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No Depression reviews Book Club’s new album, One-Way Moon (out Feb. 17)

Atlanta’s less-is-more, indie-folk septet, Book Club is currently putting its finishing touches on their second full-length album, One-Way Moon, due out February 17, 2014 on the Cottage Recording Co. (Small Houses) & Bear Kids Recordings. A harrowing collection of decimal songs with a conglomerate of roots and stylings held together by melodious yet old-timey lyrical delivery, spotlighting the unorthodox harmonic meld between frontman/singer/songwriter, Robbie Horlick, and songstress Rachel Buckley. Formed in 2011, Book Club has procured a lush touring docket, having honed their stage skills with the likes of Roadkill Ghost Choir, Richard Buckner, and Deep Dark Woods, amassing the attention of Grammy nominated producer Matt Goldman somewhere along the way. Goldman was tagged to produce and record One-Way Moon at his Atlanta based, Glow in the Dark Studios. A definite breath of fresh air for Goldman who has gained his stripes primarily producing Christian hardcore acts the likes of Underoath and As Cities Burn.

Sometimes opposites attract and a beautiful bi-product can be birthed. Book Club’s debut record, 2011’s Ghost, was contrived a complete 180 degrees, about face from the tactics employed by Goldman. Book Club gelled with Goldman and his seemingly old-school recording tactics. He gathered the band facing each other in a circle and recorded everything live, as it should be. No bells and whistles, just artists and instruments. A set-up not unfamiliar to the band as this is the typical lay out for a Book Club rehearsal gathered in Horlick’s living room. What’s left is a “warts and all” finished product with imperfections quite possible being the perfection. “Each of us was positioned so that we had a direct line of sight to every other band member—we could see and hear exactly what was happening at all times. You play differently in that setting. I’d always been about layering track after track, but this time, myself and Will Raines (Mastodon, West End Motel) were a live, two-piece string ensemble. It was beautiful, Bill Callahan-style—sinister and simple”, adds cellist and Book Club co-founder Matt Jarrard (Royal Thunder, Oryx & Crake). READ MORE…

by Baby Robot Media

PopMatters premiere Lowbanks’ “Treatz”

At a meager 1:22, “Treatz”, a track off of the Atlanta-based punk outfit Lowbanks’ new EP The Dogs, doesn’t have a lot of time to waste. Fitting, then, that the tune dives straight into a haze of shouted vocals, fuzzy distortion, and ear-piercing guitar leads right away, making its intentions clear and assertive. The raw punk energy, however, is balanced out with almost poppy production and convivial mood that’s bound to connect with live audiences.

Lowbanks’ singer and guitarist John Gaffo tells PopMatters, “‘Treatz’ was the first song we wrote after our second guitarist quit and we started playing as a trio. We were kind of swimming in uncharted waters at the time, trying to write parts that would fill up the space and sound full when we played live. Our songs became more raw and energetic as we stripped them down, and we just kind of ran with it. Originally ‘Treatz’ had this long intro that practically doubled the length of the song. We tried recording it with this producer who really didn’t get what we were trying to do, and it came out sounding really flat and dead and boring. So we decided to rerecord the song with our friend Trey Rosenkampff for The Dogs. He suggested we scrap the intro and add all these weird psyched-out synths and pitch shifters to fill out the sound. It turned out way better than we’d imagined. Lyrically, it’s just a dumb rock & roll song about drinking, getting trashed and falling in love. Which is super cheesy and lame but it’s easily one of my favorite songs to play live—just catchy, fun, loud and fast as hell.” LISTEN HERE…

by Baby Robot Media

CMJ premieres Book Club’s “You Say It So Glacial”

Atlanta’s Book Club is not a book club, but a band, though that doesn’t mean they’re not literary. Despite their music’s pastoral simplicity (they call themselves a “rural pop collective”), there’s a narrative weightiness to their sound. Take You Say It So Glacial, a single off their upcoming album One-Way Moon. Dripping with little but soft strings and the delicate harmonies of guitarist Robbie Horlick and Rachel Buckley, the song creates an atmosphere in its lyrics like, “You say it’s so glacial/like Mars or the moon/another world sometimes/in your room.” Here’s what Horlick had to say about the track and the experience of writing it immediately following a family trip to Iceland:

Some songs you slave over, and some just pour out of you. It’s a mystery. And one of the most exciting parts of that mystery is when songs come to you whole. Paul McCartney dreamed all of Yesterday. I Love How You Love Me was written in five minutes on a cocktail napkin. George Michael wrote the sax melody for Careless Whisper on the back of an envelope on a plane. There’s something really pure about songs that come into the world fully realized. And that’s how it was with You Say It So Glacial.

All of the lyrics for Glacial came to me in about five minutes. And when I got home [from Iceland], I picked up my guitar for the first time in a week, and the chords and music just fell out of me too. The song is about relationships, but not just between people—between places, histories, intentions. It’s about distance, but not necessarily physical distance. It’s about how close two people can be, and how far away at the same time. Or maybe someone will hear it, and draw something completely different from it. That’s one of the beautiful things about songwriting—once a song is out there in the world, there’s no telling what it might mean to someone. It’s like the last line of You Say It So Glacial: ‘It’s steam sometimes, what comes out of your mouth. I never know when you’re gonna go.’

One-Way Moon is out February 17 via the Cottage Recording Co. and Bear Kids Recordings. LISTEN HERE…

by 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…