Texas psych-funk auteurs Khruangbin announce Australian tour
Performing their biggest headline shows in Australia and New Zealand to date, Houston, Texas psych-funk auteurs Khruangbin will bring their First Class Tour to Fremantle, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Auckland touring through November and December 2022.
Last here in 2019, the acclaimed three-piece will share their surf-rock cool, dubby disco and worldly funk – held down by the steady hand of drummer Donald Ray ‘DJ’ Johnson Jr, virtuosic guitarist Mark Speer, and enigmatic bassist Laura ‘Leezy’ Lee.
Khruangbin released their debut album The Universe Smiles Upon You in 2015, and followed it up with Con Todo el Mundo in 2018 and Mordechai in 2020. They’ve also released several remix and dub albums, and a couple of EPs. Their most recent releases is the EPs Texas Sun and Texas Moon in collaboration with Leon Bridges.
The Perth show has Melbourne band Midlife as a support, but the Melbourne and Auckland shows will also include the amazing jazz musician Kamasi Washington.
The tour kicks off in at the Fremantle Arts Centre on Wednesday 23rd November, and then heads to Sydney 27th November, Brisbane 30th Novermber, Melbourne 3rd December, and Auckland 6th December.
Tickets are on sale now
Orville Peck shares his new album ‘Bronco’
Orville Peck | Bronco | ★ ★ ★ ★
Masked troubadour Orville Peck has shared his second album, and it features his signature country sound, he sounds like he’s grown up listening exclusively to Johnny Cash, Glenn Campbell and Elvis. It’s always hard to tell if Peck is a huge lover of country music, or just a brilliant straight faced cabaret homage.
Daytona Sand is the perfect album opener, thumping drums, jangly guitars, big flourishes and Peck’s baritone vocals. Things quickly slow down with The Curse of Blackened Eye a track with crooning, almost yodeling vocals, Outta Time is instantly loveable, and Lafayette features captivating changes of pace.
Fans will already be familiar with the single C’mon Baby, a huge country-pop number. Title track Bronco is a rip-snorting rodeo song, Hexie Mountains with its soaring vocals and plucked guitars is one of the albums highlights, and the heartbreaking Let Me Drown see the introduction of piano and strings.
Any Turn has vibes of I’ve Been Everywhere Man, or Jim Carroll’s People Who Died with its fast delivery of a list like lyrics, though familiar it’s a great song. The closer All I Can Say features vocalist Bria Salmena and Peck admits it sounds like a Mazzy Star tune, and that’s not a band thing.
With 15 tracks there’s a lot of music here, and if you’re a fan alt-country you’ll find something to love on this album.
Perfume Genius announces new project
Perfume Genius has announced the release of his new album, Ugly Season which will be out on 17th June.
To coincide with the release of the album, Perfume Genius (Mike Hadreas) has teamed with renowned visual artist Jacolby Satterwhite for a short film featuring Hadreas and the music of Ugly Season.
Satterwhite is known for his immersive multidisciplinary technique that fuses live video, 3-D animation, drawing and print-making. Satterwhite’s work has appeared at MoMa, The Smithsonian, The Whitney and the Studio Museum of Harlem. His music video and directing credits include the visual accompaniment to Solange’s When I Get Home.
“This project is the genesis of a whole new direction that I’m taking, one that I’ve been thinking about within this endemic culture, since 2020,” Satterwhite said of the collaboration. “Mike and I are both writing scripts. My visual narrative serendipitously mirrors the lyrical direction in his music; it’s a rare, like-minded bond. It’s a creation myth. How do you architecturally mold and render an idealised version of utopia? It’s about making something that you desire so beyond your scope that it’s hard to grapple into a concrete form.”
The music of Ugly Season was written as the accompaniment to Perfume Genius and choreographer Kate Wallich’s immersive dance piece, The Sun Still Burns Here. The work was commissioned by the Seattle Theatre Group and Mass MoCA and was performed via residencies in Seattle, Minneapolis, New York City and Boston throughout 2019.
During this time, Perfume Genius publicly shared two of the dance project’s compositions – Pop Song and Eye in the Wall. The album was produced by Perfume Genius and Grammy-winning producer and long-time collaborator Blake Mills and was created in collaboration with Hadreas’ long-time partner Alan Wyffels.
The new record will be the sixth album from Perfume Genius following Learning (2010), Pt Your Back N 2 It (2012), Too Bright (2014), No Shape (2017) and Set My Heart On Fire Immediately (2020).
Fresh Tracks – download these ones
xPropoaganda – Beauty is Truth former members of 80’s band Propaganda have a new project and it’s very stylish and electro Mavis Staples and Leon Helm – You Got To Move a delightful slice of gospel inspired honky-tonk Carolina Eyck – Claire de lune a mesmerising rendition of Debussy featuring voice and theremin Elsy Wameyo – River Nile unique sounds and quality hip hop from Australian artist Madonna & Sickick featuring 070 Shake – Frozen Madonna shares another take on Sickick’s remix of Frozen this time with American rapper 070 Shake Obli – Hei an intriguing mix of cut up vocal samples, synths and afro beats Bernice – It’s me Robin (New Chance Remix) chillwave returns Syd & Lucky Daye – CYBAH Could You Break a Heart, a marvelous mix of psychedelic funky murk.
Odesza get ready to share new album
Odesza have announced their new album The Last Goodbye which will be released on 22nd of July 22 via Foreign Family Collective and the influential Ninja Tune label.
The Last Goodbye is the duo’s most ambitious album to date and includes a stack of collaborations with The Knocks, Bettye LaVette, MARO, Låpsley, Ólafur Arnalds, Julianna Barwick, Izzy Bizu and Charlie Houston all making appearances on the record. New single Love Letter featuring The Knocks was recently released.
Ryan Adams delivers an album dedicated to his late brother
Ryan Adams | Chris | ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Ryan Adams has shared his 19th solo album. Chris is the final part of a trilogy of albums Adams recorded several years ago alongside the previously released Wednesdays and Big Colors.
The album is a very personal one for Adams, it’s named after his brother Chris, who died in 2017. Adams has reportedly recorded the album several times, not satisfied with his initial attempts to capture the songs, he’s scrapped the initial sessions and gone back to the drawing board several times.
The title track is a letter to a lost friend, earnest vocals with acoustic guitars, flourishes of piano, and then slowly orchestral strings take over and raise the song momentarily towards the heavens.
The record is Adams 19th since he launched his solo career, and while he doesn’t really tread any new ground, he does deliver an exceptional Ryan Adams record. The sound is rough around the edges, striding the bridge between alt-count and rock. Tinges of psychedelia that often appear more during Adams’ live show shows than on his recordings are present.
Adams is an artist whose career looked as it may be over in 2019 when accusations he had acted inappropriately to female musicians were published in the New York Times. His former wife Mandy Moore, and Phoebe Bridgers were among those who spoke out. He later publicly apologised for his actions.
Dropped by his record label and sponsors, Adams has slowly been trying to rebuild his career. He’s been putting out records himself, and reminding everyone he’s still one of the greatest songwriters and musicians of his generation.
The album features 18 songs, they vary in style, but most clock in around under 3-minutes with keeps the album moving along quickly. Fans will love it, and if you’ve never dived into the sounds as Ryan Adams this is as good a place as any to start. He’s already announced his 20th record will be out later this year.
Graeme Watson
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