New Music Monthly: February 2019 Releases

It may be cold as the dickens outside your window, but the spring thaw could come up quickly in the wake of February’s red-hot slate of new releases guaranteed to tickle your eardrums. Aside from new tunes from talents like Tommy Castro, R. Stevie Moore, Bob Mould, the Tedeschi Trucks Band, and the Long Ryders your auditory canals can feast on archive music from Alex Chilton (two of ‘em!) and U2 among much, much more! 

If you’re interesting in buying an album, just hit the ‘Buy!’ link to get it from Amazon.com...it’s just that damn easy! Your purchase puts valuable ‘store credit’ in the Reverend’s pocket that he’ll use to buy more music to write about in a never-ending loop of rock ‘n’ roll ecstasy!

FEBRUARY 1
Beirut - Gallipoli   BUY!
Tommy Castro & the Painkillers - Killin’ It Live   BUY!
Girlpool - What Chaos Is Imaginary   BUY!
Van Duren - Waiting: The Van Duren Story Original Documentary Soundtrack   BUY!
The Specials - Encore   BUY!

FEBRUARY 8
Alex Chilton - From Memphis to New Orleans   BUY!
Alex Chilton - Songs From Robin Hood Land   BUY!
Charlie Faye & the Fayettes - The Whole Shebang   BUY!
Humble Pie - Joint Effort   BUY!
Colin Linden & Luther Dickinson - Amour   BUY!
Marley’s Ghost - Travelin’ Shoes   BUY!
Gurf Morlix - Impossible Blue   BUY!
Bob Mould - Sunshine Rock   BUY!
The Lemonheads - Varshons 2   BUY!
Mercury Rev - Bobby Gentry’s The Delta Sweete Revisited   BUY!
Panda Bear - Buoys   BUY!

FEBRUARY 15
Hayes Carll - What It Is   BUY!
Jon Fratelli - Bright Night Flowers   BUY!
The Long Ryders - Psychedelic Country Soul   BUY!
Millencolin - SOS   BUY!
Tedeschi Trucks Band - Signs   BUY!

FEBRUARY 22
Claypool Lennon Delerium - South of Reality   BUY!
Dream Theater - Distance Over Time  BUY!
R. Stevie Moore - Afterlife   BUY!
Overkill - The Wings of War   BUY!
Rockin’ Johnny & Quiqué Gomez - Dos Hombres Wanted?   BUY!
Luther Russell - Medium Cool   BUY!
U2 - No Line On the Horizon [vinyl reissue]    BUY!
Various Artists - 3x4 (The Bangles, Rain Parade, Dream Syndicate, etc)   BUY!

FEBRUARY 29
Kinetic Element - The Face of Life   BUY!

Album of the Month: The Long Ryders’ Psychedelic Country Soul (Omnivore Recordings), the reunited legendary band’s first studio LP in 32 years. Produced by noted board-wrangler Ed Stasium, who has worked with the Ramones and the Smithereens, among many others, Psychedelic Country Soul is a collection of eleven brand spankin’ new original slabs o’ rockin’ Americana along with an inspired cover of the Tom Petty song “Walls.”

Says Long Ryders’ singer, guitarist, and songwriter Sid Griffin in a press release for the new LP, Psychedelic Country Soul is  “the album we were always trying to make… each flavor which made the band unique is there be it C&W, rock ’n’ roll, troubadour folk music, raw R&B, or out-there psychedelia.” The new album comes in the wake of deluxe three-disc reissue versions of the band’s classic 1980s-era albums State of Our Union and Two-Fisted Tales by the U.K. archival label Cherry Red.

The Long Ryders’ Two Fisted Tales box

The Long Ryders were another of those great “lost” bands of the 1980s, fellow travelers to outfits like Dream Syndicate, Rain Parade, Stealin’ Horses, and Jason & the Scorchers, among others, a band that never received its due in spite of a brace of innovative and entertaining albums that blended punk rock intensity with the “cosmic cowboy” roots-rock of influences like Gram Parsons, Buffalo Springfield, Bob Dylan, and the Byrds. Formed in Los Angeles in 1982, and widely labeled part of the “Paisley Underground” movement, the Long Ryders featured guitarists Sid Griffin and Stephen McCarthy, bassist Tom Stevens, and drummer Greg Sowders with vocals provided by all the band members.

The Long Ryders’ third and final album, 1987’s awesome, critically-acclaimed Two Fisted Tales, was tragically ignored by a record-buying public buying into the “nerf metal” din of less-talented bands. It remains Griffin’s favorite album by the Ryders, and in addition to great original songs like “Gunslinger Man,” “Prairie Fire,” and “Harriet Tubman’s Gonna Carry Me Home” the album also included a wonderful cover of NRBQ’s classic “I Want You Bad.”

On November 30, 2018 British archival label Cherry Red Records will reissue Two Fisted Tales as a three-CD box set. With production overseen by the band’s Tom Stevens, the set includes the re-mastered original album with three bonus tracks, a second disc of demos from the band’s archives, and a third disc featuring a memorable live show from Palm Springs.

The Two Fisted Tales box set includes a new booklet with rare, unpublished photos and memorabilia and new liner notes by Griffin. The box set precedes a brand-new Long Ryders studio album scheduled to be released in 2019 by Cherry Red in the U.K. and the good folks at Omnivore Recordings stateside. If you’re a fan of contemporary roots-rock bands like the National, American Aquarium, or Beachwood Sparks, you owe it to yourself to rediscover the Long Ryders, one of the influential and innovative pioneering bands that helped launch the Americana movement.

Check out the album on the Cherry Red website