New Releases & Staff Picks - 11/6/26

STAFF PICKS 
DARIO - 
JAKE -  
KIMBER -
MARY - 
ZACH - 
DREW - 
PAT-

TWISTED TEENS - Holy Cross Tigers CD/LP (Sub Pop)  
Twisted Teens - aka Caspian Halliwell and RJ Santos - didn't really exist before it's 2024 debut LP, now known as The Orange Album. The pair had been making music from Cajun/country to anarcho-folk under the radar and off the grid, living and working itinerantly. Twisted Teens came from a pandemic-induced burst of inspiration that drew them together to record, in suitably lo-fi fashion, at Caspian's New Orleans home. Their first album quickly became a modern classic of sticky, warm rock, bunching blues, folk, and punk into a raw and irresistible concoction. The duo came back strong in 2026 with Blame the Clown - instantly, enthusiastically cosigned Pitchfork and Paste - and then the equally acclaimed Florida Water Blues, an absurdist take on their wanderings around the world. Their third magnetic and perfectly ragged album of 2026 is a saga of heartbreak and hidden triumph called The Holy Cross Tigers. The songs are anthems of longing, and myriad disappointments, fueled by everything from a brutal breakup to snitching ex-friends. Despite these woes, The Holy Cross Tigers has a sense of radiance, a feeling of reflected light pushing against the sadness. Instantly relatable, it feels like a few friends sharing the burdens of life with one another, the results strange and ecstatic because they are operating by their own rules. It is a blown-out transmission from the lip of heartbreak, a place where even the lucky have been and from which they have hopefully returned.

RESAVOIR - Above The Clouds CD/LP (L'Univers)  
Chicago producer and composer Will Miller's Resavoir has established a strong following at the intersection of jazz, electronic music, and beat-driven production. Above The Clouds finds Resavoir moving further into electronic territory, combining jazz improvisation with dreamy synthesizers, booming drums, smeared samples and electronic instrumentation. Recorded through loose studio sessions with longtime collaborators Lane Beckstrom and Jeremy Cunningham, with contributions from Kenneth Leftridge Jr. And Gregory Uhlmann, the album incorporates wind synthesizers, samplers, guitars, electronic drums and woodwinds into a fluid, groove-oriented sound.

SUFJAN STEVENS - Worst Christmas Ever CD/LP/CASS (Asthmatic Kitty)  
On November 6th, Asthmatic Kitty Records will release Worst Christmas Ever!, a single-LP collection that distills Sufjan Stevens' expansive holiday catalog-drawn from the box sets Songs for Christmas and Silver & Gold -into one definitive collection. The album pairs fifteen favorites, selected from more than one hundred Christmas recordings, with the newly released original song 'On This Christmas (It Only Gets Better),’ Sufjan's first new Christmas song in nearly fifteen years.

MARC RIBOT - Hurry Red Telephone CD/LP (Pi Recordings)  
For more than four decades, guitarist Marc Ribot has made a career out of refusing to stay in one place, moving restlessly between jazz, rock, No Wave, singer/songwriter, solo guitar, music for film, Cuban music, and free improvisation, all while leaving an unmistakable imprint on everything he touches. With Hurry Red Telephone, Ribot returns with his first all-instrumental album since 2014's highly-lauded Live at the Village Vanguard, which featured drummer Chad Taylor and the late bassist Henry Grimes. It reunites him with Taylor in an eponymously-named band recorded over two separate sessions: one with tenor saxophonists James Brandon Lewis and Brian Settles with bassists Hilliard Greene; and another with alto saxophonist Briggan Krauss and bassist Sebastian Steinberg (a veteran of Shrek and other Ribot experiments of the early 1990's). Featuring four original compositions by Ribot alongside two by Haitian guitarist and composer Frantz Casséus - Ribot's guitar teacher and an enduring musical influence - the performances reveal all of Ribot's best qualities, by turns volatile, lyrical, abrasive, humorous, and soulful.The band takes it's name from a verse from the poem Several Tremendous by Richard Siken, which depicts the poet's efforts to rebuild his ability to write and speak after a stroke robbed him of both. It's an apt metaphor for Ribot's pursuit of a language that reconstructs the music from the ground up. The quartet format gives Ribot and his cohorts the freedom to do just that, continuing the improvisational conversation Ribot and Chad Taylor had begun, while at the same time paying homage to the guitarist's No Wave and free jazz background.

CHASTITY BELT - All My Friends CD/LP (Suicide Squeeze)  
All My Friends' comprises songs recorded across multiple years, time zones, and studios, including Seahorse Sound in LA, Way Out in Woodinville, and a centuries-old house on the Greek island of Hydra. The oldest track dates back to around 2018; the newest were finished within the past year. These days, the band spans three cities (Los Angeles, Seattle, and Chicago); less writing/rehearsal time means songs are often worked out in the studio, relying on the spontaneity and instinct that comes from knowing one another so well. The result is rawer and less polished than their last couple of records, closer in spirit to the band's roots. Songwriting and recording are very real work, but Chastity Belt's studio sessions also carry the celebratory charge of a reunion.

SHARP PINS - Mod Mayday 23 CD/LP (K. Records)  
“The soundtrack to my 18th summer riding a Chinese Taotao 50cc scooter around Taqueria Moran and four tracking my Sta-Prest-Dreams. I thought it would be cool to record a bunch of songs that never really got recorded in a semi-more-thought-out-way. Recorded on a Tascam Porta One in the old concrete Stulogulo with an imaginary band of Men in Green Striped Trousers. The original Sharp Pins garagepopspew sound in all of it's crustiness and yelping... I think I dubbed like 50 of these. Now my teenage dream is yours.”

DIRTY THREE - Ulterior Motives CD/LP (Touch & Go Records)  
A collection of unreleased demos and live recordings. The Dirty Three forged from a need to pay the rent in 1993. The main concern was to try and take a band photo in a rehearsal, albeit brief. The band originally played background MUZAK in the corner of a bar, a bar probably not too dissimilar from your living room. The band's volume outgrew the venue, so they took on stages, stages with PA's. There was also some problem about a stolen mop bucket. Dirty Three's music has been called lyrical, passionate, original, inspiring, and has earned them admiration and renown across the globe, from their home in Australia, to New Orleans to New York City and back again.

UNTITLED (HALO) - Untitled (Halo) CD/LP (Dirty Hit) 
Los Angeles quartet untitled (halo) returns with it's self-titled debut album. Rooted in the band's signature blend of trip-hop, shoegaze, and art rock, the album introduces the concept of California Melancholia - a feeling that captures the emotional contradictions of growing up in Southern California, where idyllic landscapes coexist with longing, disillusionment, and the quiet search for connection. Built from the creative chemistry of Ariana Mamnoon, Jack Dione, Jay Are, and Nicholas Noneman, the project merges inspiration from music, film, literature, and visual art into a singular, immersive world. Already championed by Pitchfork, Pigeons & Planes, KCRW, and Perfectly Imperfect, with features in The FADER, Document Journal, Complex, Flaunt Magazine, Teen Vogue, Silknode, and more, untitled (halo) cements the band as one of alternative music's most compelling new voices.

WINSTON BROTHERS - Sweets CD/LP (Colemine Records)  
From deep in the hard funk pocket, the Winston Brothers return to Colemine after four years with a second helping of sounds rooted in horn-heavy, 70s-style soul cinema, taking cues from the soundtrack work of Issac Hayes, Willie Hutch, Roy Ayers, and JJ Johnson. Helmed by multi-instrumentalist/producer Sebastian Nagel and longtime collaborator Lucas Kochbeck on drums, Sweets serves as a timely reminder of how Hamburg, Germany's music scene helps shape and influence today's soul sound. Ultimately, bringing musicians like Kimo Eiserbeck (sax and flute) and Hans Stephan (trumpet), alongside some additional drum contributions by Max Whitefield (nee Weissenfeldt), demonstrates the close-knit nature of these musicians. From influential bands like Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band to Angels of Libra and the Mighty Mocambos, Hamburg's deep groove scene has sired it's share of worthy soul and funk acolytes. These musicians have shared stages and studios over the years, with various configurations finding their way in the aforementioned bands. 'We started as a school project we were just kids,' Sebastian recalls. 'It's a family thing, and we really know each other well.' Sweets is more than just another addition to this scene's collective musical canon; it is a vibrant dispatch from funk's leading edge.

KINGS OF LEON - O My Beloved CD/LP (Love Tap Records)  
Kings of Leon return with 10th album, O My Beloved. For this release, the four-time Grammy-winning family band draws from their own history and builds on their storied legacy to deliver their most personal effort to date. Frontman Caleb Followill describes this-their first self-produced studio album-as emotional and a love letter to family that explores themes of gratitude and appreciation.

SYLVIE - New Season CD/LP (Ghostly)  
If Sylvie's New Season were a movie, Ben Schwab would be the auteur, screenwriting and directing the vision, articulating his story through a cast of actors. In truth, New Season is a record of the freewheeling country-rock variety, Sylvie's first with Ghostly International, and it finds the Los Angeles-based artist at the helm of a rotating ensemble, arriving at pure, joyous expression and renewed faith in the face of hardship. It's a rare and refined kind of musical gesture, both intimate and all-embracing, self-produced, penned singularly, delivered collectively. An invitation to find beauty in life's trials and to trust that even the longest winters can give way to a new season. Like Sylvie's self-titled effort, New Season still rings of the sunny, lighthearted, and smooth 1960s and '70s pop, rock, and country sonics that have become the project's signature. While Schwab constructed that 2021 project mainly with friends in his orbit, stemming from his time playing in Drugdealer's band and other peripheral projects, he has broadened the scope tenfold for his full-length debut, New Season. The shapeshifting collective executes on an alluring mix of nostalgic and modern sensibilities, recalling the free-spiritedness of Laurel Canyon and bohemian-era Nashville with a contemporary sheen.

CIARAN - Roisin CD/LP (Ninja Tune)  
For over a decade, Ciarán has been one of modern music's most intriguing and elusive creative voices. Best known as the vocalist, songwriter and producer FKA Bearface in BROCKHAMPTON who disbanded in 2022, his contributions helped shape some of the group's most beloved and emotionally resonant moments, earning a devoted global following drawn to his singular blend of vulnerability, melody and experimentation. Ciarán's debut solo album, Róisín, explores the tension between softness and strength, beauty and brutality. Created between New York and collaborative writing sessions with close friends, the LP blends delicate melodies with distorted textures, warped production and unpredictable shifts in sound, the album captures an artist embracing experimentation and breaking free from expectation.

YOUR OLD DROOG - Bread & Butter CD/LP (Nature Sounds)  
In a cultural landscape trending toward mindless diversion, Your Old Droog has defied the odds, building a thriving career through musical depth and captivating songwriting. In pursuit of hip-hop immortality, the Brooklyn artist engages listeners with inventive metaphors, genuine reflections, and sophisticated rhyme architecture. Now, Your Old Droog is back with his tenth full length album, Bread & Butter. Recalling his humble immigrant family stretching caviar across slices of bread shortly after arriving from Ukraine, YOD has crafted a testament to making the best of any situation. This philosophy runs throughout Bread & Butter, as Droog chronicles the turbulence of rap success, ruminates on youthful memories, and dismisses unworthy challengers with clever precision. The project's rich sonic texture is shaped by beats from Flying Lotus, Conductor Williams, Ohbliv, and more, while hip-hop luminaries Evidence, Oddisee, and Masta Ace make memorable appearances, along with South African star A-Reece and acclaimed singer Georgia Anne Muldrow.

ALEJANDRO BRAVO - Alejandro Bravo LP (Numero)  
Private Mexican lounge that still burns long after the cruise ship disembarks. Armed with a single nylon string guitar, a toy chest of rudimentary percussion, and the emotional microtones of the Spanish tongue, Alejandro Bravo's lone LP blends bossanova, samba, and the Brill Building into a horny margarita for the tourist class. Recorded at home in Acapulco in 1971, Bravo's self-released LP slaps and thrills with it's taps and trills. Pair with a pregnancy test for best results.

HANK MOBLEY - Dippin’ LP [Reissue/1966] (Blue Note Records)  
A benchmark album in Hank Mobley's superb mid-1960s output, Dippin' featured the great tenor saxophonist in a quintet with Lee Morgan on trumpet, Harold Mabern Jr. On piano, Larry Ridley on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums for a 6-song set spanning boogaloo, bossa nova, ballads, and bop. This stereo Blue Note Tone Poet Vinyl Series was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, and packaged in a deluxe tip-on gatefold jacket.

JIMMY SMITH - Sermon LP [Reissue/1959] (Blue Note Records)  
A studio album that bottled the unbridled energy of a live blowing session, The Sermon! featured organist Jimmy Smith and a stellar cast digging in on 3 extended workouts, including Lee Morgan, Lou Donaldson, George Coleman, Tina Brooks, Kenny Burrell, Eddie McFadden, Art Blakey & Donald Bailey. This stereo Blue Note Tone Poet Vinyl Series was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, and packaged in a deluxe tip-on gatefold jacket.

JOZEF VAN WISSEM & JIM JARMUSCH - Bocca Di Lupo & Mouth Of The Wolf LP (Sacred Bones)  
Jozef Van Wissem and Jim Jarmusch's Bocca di Lupo and Mouth of the Wolf were recorded in July 2025 in Bologna, Italy. The recording sessions took place just after several live dates in New York and Chicago, and a week before they began a short European tour which included Paris, London, Ghent, Porto, and a first date in Bologna.

N8NOFACE - Tomorrow's World LP (Stones Throw)  
Tomorrow's World is the new album from synth-punk/darkwave artist N8NOFACE. Fully produced by Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio, the record also features contributions from Hudson Mohawke, Snow Wife, and Angélica Garcia.

TOM PETTY & HEARTBREAKERS - No Sleep Til L.A. CD/LP (UME)  
No Sleep Til L.A. captures the sonic formation of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in their white-hot '70s era. Chronicled through unheard and rare original songs from Tom Petty's first eight years as a recording artist, this 12-track collection features seven previously unreleased and five rare recordings, all newly mixed from the original multi-tracks by Ryan Ulyate. Highlights include the previously unreleased Heartbreakers songs, ‘Parade of Loons’ and ‘Sin City,’ new mixes of the earliest Mudcrutch recordings, ‘Up in Mississippi Tonight,’ ‘Depot Street' and ‘Wild Eyes,’ plus never-before-heard gems including, ‘Unheard of Kind of Hero’ and 'Satisfy Yourself.’

MIKE LADD - Nonechosen CD/LP (Backwoodz Studioz)  
Mike Ladd. Those who know say the name with a certain reverence. If you will allow an imperfect analogy, Ladd is underground hip hop's Terrence Malick: an uncompromising auteur whose early work was both unconventional and critically acclaimed before he abruptly withdrew from the scene he helped build and decamped to Paris, never to be heard from again. Of course, the reality is more complex than the legend. Mike Ladd never stopped making music; over the years he's popped up on all sorts of unexpected collaborations-who could forget his searing appearance on billy woods' Aethiopes - soundtracked a Netflix series, and worked with visual artists in settings like the Pantheon in Paris. That's not even counting all the stages he ripped as part of various touring bands and live acts. Still, Ladd's last solo album was more than ten years ago, and his magnum opus Welcome to the Afterfuture dropped in early 2000. If we are going to follow the analogy, Nonechosen is Mike Ladd's The Thin Red Line. A granite testament to the fact that the artist has evolved and grown, but maintains the same gravitas that made his name what it is.

MICHAEL HURLEY - First Songs LP (Smithsonian Folkways) 
An eccentric, lifelong troubadour and a hero of the freak folk movement, Michael Hurley (1941-2025) paved an unconventional path as a musician and songwriter across his storied six-decade career. First Songs is Hurley's debut album and the only one where his photo is featured on the cover. In it, he introduces themes and characters that he'd revisit with delight across his dozens of albums: His werewolf trickster persona in ‘The Werewolf Song,’ the gentle ‘Blue Mountain,’ the pleasures of imbibing in 'The Tea Song’ and ‘I Like My Wine' and of rambling in 'Just a Bum.’ Featuring Hurley alone with voice and guitar, the album sustains a moody sort of gravitas-while also laying the foundation for the visionary, freewheeling silliness that's made him one of the great folk singer-songwriters of the last century.

RUDOLPH JOHNSON - Second Coming LP [Reissue/1973] (Real Gone Music)  
The album title is apt, as this was saxman Rudolph Johnson's second album for the Black Jazz label. But more importantly, the quality of the music it contains renders the more common, Messianic meaning of the phrase the second coming equally applicable. Saxman and bandleader Rudolph Johnson never attained the commercial success of some of his contemporaries, but his fans consider him the rightful heir to John Coltrane's improvisational genius. Indeed, unlike most of the other releases on the Black Jazz label, The Second Coming barely nods to the fusion and soul jazz trends that were sweeping jazz at the time. Instead, this is expressive, free improvisation at it's best, beautifully recorded by producer Gene Russell and deserving of a much wider audience than it found the first time. Remastered and annotated, and limited to 500 blue with black swirl copies!

RUDOLPH JOHNSON - Spring Rain LP [Reissue/1971] (Real Gone Music)  
Columbus, Ohio's Rudolph Johnson drew comparisons to John Coltrane during his career; like the jazz legend in his later years, Johnson eschewed drugs or alcohol and spent his time every day either meditating and rehearsing on his horn. You can definitely hear a little bit of Coltrane in Johnson's playing on this, his 1971 debut release for the Black Jazz label, the first of two he recorded for the imprint and the first he recorded as a leader after some sideman work (most notably for organist Jimmy McGriff); his ability to explore the upper registers and overtones of his tenor sax while retaining control is quite striking. Of course, this being a Black Jazz release, along with the bebop sounds of Sylvia Ann and the mid-'60s Blue Note stylings of Sylvia Ann, there's the soul jazz of Diswa and the groove funk of Devon Jean, all played by, as is typical on Black Jazz releases, by top-notch sidemen including drummer Raymond Pounds, who's played with everybody from Stevie Wonder to Pharoah Sanders to Bob Dylan, and pianist John Barnes, whose work is very familiar to Motown fans (Supremes, Temptations, Marvin Gaye).

COMING NEXT WEEK
NINAJIRACHI - I Love My Computer CD/LP Reissue
KIM DEAL - Live At The Barbican CD/LP
RADIE PEAT - No Human Tongue Can Tell CD/LP
APHEX TWIN - Drukqs CD/LP Reissue
ANNA BUTTERSS - Beginningless CD/LP
U2 - Carnaval De Luz CD/LP
TALKING HEADS - Fear Of Music Deluxe LP Reissue
GILES COREY - S/T CD/LP
REX ORANGE COUNTY - Dream Fatigue LP
LAND OF TALK - Lasts CD/LP
LEENALCHI - Sugungga CD/LP 
ALBUM LEAF - Into The Blue Again LP Reissue
OURA - Maldicao CD/LP
DESCENDENTS - Fat CD/LP reissue
AESOP ROCK & BLOCKHEAD - Trouble Mountain CD/LP
SYDNEY GISH - Ed Buys Houses And No Dogs CD/LP
EELS - Beautiful Freak LP Reissue 
PINEGROVE -  Everything So Far LP Reissue