News
New Release Round-Up 09-18-20
Neil Young - The Times - Warner Records
The Times is a moving and topical solo acoustic performance, a unique collection of songs, filmed at home during lockdown as part of the raw and personal, Fireside Sessions series.
Run The Jewels - RTJ4 - BMG Rights Management
This eleven song, 40 minute powerhouse is their most ferocious and focused effort to date, and sports a lineup of all-star guests including Pharrell Williams, Mavis Staples, 2 Chainz, Zack de la Rocha, Josh Homme, DJ Premier, and Greg Nice. Recorded primarily at Rick Rubin's Shangri-La Studios and the iconic Electric Lady Studios in NYC, RTJ4 represents two years of intensive writing, recording, distilling, and amplifying the most potent elements of their music. The result is a collection of wall-to-wall bangers illuminating the group's unique ability to straddle the worlds of pointed social commentary and raw, boisterous fun.
Keith Urban releases his brand new studio album THE SPEED OF NOW Part 1. The album includes his hit single “God Whispered Your Name” as well as the #2 smash hit “We Were”. Keith won the CMA Entertainer Of The Year in 2018 and he is currently the 2019 ACM Entertainer Of The Year. Keith will be hosting the ACM Awards on Wednesday-September 16th while will air on ABC-TV. “In October 2019 this album title came to me. I liked it because I felt like life was flying by so fast. But music (for me) has always been the place where it slows down and doesn’t even exist. I would never have imagined that, in 2020, this album title would take on a whole new meaning.” - Keith
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50 years after the original made him a global superstar Yusuf / Cat Stevens has rerecorded an entirely new version of his 1970 classic album Tea For The Tillerman. With many of the album’s songs sounding more relevant than ever today, Tea For The Tillerman 2 offers up striking and sensitive new renditions of stone-cold classics like “Father And Son,” “Wild World,” and “Where Do The Children Play?”
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A follow up to 2009's GRAMMY Winning Family Time - Ziggy Marley has bottled the energy of his children and put it into music form! This is a very special piece and have a number of friends guesting on this album, including: Stephen Marley, Sheryl Crow, Ben Harper, Angelique Kidjo, Alanis Morissette, Tom Morello, Lisa Loeb, Busta Rhymes and Jamie Lee Curtis (reading her new book Today I Feel Silly). A portion of proceeds will benefit Ziggy's 501(c)3 URGE - which supports the education, social development and overall well being of the Chepstow Primary School and the One Love Youth Camp, both in Jamaica.
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After the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1968, racial tensions across the country rose. Palo Alto, a largely white college town in Cali, wasn't immune. Danny Scher, a junior at the high school, had a dream to have Thelonious Monk perform and help bring about racial unity the community while raising funds for the International Committee. After many twists and turns, the triumphantly successful concert eventually happened. Now available on CD; Softpak w/ booklet & foldable poster.
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Between You And Me is the fourth album by the indie trio San Cisco, from Fremantle in Western Australia, town of sun-baked sandstone and sea breezes. It's an album two years and at least one sadly remembered love affair in the making. Between You and Me finds the childhood friends' open-hearted/ good times chemistry distilled to it's essence. Nearly 10 years since those first EPs, ARIA nominations and early US and UK inroads, San Cisco have made their most painstaking album sound effortless.
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Acclaimed singer/songwriter Joan Osborne is back with Trouble And Strife (Womanly Hips Records), her first album of original material in six years. Osborne self-produced the new collection and penned all ten songs, with two co-writes. Trouble and Strife finds the gifted vocalist offering a strong yet uplifting response to some of the socio-political issues plaguing our nation over the last several years. Osborne beautifully balances the weight of her messages with solace and optimism. Throughout her 25-year, multi-Grammy nominated career, Joan Osborne has never been an artist confined to one space. She has utilized her incredible voice through her own songs while also becoming one of her generation’s finest interpreters. Osborne has shared the stage with artists ranging from Stevie Wonder and Mavis Staples to Bob Dylan and Lucinda Williams and she continues to seamlessly blend into any genre. On Trouble & Strife, her tenth studio album, the need for her voice and words has never been stronger.
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ALSO OUT THIS WEEK
Bright Light Bright Light - Fun City
Alicia Keys - Alicia
Charli XCX - how i'm feeling now
Anjimile - Giver Taker
Gus Dapperton - Orca
Butcher Brown - #KingButch
Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets - Live At The Roundhouse
Osees - Protean Threat
Semisonic - You're Not Alone EP
Cults - Host
Matt Berry - Phantom Birds
Ace Frehley - Origins, Vol. 2
David Bowie - Young Americans [Brick & Mortar Exclusive 2016 Remaster Gold LP]
Brad Mehldau - Suite: April 2020
Nick Cordero - Live Your Life - Live At Feinstein's / 54 Below
Ed Harcourt - Monochrome To Colour
Jealous of the Birds - Peninsula
Ava Max - Heaven & Hell
Lauren Alaina - Getting Over Him EP
Steam Down / Afronaut Zu / Yazmin Lacey - Blue Note Re:imagined - Etcetera / I'll Never Stop Loving You [Limited Edition Vinyl Single]
& More .....
UPCOMING RELEASES
Recorded at Henson Studios and Trainwreck Studios, Ohms is an other-worldly body of work meticulously crafted by the 5 piece band. It is a magnificent tour de force and their first album in 4 years since the critically acclaimed Gore LP in 2016. The band, which includes Chino Moreno, Frank Delgado, Stephen Carpenter, Abe Cunningham, and Sergio Vega, has produced a dense LP with every member firing on all cylinders. The album also boasts a familiar collaborator in veteran producer and engineer Terry Date, who worked on 1995’s Adrenaline, 1997’s Around the Fur and 2000’s White Pony. All of the above assembles and sets the stage to deliver Ohms; 10 tracks of raw escapism and unparalleled grooves that have made Deftones' sound singular for over two decades.
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The Buckleys, a three-piece band featuring siblings Sarah, Lachlan, and Molly, embody a brand of “hippie country” representing the infectious personality and spirited conscience that the band maintains. The debut album, Daydream, features the singles “Money,” “Leave Me Hanging On,” and the title track “Daydream” which scored a #1 single at Australian country radio, followed by “I’m Comin’ For Ya (Love),” which hit #3. Nominated for New Talent Of The Year Award at the 2020 Country Music Awards Australian.
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The album features 15 tracks highlighting the group’s energetically hopeful vibe, conveying the members’ collective message that we’re all “Super” and we can overcome any hardship together as “One”. The album, which will be released on Sep 25, includes 1 booklet, 1 CD-R booklet, 1 ID card, 1 ID card holder, 1 postcard, 1 folded poster, and 2 photo cards. This is an official release from SM Entertainment and Capitol Records.
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Diana Krall's new self-produced album, This Dream Of You, was mixed by Al Schmitt, who worked closely with her to achieve the notable intimacy and immediacy. Performances from 2016-2017 sessions, on which she collaborated with late friend/longtime creative partner Tommy LiPuma. A record for right now but also feels like a movie you might share with someone you know will stay with it until the final reel. As she says, "If But Beautiful is the overture, then `Singing In The Rain' is the end title.
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In this era of reckoning for American policing, increases of racism fostered by the most incompetent president in modern times, and a global pandemic that has affected all areas of life as we once knew it, voices of dissent in entertainment have become more relevant than ever. Enter Paris, arguably one of the most politically outspoken artists in hip-hop history, with his latest album, Safe Space Invader. Entirely self-produced and released on his own Guerrilla Funk Recordings imprint, Safe Space Invader is a brutal commentary on Black life in 2020 America, touching on the topics of police brutality, racism, gentrification, economic inequality and cancel culture, among others.
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One of the first bands to overtly combine death metal with atmospheric keyboards, Nocturnus' debut album introduced more technical and progressive elements into the traditional death metal formula without losing any of the brutality. The audio for this vinyl is taken from the original tapes in Full Dynamic Range, allowing the music's nuances to shine through and giving the album a more immersive and dynamic sound than ever before.
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For more information on these and other releases out this week, check out our New Releases charts by week section.
New Release Round-Up 09-11-20
American Head is the best and most consistent studio album from The Flaming Lips since the release of their most successful brace of albums The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots. Similar to those albums, the 13 songs on American Head are classically structured and features the same sonic and production qualities. Kacey Musgraves (a fan who covers “Do You Realize” in her live set) is featured on “God And The Policeman”.
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Marilyn Manson - WE ARE CHAOS - Loma Vista
As chaos envelopes the world, Marilyn Manson penned the perfect prescription. The aptly titled WE ARE CHAOS was written/produced by Manson & Shooter Jennings. Rock & roll icon and painter, Manson continues to infiltrate fashion, film, and music, leaving his fingerprints on modern culture. "Making this record, I had to think to myself: Tame your crazy, stitch your suit, try to pretend that you are not an animal. But I knew that mankind is the worst of them all.”
The whole story could’ve been written in the stars… Astrology tells us a “Saturn Return” happens when the planet Saturn revolves back to the same position it held upon our birth. It typically takes almost thirty years. However, in the case of Delta Spirit, it took a little less than fifteen. The enduring California rock quintet—Matthew Logan Vasquez [vocals], Kelly Winrich [multi-instrumentalist, vocals], Will McLaren [guitar], Jon Jameson [bass], and Brandon Young [drums]—realign on their fifth full-length and first album since 2014, What Is There. As much as it reflects their journey thus far, it also ushers them into new territory as both musicians and, most importantly, friends. In the end, Delta Spirit not only return, but move forward together on What Is There.
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Medium Rarities is the first rarities collection from Mastodon covering their entire career. The compilation features one brand new song – “Fallen Torches”. It also includes a bevy of classic covers, soundtrack contributions, instrumentals, B-sides, and live recordings on one complete package for the very first time. Among an eclectic array of covers, the musicians tackle “A Commotion” by Feist, “A Spoonful Weighs A Ton” by The Flaming Lips, “Atlanta” by Butthole Surfers, and “Orion” by Metallica. It also features soundtrack cuts such as “White Walker”[from the Game of Thrones inspired mix tape] and the soundtrack song “Cut You Up With A Linoleum Knife” [Aqua Teen Hunger Force]. Meanwhile, they get under the hood with instrumental versions of “Asleep in the Deep,” “Toe To Toes,” “Jaguar God,” and “Halloween.”
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Produced by Alex Newport (Death Cab For Cutie, At The Drive In), Yellow Coat is a masterpiece of heartbreak, equal parts lost Sixties AM hits, folk-pop beauty and dark night of the soul music. Taking inspiration from Van Gogh's Dear Theo along with John Steinbeck's A Life in Letters, and stamped with the honesty and intimacy of something not meant to be heard, yellow coat is the product of Matt Costa penning letters to himself about the end of a relationship that lasted almost a decade. While Yellow Coat may have started as an album about heartbreak, its sense of sadness, continued hope and perseverance also feels completely universal right now. "My songs have always been something that transcends a feeling into something that is healing," Costa adds. "I hope listeners and fans find these songs as personal and honest as they are to me."
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Elizabeth Cook is a Nashville-based singer-songwriter from Wildwood, FL- the New York Times lauds her "a sharp and surprising country singer". A veteran SiriusXM Outlaw Country Radio DJ, Cook has hosted her own show, Apron Strings, for over 10 years. She's also a favorite of David Letterman, the host of an upcoming TV show on Circle Network called Upstream, and a frequent guest star on Adult Swim's long-running hit cartoon series "Squidbillies".
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Steinway artist & composer, Chad Lawson's solo work has a relaxed, meditative feel that draws on both the sonorities of classical music and the freeform nature of jazz improv. You Finally Knew, his debut solo piano album for Decca US, was recorded at Abbey Road Studios and features ten pieces he wrote to inspire listeners to take time every day to consciously be still for mental clarity and overall wellness of being.
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ALSO OUT THIS WEEK
Brothertiger - Paradise Lost
PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love
PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love - Demos
Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart [Picture Disc Vinyl Single]
The Pineapple Thief - Versions Of The Truth
Reba McEntire - Rumor Has It: 30th Anniversary Edition
Everything Everything - Re-Animator
Stray Cats - Rocked This Town: From LA To London
Logic - No Pressure
Skillet - Victorious: The Aftermath [Deluxe Edition]
Suzanne Vega - An Evening Of New York Songs And Stories
Artemis - Artemis
Various Artists - Reggae Gold 2020
& More .....
For more information on these and other releases out this week, check out our New Releases charts by week section.
New Release Round-Up 09-04-20
All Them Witches have built a career out of playing music that can not be pigeonholed into one specific genre. Nothing as the Ideal was recorded in Studio 2 at the world famous Abbey Road with the help of longtime mixing engineer Mikey Allred. The history and vibe of that setting laid the groundwork for what was to come. The band’s signature psychedelic blues riffs, relentless drums, melodic bass lines and non-linear lyrics are all present. The resulting album is a thought provoking head banger that is the band’s most cohesive album to date.
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Another prized jewel in The Rolling Stones' unmatched catalogue is restored to its full glory. This limited edition Deluxe vinyl box set features the new stereo album mix, sourced from the original session files + Rarities & Alternative mixes including three previously unreleased tracks, Scarlet, All The Rage & Criss Cross. Mastered at half speed by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios, London. Also included is The Brussels Affair, recorded live at the Forest National Arena in October 1973 and pressed on 180g vinyl.
Also Available: Remastered Catalogue + Living In A Ghost Town
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On the cusp of releasing his first-ever solo album, Every Feeling On A Loop (ANTI-Records), songwriter Josiah Johnson is aware he wasn’t supposed to be here. Just five years ago when he took a leave of absence from the acclaimed indie-folk band, The Head and the Heart, the question was less where Johnson’s star would take him and more whether his struggles with addiction would end his music career. But then, he wasn’t supposed to be there, either. Prior to co-founding the band, Johnson studied math and computer science in graduate school. But the magic of song led him to an open mic that changed his life. At Seattle’s Conor Byrne Pub, Johnson sparked collaborations with fellow musicians who would eventually form The Head and the Heart. The group’s rise was rapid. They built a loyal fanbase and zigzagged the globe, with sold-out shows at historic venues from The Fillmore to Red Rocks and festival appearances at Coachella and Lollapalooza. Their 2011 self-titled debut went on to receive RIAA Gold certification, followed by 2013’s Let’s Be Still, which landed on Billboard’s Top 10 Albums Chart. On Every Feeling on a Loop, lush musical arrangements and harmonies support Johnson’s baritone crooning. At times, the songs sound like prayers. At others, his exuberance feels like the euphoria he’d always sought, this time hard-earned and wiser. He says he feels like a new person making it, charting his journey out of the dark into the wide awake of the morning, using the magic that was his all along.
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One of the first bands to overtly combine death metal with atmospheric keyboards, Nocturnus' debut album introduced more technical and progressive elements into the traditional death metal formula without losing any of the brutality. The audio for this vinyl is taken from the original tapes in Full Dynamic Range, allowing the music's nuances to shine through and giving the album a more immersive and dynamic sound than ever before.
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Zakk Sabbath is the Black Sabbath tribute band featuring guitarist/vocalist Zakk Wylde (Black Label Society, Ozzy Osbourne), bassist Blasko (Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Zombie) and drummer Joey Castillo (Danzig, Queens of the Stone Age), who have been constantly gigging since 2014 with their take on the Birmingham four's early songs. Legendarily recorded in a single day in October 1969, Black Sabbath's self-titled debut was released on a Friday the 13th in 1970, and the world was never the same. "We recorded a live EP and were wondering what we could do next as a cover band, so the 50th album anniversary came just at the right time", explains Blasko regarding Zakk Sabbath's decision to go studio. "Compared to 'Paranoid', which is almost like a best-of record, the bulk of the material on 'Black Sabbath' is deep-cut, really experimental stuff that was never thoroughly explored, so that was a challenge, not to forget that we wanted to meet our own high standards." Describing the DIY process as "very productive," the three respectfully added their own flair to make for a slightly different flavor, also revisiting various live renditions and "extending a solo here or slowing things down because that's what they tended to do on stage." Titled "Vertigo", Zakk Sabbath's ode to the masters won't be available digitally, "to make the release feel authentic to the time when vinyl ruled the earth. It was such a cool time for those of us that grew up during that time. The fan experience with the physical product is irreplaceable with digital and streaming. We wanted to capture that authenticity." The songs were faithfully recorded in the spirit of the original - live in the studio and with a film crew documenting the process - culminating in a new celebration of the greatest heavy metal band of all time and the record that started it all. Gatefold LP incl. Padded inner sleeve and special vinyl mastering, ltd. Yellow Vinyl
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Between You And Me is the fourth album by the indie trio San Cisco, from Fremantle in Western Australia, town of sun-baked sandstone and sea breezes. It's an album two years and at least one sadly remembered love affair in the making. Between You and Me finds the childhood friends' open-hearted/ good times chemistry distilled to it's essence. Nearly 10 years since those first EPs, ARIA nominations and early US and UK inroads, San Cisco have made their most painstaking album sound effortless.
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ALSO OUT THIS WEEK
Various Artists - AngelHeaded Hipster: The Songs of Marc Bolan & T. Rex [2LP]
Declan McKenna - Zeros
Grant-Lee Phillips - Lightning, Show Us Your Stuff
Hardy - A Rock
Aesop Rock - Float
Various Artists - Two Tone - The Albums [8 CD Box Set]
Fleetwood Mac - Fleetwood Mac: 1969-1974
Sara Evans - Copy That
Rex Orange County - Bcos U Will Never B Free
Tennessee Jet - The Country
Pop Smoke - Meet The Woo 2
Stryper - Even The Devil Believes
Lang Lang - Bach: Goldberg Variations
Gouge Away - Consider / Wave Of Mutilation [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Vinyl Single]
Throwing Muses - Sun Racket
& More .....
For more information on these and other releases out this week, check out our New Releases charts by week section.
New Release Round-Up 08-28-20
The Waterfall II completes The Waterfall, My Morning Jacket’s acclaimed 2015 record. Originally intended to be a sprawling triple album, the band were advised to hold back and keep some of it on the shelf. Until now! Frontman Jim James says, "this is simply the second half of a long snapshot of life for me as a writer in the years leading up to 2014, and the life of us as a band as we lived and worked in the epic country in and around Stinson Beach, CA during these recording sessions."
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“I allowed myself to support a narrative I thought I had to support of PVRIS being a band,” Lynn confesses. “I didn’t really have a role model for this. Coming from a ‘band culture,’ it’s about how the group is always greater than the sum of its parts, and you’re not supposed to take credit, even if you do everything. There’s no template or role model for really owning it as a woman. I wanted to make everyone else happy and uphold an image I thought we had to. Growing up, I learned I don’t have to do that anymore. I’m finally allowing myself to take credit. I’ve got the full support and encouragement of my bandmates. PVRIS is a unit and very much a team, but the heart and soul of the vision and music always has sourced from me. I’m just saying it now. I fulfilled my own vision of what a role model should be.” Writing and recording all of 2019, she found the perfect collaborator to bring this to life in JT Daly [K. Flay]. With Lynn writing, cooking up beats, playing guitar, drums, and bass, and singing, he amplified and augmented her vision and versatility in the studio. PVRIS set the foundation for the new era with recent EP, Hallucinations, spawning lead single and title track “Hallucinations,” which clocked 10 million total streams in a few months’ time, as well as fan favorites, “Old Wounds” and “Death of Me.”
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Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Ondara, reveals Folk N’ Roll Vol. 1: Tales Of Isolation, a new collection of songs written in direct response to the current global pandemic. The album was composed and produced by Ondara while in lockdown in Minneapolis over the course of a week and came out of Ondara’s deep need to create as a form of therapy during this incredibly uncertain time. FNRV1: Tales of Isolation is the follow up to Ondara’s critically acclaimed 2019 debut Tales of America.
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From the prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada and recently seen on Austin City Limits, Colter Wall sings songs of the great West. Heralded by icon Steve Earle and touted as a favorite of celebrity Jason Mamoa, the music of Colter Wall has graced the silver screen many times, in films such as Peanut Butter Falcon, Hell or High Water, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, MO and Deadwood. Characterized by his distinct, gritty baritone, Colter Wall’s career has been marked with critical praise from his breakout EP, Imaginary Appalachia to his debut and sophomore records produced by Dave Cobb. Whether headlining music festivals in Norway, or playing legendary stages like Newport Folk Festival, Colter Wall continues to garner attention from the world. On his third full-length release, fans will hear Colter Wall in the producer’s chair.
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The third studio album from From Ashes to New. The title track, "Panic," gained over 1.5 million streams and over 1 million video views in a little over a month. The band has also had 3 Top 10 Active Rock Singles and over 225 million streams to date. If there is a central theme on Panic, it's that in order to rise above any obstacles you have to trust in yourself. "Even though you feel voiceless, you're not, but we understand if you feel that way because we feel that way too," frontman Matt Brandyberry explains. As fans have come to expect since the band formed seven years ago, this empowering message is delivered via the band's unique blend of metal, hip-hop, rock and electronica.
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Multi-Platinum, GRAMMY-winning megastar Toni Braxton releases her latest album, Spell My Name, via Island Records this week. Includes hit single, “Do It” as well as a new version with Missy Elliot, and fan-favorite “Dance”. Braxton has sold over 67 million records throughout her career over the past three decades.
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Gregory Porter, the world’s best-selling contemporary Jazz/Soul artist with over 3 million worldwide album sales returns with All Rise, his sixth studio album. The album marks a return to Porter’s beloved original songwriting – heart-on-sleeve lyrics imbued with everyday philosophy and real-life detail, set to a stirring mix of jazz, soul, blues and gospel. Produce by Troy Miller (Laura Mvula, Jamie Cullum, Emili Sande), the set also represents the evolution of Porter’s art to something even more emphatic, emotive, intimate, and universal too. After 2017’s Nat King Cole & Me, Porter knew two things: one, he’d bring in an orchestra for his next LP, and two, the music is medicine. In the spirit of that latter revelation, ALL RISE brims with songs about irrepressible love, plus a little protest, because the road to healing is bumpy. Since his world-beating 2013 Blue Note debut, ‘Liquid Spirit’, which won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album, Gregory hasn't let down his legion of fans, whether collaborating with Disclosure on ‘Holding On’, releasing his dance hit ‘Liquid Spirit – Claptone Remix’ which became one of the most popular tracks in Ibiza, scoring another Grammy for ‘Take Me to the Alley’ (2016), or telling his life story through Cole's songbook. Porter is still surprised by his runaway success, but he has a theory: "I was soothed by my voice as a child and I think that's the same thing others get from it. I'm trying to heal myself with these songs." Not only has Gregory made chart history by bringing jazz back to the masses, graced the iconic Pyramid Stage and the world’s most prestigious gig venues, performed for the Queen, appeared on the biggest TV shows as well as presented his own series (‘Gregory Porter’s Popular Voices’ on BBC Four), 2019 saw the singer launch and host his own podcast, ‘The Hang’, featuring such distinguished guests as Annie Lennox and Jeff Goldblum.
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Rick Wakeman, best known as keyboard player in progressive rock band Yes, releases The Red Planet - a serious return to "Wakeman Prog". Harking back to Wakeman's critically acclaimed 1973 debut The Six Wives of Henry VIII, The Red Planet features eight newly composed pieces based around a central subject matter. Rick's blown the dust off his favorite analog keyboards and along with his latest keys has used the same formula he devised when making his debut album and the equally legendary Criminal Record. Upon being asked about the expectations of his prog fans, that they are hoping he will have shoved the "Prog Fader" up to 11, he replied, "That could be a problem... as it's already at 14!!!"
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Blackbirds features songs primarily popularized by women who were the “bridge she came across on.” The album finds Bettye LaVette in top form with powerful renditions of songs that touched her personally. From Dinah Washington’s “Drinking Again,” Nina Simone’s “I Hold No Grudge” and more, they are all delivered in LaVette’s rich & raspy tone. Blackbirds honors LaVette’s heritage as an R&B singer and the women who came before her. LaVette A&R’d and sequenced the record herself – her first true curation.
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ALSO OUT THIS WEEK
Katy Perry - Smile
Metallica - S&M2
Angel Olsen - Whole New Mess
The Avett Brothers - The Third Gleam
Elliott Smith - Elliott Smith: Expanded 25th Anniversary Edition
Dan Penn - Living On Mercy
Various Artists - AngelHeaded Hipster: The Songs of Marc Bolan & T. Rex [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition White 2LP]
Mac DeMarco - Here Comes The Cowboy Demos
Phish - The Story Of The Ghost
The Pack A.D. - It Was Fun While It Lasted
Seether - Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum
Needtobreathe - Out Of Body
Ruston Kelly - Shape & Destroy
Molly Tuttle - …but i'd rather be with you
Disclosure - ENERGY
The Weeknd - After Hours
Dashboard Confessional - Swiss Army Romance
Jason Mraz - Look For The Good
Ledisi - The Wild Card
TOMORROW X TOGETHER - The Dream Chapter: ETERNITY [Starboard Version]
Kelly Lee Owens - Inner Song
& More .....
For more information on these and other releases out this week, check out our New Releases charts by week section.
Rick Wakeman - Indie Retail
On August 28th, Rick Wakeman returns with his new album The Red Planet and he has a very special message about supporting Indie Record Stores. Pre-Order your copy now on 2LP or CD
My Morning Jacket - Indie Retail
My Morning Jacket’s new album (and first in 5 years), The Waterfall II, arrives August 28th and Jim James has a great message about how you can find your copy right here at an Indie Record Store.
Pre-Order your copy now on Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Merlot Wave LP, Limited Edition Deluxe Orange/Green Splash LP, Clear LP or CD
New Release Round-Up 05-01-20
Lamentations is a 10-song rumination on the current state of the world around me. I was raised in the faith and the book of Lamentations was always one that caught my attention. A broken man crying out to the heavens, asking why God sat back and let his country fall apart. Questioning the sheer existence of a higher power in the lowest of times. How could an all loving God sit back and let an entire nation’s cry for help go unanswered? I saw many parallels in that story and the current climate of this country in 2020. There are a large group of people who were promised something in 2016. They are still waiting for those promises to be fulfilled. This is a record about the things that break people. Religion, politics, addiction, love, money, family, history. I believe it is an empathetic look at the other side. A group of stories about losing everything and still finding the will to stand back up and fight for the things that matter the most. - BJ Barham, American Aquarium
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Car Seat Headrest - Making A Door Less Open - Matador Records
Making A Door Less Open, the new album from Car Seat Headrest and the first set of brand-new songs since 2016's Teens Of Denial, is available this week on vinyl and CD featuring distinct tracklists and mixes for each format. Created over the course of four years, Making a Door Less Open is the result of a fruitful 'collaboration' between Car Seat Headrest, led by Will Toledo, and 1 Trait Danger, a CSH electronic side project consisting of drummer Andrew Katz and Toledo's alternative persona, 'Trait.' To realize this, the band recorded the album twice: once live with guitars, drums and bass, and once in a MIDI environment using purely synthesized sounds. During the mixing process, the two approaches were gradually combined using elements of each, with additional overdubs.
With a sound that recalls Country music's acid washed golden era, the '90s influenced band Hot Country Knights has finally revealed more details about their debut album The K Is Silent, from Capitol Nashville, available this week. Produced by Dierks Bentley, the multi-Platinum entertainer also serves as a co-writer on over half of the 10 brawny tracks, serving up one of the most musically satisfying debut albums since 1999. Standout track "You Make It Hard" best represents their High-T philosophy.
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Damien Jurado - What's New, Tomboy? - Mama Bird
2020 release from the Seattle-based indie-folk veteran Damien Jurado. What's New, Tomboy? is his third album in three years, following 2018's Secretly Canadian swan song The Horizon Just Laughed and 2019's Mama Bird debut In The Shape Of A Storm.
Chicano Batman - Invisible People - ATO Records
Chicano Batman release their new album, Invisible People, via ATO. The LA-based quartet made up of Eduardo Arenas, Carlos Arévalo, Bardo Martinez and Gabriel Villa, follow-up the critically acclaimed breakthrough Freedom Is Free with their most sonically varied and cohesive album to date. Mixed by Grammy-winning engineer Shawn Everett (Beck, Alabama Shakes) the 12-song set accentuates the group's high-spirited synthesis of Tropicália, west coast psychedelia and late-'60s/early-'70s soul.
UPCOMING RELEASES
"As a thank you for all the support over the years, Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit will be opening sales for their new album, Reunions, a week early exclusively for independent record stores. These are strange times we live in and the hope is that getting a jump start on sales of the album will be of some help to you in a time of need. Jason and the band look forward to seeing you again in person when they get back on the road. Hang in there!" His last album - 2017's The Nashville Sound - a #1 album on the Billboard Folk, Independent, Country and Rock albums charts, also received Best Americana Album at the Grammys, Album Of The Year At The Americana Honors & Awards and was nominated at the CMA Awards for Album Of The Year. Since then, he has collaborated on the soundtrack for A Star Is Born, the debut album by the Highwomen, and Sheryl Crow's latest album Threads. He also released a live album, Live From the Ryman.
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In early 2016, D.C. punk legends Brian Baker (Minor Threat, Dag Nasty, Bad Religion) and Michael Hampton (S.O.A., Embrace, One Last Wish) met up at Hampton's Brooklyn home to play music together. Friends since first grade, the two guitarists ended up writing a handful of songs that day, then closed out the session with a spur-of-the-moment decision to start a band. When it came to finding a bassist, Baker and Hampton looked to Johnny Temple of Girls Against Boys and Soulside (another fellow student at their elementary school), who equally shared their passion for what Temple refers to as "loud, angry, visceral music." By the end of the year, the band had enlisted Refused frontman Dennis Lyxzén as their singer, thus cementing the lineup to punk-rock supergroup Fake Names. Soon after dubbing themselves Fake Names-a moniker that's part Raising Arizona reference, part recognition of the "ubiquitous and demonic use of the term 'fake news,'" according to Baker-the band headed to Renegade Studios with the goal of creating a demo to present to record labels. But after playing those recordings for Baker's Bad Religion bandmate Brett Gurewitz, the Epitaph founder made an unexpected proposal. "Brett said to us, 'This isn't a demo, this is the album,'" Baker recalls. "He was pretty adamant about putting it out exactly as it was, so that's what we wound up doing."
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When considering any great work of art, be it a painting, a novel, or a piece of music, it's natural to wonder what might have inspired it. Mark Lanegan's 2020 album, Straight Songs Of Sorrow, features guest appearances from Greg Dulli, Warren Ellis, John Paul Jones, Ed Harcourt and more, These 15 songs are inspired his life story, as documented in his new memoir, Sing Backwards And Weep. The book is a brutal, nerve-shredding read, thanks to Lanegan's unsparing candor in recounting a journey from troubled youth in eastern Washington, through his drug-stained existence amid the '90s Seattle rock scene, to an unlikely salvation at the dawn of the 21st century. There's death and tragedy, yet also humor and hope, thanks to the tenacity which impels it's host, even at his lowest moments. Today, Lanegan is a renowned songwriter and a much-coveted collaborator, as adept at electronica as with rock, constantly honing his indomitable voice: an asphalt-laced linctus for the soul. While the memoir documents a struggle to find peace with himself, his album emphasizes the extent to which he came to realize that music is his life.
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For more information on these and other releases out this week, check out our New Releases charts by week section.