AIMS Marketing Program/ Featured Titles Promoted This Week:
The Black Crowes – Happiness Bastards CD/LP (Silver Arrow)
The Black Crowes are leaving the bullshit of the past. 15 years after their last album of original music, the Robinson Brothers present Happiness Bastards – their 10th studio album. Some may say the project has been several tumultuous years in the making, but it’s arriving at just the right time. Call it brotherly love or destiny that brought them back together; the highly anticipated record consecrating the reunion of this legendary band just may be the thing that saves rock & roll. In a time where the art form is buried beneath the corporate sheen of its successors, The Black Crowes are biting back with the angst of words left unsaid penned on paper and electrified by guitar strings, revealing stripped, bare-boned rock & roll. No gloss, no glitter. [Two indie store exclusive editions are available: CD and 180gm clear vinyl.]
Gouge Away – Deep Sage CD/LP (Deathwish Inc.)
Deep Sage, Gouge Away’s third studio album, started coming together in 2019 during sound checks and in small pockets of downtime between tours. In early 2020, they demoed with Brok Mende in an unassuming storage unit in Orlando. They pulled influence not only from the nostalgia of the bands they grew up listening to but also developed the sense of urgency, noise, and introspective lyrics they felt most represented them. Those demos helped shape the songs into the finished record that Deep Sage would become. The album was recorded with Jack Shirley at Atomic Garden East in March 2023 completely analog and almost entirely live. Unpolished and far from being over-produced, this is what the heart of Gouge Away has always been. [Two color vinyl pressings are available: clear; and indie store exclusive black w/ blue.]
Kacey Musgraves – Deeper Well CD/LP (Interscope)
The music on Deeper Well, the seven-time Grammy winner’s fifth album, is almost chimeric. Rolling acoustic guitars, puffy clouds of strings and synth, warm bass punctuation, layered harmonies, moments of Celtic melody and plenty of room on the tracks for Musgraves’ silvery vocals. On the bright, almost folky title track, the 30-something songstress surveys her life and priorities, recognizing what feeds her, drains her and even examines the childhood she’s left behind on her way to now. Saturn returns, cardinals embody a dead friend, love is given and taken, streets rush by belongings are packed and old chapters deserted, new love blooms, jade bracelets serve as talismans, deep lessons emerge, small details define everything, the woods are a refuge and New York City serves as the same gleaming beacon as Oz. [Two indie store exclusive editions are available: translucent w/ splatter color vinyl; and a deluxe CD version with photo cards and lyric book. A cream color vinyl pressing is also available.]