Other Lives releases captivating new single "What's It Gonna Take"

Check out the exciting news as well as the three newly-released advance tracks from Other Lives...Robert Kinsler

Other Lives Deliver Latest Single "What's It Gonna Take" From Forthcoming New Album Volume V Out October 10 via Play It Again Sam

Press shot credit: Johnny LaVallee Today American indie-rock outfit, Other Lives release their brand new single, "What’s It Gonna Take", the latest to be taken from their forthcoming 5th studio album Volume V - out via Play It Again Sam on October 10.   "What’s It Gonna Take" was written immediately after the Ukraine invasion and taps into universal feelings.     Frontman Jesse Tabish has said, “’What’s It Gonna Take’ is not a pacifist song, it’s about defending your homeland against aggression.”     Listen to "What's It Gonna Take" HERE Volume V signifies the latest chapter in the ongoing story of Other Lives, their fifth record of magnificent musical and emotional depth. From the first notes of previous single "Mystic," it’s clear that the cinematic breadth of their arrangements and melodies has risen several dynamic notches, with a fuller orchestrated reach and more towering drama across the album’s eight songs and two instrumentals - evidence of the band’s hunger to keep progressing while retaining the essence of what makes Other Lives so unique and irresistible.     The band’s creative core, multi-instrumentalists Jesse Tabish (also their lead singer), Jonathon Mooney and Josh Onstott, emerged in the early Noughties from the rural township of Stillwater, north of Oklahoma City, west of Tulsa and east of the Carl Blackwell and Lake McMurtry lakes, from where they made their self-titled debut album and 2011’s Tamer Animals, their debut album for PIAS that inspired MOJO magazine to label them, “The next must-have pastoral American sensation.”       The trio then moved out west to Portland where they recorded their 2014 album Rituals and then 2020’s fourth album For Their Love, mostly captured in the vicinity of Oregon’s Cooper Mountain region, with Tabish’s wife Kim becoming a vital part of Other Lives, adding not just instrumental and songwriting skills but multi-layered backing vocals to enrichen Jesse’s gorgeous plaintive presence.       When the pandemic isolated the Tabishs from the other band members, the couple collaborated to create Jesse’s solo album Cowboy Ballads Part 1, released in 2022 after they had moved back to Stillwater. It’s also the location for Volume V, even though Jesse and Kim have moved on to Cleveland, Ohio while Jonathon lives in New York City and Josh in Los Angeles.  Album artwork & tracklist:

1. Mystic 2. Versailles 3. What’s It Gonna Take 4. Heading West 5. One For The Kids 6. Show Us Some Love 7. Outro 8. Cisa Cisa 9. Read My Mind 10. The Wake

Follow Other Lives: Facebook | Instagram | Spotify | YouTube | Website

Catching up on 2020: Morrissey, Other Lives, Lettuce, Elbow

In this column I feature a handful of essential 2020 titles I didn't get to last year but are definitely worth exploring.

Artist: Morrissey

Title: I Am Not A Dog On A Chain (BMG)

You might like if you enjoy: Morrissey, the Smiths

Tell me more: "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" is an adage that Morrissey smashes to pieces on his aptly-titled album I Am Not A Dog On A Chain. The iconic English singer-songwriter delivers a batch of songs that find his biting appraisal of humanity (including himself), emotional isolation and comedic jabs wrapped up in an expanded soundscape including touches of electronica, blues, soul and other styles new in his work on his 13th solo release. My favorite tracks are the propulsive electronica-rock opener "Jim Jim Falls," dreamy sarcasm-aimed "Knockabout World," reflective "Once I Saw The River Clean," uplifting "Bobby, Don't You Think They Know," the latter featuring Morrissey's signature baritone  blending splendidly with the voice of 74-year-old R&B great Thelma Houston. Information: MorrisseyOfficial.com.

Artist: Other Lives

Title: For Their Love (ATO Records)

You might like if you enjoy: Radiohead, Phosphorescent, DeVotchKa

Tell me more: Other Lives offers up melancholy amidst experimental moodscapes on its outstanding fourth album For Their Love. Band leader Jesse Tabish and company have returned for the first time since 2015's Rituals and the long wait has come with a spirited collection of songs that defy categorization while somehow bridging the art rock of Radiohead with winning alternative Americana of Phosphorescent. The soaring "Cops," edgy "Lost Day," symphonic opus "All Eyes - For Their Love," beautiful "Dead Language," and evocative "We Wait" are among the standouts on the 10-track album. Information: otherlives.com.

Artist: Lettuce

Title: Resonate (Round Hill Music)

You might like if you enjoy: Steely Dan, Tower of Power, Project Tru

Tell me more: Blending funk and jazz with a masterful touch, virtuoso six-member troupe Lettuce returned in early 2020 with the intoxicating Resonate. Delivering a mostly-instrumental serving of original tunes, the funky romp "Blaze," fiery "Good Morning Mr. Shmink," immersive "Mr. Dynamite," shimmering "Silence Is Golden" and soulful "Remember the Children" are among the killer cuts on the disc. Jungle Boogie and Big Tony guest on the grooving "Checker Wrecker"; later Indrajit  Banerjee adds his imaginative Sitar playing on the driving "Moksha." Information: LettuceFunk.com.

VINYL REISSUES

Artist: Elbow

Titles: Asleep in the Back; Cast of Thousands; Leaders of the Free World; Dead in the Boot (Polydor Records / UMC)

You might like if you enjoy: Peter Gabriel, Radiohead, Doves

Tell me more: I discovered Elbow when I caught the English band perform an incredible set at Coachella in April 2011. I subsequently caught the group's headlining performance at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles later that year and am a true fan of Elbow's acclaimed discography. Led by lead singer and lyricist Guy Garvey, Elbow's sound is at once very familiar and very unique. Blending the sensibilities of prog rock greats such as Peter Gabriel-era Genesis and Porcupine Tree with the experimental craft of Radiohead, Elbow is one of rock's modern-day treasures. In addition to Garvey, the band includes Craig Potter (keyboards, piano, backing vocals), Mark Potter (guitar, backing vocals) and Pete Turner (bass guitar, backing vocals). Original drummer Richard Jupp was replaced by session drummer Alex Reeves in 2016.

Now Polydor Records has reissued Elbow's early albums on heavyweight vinyl and they sound amazing; the band's wonderful 2001 debut Asleep in the Back, impressive 2003 sophomore follow-up Cast of Thousands and seminal third disc Leaders of the Free World (2005) were issued on Sept. 25, 2020 and are worth adding to your collection. The additional good news is that this now means all eight of Elbow's full-length studio albums are on vinyl. In 2008, Elbow won the Mercury Music Prize for their fourth album The Seldom Seen Kid and they followed up that honor in 2009 by winning the Brit Award for Best British Group. Information: elbow.co.uk.

Robert Kinsler

Other Lives Announce 'Rituals' Out 5/5 on tbd records, Premiere New Track on NPR

When I caught Other Lives open for Radiohead in Arizona in March 2012 it was clear this experimental rock outfit out of Stillwater, Oklahoma was something special.

That feeling was more than confirmed when I caught them again at Coachella in April 2012, and at a headlining performance at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles in November 2012. 

Now today comes exciting news the band is back and set to release a new full-length album this spring. Here is the media release and I'll let you read that while I head over to the band's Web site and download a new song titled "Reconfiguration" posted there as of today...

OTHER LIVES ANNOUNCE NEW RECORD RITUALS

TO BE RELEASED ON TBD RECORDS MAY 5TH

NPR'S ALL SONGS CONSIDERED PREMIERE NEW TRACK TODAY

Photo credit: Emily Ulmer

Other Lives are returning with Rituals on tbd records May 5^th. The 14-song LP is their most lush, layered, and striking musical creation to date, as well as the band's third full-length album. The first track from the forthcoming record, "Reconfiguration" debuted via Zane Lowe and NPR today.

Listen to "Reconfiguration"

Other Lives is comprised of Josh Onstott, Jonathon Mooney and Jesse Tabish. Rituals is a pure encapsulation of the band's relentless drive for precision.The trio relocated to Portland, Oregon from their hometown of Stillwater, Oklahoma to record the album. Tabish says the relocation had a direct influence that can be heard through Rituals. 

"There was a spirit of change," Tabish offers. "We had done [2011's second LP]Tamer Animals, which was very close to us and about our home. So the next record was about the spontaneity of travel and being isolated. For the first times in our lives we were moving off on our own away from our families and kind of coming into our own. I wanted the songs to reflect that new spirit."

"This one was a real journey," Tabish says of the 18 months spent writing more than 60 songs for Rituals, a constant creative outlet for the relentless sonic architect amid a rigorous few years of touring their debut album.  "It was a long time spent searching for a new identity," the soft-spoken singer continues of the writing process, "still trying to retain the past of our musical palate but also really trying to stretch ourselves into a new type of music." The album was produced by Mooney, Tabish and Joey Waronker (Eels, Atoms for Peace, Beck, etc.).

While Rituals marks a new chapter in Other Lives' story, it's also a continuation of a decade-plus passage.  "I feel really lucky to be able to have a band and people around me that have been so supportive and we've stuck together all these years and still don't hate each other," Tabish says. "All three of us are like brothers. I don't think that will ever go away. I loved those kids then and I love them now. There's that mutual feeling. If I want to go have a beer with anyone it would be those two guys. That kind of says something."

Rituals Tracklisting

01. Fair Weather

02. Pattern

03. Reconfiguration

04. Easy Way Out

05. Beat Primal

06. New Fog

07. 2 Pyramids

08. Need A Line

09. English Summer

10. Untitled

11. No Trouble

12. For The Last

13. It's Not Magic

14. Ritual

Links

Official Website

Other Lives stunning at El Rey Theatre

My concert review was originally published on The Orange County Register Web site on Sunday, Nov. 4, 2012. A special "thank you" to my wife Kim for taking the photos too!

Other Lives at the El Rey Theatre on Nov. 3, 2012.

No band bridges the vast gap between Radiohead’s experimental brilliance and Sigur Rós’ symphonic splendor with the creative finesse of the Oklahoma-bred band Other Lives.


It has taken nonstop touring — including opening for Radiohead on that band’s North American tour for much of early 2012 and two standout performances in Coachella this past April — plus support from influential radio stations such as KCRW, but the genre-bending outfit seems to have finally and fully emerged from the underground. Celebrating the quintet’s 10th anniversary, Other Lives headlined a packed El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles on Saturday night (Nov. 3, 2012) with the artistry of groundbreakers.

The ensemble has long had an impressively mystic sound, but its burgeoning confidence — especially from lead singer and multi-instrumentalist Jesse Tabish — was the additional ingredient that made this performance even stronger than two gigs I caught earlier this year. For 70 magical minutes, Other Lives blended orchestral and world music with rock and folk in ways that continue to push modern music’s reach like few others.

There were countless highlights, from the melancholy post-psychedelic textures of “Weather” and the Middle Eastern-tinged “Desert” (treated to dynamic drumming from Colby Owens) to one of the greatest songs ever penned about their native state, the potent “Dust Bowl III,” which in its first half recalls Harvest-era Neil Young before the song explodes with the use of keyboards, bass, acoustic and electric guitars, drums, trumpet and something from this writer’s vantage point that looked like authentic antler horns with bells attached.

While the band’s forte remains those lavish arrangements where keyboards, dynamic rhythms, horns, strings and harmonies collide, don’t underestimate Tabish’s ability to scale it all back to basics. The encore began with him seated at his keyboard, where he played a sparse, bewitching version of “Black Tables.” Earlier in the night, that same nuanced approach came via an elegant full-band take on “For 12,” with Tabish adding acoustic guitar, his voice often reaching up to a falsetto and further enhanced by cellist Jenny Hsu’s supportive singing, all amid an eerie Spaghetti western soundscape.

Kristianne Bautista of Oren Lyons.

Of the two openers on the bill, the clear audience favorite was L.A.’s own Oren Lyons, formed earlier this year and also championed by KCRW. Lead singer Kristianne Bautista’s richly distinctive soprano added heft to the material delivered by six musicians around her. Mixing ’60s jazz, neo-classical and rock, the ensemble’s brief 30-minute turn was impressive. Sandwiched between that and Other Lives, Copenhagen’s Indians proved an ill-fitting one-man-show, in which the singer-guitarist-keyboardist was in command of a high-reaching tenor that nonetheless lacked feeling or originality.

Other Lives touring in support of 'Mind The Gap' EP

One of my favorite musical discoveries of 2012 is Other Lives. I first saw the Oklahoma band when they opened for Radiohead in Glendale, Arizona on March 15, 2012. I was further impressed when I reviewed the band's potent set at Coachella for The Orange County Register just over a month later on April 20, 2012.

Now with the group having released its latest EP Mind The Gap last week on tbd records, Other Lives is back on the road and not to be missed. Among their upcoming performances is a headlining spot at Los Angeles' El Rey Theatre on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012.

Here is the official release regarding the band's fall tour and newly-issued Mind The Gap EP, which was recorded in Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire, England and features four tracks including a remix of "Tamer Animals" by Thom Yorke's supergroup Atoms For Peace. Again, Other Lives is an incredible band; do yourself a huge favor and see this band.

Other Lives premiere "Take Us Alive" on Pitchfork

Mind The Gap EP released October 23 on tbd records
U.S. Fall Tour continues into early December

Other Lives announce the release of Mind The Gap EP out October 23, 2012 on tbd records.  The EP was recorded by the band this past summer in a studio in Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire, England and features the Atoms For Peace remix of "Tamer Animals".  The EP also features the tracks "Dead Can" which was written during the band's recent world tour and was “mostly recorded in the van using a lap top, because we were touring so much. That's what gives it an electro feel" along with "Take Us Alive", which is “based on a violin loop that was written in my parents’ backyard", explains lead singer Jesse Tabish. Look out for Other Lives back on the road on a full U.S. tour this Fall.

Click here to listen to the outstanding and symphonic track "Take Us Alive" on Pitchfork

'Mind The Gap' EP Tracklisting
02. Dead Can
03. Tamer Animals (Atoms For Peace Remix)
04. Dust Bowl

01. Take Us Alive

Upcoming Tour Dates

10.29 - Harlow's - Sacramento, CA
10.30 - Great American Music Hall - San Francisco, CA
11.01 - Don Quixote's - Felton, CA
11.02 - Soho - Santa Barbara, CA
11.03 - El Rey Theatre - Los Angeles, CA
11.04 - The Casbah - San Diego, CA
11.05 - The Crescent Ballroom - Phoenix, AZ
11.08 - Sons Of Hermann Hall - Dallas, TX
11.10 - Fitzgerald's-Upstairs - Houston, TX
11.12 - Bottletree - Birmingham, AL
11.13 - 3rd & Lindsley - Nashville, TN
11.15 - Gabe's - Iowa City, IA
11.16 - Cedar Cultural Center - Minneapolis, MN
11.17 - Turner Hall - Milwaukee, WI
11.19 - The Pyramid Scheme - Grand Rapids, MI
11.20 - Magic Stick Lounge - Detroit, MI
11.21 - Beachland Ballroom & Tavern - Cleveland, OH
11.23 - Horseshoe Tavern - Toronto, ON
11.24 - Cabaret Mile-End - Montreal, QC
11.26 - Space Gallery - Portland, ME
11.27 - Paradise Rock Club - Boston, MA
11.28 - Bowery Ballroom - New York, NY
11.29 - Music Hall of Williamsburg - Brooklyn, NY
11.30 - Rock and Roll Hotel - Washington, D.C.
12.01 - Johnny Brenda's - Philadelphia, PA
12.03 - Brillobox - Pittsburgh, PA
12.04 - The Basement - Columbus, OH
12.07 - Schubas Tavern - Chicago, IL
12.08 - Lincoln Hall - Chicago, IL

Other Lives premiere "Take Us Alive" on Pitchfork

I've been busy reviewing shows and shooting episodes of Music Worth Buying so have not been able to post as many times as I had hoped in the last week or so. But here is definitely a choice item I want to share...

Other Lives premiere "Take Us Alive" on Pitchfork

Mind The Gap EP out October 23, 2012 on tbd records
U.S. fall tour starts October 19th!

Other Lives announce the release of Mind The Gap EP out October 23, 2012 on tbd records.  The EP was recorded by the band this past summer in a studio in Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire, England and features the Atoms For Peace Remix of "Tamer Animals".  The EP also features the tracks "Dead Can" which was written during the band's recent world tour and was “mostly recorded in the van using a lap top, because we were touring so much. That's what gives it an electro feel" along with "Take Us Alive", which is “based on a violin loop that was written in my parents’ backyard", explains lead singer Jesse Tabish. Look out for Other Lives back on the road on a full U.S. tour this Fall.

'Mind The Gap' EP Tracklisting

01. Take Us Alive
02. Dead Can
03. Tamer Animals (Atoms For Peace Remix)
04. Dust Bowl

Tour Dates

10.19 - Fox Theatre - Boulder, CO
10.20 - Urban Lounge - Salt Lake City, UT
10.22 - Pink Garter Theatre - Jackson, WY
10.23 - Top Hat - Missoula, MT
10.25 - Neptune Theatre - Seattle, WA
10.26 - Electric Owl - Vancouver, BC
10.27 - Wonder Ballroom - Portland, OR
10.29 - Harlow's - Sacramento, CA
10.30 - Great American Music Hall - San Francisco, CA
11.01 - Don Quixote's - Felton, CA
11.02 - Soho - Santa Barbara, CA
11.03 - El Rey Theatre - Los Angeles, CA
11.04 - The Casbah - San Diego, CA
11.05 - The Crescent Ballroom - Phoenix, AZ
11.08 - Sons Of Hermann Hall - Dallas, TX
11.10 - Fitzgerald's-Upstairs - Houston, TX
11.12 - Bottletree - Birmingham, AL
11.13 - 3rd & Lindsley - Nashville, TN
11.15 - Gabe's - Iowa City, IA
11.16 - Cedar Cultural Center - Minneapolis, MN
11.17 - Turner Hall - Milwaukee, WI
11.19 - The Pyramid Scheme - Grand Rapids, MI
11.20 - Magic Stick Lounge - Detroit, MI
11.21 - Beachland Ballroom & Tavern - Cleveland, OH
11.23 - Horseshoe Tavern - Toronto, ON
11.24 - Cabaret Mile-End - Montreal, QC
11.26 - Space Gallery - Portland, ME
11.27 - Paradise Rock Club - Boston, MA
11.28 - Bowery Ballroom - New York, NY
11.29 - Music Hall of Williamsburg - Brooklyn, NY
11.30 - Rock and Roll Hotel - Washington, D.C.
12.01 - Johnny Brenda's - Philadelphia, PA
12.03 - Brillobox - Pittsburgh, PA
12.04 - The Basement - Columbus, OH
12.07 - Schubas Tavern - Chicago, IL
12.08 - Lincoln Hall - Chicago, IL

For more information, including where to catch the band on tour this fall, visit Other Lives' official Web site here.