CDs + Vinyl:

Airway – Live At Mark Moore Gallery CD (Helicopter)

Airway began as a solo project of Los Angeles Free Music Society member Joe Potts. The first release was the Airway 7”, which featured subliminal messages to coincide with an art exhibition in Tokyo. Since their August 1978 live debut at the LACE Gallery, the group has performed many concerts with different large lineups, always with Joe Potts’ subliminal message experiments as a central feature. Airway’s Live At LACE LP, first released in 1978, and introduced to Japan by Takuya Sakaguchi, was a direct influence on the projects Hijokaidan and Merzbow.

Avett Brothers – Live, Vol. Four CD+DVD (Republic)

Continuing the tradition of official concert releases, Live, Vol. Four captures last year’s sold out New Year’s Eve concert in Raleigh, NC at PNC Arena. This set contains two new songs; “Satan Pulls The Strings,” and “Rejects In The Attic.” Vinyl edition (and a new Avett Brothers LP!) due sometime in 2016.

Baroness – Purple CD/LP+MP3 (Abraxan Hymns)

Baroness return with their first new music in three years. (Limited copies pressed on purple colored vinyl.) “These are some of the biggest, strongest songs that Baroness has written; it’s rock music that folds in their more metal leanings, along with something more delicate and spare. The hooks and melodies are their best.” [BNM] –Pitchfork

Chris Brown – Royalty CD (RCA)

For his seventh album, Brown enlisted producers such as Boi1da, Polow Da Don, Free School, Tone & The Aquarius, Vinylz and many others. Available in Regular and Deluxe editions. Deluxe adds bonus tracks.

Cage The Elephant – Tell Me I’m Pretty CD/LP (RCA)

“Cage The Elephant found great success with 2013’s Melophobia, which nabbed for a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Album. The Kentucky garage rockers are hoping to garner similar acclaim for their follow-up, titled Tell Me I’m Pretty. The new record, which was produced by former tour mate Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys/The Arcs, was recorded at Easy Eye Sound in Nashville and ‘draws from the sounds that initially inspired them to start making music.’” – Consequence Of Sound

Coheed And Cambria – The Color Before The Sun [Deluxe] 2xCD+DVD+7”+MP3 (300 Entertainment)

Deluxe box set edition of Coheed And Cambria’s recently released new album includes a bonus disc of demos, a making-of-the-album documentary DVD, a 7” single, two hardcover coffee table books, and other collectable trinkets. Following the conceptual double album, The Afterman: Ascension and Descension, released in 2012 and 2013 respectively, The Color Before The Sun is the first non-conceptual album the band has released, making it the only Coheed And Cambria album to not be a part of The Amory Wars storyline.

Robert Cray – Time Will Tell [Reissue/2003] CD (Sanctuary)

CD reissue of this 2003 album from the modern bluesman.

[Read more…] about New Releases for December 18, 2015

CDs + Vinyl:

August Alisana – This Thing Called Life CD (Def Jam)

Second studio album by the New Orleans-based R&B/hip hop artist. Guests include Lil Wayne, Chris Brown, Jadakiss, and more.

Badly Drawn Boy – The Hour Of The Bewilderbeast [Reissue/2000] 2xCD (XL)

When The Hour Of Bewilderbeast was originally released in 2000, it was met with critical acclaim and won the Mercury Prize that year. The album is both ambitious and extremely entertaining and while it’s not a traditional pop album, it’s a continually beguiling trip through lo-fi postmodern folk, drawing as much from Harry Nilsson as it does Beck. This 15^th Anniversary reissue features a disc containing 16 bonus tracks. Vinyl editions due January 22.

Art Blakey – The Complete Blue Note Collection: Part One 1954-1957 4xCD (Enlightenment)

Art Blakey – The Complete Blue Note Collection: Part Two 1957-1960 4xCD (Enlightenment)

Art Blakey – The Complete Blue Note Collection: Part Three 1960-1962 4xCD (Enlightenment)

24 albums from the jazz great, collected over three separate remastered volumes.

Bud Bronson & The Good Timers – Fantasy Machine CD (The Greater Than Collective)

Bud Bronson & The Good Timers, reigning Denver Rock City champs since 2012 release their full-length studio debut, Fantasy Machine. Exploding with stadium-sized riffs, dual-lead pyrotechnics and storytelling that splits the atom between earnestness and absurdity, Fantasy Machine tells of the struggle to maintain the wide-eyed wonder of adolescence — when a Squier strat could transform a suburban bedroom into an arena of screaming fans — during the long stretch between the twilight of childhood and the rest of your life. Vinyl due January 8^.

[Read more…] about New Releases for December 11, 2015

CDs + Vinyl:

John Abercrombie/Richie Beirach/George Mraz/Peter Donald – The First Quartet 3xCD (ECM)

This triple-CD set with recordings from 1978 to 1980, issued in ECM’s Old & New Masters series, returns some historically-important material to the catalog, namely the albums Arcade, Abercrombie Quartet and M. The quartet with Richie Beirach, George Mraz and Peter Donald John Abercrombie’s first touring band as a leader was the group in which the guitarist defined some priorities, moving away from a jazz-rock period into a more spacious, impressionistic and original music. Abercrombie and pianist Beirach had a strong musical rapport as improvisers and wrote almost all of the band’s book between them. George Mraz and Peter Donald provided imaginative support. For this edition the recordings — made in Oslo and Ludwigsburg and produced by Manfred Eicher were remastered from original analog sources.

The Allman Brothers Band – Idlewild South [Reissue/1970] CD/2xCD/3xCD+Blu-ray (Mercury)

The Allman Brothers’ second album, Idlewild South, is a mixture of chunky grooves and sophisticated textures, and includes the hit “Midnight Rider.” This digitally remastered reissue is available in Regular, Deluxe, and Super Deluxe editions. Deluxe adds 12 tracks not included on the original release. Bonus tracks are a combination of live tracks, studio cuts and outtakes. Super Deluxe includes the entire album in 5.1 Surround Sound on the Blu-ray plus additional tracks.

Amber Asylum – Sin Eater CD/LP (Prophecy)

Equally at home in the opera house or the smoky, raucous din of an underground nightclub, Amber Asylum plumbs the crevasse between noise and beauty. On Sin Eater, Amber Asylum’s first studio effort in six years, the four ladies from San Francisco combine the ominous energy of their drum & bass-heavy albums Garden Of Love (2005) and Still Point (2007) with the lush string arrangements.

Sam Amidon – But This Chicken Proved Falsehearted [Reissue/2006] CD/LP+MP3 (Omnivore)

Before Sam Amidon’s acclaimed albums for Nonesuch Records and Bedroom Community, he’d released a few on his own. After a collection of traditional Irish instrumentals, Amidon (as Samamidon) delivered his true “debut” But This Chicken Proved Falsehearted. Recorded in 2005 with longtime collaborator Thomas Bartlett (Mumford & Sons, Sufjan Stevens, The National, David Byrne), Vermont-born Amidon re-imagines traditional songs alongside covers as diverse as Mississippi John Hurt to Tears For Fears, and rearranges them into his own unique and mesmerizing compositions. (The CD reissue has been expanded with ten bonus tracks, while the single disc vinyl edition includes a download for the bonus tracks, and is pressed on translucent blue wax.)

Babyface – Return Of The Tender Lover CD (Def Jam)

On his tenth album, Babyface serves up eight new original tracks of unapologetic R&B.

Black Watch – Highs And Lows CD (Pop Culture)

L.A.’s favorite sons return with Highs And Lows. “With its graceful honesty and lyrical elusiveness, Los Angeles’ legendary the Black Watch continues to produce highly intelligent, melodic, accessible music that possesses the slightly psychedelic tinge that fans of The Go-Betweens or The Clean may greatly welcome.”—Magnet

[Read more…] about New Releases for December 4, 2015