This is it, everyone, the last Overlooked Alternatives new releases piece I'll be writing. No, I'm not going anywhere - it's the last because I'm shelving it for a new piece called "The Breakdown," premiering next week. The change is more in name only, as I'll continue to talk about the same stuff I always have, but I've decided that the "Overlooked Alternatives" moniker wasn't fitting anymore, and I felt a little limited by it and a bit self-conscious talking about decidedly unoverlooked and unalterative releases. Now I won't have that problem. But that's not what you're here for, is it? On to the new releases ...
Trey Anastasio - The Horseshoe Curve: After a couple of vocal albums that found the former Phish leader a bit lost in the pop-rock world, Anastasio releases another self-released album (the previous album, Bar 17, and its accompanying EP, Step 18, were also self-released.) This time around, however, he's going all-instrumental, backed with horns, and exploring the Afro-Cuban material he'd been playing with prior to Shine.
For those who were lucky enough to know about it in time, pre-ordering from his site netted buyers a free copy of The Lucius Beebe EP, a five-song live EP with three songs from the new album and two from his "classical" release, Seis de Mayo. There's still hope if you weren't one of the pre-orderers: hop over to his Musictoday site and you can still pre-order the vinyl of the album with a CD copy and still get the EP as a free bonus.
Dave Douglas - Live at the Jazz Standard: You've got to hand it to Dave Douglas (Downbeat's pick for best trumpet player 7 years in a row.) After his experience with a major label, he set out to find a way to release his music the way he wanted to, and so far it seems to be working - he's released a number of studio albums this way over the past couple of years along with several live releases. But the big deal for him was recording and releasing an entire week's worth of shows for download from his site - 79 performances in 12 one-hour sets of mp3 files. Unfortunately for many listeners, mp3 files just aren't all that appealing - the file format has not translated well to jazz listeners who are often much more demanding of the quality of their recordings and mp3 just does not pass muster, not to mention the lack of the much-beloved liner notes and artwork.
Article comments
1 - Pico
The Anastasio and Douglas are on my list. Thanks for the heads up.
2 - Brian aka Guppusmaximus
I can agree 100% with ya Tom about the Slayer re-release.(As you can read at Mr. Beaumont's review)
Though, I kinda wonder, with alot of cool releases from some real good metal bands why anyone with half a brain would bother with a "Deluxe" version of any release? Most of the time they don't include anything worth having.
My reccomendations:
Municipal Waste - "The Art of Partying"
Illogicist - "The Insight Eye"
The Shattering - "The Shattering Begins"
(from 2005 but it's new to me & it kicks major ass1)
Tomahawk - "Anonymous"
3 - Mark Saleski
the file format has not translated well to jazz listeners who are often much more demanding of the quality of their recordings and mp3 just does not pass muster, not to mention the lack of the much-beloved liner notes and artwork.
exactly!!!!
4 - El Bicho
good luck with the new venture or same venture or--you know what I mean