Weekend Music Roundup!

The weekend has arrived! It was a sad week in music for me as I learned about the passing of one of my favorite artists, Roky Erickson last Friday. Roky was one of those originals that comes around very seldomly, and though his passing is sad, his life was a roller coaster of trouble and hopefully he'll find peace after life. It's also a reminder to always seek out new music, find something to cherish and enjoy while you still can. This week I'm showcasing a few new releases from favorite artists and some releases by artists I just recently discovered. Enjoy.

Death and Vanilla - Are You a Dreamer?: This is the fourth album from the Swedish psychedelic dream pop band. I've been a fan since 2015's fantastic "To Where the Wild Things Are" and this feels the true follow-up to that album. It's another journey into a fantasy soundscape world of dreams, the kind of lofty ethereal album that I've always loved. They remind me of a mix between Slowdive and Scala, two of my mid-90s favorites. This is one of those perfect summer albums when you want to escape into daydreams. "Mercier," "The Hum," "Vespertine," and "Wallpaper Pattern" are my personal favorites.

Iron and Wine - The Shepherd's Dog: I've been a big Sam Bean fan since Iron and Wine's debut back in 2002, but for whatever reason, this 2007 album has been the one absent from my collection. I think I was a bit heavy into that indie folk genre back then and may have just felt a little overloaded. But now that the the genre has faded and I'm left with little in the way of new, it seemed like the right time to check this out...literally, as I checked it out from the library. This is the transition album that would've prepared me for 2011's Kiss Each Other Clean, which I HATED at first listen (but now love). This is the album that moves away from the softness of the early work and introduces the art pop sound that would define the albums after. Another wonderful album in a wonderful career. 

Nik Turner - The Final Frontier: The newest release from the space rock pioneer and former founding member of space rock giants Hawkwind. This continues his prolific run dating back to 2013 and is the fifth album of this modern incarnation, which is really a return to form incarnation. Everything on here sounds as though it could've appeared on a Hawkwind album from the 70's, just bigger and more expansive in it's space rockiness. "Calling the Egyptians," and "Interstellar Aliens" are my personal favorites.

Budgie - Budgie: The 1971 from the Welsh hard rock band is a bit of a forgotten album, and nearly unheard of album stateside. I only recently heard about this pioneering Led Zeppelin style band and from the raves that I read, I knew I had to check it out. They released, on average, an album a year through the '70s following this record. Just like Zep they use a blues based rock sound at the core, only heavier. Their slower songs are more proggish in the way they build into rock.  "Guts," "The Author," and "All Night Petrol" are my personal favorites. 

Cootie Williams - The Solid Trumpet of Cootie Williams: Discovered and recruited by Duke Ellington when he was 19 years old, the southern trumpeter would become one of swing jazz's most talented in my opinion. I picked this album up on trade-in for stuff I no longer wanted, and from the instant the needle hit the record, I was in a groovy trance. There is a texture to his playing that is unlike any I've heard before. Sure, it's not Kind of Blue or anything like that, but this is pure transportive jazz that will take you to all those places in your head that only jazz can. 

Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman: Released in 1988, this was an instant hit and widely acclaimed record by a debut artist out of Cleveland. I remember hearing "Revolution" and "Fast Car" a million times that year, and seeing the videos a million times on MTV, but I never had the album because it was rock enough for me. A few weeks ago, I picked up a box of free records and this was one of them. I was thrilled to see it in there because I've always had a soft spot for "Fast Car". In addition to those two singles, there are amazing tracks on this deeply political album. "Behind the Wall" is an acapella masterpiece of troubling beauty. In fact, this entire album is a masterpiece of troubling beauty and sadness, but colored with hope, which is what has made it timeless in so many ways.