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Although the old adage of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ is something that Oklahoma four-piece Ben Quad knew before they began making their new EP, Ephemera, they decided to wholeheartedly ignore it. Since forming in 2018, the band—Sam Wegrzynski (lead vocals/rhythm guitar), Henry Shields (backing vocals/bass), Edgar Viveros (lead guitar) and Isaac Young (drums)—have released three split EPs and their 2022 debut album, I’m Scared That’s All There Is. Those records, alongside tours with Hot Mulligan, Arm’s Length and Forests have helped establish Ben Quad as one of the emo/indie/punk bands around—a hybrid all those scenes and sounds that works incredibly well, both live and on record. With Ephemera, the band’s new EP—their first since signing with Pure Noise—the four-piece have blown all expectations out of the water. Opener “I Did Not Create The Rules” begins with a brief electronic flourish before bursting into a blisteringly intense screamo anthem. Its first line (‘It’ll be like this forever/Always lost, confused’) pointedly lays out the constant struggle of living under capitalism as the music itself violently introduces the band’s new musical direction. While there was a hint this change might have been coming in 2022’s single “You’re Part Of It”, this EP’s five songs double down hard on that sound. It’s a decision the band made because—surprisingly, given listeners’ usual disdain for bands experimenting—they’d actually received a host of messages from fans expressing how much they liked that sound. Encouraged, the band leaned into it fully.“We did that original screamo track as a flex,” admits Wegrzynski, “and it then becoming our most popular song gave us the courage to go all out.”
Following Wilco’s acclaimed 2023 album Cousin, Wilco revisited unfinished material from these sessions to craft ‘Hot Sun Cool Shroud’. Collaborating again with engineering mixer Tom Schick, the band crafted six tracks that expand on the sound of Cousin. According to Jeff Tweedy, they have “a summertime-after-dark kind of feeling. It starts off pretty hot, like heat during the day, has some instrumentals on it that are a little agitated and uncomfortable, and ends with a cooling breeze.”
“You have to see them in concert,” is what fans of The National have been preaching for years. “The songs transform. It’s a whole other level.” Recorded live (without overdubs) in June 2024 at an architecturally stunning venue named for famed Italian film composer Ennio Morricone, Rome is the definitive live document of The National. The 21-track double album is truly career spanning, and showcases scintillating versions of beloved songs like “Bloodbuzz Ohio,” “Don’t Swallow the Cap,” “I Need My Girl,” “The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness,” “England” and “Fake Empire”; plus sharpened readings of recent tracks “Eucalyptus,” “New Order T-Shirt,” “Tropic Morning News” and the boundary-pushing “Smoke Detector.” The National’s setlist changes significantly show to show, revisiting their 25-year catalog to cast fresh light on hidden gems. For Rome that includes the show opener “Runaway,” “Lemonworld,” “The Geese of Beverly Road,” “Lit Up” and a tour de force pairing of “Humiliation” from their critically acclaimed album Trouble Will Find Me into Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers’ “Murder Me Rachael.” The Rome encore features the election anthem “Mr. November,” and, from High Violet, “Terrible Love” and the show-closing fan singalong, “Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks.” The live album was mixed by the band’s longtime collaborator Peter Katis. Reviewing a National performance this summer, NME wrote that “every song is played like it could be the last.” Rome captures that playing-for-keeps urgency on record and serves not merely as a concert souvenir but the latest vital addition to the band’s peerless catalog.
Hackney Diamonds (1 Year Anniversary) - [Blue Splatter Clear Opaque 2LP]
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Living in the Material World (50th Anniversary) - [Super Deluxe LP Boxset]
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Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats [Metallic Gold Vinyl LP]
Vinyl: $26.99 PREORDER
Across 6CDs, Elvis Costello: King of America & Other Realms traces his musical travels from Hollywood – where the King Of America album was recorded in 1986 – to a brand new take on “Brilliant Mistake” cut in Cape Fear early in 2024, via Costello’s recording adventures in New Orleans, Oxford and Clarksdale, Mississippi, Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee and guided by Costello’s own 35-page essay which includes numerous rare and never-before seen photos.
The collection is anchored by CD1: a new 2024 remaster of the album King Of America from the original master tapes.
CD2 collects the solo demos from 1985 including six performances from the unheard Red Bus Studios session with radically different lyrical drafts, shedding new light on the intention of key songs from the King Of America album.
CD3 is a never heard before 17-song concert recorded on January 27, 1987 at The Royal Albert Hall in London in the company of James Burton, Jim Keltner, Jerry Scheff, Benmont Tench & T-Bone Wolk.
Newly mixed from multitrack tapes – and featuring live renditions of several King Of America titles – Costello is also heard performing songs by Waylon Jennings, Arthur Alexander, Allen Toussaint, Sonny Boy Williamson, Mose Allison, Ray Charles, Jesse Winchester, Dave Bartholomew and Buddy Holly. A truly great American songbook.
The set closes with a 3CD digest of Costello’s studio recordings, previously unreleased demos, outtakes & live recordings from this wild and wonderfully odd odyssey.