records with merritt

Double 180gm vinyl LP pressing. On his acclaimed 2005 Blue Note debut Canvas, pianist and composer Robert Glasper proved he had jazz chops in abundance with his acoustic trio featuring bassist Vicente Archer and drummer Damion Reid, while a hip hop sub-context lay just beneath the surface in the album’s skittering beats, hinting at future directions that Glasper would take on albums like the Grammy-winning Black Radio years later. The album featured special guests Mark Turner on tenor saxophone plus vocalist Bilal, and presented Glasper’s signature sound on 9 original tunes as well as a nod to one of his biggest influences Herbie Hancock with a version of “Riot.”

Double 180gm vinyl LP pressing. 2019 release. 12 Little Spells finds Spalding conjuring in the medium of musical creation, through an exploration of the body, human energy and healing. Esperanza released one new spell per day on her website and social platforms as well as a “Liner Notes Live” hosted on Facebook all resulting in over 3.1 million views. The spells come in the form of new music, which was crafted by Spalding at a castle in Italy last month, and then recorded in sessions completed in Brooklyn. Each spell will be presented with song-specific imagery and video spells.

Vinyl LP pressing. 2019 release. Mac DeMarco returns with his album, Here Comes the Cowboy, the first album to be released on his new independent label, Mac’s Record Label. The album features lead single “Nobody.”

Limited 180gm colored vinyl LP pressing. On their new album Problems – their first full-length in eight years – The Get Up Kids examine everything from life-changing loss to loneliness to the inevitable anxiety of existing in 2019. But by sustaining the essence of their sound – anthemic choruses with sing-along-ready melodies – the band highlights those troubles as a shared experience, giving way to an unbreakable solidarity. And at the heart of Problems is an invaluable element the band’s embodied since their 1997 debut Four Minute Mile: a penetrating lyricism that’s both acutely introspective and indelibly resonant.

Vinyl LP pressing. The Mystery Lights’s sophomore album on Daptone’s rock subsidiary, Wick Records, finds the group digging deeper into their well of eclectic influences, enriching their sound without echoing the past. It mixes the eerie, insistent synth sounds of groups like The Normal and Suicide, the energy and swagger of punks golden age, the pop sensibility of The Kinks, and the stark, deliberate execution of Television. The Mystery Lights are taking their idiosyncratic brand of rock and roll to dizzying new heights.

Vinyl LP pressing. Cotton Jones features ex-members of Page France. This music mixes elements of soul, rock, and gospel into a gauzy cocoon of small-town sound. An album of quiet, wooden psychedelia that reflects the duo’s casual pursuit of comfort and freedom under the mountains of Cumberland, Maryland, where creeks zigzag in the lonesome dark of the forest, and a red moon hangs overhead.

Limited blue colored vinyl LP pressing, Charly Bliss are back with their sophomore album Young Enough. Produced by Joe Chiccarelli (U2, Beck, Alanis, The Strokes, The Killers, My Morning Jacket, Cage The Elephant), the record finds the band exploring both the darker and poppier side of their sound while expanding on what made their debut Guppy such a critically acclaimed success. “We definitely go to different places on this one,” says bassist Dan Shure. “But it still sounds like us. It’s still fun.” Noisey calls preview track “Hard To Believe” – a song about being addicted to a bad relationship, and the endless cycle of trying and failing to end one – “an anthemic, literal kiss-off that features one of the band’s most explosive choruses of their catalogue.”

Vinyl LP pressing. Enderness, A.A. Bondy’s first album in eight years, was finished the day before the California wildfires burned his house down. He recorded and played everything on the ten track collection himself. The Fat Possum Release serves as the long-awaited follow up to 2011’s Believers and is ushered in by the hazy lead single, “Images of Love.”

Vinyl LP pressing. Reese Wynans is best known as keyboard legend and member of Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble. Reese was in that iconic band from 1985 until Vaughan’s tragic death in 1990. He is releasing his first solo album in his 50-year career, Sweet Release – produced by Joe Bonamassa. The album includes incredible guests including; Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Warren Haynes, Vince Gill, Keb’ Mo, Doyle Bramhall II, Bonnie Bramlett, Sam Moore, Chris Layton and more

2018 release. The Radiators’ Welcome To The Monkey House is the band’s first studio album of all new material in 11 years. 2018 marks the 40th Anniversary for this legendary New Orleans rock band and they are celebrating in style with this release. Monkey House contains many of the band’s better-known songs that have not appeared on any past authorized releases. Recorded in New Orleans in October 2017 the album features the classic Rads sound of twin lead guitars and funky piano

Vinyl LP pressing. 2019 release. After over two decades in country music, it’s hard to imagine that the Tennessee-born Atkins could still treasure the difficult moments and the arduous process of creating a song from the ground up. But he’s just the kind of artist who loves the roots as much as the tree. With six number-one hits under his belt, four studio LP’s, and over 10 million units sold, Atkins is more invested than ever in making honest, authentic records that tell a story and showcase his unique place in the world, which is exactly what he does on Caught Up In The Country. In the wake of his first greatest hits compilation, Rodney Atkins Greatest Hits, in 2015, he wanted his next sonic offering to not only push country music forward but stay connected to what had always made it great to begin with. And, in Atkins’ eyes, that’s songs about the highways of life; about family, and about love. And one true love, in particular. For Atkins, that’s his wife, Rose Falcon Atkins, to whom he owes so much of his creative reinvention. He credits Rose, a singer and artist herself, with helping him to find his voice again.

The Infamous Stringdusters rise to new heights on their ninth full-length record Rise Sun. For the album, the GRAMMY® Award-winning quintet-Andy Falco [guitar], Chris Pandolfi [banjo], Andy Hall [dobro], Jeremy Garrett [fiddle], and Travis Book [double bass]-expanded their signature sound by perfecting their seamless fusion of All-American-bluegrass and rock. Once again sail into uncharted territory moored only by their expressive patchwork of All-American bluegrass threaded together with strands of rock, jazz, funk, country, old-time, and more. As they approached this latest body of work, the group’s ambition matched their outsized creative curiosity. “Rise Sun was sparked by the feeling of wanting something better for the world-more love, more awareness, and more compassion,” says Hall. “It’s a message of taking care of each other, our planet, and ourselves. We all shared this feeling as evidenced by the songs we brought to the project. It’s the feeling of a rising sun as opposed to a dark night. Sometimes a message of hope is less popular than one of despair, but it’s much-needed nevertheless.”

Double vinyl LP pressing. Sudden Death is excited to announce the release of the D.O.A. album 1978. It’s a 21-track collection of never released demos, rare tracks and early singles from Canada’s punk pioneers. Joey Shithead went deep into the vault and came up with some super exciting and raw punk rock. The album title and art concept is a spike-haired nod of the head to that early, dynamic era ofthe band and to the seven great former members who have since passed on. Their spirit and talent played a huge role into launching the band into worldwide prominence. The two constants on the album are Joey and Chuck Biscuits, who play on every track. From the start of 1978 begins their wild, “I don’t give a shit” approach to punk rock. Now some forty years later one can hear it all, starting with the never-seen-the-light-of-day demo version of “The Enemy”. This demo has a different set of lyrics that speaks to fighting Nazis-strange, what is old is new and vital again. There’s a ton of exciting tracks that range from the never heard before, such as “Bored And Suicidal”, “The Mutant”, “No God No War”, “Rip Dis Joint”, “No Way Out” and “Rent-A-Riot”, to classic early singles like “F***ed Up Ronnie”, “Disco Sucks”, “World War 3”, “The Prisoner” and “13”. Also included are demo versions of “America The Beautiful” and “Liar For Hire” with Biscuits drumming, which are wildly different than the classic versions you hear on War On 45. On this collection are the origins of hardcore and a full blast of D.O.A’s politics and raucous humor.

Hollywood Spritz is a soundtrack to a police television drama from the ’70s that doesn’t exist, including a Jazz Funk rework of the Charlie’s Angels theme. Italian DJ, composer and producer Federica Grappasonni, aka Mistura Pura, looks to the 70’s Golden Age of Hollywood TV and the accompanying music for inspiration. Combining Jazz, Funk and Latin elements with Afro percussion, Mediterranean harmonies, minimal electronic effects, Hip Hop and Nu Jazz beats, Mistura Pura focuses her sound on the “action” element from these ’70s soundtracks: scenes depicting danger or tension but also making sure to round it out with moments of love and fun. The presence of percussion in all the tracks with Afro, Latin American as well as Middle-Eastern and Hawaiian polyrhythms round out the album’s edges giving it a languid feel. “Hollywood Spritz” with it’s abundant Latin vibes would be a perfect accompaniment to a police drama set in LA, New York, Miami or any major metropolis with a vibrant Latino community. Another important aspect contributing to this musical work comes from Federica’s extensive, decades-long experience as a DJ digging and spinning rare grooves from Be Bop, Funk, Soul and Bossa Nova. Her familiarity and connection with notable players in the scene gave her access to record with a talented group of musicians such as pianist Jessica Lauren (Hollywood Spritz, LA Sound 1976, Nuevo Jungo) known for her work in the London Acid Jazz scene, Cuban multi-instrumentalist Lorenzo Patrix Duenas (Looking For The Angels, Intro – The Angels Connection, Charlie’s Angels Theme), Italian Jazz pianist Alessandro Gwis (Angels On A Cruise, Jill Is Dancing In The Dark), Mediterranean flutist Carlo Nicita, the king of the Latin rhythms Hector Barez from Puerto Rico, the cool trumpet of Josh Evans (Nuevo Jungo), volcanic percussion work from Gennaro Scarpato (High Tide At Waimanalo beach), Nu Jazz drums from Lorenzo Tucci (Angels On A cruise, Jill Is Dancing In The Dark (with milonga drums)), with the combination of Lorenzo Feliciati (Angels On A cruise) and Marco Siniscalco.

Are they glam? Are they metal? Stoner rock? Psych? Prog? For over a decade, people have been trying to pin down Glitter Wizard but this San Francisco band refuses to be pigeonholed. Pulling influences from the entire heavy rock canon, G Wiz combines scorching guitar riffs and spaced-out synths to creates something familiar, yet entirely new and weird. Their latest album, Opera Villains, brings the heat that you’ve come to expect from the band but adds a layer of dramatism that you haven’t heard before.

Sombrou Dúvida is a question. A play on words in Boogarins’ native Brazilian Portuguese. It’s a contraction of “Sombra ou Dúvida”, the title track of the album, which translates as ‘Shadow or Doubt’. There might seem to be a darkness to the question, given that both choices aren’t exactly cheery. Yet, Dinho, the smiling, Afro-donned singer of the group tells us that “shadow” refers to a feeling related to your comfort zone, whereas doubt is the uncertainty that hits people and leads them to follow their instincts.

Extremely limited vinyl LP pressing (100 copies only). 2018 album from R&B superstar Case. Features one of the most distinctive voices in modern R&B music along with a handful of very special guests including Tank, Teddy Riley and The Floacist!

Vinyl LP pressing. The brand new BAT-tastic psychobilly project from members of Nekromantix, The Brains, Stellar Corpses and Rezurex! 15 original tracks and 5 BAT-ified cover tunes including a rollicking version of the Northern Soul/Soft Cell classic “Tainted Love!” Special guest appearances by honorary BATS Jyrki 69 of The 69 Eyes and Danny B. Harvey!

Vinyl LP pressing. Transcendence was not only Alice Coltrane’s last studio album for Warner Bros., it would also be her last studio work for nearly three decades. While Eternity and Radha-Krsna Nama Sankirtana followed the composer’s muse through an exciting range of musical styles and influences, Transcendence is perhaps the most fully realized of the three LPs, synthesizing the best elements of each into a monumental whole. Side one consists of intimate compositions with Alice’s pointillist harp enhanced by intricate string arrangements. At times, the emotional climaxes in “Radhe Shyam” and the title track sound like the score to an epic film. This would be the closest Coltrane ever came to chamber music, yet rendered with her uniquely spiritual tint. Side two moves into celestial territory with uplifting chants, light handclaps and bluesy organ. These call-and-response chants, featuring members from her Ashram, completely embody both African-American gospel and Hindu devotional traditions, an uncanny fusion that is transformed through Alice’s pure spirit. What runs through the album’s two musical halves is a powerful sense of devotion and discovery. At this point in her life, Coltrane was on a journey toward truth through sound, and Transcendence gives the listener a front row seat to this quest.

Duke Ellington & His Orchestra/Tchaikovsky: Nutcracker Suite

Featuring jazz interpretations of Tchaikovsky’s ‘The Nutcracker’, the album has come to be recognized as one of Duke Ellington’s most important albums of the 1960s. Award winning New York based conductor Steven Richman has done a great job with the winning combination of Tchaikovsky and Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn (the hippest cats of jazz-a-tooty) on the one album. Bonus tracks on this album are selections from ‘Peer Gynt’ suites No. 1 and 2 written by Edward Grieg adapted by Duke Ellington including five movements: “Morning Mood,” “Hall of the Mountain King,” “Solvejg’s Dance,” “Ase’s Death,” and “Anitra’s Dance.”

Teodross Avery/After The Rain: A Night For Coltrane

In the beginning there was John Coltrane. Growing up in a family that listened to a vast and global array of music, Teodross Avery experienced an epiphany at 13 when he first heard Trane’s epochal harmonic steeplechase “Giant Steps.” Taking up the tenor saxophone, he emerged in the mid-1990s as one of the most powerful young voices on the scene, with two critically hailed releases for GRP/Impulse! Avery’s long and productive journey has taken him down many musical paths, from gigs with jazz legends and hip hop stars to sessions with NEA Jazz Masters and platinum pop albums. With his Tompkins Square label debut After The Rain: A Night for Coltrane, Avery has found his way back home, reasserting himself as a supremely eloquent exponent of the post-Trane jazz continuum. Recorded live at Oakland’s Sound Room, the album is slated for release on May 10, 2019.

Vinyl LP pressing. Howard Jones first burst upon the contemporary music scene in 1983, with his very English songwriting and pioneering synthesizers. His first two albums HUMAN’S LIB and DREAM INTO ACTION were worldwide hits. HUMAN’S LIB reached #1 in 1984 in the UK and featured the hits “New Song,” and “What Is Love?” In 1985, Jones released the follow-up, DREAM INTO ACTION, which quickly became a Top Ten Platinum album in the United States and featured the smashes: “Things Can Only Get Better,” “Life In One Day,” “No One Is To Blame,” and “Like To Get To Know You Well.” Howard Jones has sold over 8 million albums worldwide and continues to make new music and tour the world.

2019 release. Weezer (The Black Album) was produced by TV On The Radio’s Dave Sitek, with whom the band worked for the first time. The album’s songs were entirely written on piano by frontman Rivers Cuomo for the first time in Weezer history, creating some of the most satisfyingly awesome songs in the entire hits-filled Weezer catalog. With band members switching up instruments in the studio, and choruses filtered through Sitek’s own encyclopedic musical references of everything from Gorillaz to Can to Pink Floyd, Weezer (The Black Album) is the bold next step in the winning streak of acclaimed albums they’ve released since 2014.

Limited edition white colored vinyl LP pressing. Though singer/guitarist Peter Silberman had previously released two solo works under the moniker of The Antlers, 2009’s Hospice represented the full-length debut as a trio rounded out by drummer Michael Lerner and keyboardist/multi-instrumentalist Darby Cicci. An elaborate song cycle dealing with life, death, and all the in-between, the album earned rapturous praise while also striking a deep chord in a generation of listeners. NPR’s Robin Hilton called it “one of the most beautiful and moving works I’ve heard in a long, long time. Just astonishing.” In honor of the album’s 10th anniversary it’s been newly remastered and pressed as a colored 2LP-set with deluxe artwork and packaging courtesy of the album’s original artist, Zan Goodman. The Antlers will also be performing the album in full at a handful of intimate shows in the US and Europe in 2019, marking the first time the band has played together since 2015.

Vinyl LP pressing. GRAMMY® Award winner Patty Griffn’s long-awaited new album. The acclaimed singer-songwriter’s 10th studio recording and first-ever eponymous LP, Patty Griffin arrives on her own PGM Recordings label via Thirty Tigers. The album was recorded predominantly at Griffin’s home in Austin, TX, with Griffin and longtime collaborator Craig Ross co-producing, while the band is made up of a number of friends and frequent accompanists, including Ross, guitarist David Pulkingham, drummer/percussionist Conrad Choucroun, cellist Lindsey Verrill, pianist Stephen Barber, and Robert Plant, who contributes backing vocals to the LP’s “What Now” and “Coins.”

Stella Donnelly is a proud, self-proclaimed shit-stirrer. On lead single “Old Man,” the biting opener of her electrifying debut album, Beware of the Dogs, she targets the song’s titular creep, “Oh are you scared of me old man or are you scared of what I’ll do? You grabbed me with an open hand. The world is grabbing back at you.” When something needs to be said, whether it’s to an abusive man, a terrible boss, or a clueless significant other, the 26-year old Fremantle, Western Australia-based musician is fearless in telling it like it is. Delivered entirely with a sarcastic wink and a full heart, Beware of the Dogs proves across 13 life-affirming songs the power in sticking up for yourself, your friends, and what’s right. The album showcases an artist totally in command of her voice, able to wield her inviting charm and razor-sharp wit into authentically raw songs. It’s a resounding statement of purpose in recent memory and most importantly, it’s a portrait of Donnelly taking charge. She says, “this album made me feel like I was back in the driver’s seat. It was really liberating and grounding to realize that no one can f*** with this except me.”

Foals/Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Pt.1

Vinyl LP pressing. 2019 release, the first album from the British band since 2015 (What Went Down). Foals will release a second album, Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost – Part Two, in the fall. The band says: “We couldn’t be more excited for you to hear all the work we’ve poured ourselves into over the past 18 months. The albums which will be coming out are two halves of the same locket. They can be listened to and appreciated individually, but fundamentally, they are companion pieces. Musically, we pushed ourselves to the furthest limit. Lyrically, the songs resonate with what’s going on in the world at the moment. These songs are white flags, or mirrors, or attempts to work through the confusing times we live in… each in a different way.”

In their early years, Atlanta trio The Coathangers were very much of the classic punk ethos-the band was a live entity, and the records were a document of the charisma and chaos projected from stage. But after 12 years of relentlessly touring on a steady flow of EPs and LPs, The Coathangers finally took a moment to recalibrate before diving into the creation of their sixth studio album The Devil You Know. The band regrouped to make an album that captures all the vitality of their early years while honing their individual strengths into new communal achievements. It’s a record that takes their established takes on vitriolic punk, playful house-party anthems, and heartworn ballads and melds them into a new sound that retains all their former live show glories while revealing a new level of songwriting and nuance. “The writing process was done with an open heart,” says guitarist/vocalist Julia Kugel. “Everything that came before had to go away. And we started there, at ground zero.” With each album, you could hear the individual songwriters honing their style. But with The Devil You Know, it feels like we’re hearing the first Coathangers record written as a true unit.

Various Artists/Salute To The Thin White Duke: Song of David Bowie

Indie rock superstars salute one of the most deeply revered and profoundly influential artists in modern rock, David Bowie! Features exclusive performances by Kittie, Dum Dum Girls, Electric Six, Rogue Wave, Heartless Bastards, The Muffs, and more! Includes riveting versions of “Heroes,” “Ashes To Ashes,” “Space Odity,” “Changes,” “Rebel Rebel,” “Moonage Daydream” and many more!

Dead Milkmen/Welcome To The End Of The World

“Welcome to the End of the World” delivers The Dead Milkmen’s trademark twisted humor along with some underlying dark elements that will creep in to your consciousness if you pay close enough attention. The six tracks run the gamut of weird and wild-from the heavy, Ramones-influenced lead single “Only the Dead Get Off at Kymlinge,” a ghost story about the haunted trains terrorizing passengers on the Stockholm Metro; to “Battery-Powered Rat,” a jangly instrumental about two popes, a chess game, and a rat at the Vatican. (“Battery-Powered Rat is one of the weirdest things we’ve ever done,” says drummer Dean Clean.) Musically, the band draws on industrial influences, with a strong beat-driven aesthetic. “It’s a pretty good representation of the different styles of things that we do,” Dean Clean explains. “It’s got some sort of heavy stuff and some groovy, almost dance-oriented stuff-which is fun to say.” Available on 180 gram, limited edition vinyl. Following the Giving Groove model, all label profits are donated to Girls Rock Philly.

Vinyl LP pressing includes digital download. In October of 2018, ten years after the launch of their hit HBO series, Flight of the Conchords, New Zealand musical comedians Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement returned to HBO for an all-new comedy special. Live in London was taped before a live audience at the Eventim Apollo – located in the Hammersmith, London – and featured the Conchords performing songs from the sold-out UK and Ireland edition of Flight of the Conchords Sing Flight of the Conchords Tour. The Live in London album features seven new songs including “Iain and Deanna,” “Father and Son,” “Summer of 1353,” “Stana,” “Seagull,” “Back on the Road,” and “Bus Driver.” The album also features performances of fan favorites “Inner City Pressure,” “Bowie,” “Foux du Fafa,” “Mutha’uckas – Hurt Feelings,” “Robots,” “Carol Brown” and “The Most Beautiful Girl (In The Room)’ (the latter two bonus tracks edited out of the broadcast due to time constraints).

Vinyl LP pressing. The fourth album from Nick Waterhouse. He’s calling it Nick Waterhouse. And whether intentional or not, it is perhaps his most reflective and reflexive album, employing all of the mature production techniques learned throughout his professional career while retaining a viscous edge that allows it to land with colossal impact more raw, heavy and overtly confrontational than anything he’s made before.

Vinyl LP pressing. Little Rock, Arkansas native Ben Dickey has been turning heads toward the silver screen with his acting debut portraying Blaze Foley, a singer-songwriter in the 1970’s and ’80s, in the Ethan Hawke-directed biopic film Blaze. A seasoned musician in his own right, Dickey’s affecting performance as the troubled troubadour gracefully showcases his natural talent, both in acting and in music. However, Dickey had to put his own career as a singer-songwriter on hold while making the film. What resulted from the experience on the film was a flood of songs that became Dickey’s next chapter: an album of left-of-center, sophisticated folk songs, A Glimmer On The Outskirts, produced by renowned musician Charlie Sexton (band leader for Bob Dylan) and released as the debut album of SexHawkeBlack Records, an imprint label of Dualtone started by Sexton, Hawke, and SXSW founder Louis Black.

Vinyl LP pressing of this EP from the Haitian-Canadian DJ and record producer. On “Nothin Like U,” KAYTRANADA joins forces with LA R&B star Ty Dolla $ign. “Chances” is an efficent, summery roller-disco jam with a vocal from the Montreal-based singer and songwriter Shay Lia. “It Was Meant 2 B” is a funky instrumental.

Vinyl LP pressing. From the Scram and Bo-Sound labels comes this supreme collection from a master of funk! Remixed from the original multi-track tapes, this release contains previously unreleased tracks and extended versions of the hits “The Hook and Sling,” “Sissy Walk,” and “If It’s Good To You It’s Good For You.” Featuring George Davis on guitar, James Black on drums, and Fred Kemp on sax, this is an illuminating body of work that supplements what we know about New Orleans funk.

Vinyl LP pressing. Dusty Notes is the first Meat Puppets studio album to feature the original trio (Curt and Cris Kirkwood and returning drummer Derrick Bostrom) since 1995’s No Joke! Since the band debuted in the early ’80s, Curt has continually proven himself to be among the most brilliant songwriters of his generation. Time after time, album after album, he’s demonstrated an extraordinary ability to draw upon various roots and rock styles en route to a unique new vision of what the Meat Puppets can be. His latest contributions, especially songs such as “Warranty,” “On,” “Nine Pins,” “Outflow” could be forgotten gems from Nashville, Bakersfield and Laurel Canyon. Dusty Notes also features keyboardist Ron Stabinsky, a jazz-trained virtuoso adept at any style, and Curt’s son Elmo, whose old-school rock-guitar grit ideally complements his father’s spacier explorations. Intuitive, inspired and overflowing with genuine musicianship, it’s the sort of band that transforms what Curt describes as “simple yet engaging” songs into majestic maiden voyages.

Vinyl LP pressing. New Orleans legend, Raymond Myles, and his RAMS (Raymond Anthony Myles Singers) choir deliver eight soulful gospel tracks. These iconic performances were recorded in 1982.

Double 180gm vinyl LP pressing. 2019 release. Gold In A Brass Age was produced by Ben DeVries, son of producer and soundtrack composer Marius. The album finds Gray in renewed creative form and arrives just ahead of a run of headline shows in the US and UK. Gold In A Brass Age is defined by an intuitive approach from Gray, exploring new electronic textures and sound palettes, along with new production techniques in the process. David began writing Gold In A Brass Age in 2016 and it was recorded over several months between tours, including a 50 date US tour and a co-headline tour with Alison Krauss in 2017. Using a cut and paste approach to the arrangement of songs, the album’s atmospheric and experimental undertones are evident throughout.

Old Time Relijun is an unearthly combo from Olympia, Washington. We don’t throw words like “genius”, “brilliant” or “legendary” around lightly. Nor do we use them to describe Old Time Relijun (though others do). We prefer to see them as “mythical”. Their new EP, See Now and Know [KLP272], appears after a mysterious decade-long dormancy, reuniting the classic Catharsis in Crisis [KLP184] lineup featuring bandleader Arrington de Dionyso with Aaron Hartman (upright bass), Germaine Baca (drums) and Benjamin Hartman (saxophone and percussion). This is the band’s 9th studio recording and they appear to have exploded spontaneously, pounding together a fiery record, forged from within. Resistance, magic and hope are catalysts for a deeper tunneling under. The songs are typical OTR: sexy, untethered, and sing-along at the edge of the volcano fun. “Dragon Juice” conjures a dance party in a dangerous lair; “I Know I’m Alive” brings an inspired moment on the mountain into sharp, soulful focus; and “El Naranjo Gritando” brings us up close to the big nasty. There is real, palpable urgency in this recording.

Vinyl LP pressing. Sasami (aka Sasami Ashworth) has been making music in the Los Angeles area, in almost every way you can, for the last decade. From playing French horn in orchestras and studios and playing keys, bass, and guitar in local rock bands (Cherry Glazerr, Dirt Dress), to contributing vocals/string/horn arrangements to studio albums (Curtis Harding, Wild Nothing, Hand Habits) and producing on tracks for other respected artists (Soko), she has gained a reputation as an all-around musical badass. Sasami’s self-titled debut album is playful, heartfelt and personal, chronicling the surprising ways that relationships – with lovers, with friends, with oneself – can shift in a single year. Sasami says, “‘Not the Time’ and ‘Callous’ are basically entries in the diary that is my first record of songs. Maybe it’s a mix of a diary and a collection of letters; written but never sent, to people I’ve been intimately involved with in one way or another.”

Modern Jazz Quartet/NDR 60 Years Jazz Edition No.04

John Lewis on piano, Milt Jackson on vibraphone, Percy Heath on double bass and Connie Kay on percussion. “Integration ” was the key word used by Lewis all his life to describe MJQ: finding a balance between intellect and emotion, between the language of form of the European classic tradition and the eloquent tradition of the “black” Blues from the USA.

On Time Out of Time is a suite of works originally commissioned for the 2017 installations ‘ER=EPR’ and ‘Orbihedron’ by artists Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand (in collaboration with Jean-Marc Chomaz and LIGO) for the exhibition, ‘Limits of Knowing’ at Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin by curator, Isabel de Sena. These works utilize, among other things, exclusive source recordings from the interferometers of LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) capturing the sounds of the merging of two distant massive black holes, 1.3 billion years ago. The CD and Digital formats feature two tracks: The 40-minute title track, “On Time Out of Time,” as well as “4(E+D)4(ER+EPR)”, a live track recorded during the aforementioned installation. The vinyl LP format features two exclusive mixes of the title track: “On Time Out of Time” on the a-side; and “On Time Out of Time (The Lovers)” on the b-side, made especially for the vinyl format.

Double 180 gram vinyl LP pressing. Digitally remastered edition. Originally released in 1994 following a 14 year-long break up, Hell Freezes Over celebrates it’s 25th anniversary with a remastered reissue. The album has been lovingly remastered by Bob Ludwig. It contains four studio tracks and eleven tracks recorded live in April 1994 for MTV. The band’s lineup of this era: Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Don Felder, Joe Walsh, and Timothy B. Schmit and two Top 40 singles, ‘Get Over It’ and ‘Love Will Keep Us Alive’, were released from the record.

Limited 180gm colored vinyl LP pressing. Along with A Date With Elvis, 1959’s For LP Fans Only is one of the most important special productions of the young King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Because Elvis Presley had been conscripted into the US Army, no new recordings could take place, and so record producers delved deep into the sound archives and dug out a few singles from his Sun Records days, mixed them with a couple of early RCA songs and a number from the Love Me Tender soundtrack, and, presto a new Elvis LP was born. The overwhelming success of this album is not solely confined to the stylistic homogeneity of this collection of fresh, youthful songs. Far more, it’s because for many fans the record offered the only substitution for the highly coveted but rare original singles “That’s All Right,” “Mystery Train” and “My Baby Left Me.”

Double vinyl LP pressing. 2019 release. On This Land, the Grammy Award-winning maverick channels his signature sense of soul from the crossroads of rock ‘n’ roll, blues, jazz, hip-hop, reggae and punk. Clark’s most accomplished songwriting and virtuosic performances to date; This Land delivers socially relevant, transcendentally ambitious, and musically rich declaration as unapologetic, undeniable, and unique as he is. He emerges with a body of work that is dynamic in every sense, embodying an ever-evolving sound that transformed him into an artistic force anointed by everyone from President Barack Obama to the late Prince.

His debut album, Curtis reached the Billboard Pop Albums Chart Top 20 and was certified gold. It features “(Don’t Worry) If There’s A Hell Below, We’re All Going To Go,” a hit in the U.S., and “Move On Up,” which charted in the U.K.

Mayfield returned in 1971 with Roots. His second solo album peaked at #6 on the R&B Albums chart thanks to memorable tracks like “Get Down,” “Beautiful Brother Of Mine” and “We Got To Have Peace.” This new collection, KEEP ON KEEPING ON, is named for a song on that album.

Following the enormous success of his Super Fly soundtrack in 1972, Mayfield released his third solo record, Back to the World in 1973. It topped the R&B Albums chart and introduced fans to great tracks like “Future Shock,” “Can’t Say Nothin’” and “If I Were Only A Child Again.”

The final album in this new set is Sweet Exorcist (1974), which reached #2 on the Top R&B Albums chart. It produced two singles, the title track and “Kung Fu.”

aColor Vinyl, Limited Edition. Better Oblivion Community Center is a brand new band comprising the formidable talents of Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Oberst, two of the most lauded American songwriters of the past several years. Written and recorded in Los Angeles during the summer of 2018, their self-titled debut album will be released on Dead Oceans in early 2019. The pair first collaborated on Bridgers’ 2017 single, “Would You Rather”, taken from her acclaimed debut album Stranger In The Alps. They teamed up again for a recording of Oberst’s “LAX” in the fall of 2018. Co-produced by Bridgers, Oberst and long time Oberst/Bright Eyes collaborator Andy LeMaster, Better Oblivion Community Center features the work of several talented friends: Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ guitarist Nick Zinner appears on two tracks (first single “Dylan Thomas” and “Dominoes”) while Carla Azur (Autolux, Jack White) plays drums on half of the album. Dawes’ rhythm section Wylie Gelber and Griffin Goldsmith appear on the other half. Songwriter Christian Lee Hutson contributes guitar and Anna Butterss provides bass. Bridgers and Oberst are currently putting together a live band to tour in March and April.
As of now, Records with Merritt does not have this title in stock. Hopefully, soon.

Claypool Lennon Delirium/South Of Reality

Double half pink/half purple splatter colored vinyl LP pressing. 2019 release. South Of Reality, The Claypool Lennon Delirium’s epic sophomore album might be just the antidote this sick world needs. Music so potent it could repel an asteroid impact from space, these seasoned warriors of psychedelia have crafted timeless songs that may as well be chiseled in stone. The monolithic dream team’s new record was produced by Les Claypool and Sean Lennon themselves, and engineered and mixed by Les Claypool at his own Rancho Relaxo studio in Sonoma County, California.

British rising star Yola’s debut solo album, Walk Through Fire, produced by The Black Keys’ eight-time Grammy Award winner Dan Auerbach, will be released on February 22, 2019, on Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound label, distributed by Nonesuch Records. the album is available to pre-order in the Easy Eye Sound Store and Nonesuch Store with instant downloads of two songs from the album, “Faraway Look” and “Ride Out in the Country.”

Yola has blazed her own trail with a passion for the soul and country music she loves. Walk Through Fire is a contemporary twist on a traditional sonic tapestry of orchestral strings, fiddle, steel, and shimmering tremolo guitars, it provides the perfect soundtrack to Yola’s arresting vocals, which first came to the attention of Auerbach after a friend sent him a video of Yola performing in Nashville.

The moment I met Yola I was impressed, says Auerbach. “Her spirit fills the room, just like her voice … she has the ability to sing in a full roar or barely a whisper and that is a true gift. She made everyone in the studio an instant believer.”

Mazy Fly, the second full-length by the Bay Area artist SPELLLING, explores the tension between the thrill of exploring the unknown and the terror of imminent destruction. Chrystia Cabral spent the summer of 2018 in her Berkeley studio reflecting on the thresholds of human progress and longing for a new and better tomorrow. She was struck by the way the same technologies that have given humans the ability to achieve utopian dreams of discovery have also brought the world to the precipice of dystopic global devastation. Despite the darkness of this reality, Mazy Fly is defiantly optimistic. It is a celestial voyage into the unknown, piloted by Cabral. Mazy Fly musically traverses the spaces between languid, honey-soaked vocals and distant angelic whispers, from thumping 808 club beats to crunching tape loops, and from silky, smooth R&B to whirling organ sonatas. Cabral became enamored by the idea of flight as a harbinger of both progress and apocalypse, and that was expressed in the textures and compositional techniques she utilized. Swarms, flocks, flies, angels, spaceships, flying saucers – all are represented sonically by Cabral and her Juno-106 synthesizer.

Vinyl LP pressing includes digital download. Having been announced to perform as part of Jools Hollands New Years Eve Hootenanny, alongside the likes of Nile Rodgers & Chic, Rudimental, Michael Buble, Yola and George Erza, and with a live session for Lauren Laverne (BBC 6 Music) at Maida Vale (BBC 6Music) happening on Friday 14th December, Hot 8 are seeing out the year with their signature party spirit.

Perfect is a collection of songs that feature otherworldly sounds, chaotic rhythms, and weird time signatures, topped off with Jad’s brash vocals and oddball lyrics. Its tracks run the gamut from sweet love songs with overtly sincere lyrics to manic, almost abrasive tracks that seem to end before you can fully wrap your head around them. With Perfect, Half Japanese manages to combine elements of every genre imaginable into one strange, unpredictable, and undeniably-catchy package.

Effluxion, the fifth full length recorded by Michael Benjamin Lerner as Telekinesis, is a back-to-basics album-not just in it’s reaffirmation of the sound and style that made Lerner an indie wunderkind a decade ago at age 22, but in the way it was created. Using the same now-discontinued MacBook microphone he used to record his earliest tracks, he holed up in the basement of his West Seattle home and put the album together piece by piece over the past two years, playing every instrument. While previous albums had former Death Cab for Cutie guitarist Chris Walla-who discovered and championed Telekinesis’ demos-and Spoon’s Jim Eno serving as producers and sounding boards and sidemen and general voices of authority and experience, Lerner wanted to do this one entirely on his own.

Fruit Bats & Vetiver/Live In Real Life: Live At Spacebomb Studio

Limited vinyl LP pressing. Eric D. Johnson and Andy Cabic have a lot in common. Two kindred spirits with a common affinity for songwriting that embraces a range of feeling, strong on melodies paired with thoughtful lyrics and catchy hooks. Over the years, they’ve played in each other’s bands (Fruit Bats and Vetiver), on one another’s albums, scored films together, and toured the world with one another. In Real Life documents their musical relationship and recent duo touring as part of the ongoing Live At Spacebomb series. The unadorned simplicity of these performances captures a bit of their travels and friendship, their appreciation and respect for each other’s songs, and the ease and joy of sharing the stage night after night, year after year. Johnson & Cabic each bring two fan favorites to the table. Two beloved cover songs complete the set: Bobby Charles’ classic “I Must Be In A Good Place Now” and the lesser known “Nice Baby and the Angel” by David Blue. With both Fruit Bats and Vetiver ready to begin the next chapter in each of their stories, In Real Life is a time capsule, captured at a moment of synchronicity for the two musicians. They’ve come from separate places and their paths will part once again, but just for a moment, these two friends find themselves in the same place at the same time.

Double vinyl LP pressing. Nuthin’ 2 Prove is the third studio album by rapper Lil Yachty. The album features guest appearances from Quality Control labelmates Offset of Migos and Lil Baby, alongside Cardi B, Trippie Redd, Juice Wrld, Playboi Carti, Gunna and Kevin Gates, among others.

Vinyl LP pressing. For more than two decades, Chris Potter’s limitless creativity, effortless virtuosity and vibrant sense of swing has wowed critics, musicians and fans alike, who cite him as one of the most influential saxophonists and inventive improvisors of the modern day. His new album, Circuits is immediate and uplifting, rooted in a strong sense of groove and intense improvisation. Featuring an all-star band of keyboard and Blue Note artist James Frances, drum virtuoso Eric Harland and bassist Linely Marthe. Blending a vibrant sound world of electronics, memorable hooky melodies and surprising turns of phrase, Circuits is sure to delight both the dedicated Potter fans and new listeners alike. Chris explains: “This album feels like a turning point in musical direction for me… a feeling of being unconstrained by convention.”

Vinyl LP pressing. When Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen), a bouncer from an Italian-American neighborhood in the Bronx, is hired to drive Dr. Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali), a world-class black pianist, on a concert tour from Manhattan to the Deep South, they must rely on the Green Book to guide them to the few establishments that were then safe for African-Americans. Confronted with racism, danger as well as unexpected humanity and humor – they are forced to set aside differences to survive and thrive on the journey of a lifetime. In his foray into powerfully dramatic work as a feature director, Peter Farrelly helms the film inspired by a true friendship that transcended race, class and the 1962 Mason-Dixon line. The original motion picture soundtrack comes courtesy of Emmy-winning composer/pianist Kris Bowers (For the People, Dear White People).

Vinyl LP pressing. Lily and Madeleine Jurkiewicz create candid music with deep emotional and personal resonance. The sisters, who record under the moniker Lily & Madeleine, boldly explore what it means to be women in the 21st century, and aren’t afraid to use their music to call out injustice or double standards. This fearless approach has permeated their three albums, which are full of insightful lyrics and thoughtful indie-pop. But with their fourth studio album, Canterbury Girls – named after Canterbury Park, located in their hometown of Indianapolis – the sisters are coming into their own as women and musicians.

Vinyl LP pressing. Explosions in Slow Motion is the 36th album from the master of emotive spacial ambient BVDUB. Foggy memories of friends, loved ones, and adversaries achingly sweep across the album’s eighty-minute run time. Forlorn and shrouded in nostalgia.

In 1978, Danish percussion master Marilyn Mazur founded the bold, innovative Primi Band, an all-female music-theater ensemble that drew from a deep well of primal energy and experimental audacity. Four decades later, Mazur reinvents the core concepts in an adventurous new fashion with Shamania, a gathering of ten of Scandinavia’s most inventive and respected female musicians. Whereas Primi Band culled it’s members from risk-taking but non-professional musicians, Shamania comprises ten highly respected (but equally daring) artists from the Danish, Swedish and Norwegian avant-jazz scenes. Their stunning debut album is a vivid combination of primeval forces and virtuosic musicianship, fiercely original imaginings and deeply organic emotions, communal energies and singular voices.

Named for the year in his life when the bottom fell out following a long-term romantic partnership, Martin Frawley sequenced Undone at 31 chronologically to emphasize his journey. Those familiar with his time as co-leader of Melbourne’s Twerps will take comfort in hearing his deceptively simple songwriting is still intact, but the big reveal here is how new instrumentation and influences seamlessly expand his playground. It might take several listens for one to realize Frawley is singing “Something About Me” over just violin, Moog, and a Graceland-esque bassline, or to appreciate the PB+J pairing of Fender Rhodes and lap steel on “Where the Heart Is,” which serves as Undone at 31’s twist ending. Frawley’s album does not shy away from morbid musings and raw emotions that come with a breakup, and like Shoot Out the Lights or Sea Change, Undone at 31’s tunefulness and exploration combined are what elevate the music above the melancholy subject matter.

Vinyl LP pressing. California Dreaming is an album by jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery that was originally released in 1966. A career highlight for the guitarist, recorded at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio during September 1966, this Creed Taylorproduced album was an artistic and commercial smash, reaching #1 on the US Billboard Jazz chart. A career highlight for the guitarist, recorded at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio during September 1966, this Creed Taylor produced album was an artistic and commercial smash, reaching #1 on the US Billboard Jazz chart.

Vinyl LP pressing. This famous 1962 collaboration sounds as fresh today as it did when it was released, an all-time classic album including evergreen versions of ‘Desafinado’, ‘O Pato’ and ‘One Note Samba’.

Vinyl LP pressing. Two titans of the tenor collaborate on this landmark 1957 album, perfectly distilling their differing styles to produce a bona fide jazz classic.

Double vinyl LP pressing. The album has been fully remastered with two additional remixes added to celebrate it’s 10th Anniversary – ‘Magnificent (Wonderland Remix)’ by Pete Tong and Paul Rogers and ‘I’ll Go Crazy if I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight’ (Redanka’s ‘Kick the Darkness’ Vocal Version). No Line on the Horizon is the 12th studio album by Irish rock band U2. It was produced by Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, and Steve Lillywhite, and was released on 27 February 2009. Lead single ‘Get On Your Boots’ was followed by ‘Magnificent’ and ‘I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight’.

Blood Orange/NegroSwan

Double vinyl LP pressing includes digital download. Producer, multi-instrumentalist, composer, songwriter and vocalist Devonte Hynes returns with his fourth album as Blood Orange entitled Negro Swan. Raised in England, Hynes started out as a teenage punk in the UK band Test Icicles before releasing two orchestral acoustic pop records as Lightspeed Champion. In 2011, he released Coastal Grooves, the first of three solo albums under the moniker Blood Orange.

Cat Power/Wanderer

Limited clear colored vinyl LP pressing. Wanderer, Cat Power’s stunning tenth studio album, marks a pivotal moment in both Marshall’s life and her career. In the six years since the release of 2012’s Sun, she has traveled the world, given birth to a child, and parted ways with her previous record label. Even though it was, in many ways, a period of profound upheaval and radical change, those experiences resulted in a record that is arguably the most assured artistic statement of her career. Produced by Marshall and mixed by Rob Schnapf (Elliott Smith, Beck), the album includes appearances by longtime friends and compatriots, as well as guest vocals courtesy of recent tourmate Lana Del Rey. Wanderer is, in many ways, a quintessential Cat Power record, with Marshall’s clarion voice front and center in a set of songs that remarkably stark and straightforward. But, if old Cat Power records might easily have been viewed as repositories for pain, Wanderer is, at it’s heart, a testament to the transformative nature of songs, an album-length imagining of alternate paths, redemptions, connections, and open-ended possibility.

Adrianne Lenker/Abysskiss

Vinyl LP pressing. Adrianne Lenker has been writing songs since she was ten years old. Her “back story” has been well documented in various interviews and profiles for Big Thief over the last three years. Despite, or more likely because of the constant touring and studio work, the last few years have been some of the most prolific for Lenker as a writer. Songs pop out at soundcheck. They pop out on late night drives between cities. They pop out in green rooms, hotel stairwells, gardens, and kitchens around the world. In the hands of Lenker songwriting is not an old dead craft. It is alive. It is vital. With little regard for standard album cycle practice or the idea of resting at all, Lenker set out to make a document. Songs can be slippery and following a 2+ years on the road with Big Thief, Lenker felt a growing need to document this particular time in her life in an intimate, immediate way. The result is her new album, Abysskiss.

J. Cole/KOD

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing. KOD (an initialism for Kids on Drugs, King Overdosed and Kill Our Demons) is the fifth studio album by rapper J. Cole. The majority of the production on the album was handled by Cole himself, along with others such as T-Minus, Mark Pelli, BLVK and Ron Gilmore. The album incorporates elements of jazz, rap, and trap, Cole has stated that the production and rhyme schemes used throughout the album was inspired by SoundCloud rap. The album explores a variety of topics including drug abuse, addiction, depression, greed, African-American culture, and taxation in the United States.

Joe Strummer/001

All the formats include tracks that have never appeared anywhere before as well as new remasters. Exclusive to all formats is an album of unreleased material including an early demo of ‘This Is England’ entitled ‘Czechoslovak Song/Where Is England,’a solo demo of ‘Letsagetabitarockin’ recorded in Elgin Avenue in 1975, outtakes from ‘Sid & Nancy’ featuring Mick Jones and unreleased songs ‘Rose Of Erin’, the biographical and mythical recording ‘The Cool Impossible’ and ‘London Is Burning’ one of the last songs Joe recorded.

Punk pioneer, singer, songwriter, recording artist, activist, musical and political inspiration for a generation and mighty diamond Joe Strummer was the most charismatic and passionate front man to emerge from the punk explosion of the late seventies. After Joe’s untimely death in December 2002 it was discovered that he had been quite an archivist of his own work, having barns full of writings and tapes stored in his back garden. There are now over 20,000 items in the Joe Strummer Archive.The archiving of this material and compiling of ‘Joe Strummer 001’ was overseen by Joe’s widow Lucinda Tait and compilation producer Robert Gordon McHarg III.

All tracks were restored and mastered by Grammy Award winner Peter J. Moore at the E. Room in Toronto Canada. On-going through cassettes and recording tapes it was discovered that Joe was rather frugal and keen on hiding tracks. On cassettes he would leave 20 minutes between songs. On the 1” 8 track recordings it was discovered there were hidden tracks superimposed onto each other. For example, tracks 1-4 were taken by one song and tracks 5-8 by two other songs which were thought when played back to be caused by tape denigration until the tapes went to Peter J Moore who was able to separate one song from another.

Art directed and designed by Robert Gordon McHarg III who previously worked on the Clash ‘Sound System’ box set with Paul Simonon, the John Cooper Clarke compilation ‘Anthologia’ and curated the Black-Market Clash Exhibition.

4LP – 3 x 180g heavyweight black vinyl of Joe Strummer 001 albums – each in their own single sleeve and combined in to one wide-spined outer sleeve each featuring restored and remastered audio by Grammy award winning Peter J Moore.

John Lennon/Imagine:The Ultimate Mixes Deluxe

Double vinyl LP pressing includes bonus tracks, poster, and two postcards. Digitally remastered, remixed and expanded edition of this 1971 album. A truly unique expanded edition of one of the most iconic albums of all time. This new edition takes us on incredibly personal journey through the entire songwriting and recording process – from the very first sessions at John’s home studio at Tittenhurst Park through to the final co-production with Phil Spector – providing a remarkable testament of the lives of John Lennon and Yoko Ono in their own words. Imagine is the second studio album by John Lennon. Recorded and released in 1971, the album is more heavily produced in contrast to the basic, raw arrangements of his previous album, the critically acclaimed John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. The album is the most popular of his solo works and the title track is considered one of Lennon’s finest songs.

Shaolin Soul Episode 4/Various Artists

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Kristin Hersh/Possible Dust Clouds

A highly personalised sociopathic gem delivered as a futuristic rewriting of how music works, a melodious breeze with a tail wind of venomous din. A ten-track album, her tenth studio set. Enveloping the juxtaposition of the concept of dark sunshine, a brooding solo record creating with friends to expand her off-kilter sonic vision; a squally, squeaky mix of discordant beauty. Feedback and phasing gyrate from simply strummed normality, imagine Dinosaur Jr and My Bloody Valentine cranking up a Dylan couplet. Messing with both extremes of the sonic spectrum: atonal and arrhythmic, a unique sound and a glorious return to form for one of alternative rock s true innovators. Sometimes the most subversive thing I can do musically is adhere to standard song structure, sometimes the creepiest chords are the ones we ve heard before, twisted into different shapes, and sometimes a story is lived a thousand times before we can ride it like a roller coaster. Nothing wholly unfamiliar is gonna make you look twice. When you can describe a record as being deceptively anything, you re hinting at the sociopathic nature of music. Something I love. Imagine truly buying your own sunshine and charm, but also your darkness and violence; the two sides of your psychology showing each other off in relief. Songs can do that… we can t, really. Darkness we ve seen. Kristin Hersh.

Tricky/Maxinquaye

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing. Maxinquaye is the 1995 debut album by English rapper and producer Tricky. By the time he recorded the album, Tricky had grown frustrated with his limited role in the group Massive Attack and discovered vocalist Martina Topley-Bird, who he felt would offer another dimension to his lyrics. He signed a solo contract with 4th & B’way Records in 1993 and recorded Maxinquaye the following year, primarily at his home studio in London with Topley-Bird as the album’s main vocalist. Additional singers included Alison Goldfrapp, Ragga, and Mark Stewart. Maxinquaye was produced by Tricky with assistance from Mark Saunders, who helped him use dub production techniques and heavily altered samples taken from a variety of sources. The record’s groove-oriented and low-tempo sound incorporates elements from hip hop, soul, rock, ambient techno, reggae, and experimental music. The songs explore themes of cultural decline, dysfunctional sexual relationships, fear of intimacy, and recreational drug use; Tricky drew on his experiences in British drug culture and the influence of his late mother Maxine Quaye, after whom the album is titled.

Gregory Alan Isakov/Evening Machines

Vinyl LP pressing. Gregory Alan Isakov’s Dualtone debut, Evening Machines, is poised to take his career to places yet unknown. Recorded at a converted barn studio located on Isakov’s three-acre farm in Boulder County, CO, the 12-track album was self-produced and mixed by Tucker Martine (Neko Case, The Decemberists) and Andrew Berlin (Descendants, Rise Against). Since his 2003 debut, Isakov has self-released three LPs on his independent label, Suitcase Town Music and has toured extensively worldwide with the likes of Iron & Wine, Ani DiFranco, Blind Pilot, Passenger, Josh Ritter, Brandi Carlile, and Nathaniel Rateliff. Since his debut with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra in November 2013 he has also performed with several symphonies including the Seattle Symphony, the Oregon Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, and the Vermont Symphony Orchestra. Isakov also has a significant film/TV history with 50 syncs of songs like “Suitcase Full of Sparks,” “Amsterdam,” “Time Will Tell,” “If I Go” and “Only Ghost.”

Phosphorescent/C’est La Vie

Vinyl LP pressing. Matthew Houck’s first new Phosphorescent release in five years chronicles a life-altering period which saw him fall in love, start a family, leave New York for Nashville, and build a studio from the ground up. With a focus on translating these profound experiences to music as intuitively as he could, Houck pushes the boundaries of what a Phosphorescent record can sound like, balancing the earthy and the incandescent, the troubled and the serene, creating his own musical cosmos in the process. Nowhere is this more evident than on “New Birth In New England,” a deceptively breezy snapshot survey of some of those life-altering events, condensed to five genre-defying minutes. C’est La Vie reveals a crystallization of what made Muchacho such a breakout – a little sweetness and a little menace, sometimes boot-stomping and sometimes meditative. The magic of Houck’s music has always been the way he weaves shimmering, almost golden-sounding threads through elemental, salt-of-the-earth sounds. It’s not experimental, exactly, but it’s singular and it’s definitely not traditional. That knack, the through-line across the Phosphorescent catalog, is front and center here.

The Promise Ring/Wood/Water

Vinyl LP pressing. Hailing from Milwaukee, WI The Promise Ring weren’t just emblematic of ’90s Midwestern emo: they were one of the most celebrated bands in the history of the genre. Under the leadership of frontman Davey Von Bohlen of Cap’n Jazz, their sound incorporated elements of power pop that would become more popular in later years. They broke up in 2002 and after nearly a decade of inactivity The Promise Ring officially reunited in February 2012. Wood/Water (2002) is the fifth and final album to date by The Promise Ring, and their first for Anti- Records. Long-time fans may have been surprised with Wood/Water, as it’s sound was a departure from the band’s previous releases. The album had a drastic change of pace with a more introspective tone and shimmering atmospheric songs.

Echo & The Bunnymen/The Stars, The Oceans & The Moon

Double vinyl LP pressing, includes digital download. The new ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN studio album, THE STARS, THE OCEANS & THE MOON will be released on October 5th. As previously revealed, this album sees the band return to their peerless back catalogue to reinterpret thirteen of their most beloved songs with ‘strings and things’. The album also features two future classics – “The Somnanbulist” and “How Far?” Recorded at The Dog House Studios with co-producer Andy Wright, the Bunnymen hand-picked the selection of tracks for the album from their majestic, four-decade spanning archive. Mac said of the new versions: “I’m not doing this for anyone else. I’m doing it as it’s important to me to make the songs better. I have to do it.”

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Vinyl LP pressing. Is the long-awaited third album by acclaimed UK out-rock trio Beak comprised of Portishead’s Geoff Barrow, Robert Plant bassist Billy Fuller and Will Young aka Moon Gangs. It follows-up their 2012 studio album , an alter ego split EP and the 2016 score for Couple In A Hole. #definitely sounds like a step forward and finds the band continuing to forge their own genre of oddness. The production and feel of the first two albums was like listening through frosted glass; a band playing behind a curtain. Now we hear Beak in sharp focus, but without forfeiting what the band see as it’s ‘wrongness’. This could be the result of having played bigger stages and festivals – something that was never part of the plan – or perhaps it is just a reaction to the infinite cut and paste fuzz pedal kraut bands on the planet. Full-color single-pocket jacket with matte varnish.

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley/Simigwa

Vinyl LP pressing. Digitally remastered edition. Legendary Ghanain album – with one of the music iconic covers ever! – that fuses Highlife, afrobeat, folk and funk. Ambolleys debut solo album originally released in 1975, written and produced with Ebo Taylor. Ambolley grew up during the peak of Highlife in Ghana and was a key figure in it’s fusion with soul and funk influences from the USA. He played in many bands including Houghas Extraordinaires, Meridians Of Tema, Ghana Broadcasting Band and the Uhuru Dance Band, for which he was recruited by his friend, Ebo Taylor. The group went to Nigeria in 1973 to play with Fela at his legendary Shrine spot. ‘Simigwa’ was a chance for Ambolley to release his own productions and to experiment to a certain extent. A main inspiration for this album was the work of the mighty Mr. James Brown, something that is evident from the rhythm section, horns, vocal stabs and percussion breaks throughout the record.

Fucked Up/Dose Your Dream

Dose Your Dreams—meaning: treat your dreams as you would a dream, allow yourself to be lost within them, allow them to open your heart and your mind, enjoy them as you would a drug. Reach out for my hand and pull me close.

Eric Church/Desperate Man

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing. 2018 release from the platinum-selling country music artist. Church comes roaring back with his new album-the first single from which (the title song) has already done major damage to the charts. Ray Wylie Hubbard is among Eric’s co-writers here, and you’ll encounter Southern-rock power, funky rhythms and the classic Bakersfield sound across The Snake, Hangin’ Around, Heart Like a Wheel, Some of It, Monsters, Solid and more. Eric Church won the Album of the Year in 2016 for Mr. Misunderstood and has reached Platinum status.

Hank Jones/Arigato

Vinyl LP pressing. Hank Jones has a reputation for being one of the most flexible and dynamic piano players of the jazz genre. His playing on Arigato is a fantastic example of such and gives the listener great insight into the artist’s unparalleled talent. Appearances by Ronnie Bedford on the drums, Jay Leonhart and Richard Davis – both on the bass, and Ray Rivera on guitar help to round out this fantastic 1976 recording. The album was remastered for vinyl at Infrasonic Mastering and pressed on audiophile-grade vinyl at Pallas in Germany.

KT Tunstall/WAX

Vinyl LP pressing. 2018 release. Since scoring a worldwide smash with her debut album Eye To The Telescope in 2004, which went on to sell over 5 million copies, KT Tunstall has remained at the forefront of UK singer-songwriter talent. Over the next decade, three further critically acclaimed albums followed; Drastic Fantastic, Tiger Suit and Invisible Empire//Crescent Moon in 2007, 2010 and 2013 respectively, keeping the platinum sales rolling and cementing the Scottish singer-songwriter’s reputation as a major recording talent, as well as a mesmerizing live artist. After a period of healing, soul-searching, and a change of scenery, 2016 hailed the arrival of the first of a trilogy of albums, the critically acclaimed UK Top 10 album – KIN. The trilogy evokes, separately and in sequence, spirit, body and mind. With KIN being her Phoenix-from-the-ashes ‘spirit’ album, 2018 marks the second offering of that trilogy – her sixth studio album, her ‘body’ album.

Coheed and Cambria/Unheavenly Creature

Limited edition red colored vinyl LP pressing including digital download. 2018 release, the ninth album from the alt/prog rock band. The sprawling self-produced epic finds Coheed and Cambria returning to the conceptual narrative of The Amory Wars, unlike their previous album The Color Before the Sun. Coheed and Cambria formed in 1995. The group’s music incorporates aspects of progressive rock, pop, heavy metal, and post-hardcore. Most of Coheed and Cambria’s albums are concept albums based on a science fiction storyline called The Amory Wars, a series written by Claudio Sanchez, which has been transcribed into a series of comic books as well as a full-length novel.

Blaze/Original Cast Recording

Limited vinyl LP pressing housed in gatefold sleeve. 2018 release. The cornerstone of blues and country music is storytelling, but only the most able messengers can carry the words of another as their own. So goes the story of Texas singer/songwriter/poet Blaze Foley, whose vision has been kept alive by legendary artists like Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Lucinda Williams and John Prine. It’s in the spirit of this great musical tradition that writer/director Ethan Hawke and his cast and crew set out to create the first ever “Gonzo Indie Country-Western Opera” film, Blaze. Hawke, an Austin native, understood the jury he’d likely face in making a film about Texas’ own drunken angels, Blaze Foley and Townes Van Zandt. An able messenger of this story, Hawke brought in the people that loved them most, including Foley’s partner Sybil Rosen (the film is based on her book Living In The Woods In a Tree…), longtime friend and bandmate Gurf Morlix, Charlie Sexton (portraying Van Zandt and overseeing music production). Alia Shawkat and Alynda Segarra (Hurray for the Riff Raff) already knew the words to Foley’s songs and went all in. Finally, songwriter and chef Ben Dickey was pulled out of the kitchen and placed in front of the camera to portray Foley, a performance by this first-time actor that couldn’t have been played by anyone else. As the cameras rolled, the actors began to sing and the singers began to act, and in many ways what’s captured in the film is the spirit of music itself. Found in the atmospheric noises of clinking beer bottles, birds, and the cast cheering each other on are the makings of any good album-a group of artists with a collective vision of creating something eternal, and doing it all, as Van Zandt put it best, “for the sake of the song.”

And…

Genesis/Lamb Lies On Broadway

Genesis/Invisible Touch

Jake Shears/Jake Shears

Vinyl LP pressing. 2018 release. Showcasing the essence of what Jake Shears does best, the eponymously titled solo debut from the Scissor Sisters frontman is an album brimming with anthemic choruses and lyrics about the joys and vagaries of love and sex – all of it underpinned by a swampy soul influence imparted from his newly adopted hometown New Orleans. Shears’ artistic vision blossomed in the epicenter of Southern decadence, where he had headed following the Scissors hiatus in 2012. Initial ideas for the album were mapped out at the city’s famed Marigny Studios before he decamped to Louisville, KY to work with producer Kevin Ratterman (Ray LaMontagne, My Morning Jacket) who recruited members of My Morning Jacket, VHS or Beta, Jim James’ solo band, and Floating Action to lay down the album’s foundation. With string and brass arrangements by Christian Hebel (Barbra Streisand) and Lance Horne (Alan Cumming), they returned to NOLA to capture the city’s signature sound with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Sturgill Simpson’s brass section. The result is a thrilling work that plays inside some of the hallmarks of classic American rock music and marries them with Jake’s inimitable point of view, humor, and gift for unforgettable hooks.

Byron Lee Allstars/Soul-Ska

All songs are performed by Byron Lee’s Allstars. Featuring Ken Lazarus, Jo-Jo, Keith Lynn, Smokey 007, Hubert Lee and Cecil Barker.
All the tracks originally recorded in the mid-Sixties, were produced by Alty East, one of the first producers of Ska in Jamaica.

Robert Wilkins/Original Rolling Stone

Among the most unsung of Delta blues greats is Robert Wilkins. A Mississippian who staked his claim to American musical history out of Memphis, Wilkins’s plaintive voice and innovative songwriting produced a breadth of material unmatched by all but a few recorded bluesmen. This essential collection represents sessions from 1928 through 1935, when Wilkins enjoyed his greatest popularity, giving the world such finery as “I Do Blues,” “Rollin’ Stone (Parts 1 and 2),” “Jailhouse Blues,” and “I’ll Go with Her.” His poignantly confessional “That’s No Way to Get Along” from 1929 was recreated some 35 years later by the Reverend Robert Wilkins as “Prodigal Son,” and covered by the Rolling Stones on Beggars Banquet. Another unusual number is the scandalous “Old Jim Canan’s,” the subject of which is a notorious Memphis barrelhouse run by bootlegger Jim Kinane, where blues-loving patrons were “drinkin’ whiskey and sniffin’ cocaine” until the cops came in 1916.

Dawn Landes/ Meet Me At The River

Through four full-length albums, Dawn Landes has blazed her own path with songs that are as fresh as they are timeless. Still, there’s no mistaking that strains of Nashville reside in her voice and in her musical soul, and now, with her fifth album, Landes is finally bringing them to center stage. Meet Me at the River is Landes’ self-described “Nashville record,” and she has assured it’s pedigree by enlisting the production skills of Fred Foster, the Country Music Hall of Fame member who played a pivotal role in the careers of Dolly Parton, Roy Orbison, and Kris Kristofferson. Download Card Included, Limited Edition Sage Green Vinyl.

Magpie Salute/High Water

THE MAGPIE SALUTE, which brings together the reunited guitar team of Rich Robinson and Marc Ford from THE BLACK CROWES, bassist Sven Pipien (also from the CROWES) along with lead singer John Hogg (HOOKAH BROWN, MOKE), drummer Joe Magistro and guitarist Nico Bereciartua, will release its debut album, “High Water I”, on August 10. It is the follow-up to last year’s “The Magpie Salute (Live)”, which was largely recorded in front of a studio audience in Woodstock, New York.

Pulled together by Robinson, it continued a storyline he began in the BLACK CROWES with Ford and Pipien. Meanwhile, Hogg shared HOOKAH BROWN with Robinson as keyboardist Matt Slocum and Magistro both joined him for solo records and tours over the years.

Now, these six individuals conjure magic on their full-length debut of original material, “High Water I” (Mascot/Eagle Rock), for 2018, with “High Water II” to come in 2019.

Mike Shinoda/Post Traumatic

Vinyl LP pressing. 2018 album from the Linkin Park member. In the months since the passing of Linkin Park vocalist Chester Bennington, Shinoda has immersed himself in art as a way of processing his grief. With no agenda, Shinoda hunkered down alone in his Los Angeles home and began writing, recording, and painting. In January, he released the Post Traumatic EP consisting of three deeply personal songs – each one a powerful, stream-of-consciousness expression of unvarnished grief – accompanied by homemade visuals that Shinoda filmed, painted and edited himself. The response was overwhelmingly positive, with New York Times stating “The tracks are reverberant electronic dirges; the rhymes, heading into sung choruses, testify to bewilderment, mourning, resentment, self-pity and questions about what to do.” Following the EP release, Shinoda continued to create, and the result is Post Traumatic, a transparent and intensely personal album that, despite it’s title, isn’t entirely about grief, though it does start there. “It’s a journey out of grief and darkness, not into grief and darkness,” Shinoda says. Ultimately, Post Traumatic is an album about healing. The songs, though specific about Shinoda’s experience with loss, manage to be universally relatable, thanks to their honesty and heart. “If people have been through something similar, I hope they feel less alone,” he says. “If they haven’t been through this, I hope they feel grateful.”

Dave Holland/Uncharted Territories

Vinyl LP pressing. The 3LP-set Uncharted Territories reunites double bassist/composer/bandleader Dave Holland with saxophonist Evan Parker, a longtime friend from their early days in London. They’re joined by Craig Taborn, on piano and electronics, and Ches Smith on percussion. In addition to quartet improvisations, they also break off into every possible subset of duo and trio configurations here. Featuring two compositions by Smith and one by Holland, the 23-track collection presents a series of deep, multi-layered conversations between the musicians, some of whom were interacting for the first time.

I Wanna Be Sedated: From The Underground

Double vinyl LP pressing. Warner Bros. Records is celebrating it’s 60th Anniversary with a series of double vinyl compilations highlighting some of the greatest music of the last six decades. The second collection is I Wanna Be Sedated: From The Underground. The album features 20 tracks from the Punk, New Wave and Alternative Rock era. Artists include B-52s, Elvis Costello, Dead Boys, Echo And The Bunnymen, Flaming Lips, Hüsker Dü, Jane’s Addiction, The Jesus And Mary Chain, Ramones, Pretenders, New Order, Replacements, Talking Heads, Violent Femmes and many others. Classic songs include ‘Shake Some Action’, ‘Blister In The Sun’, ‘Life During Wartime’, ‘The Killing Moon’ and more.

Shooter Jennings/Shooter

Ever the outlaw, Jennings has now crafted what might well be his most truly idiosyncratic work thus far, SHOOTER. Produced by longtime friend and collaborator, Low Country Sound founder Dave Cobb, at the renowned RCA Studio A on Nashville’s Music Row, the album sees Jennings staking out a fairly straightforward goal: to simply make a great country record. It should be noted, Jennings’ last studio album was a genuinely visionary tribute to Giorgio Moroder so in some ways, making a straight up country record is as much of a left turn as anything else in his brilliantly mercurial career thus far. But with songs like “Fast Horses & Good Hideouts” or the raucous “I’m Wild & My Woman Is Crazy,” Jennings more than affirms his mission by returning to country’s original, if oft misplaced, mandate: singing songs about growing up and getting older, about going out and getting trashed. In short, making music for real people with real lives. With SHOOTER, Jennings truly puts his own mark on country music, living up to his extraordinary birthright with unparalleled passion, experience, and heart.

John Cale/Vintage Violence

The Welsh rocker’s first post-Velvet Underground album shows a quirky pop craftsman at work on 11 tracks that reference everything from country rock ( Bring It On Up ) to Beach Boys harmonies ( Gideon’s Bible ) to the Band-style Americana ( Big White Cloud ) and beyond.

Gram Parsons/Another Side Of This Life

Vinyl LP pressing. Sundazed Music offers up a colored vinyl reissue of Another Side of This Life, 13 previously unheard demo recordings of Gram Parsons, country-rock pioneer and former member of the Byrds and founding member of the Flying Burrito Brothers. The collection features Parsons, singing and playing acoustic guitar, recorded from March 1965 to April 1966 at the home of his Winter Haven, FL friend, Jim Carlton. Another Side of This Life also features rare photos and a detailed liner essay by noted writer Stanley Booth (The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones).

Neko Case & Her Boyfriends/Furnace Room Lullaby

Neko Case/The Tigers Have Spoken

This November marks the, limited edition, vinyl re-issue of Neko Case record Furnace Room Lullaby, that has been long out of print. This title has been remastered from it’s original analog tape and comes complete with a full album download card. This stand-alone offering comes on the heels of her stunning vinyl box set, Truckdriver, Gladiator, Mule, and is available in red marble colored vinyl just in time for the holidays.

Vinyl LP pressing. Recorded live over seven nights and at three different venues in Chicago and Toronto in 2004, The Tigers Have Spoken finds Neko Case in incredible voice backed by a full band featuring The Sadies and steel guitar wizard Jon Rauhouse along with special guests Kelly Hogan, Carolyn Mark, Jim & Jennie and the Pinetops, Paul Morstad, and Brian Connelly. While The Tigers Have Spoken is a live album, it’s not your typical career retrospective – only two of the eleven songs are from Neko’s back catalog. In addition to two new original compositions, the songstress wraps her powerful pipes around a surprising collection of covers written by artists like Buffy Saint Marie, Loretta Lynn, the Shangri-La’s and Freakwater’s Catherine Irwin. The set closes with impassioned versions of the standards, “Wayfaring Stranger” and “This Little Light,” which Neko forever makes her own.

Tom Waits/Foreign Affairs

Tom Waits/Blue Valentine

Remastered vinyl LP pressing. 1977’s Foreign Affairs takes the jazz and poetry that Waits explored on his earlier albums in a more cinematic direction, foreshadowing his own breakthrough work in the ’80s. Opening with the instrumental “Cinny’s Waltz” and featuring some new standards like “Muriel” and “I Never Talk To Strangers,” his dramatic duet with Bette Midler, the album gets into some of Waits’ most ambitious storytelling ever. Foreign Affairs also features the jazzy, colorful “Jack and Neil” and the sweeping, dramatic “Potters Field” as well as the classic ballads “Burma Shave” and “Sight for Sore Eyes.”

Vinyl LP pressing. After signing with Asylum Records in the early 1970s, Tom Waits recorded a series of acclaimed albums whose noir tales about the after-midnight underworld transformed the seedy into the sublime in songs laced with both dark humor and profound longing. Decades and several musical evolutions later, Waits’ Asylum years still hold a special place in the hearts of many fans. Waits’ first seven albums on Asylum have been remastered and will be re-released via Anti-Records. 1978’s Blue Valentine is a big departure from earlier Waits albums. Trading the piano for the guitar, the singer/songwriter is getting rawer and bluesier and the title track is a great example of this. Waits is in transition here, so you also get a stunning orchestrated rendition of Gershwin’s “Somewhere,” and the beautiful piano ballad, “Kentucky Ave.,” but you also get the juke joint swagger of “Romeo Is Bleeding” and “Whistlin Past the Graveyard.” This is also the record that contains one of Waits’ most popular songs ever, “Christmas Card from A Hooker in Minneapolis.”

Studio One Presents Black Man’s Pride

This is the second installment of deep roots Rastafarian reggae at Studio One and features classic music from some of the most important figures in reggae music – Alton Ellis, The Heptones, Jackie Mittoo, The Gladiators – alongside a host of rarities and little-known recordings, such as a truly rare Mystic Revelation of Rastafari seven-inch single, Willie William’s first ever recording ‘Calling’ and Horace Andy’s righteous (and equally rare) masterpiece ‘Illiteracy.’

Black Man’s Pride 2 extends the legacy of Studio One’s ground-breaking path in roots reggae which began at the end of the 1960s and continued throughout the 1970s. The album tells the story of how the rise of Studio One Records and the Rastafari movement were interconnected, through the adoption of the Rastafari faith by key reggae artists – everyone from the Skatalites and Wailers in the 1960s, major singers such as Alton Ellis and Horace Andy at the end of the decade, through to major roots artists such as The Gladiators in the 1970s – and how Clement Dodd consistently recorded this heavyweight roots music throughout Studio One’s history.

The extensive sleeve-notes to this album also discuss the links between Rastafari and Studio One in time and place, noting how both the religion and Clement Dodd’s musical empire had their roots in the intense period of pre-independence Jamaica in Kingston, expanded in the 1960s following the visit of Haile Selassie in 1966, and how roots music then came to dominate reggae music in the early 1970s. Also discussed is how the outsider stance of both reggae music and the Rastafari movement relate back many hundreds of years to the original rebel stance of the Maroons, escaped slaves who set up self-sufficient enclaves in the hills of the Jamaican countryside.

There is also a track-by-track history by the noted Studio One writer Rob Chapman (Never Grow Old). This new album comes as heavyweight gatefold double vinyl (+ download code).

The Fall/A-Sides

Vinyl LP pressing. The seventeen songs collected here come from The Fall’s Brix Smith era, aka “the golden era of Fall releases.” This is a perfect introduction to the band, and as legendary critic Robert Christgau said, it’s “The only Fall record any normal person need own”. Originally released in 1990, this album has never been released on vinyl in the US, and isn’t easy to find elsewhere. The band’s legendary and notorious frontman Mark E. Smith passed away earlier this year at the age of 60. The band’s output since they formed at the height of the punk rock movement in Manchester in 1976 was prolific to say the least. It’s hard to be exact, but in their four decades, The Fall released 31 studio albums, 5 part-studio/ part live albums, 32 live albums, 40 compilations, and Mark E. Smith also released two spoken word albums. Another high number is that of former members of The Fall. There were over 60 different band members over the years. Their high volume of quality work over the last 40+ years had an enormous influence which was extolled greatly after his death.

Shovels & Rope/Predecessors

Vinyl LP pressing. Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent (known jointly as the Americana/folk duo Shovels & Rope) started their career performing independently as solo artists, each releasing records under their own names in the mid-to-late aughts and early 2010’s. In 2008 they released the album titled Shovels & Rope as a collaboration and the two artists decided to tour together. Performing live, they’d play together on songs from Hearst’s Lions and Lambs (2011), Trent’s The Winner (2010), and their collaborative album, creating the first live glimpses of the band that would eventually become Shovels & Rope. Dualtone is excited to offer these early individual solo albums alongside early collaborations in the form of Predecessors, a three LP package featuring Hearst’s Lions and Lambs, Trent’s The Winner, and a third LP with never-before-released material from Shovels & Rope’s archives.

Gillian Welch/Soul Journey

Vinyl LP pressing. Gillian Welch’s rich and remarkable career spans over 20 years, and is a pillar of the modern acoustic music world. This is the long-awaited first pressing of the roots singer/songwriter’s moving 2003 album, Soul Journey, a collaborative effort with producer/multi-instrumentalist David Rawlings which Mojo called “pretty much perfect” in their 5-star review. It marked the pair’s first experimentation with a fuller, electric sound and is home to some of the most beloved songs in Welch’s catalog including the timeless classics “Look at Miss Ohio” and “Wayside/Back in Time.”

KennyBurrellwithArtBlakeyOnViewAtFiveSpotCafe

Kenny Burrell with Art Blakey/On View At The Five Spot Cafe

On View at the Five Spot Cafe is a live album by American jazz guitarist Kenny Burrell with drummer Art Blakey. It was recorded live at the Five Spot Cafe in New York City on August 25, 1959, and released on the Blue Note label.

Bert Jansch/L.A. Turnaround

Vinyl LP pressing. Digitally remastered and expanded edition of this 1974 album by the British folk legend. First of a diptych of albums recorded in and influenced by Bert’s time in America, and the first of three for American label, Charisma. Tony Stratton Smith himself brought Bert to the label, claiming proudly that “if ever a man is due his place among the ‘superstars’, it’s Bert Jansch.” Of the era, As the title suggests, this album was something of a contrast to Jansch’s usual style – taking in swathes of Nashville-infused pedal steel – courtesy of the legendary Red Rhodes – to sparkling effect. Bert himself seemed surprised by just how well the record turned out, influenced by the assembled company’s alternative approach to recording: “Red Rhodes was delightful, both he and Mike [Nesmith] who played rhythm guitar were extraordinary musicians. I had the songs when we came to record but Mike and Red didn’t know them. There were no demos or anything. We’d run through them and I’d teach them the songs but Red especially was used to jamming, playing to the song.” Often cited by fans as some of Bert’s best work, this 1974 album was produced in part by the Monkees’ Mike Nesmith, whose guidance is much in evidence on this perfectly measured slice of British country-rock.

Vaya Con Dios/Vaya Con Dios

Limited 180gm clear vinyl LP pressing. This special 30th anniversary edition includes an insert with a lyric sheet. Vaya con Dios is the debut album of the band by the same name. As one of the most successful Belgian music acts they sold over than seven million albums. Their first album is known for the eclectic mix between jazz, soul and blues. While listening to this album you’ll hear the influences from the French Chanson and gypsy music. This surprising combination results in an album which will blend wonderful with summer evenings. Vaya con Dios was founded in 1986 by Dirk Schoufs, Dani Klein and Willy Lambregt.

Bo Carter/Banana In Your Fruit Basket:Red Hot Blues 1931-36

Bo Carter is the alias for singer/guitarist Bo Chatmon, a member of the famous Chatmon family from Mississippi (which produced 13 musically capable children). Notorious for his double-entendre blues, Carter based his songs around sexual metaphors and the results were, unsurprisingly, widely popular. If there were such a thing as parental warning stickers in the 1930s, they would have been applied liberally to Carter‘s releases. On Banana in Your Fruit Basket (the companion to Twist It Baby), Yazoo brings together 14 more Carter sides from the 1930s. A cursory glance at track titles alone tells a great deal: “Mashing That Thing,” “Don’t Mash My Digger So Deep,” “Pin in Your Cushion,” “My Pencil Won’t Write Anymore.” The themes in Carter‘s music were certainly pervasive in the country-blues of the period, but they were rarely as explicit. Whereas one singer might ask “Baby, where’d you stay last night? You got the hair all tangled and you ain’t talkin’ right” (a stock blues verse), few would ask the same woman “Baby, what kind of scent is that?” when she walks through the door. Often, Carter‘s metaphors are so thin that the results have little value beyond their novelty. Musically, Carter has a relaxed, clear, and fairly indistinct singing style and a fluid, fingerpicking guitar attack to match it. While Banana in Your Fruit Basket paints an accurate picture of Bo Chatmon‘s alter ego, the music is very much a product of its time. Giving insight into what people appreciated in their entertainment, it also feels like proof that not much has changed.

The Promise Ring/Very Emergency

Very Emergency (1999) is the third album by The Promise Ring. This album sees the band continuing to explore the sounds they had started on their previous release Nothing Feels Good, a more pop – rock-leaning when compared to their debut. The Promise Ring’s hook-packed pop sensibility was unique for the genre at the time and helped them inject a shimmery energy into emo that still feels fresh today. Hailing from Milwaukee, The Promise Ring weren’t just emblematic of ’90s Midwestern emo: they were one of the most celebrated bands in the history of the genre. Under the leadership of frontman Davey Von Bohlen of Cap’n Jazz, their sound incorporated elements of power pop that would become more popular in later years. They broke up in 2002 and after nearly a decade of inactivity The Promise Ring officially reunited in February 2012.

Rex Orange County/Apricott Princess

Limited orange vinyl LP pressing. It’s been a pretty crazy 12 months for Rex Orange County – AKA 19-year-old Alex O’Connor – from Haslemere, Surrey. After two guest slots on Tyler the Creator’s album Flower Boy, he’s played live with Frank Ocean and Skepta, all the while working on his debut album, Apricot Princess. The self-released record is full of sumptuous hooks, jazzy piano figures and musical left-turns that suggest a true original at work. He placed second after winner Sigrid in the BBC Sound of 2018 Poll, and recently performed on Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show.

Sasha/Fabric 99

4-LP version. Packaged in a bespoke card envelope. Sasha provides the 99th installment of the world’s leading house and techno mix series from London’s renowned Fabric nightclub. From playing acid house at the legendary Haçienda to residencies at a number of the world’s super clubs and a Grammy nomination, Sasha’s career trajectory is unparalleled. His vast discography includes a number of studio albums, remixes for Madonna and The Chemical Brothers, soundtracks for computer games, and a long list of acclaimed mixes. He runs his own management agency out of New York and oversees his imprint Last Night On Earth. Fabric 99 shows off his legendary track transitions and how they enable broken beats and ambient wanderings to sit comfortably alongside dub techno and uplifting house. The continuous DJ mix features a Sasha exclusive, “Smoke Monk (Fabric Mix)”. Sasha on the mix “Getting the chance to do this Fabric CD was an honor. Some of my fondest moments playing in London have been at that club. I really wanted to capture what I do there as I feel it’s somewhere I play differently to anywhere else in the world.” Features Agnes Obel, Quiet Village, Marbert Rocel, Heitzberg Theorem, Kora (CA), Tom Flynn, Indigo, CLOSE, DJ Hell, Joyce Muniz, Ghosts On Tape, Jus-Ed, Whitesquare, Crowdpleaser, Exercise One & Mathew Jonson, Sasha, Objekt, Jono Ma & Dreems, Javier Logares & Kaarel, Tiefschwarz, George Fitzgerald, Carl Craig, Francesco Tristano, Les Siècles, François-Xavier Roth, Antigone, BAILE, and Felicia Douglass.

Boz Scaggs/Out of The Blues

Double vinyl LP pressing. 2018 release. The self-produced Out Of The Blues finds national treasure Boz Scaggs applying his iconic voice and gritty guitar skills to a set of vintage classics as well as four originals. For the occasion, the legendary singer/songwriter/guitarist assembled a star-studded studio band including such prestigious players as guitarists Doyle Bramhall II, Ray Parker Jr. And Charlie Sexton, bassist Willie Weeks, drummer Jim Keltner and keyboardist Jim Cox, as well as longtime friend Jack Walroth on guitar. Boz Scaggs is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He was a guitarist and occasional lead singer with the Steve Miller Band in the 1960s, and in the 1970s gained fame with several solo Top 20 hit singles in the United State

Lightnin’ Hopkins/Lightnin’ Hopkins

Houston, Texas’s favorite son Sam John Hopkins, better known as Lightnin’, was recorded in 1959 by the legendary musicologist Samuel Charters, predating and predicting the folk-blues revival of the early ’60s. Widely regarded as one of the finest acoustic blues albums ever, Lightnin’ Hopkins, originally released in 1959 on Folkways Records, established it’s hero as a legend. The very definition of essential.

Joseph Spence/Bahaman Folk Guitar

Vinyl LP pressing. Recorded in 1958 and released on the Folkways label in 1959, Bahaman Folk Guitar introduced American listeners to Joseph Spence’s unique guitar and vocal styles. These field recordings by musicologist Sam Charterscapture Spence in a relaxed, expansive mood – only one of the six selections in the set is under five minutes in length. Spence’s guitar style was due in part to the D tuning of his bass string, which produced a lower bass sound. Whereas many critics have called Spence’s vocal style unorthodox, they have found his guitar playing spontaneous and iconic. Some music critics have gone so far as to refer to him as the “Thelonious Monk of folk guitar.”

Stevie Wonder/Signed, Sealed and Delivered

Vinyl LP pressing. Signed, Sealed & Delivered is a studio album by Stevie Wonder, released on August 7, 1970, by Tamla Records. Along with the hit title track, the album also featured the hits “Heaven Help Us All”, “Never Had a Dream Come True” and Wonder’s cover of The Beatles’ “We Can Work It Out”. The album hit #25 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart as well as #7 on the R&B Albums chart. This was Wonder’s first album on which he was given producer credit, though he actually only produced two of the tracks and co-produced three more. He wrote or co-wrote seven of the tracks.

Murder By Death/In Bocca Al Luppo

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing including digital download. In Bocca al Lupo is the third full-length album release by Murder by Death. It was released on Tent Show Records, on May 23, 2006. The title comes from the Italian phrase that literally translates to “into the mouth of the wolf” and is commonly used to say “Good luck”. Murder by Death is an American five-piece indie rock band from Bloomington, Indiana. Their name is derived from the 1976 Robert Moore film of the same name. The band’s current lineup consists of two founding members, Adam Turla and Sarah Balliet. Balliet plays cello for the band, an instrument that has been present consistently throughout the bands evolution. Murder by Death plays a range of music including instrumentals, rock and alt. Country. The band uses cello (with an electric cello for live shows) to create a gothic sound with occasional Western references. The band often arranges themes such as whiskey and the Devil into concept albums.

Atmosphere/Sad Clown Bad Year (#9-#12 Collection)

Limited double half black and white colored vinyl LP pressing housed in a gatefold sleeve, includes digital download. The Sad Clown series first started as a string of cassette tapes and CD-R’s for Atmosphere to sell on tour. Since it’s incarnation in 1999, the Sad Clown series has taken on a few forms, including rare 4-track demos, live shows, a DVD, a mixtape, and a pair of 7″ singles. In celebration of the 10 year anniversary of these iconic EP’s, we are releasing a special vinyl edition, packaging all four Sad Clown seasons together for the first time, complete with some added treats to make even the saddest clown smile.

Cody Jinks/Lifer

Vinyl LP pressing in gatefold jacket. 2018 release, the eighth studio album from the country music singer/songwriter. His long-awaited album Lifers marks his debut for Rounder, and is a creative leap forward for Jinks. The eleven original songs on the album tackle heady themes of faith (“Holy Water”); love, loss, and the desperate measures to which they sometimes drive people (“Must Be the Whiskey,” “7th Floor,” “Somewhere Between I Love You and I’m Leavin’,” “Colorado”), loneliness, (“Desert Wind”), and the passage of time (“Stranger”). Lifers is the follow-up to his 2016 album I’m Not the Devil, which reached #4 on the Billboard’s Country Albums chart.

Emilio Santiago/Emilio Santiago

Far Out Recordings present a reissue of the 1975 self-titled debut album from Brazilian vocalist and bossa nova luminary Emilio Santiago. Nicknamed “the Nat King Cole of Brazil”, Santiago was a master bossa balladeer and a top-class crooner. But he is known equally for his Brazilian funk, soul, and boogie classics. One of his best know is album opener “Bananeira”, a party-starting version of the song originally written by João Donato and Gilberto Gil. “Brother” is a smooth-grooving killer with great horn arrangements and a huge backing choir, while “La Mulata” is a soulful, swinging salsa stepper. Originally released on the CID label, the album showcases the full range of Emilio’s talents, while paying homage to some of Brazil’s greatest composers, including Jorge Ben, Marcos and Sergio Valle, and Ivan Lins, among others. The credits on the album are a “who’s who” of Brazil’s greats, with João Donato on keys, Wilson das Neves, Ivan “Mamão” Conti and Paulinho on drums, Durval Ferreira, Carlos Roberto Rocha and Helio Delmiro on guitar, Ariovaldo, Orlandivo and Chacal on percussion, Danilo Caymmi on flute, a brass section featuring Victor Assis Brasil, Edson Maciel and Jesse Sadoc, and backing vocals from Jaime & Nair, Lúcia Lins, Jurema and Marcio Lott.

U2/Zooropa

U2/Achtung Baby

U2/Best Of 1980-1990

Double 180gm vinyl LP pressing. Achtung Baby is the seventh studio album by Irish rockers U2. It was produced by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, and was released on 18 November 1991 on Island Records. U2 shifted their musical direction to incorporate influences from alternative rock, industrial music, and electronic dance music into their sound. Thematically, Achtung Baby is darker, more introspective, and at times more flippant than their previous work. The album and the subsequent multimedia-intensive Zoo TV Tour were central to the group’s 1990s reinvention, by which they abandoned their earnest public image for a more lighthearted and self-deprecating one.

Double vinyl LP pressing. Zooropa is the eighth studio album by U2. Produced by Flood, Brian Eno, and The Edge, it was released on 5 July 1993 on Island Records. Inspired by the band’s experiences on the Zoo TV Tour, Zooropa expanded on many of the tour’s themes of technology and media oversaturation. The record was a continuation of the group’s experimentation with alternative rock, electronic dance music, and electronic sound effects that began with their previous album, Achtung Baby, in 1991. U2 began writing and recording Zooropa in Dublin in February 1993, during a six-month break between legs of the Zoo TV Tour. The record was originally intended as an EP to promote the Zooropa leg of the tour that was to begin in May 1993, but during the sessions, the group decided to extend the record to a full-length album.

The Psychedelic Furs/The Psychedelic Furs

The Psychedelic Furs/Forever Now

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing. The Psychedelic Furs is the debut studio album by British rock band the Psychedelic Furs. It was released on 7 March 1980 by Columbia Records. Includes longtime fan favorites ‘Sister Europe’, ‘We Love You’, ‘India’ and ‘Imitation Of Christ’. The Psychedelic Furs formed in London in February 1977. Led by singer Richard Butler and his brother Tim Butler on bass guitar, the Psychedelic Furs were one of the many acts spawned from the British post-punk scene. Their music went through several phases, from an initially austere art rock sound, to later touching on new wave and commercial rock.

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing. Forever Now is the third studio album by British band The Psychedelic Furs. The album, including the hit single “Love My Way”, was recorded in the spring of 1982 and released on 25 September of that year by Columbia/CBS. The album represented a turning point in the musical maturation of the band, after a turbulent period of personnel changes in which they shrank from a six-man ensemble to a quartet. Working with the Furs for the first time, Todd Rundgren placed his own sonic imprint upon the album as producer and guest musician. Rundgren also added new types of instrumentation to the band’s sound, including cello and marimba. Includes the hit single ‘Love My Way’.

The Internet/Hive Mind

Double vinyl LP pressing in gatefold jacket. 2018 album from The Internet, the follow up to 2015’s critically acclaimed and Grammy nominated album Ego Death. With this album, The Internet present enormous growth in their creative chemistry and prove they are a five-person force whose singular talents created one phenomenal whole. The album is written and produced entirely by The Internet – Syd (vocalist/songwriter), Matt Martians (producer), Steve Lacy (guitarist/vocalist/songwriter), Patrick Paige II (songwriter/bassist), and Christopher Smith (songwriter/drummer). And it is with a sense of togetherness – not just for them, but for everyone – that the band chose to highlight as a major theme for Hive Mind. “After making a few songs we realized that we really want to use this album to live by example and promote camaraderie amongst young black people,” Syd reveals. “We realized that we’re the only band of our kind. And we want to really solidify ourselves as that, as the best.” With the chaos of the current world considered, all of The Internet wanted to champion good feelings and the joy of following your heart and passions, in addition to using their own positive relationships and experiences to inspire their community. The band unearthed an even deeper purpose as they collaborated on Hive Mind. The result is not just one of the greatest records in the band’s already phenomenal catalogue, but is easily one of the best albums of 2018, from five amazing people already leaving an indelible mark on pop music.

Ty Segall & White Fence /Joythe

Vinyl LP pressing including poster. 2018 release. Ty Segall and White Fence are as one again. Six years after their fun favorite Hair collaboration, and jeez, almost four years after Ty produced the last White Fence record For the Recently Found Innocent, they’re back at it. But the second time around, it’s no Hair 2 – Joy is it’s own reward. Tim Presley and Ty take it up a notch, with fifteen wild tracks that share space in a effortless fashion, dispersing doses of the fabled vintage obsessions, but threading them together instead with their own sound of today. Joy, indeed!

Odesza/Summer’s Gone

Seattle-based production duo Odesza (Harrison Mills & Clayton Knight) began their meteoric journey in 2012 with Summer’s Gone. The following spring, they released the five-song EP My Friends Never Die – a harder-hitting complement to the lush sounds of their debut – and began to build their reputation as a ground-breaking live act. In 2014, they signed to Ninja Tune imprint Counter Records to release In Return, featuring the two gold-certified singles “Say My Name” and “Sun Models”, and 2017’s A Moment Apart, which would go on to garner two Grammy nominations. The popularity of Odesza’s most recent albums has brought with it a newfound audience that is just now discovering Summer’s Gone and My Friends Never Die and their standout songs like “How Did I Get Here” and “My Friends Never Die.” Mills and Knight have also proved themselves as tastemakers with the launch of the Foreign Family Collective, which is reissuing Summer’s Gone and My Friends Never Die back on vinyl.

Apollo Brown & Locksmith/No Question

Vinyl LP pressing. West Coast Berkeley grad, battle rapper and musician Locksmith has hammered out a reputation as one of hip-hop’s most enlightened no punch pulling emcees, always bringing cutting lyricism that not only questions the status quo but offers deep truths for reflection. Meanwhile Detroit’s Apollo Brown has built his illustrious career on emotive productions that draw the best out of already legendary mic kings. From his work with Ras Kass and OC, Skyzoo to Ghostface Killah, Apollo repeatedly creates eyes shut, head nodding, soul stirring perfection for our greatest storytellers to lay their truth bare. So when Richmond, CA and Detroit, MI came together in the studio the answer was No Question – a new project that finds an Apollo Brown bolstered Locksmith ruminating on everything from advice to his younger self to his continued drive to rise without following in anyone’s footsteps.

Pharcyde/Labcabincalifornia

Double vinyl LP pressing. Labcabincalifornia is the second album by hip hop group The Pharcyde, originally released in 1995, three years after their debut Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde. The album’s production was handled by The Pharcyde themselves and Jay Dee, with additional help from Diamond D and M-Walk. The first single was “Drop”. “Drop” was a hit, as was the follow-up single “Runnin’,” which peaked at #55 on the Billboard Hot 100. Overall, this album is a more mellow and introspective affair than their debut and features more somber themes such as dealing with fame and success, drug abuse, and broken down relationships.

Mudvayne/End Of All Things To Come

Vinyl LP pressing. To celebrate the 15th anniversary of Mudvayne’s gold-certified 2002 album The End of All Things To Come SRC vinyl is releasing it on vinyl for the very first time! One of the most creative and distinctive bands in the aggressive music world, Mudvayne’s versatile sophomore album is an electrical storm of musical fury, a lesson in controlled chaos that tempers hard rock, heavy metal, prog rock and sadistic splatters of melody into an onslaught of metallic highs and emotional lows, rushing surges and pronounced blows. Hit single “Not Falling” was also featured on the soundtrack for the film Ghost Ship.

Wilko Johnson/Blow Your Mind

Wilko Johnson -“Blow Your Mind” Blow Your Mind, the album Wilko Johnson never thought he would get to make after surviving the brink of death. His first new album of material in 30 plus years featuring 12 brand new recordings with special guests Mick Talbot, Steve Weston and produced by Dave Eringa. Pressed on 180-gram heavyweight vinyl and includes a digital download card.

Pedro The Lion/Winners Never Quit

The Only Reason I Feel Secure is the second EP by Pedro the Lion. Originally released as a 5 track EP in 1999 on Made In Mexico Records, it was re-issued by Jade Tree records in 2001 with 3 bonus tracks which originally constituted the bands’s first single – and appear only on the Jade Tree reissue. After a shifting lineup, Pedro the Lion eventually became a one-man outfit. That man is David Bazan. A Seattle native, Bazan cut his teeth playing in hardcore bands before forming Pedro in 1995, taking the band’s name from a character he made up for a possible children’s book. Under the moniker of Pedro the Lion, Bazan creates melodic pop in the vein of Bedhead, Hayden, and Sebadoh, with a lyrical focus on relationships – with both other people and God. In early 2006, Bazan retired the Pedro moniker to continue on with solo work under his own name.

Frank Zappa/Chunga’s Revenge

Vinyl LP pressing. Chunga’s Revenge is the third solo album by Frank Zappa, originally released in 1970. Zappa’s first effort of the 1970s marks the first appearance of former Turtles members Flo & Eddie on a Zappa record, and signals the dawn of a controversial epoch in Zappa’s history. Chunga’s Revenge represents a shift from both the satirical political commentary of his 1960s work with The Mothers of Invention, and the jazz fusion of Hot Rats. The material presented on Chunga’s Revenge is eclectic: side one includes a guitar jam (“Transylvania Boogie”), a bluesy amble (“Road Ladies”), a jazz interlude (“Twenty Small Cigars”) and an avant garde live improvisation (“The Nancy and Mary Music”) drawn from “King Kong” and other songs from a July 1970 Mothers performance. Several poppy numbers (“Tell Me You Love Me”, “Would You Go All the Way?”, “Rudy Wants to Buy Yez a Drink”, “Sharleena”) appear on the second side along with the improvisational title track.

Powerman 5000/Copies, Clones & Replicants

Limited edition vinyl pressing of the covers project by platinum-selling electro-metal superheroes, Powerman 5000! Featuring electrified versions of Devo’s “Whip It,” Van Halen’s “Jump,” David Bowies’s “Space Oddity,” T Rex’s “20th Century Boy,” INXS’s “Devil Inside” and more!

The Left Banke/Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina

Vinyl LP pressing. The Left Banke’s 1967 album Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina is widely regarded as one of the greatest debuts of the ’60s, thanks to frontman Steve Martin’s evocative lead vocals, the haunting harmonies of band membersTom Finn and George Cameron, the ambitious songwriting of keyboardist Michael Brown, and exquisite, classically-influenced arrangements that were unlike anything else in popular music at the time. “Walk Away Renee,” released the previous year as the band’s first single, remains one of the era’s most recognizable (and most-covered) standards. In addition to “Walk Away Renee” and it’s followup hit “Pretty Ballerina,” the album also features such memorable numbers as “She May Call You Up Tonight,” “Barterers and Their Wives” and “Shadows Breaking Over My Head.”

Tone-LōC/Lōc-ed After Dark

Vinyl LP pressing. Lōc-ed After Dark is the debut studio album by rapper Tone Lōc. It was released by Delicious Vinyl on January 23, 1989. It featured three singles, “Wild Thing”, “Funky Cold Medina”, and “I Got It Goin’ On”. In the week of April 15, it reached #1 on the Billboard200 chart. It was certified Double Platinum by the RIAA. The album cover is based on Donald Byrd’s 1963 album, A New Perspective. The video for the first single, “Wild Thing, ” became a stable on MTV in the US; the song rose to #2 on the US Hot 100, and the top twenty in Australia. The second single, “Funky Cold Medina, ” also became a hit. It reached the top 5 in the US, peaking at #3; the top ten in Australia; and the top twenty in the UK.

Wire/Pink Flag

Vinyl LP pressing. Digitally remastered edition. Pink Flag is the debut studio album by English band Wire. It was released in November 1977, through Harvest Records. Though the album failed to chart on it’s initial release, it has been widely acclaimed and is considered by critics and other commentators to have been highly influential on many other musicians since it’s release. Wire’s first three albums need no introduction. They are the three classic albums on which Wire’s reputation is based. Moreover, they are the recordings that minted the post-punk form. This was adopted by other bands, but Wire were there first.

Wire/Chairs Missing

Vinyl LP pressing. Digitally remastered edition of the British post-punk band’s second album, originally released in 1978. Chairs Missing peaked at #48 in the UK Albums Chart. Although it features some of the minimalist punk rock of the band’s debut Pink Flag, it features more developed song structure (taking some cues from 1970s prog-rock, psychedelia, and art rock), keyboard and synthesizer elements brought in by producer Mike Thorne, and a broader palette of emotional and intellectual subject matter. The single “Outdoor Miner” was a minor hit, peaking at !51 in the UK Singles Chart. Wire’s first three albums need no introduction. They are the three classic albums on which Wire’s reputation is based. Moreover, they are the recordings that minted the post-punk form. This was adopted by other bands, but Wire were there first.

Wire/154

Vinyl LP pressing. Digitally remastered edition of the British post-punk band’s third album, originally released in 1979. 154 peaked at #39 in the UK Albums Chart, the highest position the band has achieved. The album is so named because the band had played 154 gigs in their career at the time of the album’s release. Pitchfork listed 154 as 85th best album of the 1970s. Wire’s first three albums need no introduction. They are the three classic albums on which Wire’s reputation is based. Moreover, they are the recordings that minted the post-punk form. This was adopted by other bands, but Wire were there first. This vinyl version should be considered Wire’s classic 1970s period, pure and undiluted.

Alice Cooper/Killer

Killer – Alice Cooper – The band’s 1971 breakthrough album featuring “Under My Wheels” “Be My Lover” and “Halo Of Flies”. 140 gram Red/w Black Swirl vinyl Cooper said in the liner notes of A Fistful of Alice and In the Studio with Redbeard, which spotlighted the Killer and Love it to Death albums, that the song “Desperado” was written about his friend Jim Morrison, who died the year this album was released. According to an NPR radio interview with Alice Cooper, “Desperado” was written about Robert Vaughn’s character from the movie The Magnificent Seven. Start Your Ear Off Right!

Featured Vinyl New Releases 6.29.18: John Coltrane, Run The Jewels, Gorillaz, Ryan Adams, David Bowie, Dave Matthews Band, Florence + The Machine, Jim James, Guns N Roses

Posted by Marion M Merritt on June 28, 2018

Posted in: Music, Music News, New Releases, Video. Tagged: david bowie, featured vinyl new releases, florence + the machine, gorillaz, guns n roses, jim james, john coltrane, run the jewels, ryan adams. Leave a comment

John Coltrane/Both Directions At Once:The Lost Album

Vinyl LP pressing. Standard version incorporates seven tracks, two of which are completely unheard original compositions. 2018 archive release. Unknown until 2004 and unheard until now, these recordings by the John Coltrane Quartet are, as Sonny Rollins says in the liner notes, like finding a new room in the Great Pyramid. Featuring the Classic Quartet – John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones – and recorded at the end of a two-week run at Birdland, the music on this album represents one of the most influential groups in music history both performing in a musical style it had perfected and reaching in new, exploratory directions that were to affect the trajectory of jazz from that point forward.

RunTheJewelsStayGoldSmiff&CashRemixCollectionRedVinylwithMarvelVariantArt

Run The Jewels/Stay Gold Smiff & Cash Remix Collection Red Vinyl Marvel Etched

Run The Jewels ‘Stay Gold Smiff & Cash Remix Collection’ 12″ etched red vinyl.

Gorillaz/The Now Now

Vinyl LP pressing including digital download. 2018 release, the sixth studio album from the acclaimed British “band.” With the announcement of The Now Now, the band also introduced a new fictional band member, Ace from Cartoon Network’s animated series The Powerpuff Girls. In the story, Ace is a temporary replacement for Murdoc, who has been incarcerated. Gorillaz is singer 2D, bassist Murdoc Niccals, guitarist Noodle and drummer Russel Hobbs. Created by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, their acclaimed eponymous debut album was released in 2001. The BRIT and Grammy Award winning band’s subsequent albums are Demon Days (2005), Plastic Beach (2010) and The Fall (2011). A truly global phenomenon, Gorillaz have topped charts around the world and toured the globe from San Diego to Syria, picking up hundreds of millions of streams and record sales along the way. Gorillaz have achieved success in entirely ground-breaking ways, winning numerous awards including the coveted Jim Henson Creativity Honor and are recognized by The Guinness Book Of World Records as the planet’s Most Successful Virtual Act.

Ryan Adams/Baby I Love You

Limited seven inch vinyl pressing. 2018 single from the acclaimed singer/songwriter. “Baby I Love You” is exactly what it sounds like: A song to one’s baby, whom they love-a unique twist on Ryan Adams’ classic recipe, with key ingredient “sad” replaced by “happy.”

David Bowie/Christiane F. Wir Kinder Vom Bahnhof Zoo

Christiane F. – Wir Kinder Vom Bahnhof Zoo is the soundtrack to the 1981 film based on the 1978 autobiography by German actress Christiane Vera Felscherinow. The soundtrack incorporates songs from several Bowie albums, including “Stay” (Station To Station, 1976), “Warszawa” (Low, 1977) “V-2 Schneider” (“Heroes”, 1977), and “Look Back In Anger” (Lodger, 1979.) Released on vinyl for the first time in 30 years, this fan favourite will be pressed on limited edition red vinyl and available exclusively at “brick and mortar” retail stores. The set includes Mark Adams’ original liner notes from the 2001 CD issue of the album.

Florence + The Machine/High As Hope

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing. 2018 release, the fourth album from six-time Grammy-nominee Florence + the Machine. High As Hope is the sound of an artist who appears more certain than ever of herself. Florence writes about her teens and twenties with a renewed, more mature perspective: of growing up in South London, of family, relationships and art itself. Florence and the Machine formed in London in 2007, consisting of vocalist Florence Welch, keyboardist Isabella Summers, and a collaboration of other musicians. The band’s music received praise across the media, especially from the BBC, which played a large part in their rise to prominence by promoting Florence and the Machine as part of BBC Introducing.

Jim James/Uniform Distortion

Vinyl LP pressing. 2018 release from the Grammy Award-nominated frontman of My Morning Jacket. “My head feels like it is exploding with the amount of information we are forced to consume on a daily basis, and how that information is so distorted there is almost no longer any tangible truth,” says James. “The name of my record is Uniform Distortion because I feel like there is this blanket distortion on society/media and the way we gather our ‘news and important information. More and more of us are feeling lost and looking for new ways out of this distortion and back to the truth… and finding hope in places like the desert where I write this now… finding hope in the land and in the water and in old books offering new ideas and most importantly in each other and love.”

Guns N Roses/Appetite For Destruction Deluxe Limited

APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION – 2LP 180-GRAM AUDIOPHILE VINYL EDITION:

First Ever Album Remaster from Original Analog Tapes

Original Album Expanded to 2-LPs for Maximum Audiophile Playback

Vinyl Cut from 192kHz 24-bit Remastered High-Resolution Audio

Limited Edition Foil Art Slipcase

Side 4 Extra Bonus: Hologroove Hologram of GNR Logo

Download Card Sticker for 44.1kHz 16-bit Digital Album

APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION: REMASTERED Produced by Mike Clink

Mixed by Steve Thompson and Michael Barbiero

Fantastic Negrito/Please Don’t Be Dead

Vinyl LP pressing. There is desperation and urgency in Fantastic Negrito’s new album Please Don’t Be Dead. The record sees the Devil around the corner, and each song is a plea to make you aware of what’s waiting for you. The artist is screaming at you because he knows what comes next. The album art features a real life photograph of Fantastic Negrito waking up from a three week coma. His body is shattered, his eyes are staring past you. They’re staring at the darkness that awaits. But with his new album we hear the voice of an artist who put that darkness in the rearview. Now he’s asking America to do the same.

Madlib/Untinted: Sources For Madlib’s Shades Of Blue

As one of the most prolific hip hop producers of all time Madlib collaborated with different artists and recorded own songs under different pseudonyms. During his outstanding year 2003 he released the crown on his work, the remix album Shades of Blue. 180 gram audiophile vinyl
Original songs by Gene Harris & The Three Sounds, Donald Byrd’s “Distant Land” (previously unreleased track, now available on vinyl), Bobbi Humphrey, Wayne Shorter and more tracks by jazz icons
Tracks were the foundations of Madlib’s jazz-hip/hop album Shades Of Blue.

Nick Cave/Kings OST

Vinyl LP pressing. Kings is a 2018 crime drama film directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven (Mustang). Set in 1992, it follows Millie (Halle Berry), a woman living in South Central Los Angeles who takes in at-risk youths to live in her home. When the infamous Rodney King riots grip the city, Millie and her cavalcade of adoptees are thrust into the mounting chaos sprouting all around them. In time, they are forced into unlikely alliances in order to stay alive. Scoring duties for Kings fall to Nick Cave & Warren Ellis of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds fame. In recent years, they have become a force to be reckoned with in the world of soundtracks, thanks to their impressive work on films like Hell or High Water, Wind River, and the National Geographic series Mars. Cave and Ellis, the later a repeat Ergüven collaborator, pull from their rich history in the music world to deliver an unexpected score that immediately transports the listener to a specific place in time – the hot, angry streets of Los Angeles in the summer of 1992.

Joey Bada$$/1999

Seminal project from Joey Bada$$, never before available for retail sale, being released on vinyl and digital retailers for the first time.

Melody’s Echo Chamber/Bon Voyage

Bon Voyage is a collaborative record between Prochet and Dungen’s Reine Fiske and The Amazing’s Fredrik Swahn with Melody sculpting and producing the sessions as well as encouraging the players around her to experiment, often with instruments that might be less familiar to them. It also features special guests Gustav Esjtes and Johan Holmegaard (both from Dungen) and Nicholas Allbrook (Pond).

Sylvers/Sylvers 2

Vinyl LP pressing. Digitally remastered edition. This is masterpiece. And we mean it. Beautiful golden-era soul written by Leon Sylvers III produced by Jerry Butler and Keg Johnson. The Sylvers were a family from Los Angeles who were very successful during the ’70s and into the early ’80s with chart hits – deep into pop-disco territory by then! – including ‘Boogie Fever’ ‘Hot Line’ and ‘High School Dance’. This is the groups second album from 1973 and is one of their strongest. Opening with the awesome mid-tempo ‘We Can Make It If We Try’ the record moves through funk boogie and deep soul moods finishing on a hazy acapella version of The Beatles ‘Yesterday’. The Sylvers always provide a goldmine of samples. This album has been flipped by Madlib (for MF DOOM) Homeboy Sandman 50 Cent Ghostface Killah Black Milk Roc Marciano David Banner & 9th Wonder and more.

Shina Williams & His African Percussionists/African Dances

Vinyl LP pressing. Digitally remastered edition. First official reissue of the extremely rare full-length album by Lagos-based bandleader Shina Williams. Clean copies of the original currently sell for up to £500. The record was born in 1979 when Shina put Biddy Wright, Fred Fisher, Saliu Alabi, Prince Bola, Tutu Shoronmu, and several other decorated Nigerian musicians – who played with the likes of Fela Kuti, SJOB Movement, Sonny Okoson, King Bucknor amongst others – together to record. The result is African Dances, a timeless fusion of afrobeat, electronics, boogie and disco. Includes his most well-known song, ‘Agboju Logun’ that Williams knew was ground breaking – “I want to show the whole wide world that Africa is alive with modern musicians to reckon with anywhere

African Scream Contest 2

Vinyl LP. A great compilation can open the gate to another world. Who knew that some of the most exciting Afro-funk records of all time were actually made in the small West African country of Benin? Once Analog Africa released the first African Scream Contest in 2008, the proof was there for all to hear, gut-busting yelps, lethally welldrilled horn sections and irresistibly insistent rhythms added up to a record that took you into it’s own space with the same electrifying sureness as any favourite blues or soul or funk or punk sampler you might care to mention.

Aquabats/The Fury Of The Aquabats

Limited red vinyl colored vinyl LP pressing. 1997 was a glorious time for many reasons. One of those reasons is most definitely the release of the Aquabats opus, The Fury Of the Aquabats. The Aquabats were trailblazers on a path of world domination that no one has since dared to follow, and they remain at the peak of their creative mountain today which is one part punk, one part ska, one part Devo, and unparalleled in this universe in the genre of “family friendly monster destruction.”

Bad Religion/No Substance

Vinyl LP pressing. Bad Religion has become synonymous with intelligent and provocative West Coast punk rock and are considered one of the most influential and important bands in the genre. Over the past four decades the band has continually pushed social boundaries and questioned authority and beliefs armed only with propulsive guitars, charging drumbeats, thoughtful lyrics and an undying will to inspire and provoke anyone who will listen. Originally issued on Epitaph Records in 1998, No Substance was the band’s tenth studio effort overall and second release following guitarist Brett Gurewitz’s departure from the band (he would rejoin in 2001). Seen as a return to form for the band after the transitional The Gray Race, No Substance offers up tight and heady punk which touches on societal ills and world politics and still remains catchy as hell. Remastered from the original studio masters, bringing out a louder, more clear sound!

Charles Mingus/Candid Recordings Part One

Chebran Vol. 2 French Boogie

Def Leppard/Vault Greatest Hits 1980-1995

Double vinyl LP pressing. Vault: Def Leppard Greatest Hits (1980-1995) is the first greatest hits album and the second compilation album by English hard rock band Def Leppard. The album was originally released in 1995 by Mercury Records. Vault went on to be certified gold in four countries, platinum in three and multi-platinum in two. The album is currently certified 4× platinum in the US by the RIAA. The album featured one newly recorded song, “When Love & Hate Collide”, which was released as a single. Def Leppard formed in 1977 in Sheffield as part of the new wave of British heavy metal movement. The band’s strongest commercial success came between the early 1980s and the early 1990s.

Alice Cooper/Trash

Limited 180gm red colored vinyl LP pressing housed in a gatefold sleeve. Known as the architect of shock-rock, Alice Cooper (in both the original Alice Cooper band and as a solo artist) has rattled the cages and undermined the authority of generations of guardians of the status quo, continuing to surprise fans and exude danger at every turn. After a parade of groundbreaking, hit filled albums throughout the ’70s Cooper explored different sounds in the ensuing decade ending the ’80s on a high note with the Desmond Child-produced pop-metal effort Trash (1989). His first hit album in years, the platinum certified collection yielded the signature singles “Poison” and “Bed of Nails,” and includes guest performances from Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora and Steve Lukather.

Upcoming Special Vinyl Releases: Run The Jewels, Prince and Father John Misty

Posted by Marion M Merritt on June 13, 2018

Posted in: Music, Music News, New Releases, Video. Tagged: father john misty, limited edition, prince, run the jewels, upcoming new vinyl special releases. Leave a comment

Run The Jewels/Stay Gold Smiff & Cash Remix Collection Red Vinyl

Run The Jewels ‘Stay Gold Smiff & Cash Remix Collection’ 12″ etched red vinyl with marvel varia drops 6.29.18. Very limited quantities available.

Prince/Piano & A Microphone

The announcement was made today, June 7, 2018, a day which marks the singer’s 60th birthday. Piano & A Microphone 1983 is set to feature a previously unreleased cassette recording of Prince at the piano at his home studio in Minnesota captured in 1983 and will be released on September 21, 2018. It will be a nine track, 35-minute album.

“This raw, intimate recording, which took place at the start of Prince’s career right before he achieved international stardom, is similar in format to the Piano & A Microphone Tour that he ended his career with in 2016,” said Prince Estate entertainment adviser Troy Carter. “The Estate is excited to be able to give fans a glimpse of his evolution and show how his career ultimately came full circle with just him and his piano.”

The private rehearsal provides a rare, intimate glimpse into Prince’s creative process as he worked through songs which include ’17 Days‘ and ‘Purple Rain’ (neither of which would be released until 1984), a cover of Joni Mitchell’s ‘A Case Of You‘, ‘Strange Relationship‘ (not released until 1987 on his critically acclaimed Sign O’ The Times album), and ‘International Lover’.

The album also includes a rare recording of the 19th Century spiritual ‘Mary Don’t You Weep’, which will be featured during the end credits of Spike Lee’s BlacKKKlansman in cinemas August 2018. For fans of Prince’s spontaneous live medleys, tracks 1-7 of the album are presented in that same format as they were originally recorded.

Track Listing:

SIDE A:

1. Medley: 17 Days / Purple Rain / A Case Of You / Mary Don’t You Weep / Strange Relationship / International Lover / Wednesday

SIDE B:

1. Cold Coffee & Cocaine (Piano & A Microphone 1983 Version)

2. Why The Butterflies (Piano & A Microphone 1983 Version)

Recorded in 1983 at Prince’s Kiowa Trail home studio in Chanhassen, MN. Engineered by Don Batts.

The album cover photo captures a rare view of Prince backstage during the 1999 tour. The photo was taken by Prince’s trusted photographer and creative collaborator Allen Beaulieu who worked closely with Prince between 1979-1984. Allen’s work with Prince includes the cover shots for the Dirty Mind and Controversy albums and iconic promotional photos for the 1999 album.

The Deluxe CD+LP format will include a 12” booklet featuring brand new liner notes written by Prince’s then engineer Don Batts, as well as candid shots of Prince including never before seen photos.

Father John Misty/God’s Favorite Customer Loser Edition

We are expecting a very limited quantity of the Loser Edition of Father John Misty’s ‘God’s Favorite Customer.’ This will be a first come, first serve product.

records with merritt

Curate Your Vinyl Collection Here

Featured Vinyl New Releases 5.10.19: Robert Glasper, Esperanza Spalding, Mac DeMarco, Get Up Kids, Mystery Lights,

Featured Vinyl New Releases 3.8.18: Weezer, Antlers, Bowie Covers, Patty Griffin, Coathangers, Foals, Eddie Bo, Kaytranada and More/Stream Samples

Featured Vinyl New Releases 2.22.19: Gary Clark Jr., Curtis Mayfield, Better Oblivion Community Center, Claypool Lennon, Half Japanese, Spelling, Lil Yachty,U2 and More/Stream Samples

Featured Vinyl New Releases 9.5.18: Orange Blood, Cat Power, Adrianne Lenker, John Lennon, J. Cole, Joe Strummer, Kristen Hersh, Coheed and Cambria, Phosphorescent, Eric Church and More/Stream Samples

Featured Vinyl New Releases 8.10.18: Byron Lee, Jake Shears, Magpie Salute, Robert Wilkins, Graham Parsons, John Cale, Neko Case,Tom Waits,The Fall, Dave Holland, Vaya Con Dios and More/Stream Samples

Featured Vinyl New Releases7.27.17: Promise Ring, Bo Carter, Murder by Death, U2, Psychedelic Furs, Boz Scaggs, Rex Orange County, Cody Jinks, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Joseph Spence, Sasha and More/Stream Samples

Featured Vinyl New Releases 7.20.18: The Internet, Ty Segall & White Fence, Odesza, Apollo Brown, Wire Re-Issues, Pedro The Lion, Frank Zappa, Tone-Lōc and More/Stream Samples

Featured Vinyl New Releases 6.29.18: John Coltrane, Run The Jewels, Gorillaz, Ryan Adams, David Bowie, Dave Matthews Band, Florence + The Machine, Jim James, Guns N Roses

APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION – 2LP 180-GRAM AUDIOPHILE VINYL EDITION:

Featured Vinyl New Releases 6.15.18: Fantastic Negrito, Madlib, Nick Cave, Joey Bada$$, Melody’s Echo Chamber, African Funk, Mingus, Aquabats!, French Boogie and More/Stream Samples

Upcoming Special Vinyl Releases: Run The Jewels, Prince and Father John Misty

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