AIMS Marketing Program/ Featured Titles Promoted This Week:

Terry Adams & Steve Ferguson – Louisville Sluggers [Reissue/2006] CD (Omnivore)

Louisville Sluggers appeared in 2006 to the delight of the NRBQ faithful. In addition to originals from both NRBQ founders Terry Adams and Steve Ferguson, the friends also explored the music they loved: Thelonious Monk, Jimmie Rodgers, Louis Armstrong, Hank Williams, and more. No matter the writer or influence, Louisville Sluggers was totally inventive. Now, Louisville Sluggers returns, with updated artwork (retaining Donn Adams original liner notes) and four previously unissued bonus tracks including recordings of “Turkey In The Straw” and Allen Toussaint’s “Java”.

The Amity Affliction – Not Without My Ghosts CD/LP (Pure Noise)

With a musicality as heavy and hard-hitting as singer Joel Birch’s intensely emotional lyrics-about suicide, gun violence, religion, and mental illness – Not Without My Ghosts finds The Amity Affliction at their brutal best. With four vocal features, including rising Los Angeles talent Phem, the band’s first female feature, on the title track, the Australian quartet’s eighth LP pushes the boundaries and genres of heavy music. From start to finish, TAA’s whisper-to-a-scream energy, clean and unclean vocals and Dan Brown’s masterfully dynamic guitar work underscore each track’s dramatic ups and downs. [An indie store exclusive multicolor blue w/ black and white vinyl pressing is available.]

Cattle Decapitation – Terrasite CD/2xLP (Metal Blade)

Though many bands have tried, no one articulates the real apocalypse humanity is facing as vividly and succinctly as Cattle Decapitation. With 2019’s Death Atlas they reached the apex of this, perhaps leading some to believe they had no place left to go beyond such an achievement, but now they return with Terrasite, which is as bold a statement as they have ever made. Terrasite pushes their sound further into more epic and varied territory, and in the hands of vocalist Travis Ryan the governing concept takes a new and disturbing direction. [Two vinyl colorways are available: indie store exclusive orange and marbled orange w/ pink.]

[Read more…] about New Releases for May 12, 2023

AIMS Marketing Program/ Featured Titles Promoted This Week:

The Damned – Darkadelic CD/LP (earMUSIC)

46 years after releasing the groundbreaking debut Damned Damned Damned, The Damned return with Darkadelic, their twelfth studio album and their first one since 2018’s Evil Spirits. The album catches the band that launched punk and invented goth once again innovating and expanding upon their unique universe. The lead single and video for “The Invisible Man” is a showcase for Captain Sensible’s riffadelic guitar work and David Vanian’s snarling baritone vocals. Darkadelic barrels along from there and features some of The Damned’s sharpest songwriting and genre-bending performances reaching peaks with “You’re Gonna Realise” and “Beware Of The Clowns” drenched in classic horror movie references, nods to swinging ‘60s London, and a refined palette of musical influences. [A limited-edition clear vinyl pressing with slipmat is available.]

Indigo De Souza – All Of This Will End CD/LP+MP3 (Saddle Creek)

“I was finally able to trust myself fully,” says Indigo de Souza of making her masterful third album All Of This Will End. Across eleven songs, the LP is a raw and radically optimistic work that grapples with mortality, the rejuvenation that community brings, and the importance of centering yourself now. These tracks come from the most resonant moments of her life: childhood memories, collecting herself in parking lots, the ecstatic trips spent wandering Appalachian Mountains and southern swamps with friends, and the times she had to stand up for herself. Like the hues of reds and oranges that her mother painted on the LP cover, All Of This Will End marks a warmer and unmistakably audacious era for her. It’s a statement about fearlessly moving forward from the past into a gratitude-filled present, feeling it all every step of the way, and choosing to embody loving awareness. [A limited-edition red color vinyl pressing is available. Cassette version due May 5.]

Candy Dulfer – Live At Montreux 2002 CD+DVD (Mercury Studios)

Candy Dulfer has combined a highly successful solo career with guest spots for a host of musical greats including Van Morrison, Blondie, Aretha Franklin, Pink Floyd, Dave Stewart (with whom she scored the hit, “Lily Was Here”) and, perhaps most notably, Prince. She has played at Montreux on several occasions with her band, Funky Stuff. This set focuses on her concert from 2002 and features bonus tracks from 1998.

[Read more…] about New Releases for April 28, 2023

AIMS Marketing Program/ Featured Titles Promoted This Week:

Brian Dunne – Loser On The Ropes CD/LP (Kill Rock Stars)

Recorded in Athens, GA, with producer Drew Vandenberg (Faye Webster, Of Montreal), Loser On The Ropes explores defeat and denial, fortune and faith, shame and redemption, all set against the backdrop of a world run by blowhards and bullshitters who manage to perpetually skate by without cost or consequence. Dunne may be a singer/songwriter in the purely technical sense of the term, but he shares more in common on this album with the punks and new wave weirdos who turned up in lower Manhattan and the outer boroughs in the ’70s and ’80s, DIY misfits who came to crash the party and ended up building their own scene instead. That’s not to say Loser On The Ropes is a punk album-in fact, it might be the most beautiful and melodic record Dunne’s ever made-but rather that the songs are lean and gritty, sick of mincing words and insistent on cutting straight to the heart of things with a raw, understated poeticism. [A limited-edition color vinyl pressing is available.]

Fruit Bats – A River Running To Your Heart CD/LP+MP3 (Merge)

Fruit Bats has often showcased love songs where people and locations meld into one. It’s a loose song structure that navigates what Eric D. Johnson calls “the geography of the heart.” Those pathways extend straight through the newest Fruit Bats album, aptly titled A River Running To Your Heart. Self-produced by Johnson – a first for Fruit Bats – with Jeremy Harris at Panoramic House just north of San Francisco, it’s Fruit Bats’ tenth full-length release. After two decades of making music, hard-earned emotional maturity has clearly seeped into Johnson’s already inviting songs. [An indie store exclusive blue w/ cream color vinyl pressing is available.]

Jesus Piece – …So Unknown CD/LP (Century Media)

Seven years into a career built on an uncompromising ethos and carefully crafted, brutal sounds, Jesus Piece melds intelligence and aggression in a manner that doesn’t just push the genre’s rigid boundaries. It sets the standard for the shape of hardcore to come…. So Unknown is the sound of articulated brutality that defies categorization. It’s 28 minutes of rage and introspection slammed into the red. From explosive opener “In Constraints” to the dissonant strains of “Tunnel Vision” to the caustic “An Offering To The Night”, Jesus Piece’s first full-length since 2018’s Only Self has been worth the wait. Co-produced and mixed by Randy LeBouef (Every Time I Die, Orthodox), …So Unknown is a spectacular second act and a passage to something more intense and personal for the five Pennsylvania natives. [A limited-edition clear vinyl pressing is available.]

[Read more…] about New Releases for April 14, 2023