see below) out July 30th via Domino. 

Here's the scoop...

Britfolk icon Shirley Collins MBE released the excellent Heart’s Ease last year; her second album for Domino, it showcased Collins with her confidence fully returned. An album broader & brighter in tone than 2016’s Lodestar (her first studio album in 38 years), it found Shirley Collins exploring warmer themes and featured four non-traditional songs, including closing track “Crowlink”.

Today, Shirley Collins is pleased to announce the release of a new EP, Crowlink, due July 30th. The five-song EP is named after a particular hamlet in the Seven Sisters (a series of undulating hills on the Sussex coast of England) with a pathway that overlooks the English Channel, one of which is one of Shirley’s Collins’ favourite places to be.

Picking up from Heart’s Ease’s finale, the Crowlink EP is a collection of songs sung by Shirley Collins, and featuring field recordings from the edge of the cliffs at Crowlink, Firle Church and Etchingham, recorded by Matthew Shaw. Shaw produced the EP and contributes instrumental accompaniment.

Alongside the Crowlink announcement, Shirley Collins shares “My Sailor Boy” from the EP, which finds Shirley Collins singing over a moody, atmospheric fusion of sounds and demonstrates a more experimental side to the folk veteran. The track’s video (see it below), directed by frequent collaborator Grant Gee, mirrors the eerie sound and mystical feel of the EP. Elsewhere on the EP, Ossian Brown’s hurdy-gurdy rings through on “The Rose and the Briar”; artwork comes courtesy of author, painter, filmmaker & provocateur Brian Catling.

Pre-order a digital copy of Shirley's "Crowlink" right here: https://smarturl.it/CrowlinkEP. There's a 12" vinyl version planned for release later this year. Watch Grant Gee's video for "My Sailor Boy" followed by the tracklist for the Crowlink EP below. 

Shirley Collins – Crowlink EP 

 1.     Across The Field

2.     At Break of Day

3.     Through All Eternity

4.     My Sailor Boy

5.     The Rose and the Briar

Watch Wilma Archer's video for "Last Sniff" feat. MF Doom

"Last Sniff" featuring MF Doom is off Wilma 'Slime' Archer's debut album A Western Circular out April 3rd on Domino.

John Cale's Fragments Of A Rainy Season gets deluxe reissue treatment

John Cale's classic live album, Fragments Of A Rainy Season, featuring many solo versions from his enduring catalogue, plus his brilliant interpretation of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" along with previously unreleased outtakes, is being reissued by Double Six/Domino on December 9.  The 3 LP triple gatefold version with 8 previously unreleased tracks will be limited to one pressing on heavy weight vinyl with digital download card. Check the complete track listing right here.

Watch Abby Portner's creepy cool new video for Cale's version of Hallelujah following Malcolm Gladwell's discussion of the song from his Revisionist History podcast and the Domino press release below.

Fragments of a Rainy Season is the the first live John Cale album to feature him performing solo and "unplugged" – before that term became a mid-'90s buzzword. In contrast to the jaundiced punk truculence of Sabotage/Live (1979) or Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1986), Fragments gives us Cale at his most melodic and moving, a mellowed and certainly a soberer man in a Yamamoto jacket and a lopsided haircut running through a selection of his prettiest songs.

It's a Cale many of us love deeply, a man alone at a concert-hall Steinway revisiting the pop-rock of 'Paris 1919' and 'A Child's Christmas in Wales', as wistful and whimsical as any '70s singer-songwriter holding court at L.A.'s Troubadour club. It's the Cale who disavowed the spiky nihilism of the Velvets, inspired instead by melodicism of Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson.

Cale being Cale, Fragments isn't all rueful tenderness. The deceptively jaunty 'Darling I Need You' is flippantly introduced as a song about "religious awakening in the southern part of the United States", while Elvis' 'Heartbreak Hotel' is no less gothic in the solo version here than it is in the Grand Guignol horror show of the original on Slow Dazzle. 'Guts' is as close as Cale ever came to Lou Reed at his most withering.  It's easy to forget that – years before Jeff Buckley and The X-Factor – he was the first artist to recognize the hymnal majesty of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah', or that it was his original 1991 reading of the song that popped up on the soundtrack of Shrek.

Revisionist History: Hallelujah by Malcolm Gladwell

One night, Cohen is playing this version at the Beacon Ballroom in New York and the musician John Cale happens to be in the audience. Cale is a legend, used to be in The Velvet Underground, a really pivotal figure in the rock 'n roll avant-garde. He hears this song come out of Cohen's mouth and he's blown away. So he asks Cohen to send him the lyrics. He wants to do a version of it. So Cohen faxes him fifteen pages - who knows what the lyrics actually are at this point! Cale says, that for his version, he took the "cheeky" parts. He ends up using the first two verses of the original combined with three verses from the live performance. And Cale changes some words - most importantly, he changes the theme and brings back the biblical references that Cohen had in the album version.

Cale is really the one who cracks the code of Hallelujah according to Alan Light. This cover version appears on a Leonard Cohen tribute album put together by a French music magazine - it was called "I'm Your Fan"- came out in 1991. Almost nobody bought "I'm Your Fan", except, weirdly, me. I think I found it in a remainder bin in a little record store on Colombia Road in Washington, DC. Another person who bought "I'm Your Fan" was a woman named Janine, who lived in Park Slope in Brooklyn. She was good friends with a young aspiring singer named Jeff Buckley. He used to house sit at her apartment. And one time, when Buckley's there, he happens to see the CD of "I'm Your Fan" - he plays it - he hears John Cale's version of Hallelujah and decides to do his own version of that version. He performs it at a tiny little bar in the East Village called Sin-e where he happens to be heard by an executive at Columbia Records. So Columbia Records ends up signing Buckley and he records his version of Hallelujah for the album 'Grace' which ends up being Buckley's first, and only, studio album. It came out in 1994.

Now I'm guessing that Buckley's version is the one you're most familiar with - it's the famous one, the definitive one. It's not really a cover of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah', it's a cover of John Cale's cover of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' only with Cale's piano swapped out for a guitar and of course, Buckley swaps out Cale's voice for his own extraordinary voice.

Here's Abby Portner's new video for John Cale's version of Hallelujah...

Your Friend shares Paris-filmed video for Come Back From It

Taryn Miller's new album Gumption is out January 29. Your Friend hits the Horseshoe on April 11.

TOUR DATES (w/ Porches & Alex G)
Wed. Mar. 9 - Washington, DC @ Rock & Roll Hotel
Thu. Mar. 10 - Richmond, VA @ Strange Matter
Fri. Mar. 11 - Carrboro, NC @ Cat's Cradle - Backroom
Sat. Mar. 12 - Savannah, GA @ Savannah Stopover Festival
Sun. Mar. 13 - Orlando, FL @ Backbooth
Mon. Mar. 14 - Tallahassee, FL @ Club Downunder
Sat. Mar. 19 - Dallas, TX @ Spillover Music Fest
Mon. Mar. 21 - Denver, CO @ Lost Lake
Tue. Mar. 22 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
Wed. Mar. 23 - Boise, ID @ Treefort Music Fest
Thu. Mar. 24 - Portland, OR @ Analog Cafe
Fri. Mar. 25 - Seattle, WA @ Vera Project
Sat. Mar. 26 - Vancouver, BC @ The Cobalt
Mon. Mar. 28 - San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop
Tue. Mar. 29 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo
Thu. Mar. 31 - Santa Ana, CA @ Observatory - Constellation Room
Fri. Apr. 1 - San Diego, CA @ Che Cafe
Sat. Apr. 2 - Phoenix, AZ @ Rebel Lounge
Sun. Apr. 3 - Albuquerque, NM @ The Co-Op
Tue. Apr. 5 - Omaha, NE @ Slowdown
Wed. Apr. 6 - Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St Entry
Thu. Apr. 7 - Madison, WI @ UW Student Union
Fri. Apr. 8 - Grinnell, IA @ Grinnell College - Gardner Lounge
Sat. Apr. 9 - Chicago, IL @ Bottom Lounge
Sun. Apr. 10 - Detroit, MI @ Majestic Cafe
Mon. Apr. 11 - Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern
Tue. Apr. 12 - Boston, MA @ Middle East Downstairs
Wed. Apr. 13 - Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Thu. Apr. 14 - Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
Fri. Apr. 15 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom