Category Archives: Reviews

It’s Time to Play B-Sides Top 20 Albums of 2012

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Here we are again at the end of another year. 2012 was the 6th year of existence for this little blog. Looking back, it’s been kind of a year of recovery for me. Lots of fallout from being unemployed in 2011 finally came to rest in 2012 and I’m finally getting into the swing of a new home, job and direction.

From a music perspective, for me anyway, 2012 was a year of next-releases from a lot of my favorite bands– possibly signaling some confidence and support for the hard-working and long-touring truly independent bands out there.

Here are my 20 favorite releases from 2012 in no particular order:

The Right Now – Gets Over You – On my “12 Releases I’m looking Forward to in 2012” post– Chicago R&B powerhouse The Right Now delivered their sophomore release this year. A bit of a disclaimer– these guys are my friends and I helped them put out the vinyl version of their debut album Carry Me Home. The band traveled to L.A. to work with Sergio Rios of Orgone in his studio. The resulting record has a great tape-compressed and raw feel. This band gets better every release.

The Pines – Dark So Gold – A release I was looking forward to. It’s hard to believe that this is the fourth release for The Pines. Again produced by Bo Ramsey, we see the band really falling into their stride. Same formula, but more refined. Brilliant record from beginning to end. Check out their two Daytrotter sessions here and here.

Samuel Locke Ward – Double Nightmare – Iowa City’s most prolific home taper Sam Locke Ward put out an album that was a few years in the making. I was assigned the duty of reviewing this epic release for Little Village Magazine and I loved it. Recommended if you dig Sebadoh, Guided By Voices, Dead Milkmen.

Red River Dialect – awellupontheway – I found out about this band/artist through MC Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger, who played a show with him in the UK. He did an indiegogo to fund the release of this album. More British Folk, with a bit of Smiths thrown in for good measure.

Jack White – Blunderbuss – A release that is probably on a lot of lists for 2012. Jack White proves he doesn’t need Meg. This album is better than any single album The White Stripes ever put out, though not better than some of the high points in The White Stripes output. But really damn good.

The Surf Zombies – Lust for Rust – Local guitar hero Brook Hoover returns with the third surf instrumental album as The Surf Zombies. This time be brings in a couple of bratty punks resulting in the edgiest Zombies album to date. I reviewed the release for Little Village.

Har-di-Har – word(s) of whim/Feudal Kind EP’s – Husband and wife band from Cedar Falls, IA manages to create some really amazing Choral Vocals layered on spare instrumentals. I reviewed for the January 2013 issue of Little Village coming up. A surprise Dark Horse addition to this list. Recommended if you like Renaissance, Fleet Foxes, Grizzly Bear, and Trip Shakespeare.

Gold Motel – Gold Motel – Greta Morgan and band returned with a 2nd slice of sunny pop goodness. Saw them play in a barn in Maquoketa a couple of years ago and still carry a pretty big torch for this band. They did a really great Daytrotter session in 2011.

Gary Clark Jr – Blak and Blu – It seems like this debut release has been coming for a long time. We’ve been hearing live performances for a while anyway. Brilliant album, though some might argue that it doesn’t stay in one style for very long– is it a straight up blues album or is it an R&B album? He did an amazing Daytrotter session that I had the opportunity to hear streaming live while they taped it.

Dynoride – What You Wanted – Quad Cities band brings the sound of the 90’s best noisy energetic punk. I’m not the only blogger who included this on their top list for 2012. I reviewed this for Little Village. It’s free stupid. Listen to it.

Cheyenne Marie Mize – We Don’t Need EP – I had the chance to see Cheyenne at the Mill in Iowa City a few years ago when she was touring for Before Lately. She did a few songs at that show which showed up on this EP. This was a release I was looking forward to.  Check out her two Daytrotter sessions here and here.

Solid Gold – Eat Your Young – After I heard Solid Gold at the Gayngs Affiliyated showcase, I was really looking forward to hearing the next album from them. It took them a couple of years to get this release out the door, but what a release it is! Solid Gold still holds on to their 80’s New Wave roots (think later Talk Talk), but I think that the time spent in Gayngs may have helped refine their art, as Eat Your Young is the most consistent release to date. I look for them to get snagged by a larger label.

Polica – Give You The Ghost – This was on my releases I was looking forward to, but it was kind of a cheat since the band pre-released this album in December of last year. Another band related to Gayngs. Ryan Olson has the Midas touch, I think. Polica moved from his label to Mom+Pop this year and they opened for Bon Iver’s big show in NYC before I got to see them in Dubuque. They played new songs at that show, so I’m hopeful for another album! Check out Polica’s Daytrotter session here.

Calexico – Algiers – With the breakdown of Quarterstick records, I was afraid of the fate of Calexico. Fortunately, they have been picked up by Anti- Records and the band recorded in the flood zone of post Hurricane New Orleans (“Algiers” is a section of the city). Great record– lots of diehard fans are bitching because the album is closer to Garden Ruin than Hot Rail.

Jeff Parker Trio – Bright Light in Winter – On my releases I’m looking forward to. The main guitarist from Tortoise returns for his third-ish solo album on the mighty Jazz and Blues label Delmark Records from Chicago.  This one spent a lot of time in rotation. Jeff’s a busy guy between all of the projects he participates, in so it’s cool that he returned to his own. I could listen to album opener “Mainz” on repeat forever.

Hiss Golden Messenger – Lord I Love The Rain – I mentioned this in the releases I was looking forward to for 2012. Though I didn’t know it at the time, I already heard parts of this release. MC Taylor decided to rejigger the “bonus” LP of outtakes that came with the preorders of Poor Moon called Lord I Love The Rain. He removed a track and added some and resequenced to make Lord I Love The Rain an album that could stand on its own. Check out the Hiss Golden Messenger Daytrotter session here.

The Sea and Cake – Runner – With the four-year gap between One Bedroom and Everybody, I’m always a bit nervous that The Sea and Cake will disappear again. But, since 2007, The Sea and Cake have enjoyed a very fruitful and creative period releasing four albums and one split single in five years. A really great follow up to Moonlight Butterfly— in fact they kind of act as bookends to each other. Check out their Daytrotter session here.

Kopecky Family Band – Kids Raising Kids – The debut album for Nashville chamber-pop band Kopecky Family Band follows two really great EP’s. The band has enjoyed a lot of critical praise and some big festival appearances at SXSW and Bonnaroo. Though this album was released in 2012, It looks like 2013 is when it will get some real traction and buzz. Check the Kopecky Family Daytrotter session here.

Rob Mazurek Pulsar Quartet – Stellar Pulsations – Mazurek is back with a new release on Delmark with a kind of expanded version of his Starlicker lineup. Nice, kind of subdued album (for Mazurek anyway) really focuses on his playing more than any of his other releases. I love “Magic Saturn”– sounds like a modern Jazz classic to me.

Various Artists – Iowa City Song Project – Compilation of Iowa City artists commissioned by the Englert who was celebrating 100 years ( and, to an extent, The Mill which was celebrating its 50th). Bo Ramsey, Pieta Brown, Greg Brown, Sam Locke Ward, Brooks Strauss, Milk and Eggs, Dave Zollo, Emporer’s Club, and many, many more all lay down tracks inspired by Iowa City. I reviewed the album for Little Village.

Stay tuned for my list of releases I’m looking forward to in 2013!

(Upcoming Show) Surf Zombies “Lust for Rust” Release Show at CSPS 6/16/2012

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I reviewed the latest release from Cedar Rapids Surf Czars The Surf Zombies Lust for Rust in Little Village Magazine last month.

The latest incarnation of the Zombies has bit bit more edge than the previous albums thanks to the production and engineering of Ian Williams (guitars for the Zombies and also in The Wheelers) and lineups, and I think that Lust for Rust is by far the best release from the band to date.

Tonight at CSPS, the Surf Zombies are taking over the big stage at CSPS for their record release show at 8PM. Tickets are $15 at the door. I can’t think of a more enjoyable way to take in the Surf Zombies– galloping drums and bass, gigantic reverbby guitars and a fantastic selection of beer and wine in the recently-opened bar which is operated by the fine folks at Brewed Awakenings.

More details here.

New Single “You Know I’ll Always Love You” From Karyn Paige Released Today

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It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Bay Area Pop Funk Chanteuse Karyn Paige. Today, I’m happy to announce that she’s dropping a new single to tide us over until she finishes her full length album.

Consistent with her first release, The KP EP (I reviewed here), her latest single “You Know I’ll Always Love You” pays tribute to the Pop R&B heyday of the 80’s with swelling and buzzy synthesizers. Ms. Paige transforms from the sexy fuming diva sitting on the bed in “Stay Away Tonight” to a sunny girl in love that reminds me of Paula Abdul’s great singles.

The smartly spare arrangements, and loping percussion draws us very close to Karyn’s lovely soprano with an adopted affected stuffiness that recalls 1920’s and 30’s jazz singers. Factor in the slightly-kitschy talk box harmony vocal effects and you have one perfect pop song.

I asked Karyn why she chose to release this single ahead of the full length album she’s working on.

“The motivation for releasing the song  ahead of the full LP was simple: Fans who have seen us play it live are constantly asking when we are going to put it out. People are really drawn to it, from music heads to moms. I wanted to give my fans something new to enjoy until the LP comes out. It was written by my co-producer and keyboard player Matt Berkeley, and I’ve always been honored to sing it.”

Listen for yourself:

Then buy it on iTunes!

While you’re there, check out The KP EP, too.

Click Here to visit the Karyn Paige official website where she has some great videos to check out, too.

Click Here to visit the Karyn Paige Facebook Fanpage

B-Sides in the Bins #56 – Mt. Vernon, IA 8/20/2011 – Art Blakey’s Drum Suite

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Drum Suite - Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers
My wife had a wedding makeup gig in Mt. Vernon on Saturday and since I didn’t have a lot going on I offered to come along and help her load in and out. I figured I’d check out the antique shops to see what books or vinyl they might have. Unfortunately, there used to be a really great record store in Mt. Vernon above one of the art stores. I guess the father of one of the owners of the store had a large record collection that they wanted to sell, so they ran a store for a while.

After helping Sherry, I parked the car and set out on foot to see what I could find. The former Mt. Vernon Middle School is now known as The First Street Community Center and this is where I found the one record I picked up. The school has been converted into a number of small shops and businesses– most of them antiques and gifts. On the second floor of the building I found a lone stack of  records in front of one of the shops. The stack was marked $2. So, I flipped through them not expecting to really find anything as the records were largely 60’s era ephemera like orchestra, some odd soundtracks and some foreign music titles. One I almost picked up was a University of Iowa title called The Songs of Iowa or something like that and had a selection of music from the various cultures– Mesquaki Indian music, Czechoslovakian, German, Dutch. But, just before I got to the bottom of the pile this familiar collection of African masks was staring me in the face.

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers – Drum Suite (LP, Columbia CL 1002, 1957)($1.00) Wow! First, it is Mono and original Columbia Records “Six Eye” label, so it is an original pressing. The record was missing the inner paper sleeve, but the record itself was in pretty decent shape! It had some slightly incriminating scuffs, but I figured for a record over 50 years old, it wouldn’t be perfect, and the price was right. After a conversation with the nice lady who ran the little shop, and who attempted to just give the record to me, we arrived at $1.

When I got home, I gave the record a wipe with Gruv-Glide II (I highly recommend this stuff!) which did a fantastic job of cleaning out the groove of dust and debris and also provided an anti-static barrier. The record had a deep black sheen and it took some close looking to even see the original scuffs! The record played with very little noise.

Drum Suite is really two recordings. Side One is the three-part “Drum Suite” performed by The Art Blakey Percussion Ensemble which was made up of Specs Wright on percussion, Ray Bryant on piano, cellist/bassist Oscar Pettiford, Sabu Martinez on congas, and bassist Candido Camero. As is frequently commented about this release, it predates Afrobeat music by many years, and considered by many to be quite revolutionary at the time. Listening to it now, I notice how well the ensemble ties standard hard bop jazz with the world beats making it pretty listenable (“never descends into cacophony” was one review I read).

The second side of the record is a selection of songs by one of the many iterations of The Jazz Messengers. While enjoyable, is not in my opinion as strong as other Jazz Messenger releases like my personal favorite Mosaic.

When I heard the middle part of the Drum Suite “Cubano Chant” I found it to be familiar, so I looked into that track further. “Cubano Chant” was composed by the pianist Ray Bryant and included in his 1956 album on Epic Records The Ray Bryant Trio (Epic LN 3279)– which is sadly very out-of-print. The version on Drum Suite has some vocals (“Vamos a bailar la cha-cha-cha!”) where his version (and most other cover versions) doesn’t. Ray Bryant passed away in June at 79 years old. One of his noted contributions to the world of jazz is “Cubano Chant” which seems to be regarded as kind of a standard, considering how many people covered it. I found a pretty cool video of Steely Dan’s touring band from 2003 performing it as a warmup before a concert. I’m not exactly sure where I heard this before, but I guess it could be anywhere– but I’m pretty sure I heard it on “Dancing With the Stars” though I don’t know what season that would have been.

I managed to find a vinyl rip of Ray Bryant Trio (the Epic release, not the confusingly same-titled Prestige album from the same year– although some call that one Piano Piano Piano) on the internet which is pretty cool– but considering the apparent significance of “Cubano Chant” you’d think that they would have reissued this. It’s on my “wishlist”  to get on vinyl.

A bit of a side note: Ray Bryant recorded a single in 1960 called “The Madison Time” which was featured prominently in the first film version of Hairspray (not the John Travolta version, the Rikki Lake one). Here are the instructions for how you can dance “The Madison Time,” too!

Show Review: David Lowery and Johnny Hickman Live on Java Blend 5/27/11

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Ben Kieffer, David Lowery & Johnny Hickman
In the middle of a run of dates with Cracker and some shows as Cracker Acoustic Duo, Lowery and Hickman managed to sneak in a Daytrotter session and a performance at The Redstone Room in Davenport as well as a Java Blend show in support of Lowery’s first solo album The Palace Guards. Erik and I got to Iowa City well ahead of the 1:30 start time to grab some Jimmy John’s for lunch and stake a good vantage point for the show. I didn’t think that the taping would be a full room since it is in the afternoon, but I didn’t want to take a chance.

The show almost didn’t happen! The guys got to town in their Suburban and towed gear trailer and couldn’t find a place to park near the venue. After a few frustrated laps around Iowa City’s one-way streets they managed to find a temporary spot big enough for them to load in and then they ended up taking their stuff over to the IPR station, so the taping got off to a late start, but for the devoted who stuck around, they were treated to one of the best performances I’ve seen in the series.

Typical Java Blend shows are around an hour and the taping takes a little longer than that. While these are live performances, they aren’t aired live so the artists can have false starts and IPR can choose to edit things if they want. According to the show page, this taping will air on the weekend of June 17th and the video also show up on UITV that week and later in re-runs.

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With both Lowery and Hickman performing, it was more like a Cracker Acoustic Duo show than a solo Lowery show, but this made it all the more fun. I didn’t realize that Hickman was going to be there– Erik and I were joking that we were going to request that Lowery perform the buddy duet “Friends” solo, which meant he had to play both parts! As it was, we got a duet with Lowery and Hickman doing it, so that was really great and reminded me of when I saw the Duo play the Mill Restaurant in November of 2005.

The show featured a few songs from Lowery’s new album and a bunch from Cracker plus a nice Camper Van Beethoven nugget. Kieffer did his usual great job coaxing some stories from Lowery– which, although the music portion of the show was amazing, these stories from Lowery were funny, detailed and a little bit on the rambling side. Lowery warned Kieffer that he feels compelled to answer every question completely, and we got complete answers from a variety of topics ranging from the mathematics to stock trading! “You can edit some of this out,” Lowery said after a particularly deep dive. The interviews remind me of how well-spoken and smart Lowery is and how much I enjoy following his blog 300 Songs, which I recommend anyone follow.

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The music performance was great as you’d expect from two guys that have been performing together since the late 80’s. Hickman’s electric guitar serves capably in the role of the missing rest of the instruments on these stripped-down arrangement. Hickman is the consummate sideman for Lowery– great guitar solos and ambience to accompany Lowery’s lead vocals and classical nylon string guitar. While it’s Patterson Hood who duets on “Friends” on Cracker’s last album Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey, every time I’ve ever heard it live it is Lowery and Hickman and that is how I always hear it in my head.

Well I’ve got the dirt on you.
Hey, I’ve got plenty on you too;
So I pray we stay together all our days.

One of the great buddy songs since “Poncho and Lefty” in my opinion.

Setlist:

I Sold the Arabs The Moon
Raise ‘Em Up On Honey
All Her Favorite Fruit (CVB)
Around the World (Cracker)
Deep Oblivion
Dr. Bernice (Cracker)
The Palace Guards
Teen Angst (What The World Needs Now) (Cracker)
Friends (Cracker)

Death Ships – Maybe Arkansas EP Released – Upcoming Show at The Mill 9/17

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Dan Maloney of Death Ships

Last February I reported about former Iowa City band Death Ships– a show at the Mill and a new EP that he was going to release on iTunes. Titled Maybe Arkansas, it was a 4-track EP of some really great guitar rock. I said that it was, “a flat-out charmer– hook-filled and standing out in my mind as a testament to the great music that comes from the Midwest. These guitar pop songs draw easy and complimentary comparisons to other Midwest greats like The Jayhawks, The Honeydogs and, yes, Wilco. Each of these songs stick in my head with earworm intensity.”

Over half-year later, I still feel this same way about the EP. Since Dan sent me the songs in order for me to review it, I was one of the fortunate few to get to hear it. Well, except for some tracks he gave to some blogs to post and all of the people to which I excitedly played it.

Last week the EP made it to iTunes and you can download it for $3.96 or Amazon for $3.56.  On a post frontman Dan Maloney made to his MySpace page, he announced the EP going to iTunes and also said that there will be a limited CD run of the EP. He also announced that they were going to start recording a new album next month.

Dan is bringing his Death Ships back to the Mill on Friday, September 17th opening for Ha Ha Tonka. In an e-mail to me this week, Dan said that they had a bunch of new jams he was excited to try out at this show.

I saw Ha Ha Tonka back in September of 2008 opening for Backyard Tire Fire and the then-Picador in Iowa City. They put on a really great show. You can see the pictures here. Since I saw Ha Ha Tonka, they have been signed to Bloodshot Records and released a new album in 2009 called Novel Sounds of the Nouveau South.

Also opening is Iowa City musician Brian Johannesen who performs as Grand Tetons.

Maybe Click to buy Maybe Arkansas by Death Ships on iTunes

Click Here to download “I Like It A Lot” from Maybe Arkansas.

Click Here for the Death Ships MySpace Page which has some of the tracks from Maybe Arkansas streaming.

Click Here for the Death Ships Daytrotter Session

Click Here for the Jay Bennett Daytrotter Session with Death Ships as his band

Click Here for the Splice interview with Dan Maloney from 2009 that has some unreleased tracks and a couple from the upcoming EP

California Girl Karyn Paige is Feeling Minnesota With The KP EP (Review)

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Karyn Paige isn’t the only California Gurl who is turning a golden state disposition into sunny pop this summer, but her debut EP The KP EP is a solid challenger for my soundtrack.

I posted about Karyn’s debut single “Want To” back in July which kicks off her 5-song EP (self released on August 31st and available from her website). I said that “Want To” recalls Prince as well as Jam and Lewis.

Paige, assisted by Jazz Mafia compatriots Joe Bagale and Matt Berkeley, has continued to wear her affinity for the Minneapolis Sound. The electro stew of instruments includes buzzy synths, funky, percussive distorted guitars and frantic 808 beats on the uptempo tracks like “I Still Want to Believe” is clearly influenced by the work done at Paisley Park and Flyte Tyme. “Stay Away Tonight” is stripped down to a rattling drum loop, piano and chorus and takes advantage of Karyn’s vocal prowess during its soaring chorus– in an earlier time she’d fit in with the stable of strong female vocalists that His Purpleness liked to surround himself with.

It wouldn’t be fair for me to let you believe that the EP is out standing in a purple rain, however.

On “Feel Alright, Be Alright” slows things down a bit with gorgeous chiming synths, snapping clave and blue-eyed backing vocal harmonies that remind me of the best moments of 80’s synth pop greats like ABC or Spandau Ballet. When Karyn sings “Everything will be all right, feel alright… no frustration…” we are already smiling and nodding along. The quick and soft flow of Karyn’s rap that recalls Bahamadia is a great touch to this song and shows skills we could stand to hear more of.

The EP closer “Big Top” takes a snap-step-and-spin Motown rhythm and adds a pumping Talking Book electric piano to Karyn’s soaring circus warning. “Look out! There’s a Big Top up ahead.. Remember everything the ringleader said… you know you want to run away with the circus… don’t look back on yesterday…”

You can download this little bit of sunshine from Karyn Paige’s website for $4.95.

Click Here to listen to “Want To” by Karyn Paige from The KP EP as well as her upcoming full length  Hola Mademoiselle.

Click Here to visit Karyn Paige’s website and sign up for her mailing list

Click Here to visit Karyn Paige’s Facebook Fanpage

Click Here to visit Karyn Paige’s MySpace Page

St. Louis Indie Folk-Rocker Beth Bombara Wants Your Support for a Vinyl Release

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One of my favorite indie releases from 2009 was an EP by St. Louis singer/songwriter Beth Bombara titled Beth Bombara and the Robotic Foundation. The six-song self-released CD by Beth was a stylistic switch from the pop-folk of previous solo effort Abandon Ship by pulling in some indie rock distortion and edginess that recalled Bettie Seveert. In particular, I love the harmonies on the track “Lights” which ended up on a bunch of my roadtrip mixes this past year. You can listen to “Lights” in the player below.

For her next release which will be a full-length, Beth is taking a slightly different approach describing her folk and blues pastiche as “Jenny Lewis Meets Muddy Waters.” I raise a questioning right eyebrow at this, however you can judge for yourself as she’s included some of the tracks-in-progress in the ReverbNation player below: “Lately” and “Can’t Win” at the top of the list are in a more country-influenced vein. I’ve been playing “Lately” a lot. I like the slightly off-key and off-time darkness about it. “Can’t Win” is a fiddle-adorned honest-to-goodness country two-step! She’s also giving away a another new track titled “Rainbow” in exchange for an e-mail address that continues some of the country-tinged feel, and I think vocally draws a very pleasing comparison to Natalie Merchant.

Beth wants to release this next album on vinyl and has done all of the math to determine she is going to need around $2,000 to get it done. She feels that a vinyl release of her new album is really important.  So, Beth put together a Kickstarter drive to raise the money needed to get the project done. A month ago she asked for some video of people talking about why they like vinyl records and she put these clips in the introductory video on the Kickstarter page. I gave her a clip which she used as well (which would be the first time I’ve put any kind of video of myself on the Internet!).

When Beth isn’t recording her solo music she is half of the duo known as Cassie Morgan and The Lonely Pine. In this duo, Beth plays everything from percussion to toy piano and glockenspiel in addition to adding some really gorgeous harmonies for Cassie. Their album Weathered Hands, Weary Eyes came out earlier this year and they are soon kicking off a tour through the Midwest where Beth will be performing some of her own songs. Watch this blog for more details as the firm up.

Please check out the samples in the players below, sign up for her mailing list and if you feel as moved as I am by her music, consider throwing some support to her Kickstarter Project. She has many different tiers for donation with a number of different “bonuses” from the vinyl release at $20 all the way up to a private show at the $300 and $500 tiers! While you’re at it you can see my contribution to her video. (Be gentle!) She’s got less than 24 days left in the campaign and is less than halfway to her goal. I’d hate to see her have to go back to square one.


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(Upcoming Release) Antibalas – Who Is This America? Reissued on 8/17

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I became aware of Antibalas around the time that I was working on a review of the very cool Scion Daptone Records Remixed compilation where I mentioned that Ticklah who is credited with the remix of “How Long Do I Have to Wait” by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, is David Axelrod who, among other things, has been a member of the Brooklyn, NY Afrobeat and funk ensemble since 1999.

Antibalas was formed in 1998 and modeled after Fela Kuti’s Africa 70 band and continues to maintain connections with members of Fela’s bands. In 2008 the band was involved in the off-Broadway and on-Broadway musical of Fela’s life titled Fela! The musical is based on the events of his life and particularly his politically motivated music career and oppression from the Nigerian government.

Antibalas’s influence from Fela Kuti extends further than just their afrobeat style, they also choose to make their music the platform for sharing their political views. No where is this more evident than their third album Who Is This America? which was released in 2004 on Ropeadope records. The band and label felt that their political and social statements on the album are as relevant today as they were during the Bush-era, post 9/11 period they were conceived in.

The re-issue of Who Is This America? will be on CD and digital download with a new bonus track “Money Talks” and with an iTunes-only track “Paz.” Notably, Ropadope is choosing not to release this album on vinyl. As luck would have it, Daptone Records released a vinyl version back in 2004 that seems to still be available on their site for $20 and has the “running man” cover artwork. Daptone also has Antibalas’s 2007 Anti- Records release Security on vinyl as well. Security was produced by John McEntire of Tortoise, incidentally. Ropeadope will have a special edition package that includes the CD, a download and a reprint of the “Running Man” teeshirt ($27.99). You can get just the teeshirt, too.

Click Here to download “Big Man” from Who Is This America?

Click Here to pre-order Who Is This America? from Ropadope.

Click Here to order the original (no bonus tracks) Who Is This America? 2 LP from Daptone.

Click Here for the Antibalas website.

Click Here for the Antibalas MySpace Page

Click Here for the Antibalas Facebook Fan Page

(Upcoming Release) Pezzettino – LubDub Kickstarter for Vinyl EP

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Margaret Stutt who goes by the nom d’cordion Pezzettino has collaborated with Milwaukee-based producer LMNtylist on her follow up to her 2009 release Lion. Titled LubDub, it is a 10-track EP of, well– I guess they are love songs. Well, maybe not all of them are love songs, but certainly they are related to love and appear to be roughly arranged in a timeline of a love affair that is having some fits and starts getting off the ground.

Originally the follow up to the moody, serrated toothiness of Lion was supposed to be a kinder, gentler album to be titled Lamb. In December of 2008 she posted the track listing for both releases on Facebook. When Miss Pezz blew through the Midwest last Fall it would appear that she had already moved into the mental space of Lamb in preparation for recording that album. By that time she had recorded the lead track for Lamb– the insanely catchy “You Never Know” which kind of took on a life of its own with its joyous video and vinyl 7″ release– each with a custom cover done by Milwaukee artist Dwellephant. For that Fall tour she’d already been performing “You Never Know,” “Hunting Season,” and “Falling Down” all songs that seemed fully formed and ready for the album. She also played a new song that was a quick favorite for me– “Where’d Ya Go.”

Anyone who knows Margaret well knows that she is constantly catering to her muse– typically recording inspired fragments of song anywhere and anytime they show up– many songs were written behind the wheel of her now-departed Civic on the long drives between the gigs on tour. It was a collection of these fragments that she gave to Milwaukee HipHop producer LMNTylist who was interested in trying his hand producing some pop songs. When she stopped through Cedar Rapids in January she played me the rough mixes that she had just received. I was at once shocked and excited at what I’d heard– the lead off track for LubDub “Replay” was pretty much cemented at that point as was “Cold Hard Chick.” This was a dramatically different direction for Pezzettino– she had given over to the production and the resulting songs still showed the fun and humor typically found in her music, but now had rhythm and were… funky!

The album pulls from a number of different influences ranging from the Reggae/Dub of the title track, to more the Jazzy “Only One” and “She Deserves” to the DooWop spin of “Replay” to a more “classic” Pezz piano track in “For You and Your Headaches.” Here is a video Margaret shot of a street mural painter that uses “Only One” as its soundtrack:

So, maybe it is fitting that the more mild-mannered Lamb would be quickly replaced by a more determined and immediate electronic release in LubDub. I guess the chops of Lamb will get to spend some more time slow cooking.

LubDub will be available for download on September 7th and on 12″ colored vinyl later this fall. Pezzettino has a Kickstarter drive going to attempt to raise the $1000 needed to press the vinyl. After an impressive week, she has raised over half of the funds and, at the time of this writing, still has over 30 days to go! Donations range from $1 to $1000 and have varying levels of perks at each level. Any donation over $15 gets you some copy of LubDub with pledges over $20 getting you the vinyl and the CD version of it along with four bonus tracks. Other levels get you things like cookies, her dress from the “You Never Know” video, private performance, or the ability to determine the next cover songs in her popular cover series. Click on the kickstarter widget below to see what your options are to help get this great release out.

The fantastically appropriate album art (shown above) was done by LittleTinyFish.

There are two release shows– one in each of her hometowns:

Milwaukee: September 11th at Turner Hall with Mondo Lucha, 8PM
Brooklyn: October 14th at Cameo Gallery, 9PM

In the middle of these shows is a quick run of the Midwest that includes stops in DeKalb (9/12), Iowa City (9/15 at The Blue Moose Tap Room), Omaha (9/16), Des Moines (9/18 at Vaudeville Mews) and Boulder, CO (9/23). Visit her MySpace Page to keep up to date on this tour. This tour is going to be the first time in a while she has toured with a small band– so I’m looking forward to these shows!

Track Listing for LubDub:

1. Replay
2. She Deserves
3. Cold Hard Chick
4. Only One
5. Intermezzo I
6. Lub Dub
7. Where’d Ya Go
8. Intermezzo II
9. For You and Your Headaches
10. I Did Not Use Those Words Yesterday

Click Here to download “Replay” from LubDub

Click Here to visit the Pezzettino Web Site

Click Here for Pezzettino’s Facebook Fan Page

Click Here for Pezzettino’s MySpace Page

Click Here for Pezzettino on Twitter

Click Here for LMNTylist’s MySpace Page.