Mind Band

Bristol-based experimental psych-rock group My Octopus Mind are pleased to reveal their third studio album ‘Trying To Be Normal’, released today, November 3rd 2023, to vinyl via Drongo Records. My Octopus Mind are a high-energy experimental psych-rock four-piece comprised of drums, guitar, vocals and heavily effected double bass. Since their conception in 2017, the band have developed a wild form of experimental rock, taking a tongue in cheek ride through post-punk swagger and dysfunction, wonky riffs, balkan rhythms and moments of haunting grace.

Made Up Mind, the second studio album from the Tedeschi Trucks Band, contrasts considerably with Revelator in that it showcases the strength of an 11-piece band willing to experiment as they assimilate inspirations – from Stax, Muscle Shoals, Motown, Delaney & Bonnie, blues, and jazz – and incorporate their various experiences into a new whole. Co-produced by Derek Trucks and Jim Scott, there is an increased emphasis on songwriting and more sophisticated arrangements. At the behest of Sony, Susan Tedeschi and Trucks invited other songwriters (some old friends) to contribute to these songs, adding perspective.

Made Up Mind, the second studio album from the Tedeschi Trucks Band, contrasts considerably with Revelator in that it showcases the strength of an 11-piece band willing to experiment as they assimilate inspirations – from Stax, Muscle Shoals, Motown, Delaney & Bonnie, blues, and jazz – and incorporate their various experiences into a new whole. Co-produced by Derek Trucks and Jim Scott, there is an increased emphasis on songwriting and more sophisticated arrangements. At the behest of Sony, Susan Tedeschi and Trucks invited other songwriters (some old friends) to contribute to these songs, adding perspective.

Volume 1 - BBC Radio Sessions & Jazz Bilzen Festival, Belgium). Rare and collectable recordings from 1967-1969 - digitally remastered. Classic BBC radio sessions plus live at the Jazz Bilzen Festival, Belgium. Versions of Mr Apollo, I'm The Urban Spaceman & Canyons Of Your Mind plus many other classic tracks.

In the midst of a global pandemic, John Hiatt walked into Historic RCA Studio B to record a record. Hiatt teamed up with multi-grammy award winning artist and producer, Jerry Douglas and his band, The Jerry Douglas Band. The result of those sessions would be the album, Leftover Feelings. There's no drummer, yet these grooves are deep and true. And while the up-tempo songs are, as ever, filled with delightful internal rhyme and sly aggression, the Jerry Douglas Band's empathetic musicianship nudges Hiatt to performances that are startlingly vulnerable. In life, leftover feelings can remain unresolved. Explicated in a place of history, a place of comfort. A sacred place, if you believe the documentation of human expression to be a holy thing. Here are Hiatt and Douglas, creating love songs and road songs, sly songs and hurt songs. Their songs, and now our songs. Leftover feelings that edify and sustain.

Jericho was a surprise. The reunited Band, minus guitarist Robbie Robertson, created an album that built on their strengths by using carefully selected contemporary songwriters and covers. Although it lacked the resonance of Music From Big Pink or even Stage Fright, the group sounded fresh and it was a better album than most of the Band's solo records. High on the Hog, the second album by the reunited Band, isn't quite as good but it has a number of stellar moments. The key to the album's success isn't the material – they're saddled with a couple of weak songs – but the group's interplay. By now, the musicians have developed a sympathetic interaction that sounds ancient but still living, breathing and vital. It's a joy to hear them play and that's what carries High on the Hog over its rough spots.

If not as impressive as Robert Cray's breakthrough recording, Bad Influence, released two years earlier, False Accusations is still a fine album with few missteps. One thing that Cray does very, very well is a blues ballad, something that his soul-inflected vocals and guitar playing suit him for. The result, on this album, is songs like the humorously bittersweet "She's Gone," the determined "The Last Time (I Get Burned Like This)," and "I've Slipped Her Mind," which perfectly captures the mood of the disappointed (but still unrealistically hopeful) suitor. The opener "Porch Light" is a scorcher with a killer bass line, and Cray's guitar on the title track in particular comes through crisp and clean. If a couple of songs (notably "Change of Heart, Change of Mind" and "Playin' in the Dirt") seem a bit lacking in energy, the rest of the CD more than makes up for it.

Signs, the fourth studio album by the Tedeschi Trucks Band, poignantly addresses some of the major changes this 12-piece group has been through over the last couple of years. That said, it's hardly steeped in sadness, but acknowledges reckoning and acceptance while leaning on hope. In November 2016, longtime friend Leon Russell died. In January, Derek's uncle Butch Trucks committed suicide. In May, mentor Col. Bruce Hampton (to whom Signs is dedicated) suffered a fatal coronary on-stage during his 70th birthday celebration (which Trucks and Tedeschi witnessed). The same month, Gregg Allman died after a years-long battle with liver cancer. And in June, keyboardist Kofi Burbridge suffered a heart attack that required emergency surgery.