New Releases & Staff Picks - 3/20/26

STAFF PICKS
DARIO - Elori Saxl and Whitney Johnson, Lia Kohl, and Macie Stewart 
ASH - Spaghetti Cumbia
JAKE - Whitney Johnson, Lia Kohl, and Macie Stewart
KIMBER - Tinariwen 
MARY -
ZACH - Tinariwen 
DREW - Devo reissue

TINARIWEN - Hoggar CD/LP (Wedge)  
Tinariwen evolve once again on their brand new album, connecting with a younger generation of Tuareg musicians to produce a vibrant album of undulating grooves rooted in their nomadic community. Also featuring guest appearances from José González & Sulafa Elyas. Fierce advocates for their people's nomadic culture that exists in the desert borderlands between Mali and Algeria, Tinariwen's bluesy, guitar-driven music has found global acclaim over the past two decades for it's lively blend of Tamasheq-language politicism, syncopated rhythms and soaring melody. While previous records like 2023's Amatssou saw the group collaborate with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson producer Daniel Lanois, on Hoggar the band look closer to home, and stake their claim as elders of this Tuareg musical tradition. Going back to their early years of songwriting with acoustic guitars and communal singing around the desert campfire, while also passing the torch onto a younger generation of featured musicians who can continue to keep the flame of rebellion and defiance alive.

JOHNSON, JOHL, & STEWART - Body Sound CD/LP (International Anthem)  
Whitney Johnson, Lia Kohl, and Macie Stewart are a trio of improvisers individually rooted in deep sound exploration, multi-disciplinary composition, and all manner of cross-genre collaboration. The musical ground covered by their solo practices is correspondingly expansive, and their individual recording and performance credits read as a veritable who's who, ranging from DIY darlings to household names of experimental avant-garde, electronic, indie rock, and more.Their collective sound is based in improvised performance-automatic, intuitive composition via their three voices and three string instruments: viola, cello, and violin, respectively. Influences here are vast, dispatched with more playful ease than a trio of string instruments is typically approached with, and just as likely to be found in the cloud-obscured mountains of Donegal, the low-rent cacophony of a midwestern basement, or the revelatory expanse of the Nurse With Wound list as in the storied halls of the academy. As a recording unit, the trio hones and transforms their performance concept with careful post-production, using multiple tape machines and outboard effects to reimagine their improvised material into meticulously crafted compositions. It's all a response to the spaces they are collectively engaged with, and the use of a highly physical medium like analog tape deepens that spatial engagement with striking, organically psychedelic results.

AVALON EMERSON & THE CHARM - Written Into Changes LP (Dead Oceans)
Change, they say, is the only constant in life. Fittingly, multi-hyphenate musician Avalon Emerson sounds at home harnessing the steady flux of her existence on Written into Changes, the memoiristic second album released under her Avalon Emerson & the Charm moniker. Written into Changes is an album about not just accepting change, but embracing it with a full wingspan. Progression is a theme both on record and behind the scenes, so that written into changes describes a conscious approach to expression and life itself.

EL MICHELS AFFAIR - 24 Hr Sports (Instrumental) LP (Big Crown)  
El Michels Affair's 2025 instant classic 24 Hr Sports. The roster of vocal features on 24 Hr Sports is amazing, Clairo, Norah Jones, Florence Adooni, Shintaro Sakamoto, two different choirs, and even some singing from the man himself, Leon Michels. The background vocals contributions are amazing; Lady Wray and Kevin Martin from Brainstory to name a few. But alas, there's a new energy that shows up in the listen when you pair it down to the impeccable musicianship and Leon's tried and true Midas Touch production. Leon plays a ton of instruments across the album and is joined by the regular cast of heavy hitters; Homer Steinweiss, Nick Movshon, Dave Guy, Marco Benevento, Hether, and more. There is even a saxophone solo by the late, great Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Some would argue this is some of the best music being made by some of the best musicians of our time. We wouldn't argue with anyone... we let the music do what it does.

GREEN-HOUSE - Hinterlands LP (Ghostly Int'l) 
As Green-House, musicians Olive Ardizoni and Michael Flanagan engage human nature and the natural world through joyous, dynamic synthesis. Overlaying frequencies and expressions like camouflage, their deeply layered collaborative process begins with either artist; Ardizoni is often drawn to melody, Flanagan to harmonics. The power lies in how their ideas helix together, achieving a depth greater than the sum of it's parts. For their first LP with new label home, Ghostly International, Green-House grows and refines their vivid instrumental songcraft with uncharted, genre-defying freedom and movement, a more active, percussive, and emotion-filled energy, marked by flowing bodies of sound and sweeping vistas.

LADYTRON - Paradises CD/LP (Nettwerk)  
The iconic and influential electronic pop group Ladytron returns with a new album Paradises - their first since 2023's critically acclaimed Time's Arrow. Spanning dance and indie movements since their formation in Liverpool at the end of the last millennium, Ladytron have earned a unique position by carving out new sonic and conceptual space, and refusing to abide by formula or trend. In the early 2000s, the fiercely individual group were placed at the forefront of the so-called electro-clash scene (which now enjoys another revival), but with time, they came to appreciate the pop cultural moment that they had reluctantly become part of. The new album follows a period of renewed cultural presence for the band.

MIZERY - Mizery LP (Flatspot Records)
San Diego's Mizery are a defiant powerhouse ready to shake things up with their crossover hardcore sound. Originally breaking out with 2014's Survive The Vibe EP followed by 2016 full-length Absolute Light, Mizery quickly grabbed attention with their groove-driven rhythms and dynamic live show. Formed as an idea by childhood friends Jose Luna (vocals) and Taylor Parker (lead guitar), things really came to fruition when the pair met drummer Cayle Sain and soon enlisted Miguel Mikey Salazar on bass and began creating as a four-piece.

ZACH BRYAN - With Heaven On Top CD/LP (Warner Records)  
With Heaven on Top is Zach Bryan's sixth studio album. The album was both written and produced by Bryan, containing a total of 25 songs. It is anticipated to be Bryan's final release with a major label.

LUKE COMBS - Way I Am LP (SME Nashville)  
Luke Combs is one of one - standing alone as a rare combination of everyman relatability and extraordinary artistry. Grounded, genuine, and effortlessly authentic, he is the kind of artist who feels familiar the moment you hear him, yet whose voice, vision, and achievements are unmistakably singular. At just 35, Combs has already rewritten the record books: 20 consecutive #1 singles, the first country artist to headline and sell out multiple nights at Wembley Stadium (let alone three consecutive ones), the first country artist to headline both Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza, and the first to achieve two songs surpassing a billion streams on Spotify with four singles certified RIAA Diamond. Even amid such milestones, Combs retains a rare talent for making the familiar feel fresh-delivering songs that resonate with surprising clarity and emotional honesty.

BTS - Arirang CD (HYBE)  
Global pop superstars BTS release their highly anticipated 5th album, ARIRANG - the first group release in three years and nine months. The album indicates the direction the group will take going forward, with each member deeply involved in the creative process.

EDDIE PALMIERI - Vamonos Pa'l Monte LP (Craft Recordings) Eddie Palmieri's 1971 masterpiece Vamonos Pa'l Monte returns, featuring (AAA) lacquers cut from the original master tapes and pressed on 180-gm vinyl. A landmark in salsa and Latin jazz, it's impressive line-up includes Charlie Palmieri, Nicky Marrero, Ronnie Cuber, Alfredo Chocolate Armenteros and other legends. Fusing Afro-Cuban rhythms with jazz, it delivers the political punch of Revolt/La Libertad Logico the joy of Comparsa de los locos, the timeless hit Vamonos Pa'l Monte and more.

DEKU TRIO - Zelda & Jazz III LP (Gamechops)  
Zelda & Jazz 3 features 15 new casual jazz arrangements for piano, upright bass, and drums. The Deku Trio - created by GameChops founder Chris Davidson and Chillhop's Rob Araujo - is an animated band dedicated to thoughtful, hand-crafted jazz interpretations of music from The Legend of Zelda.

ELORI SAXL & HENRY SOLOMON - Seeing Is Forgetting LP (True Panther) 
Long-running collaborators Elori Saxl & Henry Solomon present their new duo. Both are key players in an emerging US underground of experimental composers who are redefining the modern vanguard. While Solomon is rooted in LA's fertile jazz underground, Saxl is a proponent of NYC, taking up the torch of minimalism and fusing it with an electronic sensibility informed by soundsystem culture and modern pop production. Their debut album as a duo, Seeing Is Forgetting, is a work of stunning fluidity and intimate interplay. Across it's nine tracks, Solomon's baritone sax and bass clarinet weave tendrils around Saxl's heartwrenching Juno 106 harmonies. While Solomon has been an active contributor to Saxl's work over the last half-decade, playing in her quartet live and accompanying her on the Texada soundtrack and Drifts and Surfaces EP, Seeing Is Forgetting marks their first collaboration as equal partners. Recorded over just a few nights in Los Angeles, the album is a testament to their near-telepathic intuition. Each moment breathes with unhurried elegance and an emotional depth that stops you in your tracks. Two pop obsessives (Solomon frequently plays with Miley Cyrus, Haim, Paramore, Vampire Weekend, and more), they bring a refracted interpretation of that shared love to Seeing, bridging the worlds of experimental improv and top 40 with surprising clarity.

TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND - Future Soul LP (Fantasy)  
With Future Soul, Tedeschi Trucks Band push their sound forward while staying firmly rooted in the soul, blues, and rock that define them. Produced by the genre-fluid Mike Elizondo (21 Pilots, Turnstile), the album finds the 12-piece ensemble leaning into deeper grooves, bolder dynamics, and richer textures. The title track charges ahead with a muscular riff and blistering vocals, while ‘I Got You’ confirms it's status as a live-born fan favorite. ‘Crazy Cryin’' blends gospel-tinged emotion with blues grit, and 'Who Am I’ offers a reflective turn, balancing Susan Tedeschi's soulful voice with Derek Trucks' lyrical guitar. Lyrically focused on identity, resilience, and hope, Future Soul feels both renewed and resolute - a confident evolution from one of America's most powerful bands.

DEVO - Q: Are We Not Men? A. We Are Devo! LP [Reissue/1978] (Rhino)  
AAA Cut From The Original Stereo Master Tapes By Kevin Gray. Pressed On 180-Gram Heavyweight Vinyl At Optimal Heavyweight Glossy Gatefold Jacket Features An Exclusive Insert With Liner Notes By Gerald Casale

MEDESKI MARTIN & WOOD - Tonic LP [Reissue/1999] (Blue Note)  
Double 180gm vinyl LP pressing. The avant-jazz-funk trio Medeski, Martin & Wood - John Medeski on keys, Billy Martin on drums, and Chris Wood on bass - returned to their acoustic roots on the freewheeling 1999 live album Tonic recorded at the intimate Lower East Side NYC venue. The set featured the trio's own adventurous originals alongside covers of songs by Lee Morgan, Bud Powell, John Coltrane, and Jimi Hendrix. This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition was mastered by Kevin Gray and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

SPAGHETTI CUMBIA - El Ritmo De La Vida Vinyl LP  (Spaghetti Cumbia The first full vinyl press by Spaghetti Cumbia - Born from the streets of Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles and formed in 2016, Spaghetti Cumbia melds traditional cumbia rhythms, rock, punk, and Western movie soundtrack influences into a signature sound all its own.

CYSTS - Turn It Up or Throw It Away LP (Gilgongo)
Portland circa late 2000’s: The Cysts churn out a couple of scathing 7”s and cassettes, manage to tour the west coast twice through a series of living rooms, storage units and the occasional venue and successfully controlled the chaos long enough to record a proper LP, but as happens all too often in punk, it ended up not making it to the press in that moment. Highly RIYL: Born Against or Hail Mary, and featuring members from other Portland staples such as Lithics and Alarmist (and a slew of solo noise discographies), ‘Turn It Up Or Throw It Away / S.I.S.T.S’ is indeed short, fast & loud, as put by Matt Korvette (Yellow Green Red), “An art-damaged, but also just damage-damaged, hardcore band rescued from the sands of time”. Edition of 100 copies, housed in foldover screen-printed covers. Co-released with Vile Bile.

COMING NEXT WEEK
ROBYN - Sexistential CD/LP
SNAIL MAIL - Ricochet CD/LP
COURTNEY BARNETT - Creature Of Habit CD/LP
THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS - Former Site Of CD/LP
TWILIGHT SAD - It’s The Long Goodbye CD/LP
MELANIE MARTINEZ - Hades CD/LP
IRREVERSIBLE ENTANGLEMENTS - Future Present Past CD/LP
KING TUFF - Moo CD/LP
JOSE GONZALES - Against The Dying Of The Light CD/LP
PARLOR GREENS - Emeralds CD/LP
WOLF PARADE - Apologies To Queen Mary LP Reissue
TIGERS JAW - Lost On You CD/LP
DALEK - Brilliance Of A Falling Moon LP
DON CABALLERO - American Don LP Reissue
KEKHT ARAKH - Morning Star CD/LP
ADULT. - Kissing Luck Goodbye CD/LP
FCUKERS - Ö CD/LP
FREE THROW - Moments Before The Wind LP