This track about toxic masculinity let everyone know that Priests weren’t screwing around this year. It was the second cut from the brilliant album The Seduction of Kansas and it knocked you down if you didn’t respect it and them.
#4 – All Them Witches – “1 x 1”
Another single that knocked me flat this year was this new one from All Them Witches. It was a pleasant surprise and ended up being one of the heaviest tracks all year. ATW are brewing up dark stuff, and it’s all amazing.
#3 – Cass McCombs – “Absentee”
Cass McCombs wasn’t on my radar until I heard this single. I immediately thought, “Wow…I need to hear more of this guy.” This song, which my wife describes as “Comfortable,” is a haunting and lovely track that’s hard to describe (Alt-country jazz? Psychedelic lounge?) but why bother? Just enjoy it.
#2 – Cosmonauts – “Seven Sisters”
I’m not sure I rushed to buy an album so fast after hearing one track from it than when I heard this track from the new Cosmonauts record, Star 69. I blasted this thing in my wife’s car, possibly making her wonder if I was having an out-of-body experience based on my reaction to it. I think I was. I don’t quite remember because I think the wall of shoegaze sound that assaulted me knocked my brain into the back seat.
#1 – Kelly Lee Owens – “Let It Go”
This song will make you stop whatever you’re doing and dance. It was an instant club classic as soon as it was released. Kelly Lee Owens inspires me to make electronic music, and almost intimidates me to the point of not bothering – which is what a good teacher should do, inspire and challenge. She does both for all of us with this track.
There you have it. My list of top albums of the year is coming soon!
In the liner notes to Cass McCombs’ new album, Tip of the Sphere, he mentions how it was recorded in Brooklyn, New York and that he only remembers “emotional things dictated by the city” from the experience. In another section, however (written from the perspective of a mental health professional evaluating McCombs after he was found on the streets), possible themes of the album are postulated to be “identity, reincarnation, criminality, Armageddon, and suicide.”
This is tongue-in-cheek, of course, but only to a point. Tip of the Sphere is a record full of tall tales of criminals, drifters, barflies, soul-seekers, and tricksters. McCombs could’ve met any and all of these types of folks while hanging out in Brooklyn and been intrigued by their stories.
The title of the opening track, “I Followed the River South to What,” implies a letdown experienced by McCombs or someone he knows, but it’s actually an uplifting tale about the dignity of the homeless. Each verse opens with a typical question asked of a homeless person (i.e., “You live out on the street, in the open air?”, “Where will you goes, when the winter comes?”) and witty, Zen-like replies from the person being questioned who merely asked for a dollar. McCombs’ guitar work is like a simple music box tune and Otto Hauser’s drums put down a beat that is more complex than you first realize. Frank LoCrastro’s mellotron work helps the tune float along on a carefree breeze.
“The Great Pixley Train Robbery” was inspired by an old newspaper article McCombs read about a real-life Old West event. It’s a tune that would make Waylon Jennings proud as McCombs sings from the perspective of one of three bandits who made away with $7,000.00 in gold and is now ready to tell the details of the crime that left two dead. Dan Horne’s bass and Jason Quever’s drums on the track provide a great groove that will be hard to match this year (and McCombs’ fuzzed-out guitar solo is great). Horne’s fine bass work continues on “Estrella,” a beautiful love song to a Latina whom McCombs lost and has found again after a literal or metaphorical reincarnation. Only he knows which.
“Absentee,” which is already on my list for Best Singles of 2019, is a song about giving so much of one’s self that you end up feeling like a ghost adrift in the physical world. It’s a torch song mixed with a blues track with psychedelia sprinkled on top for extra spice. Dan Iead’s pedal steel adds the bluesy touch, LoCrastro’s organ work brings in almost a gospel flavor, and Sam Griffith Owens’ saxophone work reminds me of Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s trippy, subtle jams. John Nellen’s tabla beats on “Real Life” add to the introspective nature of the song about what it means to be human.
“Sleeping Volcanoes” is McCombs proclaiming he and everyone else he knows is sick of the world in general and he prays Armageddon will take us to a better place in the next life. It’s not as nihilistic as you’d expect. It’s even a bit calming. The guitars on “Sidewalk Bop After Suicide” take on an outlaw country edge, which continues with Iead’s pedal steel on “Prayer for Another Day” – a lovely song about wanting to step out of this reality and into one that’s similar but without all the trappings we’ve created in it.
“American Canyon Sutra” has McCombs singing / speaking about economic inequality (“In American Canyon, where Walmart employees and customers are one and same. They’ve even built apartments here to add a residential coffin to the bargain. Guess I’ll stay forever and work for the company store.”) over processed beats and guitar notes that sound like distant war horns. “Tying Loose Ends” is about McCombs preparing for death (whenever that may be) by trying to learn his family history before he becomes a footnote in it. The weirdly worded “Rounder” closes the album with another solid beat by Hauser and more outlaw country flair from McCombs’ guitar and Iead’s pedal steel before it floats away into a nice, slow jam with a great organ solo from LoCrastro.
This is a lovely record that you could put into multiple genres. McCombs isn’t afraid to embrace and expand on those genres in order to tell his stories. Like any good storyteller, he tells a tale but leaves a lot of mysteries unsolved.
“Here McCombs reaches fully toward the idea of songwriting as myth-making. Pulling from a deeper heredity of mavericks (Guy Clark) and marginals (Bill Callahan); jesters (Warren Zevon), sweet-natured acerbics (Randy Newman) and loners (Elliott Smith), McCombs is an analogous anomaly — a statesman with a penchant for the long, spooling yarn. He revels in the album as cinema, as cosmos, as something that should be written and left for rumination.” — NPR Music’s “First Listen”
“McCombs is no cheap nostalgia merchant, and is rooted far more in earthy post-punk than jam-bandwagoning. But dude’s quite a guitarist, and here’s hoping he stretches things on tour behind his forthcoming LP – it’s a doozy.” — Rolling Stone
“Tip of the Sphere represents McCombs’ practised skills as a shaper of his own world, with pride in his craft, a deep respect for tradition and the drive to refresh it via his own idiosyncratic iteration. It’s a combination likely to seal those ‘finest songwriter of his generation’ nominations.” — Uncut, 9/10 Album of the Month Cass McCombs will release Tip of the Sphere, his ninth full-length album, on February 8th via ANTI-. Ahead of its release, the album is now available to stream via NPR Music’s “First Listen.” Additionally, McCombs shares “Absentee,” a track infused with waltzing organ and subtle saxophone. In “Absentee,” McCombs ruminates on ancestral memories of British, colonialist absentee landlords during the Irish Potato Famine, on longing, hunger and untended places in the heart. Cass plays multiple characters in a play created with cast shadows, masks, puppets and analog visual effects created by Lydia Greer and Caryl Kientz of Facing West Shadow Theatre. Stream Tip of the Sphere via NPR Music – https://n.pr/2RWfYPD
Watch “Absentee” Video – https://youtu.be/4ujcP9S1Gmc Tip of the Sphere presents an artist trying to make sense of it all through a relentless, ever searching creative process. Throughout, he floats through a suite of songs driven by a journeying mysticism and dark grace. While most of his albums have been pieced together in different studios over an extended period of time, Tip of the Sphere was recorded quickly and with a strong sense of purpose at Figure 8 Studios in Brooklyn. This new approach for McCombs brought his songs a raw immediacy and a special balance of compassion and experimentation with the intent of making a more consistent statement. On “Absentee,” he’s joined by Otto Hauser (drums), Dan Horne (bass), Dan Lead (pedal steel), Frank LoCrasto (hammond organ), and Sam Griffin Owens (saxophone).
As previously announced, the ‘Castillo de la Esfera,’ created by fellow Northern California artist and contemporary Tahiti Pehrson as an homage to Brion Gysin’s dream machine, is featured inside the vinyl edition of Tip of the Sphere. Watch the Tip of the Sphere Instructional Video & Castillo de la Esfera Assembly, narrated by Robyn Hitchock,here. Watch/Listen/Share: “Sleeping Volcanoes” Stream – https://youtu.be/aJd_bd9vBFc “Estrella” Stream – https://youtu.be/sJTR-d8X2jk “The Great Pixley Train Robbery” Video – https://youtu.be/tJweioHk6t0
Cass McCombs Tour Dates: Thu. Feb. 7 – Los Angeles, CA @ Amoeba Records Mon. March 4 – Washington, DC @ Union Stage * Tue. March 5 – Philadelphia, PA @ World Cafe Live * Thu. March 7 – Brooklyn, NY @ Murmrr Fri. March 8 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom * Sat. March 9 – Boston, MA @ The Sinclair * Mon. March 11 – Toronto, ON @ Horsehoe Tavern * Tue. March 12 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom* Thu. March 14 – Nashville, TN @ EXIT/IN * Fri. March 15 – Indianapolis, IN @ HiFi * Sat. March 16 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall * Sun. March 17 – Milwaukee, WI @ The BackRoom at Collectivo * Mon. March 18 – St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club * Wed. March 20 – Boulder, CO @ Fox Theatre * Sat. March 23 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The State Room * Mon. March 25 – Vancouver, BC @ St. James * Tue. March 26 – Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey * Wed. March 27 – Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater * Fri. March 29 – Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s * Sat. March 30 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda Theatre * Sun. March 31 – Las Vegas, NV@ The Beauty Bar* Tue. April 2 – Santa Barbara, CA @ SOHo * Thu. April 4 – Santa Cruz, CA @ Moe’s Alley * Fri. April 5 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore * Thu. April 25 – Marfa, TX@ Marfa Myths Sat. May 25 – Madrid, SP @ Tomavistas Festival Tue. May 28 – Prague, CZ @ MeetFactory Wed. May 29 – Berlin, DE @ Frannz-Club Thur. May 30 – Copenhagen, DK @ Alice Fri. May 31 – Hamburg, DE @ Nochtspeicher Sat. June 1 – Gent, BE @ DOK Box Mon. June 3 – Amsterdam, NE @ Paradiso Nord Tue. June 4 – Paris, FR @ La Maroquinerie Thur. June 6 – London, UK @ EartH Fri. June 7 – Helsinki, FI @ Sideways Festival Fri. Aug. 30 – Mon. Sep. 2 – Larmer Tree Gardens, UK @ End of the Road Festival
* = with Sam Evian
Keep your mind open.
[This article is just the tip of the music news iceberg. Subscribe to get the rest.]
“2016’s Mangy Love vaulted [Cass McCombs] to a deservedly bigger audience. Happily, on Tip of the Sphere, his idiosyncratic folk-rock seems unaffected by the extra attention, with his same core band indulging occasional jazz and Latin flourishes.” — Pitchfork, Albums We’re Most Excited for in 2019
“[Cass McCombs’] spellbinding and truly quixotic tunes break past the shackles that a cult following typically entails.” — Vulture, Winter Music Preview
“Much of Tip of the Sphere evokes the Grateful Dead at their most mellow and agreeable, but just as the listener is starting to get comfortable, something like the bizarre electro-spoken-word of ‘American Canyon Sutra’ pops up to remind you that McCombs plays by no one’s rules but his own.” — Boston Globe, 15 Artists We Can’t Wait to Hear in 2019
Today, Cass McCombs shares “The Great Pixley Train Robbery”, a new single off of his forthcoming album, Tip of the Sphere, out February 8th via ANTI- Records. Following two previously released singles, “Sleeping Volcanoes” and “Estrella”, “The Great Pixley Train Robbery” kicks it up a notch, acting as an Old West-tinged tale that describes scenes of a violent train robbery, the greed for gold, and claims of insanity. Based on a newspaper article McCombs uncovered from the 1800s, the track shows off McCombs’ pure creativity and apt for vivid storytelling.
Recorded at Shahzad Ismaily’s Figure 8 studios in Brooklyn, Tip of the Sphere was engineered by Sam Owens (aka Sam Evian) and features the core band of McCombs (guitar, vocals), Dan Horne (co-producer, bass), Otto Hauser (drums), and Frank LoCrasto (piano, organ, and more), plus a range of guests including Jason Quever (A and Not The Way) on drums and additional engineering in “The Great Pixley Train Robbery.” Tip of the Sphere sees McCombs’ with a newfound confidence, resulting in rock songs that have more fervor, ballads that are more beautiful, and an overall heightened sound.
Watch “The Great Pixley Train Robbery” Video – https://youtu.be/tJweioHk6t0
Listen To “Sleeping Volcanoes” – https://youtu.be/aJd_bd9vBFc
Listen to “Estrella” – https://youtu.be/sJTR-d8X2jk
Pre-orderTip of the Sphere – https://ffm.to/cm_tipofthesphere
Cass McCombs Tour Dates: Mon. March 4 – Washington, DC @ Union Stage * Tue. March 5 – Philadelphia, PA @ World Cafe Live * Thu. March 7 – Brooklyn, NY @ Murrmr Fri. March 8 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom * Sat. March 9 – Boston, MA @ The Sinclair * Mon. March 11 – Toronto, ON @ The Horsehoe * Tue. March 12 – Cleveland, OH @ The Beachland * Thu. March 14 – Nashville, TN @ The Exit-In * Fri. March 15 – Indianapolis, IN @ HiFi * Sat. March 16 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall * Sun. March 17 – Milwaukee, WI @ The BackRoom at Collectivo * Mon. March 18 – St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club * Wed. March 20 – Boulder, CO @ Fox Theatre * Sat. March 23 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The State Room * Mon. March 25 – Vancouver, BC @ St. James * Tue. March 26 – Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey * Wed. March 27 – Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater * Fri. March 29 – Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s * Sat. March 30 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda Theatre * Thu. April 4 – Santa Cruz, CA @ Moe’s * Fri. April 5 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore * Fri. April 26 – Marfa, TX @ Marfa Myths Sat. May 25 – Madrid, ES @ Tomavistas Tue. May 28 – Prague, CZ @ MeetFactory Wed. May 29 – Berlin, DE @ Franzz Club Thu. May 30 – Copenhagen, DK @ ALICE Fri. May 31 – Hamburg, DE @ Nochtspeicher Sat. June 1 – Gent, BE @ DOKBox Mon. June 3 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso Noord Tue. June 4 – Paris, FR @ La Maroquinerie Thu. June 6 – London, UK @ Hackney Arts Centre * = with Sam Evian
