We get a lot of press material at GLONO. Like…a LOT. Back in the days before press kits went digital, Jake and I would get hollered at by the postal workers where our PO Box was in Chicago because they’d have to haul out all these overflow bins full of CDs, band photos and one-sheets. I am embarrassed to say we had to just dump a lot of that stuff. [I sold a ton of them on half.com – Jake.] We simply didn’t have the capacity to get through it all. Especially the really cliched press releases.

My least favorite press release trope is where someone tries to describe a band as “If [Well known, well respected artist A] and [Well respected, but somewhat obscure artist B] got together in [Exotic locale, hip town, or fictional setting] and had a love baby!”

I get it, it’s hard to come up with creative ways to describe a sound that will still resonate with the reader–it’s kinda the whole point of this site. But sometimes, I just wish they’d be straight and say, “Yeah, these guys sound like Badfinger.” I guarantee I would listen to that record.

And so I’ll tell it to you straight: This new Luther Russell album sounds like Big Star. It does. And I fucking love it. And why shouldn’t he have a bit of a Big Star thing going on? We all LOVE Big Star and Russell currently collaborates with Jody Stephens in Those Pretty Wrongs.

Ok, so the guitar tones and a lot of the phrasing is going to sound really familiar to you and who can argue with that? What would you give for another Big Star album? Luther Russell has served it up for you and has the same great lyrical wit as Alex Chilton and the cosmic melodic sensibility as Chris Bell. But because he’s an artist and also a producer who has worked with the likes of Fernando Viciconte, Robyn Hitchcock, Jagari Chanda (of Witch), and Richmond Fontaine, he brings his own experience and ideas to the mix…and then makes them sound like Big Star.

Check out this record. I really can’t recommend it more highly. It’s like if Alex Chilton and…oh fuck it.

Pre-order Medium Cool from Fluff & Gravy Records

Luther Russell: : web, twitter, amazon, apple, spotify, Bandcamp.