Sound on Sound 2021 January

Buck Owens, along with Merle Haggard, was the leader of the Bakersfield sound, a twangy, electrified, rock-influenced interpretation of hardcore honky tonk that emerged in the '60s. Owens was the first bona fide country star to emerge from Bakersfield, scoring a total of 15 consecutive number one hits between 1963 and 1967. In the process, he provided an edgy alternative to the string-laden country-pop that was prevalent at the time.

This is an amazing CD reissue, three times over - for psychedelic music buffs, British R&B and soul enthusiasts, and fans of the progressive rock band Gentle Giant (which evolved out of Simon Dupree & the Big Sound). And it's also incredibly long overdue. Best-known for their Oriental ersatz pop-psychedelic classic "Kites," Simon Dupree & the Big Sound actually started out as a blues and R&B-based outfit, not too different from the Spencer Davis Group. This double-CD set covers their complete EMI output, most of which has never been reissued, and almost all of which is very impressive (and even manages to intersect obliquely with Apple Records' orbit)…

At long last, Goose’s sophomore full-length studio album has arrived. Shenanigans Nite Club, the new release from the Connecticut-based rock quintet, comes in the midst of yet another year of seemingly unstoppable upward trajectory for the gaggle. A nine-track collection of music written over the past decade, Shenanigans Nite Club presents musings on a journey through life and a quest for fulfillment, all while saluting the important figures along the way.

There is a moment near the top of jaimie branch’s FLY or DIE LIVE, the new album recorded by the trumpeter’s quartet in Zurich, Switzerland on January 23rd, 2020, which feels like it bears the weight of both that specific pocket of time, and a prophecy for all that was soon to come. branch and her Fly or Die crew — cellist Lester St. Louis, double bassist Jason Ajemian, and drummer/percussionist/mbira player Chad Taylor — had just kicked off the concert at Moods, with the opening tracks off their then-new studio album FLY or DIE II: Bird Dogs of Paradise, the second of which, “Prayer for Amerikkka” is among the best political songs written during the Tr*mp Era, and when the moment in question pops off.

Supergrass reissued their 1997 album In It For The Money in 2021. The band’s second album is be available as a remastered, expanded 3CD set or on vinyl which comes with a bonus 12-inch single. The album was of course the follow-up to the band’s debut album I Should Coco (which was reissued in 2015) and features the singles ‘Going Out’, ‘Richard III’, ‘Sun Hits the Sky’ and ‘Late In The Day’. All of those were top ten hits, save for ‘Late In The Day’ which peaked at number 18. In America, ‘Cheapskate’ was the only single from the album.