Monthly Archives: March 2022

VIA PRESS RELEASE | A decade later, a decade of gratitude: Today, Bon Iver, Jagjaguwar and 4AD release the 10th Anniversary Edition of 2011’s pivotal and widely praised album, Bon Iver, Bon Iver.

In addition to all ten of the cherished, self-titled record’s original songs, the commemorative reissue features five performances from Justin Vernon and Sean Carey’s beloved AIR Studios session, available in physical formats and across DSPs for the very first time. Sitting at opposite ends of grand pianos, rearranging album highlights such as “Beth/Rest,” the Blood Bank EP’s “Babys,” Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me” and more, the two longtime Bon Iver bandmates and breathtaking vocalists not only capture the grand spirit of Bon Iver, Bon Iver, but distill it into sharper focus.

Featuring a reimagined, blind embossed version of the album’s cover art—as well as a personal essay from devout Bon Iver fan Phoebe Bridgers, delving deeper into the “massive, sprawling, unbelievably complex” collection of music—Bon Iver, Bon Iver (10th Anniversary Edition) is out now on CD, 2x white vinyl LP, and digital platforms.

Next week, Bon Iver will return to the road for their first US tour since a 2019 series of arena shows supporting the band’s latest album, i,i. Beginning March 30th in Mesa, AZ, the run of two dozen dates will span spring and summer, including stops at NYC’s Forest Hills Stadium, Nashville’s Ascend Amphitheater, a sold out Moody Amphitheater in Austin, TX, and many more, with support from Dijon and Bonny Light Horseman.

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Birmingham, Alabama-based singer-songwriter Duquette Johnston has released a handful of albums in the 21st century, with The Social Animals his latest, available now on LP, CD, and digital through Single Lock Records. Although its contents are heightened by a sharp band that includes Emil Amos of the Holy Sons on bass and Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth on drums, it’s ultimately Johnston’s songs, vocals, and guitar that shape the contents into an emotionally cohesive whole.

Back in the 1990s, when he was in the Merge Records indie act and eventual Capitol Records’ signees Verbena, Duquette Johnston was known as Daniel Johnston. Upon exiting that band and striking out on his own, he adopted a fresh handle, and anyone familiar with “Speeding Motorcycle” will likely agree that his choice was a sensible one.

Johnston’s solo debut Etowah arrived in 2006, but only after it’s maker navigated personal struggles including incarceration (the album’s title references the Etowah County Correctional Facility where Johnston was sentenced in relation to a drug charge). Two more albums followed: the digital-only Ragged & Fancy in 2010 and the multiformat Rabbit Runs a Destiny three years later, with the promotion of the latter impacted by the serious bacterial infection his wife suffered after the birth of their first child.

As Johnston focused his attention on caring for his wife and raising his son, he opened the art gallery-clothing store-performance venue-community space Club Duquette in Birmingham in 2016, and was writing songs along the way that became The Social Animals, the album cut in 2017 with John Agnello producing and keyboardist Seth Brown and guitarist David Swatzell rounding out the core band.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | A legendary event in the incredible 60-year history of The Rolling Stones is being released in full for the first time on Friday, May 13th. Live At The El Mocambo marks the first official appearance of the group’s two famous secret concerts at the 300-capacity Toronto club in March 1977.

The album will be available on double CD, 4 LP black vinyl, 4 LP neon vinyl, and digitally. It features the Stones’ full set from the March 5 show, plus three bonus tracks from the March 4 gig, newly mixed by Bob Clearmountain. Only four of the performances found their way onto the Love You Live album that followed in September 1977, which was dominated by tracks captured on the band’s 1975 and ’76 tours, with the full set having never been heard before.

As The Rolling Stones gear up for their 60th anniversary celebrations, Live At The El Mocambo is available for pre-order now. It is previewed by the release of two powerful tracks from the shows, “It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll” and “Rip This Joint,” available on all digital services today.

As the Stones took to the stage of the “El Mo,” a fixture of the Toronto music scene since the 1940s, punk and disco were both rearing into full view, supposedly ready to see off a band who had already been at the top of their game for 15 years. Over two nights, in an intimate space in one of their favourite cities, they were about to make that prognosis look foolish indeed.

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America is very fortunate to have supported many different genres of music: there are composers of every stripe scattered throughout all 50 states. However, there is one style of music that has been long taken for granted and that is Exotica. The genre became popular during the American mid-century and is often associated with the Tiki bar scene and maybe Pee Wee’s Playhouse; it consists of melodies that imbue a certain mysterious quality coupled with percussion and, sometimes, even animal noises and other common jungle sounds.

One of the main historical figures in the Exotica movement was Eden Ahbez, a songwriter and recording artist who made a name for himself in California during the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s. He was a prototypical hippie responsible for penning Nat “King” Cole’s big hit, “Nature Boy,” and in 1960 Ahbez released his masterpiece, Eden’s Island, the vinyl copy of which has now become very collectible.

Enter producers Brian Chidester and Johan Hjalmarsson and the Swedish musical group Ìxtahuele who resurrected unreleased and unrecorded manuscripts of Ahbez’s by creating a new album of his work titled, Dharmaland. On this program we welcome co-producer Johan, who also plays drums in the group, and another of the band’s talented musicians, Mattias Uneback. They both join me from Sweden.

So, listen to our conversation, but then enjoy the exquisite album that they released which really is capable of transporting you to a strange and mystical natural world accompanied by wistful melodies and dreamlike ambience. You don’t need any apps or screens to enter this alternate dimension, all you need to do is use something that you might have forgotten about: your imagination.

Evan Toth is a songwriter, professional musician, educator, radio host, avid record collector, and hi-fi aficionado. Toth hosts and produces The Evan Toth Show and TVD Radar on WFDU, 89.1 FM. Follow him at the usual social media places and visit his website.

Funk pioneer Betty Davis once summed up her music with one word—raw. That was a mild word for what she was doing. Friends of the sophisticated fashion model—who’d walked away from the glamour biz because she thought it required zero brains—were aghast at her on-stage persona; she was lewd and crude in her silver hot pants, leaning backwards, stance wide, cupping her hands around her crotch. Such outrageous behavior left the people who knew her wondering if the woman strutting her stuff on stage could possibly be their Betty Davis.

Davis was a symbol of Black Power and female empowerment—women weren’t supposed to behave the way she did on stage, or release nasty albums like her masterpiece, 1974’s They Say I’m Different. And she wasn’t playing the subservient woman; on “He Was a Big Freak” she’s the one wielding the turquoise whip.

On the cover of They Say I’m Different, Miles Davis’ second wife—who is credited with changing the course of his career by introducing him to the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone—is all legs topped by a spectacular Afro, and in her futuristic glam attire, different she definitely was. But it’s the music that matters, and the LP’s eight funk jams showcase Davis’ vocals, which range from the sultry to the flat-out salacious. The LP isn’t just a turn-on; it generates enough erotic wattage to light up Harlem.

She’s Black and proud of her roots; on the title track she sings “My Great Grandma didn’t like the foxtrot/Now instead she spitted snuff and boogied to Elmore James,” and he’s just one of her forebears she name checks on the track–she also gives shout outs to just about every blues legend from Big Mama Thornton to Bessie Smith. And when she announces she eats chitlins, it comes off as a dare—that’s her heritage, see, and fuck you if you think it makes her an unsophisticated lady.

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We’ve closed TVD’s HQ for our annual spring break. While we’re away, why not fire up our Record Store Locator app and visit one of your local indie record stores?

Perhaps there’s an interview, review, or feature you might have missed? Catch up and we’ll see you back here on Monday, March 28.