{"id":757,"date":"2016-08-05T17:37:02","date_gmt":"2016-08-05T21:37:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/?p=757"},"modified":"2016-11-09T00:14:32","modified_gmt":"2016-11-09T05:14:32","slug":"new-release-roundup-dinosaur-jr-jon-reynolds-tony-lucca-comedy-from-jen-kirkman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/2016\/08\/05\/new-release-roundup-dinosaur-jr-jon-reynolds-tony-lucca-comedy-from-jen-kirkman\/","title":{"rendered":"New Release Roundup: Dinosaur Jr., Jon Reynolds, Tony Lucca, Comedy from Jen Kirkman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>MUSIC <\/strong><br \/>\n1. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dinosaurjr.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Dinosaur Jr<\/a> \u2013 <em>Give A Glimpse of What Yer Not<\/em><br \/>\nThirty years on, Dinosaur Jr. is making some beautiful music.  Melody to spare played loud. A blue expanse with clouds around the edges, not sure if they\u2019re coming or going. Probably both. When I hear \u201cI Told Everyone\u201d or \u201cGood To Know,\u201d I feel a satisfying mix of optimism and melancholy. That\u2019s what attracted me to the band in the first place years ago. \u201cGoin\u2019 Down\u201d kicks off with an irresistibly energetic riff, and J Mascis asks, \u201cAre you with me?\/Are you with me when I\u2019m gone?\/Are you with me?\/Are you with me, come along.\u201d Gladly. <em>Give A Glimpse of What Yer Not<\/em> once again features the original line-up \u2013 Mascis, Lou Barlow, and Murph. Mascis is front and center, penning nine of the album\u2019s eleven tracks and providing lusciously thick guitar fuzz and dazzling leads. But Barlow\u2019s two songs, \u201cLove Is\u2026\u201d and \u201cLeft\/Right,\u201d add a deeper dimension to the album, rounding out its sound. \u201cLove Is\u2026\u201d has a fuzzy exterior and a classic guitar pop soul. Heartbreak is where passion and indecision meet on \u201cLeft\/Right.\u201d  \u201cAnd if you want it, I need it\/If you could need what I want,\u201d sings Barlow, flowing into a gorgeous, pulsing synth motif. There is no doubting the band\u2019s chemistry \u2013 it\u2019s worth noting they\u2019ve been back together as the original lineup for over a decade now, roughly twice as long as they were together when they released their first three albums. Removed from the pressures of making it as a young band, they sound more together now than ever.<br \/>\n<iframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=3611956479\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/artwork=small\/transparent=true\/\" seamless><a href=\"http:\/\/dinosaurjr.bandcamp.com\/album\/give-a-glimpse-of-what-yer-not\">Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not by Dinosaur Jr.<\/a><\/iframe><br \/>\n2. <a href=\"http:\/\/jonreynoldsmusic.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Jon Reynolds<\/a> \u2013 <em>Generation, Love<\/em> (EP)<br \/>\nIf you need a some songs to slow dance to at your next sock hop, Jon Reynolds gives you a few options on this new EP. He\u2019s got the oohs and aahs, the bubbling organ sound, guitars chiming and arpeggiating, and even the sax. The title track hints at that, but \u201cFind Someone\u201d and \u201cSituational Demise\u201d drive it home. Which is what makes the other track, \u201c\u201963,\u201d such an odd duck in this bunch. Musically, it has a similar vibe. But then Reynolds sings, \u201cAll that I see is \u201863\/That kind of nostalgia\u2019s not for me\/Not all our past is history\/I believe that we\u2019re living, still living \u201963.\u201d His point here is political. The first verse is about a smart, stylish woman, and ends with the lines \u201cThe boys couldn\u2019t handle it\/So so long girl.\u201d The second is about a man who worked hard to make something out of nothing, and ends with, \u201cHe was strong but his skin was black\/His boss couldn\u2019t handle that\/So so long boy.\u201d It\u2019s a careful positioning, down to the year 1963, which is the year before the Civil Rights Act and before the Beatles hit America. Reynolds may love the music of the early rock and roll crooners, but he won\u2019t embrace the era without an asterisk.<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.spotify.com\/?uri=spotify%3Aalbum%3A0kvA1HJO1qBl5C79pvOAUW\" width=\"300\" height=\"380\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n3. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tonylucca.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Tony Lucca<\/a> \u2013 <em>Sessions Vol 2: Muscle Shoals<\/em> (EP)<br \/>\nThis is the second EP Lucca has released this year, following <em>Sessions Vol 1: Sun Studios<\/em>, which was culled from his appearance on the PBS show Sun Studio Sessions. He\u2019s apparently been looking through his archives for unreleased tracks and found these three songs, recorded a decade ago somewhere in Muscle Shoals. What he came up with is a spare solo acoustic  take on \u201cLonging\u201d from his 2006 album Canyon Songs, a version of \u201cIt\u2019s You\u201d from 2011\u2019s Solo album that trades the guitar for piano, and a cover of Paul Simon\u2019s \u201cStill Crazy After All These Years.\u201d His reading of the Simon song is the standout, spare and appropriately lonely-sounding with just voice and piano. Give it a spin.<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.spotify.com\/?uri=spotify%3Aalbum%3A2X8vEgXDf09QGLge5PpyyR\" width=\"300\" height=\"380\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\"><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p><strong>COMEDY<\/strong><br \/>\n1. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jenkirkman.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Jen Kirkman<\/a> \u2013 <em>I\u2019m Gonna Die Alone (And I Feel Fine)<\/em><br \/>\nIf you\u2019re a fan of Jen Kirkman, you\u2019ve like seen the special of the same name, released audio-only here for the first time. And if you don\u2019t know her, this is a good place to jump onboard. Kirkman has spoken and written extensively about her divorce and the fact that she never wants children, and how people would push the idea on her all the time. Those ideas are well-represented here. Kirkman talks about the common refrain she hears, \u201cyou\u2019ll change your mind,\u201d from people whom she has told she doesn\u2019t want kids. \u201cI don\u2019t go up to pregnant women six months along, \u2018You\u2019ll change your mind,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cThey probably want to.\u201d She doesn\u2019t have the necessary urge to parent, and believes she\u2019d be bad at it. If her kid yelled to her that there were monsters under the bed, she\u2019d yell back, \u201cYeah, of course there is, that\u2019s where they live,\u201d and then scramble out of there with her boyfriend before the monster could get her. Of course, with a world that\u2019s getting progressively dumber, in her view, it might not be smart for anyone to have kids. She once saw a guy at a bar who didn\u2019t know what a lemon or a lime was, and wanted to call some sort of security department to remove him from the gene pool. People like to blame the two cutest groups, babies and old people, but they\u2019re wrong. \u201cIt\u2019s us,\u201d she says, \u201cwhite people, 20 to 60 doing nothing. I\u2019m yelling, you paid to watch it. This is stupid. I have a dumb job I have a dumb life and so do you. Taking up space.\u201d The best we can do is not \u201ccause chaos with our stupidity.\u201d<br \/>\n<iframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"http:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=3836629549\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/artwork=small\/transparent=true\/\" seamless><a href=\"http:\/\/rooftopcomedy.bandcamp.com\/album\/im-gonna-die-alone-and-i-feel-fine\">I&#39;m Gonna Die Alone ( And I Feel Fine) by Rooftop Comedy<\/a><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MUSIC 1. Dinosaur Jr \u2013 Give A Glimpse of What Yer Not Thirty years on, Dinosaur Jr. is making some beautiful music. Melody&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[471,180,473,472],"class_list":["post-757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedy","category-music","tag-dinosaur-jr","tag-jen-kirkman","tag-jon-reynolds","tag-tony-lucca"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/New-Release-Roundup-Aug-5-2016.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7lGwW-cd","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=757"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1172,"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757\/revisions\/1172"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}