Each week Release Day Picks profiles new LPs and EPs Team JamBase will be checking out on release day Friday. This week we highlight new albums by Stephen Malkmus, Todd Snider, Karen O & Danger Mouse, Snarky Puppy, T Sisters and Jerry Garcia Band. Read on for more insight into the records we have all queued up to spin.
Stephen Malkmus – Groove Denied
The Scoop: Stephen Malkmus’ first album without his usual supporting cast The Jicks since 2001 is a bit of a sonic departure for the Pavement guitarist. Most of the material on the 10-track Groove Denied was written during a period in the early 2000s Malkmus spent living in Berlin. The techno sound of the German city’s dance club scene inspired Malkmus’ recordings which were created using Ableton’s Live, drum machines, other effects and synthesizers. While the single “Come Get Me” was described as the more typical “warped psych” that Malkmus is known for, he described wanting “the electronic side of the album” to sound “sonically pre-Internet.”
Todd Snider – Cash Cabin Sessions, Vol. 3
The Scoop: Beloved singer-songwriter Todd Snider went to a famed location to record his latest album. Snider recorded the 12-track Cash Cabin Sessions, Vol. 3 at Johnny Cash’s recording studio in Hendersonville, Tennessee. And don’t let the title deceive you, there is no Vol. 1 or Vol. 2. Todd mostly goes it alone on instruments previously owned by Johnny besides some backing vocals courtesy of Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires. Cash Cabin Sessions, Vol. 3 has a runtime of 34 minutes and is available now through Aimless/Thirty Tigers.
Karen O & Danger Mouse – Lux Prima
The Scoop: Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O and musician/producer Danger Mouse have teamed up for the collaborative album Lux Prima. “After making music for the past 20 years and embarking on making this record with Danger Mouse I knew a couple things: one was that the spirit of collaboration between us was going to be a pure one, and two was that the more I live the less is clear to me,” shared Karen O. “We wrote the album in deliberate isolation,” continued Danger Mouse. “Along the way asking ourselves lots of questions. We didn’t find many answers, but found it was more about the questions themselves.” The nine-track effort include the sprawling nine-minute title track as well as “Woman,” a tune that O wrote in the wake of the 2016 election.
Snarky Puppy – Immigrance
The Scoop: “The idea here is that everything is fluid, that everything is always moving and that we’re all in a constant state of immigration,” Snarky Puppy bassist/bandleader Michael League stated regarding the group’s new record, Immigrance. “Obviously the album’s title is not without political undertones.” League produced the eight-song follow-up to the Brookyln-based jazz collective’s 2016 Grammy Award-winning for Best Instrumental Album Culcha Vulcha. Several of the group’s members wrote or co-wrote the songs on Immigrance, with credts going to trumpeter Mike “Maz” Maher, guitarist Chris McQueen, keyboardist Justin Stanton and saxophonist, flutist and clarinetist Chris Bullock.
T Sisters – We Are Bound
The Scoop: Siblings Erika Tietjen, Rachel Tietjen and Chloe Tietjen kept a familial vibe when recording their four-song EP, We Are Bound. The Oakland-based T Sisters headed to Nashville to work with The Wood Brothers‘ Oliver Wood and his brother Chris Wood. The follow-up to their self-titled 2016 full-length features Oliver’s production and guitar, while Chris contributed bass.
Jerry Garcia Band – Electric On The Eel
The Scoop: When Wavy Gravy asked Jerry Garcia to play a fundraiser for his hog farm in 1987, Jerry accepted but with a twist. The Grateful Dead guitarist wanted impresario Bill Graham to be involved. After Wavy said yes, Garcia brought both the Jerry Garcia Band and Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band to French’s Camp On The Eel River in Piercy, California for a show on August 29, 1987. Out today on Round Records is the 6-CD box set Electric On The Eel featuring the Jerry Garcia Band’s performance from that day as well as sets at the same venue on June 10, 1989 and August 10, 1991. Each show is stacked with highlights including a powerful “And It Stoned Me” from ’87, the rare gospel standard “I Hope It Won’t Be This Way Always” from ’89 and a gorgeous “Shining Star” from ’91. The JGB lineup at the times featured Garcia, keyboardist Melvin Seals, bassist John Kahn, drummer David Kemper and vocalists Gloria Jones and Jacklyn LaBranch.
Compiled by Jeffrey Greenblatt, Andy Kahn and Scott Bernstein.
