Best of What’s New

Once again it’s Saturday and time for another new music revue. For folks living in the U.S. and celebrating, I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving with delicious food and meeting family and/or friends. This latest installment of my weekly Best of What’s New feature turned out to be an all-rock affair. Each tune is from releases that came out yesterday (November 26).

Smith/Kotzen/Better Days

My first pick for this week is from a collaboration between Adrian Smith, guitarist of British heavy metal group Iron Maiden, and Richie Kotzen, guitarist and frontman of The Winery Dogs, an American rock band from Los Angeles. While Iron Maiden isn’t much my cup of tea and I’ve never heard of The Winery Dogs, I know one thing: I like Better Days, the title track of the new EP by the two guitarists who call their collaboration Smith/Kotzen. It’s their second release after their eponymous full-length debut album that appeared in March this year. In addition to guitar, Smith and Kotzen play most other instruments on their studio recordings and share writing and production duties. According to this preview in Loudwire, Better Days, which first appeared three weeks ago as an upfront track, was written in April. Here’s the official video. This nicely rocks while staying pretty melodic.

Julie Doiron/You Gave Me the Key

Let’s next turn to Canadian indie rock singer-songwriter Julie Doiron. According to her Apple Music profile, Doiron began her musical career in 1990, singing and playing bass for the Canadian indie rock band Eric’s Trip. As the group released numerous EPs and three albums for Sub Pop, Doiron also began writing her own largely acoustic material. When Eric’s Trip broke up in 1996, she released an album under the name Broken Girl on Sappy Records, her own label. Later that year, Doiron worked on her second album, Loneliest in the Morning, which came out on Sub Pop and was recorded with prominent indie rock producers and musicians like Doug Easley, Davis McCain, Giant Sand’s Howie Gelb, and the Grifters’ Dave Shouse. Fast-forward to I Thought of You, Doiron’s new and first full-length album in nine years. Here’s the catchy opener You Gave Me the Key. Check out that neat harmony guitar action!

Lars Frederiksen/Tomorrows Girls

Let’s keep rockin’ with Lars Frederiksen, who is best known as guitarist and vocalist of American punk rock band Rancid. Wikipedia notes he’s also currently playing guitar in Oxley’s Midnight Runners, Stomper 98 and The Last Resort – don’t know any of these groups. Frederiksen seems to be a busy man. According to this piece in Blabbermouth.net, the EP To Victory is Frederiksen’s first release under his name only. Here’s the crunchy rocker Tomorrows Girls. It reminds me a bit of solo music I’ve heard from Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong.

Deep Purple/White Room

My last pick for this week is from the latest release by Deep Purple. Since it’s “only a cover album,” I wasn’t going to feature it. Don’t get me wrong: I love Deep Purple; in fact, they are my favorite hard rock band. But I’m talking 1968 through 1972. While every now and then they had some decent songs thereafter, overall their music wasn’t as great as in their early years, in my humble opinion. As for Turning to Crime, I actually find it surprisingly fun to listen to, including this rendition of Cream classic White Room. Yes, Deep Purple didn’t exactly reinvent the wheel. But when it comes to an iconic tune like White Room, that’s just fine with me! I think they did a great job here!

Sources: Wikipedia; Loudwire; Blabbermouth.net; YouTube

Best of What’s New

Welcome to another installment looking at newly released music, which oftentimes features artists and bands I encounter for the first time. This week, it’s a blend of new and familiar names, including what perhaps is my favorite contemporary band and an artist I first discovered through Best of What’s New last October. Let’s do it!

Southern Avenue/Control

If you are a more frequent visitor of the blog, you will likely have seen previous posts about Southern Avenue. This cool group from Memphis, Tenn., which has been around since 2015, blends Stax-style soul with blues, gospel, funk, rock and contemporary R&B. Their members include guitarist Ori Naftaly, who originally hails from Israel; sisters Tierinii Jackson (lead vocals) and Tikyra Jackson (drums, backing vocals); as well as Jeremy Powell (keyboards) and Evan Sarver (bass). From the time I first came across Southern Avenue in July 2017, thanks to a post by fellow blogger Music Enthusiast, I’ve dug this band. Control, co-written by Naftaly and Tierinii Jackson and released yesterday (August 13), is the latest single from Southern Avenue’s upcoming third studio album Be the Love You Want scheduled for August 27 – yet another great tune with killer vocals and an infectious groove!

A Great Big Pile of Leaves/Halloween

A Great Big Pile of Leaves is what I face around my house each autumn – actually make that many! It also is the name of an indie rock band from Brooklyn, New York. I can safely say I much prefer the group over the piles of autumn leaves! According to their Apple Music profile, they were founded by guitarist/singer Pete Weiland and drummer Tyler Soucy, Connecticut natives who moved to New York after their band Farewell to Arms split up in 2007. Their sound was rooted in both breezy classic indie pop and ’90s American underground acts like the Dismemberment Plan. The duo worked on and self-released two EPs, Fiery Works, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. After the release of these recordings, they expanded to include Tucker Yaro and Matt Fazzi. As the band gained momentum, they began touring, eventually doing shows with Saves the Day, Motion City Soundtrack, and Say Anything. In 2010 they completed their first full-length album Have You Seen My Prefrontal Cortex?. Fast-forward to August 13, 2021 and Pono, the band’s third studio album, their first new one in eight years. Somewhere along the way, Fazzi departed, making A Great Big Pile of Leaves a trio. Here’s Halloween credited to the group.

Son Volt/The Globe

Son Volt are an alternative country and Americana rock band around singer-songwriter and guitarist Jay Farrar. Farrar formed the group in 1994 after the breakup of Uncle Tupelo, another alt. country outfit he had co-founded in 1987. Son Volt’s studio debut Trace appeared in September 1995. The band has since released nine additional records, including the latest, Electro Melodier, which came out on July 30. The group’s line-up has changed over the years. In addition to Farrar, the current members include Chris Frame (guitar), Mark Spencer (keyboards, steel guitar), Andrew DuPlantis (bass) and Mark Patterson (drums). Here’s The Globe, which like all other tracks on the album was written by Farrar. The band’s website calls out the Moog line from Won’t Get Fooled Again – something I hadn’t noticed at first. It’s at around 2:13 minutes. The tune reminds me more of Bruce Springsteen than The Who – check it out!

Daniel Romano/Nocturne Child

Let’s wrap up things for this week with an artist I first featured in a Best of What’s New installment last October: Canadian singer-songwriter Daniel Romano. From that post: Wikipedia describes Daniel Romano (born Daniel Travis Romano in 1985) as a Canadian musician, poet and visual artist based out of his hometown of Welland, Ontario. He is primarily known as a solo artist, though he is also a member of [Canadian indie rock band] Attack in Black and has collaborated with [fellow Canadian music artists] Julie Doiron and Frederick Squire. He has also produced and performed with City and Colour, the recording project of Dallas Green [another Canadian music artist]…and is a partner in his own independent record label, You’ve Changed Records. Romano is a prolific artist. His solo debut Workin’ for the Music Man appeared in 2010. He has since released 12 additional albums under his name. Only since last year, he has also issued seven records together with his road band The Outfit as Daniel Romano’s Outfit. And this doesn’t count various additional collaboration albums. Nocturne Child, written by Romano, is a single that appeared on July 16 from yet another Daniel Romano’s Outfit album, Cobra Poems, scheduled for September 10. Check out the Stonesy guitars – love it!

Sources: Wikipedia; Apple Music; Son Volt website; YouTube