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What's New 4-29-22
Just Like That..., the lifetime Achievement Grammy Award winner’s first new studio album in six years, is both one of the most heartfelt and most daring works in her storied 51-year recording career. Raitt’s always-expressive singing is more soulful and nuanced than ever, while her songwriting achieves new levels of craft and sophistication.
Bodysnatcher play a down tempo, extremely brutal beatdown version of deathcore. Their previous album, This Heavy Void, saw the band catapult into the extreme metal scene, garnering a number of successful tour runs with Chelsea Grin, Lorna Shore, Enterprise Earth, and Slaughter To Prevail. The new record showcases the band completely dialed in, knocking on the doors of deathcore's contemporary subgenre leaders.
If Undeath sound hyper-focused on one style, their commitment to this vision is also part of their appeal. The lyrics take delight in exploring death and torture from every angle. The message is plain: The human body is disgusting. Man's capacity for evil knows no limits. Undeath excel by soundtracking these thoughts through pitch-perfect metal bursting with energy. For them, death is only the beginning.
Jukebox Charley is the 4th installment in Charley Crockett's Lil G.L. Presents series of releases, which focus on heartfelt renditions of songs from some of Charley's biggest musical influences. This newest cover record is packed with songs originally written by greats such as Tom T. Hall, Willie Nelson, Johnny Paycheck, George Jones and more.
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.
Staples follows up his intimate self-titled album with Ramona. “There’s a direct correlation,” Staples says of the two records. “They were kind of created at the same time. I was in a similar state of mind. This album will make even more sense if you heard the previous one, but this one has more answers. It’s symbolic of home,” he says of the Long Beach neighborhood for which the album is named.
“The last bastion of country music,” says Hedley, “was the early 1990s. You could turn on the radio and immediately know you’re hearing a country song. You could still hear steel guitar and fiddle. But there was a hard fork around 1996 or ’97, when country veered off into pop territory. Neon Blue asks, What if that fork had never happened? What if country kept on sounding like country?”
Everything Was Beautiful pulls heavily from throughout the Spiritualized catalog, whether it be the Ladies and Gentlemen-era “Best Thing You Ever Had”, the soft, sentimentality of Pierce’s mid-career work on “Crazy” or the lush balance of And Nothing. All those influences, and their tonal similarities to his last album, never distract or take away from the conceptual success of Everything Was Beautiful.
Willie is back with his 72ND solo studio album. The 14 tracks include 5 new Willie Nelson/Buddy Cannon compositions, new songs from Chris Stapleton & Rodney Crowell (“I’ll Love You Till The End Of Time”) and a cadre of top Nashville songwriters, plus a couple of plum covers by Leonard Cohen (“Tower Of Song”) and The Beatles (“With A Little Help From My Friends”) given expert interpretation by Willie.
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. It encompasses a glorious collision of moody guitar tones, mercurial textures, and wildly propulsive beats as Moses channels the dizzying euphoria of new romance.
Two Ribbons is astonishing: a dazzling, heart-breaking, life-affirming and mortality-facing record that reveals the duo’s growing artistry and ability to parse intense feeling into lyrics so memorable you'd scribble them on your backpack. This is the artefact that signals progression out of very distressing times; a story of loss, change, and of survival; a proof of life.
Lady For Sale showcases Kirke’s unselfconscious, country-twinged vocals alongside a brightly colored candy shop of glam-twang guitar riffs, department store tv commercial synth stylings, and unabashedly feminine background vocals. It’s decidedly more easy-going and fun-loving than what we’ve come to expect from its genre (and the world in general) in recent years.
Following in the footsteps of their predecessors Public Enemy while drawing from influences as varied as My Bloody Valentine and German experimentalists Faust, Dälek have succeeded in adding completely new textural and structural dimensions to rap music. Their brutal sonic temperament pushes rap music’s capacity for noise and protest to some exhilarating conclusions.
Wet Tennis is about forward movement, optimism and positive growth, no matter what the challenge. It’s a dedication to constantly evolving and celebrating aliveness. Wetness is excitement, mother nature, movement, flow, sweat, and juice. It's athletic and elegant. It's loud and bright. All these qualities will be on full display when Sofi Tukker comes to town, both on stage and in the audience.
This is an interstellar synthesis of astral Soul, R&B, and sci-fi Funk, oscillating between Alice Coltrane-inspired bliss & Giorgio Moroder’s ecstatic release. Each song hovers and pulsates in the wide, dark matter—constellations guiding a journey through the subtle body, the vast fullness of the human experience and the irresistible potential of liberation.
Alpha Games (the band’s first new album in seven years) veers from the intense & 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 and important bands in Bloc Party.
Rammstein in 2022 can still singe your face with the full force of their attack, but on Zeit they prove more than ever that they aren’t afraid to peel away their layers, lay bare their fears and show you their scars. Available as 2 LP set on 180-gram vinyl in gatefold jacket with gold embossed logo sleeve. Large format 20-page booklet included.
Satan's Host require no introduction, an American metal institution and one of the original pioneers of both thrash and power metal. Unique unto themselves, they once more present a genre-encompassing sound and album which unites the best elements of true heavy metal with thrash, black, death and power metal into a cauldron of epic true metal classics, This Legacy Will Never Die!
Swiftly following 2021's break-through death metal album Fiendish, Carnal Savagery returns. Once more delivering a sarcophagus-sized slab of putrid old school death metal, Scent of Death is ripe with catchy melodic rhythms, memorable choruses, pounding drums, brutal vocals, and searing solos. This Scent will continue to permeate the air and the metal scene long after the corpses it leaves behind have decayed!
Misfire makes old-school flavored thrash metal devastation with the kind of bombastic firepower that could wake the dead. It's music that could have arrived in the thrash golden age of 1986, when bands like Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Dark Angel, and Sodom delivered vital records. And yet Misfire is forward-thinking, injecting modern metal mastery into their brew for a powerful, timeless sound.
New Release Round-Up 04-29-22
Seratones - Love & Algorhythms - New West Records
Love & Algorhythms is an interstellar synthesis of astral Soul, R&B, and sci-fi Funk. Working with producer Paul Butler (The Bees, Micheal Kiwanuka, Caroline Rose, Hurray for the Riff Raff), Seratones have taken the invitation to knock at the door of the cosmos. A.J. Haynes’s voice dances with soul-stirring devotion at the altar of Black Feminisms: weaving the words Toni Cade Bambara, Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis multiverse, echoes of bell hooks, and Audre Lorde’s Power of the Erotic. With drummer Jesse Gabriel’s machine-like precision and the transcendental touches from guitarist Travis Stewart, the album oscillates between Alice Coltrane-inspired bliss & Giorgio Moroder’s ecstatic release. Each song hovers and pulsates in the wide, dark matter—constellations guiding a journey through the subtle body, the vast fullness of the human experience and the irresistible potential of liberation.
Bob Moses - The Silence In Between - Astralwerks
Grammy Award-winning duo Bob Moses release their highly anticipated third album, The Silence In Between. The Silence in Between marks the Los Angeles-based band’s first release since signing to Astralwerks in a unique global partnership with Domino Recording Co. Love Brand New is one of the most anthemic moments on The Silence in Between, “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 Betweenamplifies the unbridled energy that’s made Bob Moses a repeat winner of Resident Advisor’s Best Live Act prize.
Lola Kirke - Lady For Sale - Third Man Records
Released next week, the 10-song sophomore full-length album showcases Lola Kirke’s unselfconscious, country-twinged vocals alongside a brightly colored candy shop of glam-twang guitar riffs, department store tv commercial synth stylings, and swooping, lilting, unabashedly feminine background vocals. Lady For Sale channels a high-spirited insouciance that feels invigorating and familiar, decidedly more easy-going and fun-loving than what we’ve come to expect from its genre (and the world in general) in recent years. This is a party you’ll want to attend.
Trombone Shorty - Lifted - Blue Note
Trombone Shorty returns with Lifted, his first album in 5 years and the follow-up to his Blue Note debut Parking Lot Symphony, featuring special guests including vocalist Lauren Daigle & guitarist Gary Clark Jr. An album that captures the energy of his legendary live shows, Lifted combines classic New Orleans sounds (funk, gospel, street rhythms, Mardi Gras Indian chants & second lines) with modern lyrics, melody & beats to create something fresh & unique. Part Jimi Hendrix, part James Brown and all New Orleans, Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews is the bandleader and frontman of Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, a hard-edged funk band that employs brass-band beats, rock dynamics & improvisation in a jazz tradition.
Norah Jones - Come Away With Me: 20th Anniversary - Blue Note
Norah Jones’ seminal debut album, Come Away With Me, became a global phenomenon reaching #1 in 20 countries, selling nearly 30 million copies, and sweeping the 2003 GRAMMY Awards with 8 wins including Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist. The remastered 20th Anniversary Edition captures the emergence of a singular talent on this now-classic album.
ALSO OUT THIS WEEK
Bloc Party - Alpha Games [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Red LP]
Toro Y Moi - Mahal
Willie Nelson - A Beautiful Time
Weezer - SZNZ: Spring EP
Caroline Spence - True North
The Weeknd - Dawn FM [2LP]
Sondre Lerche - Avatars Of Love
MOMO. - I Was Told To Be Quiet
Kehlani - Blue Water Road
Suicidal Tendencies - How Will I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can't Even Smile Today [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Sky Blue LP]
Miranda Lambert - Palomino
Rodrigo Y Gabriela and C.U.B.A. - Area 52
Moon Duo - Circles
Tomberlin - i don’t know who needs to hear this... [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Sunstruck Edition LP]
Alfa Mist - Two For Mistake EP [10in Vinyl]
Rammstein - Zeit
Neil Young - Official Release Series Discs 13, 14, 20 & 21 [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition 4LP]
Migos - Culture III [2LP]
Dälek (Dalek) - Precipice
Melody's Echo Chamber - Emotional Eternal [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Red LP]
Eli 'Paperboy' Reed - Down Every Road
& More .....
What's New 4-22-22
Paint This Town offers a riveting glimpse into American mythology and the wildly colorful characters who populate it. The album pays homage to everyone from Elvis Presley to Eudora Welty while shedding a bright light on the darker aspects of the country’s legacy. Fueled by the band’s freewheeling collision of Americana, old-time music, folk, and rock & roll, Paint This Town turns razor-sharp commentary into rapturous sing-alongs.
On his major label debut album, the ravenously creative Kurt Vile pulls his talents as a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer in unexpected directions — and the result is a vibrant, yet meditative record propelled by his laid-back charm and curious spirit. Produced by Kurt Vile and Rob Schnapf.
This tribute album is a powerful sonic journey, traveling the course of Johnny's musical life, impeccably directed, as only his brother Edgar could. Joining Edgar on the inclusive project is an impressive array of renowned musicians who knew, or were inspired by Johnny, including Joe Bonamassa, Billy Gibbons, Michael McDonald, Ringo Starr and many more.
One listen through reveals where Wheeler’s unrivaled confidence comes from. Once again produced by Dave Cobb (except the song “God Told Me To Fuck You,”) and recorded at historic RCA Studio A, the album is a loud, unapologetic roar of a comeback. Wheeler explains, “I figured if I’m gonna save country music, why not save Rock ‘n’ Roll too while I’m at it?”
Prince Daddy & The Hyena’s third album dives into the theme of life coming to an end, both vocalist Kory Gregory's own life and fear of his friends and loved ones aging and dying. Gregory expands on why by saying, "It’s the first time that it’s hit me as an adult, the first time that the impermanence of everything struck, and that sent me into a little existential spiral.”
Acclaimed vibraphonist and composer Joel Ross returns with his third Blue Note album, an expansive suite comprised of seven evocative movements. Ross is joined by Immanuel Wilkins on alto saxophone, Maria Grand on tenor saxophone, Marquis Hill on trumpet, Kalia Vandever on trombone, Sean Mason on piano, Rick Rosato on bass, and Craig Weinrib on drums.
New Release Round-Up 04-22-22
Dorothy - Gifts From The Holy Ghost - Roc Nation
Gifts From The Holy Ghost, Dorothy Martin’s third studio album as frontwoman for the pseudonymous rock band Dorothy, is the album she’s always wanted to make. Born from a sense of diving urgency, it’s their most bombastic rock n’ roll work yet. While their debut album was made on a combination of whiskey and heartbreak, Gifts was built on sobriety, health, and spiritualism, in a way that reverses the clichéd “good girl gone bad” narrative. It features the Top 40 Rock track, “Rest in Peace.”
Joshua Hedley - Neon Blue - New West Records
Joshua Hedley is “a singing professor of country & western,” he declares on his raucous and witty new album, Neon Blue. It might sound like a punchline, but it’s not. An ace fiddle player, a sharp guitarist, and a singer with a granite twang, he’s devoted his entire life to the study of this genre. Ask him about it and he’ll explain: “When all my friends went off to college, I went to Nashville. I was 19 years old playing honkytonks and getting an education.” His 2018 debut, Mr. Jukebox, showcased his deep knowledge of country’s history, in particular the beery ballads of the 1950s and ‘60s. His mentors were George Jones, Ray Price, and Glen Campbell, but his most remarkable accomplishment was putting his own spin on their style.
Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder - Get On Board - Nonesuch Records
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.
ALSO OUT THIS WEEK
Fontaines D.C. - Skinty Fia [Limited Edition Deluxe 2LP]
Old Crow Medicine Show - Paint This Town [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Clear LP, 3 Random Covers]
Bonnie Raitt - Just Like That... [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Teal LP]
Christian Lee Hutson - Quitters [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Translucent Purple 2LP]
Jason Aldean - Georgia
Vince Staples - RAMONA PARK BROKE MY HEART
S. Carey - Break Me Open
Brian May - Another World: Remastered [Limited Edition Collector's Box Set]
Aldo Nova - Reloaded
SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY - The Romance Of Affliction [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Beer with Bone & Orange Twist LP]
Magnolia Park - Halloween Mixtape
Hatchie - Giving The World Away
Undeath - It's Time...To Rise From The Grave [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Violet w/ Red & Yellow Splatter LP]
Bowling For Soup - Pop Drunk Snot Bread
Loop - Sonancy
Jeanines - Don't Wait For A Sign
The White Buffalo - On The Widow's Walk: Deluxe
Spiritualized - Everything Was Beautiful [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Pink LP]
Bright Light Bright Light - How Queer [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Gold LP]
Charley Crockett - Lil G.L. Presents: Jukebox Charley
Jazz Sabbath - Vol. 2
& More .....
New Release Round-Up 04-15-22
Kurt Vile - (Watch My Moves) - Verve
On his first album in partnership with Verve Records, Kurt Vile pulls his talents as a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer in unexpected directions — and the result is a vibrant, yet meditative record propelled by laid-back charm and curious spirit.
Rush - Moving Pictures: 40th Anniversary - Island
Moving Pictures: 40th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition - Celebrating 40 years of Moving Pictures with a Super Deluxe box set fully loaded for fans! Includes a 3 CD set featuring the 2015 album remaster and the complete, unreleased Toronto concert from March 25, 1981. All audio is also showcased on 5 LPs cut at half-speed DMM on 180-gram vinyl. Blu-ray Audio disc presents a first-ever Dolby Atmos and new 5.1 surround album mix including the brand-new video for "YYZ" + 3 music videos. Extras include a book, model car, drumsticks, posters, and more!
George Thorogood & The Destroyers - The Original George Thorogood - UMe
Boston 1971: Historic early recording of Aerosmith in their rehearsal room – just the band, crew, and friends captured on Joe Perry's tape recorder. This never-before-heard performance showcases the early, raw talent of this future Hall Of Fame band, one year before signing to Columbia Records and two years before their eponymous debut, which featured many of these songs, including their enduring anthem" Dream On."
ALSO OUT THIS WEEK
High Pulp - Pursuit Of Ends
Dr. Dog - Be The Void: 10th Anniversary Edition [Limited Edition Red & Clear Galaxy LP]
Wheeler Walker Jr. - Sex, Drugs & Country Music
The Police - Greatest Hits: Deluxe 30th Anniversary [2LP]
The Boxmasters - Help...I'm Alive
able machines - Pathological [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition LP]
Nicki Minaj - Pink Friday: 10th Anniversary [Deluxe Pink/White Swirl 3LP]
Spanish Love Songs - Brave Faces Etc. [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Doublemint & White Galaxy 2LP]
Pimps Of Joytime - Reachin' Up
Prince Daddy & The Hyena - Prince Daddy & The Hyena
Gracie Abrams - This Is What It Feels Like
Freddie Gibbs - Singles
Edgar Winter - Brother Johnny
Alec Benjamin - (Un)Commentary
Cancer Bats - Psychic Jailbreak
Nazareth - Surviving The Law
& More .....