New Releases & Staff Picks - 10/22/26 [PART 2]

THE NERVES - Best Collection LP  (Third Man Records)  
We worked closely with surviving members of The Nerves, Paul Collins and Peter Case along with Jack Lee's daughter Cynthia to bring The Nerves - Best Collection to you. Unlike previous releases that often relied on secondary copies or rips from vinyl and CDs, we were able to locate the original source recordings and have Warren Defever master/remaster them at Third Man Mastering in Detroit for this release. This is what makes this record so special-it features the definitive versions of these tracks as they were originally intended, some have not been heard since the day they were recorded. We hope you enjoy it. 

JUNE MCDOOM - Follow The Light LP (Jagjaguwar)  
There is a hush most of us only knew as children, the warm drift between familiar household sounds and being carried to bed, a place that belongs to you and to some self you have not met yet. June McDoom's debut full-length, Follow the Light, lives in that dream space and then keeps walking, slipping out of time and waking somewhere new, barely familiar enough to feel like home yet wholly your own. 

JOHN LEGEND - Muse CD/LP (Republic Records)  
John Legend's new album, Muse. Produced by Pharrell Williams with guest appearances by Pharrell and Clipse. 

JP HARRIS - Shaving A Dead Man LP (Bloodshot Records)  
Produced by Chance McCoy (Old Crow Medicine Show), Shaving A Dead Man embraces and exuberates in old-time Appalachian folk music. Featuring dark Appalachian fiddle & banjo, Americana gothic drones, and whimsically macabre artwork. The repertoire is heirloom, but newcomers to the old-time genre will hear a hypnotic snap & sway in the silvery plunk of JP's banjo, a spectral, bluesy emotion in McCoy's fiddle, & songs with lyrics that conjure something mythical, mysterious, and sometimes murderous. This album offers an identifiable element to people who want to access old-time, not necessarily through Smithsonian field recordings. “I'm not just some museum-quality reproduction piece. Planting this flag in the mud is saying that I'm still a fringe element, even if I am a traditional roots musician. It makes it identifiable to the next generation of little weird music kids like me.” - JP Harris 

FISH NARC - Uncle LP (K Records) 
Emerging from the dark Olympic forests with a new album and a full bag of chanterelles, Fish Narc's Ben Funkhouser has shifted the damp melancholy characteristic of his earlier work towards the sun. Uncle is at once a cry of resignation ("say uncle!") and a declaration of seniority, a set of observations steeped in the blues of youth, delivered with Westerbergian inclination. Recorded and produced by Alex Farrar, the album's 11 tracks bear the hallmarks of his style: textured rock 'n' roll somehow both raw and polished. Neither waxing pathetic nor sugarcoating, Fish Narc and the band are at peak form on Uncle, strumming out the complexities of aging with the conviction of a group that's fully found it's footing in well-crafted rock and powerpop.  

GDP - Cross Off Matthew LP  (Run For Cover)  
“Slide in the party like three monkeys wearing a trench,” GDP says in the opening seconds of Cross Off Matthew, his first solo album in over a decade. The line is indicative of the New Jersey emcee/producer’s relationship with music, one that’s ebbed and flowed throughout his career and eclectic discography. Entirely self-produced, Cross Off Matthew feels like a reintroduction as well as an expansion of what makes the cult rapper so beloved. 

GIRL ULTRA - Rrromeo LP (Big Dada Records) 
RRRomeo is Girl Ultra's most ambitious and emotionally direct project to date, arriving via Big Dada and produced in collaboration with Chromeo. Sung entirely in Spanish, the album blends 80s pop, bloghouse, dub, habibi funk, orchestral arrangements, Arabic samples, Andean instrumentation, and guitar noise, showcasing the expansive creative world Girl Ultra has built across her career. The record features collaborators including Buscabulla, Chromeo, Jean Tonique, and Empress Of, while Chromeo's involvement extends beyond production, helping shape both the sonic identity and wider creative vision of the project. 

LAMIN FOFANA  - Corps Perdu LP  (Shelter Press)  
Corps Perdu emerges from Lamin Fofana's ongoing practice of creating immersive and multisensory sound environments, informed and inspired by the historically rich texts of scholars and poets working in the tradition of Black Studies. The words of W.E.B. Du Bois, Sylvia Wynter, Dionne Brand, Fred Moten, Édouard Glissant, Suzanne Césaire and Aimé Césaire are transmuted and circulated as sound, offered to listeners through radio, live events, albums and installations. Fofana honours his sources with an audible historical awareness, yet his sounds always simultaneously open out into the turbulent uncertainties of the present.  

LAMPLIGHT - Lick The Spoon Let It Soften LP (Western Vinyl) 
Lick the Spoon, Let it Soften is the second album from Lamplight, the project of Virginia-based songwriter Ian Hatcher-Williams and his band of trusted collaborators, including members of Lightning Bug and hemlock. It's also unabashedly Appalachian. This isn't alt-country, but even it's most textured moments carry a natural twang. 

PHISH - The White Tape LP [Reissue/1987] (Jemp)  
Soon after forming the band, "Phish" (aka The White Tape) was created from four-track recordings which the band and band members mixed, dubbed and circulated as a demo. It consists of an assortment of four-track recordings from 1984-1985 including four songs recorded by all the existing members of Phish as a band: Alumni Blues, AC/DC Bag, Slave To The Traffic Light and Dog Gone Dog (a/k/a Dog Log). The balance was recorded separately by the band members and blended together from 4-track cassettes to create the album as we know it. Trey has said The White Tape exemplifies, perhaps more than any other studio effort, the band's unbridled creative freedom of the day.

NAVY BLUE - Sir Render LP (Freedom Sounds)  
The latest chapter in Sage Elsesser's ever-evolving artistic journey, Sir Render expands upon the immersive world-building, introspective lyricism, and spiritual depth that have defined his work while further exploring themes of grief, self-acceptance, perseverance, and personal transformation. Across 15 songs, Sage crafts a richly layered narrative that blurs the line between fiction and autobiography, using the story of a knight confronting his inner battles as a vehicle for examining his own experiences and growth. Featuring contributions from Earl Sweatshirt, Armand Hammer, Mike Shabb, and the late Ka, alongside production from The Alchemist, Jason Wool, Shungu, and Sage himself, Sir Render unfolds as an immersive meditation on embracing duality and finding peace within uncertainty.The album also features posthumous appearances from two towering figures whose influence helped shape it's vision. The late Ka, Sage's mentor, collaborator, and close friend, appears on the project, while legendary actor James Earl Jones, Sage's cousin, provides narration that deepens the album's exploration of identity, resilience, and the human condition.

PARDONER - Target Practice LP (Bar/None Records)  
Ripping guitars, pummeling drums, and catchy-yet thoughtful lyrics. These are the tools Pardoner have used for over a decade to chisel their slacker tunes. On their 5th LP, Target Practice, they continue to refine their approach in search of a Heavenly Pop Hit ™. Sensing a cultural slide back into math-rock and prog, this is their most straight ahead record yet. Absent are the surprise blast beats and scene changes that were hallmarks of Came Down Different (2021) and Peace Loving People (2023). 10 concise songs, tinged with playful meanness and satire, remain.

SOUR WIDOWS - Sigil LP (Julia's War)  
A feeling of hope slithering from dark corners permeates most every track of Sour Widows' new LP, Sigil. Crafted with acclaimed producer and Jay Som mastermind Melina Duterte in downtown Los Angeles, the album's eleven songs curve in unexpected directions and are the most magnetic Sour Widows have written yet. There is a newfound immediacy to the album as if Sour Widows have urgent findings to share, and throughout Sigil, ostensible disaster ushers in a new start.

SADURN - The Underworld CD/LP/CASS (Run For Cover)  
Sadurn's sophomore album The Underworld is a collection of heartrendingly personal and instantly relatable songs, due out this fall on Run For Cover Records. Following years of lingering vocal issues for guitarist G DeGroot, the album is the culmination of an emotional and spiritual journey and a a deeply personal meditation on loss, healing, and transformation. Sadurn began in 2017 as a solo project for G DeGroot, and from the start their approach to songwriting was informed more by emotional intuition than any kind of real ambitions to be heard. ""I discovered songwriting as an outlet for processing my reality,"" they explain. ""A lot of times when something is hard to say, it flows more easily in songwriting. It's a place where you can circle back to your own truth.”

JOAN SHELLEY - Over & Even: Demos LP (No Quarter)  
Over & Even was a breakout album for Joan Shelley. Originally released in 2015 and recorded in Louisville, Kentucky - with Shelley and her then neighbor Nathan Salsburg on guitar. The record was an album of the year at NPR Music and in The Los Angeles Times. Rolling Stone called it, a masterfully turned set of folk reflections in their 4 star review. This expanded edition features 8 never before heard demos, performed and recorded solo by Shelley who shared them only with Salsburg so he could learn the songs.

SWERVEDRIVER - Raise: Demos LP (Outer Battery)  
The winter of 1990/91: heady times for Swervedriver. The band is freshly signed to Creation Records and are holed up inside Playground Studios in London, recording the demos for Raise, their debut LP. The audio quality is not pristine, you may hear an occasional bum note or dropped beat here and there. You will definitely hear the hiss of amplifiers and the buzz of FX pedals, but most importantly you will hear the songs as they first emerged: fresh, and to all intents and purposes, played live. Raise: Demos collects the best moments of those original portastudio tapes, expertly restored and rebalanced by Tim Turan, and released to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Raise. Available on limited edition silver vinyl!

TWIN TEMPLE - Doomed Lovers LP  (Pentagrammaton Rec.)  
Too bold for some, irresistible for others, Twin Temple have become cultural provocateurs and one of music's most talked about cross over acts. Born from one of the darkest periods in the band's personal lives, Doomed Lovers is their most intimate and emotionally revealing work to date. Expanding the cinematic scope of their unmistakable sound while remaining rooted in the timeless traditions of early rock 'n' roll, the album stands as the band's most ambitious and fully realized artistic statement yet. Doomed Lovers marks Twin Temple's boldest chapter yet. Produced by GRAMMY Award-winning producer Shooter Jennings at the iconic Studio 3 at Sunset Sound in Hollywood, the album continues the band's commitment to classic analog recording while expanding it's sonic palette with lush orchestral arrangements performed by a 37-piece orchestra.

COMING NEXT WEEK
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE - Perfecth CD/LP
SLEEP - Hempispheres CD/LP
DINNER PARTY - Watchu’ Bringing CD/LP
DIIV - Zirp CD/LP
RADIO FREE ALICE - What’s In Between CD/LP
MINISTRY - Hate To Go CD/LP
PISS - You Made Me / Skin On Linen LP
SWANS - Newly Sentient Being CD/LP
THAO - Show Me CD/LP
WHY? - Oh Golly / Yes Lord CD/LP
MARC RIBOT - Hurry Red Telephone LP
COLD WAR KIDS - Robbers & Cowards LP Reissue