new west records Archives - Vinyl From The Vault

JD McPherson “The Warm Covers LP”

sfilzen — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 19:49:39 +0000

JD McPherson “The Warm Covers LP” 2023. New West Records, limited edition Record Store Day release on red, white and blue splatter clear vinyl. As the title more than suggests, the record is all covers reimagined in McPherson’s rockabilly style, from songs spanning the protopunk to rockin’ rhythm and blues to southern fried rock genres. A lot of the covers, like the blues/rhythm and blues ones, lend themselves very well to a rockabilly interpretation: the cover of the mid-50’s single “Let’s Rock” by Art Neville for instance, or the soulful renditions of Irma Thomas’ “It’s Raining” (1961) and “Steal Away” by Jimmy Hughes (1964) are all pretty great. Some others, not so much. McPherson’s cover of The Pixies’ “Manta Ray” (1989) is confusing, like he didn’t really know what to do with the track and just threw everything against the wall hoping it would stick. (It all stuck.) I wasn’t expecting to like his cover of Iggy Pop’s “Lust For Life” (1977) as much as I did: who knew that song would lend itself so well to brush drums? Also unexpected is “Dream Baby Dream” originally by Suicide; McPherson’s cover adds a sultry bendy guitar accent to the hypnotic electro punk song from ’79 (no link available). Most hilarious by far is his rendition of Velvet Underground’s “White Light/White Heat” (1968) which plops the art rock single into a 50’s pop song similar to “Jailhouse Rock” or really any Chuck Berry classic.

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Caroline Rose “Loner”

sfilzen — Wed, 06 Mar 2024 19:08:18 +0000

Caroline Rose “Loner” 2018. New West Records. Limited edition clear red vinyl, signed copy. Caroline Rose’s third studio LP has been languishing in my to-do pile for over 5 years now – I can sort of explain. Joe saw her perform in either 2018 or ’19 (probably while she was on tour for the record) and for whatever reason I didn’t go. Then I’m pretty sure I hung onto the record to write about since she was (I think) scheduled to tour in 2020 and then…well, we didn’t see any shows for a very long time. Then when she came around more recently, we weren’t thrilled with her newer material so didn’t get tickets for the show. I don’t know what her previous releases were like but from the description, she used to be more in the Americana/singer-songwriter category (not really my jam). Loner, however, has a lot of fun indie-pop weirdness woven through the some more mellow songs which are likely more like her old material. My top track is “Bikini” which is a 60’s garage, organ-forward dance party with a lot of sarcasm – it’s awesome! The track preceding it, “Smile! AKA Schizodrift Jam 1 AKA Bikini Intro,” is jagged, super-weird and also dripping with sarcasm (and a topic I can totally relate to: it doesn’t happen much anymore but when I was in college working retail I can’t even count how many times some asshole dude would tell me to “smile” – as if it was my duty to make his day or something). I also like two other tracks, which are also in the weird column, “Money” – it’s quirky and a total ass-shaker – and clever, slinky “Soul No. 5.” The rest of the album is kinda meh but those four songs make the LP worth having.

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JD McPherson “Undivided Heart & Soul”

sfilzen — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 18:18:34 +0000

JD McPherson “Undivided Heart & Soul” 2017. New West Records. McPherson’s third album was a big success for an indie release: it went to #130 on the regular Billboard album chart but hit #4 on the Indie Albums chart and, a bit inexplicably in my opinion, made it onto Rolling Stone‘s Top 40 Country Albums of 2017 at #33. It is not country unless one categorizes this record as simply “rockabilly” – which it is not. It definitely is retro and mixes a hearty dose of rockabilly into a mix that also includes soul (especially the crooners “Hunting for Sugar” and “Jubilee“), garagey-blues that sounds very Black Keys-ish (“Lucky Penny” would be right at home on their 2019 album Let’s Rock) and late 40’s/early 50’s rockin’ rhythm-and-blues (the excellent “Crying’s Just a Thing You Do“). There’s even a touch of early 2000’s indie pop (“On the Lips“), some trashy glam (“Style (Is a Losing Game)“) and, for lack of a better description, garage funk (the great title track “Undivided Heart & Soul” which is swinging and sexy). It’s a really great LP and its diversity is tied together by McPherson’s songwriting and feel for a solid rock-n-roll beat.

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JD McPherson “Holly, Carol, Candy & Joy”

sfilzen — Thu, 24 Dec 2020 14:26:05 +0000

JD McPherson “Holly, Carol, Candy & Joy” 2019. New West Records on “Snow Globe” limited edition 7″ vinyl. A delightful modern rockabilly Christmas tune that bounces with vintage Beatlesque pop rhythm and melody that takes traditional Christmas imagery and translates it to name a list of lovely ladies. “Holly, Carol, Candy & Joy” appears on McPherson’s full-length Christmas album Socks. The b-side is another neo-rockabilly original Christmas tune, “Red Bows (For a Blue Girl),” which is more rockin’ rhythm-and-blues, complete with horns and a Bo Diddley beat. Both tracks are boppingly upbeat and catchy, perfect for the joy and anticipation of Christmas.

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Ron Gallo “Stardust Birthday Party”

sfilzen — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 18:55:36 +0000

Ron Gallo “Stardust Birthday Party” 2018. New West Records, signed, limited edition yellow with pink splatter vinyl (“Bday Cake variant”).

Ron Gallo performed last night at High Noon Saloon in Madison, but – sadly – we didn’t go (weather has been horrible and the drive didn’t seem safe) so I’m consoling myself with a spin of his latest release, which we preordered for its October ‘18 release. Starburst Birthday Party is Gallo’s second full-length album and has him going deep. Apparently he’s out of a relationship with a heroin addict and is doing some serious introspection (as Allmusic states he’s “examining his own neuroses and looking for spiritual and philosophical truths as he bashes away at his electric guitar”), but still with a hearty dose of humor (we saw him perform in 2017 at Mile of Music and he was hilarious). The lyrics to the song “Always Elsewhere” are inspired by philosopher Alan Watts and spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle but then on the track “Do You Love Your Company?” (one of my favorites on the LP) he sings “When you think of yourself when you drink with yourself; self-help book on the couch, do you love your company” indicating that he’s not taking his navel gazing too seriously. Same goes with the track “’You’ Are the Problem” which I love and am in total agreement with (“because 9 out of 10 times ‘you’ are the problem). Side B’s “Om” is so damn funny – yogic “om” chanting with an irreverent little voicemail from the mind reminding the meditator – Ron – that “you can never, ever stop me. I cannot be stopped, I cannot be silenced. But you can sort of change your relationship with me and not believe everything I say.” Gallo then promptly explodes into a hard-stomping garage punk shred on the excellent ass-shaker “It’s All Gonna Be OK.” Just as great is “I Wanna Die (Before I Die)” which, despite its title, is super-uplifting in a raucous 60′s garage-rock style. He channels – sort of – John Coltrane on “Love Supreme (Work Together)” though with significantly more funk. I’m guessing he played most if not all of these songs last night, I’m just hoping he’ll be coming back this way again soon.

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Ron Gallo “Heavy Meta”

sfilzen — Wed, 06 Dec 2017 17:30:54 +0000

Ron Gallo “Heavy Meta” 2017. New West Records. So back in August after writing about our marathon 16 bands in 29 hours I promised to revisit several of the artists we saw during that whirlwind of music. Ron Gallo was one of them and Heavy Meta is his latest release: fuzzy garage guitar, heavy beats – when we saw him play at Mile of Music the bass drum literally vibrated my clothes – and clever, irreverent and often scathing lyrics (i.e. “Why Do You Have Kids?” and “All the Punks Are Domesticated”). Allmusic says, “the fusion of Gallo’s dirty but melodic melodies and waves of lyrical swagger suggests how Bob Dylan might have ended up if his primal influence had been Black Francis instead of Woody Guthrie.” From Nashville via Philly, Gallo incorporates some southern blues-rock flavors into several tracks on Side A, the “Bright Side” (i.e. the raucous rocker “Please Yourself” and the CCR-meets-Rolling-Stones’ Sympathy For the Devil-esque “Young Lady, You’re Scaring Me”). Side B, the “Dark Side,” slows things down considerably but it’s not mellow, think more the burning intensity of bands the Black Angels or Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Some of Gallo’s best lyrics appear here: the aforementioned “All the Punks Are Domesticated” – “All of the punks are domesticated/all of the freaks have gone to bed/all of the pioneers are saved for information tech/Now every room is sterilized/All risk is paralyzed/ Meanwhile the pop tarts climb the pop charts/the blood clots block your heart parts and no one really has anything to say” and “Don’t Mind the Lion” – “Oh, she smoked herself into oblivion/Oh, her teeth are like the daisies in the yard/ Colors pouring out her eyes/with hips and a heart on trial…”

Here is a photo from the show we saw in August at Mile of Music, Gallo’s pants as cheeky as his writing.

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