Monthly Archives: January 2019

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Craft Recordings is pleased to announce their upcoming reissue of Pieces of You, the debut album from Jewel, one of the most successful singer-songwriters of all time. Long out-of-print, Craft Recordings reissues this landmark album on February 15th. Like the original, the 2-LP vinyl features five bonus tracks that originally appeared as B-sides on the album’s single releases, with lacquers cut by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering and pressed at Memphis Record Pressing. Barnes & Noble also will be selling an exclusive blue vinyl version.

Acclaimed American singer-songwriter-poet Jewel has enjoyed career longevity rare among her generation of artists. Since achieving international stardom over 20 years ago, Jewel has emerged as a charismatic live performer and a respected songwriter with 12 studio albums, four GRAMMY® nominations, and over 30 million albums sold worldwide. Signed before she was 19, Jewel credits her great mentors Bob Dylan, and Neil Young who took the time to encourage her as a young artist, advising her to take risks and make music she is authentically interested in.

Pieces of You was released in 1995, recorded in a studio on Neil Young’s ranch, and included Young’s backing band, The Stray Gators. The album stayed on the Billboard 200 chart for two years (peaking at #4) and spawned Top 10 hits including the certified platinum single “You Were Meant for Me,” “Who Will Save Your Soul,” and “Foolish Games.” Described by Rolling Stone as “a record that carved out a perfectly confessional, coffeehouse niche between the decline of grunge and the rise of slinky pop princess.” The album also reached mainstream success, going on to sell over 12 million copies and becoming certified 12x platinum ─ making it one of the best-selling debut albums of all time.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Pharoah ‘Farrell’ Sanders (born 1940) is a leading figure in the world of jazz and one of the last living legends with connections to players like Sun Ra and John Coltrane. His tenor saxophone playing has earned him royal status amongst free jazz players, critics and collectors.

​Originally Sanders was interested in urban blues music, but his high school teacher exposed him to jazz and this took Farrell in an entirely new direction. Once completing high school Sanders quickly packed his belongings and headed to Oakland, where he got a chance to work with musicians of high caliber such as saxophone players Sonny Simmons and Dewey Redman (who were both later to be major forces in new jazz and free jazz). Soon the young Pharoah would meet John Coltrane and would feel being attracted to the life as a professional musician. By the early sixties Sanders moved to New York where the major jazz scene was happening. Here he’d spent most his time honing his skills at rehearsals with Sun Ra… sadly he was not making much money with the Arkestra and soon found himself living on the streets, trying to stay up all night playing and then scrounging for money during the day, often selling blood to eat.

Sanders recorded his debut album for ESP soon after, but it wasn’t until he started playing with his old friend John Coltrane that he would fully unleash the fury of his saxophone on the world of free jazz. The records Pharoah Sanders played on for Coltrane laid the foundation of what was to come for both the world of free jazz and for Sanders as a musician. After Coltrane’s tragic death Sanders would record further with Alice Coltrane, John’s widow, on the album Karma (1969 – Impulse!), which is universally accepted as Sanders’ masterpiece. Along with musicians Alice Coltrane and singer Leon Thomas, Sanders helped to create the genre of spiritual jazz.

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“I grew up in the late ’70s, which was the heart of vinyl culture.”

“As I turned 10 years old the disco era was in full swing, and so were my parents disco lessons where they would spin Gloria Gaynor and Earth Wind & Fire around the house. Around that time my uncle gave me The Beatles’ red and blue albums and an original pressing of The White Album and my collection began to grow. In the early 80’s I worked all kinds of teenager type jobs so I could make regular trips to The Music Machine, a local Baltimore record shop where I would mostly buy 7-inches and the occasional velvet glow-in-the-dark poster.

Around that time I started piano lessons and joined my first band. As a keyboard player in the early ’80s I was embracing the synthesizer movement, but during an infamous all-night hang with some friends in 10th grade, I saw Pink Floyd’s The Wall on a big screen TV and that changed everything.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Though it’s been 52 years since his tragic passing, John Coltrane’s importance and influence have never been greater.

Though active for a relatively short period—from 1957 to ’67—he was an intrepid spirit who developed at a feverish pace. Coltrane’s breakout year, when his mature sound first grabbed ears and his own recordings began to sell consistently, was 1958. Coltrane ’58: The Prestige Recordings, out March 29th on Craft Recordings, is a box set (8-LP, 5-CD & digital formats) that chronicles the exciting story session by session, featuring all 37 tracks Coltrane recorded as a leader or co-leader for the independent Prestige label in those twelve months. This collection captures him in creative high gear—developing the signature improvisational style that journalist Ira Gitler famously dubbed “sheets of sound.”

The timely release of Coltrane ’58 marks the 70th year since the founding of Prestige Records and comes just after the 60th anniversary of these recordings. It also follows on last year’s successful release of Both Directions at Once, which debuted at No. 21 on the Billboard 200, the highest chart position of his career.

Coltrane ’58 brims with the shared jazz repertoire of the day—blues, bebop standards and familiar ballads—as well as original compositions and obscure tunes Coltrane rediscovered. Together they offer an array of emotional depth and instrumental prowess, showing how the rising saxophonist was actively stretching sound and increasing the intensity, and shifting the direction of what jazz performance was about. Included are definitive versions of “Lush Life,” “Lover Come Back to Me,” “Stardust,” “Good Bait” and “Little Melonae”; first recordings of originals like “Nakatini Serenade,” “The Believer,” “Black Pearls” and the heartfelt “Theme for Ernie”; and extended tenor saxophone tours-de-force such as “Russian Lullaby,” “Sweet Sapphire Blues,” and “I Want to Talk About You” that anticipate the stratospheric heights Coltrane would reach in the 1960s.

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I’m proud to call myself a blues impurist, by which I mean I’d sooner listen to a bunch of know-nothing punks fold, spindle and mutilate the masterworks of such hallowed figures as Robert Johnson, Leadbelly, and John Lee Hooker than hunker down and listen to the originals, which I suppose makes me a bad person but hey–my mom probably told you that already.

And when it comes to raunching up the blooze garage rock style, you’ll have a hard time beating the early Flamin’ Groovies, who before they went all retro-British Invasion power pop in great songs like “Shake Some Action” (best Iggy and the Stooges song title ever!) turned out a couple of LPs of such inauthentic authenticity you can actually smell the motor oil pooling on the garage floor.

My fave is 1971’s Teenage Head, and you can tell how great it is just by looking at the cover–the Groovies were San Fran boys but you can forget about all of that peace and love bullshit; they look like they’re ready to play your party and steal your beer and talk your girlfriend into going home with ‘em even though home is reform school! Although for all I know they were real sweethearts and if their song “Kicks” is any indication were more likely to give your girlfriend a lecture on the perils of drug abuse than to hand her a Mandrax.

Anyway, on Teenage Head they play some blues numbers featuring mucho slide guitar one of which (“32-20”) was written by Robert Johnson and chug-a-lugs along just fine, toss in a real live be-bop-a-lula rockabilly number called “Evil-Hearted Ada” on which the singer does his best bouncing baby Elvis impersonation, kick out the jams big time on a raving cover of Randy Newman’s “Have You Seen My Baby?”, and toss off another drop-kick rockabilly cop with the hilarious title of “Doctor Boogie” on which the singer says you you gotta mow the lawn, baby, if you wanna be with me. Which might be a sexual metaphor but also might be, you know, just part of the job description. The lawnmower’s out back!

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PHOTO: AVTAR KAY | Traveling troubadour of light, Francie Moon, is a “free spirit” in every sense of the term. Traversing the country in her signature vintage van, Moon has gigged across the entire continental US, releasing a prolific series of lovely psych folk albums along the way.

“Present Tense” is the the first taste of a slightly more unhinged direction Moon has taken since releasing her celebrated self-titled EP in 2016. She whoops and hollers her way through a majestic, surf rock-tinged, shoegaze jungle of jangling tremolo guitars and wiry drums, dropping such altruistic words of wisdom as, “We’re all the same / So shine on me / All the oceans will join hands / And all the hills will sing songs / And all the clouds will cry tears of joy / Everywhere they belong .”

Reflecting on the inception of the single, Moon affirms, “‘Present Tense’ is about the journey of being patient and loving with yourself when you’re getting back on track with who you are. A lot of people get caught up in the past and in the future, but this is about forgetting all that and just letting yourself be happy and free in the moment. I think when you finally let yourself feel that peace and freedom of being here now, fear and uncertainty usually wash away and sometimes doors start to open for the future you were really dreaming of anyway. It’s so important to feel good, and I think we can do that by not judging ourselves harshly. Easier said than done sometimes, but at least we’re all figuring life out together, all on the same sea, just different boats.”

Drug addict, gun enthusiast, Harvard graduate, cat lover, convict, accused conjurer of smut, and a distinguished member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters; the late and very great William Seward Burroughs II’s transformation from a consummate flouter of norms into an enduring icon of the counterculture didn’t transpire overnight. Most important were his writings, but the recordings played a large role as well; 1965’s Call Me Burroughs was first, and a half century after it helped to define post-Beat pre-Hippie underground cool, it remains amongst his best.

Barry Miles’ biography of William S. Burroughs, which just happens to share a title with the singular litterateur’s first LP, came out early last year. I’ll admit I’ve not read it, a circumstance pertaining far less to the tome’s 718 pages than it does to the simple fact that I’ve carried Burroughs’ writing and knowledge of his struggles, failings, and accomplishments with me for the entirety of my adult life. I do look forward to eventually inspecting its contents, however. I’ve only engaged with a small portion of Miles’ stuff, but in my experience he does sturdy work on subjects of interest to him, specifically musicians, writers, and the counterculture; if disinterested in hatchet jobs or salacious gossip, he’s also not a sycophant or a shill, and it’s possible to disagree with a conclusion Miles might make and yet want to continue reading.

I discovered Burroughs in my teens, so my own observations on the man and his achievements are solid if still open to change. But it occurs to me that a younger generation knows of him as just one in the myriad ranks of Great Dead Artists, which stings a bit since even in late age the guy was larger than life. Frankly, I’m totally chuffed a hefty Burroughsian study has recently appeared.

Bothersome is the pesky seriousness of those who abjure Burroughs’ celebrity as an obscurant to his worth as a writer, but trust me, they’re less obnoxious than folks who champion his reputation as a badass while deeming it needless to crack a spine. If the notoriety is unavoidable and oft-captivating, the importance of William Burroughs is primarily literary; as one of the Beat’s big three, he was a wily conduit between pulp and the postmodern.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Waxwork Records proudly presents the Original HBO Series Soundtrack to Vice Principals Seasons 1 & 2. Created by and starring Danny McBride and co-starring Walton Goggins, Vice Principals is a two season black comedy that focuses on an ill-tempered and disliked Vice Principal (McBride) and his ambitions to be promoted to the principal’s chair. When neither he or the co-vice principal (Goggins) are promoted, they co-conspire to overthrow and destroy the reputation of the newly appointed principal, Dr. Belinda Brown. A series of arson, blackmail, revenge, and even attempted murder ensues in the hilarious and often shocking series.

Waxwork worked directly with Danny McBride, composer Joseph Stephens, and Vice Principals music supervisor, DeVoe Yates, to create and release a deluxe vinyl release featuring the complete series soundtrack by Stephens. The 1980’s influenced synth-driven electronic soundtrack is both dark and droning. It’s melodic and fun, yet moody. It’s classic John Carpenter scored to the best John Hughes movie. It’s 100% awesome, and that’s a Gamby promise!

Album features include the complete series music by composer Joseph Stephens, 180 gram North Jackson Warriors Blue and White colored vinyl (Season 1) and 180 Gram North Jackson Tigers Orange and White colored vinyl (Season 2), artwork by Robert Sammelin, exclusive liner notes by Danny McBride, exclusive liner notes by composer Joseph Stephens, a King Ding-A-Ling insert, a printed insert of the album cover art, and a temporary tattoo of Dr. Belinda Brown’s tattoo featuring Gamby and Russell holding hands and eating sh*t.

VIA PRESS RELEASE | This 1968 release wasn’t just the debut album for the British band The Gun; it also marked the debut of a number of notable artists and their creations.

First of all, this was the first album recorded by the Gurvitz brothers, bassist/vocalist Paul and guitarist/vocalist Adrian; they went on to form Three Man Army (with Buddy Miles among other drummers) and then The Baker Gurvitz Army with Ginger Baker of Cream among many other projects. The Gun also introduced the song “Race with the Devil,” which scored the band its only hit and was covered by everybody from Judas Priest to Girlschool to Black Oak Arkansas. And, finally, take a gander at that incredible front cover artwork…yes, that is the maiden album illustration of one Roger Dean, whose otherworldly creations graced the covers of many a Yes album cover (Yes vocalist Jon Anderson was for a short time a Gun member, in fact).

Armed with such a collection of talent, and a dazzling stylistic breadth that ranged from psychedelic to hard rock to mod to Procol Harum-esque prog, it’s little wonder that Gun has seen multiple reissues, but it’s been about 30 years since it’s been available on vinyl. This new limited edition (of 1000) “red devil” vinyl pressing presents the original artwork intact.