048 ALTER.NATION weekly favtraX 13-08-2019

ALTER.NATION #48

Delbert McClinton and Self-Made Men, Lana Del Rey, Angie McMahon, Marika Hackman, Ty Segall, Nick Moss, Dennis Gruenling, Deadbeat Beat, Mauno, Van Halen, Moon Duo, Russian Circles, Yes

weekly favtraX 

1 3 - 0 8 - 2 0 1 9

"Temporarily Insane"

ALTER.NATION #48 on DEEZER

The venerable Delbert McClinton is a legend among Texas roots music aficionados, not only for his amazing longevity, but for his ability to combine country, blues, soul, and rock & roll as if there were no distinctions between any of them in the best time-honored Texas tradition.
Delbert McClinton and Self-Made Men - Temporarily Insane from Tall, Dark, and Handsome
Retaining the Self-Made Men but adding saxophonist Dana Robbins, the jumping outfit he unveiled on the 2017 album Prick of the Litter, Delbert McClinton shakes things up for the swinging set Tall, Dark, And Handsome. Where Prick of the Litter settled into a mellow vibe, Tall, Dark, And Handsome is bold and restless, finding McClinton trying on all manner of blues for size...

Vocalist who makes atmospheric orchestral pop showcasing her torchy image and sensuously husky singing style. Lana Del Rey envisioned a Southern California dream world constructed out of sad girls and bad boys, manufactured melancholy and genuine glamour, and then she came to embody this fantasy.
Lana Del Rey - Season of the Witch (Donovan cover)
Lana Del Rey is releasing a new album, Norman Fucking Rockwell, at the end of the month, but tonight she’s serving up two tracks that aren’t even on it... The second is a cover of Donovan’s 1966 track “Season Of The Witch,” which Lana also previewed for us this past Monday. It was recorded for the Guillermo del Toro-produced adaptation of the horror anthology series Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark.

Known for her candid and relatable lyrics, Australian singer/songwriter Angie McMahon's guitar-driven sound, which combines elements of folk and indie rock...
Angie McMahon - Standout from Salt
Before beginning her recording career, moody Australian singer/songwriter Angie McMahon fell rather suddenly into a massive amount of exposure when at age 19, she won a talent contest earning her an opening slot on Bon Jovi's 2013 stadium tour of her country. Although she possessed enough soulful vocal power to fill such big venues, the Melbourne native's craft was still relatively unformed, and rather than trying to parley the experience into a hastily built pop career, she wisely spent the next several years honing her songs away from the spotlight...

Singer/songwriter whose music has close links with the British nu-folk scene. Singer/songwriter Marika Hackman first picked up a guitar at the age of 12 and taught herself how to play.
Marika Hackman -  conventional ride from Any Human Friend
... While I'm Not Your Man suggested Hackman had belatedly discovered indie rock, Any Human Friend plays like her hip pop move, with plenty of keyboards and drum machines holding down the backing tracks and Hackman layering glossy harmonies around her vocals. There are guitars here, but they mostly serve as texture while the warm but clean electronic textures carry Hackman's melodies and make room for the lyrics. Any Human Friend sounds sleeker and more polished than Hackman's previous releases, but at the same time it takes the playfully libidinous tone of I'm Not Your Man and cranks it up a few levels. These songs leave no doubt that Hackman is a big fan of sex and pleasure, even if they can turn out to be problematic, and there's something quietly disarming in the unguarded way she sings about her needs...

California-based garage rock revivalist known for his prolific discography and his accurate recreations of '60s lo-fi. 
Ty Segall - Lone Cowboys from First Taste
Ty Segall spent so much of 2018 cranking out albums and bringing the rock in a big way that one can forgive him for slowing down a bit and turning the volume down in 2019. First Taste sounds like that's just what Segall chose to do. It's a more tuneful and less aggressive set of songs than Freedom's Goblin, Joy, or Fudge Sandwich, with Segall easing up on his monolithic guitar attack and focusing more on pop melodies and folk-rock structures in his songs and arrangements. However, Segall sure hasn't cut back on his love of psychedelia, and First Taste finds him having a great deal of trippy fun, playing with unusual sonics and enjoying the possibilities of the recording process... At a time when too many people are questioning if rock & roll is alive at all, Segall is doing the work of four or five people in keeping it healthy, and First Taste is ample evidence that he's nowhere close to being done, which is good news indeed.

After cycling through the appellation Nick Moss & the Flip Tops, blues guitarist Nick Moss formed the Nick Moss Band in 2009.
Dennis Gruenling is an American electric blues harmonicist, songwriter, record producer and radio DJ. He has released seven albums since 1999, with his most recent being 2016's Ready or Not...
the Nick Moss band feat. Dennis Gruenling - Hot Zucchini from Lucky Guy!
The first time the Nick Moss Band recorded a full album with harpist Dennis Gruenling went so well, the gang decided to reconvene for a second set just a year later. Like many sequels, 2019's Lucky Guy! doesn't offer surprises, but it could be argued that The High Cost of Low Living didn't exactly shock either. That was by design. Moss and Gruenling make it their mission to keep the greasy sound of Chicago blues alive, and while they're traditionalists, they're not stuck in the past...

Detroit band merges garage punk, indie pop, surf, and psychedelia into a bouncy and sometimes happily eccentric sound. 
Deadbeat Beat - Tree, Grass & Stone from How Far
After releasing two scruffy, noisy records that combined surfy garage rock and hooky indie pop in promising ways, Deadbeat Beat return with a fully formed, dramatically improved sound and vision on their third album, How Far. Recorded over a long stretch of time by the core band of guitarist/vocalist Alex Glendening, drummer/vocalist Maria Nuccilli, and bassist Zak Frieling, the trio polish most of the rough edges off their songs to leave only glittering gems that fulfill all the promise of their early work and then some... Nuccilli and Frieling form a powerful backline that's alternately swinging and punchy, and Glendening's guitar playing is malleable and sharp; he shows mastery of jangle, crunch, drone, and expansive freak-outs (especially on the album's longest and most psychedelic track, "Tree, Grass and Stone"). His vocals are sweetly unaffected and when he sings with Nuccilli, the duo come off like the life-long pals that they are.

The sophisticated indie pop of dual singer/songwriters Nick Everett and Eliza Niemi and band. The sophisticated indie pop of Canada's Mauno ("mao-no") combines elements of '60s pop, jangly guitar pop, and the sleeker sounds of '70s prog and power pop for a tuneful mash-up of their own.
Mauno - Half It from Really Well
Led by co-singer/lyricists Nick Everett and Eliza Niemi, Montreal-based indie pop group Mauno established a style that's both sophisticated and welcoming across their first two releases in 2016 and 2017. Two years later, Really Well returns the four-piece lineup from 2017's Tuning, all of whom contributed to writing and arranging the album. Like Tuning, it reveals a mercurial mix of ear-friendly influences as the set glances between '60s pop inspirations; jangly, homespun guitar pop; and the tighter sounds of progressive rock, sometimes within the same song or even simultaneously...

Los Angeles male-female duo mix chilled indie pop with playful, obtuse lyrics for a winning combination. Multi-instrumentalist Greg Kurstin and doe-eyed vocalist Inara George draw upon a fondness for jazz standards and '60s Tropicalia to deliver the stylish tones of the Bird and the Bee.
The Bird and the Bee - You Really Got Me from Interpreting the Masters, Volume 2: (A Tribute to Van Halen)
There's a bit of cheek in "Interpreting the Masters," a phrase the Bird and the Bee coined for their 2009 tribute to Daryl Hall & John Oates. The expression suggested songwriters more outwardly rarified than Hall & Oates, yet it wasn't necessarily meant ironically. Through their loving covers, vocalist Inara George and multi-instrumentalist Greg Kurstin made a case that Hall & Oates' catalog does stand on its own as a songbook. With Interpreting the Masters, Vol. 2: Van Halen, the duo achieve something similar yet notably different: they make one of the greatest hard rock bands go pop. Removing every trace of a guitar from the songs of Van Halen may seem a bit like a party trick, but these clever neo-new wave arrangements generally work because they're clever and affectionate...

A project of Wooden Shjips' Erik "Ripley" Johnson and Sanae Yamada, San Francisco's Moon Duo are a psychedelic Krautrock band with chilly electronic underpinnings and drones inspired by Spacemen 3, Silver Apples, and Suicide.
Moon Duo - Lost Heads
It sounds like Moon Duo have found some new drugs. Historically, their brand of psychedelia has been a little foreboding — buzzing machinery guitars and guttural krautrock rhythms, imagery all focused on the occult and shadows and the grimier corners of the night... We got a hint of it with the album’s lead single and title track, sneakily one of the most addicting and straight-up prettiest songs Moon Duo’s ever recorded. “Lost Heads” might not have the lilting poppiness of its predecessor, but it definitely exists in the same airy, Technicolor world. The whole thing rides easily along a sun-dappled groove, with Johnson and Sanae Yamada’s vocals intertwined in a dreamily distant vocal...

Chicago-based post-rock/metal trio with releases on Sargent House and Suicide Squeeze. Chicago-based instrumental post-rock/metal trio Russian Circles create a complex clamor of sprawling guitars, propulsive drumming, and heavy bass lines.
Russian Circles - Milano from Blood Year
Russian Circles recorded their seventh studio album with producer/engineer Kurt Ballou (of Converge) at Chicago's Electrical Audio and God City studios, where many of their previous records were made... Russian Circles recorded their seventh studio album with producer/engineer Kurt Ballou (of Converge) at Chicago's Electrical Audio and God City studios, where many of their previous records were made...  "Milano" is one of the album's most epic-sounding compositions, building up to a frenzied blast-beat section and lumbering on before bursting back after a false ending...

The definitive English progressive rock band, purveyors of virtuoso playing and vast musical tapestries, topped off with gorgeous melodies. 
Yes - Close to the Edge from Yes 50 Live
Yes celebrated their 50th anniversary with a tour through America and Europe, one that is commemorated on Rhino's 2019 set 50 Live. Recorded over two July nights in Philadelphia, 50 Live touches upon material written throughout the band's history but it adheres most closely to the prog rock that made their name in the early '70s. The set is anchored by classics -- "Close to the Edge" opens the album," "Starship Trooper" ends it...

Delbert McClinton and Self-Made Men, Lana Del Rey, Angie McMahon, Marika Hackman, Ty Segall, Nick Moss, Dennis Gruenling, Deadbeat Beat, Mauno, Van Halen, Moon Duo, Russian Circles, Yes

046 ALTER.NATION weekly favtrax 25-07-2019

ALTER.NATION #46

Ernie Hawks, The Soul Investigators, G&D, Jenny Hval, Wild Billy Childish & CTMF, Oceans of the Moon, The Quiet Templel, UV-TV, Twen, Bethlehem Steel, DIIV, The Hold Steady, Russian Circles

weekly favtraX 

25 - 0 7 - 2 0 1 9

"Scorpio Walk"

ALTER.NATION #46 on DEEZER

Ernie Hawks is straight up gangster! He somehow manages to transform the flute into as instrument with as much muscle as a baritone sax. Serious grooves here, like they were designed to be sampled, but really it's just funky dudes putting out funky tunes.
Ernie Hawks, The Soul Investigators - Scorpio Walk from Bad Education, Vol. 1: "Soul Hits" of Timmion Records
 Daptone Records takes its longstanding kinship with Finland's Timmion label to the next level with Bad Education, Vol. 1. Daptone distributes the label stateside and assists in extending its creative reach. In turn, the folks at Timmion provide advocacy and support for the New York label's artists when they tour Europe.

G&D (Georgia Anne Muldrow/Dudley Perkins)  - Where I’m From
...The duo’s debut album Black Love & War is about the unity of the black family as is largely produced by Muldrow. Its lead single “Where I’m From” is definitely worth checking out. This one’s a bit more acoustic compared to “Overload,” and has a smoldering, earthy feel. While giving Muldrow’s full-bodied vocals a place to shine, it still features some of those digital top-line trills that serve as a reminder of the track’s modernity. Along with Perkins’ relaxed yet rhythmic verses, a transportive atmospheric synth pad swirls horizontally. A simple drum beat maintains throughout as Muldrow’s gospel ad libs soar.

This Norwegian singer/songwriter crafts thoughtful, uncompromising music under her own name as well as Rockettothesky. 
Jenny Hval - Ashes to Ashes
...On her best songs, Hval gently coos gnomic reflections on the human body, creativity, and sexuality, set to shape-shifting, adventurous music that hints at how weird and grotesque all this “being a physical person who can reproduce and will die” stuff is. With “Ashes to Ashes,” Hval once again does all that in a new way. Catchy hooks, uptempo thumps, and strobe-like shimmers turn out to be a Trojan Horse for a series of reminiscences about dreams—about the acts of burial, songwriting, and fucking, in that order—delivered with the off-kilter elegance you’d expect from a keen student of Kate Bush and Björk...

Few performers in rock history have been as ferociously prolific as Billy Childish. In fact, a complete discography of his work as a solo performer and with his various bands would take up quite a lot of space...
Medway's most prolific craftsman, Billy Childish has been in more bands than most people could count on their fingers and toes since he started bashing out three chords in the late '70s. CTMF was his main band in the 2010s; the power trio combines the furious energy of punk, the sprightly swagger of garage rock, and the occasional ragged strand of Merseybeat or psychedelia, wrapping it up in Childish's trademark hollered vocals and raw lyrical perspective.
Wild Billy Childish & CTMF - You Can't Capture Time from Last Punk Standing…
When the name Billy Childish shows up on the sleeve of an album, it's a guarantee that the contents will be raw rock & roll played with feverish purity and sung with the passion of a madman. He's had numerous bands over the years, and CTMF is on par with the best of them. Over the course of a handful of albums they've established themselves as keepers of the punk rock flame, undimmed by commercial concerns and undeterred by the lure of flashy stylistic diversions. Last Punk Standing... is another fine addition to their CV; the trio whip up some thrilling noise as they power through raging rockers, pounding punk polemics, a surf instrumental, and the occasional love song.

Minimalist grooves and indie rock aggression meet vintage electronics in this project from Rick Pelletier of Six Finger Satellite. 
Oceans of the Moon - Borderline from Oceans of the Moon
In the late '60s and early '70s, the synthesizer was something novel, and often used in pop music to conjure up the sound of a sleek and gleaming technological future. All these years later, electronics have been around enough to sound clanky and fractured if need be, and the self-titled debut album from Oceans of the Moon is an inspired example of music from an alternate universe where a gang of aging sound-generating circuits have made their last stand in some forbidden silicon graveyard. Featuring Rick Pelletier (of Six Finger Satellite and La Machine) on guitar, keyboards, and vocals, Jon Loper on drums, and Dare Matheson on a synthesizer rig he could have rescued from a garage sale at Allen Ravenstine's house, Oceans of the Moon know how to make a groove when they feel like it (the R&B influences are faint but audible in Loper's drumming)

...The band's name comes directly from a tune composed by pianist Mal Waldron, recorded by Donald Byrd and Booker Little for the 1960 album The Soul of Jazz Percussion (reissued as The Third World)...
The Quiet Temple - X Rated from The Quiet Temple
Founded by guitarist Duke Garwood and Soulsavers' Rich Machin, Quiet Temple is a loose-knit, slipstream instrumental collective named for a Mal Waldron composition immortalized by Donald Byrd and Booker Little. The rolling cast includes players who have worked with various bands over the past two decades and sometimes together. The roster includes saxophonist Ray Dickaty (Stereolab, Spiritualized); keyboardist Tim Lewis (aka Thighpaulsandra -- Spiritualized and Julian Cope), drummer Paul May, bassist Peter Marsh (both Woven Entity), and guitarist Tony "Doggen" Foster (Julian Cope, Spiritualized, Brain Donor). Their music crisscrosses genres from psych and post-punk to left-field jazz, steamy dub, kosmiche, and even Krautrock...  Ultimately, there are too few records like The Quiet Temple. While its musical referents are obvious, its assemblage, execution, and inspiration are not.

The Quiet Temple founded by Duke Garwood and Soulsavers' Rich Machin

Central Florida noise pop trio UV-TV make catchy, candid pop melancholia with jagged edges
UV-TV - World
“World” is one of their longest tracks, an extended humid nightmare whose sunny tones cut through the compression. “I’m running, always trying, it’s always worth the fighting,” Rose Vastola sings through the density. “There’s no choice of denying.”

Twen - Waste
...We’ll learn more about their full-length debut later this year, but for now we’ve got “Waste,” a song about self-doubt and silencing a negative mental feedback loop. Lead vocalist Jane Fitzsimmons shouts over an extremely catchy but hard-hitting melody, “I make you wanna be someone. I make you want to waste it, I make you wanna waste some time.” The harmonies kind of remind me of early Tegan And Sara with a fuzzy edge...

Bethlehem Steel - Bad Girl
...At the project’s center is still Becca Rsykalczyk, though, whose smoky voice grounds Bethlehem Steel’s lead single “Bad Girl”: “Woke up early to hate myself/ Am I a bad girl?” she wonders on it, her swirl of anxieties giving way to a terse, knotted breakdown.“‘Bad Girl’ is about all the nights that my brain keeps me awake. Irrationally telling me I’m a terrible person. Going over and over and over all of the things I might have done to upset or inconvenience another human,” Ryskalczyk said in a statement. “Singing the line ‘am I a bad girl?’ to my bandmates or even just out loud to myself was definitely embarrassing. I wasn’t sure if I should even keep it as a lyric until I decided to just lean into it. I send my mom everything I’m working on and when I sent her the demos with place holder titles she was like ‘Bad Girl? Now THATS how you name a song!’ so naturally it had to stay.”...

DIIV - Skin Game
We’re also getting the lead single, “Skin Game,” a track that starts breezy and shoegaze-y and eventually trails off into electrifying guitar distortion. Zachary Cole Smith talks about “Skin Game,” describing it as a song about addiction and recovery, in a statement:
"It’s an imaginary dialogue between two characters, which could either be myself or people I know. I spent six months in several different rehab facilities at the beginning of 2017. I was living with other addicts. Being a recovering addict myself, there are a lot of questions like, “Who are we? What is this disease?” Our last record was about recovery in general, but I truthfully didn’t buy in. I decided to live in my disease instead. “Skin Game” looks at where the pain comes from. I’m looking at the personal, physical, emotional, and broader political experiences feeding into the cycle of addiction for millions of us."

The Hold Steady - You Did Good Kid
The song thrives on contradiction. Rumination on daily drudgery and existential anxiety (“When your low serotonin’s got you brittle and glitchy”) is sandwiched between half-hearted affirmations (“You did good kid.”) Spiraling riffs lead to a buoyant brass section. It sounds like a harmonious panic attack...
"‘You Did Good Kid’ is the first song we worked on for this session, and remains a favorite,” Finn says in a statement. “It went though a few iterations before we came to this arrangement, and I’m really psyched on it. It feels great to play live.”

Russian Circles - Kohokia
In a couple of weeks, Chicago instrumental trio Russian Circles are set to release a new album, Blood Year... a simmering 7-minute epic that feels like a perfect confluence of their sound: glowering dread and tension mixed with soaring highs that approach transcendence...

Ernie Hawks, The Soul Investigators, G&D, Jenny Hval, Wild Billy Childish & CTMF, Oceans of the Moon, The Quiet Templel, UV-TV, Twen, Bethlehem Steel, DIIV, The Hold Steady, Russian Circles