Daily Jam - Blood in the River

I was fortunate enough to get to see the extraordinary metal band Zeal & Ardor last month in Austin.  This song absolutely killed live.  Listen to "Blood in the River" below, our Daily Jam.

Zeal & Ardor

I somehow failed to post about Zeal & Ardor's new album "GREIF" when it dropped at the end of the summer.  I caught them on stage last week and everything, and still managed to drop the ball.  Well, i'm remedying that now.  "GREIF" is the first release as a full band and continues to push the sound into new and interesting directions.  It rules.  Check out "Are You the Only One Now?" below and get the LP here.

The Lord + Petra Haden

Well here's a bitchin' collaboration i would never have thought of.  "Devotional" is the new LP from The Lord, AKA Greg Anderson of Sunn O))), Goatwhore, and Southern Lord Records, and singer and violinist Petra Haden of That Dog and The Rentals fame.  Haden provides lyric-less vocals over Anderson's drone and metal guitar tones to glorious, delirious, almost religious effect.  Check out the album closing "The End of Absence" below and get the record here from Southern Lord.

Daily Jam - Andromeda's Suffering

Sometimes i'll go back and listen to an album or an artist that i haven't listened to in a while, and am just completely blown away.  Alice Coltrane is one of those artists.  "Lord of Lords" is one of those albums.  Amazing spiritual, avant-garde orchestral jazz.  Listen to "Andromeda's Suffering" below, our Daily Jam.

Zeal & Ardor

Shame on me for not devoting nearly enough and time and space to the absolutely amazing new album from New York's Zeal & Ardor.  The band has been making brilliant music for a while now, but the self-titled album that dropped last month feels like the culmination of it all, a blistering mix of black metal, death metal, soul, gospel, old spirituals, and more.  There's no one else out there that sounds like these guys, nor should there be really.  Check out "Hold Your Head Low" below and get the record here from MVKA.

ML Wah

Matt LaJoie of the Maine psych duo Ash & Herb also puts out music under the moniker of ML Wah, and his latest, the upcoming "Deep Roots" LP, is a swampy mix of psych, weirdo folk, drone, jazz, and spiritual explorations.  Listen to "Santal" below and pre-order the record here from Flower Room.

Alice Coltrane

Next month, David Byrne's Luaka Bop label will release a collection of rare songs from the late, great Alice Coltrane.  The record, "World Spirituality Classics 1: The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda," features songs that the artist recorded in the early 80's while living at the Sai Anantam Ashram, a kind of meditation center, that were originally only available on cassette tapes passed around that community.  These tracks feel like exploring the outer cosmos or the inner mind, looking for God, but keeping one toe firmly aground back on Earth.  Listen to "Om Shanti" below.