Marketing Program/ Banner/ Listening Station Titles Promoted This Week:

Arcade Fire – WE CD/LP (Columbia/Sony)

WE is the new album from Canadian rock band Arcade Fire. This is the sixth Arcade Fire studio album and is made up of seven songs that speak to this moment with unique directness. Written, recorded, and released during a critical historical juncture, they are divided into two distinct sides, “I” and “WE.” If the “I” side of the record evokes and embodies our holed-up anxiety and lack of physical connection, the “WE” side captures the excitement of new possibilities and the elevating thrill of committing to one another socially and personally. Produced by Nigel Godrich, Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, WE is a 40 minute epic as much about the forces that threaten to pull us away from the people we love, as it is inspired by the urgent need to overcome them. [An indie store exclusive white color vinyl pressing is available.]

Aurora – The Gods We Can Touch CD/2xLP/Cassette (Glassnote)

Aurora’s The Gods We Can Touch is an elegant and celestial but provocative album about shame, desire, and morality, all seen through the narrative prism of Greek mythology. In each of the album’s 15 songs we meet a different God. On “Exist For Love”, it’s Aphrodite; We also meet Persephone, queen of the damned (on “Heathens”), Morpheus (“This Could Be A Dream”) and Peitho, the personification of seduction and persuasion (“A Dangerous Thing”). “The Greeks had gods and goddesses for everything,” Aurora notes. “For anxiety, for wine, for sex… Long ago when this concept of gods and goddesses started, they were more human, more relatable, and almost touchable. Most importantly, they had flaws.”

AWOLNATION – My Echo, My Shadow, My Covers And Me CD (Better Noise Music)

AWOLNATION’s new album My Echo, My Shadow, My Covers And Me is a fiercely collaborative and celebratory project. It’s an eclectic collection of masterfully crafted and carefully curated covers, with each track featuring at least one acclaimed musical artist. It includes epic re-imaginings of classics like “Wind Of Change” by the Scorpions, “Take A Chance On Me” by ABBA, and “Beds Are Burning” by Midnight Oil; and features collaborations with artists like Portugal The Man, Brandon Boyd of Incubus, Jewel, Beck, Taylor Hanson and more. [Vinyl edition due June 3. Cassette version TBD.]

[Read more…] about New Releases for May 6, 2022

Marketing Program/ Banner/ Listening Station Titles Promoted This Week:

Bloc Party – Alpha Games CD/LP (BMG)

“Alpha Games was conceived on the road, playing in front of amazing crowds on our last tour and then brought to life with the fire and the frustrations of 2020,” says Kele Okereke on Bloc Party’s first new album in seven years. The first Bloc Party album written and recorded with a new lineup, adding the musicality of Justin Harris (bass) and the unbridled energy and power of Louise Bartle on the drums to capture the spark of their live shows. Produced by Nick Launay and Adam Greenspan (Nick Cave, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, IDLES), the 12 tracks of Alpha Games veer from the intense and confrontational (“Traps”, “Day Drinker”) to melodic and introspective (“If We Get Caught”, “By Any Means Necessary”) and marks a new and important chapter in one of music’s most important voices in Kele Okereke. [An indie store exclusive red color vinyl pressing is available.]

Bob Moses – The Silence In Between CD (Astralwerks)

Grammy Award-winning duo Bob Moses delivers their highly anticipated third album, The Silence In Between. One of the most anthemic moments here, “Love Brand New” finds Vancouver-bred musicians/producers Tom Howie and Jimmy Vallance tapping into their deep-rooted love for ’90s alt-rock and left-of-center dance music. Written with Michel Zitron and John Martin (a Swedish production duo known for their work with the likes of Avicii and Swedish House Mafia), the track encompasses a glorious collision of moody guitar tones, mercurial textures, and wildly propulsive beats as Bob Moses channel the dizzying euphoria of new romance. As their boldest and most viscerally charged output to date, The Silence In Between amplifies the unbridled energy that’s made Bob Moses a repeat winner of Resident Advisor’s Best Live Act prize.

Daniel Johnston – Hi, How Are You: The Unfinished Album LP (Eternal Yip Eye Music)

Diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, singer-songwriter, musician, and visual artist Daniel Johnston is highly regarded in the lo-fi and alternative music scenes for his cassette recordings which are notable for their pure and childlike soul. He gathered a cult following when Kurt Cobain was seen wearing a t-shirt featuring the artwork from Johnston’s 1983 album Hi, How Are You and named checked fellow 1983 release Yip Jump Music as one of his Top 50 albums of all time. Johnston’s songs have been covered by the likes of Tom Waits, Pearl Jam, Radiohead, Bright Eyes, Teenage Fanclub, Beck, Wilco, Spiritualized and TV On The Radio among others. Johnston’s sixth self-released album, Hi, How Are You, is the inimitable artist’s most famous, as he claims he suffered a nervous breakdown while making it and never completely finished the tunes. That hasn’t prevented it from drawing widespread critical acclaim and influencing a smattering of indie-rock artists in its wake.

[Read more…] about New Releases for April 29, 2022

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Ry Cooder / Taj Mahal – Get On Board: The Songs Of Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee CD/LP (Nonesuch)

Nearly sixty years after they first played together, Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal, longtime friends and collaborators, reunite with an album of music from two Piedmont blues masters who have inspired them all their lives: Get On Board: The Songs Of Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee.

With Taj Mahal on vocals, harmonica, guitar, and piano and Cooder on vocals, guitar, mandolin, and banjo—joined by Joachim Cooder on drums and bass—the duo recorded eleven songs drawn from recordings and live performances by Terry and McGhee, who they both first heard as teenagers in California.

Charley Crockett – Lil’ GL Presents: Jukebox Charley CD/LP (Son Of Davy)

Charley Crockett delivers the new album Lil’ G.L. Presents: Jukebox Charley. The fourth edition of his Lil’ G.L. tribute series, produced by Billy Horton, Jukebox Charley is another great example of how Crockett is enlivening country music by looking back for inspiration and crafting his own singular sound whether through his own songs or the songs of others. On this new collection, Crockett mines country music’s past and then processes it through his singular “Gulf & Western” sound – weaving old school blues, R&B, soul, Cajun, western swing and other classic touchstones with country. And while the album features songs written by country legends like Willie Nelson, Tom T. Hall and George Jones, Crockett also shines a light on songs from regional acts like Louisiana’s Larry Brasso or a deep cut from Red Sovine. And even when he’s interpreting songs from country legends, Crockett steers toward lesser-known or underappreciated songs, eschewing staples of the genre.

Fontaines D.C. – Skinty Fia CD/LP/2xLP (Partisan)

2020’s A Hero’s Death saw Fontaines D.C. land a No. 2 album in the UK, receive nominations at the Grammys, BRITs and Ivor Novello Awards, and sell out London’s iconic Alexandra Palace. Now the band return with their third record in as many years: Skinty Fia. Used colloquially as an expletive, the title roughly translates from the Irish language into English as “the damnation of the deer”; the spelling crassly anglicized, and its meaning diluted through generations. Part bittersweet romance, part darkly political triumph – the songs ultimately form a long-distance love letter, one that laments an increasingly privatized culture in danger of going the way of the extinct Irish giant deer. [A limited-edition opaque red color vinyl pressing, and a deluxe double-LP 45rpm audiophile edition is available. Standard black vinyl edition due May 6.]

[Read more…] about New Releases for April 22, 2022