black midi - Hellfire

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Mark Kozelek with Donny McCaslin and Jim White - "Day in America" ft. Kevin Corrigan

As we all know at this point, Mark Kozelek is never not recording music, hence the recent announcement of a new collaborative album with Blackstar saxophonist/flautist Donny McCaslin and drummer/previous collaborator Jim White. Mark has a solo album dropping in May, as well as a Sun Kil Moon album in November, so he doesn't plan for this collab to come out before 2019.

However, we already have the 15-minute-long lead single, "Day in America," which makes ridiculously timely commentary on the Valentine's Day shooting in Florida. Despite the unfortunate suggestion in the song's opening seconds that Sandy Hook is a high school, Mark's sentiments on the subject are respectable. Even his eye-for-an-eye vision of justice is hard to fault in the face of such atrocity. You certainly can't say the man's not doing his part to combat the normalization of gun violence. But, as is often the case, Mark's lyrics stray from the topic at hand. (Let's just not talk about the part when he confuses Bill Evans with Bob Evans, OK?)

The instrumental is quite progressive and heads in all sorts of interesting directions, as well; closing with a monologue from actor Kevin Corrigan as he reflects on the tragedy. You can listen to the song below or download it by clicking here.

-Austen

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard w/ Mild High Club - Sketches of Brunswick East

King Gizzard makes an album with Mild High Club.

Marching Church - Telling It Like It Is

Danish experimental rock supergroup Marching Church follows up last year's This World Is Not Enough with a collection of post-punky jams that seem to have a bit more thought put into them, and just as much passion.

David Bowie - "'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore"

With upcoming 10" single "Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)/'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore," David Bowie ventures deeper into avant-garde territory. The B-side, streamable above, is a chaotic big band experiment that evokes an Elizabethan incest tragedy - quite a leap from the mild experimentation of last year's The Next Day. Bowie really takes his perpetual literacy and expressionism to a new height with this track; I'm hoping (and excited) to see him continue on this path in the future.

"Sue (Or in a Season of Crime/'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore" is out in the States November 28 (for Record Store Day's Black Friday) via Columbia/Legacy. The A-side will also kick off Bowie's upcoming anthology Nothing has changed., due out November 18. Below, find our review of The Next Day:

Moon Hooch - Self-Titled

Brooklyn jazz fusion trio Moon Hooch just dropped an album via Bandcamp this past summer that slipped by me a bit. While the jams aren't as free-flowing or improvised as I'd like, Moon Hooch hits some great grooves across the many tracks here--not to mention these guys are pretty dynamic for just a drummer and two horn players. Enjoy!

The Daniel Rosenboom Quintet - Fire Keeper

Digging on some fiery jazz rock from this new Daniel Rosenboom Quintet album, Fire Keeper. The kinetic energy in the performances on this thing is m-a-s-s-i-v-e. The production is a little flat at times, but the performances are just stellar throughout.

Miles Davis- Bitches Brew

CLASSICS WEEK: Though Miles Davis didn't invent jazz fusion, he did manage to come together with one of the best albums in the genre with Bitches Brew, inviting on some of the greatest minds in the style into the studio to perform in some fiery and amazingly layered sessions.

WATCH THE REVIEW