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Hiatus Kaiyote
Love Heart Cheat Code [INDIE EXCLUSIVE, BLUE & WHITE MARBLED LP]
ON SALE $33.98 Vinyl: $30.40 PREORDER
Three time Grammy nominated Hiatus Kaiyote return with their eagerly anticipated new album Love Heart Cheat Code. The band have warmed up fans with standout single 'Everything's Beautiful' and what awaits is a masterfully crafted album from a band who are firing on all cylinders and totally in sync. LHCC is a mix of their classic neo-soul sound, fused with jazz, soul and rock - which is on full display on their cover of the Jefferson Airplane classic 'White Rabbit' and a fan favorite from their live shows, 'Cinnamon Temple'. The album also includes a feature from BMO from the cult classic animated series Adventure Time (Cartoon Network/Adult Swim). Throughout the campaign the band will build a bright and vibrant world for fans to dive into, with games, artifacts, mazes and all other matter of zaniness that one can expect from Hiatus Kaiyote. Just ahead of album release the band will be embarking on a 19 day US tour, which includes stops at Montreal and Toronto Jazz Fests and Electric Forest.
The Story So Far
I Want To Disappear [Indie Exclusive Coke Bottle Clear with Orange Splatter LP]
Vinyl: $27.84 PREORDER
The Story So Far have announced their upcoming 5th studio album, I Want To Disappear, out June 21 via Pure Noise Records. Produced by Jon Markson (Drug Church, KOYO), the album features previously-released single “Big Blind” alongside nine brand new The Story So Far tracks. I Want To Disappear comes nearly six years after the band’s previous album Proper Dose, which debuted at #19 on the Billboard 200 chart.
• NOTE : STREET DATE HAS BEEN BUMPED TO TBD
Within six days and “without overthinking anything,” Noah Kahan completed the five-track Cape Elizabeth EP which has amassed 200M streams. See the newly repackaged Cape Elizabeth on Aqua-colored vinyl as Noah’s “thank you to the fans who stuck around, came to shows, watched my livestreams and listened.” The vinyl features fan- favorite songs “A Troubled Mind,” “Glue Myself Shut” and “Maine.”
The Decemberists
As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again [Indie-Exclusive Opaque Fruit Punch LP]
Vinyl: $37.49 PREORDER
For over 20 years, The Decemberists have been one of the most original, daring, and thrilling American rock bands. Their distinctive brand of hyperliterate folk-rock set them apart from the start, releasing nine full-length albums that are unbound by genre and highly ambitious. Now the beloved indie band is back with their first new album in six years, As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again - not only the longest Decemberists album to date (and their first intentional, proper double-LP) but also their most empathetic and accessible, its 13 songs like semaphores of mutual recognition for our fraught times and faint hope. The first dozen songs are punchy, pithy gems all, reflections on mortality and loneliness, longing and cynicism, expectation and unease. The band animates them brilliantly, pushing out and pulling in at the perfect moments. John Moen practically dances beneath the jangle of opener “Burial Ground,” breathing the life into this song about spiraling toward the end. From the irrepressible “Oh No!" and guileless tenderness and absolute surrender of “All I Want Is You,” to the romantic ghost story that shimmers behind pedal steel in spite of the specter in "Long White Veil," these 12 songs alone would constitute a dazzling Decemberists album, rich with woe and love, anxiety and honesty. But a keening little choir and arid electric guitar invoke “Joan in the Garden,” the band’s first full-on prog escapade since The Crane Wife. Though rooted in doubt, much like the album it ends, “Joan in the Garden” ultimately lands as a celebration of music’s ability to convey valence and ambiguity, to frame an endlessly complicated story in instantly compelling terms.
This, songwriter Colin Meloy will tell you proudly, is the best Decemberists albums and perhaps the ultimate realization of 22 years of work. In many ways, As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again feels like an aptly titled renewal for The Decemberists. The first full-length release on YABB Records, the band’s own label, after a run of nearly two decades with Capitol. As they were once, here are the Decemberists again, now an independent band empowered by singing stories that sound instantly familiar and convey some bit of hard-won wisdom.
The Black Keys
Ohio Players [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Opaque Apple Red LP]
Vinyl: $29.10 PREORDER
Ohio Players is The Black Keys’ fourth album in five years, a momentum with a simple explanation, Auerbach says: “We never stopped recording.” There was his and Carney’s reunion, after a five-year hiatus, on 2019’s "Let’s Rock”, then the 2021 blast of Mississippi-hill-country covers, Delta Kream. A rapid-fire follow-up of new originals, 2022’s Dropout Boogie, featured the duo working with outside writers for the first time: Greg Cartwright of Memphis rockers Reigning Sound and Angelo Petraglia, who has worked with Kings of Leon and the teenage Taylor Swift. (Cartwright and Petraglia are back for Ohio Players too.)
“We'd never worked harder to make a record,” Dan Auerbach says. “It's never taken us this long to make an album. We took our time and did it right.”
“What we wanted to accomplish with this record was make something that was fun,” Patrick Carney says. “And something that most bands 20 years into their career don’t make, which is an approachable, fun record that is also cool.”
While making Ohio Players, a title inspired by the legendary Dayton, OH funk band of the same name, The Black Keys were also DJing dance parties in cities around the world that they called “record hangs,” spinning 45s from their own eclectic and growing collections. Mojo reports, “The spirit of those parties infused the album’s DNA. ‘That’s been the fun of it,’ [says] Auerbach. ‘Letting go a little bit.’”
Rock legend Billy Idol is set to celebrate the 40th anniversary of his landmark album Rebel Yell with a deluxe expanded edition due April 26 via Capitol/UMe. Available for pre-order on Friday, March 8, the reissue includes a selection of previously unreleased songs and demos, the Poolside remix of Idol's smash hit "Eyes Without A Face" and the never-before-heard Billy Idol/Steve Stevens original "Best Way Out of Here" from the original sessions. Idol's never-betore-released cover of the Rose Royce single "Love Don't Live Here Anymore"
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On his new album, The Great Escape, Chris Stamey — known for his work in The dB’s, the Big Star’s Third concerts, returns to the electric guitar sounds and melodic lyricism that informed his classic ’80s solo records It’s Alright, Fireworks, and 2004’s Travels in the South — but with a twist! This time out, alongside adroit pedal-steel aces Eric Heywood (Jayhawks, Pretenders, Alejandro Escovedo) and Allyn Love, Mipso’s Libby Rodenbough, and Chatham County Line’s John Teer and Dave Wilson, he’s found a distinctive spin on the ’70s Southern California country-rock flavors of the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers. There’s also a vibrant version of a lost classic, the Alex Chilton / Tommy Hoehn composition “She Might Look My Way,” remembered fondly by Stamey from his late ’70s live performances with Chilton and the (unreleased) studio recording of it they did together for Elektra Records at Todd Rundgren’s studio. Here, it features two world-class fellow producers: Mitch Easter (Let’s Active), on drums and Terry Manning (Ardent Studios producer/engineer/guitarist; Staples Singers, Led Zeppelin, ZZ Top). Most tracks, however, are expertly anchored by Rob Ladd (The Connells) or Dan Davis (Six-String Drag) on drums, often accompanied by co-producer Jeff Crawford on bass. The Great Escape, the first release in decades on seminal indie label Car Records (on which Stamey had issued recordings by Chris Bell, Mitch Easter, and himself in the late ’70s and early ’80s), will be available on CD, digital downloads, and streaming platforms, via a joint venture with Schoolkids Record, and includes two bonus tracks: an “electric” version of “Back in New York,” augmented à la Tom Wilson’s electrification of “The Sounds of Silence,” and a stream-of-consciousness celebration of a surprise early-morning phone call with “the one and only” Van Dyke Parks.
Dave Matthews Band
Walk Around The Moon [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Clear LP]
Vinyl: $29.10 Buy
Dave Matthews Band’s 10th studio album, Walk Around the Moon, took shape during the pandemic and is as much a reflection on the current times as it is an urge to find common ground. Walk Around the Moon will be released to coincide with the start of the band’s 2023 summer tour.
Chris Stapleton’s never-before-released song, “I’m A Ram,” which is featured in the national TV commercial for RAM trucks, will be available on a limited edition 7” vinyl single exclusive to indie retailers. It also includes a live version of this classic Al Green song.
Since announcing their arrival with debut album in 1991, Blur went on to revolutionise the sound of English popular music with six successive UK #1 albums and a string of Top 10 singles, including two No 1s, helping to propel the band to mass popularity at home and abroad. One of the biggest British bands of the last three decades, Blur have released eight studio albums and collected ten NME Awards, six Q Awards, five BRIT Awards and an Ivor Novello Award, and played live to millions of devoted fans across the globe.
Whilst they are an iconic band, the new music truly feels like they have re-invented their sound for 2023 and we should really amplify the commercial viability and youthful leaning sound to reach new audiences.
The album is truly incredible body of work which is beautifully layered, with real stand-out singles which is understandably described by the band as one of their best creations.
Blue is the fourth studio album by singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, released on June 22, 1971, by Reprise Records. Written and produced entirely by Mitchell, it was recorded in 1971 at A&M Studios in Hollywood, California. Created just after her breakup with Graham Nash and during an intense relationship with James Taylor, Blue explores various facets of relationships from infatuation on "A Case of You" to insecurity on "This Flight Tonight".
Today, Blue is generally regarded by music critics as one of the greatest albums of all time; the cohesion of Mitchell's songwriting, compositions and voice are frequent areas of praise. In other words, this album is ESSENTIAL.
Arlo Parks
My Soft Machine [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Transparent Green LP]
Vinyl: $24.98 Buy
To celebrate the good kid, m.A.A.d city 10-year anniversary, Kendrick Lamar brings us exclusive new offerings.
Available October 21, 2022. Indie Exclusive Milky Clear Translucent 2 LP.
But Here We Are is the new album from Foo Fighters, and marks the bands return after a year of staggering losses, personal introspection and bittersweet remembrances. A brutally honest and emotionally raw response to everything Foo Fighters have endured recently, But Here We Are is a testament to the healing powers of music, friendship and family. Courageous, damaged and unflinchingly authentic, the album opens with “Rescued,” the first of 10 songs that run the emotional gamut from rage and sorrow to serenity and acceptance, and myriad points in between.
But Here We Are is in nearly equal measure the 11th Foo Fighters album and the first chapter of the band’s new life. Sonically channeling the naiveté of Foo Fighters’ 1995 debut, informed by decades of maturity and depth, But Here We Are is the sound of brothers finding refuge in the music that brought them together in the first place 28 years ago, a process that was as therapeutic as it was about a continuation of life.
Metallica
72 Seasons [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Midnight Violet 2LP]
72 seasons. The first 18 years of our lives that form our true or false selves. The concept that we were told ‘who we are’ by our parents. A possible pigeonholing around what kind of personality we are. I think the most interesting part of this is the continued study of those core beliefs and how it affects our perception of the world today. Much of our adult experience is reenactment or reaction to these childhood experiences. Prisoners of childhood or breaking free of those bondages we carry.”
-James Hetfield
Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit
Weathervanes [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Natural LP]
A Jason Isbell record always lands like a decoder ring in the ears and hearts of his audience, a soundtrack to his world and magically to theirs, too. Weathervanes carries the same revelatory power. This is a storyteller at the peak of his craft, observing his fellow wanderers, looking inside and trying to understand, reducing a universe to four minutes. He shrinks life small enough to name the fear and then strip it away, helping his listeners make sense of how two plus two stops equaling four once you reach a certain age -- and carry a certain amount of scars.
“There is something about boundaries on this record,” Isbell says. “As you mature, you still attempt to keep the ability to love somebody fully and completely while you’re growing into an adult and learning how to love yourself.”
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. Life and death songs played for and by grown ass people. 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.
They make a big noise, as Isbell puts it, and he feels so comfortable letting them be a main prism through which much of the world hears his art. He can be private but with them behind him he transforms, and there is a version of himself that can only exist in their presence. When he plays a solo show, he is in charge of the entire complicated juggle. On stage with the 400 Unit, he can be a guitar hero when he wants, and a conductor when he wants, and a smiling fan of the majesty of his bandmates when he wants to hang back and listen to the sound.
Seth Avett
Seth Avett Sings Greg Brown [Indie Exclusive limited Edition Opaque Maroon LP]
New solo album from Seth Avett of the Avett Brothers (his first in 5 years), featuring songs written by lauded folk singer Greg Brown, whose songs have also been performed and recorded by Joan Baez, Willie Nelson, Lucinda Williams, Carlos Santana, Ani DiFranco, Gillian Welch, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and more.
For those who may need reminding, Greg Brown is the ultimate songwriter's songwriter. Over a forty-plus-year career, he's occupied the same rarefied air as Loudon Wainwright III and John Prine - a keen-eyed poet and diarist of the human condition. And he's done it mostly on his own. “This is a man who put forty records out because he had to,” Avett says. “He made his own record label. He played the coffee shops, the bars, the little theaters. He built it. He's a world-class artist who did it all under the radar, which is just mind-blowing to me.”
As Avett's new solo record makes clear, this collection is an expression of admiration and gratitude for one of his heroes. But it's also a reflection of his own artistry and ability as an interpreter. Though Brown's songs have been a part of his listening diet for decades, Avett gained a more profound appreciation once he put his own voice behind them.
“I see him as a master songwriter,” he continues. “I don't think all of this work is indicative of his narrative. There is an autobiography through his forty records, but he is speaking for us. Like all the great authors and poets speak for us. He is in those records fully, but there's a lot more in them than just him.”
And with Seth Avett Sings Greg Brown, he hopes that universal chord will resonate with listeners who are unfamiliar with Brown. “With this record, I just hope they get an introduction,” Avett says. “And for anyone who can enjoy it, I hope it's a bridge into a place that otherwise perhaps they wouldn't have walked into.”
For Avett, that bridge is one that he's certain he'll be crossing for years to come. “I was listening to his One Night live record recently, and I was making discoveries left and right. It's never-ending. I haven't discovered Greg Brown. I am in the process of discovering him. And this record is just a single point in something that is ongoing. It's not an event that happened. It is happening.”
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What's New 3-29-24
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New Release Round-Up 03-29-24
STILL LISTENING TO...
Odetta Hartman - TRANSGRESSIVE
New York singer-songwriter Odetta Hartman's 2015 debut mini-LP 222 and 2018's Old Rockhounds Never Die, saw her touring her unique performance style - part Jack White rock and roll folk blues, part electronic experimentations - with the likes of Let's Eat Grandma, Cosmo Sheldrake and Skullcrusher. Odetta's long-awaited second album, Swansongs, showcases her strongest set of songs to date. Another fever dream of a record, it includes the experimental pop of "Goldilocks", the dramatic string lead "Dr No." and her radical re-working of the traditional "Motherless Child"; first made famous by her namesake Odetta. Equally inspired by AG Cook's Apple and New Orleans traditional jazz, the musical mixology of these songs spans various genres of folk, americana, pop, punk, soul, ambient and spiritual. Lyrically, it tenders the tension of two truths in opposition through it's inquisition of the interplay between fear and desire. Dichotomy is at the heart of this deep exploration into shadow work, mythological musings, healing frequencies, eclectic expressions, and the art of sculpted sound. Swansongs is a dynamic and powerful reflection of love and ambition; hopeful, energetic and at times chaotic but always captivating.
ALSO OUT THIS WEEK
Shabazz Palaces - Robed In Rareness [Ruby LP]
Sum 41 - Heaven :x: Hell [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Quad w/Blue Splatter 2LP]
Serpentwithfeet - GRIP [Clear LP]
Sheryl Crow - Evolution [Color LP]
Chastity Belt - Live Laugh Love [Cloudy LP]
Alejandro Escovedo - Echo Dancing [Gold 2LP]
Ride - Interplay [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Blue 2LP]
Aaron Lewis - The Hill [Coke Bottle Clear LP]
CNTS - Thoughts & Prayers [Orange LP]
Shabazz Palaces - Exotic Birds Of Prey [Translucent White LP]
Johnny Lytle - People & Love [LP]
Chicano Batman - Notebook Fantasy [Clear LP]
Ron Carter, Mal Waldron, Eric Dolphy - Where? [Original Jazz Classics Series LP]
Coffins - Sinister Oath [Oxblood LP]
j-hope (BTS) - HOPE ON THE STREET VOL.1 [VER.1 PRELUDE]
j-hope (BTS) - HOPE ON THE STREET VOL.1 [VER.2 INTERLUDE]
Catfish And The Bottlemen - Showtime [White 7]
Blu DeTiger - All I Ever Want Is Everything
For more information on these and other releases out this week, check out our New Releases charts by week section.UPCOMING RELEASES
Phosphorescent - Revelator - Verve