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June 19th, 2018 – Clutch has just announced US/Canada Fall tour dates for their “Book Of Bad Decisions Tour 2018.” Clutch is making the following special offer for this tour: The price of a ticket when purchased in advance online includes a physical CD copy of Clutch‘s new album “Book of Bad Decisions.” Fans will receive information on how to redeem the album after purchasing the advance ticket online. Offer valid through 10/29/18, open to US residents only. Not valid on Resale tickets. Offer only valid for Clutch headline dates. Festivals, Canadian headline dates and the October 13th date with System of a Down are exempt from this offer. Tickets go on sale to the public on Friday, June 22nd at 10AM local time and will be available at www.pro-rock.com and www.facebook.com/clutchband.Supporting the tour will be Sevendust and Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown.Book of Bad Decisions, CLUTCH’s 12th studio album is scheduled for a worldwide release on September 7th, 2018 via their own Weathermaker Music label. The album was recorded at Sputnik Sound in Nashville, TN by producer Vance Powell (Jack White, Chris Stapleton, The Raconteurs, The Dead Weather) and consists of 15 new tracks.Clutch Book Of Bad Decisions Tour with Sevendust and Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown:Sun/Sep-16 Chicago IL Riotfest **Tue/Sep-18 St Paul, MN Myth LiveWed/Sep-19 Kansas City, MO Uptown TheaterFri/Sep-21 Houston TX House of BluesSat/Sep-22 San Antonio TX River City Rock Fest **Sun/Sep-23 Dallas, TX Gas Monkey LiveTue/Sep-25 Orlando, FL House Of BluesThu/Sep-27 Norfolk, VA The NorVaFri/Sep-28 Raleigh, NC The RitzSat/Sep-29 Atlanta, GA The Masquerade *Sun/Sep-30 Louisville, KY Louder Than Life **Tue/Oct-02 Denver, CO Ogden TheaterWed/Oct-03 Salt Lake City, UT The DepotFri/Oct-05 Boise, ID Knitting FactorySat/Oct-06 Spokane, WA Knitting FactorySun/Oct-07 Seattle, WA Showbox SODOMon/Oct-08 Vancouver, BC Commodore BallroomTue/Oct-09 Portland, OR Roseland TheaterThu/Oct-11 San Francisco, CA The Regency BallroomFri/Oct-12 Los Angeles, CA El Rey TheaterSat/Oct-13 San Bernardino, CA Glen Helen Amphitheater w/SOAD ***Sun/Oct-14 San Diego, CA North Park/ObservatoryMon/Oct-15 Tempe, AZ The MarqueeWed/Oct-17 Tulsa, OK Cain’s BallroomThu/Oct-18 Sauget, IL Pop’s NightclubFri/Oct-19 Grand Rapids, MI 20 Monroe LiveSat/Oct-20 Detroit, MI The Filmore DetroitSun/Oct-21 Pittsburgh, PA Stage AETue/Oct-23 Toronto, ON RebelThu/Oct-25 Worcester, MA The PalladiumFri/Oct-26 New York, NY Irving PlazaSat/Oct-27 New York, NY Irving PlazaSun/Oct-28 Philadelphia, PA Electric Factory*= no Sevendust** = festival date / Clutch and festival bill only*** = date w/ System of a Down/ no SevendustCLUTCH:Neil Fallon – Vocals/GuitarTim Sult – GuitarDan Maines – BassJean-Paul Gaster – Drums/Percussion For more information, check out the band’s website:Facebook: www.facebook.com/clutchbandInstagram: www.instagram.com/clutchofficial Twitter: www.twitter.com/clutchofficialOfficial: www.pro-rock.comYouTube: www.youtube.com/user/officialclutch Keep your mind open.[Stay up to date on music news by subscribing.]
The Young Mothers share “Jazz Oppression” track from forthcoming album Morose
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“A sound that blends free jazz and hip-hop, seeing no distance between them… Latin fuses with African fuses with European and on and on until there is no distinction. This uncompromising group of players delivers an unforgettable listening experience that listeners will doubtless be parsing for some time to come.” — PopMatters
“One of the most interesting and original acts in Texas — perhaps the entire planet,” — Austin Chronicle
Austin, TX musical iconoclasts The Young Mothers share a new track from their forthcoming sophomore album today in an interview with Austin Chronicle. Hear and share “Jazz Oppression” HERE. (Direct Soundcloud.)
PopMatters recently premiered album opener “Attica Black” HERE. (Direct Soundcloud.)
The band is currently in Europe wrapping up a summer tour before heading to Canada for a couple of shows. See current dates below.
Self Sabotage Records proudly presents Morose, the anticipated follow up by The Young Mothers, a juggernaut of a collective formed in 2012 and featuring a super group of heavy-hitters who have helped steer the direction of creative music in New York, Chicago, Texas, and Scandinavia.
Norwegian bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (The Thing; Free Fall; Atomic) moved to Austin, Texas in 2009. He’d experimented with stateside living for a few years in Chicago before that, but the city of barbecue, food trucks, and outlaw country music has become his home base. Texas has a deep creative music history, but most Texas improvisers found their notoriety elsewhere, seeking to escape segregation and poverty for a chance to ‘starve a little better’ on the coasts. However, the Texas of 2018 is not the Texas of 1958 and the groundwork for this potent convergence was laid around a decade ago in Houston when Ingebrigt met and linked up with trumpeter/rapper Jawwaad Taylor (Shape Of Broad Minds, MF Doom), and what became a transliteration of his Chicago Sextet into a scrappy Lone Star variant called The Young Mothers has formed a group identity all its own and now has a second album under the belt (their first, A Mothers’ Work Is Never Done was self-released in 2014). Instrumentally The Young Mothers has some similarity with its Windy City relative – in addition to sharing drummer Frank Rosaly and Flaten, the vibraphone chair is held down by percussionist & diabolical vocalist Stefan González (Yells At Eels, Akkolyte), and Jason Jackson (Alvin Fielder, Pauline Oliveros, William Parker) on tenor and barry is their saxophone firebrand. Furthermore, the group features guitarist Jonathan Horne (Plutonium Farmers, ex-White Denim) and prolific wordsmith and improviser JAWWAAD on trumpet, electronics, and rhymes, and it is here that structural similarities between the Young Mothers and Flaten’s other folksy-modal projects end.
The Young Mothers was named after a Houston community project for teen mothers (Project Row Houses) that Flaten’s then-partner had been a part of, and while it may strike one as an odd moniker for a group that melds free improvisation, Tejano-inspired horn lines, the long unfurling electricity of surf rock, tough word-science and crust metal vocals, but relocating to a then-unfamiliar locale and birthing/raising a melange of sonic approaches into a working ensemble is not insignificant, if not quite actual motherhood. (On a side note; another strong connection to the Project Row Houses is the Houstonian artist and legendary sculptor Jesse Lott who made the beautiful album art!) Anyways, while they may have exhibited a homespun ricketiness in the beginning, through touring nationwide and after several festival performances and tours in Europe they’ve honed their sound into something truly their own, and one that’s not insignificantly comparable to historical melds in Scandinavian-American-World Music – the work of Don Cherry, Maffy Falay’s Sevda, and more recent efforts from Two Bands and a Legend and The Cherry Thing successfully merge varied strains of contemporary music with creative improvisation. Flaten’s round, deep tone and precise attack certainly act as an anchor, a fulcrum for sculpted vibraphone resonance, the dry breaks and shimmering floes of Rosaly’s kit, all of which stoke Horne’s flinty guitar and the throaty exhortations of brass and verbal declaration. Check “Black Tar Caviar” for some of the most unruly combinations of threads on this disc; from dual cymbal and tuned gong tempi supporting Jackson’s Gato Barbieri-like burrs, the palette of accents gradually increases until feedback-laden scorch signals a second movement, raps and death howls in tandem against a Cherry-like folk theme and sludgy electric bass grooves/strangled flourishes. It’s a fine microcosm of ten of what The Young Mothers are up to.
And as Håker Flaten tells us; “a lot has changed since I initiated this band in 2012, it has grown into its own thing with a truly collective spirit. I created a monster and its time to let go” – luckily for all of us, this band has stretched its legs further than the Houston/Austin/Dallas triangle and we at Self Sabotage Records are ready to help them to hopefully reach out much further with an album we believe is remarkable! We hope you feel the same.
Morose will be available on LP, CD and download on June 22, 2018 out via Self Sabotage Records (Pre-order at Big Cartel-Self Sabotage).
THE YOUNG MOTHERS TOUR:
06/12 Montreal, QC @ La Sala Rosa
06/13 Hamilton, ON @ Something Else Festival
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Artist: The Young Mothers
Album: Morose
Record Label: Self Sabotage Records
Release Date: June 22nd, 2018
01. Attica Black
02. Black Tar Caviar
03. Bodiless Arms
04. Francisco
05. Untitled #1
06. Jazz Oppression
07. Morose
08. Osaka
09. Untitled #2
10. Shanghai
On the Web:
Keep your mind open.
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Here Lies Man was introduced to me via their label (RidingEasy Records) with the following question – “What if Black Sabbath played Afrobeat?”
I’m not sure I can sum up HLM’s sound better than that. They’re from Los Angeles (and consist of members of Antibalas), so it’s tempting to say there’s a touch of southern California rock and surf in there. However, the majority of their sound is a blend of heavy riffs and Afrobeat rhythms. It works. Good heavens, does it work.
The heavy organ and crunchy guitar of “Animal Noises” get things off to a great start. It sounds like a couple wild boars grunting alongside jungle birds. It also cuts out and then fades back in with delicate psychedelic brush strokes. “Summon Fire” could probably do exactly that under the right circumstances. The guitar licks are hot enough, and the drums are perfect for a dance around the fire while spinning a spear overhead. The lyrics are belted out like something from Parliament Funkadelic. “Blindness” is a mostly instrumental with great organ / keyboard work throughout it, especially on the gothic fade-out that would make Bauhaus proud.
“That Much Closer to Nothing” is a good, yet bleak, way to describe living. The title and the sludge-like riffs are nihilistic at first, but then blossom with an infectious energy that let you know that letting go of all your trappings is a good thing. Those Sabbath influences are front and center on “Hell (Wooly Tail).” The bass slithers, the guitars chug, the drums bubble, and the keys melt. The songs ends with a child’s voice telling us to “Look in the mirror.” It lends a bit of creepiness to the title of the next track – “Voices at the Window.” The song is like a fog through which you see what may or may not be a deer along the road as you’re driving at 65mph. In other words, it’s misty and a bit frightening.
The choppy, fuzzy sounds of “Taking the Blame” are heavy and will get your neck moving like a bobble head figure. “Fighting” was the first single off the record, and choosing it was a no-brainer. The groove on it is excellent and belongs at the top of your next workout playlist. “Floating on Water” follows, and its one of the best psychedelic dream-rock songs of the year. It like concentric ripples in a mountain lake. “Memory Games” brings Cream to mind with its floor-stomping blues-based groove. The closer is the lovely “You Ought to Know” – an instrumental that puts together shoegaze, stoner rock, psychedelia, and space rock / lounge.
You Will Know Nothing is the type of album that you can put on a loop and listen to three times in a row without getting bored. It’s funky, heavy, and a great cure for anything ailing you right now.
Keep your mind open.
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Thanks to all who tuned in for my latest WSND show and helped me determine what to play to celebrate Flag Day. Here’s my set list from the show in case you want to know the name of that one weird band I played.
I’m back on air June 27th with a “Best of 2018 So Far” show. Send me your suggestions.
Keep your mind open.
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Power rock duo Deap Vally have a new road trippy single, “Get Gone,” just in time for summer and their upcoming tour through the UK and Europe. They’re also working on a new record, which is nothing but great news. Catch them if you can.
June 22 – Southside Festival @ Neuhausen ob Eck, Germany TICKETS
June 23 – Hurricane Festival @ Scheessel, Germany TICKETS
June 24 – Cafe De Zwerver @ Leffinge, Belgium TICKETS
June 27 – The Grand Social @ Dublin, Ireland TICKETS
June 28 – The Limelight @ Belfast, Ireland TICKETS
June 30 – Queens of The Stone Age and Friends @ Finsbury Park, United Kingdom TICKETS
July 1 – The Plug @ Sheffield, United Kingdom TICKETS
July 2 – Castle & Falcon @ Birmingham, United Kingdom TICKETS
July 3 – Muni Arts Centre @ Pontypridd, United Kingdom TICKETS
July 8 – Pointu Festival @ Six-Fours-Les-Plagues, France TICKETS
July 10th – Atles Hallenbad Feldkirch @ Feldkirch, Austria TICKETS
July 11th – Full Hit of Summer @ Vienna, Austria TICKETS
Keep your mind open.
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Fort Wayne, Indiana’s Middle Waves Music Festival has released its first lineup announcement for 2018. Some of the biggest standouts are Lizzo, Idles, and Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks.
Tickets are already on sale, and more artists are to be announced over the summer. Middle Waves is a fun time. The festival’s promoters are geniuses because the festival offers two free stages all weekend. You can see close to 20 bands on these stages and it will cost you nothing. The main stage is the only one that requires a paid admission.
See you there.
Keep your mind open.
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Howard Announce New Album, Together Alone, Out September 14th on Fashion People; Watch Video For First Single, “Your Honor”
https://youtu.be/JXRHCs5ZZms
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Opening with something that sounds like a song you’d hear on the tape deck of one of those Blade Runner flying cars, Flasher‘s debut full-length album, Constant Image, is strongly self-assured post-punk. That opening track, “Go,” encourages you to “suck it up” and get ready for a fast ride.
“Pressure” builds with its namesake until the chorus, and even then it doesn’t let up too much. Daniel Saperstein‘s bass seems like it’s all over the place, but he grounds the tune like metal stakes into circus tent loops. I like how Saperstein’s vocals blend with those of Emma Baker (drums) and Taylor Mulitz (guitar) on “Sun Come and Golden.” The whole track has a brightness to it, but it doesn’t ignore the shadows caused. “Material” raises the attitude of the record, as Mulitz’s vocals border on snotty punk and throw down the right amount of tongue-in-cheek sass.
Mulitz’s guitar buzzes like a green hornet on “XYZ.” It’s one of the hottest cuts on the record as Flasher sing about self-introspection and the expectations of their generation and the ones before and after them. As good as it is, “Who’s Got Time?” is even better. Saperstein unloads on it. It has a rough urgency and is yet highly danceable. “Skim Milk” was their first single, and it’s easy to hear why they chose it. Mulitz’s guitar is precise and fuzzy when it needs to be, Baker keeps time and thrashes when she needs to, and Saperstein keeps up his serial killing of bass grooves. Their triple vocals weave together well and it’s pretty much everything you want in a post-punk song.
There’s a neat piano riff underlining “Harsh Light” while Mulitz sings, “Every corner that you turn, you never learn.” Good grief, can’t we all relate to that at times? “Punching Up” has a bit of a punch-drunk beat to it, with Baker providing co-lead vocals and a Pixies-like rhythm. The Pixies influence is thick on the entire track with its back-and-forth bouncing between soothing guitars and heavy distortion. “Business Unusual” would be a great name for a TV show or comic book, but it’s instead about a “man, now a boy in blue, this whole world’s got it out for you.” It also throws in some saxophone (a welcome addition to any post-punk record) with the quirky guitars and the repeated question from Flasher – “What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?”
It’s the last lyric of the album. Are they asking us to reflect and perhaps realize it isn’t that bad? Are they asking us to forgive ourselves? The name of the album is, after all, Constant Image. We all constantly project different images of ourselves, and often to cover up what we think are horrible flaws but are usually things about which no one cares. Most of the things we worry about never happen. Flasher want us to know this, I think. We should thank them for the reminder. You can do it by buying this record.
Keep your mind open.
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