American multi-instrumentalist Peter Gordon (saxophone, keyboards) will perform a series of concerts with Blake Leyh (electric cello, synthesizer) to promote the reissue on vinyl of the experimental ambient album The Yellow Box he recorded with David Cunningham.
Richmond, VA jangle pop postmodernists The Melody Chamber take a trip down memory with a collection of melodic post-punk songs that will be embraced by fans of The Smiths, The La's and Echo & the Bunnymen. The band's songwriting team Dan Deckelman and Wallace Dietz bonded over a love for the lesser known, but highly influential The Monochrome Set, a band from London. Melancholy reigns supreme and even when they play it a tad faster on top of jumpy backbeat, like they do in She's Painting Zebras, the mood never becomes cheerful.
This album is a true labour of love, out of step what is popular right and not giving a fuck about that. They know that catering to the cognoscenti won't buy them mansions. And since Deckelman and Dietz are partners at Sound of Music Studios, they did not have to worry about the clock when they were recording. It gave them the opportunity to carefully balance everything, allowing each note to contribute to a multi-faceted, shapeshifting canvas of sound.
Follow the passion. You can do anything, communicate to a whole world now. It doesn't really matter where you are, do it from your bedroom, anything you want to express. You know it's amazing: I have a bedroom that I converted to a studio — I call it Marilyn Monroe Studios — and after one year, computers and new devices, I make a whole album right there, next door, and send it out to the whole world. It's amazing.
Marty Balin
Another taste from the Bold as Love box set that takes a deep dive into the material of from Axis Bold As Love album by The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Little Wing (Take 2). Hendrix is louder and more upfront than on the familiar subdued version, and bass player Noel Redding is getting lost before making it back. Mitch Mitchell's background in jazz is shining through, something they should have considered to keep, but didn't.
The Bold as Love box set is released as a 5LP + Blu-Ray, and 4 CDs + Blu-Ray. Prices vary widely - some are actually insane, but most retailers are coming down a bit, now that the FOMO crowd has dispersed.
Philadelphia neo-psych band Them Jones may try to be in full-on slow moving ambient mood on their new album Instructions For Re-Entry, but blues is a genre that refuses to be boxed in altogether, so it makes an Hollywood entrance about half way the record during Almost Home. Covering all the bases of vintage psychedelic pop - songs about space travel, lots of echo and reverb and dreamy vocals - it sits comfortably next to Nirvana (not the Seattle trio), early Pink Floyd and Porcupine Tree.
Expanding their musical palette with violins and English horn enabled the core band to hold back and go for a pastoral approach that invokes a glorious Spring day in the countryside. They reach for the heavens, but are equally enamoured by the wonders of Earth.
