Welcome to the BroBible New Music Round-Up, where we’re kind of surprised, if not straight up shocked, to see Nickleback in the news again. These are strange times indeed. For more follow me on Twitter:  @ryanoconnell79

This Week’s Playlist

Wednesday was the second anniversary of Tom Petty’s death and as a way to remember him, here is a playlist of The New Music Round-Up’s 20 essential Petty songs.

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This Week’s Releases

The Avett Brothers Closer Than Together

The Avett Brothers are sneaky. They’ve reached that point in their career where it’s initially surprising when you learn that they’ve been around for 20 years and then somewhat understandable because frankly, you have trouble remembering a life lived without the band around.

But alas my friend, The Avett Brothers have been around for a while and on Friday released their tenth album, Closer Than Together. It’s their first new album since True Sadness, which came out in 2016. The new album also comes with the kind of self awareness that comes with doing something for two decades, as Seth Avett recently explained to Billboard.

“It’s actually become clearer to me in recent years that our music is kind of confrontational. The words are right up front. It doesn’t work all that well in movies, because it’s not great as background music. It kind of gets in the way of whatever you’re doing, for better or worse. And for our most enthusiastic and devoted fans, that’s exactly what it needs to be.”

The new album also reflects a different gear for the band, as like most of us living in this world of ours, they couldn’t help but be influenced by what’s been happening. For the first time, the band got a little political, although it wasn’t entirely meant to be that way.

In a statement they released earlier this summer, the said that “they didn’t make a record that was meant to comment on the sociopolitical landscape that we live in. We did, however, make an album that is obviously informed by what is happening now on a grander scale all around us.”

I suppose that we should expect more answers like this, especially now, at this point in the Trump presidency. People might not be looking to directly comment on what’s been going on these past few years, but it’d be hard for anyone not to be influenced by the events and news that has transpired. It’s not as if every record that came out in the late 1960’s was a referrendum on the times, but quite a few were definitely influenced by the era.

If you think that this all means that this new record is super serious and heavy, especially once you heard “Bang Bang,” you might have missed the lead single, “High Steppin,” which is about as fun it gets, especially as far as quality summer jams go.

The Avett Brothers are on tour throughout the fall before closing out the year back in North Carolina.

Kanye West Jesus Is King

Yeah, it hasn’t come out yet. It probably won’t. Who the hell knows?

Well, here is stuff we do know:

On September 29, Kanye brought his Sunday Service act to New York City, where he premiered songs from the new album. You couldn’t buy the album of course, but you could definitely snag some Jesus Is King swag.

On October 1, tracks from Yandhi (i.e. the last he was supposed to release, but never did) appeared via ringtones. Yes, ringtones. There are nine tracks you can download and use as ringtones, each one is 26 seconds. My phone only rings when it’s spam, so all I’d need is 1 or 2 seconds before hitting mute. Not sure it’s worth it.

Then there was Kanye announcing Jesus Is King…the movie, not the album. It’s a Sunday Service concert film and will be released in IMAX on October 25.

So in closing, I just don’t know anymore.

Wilco Ode To Joy

Much like with The Avett Brothers, Wilco is back with their first album in three years and also like The Avetts, it does kind of feel like Wilco has been around forever. And they kind of have been, having been a band for twenty five years. For nearly half of that run, the band’s lineup has stayed the same, which in itself is some sort of achievement.

The band is calling Ode To Joy their eleventh album, but that is kind of up for debate. They recorded two albums with Billy Bragg and frontman Jeff Tweady has released three albums by his lonesome, but given his role in the band, it’s hard to separate Tweedy solo joints from Wilco albums. They’ve also released a handful of live albums.

Again though, they’ve been around for twenty five years and in band years, that makes them a senior citizen. Find me a senior citizen whose life doesn’t get a little jumbled after a while and I’ll get nitpicky with Wilco’s discography.

Rolling Stone says the new album “arrives like a reunion. It sounds like one too: simple, straightforward songs, most with acoustic guitar at the core, other melodic tendrils and rhythms and harmonic drones curling up like ivy, a long-running conversation being picked up, slow but sure.” They go on to say that band has never sounded more empathic.

Meanwhile, Stereogum says Ode To Joy is their best album since A Ghost Is Born.

And if you care, I think it sounds like Wilco and I like how Wilco sounds. So as a result, I like the album.

G. Love feat. Keb’ Mo’ “Go Crazy”

Twenty five is a magic number this week. G. Love is celebrating the 25th anniversary of his debut album G Love. & Special Sauce. He’s also celebrating Philadelphonic turning 20, but we’re all about 25 this week.

G. Love isn’t content to just look back, though. “Go Crazy” is the first single from his next album, The Juice, which is set to be released January 17th. The song, which G. Love says is “the cure for all of your pent-up frustration features blues-singer Keb’ Mo’ on vocals.

‘Go Crazy’ is a party jam for our troubled times,” G. Love said recently. “With so much bad news on the news every day, we have to work hard not to get swept away into a downward spiral of negative anxiety.”

Man, has he been hanging out with The Avett Brothers or something? I feel like they’re of a similar mindset these days.

In addition to Keb’ Mo’, The Juice also features Robert Randolph and Marcus King.

Danny Brown feat. Run the Jewels “3 Tearz”

Sorry, my antenna goes up anytime I see or hear news about Run the Jewels. But actually, I’m not sorry because Danny Brown is pretty dope too.

“3 Tearz” comes on the heels of “Best Life” and “Dirty Laundry,” all of which are tracks from Brown’s latest release, uknowhatimsayin¿, which was released on Friday. This latest track was produced by JPEGMAFIA.

The album also features Blood Orange, Flying Lotus and Paul White.

Brown heads out on tour later this month.

North Mississippi Allstars Up and Rolling

On their latest album, North Mississippi Allstars dust off “Mean Old World,” a song that was once recorded by their Jim Dickinson, the father of two Allstars, Luther and Cody. The elder Dickinson was joined by Eric Clapton and Duane Allman.

The story behind the original recording and how the Allstars decided to take a crack at it with Jason Isbell and Duane Bett is a wild one. Luther Dickinson did his best to tell it to Rolling Stone and it’s worth checking out.

The new album also features Mavis Staples, Cedric Burnside and Sharde Thomas.

North Mississippi Allstars head out on the road this winter.

Elsewhere in Music…

Nothing Says Hockey Like…uh, Green Day

Green Day, fresh off announcing a new album and a new mega tour, have now announced a two-year promotional partnership with the NHL. Shouldn’t a Canadian band be doing this? Were the Barenaked Ladies unavailable?

How is Drake not doing this?

Anyway, Green Day’s “Fire, Ready, Aim” will be the official theme song for Wednesday Night Hockey, which starts on October 9th.

I’m really curious what other acts were in the running for this gig.

You Still Wondering How Billie Eilish Did That?

Billie Eilish made her Saturday Night Live debut last weekend and her performance of “bad guy” was something of a logistical mind fuck. She performed the song tucked in a box that both resembled the SNL stage and rotated.

Our girl walked on walls!

If you’re still wondering how they pulled that off, you can check out a SNL behind-the-scenes clip that disapproves my personal theory that magnets were involved.

Yeah, That Sounds About Right

More Like New Fighters

The Foo Fighters have confirmed that they’re heading into the studio to start work on a new album. It would be their first new full length since Concrete and Gold, which came out in 2017. They released their latest installment in their Foo Series last week.

While performing at Brazil’s Rock in Rio last weekend, frontman Dave Grohl announced that the band goes “home next week and we start making a new Foo Fighters record.”

Drummer Taylor Hawkins first started talking about a new record in August, saying that the goal was to release it sometime in 2020.

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In the meantime, stay tuned for more releases from the Foo Series. They’re sneaky about them, so keep your head on a swivel.

What’s Jason Isbell Tweeting About This Week?

No Really, Check These Dudes Out

A few weeks ago, I suggested checking out Dirty Honey, a thundering, blues rock band from L.A. and I don’t know if anyone listened, but someone is listening to these guys.

This week, Dirty Honey became the first unsigned act to top the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. After climbing the charts for 21 weeks, their tune “When I’m Gone” finally claimed the top spot. Not bad for a band without the benefits of major label support.

The band has so far played shows with Slash and The Who and later on open for Guns N’ Roses in the final stops of the band’s Not In This Lifetime Tour. After that, they head out on their own.

Their self-titled, debut EP is currently available to stream on Spotify.

And We’ll End Here

 

See you next week!