CDs:

Apocalyptica – Wagner Reloaded: Live In Leipzig CD (BMG Rights Management)

Finnish cello-based heavy rockers Apocalyptica want to be remembered as the band that brought balls back to heavy metal and the band that did so in a unique way. Twenty years into an inimitable and formidable career, they are still reinventing themselves and finding new sources of inspiration. The first new music from the band in three years is this live CD of their Wagner musical and theatrical project. Vinyl version due December 3.

AWOLNATION – Megalithic Symphony Deluxe 2xCD (Red Bull Records)

This Deluxe double-disc set contains their original 2011 studio album Megalithic Sypmphony paired with a second disc of rarities and B-sides. Package also includes a jacket patch as well as a limited edition AWOLNATION surf wax comb/bottle opener.

Beady Eye – BE CD/LP (Harvest)

Beady Eye was formed by the other three core members of the 1999-2009 incarnation of Oasis, namely singer Liam Gallagher, guitarist Gem Archer, and bassist Andy Bell, who switched back to guitar in Beady Eye, together with live drummer Chris Sharrock, who became a full time member of the new group. BE is their second full-length album and was produced by Dave Sitek of TV On The Radio.

Andrew Bird – I Want To See Pulaski At Night CDEP (Grimsey)

Beautiful new, mostly instrumental 7-song, 32-minute mini-album, that is both poppy and hypnotic at the same time. The only vocals appear on the title track, with Andrew pleading for a departed one to “Come Back To Chicago, City Of Light.” Bird builds five of the remaining tracks up from simple layered loops in the manner that we’ve all come to take for granted, but each song is really a small wonder of fragile beauty and joy. Lovely and trippy.

Blood Orange – Cupid Deluxe CD/LP (Domino)

“On his second collection of melancholic ‘80s-inspired pop odes, the 27-year-old singer/songwriter/producer Devonté Hynes, aka Blood Orange, channels vagabond emotions into something universal and inviting. His Cupid Deluxe is an album that tenderly details heartbreak through the language of longing.” Best New Music [8.5] – Pitchfork

Bottle Rockets – Bottle Rockers/The Brooklyn Side [Reissue/1993/1995] 2xCD (Roadrunner)

The Deluxe double-CD set contains digitally remastered and expanded editions of the roots rock band’s seminal releases The Bottle Rockers (1993) and The Brooklyn Side (1995). The package also includes 19 previously unreleased tracks from the era these original recordings were made, along with an exhaustive 40-page booklet detailing the band and the scene, at the time. 

Jake Bugg – Shangri La CD (Island)

The British singer/songwriter’s new album shares its title with the Malibu studio where it was made, once the ’70s haven of Bob Dylan and The Band, now the creative hub of legendary producer Rick Rubin. Rubin’s assembled wrecking crew of Shangri La session regulars includes guitarist Matt Sweeney, bassist Jason Lader, and drummers Chad Smith and Pete Thomas. Vinyl version due December 17.

[Read more…] about New Releases for November 19, 2013

CDs:

Aqua Nebula Oscillator – Spiritus Mundi CD (Tee Pee)

New album from the celebrated French underground psych rock trio. ”Unrelentingly awesome…crammed with spiraling space-rock guitar solos, layered tape effects and occult atmospherics. Indulgence is the name of the game.” — The Onion/AV Club

Beehoover – The Devil And His Footmen CD/LP (Exile On Mainstream)

The multi-faceted clawing at the stoner doom mantle which defined their 2010 full length, Concrete Catalyst, has been taken to pastures fresh; self-recorded behind the locked doors of their own studio, Beehoover’s latest is a swirl of raw, sultry tones and rumbling octaves that strike chords with braggadocio ‘70s hard rock as much as it does the thunderous rumble of Black Cobra and the jutting angles of Unsane.

Eric Bibb – Jericho Road CD (Stony Plain)

Bibb is one of the highest profile international roots music artists, winning Acoustic Artist of the Year at the Blues Music Awards in 2013.Jericho Road reflects the many musical influences that have informed Eric Bibb’s writing throughout his career. World music, blues, folk and soul all find their way into the songs. 

James Blunt – Moon Landings CD (Atlantic)

A collection of songs that is raw, direct, and emotionally honest, Moon Landing is a thing of pure, understated beauty. And, as an introduction, and like all of James Blunt’s best work, the melody for first single “Bonfire Heart” will quickly etch itself into your conscience, and you’ll soon be humming along to the sweetly reflective verses, and anthemic chorus.

David Bowie – The Next Day Extra 2xCD+DVD (Columbia)

This is the collector s edition of David Bowie’s critically acclaimed 2013 album The Next Day. The package adds a disc featuring the three tracks from the original Deluxe edition of The Next Day, plus four new studio tracks, a bonus track (“God Bless The Girl”), and two new re-mixes (including one by James Murphy). The DVD features four videos. 

Bright Eyes – A Christmas Album [2002] CD/LP+CD (Saddle Creek)

First widespread release of this collection of 11 traditional Christmas songs. Contributors include members of Cursive, Azure Ray, Rilo Kiley and the rest of the Saddle Creek family. Also available on HQ-180gm white vinyl, which includes the entire album on CD.

Crusades – Perhaps You Deliver This Judgment With Greater Fear Than I Receive It CD/LP (No Idea)

Injecting punk with a welcomed literary-minded approach, Crusades take the teachings of Italian friar and philosopher Giordano Bruno — who tried to pass “down an intoxicating idea to the generation that was to follow him…The sky was no longer simply a 15th Century God’s backyard, and it was too vast to be presided over by a 15th Century God” — and transform them into 10 songs of melodic hard rock.

Cut Copy – Free Your Mind CD (Lomo Vista/Republic)

Frontman Dan Whitford produced the anticipated follow-up to Zonoscope, which was recorded in Cut Copy’s hometown of Melbourne and later mixed by Dave Fridmann (Tame Impala, The Flaming Lips, MGMT) in upstate New York. As the new wavy foursome tell it, Free Your Mind was heavily inspired by the two Summers Of Love (San Francisco’s in 1967 and Britain’s in 1988 and 1989). In an official statement, Whitford explained the album’s thesis as such: “The concept of freedom is one that’s universally positive and timeless, and whatever each person’s version of that freedom is, it’s a good thing to be reminding people or even just ourselves to be ‘free.'” Vinyl version due November 19.

[Read more…] about New Releases for November 5, 2013

CDs:

65daysofstatic – Wild Light CD/LP (Superball Music)

Sixth album from the Sheffield-based instrumental post-rock outfit. Initially, the band interspersed heavy, progressive, guitar-driven instrumental sections with live drums and offbeat sampled drums akin to those of Aphex Twin, although since their second album they have developed their work to include keyboard parts.

Arcade Fire – Reflektor 2xCD/2xLP+MP3 (Merge)

Arcade Fire’s new double album was produced by the band, LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy, and long-time collaborator Markus Dravs.

Audacity – Butter Knife CD/LP+CD (Suicide Squeeze)

Audacity’s new album Butter Knife is still, at its core, a garage rock record. The economic instrumentation, grit-tinged guitar jangle, pogo-prompting tempos, and sing-along choruses can all be traced back to the seminal Nuggets collections. But ultimately, Butter Knife doesn’t sound so much like an homage to The Sonics as it sounds like a young band striving to make the most ebullient and jubilant noise possible.

Bad Religion – Christmas Songs CD (Epitaph)

Bad Religion have threatened to record an album of seasonal classics for years, and now they’ve gone and done it, tackling eight chestnuts in their classic punk rock style. From “White Christmas” with its nod to pioneers The Ramones, to the glorious choirboy intro to “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” Christmas Songs is the record you need to get your holiday household’s toes tapping.

Bardo Pond – Peace On Venus CD/LP (Fire)

Philadelphia’s foremost purveyors of psychedelic rock again dazzle with their gift for heavy riffs laced with soaring vocals &and swathes of sound.

Botony – Lava Diviner (True Story) CD/LP (Western Vinyl)

When our human experiences defy articulation, music and film can sometimes be the only languages we have to communicate with. In 1975, Peter Weir directed Picnic At Hanging Rock, a haunting film in which a group of schoolgirls disappear while exploring a volcanic rock in the Australian outback. Through the film, Weir explores landscapes of intense memory, and the mysterious forces that bend, mold, and erode the core of our psyches.

Susan Boyle – Home For Christmas CD (Sony)

Singing sensation Susan Boyle returns with a stunning album of her favorite classic Christmas songs.

Peter Broderick – Float 2013 CD/LP (Erased Tapes)

Reissue of the 26-year old American composer’s 2008 debut album, Float. Remastered by Nils Frahm. Vinyl edition features two bonus tracks.

Circuit des Yeux – Overdue CD/LP (Ba Da Bing!)

A few artists have had studios built for themselves—Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios a notable example—but certainly few albums have had studios built for them. Circuit des Yeux’s Haley Fohr and Cave’s Cooper Crain erected USA Studios in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood over a few weeks in January 2013 for the two months of recording sessions that make up Overdue. Founded with the acquisition of a one-inch Otari MX-70 tape deck (modded to 8-track) and a vacancy in a friend’s apartment, the studio endured hundreds of hours over its brief flash of life.

Circus Devils – My Mind Has Seen The White Trick CD (Happy Jack)

Circus Devils – When Machines Attack CD (Happy Jack)

Founded by Robert Pollard, completed by the Tobias brothers Todd and Tim, Ohio’s Circus Devils have been lurking under the radar since 2001. They’re back with two new albums for 2013, both released on the same day Vinyl versions due November 12.

Kelly Clarkson – Wrapped In Red CD (RCA)

The Grammy Award winner and multi-platinum recording artist releases her first Christmas album.

Diane Coffee – My Friend Fish CD/LP (Western Vinyl)

Joseph Campbell describes a shaman as “person, male or female, who…has an overwhelming psychological experience that turns him totally inward. It’s a kind of schizophrenic crack-up. The whole unconscious opens up, and the shaman falls into it.” We’ll never know the whole truth about what happened when (Foxygen drummer and former Disney child actor) Shaun Fleming moved from the West Coast suburbs to New York, but whatever it was fractured his psyche, opened it up, and gave birth to Diane Coffee.

Corrections House – Last City Zero CD (Neurot)

Corrections House is the collective compulsions of Mike IX Williams (Eyehategod), Scott Kelly (Neurosis), Bruce Lamont (Yakuza), Sanford Parker (Minsk) and their minister of propaganda, Seward Fairbury. A mysterious cooperative of lost souls, forged unwittingly by the impetuous forces of nature and altered states of consciousness, Corrections House is without control of their destiny.

[Read more…] about New Releases for October 29, 2013