March 31, 2022

Thundercat - Drunk (2017)

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Stephen Lee Bruner (born October 19, 1984), better known by his stage name Thundercat, is an American bass guitarist, singer, songwriter and actor from Los Angeles. 
First coming to prominence as a member of crossover thrash band Suicidal Tendencies, he has since released four solo studio albums and is noted for his work with producer Flying Lotus and his appearances on Kendrick Lamar's 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly. 
In 2016, Thundercat won a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Performance for his work on the track "These Walls" from To Pimp a Butterfly. In 2020, Thundercat released his fourth studio album titled It Is What It Is, which earned him a Grammy Award for Best Progressive R&B Album. 
Drunk is his third studio album. It was released on February 24, 2017 by Brainfeeder. 
It features guest appearances from Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald, Kendrick Lamar, Wiz Khalifa, Mac Miller, and Pharrell. 
It is his first studio album in nearly four years, his last studio album being Apocalypse. Drunk received positive reviews from music critics. A ChopNotSlop remix from OG Ron C, DJ Candlestick, & The Chopstars entitled 'Drank' was released as a special edition purple vinyl record.
Between Apocalypse and Drunk, his second and third albums, bassist Stephen Bruner contributed to a slew of remarkable recordings by fellow Los Angeles dwellers -- Flying Lotus' You're Dead!, Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly and Untitled Unmastered, Kamasi Washington's The Epic, and Terrace Martin's Velvet Portraits among them. 
Several months before Bruner picked up a Grammy for "These Walls," off To Pimp a Butterfly, he issued an EP anchored by "Them Changes." His funkiest, sweetest, most vulnerable song, it reappears as the top highlight on Drunk, a fragmentary and scattered program relative to the Thundercat full-lengths that preceded it. 
Bruner is still fueled by numerous forms that immediately preceded his birth -- smooth soul, soft rock, jazz fusion, synth funk, new wave, all late '70s/early '80s -- and filters them through his soft-hearted, mischievous personality. He surrounds himself with a slightly different cast of old and newer associates, including the first three figures listed above, keyboardist Dennis Hamm, drummer Louis Cole, and producer Sounwave. For better and worse, there's a lot of foolishness occurring here. 
Bruner dreams about being a cat (replete with meowing background melody), pens a tribute to Japanese pop culture ("Just point me to the Pachinko machines"), and delivers a sarcastic jingle regarding social media fatigue ("I'm out here probably doing the most"). 
At times, the whimsicality sinks into middle school humor ("Captain Stupido") and misogyny ("Friend Zone"). 
Love and mortality remain Bruner's strongest subjects, placed on full display in terse but touching ballads like "Lava Lamp," "Jethro," and "3AM." In "Show You the Way," another bright spot, he swaps verses with Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins, two of his heroes, to swirling and balmy effect. Additional guests Kendrick, Pharrell, and Wiz Khalifa add to the star power, but the main attraction is Bruner's singular combination of tremulous yet fluid bass and aching falsetto. 


Track listing

1.  Rabbot Ho - 0:38
2.  Captain Stupido - 1:41
3.  Uh Uh - 2:16
4.  Bus in These Streets - 2:24
5.  A Fan's Mail (Tron Song Suite II) - 2:38
6.  Lava Lamp - 2:58
7.  Jethro - 1:34
8.  Day & Night - 0:37
9.  Show You the Way  (featuring Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins) - 3:34
10.  Walk on By  (featuring Kendrick Lamar) - 3:19
11.  Blackkk - 1:59
12.  Tokyo - 2:24
13.  Jameel's Space Ride - 1:09
14.  Friend Zone - 3:12
15.  Them Changes - 3:08
16.  Where I'm Going - 2:09
17.  Drink Dat  (featuring Wiz Khalifa) - 3:35
18.  Inferno - 4:00
19.  I Am Crazy - 0:25
20.  3AM - 1:15
21.  Drunk - 1:42
22.  The Turn Down  (featuring Pharrell) - 2:29
23.  DUI - 2:18

Japanese version bonus track
24.  Hi  (featuring Mac Miller) - 3:01

Personnel

Notes
Release Date:  February 24, 2017 
Recording Location: Chalice Recording Studios, Hollywood, CA 
Genre: Cool jazz funk, jazz fusion, soul
Styles:  Alternative R&B, Electric Jazz, Contemporary Jazz
Duration: 54:25 

Label - Brainfeeder 

March 29, 2022

Felony - The Fanatic (1983)

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Felony was an American new wave and rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in the early 1970s by brothers Jeffrey Scott Spry (Lead Vocals), Joseph Anthony Spry (Guitars and Vocals), and brothers Danny Sands (Piano and Keyboards) and Steve Sands (Sound Engineer). 

After a period playing shows and making music business connections in the Los Angeles scene, Felony appeared in the horror b-movie Graduation Day (1981), playing their song "Gangsters of Rock." Soon after, they signed with producers/managers Don Rubin, formerly of pop group The Ivy Three, and Artie Kornfeld.  Live shows mixed by sound engineer Steve Sands, who is also credited as second engineer on the debut album “The Fanatic”

During the developmental stage of Felony, Jeffrey Spry left the band briefly to be the singer with Detroit Proto-Punk/Hard rock legends, Ron Asheton (of Iggy & The Stooges) and Dennis "Machine Gun" Thompson (of The MC5) in a short lived super-group (based in Los Angeles) that was called "The New Order" (preceding the English new wave group of the same name). He quickly returned to Felony and continued working with his brother Joe and the other members of the band.

Felony went into the studio and emerged with single "The Fanatic," which became a hit on Los Angeles radio station KROQ-FM with help from program director Rick Carroll. The song peaked at No. 42 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1983. It became a key track in the development of the Modern Rock radio format. "The Fanatic" was included in the influential 1983 Valley Girl soundtrack, which also featured Modern English's "I Melt With You". Felony also performed the track on American Bandstand. A video was made from "The Fanatic" "The Fanatic" video was shot in Hollywood, California, in 1983 and aired on MTV. The Fanatic video includes a cameo of Jeffrey Spry with his first wife, SAG actress, Lucrecia Sarita Russo.

The band, which now included Jeffrey on lead vocals, Joe on guitar, Danny Sands on piano/keyboards, Louis Ruiz on bass and Arty Blea on drums, recorded their first full-length album, also called The Fanatic, which was released in 1983 on Scotti Brothers Records with distribution by CBS Records. It included the single and nine other tracks that helped define the trendy-but-never-huge power-pop new wave sound of the early 1980s.

Felony's second single was 1983's "The Pied Piper," which producer Kornfeld had written with Steve Duboff in the 1960s and which had been a hit for Crispian St. Peters and Cher. "Kristine" from The Fanatic was also a single in 1983. 


Track listing

A1.  The Fanatic - 3:34
A2.  No Room In Heaven - 3:26
A3.  One Step - 2:50
A4.  Positively Negative - 2:57
A5.  Aggravated Man - 3:35

B1.  What A Way To Go - 2:35
B2.  Kristine - 3:55
B3.  The Girl Ain't Straight - 2:59
B4.  Teaser - 2:09
B5.  666 Beware - 1:54


Companies, etc.

Credits

Columbia Records Pressing Plant, Carrollton, GA version as denoted by G1 in runouts. 


Notes
Released: 1983
Genre: Rock
Style:  New Wave, Pop Rock
Length: 32:22

Label - Rock 'N' Roll Records

March 28, 2022

Iggy Pop - Post Pop Depression (2016)

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Post Pop Depression is the seventeenth studio album by American rock singer Iggy Pop, released by Caroline International / Loma Vista Recordings on March 18, 2016.
Produced by Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, the album was recorded in secrecy and features contributions from Queens of the Stone Age member Dean Fertita and Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders.
The album gained a new level of chart success for Pop at age 68, becoming his first US top 20 album and first UK top 5 album. 

Fate has a way of putting things into an interesting context. When it was announced that Iggy Pop would be collaborating with Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, the music press buzzed with anticipation about the project. 
What would the proto-punk icon and the snarky hard rock smart guy come up with? The surprise answer is, in many respects, 2016's Post Pop Depression, an unwitting but loving tribute to Pop's friend and collaborator David Bowie. Post Pop Depression arrived two months after Bowie's death, and was completed before his health problems became common knowledge. 
More than anything, though, this music evokes the sound and feel of Pop's first two solo albums. 1977's The Idiot and Lust for Life were cut with Bowie in Germany as Pop struggled to make sense of his life and career after the Stooges collapsed. With the reunited Stooges gone following the deaths of Ron and Scott Asheton, Post Pop Depression finds Pop returning to the work he made in 1977, in ways that count the most. 
Post Pop Depression is smart and thoughtful, intelligent without being pretentious, and full of bold but introspective thinking. While Josh Homme is certainly no David Bowie, he's a skilled musician who challenges Pop in a way many of his previous producers have not. The sound of Post Pop Depression occasionally gestures to Bowie's work, with and without Pop, but Homme has given this music a personality of its own. 
Dark and richly textured, Post Pop Depression puts Pop's craggy but authoritative voice and intelligent tirades front and center. Homme and his rhythm section of Dean Fertita and Matt Helders have created strong, muscular backdrops for Pop's lyrics that add to their power. They counter his thoughtful anger with sounds that are rich, cleanly designed, and a successful compliment for the star's work. Pop has suggested that Post Pop Depression may be his last album, and if that's true, it wraps up his career with a strong and atypical work. 
It tips its hat to Bowie, but also to the freedom and creative possibilities Pop discovered in their collaborative work. It confirms that Pop has never lost the ability to surprise and upend expectations. In the bitter rant that closes "Paraguay," Pop declares he wants to run away and live as "your basic clod." It's an ironic thought, closing an album that once again proves Pop never was and never will be an ordinary guy. 


Track listing​

1.  Break into Your Heart - 3:54 
2.  Gardenia - 4:14 
3.  American Valhalla - 4:38 
4.  In the Lobby - 4:14 
5.  Sunday - 6:06 
6.  Vulture - 3:15 
7.  German Days - 4:47 
8.  Chocolate Drops - 3:58 
9.  Paraguay - 6:25 

All tracks composed by Iggy Pop and Joshua Homme


Personnel
  • Iggy Pop – vocals (1–9), acoustic guitar (6)
  • Josh Homme – vocals (1–8), gang vocals (9), guitar (1–4, 6, 7), acoustic guitar (8, 9), 12-string electric guitar (5), nylon guitar (9), lead guitar (2, 6), slide guitar (1), lead lap steel (8), bass (2–4, 7–9), piano (4–6, 9), Mellotron (6), synthesizer (1, 2), Fun Machine (4, 9), percussion (5), steel drum (3), chimes (6, 8), vibraphone (3, 8), Indians (6)
  • Dean Fertita – gang vocals (9), guitar (2, 7), electric guitar (6), 12-string electric guitar (4, 9), lead bridge guitar (8), bass (5), keyed bass (1), piano (1, 6, 8), grand plinky piano (7), Wurlitzer (3), clavinet (5), synthesizer (2), Moog (1)
  • Matt Helders – vocals (3, 5, 8), gang vocals (9), drums (1–5, 7–9), percussion (5, 6), marching snares (6), tom toms (6, 7), shaker (4), Indians 

Additional
  • Daphne Chen – violin (5, 7, 9)
  • Lauren Chipman – viola (5, 7, 9)
  • Philip Blake Cooper – cimbassom (5, 7), tuba (3), C tuba (5, 7), F tuba (7), sousaphone (5, 7)
  • Richard Dodd – cello (5, 7, 9)
  • Lynne Fiddmont – backing vocals (5)
  • Sharlotte Gibson – backing vocals (5)
  • Eric Gorfain – violin (5, 7, 9)
  • Jordan Katz – trumpet (3, 5, 7), valve trombone (5, 7), mellophone (5, 7)
  • Danny T. Levine – trumpet (3, 5, 7), flugelhorn (5), cornet (7), valve trombone (3, 5), marching French horn (3), alto horn (7), euphonium (7)
  • David Moyer – alto saxophone (7), tenor saxophone (5, 7), baritone saxophone (3, 7), flute (3, 5), piccolo (5), clarinet (5, 7)

Notes
Released:  March 18, 2016 
Recorded:  January 12 – March 9, 2015 
Studio:  Rancho De La Luna (Joshua Tree, California) / Pink Duck Studios (Burbank, California)
Genre:  Art rock 
Length:  41:31 

Label - Caroline International / Loma Vista

March 08, 2022

The Kills - No Wow (2005)

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The Kills are an English-American rock duo formed by American singer Alison "VV" Mosshart and English guitarist Jamie "Hotel" Hince.

No Wow is the second studio album by indie rock band The Kills. It was released February 21, 2005, on Domino Records. No Wow showcases definite blues and post-punk influences.

It's hard to believe that the Kills could sound even darker, tighter, and more stripped-down than they did on Keep on Your Mean Side, but somehow they managed it: No Wow is one of the most highly concentrated rock albums in a long, long time. In fact, its tight focus and barely relenting intensity make Keep on Your Mean Side's more traditional ebb and flow feel downright slack. 
The band's throbbing guitars, to-the-point rhythms, and sexy, dangerous lyrics have been simmered and tempered down to their barest essences, so much so that No Wow often feels like a stark, stylized caricature of rock. Less is usually more for the Kills, though, and they sound more powerful, more confident, and more distinctive here than they did on their debut. 
"No Wow" itself is a fantastic opener, a powerful statement of intent and of curdled but still compelling love (or lust), the likes of which hasn't been heard since Rid of Me's title track. 
From there, the album doesn't let up until the sweetly narcotized "I Hate the Way You Love, Pt. 2." Most of No Wow feels like monochromatic variations on the same sounds and themes -- monochromatic, but not monotonous. 
Wisely, the Kills have chosen to let their drum machine sound like a drum machine, giving songs like "Love Is a Deserter" a skeletal clatter for a backbone, and others, such as "The Good Ones" and "Sweet Cloud," a piston-like thrust. 
The magnificently taut "Dead Road 7" adds shades of menacing, mysterious country/blues storytelling to the band's songwriting, a direction they should pursue more. At times, No Wow can feel a little too compressed and high-contrast for its own good -- the album downplays the poppier moments that balanced Keep on Your Mean Side's onslaughts. 
However, since there are so few soft, slow songs here, they're thrown into even sharper relief. "Rodeo Town" is one of the loveliest, and grittiest, ballads that the band has written, and "Ticket Man" ends the album on a hypnotic, reflective note. 
And though Hotel's vocals are also downplayed (and missed), it has to be said that VV does a compelling job of handling the lioness' share of the singing. A tight, mean set of songs, No Wow feels like a fight going on in a closet -- there's no room for punches to swing, but all of the shoving and grappling makes just as big an impact. 


Track listing

1.  No Wow/Telephone Radio Germany - 4:47 
2.  Love is a Deserter - 3:48 
3.  Dead Road 7 - 3:23 
4.  The Good Ones - 3:29 
5.  I Hate the Way You Love - 3:37 
6.  I Hate the Way You Love, Pt. 2 - 1:46 
7.  At the Back of the Shell - 2:27 
8.  Sweet Cloud - 5:06 
9.  Rodeo Town - 4:24 
10.  Murdermile - 4:25 
11.  Ticket Man - 2:49

 Companies, etc.


Credits

Notes
Release Date:  March 8, 2005 
Recording Date:  May 20, 2004 - September 24, 2004
Recording Location:  Black Box, France / Sear Sound Studios, New York, NY
Genre:  Alternative, Indie Rock
Styles:  Garage Punk
Duration: 40:01 

Label - Domino Records

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago (2007)

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Bon Iver is an American indie folk band founded in 2006 by singer-songwriter Justin Vernon.
Vernon released Bon Iver's debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago, independently in July 2007. The majority of that album was recorded while Vernon spent three months isolated in a cabin in western Wisconsin.

For Emma, Forever Ago is the debut studio album by American indie folk band Bon Iver. 
It was first self-released in July 2007, and later saw wide release on the Jagjaguwar label in February 2008. 
The album is principally the work of singer-songwriter Justin Vernon. While living in Raleigh, North Carolina, Vernon fell ill with mononucleosis and a liver infection, and grew frustrated with his songwriting and life. 
He left Raleigh and drove to his father's remote hunting cabin an hour northwest of his hometown, Eau Claire, Wisconsin, hoping to be alone.

The album was recorded at the cabin between late 2006 to early 2007. Vernon abandoned his old songwriting methods and instead focused on wordless melodies that he later set to words, which he felt evoked a more subconscious meaning. The record's lyrical subjects include lost love and mediocrity. His folk-infused songs include heavy choral arrangements, featuring Vernon's falsetto, and horns. He hunted his own food and spent much of his time isolated. Though he did not intend to make an album, he received strong encouragements from friends and decided to self-release For Emma, Forever Ago in July 2007. After several performances and online exposure, he was signed to Jagjaguwar later that year.

For Emma, Forever Ago attracted wide acclaim from music critics, achieving a spot on dozens of end-of-the-year lists, as well as several awards. It became a major commercial success for Jagjaguwar, an independent label, and has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for combined sales, streaming and track-sales equivalent of over one million units. "Skinny Love" became the album's best-performing single and also went gold. Vernon gathered together several musicians to form a band to tour with. The album's touring cycle lasted two years, ending in late 2009, and visited several countries and music festivals worldwide. 

In 2020, it was ranked 461 on Rolling Stone's list of the greatest albums of all time.


Track listing

1.  Flume - 3:40 
2.  Lump Sum - 3:20 
3.  Skinny Love - 4:00 
4.  The Wolves (Act I and II) - 5:22 
5.  Blindsided - 5:30 
6.  Creature Fear - 3:06 
7.  Team - 1:56 
8.  For Emma - 3:40 
9.  re: Stacks - 6:40 

 iTunes bonus track
10.  Wisconsin - 5:24 

All tracks are written by Justin Vernon.


Bon Iver

Additional musicians

  • John Dehaven – trumpet (track 8)
  • Randy Pingrey – trombone (track 8)
  • Christy Smith – drums, vocals (track 1)

Production

  • Justin Vernon — recording
  • Nick Petersen – mastering

Design

  • Brian Moen – art direction
  • Daniel Murphy – layout
  • Griszka Niewiadomski – photography
  • Gilbert Vernon – photography
  • Deb Sorge – hand lettering

Notes
Released:  July 8, 2007
Recorded:  November 2006 – January 2007 
Studio:  Hunting cabin in Northwestern Wisconsin / Fairall, Raleigh, North Carolina (add.)
Genre:  Indie folk 
Length : 42:38 

Label - Jagjaguwar / 4AD

March 07, 2022

John Frusciante - Shadows Collide With People (2004)

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The fourth solo outing from Red Hot Chili Pepper guitarist John Frusciante -- OK, fifth for those counting his free 21-track downloadable-only From the Sounds Inside released in 2001 -- is his most accessible effort to date in terms of mainstream appeal. 
It is likewise worth mentioning that he has made available demos of a majority of these sides on his website for a limited time. 
Frusciante also maintains intermittent contact with the avant-garde forces that drove the Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt coupling in 1995. Admittedly, enthusiasts of his edgier lo-fi recordings may find 2004's Shadows Collide With People too polished and produced. 
However, the sonic spit-shine rarely detracts from the very palpable emotive presence within each of the selections. 
Although Frusciante and Josh Klinghoffer (guitar/vocals/bass/keyboards/percussion) divvy up the lion's share of the instrumentation, the two are joined by fellow Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and bassist Flea -- the latter contributing an upright bassline to "The Slaughter" -- as well as Omar Rodriguez on slide guitar and Charlie Clouser's orchestral programming. 
While "Omission" is signified by Klinghoffer's co-lead vocal, at the center remains Frusciante's probing melodic sense. 
He vacillates between the power-chord rockers "Carvel," "Second Walk," and "This Song" and the haunting beauty of "Regret," which is set against the decidedly more experimental and bold "-00Ghost27," "23 Go In to End," and "Failure33 Object." 
These wordless excursions lacerate a discernible swath across Frusciante's otherwise introspective songwriting. Examples include the introduction to "In Relief," "Water," and the Byrds-ish feel incorporated into "Cut-Out." 
Even though it might not be the artist's intended goal, with such strong -- if not arguably disparate -- material exemplifying the best of what Frusciante has to offer, Shadows Collide With People has something for his listeners past, present, and future.


Track listing

1.  "Carvel"  - 6:15
2.  "Omission"  (Frusciante, Josh Klinghoffer)  - 4:33
3.  "Regret"  - 2:58
4.  "Ricky"  - 3:59
5.  "Second Walk"  - 1:42
6.  "Every Person"  - 2:38
7.  "-00Ghost27"  (Frusciante, Klinghoffer)  - 3:50
8.  "Wednesday's Song"  - 3:31
9.  "This Cold"  - 2:00
10.  "Failure33 Object"  - 2:56
11.  "Song to Sing When I'm Lonely"  - 3:16
12.  "Time Goes Back"  - 3:23
13.  "In Relief"  - 3:36
14.  "Water"  - 4:06
15.  "Of Before" (Japanese release only bonus track)  - 3:17
16.  "Cut-Out"  - 3:34
17.  "Chances"  - 1:49
18.  "23 Go in to End"  - 6:42
19.  "The Slaughter"  - 3:53

All songs written and composed by John Frusciante, unless otherwise noted. 


Credits
John Frusciante – lead and backing vocals, acoustic and electric guitar, synthesizers, bass, piano, Mellotron, producer, art direction
Josh Klinghoffer – lead vocals (on "Omission"), backing vocals, bass, electric guitar, synthesizers, keyboards, piano, Mellotron, Synare, vocoder, percussion, timpani
Chad Smith – drums, percussion
Flea – upright bass (on "The Slaughter")
Omar Rodríguez-López – slide guitar (on "Chances", "23 Go in to end")
Greg Kurstin – Wurlitzer piano (on "Of Before")
Charlie Clouser – orchestral programming (on "Regret" and "Chances")


Production
Jim Scott – engineer, mixing
Ryan Hewitt – engineer
Dave Lee – equipment technician
Ethan Mates – engineer
Chris Holmes – assistant
Chris Ohno – assistant
Alex Marshall – assistant
Daniel Carlotta Jones – assistant
Serena Deakin – assistant
Bernie Grundman – mastering
Rene Ricard – cover painting
Vincent Gallo – photography
Richard Scane Goodheart – design
John Frusciante - producer


Notes
Released:  February 24, 2004
Recorded 2003 at:  Cello Studios in Hollywood, California
Genre:  Experimental Rock
Styles:  Art Rock, Alternative Rock
Length:  62:23

Label - Warner Bros. Records