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Record Highlight — Beech Creeps

Beech Creeps

Word is Beech Creeps formed in Brooklyn, New York in 2013. Despite being devoted to drinking rum and lazing on hammocks, they quickly became a favorite at venues like Death By Audio and Shea Stadium for their balls out live shows. And after releasing in rapid succession the digital/cassettes Meet the Creeps and The Crashing Booms, Beech Creeps has emerged from the studio (the studio in this case being the immense gallery at Bushwick’s Secret Project Robot) with Beech Creeps, available from Monofonus Records.

Recorded by Jonathan Schenke who has worked with Parquet Courts and PC Worship, this self-titled album captures the glory of the Creepsound– at times sublime, crusty, swirling and headbanging. This is a record of solid rock, liquid water, floating detritus and violent storms. Lightning and thunder and the beautiful calm that follows. It growls, it screams, it thumps, it drives. Yes, you are caught in the ocean whirlpool of rock n’ roll, straight down to the garbage disposal at the bottom and you can’t escape until it lets you go, right about the 39 minute mark.

Record Highlight — Japanese Breakfast

A side project from her work as front woman of Philadelphia indie punk band Little Big League, Michelle Zauner released a tape in June 2013 under the solo moniker Japanese Breakfast. The tape was titled June and boasted thirty tracks written and recorded every day of the month. A stark deviation from Little Big League’s guitar-based indie rock, it showcased Zauner’s dark lyrics, unique vocals and inherent knack for pop melody.

Two bedroom pop cassettes later, Japanese Breakfast returns with its first full-fledged LP and vinyl release, Psychopomp. The album explores Zauner’s experimental interests and hosts a wide range of sound: jarring anime samples, minimalist ballads, rhythms and synths reminiscent of Tango in the Night-era Fleetwood Mac paired with the moody intimacy of Mount Eerie. Psychopomp revisits and revamps lo-fi tracks and adds chilling new songs to fall in love with.

Record Highlight — Jeremy Gara

jeremygara-limn-frontcover

Jeremy Gara, drummer of Arcade Fire, announces his first solo album – Limn. Recorded over the last many months and assembled this last fall, Limn is a melodic, dense, and noisy ambient record… a collection of organized improvisations, of solo creative moments in response to familiar collaborative efforts. Divinity, the first song on the album, is streaming here and here. Mastered by Helge Sten (Deathprod, Supersilent), Limn will be released March 11 by NRCSS Industry on vinyl, on cassette, and digitally.

Record Highlight — The Coal Creek Boys

The Coal Creek Boys debut album, “Hard At It In Old Town,” makes its vinyl debut as a special edition geared to the band’s hardcore and dedicated fans! This limited edition pressing includes a hand silk screened numbered jacket, a download card of bonus content not found anywhere else, and a fold out poster.

The Coal Creek Boys are not Country Music by today’s standards in any way shape or form. The Boys can be placed into categories of Red Dirt, Rock, Outlaw – even Alternative Indie Folk – yet they are in no way limited to these genres. John Paul Smith writes music focusing on North America’s historical events and leads the band with as much authenticity as possible. The band is a direct reflection of their locale, Southern Alberta and Eastern British Columbia. Both Smith and Dino Scavo were raised in coal mining country and relate well with the Southern US, bearing the same hardworking mentality of these coal mining communities, as well as deep roots in family tradition.

Record Highlight — Toadies

Available now from Kirtland Records, Toadies: Heretics features new songs and classic Toadies tracks deconstructed, re-arranged and re-imagined with acoustic guitar, mandolin, electric piano, bass & drums.

Record Highlight — Lucinda Williams

We’ve all heard about the iconic vibe of Route 66, the neon lights on Broadway and the ocean air of the Pacific Coast Highway. But there are untold stories emanating from countless blue highways across the land – like Interstate 20, which cuts a 1500-mile swath from South Carolina to Texas, and cuts deep into the spirit of those who’ve spent their lives traversing it. Lucinda Williams is one of those people, and with the expansive, enveloping The Ghosts of Highway 20, she brings those stories to life – and gives listeners a remarkably vivid look at how the highway has been a literal and figurative backdrop throughout her entire life. The intensely involving 14-song collection may be the most deeply felt, deeply affecting work of Lucinda Williams’ illustrious 35-plus-year career, a career that has been established on a foundation of remarkably personal songs. Pre-order the vinyl now.

Record Highlight — Rock Eupora

Clayton Waller, the Mississippi music artist known as Rock Eupora, started taking piano lessons at the age of 5. He quickly discovered his love for songwriting and performing and took advantage of nearly every opportunity to play music. In college, he helped form a rock-n-roll power trio called Wolf Cove. Wolf Cove started dissolving as graduation approached, and Waller began writing solo. These songs eventually became Rock Eupora and took form as the first album, Blanks.

While in grad school in Nashville, TN, Waller wrote and recorded Rock Eupora’s second full-length album in his apartment-converted basement. In Soon the Sun Will Come (available in February 2016), Waller uses galactic hooks and melodies and a unique blend of gritty rock and shimmering pop to address the power of time, the reality of love, and the importance of faith as he experiences a transitional stage of life. Waller and the Rock Eupora band currently reside in Nashville and frequently tour across the Southeast.

Record Highlight — Aubrie Sellers

“I prefer to create friction,” post-Country chanteuse Aubrie Sellers offers. “Because if you’re not pushing buttons, you’re just making something pleasant, it’s probably been done before… and it’s not making anyone feel anything.”

In this world of pretty little girls who are seen and not heard and reality stars who are famous for nothing, the 24 year old songwriter ain’t buying in. Laughing, she continues, “I’d rather my music be polarizing than everyone like it, because they rarely do. I think passion is a lot deeper than that. I want to go deeper, and be honest that life isn’t just some party and going out. I mean, don’t people feel anything?”

Not that New City Blues is some kind of morbid, maudlin affair. From the cutlery in the blender indictment of surface beauty “Paper Doll” to the lone star drive of “Just To Be With You” and the tumbledown melody of “Sit Here And Cry,” this is a high energy box cutter of emotion: 14 songs marked by the bite and punch of smart girls who know there’s more to life than a cold beer and cut-Offs.

Record Highlight — Hanami Quartet

Hanami Quartet

Hanami was formed originally in the spirit of raising funds to aid Japanese victims of a recent tsunami. This quartet of guitarist Andrew Trim, drummer Charles Rumback, multi-reedist Mai Sugimoto and bass clarinetist Jason Stein enjoyed their project enough to eventually put together a studio recording. The group’s sophomore effor – The Only Way To Float Free, features a unique melding of instruments in electric guitar, saxophone/clarinet, bass clarinet, and drums, Hanami paints dynamic sonic landscapes on a bass-less canvas. The chamber like qualities of the instrumentation combined exploratory improvisations, both oblique and consonant, give way to their new album of artfully composed original compositions born out of their atypical take on the tradition of the jazz quartet and a deep connection with the country of Japan.

Record Highlight — Matthew Logan Vasquez

2015 (The Year of The Ram) has been a year of major change for Matthew Logan Vasquez. He moved with his wife, Marthe, from Brooklyn to Austin, he saw the birth of his first child Thor, and after a decade since founding his critically acclaimed band, Delta Spirit, he’s finally decided to go it alone FOR THE FIRST TIME, with his solo debut, The Austin EP, to be released November, 2015 , and a full length LP, Solicitor Returns, to shortly follow in early 2016 (it just shipped out from GGR this week).

Matt went solo for simple reasons– to return to the style of rock he loves. And when he went solo he REALLY went solo. He plays every instrument on the record, except for two drum tracks and one guitar track. Delta Spirit undoubtedly will be back but he wanted to make a collection of music without the influence of his beloved brethren (it’s only natural for a frontman to feel the need to let loose from time to time). You will hear his new material and you will hear Iggy Pop. Neil Young. Kurt Cobain. Gram Parsons. But ultimately, you’re hearing Matthew Logan Vasquez.

Gotta Groove Records

Posts Tagged ‘crowdsourcing’

Record Highlight — Beech Creeps

Record Highlight — Japanese Breakfast

Record Highlight — Jeremy Gara

Record Highlight — The Coal Creek Boys

Record Highlight — Toadies

Record Highlight — Lucinda Williams

Record Highlight — Rock Eupora

Record Highlight — Aubrie Sellers

Record Highlight — Hanami Quartet

Record Highlight — Matthew Logan Vasquez

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