Open Source For You From April 2015

Amazingly, many of the recordings guitarist Tampa Red made for RCA Victor and Bluebird in the '40s and early '50s never saw reissue until this 2015 double-disc by Ace. As John Broven points out in his rightly evangelical liner notes for Dynamite! The Unsung King of the Blues, CD-era reissues of Tampa Red usually began at the beginning, which for the guitarist meant 1934, and petered out by the late '40s, which is when Tampa Red eased away from hokum and into earthy guitar-and-piano blues that had substantial influence on the electric blues of the '50s. On Dynamite! The Unsung King of the Blues, the interaction between Tampa Red and his pianists Big Maceo Merriweather and, later, Maceo's protégé Little Johnnie Jones certainly points the way to the classic sound of Chicago blues - particularly when it's paired with a big, swinging drumbeat - and the bluesman's repertoire was also cherry-picked by B.B. King…

Necromonkey is the collaboration between drummer Mattias Olsson who was part of the founding members of swedish band Änglagård, of which he left in 2012, and keyboardist David Lundberg from Gösta Berlings Saga. The two first met in 2008 while working on Gösta Berlings Saga's second album Detta har hänt and thought about working together. 2010 saw the begining of the writing and recording for their first album Necroplex in Olsson's Roth-Händle studios in Stockholm. Their vision was not about making an Änglagård meets Gösta Berlings Saga kind of album but instead focusing on something new which will reflect everything they love in music. Necroplex was released in 2013 and showed how fertile this duo is, making an album deeply rooted in modern electronic but still incorporates a huge amount of acoustic and electric instruments. Olsson and Lundberg both handle most of the instruments, aided by a big line up of session musicians. The two didn't wait long before releasing a second album, A Glimpse Of Possible Endings is already finished and due to be released in 2014.

Tampa Red - Dynamite! The Unsung King Of The Blues (2015) {2CD Set, Ace Records CDTOP2-1440 rec 1945-1953}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 388 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 335 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 57 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1945-53, 2015 Ace Records / Sony Music | CDTOP2 1440
Blues / Slide Guitar Blues / Acoustic Chicago Blues / Early American Blues

Tampa Red's influential later recordings for RCA Victor (1945-53) have never been officially reissued on CD and rarely on LP, yet are a crucial element in the post-war blues canon. Many of his songs were covered by B. B. King, Muddy Waters and other top bluesmen. They feature the majestic piano of latter-day Elmore James sideman, Johnny Jones and include the harmonica of Big Walter 'Shakey' Horton and Sonny Boy Williamson II. There are four previously unissued tracks but none are available on authorised CD, not even on OOC releases.

Jerry Lee Lewis - I-40 Country (1973) & Odd Man In (1975) {BGO Records BGOCD1216 Digitally Remastered rel 2015}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC+CUE+LOG -> 366 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 147 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 50 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1973, 1975, 2015 Phonogram Inc. / BGO Records | BGOCD1216
Rock & Roll / Rockabilly / Honky Tonk / Country

BGO's 2015 two-fer pairs two mid-'70s albums from Jerry Lee Lewis – 1974's I-40 Country and 1975's Odd Man In – on a single CD. Jerry Lee Lewis didn't get much of a boost out of his 1973 return to rock & roll – a revival arriving on two separate LPs, one recorded in England (The Session) and one back home (Southern Roots) – so he slid back to country, scoring a hit with "Sometimes a Memory Ain't Enough" from the album of the same name. I-40 Country arrived a year later, easing into stores in 1974 under the guise of a truck-driving country LP. While these 11 songs do sound good on the open road, none of them are about big rigs or highways, nor do they roll along to a Bakersfield beat. No, they're straight-ahead barroom weepers punctuated by the very occasional novelty – so occasional, it doesn't extend beyond "Alcohol of Fame."

On January 12, 1970, 'Time' magazine placed The Band on its cover with the headline, 'The New Sound of Country Rock.' In the taxonomy of popular music, Country Rock was now a thing, a categoryby 1970. There were Country Rock browser bins in some stores, and trade magazines like 'Billboard'routinely classified records as country-rock or country/rock, expecting readers to know what they meant.

Death Cab For Cutie - Kintsugi (2015) {Atlantic 548366-2}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 301 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 108 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 20 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2015 Atlantic / WEA | 548366-2
Rock / Indie Rock / Indie Pop / Alternative

Death Cab for Cutie's eighth full-length album, 2015's Kintsugi, finds the group sliding further into the studio smoothness that marked 2011's Codes and Keys. Produced by Rich Costey – best-known for his work with Kimbra, Mew, Muse, Interpol, and Chvrches – Kintsugi is also the last album Death Cab recorded with co-founding member Chris Walla, who announced he was leaving the band during the recording process. Sentiment has always been lead singer/songwriter Ben Gibbard's calling card, but as he starts to stare down the corridor to 40, he seems comfortable with leaving that open heart unadorned – or, better still, gussied up in a coat of studio shellac.