New Albums - Page 117

Garbage has released its sixth studio album, Strange Little Birds, the group’s first since 2012’s Not Your Kind of People. The band, which released its eponymous debut in 1995, has retained its original personnel throughout the years: Duke Erikson, Butch Vig, Steve Marker and vocalist Shirley Manson. All the members play a variety of instruments and produce. Vig, perhaps most...

Jaco Pastorius’ music, as played in the past and closer to the present, are the focus of Now & Then, the two-CD import set from the Jaco Pastorius Big Band. The first disc of the Japanese import is the “Then” part of the package, featuring previously unreleased takes from Jaco’s 1981 “Birthday Concert.” The second disc is primarily culled from...

Legendary rock band Pink Floyd has started its vinyl reissue campaign of its full catalogue with four albums: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (the band’s 1967 debut), A Saucerful of Secrets, the double LP Ummagumma and the soundtrack from the film More. All the albums, pressed on 180 gram vinyl, feature Roger Waters on bass, with designs replicating...

Only a few of the songs on Paul Simon’s 13th solo studio album, Stranger to Stranger, feature bass, but when the bass is used, it’s in good hands. Carlos Henriquez (Wynton Marsalis Septet) and Bakithi Kumalo (known for his work on “You Can Call Me Al” from Simon’s 1986 album, Graceland) share bass duties on the tune “The Riverbank,” with...

Hard rockers Volbeat have not only a new album — its sixth, Seal the Deal & Let’s Boogie — but also a new bassist, Kaspar Boye Larsen. Larsen (The Hitchcocks, The Kandidate) played with the band on its most recent tour and his bands supported Volbeat in the past. He even performed live with the group on its first European...

Heavy metal supergroup Hellyeah has released its fifth studio album, Unden!able. The record its the band’s first since 2014’s Blood for Blood and the first featuring Kyle Sanders (Bloodsimple, MonstrO) on bass. (Sanders is also the brother of Mastodon bassist Troy Sanders). The band also includes Mudvayne vocalist Chad Gray, former Nothingface guitarist Tom Maxwell and former Pantera/Damageplan drummer Vinnie...

Primus bassist Les Claypool and Sean Lennon began to jam together in 2015 when Lennon’s band, Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger, opened for Primus, and that musical connection spawned an album: The Claypool Lennon Delirium’s Monolith of Phobos. “I use the metaphor that a musical interaction or jam is a conversation, and the best conversations are the ones that...

The Melvins have gone through a lot of bass players over the years. So, on its latest album, Basses Loaded, the band decided to go for broke and feature six different bassists. Some, like Jeff Pinkus (Butthole Surfers), Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle/Fantomas), Jared Warren (Big Business) and Dale Crover, have appeared on Melvins albums before and perhaps will again. While...

Timothy Lefebvre has been having a busy year of album releases. He started 2016 with David Bowie’s epic final release Blackstar, quickly followed by the excellent Tedeschi Trucks Band album Let Me Get By. Now he’s venturing into his more experimental territory with the 19 Foot Trio, a group rounded out by guitarist Cameron Morgan and drummer Adam Gust. They’ve...

The Monkees’ first album in almost 20 years is part of something bigger – the band’s 50th anniversary celebration and tour. Good Times! features songs written by the three remaining members of the band originally assembled for a 1960s television show — Mickey Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork. The remaining original member, Davy Jones, died in 2012 after suffering...

Garry Tallent, the longtime bassist for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, has released his first solo album, Break Time. However, on this record, Tallent handles the guitar work, vocals, percussion, and “various silly noises.” The bassist this time around is none other than Dave Roe, the prolific Nashville bassist known for working the legendary Johnny Cash. Roe plays standup bass...

Jazz trio Thumbscrew, featuring double bassist Michael Formanek, honed the music for its latest album, Convallaria, at the Pittsburgh residency program City of Asylum. “I’ve done some composition residencies working on my own. But we were all there together, working on music every day, trying things out. I miss that from my younger days,” Formanek said of the residency spent...