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 Mac DeMarco, Southern Avenue, Sammy Hagar & The Circle, East Forest and a live Jazz Fest compilation. Read on for more insight into the records we have all queued up to spin.
Mac DeMarco – Here Comes The Cowboy
The Scoop: “This one is my cowboy record,” Mac DeMarco stated. “Cowboy is a term of endearment to me, I use it often when referring to people in my life. Where I grew up there are many people that sincerely wear cowboy hats and do cowboy activities. These aren’t the people I’m referring to.” Here Comes The Cowboy is DeMarco’s first release on his Mac’s Record Label. The follow-up to 2017’s This Old Dog was recorded in January by DeMarco – who handled the majority of instrumentation – at his Jizz Jazz Studios recording facility in Los Angeles. The 13-track LP features DeMarco’s touring band mate Alec Meen on keyboards. DeMarco’s touring sound engineer Joe Santarpia provided engineering and mixing.
Southern Avenue – Keep On
The Scoop: Memphis-based soul quintet Southern Avenue are back with Keep On, their sophomore studio album. The band recorded the album for Concord Records at the famed Sam Phillips Recording in their hometown of Memphis. Johnny Black served as producer for the 12-track effort. Legendary performer William Bell appears on the LP as does bassist Gage Markey and a horn section consisting of Art Edmaiston and Marc Franklin. “Making this album was an interesting journey,” said guitarist Ori Naftaly. “Our first album was recorded very fast and released very fast. With this one, we spent a long time planning, and we knew how we wanted it sound. For me, it’s a big progression from the first album.”
Sammy Hagar & The Circle – Space Between
The Scoop: Veteran rock vocalist Sammy Hagar recruited is former Van Halen band mate bassist Michael Anthony to form The Circle. Rounding out the group are drummer Jason Bonham and guitarist Vic Johnson. The band’s 10-track debut was produced by Hagar, Johnson and Jaimeson Durr and features additional contributions from guitarist Ian Hatton and keyboardists Audie Delone and Brett Tuggle. “The 10 songs (or chapters) on the Space Between are not just a bunch of new songs grouped together on an album,” Hagar stated. “They were sewn together conceptually for a complete mental, emotional and physical experience (kind of a Three Lock Box). Once I had the overall vision, the lyrics and music began to just flow through me and the songs unfolded like chapters in a book.”
East Forest – Music For Mushrooms: A Soundtrack For The Psychedelic Practitioner
The Scoop: East Forest (Trevor Oswalt) created the five-hour Music For Mushrooms to coincide with a hallucinatory psilocybin trip. “I’ve always intuitively felt that the solutions our world needs will not come from the top down,” East Forest stated. “Rather, the answers we’ve been looking for will come from the inside out. By exploring our interior landscape to heal our traumas, to root out shame, to learn to love ourselves, we empower our ability to make positive changes that echo out into our lives and the world around us.” The psychedelic soundtrack is made up of 13-tracks that are intended to be listened to continuously.
Various Artists – Jazz Fest: The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
The Scoop: Smithsonian Folkways put together a five-disc box set in honor of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival’s 50th anniversary. The box set consists of live recordings from the festival’s past. Spanning 1974 – 2016, Jazz Fest: The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival includes performances by Trombone Shorty, Irma Thomas, Big Freedia, Professor Longhair, The Neville Brothers, Allen Toussaint (solo and in a duet with Bonnie Raitt), Dr. John, Kermit Ruffins, Terence Blanchard, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Champion Jack Dupree and many others. The release also contains a 135-page book chock full of photos from the event’s storied history, essays and liner notes.
Compiled by Andy Kahn and Scott Bernstein.
