Your Food "Poke It With A Stick (Drag City)"
Sure, most people have never heard of Your Food or their only LP Poke It With A Stick. But those who have hold in in such high regard that they’d likely love to tell you about it in great detail at any opportunity. Thanks to Drag City, now we can all become like those chosen few who happened to stumble upon this long out of print, highly collectable album from the KY post-punks. How music that sounded like this was being recorded in KY in the days before the internet 700 miles away from their angular sound’s NYC epicenter is baffling. Sounding a little bit like rhythm obsessed NY bands ESG or Bush Tetras, this is sure to get your motor running. Check out the first track from the reissue, “Leave.”
Alasdair Roberts, Amble Skuse, & David McGuinness "What News (Drag City)"
Alasdair Roberts is back with another heaping helping of traditional folk songs. Sung with his unique voice, which sounds timeless, coupled with his sparse arrangements consisting mostly of piano, Dulcitone (an instrument that plays tuning forks instead of strings) and modern hints of electronics via his collaborators Amble Skuse and David McGuinness, this is a collection that could come from literally anyones music collection. It wouldn’t be surprising if your grandparents had What News (Drag City) on their shelf, nor would it be out of place in a collection from someone with an immaculately curated selection of records. Check out “Johnny O’The Brine” and remember what Llewyn Davis said: “If it was never new, and it never gets old, then it’s a folk song.”
Brother JT "Tornado Juice (Thrill Jockey)"
Brother JT, he of The Original Sins, he of the internet show Tripping Balls (and yes, it’s exactly what you think it is) is back with a new BroJT album. Tornado Juice (Thrill Jockey), is the latest collection of tunes, but not made in his normal way. Generally, John Terlesky likes to record by himself in the band’s practice space, but this time he actually recorded in a studio. Ray Ketchem, who recorded The Original Sins’ classic album Bethlehem in 1996 just opened a studio on Jersey, so he knew it was time to step out of his comfort zone and into another comfort zone, the studio of a friend. After those sessions, he took the tracks home and took a bunch of LSD and overdubbed to his hearts content. The results are a strange mix of garage rock, ‘60s psych, modern references, talk of food, talk of drugs, and more distortion than a Guitar Center on a Saturday afternoon. None of it taken too seriously, but all of it great. Tune in and check out “Baked Alaska.”
Field Report "Summertime Songs (Universal)"
Things are going well for Field Report. Their latest LP, Summertime Songs, is out on Verve (which you probably know is a division of Universal). So how did Chris Porterfield get from the meager beginnings of DeYarmond Edison, the Wisconsin based folk-rock group that also included members Justin Vernon and Phil Cook among others, to here? By writing amazing songs, that’s how! After all, when reviews of an album compare it to Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks, Springsteen’s Nebraska, and Paul Simon’s Hearts and Bones, you must be onto something great, right? Yes. We couldn’t be more excited about this LP. Get yourself excited by checking out the wistful “If I Knew.”