CDs + Vinyl:
Rez Abbasi & Junction – Behind The Vibration CD (Cuneiform)
On his new album, realized via his new electric band Junction, Rez Abbasi embraces his rock ‘n’ roll roots with a bear hug that encompasses post-bop, South Asian traditions, and state of the art sonics.
Mike Adams At His Honest Weight – Casino Drone CD/LP (Joyful Noise)
On Casino Drone, his third solo album, Mike Adams At His Honest Weight emerges as both a Hoosier power-pop auteur and a poet of the Indiana everyday. He crafts supremely catchy melodies and fashions ingenious arrangements that thrum with synthpop sparkle, shoegaze drone, classic rock fervor, and sonic textures that draw from easy listening as well as avant garde experiments.
Adult Jazz – Earrings Off! CD/LP (Tri Angle)
“The Leeds-based band Adult Jazz released one of 2014’s most surprising records, an ear-candy mix of warped sounds, disjointed melodies and fractured beats. Now the group is back with an equally captivating follow-up and a new track, ‘Earrings Off!’ The song and album are both largely about gender identity, a theme the group also explored on its 2014 record, Gist Is.” — NPR
Afroman – Happy To Be Alive CD (Cleopatra)
All new musical celebrations of Afroman’s favorite green herb as well as newly recorded versions of his classic tracks “Because I Got High,” “Palmdale,” “She Won’t Let Me F**k,” and “Crazy Rap.”
Against The Current – In Our Bones CD (Fueled By Ramen)
Against The Current is a pop-rock band from Poughkeepsie, New York, who formed in 2011. Signed to the label that brought you Paramore, Fall Out Boy and Twenty One Pilots to name a few, In Our Bones is the band’s debut album.
Alborosie – Freedom & Fyah CD/LP (VP)
One of reggae’s emerging masters of dubwise production, Alborosie has honed his craft through the creation of six studio albums (five for Greenleeves). Along the way, he has become the biggest selling European roots reggae artist. His latest album, Freedom & Fyah, demonstrates his production skill and depth of feel with these contemporary and authentic reggae jams.
JD Allen – Americana: Musings On Jazz And Blues CD (Savant)
This is tenor saxman and composer JD Allen’s tenth album as a leader and his fifth consecutive project for Savant. Once again, his regular sidemen for the past eight years, bassist Gregg August and drummer Rudy Royston, are back on board.
Terry Allen – Juarez [Reissue/1975] CD/LP+MP3 (Paradise Of Bachelors)
Legendary Texan artist Terry Allen occupies a unique position straddling the frontiers of country music and visual art; he has worked with everyone from Guy Clark to David Byrne to Lucinda Williams, and his artwork resides in museums worldwide. Widely celebrated as a masterpiece — arguably one of the greatest concept albums of all time — his spare, haunting 1975 debut LP Juarez is a violent, fractured tale of the chthonic American Southwest and borderlands.
GG Allin – Carnival Of Excess CD (Ponk Media)
GG Allin’s outlaw country swan song is wild, raw and unlike anything he had done before. Featuring takes on the Warren Zevon classic “Carmelita” and “Pick Me Up (On Your Way Down)” made famous by Patsy Cline, these are some of GG’s final recordings. [Stand-alone documentary DVD Carnival Of Excess is also available this week.]
Angel Du$t – Rock The F**k On Forever CD/LP+MP3 (Run For Cover)
Angel Du$t is a Baltimore supergroup-type crew made up of five dudes who are all in hardcore bands (Trapped Under Ice, Turnstile). Rock The F**k On is the band’s sophomore album. The album’s second single, “Upside Down,” is “a speedy ripper that makes me feel like I’m thirteen in the best way possible, head-banging by myself like the true pop-punk wallflower that I was.” – The Fader
Jeff Angell’s Staticland – Jeff Angell’s Staticland CD/2xLP+MP3 (UDR)
Welcome to Jeff Angell’s Staticland — blues rock which breathes new life into the genre.
Angry Angles – Angry Angles CD/LP+MP3 (Goner)
This 17-song collection comprises the complete studio recordings (including five unreleased tracks) of the Jay “Reatard” Lindsey and Alix Brown project that came together shortly after the mid- ‘05 demise of the former’s long-running primary endeavor, The Lost Sounds. The sheer immensity of Lindsey’s musical discography relative Reatard’s artist’s death in January of 2010 at the age of 29 is an undeniably impressive attribute of his legacy. But unlike other artists with massively prolific output, his militantly self-imposed standard of quality control assured this project was not simply a prolonged demo or practice session for what came next-his landmark solo debut Blood Visions. [Vinyl version includes a download of the album plus a board recording of a full set of the band in its prime at Gonerfest 3 (September, 2006).]
Richard Ashcroft – These People CD/LP (Harvest)
“Richard Ashcroft’s brilliant new album These People, a slice of classic Verve song craft with modernist electronic touches, was pieced together in his home basement studio in bursts over the past six years, in between ‘being a dad and living a standard-ish kind of life with dogs and school runs.’ Having discarded the distraction of his mobile phone, he tinkered at length with ‘new old keyboards,’ learning new crafts and trying reinvent the looping melodicism of Urban Hymns. ‘With all the studios closing down, record sales hit massively, the whole industry changing, I had to re-evaluate how I could still create these super records,’ he explains. “So [album track] ‘Out Of My Body’ is in the mould of ‘A Song For The Lovers’, ‘Bittersweet Symphony’, going right back. It’s a proper old-school record made with modern technology and old stuff to create something you’ve never heard before.’” – NME
Assassin – Combat Cathedral CD (Steamhammer)
New album from the German thrash metal pioneers. [Vinyl edition due June 3.]