Radio Free California Episode 2541 and a fateful trip to Europe.

Back to regular updates and woo boy this week is a doozy! New music from Veronica Fusaro, Julian Lennon, Courting, Mammoth, Sigrid, Ea Othilde, Samantha Crain, The Len Price 3, Spiritual Cramp, Maggie Linemann, Mourn, Call It Off, Bjork, Catbear and much more! Enjoy!

We're getting into the busy season for new music. All the prestige albums get released this time of year, hoping to remind people that the Grammy Nominations are just a couple of months away. We've got a few contenders this week in my opinion.

Let's start with Veronica Fusaro, a Swiss/Italian singer whose new album "Looking For Connection" has just dropped and from which I've added 5 songs to the radio station, 3 just this week. She's a sensation in Europe and I think she's ready to blow up in the US as well, with a solidly rock and pop album with vocals reminiscent of the best that alt-pop-rock has ever offered.

Julian Lennon has dropped an EP called "because.." and at only 4 songs it packs a punch that reminds us of his best days, when he both did and didn't sound like his famous father. His voice really doesn't sound like that anymore, but the songwriting chops are still there.

Courting has the best long album title of the week with "How to Thread the Needle and Come Out the Other Side to Tell the Story, Or: Lust for Life". This is a confident new album from the trio that rocks, funks, and defies expectations more than once and is well worth your time.

Mammoth is of course the work of Wolfgang Van Halen, finally allowed to use the name he has always used for his band. He has the famous chops but his songwriting and vocal style are a touch more radio friendly than his father's work ever was, with a few tips of the hat to Foo Fighters and others. His latest is a wonderfully rockin' album worth the listen.

Sigrid's third album, "There's Always More I Could Say", lets you know she isn't kidding. You can tell from the production values that she's Scandinavian (there's that "ABBA/Roxette" production and it's hard to miss) but the singing is very much a rock and roll voice, and this is her best work to date.

I had never heard of Ea Othilde before this week, and I now have everything she's released. Her new album, "I Will Not Be Like That", has a sound much like those rare moments when Souxie and the Banshees sounded happy. The new album is well produced and highlights the more ethereal parts of her voice while not being afraid to experiment in the instrumentation.

Samantha Crain comes to us from the Choctow Nation and believe it or not you've probably heard her music in the background of that TV show you keep meaning to watch. She reminds me a lot of Robbie Robertson (as a solo artist) which I can't really explain without you listening to her, but there are influences from all over the globe in her music and it's catchy and well worth your notice. Her most recent album is called "Gumshoe" but she dropped a new single this week called "Cherry Plum" that you shouldn't miss.

And where the hell has The Len Price 3 been all my life? They're a throwback to the jangly pop rock of the 1980's, Like crossing The Jam with The Byrds. "Misty Medway Magik" is pure jangle pop gold.

I have to give some love to local band (for me) Spiritual Cramp and their new release, "Rude". What if The Ramones were fronted by a shouty David Byrne? With a few nods to Green Day and The Clash and a couple of name drops that would only make sense to those of us in San Francisco. The new album is tons of fun and also lets you know that the punk ethic is alive and well in the next generation.

And finally I have to mention the band Call it Off, who have released their own version of Taylor Swift's album "Thirteen". Yes, the whole album, reimagined as a power pop rock album. It shouldn't work, and sounds like it should veer into parody and yet it works. Just goes to show that if the song is solid it can work in just about any style.

Image what the rest of the year is going to be like.

++++++++++++++++++++

If I may, allow me to make my way to an announcement.

The following may or may not be true, but there are photos...

So towards the end of September I went to England at the invitation of a long time friend who was working on a new album. He had a song he had written way back in the 1980's when we lived in the same town and occasionally jammed together, and he had always promised that if he turned this one riff we used to play into a full song he'd invite me to play on the record. He kept his promise and so I kept my promise to play. I don't enjoy flying, but me and my wife hopped onto a 10-hour flight and I was there for the session.

I have no idea if/when the song will come out, but this all led to a cascade of other events. I have a cousin who lives in France and works in Paris, so we extended our trip and caught the Eurostar - which I highly recommend doing if you get the chance - and spent a few days in Paris. I didn't get to see as much of the city as I would have liked, but that's mostly my fault and I did make it to Notre Dame and I got to take a picture of Rue Amelie:

If you know, you know.

Anyway, one of the inside jokes in my band is that when we tell people where everyone is that we say "Jim Christopher is probably at your local bar and has been there as long as anyone can remember". Thing is, at the time we were planning this trip he had been in Germany for a few months busking for his drinking money and staying at various hostels, which is something he loves to do. When I let my friends know I would be spending a little time in Europe he said, "Come out to Frankfurt you'll love it here".

I'll be honest, Frankfurt wasn't even on my mind when it comes to Germany. Admittedly, I'd never been but there's Berlin, Nürnberg, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne... places to draw a musician. Frankfurt has more of a reputation as a business oriented town - so much so that they joke that the skyline should be called "Mainhatten", as its skyscrapers are situated on the River Main. But we booked a funky hotel called "Moxy" and decided to spend a few days there.

Frankfurt am Main is a fantastic place. Yes, it's a business hub but it's also a place of old world traditions, architecture, and a feel that keeps telling you that this place is home. Jim was right, but he had an ulterior motive - he had been living upstairs of a recording studio for a couple of weeks and without telling me he invited all of the various members of the Anime Raiders to come out.

We were all suddenly in the same place for the first time since before the Pandemic, and with a recording studio at our disposal. So we jammed, all of us save for Jim using equipment belonging to the studio. We jammed a LOT. While my wife explored the city we played, bounced ideas off each other, and found ourselves leaning into the feel of the place, and especially towards more prog rock sounds and styles. Kyousuke noticed it first, and started minimizing what he was playing, emulating Bill Bruford. I played keyboards and guitars, plus a few instruments I had never tried before, like a whammy bar clavinet.

We recorded a LOT. My wife took a ton of pictures and we would use the pictures as an inspiration for what we were jamming to. Hours and hours worth of material.

And it's now my job to edit it all together into a group of songs. I've been working on that since we got back to my home studio. The album will be mostly instrumental - making it the second instrumental album I've done in a year. The difference is that this one rocks out.

This celebrates the city we worked in, and the joy of collaborating and recording live. Oh, there are overdubs. I had Jim record more than one harmony line over the original guitar solos he played, and I've put in some effects and extra keyboards, and there isn't a single performance here that isn't an editing of multiple takes into a single cohesive unit.

And so now I get to finally announce that we have a new album coming:

I can't yet tell you when it will be out, although I'm shooting for towards the end of the year (you know, for Grammy eligibility). The first single is ready and I expect to announce it next week. I'm still working on the rest. As with "The Overnight Train" I want the album to have a flow to it, and there are still a few things I need to iron out. I'm hoping that by releasing a single now it will light a fire under my ass to get it done.

I love mixing. It's probably the thing I love most about making new music - shaping the sounds into a finished product, taking the bits and pieces and fitting them together so they work, going through the various takes and deciding what works best and where. But reaching the point where you call it finished can sometimes be difficult - the urge to overwork it is pretty strong. To keep fussing with it and trying new things, and I've got so much material to work with.

I'll get there.

But I fell in love with Frankfurt am Main, and I will return there someday.