Monthly Archives: March 2021

PHOTO: KELSEY HART | Deap Vally is known for their raw, high energy, and liberated rock. Lindsey Troy (guitar, vocals) and Julie Edwards (drums, vocals) have consistently brought unladylike rock ‘n’ roll realness to the stage.

Their sophomore album Femejism (2016), produced by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner, engaged with a more post-punk garage rock sound after their hard blues-rock debut album Sistrionix (2012). Last year saw the release of Deap Lips, a collaborative project between Deap Vally and Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd of The Flaming Lips. Deap Lips is the first in a series of Deap Vally releases to follow later on this year.

The just released “Digital Dream” EP is a subtle transition to organic collaboration with different artists and friends. Whether it be a mutual fan encounter at a restaurant or bonding over a bonfire at Brody Dalle and Josh Homme’s house, each artist had met Deap Vally’s members during chance encounters over the years. Rather than limit themselves to their customary guitar and drums arrangement, they added whatever instrument a track called for in whatever genre or mood was spontaneously occurring.

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Never Is Enough is the sixth record from the new jazz/ new music trio Thumbscrew, coming hot on the heels of their stunning Anthony Braxton birthday tribute project from late July of 2020. In fact, drummer Tomas Fujiwara, guitarist Mary Halvorson, and bassist Michael Formanek recorded this album simultaneously with the Braxton set, but more on that below. Featuring three originals by each member, the selections cohere into an immersive smoker that’s available now, and please take note that Cuneiform Records is offering a limited 2LP edition with four exclusive live tracks on side four. These cuts aren’t on the CD or the digital download; this review focuses on the nine-track core release.

Recording two albums at once might seem like it’s setting up a stressful, potentially even harried situation, but that’d be far more likely if the dual task derived from a studio scenario where time equates to money spent. Contrasting, Thumbscrew has a productive relationship with City of Asylum, indeed so beneficial that this is the second time the trio has cut two records at once in conjunction with that Pittsburgh-based arts organization.

Thumbscrew’s previous undertaking produced the 2018 albums Theirs, a disc of interpretations of material by others, and Ours, which consists of Thumbscrew originals (side four of Never Is Enough features live recordings from the Theirs and Ours tour). The Anthony Braxton Project and Never Is Enough constitute a similar (but not exact) attempt at making the most of their latest City of Asylum residency, as the former is devoted to readings of work from Braxton’s extensive Tri-Centric Foundation archives, while the latter, like Ours, is all original material.

In Cuneiform’s press release for Never Is Enough, it is mentioned that the two records were “not intended as the same kind of dialogue” as Theirs and Ours (which were released on the same day in 2018), but that the Braxton album and Never do speak to each other, with Formanek stating that he believes the influence of Braxton’s music is felt on Never, and if not a direct influence, then certainly inspiration from a massive body of work to which all three members of Thumbscrew have direct connections, Halvorson most extensively.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Artists include Foo Fighters, DeadMau5, Carly Simon, Sheryl Crow, Ziggy Marley, Silversun Pickups, Gavin Rossdale, Juliette Lewis, Macy Gray and more! Amazon Music to stream concert through its app and Twitch Channel, Rolling Stone and YouTube to also Broadcast.

​Legendary producer & Hall of Fame songwriter Linda Perry is set to curate and perform at the upcoming two-day Rock ‘N’ Relief: Live Stream Series. Founded by Sean Penn and Ann Lee, CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort) is a non-profit organization dedicated to crisis response.

CORE has been working tirelessly on the frontlines with partners to provide equitable access to free testing and vaccines across Los Angeles for the past year. This two-day live stream will benefit CORE’s life-saving programs. In addition, the concert will also benefit CORE’s work supporting the City of L.A.’s mobile vaccination program, which brings access to the vaccine directly to communities who need it most across L.A.

The mobile vaccination program targets low-income communities of color that have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. By providing direct access within the community and offering on-site registration, CORE is helping to eliminate the disparities in health equity as it relates to vaccine distribution and COVID-19 testing.

Additionally, CORE helps operate the City of L.A.’s mass vaccination site at Dodger Stadium, which is currently serving as the largest vaccination site in the U.S., providing an average of 8,000 vaccines daily, with the capacity to administer more than 12,000 vaccines per day, pending vaccine supply. Linda Perry’s Rock n’ Relief concert aims to be a magnet to bring awareness to CORE as well as raise money in support of CORE’s daily outreach to broaden its impact in the community during this pandemic.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | “Gang of Four, in a way, were the great missing link that led us all down a road of austerity of sound, and discipline of method.You could be fooled into thinking they are minimalist, but these are keenly arranged tracks that trade on the currency of suspense, and the power of reduction. The lyrical layer is poetic, passionate and painfully human. —Brendan Canty, Fugazi

​On April 23, Matador Records will reissue two of Gang of Four’s critical early works, Entertainment! (1979) and Solid Gold (1981). Both have been remastered from the original analog tapes and will be made available on LP and CD.

Gang of Four’s debut record, Entertainment!, remains one of the most beloved and influential works of its era (or any era, really)—an unparalleled collection of songs that has left an indelible mark on generations of bands, producers, and artists. The group’s second album, Solid Gold, celebrates its 40th anniversary today. It boasts a much deeper, bass heavy sound than Entertainment! and contains the singles “Outside the Trains Don’t Run On Time” and “He’d Send In The Army.”

Entertainment! and Solid Gold are also collected in Gang of Four: 77-81, a new box set due out March 12 on LP and April 23 on CD. This stunning limited-edition box set gathers Gang of Four’s influential early work—the two aforementioned full-lengths, an exclusive singles LP, and an exclusive double LP of the never officially released Live at American Indian Center 1980. Additionally, the package includes two new badges, a C90 cassette tape compiling 26 never-before-issued outtakes, rarities and studio demos from Entertainment! and Solid Gold, and an epic 100-page, full-color hardbound book. A never before heard demo from the box set, “Elevator,” is available to listen to now.

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The music of Tucson, AZ’s Karima Walker combines her strengths at sound design and as a songwriter, interweaving a folky sensibility that’s stark but robust with tapestries built from field recordings, drones, loops and synth tones. Her new album is quietly psychedelic, with this aura enhanced by its truly solo orientation. Sometimes sweet but more often contemplative and frequently strange, a defining characteristic of Waking the Dreaming Body is its distinctiveness. It’s out now on black or caliche clay colored vinyl, smoky grey cassette, and digital as a corelease through Orindal Records of Chicago and the Keeled Scales label of Austin. The CD begins shipping on March 10.

Waking the Dreaming Body is Karima Walker’s second LP, following-up Hands in Our Names from 2017, though that set was preceded by the “Take Your Time” EP of two years prior and before that, the digital EP “a good year” going way back to 2012 (please note that “Take Your Time” and her first album are both still available on vinyl, the EP as a 10-inch).

Upon reading of the disparate but by no means irreconcilable approaches that constitute Karima Walker’s sound, it might seem to a listener new to her work, as it did to me, that the woozy loops, hovering timbres, and late night breathy strum of Waking the Dreaming Body’s opening selection “Reconstellated” effectively serve up a taste of her sound in tidy microcosm.

Although the basic ingredients are all accounted for in “Reconstellated,” the sheer breadth that’s heard across Walker’s latest is what’s elusive. But it’s early yet. Reflective of her work as a whole, Waking the Dreaming Body is an achievement arrived at over time.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | ECHO is proud to announce the AC/DC 2021 Poster Series. This officially licensed limited-edition series will showcase some of today’s biggest and brightest visual artists, creating works inspired by the music and career of AC/DC.

​First in the series is a print by artist Tom Whalen, commemorating the performance from the start of AC/DC’s Back in Black Tour, July 31, 1980 in Philadelphia, PA. Philly was the second US date on the tour and one of the first shows to feature Brian Johnson as the band’s new singer. This poster is available now.

“The brand new “Back in Black” cassette tape that I packed for our family trip to Orlando became the soundtrack of my summer of ’91. I played it over and over and over and couldn’t wait to get back home so that I could explore the rest of AC/DC’s catalog. I’ve been hooked ever since. I’m beyond grateful to being asked by ECHO to produce a poster honoring AC/DC, a band that has been a part of my life for so long.”
—Tom Whalen

This 7-color screen print measures 18”x24” and will be available in these limited edition variations:
AC/DC July 31, 1980 Philadelphia, PA (Fire Edition) – 175 pcs / $55
AC/DC July 31, 1980 Philadelphia, PA (Midnight Edition) – 75 pcs / $65
AC/DC July 31, 1980 Philadelphia, PA (Fire Gold Foil Variant) – 75 pcs / $80
AC/DC July 31, 1980 Philadelphia, PA (Midnight Lava Foil Variant) – 75 pcs / $80

In the future, look for AC/DC posters in the series from artists Frank Kozik, Dirty Donny, Tom Whalen, Adam Stothard and other artists TBA.

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“My earliest vinyl memory is pulling the three volume Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two Original Golden Hits set from the back of my Grandparent’s wooden console. One cover was white, one black and one blue, each with a different picture of Cash. Too young to read, I asked my Grandpa who it was, and he said, “That’s the man in black.” A year or so later, he passed and the records went into a box in my Grandmother’s basement.”

“I’m not a purist when it comes to formats or a collector by nature, but I do appreciate vinyl as an aesthetic, sonic and literary medium. At different times in life, each element made a profound impact on me. In the beginning, it was that picture of Johnny Cash.

A half dozen years later, punk records turned my early aesthetic intrigue into a sonic pursuit. The Midwest post-punk scene was in full tilt with all of its sub-genres and I started catching rides up to Atomic Records on E Locust St. They had it all, including copies of Milk, a music zine that along with the Shepherd Express largely sparked my early interest in music journalism. I bought a lot of records in those days, but I specifically remember grabbing a copy of the Hot Water Music “Alachua” 7” with the die-cut logo sleeve and Fugazi’s Red Medicine at Atomic.

After high school, I ended up in Montana on a hiatus from college. I spent the better part of a year waist deep in the river trying to fly fish and elbow deep in the bargain bins at Rockin Rudy’s on Higgins St. I was looking for Mississippi Sheiks, Blind Willie McTell, Earl Scruggs, Mance Lipscomb—the stuff that either hadn’t made a direct jump to CD or you could find for way less in a used record bin.

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Los Angeles’ Ambrosia were that rarest of all things–a prog-yacht band. When their vessel set sail in 1975, the owner of the California Yacht Marina told reporters, “Frankly I’m concerned the SS Ambrosia will founder under the weight of its heavy progressive rock cargo. You don’t run that risk with the SS Christopher Cross.”

But Ambrosia (ingredients include mini marshmallows and a number of fruits such as pineapple, maraschino cherries, coconut, and mandarin oranges) didn’t go down with all aboard, because it ultimately off-loaded its prog rock load and tacked towards commercial waters. Granted this wasn’t too radical a departure, given Ambrosia’s prog was relatively pop friendly in the first place. No eight-part songs about the water sprites in Poseidon’s beard from these guys; you tend not to manufacture such mythical claptrap when you’re soaking in a hot tub in Southern California.

If anything, Ambrosia were the predecessors of Asia, who drastically reduced the prog quotient in search of radio play and bigger sales. While Ambrosia never came close to achieving Asia status, they did score five Top 40 hits, the best known being “Holdin’ on to Yesterday,” “Biggest Part of Me,” and “How Much I Feel.” If you worship at the altar of soft rock, you love all three and will want a copy of. 2002’s The Essentials. Its 12 songs make it the perfect compilation for all but those diehards who simply can’t imagine life without such nonentities as “Cowboy Star” and “Mama Don’t Understand,” both of which (should you happen to be such a diehard) can be found on 1997’s Anthology.

A quick rundown of the songs, the better ones first. The catchy “Biggest Part of Me” is Hall & Oates without the mustache. The airy “Holdin’ on to Yesterday” has a Pink Floyd/Alan Parsons vibe, thanks in part to David Pack’s Roger Waters-school guitar. “How Much I Feel” is watered down blue-eyed soul and perfect FM radio fodder.”Nice, Nice, Very Nice” is a Yes-lite/Steely Dan hybrid with Chicago horns on which David Pack inexplicably pretends to be a rasta living in England singing about Central Park. Recommended primarily for its weirdness quotient.

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