Cold War Kids To Release Double Disc Anthology

This is definitely something that I will want to listen to. However, the fact that Cold War Kids are releasing an anthology and not including “Bitter Poem” mystifies me! It’s my favorite song by them and I thought it was one of their most well known tunes, but maybe not. The anthology will be available on December 7^th.

In their impressive, steadily rising career, soulful, blues-tinted rockers Cold War Kids have proven to be one of the most prolific commercially successful bands around. Never ones to rest, from the beginning they’ve utilized all manners of getting their music out to their fans, releasing a steady stream of EPs and digital singles between their full-length studio albums. As they peer over the horizon at their 15-year anniversary next year and reflect on how far they’ve come since forming in Southern California’s burgeoning indie rock scene in 2004, the band, now signed to Capitol Records, has collected together all of their radio singles spanning their tenure on Downtown Records from 2005 to 2015 along with some of their best unreleased and rare tracks for a double disc collection titled This Will All Blow Over In Time. The anthology will be released December 7 via Downtown Records/UMe on 2CD and digital with a double LP on translucent yellow vinyl to follow in February. The pre-order kicked off today with an instant grat download of the unreleased track “Vacation In Chicago,” a live version of fan favorite “We Used To Vacation,” appropriately recorded in Chicago. Pre-order This Will All Blow Over In Time now: https://UMe.lnk.to/ColdWarKids

Led by rousing frontman Nathan Willett (vocals/piano/guitar), Cold War Kids exploded onto the national spotlight in 2006 with their first single, “Hang Me Up To Dry,” which led to appearances on “Letterman” and “Conan” and prompted Rolling Stone to dub it one of “The 100 Best Songs Of The Year,” enthusing: “Indie rock with a little sex: Nathan Willett howls like a country bluesman as the other three Kids elbow their way through a mess of art-damaged funk.” Originally released on their third independently released EP Up In Rags, the song was included on the band’s breakout debut full-length Robbers & Cowards along with fellow radio hits “We Used To Vacation” and “Hospital Beds.” This Will All Blow Over In Time includes these songs as well as all their radio singles from their first five records.

Sequenced in chronological order from year of full-length album release, the first half of the retrospective, aptly titled Singles Worked At Radio, ranges from the soulful urgency of tracks “I’ve Seen Enough” and “Something Is Not Right With Me,” from Loyalty to Loyalty, the band’s first album to reach the top 50 on the Billboard 200, to “Louder Than Ever” and “Royal Blue” from 2011’s bigger and bolder Jacquire King-produced Mine Is Yours, to the funky, anthemic “Audience Of One” from their 2009 EP Behave Yourself, to the driving piano stomper “Miracle Mile,” their fifth top 40 hot in Billboard’s Alternative Songs chart, and the electro-tinged “Lost That Easy” from 2013’s Dear Miss Lonelyhearts. Their final record for Downtown, 2014’s Hold My Home, is represented with the infectious, dramatic rocker “All This Could Be Yours” and the clap-along anthem “First,” which peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart earning the band their highest charting single which has since been certified Gold.

Titled Songs From All Over The Place, the second half brings together an exciting mix of 11 unreleased songs and rarities to give a fuller picture of the band’s eclectic and prolific output over the last decade and a half. Kicking off with the aforementioned “Vacation In Chicago,” it includes the demo for “First,” a cover of Nick Cave’s “Opium Tea,” previously only available to stream online only, and “Goodnight Tennessee,” originally released as an iTunes bonus track for Mine Is Yours. Some of the many other highlights include the dubby remake of “Minimum Day” titled “Minimum Mistake,” produced by the late Richard Swift and originally only available as a download, “Coffee Spoon,” a standout from their seventh EP Behave Yourself, and “In Harmony In Silver” and “Quiet Please” from their long-out-of-print debut EP Mulberry Street released in 2005 on Monarchy Music. The set closes with “Fashionable,” a sprawling track released on the deluxe edition of Mine Is Yours.

This Will All Blow Over Time serves as both the first collection of the band’s many hits and a gift to longtime fans who will revel in the unreleased songs and rare tracks from their hard to find early releases. It also chronicles the band’s trajectory and showcases their continued artistic evolution as they get ready to celebrate a milestone anniversary.

This Will All Blow Over In Time Track Listing

Disc 1 – Singles Worked At Radio

1. Hang Me Up To Dry

2. We Used To Vacation

3. Hospital Beds

4. I’ve Seen Enough

5. Something Is Not Right With Me

6. Louder Than Ever

7. Royal Blue

8. Audience of One

9. Miracle Mile

10. Lost That Easy

11. All This Could Be Yours

12. First

Disc 2 – Songs From All Over The Place

1. Vacation In Chicago

2. First (Demo)

3. Opium Tea

4. Goodnight Tennessee

5. Coffee Spoon

6. Minimum Mistake

7. In Harmony In Silver

8. Quiet, Please

9. Expensive Tastes

10. Romance Languages #1

11. Fashionable

TRAIN Announces Greatest Hits Set For November 9th Release

You know, it’s about time these guys put out a greatest hits disc. They have enough great music to do just that. And on November 9^th, we get to hear their picks for the first ever Train Greatest Hits Album. Here’s the full press release for this highly anticipated album:

Following their co-headlining summer tour with Daryl Hall & John Oates, Columbia Records multi-platinum selling band Train has announced a Greatest Hits album set for release on November 9, 2018 via Columbia Records, pre-order the album here.

Train’s Greatest Hits album celebrates 20 years of their music, pulling together 16 fan-favorites like “Drops of Jupiter,” “Calling All Angels,” and “Hey Soul Sister” plus a special cover of one of front man Pat Monahan’s favorite songs, George Michael’s “Careless Whisper” - Train’s version features world renowned saxophonist Kenny G. Fans can also be on the lookout for Train hitting the road again in 2019 with some familiar faces - more information to come in the next month.

Train front man Pat Monahan reflects on making the Greatest Hits album, “I have avoided a ‘greatest hits’ record for a long time. I’ve always thought of those records as a way of saying, ‘Welp, it was fun while it lasted’ and that stressed me out. We live in a new music world now and having people be able to find songs they love faster and easier seems like a great idea. We’re proud and excited that this is the list of songs that built the band for 25 years. Hope they take you to as many great memories as they take us.”

Train’s self-titled debut album, released by Columbia in 1998 was the start of their now accomplished career - the tumbling wordplay of "Meet Virginia" gave them their first unlikely radio hit and 2001’s Drops Of Jupiter broke them to multi-platinum status thanks to the double GRAMMY award-winning title song that spent 10 months in the Top 40, and earned the Best Rock Song GRAMMY Award. The group won another GRAMMY award in 2011 for their global hit “Hey Soul Sister,” the #1 best-selling smash and most downloaded single of 2010, from their multi-platinum album Save Me, San Francisco. Next was 2012's California 37, which launched the double-platinum hit "Drive By" reaching the Top 10 in over a dozen countries. They've sold more than 10 million albums worldwide, more than 30 million tracks, with multiple platinum/gold citations, including 3 GRAMMY awards, 2 Billboard Music Awards and dozens of other honors.  Train has gone on to receive eight Grammy nominations and has had 12 albums on the Billboard 200 albums chart with their 2014 Bulletproof Picasso reaching No. 4 in 2012 and 2017’s a girl a bottle a boat debuting at No. 8.
 

Tracklisting

1. Meet Virginia
2. Drops of Jupiter
3. Calling All Angels
4. Get to Me
5. Look to the Sky
6. Cab
7. Hey Soul Sister
8. If It's Love
9. Marry Me
10. Save Me San Francisco
11. Drive By
12. 50 Ways
13. Bruises
14. Angel in Blue Jeans
15. Play That Song
16. Call Me Sir
17. Careless Whisper Feat. Kenny G

Concert Memory: Dave Matthews Band - June 23, 2018

There is nothing more rewarding than watching your child have the same reaction to their first experience of a particular band live that you did many years earlier. I was blessed and thankful to be able to share that interaction with my daughter, which happened on a gorgeous Saturday night in Hartford, Connecticut. The band was Dave Matthews Band and we made a three-hour journey to see them in concert. It was her first time and my 20^th. So, while I knew what to expect and the grand time we were going to have, she had no clue the joyous occasion that would unfold before her.   

Standing in the pit watching the instruments be tuned and set left me with a lot of exciting anticipation. Was my daughter going to love this band as much as I did? Was she going to be enthralled to the point where they became one of her favorite bands as they had for me years earlier? Would she leave with the same feelings of euphoria that I had?   

Sure, I had concerns going into the show. Boyd Tinsley was out and DMB had decided to tour with no violin for the first time since I’ve been seeing them live (maybe for the first time ever). I didn’t know if the essence was going to be the same as I had grown accustomed to. We had pit tickets, so that was certainly going to help improve the vantage point, but I love Boyd Tinsley and knowing that he wasn’t going to be on stage hurt a little. 

My big issue with the new incarnation of Dave Matthews Band (version 3.0 if you will) was that the setlists did not vary much for this trek across the US. The same songs were being played multiple times, which is unlike a normal DMB tour. Part of that could be because new addition organist Buddy Strong was still getting up to speed on the entire DMB catalog, but part of that could be for a different reason (although a reason that I can’t quite figure out). They stayed with the same group of songs for most of the tour. Although, we did get three tour debuts (“Stay or Leave,” “Captain,” and “Black and Blue Bird”) but everything was standard, especially the encore.

There’s a certain amount of magic in the air anytime the Dave Matthews Band takes the stage. Even in the absence of Boyd Tinsley on the violin, I knew this was going to be another special night. The weather was in our favor, the crowd was large but peaceful and loving, and of course the music was going to be magnificent. Standing that close to the stage also added to the experience. I had not been in the pit for a DMB show since my trip to The Gorge. That experience had not been the best, so there were concerns going into this show, but when the opportunity to get pit tickets came up for my daughter’s first experience, I had to grab them. Standing there as the pit filled and the clock ticked closer to showtime, I was a little nervous. Thankfully, we had a grand pit experience this time around. Maybe it’s because we stood by the horns---who can say for sure? All I know is that this was a much more relaxed experience than my last one. And for that I am eternally gratefully.

I was able to guess the opening song, but I don’t take great pride in that, as the setlists were predictable. That is something I’ve never been able to say about a DMB tour before, but it’s true for 2018. There were only three songs they opened with for most of that leg and one of them was the opener the night before, so I had a pretty good feeling that “That Girl Is You” was going to kick off our night. Fortunately, it is a favorite from the new release for both my daughter and myself.

All these items did not make it a bad show. I don’t believe that I’ve ever witnessed a bad DMB show and judging by my daughter’s gleeful outbursts it was the best concert ever performed in the history of music. Yet, perhaps since I’ve been to 20 of these shows now, I’ve grown jaded and hopeful. There are always songs I am chasing (“The Last Stop” in particular) and songs that I want to hear that I’ve only heard once (“Lover Lay Down”), but the band has so many songs they could pull out and they are touring behind a new record. I understand that the new songs are going to take precedence. And they have to balance deep cuts with fan favorites. I get all of that. And look, when it comes to a DMB show, their setlist is a million times more varied than a KISS show. But I think I’ve raised my expectations because the band raised the bar the first time I saw them in concert. I’m like a junkie. I want every concert to be as tremendous as that first one was. I’m chasing the high.

Prior to the show, I even had a list of songs in my head that I wanted to hear. I know it was a stretch for several reasons, but I want to hear the songs I don’t hear live too often. Which may be part of my problem. I need to enjoy the show for the show and if the rare songs are played, consider that a blessing. I was hoping to hear any of the following: “#27,” “Say Goodbye,” “Break Free,” “Come On, Come On,” or “Minarets.” I thought I had the best chance with “Come On, Come On” because it was a new song. The others I knew were a longshot at best. Sadly, none of those songs were performed, but I should have expected that anyway.

Out of the songs that did get played, there were some real highlights for me. I was overjoyed to hear “Crush” and “Jimi Thing” (two of my favorite songs by this band.) I was also glad to get “Stand Up” and “Louisiana Bayou” which is an unpopular statement with most purists. However, these two songs hold a special place in my heart as they were the songs that locked me into being a fan for life the first time I saw the band live. Robert Randolph guested on Bayou the first night I saw DMB and that just blew my mind. So, I will always love most of the songs from the Stand Up album.  They will always remind me of when DMB moved into the top five of my all-time favorite bands.  

The best part about being in the pit was the opportunity to get a drumstick from Carter Beauford. I’ve had opportunities to get a drumstick before and I’ve come extremely close once, at that same venue. The stick went off my fingertips and flipped behind me. SO CLOSE! With that in mind, I told my daughter that if she got a stick from Carter it was mine. I had come too close to let her get one on her first night. Unfortunately, Carter did not take the usual time to toss sticks into the audience. Not at the end of the main set and not after the encore. What the heck, Carter? I had informed my daughter what a big part of the show experience it was going to be and you tossed nothing! What a let down!  

As for my daughter, I had never seen her so happy in her entire life. The joy that overwhelmed her with infectious. She was so enthralled and she could not stop talking about what an amazing time she was having. She told me repeatedly that she had no idea the band was this good in concert. That made me made me laugh. I had only been telling for the last ten years she should think about attending a show with me. In her wise wisdom though she pointed out that she may not have been mature enough in her musical tastes to enjoy the band until now. Out of the mouths of babes… I was ecstatic by her happiness and so glad that we had gotten to see this show together. And now I have a permanent partner to attend all future shows with. She’s already told me that she can’t wait to see the band again and asked if we can do multiple shows next time. As long as they tour in 2019, my dear daughter, yes, we can.  

SETLIST

That Girl Is You

One Sweet World

Granny

Crush

Samarai Cop

Stay Or Leave

What Would You Say

Can’t Stop

Jimi Thing

Captain

Warehouse

Black and Blue Bird

The Song That jane Likes

Lying in the Hands of God

Funny The Way It Is

Come Tomorrow

Stand Up

Louisiana Bayou

ENCORE
The Space Between

Tripping Billies