New Releases & Staff Picks 3/15/24
STAFF PICKS
Lindsay - Innocence Mission
Dario - The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis
Kimber - Coil reissue
Jake - Xiu Xiu reissue
Zach - The Messthetics and Cake ressiue
Thundercat - Apocalypse (Ten Year Anniversary Edition) LP [Reissue/2014] (Brainfeeder)
Award-winning virtuoso bassist & singer Thundercat will release a very special deluxe edition of his album Apocalypse, celebrating ten years since its original release in 2013. - The new edition features special rainbow holographic artwork housed inside a transparent PVC outer sleeve with holographic skull print. Additionally there are two previously unreleased tracks: "Before I loved myself 'I' pooped my ankles (true)" (with Austin Peralta and Taylor Graves) and "Paris" (with Mono/Poly). Ten Year Anniversary Edition. Translucent Red Vinyl.
Xiu Xiu - La Foret LP [Reissue/2005] (5RC)
Repressed on vinyl for the first time in 15 years. As conceptual as Xiu Xiu's fusion of post-punk, gamelan, synth pop, folk, and noise might seem, the group's music never feels overly cerebral or detached. On the contrary, it's usually brimming over with often contradictory emotions: love, hate, sex, violence, fear, and humor cling together so tightly in Jamie Stewart's songs that they can't be separated. Harsh and beautiful words and sounds remain intertwined on La Forȇt, which ranks among Xiu Xiu's subtlest, and scariest, albums. Color vinyl pressing.
Kacey Musgraves - Deeper Well CD/CD+Zine/LP (Interscope)
The music on Deeper Well, the seven-time Grammy winner's fifth album, is almost chimeric. Rolling acoustic guitars, puffy clouds of strings and synth, warm bass punctuation, layered harmonies, moments of Celtic melody and plenty of room on the tracks for Musgraves' silvery vocals. On the bright, almost folky title track, the 30-something songstress surveys her life and priorities, recognizing what feeds her, drains her and even examines the childhood she's left behind on her way to now. Saturn returns, cardinals embody a dead friend, love is given and taken, streets rush by belongings are packed and old chapters deserted, new love blooms, jade bracelets serve as talismans, deep lessons emerge, small details define everything, the woods are a refuge and New York City serves as the same gleaming beacon as Oz. [Two indie store exclusive editions are available: translucent w/ splatter color vinyl; and a deluxe CD version with photo cards and lyric book. A cream color vinyl pressing is also available.]
Cake - Pressure Chief LP [Reissue/ 2004] (Sony Legacy)
Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, Pressure Chief features key tracks like "Wheels" and the ever popular "No Phone". Outside of being included in a limited-edition Record Store Day box set, this album has never been available on vinyl as a standalone item.
Innocence Mission - Small Planes LP (Therese Records)
Translucent cobalt blue colorway. Recorded in the late 1990s, simultaneously with its sister album Birds Of My Neighborhood, Small Planes, by beloved Lancaster, Pennsylvania band The Innocence Mission, is a favorite among listeners of the band and is available for the first time on vinyl. Featured songs include ‘Oh Do Not Fly Away', ‘Today’, and ‘Girl on My Left,’ and the bonus song ‘A Thousand Miles’, which the vinyl pressing restores to its original home in this album.
Black Crowes - Happiness Bastards CD/LP (Silver Arrow)/
The Black Crowes are leaving the bullshit of the past. 15 years after their last album of original music, the Robinson Brothers present Happiness Bastards - their 10th studio album. Some may say the project has been several tumultuous years in the making, but it's arriving at just the right time. Call it brotherly love or destiny that brought them back together; the highly anticipated record consecrating the reunion of this legendary band just may be the thing that saves rock & roll. In a time where the art form is buried beneath the corporate sheen of its successors, The Black Crowes are biting back with the angst of words left unsaid penned on paper and electrified by guitar strings, revealing stripped, bare-boned rock & roll. No gloss, no glitter. [Two indie store exclusive editions are available: CD and 180gm clear vinyl.]
Muna - Saves The World LP [Reissue/2019] (Sony Legacy)
Muna's sophomore album, Saves The World has been reissued on vinyl due to popular demand. The album delivers the alt-pop anthems fans know and love including hits like "Number One Fan" and "Stayaway". Rolling Stone called it a "mastery of pop songcraft" and Pitchfork named it "pristine pop."
21 Savage - American Dream LP (Epic)
Nearly six years after his last solo release, 21 Savage returns with the long-awaited new studio album, American Dream. Debuting on the Billboard Top 200 chart at #1 for two weeks in a row, the set continues in the rapper's stone faced trap tradition but adding some new elements including R&B on the track "Prove It" featuring Summer Walker and pop on the Doja Cat collaboration "N.H.I.E." There is no lack of hip-hop prowess though, with guest features from Metro Boomin', The Weeknd, Young Thug, Travis Scott, Lil Durk, and more. [A limited-edition purple/black split color vinyl pressing is available.]
Joe Henderson - Power to the People LP [Reissue/1969] (Craft Recordings)
Originally released on Milestone in 1969, the hard-bop cult classic Power To The People finds legendary saxophone virtuoso Joe Henderson soaring in the intersection of thematic development and ecstatically pure sound, joined by a titanic rhythm section featuring Mike Lawrence, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Jack DeJohnette.
Miles Davis - Volume 2 LP [Reissue/1956] (Blue Note)
Miles' early Blue Note sessions from 1952-‘54 yielded two later LPs that Blue Note released as part of the 1500 Series. Volume 2 is split between the blazing bebop and beautiful ballads that first made Miles famous: "Well You Needn't", "Lazy Susan", "The Leap," "It Never Entered My Mind", "Donna", alternate takes of "Ray's Idea" and "Tempus Fugit" and more.
Bobby Oroza - Queen of the Barrio 7” (Big Crown)
Bobby Oroza returns with a two-sider of songs paying homage to the ladies of the world. Side A, ‘Queen Of The Barrio’ is a proclamation of love and respect for all the ladies who grew up in the barrios around the world and the unique kind of woman that it has made them. Bobby gives flowers and crowns to the women whose spirits can only be sharpened but never broken regardless of what life deals them. This is also Bobby tipping his hat to the very first group of people to show him love as an artist. Side B, ‘Goddess’ is a rougher, more uptempo tune with a snapping drum beat where Bobby again lays it out there for the ladies. Singing praises to the incomparable magic woman possess and admitting he is completely enamored by the woman he is addressing, Bobby puts his heart on his sleeve with reverence and respect.
Pearl Jam - Dark Matter 7” (Monkeywrench)
Indie Exclusive 7" black vinyl single featuring "Dark Matter" b/w "Dark Matter (Instrumental)."
Justin Timberlake - Everything I Thought It Was CD/LP (RCA)
Everything I Thought It Was is the highly anticipated new album from multi-talented entertainer, recording artist, record producer, songwriter, and actor Justin Timberlake. This is Justin’s sixth studio album, and includes the first single “Selfish,” a pop infused offering driven by its infectious melodies and features the star’s iconic soulful vocals.
Current 93 / HÖH - Island LP [Reissue/1991] (House of Mythology)
Forest green colorway. One of the most desired and long-requested albums throughout HomAleph's Current 93 reissue series and now available again on LP for the first time since 1991 in its original form, masterfully remastered by The Bricoleur at Bladud Flies. Island was originally recorded at Studio Syrland and Hot Ice, Iceland between 1986-1991. Björk guests on one track.
Coil - Moon’s Milk (In Four Phases) 3LP [Reissue/1998] (Dais)
Recorded primarily at their home studio in Chiswick, London on the eve of a permanent relocation to the small seaside town of Weston-super-Mare, the collection has long loomed as a pivotal and pinnacle work in the group's discography, but has never been officially reissued, or repressed on vinyl. The Dais box set includes the entirety of the rare Moon's Milk Bonus Disc CD-R / 2019 Threshold Archives CD, which includes three collaborations with Thighpaulsandra. This material is as rich and intoxicating as the previous four phases, ranging from electro-acoustic singing bowl rituals ("Copal") to dissonant electronic recitations of visionary Angus MacLise poetry ("The Coppice Meat") to ominous classical melancholia ("Bankside"). Once again, Coil confirms the vastness of their confounding, infinite alchemy, explored and refined across decades of experimentation - both sonic and bodily. From post-industrial to post-everything, theirs is an art untethered, in the wilds of its own design. [Multiple vinyl colorways are available.]
Andwella - To Dream 4LP (Numero)
Hold on to your mind! Led by Belfast-born phenom David Lewis, Andwella made three LPs circa 1970 for London's Reflection label, redolent with Cream-y rock workouts, soaring post-Sgt. Pepper psych experimentation, and earthbound laments The Band might've dreamt up at Big Pink. Barely heard back then, they now conjure a popular rock fantasia to challenge the most expertly composed and orchestrated songs of the era. This deluxe set includes meticulous reproductions of the band's three-LP discography, plus an ephemera-packed booklet detailing Lewis's brief moment as a downbeat songwriting visionary at the height of his powers. [Multiple colorways are available.]
Max Nordile / Hair Clinic - Hanging By a Fan Over Wet Cement LP (Gilgongo)
"Hanging by a Fan Over Wet Cement is the music of listening after listening, when water runs relative to the sound of your own footsteps, and you lean over the resonating chamber of a trashcan like it’s a campfire, then fill it with wheezy laughter. Only, the steel mesh of Hair Clinic / Max Nordile’s field microphone is all mangled and bludgeoned, and the field extends into his home garage. The same contact-foraging quality of attention goes into the beginner’s brain improvisations, whether on saxophone or skipping stones. And the mixing and editing is in large part a visual process, with Nordile monitoring slips of time and intention for the contours of song. It’s a prickly and startling listen, influenced by sound art, alive with noise. Nordile, a member of Debt Rag and Shelter Music, among other groups in Olympia, WA, traces the album’s inspiration back to the duet of birdsong and idling garbage truck, and named it for the language artifact of a dream. The cover shows degraded spiral forms in Scottish petroglyphs. Hanging by a Fan Over Wet Cement is creative, personal music to mirror the distorted balance of consensus reality."—Sam Lefebvre
Angelo Outlaw - Axis of Time LP (Eraserhead Sound)
Axis Of Time is the stunning debut album from Philadelphia mallet percussionist and poet Angelo Outlaw. Featuring Eraserhood Sound's signature synth & soul production, Axis Of Time is a dazzling blend of jazz, rare groove, funk, soul and R&B. According to Outlaw, the album is meant to transport the listener to a dream-like state, where space and time slowly fade away and reality is merely a distant memory. Each song sets a unique scene, as the pace of the music swells and sways... from the euphoric highs of lead single "Free My Mind"and uninhibited groove of "Speed Of Light" to the trance-like meditation of "Dreams" and mournful melodies of "Invisible Clock", Angelo and the Eraserhood Sound house band truly go to the cosmos and back. [A color vinyl pressing is available.]
Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis - The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis LP (Impulse)
On their Impulse! debut album, Washington DC's experimental jazz punk trio the Messthetics (guitarist Anthony Pirog with drummer Brendan Canty and Joe Lally of iconic band Fugazi) join forces with acclaimed jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and bandleader James Brandon Lewis. Together, they widen the reach of decisive instrumental music through their overlapping of jazz, punk, funk, aggression, and innovation.
COMING NEXT WEEK!
Alice in Chains - Jar of Flies LP Reissue
Waxahatchee - Tiger's Blood CD/LP
Julia Holter - Something in the Room She Moves CD/LP
Adrianne Lenker - Bright Future CD/LP
Cure - Paris CD/LP reissue
Thee Sinseers - Sinseerly Yours CD/LP
Andre 3000 - New Blue Sun CD
Sierra Ferrell - Trail of Flowers CD/LP
Jesus and Mary Chain - Glasgow Eyes CD/LP
Gary Clark Jr - Jpeg Raw CD/LP
Sam Evian - Plunge CD/LP
Cody Jinks - Change The Game CD/LP
Elbow - Audio Vertigo CD/LP
Aoife O'Donovan - All My Friends CD/LP
Rosali - Bite Down CD/LP
Wye Oak - Shriek + Variations CD/LP
Tycho - Awake LP reissue
Charlie Parr - Little Sun CD/LP
Butthole Surfers - PCPPEP LP reissue
Butthole Surfers - Psychic Powerless LP reissue
Butthole Surfers - Rembrandt Pussyhorse LP reissue
Looper - Up A Tree LP reissue
Alice Coltrane - Carnegie Hall Concert LP
Jamiroquai - Late Night Tales LP
Him - Tears On Tape LP