Ryan Dembinsky

Last we heard from the NYC jam trio Licorice, it was to shed light on the band’s decision to shift directions and focus on a more straightforward rock band called The Whitewalls. This time around, it’s a reversal of fortune of sorts as guitarist and lead vocalist Dave Lott dropped by HT to chat about the band’s one-off reunion at the Blue Note in New York City on Saturday, May 7th. The band plans to dive deep into the old catalog, stretch out the improvisation, and play into the wee hours of the night.

Hidden Track: So, it’s great to see that you guys decided to reunite Licorice for a special one-off performance. Be honest, you missed the jams, right?

Dave Lott: Ok, busted. But to reveal even more, sometimes, we do still jam together (shhh!). But we have been working on other projects with diverse musical directions, and so yes, we did miss “the jam,” and the live platform, with interaction and excited purpose. We also missed the vehicles/music that once inspired what we were doing – whether it’s a Chick Corea tune or an original instrumental piece. We are having so much fun exploring again as a group, and from what is definitely a more mature vantage point.

HT: You guys have some history at the Blue Note. What made you choose a more traditional Jazzbo club for your reunion show?

DL: This is our 11^th Blue Note show actually, which is pretty wild in 2011. We never take that opportunity lightly. So much of our inspiration, so many of our heroes, and so much history have been laid there before us. For this show, we wanted to get back to the “jazzier” side of Licorice; the band that had once in a lifetime experiences at jazz events/festivals and rooms like the Blue Note. We didn’t want to concentrate on any lyrical or vocal material either – so, the room is really the best fit.

READ ON for more on the Licorice reunion with David Lott…

One of the great California punk bands of the modern era, Face to Face, is slated to release their first album in almost nine years on May 17 when they

The Chicago/California duo of Liz Lux and Jamie Cassedy, who perform under the moniker Me and Cassady, offered HT an exclusive download of their fantastic take on the Donovan classic,

One of this year’s most pleasant musical surprises will arrive on May 10 when Manchester Orchestra releases Simple Math, a humbling and vulnerable (concept?) album whose songs grapple with intensely strong emotions.

The band scores big in conveying a wide array of musical feelings from anger, remorse and disappointment to confusion and ultimately acceptance. As much as the troubled relationship album can be a self-indulgent cliche, when it works, there’s nothing like a broken heart to bring out the rawest of musical emotions. For every good one, there’s probably a hundred contrived bombs, but you can add Simple Math to the short list of really good ones.

In advance of the release, we caught up with bassist Jonathan Corley for a brief repartee on the album, his Sesame Street musical influences and Tony Gwynn.

Hidden Track: On Simple Math, you achieve a huge climactic sound at times with big guitars, and if I’m not mistaken a children’s choir and orchestral arrangements. Did you approach this album as this as essentially the opportunity to go for broke in terms of production and make the epic Manchester Orchestra album?

Jonathan Corley: We worked closely with producer Dan Hannon, who has been involved in all three of our last albums. This album is certainly more grand in scope than some earlier releases, but I believe it holds true to the simplicity of our songs. As time passes since the recording process, I begin to appreciate the work that was done more and more. The children’s choir that you mentioned on ‘Virgin’ actually contains our producer’s children. Simple Math feels more personally intense than other things we’ve released before. Honestly, I’m just excited for everyone to hear it.

READ ON for more of Ryan’s chat with Jonathan Corley…

On Monday, Rolling Stone sparked excitement amongst Kinks fans, stating that a reunion looks promising as both Ray and Dave Davies have now mentioned publicly that they would be open

On their first full-length release – titled Mirrors – Washington D.C. up-and-comers U.S. Royalty piece a musical mosaic over the course of ten songs. Most early reviews of the album point to the Americana element, but the band manages to include sections of skinny tie ’80s themes, cutting hook-based rock and hushed ballads.

The songs don’t necessarily don’t flow per se, but rather serve as almost point-counterpoint, giving the record a appeal in getting to know both the songs as well as the song sequence. In the tender Voice Memo, one of the most introspective tracks, which closes out the album, singer John Thornley sings in earnest, “Where I hope to find some rest for my troubled soul.” For the rest of us, this song is a good place to find it.

Hidden Track: The reception to the album, Mirrors, has been terrific thus far, and rightfully so. I saw that you mentioned making a real shift in the songwriting approach for this project as opposed to the previous E.P. Could you describe what you did differently this time around?

John Thornley: Paul and I would demo and work out most of the songs beforehand. We would lay down and layer a lot of the parts then bring it to the rest of the band. Then we would fiddle with arrangements or add new ideas. It seemed to go faster than all sitting in a room together and writing from scratch.

HT: Also, how would you characterize the collaborative process with Gus Oberg? It’s not every day that a young band gets to team up with a Grammy winning engineer.

JT: We had known Gus for about a year before he worked on this project. As we were pulling together songs for this album, we really wanted him involved with the project because we felt he would be able to get the sound we had not been able to get on our recordings up to this point. He had seen us live, so he knew our live sound, but in the studio he was instrumental in helping us record something that could sound big and sweeping while at the same time layered and cohesive.

READ ON for more of Ryan’s chat with John Thornley of U.S. Royalty…

In a clever collaboration with Consequence of Sound, Cluster1 and Roll Call Records, the Chicago band Scattered Trees currently has a running contest to create their official video for the

You might already know of tUnE-yArDs, or you might already know of tUnE-yArDs and just not know it yet. Bizness is the first single off the April 18th album release,