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 Red Hot Chili Peppers, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, The Greyboy Allstars and Club d’Elf. Read on for more insight into the records we have all queued up to spin.
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Unlimited Love
A new era featuring the return of two longtime collaborators begins today for Red Hot Chili Peppers with the release of Unlimited Love om Warner Records. The 17-track album marks the band’s first with guitarist John Frusciante since 2006 and first produced by Rick Rubin since 2011. Frusciante rejoined RHCP in 2019 to launch his third stint in the group, while Rubin previously collaborated with the band on their six studio albums issued between 1991 (Blood Sugar Sex Magik) and 2011 (I’m With You). Vocalist Anthony Kiedis, bassist Flea, drummer Chad Smith and Frusciante share credit for each track with Unlimited Love recorded at Rubin’s Shangri-La facility in Malibu.
“We feel fresh, like a new band,” Frusciante told NME of the experience recording Unlimited Love. “I put a lot less of my ego [into it] than I had previously and I think that was true with everybody. It wasn’t so much a competition thing as really wanting to give a part of ourselves to one another [and] being excited to listen to what the others were bringing in. Sometimes in the past, like on ‘By The Way’ for example, or [1989 album] ‘Mother’s Milk’, one person would feel stifled at the expense of another. This time it felt very much like people who care about each other and are genuinely excited for everybody else to be the best that they can be.”
Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway – Crooked Tree
Guitarist Molly Tuttle and her new bluegrass band Golden Highway released their album, Crooked Tree. Tuttle and noted dobro player Jerry Douglas co-produced the album, which was recorded at Nashville’s Oceanway Studios. Golden Highway participants include Douglas, fiddler Bronwyn Keith-Hynes and mandolinist Dominick Leslie. Others contributing to Crooked Tree were banjoist Ron Block, upright bassists Mike Bub, Viktor Krauss and Todd Phillips, and fiddlers Darol Anger, Jason Carter and Christian Sedelmyer, as well as additional harmony vocals from Tina Adair, Lindsay Lou and Melody Walker. The 13-track LP is Tuttle’s first release for Nonesuch Records. Several impressive guests were recruited by Tuttle, who is accompanied across the album by Sierra Hull, Old Crow Medicine Show, Margo Price, Billy Strings, Dan Tyminski and Gillian Welch.
“I always knew I wanted to make a bluegrass record someday,” Tuttle stated. “Once I started writing, everything flowed so easily: sometimes I’ve felt an internal pressure to come up with a sound no one’s heard before, but this time my intention was just to make an album that reflected the music that’s been passed down through generations in my family. I found a way to do that while writing songs that feel true to who I am, and it really helped me to grow as a songwriter.”
The Greyboy Allstars – Get A Job: Music From The Original Broadcast Series Soul Dream
Greyboy Allstars’ live in-studio album Get a Job: Music from the Original Broadcast Series Soul Dream arrived today via the renowned funk and jazz outfit’s Knowledge Room Recordings imprint. The band’s Karl Denson (saxophone, flute), Elgin Park (guitars), Aaron Redfield (drums), Chris Stillwell (bass) and Robert Walter (keyboards) captured the record live during their 2021 Soul Dream livestream series.
The LP, the group’s sixth studio recording, boasts 10 never-before-released covers from artists such as Gil Scott-Heron, Gene Ammons, The Beatles, Gary Bartz and Burt Bacharach, among others. Greyboy Allstars previewed Get A Job with the 1969 “rare-groove, deep-cut” Mary Jane Hooper-recorded “I’ve Got Reasons” as well as the 1971 Ann Alford “soul-funk scorcher” “Got To Get Me A Job.” The record also contains the George Harrison-penned Beatles number “Taxman,” Dr. Lonnie Smith’s “Play It Back” and more.
Club d’Elf – You Never Know
Boston-based world-dub-jazz collective Club d’Elf released their album You Never Know today. The double LP grew from a near-death experience the band’s sole constant member Mike Rivard had while on a spiritual journey in the deep Amazon. When he returned to Boston, Rivard was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism.
“A lot of people find out about having a pulmonary embolism by dying,” Rivard said. “After the trauma in the jungle as I slipped further and further into the darkness, one of the scariest parts was how things I loved lost all meaning, the pleasure just drained away. It was this sense of sliding into an alternate universe of shadow.”
The healing power of music, however, pulled Mike from his depression after he immersed himself in his beloved gnawa, a West African form of trance music. “Trance music provides a portal into the eternal, the timeless realm,” Rivard continued. “Whether it’s Fela Kuti, James Brown, Talking Heads’ Remain in Light or gnawa, the key element is repetition.”
As his depression lifted, Rivard — who plays the traditional gnawa instrument the sintir and as well as bass on the album — convened his Club d’Elf collaborators drummer Dean Johnston, DJ Mister Rourke, keyboardists Paul Schultheis and John Medeski, Morocco-native Brahim Fribgane on oud, vocals and percussion as well as guitarists Duke Levine, David Fiuczynski and Kevin Barry. The band tracked You Never Know to analog tape with minimal overdubs.
Compiled by Scott Bernstein, Nate Todd and Andy Kahn.
