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

alt-J – The Dream CD (Atlantic)

The Dream is an album of intrigue, beauty and humanity – a coalescence of everything that has made alt-J a global band with true staying power. True-crime inspired stories and tales of Hollywood and the Chateau Marmont rub shoulders with some of the band’s most personal moments to-date. The album was created after a period of rest for the band following their seismic world tour in support of previous record Relaxer. It is a record that is the sound of a band growing as songwriters and storytellers. [A limited-edition indie store exclusive vinyl pressing is due 2/18.]

Dan Andriano & The Byegones – Dear Darkness CD/LP+MP3 (Epitaph)

Multifaceted singer-songwriter and instrumentalist Dan Andriano (Alkaline Trio) delivers the debut album from his new project Dan Andriano & The Bygones featuring Bay Area musicians Randy and Dylan Moore and Nick Kenrick. The self-produced project finds Andriano venturing into deeply personal lyrical territory while also pushing the limits of just what his unclassifiable sound can be. Andriano first began work on what would become Dear Darkness during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, writing demoes and raiding his archives of unfinished ideas, doing so more out of a deep-seated need to create than with any true end project in mind. Having spent so much of his life touring and making music, the time off forced by the pandemic was foreign to Andriano, who, at moments, struggled with how to use this newfound freedom, but also found it to be fruitful for his creative process.

Big Thief – Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You CD/2xLP+MP3 (4AD)

Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You is a sprawling double-LP exploring the deepest elements and possibilities of Big Thief. To truly dig into all that the music of Adrianne Lenker, Max Oleartchik, Buck Meek, and James Krivchenia desired in 2020, the band decided to write and record a rambling account of growth as individuals, musicians, and chosen family over four distinct recording sessions. In Upstate New York, Topanga Canyon, The Rocky Mountains, and Tucson, AZ, Big Thief spent five months in creation and came out with 45 completed songs. The most resonant of this material was edited down into the 20 tracks that make up DNWMIBIY, a fluid and adventurous listen. [A limited-edition indie store exclusive vinyl pressing is available.]

[Read more…] about New Releases for February 11, 2021

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

Animal Collective – Time Skiffs CD/2xLP+MP3 (Domino)

Time Skiffs‘ nine songs are love letters, distress signals, en plein air observations, and relaxation hymns, the collected transmissions of four people who have grown into relationships and parenthood and adult worry. But they are rendered with Animal Collective’s singular sense of exploratory wonder. Harmonies so rich you want to skydive through their shared air, textures so fascinating you want to decode their sorcery, rhythms so intricate you want to untangle their sources. Here is Animal Collective’s past two decades, still in search of what’s next. [An indie store exclusive color vinyl pressing is available.]

Black Country, New Road – Ants From Up There CD/2xCD/2xLP+MP3/4xLP+MP3 (Ninja Tune)

Black Country, New Road release the second album, Ants From Up There. Following on almost exactly a year to the day from the release of their acclaimed debut For The First Time, the band have harnessed the momentum from that record and run full pelt into their second, with Ants From Up There managing to strike a skillful balance between feeling like a bold stylistic overhaul of what came before, as well as a natural progression. – For The First Time melded klezmer, post-rock, indie and an often-intense spoken word delivery. On Ants From Up There they have expanded on this unique concoction to create a singular sonic middle ground that traverses classical minimalism, indie-folk, pop, alt rock and a distinct tone that is already unique to the band. [An indie store exclusive autographed blue marbled color double-LP edition including a book is available. The deluxe double-CD and four-LP editions includes bonus live material, a booklet and a sticker.]

Hollis Brown – In The Aftermath CD/LP (Mascot Label Group)

Hollis Brown’s latest album, In The Aftermath, is the deliciously depraved outcome of an all-night rock ‘n’ roll riot. The Queens, New York-based quintet escaped to the Poconos to record with a few handles of whiskey, and, in one 24-hour session, ran down the Stone’s seminal first album of all originals, 1966’s Aftermath. Tracked live in the studio with minimal overdubs, In The Aftermath is potent proof the five-piece group is one of the last great American rock ‘n’ roll bands. The album is the second in a casual homage series. Previously, Hollis Brown issued, Gets Loaded, saluting Velvet Underground’s Loaded. This new album directly follows the band’s most successful release yet, 2019’s Ozone Park, which earned rave reviews from Rolling Stone, Billboard, Paste Magazine, Pop Matters, Relix, and Goldmine.

[Read more…] about New Releases for February 4, 2022

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

Bad Suns – Apocalypse Whenever CD/LP+MP3 (Epitaph)

Apocalypse Whenever features dreamy ’80s pastiche flanked by Stratocasters through cranked Vox amps, pulsing synths, and palpable rhythmic energy. While all the elements associated with the band’s signature sound are beautifully showcased, their fourth studio album sees Bad Suns take a more conceptual approach to their songwriting. The 13-track album was conceived as “the soundtrack to a movie that doesn’t yet exist,” setting the scene as the album’s protagonist washes up on the shores of a fictionalized L.A. after a near-death experience at the hands of the turbulent ocean. In order to fully conceptualize their story, the band did what any good director would do; assembling a mood board, filtering their neo-noir version of Los Angeles through the dreamlike haziness of author Haruki Murakami, the futuristic flair of Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Blade Runner, and the lifted cinematography of Spike Jonze’s HER.

Brent Cobb – And Now, Let’s Turn To Page… CD (Ol’ Buddy)

And Now, Let’s Turn to Page… is the fifth album overall and debut gospel album from Georgia singer-songwriter Brent Cobb. It includes eight traditional songs and hymnals Cobb grew up singing in church plus one new original song (“When It’s My Time”), incorporating multiple genres – country, Southern rock, blues, folk, soul. Produced, engineered, and mixed by six-time Grammy-winning producer Dave Cobb (Jason Isbell, John Prine, Brandi Carlile, Chris Stapleton) at RCA Studio A in Nashville, TN.

Buffalo Nichols – Buffalo Nichols CD/LP (Fat Possum)

[10/15/22 release promoted this week] Austin, TX-based vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Buffalo Nichols – Fat Possum’s first solo blues signing in nearly 20 years – delivers his self-titled debut album on the label. The album sees Nichols wrestling with prescient topics, such as empathy and forgiveness on the poignant, ever-building melody of “How To Love”; regret and loss on moving, violin-inflected “These Things”; and the pitfalls of lives lived too close to the edge on the smooth, dynamic “Back On Top”.

[Read more…] about New Releases for January 28, 2022