We're thrilled to announce a new album from KymRegister + Meltdown Rodeo titled Meltdown Rodeo out August 18.
KymRegister + Meltdown Rodeo (formerly Loamlands) is a transgressive and distorted country music outfit based in North Carolina that places queer storytelling at the forefront. Their music intimately grapples with identity, retribution, reconciliation and queer existence in both modern-day and historical (inclusive of mostly all) southern culture.
Meltdown Rodeo is available for pre-order now HERE.
The album features the song "Blue," a gutsy call-out that challenges the conditions that still allows Joni Mitchell amnesty, even after she traded her counterculture folk for jive turkey racism.
As Kym Register explains:
Blue is sort of a love song about misconception / desire / disappointment and loss driven by some seriously upsetting revelations during the time of falling - for a Joni Mitchell record. I hadn’t listened to Joni much in my life but had been gently pushed by friends to explore her record, Blue. As I did, I fell in love with the way she plays with vocal timing, her story telling and her meandering guitar - everything music and poignant and magical about her music. I started researching her life and music because I was so excited to delve into her process and her catalog - trying to learn from folks that immersed themselves in music who’ve made an impact on so many mentors of mine.
That’s when I learned about the Blackface character she often portrayed at parties and on stage and on the cover of a few albums she made. It was like uncovering dark secrets from a lovers past. The more I researched Joni, the more arrogant and unreflective I found her to be. I started feeling it in my body like I’d been deceived by friends and by everyone who recommended her. So - I started having conversations with folks so we could be In discussion about the impact of Whiteness and unaccountability - especially when it comes to our relationships people that are in such close proximity with fame or success.
I became so concerned about the way folks seem to be ok with letting elders stay unaccountable / get away with harm because of their age or because it feels so uncomfortable to discuss Whiteness. There’s always a chance for accountability - It is so extremely problematic that people keep supporting her as she continues to deny any wrongdoing for the appropriation and exploitation of Blackness in her work. While Joni is alive she should be honest with herself and everyone else about the blatant racism she embodies intertwined with her art and work.
This isn’t to shame her but to call her in - bc accountability is healing not just for us individually but for our collective communities. Older folks do not get a pass - famous folks do not get a pass - we do not get a pass.
Meltdown Rodeo will be released on August 18, 2023 and is available for pre-order now HERE.
We are excited to announce a new album from Dusk titled Glass Pastures, their first full-length since their 2018 self titled debut. The album will be released on October 20, 2023.
Out of a cornfield eden at the northern tip of Lake Winnebago comes Wisconsin’s Dusk, a unique country rock ’n’ roll group that blends their rural roots and love for 60s and 70s soul. Formed in 2014, the band has been a favorite of midwest and east coast stages, sharing bills and tours with the likes of Sheer Mag, Screaming Females, and Reigning Sound.
The outfit is six strong, each a song-er, sing-er, and multi-instrumentalist in their own right. Julia Blair’s tender howl floats atop the flurry of voices, fingers mincing the keys of her Wurlitzer piano. Ryley Crowe works the pedal steel guitar, gracefully gliding across the bandscape like a horse on ice. Tyler Ditter grips his electric guitar as a knight his sword, falling any vine or villain in his path. Bill Grasley is second-to-none guitar, an intelligent player who can kick back or blast off, his drape of hair prepared for either. Behind the kit is Amos Pitsch, whose hands draw melody from each drum like tufts pulled from carnival cotton candy. Ridley Tankersley is there too with a bass guitar, scrounging up the loose change from the green room couch.
Their newest LP Glass Pastures, the group’s first since 2018’s full-length debut Dusk, is not only a museum of earworms, but a crusade in the name of love and truth. Produced between 2020-2022 in the various rooms of the band’s recording studio, Crutch of Memory, a mid-century castle in the heart of Appleton, Wisconsin, the album showcases a range of writing and vocal talents. Therein is Dusk’s force– its spirit– the breadth of voice unified and concentrated like a beam of light on a ruby velvet curtain.'
Glass Pastures tracklist:
1. Pissing In A Wishing Well 2. Changes 3. At The Roadside 4. Organized Crime 5. Dusk 6. Incredible Edible Egg 7. Don't Let Them Tell You 8. Gold Blue & Grey 9. Be Nice To Me All Day Long
I can't believe we made it 20 years, and thinking about how the label started I'm still not completely sure how we did. To celebrate we're going to hold an expo in Philadelphia, because it feels like there aren't enough expos these days and it's time we do something about it. In the spirit of the label, we're keeping the tickets cheap, the stages small, and the good bands over abundant. So come on down to our 20th Anniversary Expo, October 6th and 7th at the First Unitarian Church in Philly. I hope to see you all there!
<3,
Joe Steinhardt
Don Giovanni Records 20th Anniversary Expo
Friday, October 6th
at the First Unitarian Church
Philadelphia, PA
Screaming Females
Weakened Friends
Paisley Fields Chris Gethard Hunchback Shellshag Rodeo boys
We are thrilled to announced the release of Child Ballads: The Final Six, a new album from The London Experimental Ensemble with Richard Thompson, Wesley Stace, Sivert Hoyem, Marissa Nadler and Gina Fergione.
The Child Ballads are 305 three to five hundred year old songs (originally broadsides) of the British Isles which have become synonymous with modern folk music since the 1950’s. However, the final six ballads (#’s 299-305) were never put to music. Until now.
Assembled here are Richard Thompson (Fairport Convention, Richard and Linda, et al), Sivert Høyem (multi-platinum Norwegian music giant), John Wesley Harding (British folk icon and novelist), Ed Pettersen (Award-winning singer-songwriter and producer), mezzo-soprano Gina Fergione and Marissa Nadler (Indie-rock high-priestess) weaving beguiling original melodies to these classic tales of love lost, magic, myth, fiefdoms and turf wars back by the London Experimental Ensemble live in the studio.
Child Ballads: The Final Six Track List:
1. Child Ballad 300 (Blanchflour and Jellyflorice) (14:03) 2. Child Ballad 301 (The Queen of Scotland) (07:55) 3. Child Ballad 302 (Young Bearwell) (06:24) 4. Child Ballad 303 (The Holy Nunnery) (12:38) 5. Child Ballad 304 (Young Ronald) (15:57) 6. Child Ballad 305 (The Outlaw Murray) (15:00)
Don Giovanni Records has announced that Cincinnati, Ohio's MAURA WEAVER will release their debut album I Was Due For A Heartbreak on September 15, 2023. The album was recorded by John Hoffman (Wussy, Vacation, Big Eyes).
Despite being a tried and true native, Cincinnati has had a difficult time claiming Maura Weaver as their own. Nearly fifteen years of touring with peripheral regional projects (Mixtapes, Ogikubo Station, The Homeless Gospel Choir, Direct Hit!, The Mimes) has kept her tethered to both the road and to sounds that were not always her own.
Today, Maura released the album's first single with a must see music video for "Crush On You, Pt. II"
I Was Due For A Heartbreak is available for pre-order on limited edition light blue vinyl now HERE.
The solo endeavor marks the beginning of an autonomous output for her vision, harkening to sounds that are distinct to Ohioʼs brand of humble experimentation, roots aesthetics and pop-centric reliability.
The first single "Crush On You, Pt. II"- streaming everywhere now - is a melodic pop gem that will demand several subsequent re-listens.
Maura Explains:
I’ve wanted to do a solo project since I was a teenager, so why is it happening now? For so long I’ve stood in my own way and kept busy being in a ton of bands. I had trouble trusting myself and rarely completed songs. It wasn’t until pandemic isolation that I was forced to confront the reasons why. I also experienced a couple of bad breakups and songwriting became a haven, but also a fun daily practice. I wrote as much as possible in two years and in the soup were sad songs, silly songs, dumb songs. So much came together on the spot in the studio. The best songs ended up on the album and I really put all of myself into this. I’ve never been more excited to share something.
Crush On You Pt. II is a fun one and is the first single. It started out as a little power pop ditty fleshed out by a $17 Casio keyboard I bought at a flea market. For the studio version, we retained a lot of the same elements we used in the demo. I wanted it to sound hi-fi but homemade, wonky and imperfect. We recorded it in the basement of John’s old house. It needed to have the bliss and fuzz that is the nature of a crush!
We filmed the video back in January of 2022 at the Lodge in Dayton, KY. Scott Beseler killed it with directing and shooting even though we were very distracting. Rachel McNeal provided the coolest chainmail pieces. Thanks to Emma Roberts for being a killer queen, John Clooney a priest, Megan Schroer a witch and John Hoffman a peasant. Zack Moser took my initial edit and added sick effects, coloring, and ran it past the finish line. So proud of what we did :)
I Was Due For A Heartbreak Track List:
1. Ease On The Eyes 2. Crush On You Pt. II 3. As If Your Love 4. Sunshine 5. Languish In Anguish 6. Jefferson Highway 7. Nothing, Not Yet 8. Goner 9. I Was Due For A Heartbreak, I Guess 10. The Confines