Your rainy day New Music Monday picks include a Dallas musical collective, a beloved UK singer-songwriter and the ultimate harmonious three:
You couldn’t dream up a more tuneful triple threat if you tried — the trio collaboration between Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris notwithstanding, of course. Back in 2012, k.d. lang reached out to Neko Case and Portland-based singer-songwriter Laura Viers via email about the possibility of a collaboration, and the fruits of their labor see the light of day on June 16 when Anti- releases their self-titled debut, case/lang/viers. Like the other recent collaborations of note — Big Grams, EL VY, FFS, or Iggy Pop and Josh Homme plotting Pop Pop Depression — the group’s debut single “Atomic Number” has promise written all over it:
It’s way too easy to fall under the spell of “Inside A Wall,” the dreamy lead track on the debut from Dallas’ newest musical collective, Cryptolog. The five members include producer Stuart Sikes (White Stripes, Modest Mouse, Loretta Lynn’s Van Lear Rose), Frank Pittenger from the Lucky Pierres, Charlie Begue, Jerome Brock and Brian McKay. The release of their first-ever EP, Somewhere Else, has us anticipating the next crop of new tunes and their upcoming Record Store Day set at Josey Records on April 16 at 1 pm:
Jake Bugg was a fresh-faced 19-year-old Midlands lad when he played Dallas for the very first time at The Kessler back in the fall of 2013, and the adoring audience was a virtual case study for the appeal of his breakout numbers. “Two Fingers” was an affirmation of survival for the big kids, while “Lightning Bolt” was the family-friendly uniter of said big kids with their own tween offspring, many of whom were bopping along up in the balcony. Three albums in now, Bugg had spent some time in the studio with Mike D last year, and while none of their work made it to On My One, there’s the sweet aroma of the former Beastie Boy’s influence all over Bugg’s first single from the album, “Gimme The Love”:
The combustible magic of Allison Mosshart and Jamie Hince is a lovely thing to behold, and with June’s return of The Kills, your summer soundtrack just got exponentially cooler. Following a five-year hiatus, which included Mosshart’s studio time with The Dead Weather and a hand injury that sidelined Hince and made him re-learn how to play the guitar all over again, Ashes & Ice proves once again that The Kills are the high priests of the unruly roost. “Doing It To Death” is a sweet taste of what you can expect when the album hits the stores:
Happy listening!
XOXO
Gini.
