CDs + Vinyl:
36 Crazyfists – Time And Trauma CD (Spinefarm)
Seventh album from the Alaskan metalcore band.
Adventures – Supersonic Home CD/LP (Run For Cover)
Supersonic Home, the debut album from Pittsburgh’s resident musical wunderkinds Adventures, is an ambitious blend of powerhouse influences: these ten songs reimagine of the best parts of ‘90s alt-rock and emo and infuse them with the cathartic energy of punk. However, Adventures delivers much more than just the sum of these parts. Throughout pensive, melancholic retreats like “Tension and “Long Hair,” the constant vocal tandem of Reba Meyers and Kimi Hanauer radiates above every infectious pop- rock riffs and the warm, rhythmic backbone of bass and keyboard.
The Allen Brothers – Allen Brothers With Other Country Brother Acts 4xCD (JSP)
Country music has always featured brother acts. The most prolific included the Delmore Brothers, the Blue Sky Boys and the Monroe Brothers. This collection focuses mainly on Austin and Lee Allen. The first three CDs are devoted to them and the fourth deals with their fraternal contemporaries.
The Amazing – Picture You CD/LP (PTKF)
The Amazing inhabits an aural landscape that’s all its own: a panoramic, constantly evolving spectacle marked by layers of intertwining guitars, richly textured keyboards and a rhythm section adept at skewed tempos and a tendency to veer off in unexpected directions. The band’s free flowing, cinematic sound balances focused song structures with unbridled improvisation to create a heady genre smashing exercise in sonic exploration.
And And And – Failure CD (Party Damage)
Winners of Willamette Week’s 2011 Best New Band poll (past finalists have included Menomena, Starf**ker, and Typhoon), And And And finally release what can only be called the follow-up to that year’s blur of output, culminating with the early 2012 Lost EP. They’re known for truly epic live shows with no clear delineation between stage and offstage or audience member and musician. Recorded over ten days in San Diego with Rafter Roberts between skateboarding and drinking sessions, the record is fiery and urgent. It evokes classic grunge-era sounds from the Northwest (think Mudhoney and early Nirvana).
Ernestine Anderson – Swings The Penthouse CD (HighNote)
Here is the great Ernestine Anderson in the full bloom of youth as you may have never heard her before live in front of an appreciative audience. This is the 34-year old Anderson singing with exuberance and spontaneity in the intimate setting of Seattle’s legendary jazz club, The Penthouse. Here she swings and shouts, cajoles and caresses her way through a set list of standards and jazz classics as only she could. These recordings are seeing the first light of commercial release. They have never been issued before in any format.
At The Hollow – What I Hold Most Dear CD (Spinefarm)
Debut album from the Finnish rock band.
Carl Barat And The Jackals – Let It Reign CD/LP (Grand Jury Music)
New album from this band led by Carl Barat, best known as the co-frontman of The Libertines. Features production by Joby J. Ford (The Bronx) and guest musicians, such as Beastie Boys percussionist Alfredo Ortiz.
Jarren Benton – Slow Motion CDEP (Funk Volume)
New release from the Decatur, GA-based rapper.
Sir Richard Bishop – Tangier Sessions CD/LP/Cassette (Drag City)
New album from the singer/guitarist best known for his work with the Sun City Girls. Tangier Sessions tells the oft-told tale: while traveling abroad, nobleman meets guitar. Guitar is too expensive for nobleman and outraged, he departs. Nobleman quietly returns several days later for guitar but still can’t bring himself to pay the price. Yet nobleman can’t get guitar out of mind (he’s never heard anything like it) — so nobleman buys guitar, then travels the world with it, enchanted, and makes this album while in Tangier.
Blue-Eyed Hawk – Under The Moon CD (Edition)
Taking its name from a line in W. B. Yeats’s poem Under The Moon, Blue-Eyed Hawk is the London-based band that brings together vocalist Lauren Kinsella, trumpeter Laura Jurd, guitarist Alex Roth and drummer Corrie Dick. Their debut album, titled after the same poem, is the sum of a collaborative process that bursts with the youthful energy, vision and integrity of all four members. The resulting music is emotive, lyrical, dark, inspiring and at times unexpected, often conjuring the dreamlike, nature-themed imagery of Yeats’s eponymous poem. Bringing a wide open improv sensibility to its melodic and richly textured original material, Blue-Eyed Hawk creates uniquely eclectic music that traverses art-rock, jazz, minimalist and electronic sound worlds.
The Box Tops – The Original Albums 1967-1969 2xCD (Raven)
This collection highlights the career of Memphis-based combo The Box Tops, combining all four of their original, long-deleted and highly regarded 1960s albums (Letter-Neon Rainbow, Cry Like A Baby, Non Stop, Dimensions). Effectively, the complete Box Tops. One of the finest blue eyed-soul, hit-making groups of the 1960s led by the late, revered cult figure Alex Chilton, the group’s music also encompassed touches of country soul and psych-pop.
Brainticket – Past, Present & Future CD/2xLP (Cleopatra)
Legendary pioneers of Krautrock return with a brand new studio album. Joel Vandroogenbroeck brought on board an exceptionally talented group of musicians including UK Subs guitarist Nicky Garratt, Jürgen Engler of Die Krupps, Jason Willer and Kephera Moon from Nik Turner’s band, and others.
Brothers Of The Sonic Cloth – Brothers Of The Sonic Cloth CD/LP (Neurot)
With a long-held reputation for some of the heaviest music from the Pacific Northwest, Seattle’s legendary Tad Doyle (formerly of Tad, Hog Molly) returns with a new band, Brothers Of The Sonic Cloth. This powerful trio of musicians — Tad on guitar/vocals, veteran bass player Peggy Doyle and drummer Dave French (The Annunaki) — bring together their collective and extensive musical histories in punk, hard rock and metal. (CD version features two extra tracks.)
Dewa Budjana – Hasta Karma CD (Moonjune)
Hasta Karma sets a new benchmark for modern progressive jazz excellence in the 21st century. With a vibe and feel more akin to that of a band with decades of experience together, Dewa and his stellar session-mates — the legendary NYC vibraphonist, Joe Locke, and Pat Metheny Unity Group’s rhythm core: the fabulous, articulate young upright bassist, Ben Williams, and the extraordinary maestro drummer, Antonio Sanchez — create superlative atmospheric textures that transport listeners to destinations of soaring altitude.
Bunny Lion – Red [Reissue/1979] CD/LP (Omnian Music Group)
Red features ten grooving Linval Thompson Sound rhythms voiced by Bunny Lion, now confirmed to be Puddy Roots of Kilamanjaro Soundsystem fame. Originally released on London’s Starlight Records in 1979, this is the earliest documented work of the criminally under-recorded Puddy Roots as well as the perfect gateway record for anyone curious about dub, roots reggae or dancehall.
Burning Saviors – Unholy Tales From The North CD (Transubstans Sweden)
Fifth album from the metal band. Pure retro sounding doom.
