Rock

Alt-folk duo The Lumineers have announced that the release date for their upcoming fifth studio album, Automatic, which is due out on February 14 on Dualtone. The Denver group comprised of singer/guitarist Wesley Schultz and drummer Jeremiah Fraites previewed their follow-up to 2022’s Brightside on Tuesday (Jan. 7) with the LP’s rollicking first single, “Same Old Song.”

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“Hey Mama would you pay my rent/ Would you let me crash in your basement/ ‘Cause anyone of us could make it big or could end up dead on the pavement/ And if i was to die/ If the plane went down and you survived,” Schultz sings over Fraites’ insistent, metronomic beat.

The track then soars to a yearning, aching peak on the chorus, on which Schultz keens, “Same old song/ We sing the same old song/ We sing the same old, same old song.” The song’s release was accompanied by a video directed by filmmaker Anaïs LaRocca (Hundred Waters), in which the pair perform it on a soundstage backed by evocative VHS-like videos echoing the lyrics.

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In a statement announcing the album, Schultz said it marks 20 years of his songwriting partnership with Fraites. “The album explores some of the absurdities of the modern world, like the increasingly blurry line between what’s real and what’s not, and the variety of ways we numb ourselves while trying to combat both boredom and overstimulation,” he said, noting that the LP was recorded in “less than a month.”

The statement adds that the album will find the duo “traveling new sonic and thematic terrain with their most raw and personal collection thus far.” It notes that it was recorded with Woodstock, NY-based producer/songwriter/ keyboardist David Baron, who “outfitted Woodstock’s Utopia studio like the legendary Abbey Road facility, installing both vintage and cutting-edge gear,” where the pair performed the song “as a unit, leaving fewer opportunities to fix mistakes, or refine the sound.”

To capture that live magic, they outfitted the studio with two sets of drums, three pianos and an array of amps, guitars and vocal mics, “allowing the musicians to pivot and capture as much as possible with minimal delay.”

The Lumineers are slated to kick off the tour in support of the album on Saturday (Jan. 11) with a gig at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, CA at the iHeartRadio ALTer EGO show, followed by their own headlining gig at the Fallsview Casino Resort in Niagara Falls, ON on February 16.

Watch the “Same Old Song” video and check out the Automatic track list below.

Automatic track list:

“Same Old Song”

“Asshole”

“Strings”

“Automatic”

“You’re All I’ve Got”

“Plasticine”

“Ativan”

“Keys on the Table”

“Better Day”

“Sunflowers”

“So Long”

It’s T-minus 177 days until the kick-off of Oasis‘ eagerly anticipated reunion tour (but who’s counting?). And while we still don’t know if the formerly battling Gallagher brothers will release any new music to coincide with their first dates in over 16 years, guitarist, sometimes singer and songwriter Noel Gallagher will be back in our ears soon courtesy of his contribution to the latest track from the British supergroup Mantra of the Cosmos.
In the follow-up to their debut 2023 single, “Gorilla Guerilla,” the group featuring Happy Mondays/Black Grape members singer Shaun Ryder and dancer/maracas player Bez, Who/Oasis drummer Zak Starkey and Ride/Oasis guitarist Andy Bell, will drop “Domino Bones (Get Dangerous)” on January 19.

The song — which is credited as “featuring Noel Gallagher” — will debut on that date at the legendary Cavern Club in Liverpool, when the band’s members will perform it live for the first time. The single will be sold exclusively at their Cavern Club appearances in the form of a limited-edition 7″ red or blue vinyl single.

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“Just when you thought pop music had got a bit too sensible, a bit too clean and tidy, a bit too safe, then maverick spirits collide and create something as devilish and delicious as you would have hoped and prayed for… That something is Mantra of The Cosmos; the new supergroup comprising some of the most influential British artists of the last 30 years,” reads a statement from the club. “We are delighted to be hosting the band for two special shows to kick off the new year in style.”

The group is slated to perform afternoon and evening shows on the 19th, which will also feature DJ sets from Bez and Bell, though at press time it was unclear if Gallagher will join them for the gigs. According to NME, Gallagher described the group as “like Dylan, Dali and [Allen] Ginsberg on a rocket ship to the moon to have it with the Clangers.”

Starkey — son of Beatles legend Ringo Starr and a veteran drummer who has also played with the Lightning Seeds, Johnny Marr and the Healers and his dad’s All-Starr Band — said the new six-minute song that is named after Bez’s first band is like “‘Free Bird’ for Mods,” in reference to the iconic Lynyrd Skynyrd jam. The magazine said Gallagher provides vocals on the chorus, with Ryder taking on the verses, Starkey on drums, guitar, bass and keyboards and Bell ripping an extended guitar solo.

“It’s not every day that the greatest songwriter of my generation – not to mention Shaun, the greatest beat poet of our times – sends a tune to me, and I was in a daze for a bit cos it’s not something you want to f–k up! It came together great – everyone digs it!” said Starkey, who played on Oasis’ last two studio albums, 2005’s Don’t Believe the Truth and 2008’s Dig Your Own Soul. “Noel loves Shaun. He texted me to say: ‘Do you know what you’ve got? The British Bob Dylan’ – and he’s not f–king about because now I’ve witnessed what Shaun does. Noel calls him the ‘king of lyrics.’”

The gigs will be a kind of homecoming for Starkey, as the Beatles famously got their start playing gigs at the Cavern Club, though, ironically, despite his years of gigging, he’s never been there. “There’s a great deal of family heritage at the Cavern aside from the Beatles my parents courted there… who knows I may have even been conceived there,” Starkey said.

In addition to “Gorilla Guerilla,” to date Mantra of the Cosmos has also released the single “X (Wot You Saying?),” performing both songs during their Glastonbury Festival debut in 2023. According to NME, there are more singles from the group due out this year.

The Oasis Live ’25 tour is scheduled to kick off on July 4 at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales and is currently slated to wrap on November 23 in Estádio do Morumbi in São Paulo, Brazil.

Neil Young is rolling out another gem from the vault. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame icon announced on Friday (Jan. 3) that one of his great “lost” albums, Oceanside Countryside, will be released on February 14 through Reprise Records.
“This analog original album was recorded in 1977 and unreleased. These songs are the original mixes done at the time of the recordings in the order I planned for the album,” Young said in a statement about the latest release in his Analog Original Series (AOS). The album was originally recorded from May-December 1977, just before the release of his 1978 folk/country album Comes a Time, which featured such beloved songs as the title track, “Lotta Love,” “Human Highway,” “Field of Opportunity” and “Four Strong Winds.”

“I sang the vocals and played the instruments on Oceanside in Florida at Triad studios and Malibu at Indigo studio,” Young aded. “I sang the vocals and recorded with my great band of friends, Ben Keith [steel guitar], Joe Osborn [bass], Karl T. Himmel [drums], and Rufus Thibodeaux [fiddle] at Crazy Mama’s in Nashville on Countryside. I hope you enjoy this treasure of an Analog Original recording, recorded by Tim Mulligan, as much as I do. Listening to it now, I think I should have put it out back then.”

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All the songs on Oceanside are performed solo by Young, with a group of friends joining him on Countryside, including Keith, Thibodeaux, Himmel and Osborne, with Tim Drummond on bass for “The Old Homestead,” which also features The Band’s Levon Helm on drums.

In addition to featuring many of the same musicians as Comes a Time, Oceanside Countryside also has a trio of songs (“Goin’ Back,” “Human Highway” and “Field of Opportunity”) that also appear on that album. The vinyl version of Oceanside will include tracks on the CD of the same name from Young’s Archives Vol. III release. Young noted that the tracklist for the upcoming album — which was recorded on tape — reflects how he originally planned to release the LP, which will be available in analog and on vinyl for the first time ever with the original mixes done at the time of the recording.

Though a number of the songs on Oceanside originally appeared on Archives Vol. III, the release noted that the versions are “not always the same.” Specifically, the versions of “Lost in Space,” “Captain Kennedy” and “The Old Homestead” on the analog original vinyl release date from the Hawks & Doves album from 1980. In addition, “Field of Opportunity” and “Dance Dance Dance” are the original versions that have backing vocals from Young instead of Nicolette Larson, whose vocals appeared on Archives Vol. III.

Check out the track listing for Oceanside Countryside below.

Side one: Oceanside

“Sail Away”

“Lost in Space”

“Captain Kennedy”

“Goin’ Back”

“Human Highway”

Side two: Countryside

“Field of Opportunity”

“Dance Dance Dance”

“The Old Homestead”

“It Might Have Been”

“Pocahontas”