Bosnian Rainbows: s/t (Sargent House, 6/25/13)
Omar Rodriguez Lopez finds it impossible to slow down. The former Mars Volta guitarist is going full blast on his new project, Bosnian Rainbows, mere months after the Mars Volta break-up announcement. The band, a collaboration with Teri Gender Bender, Deantoni Parks, and Nicci Kasper, is releasing its first album June 25.
Ian MacKaye has been around Washington DC longer than most congresspeople. The Dischord Records co-founder has been part of two of the most celebrated groups ever to come out of the area, Minor Threat and Fugazi, and now tours with The Evens, his partnership with Amy Farina. Apart from his music and a successful label, MacKaye acts as an archivist, working with others to collect live concert material of Fugazi.
Shining: One One One (Prosthetic / Universal Norway, 5/28/13)
There are covers, and then there are covers. Shining’s version of King Crimson’s “21st Century Schizoid Man” is the latter, a roiling, screaming beast of wails, beats, and static.
Georgia Anne Muldrow: Seeds (Stones Throw, 3/27/12)
“Seeds”
Global food politics didn’t crop up on many albums last year, but it featured prominently on one: Georgia Anne Muldrow’s Seeds, the title track of which became known as a “diss track” to Monsanto, the infamous multinational agriculture company. Here the Las Vegas-based songwriter and record producer talks food, farming, and our environment of fear, giving us a lot more than two cents — pretty generous for an artist who admits she’s living paycheck to paycheck.
Gotye: Making Mirrors (Universal Republic, 1/31/12)
In early 2012, Australian singer/songwriter Wally De Backer — a.k.a. Gotye — exploded across American media thanks to the pop wonderment of “Somebody That I Used to Know.” For the better part of the year, the song was impossible to miss, and for good reason. But the causeway of hooks, timbres, and samples on Making Mirrors proved that there’s more to Gotye than one hit — even if that hit always gets the crowd going.
Other than the metal fence on “Eyes Wide Open,” what’s the weirdest thing that you’ve sampled?
I sampled some antique slab spoons on a mobile that I found in an antique shop. I sampled a music box on [“Don’t Worry, We’ll Be Watching You”] — sampled the sound of winding it up and letting it spin down with the different notes, and kind of made a manual vibrato on it by opening and closing the lid as it was playing into the microphone.
Allison Miller’s Boom Tic Boom: No Morphine, No Lilies (The Royal Potato Family, 4/16/13)
She might be best known as the drummer for Natalie Merchant and Ani DiFranco, but Allison Miller is an accomplished artist in her own right, standing out in a crowded NYC jazz scene with her compositions and skills behind the kit. Her sophomore album with Boom Tic Boom — a group that includes pianist Myra Melford, violinist Jenny Scheinman (Bill Frisell), and bassist Todd Sickafoose (Ani DiFranco) — is another such testament.
The Dillinger Escape Plan: One of Us Is the Killer (Sumerian / Party Smasher, 5/14/13)
The Dillinger Escape Plan is angry. This is no surprise. However, in the video for “When I Lost My Bet,” off upcoming album One of Us Is the Killer, the metalcore vets’ rage has literally transformed them into the walls of a house, with scenes therein that put the entire Hellraiser series to shame in terms of gooey, exsanguinated depravity.
(The) Melvins: Everybody Loves Sausages (Ipecac, 4/30/13)
(The) Melvins, embarking on a 30th-anniversary tour (in both standard and Melvins Lite variations, depending on date) on July 12 alongside Honky, is releasing a covers record April 30. Entitled Everybody Loves Sausages, the album showcases the band’s many talents by covering artists as diverse as David Bowie, Queen, The Jam, and Venom. It also features myriad guest stars, including JG Thirlwell, Scott Kelly (Neurosis), Jello Biafra, and more.
Trombonist Dan Blacksberg has made a career out of reinterpreting Ashkenazic Jewish music in interesting ways. Get to know his latest project, Deveykus, which filters Hasidic sounds through the eyes of doom metal.
The Breeders: LSXX (4AD, 4/23/13)
When The Breeders released the classic Last Splash in 1993, the band still was congealing into a new state. Begun as a side project by Pixies bassist Kim Deal in 1990, the rock quartet was transitioning to being a primary focus, and twin sister Kelley Deal had joined the band just a year prior, taking the place of guitarist Tanya Donelly (Throwing Muses) despite limited six-string experience.
Together, however, the Deal sisters made something special that capitalized on their vocal-and-guitar interplay. Aided by their history, Last Splash was a minimal, quirky rock gem. (“Do You Love Me Now?” dates back to 1970s, when the teenage Kim and Kelley played cover songs in bars.)
Following his recent collaboration with experimental lute player Jozef Van Wissem, screenwriter/director and guitarist Jim Jarmusch is making more music rounds with his band Sqürl, formerly Bad Rabbit — a trio that originated to score The Limits of Control. With the new name in tow, the band will release the first of a series of new EPs on May 21 via ATP, featuring more psychedelic dirge rock.
Italy’s Fleshgod Apocalypse, a powerhouse of symphonic death metal, has begun recording its third full-length album, a concept record based on the mythical Labyrinth of Knossos.