Social Media Program Titles Released This Week:
Edie Brickell & New Bohemians – Hunter And The Dog Star CD (Shuffle)
Hunter And The Dog Star is Edie Brickell and New Bohemians’ fifth studio album and their first since 2018’s Rocket – a record that marked a major return for the group following a 12-year hiatus and was released to widespread critical acclaim. Returning to Arlyn Studios in Austin, TX to record with producer Kyle Crusham, Brickell and the New Bohemians – Brandon Aly (drums), John Bush (drums, percussion), Brad Houser (bass, synthesizer) and Kenny Withrow (bass, guitars, synthesizer) – once again put forth a collection of diverse musical ideas and styles on Hunter And The Dog Star, as they have continuously done for the past three decades. Reflecting on the album, Brickell shares, “Hunter And The Dog Star is a collection of songs reflecting the mystery of self-expression, loyalty, companionship and love in the darkest sky just before dawn.”
David Coverdale – Whitesnake [Reissue/1977] LP (Eagle Rock Entertainment)
Limited-edition coke bottle clear vinyl pressing. David Coverdale’s decision to quit Deep Purple in the spring of 1976 allowed him to start work on his first ever solo album, White Snake. Exiled in Germany and unable to form a band, the low-key release, recorded with the help of guitarist Micky Moody, was the first tentative step towards what became a hugely successful career with the band who took their name from this album.
Deep Purple – California Jam: Live In California ’74 2xLP (Eagle Rock Entertainment)
Deep Purple was the biggest selling album act in America when they embarked on a 28-date tour promoting their new album Burn. The undoubted climax of this tour was headlining the California Jam Festival at Ontario Speedway in California, in front of 200,000 people. This year marks the 47th anniversary of this historic event. The set list includes tracks from Burn, as well as classics like “Space Truckin'” and “Smoke On The Water”. For the first time on 180g vinyl.
Katy Kirby – Cool Dry Place CD/LP/Cassette (Keeled Scales)
Cool Dry Place is the debut full-length album from Texas-bred, Nashville-based indie rocker, Katy Kirby. The nine songs here are equal parts driving indie-pop and artful folk songwriting in the vein of Waxahatchee, Lucy Dacus, and Frankie Cosmos. Intimate, vulnerable lyrics give way to anthemic choruses, true earworm, and memorable vocal melodies. The songs are miscellaneous in subject (motherhood, late capitalism, disintegrating relationships), but unified by the angle from which they’re told, from a person re-learning to process life with intense attention. Each song is a catalog of fragments, the number of segments in an orange or the cut of an obsessively worn shirt, distilled into meditations on the bizarre and microscopic exchanges that make up modern life – a relationship splintering, an uncomfortable pause, an understanding finally found. These emotional dioramas are moderated by the angular storytelling that unites Gillian Welch and Phoebe Bridgers, a favor for the conventions of short fiction over confession. [A limited-edition indie store only colored vinyl pressing is available.]
Marketing Program/ Banner/ Listening Station Titles Promoted This Week:
Hearty Har – Radio Astro CD (BMG)
“‘When you hear really good rock ‘n’ roll music, you’re a little bit mystified – ‘How is this made? How is this even possible?’ ponders Hearty Har’s Tyler Fogerty, ahead of the band’s new release Radio Astro. Consisting of brothers Tyler Fogerty and Shane Fogerty – both the sons of Creedence Clearwater Revival legend John Fogerty – Hearty Har pulls from a wide swath of influences on this project, from spaghetti westerns (‘Fare Thee Well’) to Tom Petty (‘Don’t Go Looking For Me’) to the idea that you need to find beauty as the tide changes (‘Waves Of Ecstasy’), proving their description as ‘part perfectionists and part mad scientists.’” – Relix
The Hold Steady – Open Door Policy CD/LP (Positive Jams)
“We recorded Open Door Policy in two different sessions in the back half of 2019. Once again, we teamed with producer Josh Kaufman and engineer Dan Goodwin, this time at the Clubhouse studio in upstate NY. Our intention was to create an album that worked as a grand piece, rather than a collection of songs. 2019 was an active year for The Hold Steady – our writing was consistent, and new songs were coming in pretty regularly. The recording process was creative, open and fun. The songs on Open Door Policy are about power, wealth, and mental health. They’re about technology, occupation, consumerism, freedom, fandom and escape. And although the album was written and recorded in 2019, the themes of this record seem to be underscored and highlighted by this year of virus and quarantine.” – Craig Finn [A limited-edition indie store only colored vinyl pressing is available.]
Mogwai – As The Love Continues CD/2xLP+MP3 (Temporary Residence)
Mogwai has advanced without a plan since they were teenagers; there have been no secretive meetings to work out the master plan. It is rare to hear a band that has been going for this long and have this many albums behind them – ten records in and still no disappointments or mistaken creative left turns. You may know what to expect, but you will never get the same. Both transcendent and surprising, As The Love Continues shows that Mogwai are still offering solace from the mundane, supplying the soundtrack to whatever movie you are making in your head. Produced by Dave Fridmann the album features contributions from Atticus Ross (“Midnight Flit”) and Colin Stetson (“Pat Stains”) and arrives almost exactly 25 years after the release of the Mogwai’s debut single, “Tuner” b/w “Lower.” [A limited-edition indie store only colored vinyl pressing is available.]
Lael Neal – Acquainted With Night CD (Sub Pop)
It is the simple thing that is so hard to do. This is the paradox that musician Lael Neale has lived within throughout her development as an artist. It is the reason she became enthralled with poetry. Poems are a distillation. Lael says, “this challenge to winnow away what is unessential is the most maddening and, ultimately, rewarding part of writing a song.” Lael’s new album Acquainted With Night is a testament to this poetic devotion. Stripped of any extraneous word or sound, the songs are lit by Lael’s crystalline voice which lays on a lush bed of Omnichord. The collection touches on themes that have been thread into her work for years: isolation, mortality, yearning, and reaching ever toward the transcendent experience. Guy Blakeslee, who had been an advocate for years, facilitated the process by setting up the cassette recorder in her bedroom and providing empathic guidance, subtle yet affecting accompaniment and engineering prowess. Limited to only 4-tracks and first takes, Lael had to surrender some of her perfectionism to deliver the songs in their essence. [Vinyl edition due April 30.]
nothing,nowhere. – Trauma Factory CD (Fueled By Ramen)
Over the course of 15 tracks, Trauma Factory cuts deep and finds nothing,nowhere. (the musical endeavor of Vermont songwriter/singer/guitarist Joe Mulherin) once again emerging from darkness, shedding external expectation, and moving forward into the glow of pure creation. Whether it be the anesthetized beats and intoxicating lull of love or chemistry, the cold piano-laden longing of crave, or the emotional immediacy of upside down, nothing,nowhere. paints from a wide palette of pain. “Trauma Factory is an accumulation of songs written during a confusing time,” Mulherin says. “It is about accepting the present and following your true north through the pain and suffering of human life. I wanted to make an album that was truly genreless and inspire others to challenge themselves artistically. I believe the most inspiring art is unpredictable and unrestrictive. To me that’s what Trauma Factory is.” [Vinyl edition due March 12.]
Valley Maker – When The Day Leaves CD/LP (French Kiss)
We have all become experts in the imbalance of uncertainty these days, newly accustomed to canceling plans and tentatively rescheduling them for some future we can only imagine. For Austin Crane – the ruminative songwriter, riveting guitarist, and singular voice – such a sense of uncertainty has emerged as his steadfast companion these last few years, a period of profound transition. This flux is the anchor for the gorgeous and felicitous When The Day Leaves. Driven as it is by departure, When The Day Leaves marks the arrival of Valley Maker as a trustworthy narrator for these shaky times. Crane synthesizes these complex feelings into single, “No One Is Missing”. All these thoughts are rendered with newfound lyrical richness, balancing intimate tidbits with universal ambiguity. For 46 minutes, you feel like you’re sitting with Crane in an intricate, unified sound-world of his design. He offloads his observations about our tangled thicket of hope and fear, aspiration and exasperation.
CDs + Vinyl:
Alabama Slim – The Parlor CD/LP (Cornelius Chapel)
The Parlor was tracked in one take for a straight-to-tape feel but was captured digitally at The Parlor recording studio. Cornelius Chapel brought in Dial Back Sound’s Matt Patton (Dexateens, Drive-By Truckers) and Bronson Tew. Patton and Tew were able to take the raw files and remix and master them back onto tape after Patton and Jimbo Mathus (Squirrel Nut Zippers) sequenced the record and added the perfect amount of bass, organ, and piano so that Tew could work his magic. The final product is an instant classic with Little Freddie King even taking over lead vocals on Freddie’s VooDoo Boogie. This is a lesson of perseverance and true grit. One never knows when the proper team can come together to leave their cumulative mark on an age-old genre.
The Amenta – Revelator CD/LP (Debemur Morti Productions)
The heart of these Australian extreme metal innovators might be crooked, but full of energy and a will to transcend and further expand the limits of the metal genre – a mix of industrial and death.
Another Michael – New Music And Big Pop CD/LP (Run For Cover)
Recorded in a small A-frame house-turned-makeshift studio outside Ferndale, NY, New Music And Big Pop finds west Philadelphia trio Another Michael pushing their sound in a dreamier, more folk-influenced direction, building songs around vulnerable, intimate performances using an ethereal palette of breezy guitars, subtle keyboards, and layered harmonies. [Limited edition coke bottle green vinyl pressing also available.]
Appalooza – The Holy Of Holies CD/LP (Ripple Music)
A blend of stoner, grunge and post metal.
The Archives – Carry Me Home: A Reggae Tribute To Gil Scott-Heron And Brian Jackson CD/2xLP+MP3 (Montserrat House)
Washington DC’s The Archives and Montserrat House, the label owned and operated by Thievery Corporation’s Eric Hilton, present Carry Me Home. A Reggae Tribute To Gil Scott-Heron And Brian Jackson. Carry Me Home is a highly ambitious collaboration featuring an array of guests (including Puma Ptah, Raheem DeVaughn, Addis Pablo and Kenyatta Hill) celebrating the works of the late, great poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron and close collaborator Brian Jackson.
Edie Brickell & New Bohemians – Hunter And The Dog Star CD (Shuffle)
Hunter And The Dog Star is Edie Brickell and New Bohemians’ fifth studio album and their first since 2018’s Rocket – a record that marked a major return for the group following a 12-year hiatus and was released to widespread critical acclaim. Returning to Arlyn Studios in Austin, TX to record with producer Kyle Crusham, Brickell and the New Bohemians – Brandon Aly (drums), John Bush (drums, percussion), Brad Houser (bass, synthesizer) and Kenny Withrow (bass, guitars, synthesizer) – once again put forth a collection of diverse musical ideas and styles on Hunter And The Dog Star, as they have continuously done for the past three decades. Reflecting on the album, Brickell shares, “Hunter And The Dog Star is a collection of songs reflecting the mystery of self-expression, loyalty, companionship and love in the darkest sky just before dawn.”
BTS – Be (Essential Edition) CD (Bighit Entertainment)
Limited edition includes a 140-page photobook, two photocards, and poster. Be is the fifth Korean-language (ninth overall) studio album by BTS. Created in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Be is inspired by the thoughts and feelings the band experienced during the conception of the project. The record sees the band members contributing to various aspects of the album including songwriting, development, production, visual aspects, and direction.
Robert Calvert – The Last Starfighter CD/LP (Cleopatra)
One of the most charismatic and cutting-edge visionaries to emerge out of London’s psych rock scene of the ’60s and ’70s, Hawkwind frontman Robert Calvert, gets rediscovered and revamped by a superb collection of next-gen artists. Features remixes by indie noise icons Xiu Xiu, chillwave group Small Black, post-punkers Soft Kill plus darkwave duos Xeno & Oaklander and Sixth June as well as veterans A Flock Of Seagulls and The Damned’s Rat Scabies. Includes tracks from both Calvert’s solo albums as well as rare demos that offer a glimpse of where Calvert was headed artistically and what he might have sounded like if he was still making music today. [Limited colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Sarah Mary Chadwick – Me And Ennui Are Friends, Baby CD/LP (Rice Is Nice)
Me And Ennui Are Friends, Baby is the latest full-length from New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based singer-songwriter, Sarah Mary Chadwick, whose brutally honest songwriting has cast her contrary to the gentleness of most current music. Comprised entirely of minimal solo piano arrangements, the album is despondently clear-eyed and smirkingly self-deprecating, completing a trilogy of records that started with The Queen Who Stole The Sky recorded on Melbourne Town Hall’s grand organ, and her only outing to date featuring a full band, Please Daddy.
Crucifix – Dehumanization [Reissue/1983] CD/LP (Kustomized)
Dehumanization is the only full-length album from the band Crucifix. Recorded in 1983, it is considered a classic American hardcore album and a landmark of anarcho-punk. Dehumanization delivers a raging critique of war, violence, displacement, and the decimation of human rights and human dignity-themes at once global in scope and also completely endemic to Reagan-era America. The intensity of this message is matched only by the intensity of the sound: a heavy minimalist construction built on brutal guitar riffs, low-end distortion, hardcore fury and teenage speed.
Crystal Viper – The Cult CD/LP (Listenable)
The Cult brings Crystal Viper back to their roots: traditional and pure heavy metal. The album is full of epic melodies, great riffs and guitar harmonies, ripping solos, and catchy refrains with lyrics inspired by the works of H. P. Lovecraft. [Vinyl edition includes a bonus track.]
Demon Head – Viscera CD (Metal Blade)
Demon Head is the long-lasting constellation of five internationally based and widely acclaimed musicians; Mikkel Sander Fuglsang, Birk Gjerlufsen Nielsen, Marcus Ferreira Larsen, Thor Gjerlufsen Nielsen and Jeppe Wittus. Though hesitant to compromise the description of the music they perform through generalizing terms of genre, they’ve coined the term diabolic rock as an appropriate presentation.
Ian Fisher – American Standards CD/LP (Ian Fisher Music)
It’s been more than a decade since Ian Fisher left his home state of Missouri and moved to Europe, forever changing his life and his music. With songs that combine an international lyrical perspective and a world-traveler’s musical influences with Americana roots, Fisher has remained on the road ever since emigrating, penning over one and a half thousand songs while also playing hundreds of concerts around Europe, North America, and Africa and performing in a handful of theater pieces in Vienna and Munich.
Aretha Franklin – The Genius Of Aretha Franklin CD (Atlantic)
Beyond the timeless classic hits such as “Respect”, “A Natural Woman”, “Chain Of Fools”, “Think”, “Daydreaming” and “Freeway Of Love” among the dozens of chart-topping records that have established her as a cultural icon, Aretha Franklin’s catalog of over forty albums in forms listeners of her unmatched, unparalleled artistry as an interpreter of song, bar none. Her elevation to ‘royal’ status is indeed not just a function of her hit making ability but of her unique inventiveness as a musician who fuses art and soul seamlessly.
Gatekeeper – An Unexpected Reality CD/LP (Closed Casket Activities)
New album from the Arizona death metal squad.
The Gold Needles – What’s Tomorrow Ever Done For You? CD/LP (Jem)
Following the critically acclaimed, Through A Window, and their contributions to the album Jem Records Celebrates John Lennon, The Gold Needles deliver the eagerly anticipated What’s Tomorrow Ever Done for You? The album contains twelve tracks with three covers done in true Gold Needles style. Harder, darker but still full of melody and rocking from first to last. Much of the album was inspired by the iconic movie set piece from the Harold Lloyd-starring silent film Safety Last where he hangs from a giant clock.
Grandaddy – The Sophtware Slump… On A Wooden Piano CD/LP (Dangerbird)
Modesto, CA’s influential indie-rock group Grandaddy celebrates the 20th-anniversary of their classic second LP, 2000’s The Sophtware Slump with a brand-new solo piano recording of the album by principal songwriter Jason Lytle. The candid arrangements reveal new layers of meaning embedded in The Sophtware Slump‘s melancholy and touching vision of the future. With a meticulous yet scruffy sound that continues to draw comparisons to a post-millennial OK Computer – and which Pitchfork called “a sad, quaint, low-key Y2K-era classic” – The Sophtware Slump, now heard as a solo piano album, is a chance to let the songwriting shine.
Gravesend – Methods Of Human Disposal CD/LP (20 Buck Spin)
NYC’s Gravesend arise with ill intent, like a foul emanation from the aging, sewage-filled rot slowly winding its way beneath the city’s vast concrete walls and pavement pathways. A New York of discarded needles, noxious fumes, scavenging rats, broken bottles and cracked minds. An aural manifesto of urban blight and disgust, Methods Of Human Disposal works like a lone killer stalking the streets, internally seething with rage, preparing to cast off the last remnants of restraint. Bear witness to savage black / death metal with a hellish grindcore fixation, searing warped speeds, and the slowly swelling carnage of a derailed subway pile-up. [Limited white colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Hearty Har – Radio Astro CD (BMG)
“‘When you hear really good rock ‘n’ roll music, you’re a little bit mystified – ‘How is this made? How is this even possible?’ ponders Hearty Har’s Tyler Fogerty, ahead of the band’s new release Radio Astro. Consisting of brothers Tyler Fogerty and Shane Fogerty – both the sons of Creedence Clearwater Revival legend John Fogerty – Hearty Har pulls from a wide swath of influences on this project, from spaghetti westerns (‘Fare Thee Well’) to Tom Petty (‘Don’t Go Looking For Me’) to the idea that you need to find beauty as the tide changes (‘Waves Of Ecstasy’), proving their description as ‘part perfectionists and part mad scientists.’” – Relix
Here Lies Man – Ritual Divination CD (Riding Easy)
Four albums in, the convenient and generalized catchphrase for Here Lies Man’s erudite sound – if Black Sabbath played Afrobeat – might seem a little played out. But Ritual Divination is perhaps the best rendering of the idea so far. Particularly on the Sabbath side of the equation: The guitars are heavier, and more blues based than before, but the ancient rhythmic formula of the clave remains a constant. [Vinyl edition due March 5.]
Eric Hilton – The Impossible Silence CD/LP (Montserrat House)
From Thievery Corporation co-founder Eric Hilton comes The Impossible Silence, a Director’s cut of elegant electronica inspired by vintage film soundtracks of the 1960s and 70s. Crafted at Hilton’s Winter Palace Studio, The Impossible Silence unspools across 13 atmospheric cuts, a soundtrack to a film that exists in the mind of the composer, and anyone who listens.
The Hold Steady – Open Door Policy CD/LP (Positive Jams)
“We recorded Open Door Policy in two different sessions in the back half of 2019. Once again, we teamed with producer Josh Kaufman and engineer Dan Goodwin, this time at the Clubhouse studio in upstate NY. Our intention was to create an album that worked as a grand piece, rather than a collection of songs. 2019 was an active year for The Hold Steady – our writing was consistent, and new songs were coming in pretty regularly. The recording process was creative, open and fun. The songs on Open Door Policy are about power, wealth, and mental health. They’re about technology, occupation, consumerism, freedom, fandom and escape. And although the album was written and recorded in 2019, the themes of this record seem to be underscored and highlighted by this year of virus and quarantine.” – Craig Finn [A limited-edition indie store only colored vinyl pressing is available.]
Lightnin’ Hopkins – King Of Downling Street 2xCD (Sunset Blvd)
57 tracks, 20 never before on CD, plus 12 previously unreleased performances. Remastered from analog tapes. Texas bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins career was both long and fruitful. He performed live for six decades and recorded for over 30 years amassing a catalogue that was larger than almost any of his contemporaries. Not only was he prolific but he was also a great raconteur and a very good live performer with an ‘act’ honed to perfection at pre-war dances and parties. His guitar playing was unconventional, some have even called it ragged, but it is not as a guitarist that he will be remembered. Somehow the way he set his songs seemed totally apposite and it gave everything he did an authenticity that few others were ever able to match.
Icon For Hire – Amorphous CD/LP (Icon For Hire)
Icon for Hire are the sleeping giants of the modern rock scene. Their sound is one that effortlessly blends heavy riffs, elements of electronic production and soaring vocal lines into a powerful and bold sonic explosion.
Jakethehawk – Hinterlands CD/LP (Ripple Music)
Heirs to the expansive psych-fuzz explorations of bands like King Buffalo, Howling Giant and ASG, Jakethehawk merge the classic, riff-centric sound of proto-metal’s pioneers with the textures of psychedelic rock and progressive rock. They also draw heavy influences from the lush, wooded river valley they call home and its rich folk music tradition, embracing the oxymoronic moniker, Appalachian Desert Rock, because it sums their sound up perfectly (and they like it). [Limited splatter colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Jose James – Jose James: New York New 2020 (Live) 2xCD (Rainbow)
Jose James: New York 2020 is the first highly anticipated live album from an artist with a decade long career built on his electric live show. Despite an entire year without shows, James found a way to create and connect with audiences during the peak of Coronavirus NY lockdown. Jose James is known for assembling some of the best live bands in the world, and his New York 2020 crew is no exception. Each song resonates with the creative urgency of an effervescent, resilient 2020 New York City.
Cassandra Jenkins – An Overview On Phenomenal Nature CD/LP (Ba Da Bing!)
“Nothing ever really disappears,” Cassandra Jenkins says. “It just changes shape.” Over the past few years, she’s seen relationships altered, travelled three continents, wandered through museums and parks, and recorded free-associative guided tours of her New York haunts. Her observations capture the humanity and nature around her, as well as thought patterns, memories, and attempts to be present while dealing with pain and loss. With a singular voice, Jenkins siphons these ideas into the ambient folk of her new album, An Overview On Phenomenal Nature.
cEvin Key – Xwayxway CD/2xLP (Artoffact)
Skinny Puppy founder cEvin Key’s first proper solo record in nearly 20 years. The album features collaborations from IAMX, Edward KaSpel, Traz Damji, Otto von Schirach and more. As one of the most influential electronic musicians of the last 40 years, Key’s Xwayxway sets a new bar. [Limited blue color vinyl pressing also available.]
Katy Kirby – Cool Dry Place CD/LP/Cassette (Keeled Scales)
Cool Dry Place is the debut full-length album from Texas-bred, Nashville-based indie rocker, Katy Kirby. The nine songs here are equal parts driving indie-pop and artful folk songwriting in the vein of Waxahatchee, Lucy Dacus, and Frankie Cosmos. Intimate, vulnerable lyrics give way to anthemic choruses, true earworm, and memorable vocal melodies. The songs are miscellaneous in subject (motherhood, late capitalism, disintegrating relationships), but unified by the angle from which they’re told, from a person re-learning to process life with intense attention. Each song is a catalog of fragments, the number of segments in an orange or the cut of an obsessively worn shirt, distilled into meditations on the bizarre and microscopic exchanges that make up modern life – a relationship splintering, an uncomfortable pause, an understanding finally found. These emotional dioramas are moderated by the angular storytelling that unites Gillian Welch and Phoebe Bridgers, a favor for the conventions of short fiction over confession. [A limited-edition indie store only colored vinyl pressing is available.]
Shai Maestro – Human CD (ECM)
Pianist Shai Maestro’s new album, Human, magnifies his outgoing band (fellow Israeli Ofri Nehemya/drums and Jorge Roeder/bass) becomes a quartet with inspired addition of trumpeter Philip Dizack. Shai is well-matched by Dizack’s quick alert improvising. Near the end of a program comprised mostly of Maestro originals in a range of temperaments, is their own take on Duke Ellington’s “In A Sentimental Mood”, while Shai’s “Hank” and “Charlie” pay tribute to the late Hank Jones and Charlie Haden.
Moat – Poison Stream CD (Schoolkids Records)
The new Moat album, Poison Stream, is a collaboration between Marty Willson-Piper and Niko Röhlcke. This is the follow up to their self-titled debut, released in 2013. Marty is best known for his three decades with Australian psychedelic surfers The Church, ten years with English hippie goths All About Eve and the ongoing project Noctorum with Dare Mason, who is also co- producer and engineer on Poison Stream. Niko is a multi-instrumentalist and has composed for theatre, film and TV and is a long-time member of Weeping Willows, one of Sweden’s most popular bands. Musically, the album covers an eclectic range, but it manages to mix the weirdness of an eccentric English village with the long dark nights of moody Scandinavia. For fans of Anglo-Scandinavian-bent moody folk-pop with lyrical twists and turns, and a modern soundtrack to the past. [Vinyl edition due March 5.]
Mogwai – As The Love Continues CD/2xLP+MP3 (Temporary Residence)
Mogwai has advanced without a plan since they were teenagers; there have been no secretive meetings to work out the master plan. It is rare to hear a band that has been going for this long and have this many albums behind them – ten records in and still no disappointments or mistaken creative left turns. You may know what to expect, but you will never get the same. Both transcendent and surprising, As The Love Continues shows that Mogwai are still offering solace from the mundane, supplying the soundtrack to whatever movie you are making in your head. Produced by Dave Fridmann the album features contributions from Atticus Ross (“Midnight Flit”) and Colin Stetson (“Pat Stains”) and arrives almost exactly 25 years after the release of the Mogwai’s debut single, “Tuner” b/w “Lower.” [A limited-edition indie store only colored vinyl pressing is available.]
Roy Montgomery – Island Of Lost Souls CD/LP (Grapefruit)
Island Of Lost Souls is the first of four new albums by Roy Montgomery coming out in 2021 to commemorate Montgomery’s forty years in music. A pioneer of the NZ underground, Montgomery believes there is always new sonic terrain to investigate. His latest album is the product of a career forged of rigorous exploration in which he’s managed to navigate disparate genres, scenes, and atmospheres, always at the forefront of experimental independent music.
Lael Neal – Acquainted With Night CD (Sub Pop)
It is the simple thing that is so hard to do. This is the paradox that musician Lael Neale has lived within throughout her development as an artist. It is the reason she became enthralled with poetry. Poems are a distillation. Lael says, “this challenge to winnow away what is unessential is the most maddening and, ultimately, rewarding part of writing a song.” Lael’s new album Acquainted With Night is a testament to this poetic devotion. Stripped of any extraneous word or sound, the songs are lit by Lael’s crystalline voice which lays on a lush bed of Omnichord. The collection touches on themes that have been thread into her work for years: isolation, mortality, yearning, and reaching ever toward the transcendent experience. Guy Blakeslee, who had been an advocate for years, facilitated the process by setting up the cassette recorder in her bedroom and providing empathic guidance, subtle yet affecting accompaniment and engineering prowess. Limited to only 4-tracks and first takes, Lael had to surrender some of her perfectionism to deliver the songs in their essence. [Vinyl edition due April 30.]
nothing,nowhere. – Trauma Factory CD (Fueled By Ramen)
Over the course of 15 tracks, Trauma Factory cuts deep and finds nothing,nowhere. (the musical endeavor of Vermont songwriter/singer/guitarist Joe Mulherin) once again emerging from darkness, shedding external expectation, and moving forward into the glow of pure creation. Whether it be the anesthetized beats and intoxicating lull of love or chemistry, the cold piano-laden longing of crave, or the emotional immediacy of upside down, nothing,nowhere. paints from a wide palette of pain. “Trauma Factory is an accumulation of songs written during a confusing time,” Mulherin says. “It is about accepting the present and following your true north through the pain and suffering of human life. I wanted to make an album that was truly genreless and inspire others to challenge themselves artistically. I believe the most inspiring art is unpredictable and unrestrictive. To me that’s what Trauma Factory is.” [Vinyl edition due March 12.]
Rotting Christ – Theogonia CD (Season Of Mist)
On Rotting Christ’s 10th studio album, Theogonia, the Greek Black Metal Gods return faithful to their ancient blackened-gothic style while materializing as a faster, more aggressive entity. The established melodies of the past are indeed alive, but this new apparition is cloaked with deeper atmospheric and epic elements as they recall the sordid history of their country land.
Jeff Ryan – Duality CD (Woodward Avenue)
Saxman Jeff Ryan is an international Billboard recording artist and ranks as one of contemporary jazz’s top emerging artists. In 2020 Jeff was awarded the top spot as Billboard’s #1 Smooth Jazz Artist of the Year.
Sonic Flower – Sonic Flower [Reissue/2003] CD/LP (Heavy Psych Sounds)
Sonic Flower – Rides Again CD/LP (Heavy Psych Sounds)
A mixture of psychedelic groove, rock, funk, and doom metal. For fans of Cactus, Grand Funk Railroad, Mountain, Sir Load Baltimore, Captain Beyond, Meaters, Graham Central Station and Funkadelic. Rides Again is comprised of unreleased studio material recorded a few years after their 2003 debut album. [Limited color vinyl pressings are also available.]
Pauline Anna Strom – Angel Tears In Sunlight CD/LP (RVNG Int’l)
Angel Tears In Sunlight is Pauline Anna Strom’s first album in over thirty years; an assemblage of music that refracts the expansiveness, and minutiae, of imagined realms while embracing the kaleidoscopic echoes of our distant epochs. The capacity to collapse time might elucidate the enigma of Pauline Anna Strom. A mystic force in music, emerging during the dawn of new age as the Trans-Millenia Consort, the pioneering synthesist channeled primordial energies into future-facing sound through a series of full-length releases between 1982 and 1988.
Suffering Hour – The Cyclic Reckoning CD/LP (Profound Lore)
At forty-five minutes in length spanning five songs, the new album from Minnesota-based blackened death metal trio Suffering Hour The Cyclic Reckoning showcases the band firing on all cylinders. The music on this album is more representative of Suffering Hour as a whole than it ever was on past material, with every member making their presence more known than ever. This record also features the band sacrificing some of their technicality and chaos in favor of more atmospheric passages, as the band envisioned this record to be an unhindered display of negative emotion, seething or somber.
Tash Sultana – Terra Firma CD/LP+MP3 (Mom + Pop Music)
One of Australia’s greatest self-made successes, Tash Sultana is a one-person powerhouse who commands multiple instruments and gear, whether on- sage or in-studio. A globe-trotting sensation with a live show that needs to be seen to be believed, the 25-year-old’s second album Terra Firma is a natural evolution of their multi-dimensional jams. [Limited translucent yellow color vinyl pressing also available.
Valley Maker – When The Day Leaves CD/LP (French Kiss)
We have all become experts in the imbalance of uncertainty these days, newly accustomed to canceling plans and tentatively rescheduling them for some future we can only imagine. For Austin Crane – the ruminative songwriter, riveting guitarist, and singular voice – such a sense of uncertainty has emerged as his steadfast companion these last few years, a period of profound transition. This flux is the anchor for the gorgeous and felicitous When The Day Leaves. Driven as it is by departure, When The Day Leaves marks the arrival of Valley Maker as a trustworthy narrator for these shaky times. Crane synthesizes these complex feelings into single, “No One Is Missing”. All these thoughts are rendered with newfound lyrical richness, balancing intimate tidbits with universal ambiguity. For 46 minutes, you feel like you’re sitting with Crane in an intricate, unified sound-world of his design. He offloads his observations about our tangled thicket of hope and fear, aspiration and exasperation.
Walking Papers – The Light Below CD/2xLP (Carry On Music)
The Light Below is the third album from Walking Papers. The Seattle-based blues rock outfit were called “the best rock band in Seattle” by The New York Times and UK’s Classic Rock magazine voted Walking Papers one of the Top Bands of 2016. The Light Below is a continuation of the impactful and artful sound Walking Papers have developed that brings listeners to new places every time.
Ricky Warwick – When Life Was Hard And Fast CD/LP (Nuclear Blast)
When Life Was Hard & Fast veers from classic hard rock to pensive acoustic numbers that highlight the journeyman’s skill as a storyteller.
Whitesnake – The Blues Album MMXXI CD/2xLP (Rhino)
Whitesnake celebrates the blues sound that helped inspire its multi-platinum career on a new collection that features remixed and remastered versions of the group’s best blues-rock songs. The Blues Album is the third and final release in the band’s Red, White and Blues Trilogy, a series of compilations organized by musical themes that began this year with Love Songs (red) and The Rock Album (white). Like The Rock Album and Love Songs, all the tracks on The Blues Album have been recently revisited, remixed, and remastered.
Wild Pink – A Billion Little Lights CD/LP (Royal Mountain)
On Wild Pink’s third album, A Billion Little Lights, frontman John Ross explores the dichotomy of finally achieving emotional security – of accepting the love and peace he deprived himself of in his twenties – while also feeling existentially smaller and more directionless than ever before. The record is a two-pronged triumph: an extraordinary reflection on the human condition presented through the sharpest, grandest, and most captivating songs Wild Pink have ever composed.
Winterage – Inheritance Of Beauty CD (Scarlet)
A powerful symphonic metal opus with strong influences coming from Irish folk, classical and medieval music.
XIXA – Genesis CD/LP (Jullian)
Genesis is a visceral listen, and very much formed by aesthetics. It’s also transportive; entire worlds can be painted with Lopez and Sullivan’s voices and lyrical content. Edgar Allan Poe, 70s Spaghetti Westerns, and Narco cumbia are all influences; so too are chicha legends Los Shapis. A sense of foreboding hangs over the ten tracks, of danger foretold. All of this lends the music a somber mood and gives it an edge, as if some unseen menace lurks in the shadows.
Frank Zappa – Zappa Original Motion Picture Soundtrack 3xCD (Zappa Records)
This soundtrack features songs from Zappa’s record labels Straight and Bizarre Records such as “No Longer Umpire” from Alice Cooper’s debut album, “Pretties For You”, originally released on Straight in 1969; “The Captain’s Fat Theresa Shoes” by GTO’s, from the all-girl group’s one and only album, Permanent Damage, produced by Zappa. It also includes two classical compositions by Zappa’s lifetime inspirations Edgard Varèse and Igor Stravinsky as well as several interview clips. The soundtrack is rounded out with 26 original score cues newly composed by John Frizzell for the documentary.
DVDs + Blu-ray:
Brad Leftwich & Linda Higginbotham – At Home In The Parlour DVD+CD (Old Time Tiki Parlour)
See and hear these seasoned traditional masters perform 18 tracks of fiddle and banjo tunes, instrumental duets, songs and even some trio tracks with David Bragger guesting on guitar. You also get a chance to hear some of the finest banjo-uke playing in the genre. As with all sets from the Tiki Parlour tradition, expect informative liner notes, folk art from artist/musician Howard Rains and recording/filming by David Bragger.
This Week’s Vinyl Exclusives:
Atlas Losing Grip – Shut The World Out [Reissue/2008] LP (Black Star Found)
Vinyl reissue of the 2008 release from the Swedish punks.
Bad Brains – Pay To Cum! b/w Stay Close To Me [Reissue/1980] 7” (ORG Music)
Vinyl reissue of the debut single from the band Bad Brains, self-released in June 1980 on the band’s Bad Brain Records. The single was recorded in New York City by Jimi Quidd at his Dots Studios. This reissue marks the first release in the remaster campaign on the band’s own Bad Brains Records imprint with ORG Music. In coordination with the band, ORG Music has overseen the restoration and remastering of the iconic Bad Brains’ recordings. The audio was mastered by Dave Gardner at Infrasonic Mastering and pressed at Furnace Record Pressing. The release includes a replication of the original fold-out insert.
Bon Jovi – Bon Jovi 2020 2xLP (Island)
Recently released on CD – now available on double 180gm gold-colored vinyl. Bon Jovi 2020 is the 15th studio album from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band. The album features the new single “Limitless” as well as “Unbroken”, which was featured in the documentary To Be Of Service.
David Bowie & Morrissey – Cosmic Dancer b/w That’s Entertainment 7” (Parlophone)
Morrissey and David Bowie’s duet of T-Rex’s “Cosmic Dancer”, that was recorded live at the Inglewood Forum, Los Angeles on 6th February 1991, is released officially for the first time. The 7” double A-side single featuring “Cosmic Dancer” alongside Morrissey’s 2020 cover of The Jam’s “That’s Entertainment”. The sleeve front and back features photographs of David Bowie with Morrissey and were taken in New York City by Linder Sterling.
Bill Carter – Cool Tom Cat 10”+CD (Bear Family)
Between 1956 and 1961, Arkansas rocker Bill Carter recorded under his own name for small and medium-sized labels such as 4-Star, Republic, Tally, Black Jack, Honey B, ‘D’, Rural Rhythm and Ozark. The up-tempo number “I Wanna Feel Good”, produced for Tally in Bakersfield, California in 1957, became his biggest hit and opened the doors to the Louisiana Hayride and the Grand Ole Opry. Finally, in 1959 he ventured into Rockabilly and recorded “Cool Tom Cat”.
- Caye Castagnetto – Leap Second LP (Castleface)
Influenced by a life split between Lima, London, and Twentynine Palms, Peru-born M. Caye Castagnetto’s Leap Second is an intriguingly personal and hard to classify debut album. The album is a thick collage of samples Caye recorded with different artists and musicians, including Beatrice Dillon and the late Aileen Bryant, that spans five years in the making. There is something in Leap Second that tracks the speed of bodies, how they approach and retreat. The ten tracks are speedy and languid, thick ruffles, and dirges. In parts it feels like one’s stumbled upon a forgotten incredible ’70s folk record but that feeling gets broken quickly by clever sleights of hand. Caye’s balladry is angular, time is elastic.
Christopher – Christopher [Reissue/1970] LP (Out-Sider)
Out-Sider offer the only fully authorized vinyl reissue of Christopher in the current market. Christopher was an underground acid rock trio featuring future Josefus drummer, Doug Tull. They evolved from United Gas, a psychedelic band from Houston who rubbed shoulders with legends like The 13th Floor Elevators and Moving Sidewalks. After relocating to Los Angeles – where they changed his name to Christopher – they played at numerous biker parties and recorded their sole album in 1970 for the Metromedia label. It’s an amazing example of West Coast psychedelia/acid-rock featuring strong fuzz-wah guitar, great compositions and superb musicianship.
Anne Clark and Friends – Psychometry: Live At The Passionkirche, Berlin [Reissue/1994] LP (Flying Dolphin Administration)
After Anne Clark had been on tour for 10 years, playing mainly electronic music, the time had come to do an acoustic tour for the first time. In 1994 this live album was recorded in the Passionskirche in Berlin. Anne Clark chose the title Psychometry because this concert was an example of how objects, buildings and places can capture the energy of people and events. Anne Clark already had a stable band with Andy Bell, Martyn Bates, Paul Downing, Gordon Reany, Michelle Chowrimootoo and Ida Baalsrud. Andy gave Anne a whole new range of sounds and offered her a completely new way of working with machines and computers, integrating acoustic instruments and straightforward emotional vocals.
A.G. Cook – Apple LP (PC Music)
Perhaps best known for his collaborations with Charli XCX and for founding the electronic pop music label PC Music, A.G. Cook’s musical oeuvre is hard to pin down. Apple, his follow-up to the gargantuan experimental survey that is 7G, is a testament to the L.A.-based producer and singer-songwriter’s simultaneously fringe and essential position in electronic and pop spheres. The 10 song, 39-minute album features vocals from frequent collaborator and former Chairlift member, Caroline Polachek, PC-label mate Hannah Diamond and Alaska Reid.
David Coverdale – Whitesnake [Reissue/1977] LP (Eagle Rock Entertainment)
Limited-edition coke bottle clear vinyl pressing. David Coverdale’s decision to quit Deep Purple in the spring of 1976 allowed him to start work on his first ever solo album, White Snake. Exiled in Germany and unable to form a band, the low-key release, recorded with the help of guitarist Micky Moody, was the first tentative step towards what became a hugely successful career with the band who took their name from this album.
Cruel Hand – Dark Side Of The Cage 12” (Static Era)
Limited colored vinyl pressing. Hardcore heavyweights Cruel Hand are back with three new songs produced by the legendary Zeuss (Rob Zombie, Hatebreed). While maintaining safety guidelines, the band entered the studio during the pandemic to record what listeners will welcome as a return to form with crushing guitar riffs and blistering drums alongside anthemic choruses.
Culture Club – Live At The Royal Albert Hall 2xLP (Let Them Eat Vinyl)
Deluxe double vinyl LP pressing of Culture Club’s 20th anniversary concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall recorded live during the summer of 2002 and released on DVD the following year. Features all of their top hits including “Church Of the Poison Mind”, “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?”, “Miss Me Blind”, “Move Away”, “I’ll Tumble 4 Ya”, “It’s A Miracle”, and “Karma Chameleon”.
Dadaism 999 – The Misery Book LP (Norton North)
This collaboration, under the direction of Dave Wills, includes Edward Ka-Spel (The Legendary Pink Dots), Tony Wakeford (Sol Invictus), Elena Fossi (Kirlian Camera), Albin Julius (Der Blutharsch) and Stefano Rossello (Bahntier). Limited edition gold color vinyl pressing.
The Dead South – Served Live LP (Six Shooter)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. The Dead South, a gold rush vibing four-piece acoustic set from Saskatchewan, infuse the genre’s traditional trappings with an air of frontier recklessness, whiskey breakfasts and grizzled tin-pan showmanship. Their sound, build on a taut configuration of cello, mandolin, banjo and guitar, speeds like a train past polite definitions of acoustic music into the grittier, rowdier spaces of the bluegrass world.
Deep Purple – California Jam: Live In California ’74 2xLP (Eagle Rock Entertainment)
Deep Purple was the biggest selling album act in America when they embarked on a 28-date tour promoting their new album Burn. The undoubted climax of this tour was headlining the California Jam Festival at Ontario Speedway in California, in front of 200,000 people. This year marks the 47th anniversary of this historic event. The set list includes tracks from Burn, as well as classics like “Space Truckin'” and “Smoke On The Water”. For the first time on 180g vinyl.
Martin Denny – A Taste Of India [Reissue/1968] LP (Pleasure For Music)
Originally released on Liberty Records, A Taste Of India stands as one of the best later Denny’s work. Here the king of exotica injects his gorgeous instrumental arrangements with tons of sitars and tanpuras as the main ingredients of another stylized sound trip. The album highlights include a memorable version of The Strawberry Alarm Clock’s “Incense And Peppermints” and Denny’s own masterpiece, “Hypnotique”.
Devo – Hardcore Devo Live! 2xLP (MVD Audio)
Devo, captured live in Oakland, performing early experimental tracks written between 1974 and 1977, prior to any label deal or public success. No matter how messy, beginnings are exciting. Especially when what happens next endures the test of time. For Devo, the beginning happened in the basements and garages of Akron, Ohio. The songs they wrote were raw and unfiltered with no commercial intent. They called it Hardcore Devo. Performing 21 oddities, this is a tribute to departed, original Devo bandmate, Robert Bob 2 Casale. Recorded live on June 28, 2014 at the Fox Theater in Oakland, California. This repress is pressed on red (disc 1) and yellow (disc 2) vinyl.
The Divine Comedy – Foreverland [Reissue/2016] LP (Divine Comedy Records Limited)
Vinyl reissue of the indie rock band’s eleventh album.
The Dollyrots – Because I’m Awesome [Reissue/2007] LP (Wicked Cool)
For The Dollyrots, the first time was the charm, as the Los Angeles-based snotty bubblegum punk band’s debut, Eat My Heart Out, knocked it right out of the park, with their high-profile TV spots and several weeks on the 2006 Vans Warped Tour. The group struck even harder with its highly anticipated 2007 follow-up full-length Because I’m Awesome.
Aerial East – Try Harder LP (Partisan)
On Try Harder, Aerial East dives into what she has known “adolescence, heartbreak, coming into a new social consciousness, and managing a perpetual unanchored-ness’ in order to find a most surprising place to rest inside: the unknowable. East invites us into a complex realm that is equal parts reverie and listlessness. It’s a place where the west Texas landscape of her youth, ‘that old flat part of the world,” still lives profoundly inside of her, where old loves and out-of-touch friends are never forgotten. East’s delicate voice takes center stage, creating an unvarnished intimacy between her and the listener, a reflection of her live performances. [Limited gold colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Enslaved – Vikingligr Veldi [Reissue/1994] 2xLP (By Norse Music)
Black vinyl repress. Enslaved’s first full-length was co-produced with the legendary Pytten in Grieghallen, Bergen, Norway and is dedicated to Mayhem’s Euronymous whose label Deathlike Silence Productions originally released the album in 1994 following his murder by Varg Vikernes. This album has lyrics in Icelandic, and is a tribute to the Norse landscape, history and mythology. The songs are matching these themes with long horizontal songscapes, dense atmospheres and winds from the past.
Fox Face – End Of Man LP (Dirtnap)
Thinking about a fox face may give many warm, fuzzy feelings, but don’t forget that foxes have teeth. While Milwaukee quartet Fox Face may not bite one’s face, their new album End Of Man might just melt it off. Featuring players drawn from various corners of the Brewtown music scene, Fox Face came together organically ahead of the recording sessions for their November 2017 debut album, Spoil + Destroy. Main songwriter Lindsay DeGroot (The Olives) started working on her songs with multi-instrumentalist Lydia Washechek (Static Eyes). Eventually fellow Olives member Mary Hickey joined up on bass, and the final piece of the band was found with the addition of drummer Christopher Capelle (Midwest Beat, Long Line Riders). End Of Man bumps up the furious guitar sound of Spoil + Destroy a few more notches. It’s not hard rock, per se, but the album’s sound edges in that direction.
Aretha Franklin – Young, Gifted And Black [Reissue/1972] LP (Atlantic)
Limited opaque mustard yellow vinyl pressing. Considered as one of her best projects, and a leader in Pro Black Movement albums in the ‘70s. Beginning her most Soulful period, the album includes the title track, “Rock Steady” and “Day Dreaming”.
Free Will – Cold Cold Morning LP (The Grail Records Production)
Free Will – The Tony Caputo Tapes 1971 LP (The Grail Records Production)
Free Will – Live At Jabberwooky 1970 LP (The Grail Records Production)
Free Will was a legendary band from Upstate New York who formed in 1968 and signed to RCA Records in 1971 after a name change to Jukin’ Bone. Led by vocalist Joe Whiting and lead guitarist Mark Doyle, the band also featured George Egosarian on second guitar, John DeMaso on bass, and Tom Glaister on drums. They only released one “official” album under the Free Will moniker: 1977’s Here’s Free Will.
Front Line Assembly – Mechanical Soul LP (Metropolis)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. The legendary industrial act Front Line Assembly has always been willing to fearlessly push past the boundaries between genres, exploring all manner of styles and influences. Their new album, Mechanical Soul, can be seen as a culmination of these artistic endeavors, a masterful work from one of the genre’s greats. Features guest appearances by Front 242’s Jean-Luc DeMeyer and Fear Factory’s Dino Cazeres.
Gustaf – Mine 7” (Royal Mountain)
Formed in 2018, Brooklyn’s Gustaf have built a kind of buzz that feels like it comes from a different era. The art punk five-piece are yet to release any recorded music, but rapidly established a reputation as one of New York’s “hardest working…and most reliably fun bands” (Brooklyn Vegan), and excitement about their danceable, ESG-inspired post punk has expanded outside of their city with remarkable effect despite their scant online presence.
Gwar – Scumdogs Of The Universe [Reissue/1990] LP (Pit)
Colored vinyl reissue of the satirical shock rock heavy metal band’s second album.
Hard Stuff – Bolex Dementia [Reissue/1973] LP (Magic Box)
Led by guitar hero John Cann (The Attack, Andromeda, Atomic Rooster), Hard Stuff’s second and final album Bolex Dementia was released in March 1973. Incorporating funk, glam, and even reggae influences into their hard rock sound, it’s a long-established rarity and makes its long-awaited return to vinyl here.
Emmylou Harris – Red Dirt Girl [Reissue/2000] LP (Nonesuch)
Limited translucent red colored vinyl pressing. Red Dirt Girl is an Emmylou Harris album from 2000, which reached #3 on the Billboard country album charts and won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album in 2001. The album was a significant departure for Harris, as eleven of the twelve tracks were written or co-written by her. At the time, she was best known for covering other songwriters’ work.
Haystack – Slave Me [Reissue/1998] LP (Threeman Recordings)
Limited marble white vinyl reissue of the Swedish hard rock band’s sophomore album.
Ryan Hemsworth – Pout 12”+MP3 (Jagjaguwar)
“For this EP I was trying to live less in nostalgia and function less off obvious references. I worked on Pout while becoming a dad, sitting a lot in my garden, and trying to kill my ego. Tracks like ‘Mountain Access’ make me think about driving around Hamilton, Ontario, my home as of a year ago. I hope people can still get a chance to walk around with this on headphones or daydream while listening to this project.” – Ryan Hemsworth
Honne – no song without you LP (Atlantic)
Written between L.A. and their new studio in Hackney, East London, no song without you sees Honne strip everything back, pick up their acoustic guitars and channel the psychedelic, infectious, care-free romanticism of the ’60s and bands like The Beatles. Hopeful in its outlook but tender and heartfelt in its conception, it signposts a fresh new sound for the duo, inspired by their desire to continue evolving and experimenting.
Dick Hyman – The Age Of Electronicus [Reissue/1969] LP (Pleasure For Music)
In his long career, Dick Hyman has covered a great variety of music fields, from Broadway through music for film and television to jazz, classical, pop, and electronic music. The Age Of Electronicus is one of his electronic pop jewels. A breathtaking sequence of reworked hits of the day including outstanding electro-versions of Lennon/McCartney’s classics such as “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” and “Blackbird” and Bacharach’s “Alfie”. A whole feast of analog Moog sounds, primitive drums machines, repetitive bass lines, and lots of robotic beats. All packaged in a memorable, colorful album cover.
Incantation – Vanquish In Vengeance [Reissue/2012] LP (Listenable)
Incantation – Dirges Of Elysium [Reissue/2014] LP (Listenable)
Limited marbled color vinyl pressings. Without a doubt one of the most important bands ever to emerge in the world of extreme music, Incantation has set the standard for US death metal and is often credited as a pioneer in the genre. For over two decades, Incantation has stood out as one of the most uncompromising forces in metal with their blasphemous and bone- crushing doom-tinged brand of death.
Judas Priest – Rocka Rolla [Reissue/1974] LP (Ent. One Music)
Limited 180gm translucent grape and opaque white with black splatter colored vinyl pressing of the British heavy metal band’s debut album.
Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds – Swing From The Sean DeLear 12” (In The Red)
Swing From The Sean DeLear celebrates a dreamlike bridge between life and memory. Recorded and mixed with Jim Waters (Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Sonic Youth, etc.) at Waterworks Recording in Tucson AZ, the track “Sean DeLear” is a tribute to the late, magical, and ubiquitous Los Angeles underground institution named Sean DeLear. This rocking song uses the metaphor of those passed on as swinging from a chandelier, a festive image everyone hopes is true! Side two of this 12” is a fourteen-minute psych, Chicano-groove titled “He Walked In”.
Kinlaw – The Tipping Scale LP (Bayonet)
Clear vinyl pressing. The Tipping Scale is the definition of dark pop-it’s an epiphany in a public space and an unraveling on the dancefloor. Kinlaw’s unstoppable singing will guide you through an introspective and very strange dance party. A deafening debut, these are songs to move your body to.
Lemon Demon – View-Monster [Reissue/2008] 2xLP (Needlejuice/Oglio)
Lemon Demon’s 2008 album View-Monster makes its vinyl debut. The project features Neil Cicierega fresh off the hype of his 2006 hit “The Ultimate Showdown”, with 16 melodic and whimsical cuts, plus eight bonus tracks.
Loathe – The Cold Sun [Reissue/2017] LP (Sharptone)
Loathe – I Let It In And It Took Everything 2xLP (Sharptone)
Limited colored vinyl pressings. Loathe has been making waves in the British underground heavy music scene since their inception in 2014. Debut full-length The Cold Sun was a heady hybrid of meaty down-tuned riffs, lacerating screams and pile-driving rhythms. I Let It In And It Took Everything retains those elements, albeit delivered with a searing potency and sharpened focus that bests its predecessor in almost every conceivable way. Rather than existing within one style or taking one approach, Loathe pepper their music with a range of influences and musical motifs that move fluidly and give the Liverpool quintet a dynamism that was merely hinted at before. Their palette has widened significantly, and surprises are plentiful; shimmering guitars, layered synths, unhinged guitar effects, a stronger emphasis on ethereal clean vocals and even elements that echo the sheer sonic brutality that epitomizes black metal.
Maggot Heart – Mercy Machine LP (Rapid Eye)
Maggot Heart from Berlin is one of the most talked about forces in rock underground today. Their music contains a highly entertaining blend of urgency, bleakness and undeniable attitude which may or may not appeal to fans of Voivod, The Stooges and The Jesus Lizard.
Maze featuring Frankie Beverly – Live In New Orleans 2xLP (Capitol)
Originally from Philadelphia and discovered by Marvin Gaye, the band formed a special bond with the city of New Orleans, where they closed the annual Essence Fest for more than 20 years. The album features not only extended live versions of their Top 10 R&B chart hits “Feel That You’re Feelin’” and “Southern Girl”, it includes the definitive live versions of album cuts “Look At California” and “Joy And Pain”, their biggest song that was never a hit single, in a thrilling audience sing-along.
Moor Mother – Circuit City LP+MP3 (Don Giovanni)
Recently released on CD – now available on orange color vinyl. Poet and noise musician Camae Ayewa (Moor Mother) presents her first theatrical work, a futuristic exploration, part musical, part choreopoem, part play, of public/private ownership, housing, and technology set in a living room in a corporate-owned apartment complex. Framed by Ayewa’s bold poetry and bolstered by new Moor Mother music performed live by Irreversible Entanglements and the Circuit City Band, Circuit City is an Afro-futurist song cycle for our current climate.
Motörhead – Bomber [Reissue/1979] LP (Sanctuary)
140gm silver color vinyl pressing.
MSG and Michael Schenker Group – Immortal LP (Nuclear Blast America)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Originally formed in 1979, the Michael Schenker Group has had an enormous impact on hard rock and heavy metal. Whether it is influencing the likes of Metalica, Megadeth, Pantera and more, Michael Schenker and his iconic black and white Dean Flying V are truly and utterly invincible.
Nemesium – Continua LP (Black Lion)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Nemesium present an essentially perfect blend of modern death metal, second wave black metal, hints of the Stockholm sound, and even traditional heavy metal. Riffs ranging from emotionally weighty to outright feral sit comfortably within the bleak, roiling atmosphere of terror called forth by the band.
Neptune – Northern Steel LP (Melodic Passion)
Recently released on CD – now available on green color vinyl. Neptune is a Swedish melodic metal band from the ’80s who has been seen as one of the earliest pioneers during the NWOSHM era. The band is in the same style as Madison, 220 Volt, Heavy Load, early Europe, Silver Mountain and Glory. Northern Steel features guest appearances from guitarists Pontus Norgren (Hammerfall), Euge Valovirta (Cyhra), and Lars Chriss (Lion’s Share).
Nervous Eaters – Eaterville #2 LP (Penniman)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Eaterville #2 is the second volume dedicated to rescuing unreleased recordings by this classic, killer band from Boston. It is not a compilation of lo-fi recordings, rehearsals, etc., but a collection of material taken from radio broadcasts or recorded directly from the soundboard of the clubs where they used to appear almost weekly between 1976 and 1979.
The Night – The Night [Reissue/1979] LP (Renaissance)
Vinyl reissue of the debut album from this AOR band featuring Chris Thompson from Manfred Mann’s Earth Band.
Overkill – Feel The Fire [Reissue/1985] LP (Megaforce)
Overkill is synonymous with power, precision and perseverance. Across multiple decades, the pioneering powerhouse has shaped, refined and steadily broadened a determined style of blue-collar power metal, soaring melodic hard rock and genre-defining thrash built from steadfast, muscular pulls at their own proverbial bootstraps. It all started with their 1985 full-length debut on Megaforce, Feel The Fire.
The Parson Red Heads – Lifetime Of Comedy LP+CD (You Are The Cosmos)
On Lifetime of Comedy, founder Evan Way, new guitarist Jake Smith and the rest of The Parson Red Heads – Brette Marie Way (drums, vocals), Robbie Augspurger (bass), and Raymond Richards (multi-instrumentalist, producer) – navigate new terrain, excavating the bedrock of their well-honed sound and allowing it to be remolded into an altogether new alchemy of songcraft. While still quintessentially a Parson Red Heads record, Lifetime Of Comedy is, as Way contends, the most collaborative of their recordings to date. If there’s ever been a time to foster and encourage self-reflection, it’s probably right now. The Parson Red Heads have absorbed the trials and tribulations of their long career as musicians, family and friends and come out the other side stronger. And that’s what Lifetime Of Comedy is all about.
Pasi Oksa – Pasi Oksa 12” (Burning Skull)
tockholm’s own Steve Di Satriani, better unknown as Pasi Oksa creates spaced-out instrumental guitar-based bluesy fusion jams.
Wilson Pickett – The Best Of Wilson Pickett LP (Friday Music)
180gm color vinyl pressing. One of the most popular singers of the ’60s, Wilson Pickett helped introduce the aggressive, rhythmic style of soul music. Aided immeasurably by the excellent studio bands backing him at the Stax Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, and the Fame Studio in Muscle Shoals Alabama, Pickett scored a series of timeless R&B and pop hits throughout his substantial career. Jam packed with the original recordings of solid senders like his classics In “The Midnight Hour”, “Mustang Sally”, “Funky Broadway,” and “Land Of 1000 Dances”.
Pirana – Pirana II [Reissue/1972] LP (Magic Box)
Pirana’s Santana-influenced progressive rock was a big hit with Australian audiences in the early ’70s. With Tony Hamilton’s superb lead guitar to the fore and new organist Keith Greig, their second album – originally issued in December 1972 – is unquestionably their best and makes its long-overdue return to vinyl here. Complete with original gatefold artwork and an insert containing background notes and rare images.
Planet P Project – Pink World [Reissue/1984] 2xLP (Renaissance)
Double 180gm vinyl reissue of the 1984 new wave/prog release from this band spearheaded by Tony Carey.
Psychedelic Porn Crumpets – SHYGA! The Sunlight Mound LP (Marathon Artists)
Psychedelic Porn Crumpets continue to assert their status as one of Australia’s hardest working bands – pandemic be damned.
Gavilán Rayna Russom – Secret Passage LP (W.25th)
Growing up in deindustrialized Providence, Rhode Island of the 1970s and 1980s provided NYC-based composer and interdisciplinary artist Gavilán Rayna Russom access to derelict subterranean spaces including the mile-long East Side Rail Tunnel. The tunnel’s reverberant darkness would produce distinctive sensory effects and host Russom’s formative experiences of interpersonal connectedness, liminality, transgender identity, anti-capitalist desire and state repression. Russom utilizes synthesizers, field recordings and voice to illustrate hallucinatory revelations of the city’s lightless undercarriage. Each track of Secret Passage, originally released as a limited cassette on Voluminous Arts, is dedicated to a friend-entwining personal liberation with collective discovery.
Salem Mass – Witch Burning [Reissue/1971] LP (Guerssen)
Obscure Sabbath-esque hard-rock band Salem Mass self-released their only album in 1971. Recorded at a beer bar converted studio, Witch Burning consists of seven tracks full of ripping guitar, crazy Moog attacks, heavy keyboards, demented vocals and satanic/occult related lyrics, especially in the mind-blowing, ten-minute long title track.
John Salvage – Coyote Hasten LP (Outer Limits Lounge)
Coyote Hasten is the debut album from Detroit based artist John Salvage, featuring an intimate set of ten songs inspired by life in the Midwest.
Schammasch – Sic Lvceat Lvx [Reissue/2010] LP (Prosthetic)
Formed in 2009, the Swiss group Schammasch combines a forward approach to modern black metal, articulating their extreme roots with doom-laden atmospherics dredged with Hermetic mysticism. The band’s name derives from Babylonian sun god Samaš. Schammasch’s 2010 debut opus Sic Lvceat Lvx, which translates from Latin to Let the Light Shine, consists of seven hypnotic, cinematic tracks.
Seasick Steve – Love & Peace LP (Contagious)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Love & Peace sees Seasick Steve mixing up all of his much-loved ingredients to deliver a fresh new record that offers the perfect antidote for the troubled times in which we live. Full of hope for the future, it’s a great mix of boogie, blues, rock, Americana and folk – all delivered in Steve’s unique style.
Sheila E. – The Glamorous Life [Reissue/1984] LP (Rhino)
Produced by Prince, The Glamorous Life is one of the best albums that came out of the Purple One’s Minneapolis funk-rock empire in the 1980s. Featuring the hit title track and “The Belle of St. Mark” (two Prince penned classics), this is another opportunity to celebrate the deeper fabrics within the purple quilt Prince laid across the ‘80s pop scene.
Ty Segall / Cory Hanson – She’s A Beam 10” (Drag City)
Two boys with guitars, stretching songwriter muscles, reaching for places every on the neck, for notes they’d never played before. Trippy, feelgood pop songs with lightness and rock, from epic, energetic, happy, headbanging days. Laid down in sweet solid state, like instant nostalgia for the world that that would soon be ‘used to be…’
Shiva’s Headband – Take Me To The Mountains [Reissue/1967] LP (Akarma)
Shiva’s Headband’s Capitol Records album, produced by bandleader Spencer Perskin with Fred Catero, became the first record released nationally by an Austin- based rock band. The album cover features artwork by Jim Franklin. In 1973, the band had an onscreen performance in the film, The Thief Who Came To Dinner, a Houston-based production that starred Ryan O’Neal and Jacqueline Bisset. Limited colored vinyl pressing.
Sleep Party People – Sleep Party People [Reissue/2010] LP (Joyful Noise)
Tenth anniversary pale gold color vinyl reissue. Inspired by everything from Satie to the Cocteau Twins, the bombast of My Bloody Valentine to the puzzle of Boards of Canada, Sleep Party People became a process of constant innovation.
The Soviet Machines – The Soviet Machines LP (DC-Jam)
Debut album from the Minneapolis-based power trio, produced by Jack Endino who previously has produced albums by the likes of Nirvana, Soundgarden, Screaming Trees and the Afghan Whigs.
Speed Stick – Volume One LP (Don Giovanni)
Limited clear vinyl LP pressing. The Carrboro, NC supergroup Speed Stick is an ever-evolving project among a group of friends Ash Bowie (Polvo), Charles Chace (The Paul Swest), Laura King (Bat Fangs), and Thomas Simpson (The Love Language), whose musical achievements reach back as far as the 1990s. But as its live shows attest, the band does not want to rehearse old accomplishments. On stage, Speed Stick wants to shatter epochs. Step into a world of thunder where lighting strikes rewire nervous systems. Ride waves with peaks that precede disquieting calms. Float in spaces where dark and light collide to set blood afire. To participate in a Speed Stick show is to enter a space of bodily and psychological endurance. Off-kilter guitar riffs shadow the raging intensity of blistering drumbeats that dance to the feedback of the guitars.
Stilla – Till Stilla Falla [Reissue/2013] LP (Nordvis)
Till Stilla Falla is a Swedish black metal classic that will bring you back to the mystifying days when the genre was imbued with mysteries of the Nordic forests. For fans of: Dödheimsgad, Tulus, Kvist, Satyricon, Armagedda and Ehlder.
Stormwind – Resurrection [Reissue/2000] LP (Black Lodge)
Marble gold color vinyl pressing of the Swedish hard rock/heavy metal band’s fourth album.
Therion – Leviathan LP (Nuclear Blast)
Recently released on CD – now available on silver color vinyl. Formed in 1988, Sweden’s Therion helped lay the foundation of modern death metal on their debut Of Darkness…. Since then, the band has released numerous records and evolved into a complex multi-instrument and multi-member ensemble featuring choirs, symphonies and a core band that crafts all of this into profound and progressive hard rock and metal masterpieces.
Toots And The Maytals – Pressure Drop: The Golden Tracks LP (Purple Pyramid)
Celebrate the life of legendary reggae master Frank Toots Hibbert with this fantastic collection of his best-loved songs and covers. Special limited edition tri-color, RASTA-themed vinyl.
Twink – Think Pink: The Never Never Land & Think Pink Demos LP (Akarma)
John Adler, better known as Twink, is an English drummer, singer and songwriter who was a central figure in the 1960s UK psychedelic movement – playing in groups such as Tomorrow, Pretty Things, Pink Fairies and Stars with Syd Barret on guitar.
Venom – The 7th Date of Hell – Live at Hammersmith 1984 [Reissue/1984] LP (Back On Black)
Venom – Calm Before The Storm [Reissue/1987] LP (Back On Black)
Blistering live performance by British black metal pioneers Venom captured at the Hammersmith Odeon in London in June of 1984. One of the most legendary shows in the history of metal featuring the classic line-up of Cronos (vocals/bass), Mantas (guitar) and Abaddon (drums). Transitional 1987 effort Calm Before The Storm saw guitarist Jeffrey Mantas Dunn replaced by the double attack of Jimi Clare and Mike Hickey. This was a period when the whole thrash movement was at its height, and the genre was starting to fragment.
Wetton / Manzanera – Wetton / Manzanera [Reissue/1987] LP (Renaissance)
Vinyl reissue of the 1987 collaboration John Wetton (Asia/King Crimson) and Phil Manzanera (Roxy Music).
Koe Wetzel – Sellout LP (Columbia)
The Texas-born singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer continues to unapologetically trail blaze between grunge, country, Americana, and damn near everything else under the sun on Sellout.
The Who – WHO 6×7”+CD (Interscope)
A new 45rpm 6×7″+CD box set reissue of 2019’s WHO featuring an updated version of “Beads On One String” newly remixed by Pete Townshend plus a CD of acoustic tracks from the band’s only live shows of 2020. The bonus songs on this reissue of WHO were recorded in Kingston-on-Thames on Valentine’s Day in 2020, exactly 50 years to the day since The Who’s seminal show at Leeds University which resulted in the phenomenal live album, Live At Leeds.
Neil Young – The Times LP (WB)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. The Times is a moving and topical solo acoustic performance, a unique collection of songs, filmed at home during lockdown as part of the raw and personal, Fireside Sessions series. The Porch Episode is the sixth session and is available only on neilyoungarchives.com. The album includes the EP Lookin’ For A Leader – 2020: “Alabama”, “Campaigner”, “Ohio”, “Southern Man”, and Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin”, and closes with “Little Wing” from Homegrown.
Cassette:
Katy Kirby – Cool Dry Place (Keeled Scales)
Cool Dry Place is the debut full-length album from Texas-bred, Nashville-based indie rocker, Katy Kirby. The nine songs here are equal parts driving indie-pop and artful folk songwriting in the vein of Waxahatchee, Lucy Dacus, and Frankie Cosmos. These emotional dioramas are moderated by the angular storytelling that unites Gillian Welch and Phoebe Bridgers, a favor for the conventions of short fiction over confession. [A limited-edition indie store only colored vinyl pressing is available.]
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