Now Hear This! - August 2026

Allison Russell
In the Hour of Chaos
Fantasty

Russell's third album is a healing record made in community, summoning friends from across the map to find small moments of joy in a chaotic 2026. Americana Highways calls it music where healing is 'taken from those who would cause harm.' Harpist Ahya Simone among many contributors. A generous, radiant statement.

Green Day
Nimrods Original Soundtrack
Reprise

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The long-awaited companion to the 1997 album's narrative mythology, Green Day's Reprise archive expanded to accommodate the visual world of Nimrod's original rollout. This supplemental release gives collectors and hardcore fans a deeper look at one of the band's most eclectic and beloved records. An essential document for the faithful.

Show Me The Body
Alone Together
Loma Vista

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Brooklyn post-hardcore outfit Show Me The Body's fourth Loma Vista album pairs Julian Cashwan Pratt's raw delivery with production that feels both urgent and expansive. One of the more genuinely political and sonically distinctive acts in contemporary punk, Alone Together gives fans exactly what makes them worth paying attention to.

Green Pajamas
When Fever Let Me Dream
Label 51 Recordings

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The long-running Seattle psych-folk outfit return with another collection of their signature hazy, melodic dream pop. For 40 years, the Green Pajamas have been quietly building one of the American underground's most consistently beautiful catalogs, and When Fever Let Me Dream belongs there comfortably. Essential listening for anyone who prizes melody over fashion.

The Mountain Goats
Days
Thirty Tigers / Cadmean Dawn

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Darnielle's latest release arrives nine months after Through This Fire. Days carries the intimacy of music made without pause for breath, and Darnielle writing quickly rarely means writing carelessly. Another chapter from one of indie folk's most essential voices, delivered with characteristic urgency.

Rain Parade
Home In Any Language
Label 51

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Paisley Underground legends return via Label 51 with new material demonstrating their gift for shimmering, reverb-drenched psychedelic pop remains intact. Home In Any Language slots beautifully into the Rain Parade catalog and into the West Coast guitar-based dream pop tradition they helped create in the early 1980s. A welcome and genuine return.

Little Big Town
It's A Dying Art
MCA

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The veteran four-piece deliver what the title suggests: a record that honors craft over trend. It's A Dying Art leans into the harmonies, melodic sophistication, and emotional nuance that have defined the band across their remarkable 25-year career. For country music's devoted craft-conscious listeners, this is exactly the record they've been waiting for.

Punch Brothers
The Unsung Adventures of Punch Brothers
Nonesuch

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Punch Brothers' seventh Nonesuch album (first with fiddler Brittany Haas and first all-instrumental) was recorded at Guilford Sound, Vermont. Eight originals and three traditional arrangements. Mandolist Chris Thile: 'our deepest but also most joyful exploration of the American string band.' Without words, the music speaks a complete language.

Margaret Glaspy
I Am Both
ATO Records

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The Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter pushes her guitar-forward indie rock into bolder territory on her third album. Glaspy writes with an emotional bluntness that sets her apart, and I Am Both channels that quality into her most fully realized arrangements yet. A significant and confident step from one of indie rock's most distinctive voices.

Future Palace
Resurgence
Century Media

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German symphonic and alternative metal act Future Palace deliver a resurgent album, pairing orchestral grandeur with contemporary metal production in a way that balances spectacle and substance. For listeners who want their metal cinematic without sacrificing force, Resurgence deliver both in generous supply.

Michigander
Over Before You Know It
Thirty Tigers / Totally Normal Records

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Flint, MI's Jason Singer releases cements his position as one of indie rock's most reliable purveyors of anthemic, guitar-driven pop. Over Before You Know It continues Michigander's run of big-hearted records with hooks that stick and production that suits the material.

Improvement Movement
Your Perfect Real Life
ATO Records

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Improvement Movement's ATO debut is a project that arrives with a knowing perspective on the performance of self-improvement in modern life. Sharp, melodic, and more layered than its premise might suggest, Your Perfect Real Life comes from an intriguing new voice worth watching.

Old & In The Way
Live at Sonoma State 11.4.73
Round Records

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A previously unavailable November 1973 live tape from the legendary acoustic supergroup of Jerry Garcia, David Grisman, Peter Rowan, Vassar Clements, and John Kahn. Essential for Garcia devotees and acoustic Americana fans. A genuinely revelatory document from a band that changed what bluegrass could mean.

My Chemical Romance
Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (Deluxe Edition)
Reprise

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Reprise's deluxe expansion of MCR's 2010 concept album arrives to mark its 15th anniversary and the band's ongoing global return. The original record remains the band's most maximalist and narratively ambitious statement; the deluxe edition adds previously unreleased material that deepens the Killjoys mythology for the faithful. For the MCR universe, this is essential.

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The Strokes
Reality Awaits
RCA

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Reality Awaits finds the Strokes doubling down on the maximalist detours of The New Abnormal, with Rick Rubin back behind the board and Julian Casablancas leaning hard into autotune and general weirdness. It's indulgent, swinging between tropical disco-rock and Radiohead-ish atmosphere. This a band unbothered in their 40s, and genuinely fun to watch.

Gracie Abrams

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From bedroom pop confessional to chart-topping songwriter, Abrams has built one of the most quietly compelling careers of her generation. The EPs minor and This Is What It Feels Like established her gift for raw, aching intimacy. Good Riddance, co-written with The National's Aaron Dessner, earned a Grammy nod and raised the stakes, while The Secret of Us delivered the breakthrough, cementing her as the real deal.

Koe Wetzel
The Night Champion World Tour

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Texas country's most gloriously chaotic live act is taking his show global. Koe Wetzel's The Night Champion World Tour is a 45-date headlining run spanning the U.S., Canada, and Australia, timed to his new album of the same name. Wetzel put it simply: "I survived the night side of me. I'm coming out of it a champion." From dive bars to arenas, he's earned every bit of it.

The Coalition of Independent Music Stores (CIMS) is a national level organization comprised of the best independent record stores in America. CIMS was founded in 1995 with the goal of uniting like minded independent store owners, giving them a more powerful voice in the music industry. The stores that make up CIMS are all very different, but we share the same desires � to be the heart of our communities, to super-serve our customers, to support and develop artists, and to share our love of music.

For more information about CIMS and the stores in our organization, please visit cimsmusic.com or find us through social media with the #cimsmusic hashtag. And please remember to always shop local by supporting your neighborhood record store.

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Now Hear This! - August 2026