#Cooking Vinyl

[nofatclips]

This'll Never Be Like Love by The Psychedelic Furs from the album Made of Rain [also available on BandCamp]

[closelyrelatedkeys]

Listen/purchase: The Era of the End of Eras (ft. H.R.) by Gogol Bordello

[trevlad-sounds]

For the Birds 037

24.01.2024

SHIVARASA – They Feel, They Know – 00:00 Wave Temples – Prelude to the Night Huntress – 09:57 Lovelock – Rhythm 77 – 11:03 Wave Temples – Procession of the Star People – 15:01 DR. ATMO – Dua – 15:43 Lee Hannah – valley bird – 21:33 Florigenix – Vector Shrine of Gentle Breath – 22:13 Giuliano Sorgini – Miraggio – 23:17 David Cordero – Las Albinas – 25:44 Giuliano Sorgini – Oasi Nella Giungla – 29:38 Gilroy Mere – Torver and Coppermines – 30:05 Chocolate Hills, The Orb – Ace – 33:35 Jonny Trunk – Nest We Forgot – 37:39 Ümlaut – Pour Un Moment – 39:33 Crystal Quartez – Growth – 44:02 Felix Laband – Prelude – 53:23 Tomer Baruch – Into the Pond – 57:39

[sinceileftyoublog]

Cracker Interview: Telling the Band's Story

Photo by Jason Thrasher

BY JORDAN MAINZER

"Sometimes, nowadays, you don't have control over what you're promoting and marketing."

Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven front-man David Lowery, speaking to me over the phone from his hometown Athens, GA, was referring to songs going viral on TikTok when you least expect or even desire it, something that's happened to artists from Duster to Faye Webster. But control is exactly what Cracker have been seeking for the past two decades. In 2006, a day after their previous label Virgin Records issued a Cracker greatest hits record without the band's permission, Cracker released their own, Greatest Hits Redux, via British independent label Cooking Vinyl. More importantly, the songs on Redux were rerecorded, meaning Cracker owned the masters, and the band priced them on iTunes for less than the versions on Virgin's collection, resulting in greater sales for the Redux versions. Plus, if you were a Cracker diehard or completist, wouldn't you have wanted to nab the technically "different" versions of these classic songs?

In November, Lowery and company called back to their previous middle finger to the music industry, releasing Alternative History: A Cracker Retrospective, also via Cooking Vinyl. The compilation contains the Redux versions of the band's most popular tunes as well as their past collaborative rerecords with Boulder bluegrass jammers Leftover Salmon, live recordings from Madrid and the German TV show Rockpalast, deep cuts, and previously unreleased material. Lowery, also a Senior Lecturer in Music Business at the University of Georgia, is as privy to anyone to the general listening habits of Gen-Z, knowing that music listeners increasingly favor playlists over albums. Consider Alternative History Cracker's official band playlist.

In fact, some of the versions on Alternative History have become canon in the ears of fans. If you've caught Cracker performing "I See the Light" live, the spritely ending here (originally on Redux) should sound more familiar than the comparatively slower outro from their self-titled debut. The jaunty barroom pianos of the Leftover Salmon collaborative version of "Sweet Potato" breathes new life into the Kerosene Hat standout. Leftover Salmon also help Cracker get to the point on "Eurotrash Girl", the arrangement carried by Noam Pikelny's banjo rather than dripping psychedelic guitars.

Of course, Cracker hopes that Alternative History becomes anything but alternate--if not definitive, that it stands on its own. It provides Lowery the opportunity to tweak his vocal performance and banjo playing on "Almond Grove", and for the band to remix, ever so slightly, even recordings released a mere few years ago. The compilation ends with "Ain't Gonna Suck Itself", the band's infamous dismissal of Virgin Records that appeared on 2003's Countrysides. It was the only non-cover song on that album, and ironically, wasn't rerecorded when it appeared on Redux. Here, we see the now indie rock band dangling a carrot over the heads of major label executives, cheekily asserting the control they continuously fight to keep.

Cracker's currently on tour in support of Alternative History, and on Sunday, they stop at Old Town School of Folk Music for two shows: an afternoon unplugged set and an evening full band show. Below, read my conversation with Lowery, edited for length and clarity.

Since I Left You: Why did you decide to release this alternative history?

David Lowery: Students who would take classes from me would dig through my catalog and discover Cracker through these algorithmic playlists that the streaming services generate, which are sort of weird. Obviously, the hits are at the top of those playlists, but [sometimes,] something [gets traction from] someone else's playlist, like "Greatest Hits of the 90's" or "Songs From The Television Show Californication." Playlists are sequenced badly, because they're by popularity, and I was kind of tripping on the fact that if somebody wants to get into a band, there's a better way to do it. [Plus,] our Greatest Hits Redux was only our first 10 years of the band, so we needed a new one. We needed a new retrospective.

I started talking to Cooking Vinyl about it, because a lot of our catalog is licensed by them. What we were gonna do was license key tracks from the Universal Music Group and Concord catalogs, but That started to seem expensive. One of the good things for Cracker is that through the years, we've rerecorded a number of our hits and key tracks for licensing. One of the reasons you do that is if somebody wants to come for a commercial, film, video game, or streaming license, you can offer them this other track at a slightly reduced price and keep all the money. That was very helpful for us. There were a lot of rerecords of our hits, and they're very well done. Movie directors are super picky. They want a particular recording of a song, so the rerecords have to sound just like it. There were also various collaborations we did over the years, like with Leftover Salmon and Drive-By Truckers, and because of the constraints of licensing, we started looking at this like, "What if we did a retrospective, but did all re-records, outtakes, B-sides, and live recordings, and tell the Cracker story that way?" I just thought it was more interesting, and in a lot of ways, a more accurate telling of the band's story.

SILY: Some of the versions on here are the ones your fans prefer. Also, it seems like once you release a song and play it live over the years, it takes a new shape and often becomes the definitive version. Do you agree with your fans in that regard?

DL: Certain songs, the beauty of the recording you get in a studio can't be matched. But "One Fine Day", which over the years has evolved into a Crazy Horse-esque, 8-minute-long song, that's just a better version of the song. We had a really good recording of that from the German television show Rockpalast. "Gimme One More Chance" from that same show is a good one. There's a stripped down, slower, more quiet version of "Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey" from when we were on tour in Spain a few years ago. That's a different interpretation of the song, but it's cool. It works really well. In some cases, these other versions we did of the song, the live versions, maybe, were better than the original recordings, because [at the time of recording,] the songs were new and we hadn't played them that much. There's also just weird stuff, like the fact we found a demo of "Merry Christmas Emily", which I did as a rock rave-up, a roots rock version from forever ago. The original demo of the songs was completely different, and I had forgotten about it. [The version on Alternative History is] not the demo of the song, we just recorded it as we would have if we had changed the song to more of a rock song. It's almost like a different song with the same words. These things are important for people to hear, almost like an alternate reality.

SILY: There are a couple songs on Alternative History that aren't even rerecords, you've just reintroduced them because they were from a record you didn't think enough people paid attention to, like Greenland and the song "I Need Better Friends". I was also happy you included alternate versions of songs from Berkeley to Bakersfield, which is my favorite Cracker record. How does your relationship with your songs change over time? Do you still identify with the person you were when you wrote them?

DL: Most of the time. There's a certain level of professionalism you have to have. I've played "Low" 5,000 times, but I have to play it like it's our new song. I get myself in that mindset. It's a challenge with older songs we've played so many times. But we have such a large catalog, we can always mix it up. We'll play our 5 hits, but every other song in the set is different than the last time we played that city.

SILY: Do you ever think you'll do a live tour of alternate versions?

DL: We used to do a Cracker duo tour, and that evolved into a trio when we borrowed a pedal steel player. That's what we did for a while. There was talk of us releasing an album of it, but we never really got around to it.

SILY: You could get Leftover Salmon to join you. I love your collaborative version of "Eurotrash Girl" with them--it's concise and compacted.

DL: There was a 20th anniversary of that [album, Oh Cracker, Where Art Thou?, in 2023], and we talked about trying to do some shows together, but we couldn't fit it into our schedules. Those songs are important to our career and catalog. A lot of our fans know about them, but a lot of the general public doesn't. I love that version of "Eurotrash Girl". It was done in a single take. We were talking about how to do it, and [Leftover Salmon's] banjo player at the time suggested we do it as a waltz. We were noodling around and got it going, and that's the take, from conception to printed recording in 30 minutes.

SILY: Are the Madrid songs on here the same you shared on Bandcamp in 2023?

DL: Yeah. We did that as a limited edition CD, only 600 copies. A couple of them are slightly remixed, because in between the time we released the Madrid shows and the release of this record, the stuff we call "AI," which is really just very intelligent signal processing, has gotten so advanced, we were able to rebalance those recordings a little bit, where, [for instance,] the vocals were too quiet. The [songs are] slightly different. Someone with a fine ear will notice the instruments are balanced better, because you can literally take a two-track live recording and remix it down, and it has no artifacts. It's bizarre.

SILY: It's been over 10 years since Cracker's released a new record. Is there anything next for you?

DL: My 3 solo records [that came out since COVID] all come out as a box set with even more songs on it in May. It started before COVID, but that project was supercharged by COVID. It's super cool, because it's kind of somewhere between Camper and Cracker. Some of it is stripped down, and some of it has a string section. I've been doing solo shows--not a ton of them, because I've been waiting for all of this to come out as a box set--and it's started to become a pretty popular show for me. I sold out 2 shows in Atlanta. That's kind of where my focus has been. I imagine we'll make another Cracker record. I'd hoped Camper would make a record for our 40th anniversary, but I don't think we'll have time to make that happen, so instead I think me and Chris Molla, one of the founders in the band in the early years, are thinking of making a recording of our band that preceded Camper van Beethoven but shares a lot of the same songs. I got a lot of stuff going on; I'm not sure if it's a Camper record or a Cracker record just yet.

SILY: Right before COVID, I saw the Cracker-Camper Van Beethoven tour at Lincoln Hall in Chicago. For some reason, my wife and I had watched Bio-Dome earlier that day, and there's a Camper song in that movie that you played later that night (“Good Guys and Bad Guys”). I had totally forgotten about that. It was such a weird cosmic connection, experiencing a movie and song I hadn't in years on the same day.

DL: There's a certain kind of B movie that gets played over and over again that generates a lot of performance royalties for us, and that's one of them. Another one is Year One. We had two songs in Sharknado, another weird sleeper that just keeps getting viewed and viewed. It's interesting when songs go into those films; there's a certain B movie that has that weird long life.

SILY: Is there anything lately you've been listening to, watching, or reading that's caught your attention?

DL: The Penguin, which is not a superhero movie, but a mafia movie from the Batman universe, is super well done. If you're ever into science fiction, The Three-Body Problem is a mind-blowing trilogy, and so is The Expanse series. I've gotten back into sci-fi because one of my sons is really into sci-fi and space shanties. Lately, I've been listening to a lot of John K. Samson's solo records. He's put out a number of solo records that are outstanding writing. In some ways, there's something about him that I think people hear Camper in, in a way, but that's not really why I listen to him. I just think it's outstanding writing and storytelling.

[burlveneer-music]

Don Letts - Outta Sync - he's been around so long it's hard to believe this is his first album as an artist

Don Letts’ philosophy has always been that another day brings a new opportunity. And so, at the age of 67-years-old, the musician, DJ, film director, radio broadcaster, author and honorary doctorate today completes the one creative endeavour that he has not yet pursued: the release of his debut album ‘Outta Sync’. ‘Outta Sync’ is a glorious experience that traverses across Don’s myriad array of musical passions, taking in elements of cosmic reggae, psych ska and kaleidoscopic pop, coloured by Hammond, sitar, melodica, glockenspiel and an a-list synth line-up of Minimoog, Arp Odyssey and Korg MS20. It’s also a record full of inspired collaborations with a range of creative forces, many of whom have an intriguing connection to his storied career. A quick roll call: producer, solo artist and worldbeat pioneer Gaudi; Grammy-winning producer and Killing Joke bassist Youth; Hollie Cook, Zoe Devlin Love, Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips and, of course, Don’s daughter Honor. But at the centre is the voice of the man himself, his mellifluous vocals, raps and spoken word sharing hopes and fears born from his years of experience… albeit with the lyrical disclaimer, “I’ve finally come to realise I might not be so old and wise.” Don says, “This album is totally me. The sum total of my whole cultural journey is on this record, and it reflects the duality of my existence, which is Black and British. It’s essentially a soundtrack to my mind, with some wicked bass lines.” And that’s the ‘Outta Sync’ album. The west Londoner, who has worked with everyone from The Clash to Sinead O’Connor, Bob Marley to Paul McCartney and multiple others on assorted adventures in between, has now made an album of his own. But as tomorrow is another day and another opportunity, the question that remains is: what next for the Rebel Dread? 

[trevlad]

Invisible Waves 18.

Mixcloud link Spotify link

Intro 00:00 Time Rival-Pumice 00:05 Chapter 1 05:35 Sedibus-Seti - Pt. 3 07:07 CIALYN-Magpies Hopscotch 12:38 Chapter 2 16:11 Forsling&Hauch, Mika Forsling-Markings 20:03 boycalledcrow-Tuktuk 23:50 Chapter 3 27:18 Correlations-Expanding Orange 29:46 Sergio Nunca-Décalage 34:02 Chapter 4 37:03 Andrew CS-dead leaves / morgan brown 41:03 Afterthoughts 45:28

[akaanuar]

Top 20: Best Albums of 2023

A escasas horas de terminar el 2023 les presento por undécimo año consecutivo mi top 20 de los mejores y favoritos álbumes del año. Música nueva de todas partes del mundo que me acompañó durante este año en los mejores y no tan mejores momentos. Pero antes, les comparto mi top 5 de los mejores conciertos que asistí durante el 2023: 1. Depeche Mode y Kelly Lee Owens @ Foro Sol, CDMX 2. Kraftwerk @…

[recordswithgooglyeyes]

Michelle Shocked – “Short Sharp Shocked”

submitted by @me_andor_franklin

[jaxthejaguar]

my #17 Track of the Year for 2023 is...

"The Dreamers" by Ladytron!

the 2023 anthem of High Jax. and the best cut off the second best album of the year. this entire album is basically this -- synth textures, urban dystopia, thick scottish accents. and this track, almost literally the album's centerpiece, carries you away on waves of soft pads and sparse percussion. an emotional and magical addition to the list from a group that seems to have matured quite a bit from their club anthem days.

seriously, this album is a 5/5, and you should listen to it. we'll get to this year's other 5/5 album later in this very list.

[senorboombastic]

Live Review: Willy Mason at St Mary's Creative Space in Chester 03 August 2023

Words: Ben Forrester Last year I went to St Mary’s Creative Space for the first time and fell in love with this church gone live venue situated in the centre of Chester. So I was delighted to see that the wonderful Willy Mason would be inhabiting the venue thanks to Roman Candle Promotions, who have been putting on some cracking gigs there over the past few years. Having been a huge fan of the…

[nofatclips]

Cyrulik Jack by Me And That Man - Video written and directed by Olga Czyżykiewicz

[fanghaunt]

could u draw vinyl scratch

when i was like 10 and just found out about skrillex i thought vinyl scratch was the coolest motherfucker ever

she is

[garadinervi]

SUMAC and Moor Mother, The Film, (Opaque Yellow 2xLP, CD, Digital album), THRILL 629, Thrill Jockey, 2025 [© Moor Mother, SUMAC]

All lyrics and titles by Moor Mother

Moor Mother: vocals, synths, effects Nick Yacyshyn: drums, percussion, synths Aaron Turner: guitar, vocals, electronics Brian Cook: bass

Kyle Kidd: additonal vocals on 'Scene 3' Sovei: additional vocals on 'Scene 4' Candice Hoyes: additional vocals on 'Hard Truth'

Recorded at Studio Litho, Seattle, WA, December 2023 Mixed at Antisleep Audio, Oakland, CA, October 2024 Additional recording by Moor Mother, N. Yacyshyn and A. Turner Mastered by Matthew Barnhart, Chicago Mastering, Chicago, IL, October 2024

Cover concept based on photograph: Moor Mother Cover painting, additional artwork and design: A. Turner

[zillabean]

This chef SLAYS~ 🔪❤️✨

... I just really wanted to make this terrible pun and draw a sexy Hannibal 🤣❤️

If you'd like to take him home, he's in my shop! ❤️

ZILLA.STORENVY.COM

[m4movies]

Fajita MOOD

[anitoshka]