New Releases & Staff Picks - 1/23/26

STAFF PICKS
 DARIO - Erik Hall and John Dwyer
ASH - Moodyman
 JAKE - Xiu Xiu
KIMBER - Rocky Votolato reissue
MARY - The Format and De La Soul
ZACH - The Format
DREW - Moodyman and Alan Vega
TY - Jackson C Frank and Essex Green

THE FORMAT - Boycott Heaven CD/LP/CASS (The Vanity Label)
After nearly two decades apart, Nate Ruess and Sam Means return to The Format, the indie pop band they helmed in the early 2000s. Teaming with Grammy-winning producer Brendan O'Brien (Pearl Jam, Bruce Springsteen, The Killers) and drummer Matt Chamberlain (who's played with David Bowie, Bob Dylan, and others), the duo's third album Boycott Heaven incorporates sonic nods to the alt-rock, grunge, and pop-punk sounds that Sam and Nate first bonded over as Arizona teenagers in the late 90s.

DE LA SOUL - Cabin In The Sky CD (Mass Appeal)
[CD this week, LP very soon!]
de la Soul returns with Cabin in The Sky, a deeply personal and emotionally charged album. More than just a collection of songs, this project serves as a journey through reflection, love, and healing, a space where pain transforms into art, and remembrance turns into rhythm. Cabin in The Sky is set to release on November 21. The album honors the legacy of Dave Trugoy the Dove Jolicoeur, and extends that tribute to all loved ones lost along the way. Through reflective lyricism, soulful samples, and the unmistakable de la groove, Cabin in The Sky captures the beauty and the heartbreak of carrying on.

THE DAMNED - Not Like Everybody Else CD/LP (Earmusic)  
The Damned return with a personal and celebratory record, Not Like Everybody Else, a tribute to the band's late guitarist Brian James, who passed away in March 2025. The album includes 10 brand new recordings of covers by some of the artists that influenced Brian on his musical journey and inspired the rest of the band. Kicking off with R. Dean Taylor's There's A Ghost In My House and moving through classics like Pink Floyd's See Emily Play and The Animals' When I Was Young. The album closes with The Last Time, a moving track featuring Brian James himself, pieced together from original live performances and remixed for this release, cementing the record as both a tribute and a farewell.

VINCE GUARALDI - Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown 10” (LMFP)  
Charlie Brown has been waiting by the mailbox for this Valentine's for 50 years, but you don't need to. Just in time for Valentine's Day and in this special Indie Exclusive packaging and 45 RPM heart shaped vinyl, selections from Vince Guaraldi's 1975 Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown (Original Soundtrack Recording) including the best 10 songs from the score.

LUCINDA WILLIAMS - World's Gone Wrong CD/LP (Lucinda Williams)  
Throughout her long career, Lucinda Williams has never shied away from writing about difficult but real things. If you think about it, you could call Change The Locks a topical song ahead of it's time. There were several biting and brave songs on her Good Souls Better Angels album, as well as the post-Covid masterpiece Stories From A Rock N Roll Heart. With World's Gone Wrong, Lucinda ups the ante on topical songs. It is a pure reflection of our very turbulent times, intense and musically powerful.

KELAN PHIL COHRAN & LEGACY  - African Skies  LP [Reissue/2010] (Stones Throw)  
Stones Throw Records debuts new imprint Listening Position with the long-awaited reissue of Kelan Phil Cohran & Legacy’s spiritual jazz masterpiece African Skies. A holy grail for jazz collectors, African Skies has been out of print since its initial pressing of 1000 vinyl copies in 2010. The thousands who’ve long sought their own copy will welcome this reissue as the definitive version of this profound recording. Kelan Phil Cohran was a member of the pioneering afro-futurist Sun Ra Arkestra and appears on several of their most acclaimed recordings.

ANDRE 3000 - 7 Piano Sketches 10” (Epic)  
André 3000's 7 piano sketches is a collection of instrumental music recorded solo on the piano, marking the first release of new material since his globally lauded 2023 instrumental album, New Blue Sun, earned three GRAMMY nominations, including Album of the Year. Partially composed and recorded prior to New Blue Sun, the beginnings of 7 piano sketches came about almost a decade ago, while staying in a house in Texas with his son that had only a piano, their beds and TV screens. Having lived with the recordings for a time, André was drawn to the idea of creating more and sharing them in the Spring, a time of year that promises that life, creativity, and possibility are ever-renewing. This 10 45 RPM vinyl is pressed on 120 gram black vinyl.

DAVID BOWIE - Station To Station LP [Reissue/1976]  (Rhino)  
Originally released in January 1976, Station to Station is the 10th studio album by David Bowie. Recorded at Cherokee Studios, Hollywood, CA with co-producer Harry Maslin, featuring the singles 'Golden Years', 'TVC15' and 'Stay' and was the birth of Bowie's Thin White Duke persona. The half-speed master vinyl has been cut at AIR studios London from 192Hz restored masters of the original Hit Factory master tapes.

DEBT OF NATURE - Robin Diamond's Lungs LP  (No Holiday)
First ever reissue of the project's debut 1982 highly sought-after cassette. A teenage Brad Laner (Medicine) DIY recordings of industrial mayhem. Taking cues from Throbbing Gristle, LAFMS. Brion Gysin and early Cabaret Voltaire, the tracks veer from Nag, Nag, Nag styled aggro-"songs," rhythmic tape loop musique concrete to pure, harsh industrial noise. A lost album from LA's underground scene, features luminaries like Monte Cazzaza and Don Bolles amongst the collaborators. Limited edition of 300 copies pressed on clear vinyl with a booklet insert

ESSEX GREEN - Everything Is Green LP [Reissue/1999] (Dust & Memory)  
Originally released in 1999, Everything Is Green is the debut album from Brooklyn-based The Essex Green, a seminal band within the Elephant 6 collective. Combining chiming guitars, warm harmonies, and subtle psych-pop textures, the album stands as a timeless document of late-90s indie-pop creativity.This official vinyl reissue brings back the band's beloved debut in a beautiful transparent lime pressing, giving fans and collectors a chance to experience it's delicate, sun-drenched melodies on wax for the first time since their original release in 1999. A must-have for those discovering the Elephant 6 universe or revisiting a modern classic of indie-pop.

ROCKY VOTOLATO - Makers LP [Reissue/2006] (Barsuk)  
Just as the traditions of great folk-country songwriting come around again to newfound popularity via Zach Bryan, Tyler Childers, Sierra Ferrell and other practitioners, Barsuk releases a 20th-anniversary pressing of Rocky Votolato's brilliant and beloved album Makers. Featuring 'White Daisy Passing,’ ‘Portland Is Leaving,’ ‘Tinfoil Hats,’ ‘She Was Only In It For The Rain’ and 8 more indie classics, the release is packaged in a gatefold jacket with updated artwork, a lyric insert and a beautiful multicolored black & blue with white splatter vinyl pressing.

ERIK HALL - Solo Three LP (Western Vinyl)
The slyly absorbing new volume from Michigan-based musician Erik Hall understands the contemplative joy in repetition. Solo Three is the culmination of what Hall describes as a loose trilogy, following his radical reinterpretation of Steve Reich's minimalist masterpiece Music for 18 Musicians, and his subsequent rendition of Simeon ten Holt's Canto Ostinato, a winding work of Dutch minimalism. This time, Hall boldly reimagines works by four distinct contemporary classical composers: Glenn Branca, Charlemagne Palestine, Laurie Spiegel, and, again, Steve Reich. It is a particular grouping that exists through Hall's singular lens for magnetic repetition and harmonic resonance. The resulting program unravels subtly but masterfully, each piece a kind of contrapuntal bliss a touch livelier than the last, all building to the Reich-ian reprise-an apt bookend to the series.

DJ HARRISON - ElectroSoul  LP (Stones Throw)  
ElectroSoul is the most collaborative and personal record yet from two-time GRAMMY Award-nominated producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist DJ Harrison. Sparked by a sudden health scare in 2024, the album brought the Richmond, VA, native’s close-knit creative community into the studio. The result is a genre-melding testament to healing, recovery, rejuvenation and making the most of the present. Grounded in his Richmond roots and inspired by family, ElectroSoul moves with warmth, purpose, and groove.

JACKSON C. FRANK  - 1975 Mekeel Sessions LP (Antarctica Starts) 
For years, Jackson C. Frank was as ghostly a legend as they come. Even the relatively few record collectors who revered his work were only aware of the lone LP released during his lifetime. For all most listeners knew, Frank made an incredible album in 1965 and then vanished, despite that record having been produced by Paul Simon.1975 Mekeel Sessions features six tracks recorded in the mid-'70s at a studio in Lake Hill, New York about five miles from Woodstock where Frank was living at the time. Only uncovered decades later, these recordings hum with the same mysterious warmth that defined Jackson at his peak. His guitar work, alternating between strummed and fingerpicking, is perfectly understated. His stark and somber voice, more weathered than the lighter tone on his debut.While the Mekeel tapes were intended for Frank's sophomore album, it never came to be. What one hears is not a singer-songwriter fading out of view, but rather a singular artist who never stopped trying to build his own world-even when no one was watching.

LOS AMIGOS INVISIBLES - The New Sound Of The Venezuelan Gozadera  LP Reissue (Luaka Bop)  
When Los Amigos Invisibles first released The New Sound, it was the ultimate party album. Time has passed, but the party has kept on—and this party music, full of non-stop funked out grooves, traveling through house, funk, acid jazz, and bossa nova, to name a few musical avenues, is a journey deep into the pants of rhythm. (We won’t even mention the old sound of the Venezuelan Gozadera). The New Sound is back out in a limited 2LP color edition: Tequila Sunrise.

JOHN DWYER - Pilot Soundtrack LP (Rock is Hell)  
"I made this 19-minute stop motion animation over the past 4 or so years. It was made on a 4 plane animation stand using paper and paper puppets. Kept me sane during Covid. Also made the OST. Hope You Enjoy. Cheers Big Ears."-JPD - Pressed on clear red vinyl with offset printed jackets in an edition of 500 copies.

MOODYMAN - Dj Kicks LP (K7)  
In 2016, a year after the 50th entry in the long-running series, none other but the iconic Detroit artist, DJ and producer Moodymann stepped up to helm the next landmark edition of DJ-Kicks, his first ever multi-artist DJ mix compilation. Following !K7's 40th anniversary, this classic DJ-Kicks mix is now being repressed on coke bottle clear vinyl.

NOMEANSNO - Sex Mad LP [Reissue/1986] (Alternative Tentacles) 
In the annals of punk, few albums hit with the seismic force of Nomeansno's Sex Mad. Released in 1986, this was more than a record, it was a detonation. Amid the Cold War and the Reagan era's cultural tension, Sex Mad erupted as a raw, furious, and utterly fearless statement that redefined what punk could be. A record that influenced everyone from the Melvins and Primus to Faith No More and System of a Down (and that's just to name a few). It's daring blend of aggression, intelligence, and innovation continues to inspire new generations of musicians and fans. Nearly four decades later, Sex Mad remains a masterclass in musical defiance. It remains challenging, exhilarating, and utterly timeless. Alternative Tentacles Records couldn't be more proud to finally bring this incredible release back home at last.

ALAN VEGA - Alan Vega LP (Sacred Bones)  
Alan Vega's self-titled debut solo album, originally released in 1980, marked a bold new chapter for one of New York's most influential and uncompromising voices. On his solo debut, Vega dove headfirst into the roots of his personal sound, fueled by blues, rockabilly, and his enduring love for Elvis Presley. Stripped of Suicide's confrontational electronics but retaining Vega's outsider energy and voice, the album translates early rock 'n roll through an art-punk filter and stands as a cult masterpiece in it's own right. Minimalist, haunting, and deeply personal, it carved out a unique place in the underground canon. Now available as a limited deluxe double LP edition, this definitive reissue pairs the newly remastered original album with a second disc of previously unheard early demos, offering a rare glimpse into the raw creative process behind this cult classic, and alternate artwork exclusive to this pressing. Alan Vega (Deluxe Remastered Edition) is a companion piece that sheds new light on Vega's process and vision during this pivotal era, making it a must-have for collectors and longtime fans.

ALAN VEGA - Collision Drive LP (Sacred Bones) 
Collision Drive is Alan Vega's second solo studio album, originally released in 1981. If his debut laid the groundwork for a raw, minimalist take on rockabilly and blues, Collision Drive expands the palette with a grittier, more layered, and unfiltered energy. Here Vega's lyrics channel universal themes rooted in his fascination with street life, science fiction, politics, comics, love and the mysteries of the universe. It's a record that pulses with feeling and rebellion, displaying the full spectrum of human experience and Vega's evolving vision.

JOHN COLTRANE  - Coltrane's Sound  LP Reissue (Rhino)
JOHN COLTRANE  - Giant Steps  LP Reissue (Rhino)
JOHN COLTRANE  - Coltrane's Sound  LP Reissue (Rhino)
JOHN COLTRANE  - Ole Coltrane  LP Reissue (Rhino)
JOHN COLTRANE  - Plays the Blues LP Reissue (Rhino)
JOHN COLTRANE  - Coltrane JazzLP Reissue (Rhino)
Deluxe audiophile reissues. All lacquers are AAA cut directly from the mono tapes by Kevin Gray and pressed on 180-gram vinyl by Optimal, with meticulous detailing on the album packaging that includes glossy covers and "tip-on" jackets.

COMING NEXT WEEK
ALICE IN CHAINS - S/T REISSUE
LILY ALLEN - West End Girl CD/LP
TYLER BALLGAME - For The First Time Again CD/LP
BENNY SIGNS - Beat Tape III LP
JOYCE MANOR - I Used To Go To This Bar CD/LP