Adrian Quesada Releases New Album ‘Jaguar Sound’
Today, Adrian Quesada releases Jaguar Sound. Out now on all streaming platforms and on limited edition blue vinyl record, the twelve-track collection marks the second new album of the year from the Grammy-winning guitarist, producer and Black Pumas co-founder, further showcasing his singular and signature ability to build a bridge between seemingly disparate worlds of music. Steeped in a heady fusion of hip-hop, psychedelic soul and the opulent orchestration of Italian film scores from the 1970s, the LP draws inspiration from life during the first few isolated months of the pandemic, as well as his experience growing up on the border of multiple countries, cultures and languages. Featuring a special appearance from Ikebe Shakedown, as well as harp by Mary Lattimore, Neal Francis on piano, keys from David Garza and an array of strings, horns and percussion, Jaguar Sound was produced, written, engineered, mixed and largely performed by Adrian Quesada at his own Electric Deluxe studio in Austin, TX.
Originally conceived during the onset of the COVID-19 lockdown, Jaguar Sound is an instrumental opus filled with musical themes, motifs and an amalgamation of genres that reflect a particular time, emotion and personal set of obsessions in Adrian Quesada’s life. “I just rode my bike every single day and listened to The Alchemist,” he says. “I’d come back home and crank out beats. Film scores and 1970s library music have always played a big part in my musical language as they paint a cinematic picture without words and that is very much something I draw influence from. It eventually got to the point where I wanted to bring them to life in my own way and turn them into songs. I started setting some aside that matched thematically, and I began recording live instrumentation. I find as I get older that sometimes I feel a responsibility to show the possibility to build bridges and coexist between different worlds. I want someone to discover something they normally wouldn’t entertain.”
Jaguar Sound arrives on the heels of Adrian Quesada’s Boleros Psicodélicos LP, which dropped earlier in 2022 and has since led him to performances for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, star-studded sets for the Austin City Limits music festival and PBS program, a Kennedy Center celebration for the Hispanic Heritage Foundation and beyond. A sweeping tribute to his longtime love for the golden age of Latin American balada music, Boleros Psicodélicos saw Adrian Quesada unite an international community of collaborators such as Angelica Garcia, Gabriel Garzón-Montano, Gaby Moreno, Girl Ultra, iLe, Marc Ribot, Money Mark, Tita and numerous others, garnering praise from Rolling Stone, NPR Music, Variety and more. “It is difficult to recreate the magic of a balada, a song of longing popular in the 1970s that defined a generation in Latin America,” says The New York Times. “Adrian Quesada manages to harness the genre’s power.”
New My Morning Jacket Album Announce & Single
My Morning Jacket proudly announce the upcoming release of their Self-Titled ninth studio album. The band’s first new music since 2015’s The Waterfall, My Morning Jacket reaffirms the rarefied magic that’s made My Morning Jacket so beloved, embedding every groove with moments of discovery, revelation, and ecstatic catharsis. Produced and engineered by lead singer Jim James over two multi-week sessions at Los Angeles, CA’s 64 Sound, the album came to life after what looked like a permanent hiatus for the band. But after performing four shows in summer 2019, beginning with two mind-blowing nights at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, My Morning Jacket was overcome with the urge to carry on.
That sense of purpose can be heard throughout the thrillingly expansive My Morning Jacket. For all its unbridled joy, songs like “Regularly Scheduled Programming” and the otherworldly, album-closing “I Never Could Get Enough” once again reveal My Morning Jacket’s hunger for exploring the most nuanced and layered existential questions in song form while simultaneously harnessing the hypnotic intensity of their legendary live show more fully than ever before.
My Morning Jacket is preceded by today’s premiere of the album’s first single, “Regularly Scheduled Programming,” available everywhere now with an official music video co-directed by Jim James and George Mays.
“This song really hits home for me after what we’ve gone through with the pandemic,” James said of the new song. “But even before then, it felt like so many of us were trading real life for social media, trading our own stories for the storylines on TV, trading our consciousness for drugs. We need to help each other wake up to real love before it’s too late.”
My Morning Jacket arrives everywhere Friday, October 22 on digitally and in various physical formats, including CD, LP and deluxe edition 2xLP colored vinyl (exclusive to ATO & MMJ online stores); pre-orders begin today. Pre-order now here and check out the band on their massive tour kicking off this week, joined by artists like Brittany Howard, Flock of Dimes, Durand Jones & the Indications, and Bedouine.
Other Lives Announce ‘Sicily Sessions’ (Demos)
Six months since releasing their critically acclaimed album For Their Love in the height of lockdown, Portland’s Other Lives return with stripped back demo versions of the songs from their fourth studio album.
Initially written and demoed by Jesse Tabish (piano, guitar, lead vocals) in Sicily along with his wife Kim, Sicily Sessions showcases the early creative processes that went into the songs.
Jesse says of the recordings: “After the 2016 election, Kim and I decided it was time to take a break from the USA. After a long road trip through Europe we ended up in a small town on the island of Sicily called Castellammare del Golfo. There we found such peace and a way of life that inspired putting down the computer and getting back to a more basic form of songwriting. The result was the sketches of what would become For Their Love. We hope you enjoy these early musings.”
The full set of demos will be released digitally on December 11 alongside a very limited run of cassette tapes, which you can pre-order here.
Leo Kottke & Mike Gordon Return With ‘Noon’
Acoustic guitar pioneer Leo Kottke and Phish bassist Mike Gordon have announced the release of their first new album together in 15 years. NOON arrives digitally August 28; the album’s physical release is set for Friday, November 20 on Red/Gold wax.
PRE-ORDER NOON NOW
WATCH “ANTS” VIDEO BELOW
WATCH “I AM RANDOM” VIDEO BELOW
The album showcases 11 new tracks and marks Kottke’s first studio record since his previous collaboration with Gordon, 2005’s 66 STEPS. It was recorded in New Orleans and Vermont, with music exchanged between the two artists by file, tape-sealed boombox, sheet music, and face-to-face. Working with longtime Gordon collaborator, producer/engineer Jared Slomoff, Kottke and Gordon have crafted a singular collection of improvisational mood music, including a stripped-back version of Gordon’s classic “Peel” and Kottke’s stark rethinking of the Byrds’ “Eight Miles High.” NOON further includes a bopping cover of Prince’s “Alphabet St.” featuring Phish drummer Jon Fishman, who also joins Kottke and Gordon on four additional tracks. In addition, the LP includes nearly ambient appearances by pedal steel player Brett Lanier (The Barr Brothers) and cellist Zoë Keating (Imogen Heap, Amanda Palmer, Tears For Fears).
“The vibe is very different from the other two albums,” says Gordon. “I was hearing a darkness in the material Leo was bringing, and some of the material that I wanted to bring, that I thought just reflected going through 10 more years of life. There are overdubs, but it’s still more like you’re in a cafe or a living room with these two guys. And even when we had drums, we wanted to maintain that feeling.”
“I just knew there was a shape and that we were following it,” says Kottke. “We were trying to get to that place that we get to in a little room, just chasing each other. We’ve found that at soundchecks, and at my place, or his place, or some motel room. We wanted to get that late night feel. It’s a more intimate record than the others are, I think there are depths to it.”
Nilüfer Yanya Shares New Track & Lyric Video for “Tears”
Listen to Tears HERE
Watch the video for “In Your Head” HERE
Nilüfer Yanya, London’s 23 year-old “effortlessly smooth new soul star” (The FADER) is sharing the track ‘Tears’ today – the third new track from her debut full-length album Miss Universe. “Tears” continues to show off the dynamic cohesion of Nilüfer’s upcoming record while flaunting its poppier side. Miss Universe will be released on March 22nd via ATO Records. Beats 1 Radio’s Zane Lowe featured ‘Tears’ as a World First on his Beats 1 show this afternoon.
‘Tears’ comes accompanied by a lyric video featuring the branding of the shadowy ‘WWAYH’ (WE WORRY ABOUT YOUR HEALTH™) organization whose darkly funny automated phoneline interludes are peppered throughout Miss Universe. The mind department of WE WORRY ABOUT YOUR HEALTH™ issued this statement: “Despite previous claims of crying being natural response to stress and regarded as healthy, recent studies have unearthed evidence that proves this claim as untrue. It can also simulate similar responses in others to varying degrees, primarily targeting the vulnerable (infants, children and elderly) which makes it a socially irresponsible behaviour. The Body department would like to add it is also a waste of bodily fluids and self destructive to one’s health hereby deeming the act of crying illegal.”
Upon release in January, “In Your Head” was proclaimed one of NPR’s “20 Best Songs We Heard for January”, a Sunday Times Culture ‘Hottest Track’, one of The Guardian’s ‘50 Great Tracks For February’ and landed in The FADER’s ‘20 best rock songs right now’ playlist – setting the tone for what’s still to come with the release of Miss Universe in March. Largely recorded in the same remote Penzance studio she used to jam in with her uncle Joe – a former musician himself – Miss Universe features co-productions with both her former school guitar teacher The Invisible’s Dave Okumu and her live bandmates Jazzi Bobbi and Luke Bower, as well as producers John Congleton, Oli Barton-Wood, Will Archer and M.T. Hadley.
2019 started in whirlwind fashion with Nilufer touring across North America in January and February with Sharon Van Etten, including a stop at LA’s Ace Hotel Theater next week. Next, Nilüfer will embark on her biggest U.K., Europe and Turkey headlining tour to date in April. Following that, she will head back to the US for a headlining date at NYC’s Rough Trade on July 23. Tickets for that show will be on-sale this Friday, February 22nd at 12pm EST HERE.
Though she’d been writing songs in her head since she was six, and on the guitar since she was 12, it took a long time for Nilüfer Yanya to work up the courage to show anyone her music. “I knew I wanted to sing, but the idea of actually having to do it was really horrifying,” says the 23-year-old. When she was finally persuaded to do so, by a music teacher in West London where she grew up, she says “it was horrible. I loved it”.
At 18, Nilüfer – who is of Turkish-Irish-Bajan heritage – uploaded a few demos to SoundCloud. Though she’s preternaturally shy, her music – which uniquely blends elements of soul and jazz into intimate pop songs with electronic flourishes and a newly expressed grungy guitar sound – isn’t. And it didn’t take long for it to catch people’s attention. She signed with independent New York label ATO, following three EPs on esteemed london indie label Blue Flowers, and earned a place on the BBC Sound of 2018 longlist. She also supported the likes of The xx, Interpol, Broken Social Scene and Mitski on tour.
Now, Nilüfer is ready to release her debut album, Miss Universe. Though she recorded much of it in the same remote Cornwall studio she used to jam in as a much younger person, it is bigger and more ambitious than anything she has done before. ‘Angels’, with its muted, harmonic riffs, channels ideas “of paranoid thoughts and anxiety” – a theme that runs through the album, not least in its conceptual spoken word interludes which emanate from a fictional health management company WE WORRY ABOUT YOUR HEALTH™. “You sign up, and you pay a fee,” explains Nilüfer of the automated messages, which are littered through the album and are narrated by the titular Miss Universe. “They sort out all of your dietary requirements, and then they move onto medication, and then maybe you can get a better organ or something… and then suddenly it starts to get a bit weird. You’re giving them more of you and to what end?”
See Nilüfer Yanya on tour in 2019:
February 21 – Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom^
February 22 – Vancouver, BC @ The Imperial^
February 23 – Seattle, WA @ Neptune Theatre^
February 25 – Sonoma, CA @ Gundlach Bundschu Winery^
February 26 – San Francisco, CA @ The Filmore^
February 28 – San Diego, CA @ The Observatory North Park^
March 1 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Theatre at Ace Hotel^
March 28 – Istanbul, Turkey @ Babylon
April 3 – Glasgow, Scotland @ CCA
April 4 – Manchester, UK @ YES
April 5 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
April 6 – Newcastle, UK @ The Cluny
April 8 – Leicester, UK @ O2 Academy Leicester University
April 9 – London, UK @ Evolutionary Arts Hackney
April 11 – Birmingham, UK @ Hare & Hounds
April 12 – Bristol, UK @ Thekla
April 13 – Oxford, UK @ O2 Academy Oxford
April 14 – Brighton, UK @ The Haunt
April 16 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Bitterzoet
April 17 – Hamburg, GER @ Nochtwache
April 18 – Berlin, GER @ Kantine am Berghain
April 19 – Rotterdam, Netherlands @ Motel Mozaique
April 21 – Vienna, Austria @ Chelsea Club
April 22 – Munich, GER @ Ampere
April 24 – Zurich, Switzerland @ Exil
April 25 – Koln, GER @ Blue Shell
April 26 – Paris, FRA @ Le Point Ephemere
April 29 – Brussels, BEL @ Les Nuits Botanique Festival
April 30 – Nijmegen, Netherlands @ Merleyn
May 1 – Utrecht, Holland @ ACU
June 1 – Barcelona, Spain @ Primavera Sound
July 19-21 – Melt! Festival, Germany
July 23 – New York, NY @ Rough Trade
August 8-12 – Belle & Sebastian Boaty Weekender
August 15-18 – Green Man Festival, Brecon Beacons, Wales
^with Sharon Van Etten
Nilüfer Yanya – Miss Universe- out 3/22/19 via ATO Records
Emily King’s New Album Scenery Out Now
GRAMMY®-nominated recording artist Emily King’s highly anticipated new album Scenery is out today via ATO Records. It was featured as an NPR First Listen, who called it “a precise-yet-fluid blend of ’80s pop and rock, contemporary R&B and light jazz touches that, together, reveal a starry-eyed earnestness.”
The release of Scenery follows Emily King’s performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, watch her perform “Can’t Hold Me” and “Look At Me Now”. New tour dates are also announced today, see below.
EMILY KING ON TOUR
2/1/19 – Schuba’s Lincoln Hall – Chicago, IL SOLD OUT
2/2/19 – El Club – Detroit, MI (tickets)
2/4/19 – The Mod Club – Toronto, ON (tickets)
4/4/19 – Washington, D.C. – 9:30 Club (tickets)
4/5/19 – Philadelphia, PA – World Cafe Live (tickets)
4/7/19 – Boston, MA – The Sinclair (tickets)
4/9/19 – New York, NY – The Shed (tickets)
4/14/19 – Indio, CA – Coachella (tickets)
4/21/19 – Indio, CA – Coachella (tickets)
4/23/19 – Austin, TX – Antone’s (tickets)
4/24/19 – Houston, TX – Heights Theater (tickets)
4/25/19 – Dallas, TX – Kessler Theater (tickets)
4/28/19 – Nashville, TN – 3rd & Lindsley (tickets)
4/30/19 – St. Louis, MO – Delmar Hall (tickets)
5/1/19 – Louisville, KY – Mercury Ballroom (tickets)
5/3/19 – Columbus, OH – A&R Music Bar (tickets)
5/4/19 – Pittsburgh, PA – Carnegie Lecture Hall (tickets)
5/5/19 – Woodstock, NY – The Colony (tickets)
EUROPEAN DATES
2/26/19 – Bush Hall – London SOLD OUT
2/27/19 – Badaboum – Paris
2/29/19 – Paradiso Noord – Amsterdam SOLD OUT
3/1/19 – Maschinehaus – Berlin
Praise for Emily King:
“Scenery is a precise-yet-fluid blend of ’80s pop and rock, contemporary R&B and light jazz touches that, together, reveal a starry-eyed earnestness.” – NPR MUSIC
“Next level sass” – Pitchfork
“One of the best songwriters around at the moment.” – BBC’s Radio 1
“a dash of bouncy ’80s-sounding synths while maintaining her signature stripped-down sound.” – The New York Times
“…King lays plain her additional intention to make this an intensely personal album: a synthy and soulful pop cut that finds her stretching her voice to rarely seen heights…” – Chicago Tribune
“Unreal talent. In complete awe of this girl. Thank you for the music.” – Sam Smith
“I. Love. Her. Voice” – Justin Timberlake
The Claypool Lennon Delirium
“Sean and I hit it off during our Primus, Dinosaur Jr., GOASTT summer tour. We had a few backstage, acoustic jamborees that I found interesting but when he sat in with us and melted our faces with his guitar during Southbound Pachyderm, I realized that this fella had some chops. Primus was about to take some time off and I was gearing up a new project so I asked Sean if he’d like to come to Rancho Relaxo and see if we couldn’t get some interesting sounds on tape. Next thing I know he’s staying in my guesthouse over the holidays and we’re drinking vino, hunting mushrooms and throwing musical pasta at the walls.
One thing I think folks will be surprised by is what a monster of a guitar player Sean is. Not only does he have technical ability, but also the sounds that come out of his rig tend to be pretty bent and compelling. His DNA definitely shines through, though it isn’t just his father’s musical sensibilities that he reflects but also his mother’s abstract perspective, which to me, makes for a glorious freak stew.
Basically it was like two guys being stuck in a tree fort full of instruments and vintage recording gear, trying to keep up with each other’s musical and lyrical output. It was a very easy and natural record to make and not only have Sean and I become very good friends but he has been embraced by my family like an eccentric, surrogate uncle; sitting at the dinner table nightly debating with my daughter about everything from pop culture to politics. He’s a good egg. I look forward to traveling around in a shiny box with him this summer, playing this music for the folks.
I have to say…It’s pretty cool being in a band with Neil Diamond’s nephew.”
Les Claypool
Watch Brandi Carlile on Letterman with The Avett Brothers; Tour Dates
Brandi Carlile performed the American classic “Keep On The Sunny Side” with the Avett Brothers on the Late Show with David Letterman. Watch the performance below, and be sure to check out Brandi Carlile on tour! Dates are below, and tickets are available on her website.
Brandi Carlile Tour Dates:
May 22 – Portland ME @ State Theatre [SOLD OUT]
May 23 – Albany NY @ Palace Theatre
May 24 – Burlington VT @ Higher Ground [SOLD OUT]
May 27 – Toronto ON @ Danforth Music Hall
May 28 – Nelsonville OH @ Nelsonville Music Festival
May 29 – Royal Oak MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre
May 30 – Indianapolis IN @ Egyptian Room
May 31 – Nelsonville OH @ Nelsonville Music Festival
Jun 02 – St Louis MO @ The Pageant
Jun 03 – Tulsa OK @ Cain’s Ballroom
Jun 05 – Dallas TX @ House of Blues
Jun 06 – Austin TX @ Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater
Jun 07 – Houston TX @ Free Press Summer Fest
Jun 09 – New Orleans LA @ House of Blues
Jun 11 – Raleigh NC @ North Carolina Museum of Art
Jun 14 – Manchester TN @ Bonnaroo
Jul 22 – Vienna VA @ Wolf Trap Center for the Performing Arts w/ First Aid Kit
Jul 24 – Floyd VA @ Floydfest
Jul 25 – Newport RI @ Newport Folk Festival
Jul 27 – Pittsburgh PA @ Stage AE
Jul 28 – Cleveland OH @ House of Blues
Jul 30 – Grand Rapids MI @ Ravinia Festival w/ OCMS
Aug 01 – Des Moines IA @ Hinterland Music Festival
Aug 02 – Minneapolis MN @ Cabooze Outdoor Plaza
Aug 04 – Bayfield WI @ Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua
Aug 05 – Fargo ND @ Fargo Theatre
Aug 12 – Spokane WA @ Knitting Factory
Aug 13 – Boise ID @ Idaho Botanical Garden (w/ Iron & Wine)
Aug 15 – Morrison CO @ Red Rocks (w/ Gregory Alan Isakov)
Aug 16 – Salt Lake City UT @ Red Butte
Sep 12 – Troutdale OR @ Edgefield
Sep 13 – Jacksonville OR @ Britt Pavilion
Sep 18-20 – San Diego CA @ KAABOO
Oct 09 – New York City @ Radio City Music Hall
ATO’s Best of 2014 Mentions
We’re thrilled to have received shoutouts in a number of 2014’s best of the year lists! Thanks for all of the support this year – we’re already gearing up for an awesome 2015. Check out some of ATO’s year-end mentions below:
—
Benjamin Booker
50 Best Albums of the Year, Rolling Stone – “Booker’s raw-throated boogie blues proves rock & roll can still function as crazy-ass party music.”
“Have You Seen My Son”, Favorite Songs of 2014, NPR – “A 22-year old maverick [who] finds a link between Southern juke joint blues and The Replacements.”
Also mentioned in:
Public Radio’s 10 Best Albums of 2014, NPR
Public Radio’s 10 Breakout Artists of 2014, NPR
100 Best Albums of 2014, Rough Trade
20 Best Albums of 2014, Glide Magazine
Ken Tucker’s Top 9 Albums of 2014, NPR Fresh Air
Top Albums of 2014, KCRW
Best of 2014: Staff Picks, WFUV
“Have You Seen My Son”, Top 50 Songs of 2014, American Songwriter
#17 Best Southern Album of the Year, Bitter Southerner
—
Drive-By Truckers
“Grand Canyon”, Favorite Songs of 2014, NPR – “this elegy … nods to the difficulty of letting go while providing a way to do it.”
“The Part of Him”, #14 The Best 40 Country Songs of 2014, SPIN – “The highlight of this amazing band’s best album in six years is as vituperative with political outrage as anything Drive-By Truckers have ever laid down.”
Also mentioned in:
#17 Top 50 Songs of the Year, American Songwriter
Top 50 Albums of 2014, American Songwriter
The 50 Best Albums of 2014, Paste
#5 Best Southern Albums of the Year, Bitter Southerner
Top 20 Albums of 2014, Fox Sports
#4 Best Albums of 2014, Twangville
25 Best Albums of 2014, Slant Magazine
—
Hurray for the Riff Raff
“The Body Electric”, #1 of the Top 50 Songs of 2014, American Songwriter – “Alynda Lee Segarra takes more than 100 years of murder ballads to task on this standout.”
“The Body Electric”, Favorite Songs of 2014, NPR – “The Political Folk Song of the Year”
Also mentioned in:
50 Best Albums of 2014, Rolling Stone
#6 Top 50 Albums of 2014, American Songwriter
#4 40 Best Country Albums of 2014, Rolling Stone Country
#1 Stephen Deusner’s Top 10 Albums: The Year in Music 2014, Pitchfork
100 Best Albums of 2014, Rough Trade
50 Best Albums of 2014, Paste Magazine
#6 The Best Americana of 2014, PopMatters
50 Favorite Albums of 2014, NPR
Top 50 Songs of 2014, Consequence of Sound
#13 Best Southern Albums of the Year, Bitter Southerner
#7 Best Country Albums of 2014, Wondering Sound
Best Albums of 2014, Amazon
40 Best Country Songs of 2014, SPIN
“Blue Ridge Mountain”, Songs You Need To Hear Before 2014 Ends, Flavorwire
#1 Best Indie Roots Album of 2014, Magnet Magazine
—
Jessica Lea Mayfield
Top 50 Albums of 2014, American Songwriter – “Make My Head Sing is still equally as honest as Mayfield’s past releases.”
“Do I Have The Time”, Favorite Songs of 2014, NPR – “[Mayfield]… bursts out of her former Americana mold with a visceral, blood on the lips fury, dreamy flanged guitars and gnarled squelches of distortion.”
Also mentioned in:
“Seein* Starz”, Songs You Need to Hear Before 2014 Ends, Flavorwire
#14 Best Southern Albums of the Year, Bitter Southerner
Most Overlooked Albums of 2014, Huffington Post
—
Old 97’s
“Longer Than You’ve Been Alive”, #20 50 Best Songs of 2014, Rolling Stone – “These alt-country vets get real about what it’s like to be a band for 20+ years in this wry lament.”
“Longer Than You’ve Been Alive”, #6 40 Best Country Songs of 2014, SPIN – “The greatest rock country band in the universe”
Also mentioned in:
“Longer Than You’ve Been Alive”, #8 Top 50 Songs of 2014, American Songwriter
#2 Best Country Albums of 2014, Huffington Post Canada
Best of 2014 Staff Picks, WFUV
#8 Best Southern Albums of the Year, Bitter Southerner
Top 50 Albums of 2014, American Songwriter
—
Old Crow Medicine Show
“Sweet Amarillo”, #9 Top 50 Songs of 2014, American Songwriter – “Wild and wooly, the song is truer to the spirit of The Basement Tapes than, for example, the ‘New Basement Tapes’.”
#1, The Best Americana of 2014, PopMatters – “With ‘Remedy’, Old Crow have delivered an album embracing all kinds of human experience … one can only hope that Bob keeps sending boxes of fragments their way.”
Also mentioned in:
“Sweet Amarillo”, 50 Best Songs of 2014, Rolling Stone
Top 50 Albums of 2014, American Songwriter
“Sweet Amarillo”, 50 Best Songs of 2014, Paste Magazine
“Sweet Amarillo”, #6 Stephen Deusner’s Top 10 Tracks: The Year in Music 2014, Pitchfork
#15 25 Best Country Albums of 2014, Wondering Sound
#13 Best Albums of 2014, PopMatters
New Album “Primus & The Chocolate Factory” Out Today!
Find one of FIVE Golden Vinyl Records for lifetime tickets to Primus shows!
Catch Them Live This Fall – Tour Dates Below
“The idea was to combine the Frog Brigade and Primus, and do this record,’ says Claypool. I think like a good portion of the planet, we were all pretty put off by the remake of the ‘Willy Wonka’ movie – the Tim Burton version. I really wanted to pay homage to a film [1971’s ‘Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory,’ starring Gene Wilder] that was very important to me as a kid and very influential to me musically. So that’s what we did. And as opposed to just going in and recording the songs and playing them the way they are in the film, we twisted them up a bit…twisted them up a lot.”
It felt so good, in fact, that he decided to take Primus into the studio to prepare the soundtrack for an album release. Claypool admits that he’s always, “in some way, wanted to be Willy Wonka,” and, also, that he’s always wanted to work a cover of “The Candyman” — a memorable number from the film’s soundtrack — into Primus sets.
With the album dropping on October 21, Primus plans to tour the Chocolate Factory beginning the very next day. “We’re going to do some touring with it and we put together this pretty abstract stage production,” says Claypool, “We’re going to take it out there, around the planet, and see what happens. And, in light of the record business being gutted by the internet, we’ve made some PRIMUS brand chocolate bars to peddle as well.”
Of course, Claypool realized that it was risky business to adapt a cinematic classic that is so close to so many people’s hearts. And, naturally, he realized that it was dangerous waters to swim in the wake of Gene Wilder, who portrays Willy Wonka in the original film. The band pulls it off by making something that is truly their own, without taking anything away from the movie.
“Our project is an homage to Gene Wilder and David L. Wolper’s, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and the effect it had on me in my youth,” spouts Les, “Now we get to sell PRIMUS bars and hang out with demented Oompa Loompas. Plus to top it off, it gives me an excuse to wear a purple, velvet waistcoat and brown top hat for the next 18 months.”
Primus & The Chocolate Factory Tour Dates
10/22 – Tower Theatre – Upper Darby, PA (Buy Tickets)
10/24 – Palace Theatre – Albany, NY (Buy Tickets)
10/25 – Orpheum Theatre – Boston, MA SOLD OUT
10/26 – Flynn Center for Performing Arts – Burlington, VT SOLD OUT
10/28 – Palace Theater – Waterbury, CT (Buy Tickets)
10/29 – Hippodrome – Baltimore, MD (Buy Tickets)
10/31 – Beacon Theatre – New York, NY SOLD OUT
11/01 – State Theatre – New Brunswick, NJ (Buy Tickets)
11/02 – Main Street Armory – Rochester, NY (Buy Tickets)
11/03 – The Fillmore Detroit – Detroit, MI (Buy Tickets)
11/05 – Peabody Opera House – St. Louis, MO (Buy Tickets)
11/07 – Taft Theatre – Cincinnati, OH (Buy Tickets)
11/08 – Tabernacle – Atlanta, GA (Buy Tickets)
11/09 – Hard Rock Live – Orlando, FL (Buy Tickets)
11/11 – The Fillmore Miami Beach at The Jackie Gleason Theater – Miami Beach, FL (Buy Tickets)
11/12 – Ruth Eckerd Hall – Clearwater, FL (Buy Tickets)
11/14 – Hard Rock Hotel & Casino – Biloxi, MS (Buy Tickets)
11/15 – ACL live at the Moody Theater – Austin, TX (Buy Tickets)
11/16 – The Majestic Theatre – Dallas, TX (Buy Tickets)
11/17 – Majestic Theatre – San Antonio, TX (Buy Tickets)
11/19 – Orpheum Theatre Phoenix – Phoenix, AZ SOLD OUT
11/21 – Orpheum Theatre LA – Los Angeles, CA SOLD OUT
11/22 – Fox Performing Arts Center – San Siego, CA (Buy Tickets)
11/23 – Center for the Arts – Riverside, CA (Buy Tickets)
12/31 – Fox Theater – Oakland, CA* (Buy Tickets)
1/2 – Arlene Schnitzer – Portland, OR (Buy Tickets)
1/3 – Paramount Theater – Seattle, WA (Buy Tickets)
*annual New Year’s show, without Chocolate Factory