Boo Boo Records

March Program Titles Released This Week:

Galactic – Already Ready Already CD (Tchoup-Zilla Records)

Galactic’s first new studio album in more than three years, Already Ready Already sees the renowned New Orleans-based instrumental outfit taking a distinctly contemporary approach towards their own progressive sound, interpolating modern rhythms and electronic instrumentation within the house-shaking framework of Crescent City funk pop ‘n’ roll. Produced by the band’s Robert Mercurio and Ben Ellman, the new LP finds Galactic once again enlisting a diverse array of vocal collaborators to assist in their musical exploration, each of whom lend lyrical flavor and individualistic personality to the band’s multi-faceted sonic grooves. Bookended by a high-powered pair of trademark Galactic instrumentals that give the album its title. The album is a short, sharp blast of undeniable creative muscle, from the stripped-down kick/snap verses of “Going Straight Crazy”, featuring New Orleans singer (and YouTube sensation) Princess Shaw, to punk cabaret artist Boyfriend’s quirky speed-rap on the breakneck “Dance At My Funeral”. As ever, Galactic’s omnivorous musical interests make easy classification difficult – Already Ready Already is as all-encompassing and universal as the band’s moniker established long ago.

Eric Gales – The Bookends CD/LP+MP3 (Provogue/Mascot Label Group)

Eric Gales returns with his brand-new album, The Bookends. The challenge of making The Bookends was for Gales to challenge himself. “As a guitar player it’s been established that I can play a little bit, just a little bit,” he says. But for this album he not only wanted to push himself as a musician, but also as a vocalist, to build up his vocal discography. “What spearheaded that was the artists that I have on the record,” he adds which includes B. Slade, Doyle Bramhall II and Beth Hart. If his previous album Middle Of The Road was the rebirth of Eric Gales, then The Bookends is him blurring boundaries and taking flight on a voyage of self-discovery.

[Read more…] about New Releases for February 8, 2019

February Program Titles Released This Week:

Boy Harsher – Careful CD/LP (Nude Club)

Boy Harsher’s second full-length album, Careful, further develops the band’s brooding dance style, set up in their previous EP Country Girl. The ten songs, spanning forty-four minutes, contain eerie narrative soundscapes that are bracing, high tempo and dynamic. The album delivers manifold emotions, from the nostalgic yearning of “LA” to the gripping intensity of “Come Closer”. The nervousness of Augustus Muller’s bent, out of tune synths paired with the lush and sometimes brittle vocals of Jae Matthews, delivers an unsettled, yet fulfilling encounter with Boy Harsher. Careful summons a new spirit for the young band – that of growth and desire.

Ex:Re – Ex:Re CD/LP (Glassnote/4AD)

New solo recordings from Elena Tonra from Daughter. Running parallel to Daughter, she’s assumed the pseudonym Ex:Re (pronounced ex ray) for her eponymously-titled debut solo album, a deeply personal record that was made with both a sense of urgency and a cathartic need. Tonra’s candid solo songs document the time after a relationship ended and are written like unsent letters to herself and others. Taking on a creative moniker, she chose Ex:Re to mean ‘regarding ex’ and also ‘X-Ray’ as a way to look inside and see what is really there. Elena said of the album, “Although the record is written for someone, a lot of the time it’s about the space without that person in it. In every scenario, there’s either the person in memory or the noticeable absence of that person in the present moment. I suppose it is a break-up record, however I do not talk about the relationship at all, and he hardly features in the scenes. He is only felt as a ghostly presence.”

Girlpool – What Chaos Is Imaginary CD/LP (ANTI-)

With their powerful harmonies and imaginative songwriting in full force, Los Angeles, CA duo Girlpool (Harmonoy Tividad and Cleo Tucker) makes new creative leaps with their new album, What Chaos Is Imaginary. Combining elements of shoegaze, folk, and ‘80s postpunk with their own melodic gifts, these two great songwriters come up with a modern classic full of great tunes and sonic surprises. NPR has already praised the songs saying, “Girlpool’s full-band transformation has illuminated its raw sound in deep and unexpected ways.” Lead single “Hire” is a great example of the band’s constant evolution and maturation. [Indie-store exclusive “pineapple” colored vinyl pressing also available.]

Mandolin Orange – Tides Of A Teardrop (First Edition) CD/2xLP (Yep Roc)

North Carolina-based singer-songwriter Andrew Marlin and multi-instrumentalist Emily Frantz, aka Mandolin Orange, release their first new music since 2016. Tides Of A Teardrom finds Mandolin Orange exploring the intimate grief at the frayed edges of their songwriting and confronting loss head-on, facing down the depths of despair and emerging with something renewed and redemptive. It’s a progressive, personal statement from one of roots music’s most thoughtful young groups. On the self-produced set, their slow-burning acoustic meditations on love and loss are belied by a newfound directness as Marlin tackles the death of his mother, who died when he was 18. Marlin’s songwriting voice emerges clearer than ever throughout; whether it’s the trilling, weighty atmosphere of the allegorical “Wolves” or the Appalachian yearning of the hymn-like “Suspended In Heaven”, Marlin and Frantz’s vocal and instrumental interplay is as dialed in as ever, the instinctual expression of deeply known but unspoken truths. [Limited blue colored vinyl pressing includes a bonus EP featuring four traditional cover songs.]

[Read more…] about New Releases for February 1, 2019

February Program Titles Released This Week:

Big Star – Live On WLIR CD/2xLP (Omnivore)

Big Star recorded their second album, Radio City, as a trio, after the departure of founding member Chris Bell. When it came time to tour, original bassist Andy Hummel decided to return to school to pursue his engineering education. With this departure, Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens recruited fellow Memphis native John Lightman to take over on bass duties, and the band readied their live set. That set is on display as Big Star recorded a radio session at Ultrasonic Studios in New York for broadcast on the city’s preeminent WLIR. Nearly two decades later, those recordings were issued as Live In 1992. The 15-track set features material from the band’s two releases, as well as a cover of “Motel Blues” by Loudon Wainwright III (which originally appeared on his classic 1971 sophomore release, Album II). With new, updated liner notes from Memphis writer/filmmaker, Robert Gordon (who won a Grammy® for his essay in 2010’s Big Star boxed set Keep An Eye On The Sky) and an interview with John Lightman by Chris Bell biographer Rich Tupica (There Was A Light: The Cosmic History Of Big Star Founder Chris Bell), Live On WLIR has been remastered and restored on CD and vinyl.

Bring Me The Horizon – amo CD/2xLP (Columbia)

Sheffield based, multi-platinum selling band Bring Me The Horizon return with their sixth studio album, amo. The band spent the summer of 2018 writing and recording in Los Angeles, with Oli Sykes and Jordan FIsh handling production. What has transpired is one of their most exhilarating, genre crossing albums to date. Sykes explains that, “amo is a love album that explores every aspect of that most powerful emotion. It deals with the good the bad and the ugly, and as a result we’ve created an album that’s more experimental, more varied, weird, and wonderful than anything we’ve done before.” Whilst amo definitely has its share of surprises, it very much sticks to the band’s successful fan-pleasing formula of massive stadium bouncing rocks songs with huge singalong choruses.

Michael Franti & Spearhead – Stay Human: Vol. II CD/LP (Boo Boo Wax)

Michael Franti is a globally recognized musician, humanitarian, and award-winning filmmaker revered for his high-energy live shows, inspiring music, devotion to health and wellness, and worldwide philanthropic efforts. Stay Human Vol. II is Michael Franti & Spearhead’s seventh studio album and was influenced by work on his new self-directed documentary of the same name. “I’ve traveled the globe making music and throughout the years I’ve always hoped that it could inspire small steps towards making the world a better place,” explains Franti. “Struggling with the challenges of the world I began filming my new documentary Stay Human telling the stories of heroic everyday people who helped me to discover more deeply what it means to be and “Stay Human.” [Stay Human: Vol. II] became the soundtrack of this epic journey. The songs on the new record address some of the biggest problems we face today and battles of the heart, all set to a beat that will get you on the dance floor.”

[Read more…] about New Releases for January 25, 2019