Baby Robot Media

Magnet News: Jesse Harris’ new album No Wrong No Right is out Feb. 10 on Dangerbird Records

The 13th album from Jesse Harris, No Wrong No Right, is a collaboration with NYC duo Star Rover and will be available from Dangerbird on February 10

The first full-length album from Swervedriver since 1998 will be released in March via Cobraside. A supporting North American tour, including a performance at SXSW, will kick off tat month … A Place To Bury Strangers has announced the February 17 release of its fourth album, Transfixiation, via Dead Oceans … Jingle Bell Rocks! is a documentary directed by Mitchell Kezin about his search for the best Christmas songs of all time. Featured is Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne, Rev Run of Run DMC, filmmaker John Waters and more. It will be released theatrically in select markets beginning November 21, with a DVD release on November 28 and a digital release on December 9 … New West will issue the new record from Steve Earle & The Dukes, Terraplane, on Feburary 17 … On January 20, expanded deluxe CD reissues of Jellyfish’s Bellybuttonand Spilt Milk will be released by Omnivore, featuring 51 bonus tracks … The 13th album from Jesse Harris, No Wrong No Right, is a collaboration with NYC duo Star Rover and will be available from Dangerbird on February 10 … Martin Sexton’s eighth studio album, Mixtape Of The Open Road, is due out February 10 via KTR/Redeye … I Aubade, the latest release from Elvis Perkins, is set for a February 24 release on MIR … Polyvinyl has announced the February 17 release of the new Sonny & The Sunsets album, Talent Night At The Ashram … In January, Mouse On Mars’ Jan St. Werner will release a new solo record,Miscontinuum Album, via Thrill Jockey. READ HERE…

by Baby Robot Media

Stereogum premieres Grand Vapids’ new song “Kiln”

Grand Vapids hail from Athens, where they’ve honed a droning take on indie rock in the lineage of Galaxie 500, Low, and fellow Georgians Deerhunter. “Kiln,” from the band’s Drew Vandenberg-produced debut albumGuarantees, is a fine demonstration of that style, all somnambulant beauty and shimmering, scraping white noise. The song seems to spend its entire run time either waking up to a new day or slowly moving toward that light you supposedly see when you’re dying. Listen or download the understated gorgeousness below. LISTEN HERE…

by Baby Robot Media

Paste Magazine’s exclusive on Jesse Harris, who has just announced the release of his new album with Star Rover, No Wrong No Right

We here at Paste have had singer-songwriter Jesse Harris on our playlists for a while now, and we’re happy to say he’s back in classic form with the titular single from his upcoming 13th album, No Wrong No Right. Harris, who won a Grammy in 2003 for writing “Don’t Know Why” for Norah Jones, has collaborated with an extensive array of artists, including Bright Eyes, Cat Power, Feist, M. Ward, Melody Gardot, Mike Patton, John Zorn, Solomon Burke, Willie Nelson and Emmylou Harris. Now, his solo efforts are rightfully back in the spotlight, starting with “No Wrong No Right,” which you can listen to exclusively in the player above.

“No Wrong No Right” is about a contemporary, existential malaise,” says Harris. “I think a lot of people go through that—not really making hard choices, and just sort of meandering along as time passes by. As for where this malaise comes from—it’s easy enough to say, ‘Well, everybody’s on the Internet these days, and there are cellphones everywhere,’ which, on the surface, almost seems too facile of an explanation, but at the same time I feel like there’s some truth to it. I think these things give people an illusion of endless time while simultaneously, they eat away at time in an imperceptible way. And before you know it, people have gotten older, and there are some things they still haven’t dealt with in a meaningful way.”

Harris is toying with three distinct elements for this impressive 13th album—fleshed out full band tunes, an array of intimate duets and a trio of instrumental tracks. In this way, No Wrong No Right sees a veteran musician taking equal inspiration from Neil Young and experimental duo Star Rover. Harris is open about his admiration and friendship with Star Rover and the musical chemistry that subsequently blossomed: “I fell in love with their band,” Harris says. “I was sort of a groupie, checking out their gigs all the time. One day they invited me over to their loft to play, and it felt great from the first song. Which inspired me to write a bunch more songs.” Star Rover went on to join him in performance, so the full album will be credited to “Jesse Harris with Star Rover.”

The duets on the album are with guitar player Julian Lage, who has worked with members of Wilco and The Punch Brothers. “Julian is a remarkable young musician,” Harris says. “He’s a jazz guitarist, but he’s equally interested in songcraft and experimental music. Playing with him is always exciting.” The instrumentals onNo Wrong No Right promise to bring excitement as well—they range from a meditation on social media to a tribute to legendary Japanese anime director Hayao Miyazaki.

For the time being, the new album’s title track will hold us over. No Wrong No Right is due out via Dangerbird Records on Feb. 10.

LISTEN HERE…

by Baby Robot Media

Video: The Wans perform ‘The Holy One’ at CMJ 2014

Watch this video of The Wans performing their song “Holy One” at this year’s CMJ Fest, live at Knitting Factory Brooklyn…

by Baby Robot Media

Glide Magazine premieres Sara Rachele’s gorgeous new black & white, live-in-the-studio session video for “Black Mile.”

Recorded in her hometown of Atlanta, the Brooklyn/East ATL-based Sara Rachele’s debut, Diamond Street, rides out slow and dark as a jet-black 1960s Chrysler New Yorker. The live-to-tape LP—produced by Kristofer Sampson (B-52’s, Balkans, Coathangers)—was recorded in just two days, and captures the East Village nightlife of a young songwriter in what Glide previously called “a timeless, vibrant rock ’n’ roll statement.” Diamond Street’s sparkling lo-fi charms span the decades, Rachele channeling everything from classic Fleetwood Mac and Petty’s Heartbreakers to Lucinda Williams and David Lynch muse Julee Cruise.

On recording with producer Sampson (who also plays in New West Records band Ponderosa), Rachele says, “Kris really challenged me on this album. Even though we were working quickly, he had patience with the songs, and he took the sound to a new place for me without it seeming disingenuous.” The results have landed Rachele in esteemed outlets like American Songwriter and No Depression, critics comparing her work to that of singular artists such as Neko Case, Stevie Nicks and gorgeously moody ‘90s alternative band Mazzy Star.

In addition to producer Sampson, Rachele’s new debut Diamond Street features the musical contributions of budding folk hound J. Thomas Hall (New West’s Normaltown Records imprint) as well as a cast of Atlanta-based heavy hitters including Lightnin’ Ray Jackson (Washed Out, Gringo Star), Spencer Pope (Ocha La Rocha), Spencer Garn (Ruby Velle & the Soulphonics) and Snowden’s Chandler Rentz.Diamond Street represents the gorgeous clash of Rachele’s folk-centric upbringing and her beat rock & roll adventures in New York City. With five years of stories under her belt, she has created a moody musical pulp, resounding with smoky memories of ambling city nights.

Glide is proud to premiere Sara Rachele’s video for “Black Mile,” a track that reflects Rachele’s aching vocals and sense of melodic virtuosity stirs immediate comparisons to Stevie Nicks’ most recognized ballads with Fleetwood Mac.

Rachele goes on to describe the track:

“Black Mile” is about loneliness—about those moments you’re thinking about mortality. I’ve always felt that those songs, about death, are the hardest to write, but the most comforting to listen to. It’s about accepting our fear of mortality—my friend Melissa Ferrick has a song where she just repeats, “The journey is the destination… the journey is the destination.”

There’s an old jazz song called “Black Nile,” and it got me thinking this concept of life as a journey, and death as a journey, too. I felt compelled to write a song about, and the guys in the studio really got into that vibe with me. The result was “Black Mile.” I wrote the song in one sitting… it kind of wrote me, in a way. Once we were in the studio, it all came together, really out of nowhere, as a full-band composition—the way Chandler Rentz played drums on it really stirs something in me every time I hear the song. He really made it my favorite song on Diamond Street.

At peace. That’s where this song puts me—in a conversational way, talking to death, addressing mortality and my own life each time I sing it… looking right down the barrel of the gun and saying, “I’m okay with whatever happens.” That’s the way I want to live my life; not in fear, but in communication with life itself. With acceptance.” WATCH HERE…

by Baby Robot Media

Tesla Rossa is the lead story today at Substream Music Press, where you can stream their new self-titled debut in its entirety.

For the past five years, Tesla Rossa has been silently running wild at house parties and basement shows around the country. Now, the band is finally releasing its self-titled debut album. A lot can happen over five years, and Tesla Rossa stands as evidence of that. The album showcases a dynamic collection of songs varying greatly in musical influence. One moment roars as wildly as any garage rock jam, the next comes gently crooning, dancing over strings, or dabbling with sitar.

“We always kind of joke that we’re the modern rock version of a throwback band, or like a throwback band from the future, because we do have a lot of those sounds that rock and roll was built on but we always try to wrap it around some kind of new thing,” says vocalist/guitarist Jason Denton.

The trio, finished off by Ryan Tullock and Nathan Wahlman, gathers an eclectic mix of influences channeled into one blend of sounds that defines Tesla Rossa. Even between members the influences differ. “I’m much more of a rock guy, Nathan loves jazz, Ryan’s much more of…he loves pop and more of the hip hop world,” Denton explains.

It’s not only the wide collection of influences that leads to the diverse style, the time spent together as a band plays directly into where Tesla Rossa is now. Five years’ time provided the Nashville group with a collection of songs spanning a variety of directions influenced by their own lives and musical interests during that time period. LISTEN HERE…