Music Releases 11-03-23
“I’m still learning how to experience joy, how to be free, how to be comfortable in my own skin,” says Jaime Wyatt. “A lot of us grow up feeling like we have to hide who we are just to be accepted, but that comes from a place of fear and judgment. I wrote these songs as a way of letting go of all that, as permission to feel good.”
Feel Good, Wyatt’s extraordinary new album, is more than just a permission slip, though: it’s an invitation. Recorded with Black Pumas’ Adrian Quesada, the record is bold and ecstatic, built on tight, intoxicating grooves that belie the songs’ substantial emotional stakes. Wyatt’s writing is raw and intuitive here, tapping into the deep recesses of her subconscious as she reckons with grief and growth, and her delivery is visceral to match, cutting straight to the bone with equal parts sensitivity and swagger. Taken as a whole, the collection stands as a radical act of creative liberation from an artist already known for pushing limits, a genre-defying work of healing and self-love that tips its cap to everything from Al Green and Otis Redding to Waylon Jennings and Bobbie Gentry in its relentless pursuit of peace and pleasure.
Celebrating the 15 Year Anniversary of The New Kids On The Block’s "The Block" with The Block Revisited, the original Boy Band collaborates with K-POP’s newest superstars to bring the Pop Event of 2023! “Dirty Dancing (Dem Jointz Remix)” unites the legendary pop icons together with JOSHUA, DK & DINO of SEVENTEEN with a fire remix by Grammy Award Winning Producer Dem Jointz.
Catch A Fire, the fifth studio album by Bob Marley & The Wailers, was included in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time. This 50th Anniversary Edition includes the studio album (LP1), Live at the Paris Theatre in London – previously only ever bootlegged (LP2), a bonus disc of alternate, extended and instrumental Jamaican tracks (LP3), plus a 12” single featuring 3 live tracks from the Sundown Theatre in Edmonton, with an etched image on the reverse side.
LOVE + POP is a snapshot of a moment in not-so-far-away time; something fast, loud, moody and a little dangerous. It is, in some ways, classic Current Joys: full of wild ambition, sneaky hooky, and songs that move from concept to completion with a prolific speed. But LOVE + POP also explodes myriad expectations with aggressive, deconstructed production, house music influence, and a guest appearance from Lil Yachty.
Johnny Marr
Spirit Power: The Best of Johnny Marr [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Gold 2LP]
Vinyl: $35.98 Buy
Personally curated by Johnny Marr, Spirit Power encompasses songs from across four widely acclaimed UK top ten solo albums 2013’s The Messenger, 2014’s Playland, 2018’s Call The Comet, 2022 double album Fever Dreams Pts 1-4), non-album single releases ‘Armatopia’, ‘The Priest’ (w/ Maxine Peake), two brand new songs, plus a cover version of Depeche Mode’s‘ I Feel You’, released for Record Store Day 2015 and revealing the degree to which Marr has found his métier as a vocalist of singular expressive power.
Singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett regaled audiences for over five decades with songs about the faces and places from his lifelong journey along the road less traveled. His upcoming album Equal Strain On All Parts is a new chapter in that story as a playful and heartfelt gift to his dedicated fans. Inspired by his grandfather’s description of a good nap, the new album features some well-known friends, including Paul McCartney, Emmylou Harris, Angelique Kidjo, and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.
“I know where Dan Treacy Lives”
And so do you if you live in Baltimore
You may try to look them up neé Barrett, neé Clark
But just ask the Postman, they reside under the name
The Smashing Times.
Known poets about town, Filthy mother nature’s sons,
Called out for Tea Cozies and old wrinkled clothes,
But put on ‘oh so well’- with Jangle and Verve
“the night belongs to poets and madmen “
Drinking cups of hot tea after a dance alone in the rain
A Tom Courtney Movie plays in the background.
Oh so surreal.
Cold War Kids have announced their 10th studio album, Cold War Kids, which will arrive on November 3 via AWAL. The band’s singer and songwriter Nathan Willett describes: " This is our self-titled record. Everybody gets one. This felt like the right time because the sound of this record is the sound that makes Cold War kids unlike any other. I’m so proud of these songs. They took a long time to come together. The longing and struggle and joy I wanted to express are personal to me and I am so excited to share it with our fans who have come with us on the journey.”
The epic tale of Cold War Kids has long been informed by deeply personal songcraft, enthusiastic experimentation, and an avowed commitment towards forward motion. The band continues their ascent, becoming one of the biggest rock bands of their generation amassing more than half a billion streams, consistently churning out alternative radio hits, selling out tours and headlining festivals worldwide.
The band just wrapped a North American tour supporting Tears For Fears and will be going on their own headline tour at the top of 2024 with dates to follow.
Austrian crossover legends KONTRUST are finally back after nine long years with a highly awaited new studio album, entitled madworld. The massively energetic full-length will be released on November 3, 2023 via Napalm Records. On the successor to the unit’s previous masterpiece, Explositive (2014), KONTRUST also introduce their new vocalist Julia Ivanova and drummer Joey Sebald for the first time on record. In 2022, both already presented their eruptive live potential on the main stages of some of the biggest European festivals – like the Graspop Metal Meeting, Hellfest Open Air, Barcelona Rockfest or Resurrection Fest. In addition, vocalist Julia is already known for her frenetically celebrated performance at the Ukrainian TV show “X-Factor” and is now presenting her matchless talent on the new 11-track offering. On madworld, the chart-storming unit sticks to their lively, playful and experimental signature style, ready to entertain old and new audiences alike. Rousing album opener “i physically like you” kicks the riot right off, followed by extremely danceable “madhouse” and “rock to outer space”, which feature heavy riffs and party pop vocals. The latter showcases that, despite the overall positive attitude and party mentality, KONTRUST don’t shy away from focusing on serious themes, like escaping the devastation of earth to possibly aim for a new beginning. That feeling goes on with the standout track “the end”, slowing it down halfway through madworld, while still providing massive rhythms and a sing-along chorus. With heavy and catchy “lederhosen overkill” the Austrians tap into their well-known stage attire. Electronic influences on closing track “i can’t control it” absorb the listener before the album fades out. Without a shadow of a doubt, KONTRUST are one of the most extravagant and exciting acts on the scene and have enthralled fans and critics alike with an inimitable sense of fusing various genres like reggae, pop and dance with heavy hard rock riffs, spliced with their very own way of representing the roots of their home country. This synthesis of styles has brought them not only notable chart entries for several releases, but also high recognition in the form of the “Austrian Newcomer Award” for their debut album, as well as the “AMADEUS Austrian Music Award” - Austria’s biggest and most important prize for national bands and artists – for their second album “Time To Tango”. Throughout their career spanning more than two decades, the Austrian based outfit has gained millions and millions of views on their exciting music videos on YouTube, with over 15 million video views on the electrifying hits “Hey DJ!” and “Bomba” alone. With their new album, madworld, KONTRUST prove their standing as an unpredictable force in the scene – always hungry, wild and full of surprises, and ready to exceed everything they have achieved so far!
The Struts erupted onto the music scene with their behemoth anthem, “Could’ve Been Me,” introducing the world to their timeless rock sound. With their acclaimed debut Everybody Wants, the British rockers cemented their reputation as a must-see act bringing their energetic tracks alive on stage with larger-than-life performances. Their new album,Pretty Vicious, embodies that raw, raucous nature of their live shows, fusing their arena-size energy into their most honest and exciting songs to date.
Sum 41 celebrates 23 years with All The Good Sh** now available on vinyl for the first time! Originally released in 2009, this greatest hits compilation focuses on 14 hit singles from each of the band’s studio albums from 2001-2008.
Time Fades Away was the first live album released by Neil Young. He is backed on the album by The Stray Gators, the band who played on Harvest, and including the superb musicians Ben Keith, Jack Nitzsche, and Tim Drummond. David Crosby and Graham Nash are special guest musicians. The album followed the release of Young’s hugely successful album Harvest, and when it was released in 1973 it featured all previously unreleased songs. To commemorate the 50thanniversary of this album the track “The Last Trip To Tulsa” (originally released as a B-side to the 1973 single of “Time Fades Away”) has been added to the album. This limited-edition LP is pressed on clear vinyl.
Featuring remastered audio, taken from the ‘Chasing The Sun’ reissues - available for the first time as one collection - ‘The Masterplan’ is an extraordinary collection of B-sides originally featured on singles from Oasis’ era-defining first three albums, ‘Definitely Maybe’ (1994), ‘(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?’ (1995), and ‘Be Here Now’ (1997). Far from being inferior to the singles they backed, many of the 14 tracks that feature on ‘The Masterplan’ have become as cherished as the band’s biggest singles from that seminal period. The album includes tracks ‘Acquiesce’, ‘Half The World Away’, ‘Talk Tonight’, Oasis’ iconic live cover of The Beatles’ ‘I Am The Walrus’ and the epic title track. Noel has often described ‘The Masterplan’ as one of the best songs he has ever written. Formats include CD, Heavyweight Black LP and limited-edition Silver LP, to celebrate 25 years. ‘The Masterplan’ charted at No.2 in the UK Official Album Chart UK selling over 122,000 copies in its first week. It went on to be certified triple platinum and has sold over three million copies worldwide.
Roe Kapara
I Hope Hell Isn't Real [Ultra Clear w/ Orange Opaque and Green Heavy Splatter LP]
Vinyl: $26.98 Buy
Roe Kapara‘s debut vinyl release on Epitaph Record brings the songs from his wildly successful 2023 digital release, i hope hell isn’t real ep, together with his catalog of singles from 2021- 2022.
“Nobody was born cool” proclaims Roe Kapara. “Where’s the fun in that?” After relocating from Nashville to Los Angeles just before the pan- demic, the St. Louis-born singer/songwriter did what any reasonable 20-something would: find solace online and build a community. Soon, his burgeoning digital fanbase hit six digits, enthralled by his endearingly unpretentious personality but also by his irresistible music, a modern swirl of indie, psych, dream pop, and alternative.
Dwelling on the death of his own past is a common theme through Kapara’s music, throughout a catalog of DIY singles like “Everyone’s Dying” and “Past Grow” that helped boost his streaming listeners into the 2 Millions and TikTok audience over 350,000 (with 5.8 Million likes.) But just as he’s willing to expose vulnerable parts of himself in his songs, he’s quick to shine the mirror outward to address the creeping dread of modern life: consumerism, corporate greed, climate change, the general feelings of the younger generation in 21st-century America.
Combining these two sides of his musical personality – deeply relatable yet unafraid to stand up and ask life’s big questions – into pop songs makes for a musical journey that’s a little off-kilter, sure, but all the better and more interesting in the end.
For his first album as an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist, 2021 International Chopin Competition winner Bruce Liu has compiled an enthralling survey of 200 years of French keyboard music, from Baroque to modern. The phenomenal young Canadian pianist has subtly adjusted the action of his instrument to highlight the differing musical styles. The album’s title WAVES alludes not only to the nature theme that runs throughout the program, but also to the sheer spontaneity of Liu’s music-making.
Recorded in August 2003 at the Pageant in St. Louis, Missouri, Little Feat perform a career-spanning set including a couple from their (at the time) soon-to-be-released album, Kickin’ It At The Barn. The band is comprised of Paul Barrere (guitars, vocals), Sam Clayton (percussion, vocals), Kenny Gradney (bass), Richie Hayward (drums, vocals), Bill Payne (keyboards, vocals), Fred Tackett (guitar, trumpet) and Shaun Murphy (vocals, percussion). 2 CD/Blu-ray.
Big Big Love is the first single from the eponymous album that is a mantra for embracing humanity with kindness. The single will be released in conjunction with the Michael Franti & Spearhead tour date celebrating a return to Red Rocks on June 2. Franti announced the US Big Big Love tour on January 31 which launched May 13 and runs through August 20.
Michael Franti is a globally recognized musician, humanitarian, activist, and award-winning filmmaker revered for his high-energy live shows, inspiring music, devotion to health and wellness, worldwide philanthropic efforts and the power of optimism. Throughout his multi-decade career, Franti has earned three Billboard No. 1's with triumphantly hopeful hits "Sound of Sunshine," "Say Hey (I Love You)," and "I Got You," as well as sic Top 30 Hot AC singles, 10 Top 25 AAA singles and three Billboard Top 5 Rock Albums.
Michael Franti & Spearhead continue to foster their community both on and off stage with a wish granting non-profit, Do It For The Love, founded by Franti and his wife, Sara. Do It For The Love brings those with life threatening illnesses, veterans, and children with severe challenges to concerts worldwide, fulfilling over 3,300 wishes and touching the lives of over 12,000 people to date. Franti also owns SOULSHINE Bali, a 32-room top-rated boutique retreat hotel located in Ubud, Bali.
Born out of reverence for their favorite bands and the need for an outlet to express personal influence, A Country Western out of Philadelphia finds themselves in the knotty crossroads of slowcore and shoegaze. As the group puts finishing touches on new music, they have brought their self-titled album AND debut EP Phenom (B Side) to vinyl format for the first time ever! This release encapsulates the earliest era of the band through home recordings with digital transposition and sample chopping.
It’s been a decade since we last heard from Marnie Stern, but when her guitar bursts in like a shower of stardust on The Comeback Kid, the follow-up to 2013’s The Chronicles of Marnia, it’s like no time has passed. But this is no nostalgia trip. The Comeback Kid is a statement of intent. “I can’t keep on moving backwards,” Stern repeats on anthemic opening track “Plain Speak,” her fingers furiously tapping the fretboard as the song joyfully zips forward like a rocket hitting warp speed. Stern continually pushes herself outside of her comfort zone throughout The Comeback Kid, including not leaning on the tapping technique that launched a thousand Eddie Van Halen comparisons. “Til It’s Over” is as straight-ahead an “alternative rock” song as Stern has ever made and there’s a cover of Ennio Morricone’s “Il Girotondo Della Note.” “It was so great to be able to start being myself again and when I would think, ‘Oh, is that too, too weird?’ I'd remember I'm allowed to do whatever I want! This is mine. It's me,” says Stern of writing songs for The Comeback Kid. “I'm trying to go against the grain of this bullshit that when you get older, you lose your sense of taste. I want to empower people to not be so homogenous and go against the grain a little bit."
Before These Crowded Streets is the third studio album by Grammy award-winning rock band, Dave Matthews Band. Originally released in spring of 1998, the album received both critical and commercial success. Dethroning the Titanic soundtrack, which sat atop the Billboard 200 for 16 consecutive weeks, Before These Crowded Streets was certified triple-platinum and began the band’s impressive streak of six No. 1 albums in a row. The LA Times said: On this album, the band places an even higher premium on musical proficiency. Songs such as “Rapunzel” and “The Stone” are built around vertiginous polyrhythms and serpentine riffs that dart around Matthew’s clenched vocals, yet always manage to lock into an enjoyable groove.
The band continues to play a majority of the songs from this album in their nightly sets while on tour as it’s been a favorite among fans for over two decades. The 25th anniversary edition comes as a standard black 2LP vinyl with an exclusive new booklet featuring rare photos. Lacquers cut by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering.
Superstar-in-the-making Zoe Wees returns with her biggest news yet as she reveals her debut album, Therapy, out November 3, 2023 via Capitol Records. With over 3 billion career streams, the new record will feature the singles “Control,” “Girls Like Us,” “That’s How It Goes (feat. 6LACK),” “Daddy’s Eyes,” and “Lightning.”
The Neighbourhood presents their compilation album, Hard to Imagine the Neighbourhood Ever Changing. For the first time on vinyl this triple LP brings together tracks from their self-titled album as well as from the EPs ‘HARD’, ‘To Imagine’, and ‘Ever Changing’. The set is pressed on 180g vinyl and plays at 45 RPM for pristine sound quality. ‘Hard to Imagine…’ features fan favorites such as ‘Softcore’, ‘You Get Me So High’, and ‘Reflections’.
Will Anderson believes in true love—as both concept and catalyst, aspiration and inspiration. During his 34 years, the Hotline TNT founder and architect has found such love perhaps half-a-dozen times. Each instance has prompted some enormous swing of commitment, like a cross-country move or simply being honest about his budding attraction. It is a hopeful and vulnerable way to exist, a way to ensure maximum bruising during the fall of the breakup. And so far for Anderson, that is how it has always ended, whether the air has slowly seeped out of some once-full balloon or whether it has simply popped, those expanded feelings expelled in an instant. This tension is the brain, blood, and beating heart of Cartwheel, Hotline TNT’s second LP and an endlessly romantic testament to reaching for something that slips forever out of grasp. The byproduct of Anderson’s decades-long quest to pin down the surging sound long in his head, Hotline TNT has come to notice in the last four years through loose association with a feverish surge of shoegaze revivalism. And Hotline TNT indeed trucks in the touchstones you might expect: skywriting guitars that bathe in fluorescent hazes of distortion, blown-out drums that pound as though they’re trying to escape a concrete box, and honeyed vocals that try to rise above the chaotic mess in true-to-life mimesis.
The band's biggest strength is musically how they keep you on your toes. In The Pines continues to evolve with every record showcasing the depth in talent that this band has. Introducing “Painting By Numbers,” where In The Pines plug in their guitars and showcase their psychedelic prowess across these expansive Ten tracks. The amount of sound that In The Pines creates deep in these grooves are layered, hazy, and thick. With the guitar tone, reverb, and deep nuance in production this LP is great for a deep listen. Get this record on your turntable, and dig into Painting By Numbers.
Painting By Numbers, In The Pines’ upcoming release, was recorded at Futureappletree Studio Too by engineer Patrick Stolley. Produced by In The Pines, the group features Michael Shular (Guitar/Vocals), Charlie Horn (Guitar/Vocals), Alex Dungan (Drums/Vocals) and Patrick Zopff (Bass/Vocals). Recorded in two sessions throughout July 2021 and March 2022, this album is the first to feature the group's most recent member Peter Foley on synthesizers, and guest vocalist Eva Patterson on opening track “Threshold.” Mixed by Dalton Allison (Post Animal) and Patrick Stolley (Futureappletree Studio Too), PBN twists the group’s signature psychedelic sound into an atmosphere of fuzzy, distorted shoegaze. This album meticulously layers saccharine, philosophical vocals with heady guitar tones, steadfast yet varied bass lines, and powerful drums that frequently build into a shimmering wash of synthesizers.
Lyrically, each song on Painting By Numbers is searching and introspective, at times evoking religious imagery and frequently expressing a restless but determined sense of motion. For example, the song “Let It Slide” culminates the band repeating “I just can't seem to let it be” before a rush of instrumentals closes the song, and the album is replete with motifs of wheels, breezes, and doors discussed over thrumming, repetitive drum and bass lines. However, as choreographer Pina Bausch once said, “Repetition is not repetition…The same action makes you feel something completely different by the end.” This album is an incredible example of that effect, and each moment of repetition on Painting By Numbers is followed by a break in pattern that acts as a release of tension and masterfully articulates a fresh change in the album’s direction.
In “Liquid Cure,” they croon of a lover being “lost in the grand design.” Such a statement is reminiscent of the experience of listening to this album, an ecstatic blur of shoegaze-y melodies which break down to reveal songs that are structural, detailed, and complex—a work of art painted by numbers. The result is an album that is spiritual, intoxicating, reflective, catchy, and surely In The Pines’ most nuanced work to date.
Hailu Mergia
Pioneer Works Swing (Live) [Deluxe Edition Green / Red / Yellow Vinyl LP+7in]
It’s been a little over ten years since Hailu Mergia re-emerged on the international music scene. Following the first in a series of his classic recordings reissued in collaboration with Awesome Tapes From Africa, Mergia assembled a band and began performing live again after many years driving a cab in Washington, DC. His first show back appeared on the front page of the New York Times along with a stellar review and he took off from there performing his flavor of Ethiopian jazz all over the world in the years since, including Radio City Music Hall and Montreal Jazz Festival.
Finally, we have a recorded document of the keyboard player’s powerful DC-based trio—which practices each weekend in his basement—featuring Kenneth Joseph on drums and Alemseged Kebede on bass. Beautifully captured at one of their fiery live shows at the venerable Brooklyn non-profit cultural center Pioneer Works on July 1, 2016, the concert was recorded by PW staff and mixed by Ted Young with mastering by ATFA’s expert audio extraction collaborator Jessica Thompson. The performance clarifies what many people across the globe already know: in his fifth decade of music-making Hailu Mergia continues to push the boundaries of his remarkable abilities.
Mergia and his veteran band energetically and playfully unpeel layer after layer of harmonic and rhythmic interest out of a spectrum of Ethiopian repertoire. Modern jazz demands constant reinvention and improvisation, night after night creating new works out of known modes and classic standards. This band is unstoppable when it comes to turning age-old melodies (like “Tizita” or “Anchihoye Lene”) upside down and inside out until they emerge as molten new works, often spontaneously. Mergia’s original compositions (like “Yegle Nesh”) shine brighter than ever here as well. Moving from keyboard to organ to accordion to melodica, he deftly switches instruments—often during the same song. Mergia at 77 years old seems to be working harder than musicians half his age.
"Pioneer Works Swing (Live)" brings into focus the kind of onstage group improvisation and deadly solo passages that reach for places Mergia and the band have never gone, on festival and club stages across four continents.
Now that Mergia has released two new recordings along with four classic reissues, he is eager to let everyone hear what he’s been doing on the road since he re-took the global stage for his victory laps. So much more than an old act from yesteryear, Mergia balances his legendary Ethiopian recordings with good old-fashioned sweat-soaked live concert triumphs such as the one we have here.
There was one irrepressible Chicago club act that refused to be replaced by any DJ’s sound system. Maxx Traxx (and Third Rail before them) were a scene unto themselves in the early 80s, happening live on-stage five-plus nights a week somewhere in the 312. Their two LPs, both recorded in 1982, are like catching a bullet train, a sheer energy ride almost too explosive to be captured by studio tape. And yet these two stone classics would remain unanswered by a city as it moved determinedly toward the motorik sound of house. Hop the turnstile and move with this complete document of Chicago’s last great club band told in detailed text, newly revealed photos, and complete studio recordings painstakingly remastered.
William Eggleston is a famed photographer and musician credited for iconic album covers such as Spoon’s Transference and Jimmy Eat World’s Bleed American. 512 was inspired and recorded at the Parkview Apartments in Memphis, Tennessee where Eggleston lived for almost ten years.
The apartment was full of art and inspiration: cameras, naturally, but also high-end stereo tube amplifiers and objects that you’d rush towards money in hand at your local flea market. But also a gigantic nine foot Bosendorfer grand piano and a massive grand vintage JBL theater speaker console. His home was overwhelmed by music.
By recording there the album captures not just his performances, but also the vibe of the place; it often felt as though there were artists lurking in the aether listening along. His visitors over the years were no small change: Lee Friedlander, Carl Sagan, Dennis Hopper, Paul McCartney and many others came to see him and listen to his hypnotic “Musik”. You can hear local traffic, a dog barking, weather; reality, in other words. But there was another space layered on top, a kind of surreality echoing his music, as you can imagine a gathering of musicians listening in, eager to join him. Thus came along 512 which features the legendary Brian Eno on bells and production from Leo Abrahams (Regina Spektor, Paul Simon, Jon Hopkins).”