October Program Titles Released This Week:
Aphex Twin – Collapse CDEP/12”+MP3 (Warp)
Mythical electronic producer Richard D James aka Aphex Twin returns with the new 4-track EP Collapse which follows-up his 2016 Cheetah EP and 2014 full-length Syro. The cryptic release is introduced by the pummeling lead cut, “T69 Collapse” whose mind-bending video premiere was pulled from Adult Swim at the last minute for failing the Harding epilepsy test.
Asleep At The Wheel – New Routes CD/LP (Bismeaux)
New Routes serves as Asleep At The Wheel’s first new material in over a decade, a new chapter in the group’s forty-eight-year history with a fresh group of musicians and nimble musical palette. The eleven-track collection of both new and familiar country, jazz, jump blues, rockabilly, Western swing and folk, offers a blend of originals, vibrant covers, superior musicianship, and a guest vocal appearance by Seth and Scott Avett of The Avett Brothers. New Routes travels down myriad musical byways from the sly “viper” jazz groove of opener, “Jack, I’m Mellow” to the languid original ballad, “Call It A Day Tonight”; the Cajun romp of “Pass The Bottle Around” to the Americana-tinged acoustic cover of Guy Clark’s “Dublin Blues”; and the pedal-to-the-metal covers of Paolo Nutini’s “Pencil Full Of Lead” and Moon Mullican’s “Seven Nights To Rock”.
Tony Bennett & Diana Krall – Love Is Here To Stay CD/LP (Verve)
Tony Bennett and Diana Krall celebrate their shared love of the music of George and Ira Gershwin on their new collaborative album, Love Is Here To Stay. Bennett, who just turned 92, has been friends with Krall for over 20 years. The two toured together in 2000 and recorded duets for two of Bennett’s albums (Duets and Playin’ With My Friends), but this marks their first full album project together. Love Is Here To Stay also marks the 120th Anniversary of George Gershwin’s birthday which takes place on September 26, 2018. The album was recorded with the Grammy award winning Bill Charlap Trio and the stunning result is a subtle, sophisticated and beautifully rendered love letter to The Gershwins’ music and their status as one of the premiere songwriters of the American popular standard. It is a masterclass in vocal delivery and phrasing and the command that Bennett and Krall display of the material in both their duets and solo tracks makes it appear effortless, belying the honed skill of the vocalists.
Black Belt Eagle Scout – Mother Of My Children CD/LP (Saddle Creek)
Katherine Paul is Black Belt Eagle Scout, and Mother Of My Children is her debut album. Recorded in the middle of winter near her hometown in Northwest Washington, Paul’s connection to the landscape’s eerie beauty are palpable throughout as the album traces the full spectrum of confronting buried feelings and the loss of what life was supposed to look like. Heavy and heartbroken from the loss of her mentor and the breakdown of a relationship, Paul found respite in the creation of these songs that “are about grief and love for people, but also about being a native person in what is the United States today.” On Mother Of My Children, the songs weave together to capture both the enduring and fleeting experiences of loss, frustration, and dreaming. The structures are traditional, but the lyrics don’t adhere to any format other than what feels right in the moment. It begins with lead single “Soft Stud”’ which Paul describes as her “queer anthem” and is followed by “Indians Never Die”, a call out to colonizers and those who don’t respect the Earth.
Blitzen Trapper – Furr [Reissue/2008] CD/2xLP+MP3/Cassette (Sub Pop)
Portland, OR-based experimental country/folk rock band Blitzen Trapper offers up a deluxe edition of their breakthrough 2008 album Furr. For this expanded release, the band has compiled over two LPs worth of material: the original album and 12 rare and previously unreleased tunes. The added songs are from the same recordings that become Furr, with the exception of the “Live At KCRW” tracks, which were recorded during the Furr tour. The songs “War Is Placebo”, “Booksmart Baby”, and “Maybe Baby” appeared as limited-edition singles in 2009 and 2011. Around three albums’ worth of material was recorded during the sessions for Furr, and it’s a selection of those that comprise the remaining bonus material for this anniversary edition of the record.
Cedric Burnside – Benton County Relic CD/LP (Single Lock)
Cedric Burnside (grandson of R.L. Burnside) was literally born to the blues, more specifically, the “rhythmically unorthodox” hill country variant which emerged from Mississippi where he grew up surrounded (and influenced) by Junior Kimbrough, Jessie May Hemphill and Otha Turner, as well as delta musicians T-Model Ford and Paul “Wine” Jones. Grammy-nominated in 2015 for Best Blues Album for the Cedric Burnside Project’s Descendants Of Hill Country, as well as the recipient of the Blues Music Awards honor as Drummer of the Year for four consecutive years, Cedric’s latest album offers a showcase for his electric and acoustic guitar, recording 26 tracks in just two days with drummer/slide guitarist Brian Jay in the latter’s Brooklyn home studio in a rush of creativity.
Dilly Dally – Heaven CD/LP+MP3 (Partisan)
Heaven highlights Dilly Dally’s rough edges in all their ragged glory, drawing every potent ounce of energy from the foursome’s swampy tones, raspy vocals, and volatile rhythm section. While the music is undeniably ferocious, there’s uplift woven into the fabric of every track. The album opens with the dreamy “I Feel Free”, which begins as a floating, untethered soundscape before transforming into a soaring anthem for a world that’s ready to finally turn the page on all the darkness and disillusion the last few years have wrought. The inexorable “Believe” insists on self-confidence, while the driving “Sober Motel” celebrates the lucidity a clear mind, and the lilting “Sorry Ur Mad” makes a case for releasing yourself from the prisons of anger and resentment. Heaven carves out its own atheistic religion to get through the day, a faith that validates our pain as real but responds with a beaming light of hope. [Limited white colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Alejandro Escovedo with Don Antonio – The Crossing CD/2xLP+MP3 (Yep Roc)
Alejandro Escovedo’s scorching and cinematic The Crossing follows the story of two young immigrants, one from Mexico and one from Italy, as they come to the US to pursue the American dream and search out their punk rock idols. He co-wrote and performed it with Italian band Don Antonio from Mogdilana led by guitarist and composer Antonio Gramentieri who has a rich musical history of his own in Italy with his cult band Sacri Cuori. The Crossing also features a host of guest musicians, including The Stooges’ James Williamson on “Teenage Luggage” and Wayne Kramer from the MC5 on “Sonica USA” (both bands are also name checked in the album’s lyrics). “Waiting For Me” features Peter Perrett and John Perry from The Only Ones, recording together for the first time since 1980. Joe Ely appears on his own track, “Silver City”. “Rio Navidad”, a spoken word song about a Texas ranger, was written by novelist and Richmond Fontaine/The Delines’ bandleader Willy Vlautin and read by his bandmate Freddy Trujillo.
Fit For A King – Dark Skies CD (Solid State)
Christian metalcore band Fit For A King use the tools of heavy music and melodic hooks to honestly explore the dark side of the human experience, ultimately wrenching timeless hope from the jaws of anxiety, depression, and seemingly certain despair. Like trailblazing metalcore giants Underoath and As I Lay Dying before them, they skillfully mine the varying extremes of heavy music. “Dark Skies is far from happy. It’s about personal struggles,” explains lyricist and singer Ryan Kirby. “It touches on many subjects relevant to all of our daily lives.” Fit For A King’s music and message is a battle cry against the darkness. They stand in defiance of the mounting pressure of modern life, not through dismissiveness or easy answers, but with earnest struggle. [Vinyl edition due October 26.]
The Goon Sax – We’re Not Talking CD/LP+MP3 (Wichita Recordings)
Delivering brilliantly human and brutally honest vignettes of adolescent angst, The Goon Sax brim with personality, charm and heart-wrenching honesty. We’re Not Talking is a record made by restless young artists, defying expectations as if hardly noticing, and its complexity makes it even more of a marvel. Strings, horns, even castanets sneak their way onto the album – this isn’t glossy throwaway pop. Sounds stick out at surprising angles (on the frenetic “She Knows”), cowbells become lead instruments (in stunning album opener “Make Time For Love”), brief home-recorded fragments appear unexpectedly, and “Losing Myself” is like the Young Marble Giants go hip-hop.
Knife Knights – 1 Time Mirage CD/LP+MP3 (Sub Pop)
Knife Knights was born of the love of mystery. From the start of Shabazz Palaces – the groundbreaking project launched in 2009 by former-Digable Planets leader Ishmael Butler – confidentiality seemed essential: Butler wanted Shabazz Palaces to stand on its own strength, not his outsized reputation, so he adopted a nom de plume for himself. As the project’s network expanded, though, he needed new monikers for his partnerships. Knife Knights is the name he gave to his work with Seattle engineer, producer, songwriter, and film composer Erik Blood, a vital force in the Shabazz Palaces universe. Now, after more than a decade of collaboration and the development of a rich friendship, Butler and Blood have made a proper full-length record together. 1 Time Mirage is an eleven-track odyssey that finds the pair and a cast of their friends weaving together a singular world of soul and shoegaze, hip-hop and lush noise, bass and bedlam.
Low – Double Negative CD/LP+MP3 (Sub Pop)
This year Low turns 25. Since 1993, Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker – the married couple whose heaven-and-earth harmonies have always held the band’s center – have pioneered a subgenre, shrugged off its strictures, recorded a Christmas classic, become a magnetic onstage force, and emerged as one of music’s most steadfast and vital vehicles for pulling light from our darkest emotional recesses. But Low will not commemorate its first quarter-century with mawkish nostalgia or safe runs through songbook favorites. Instead, in faithfully defiant fashion, Low release their most brazen, abrasive (and, paradoxically, most empowering) album ever: Double Negative, an unflinching 11-song quest through snarling static and shattering beats that somehow culminates in the brightest pop song of Low’s career.
Sandro Perri – In Another Life CD/LP+MP3 (Constellation)
Sandro Perri returns with his first new solo effort since 2011’s acclaimed Impossible Spaces. It’s what Perri describes as “an experiment in ‘infinite’ songwriting.” The title cut is a 24-minute pop mantra for sequenced synth, piano, guitar and voice, progressing sideways rather than forward. A relaxed three-chord vamp runs the length of Side One, peppered with Sandro’s languid, lilting vocal and adorned with continually developing musical details – massaging the listener with the joys of repetition while defying stasis and monotony. Like the longer-form work of fellow-travelers Bill Callahan, Destroyer or Arthur Russell, Perri extends the notion of the meditative minimalist pop song to its literal maximum, flouting ‘commercial’ concerns in our streamingly short-attention-span era – and perhaps implicitly calling for a politics of slow consumption?
Pyrexia – Unholy Requiem CD/LP (Unique Leader)
Long standing New York death metal legends Pyrexia return with their new album, Unholy Requiem. The LP, which was recorded, mixed, and mastered at Subsonic Audio by guitarist Chris Basile, shows the band revisiting their filthy, pulverizing, classic sound. Basile said of the album, “This album is definitely the band returning to its roots. It’s dirty. It’s raw. It’s punishing. It’s us. It’s a hungry album and we fed it a strict diet of pain, sweat, and blast beats.” However, these nine slabs of blistering, pulverizing menace also find the band pushing themselves forward, determined to continue raising the bar for extreme music. Unholy Requiem, with all of its pummeling groove and signature riff laden violence is nothing less than pure sonic vitriol.
Jorge Santana – Love The Way: The Solo ‘70s Recordings CD (Omnivore)
Latin rock pioneer Jorge Santana’s musical journey began right after high school when he joined the popular San Francisco nine-piece, horn-driven band, the Malibus. The Malibus added the 17-year-old guitarist and morphed into Malo by 1971. Their self-titled debut album was issued in 1972, yielding the Top Twenty hit, “Sauvecito”. In 1978, the first Jorge Santana solo album emerged as a self-titled affair with most of the songs co-written with Malo-alum, Richard Bean who also handled lead vocal duties. The song “Love The Way” was the breakout single, and the album made it onto the Black Album charts. The following year the Allen Toussaint-produced, It’s All About Love was released and featured songs mostly from the pen of either Toussaint or Santana. Now for the first time, the two Jorge Santana albums are combined on a single disc, remastered, with liners notes by Bill Kopp featuring new interviews with both Jorge Santana and Richard Bean about these post-Malo solo efforts.
Shim – Shim CD (BFD)
Debut solo album from former Sick Puppies singer Shimon “Shim” Moore. “When you have a bankable band and mass popularity via hit songs like the band Sick Puppies has had in their career, it’s hard to step aside and start over. That is exactly what Shimon “SHIM” Moore did when he left that band in 2014. But his story was just beginning, as he has plotted a return. Now he is back in the spotlight as a bandleader and a true solo artist in every sense. He released the incredible, rocking new song ‘Hallelujah’ this past spring, with its hilarious accompanying music video. The new song definitely reminded people that Shim is an artist to watch with a lot more to say, armed with a D.I.Y. spirit harkening back to his early days in bands.” – Ghost Cult
Slothrust – The Pact CD/LP (Dangerbird)
Slothrust is principal songwriter, guitar player and unrepentant aesthete Leah Wellbaum, with drummer Will Gorin and bassist Kyle Bann. On their fourth full-length album The Pact, Slothrust constructs a luscious, ethereal cosmos perforated with wormy portals and magic wardrobes, demonstrating more clearly than ever the band’s deft shaping of contrasting sonic elements to forge a muscular sound that’s uniquely their own. Bizarre and mundane, tender and confident. The awkward duality of the forever outsider, rightly reclaimed as power. Produced and engineered by Billy Bush in Los Angeles, The Pact is a confident journey across 12 songs that oscillate between a quietly reflective tenderness and a slick, sleek confidence; balancing playful innocence with ballsy swagger. Bush brought a rugged-lush sensibility to the proceedings, assuredly guiding the band into new territory.
Richard Thompson – 13 Rivers CD/2xLP+MP3 (New West)
Richard Thompson’s new album is his first self-produced record in over a decade. It’s a minimal and spacious recording which, according to Thompson, is a projection of current events in his life.
“This has been an intense year for myself and my family, getting older doesn’t mean that life gets easier! There are surprises around every bend. I think this reflects in the immediacy of the stories, and the passion in the songs. Sometimes I am speaking directly about events, at other times songs are an imaginative spin on what life throws at you. The music is just a mirror to life, but we try to polish that mirror as brightly as possible.” 13 Rivers spans thirteen tracks. It is an album as much about growth as it is about reflection. Says Thompson, “I don’t know how the creative process works – I suppose it is some kind of bizarre parallel existence to my own life. I often look at a finished song and wonder what the hell is going on inside me. We sequenced the weird stuff at the front of the record, and the tracks to grind your soul into submission at the back.” [Limited black and cream colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Carrie Underwood – Cry Pretty CD/LP (Capitol Nashville)
Seven-time Grammy Award winner Carrie Underwood follows-up 2015’s Storyteller, her fifth consecutive platinum album, with her Capitol Records Nashville debut Cry Pretty. The collection is introduced by the moving title track which the singer says, “refers to when emotions take over and you just can’t hold them back. It really speaks to a lot of things that have happened in the past year and I hope when you hear it, you can relate those feelings to those times in your life. It’s emotional. It’s real. And it rocks!” In addition to co-writing the single with Hillary Lindsey, Lori McKenna, and Liz Rose (aka The Love Junkies), Carrie co-produced Cry Pretty with fellow writer/producer David Garcia. Underwood adds, “At this point in my career, I feel stronger and more creative than ever. I think you can hear that in this new album. It’s emotional, it’s soulful, it’s real, and we also have some fun on there too. I hope everyone loves it as much as I have loved making it.” [Limited pink colored vinyl pressing also available.]
CDs + Vinyl:
Active Bird Community – Amends CD/LP+MP3/Cassette (Barsuk)
New York indie rock quartet Active Bird Community rose from their scrappy suburban teenage garage band roots to become a successful national touring act and Brooklyn scene fixture with a ’90s-influenced slacker-garage-grunge-pop sound and a handful of well-crafted records to their credit. “I think in the simplest of terms, Amends is a record about forgiveness,” says Tom D’Agustino, one of the singers and primary songwriters of Brooklyn-based band, Active Bird Community. “Forgiving your parents for splitting up, forgiving your friends for not always understanding you, learning to forgive yourself.” A contemplation on loss and forgiveness, the band’s debut for Barsuk volleys between the perspectives of D’Agustino and co-songwriter/lead guitarist Andrew Wolfson. The 11 tracks deal with universal themes including the tension of family, loss, and learning to move on without resentment (“Amends,” “Lighthouse”), breakups (“Unwind With Me”), anxieties (“Downstairs”), and hope for the future (“Silver Screen”).
Angel – The Casablanca Years 7xCD (Mercury)
This set is the first to bring all hard rock/prog rock/glam band’s Casablanca albums together in one set complete with a disc of rare edits and alternate versions. Angel expert Dave Reynolds has supplied a new set of sleeve notes giving a great insight into the history of the band in a 28-booklet loaded with rare photos and memorabilia.
Archgoat – The Luciferian Crown CD/LP (Debemur Morti Prod.)
With grim reliability, Archgoat discharge yet more pustulant diabolic foulness into a world increasing molded in their image. The Luciferian Crown is a frighteningly-focused vision of hellish corruption, unsentimental, morally abhorrent and steeped in a violent horror all too real. Contemporaneous with the uncanny classics of Finnish death and black metal – Archgoat share the same penchant for mind-altering atmospherics, blurring the mystical song-craft of first wave black metal with guttural punk, primitive thrash, the sonorous barbarism of vintage death metal and grindcore that reeks of putrefaction.
Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band – The Serpent’s Mouth CD/LP (Big Crown)
Named after the eight-mile strait between the island of Trinidad and the coast of Venezuela, The Serpent’s Mouth is a journey through both originals and covers, combining classic elements that wide-eared music fans already know, and mashing them up in new and unique ways. “It seems like a new era for steel drum music is upon us, and Bacao is firmly leading the way into the hearts of music fans around the world.”
The Band Of Heathens – A Message From The People Revisited CD (Bosh)
Americana stalwarts The Band Of Heathens recently went into their hometown studio in Austin, TX and recorded their own version of the classic Ray Charles album A Message From The People. In a time where the downtrodden need a voice again, the Heathens have delivered the message paying homage to one of the most important voices in American song history. [Vinyl edition due October 12.]
Blind Guardian – Battalions Of Fear [Reissue/1988] CD/LP (Nuclear Blast)
Blind Guardian – Follow The Blind [Reissue/1989] CD/LP (Nuclear Blast)
Blind Guardian – Tales From The Twilight World [Reissue/1990] CD/LP (Nuclear Blast)
Blind Guardian – Somewhere Far Beyond [Reissue/1992] CD/LP (Nuclear Blast)
With a steady evolution from their early days as a speed metal band to their current, renowned musical alchemy of glory, drama, and grandiosity, Germany’s Blind Guardian have long since made their mark as the world’s definitive melodic/progressive rock band. Their first four albums have been remastered and are back in-print on CD and on limited colored vinyl.
Bob Moses – Battle Lines CD/2xLP+MP3 (Domino)
Battle Lines follows Grammy-winning duo Bob Moses’ acclaimed debut album, Days Gone By, featuring their worldwide hit “Tearing Me Up”. The Canadian duo, who met in Vancouver, BC but now live in NYC, have seen their profile steadily rise, finding acclaim for their smoky, R&B-infused, deep house sounds. The band recorded the new album in Los Angeles, after writing and testing out new material on the road. Inspired by their time playing raves and rock clubs all over the globe since the release of Days Gone By, Battle Lines takes a harder look at the world in which they find themselves.
Bosse-de-Nage – Further Still CD (The Flenser)
Fifth album from the San Francisco-based post-black metal act. [Vinyl edition due October 12.]
Dennis Brown – King Jammy Presents: Dennis Brown Tracks Of Life CD/LP (VP)
A collection of remixed and remastered Dennis Brown hits from the Jammys catalogue of reggae classics, featuring an A-list selection of vocalists including Damian ‘Jr. Gong’ Marley, Protoje, Dre Island, Alborosie, Romain Virgo, and Agent Sasco.
The Chills – Snow Bound CD/LP (Fire)
The latest postcard from The Chills’ epic journey is an album about “consolidation, re-grouping, acceptance and mortality,” claims chief songwriter Martin Phillipps. “Hopefully a kind of Carole King Tapestry for ageing punks.” On Snow Bound lost heroes are lamented, relationships are re-evaluated, atonement is sought, mortality is mulled over and fake news is undercut. It’s serious stuff, the thoughts of a dysfunctional 50-something wrestling with maturity and discovering that their post-punk DIY beliefs still have a real voice that resonates between the fans of their early years and which can now pass down to the next generation.
Brandon Coleman – Resistance CD/2xLP+MP3 (Brainfeeder)
Resistance is a 2018 funk odyssey by keyboard maestro, vocalist, composer, producer, arranger and astral traveler Brandon Coleman. A regular fixture in the Kamasi Washington band, wylin’ out on the keys or wielding his keytar, he is introduced onstage at gigs as “Professor Boogie” by his longtime friend and collaborator. Resistance represents a new chapter in the funk dynasty that spans George Clinton / Parliament Funkadelic and Zapp through to Dr. Dre, DJ Quik and Dam Funk as the Los Angeles resident salutes his musical heroes – Herbie Hancock, Peter Frampton, Roger Troutman – and honors their ethos of freedom and experimentation in his search for funk’s future.
Conan – Existential Void Guardian CD/2xLP (Napalm)
If troglodytes could have gotten their paws on a Fuzzthrone or other fuzz pedals…they would have probably bashed each other’s skulls in. Conan on the other hand use these beautiful tools to wrench the maximum out of their legendary caveman battle doom
The Count Basie Orchestra – All About That Basie CD (Concord)
The Legendary Count Basie Orchestra celebrates their 80th anniversary as the premiere big band in jazz with a collection of classic material a twist on a few modern hits (Adele, Leonard Cohen, Stevie Wonder, and others). Special guests include: Stevie Wonder, Carmen Bradford, Kurt Elling, Take 6, Jamie Davis, Jon Faddis, Wycliffe Gordon, Joey DeFrancesco, Eric Reed, Rickey Woodard, and Gregg Field.
Cold War Kids – Cold War Kids CD (Downtown)
Beloved blues drenched Long Beach, California indie rockers Cold War Kids offer up an eponymous 14-track compilation of the ‘Best Of’ their Downtown Records years which saw them release the five stellar albums Robbers & Cowards (2006), Loyalty To Loyalty (2008), Mine Is Yours (2011), Dear Miss Lonelyhearts (2013) and Hold My Home (2014). Cold War Kids collects the prime catalog cuts “Louder Than Ever”, “First”, “Miracle Mile,”, “All This Could Be Yours”, “I’ve Seen Enough”, “Hospital Beds” and “Royal Blue”.
Crippled Black Phoenix – Great Escape CD/2xLP (Season Of Mist)
The follow-up to 2016’s towering full-length Bronze, Great Escape sees the international collective blend passion and purpose with their dark and dreamy post-rock in an altogether different way. Their beauty is deceptive; the vast, sweeping songs weave sophistication and grandeur with dire warnings about a world spinning out of control.
Crossfaith – Ex_Machina CD (UNFD)
Fifth full-length album from Crossfaith the Osaka, Japan-based heavy metal band [Vinyl edition due October 19.]
Deicide – Overtures Of Blasphemy CD/LP (Century Media)
The godfathers of US death metal return with their twelfth studio album. [180gm bloodshot translucent vinyl pressing also available.]
Sarah Davachi – Gave In Rest CD/LP (Ba Da Bing)
By infusing her compositional style within a predilection for medieval and Renaissance music, Davachi unearths a new realm of musical reverence, creating works both contemplative and beatific, eerie yet essentially human. Gave In Rest is a modern reading of early music, reforming sacred and secular sentiments to fit her purview and provide an exciting new way to hear the sounds that exist around us.
The Dirty Nil – Master Volume CD (Dine Alone Music Inc.)
“For those who still pray at the altar of rock music, The Dirty Nil might feel like a second coming. …this trio from Dundas, ON has thrived on their unabashed devotion to rock ‘n’ roll in its purest, loudest and most electrifying form. And Master Volume is a defining sermon, distilling decades of guitar-charged power and wisdom into 10 succinct commandments.” – Exclaim [Vinyl edition due October 19.]
The Doors – Waiting For The Sun [Reissue/1968] 2xCD/LP (Elektra)
50th Anniversary reissue. This double-CD and single-LP collection features a new version of the album’s original stereo mix on both CD and 180-gram vinyl LP, which has been newly remastered from the original master tapes by Bruce Botnick, the Doors’ longtime engineer/mixer. The CD set also includes a second disc of 14 completely unreleased tracks: nine recently discovered “rough mixes” from the album recording sessions and five live songs from a 1968 Copenhagen show.
Dreams – No One Defeats Us CD/LP (Astralwerks)
Dreams is the realization of a long-time friendship and musical kinship between two iconic Australian artists – Luke Steele (aka Miracle), the enigmatic front man of Empire Of The Sun and The Sleepy Jackson, and Daniel Johns (aka Dr Dreams), best known as the front man of Silverchair. The duo’s debut album No One Defeats Us is introduced by the explosive war cry of the title track and follow-up “Silence” which reveals a darker side and pulse to the project.
Eyelids – Maybe More CD/LP (Jealous Butcher)
A perfect combination of the lilting, powerful hooks of their recent Peter Buck produced album “or” alongside the spookier, more meditative moments from their debut album 854.
Eyes Of Love – End Of The Game CD/LP (Wharf Cat)
End Of The Game is the anticipated debut full length by Eyes Of Love, a band helmed by Brooklyn songwriter Andrea Schiavelli. Assembling a crew of some of the most skilled musicians in New York’s underground; Lily Konigsberg (Palberta, Lily and Horn Horse), Sammy Weissberg (The Cradle, Sweet Baby Jesus), Paco Cathcart (The Cradle, Shimmer), Schiavelli has cultivated a long player that is obedient to feeling and pulsates with urgent, anxious beauty.
Amanda Fish – Free CD (VizzTone)
For this all-original album Amanda has refined her focus to blues-flavored rock, while still showing influences ranging from R.L. Burnside to Nirvana. Her songs show mature songwriting, and express her victories over forces beyond her control and those within herself. Amanda’s remarkable singing is stronger and more expressive than ever, and she plays a wide range of instruments including all bass tracks, acoustic guitar, electric and 12-string guitar, mandolin and piano.
Steve Forbert – The Magic Tree CD/LP (Blue Rose Music)
New release from the veteran singer/songwriter – a series of songs gleaned from previously recorded acoustic demos, augmented with new backing tracks.
Future Generations – Landscape CD/LP (French Kiss)
Landscape, the second full-length from Future Generations, emerged from the kind of playful creativity only possible among the closest collaborators. Five friends who all live together in Brooklyn, Future Generations brought Landscape to life by balancing their pop-minded songcraft with bursts of free-form experimentation: recording guitar riffs from the receiving end of a phone call, messing with a vintage synthesizer called the Fun Machine, and building percussion tracks by sampling a batch of drum-circle recordings.
Giant Sand – Returns To The Valley Of Rain CD/LP (Fire)
A new re-recording of the Tucson band’s 1985 debut. Valley Of Rain was Tucson’s Giant Sand’s debut album recorded in 1983, and eventually released by 1985. It included Howe Gelb on vocals, guitar and Winston Watson on drums for most of it, Tommy Larkins on drums for some of it and Scott Garber on fretless bass for all of it. 30 some years later, now that the band had been put to sleep indefinitely, those very first songs had begun creeping into the last Giant Sand tours. It somehow seemed appropriate to give them another shot with the proper amp just to see what they could’ve been.
Good Charlotte – Generation Rx CD/LP+MP3 (BMG Rights Management)
The quintet offers up intricate, infectious anthems of hope for a generation under the shadow of the opioid epidemic, icons gone too soon, mass tragedy, loneliness, and confusion. Powered by punk spirit, rock songcraft, and cinematic ambition, Good Charlotte retain the signature vitality and vulnerability of their formative years, while delivering an urgent, unafraid, and undeniable message befitting of two decades in the game. [Limited edition yellow-colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Grave Digger – The Living Dead CD/LP (Napalm)
When you think of pure and unadulterated traditional metal, you will at some point stumble over these German. The five-piece has survived trends, many ups and downs and continues to deliver solid material. The Living Dead serves as the old schoolers’ 20th studio long-player.
Guerilla Toss – Twisted Crystal CD/LP (DFA)
Analog synthesizers give tangible life to the works of Guerilla Toss. Whether it be the sound of a rocket ship, a kitten-with-a-wah, distorted dolphins, or a clavichord made out of honey-baked ham, the band consistently finds new ways to bring together the many ideas that combine to shape each new batch of art-rock puzzle pieces. This collection of pop songs pulls influence from powerful groups like The Slits, ESG, Gina X, and early Madonna, with sing-speak vocals from Kassie Carlson nodding to legendary artists like Laurie Anderson, Grace Jones, and Lizzy Mercier Descloux – combining this all into a twisted, crystalline concoction.
The Guess Who – The Future Is What Used To Be CD/LP (Cleopatra)
The classic rock giants are back with their first studio album of new material in over 30 years.
Harmony Rockets with Special Guest Peter Walker – Lachesis/Clotho/Atropos CD/LP (Tompkins Square)
Longtime Woodstock resident, guitarist Peter Walker recorded two albums for the Vanguard label in the late ’60s in a style best described as American folk-raga. He studied with Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan, and was Dr. Timothy Leary’s musical director, organizing music for the LSD advocate’s “celebrations.” Rediscovered by Tompkins Square in 2006 after decades out of sight, Walker has remained active into his eighth decade, recording for Jack White’s Third Man label, and now, collaborating anew with fellow Upstaters, Harmony Rockets. Joined in a mighty super-session with Harmony Rockets (Mercury Rev), Martin Keith, Nels Cline (Wilco), and Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth), Lachesis/Clotho/Atropos is a mind-melting inter-generational collaboration that could only have coalesced around the wool sweaters, warm teacups and moldering bookstores of “Old Old Woodstock,” both the real and mythologized versions.
Lee Hazlewood – Cruisin’ For Surf Bunnies CD/LP (Light In The Attic)
LITA is proud to continue its Lee Hazlewood archive series with this very special release. Not a reissue, but rather a brand new, never before released time capsule from the surf era. Woodchucks: Crusin’ For Surf Bunnies is the perfect soundtrack for sun-baked skin and salty waves, hot rods and summer love. It’s the soundtrack to the American dream in the early- ‘60s and it comes from California.
I’ll Be Damned – Road To Disorder CD/LP (Drakkar)
With their highly explosive mix they easily exist between bands like Danko Jones and Clutch and cover a considerable range of styles. [Limited red colored vinyl pressing also available.]
The Intelligence – Live in San Francisco CD/LP (Castleface)
“For folks who dig A Frames, Country Teasers, Wire, Gang of Four, pita chips and dad’s boozy breath, may we present The Intelligence, captured live in a truly subterranean underground show space below SF vintage clothier Vacation.” – John Dwyer
Irreversible Mechanism – Immersion CD/2xLP (Blood Music)
A masterful contender amongst the best of today’s progressive death metal.
Jungle – For Ever CD/LP (XL)
The core duo of Josh Lloyd-Watson and Tom McFarland describe their long awaited second album For Ever as “a post-apocalyptic radio station playing break up songs.” If Jungle’s first effort was their imaginary soundtrack to the places they had never been, their new record captures the landscapes they had so often dreamed of.
Tori Kelly – Hiding Place CD (Capitol)
Singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Kelly first gained recognition after posting videos on YouTube at the age of 14. When she was 16, she auditioned for the singing competition television series American Idol. After being eliminated from the show, Kelly began to work on her own music. Hiding Place is her sophomore album.
The Lemon Twigs – Go To School CD/2xLP+MP3 (4AD)
A conceptual musical conceived by brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario, the 15-track opus was written, recorded, produced and mixed by the pair at their home in Long Island. Go To School tells the heartbreaking coming of age story of Shane, a pure of heart chimpanzee raised as a human boy as he comes to terms with the obstacles of life. Todd Rundgren and their real life mother Susan Hall play Shane’s parents. The album features contributions from Jody Stephens (Big Star), Natalie Mering (Weyes Blood) and their father Ronnie D’Addario.
Less Bells – Solifuge CD/LP (Kranky)
The full-length debut by Julie Carpenter’s Joshua Tree, California, ambient orchestral project Less Bells emerged from the drama and desolation of its high desert origins. She cites certain compositions as being “specifically inspired by August monsoons rolling in over the mountains, others by clear, starry nights.” Utilizing an array of electronic and acoustic instruments, including cello, Optigan, violin, voice, and modular synth, Solifuge conflates not only the solitude and refuge of it’s title but also intimacy and grandeur, fragility and force, “building from austerity to wild overgrowth.” She speaks of a creative process involving cut-ups and rearranging, mapping a melody for strings only to transpose it to synth, or refashioning a rigid classical piece as stream of consciousness soundscape.
Lyrics Born – Quite A Life CD/2xLP (Real People)
A new record of funk and soul woven into classic, boom-bap hip-hop featuring a legendary line-up of guest musicians, including the heavily buzzing artist Aloe Blacc (‘Brooklyn In the Summer’, ‘I Need a Dollar’, Avicii’s “Wake Me Up”), Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, Gift of Gab (of Blackalicious), Galactic, and Chali 2na (of Jurassic 5).
Mogwai – Rock Action [Reissue/2001] CD/LP (PIAS America)
Mogwai – Happy Songs For Happy People [Reissue/2003] CD/LP (PIAS America)
Mogwai – Mr. Beast [Reissue/2006] CD/2xLP (PIAS America
Mogwai – Zidane – A 21st Century Portrait – An Original Soundtrack By Mogwai [Reissue/2006] CD/2xLP (PIAS America)
Mogwai – The Hawk Is Howling [Reissue/2008] CD/2xLP (PIAS America)
Remastered CD and vinyl reissues of five of the Glaswegian post-rockers’ albums are now available.
Monster Truck – True Rockers CD/LP (Mascot)
Canadian outfit Monster Truck follows up the mighty Sittin’ Heavy (2015) with True Rockers. Produced by Dan Weller (SiKth, Young Guns, Enter Shikari), it’s the sound of a band letting loose and having fun, personified in the title track opener which features a passionate speech about the virtues of rock by Mr. “I Wanna Rock” himself, the one and only Dee Snider of Twisted Sister. [Limited white colored vinyl pressing now available.]
Mr. T Experience – Shards Volumes One & Two: Pieces Of The Mr. T Experience 1985-1999 2xCD/LP (Sounds Rad)
A two-volume collection of rarities, live tracks and outtakes-versions of songs previously scattered on any numerous of B-sides, and compilations. [Shards Volume Two is available this week on vinyl.]
Willie Nelson – My Way CD/LP (Sony Legacy)
My Way is Willie Nelson’s second new studio album of 2018, following the release of his critically-acclaimed Last Man Standing in April. An album of standards and classics made famous by Frank Sinatra, My Way finds Willie (who’s written a few standards himself) swinging his way through some of the most beloved songs in the Great American Songbook.
Orbital – Monsters Exist CD/2xCD (ACP Recordings Ltd.)
First new album in five years from the British electronic outfit. Monsters Exist is a more classically structured Orbital album than their previous release Wonky, drawing inspiration from the international political landscape all the way back from brothers Paul and Phil’s pre-rave squat-punk roots right up to the volatile tensions and erratic rhetoric of today. [Deluxe double-CD edition also available. Vinyl edition due September 28.]
Orions Belte – Mint CD/LP (Jansen)
Is it blues? Is it world music? Is it underground pop? You can choose whichever you want, it’s not important for Orions Belte to be pigeonholed. They’re playing eclectic and unique instrumental music inspired by Nigerian ‘70s rock, postcards from the French Riviera, Formula One races at the Monza track in Italy, and when Joe Frazier beat Muhammad Ali in the ‘Fight of the Century’ in 1971.
Putridity – Mental Prolapse Induced Necrophilism [Reissue/2007] CD/LP (Willowtip)
Italy’s Putridity has been creating some of the fastest, hardest, and crushing brutal death metal of the past decade.
The Rad Trads – On Tap CD (Hornblow)
On Tap serves as the world’s introduction to the diverse possibilities The Rad Trads have to offer from the studio. Revered for their live shows, On Tap sees the five songwriters pull back the curtain on their passion for arrangement and orchestration, introducing a sea of horns, harmonies, gritty grooves, and psychedelic guitar textures. [Vinyl edition due October 12.]
REKS & ShortFyuz – Order In Chaos CD (Bullies Music)
New collaborative effort from Lawrence, Massachusetts emcee/producer duo Reks & ShortFyuz. The 14 track release combines REKS’ signature high energy & thought provoking lyricism over gritty, hardcore instrumentals from up and coming producer ShortFyuz.
Mark Ribot – Songs of Resistance 1942 – 2018 CD (Epitaph)
With his new album Songs of Resistance 1948 – 2018, Ribot—one of the world’s most accomplished and acclaimed guitar players—set out to assemble a set of songs that spoke to this political moment with appropriate ambition, passion, and fury. The eleven songs on the record are drawn from the World War II anti-Fascist Italian partisans, the U.S. civil rights movement, and Mexican protest ballads, as well as original compositions, and feature a wide range of guest vocalists, including Tom Waits, Steve Earle, Meshell Ndegeocello, Justin Vivian Bond, Fay Victor, Sam Amidon, and Ohene Cornelius. [Vinyl edition due September 21.]
Emma Ruth Rundle – On Dark Horses CD/LP+MP3 (Sargent House)
With On Dark Horses, Rundle doesn’t shy away from uncomfortable realities or retreat into a private world, but it does capture an artist who has survived their personal nadir and come out stronger on the other side. The album’s eight tracks capture the evolution of Rundle as an artist, with vestigial traces of the savvy guitar work of her 2011 debut, Electric Guitar, the siren song beauty of 2014’s Some Heavy Ocean, and the amplified urgency of 2016’s Marked For Death all factoring into the album’s rich tapestry. [Limited colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Serpents Of Dawn – Into The Garden CD/LP (Doom Stew)
New release from the doom metal band. [Limited gold colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Wayne Shorter – Emanon 3xCD/3xLP+3xCD (Blue Note)
Featuring a double-album and its companion piece – a self-penned, 84-page graphic novel – Wayne Shorter’s Emanon is the definitive look into his artistic multiverse. The standard three-CD set includes four studio tracks performed by Shorter’s quartet (pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade) and the expansive, 34-piece Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, in addition to a six-track live album featuring the quartet itself.
Sleaford Mods – Sleaford Mods CDEP/12” (Rough Trade)
British hip-hop/punk act Sleaford Mods’ eponymous EP follows-up 2017’s critically acclaimed English Tapas and features five brand new tracks including lead single, “Stick In A Five & Go”. Jason Williamson on the new material: “The lead tracks are mostly full of violent tendencies that only transpire through imagination. People are powerless under the political monster and the intense anger and frustration morphs into illusions of attacking each other through the bravado of social media, depression and paranoia.”
Spirit Of The Beehive – Hypnic Jerks CD/LP/Cassette (Tiny Engines)
Hypnic Jerks, the Philly quintet’s third full-length and second for Tiny Engines, sounds like, as frontman Zack Schwartz puts it, “the state between wakefulness and sleep.” It’s named after the involuntary muscle spasms that can happen right as someone begins dozing off, a perfect feeling to compare the album’s drowsy yet restless character to. Unlike the spiraling momentum of Pleasure Suck, Spirit Of The Beehive took a more grounded approach with Hypnic Jerks, though the ground they’re standing on is equally otherworldly. Dreamy is a fitting adjective, but the songs never fully slip into the peaceful yet backgrounded character of dream-pop.
Fred Thomas – Aftering CD/LP+MP3 (Polyvinyl)
Modeled loosely after Neil Young’s On The Beach, the 9-song Aftering moves from jumpy two minute blasts into a suite of four protracted and moody interconnected pieces. It burns through a first act of speedy, hook-heavy guitar rock before taking a sharp, brutal dive into an abyss on the album’s second half. [Limited colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Thrice – Palms CD/LP+MP3 (Epitaph)
Thrice created Palms with a free-form and fluid approach to the album’s sonic element. The result is their most expansive work to date, encompassing everything from viscerally charged post-hardcore to piano-driven balladry. [Limited red colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Throbbing Gristle – Heathen Earth: The Live Sound of Throbbing Gristle [Reissue/1980] CD/LP (Mute)
Throbbing Gristle – Mission Of Dead Souls [Reissue/1981] CD/LP (Mute)
Throbbing Gristle – Journey Through A Body [Reissue/1982] CD/2xLP (Mute)
Heathen Earth is a crucial 1980 live document of industrial pioneers Throbbing Gristle. Mission Of Dead Souls documents TG’s last live performance in San Francisco in 1981. It’s a given that the band’s studio work was noisy and abstract, but more was left to chance during gigs like this, with primitive synthesizers and other electronics pitted against a group trying to keep some semblance of control. Widely referred to as their most haunting work, Journey Through A Body was recorded as a piece of radio art for Italian National Radio RAI, Rome in March 1981. [Limited colored vinyl pressings also available.]
The Trews – Civilianaires CD (Cadence Music)
The Nova Scotia-bred, Hamilton, ON-based combo of singer/guitarist Colin MacDonald, guitarist John-Angus MacDonald, bassist Jack Syperek, and drummer Chris Gormley – songwriters all – has won universal acclaim for both their dazzling live performances and wildly accessible songs. With two Gold albums, 17 Top-10 singles on Canadian rock radio and over 25 music industry awards and nominations The Trews have earned their place as one of Canada’s most iconic rock bands. [Vinyl edition due October 5.]
Twisted Sister – You Can’t Stop Rock ‘N’ Roll [Reissue/1983] 2xCD (Atlantic)
Digitally remastered and expanded two CD edition of Twisted Sister’s massively successful 1983 album.
Uriah Heep – Living The Dream CD/CD+DVD/LP (Frontiers)
British classic rock royalty Uriah Heep offer up their twenty-fifth studio album.
Various Artists – Basement Beehive: The Girl Group Underground CD/2xLP (Numero)
Who do we become when we live our dreams? It’s all here— the high hairdos, the dreams and schemes, the tender camp, the wedding bell fantasias and chaste tragedies. Sister acts, studio receptionists, classmates, angelic voices of the 1960s; some legendary, many hidden in the basement of expired rainbows. Gathered on this deluxe double-LP (or CD) are 28 (56 on the compact disc) foiled escape attempts, now free to soar in girl group heaven.
Various Artists – Studio One: Freedom Sounds: Studio One in the 1960s CD/2xLP+MP3 (Soul Jazz)
A new collection from Soul Jazz/Studio One focusing on the intense period in the second half of the 1960s when Studio One’s vast and unbeatable output of ska, soul, rock steady and reggae made it literally one of the hottest musical empires in the world. During this highly successful period, Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd released hundreds and hundreds of superlative singles seemingly on an almost daily basis, in the process making huge stars out of Jamaican singers such as Alton Ellis, Delroy Wilson, the Wailers, Slim Smith, Jackie Opel and many more.
Loudon Wainwright III – Years In The Making 2xCD (Storysound)
Loudon Wainwright III’s Years In The Making compiles 45 years of off-beaten tracks into over two hours of rare and unissued Loudoniana along with a few brand new songs (“Birthday Boy” and “Rosin the Bow”) for good measure. It’s a double-CD audio-biography, full of orphaned album cuts, live recordings, radio appearances, home demos, and more.
Marcin Wasilewski Trio – Live CD/2xLP (ECM)
As UK magazine Jazz Journal has noted, “Wasilewski’s music celebrates a vast dynamic range, from the most deftly struck pianistic delicacies to gloriously intense emotional exuberance, the chords pounded with unrestrained joy, yet always within a marvelously melodic concept.”
Paul Weller – True Meanings CD/2xLP (WB/Parlophone)
To put it simply, True Meanings, the fourteenth Paul Weller solo album and the 26th studio album of his entire career, is a record unlike any he has ever made before. It’s characterized by grandiose-yet-delicate, lush orchestration: an aesthetic to which Weller’s better-than-ever voice, singing some of his most nakedly honest words, is perfectly suited. A dreamy, peaceful, pastoral set of songs to get lost in, it’s both an album that his faithful audience has been wanting him to make for a long time, and an album that many new people outside of that audience will relate to.
Ann Wilson – Immortal CD/2xLP (BMG Rights Management)
New solo release from the former vocalist from classic rock band Heart. 10 musically diverse tracks that pay tribute to some of Ann’s influences and friends who’ve recently passed and whose music poignantly lives on.
Yellowjackets – Raising Our Voice CD (Mack Avenue)
While the Los Angeles-based Yellowjackets have been a creative force on the jazz scene since 1981 when they recorded their eponymous debut, their fourth Mack Avenue Records album, Raising Our Voice, once again ups the ante with bold new strides by inviting vocalist extraordinaire Luciana Souza to collaborate with the group for seven of its thirteen tunes as well as subtly taking a resistant stand against the status quo of the cultural and political undercurrent of our times.
DVDs + Blu-ray:
Joni Mitchell – Both Sides Now: Live at The Isle of Wight Festival 1970 DVD/Blu-ray (Eagle Vision)
Directed by Academy Award winning filmmaker Murray Lerner, Both Sides Now: Live At The Isle Of Wight Festival 1970 features new interviews with Joni, discussing her recollections of the event intercut with festival footage, both onstage and behind the scenes, offering a fascinating insight into a now legendary concert from the artists point of view and putting the events of the day into context.
Rolling Stone: Stories From The Edge – 50 Years of Defining Culture DVD/Blu-ray (Shout! Factory)
Directed by Oscar-winner Alex Gibney (HBO’s Taxi To The Dark Side and Going Clear: Scientology And The Prison Of Belief) and Emmy winner Blair Foster (HBO’s George Harrison: Living In The Material World), and narrated by Jeff Daniels, Rolling Stone: Stories From The Edge chronicles the last 50 years of American music, politics and popular culture. This special documentary offers the unique perspective of a celebrated magazine that always understood that rock ‘n’ roll was more than just music: it was a cultural force that helped shape America and defined generations. An exhilarating visual and musical experience of the magazine’s history, the film features performances by an of artists, including The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner, Janis Joplin, The Sex Pistols, The Clash and Ice-T, and music from some of the cultural icons it heralded, including Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Fleetwood Mac and Chance The Rapper.
This Week’s Vinyl Exclusives:
1939 Ensemble – New Cinema LP (Jealous Butcher)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. If experiencing casually, the listener might catch moments of rhythmic guitar-and-hi-hat symbiosis akin to Battles, reverberating trumpet calls harkening to Miles Davis, effects-heavy swells that could have graced Jaga Jazzist’s mighty A Livingroom Hush or head-turning beat drops as deep as Amon Tobin’s Supermodified. But this album refuses to be shoehorned within a Venn Diagram of genres and artists any more than the unique artists compared here.
Dorothy Ashby – Afro-Harping [Reissue/1968] LP (Geffen)
Afro-Harping is an excellent late 60’s soulful jazz harp album from Dorothy Ashby recorded for Chess Records’ Cadet subsidiary with arrangements by Richard Evans. From the opening funky groove with Theremin to the reverb heavy harp solos Ashby stretches the capabilities of the harp throughout and proved that the instrument was way more than just an exotic orchestral color. Ashby’s harmonic selections are as up to date now as they were then; Freddy Hubbard’s “Sunflower” becomes a mind blowing mix of jazz, percussion and rock.
Marc Bolan – There Was A Time: Home Demos Volume 1 LP (Easy Action)
Marc Bolan – Slight Thigh Be-Bop (And Old Gumbo Jill) Home Demos Volume 3 LP (Easy Action)
The first and third installments in the series of home demos restored and remastered for vinyl from recently acquired materials returned to the estate of Marc Bolan. Featured here are embryonic recordings of songs, some of which would find their way on to T. Rex’s beloved Tanx album, while many remained unreleased.
Peabo Bryson – Stand For Love LP (Caroline)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Stand For Love showcases legendary recording artist, Peabo Bryson’s broad vocal range and musical skill. Counted among the world’s most dynamic and gifted vocal talents, Peabo is a world-renowned balladeer with a career that includes two Grammys, two Oscars, multiple gold albums, multiple No. 1 songs and chart-topping singles in R&B, pop and contemporary jazz.
Eric Burdon & The Animals – Winds Of Change [Reissue/1967] LP (Sundazed)
Mono pressing. Reeling from poor management decisions and inter-band strife, The Animals fell apart toward the end of 1966. Seeking a rebirth, lead vocalist Eric Burdon relocated from London to California. There, Burdon assembled a new lineup, retaining only drummer Barry Jenkins from the previous incarnation. Now known as Eric Burdon and The Animals, the group immersed themselves in the psychedelic culture of San Francisco and their sound followed suit. Informed by his inaugural acid trip, Burdon led his bandmates through a fresh, decidedly lysergic interpretation of American blues. [Limited blue colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Camila Cabello – Camila LP (Epic)
Limited red colored vinyl LP pressing. Debut studio album from Camila Cabello, the Cuban-born pop singer who recently broke away from her girl group Fifth Harmony to focus on her solo career. Primarily a pop record, the album incorporates elements of Latin music and R&B.
Terry Callier – What Color Is Love [Reissue/1972] LP (GRP)
Terry Callier was an American jazz, soul, and folk guitarist and singer-songwriter. His 1972 release What Color Is Love mixes the Chicago soul sound from Chess/Cadet records of the modern soul of Curtis Mayfield and Jerry Butler. He opened for George Benson and Gil Scott-Heron. His creamy, soulful tenor floats atop the groove that he creates. After gaining custody of his daughter he became a full-time father and drifted away from music and in to computer science
Jean Cohen-Solal – Flutes Libres [Reissue/1972] LP (SouffleContinu)
Jean Cohen-Solal studied flute from all angles, and became one of the great French virtuosi, along with Michel Edelin who at the time was with Triode. This was a period (1972) when flutists were very popular with the public, most of whom had been influenced by Roland Kirk, including Ian Anderson in Jethro Tull. Whereas Jean Cohen-Solal tells a different story, richer and centered on the instrument itself, using the magic of overdubs.
Dick Dale and His Del-Tones – Singles Collection ’61 – 65 2xLP (Sundazed)
28 wild ‘n’ killer single sides from the Deltone and Capitol labels. These powerhouse As & Bs offer testament to the undiminished power of Dale’s work, as well as his continuing status as one of rock’s preeminent guitar innovators.
Dorian Concept – The Nature of Imitation LP+MP3 (Brainfeeder)
Taking inspiration from multi-generational eclecticism (‘60s jazz, ‘70s fusion, ‘80s neo prog-rock, ‘90s electronica), Dorian Concept replicates “modern” music elements with old-fashioned methods, live-playing and hand-recording deceptively digital sounds in service of a tongue-in-cheek “parody of nostalgia.”
First Aid Kit – Tender Offerings 10” (Sony)
“Technically, Tender Offerings are the four songs that did not make it onto Ruins. For these ladies, these precious songs did not fit the bombastic folk-nature of the album. Instead, they truly felt like tender offerings; too sweet and soft in scope to be fluidly aligned with their other tracks. Once, you hear such gorgeous tracks like, “I’ve Wanted You” and “All That We Get” you will understand their point. Instrumentally, you feel every hook, melody, and chorus was precisely and clearly made as a cloud creates a raindrop. This duo turn their guitar melodies into field of amber strings dancing in the suns of their voices like grains move with daylight.” – Diandra Reviews It All
The Flaming Lips – In A Priest Driven Ambulance [Reissue/1990] LP (Rhino)
The Flaming Lips – Death Trippin’ At Sunrise: Rarities, B-Sides & Flexi-Discs 1986-1990 2xLP (Rhino)
Vinyl reissue of The Flaming Lips’ fourth studio album and a new rarities/B-sides collection.
Girlschool – Demolition [Reissue/1980] LP (Dissonance)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. As The Runaways are to American rock ‘n’ roll, Girlschool is to UK rock ‘n’ roll, the most famous all-female British hard rock export. The group first emerged in the late ‘70s as part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement and are closely associated with Motörhead. In Spring 1980 they released their debut Demolition which was produced by the legendary Vic Maile (who worked on the Who’s Live at Leeds and Motorhead’s Ace of Spades) and featured their stellar cover of The Gun’s “Race with the Devil”.
Tord Gustavsen Trio – The Other Side LP (ECM)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Over the last decade, Tord Gustavsen has experimented with other ensemble forms and formats, but on The Other Side – recorded at Oslo’s Rainbow Studio in January 2018, he returns decisively to the piano trio with faithful drummer Jarle Vespestad and excellent new bassist Sigurd Hole. Hole’s approach to his instrument, drawing on folk influences as well as modern jazz, is ideally suited to Gustavsen’s slowly-developing, deeply melodic pieces. Produced by Manfred Eicher.
The Heptones – Book Of Rules [Reissue/1973] LP (Get On Down)
Once again available as first issued in Jamaica in 1973, this is a landmark roots reggae recording that’s not to be overlooked.
Kansas – Point Of No Return [Reissue/1977] LP+MP3 (Epic)
Vinyl reissue of the classic rock band’s fifth album. Includes the hit single “Dust In The Wind”.
King Diamond – The Puppet Master [Reissue/2003] 2xLP (Metal Blade)
King Diamond – Deadly Lullabyes (Live) [Reissue/2004] 2xLP (Metal Blade)
King Diamond – Give Me Your Soul…Please [Reissue/2007] 2xLP (Metal Blade)
Latest round of picture disc vinyl reissues of the metal band’s entire catalogue.
Lola Kirke – Heart Head West LP (Downtown)
At sixteen, Lola Kirke discovered Gram Parsons and the Cosmic American genre he defined. In spite of being a New Yorker by the way of London, Kirke felt a strong connection to his country-rock sound.
L’Rain – L’Rain LP (Astro Nautica)
Debut release by L’Rain (Taja Cheek), a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, tape manipulator and vocalist from Brooklyn. Rising on a wave of synths and breathy sax, the album unfolds with electric guitar arpeggios and undulating vocal swells, unwrapping a dense psychedelic arrangement grounded by clattering acoustic drum patterns and the ephemeral soars of Cheek’s voice.
Korpiklaani – Kulkija 2xLP (Nuclear Blast)
Released last week on CD – now available on vinyl. The Finnish folk metallers return with their 10th studio album.
Gary Louris – Vagabonds [Reissue/2008] 2xLP (Run Out Groove)
Expanded 180gm double-LP edition includes bonus disc of outtakes, demos and acoustic tracks, with many making their vinyl debut as well as several never having been released on any physical format. To fans of alt-country and melodic songwriting, the name Gary Louris is an important one. As founding member of the Jayhawks and intermittent member of Golden Smog, the vocalist, guitarist and songwriter is largely responsible for moving the former from folk-country towards a more progressive, pop sound. In 2008, Louris released his debut solo album, Vagabonds, produced by Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson and recorded in Laurel Canyon; famous for being the epicenter of the 1970s singer-songwriter scene.
Medeski, Martin, & Wood and Alarm Will Sound – Omnisphere LP (Indirecto)
Medeski, Martin, Wood’s new album, Omnisphere was recorded with the inimitable Alarm Will Sound orchestra live at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts in Denver, CO in February 2015. The results are both expected, in the peerless level of the musicianship, and stunning, in the sweeping stylistic range of the program.
Mr. T Experience – Shards Volume Two: Pieces Of The Mr. T Experience 1985-1999 2xCD/LP (Sounds Rad)
the second of a two-volume collection of rarities, live tracks and outtakes-versions of songs previously scattered on any numerous of B-sides, and compilations.
Ali Shaheed Muhammad & Adrian Younge – The Midnight Hour (Instrumental) 2xLP Linear Labs)
The Midnight Hour is sophisticated hip-hop that fans will enjoy, capturing their jazz rhythm section, and full orchestra, to analog tape. It is now available as full instrumentals on vinyl.
Night Shop – In The Break LP (Woodsist)
Night Shop is the songwriting project of Justin Sullivan who has worked as a touring drummer for the past 20 years with a half dozen DIY punk bands, including Ringers and an early incarnation of Worriers. Like most of Sullivan’s projects, In The Break is a family affair. His former touring and recording partner in the Kevin Morby band, Meg Duffy (Hand Habits) plays bass on several of the songs and sings backup vocals on a few as well. Flat Worms cohort Will Ivy plays lead guitar on some, while Mare labelmate and soon-to-be touring partner Anna St. Louis sings backup on two songs.
Robert Pollard – Waved Out [Reissue/1995] LP (GBV Inc.)
Robert Pollard’s Waved Out gets the 20th anniversary reissue treatment with newly remastered audio and a beautiful colored vinyl pressing. The Guided By Voices captain’s second solo album from 1998 captures the more eclectic side of his songwriting and finds him brilliantly compressing prog, psych, and post-punk ideas into magnificent two-minute pop songs. Wire, early Genesis, Nilsson Schmilsson, Lennon’s White Album songs, Blue Öyster Cult, XTC, and Captain Beefheart.
Raven – Live At The Inferno [Reissue/1984] 2xLP (Back On Black)
1984’s Live At The Inferno is the Raven’s final album for Neat Records before signing with Atlantic. “In order to preempt our old record company putting out the inevitable ‘greatest hits’, we basically did this album live and was part of our deal in getting away from Neat Records,” explains John Gallagher. “A great snapshot of what we sounded like on our second USA tour. Back cover shot is from the Roseland NYC show we did with Anthrax and Metallica.”
Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes – N°2 [Reissue/1970] LP (Anthology Recordings)
Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes – me Debout [Reissue/1971] LP (Anthology Recordings)
Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes – Paix [Reissue/1972] LP (Anthology Recordings)
Vinyl reissues of the long out of print – and never before officially issued in the US – trilogy of albums by Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes. These foundational LPs are arguably the group’s finest hours on wax, fills in a crucial missing link in the canon of psychedelic and experimental music of the ‘60s and ‘70s.
Rivers Of Nihil – Monarchy [Reissue/2015] LP (Metal Blade)
Formed in 2009 by guitarist Brody Uttley, bassist/lyricist Adam Biggs, and vocalist Jake Dieffenbach, Rivers of Nihil quickly made a name for themselves in the death metal scene. Their second album, Monarchy, is available for the first time on vinyl. Limited cream colored pressing also available.
Pharoah Sanders – Thembi [Reissue/1971] LP (Impulse!)
The exceptionally diverse Thembi finds the musical explorer (on tenor & soprano saxophone and alto flute among other instruments) incorporating many different emotional landscapes and equally compelling moments of serenity and tension. Alongside Pharoah here are keyboardist Lonnie Liston Smith (who uses a Fender Rhodes electric piano for the first time), violinist Michael White, bassist Cecil McBee, drummer Roy Haynes, and percussionists Chief Bey, Majid Shabbaz, and Nat Bettis.
Siouxsie & The Banshees – The Scream [Reissue/1978] LP (Geffen)
Siouxsie & The Banshees – A Kiss In The Dreamhouse [Reissue/1982] LP (Geffen)
Siouxsie & The Banshees – Superstition [Reissue/1991] 2xLP (Geffen)
180gm vinyl reissues of the British post-punk band’s first, fifth and tenth albums.
Soundtrack – Batman Forever: Music From The Motion Picture [Reissue/1995] 2xLP (Atlantic)
Originally released in 1995, Batman Forever: Music From The Motion Picture features 14-tracks of prime ’90s pop, rock, punk, and R&B. In advance of its release, there was no doubt as to which song was considered to be the MVP of the bunch, and that’s U2’s “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me”.
Steve’n’Seagulls – Grainsville LP (Spinefarm)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Steve’n’Seagulls is a Finnish band playing bluegrass versions of classic rock tracks, such as their viral hit of AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck”, with an arsenal of instruments ranging from accordion, banjo, Cajon, double bass and so forth.
Matthew Sweet – Altered Beast [Reissue/1993] 2xLP (Intervention)
Limited double 180gm vinyl LP pressing in gatefold jacket. Includes bonus tracks. The middle entry in Matthew Sweet’s holy ’90s power pop trilogy, Altered Beast is a sprawling, multi-dimensional power-pop trip.
The Temperance Movement – A Deeper Cut LP (Spinefarm)
Third studio album by the British blues rock band.
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats – Blood Lust [Reissue/2011] LP (Rise Above)
Uncle Acid – Mind Control [Reissue/2013] 2xLP (Rise Above)
Limited import-only splatter colored vinyl reissues of the English psych/acid band’s second and third albums.
Tom Waits – Heartattack And Vine [Reissue/1980] LP+MP3 (ANTI-)
Released in 1980, Heartattack And Vine was Waits’ final album on Elektra Asylum and it built on the raw blues approach of Blue Valentine with the incendiary title track, the funky, organ driven “Downtown” and the stomping NOLA blues of “Mr. Siegal”. This album also contains some of Waits’ most popular ballads, including “Jersey Girl” which was famously a hit for Bruce Springsteen. “On The Nickle” is a moving song about the homeless people who lived on 5th street in downtown LA, and “Ruby’s Arms” is a beautiful song with a lovely Bach-like melody. [180gm pressing also available.]
Weeknd – Kiss Land [Reissue/2013] 2xLP (Republic)
Double seaglass-colored vinyl LP pressing. Kiss Land followed up The Weeknd’s unanimously celebrated double-platinum selling 2012 debut, Trilogy. Tapping into that same signature mystique, this second effort is an elegant pastiche of love, longing, and lust set to a futuristic soundtrack of shimmering keys, disruptive synths, and airy atmospherics.
Cassettes:
Active Bird Community – Amends (Barsuk)
New York indie rock quartet Active Bird Community rose from their scrappy suburban teenage garage band roots to become a successful national touring act and Brooklyn scene fixture with a ’90s-influenced slacker-garage-grunge-pop sound and a handful of well-crafted records to their credit.
Blitzen Trapper – Furr [Reissue/2008] (Sub Pop)
Deluxe 10th Anniversary reissue expanded with 12 rare & previously unreleased tracks.
Spirit Of The Beehive – Hypnic Jerks (Tiny Engines)
Dreamy is a fitting adjective, but the songs never fully slip into the peaceful yet backgrounded character of dream-pop. Rather than an ongoing fantasy, Hypnic Jerks has the quality of an indescribable dream fading from memory as you slowly begin to regain consciousness. Its warped guitar tones, transcendental synths, and smattering of eerie audio samples conjure this purgatorial space between reverie and reality.
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