Just Released - 2013 [Ep.20]

               

“They say the heart of Rock ‘n’ Roll is still beating, 

 And from what I’ve seen, I believe ‘em..,

                        “The Heart Of Rock ‘n’ Roll” – Huey Lewis & The News (1983)

That general prognosis was handed down by Huey Lewis in 1983. Thirty years on, we might venture a second opinion. But on the 30^th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of their globally popular album, ‘Sports’, Huey Lewis & The News (at their 'back-to-basics' best), still sound fresh. Betrayed only by songs bearing the obvious hallmarks of 80s production, Huey Lewis & The News sound like an honest, goodtime bar band. As a bonus, is a second disc of live recordings, including a reassuringly OTT version of “I Want A New Drug”, recorded in Sydney in 1989. In the JR office, it’s filed under ‘Guilty Pleasures’ but it’s one we wanted to share. 

    

Boy & Bear make a welcome return in this edition with the first new recording since their multi-award winning debut album, ’Moonfire’. The Sydney band is currently working on a follow-up album, ‘Harlequin Dreams’. Also from Sydney is Ngaiire (like “firey” with an N). The Papua New Guinean born singer/songwriter has her debut album, ‘Lamentations’ due out later this month.

Come to think of it, there’s music from all over the map this week, with new songs from English Electro-Pop band, Hot Chip, Chicago indie Rockers, Smith Westerns and Synth-Pop band from Versailles, France, Phoenix.

Ahead of a comprehensive national tour behind his just released 2^nd album, ‘Departures’, Brisbane’s Bernard Fanning also has a new single in the record's opening track, “Tell Me How It Ends”. Meanwhile, Melbourne band, The Stillsons have released a new song as a preview to their 3^rd album, Never Go Your Way', due later this year.

Almost over-represented in this edition is Aotearoa. Between the Roots groove of Fat Freddy’s Drop and the Drum ‘n’ Bass of Shapeshifter, we have two serious Kiwi Party bands, albeit from somewhat different parties. Both bands will be touring Australia in the near future.

  

Boy & Bear: “Southern Sun” (new single)

Hot Chip: “Dark & Stormy” (new single)

Ngaiire: “Around" (from the forthcoming album, ‘Lamentations’)

The Stillsons: “”Feel So Young” (preview from the album, ‘Never Go Your Way’)

Smith Westerns: “Idol” (from the album, ‘Soft Will’)

Fat Freddy’s Drop: “Clean The House” (from the forthcoming album, ‘Blackbird’)

Shapeshifter: “Gravity” (from the album, ‘Delta’)

Phoenix: “Trying To Be Cool” (from the album ‘Bankrupt!’)

Bernard Fanning: “Tell Me How It Ends” (from the album ‘Departures’)

Huey Lewis & The News: “I Want A New Drug [Live in Sydney 1989]” (from the album ‘Sports [30^th Anniversary Deluxe Edition]’)

Just Released is heard Saturdays at 12pm and Sundays at 4pm (AEDT or AEST) on ABC Digital Radio in Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, and via the streams of our metropolitan stations on the Gold Coast, in Newcastle, Hobart and Darwin.  

You can also listen to JR during the week on ABC Dig Music Mondays @ 2pm, Wednesdays @ 8pm & Thursdays @ 11am (AEDT or AEST) and on Radio Australia throughout Asia & the Pacific.

To stream Just Released on demand, simply connect to our web pages via the hot links above. …(or even the shiny beast below): 

                                      Find 'Just Released' here.

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Just Released - 2013 [Ep.19]

 “Put a candle in the window, but I feel I’ve got to move, 

  Though I’m going, going, I’ll be coming home soon,

  Long as I can see the light…”

                        “Long As I Can See The Light” – Creedence Clearwater Revival (1970)

John Fogerty has finally come in from the cold.

Long-running legal issues that once plagued his career and robbed his legacy are now resolved and Americana’s unheralded Godfather has revisited some of his most enduring compositions (and a couple of new ones). With such an impressive array of special guests, ‘Wrote A Song For Everyone’ can seem more an event than an album. For the most part it works, but the singular rasp of Fogerty’s vocals, the bite still evident in his guitar and the purity of those compositions, render some of the guest contributions surplus to requirement. Welcome back, John.

Jazz/Pop chanteuse, Caro Emerald also features in this edition, with her second album, ‘The Shocking Miss Emerald’. As follow-ups go, this was a daunting one. Her 2010 debut, ‘Deleted Scenes From The Cutting Room Floor’ had spent most of that year at the top of the Dutch chart. Amsterdam’s favourite daughter must have drawn considerable relief then, when her new album hit the top, not just in her homeland but in England as well. This time, Caro visits the sound of vintage Jazz whilst bringing to it, a cheeky, contemporary twist.

Also raising dust on the Comeback Trail in this edition is Todd Rundgren. Last seen touring here in February as part of Ringo Starr’s All Starr Band, Todd is set to return next month, presenting his own music. Since remixing Aussie band, Tame Impala’s song “Elephant” last year, Todd has been working on his latest psychedelic opus with the album, ‘State’ and with song titles like “Angry Birds”, “Ping Me” and “Serious”, Todd’s creative flair and sense of humour remain firmly intact.

One of Australia’s most respected Indigenous singer/songwriters, Archie Roach sees the timely release of a song he composed 20 years ago, “The Colour Of Your Jumper”, to coincide with National Reconciliation Week (27^th May-3^rd June).

Also in this edition, we hear from former Alexisonfire frontman, Dallas Green, recording under the name ‘City & Colour’ along with a preview of the forthcoming album from Melbourne singer/songwriter, Lawrence Greenwood, known as Whitley. He’ll be releasing his new album in early July before embarking on a tour of eastern states capitals and appearances later that month at the 13^th annual ‘Splendour In The Grass’ music festival.

Meanwhile, just starting out as a recording artist is Cook Islands teenager, Jaik Berg.

Last year, a song that came to him in his sleep became the winner of Radio Australia’s annual ‘Pacific Break Competition’ beating out entries from Fiji, Vanuatu, Samoa and other Pacific nations. A compilation of the best entries in last year’s competition is now released and in this edition, we share the newly-recorded version of Jaik’s winning song.      

  

  

John Fogerty: “Mystic Highway” (from the album ‘Wrote A Song For Everyone’)

Archie Roach: “The Colour Of Your Jumper” (digital single)

Whitley: “My Heart Is Not A Machine" (preview from the album, ‘Even The Stars Are A Mess’)

City & Colour: “The Hurry And The Harm” (from the album, ‘The Hurry And The Harm’)

Caro Emerald: “Pack Up The Louie”/”Liquid Lunch” (from the album, ‘The Shocking Miss Emerald’)

Todd Rundgren: “Serious” (from the album, ‘State’)

Jaik Berg: “My Oh My” (from the album, ‘The Best of Pacific Break 2012’)

John Fogerty: “Bad Moon Rising (with Zac Brown Band)”/”Who’ll Stop The Rain (with Bob Seger)” (from the album ‘Wrote A Song For Everyone’)

  

Just Released is heard Saturdays at 12pm and Sundays at 4pm (AEDT or AEST) on ABC Digital Radio in Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, and via the streams of our metropolitan stations on the Gold Coast, in Newcastle, Hobart and Darwin.  

You can also listen to JR during the week on ABC Dig Music Mondays @ 2pm, Wednesdays @ 8pm & Thursdays @ 11am (AEDT or AEST) and on Radio Australia throughout Asia & the Pacific.

To stream Just Released on demand, simply connect to our web pages via the hot links above. …(or even the shiny beast below): 

                                      Find 'Just Released' here.

              ♫

    ♫   {](-_-)[}   ♫         Thanks for listening.

Just Released - 2013 [Ep.18]

This week on Just Released with Bill Riner & Brandon Stewart:

Saturday 25^th & Sunday 26^th May 2013

“One more time,

  One more time,

  One more time,

  One more time,…”,

                        “One More Time” – Daft Punk (2000)

True, Daft Punk aren’t known for their lyrics. But that doesn’t mean the robots aren’t winning. And it won’t stop their just released album, ‘Random Access Memories’ from making its debut at (or very close to) #1. The Progressive House duo has been celebrating dancefloor culture since the late ‘90s but this time, the synths and sequencers have mostly been left at home. In their place are real musicians, lots of them. At times, it seems like Daft Punk are guests on their own album with the lion’s share of its sound shaped by others. Master of ceremonies here is Nile Rodgers whose unimpeachably funky guitar grooves are all over the place. Elsewhere, is Giorgio Moroder, one of the architects of Disco. This is Daft Punk bringing it all back home and saying, Respec’ to the music that inspired them. As a footnote, Australian Pop icons, Sherbet will also be sharing in the royalties: Daryl Braithwaite, Tony Mitchell and Garth Porter are co-credited on one track for a “sample” from their 1981 song, “We Ride Tonight” used in the album’s final song. (Yay, “Local” angle.) 

There’s always a little dust on the Comeback Trail but there was a little extra this week with the return of Baby Animals. Suze DeMarchi and her band have overcome a great deal of misfortune during their career but remind us they are not ready to throw in the towel. The title of their new album makes their intentions clear: ‘This Is Not The End’. Sharing that sentiment is Australian singer/songwriter, Wes Carr. Once referred to as the “former Australian Idol winner”, he may now be known as the former Wes Carr. Believing his own name to have been “tainted” by the corporate stank of his brush with Idol, TAFKAWC is now known by the newly adopted moniker of Buffalo Tales.

It may be around 8 years since their last album but we’re still not calling the latest from Scottish band, Texas a comeback. Whilst many UK bands from the 80s are now reforming, Texas never really went away. Along with Sharleen Spiteri and her band, other talented women with new music in this edition are England’s, Laura Marling (‘I Was An Eagle’) and America’s Patty Griffin, who takes time out from singing with Robert Plant’s band to make her 7^th album (‘American Kid’) in memory of her late father.

Texas: “The Conversation” (from the album ‘The Conversation’)

Patty Griffin: “Go Wherever You Wanna Go”/”Ohio” (from the album, ‘American Kid’)

Baby Animals: “Email" (from the album, ‘This Is Not The End’)

Daft Punk: “Give Life Back To Music”/”Lose Yourself To Dance” (from the album, ‘Random Access Memories’)

Buffalo Tales: “Amsterdam” (from the album, ‘Road Trip Confessions’)

Laura Marling: ”I Was An Eagle” (from the album, ‘I Was An Eagle’)

Daft Punk: “Giorgio By Moroder” (from the album, ‘Random Access Memories’)

Just Released is heard Saturdays at 12pm and Sundays at 4pm (AEDT or AEST) on ABC Digital Radio in Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, and via the streams of our metropolitan stations on the Gold Coast, in Newcastle,Hobart and Darwin.  

You can also listen to JR during the week on ABC Dig Music Mondays @ 2pm, Wednesdays @ 8pm & Thursdays @ 11am (AEDT or AEST) and on Radio Australia throughout Asia & the Pacific.

To stream Just Released on demand, simply connect to our web pages via the hot links above. …(or even the shiny beast below): 

                                      Find 'Just Released' here.

              ♫

    ♫   {](-_-)[}   ♫         Thanks for listening.

Just Released - 2013 [Ep.17]

“Add us to equations but they’ll never make us equal,

  She who writes the movie, owns the script and the sequel,,

  So, why ain’t the stealing of my rights made illegal?…”

                                                   “Q.U.E.E.N.” – Janelle Monáe (2013)

  

The JR Radar was buzzing with new alerts this week and one that caught our attention was a preview from the 2^nd album by Janelle Monáe. With “Tightrope” (from her album, ‘The ArchAndroid’) she had one of the most memorable Dance songs of 2010. A couple of Sydney Opera House performances last May for the 2012 Vivid Festival brought Janelle’s psychedelic Soul to Australian audiences for the first time. On this edition’s preview from Ms. Monáe’s forthcoming album, ‘The Electric Lady’ Janelle duets with Erykah Badu. (Sharper tools in the shed will catch the nod to Jimi Hendrix in the album title).

 

Also returning with a 2^nd album is Hugh Laurie whose post-House future seems more aligned with his passion for classic piano Blues. And speaking of Blues, it must be at least a couple of weeks now since we heard something new from Joe Bonamassa. This time, Joe returns for his 2^nd album with Torch Blues singer, Beth Hart. Wondering why they’d risk a stab at such an iconic song as “Nutbush City Limits” was obvious, once we’d heard it. Beth’s voice can scorch hot enough to do Tina proud, or simmer, as she does interpreting the songs of Etta James (“A Sunday Kind Of Love”, or Billie Holiday (“Strange Fruit”). 

 

In this edition of JR, we welcome the American Electro-Pop duo, MS MR and English Electro-Pop trio, London Grammar. The former, is making their major label album debut. The latter, independently releasing their debut EP. Meanwhile, from his home near Byron Bay and doing it all by himself is, Connor B. Fitz. His album, ‘Stay Awake’ is due out early next month, shortly before he heads off to Europe.

 

Also making their debut this week are The Dunwells. Their album, out last year in America, now sees its Australian release - and if you can imagine Mumford & Sons featuring sitar and backwards guitar solos, well, you’re getting warmer.

  

And after last year’s international embracing of Gotye, the Aussie singer’s ‘other’ best-known song, “Hearts A Mess” appears a smart choice for the soundtrack of Baz Luhrman’s latest cinematic reinvention of ‘The Great Gatsby’.

 

The Dunwells: “Follow The Road” (from the album ‘Blind Sighted Faith’)

Connor B. Fitz: “Seventh Sense” (preview from the album, ‘Stay Awake’)

MS MR: “Head Is Not My Home" (from the album, ‘Secondhand Rapture’)

London Grammar: “Hey Now” (from the EP, ‘Metal & Dust’)

Hugh Laurie: “The St. Louis Blues”/”Vicksburg Blues” (from the album, ‘Didn’t It Rain’)

Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa: “Nutbush City Limits”/”A Sunday Kind Of Love” (from the album, ‘See Saw’)

Janelle Monáe featuring Erykah Badu: “Q.U.E.E.N." (preview from the album, ‘The Electric Lady’)

Gotye: “Hearts A Mess" (from the album, 'Music from Baz Luhrman's film, 'The Great Gatsby')

Just Released is heard Saturdays at 12pm and Sundays at 4pm (AEDT or AEST) on ABC Digital Radio in Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, and via the streams of our metropolitan stations on the Gold Coast, in Newcastle, Hobart and Darwin.  

You can also listen to JR during the week on ABC Dig Music Mondays @ 2pm, Wednesdays @ 8pm & Thursdays @ 11am (AEDT or AEST) and on Radio Australia throughout Asia & the Pacific.

To stream Just Released on demand, simply connect to our web pages via the hot links above. …(or even the shiny beast below): 

                                      Find 'Just Released' here.

              ♫

    ♫   {](-_-)[}   ♫         Thanks for listening.

Just Released - 2013 [Ep.16]

“ég flýt um í neðarsjávar hýði,

  á hóteli,

  beintengdur við rafmagnstöfluna…”

                         “Svefn-g-englar” – Sigur Ros (1999)

Nope, me neither.

But I do know that those lyrics are in a song from the 2nd Sigur Ros album, which stands among the Icelandic band’s greatest achievements. Yet unless you speak the language, how can you be sure if those lyrics are Icelandic or in that made-up language of lead singer, Jonsi known as, ‘Hopelandic’. A new song, “Isjaki” from their soon to be released album, ‘Kveiker’ and previewed in this edition of JR, shows the band reaching back to the majesty of those earlier songs.

The JR Radar picked up on the Great Gatsby soundtrack this week featuring an Adele-worthy performance by Aussie vocalist, Sia, apparently now rethinking her plans for an early retirement from music. Also causing some static was the English Punk troubadour, Frank Turner (think Billy Bragg on steroids), whose 5th album, 'Tape Deck Heart' looks like being his strongest so far.

Spotted on the Comeback Trail in time for this edition was Florida's gritty R&B band, JJ Grey & MOFRO, Michael Franti & Spearhead and Sydney's Josh Pyke.

In the world of Pop music we strike a happy medium between the cutting edge new style of Vampire Weekend with their album 'Modern Vampires Of The City' and the unassuming retro approach of She & Him, who's 4th album, 'Volume 3' throws us back to that period of cultural twilight between Elvis joining the US Army and trying to find Liverpool on the map. 

Michael Franti and Spearhead: “I’m Alive (Life Sounds Like)” (preview from the album, ‘All People’)

Josh Pyke: “Leeward Side” (preview from the album, ‘The Beginning And The End Of Everything’)

J.J. Grey & Mofro: “99 Shades Of Crazy" (from the album, ‘This River’)

Vampire Weekend: “Unbelievers”/”Step”  (from the album, ‘Modern Vampires Of The City’)

She & Him: “I Could Have Been Your Girl”/”Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me” (from the album, ‘Volume 3’)

Frank Turner: “Recovery” (from the album, ‘Tape Deck Heart’)

Sigur Ros: “Isjaki" (preview from the album, ‘Kveiker’)

Sia: “Kill And Run" (from the album, ‘Music from Baz Luhrman's film, The Great Gatsby’)

Vampire Weekend: “Ya Hey” (from the album, ‘Modern Vampires Of The City’)

Just Released is heard Saturdays at 12pm and Sundays at 4pm (AEDT or AEST) on ABC Digital Radio in Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, and via the streams of our metropolitan stations on the Gold Coast, in Newcastle, Hobart and Darwin.  

You can also listen to JR during the week on ABC Dig Music Mondays @ 2pm, Wednesdays @ 8pm & Thursdays @ 11am (AEDT or AEST) and on Radio Australia throughout Asia & the Pacific.

To stream Just Released on demand, simply connect to our web pages via the hot links above. …(or even the shiny beast below): 

                                      Find 'Just Released' here.

               ♫

    ♫   {](-_-)[}   ♫         Thanks for listening.