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 The Revivalists, Alanis Morissette, Mt. Joy, Revelators Sound System, Bartees Strange and Frank Zappa. Read on for more insight into the records we have all queued up to spin.
The Revivalists – Made In Muscle Shoals Vol. 2
The Revivalists return with a second installment in their Made In Muscle Shoals live EP series. Captured at the storied FAME Recording Studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Made In Muscle Shoals Vol. 2 follows the New Orleans rockers’ first release in the series which arrived in 2020 and saw frontman David Shaw and company cutting a number of songs from their 2018 LP, Take Good Care, live in the hallowed rooms of FAME.
The Revivalists now share the second chapter from the sessions, which they previewed with “You Said It All (Made In Muscle Shoals).”
“FAME Studios is known for making hits in an era where everything was played live and you can feel it in the room,” Shaw said of the renowned recording facility. “Recording ‘You Said It All’ there inspired us to bring the same energy we put into our live shows into this version of the song.”
The band followed with the FAME treatment of Take Good Care opener “Otherside of Paradise (Made In Muscle Shoals).”
“There’s a purity, depth and innocence to this song that could only be captured in a place like FAME,” David added on the Muscle Shoals version of “Otherside of Paradise.” “I really love how this one came out. It speaks to a special place in us all and this version only deepens that connection.”
Alanis Morissette – the storm before the calm
1990s alternative rock icon Alanis Morissette delves into the world of new age with today’s release of the storm before the calm. Marking Morissette’s first foray into meditation music, the 11-track album is also available on the Calm mental health app. Morissette posted the following note explaining how the new record came to be:
During the last while within the pandemic I felt very inspired to write and remain connected (Didn’t always work. And when it didn’t, it felt like a unique torture). All I knew was that I wanted to write a record that would offer something. And throughout the process of creating it with Dave Harrington — beautifully and mercifully — it became its own multi-layered life raft during a time where I felt like I might disappear and float away. This album is filled with what I hope might be a safe invitation to and compatriot in your/our dropping in … Whether it be relaxation or resting or releasing or emboldening or sweaty wildness or embodying or empowering or clarifying. May it serve as a catalyst, a soothing, a glimpse of awakening. An honoring. An objectivity. A wordless partner in healing. A place to land. Inquire. Breathe. Notice. One in which you are held. In your lying down and jumping up. Your movement, your numbness or your feelings … Any of them … Anger or clearing … Sadness, grief, joy … fear, all. Are. Welcome. May this music serve as a friend in the thawing. A permission to feel and explore while feeling connected. And supported. This music was written with and produced by Dave Harrington of DARKSIDE. Working with Dave entirely over Zoom (we only met once face to face) was one of the greatest collaborative experiences I have had.
Mt. Joy – Orange Blood
Mt. Joy is back with a new album, Orange Blood, via Island Records. With the pandemic raging and forcing the Philadelphia-born, Los Angeles-based band off their 2020 tour with The Luminners, Mt. Joy guitarists Matt Quinn and Sam Cooper took to the desert outside L.A. near Joshua Tree where the sun was their constant companion and informed the music they crafted there, as Quinn explained:
“I was definitely drawn to the color orange. When we were in the desert, everything revolved around the sun. I started playing with the idea that the light we see is this sort of orange blood that runs through all of us and gives life to everything it touches.
Our last album was a breakup record. It had a darker feel. When we were in Joshua Tree, there were so many sad things in the world. We wanted to build something that found beauty in the fact the world has always been crazy. We were trying to find a way to be present enough to appreciate our surroundings even if they’re in decay.”
Quinn and Cooper then returned to Philly to cut Orange Blood with the full band — keyboardist Jackie Miclau, drummer Sotiris Eliopoulos and bassist Michael Byrnes — as well as longtime collaborator and producer Caleb Nelson. The resulting 10-track record included lead single “Lemon Tree” along with the title track and “Bathroom Light.”
Revelators Sound System – Revelators
MC Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger and Spacebomb’s Cameron Ralston came together to form Revelators Sound System. Taylor and Ralston tracked the project’s debut album, Revelators, in 2020 and 2021, mostly at Taylor’s home in Durham, North Carolina as well as at Spacebomb in Richmond, Virginia, where Ralston is the in-house bassist. Others who contributed to the album include pianist Daniel Clarke, saxophonist J.C. Kuhl, percussionist Reggie Pace and drummer J.T. Bates. A portion of the the proceeds from Revelators will be donated to the Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp. Taylor talked about the Revelators Sound System recording sessions in an October 2020 interview for The JamBase Podcast. Describing the collaboration, Taylor stated:
I also started this other project that is ongoing that I’m really excited about that is not a Hiss record. It’s hard to even explain what it sounds like. It‘s not songwriting, it’s some combination of partly ambient, partly sort of rhythmic – just rhythm music. It’s me, a couple of the folks from the Spacebomb band, Cameron Ralston in particular, who’s a dear friend of mine.
Because there’s no boundaries on it, I don’t really know how far developed it is. A month ago I would have said it’s probably almost done. But now that I hear what Cameron is working on with it – now I’m like this is getting really, really interesting. He’s adding stuff to it that I wasn’t even thinking of before, so now it’s a whole different type of thing.
It’s just music that has always been a big part of my life, but maybe has been a little hard to spot in Hiss Golden Messenger records.I listen to a lot of jazz, I listen to a lot of devotional jazz. I listen to a lot of dub reggae from the 1970s. And that stuff rears its head on Hiss records, sort of, but this one – part of it was I just didn’t want to hear my voice at all. I didn’t want to be writing words. I didn’t want to sing, really. I just wanted to work on the compositions and play guitar.
Bartees Strange – Farm To Table
Bartees Strange follows his 2020 debut album Live Forever with the release today of his sophomore full length, Farm To Table. Strange (Bartees Leon Cox Jr.) was born in England, raised in Oklahoma and currently resides in Washington D.C. The guitarist previewed the new record with the singles “Wretched,” “Hold The Line,” “Cosigns” and “Heavy Heart.” According to press materials:
Farm To Table examines Bartees’ constantly shapeshifting relationship with life post-Live Forever. It also speaks to a deeper lore that says, don’t forget where you came from, and this album is why. Across 10 songs, Bartees is celebrating the past, moving towards the future and fully appreciating the present.
Frank Zappa – Zappa/Erie
The Frank Zappa vault has opened wide today for the release of Zappa/Erie, a 71-track live archival box set out now on Zappa Records/UMe. Zappa/Erie features audio of three full concerts played by Zappa in and around Erie, Pennsylvania between 1974 – 1976. The legendary guitarist was joined by different lineups at all three shows with only 10 minutes from the set previously released. Zappa/Erie starts with Frank’s May 8, 1974 concert at Edinboro State College and continues with his Erie debut on November 12, 1974. The seven-CD box set ends with the Maestro’s Erie finale on November 12, 1976 and also includes highlights from concerts played around the same time as bonus tracks.
Compiled by Scott Bernstein, Nate Todd and Andy Kahn.
