News
New Release Round-Up 06-30-23
Lucinda Williams - Stories from a Rock N Roll Heart - Highway 20 Records
Three-time Grammy Award winner Lucinda Williams releases her highly anticipated new album Stories from a Rock N Roll Heart (Highway 20 Records/Thirty Tigers). 2023 is a special year for Williams: she turned 70 in January and on April 25th released her long-awaited memoir Don’t Tell Anybody The Secrets I Told You (Crown, a division of Penguin Random House LLC). The last couple years have been challenging for Williams. In 2020, a tornado damaged her new home in Nashville, followed two weeks later by the beginning of the COVID lockdown. Later that November, Williams suffered a stroke that partially impaired some of her motor skills on the left side of her body, forcing her to learn to walk again and taking away her ability to play the guitar. Stories from a Rock n Roll Heart marks a triumphant return from one of our most revered artists and songwriters. Williams is in great form as heard on her new single “New York Comeback,” written by Williams, Tom Overby and Jesse Malin, with Patti Scialfa and Bruce Springsteen on backing vocals. Stories from a Rock n Roll Heart was produced by Williams, Overby and Ray Kennedy, who also engineered. The album includes guest backing vocals by Jeremy Ivey, Jesse Malin, Buddy Miller, Angel Olsen, Margo Price and Tommy Stinson.
Neko Case - Wild Creatures - Anti
Wild Creatures is a career retrospective album containing twenty-three of Neko Case’s most impactful tracks from her discography, and will now be available on CD and 2x LP. With a career spanning over twenty years, she has famously collaborated with The New Pornographers and Case/Lang/Veirs in addition to releasing many critically acclaimed solo albums, including ‘Fox Confessor Brings The Flood’, ‘Middle Cyclone’ and most recently 2018’s ‘Hell-On’. Gathering power year after year, Neko sings with the fierce abandon of a newborn infant crying in a basket in the woods. Since escaping the labels of country and Americana, the gorgeous train-whistle vocals of her early career sit submerged in her later style, where their ghost can appear any minute. When her voice jumps an octave, it’s almost visible, like sparks at night. “I never knew where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do with my voice,” she says, “but I just wanted to do it so bad.”
ALSO OUT THIS WEEK
Grian Chatten - Chaos For The Fly
Frank Zappa - Funky Nothingness
Khruangbin & Nubya Garcia - Live at Radio City Music Hall [LP]
Hermitude - HyperParadise
Ben Howard - Is It?
Nas - King's Disease III
Nothing but Thieves - Dead Club City [Indie Exclusive limited Edition Milky Transparent LP]
Bright Light Bright Light - All Man: The International Male Story
Brigid Mae Power - Dream From The Deep Well
Aespa - MY WORLD - The 3rd Mini Album - INTRO Ver.
Sly & The Family Stone - Fresh [RSD Essential Neon Orange LP]
Joanna Sternberg - I've Got Me [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Custard / Gold LP]
James & The Giants - James & The Giants
Twiztid - The Green Book: Twiztid 25th Anniversary
Anna Of The North - Crazy Life
Estrella del Sol - Figura de Cristal
The Pink Stones - You Know Who [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Autographed Green LP]
Cliff Martinez - Touch of Crude (Soundtrack from the PRADA Short Film)
Hayden Pedigo - The Happiest Times I Ever Ignored [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Radioactive Green LP]
The Japanese House - In The End It Always Does [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Sunflower Yellow LP]
Loma Prieta - Last [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Black/White Cornetto LP]
Charlie Watts - Anthology
Grandaddy - Sumday: 20th Anniversary
Jerry Garcia - GarciaLive Vol. 20: June 18th, 1982 - Cape Cod Coliseum
Paris Texas - Boy Anonymous [Indie Exclusive Opaque Red LP]
Bdrmm - I Don't Know [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Black & White Marble LP]
John Carroll Kirby - Blowout
& More .....
New Release Round-Up 06-23-23
OUT THIS WEEK
M. Ward - Supernatural Thing [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Eco Mix LP]
Portugal. The Man - Chris Black Changed My Life [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Ultra Clear LP]
Albert Hammond Jr - Melodies On Hiatus [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Yellow/Green Black LP]
Bobbie Nelson & Amanda Shires - Loving You
Kim Petras - Feed The Beast
Kelly Clarkson - Chemistry
Valley - Lost In Translation
Cable Ties - All Her Plans [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Blue LP]
Tommy Prine - This Far South
Jason Mraz - Mystical Magical Rhythmical Radical Ride [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Baby Blue LP]
Nat Myers - Yellow Peril
Maisie Peters - The Good Witch [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Swan Dive White LP]
The Watson Twins - Holler [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Opaque Violet LP]
The Avett Brothers - Emotionalism [RSD Essential Sea Glass Blue 2LP]
TRST - TRST [RSD Essential Indie Colorway Opaque Purple 2LP]
Stewart Copeland - Police Deranged For Orchestra [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Blue LP]
Militarie Gun - Life Under The Gun
Janis Joplin & Jorma Kaukonen - The Legendary Typewriter Tape: 6/25/64 Jorma's House [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Red Swirl LP]
Count Basie & His Orchestra - The Transcription Recordings [RSD Essential Indie Colorway Translucent Mint Green LP]
Corrosion Of Conformity - Live Volume [RSD Essential Indie Colorway Transparent Red 2LP]
Corrosion Of Conformity - In the Arms of God [RSD Essential Indie Colorway Natural 2LP]
Royal & The Serpent - How To Grow A Rat [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition LP]
& More .....
What's New 6-16-23
Good Riddance, produced and co-written by her frequent collaborator Aaron Dessner of The National, finds Adams documenting her emotional experience with more precision and impact than ever before. As she narrates the end of a fractured relationship, the 23-year-old artist achieves a new level of lyrical honesty and self-possession — an element fully reflected in her quietly captivating vocal work.
Rap phenomenon Yeat returns with AftërLyfe, the explosive follow-up to 2022’s acclaimed project Lyfë via Field Trip/Geffen Records. Spearheaded by “Shmunk,” an undeniable collaboration with YoungBoy Never Broke Again, the 22-track project picks up where Yeat’s previous project left off, expanding on his talent and reaching towards an even more experimental sound.
The Complete Dirty South is a band-led rework of the 2004 album that examined the state of the South and unveiled its hypocrisy, irony, and tragedy that continues to exit. Principal member, Patterson Hood, took the reins and reimagined this record as it was originally intended with re-sequenced audio, three additional tracks, four remixes along with updated vocals. "
The acclaimed Grammy-winning musician, singer-songwriter makes her Blue Note debut with The Omnichord Real Book. It's a visionary and deeply jazz-influenced work that marks the start of a new chapter in Ndegeocello’s trailblazing career. Following her 2018 covers album, Ventriloquism, Meshell returns with an album of original material that taps into a broad spectrum of her musical roots.
New Release Round-Up 06-16-23
Queens Of The Stone Age - In Times New Roman... - Matador
‘In Times New Roman...’, the 8th studio album from Queens Of The Stone Age is raw, brutal & rough around the edges but with a refinement that reveals itself further with each successive listen — and QOTSA founder Joshua Homme’s lyrics are as witty and withering than ever. The results are instantly identifiable; QOTSA’s sonic signature, expanded and embellished with new and unprecedented twists in virtually every song, a live in-a-room recording that showcases a band at the height of their creative powers. ‘In Times New Roman...’ is a party for the obscene and the clean, the outcasts and the weirdos, and anyone and everyone in between. One of the most important bands in recent rock history is B A C K but it’s no exaggeration to call this album a devastating rebirth."
Sammy Rae & The Friends - Chapter One - Nettwerk Records
Singer/songwriter, bandleader, and human being Samantha Bowers first began writing songs at age 12 while taking piano lessons and listening to Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel and Freddie Mercury playing on the family stereo. By 16, she developed a love of jazz and began to study the great female vocalists of the century (mainly Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James and Sarah Vaughn). She and her eight-piece group make music that has elements of pop, soul, funk, rock and jazz and focus on themes like coming-of-age, defiance, and self-expression. Their genre blending performances are high-energy, honest and quirky, influenced by the great performances of those childhood classic rock heroes.
ALSO OUT THIS WEEK
Bonny Doon - Let There Be Music
Django Django - Off Planet [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition White 2 LP]
Yusuf / Cat Stevens - King of a Land
Maisie Peters - The Good Witch [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Swan Dive White LP]
Little Simz - No Thank You [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Red/ Opaque Yellow 2LP]
Sturgill Simpson - High Top Mountain: 10 Year Anniversary Edition [Translucent Black LP]
John Mellencamp - Orpheus Descending
Owl City - Coco Moon
MAN ON MAN - Provincetown
Hand Habits - Sugar The Bruise
Gov't Mule - Peace Like A River [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Orange w/Red Smoke 2LP]
Yeat - Afterlyfe
Drive-By Truckers - The Complete Dirty South
The Alarm - Forwards [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Green LP]
Rae Sremmurd - Sremm 4 Life
Son Volt - Day of the Doug
Arkona - Kob’
Finger Eleven - Greatest Hits
Deer Tick - Emotional Contracts [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Red/Black LP]
Brad Mehldau - Largo
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms And Lava [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Lucky Rainbow LP]
Kool Keith - Black Elvis 2
& More .....
What's New 6-9-23
The follow-up to 2019’s Redcar…, Paranoïa, Angels, True Love is both more sprawling than Redcar… —twenty tracks spanning nearly ninety minutes—and more unified. Letissier has described it as the second part of an “operatic gesture” inspired by “Angels in America,” and it is structured, somewhat showily, in three movements. But the album feels less like an opera than like the score for a film epic, a patient and pleading unfurling of atmospheric sounds. And though the new album is not a neon-fueled ode to sweating out heartbreak, there is still enough here that might summon one to dance.
Weathervanes is a collection of grown-up songs: songs about adult love, about change, about the danger of nostalgia and the interrogation of myths, about cruelty and regret and redemption. Some will make you cry alone in your car and others will make you sing along with thousands of strangers in a big summer pavilion, united in the great miracle of being alive. The record features the rolling thunder of Isbell’s fearsome 400 Unit, who’ve earned a place in the rock ‘n’ roll cosmos alongside the greatest backing ensembles, as powerful and essential to the storytelling as The E Street Band or the Wailers.
This is mutant Americana in a world of love, drugs, storytelling, and miracles--held together by Trevor Powers' voice and an upright piano. In his own words, "It's stories of brothers leaving for war, drunk fathers learning to hug, mothers falling in love, neighbors stealing mail, cowboys doing drugs, friends skipping school, me crying in the bathtub, dogs catching rabbits, and children playing in tall grass."
Joy’All finds the singer-songwriter embarking on a new era, in a new town – and on a new label, as she joins the iconic roster of Blue Note/Capitol Records. While Joy’All pulls from a bounty of sonic inspiration – from classic soul to ‘90s R&B, as well as country and classic singer-songwriter records – the album’s rich, intimate and warm live sound is the hallmark of eight-time Grammy-winning producer Dave Cobb.
My Morning Jacket, touring behind It Still Moves, took the stage at Bonnaroo on a scorching hot day in the summer of '04. Ominous dark clouds rolled in early in the performance. "I'll never forget it," reflected Jim James "We're playing & the sky just rips open & rain starts pouring down. People are losing their minds... Everybody is petrified that we're going to get electrocuted, but it was such a transcendent moment that we just didn't care." It would become one of the festivals most iconic sets.
Yesterday's News is a record of unhurried meditations delivered by an artist learning to slow down and appreciate the tiny miracles that make life worth living. Hailed by NPR for his “musical daring and impeccable song craft,” and Rolling Stone for his “sharp eye for storytelling,” Ellis recorded to tape in just two days, embracing a raw minimalism that prizes patience and restraint above all else: "close your eyes and drift into a dream."
Teeming with melodic epiphanies and layered sounds, Squid’s second album O Monolith is a musical evocation of environment, domesticity and self-made folklore. It’s dense and tricksy – but also more warm and characterful, with a meandering, questioning nature. It’s a reflection of the outsized progression of a band always looking to the future. Like its namesake, O Monolith is vast and strange; alive with endless possible interpretations of its inner mysteries.
For the most jovial member of One Direction, it’s touching to hear Horan get so intimate on his own. He brings empathy to power ballads like “Heaven,” addressing twenty-something turmoil while “Science” reaches out to someone struggling with depression. But the emotional highlight is the wonderfully titled love song “You Could Start a Cult,” stripped down to just Niall and his acoustic guitar, as he vows, “I will follow you till there’s no tomorrow.” On The Show, it sounds like Niall Horan knows exactly where he’s going.