Peter Holsapple, Chris Stamey – Our Back Pages (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 44:50 minutes | 857 MB | Genre: Folk Rock, Acoustic, Singer-Songwriter
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Omnivore Recordings
Peter and I started playing music together in grade school in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in a blues trio called Soup, and by 1978 we found ourselves in New York playing in a new band, called the dB’s. After two records together, Stands For deciBels and Repercussion, we went our separate ways for a while—Peter continuing on with the dB’s, then playing keys and guitars on tours with R.E.M., and myself off to make some solo records and produce other artists.
(more…)
Liam Gallagher & John Squire – Liam Gallagher & John Squire (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 39:46 minutes | 494 MB | Genre: Alternative Rock, Britpop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Records
Liam and John have been friends for years but when Liam invited John to join him on stage at Knebworth in 2022 it reignited a long-running ambition of writing and recording an album together. The demos were written at John’s home studio in Macclesfield and then recorded with legendary producer, Greg Kurstin and mixed by Spike Stent. Joey Waronker (Atoms for Peace, Beck, R.E.M.) plays drums on the album.
Read moreReal Estate – Daniel (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 38:01 minutes | 749 MB | Genre: Indie Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Domino Recording Co
Since their 2009 self-titled debut album, Real Estate have distinguished themselves as modern-day jangle-pop torchbearers. The New Jersey group retains that crown on the superlative Daniel, which overflows with crisp, economical pop-rock that often calls to mind the salad days of Fountains of Wayne. Chalk up this sound partly due to their influences—R.E.M.’s lush, moody Automatic for the People and the softer side of ’90s rock—and the band’s recording process. The members of Real Estate moved in together in Nashville and recorded Daniel in just nine days at the famed RCA Studio A with producer-songwriter Daniel Tashian (Kacey Musgraves’ Golden Hour). Understandably, there’s a hint of dusky Americana melancholy on the pedal steel-tinted “Haunted World” and the Scottish-pop-influenced “Flowers.” However, Martin Courtney’s keening vocals are particularly yearning on Daniel, lending buoyancy to the wiry “Say No More” and urgent “Airdrop,” and underscoring the restlessness and uncertainty coursing through the lyrics. Jangle-pop has never sounded so fresh—and so irresistible. – Annie Zaleski
Read moreTroja – Bedtime Stories (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 55:47 minutes | 636 MB | Genre: Contemporary Jazz, Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © u n i t
“With just a few bars, they transport their audience into a shadowy magical forest where the most incredible things can come true,” writes the association about the game of TROJA. And that’s exactly what the three Trojan companions Peter Zihlmann (p), Patrick Sommer (b) and Andreas Wettstein (dr) again on their latest album “Bedtime Stories”. They take their listeners into enchanted fairytale worlds, awaken geniuses from 1001 Nights and create a wide variety of soundscapes in their musical stories that invite you to fantasize and dream. It can sometimes happen that the boundaries between being awake, dozing and R.E.M. deep sleep phases become blurred or completely dissolve. The outcome of the stories is also deliberately left open, as the purpose of a bedtime story is not necessarily to tell it to the end, but rather to lull the listener to sleep. And let’s be honest: what could be nicer than sinking completely into your own world of thoughts or even gently drifting off to sleep while listening to a good story – or in this case music?
Read moreMatthew Sweet – WXRT Live in Grant Park, Chicago IL July 4, 1993 (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:14:13 minutes | 1,51 GB | Genre: Alternative Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Honeycomb Hideout – RCAM Records
Matthew Sweet in concert this weekend. Recorded in Chicago at fabled Grant Park on July 4, 1993.
After spending the ’80s as a jangle pop guitarist with Oh-OK and Lloyd Cole, as well as a solo artist, Matthew Sweet emerged in 1991 as the leading figure of the American power pop revival. Like his British counterparts Teenage Fanclub, Sweet adhered to traditional songcraft, yet subverted the form by adding noisy post-punk guitar and flourishes of country-rock, resulting in an amalgam of the Beatles, Big Star, R.E.M., and Neil Young. Recorded with guitarists Richard Lloyd and Robert Quine, Sweet’s third album, Girlfriend (1991), became a word-of-mouth critical and commercial hit over the course of 1992, with its title track reaching the Top Five on the Modern Rock charts. For the next five years, as alternative rock was the dominant commercial force in rock & roll, Sweet became a very popular concert attraction and solidified his reputation as the premiere alternative pop singer/songwriter. His next two records, Altered Beast (1993) and 100% Fun (1995) were both critically acclaimed and successful albums, reaching platinum status and making many year-end best-of lists.
Read moreLuke Haines, Peter Buck – All The Kids Are Super Bummed Out (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:07:39 minutes | 774 MB | Genre: Alternative Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Cherry Red Records
Second album / collaboration between Luke Haines (Auteurs / Baader/Meinhof / Black Box Recorder) and Peter Buck (R.E.M.). Peter Buck plays guitar and feeds LSD to a broken Moog synthesiser. Luke Haines sings songs about God, provides an occasional strum on his guitar and blows Pan’s flute. Scott McCaughey plays the bass and mellotron and Linda Pitmon bangs the ritual drum. Lenny Kaye drops in and has a nightmare in the key of doo-wop.
During the last two years, over lockdowns, Luke Haines and Peter Buck retreated to a cold war bunker and recorded this double album / manifesto, monster-piece and masterpiece, in answer to the question: Why are all the Kids super bummed out?
(more…)
The Jim Hall Quartet – All Across The City (1989) [Reissue 2003]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 57:05 minutes | Scans included | 3,85 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Full Scans included | 1,01 GB
Jim Hall’s successful blend of contemporary and mainstream jazz should appeal to both camps on this well-crafted album. Hall displays the subtle quiet lyricism that makes his guitar sound instantly identifiable. Gil Goldstein is a perfect choice on keyboards, because he uses synthesizer only to color rather than overpower a song, while avoiding schmaltz. Both “Beja-Flor” and the title track benefit from his contributions. Though his piano is frequently in the background, it matches Hall’s hushed, effective guitar lines. Bassist Steve LaSpina and drummer Terry Clarke frequently lay out during the introductions and then enter to add either gentle shadings or full steam, if needed. One of Jim Hall’s best albums.
Read moreKilkenny Cats – Hands Down (2023 Remastered Expanded Edition) (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 52:02 minutes | 1,01 GB | Genre: Alternative Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Propeller Sound Recordings
Kilkenny Cats are from Athens, Georgia – The band’s 1986 debut album is now on CD for the first time – CD is remastered and expanded with 4 bonus tracks. Critics called them “moody Southern goth,” “hard-driving college rock,” & “pop-ish hypnotic indie dance rock” w/ “haunting melodies and blazing guitar.” In 1985, R.E.M.’s Mike Mills cited them as “the #1 band in Athens” in an article in SPIN magazine. The album includes the lead-off track “Nightfall” which was featured in the 1987 seminal rock documentary “Athens, Ga Inside/Out”. The band has reunited and will begin to support their catalog reissues with new regional touring.
Read moreSoccer Mommy – Karaoke Night (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 22:48 minutes | 449 MB | Genre: Indie Rock, Female Vocal
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Loma Vista Recordings
Soccer Mommy has dropped an EP full of covers called Karaoke Night, featuring her unique take on songs by Taylor Swift, Pavement, Slowdive, and more. Along with Sophie Allison’s excellent reimaginings of Sheryl Crow’s “Soak Up the Sun” and Swift’s “I’m Only Me When I’m with You,” the five-track Karaoke Night includes her renditions of “Here” by Pavement, “Losing My Religion” by R.E.M., and “Dagger” by Slowdive. Nothing surprising here — if you’re at all familiar with Soccer Mommy’s catalog, you can hear how all five artists have influenced her music, from bubbly pop to scrappy indie rock.
Read moreThe Replacements – Pleased To Meet Me (Remastered Deluxe Edition) (1987/2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 02:56:01 minutes | 2,16 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Rhino – Warner Records
Originally released in 1987, Pleased To Meet Me is the fifth studio album from The Replacements. Formed in Minneapolis in 1979, The Replacements initially started out as a punk rock band but grew to be one of the pioneers of alternative rock. Pleased To Meet Me is the onlyalbum from the band recorded as a trio after guitarist Bob Stinson’s exit after the release of their fourth studio album Tim, and before the addition of guitarist Bob ‘Slim’ Dunlap.
Read moreThe Replacements – Tim (Let It Bleed Edition) (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 03:22:32 minutes | 3,84 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Rhino – Warner Records
This expanded Let It Bleed edition of the Replacements’ fourth studio album Tim—the final with their full, original lineup—is a marvelous, absolutely necessary corrective to the muddled-sounding original release from 1985. Tim found the band at their creative peak, with some of the best songs Paul Westerberg, Chris Mars, and brothers Tommy and Bob Stinson would ever write, fresh under their belts. Here we get to enjoy not only the demos and an entire live show that are staples of the expanded reissue game, but we get to hear a version of the original album that’s worthy of the material, thanks to veteran producer and engineer Ed Stasium.
Read more