Japanese Breakfast releases new album 'For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women)', Watch the Video for "Picture Window" now

Acclaimed modern rock artist Japanese Breakfast's new album is out today! Below is the official media release and links to hear new music from the release. Make sure to check out the shimmering new video for "Picture Window" too...Robert Kinsler

JAPANESE BREAKFAST

NEW ALBUM

FOR MELANCHOLY BRUNETTES (& SAD WOMEN)

OUT TODAY VIA DEAD OCEANS

WATCH VIDEO FOR ALBUM HIGHLIGHT “PICTURE WINDOW”

2025 TOUR DATES ANNOUNCED

Photo credit: Pak Bae Japanese Breakfast releases her anticipated new album, For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women), today via Dead Oceans along with a cinematic video directed by Michelle Zauner for album standout “Picture Window.” Produced by Grammy Award winner Blake Mills — an innovator of uncommon subtlety, known for his work with everyone from Bob Dylan to Fiona Apple and quietly regarded as many a legacy artist’s favorite guitar player — and tracked at the venerable Sound City in Los Angeles — the record sees Zauner pull back from the bright extroversion that defined its predecessor Jubilee to examine the darker waves that roil within, the moody, fecund field of melancholy, long held to be the psychic state of poets on the verge of inspiration. The result is an artistic statement of purpose: a mature, intricate, contemplative work that conjures the romantic thrill of a gothic novel.  “Over the course of promoting this new album I’ve often been asked to clarify the difference between melancholy and sadness. I think of melancholy as a kind of anticipatory grief, one that comes from an acknowledgment of the passage of time, from the recognition of mortality and finitude. In some way, too, I think it marks the artist’s condition, constantly observing through that lens,” Zauner says of the album. “‘Nothing thicker than a knife's blade separates happiness from melancholy,’ Virginia Woolfe writes. I wanted this album to capture the moments where that knife slips. When people want too much, when they cede to temptation, when they are seduced and punished.” Japanese Breakfast will be celebrating the album’s release by playing a sold out album release recital tomorrow, March 22 at El Museo del Barrio in New York. Their tour in support of For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women) kicks off with a performance at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, CA and continues with headline shows across North America and Europe this year. The Melancholy Tour is the band’s first tour in three years, following the Jubilee Tour in 2022. All tour dates can be found below and tickets are on-sale now via japanesebreakfast.rocks. WATCH THE “PICTURE WINDOW” VIDEO

Michelle Zauner on “Picture Window”: “Ever since I was a young girl I’ve dealt with intrusive thoughts of loved ones dying horrible deaths. When someone is running late or they’ve neglected a text or even if they’re just looking over a balcony, my mind has a tendency to run to the worst case scenario, a reflex only exacerbated by my experience of many real deaths. It can be both a relief and a struggle to love someone who doesn’t share this same proclivity for anxiety. Picture Window explores that dynamic. We shot the video while I was living in Seoul last year. My idea was to follow a couple, constantly tracking left to right, as one partner charges boldly forward and the other, progressively anxious, becomes increasingly reluctant to follow. When I met Omega from Balming Tiger, I knew immediately he would be perfect for the first role, his energy and charm were so readily apparent. Gyuri Kim, with her feeling for melancholy and uncertainty, turned out to be a wonderful counterpart. I wanted this video to feel like a short film, and watching it back, it’s bittersweet to look back on my year abroad—the wonderful people I met, the neighborhoods I loved and lived in. The constant tracking from left to right is a reminder of how time continues to pass no matter how forcefully you struggle to beat it back or rush to get ahead of it. I watch out the window as the scenery passes, visualizing all my unlived lives swishing past.” TOUR DATES: Mar 22 - New York, NY @ El Museo del Barrio - SOLD OUT Apr 12 & 19 - Indio, CA @ Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival Apr 23 - Austin, TX @ ACL Live at the Moody Theater * Apr 24 - Dallas, TX @ South Side Ballroom * Apr 26 - Atlanta, GA @ The Tabernacle * Apr 27 - Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore * Apr 28 - Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium * Apr 30 - Chicago, IL @ Salt Shed * May 01 - Chicago, IL @ Salt Shed * - SOLD OUT May 02 - Chicago, IL @ Salt Shed * - SOLD OUT May 03 - Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore * May 05 - Toronto, ON @ Massey Hall * - SOLD OUT May 06 - Toronto, ON @ Massey Hall * May 07 - Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall at Fenway * May 09 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Paramount * - SOLD OUT May 10 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Paramount * - SOLD OUT May 11 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Paramount * - SOLD OUT May 12 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Paramount * May 15 - Philadelphia, PA @ The Met Philadelphia * May 16 - Philadelphia, PA @ The Met Philadelphia * - SOLD OUT Jun 03 - Sydney, AU @ Vivid LIVE at Sydney Opera House Jun 05 - Melbourne, AU @ RISING at PICA Jun 07 - Auckland, NZ @ Auckland Town Hall Jun 11 - Tokyo, JP @ Zepp Shunkjuku Jun 13 - Osaka, JP @ Club Quattro Jun 15 - Cheorwon-gun, KR @ DMZ Peace Train Music Festival Jun 21 - Milwaukee, WI @ Summerfest Jun 24 - Oslo, NO @ Rockefeller Jun 25 - Stockholm, SE @ Filadelfia # Jun 26 - Copenhagen, DK @ VEGA # Jun 28 - Pilton, UK @ Glastonbury Festival Jun 29 - Manchester, UK @ Academy 1 # Jun 30 - Glasgow, UK @ Barrowland # Jul 01 - Bristol, UK @ O2 Academy Bristol # Jul 03 - London, UK @ O2 Academy Brixton # Jul 4-6 - Ewijk, NL @ Down The Rabbit Hole 2025 Jul 05 - Utrecht, NL @ TivoliVredenburg # Jul 08 - Paris, FR @ Le Trianon # July 10 - Bilbao, ES @ Bilbao BBK Live July 27 - Portland, OR @ Project Pabst Aug 23 - Santa Barbara, CA @ Santa Barbara Bowl * Aug 27 - San Francisco, CA @ The Masonic * Aug 28 - San Francisco, CA @ The Masonic * - SOLD OUT Aug 30 - Bend, OR @ Hayden Homes Amphitheater * Sep 01 - Vancouver, BC @ The Orpheum * Sep 02 - Seattle, WA @ Woodland Park Amphitheater *  Sep 03 - Seattle, WA @ Woodland Park Amphitheater *  Sep 05 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Twilight Concert Series @ Pioneer Park * ^ Sep 06 - Denver, CO @ The Mission Ballroom * Sep 09 - St Paul, MN @ The Palace Theater * Sep 10 - Madison, WI @ The Sylvee * * w/ Ginger Root # w/ Minhwi Lee ^ w/ Tomper WATCH THE PREVIOUSLY RELEASED VIDEOS FOR “ORLANDO IN LOVE” & “MEGA CIRCUIT”

Though Zauner has experimented with science fiction on Soft Sounds from Another Planet and buoyant surrealism on Jubilee, the landscape of European Romanticism that underpins For Melancholy Brunettes and the dense tissue of classical allusion that comes with it marks new territory for a songwriter entering her artistic maturity. She credits a range of antecedents with inspiration. The forlorn café girl in Degas’ “L’absinthe”. The seascapes of Caspar David Friedrich. The passionate longing and wild, undulating moors in Wuthering Heights. Hans Castorp wrapped in his camel hair blanket, dreaming on the Berghof balcony. It is an atmosphere made palpable by the intricate, interlocking guitar arrangements that accompany much of the record, lapping like waves over the meter, often as oblique in their expression of the chord as Zauner can be in her polyvalence of feeling and insight. Sadness is the dominant emotional key of this record, but it is sadness of a rarified form: the pensive, prescient sadness of melancholy, in which the recognition of life’s essentially tragic character occurs with sensitivity to its fleeting beauty. Zauner finds space enough inside it for glimmers of hope. They are the consolations of mortals that poets before her have called out to and that poets after will continue to rediscover: love and labor, and though they run like tonic resolutions through the record’s many episodes.

Album Art Credit: Pak Bae

TRACK LIST:  1. Here is Someone 2. Orlando in Love 3. Honey Water 4. Mega Circuit 5. Little Girl 6. Leda 7. Picture Window 8. Men in Bars (Feat. Jeff Bridges) 9. Winter in LA 10. Magic Mountain Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple Music

Americana, British Blues, Modern Rock Efforts Equal Excellence

As 2018 enters its final stretch, a number of fantastic albums and multi-format collections are making their mark.

Artist: Joe Bonamassa
Title: British Blues Explosion Live (J&R Adventures)
You might like if you enjoy: Traffic, the Yardbirds, Ten Years After, early Led Zeppelin
Tell me more: Filmed in front of a capacity crowd at the Greenwich Music Time event at the Old Royal Naval College in England on July 7, 2016, Joe Bonamassa's aptly-titled British Blues Explosion is a true celebration of the English discovery and masterful reworking of American blues into a new rock 'n' roll movement personified by the Yardbirds, Rolling Stones, Ten Years After and Led Zeppelin. Backed by a phenomenal four-man band, Bonamassa revisits many of the era's works with jaw-dropping live renditions. Bonamassa and company tear up the Willie Dixon-penned Chicago blues classic "Let Me Love You Baby," with Bonamassa's dazzling lead guitar work celebrating the genre while infusing a modern-day power to the song. He delves into the shades of the movement with a Southern-fried "Mainline Florida," the heavy blues rocker "Spanish Boots," and a mostly-faithful take on the Eric Clapton original "Motherless Children." Led Zeppelin fans will thrill at his fusing of that band's "Tea For One" with Dixon's "I Can't Quit You Baby" and a potent version of "How Many More Times." Bonamassa is one of the world's greatest-ever blues-rock guitarists and his playing and singing across the concert recording is both inspired and flawless. "British Blues Explosion Live" is available on a number of formats, including Blu-ray, DVD and audio CD. The blu-ray reviewed here includes a slew of awesome extras including a rousing Chicago blues reworking of George Harrison's "Taxman" performed live at the historic Cavern Club. Information: JBonamassa.com.

Artist: Evanescence
Title: Synthesis Live (Eagle Vision)
You might like if you enjoy: Heart, Evanescence
Tell me more: In recent years the celebrated likes of Deep Purple, Tommy Shaw of Styx, Jeff Lynne's ELO and Cheap Trick (performing the music of the Beatles) have all performed live with orchestras and released the ambitious undertakings on audio CD or DVD. Evanescence is the latest rock ensemble to perform with an orchestra and that November 2017 performance is now available to own via Synthesis Live (available on DVD+CD, Blu-ray+CD and via digital formats). Singer-keyboardist Amy Lee's far-reaching soprano and talents at the grand piano are showcased fully across the new release. Performing 19 songs spanning Evanescence's history, highlights include the soaring "Never Go Back," "Bring Me to Life" and "My Immortal." On the Blu-ray reviewed here, a concept video for the original track "Hi-Lo" featuring Lee joined by famed violinist Lindsey Stirling appears as a bonus feature. Information: eagle-rock.com.

Artist: Phosphorescent
Title: C'est La Vie (Dead Oceans)
You might like if you enjoy: Dr. Dog, Dawes
Tell me more: Since discovering Phosphorescent at the Stagecoach Festival in 2011, I've been a fan of the genre-blending troupe headed by singer-songwriter Matthew Houck. Now after an extended wait of more than five years (the group's previous album Muchacho was released in March 2013), Phosphorescent is back with their seventh studio album, C'est La Vie. The good news is the long wait was worth it; Phosphorescent's unique approach of crafting luxurious songs that occupy a dreamlike soundscape is fully intact. There are the wistful quiet nuggets ("Christmas Down Under," "These Rocks"), a driving Americana-tinged indie rocker ("Around the Horn") and even a meditative synth pop foray (the title track "C'est La Vie"). Information: PhosphorescentMusic.com.

Artist: Rosanne Cash
Title: She Remembers Everything (Blue Note)
You might like if you enjoy: Roseanne Cash, Emmylou Harris
Tell me more: Just because 2018 is rapidly drawing to a close doesn't mean all the significant albums of the year have been released. Songstress Rosanne Cash is set to release the deeply-affecting She Remembers Everything on Nov. 2. The album – the artist's first new LP in nearly five years – allows one of today's most gifted female singer-songwriters to probe the continuing challenges women have in the 21st century. Indeed, Cash's 10-track disc is a powerful and revealing exploration of the experience of women highlighted in a number of roles vividly described in songs that are both lyrically literate and musically beautiful. As if Cash's talents and insight weren't formidable enough, she is joined by the illustrious likes of Kris Kristofferson and Elvis Presley (the two share lead vocals with Cash on the wonderful "Gods of Harlem"), Colin Meloy (of the Decemberists) and Sam Phillips on the essential album. Information: RoseanneCash.com.

Artist: NRBQ
Title: All Hopped Up (Omnivore Recordings)
You might like if you enjoy: NRBQ, Dr. John, Terry Adams
Tell me more: Listening to the newly-issued expanded edition of NRBQ's fifth album All Hopped Up is to be astounded that the original was released in April 1977. The timeless material shines across the disc with a number of styles explored with an expert touch. The lovely "Ridin' In My Car" is a perfect blend of folk rock and power pop, propelled by stellar vocals and a driving rhythm. The soulful "Cecilia" – anchored by the work of Donn Adams (trombone) and Keith Spring (tenor saxophone) – is an early highlight. "I Got A Rocket In My Pocket" revisits the dynamic sound of '50s rock 'n' roll. "Call Him Off, Rogers" and "Queen Talk" provide pure shots of New Orleans R&B. The inviting "Things To You" defies easy categorization but it casts its spell with a single listen. The blues are celebrated with aplomb on "Honey Hush." The collection includes four winning bonus tracks, including the Louisiana-flavored "Chicken Hearted" and "Do The Bump," and alluring roots rocker "Start It Over." NRBQ continues to thrive in 2018; the band is set to perform a string of dates in California in early November. Information: OmnivoreRecordings.com.

Artist: Supersuckers
Title: Suck It. (Acetate Records)
You might like if you enjoy: Old 97's, the Junkyard Dogs, Eagles of Death Metal
Tell me more: Straightforward and blasting away with an infectious mix of punk rock, alt country, garage rock and old school hard rock, Supersuckers' have returned with their latest hard-hitting album Suck It. The 10-song disc tackles well-worn territory and that's a good thing; like AC/DC, the Ramones and Devo, some band's thrive by unleashing a signature sound that is uniformly familiar. Lead singer-bassist Eddie Spaghetti's raspy baritone opines on "The History of Rock N Roll" while guitar great Metal Marty Chandler offers up blistering fretwork amidst the track. Even probing tracks like "Dead Inside" are glorious in the hands of the band (rounded out by drummer Capt. All Nighter Von Streicher). The pedal to the metal musical approach works great across the collection, with the fiery "Breaking My Balls," contemplative "The Worst Thing Ever" (which covers loneliness with surprising candor), the country-western gem "Cold Wet Wind" and irreverent "Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers." Information: SuperSuckers.com.


Robert Kinsler

Phosphorescent Releasing Deluxe Version of 'Muchacho'

'Muchacho' is a fantastic album. Can't wait to hear the expanded, deluxe version titled 'Muchacho De Lujo' when it is released later this month.

Phosphorescent Releasing Deluxe Version of Muchacho Stream "Terror In the Canyons" Live at St. Pancras

Muchacho De Lujo is the deluxe edition of Phosphorescent's renowned 2013 album. De Lujo, out on October 29, 2013 on digital and CD formats, features bonus material from an intimate pre-release live show recorded at St. Pancras Church in London. The set, performed with Matthew Houck on guitar and Jo Schornikow on piano, features Muchacho's "Song for Zula," Pride's "Wolves," and a cover of Waylon Jennings' "Storms Never Last." Stream De Lujo's "Terror In the Canyons," performed live in London at St. Pancras Church. YouTube Soundcloud Phosphorescent at St. Pancras Church by Darius Van Arman Disc One Sun, Arise! (An Invocation, An Introduction) Song For Zula Ride On / Right On Terror In The Canyons (The Wounded Master) A Charm / A Blade Muchacho's Tune A New Anhedonia The Quotidian Beasts Down To Go Sun's Arising (A Koan, An Exit) Disc Two Muchacho's Tune (Live at St. Pancras Church) A New Anhedonia (Live at St. Pancras Church) Song For Zula (Live at St. Pancras Church) A Picture Of Our Torn Up Praise (Live at St.Pancras Church) We'll Be Here Soon (Live at St. Pancras Church) My Dove, My Lamb (Live at St. Pancras Church) Terror In The Canyons (The Wounded Master) (Live at St. Pancras Church) Storms Never Last (Live at St. Pancras Church) Down To Go (Live at St. Pancras Church) Wolves (Live at St. Pancras Church) Mrs. Juliette Low (Live at St. Pancras Church) Los Angeles (Live at St. Pancras Church) Please tune in TODAY at 2:15pm EST to KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic to listen Phosphorescent performing live in the studio. Listen here. 2013 will be capped off by a four-night run of shows at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, December 18th-21st. Two nights are sold out with the others right behind. Tickets are on sale here. "There are wonders all over Muchacho, an album that hopefully will take Houck to a wider audience as popular musical tastes begin to turn his way" The Associated Press "These songs deftly map out that mess of ragged hurt, smoldering hope and self-righteous spite" The New York Times "On Muchacho, Houck gathers together everything he's attempted - beery, rollicking country-rock, haunted tribal hymnals, regret-soaked bar room heartbreak - and fashions it into something close to a defining statement" BEST NEW MUSIC (8.8), Pitchfork "A dizzying experiment forever teetering between the synthetic and the organic, and that tension is ultimately what makes it so visceral. If Gram Parsons were alive and making music on his laptop and still tripping on peyote, Muchacho would be his latest masterpiece" The Boston Globe "Muchacho is also Houck’s most accomplished release to date--his most heartrending and life-affirming, equal parts lost-love devastation and hip-swaying, horn-led exultation." AV Club "["Song for Zula" is] brutal, beautiful, and like the rest of Muchacho, masterfully executed." Austin Chronicle "No matter what happens to Phosphorescent from here on out, Muchacho is an artist setting a new standard." Under the Radar "Muchacho is a vibrant, evocative LP, and a welcome addition to the Phosphorescent catalogue." BBC Music "A hell of a production." MOJO

TOUR DATES: 10/03/13 Pioneertown, CA - Pappy and Harriet's Pioneertown 10/04/13 Phoenix, AZ - The Crescent Ballroom w/ Indians 10/06/13 Austin, TX - Austin City Limits Festival 10/08/13 Houston, TX - Fitzgerald's w/ Shakey Graves 10/09/13 Dallas, TX - House of Blues (Cambridge Room) w/ Shakey Graves 10/10/13 Austin, TX - ACL Official Late Night Show @ Emo's Austin w/ JD McPherson & Shakey Graves 10/13/13 Austin, TX - Austin City Limits Festival 11/04/13 Gateshead, UK - Sage Gateshead 11/05/13 Leeds, UK- Brudenell Social Club 11/07/13 Belfast- IE - Empire Music Hall 11/08/13 Dublin, IE - Whelans SOLD OUT 11/09/13 Liverpool, UK - Kazimier 11/10/13 Bristol, UK - Thekla 11/12/13 Cambridge, UK - Junction 11/14/13 Echede, NL - Crossing Border 11/15/13 The Hauge, NL - Crossing Border 11/16/13 Paris, FR - Fleche d'or 11/17/13 Antwerp, BE - Crossing Border 11/19/13 Milan, IT - Salumeria della Musica 11/20/13 Dudingen, CH - Bad Bonn 11/21/13 Zurich, CH - Rote Fabrik Clubraum 11/23/13 Weissenhauser Strand, DE - Rolling Stone Weekender 11/24/13 Munster, DE - Gleis 22 11/26/13 London, UK - Shepherds Bush Empire 12/18/13 Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg (solo) 12/19/13 Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg SOLD OUT 12/20/13 Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg SOLD OUT 12/21/13 Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg

LINKS: Video: "Ride On / Right On" Stream: "Song for Zula" Video: "Song for Zula" Buy Muchacho De Lujo iTunes: http://smarturl.it/phos_deluxe_itunes Amazon: http://smarturl.it/phos_deluxe_amazon