Boo Boo Records

November Program Titles Released This Week:

1349 – The Infernal Pathway CD/2xLP/Cassette (Season Of Mist)

Norwegian black metal titans 1349 return with their long awaited seventh full-length, The Infernal Pathway. Following-up 2014’s Massive Cauldron Of Chaos, the album promises a journey through chaos and madness, darkness and peril, terror and annihilation. After performing a fiery show at Norway’s Inferno festival in 2019, 1349 started recording in Amper Tone studios and Studio Nyhagen with engineer Jarrett Pritchard. Thus, The Infernal Pathway was born, a sonic parallel to summoning and unleashing the beast of the abyss in all its fearsome, ferocious and powerful splendor. [Deluxe CD edition also available.]

The Almost – The Fear Caller CD/LP (Fearless)

“I feel like I do the best under pressure when things are bad,” states The Almost frontman, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter Aaron Gillespie. “I need pressure and chaos to push me to be the best me. People want peace, but I don’t strive in peace.” In between his duties as vocalist and drummer for gold-certified three-time Grammy Award-nominated juggernaut Underoath, Aaron introduced The Almost on 2007’s seminal Southern Weather. Over the years, the group has shared the stage with Faith No More, Jane’s Addiction and A Day To Remember. In between The Almost and Underoath records, Gillespie also spent two years touring behind the kit for Paramore. On The Almost’s new album, The Fear Caller, storytelling takes center stage. Inspired by Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Brand New, and Dawes, Aaron delivers the masterpiece he was always meant to make, achieving an artist breakthrough on par with his influences by diving into the songwriting process like never before. [Limited clear vinyl pressing also available.]

Alter Bridge – We Walk The Sky CD/2xLP (Napalm)

For over 15 years, Alter Bridge has been a band known for blurring the line between hard rock and heavy metal. Building upon the sound that has won them worldwide critical acclaim and a devoted global fan base, the group returns with their sixth studio album, Walk The Sky. The fourteen-track opus marks a creative highpoint for the quartet. From the opening vocal melody on “One Life” to the moving finale of “Dying Light”, Alter Bridge has created a formidable addition to their catalog. And songs like “Godspeed”, “Native Son” and “Walking On The Sky” are sure to be early additions to their live set. Lead single “Wouldn’t You Rather” is quintessential Alter Bridge and “Forever Falling” also marks a lead vocal return from Mark Tremonti with Myles Kennedy taking the chorus as done previously on the Fortress favorite “Waters Rising”. [Indie exclusive vinyl pressing also available.]

[Read more…] about New Releases for October 18, 2019

November Program Titles Released This Week:

Allah-Las – Lahs CD/LP (Mexican Summer)

On their fourth LP, drummer Matt Correia, bassist Spencer Dunham, and guitarists Miles Michaud and Pedrum Siadatian turn their collective gaze outward and toward the horizon. Simply titled Lahs (a reference to a common misspelling of the band’s name), their new release finds the band turning in their most cohesive and ambitious work yet. The Allah Las seem to be transmitting from a place not found on any map. Those familiar with the band’s work will recognize their skillful melding of melodies and moods, but through that lens we see them venturing into new, exciting territories. Indeed, their growth not just as songwriters, but as performers, arrangers, and producers – is clearly audible. Opener “Holding Pattern” conveys what the title suggests; you’ve almost arrived, you can see the ground, but you’re not quite there yet. Airy, ethereal harmonies chant the title, holding you in suspense – and eventually give way to an entirely different mood just before the fade – as if telling the listener “we’ve landed safely. [Indie store exclusive colored vinyl pressing also available.]

Big Thief – Two Hands CD/LP+MP3 (4AD)

Big Thief had only just finished work on their recently released third album, U.F.O.F. – “the celestial twin” – days before in a cabin studio in the woods of Washington State. Now it was time to birth U.F.O.F.’s sister album – “the earth twin” – Two Hands. 30 miles west of El Paso, surrounded by 3,000 acres of pecan orchards and only a stone’s throw from the Mexican border, Big Thief (a.k.a. Adrianne Lenker, Buck Meek, Max Oleartchik, and James Krivchenia) set up their instruments as close together as possible to capture their most important collection of songs yet. Where U.F.O.F. layered mysterious sounds and effects for levitation, Two Hands grounds itself on dried-out, cracked desert dirt. In sharp contrast to the wet environment of the U.F.O.F. session, the southwestern Sonic Ranch studio was chosen for its vast desert location. The 105-degree weather boiled away any clinging memories of the green trees and wet air of the previous session. Two Hands had to be completely different – an album about the Earth and the bones beneath it. The songs were recorded live with almost no overdubs. All but two songs feature entirely live vocal takes, leaving Adrianne’s voice suspended above the mix in dry air, raw and vulnerable as ever.

The Building – Petra CD/LP (Concord)

The Building’s remarkable and intimate new album Petra was written, produced, and performed by acclaimed multi-instrumentalist/songwriter Anthony LaMarca, also known for his role as guitarist in The War On Drugs. Petra – which shares its name with the LaMarcas’ beloved German Shepherd – is a bare-boned, often brutally blunt, new work from a gifted musician-songwriter forced by fate to confront life’s hardest truths and consequences. LaMarca had just begun recording the album when a spell of intense back pain led to his being diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma. Originally, LaMarca was diagnosed in the middle of making his first as The Building, Reconciliation. He immediately started treatment, which brought the disease into complete remission. His disease relapsed in 2018 while in the middle of making Petra. The experience inspired a second meaning to the album’s title, the acronym P-E-T-R-A, or “Peace’s Eternal Truth Renews All”. Moreover, LaMarca’s physical struggle has resulted in the most powerful work of The Building’s still-growing canon, a vivid series of deeply personal songs such as “Purifer” and the LP-opening “Transformed”, made even more impactful through strikingly simple arrangements and raw, heartfelt performance.

[Read more…] about New Releases for October 11, 2019

October Program Titles Released This Week:

Blood Orange – Angel’s Pulse CD/LP (Domino)

Angel’s Pulse is the new mixtape from Blood Orange aka Devonté Hynes. It follows the widely celebrated and critically acclaimed album Negro Swan, released last year. “My new record is called Angel’s Pulse and I performed, produced and mixed the entire thing myself,” Hynes notes. “I’m calling it a mixtape. I have a habit through the years of making records that I just give to friends, or on tape to people on the street, or no one. Usually this material is made directly after the album I’ve just put out. Somewhat of an epilogue to the thing I’ve made before. This time…I decided to release it. I put as much work and care into it as I do with the albums I’ve released, but for some reason trained myself into not releasing things the rate at which I make them. I’m older now though, and life is unpredictable and terrifying…so here you go mates. Hope you enjoy.” Guests include: Toro y Moi, Kelsey Lu, Ian Isiah, Justine Skye, Project Pat, Gangsta Boo, Tinashe, Porches, BennY RevivaL, Arca and Joba. [Indie store exclusive vinyl pressing also available.]

Bonnie Bishop – The Walk CD/LP (Plan B)

The first thing that registers about Bonnie Bishop’s stirring album The Walk is that the seasoned Grammy winner is no longer trying to outrun herself; she owns whatever has come her way, good wind or ill. It’s an uplifting confessional that she dedicates “to all who wander” – laying down searing, emotionally-charged variations to award-winning producer Steve Jordan’s (Robert Cray, John Mayer, Buddy Guy) powerhouse production. She does so in a voice that aches and arches and grabs and never let’s go. The Walk soars as her most honest effort to date. It’s a groove-laden, lyrical lightning bolt from which the tonic of self-revelation pours forth on songs such as the grateful “Every Happiness Under The Sun” and the gut-wrenching “I Don’t Like To Be Alone”. The album’s euphoric closer, “Song Don’t Fail Me Now”, is Bonnie’s heartfelt testament that music can heal the spirit.

City And Colour – A Pill For Loneliness CD/2xLP (Still)

Through a kaleidoscope of lush guitars, ethereal orchestration, and heavenly delivery, City And Colour alchemically transforms life’s turbulence into waves of blissful, bold, and brilliant alternative anthems. Under this banner, singer-songwriter Dallas Green siphons serenity from stress on his sixth full-length studio album, A Pill For Loneliness. Ultimately, these 11 tracks illuminate an entrancing and engaging emotional expanse, balancing two extremes with eloquence and energy. “I wrote a lot of dark songs and wrapped them in the most beautiful sounds we could find,” he explains. Introductory single “Astronaut” lifts off on a dusty rumble of clean guitar and a steady beat. Green’s voice immediately captivates as he carries a divine and dynamic hook before an echoing solo. Elsewhere, “Strangers” hinges on a buoyant riff and hummable groove. It charges towards a ghostly refrain awash in reverb as he pleads, “Don’t wake me when this is over, just let me drift amidst my dreams.” From the slow burn build-up of “Living In Lightning”, which borrows its title from John Steinbeck’s East Of Eden, to the gorgeous last gasp of the piano-driven “Lay Me Down,” A Pill For Loneliness unlocks the catharsis hinted at by the title. [Limited indie store exclusive colored vinyl pressing also available.]

[Read more…] about New Releases for October 4, 2019