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Featured Vinyl New Releases 3.23.18: Jack White, The Wailers, Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, Eccentric Soul, Miles & Trane, Lisse, Guided By Voices, Kim Byoung Duk, Erika Wennerstrom, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Rory Gallagher and More/Stream Samples

Posted by Marion M Merritt on March 23, 2018

Posted in: Music, Music News, New Releases, Video. Tagged: bob marley, cavern of anti-matter, damon edge, eric dolpy, erika wennerstrom, featured vinyl new releases, francois bayle, grateful dead, guided by voices, jack white, kim byoung duk, led zeppelin, lissie, merritone records, miles david & john coltrane, monster magnet, philip glass, porno for pyros, preoccupations, primitive guitar & banjo, rory gallagher, saru label, sidi toure, spiritual front, squirrel nut zippers, sunflower bean, the sword, wynton marsalis. Leave a comment

Jack White/Boarding House Reach

BOARDING HOUSE REACH is the new solo album from Jack White, and is a testament to the breadth of the artist’s creative power and his bold artistic ambition. This new material finds Jack White expanding his musical palate with perhaps his most ambitious work thus far, a collection of songs that are simultaneously timeless and modern. Written and conceived while holed up in a spartan apartment with literally no outside world distractions, White exclusively used the same kind of gear he had when he was 15 year

BOARDING HOUSE REACH was produced by Jack White III and recorded at Third Man Studio in Nashville, TN, Sear Sound in New York, NY, and Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, CA. The album was mixed by Bill Skibbe, Joshua V. Smith, and White at Third Man Studio in Nashville, TN. The album features White on vocals, acoustic and electric guitars and drums, organ, and synthesizers. He’s backed by a remarkable new lineup of musicians that includes: drummer Louis Cato (Beyoncé, Q-Tip, John Legend, Mariah Carey), bassist.

Bob Marley and The Wailers/Ultimate Wailers Box

Five vinyl LP pressing. A gorgeous vinyl box set featuring the early ’70s recordings of reggae legend Bob Marley performing with the group that launched not only his own career but also put the Jamaican music scene on the world stage, The Wailers! These historic recordings include the Lee Scratch Perry produced Small Axe, Mr. Brown, Soul Rebel, Natural Mystic and many more! Packaged with extensive liner notes by music historian Dave Thompson and photos by Barry Plummer in a full color 12×12 booklet PLUS four bonus postcards!

Lissie/Castles

Vinyl LP pressing. 2018 release, the fourth album from the singer/songwriter. A powerful combination of heartfelt introspection and contemporary dream-pop, Lissie’s Castles marks the return of a singular voice in the modern American scene. Includes ‘Blood And Muscle’. Stripped back to one voice and it’s simple, yet poignant piano accompaniment, ‘Blood And Muscle’ allows Lissie’s vocals to soar, as she summons the strength to laugh at the dark. ‘Blood And Muscle’ serves as a perfect distillation of the spirit of self-determination that courses through all of Castles. No longer willing to stand back and cede her power to others, Lissie is unafraid to finally, and boldly state her dreams and desires: I want a love that’s made of blood and muscle.

Sidi Touré/Toubalbero

Previous Sidi Touré albums were recorded in a modest tin-roofed studio in Bamako. The recording sessions have to be timed around Mali’s rainy season due to the noise from the rain pelting the roof. Toubalbero was recorded over the course of four days at Studio Bogolan, one of the best in Mali where artists that include Ali Farka Touré, Rokia Traoré, Toumani Diabate and Björk have recorded. The album was recorded by Yaya Cissé and produced by Nicolas “Covalesky” Richard. The songs were recorded live to tape in order to capture the energy of the performance. The album was also mixed entirely live by Jason Meagher at Black Dirt Studio (Steve Gunn, Jack Rose). The approach mirrored the live mix of a performance. Much as mixes by the great King Tubby, it retains all the joy and energy of a gig.

The songs are steeped in Malian culture and traditions. “Hendjero Moulaye” (the slippery fish) is a whimsical cautionary tale not unlike the western folksy idiom “don’t count your chickens before they’ve hatched.” In this, we hear of the perils of a man who bragged about his very big fish while on the way to catch it, warning to not sell your fish before you get it from the river. “BK” is an homage to Baba Belkatras, a legend of Songhai music. “Tchirey” is about the kings of the Holleys, the djinn of thunder. For Sidi, it is a call for help from Marou Tchirey for the Songhai people. Sidi wrote this song in 1984 and it won the Bamako Biennale. It was the first time that Vaudou (possession) Songhai songs were played with non-traditional instruments. There are songs of love: “DJiribi Mardjie,” and “Handaraïzo” (the small star), and of family: “Hannah” (the vigil for a newborn) and “Sitiali Boubou” (honoring the ancestor). Perhaps the song that captures the spirit of the album most clearly is “Heyyeya,” an expression to describe a shout of joy. It is based on a Songhai folklore song about the joy of a new marriage. It is a celebration of the beauty of this moment of pure happiness.

Sidi Touré’s Toubalbero is an exuberant and irresistible call out for unity and peace for Malians and Africans. Much like the drum that gathers folks in Goa, this album’s aim is to unite through joyous expression for the greater good of all. Unity is strength and joy is unstoppable.

Monster Magnet/Mindfu**ker

Limited double silver vinyl LP pressing. 2018 release. Monster Magnet put the pedal to the metal with Mindf***er, their 11th record. In terms of power driven stoner rock these gentlemen from New Jersey belong to the measure of all things. But Mindf***er is different, a step forward and a step back at the same time to the almighty roots of beat music. Dave manipulates his guitar with rich virility and the drive of his shifty soul. Wyndorf seeks and finds: Timeless songs, kindled by the unpretentious Proto-punk era. Mindf***er pumps and scratches at every turn! Dave fires off piercing calls over neck-breaking guitar work and whirlwinds of psychedelic solos. All things are in constant motion with a sound of groovy straightforwardness, always heading for the essence of “the” song. “Why you gonna f*** with my head?”, screams Wyndorf their credo in the title track. Up tempo, savage in both sound and spirit, Mindf***er is the real deal!

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Miles Davis & John Coltrane/The Final Tour, Copenhagen March 24,1960

Vinyl LP pressing including digital download. Showcasing the musical chemistry shared by Miles and Trane and let’s fans experience the magic of both artists at the peak of their collective powers. Miles and Trane each implemented their own jazz revolutions at the time of these concerts and the electrifying sonic frisson produced by the sometimes competing/sometimes intertwining music visions of these artists perplexed contemporary jazz fans. As quoted by music historian Ashley Kahn, “it’s not that the band members were so much apart, but rather that each were more themselves within the same unit – that divergence could co-exist and make music together”. Focuses on the final chapter in the landmark collaboration between Davis and Coltrane – their last live performances together.

Wynton Marsalis Septet/United We Swing

Double vinyl LP pressing. Recorded between 2003 and 2007, United We Swing finds an unparalleled array of musical talent that collectively boasts 94 Grammy Awards joining Jazz at Lincoln Center Managing and Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis (a nine-time Grammy Award winner himself) and his Septet. Together, they perform blues-inflected versions of iconic American repertoire and celebrate the red, white, and Blues. These one-night-only, live performances have never been released before. They include Lenny Kravitz performing Marsalis’s hypnotizing, New Orleans-inflected arrangement of Kravitz’s own song, “Are You Gonna Go My Way”; Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks uniting for a stirring, infectious take on Civil Rights anthem “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free”; Bob Dylan adding harmonica licks to a deeply felt, in-the-pocket rendition of “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry”; and Ray Charles taking the stage for one of his final performances to play “I’m Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town.” Together these artists raise their voices to highlight jazz’s importance to America’s cultural heritage and to remind us that, even in divided times, music can unite us all. All proceeds from the album will go toward Jazz at Lincoln Center’s education programs, which introduce thousands of children to jazz each year.

Led Zeppelin/How The West Was Won (Limited Remaster)

Led Zeppelin continue their reissue campaign with a new edition of their celebrated live album How The West Was Won, originally released in 2003, featuring newly remastered audio, which was done under the supervision of Jimmy Page.HOW THE WEST WAS WON highlights the best performances from Led Zeppelin’s legendary concerts at the Los Angeles Forum and Long Beach Arena on June 25 and 27, 1972. Melded together and sequenced to replicate a single concert from beginning to end, the four-LP collection captures the band at the height of its formidable powers. Standouts include a 25-plus minute version of “Dazed And Confused” and a 21-minute medley based around “Whole Lotta Love.” The performances also capture the band introducing songs from its then-unreleased album Houses Of The Holy, which would be released nine months later.

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Thousand Incarnations Of The Rose: American Primitive Guitar & Banjo 1963-74

Various Artists – “Thousand Incarnations Of The Rose: American Primitive Guitar & Banjo” The Thousand Incarnations Of The Rose: American Primitive Guitar and Banjo (1963-1974) celebrates the groundbreaking, inventive approach to traditional music brought forward by a collection of maverick artists whose interpretations of folk, blues, and traditional song gave rise to one of American music’s most unique and singular styles. Features John Fahey, Leo Kottke, Robbie Basho, and more.

Philip Glass & Bojan Goriśek/Etudes For Piano 11-20

Stimming X Lambert/Exodus

Stimming and Lambert present Exodus, their debut as a duo, released on the new Berlin based Kryptox. Stimming is one of the main names in German advanced techno. He first appeared to the public with cooperations with David August and Solomun on Diynamic records. Later he created orchestral techno works and he is now one of the leading names in his genre. Lambert is one of the rising stars of German neo-classical music, often called the “pianoman with the mask”. After three albums – some recorded with a little help from Nils Frahm – he is selling out venues all over Europe. Together Stimming and Lambert create a new approach to postmodern, romantic, and kraut-y electronica mixed with classical piano elements. Kryptox is the new label for neo-jazz/kraut/classical music by Gomma and Toy Tonics founder Mathias Munk Modica. 180 gram vinyl.

Preoccupations/New Material

Guided By Voices/Space Gun

Vinyl LP pressing. In 2018, Guided by Voices release precisely one new album, Space Gun. Once you hear it, you will know why. With a renowned work ethic and a daily pot of coffee, Robert Pollard continues to outclass younger generations of come-and-go rock bands. After 20+ years, 100+ albums, 2000+ songs, Pollard still can’t really explain (or doesn’t want to explain) his secret: “The songs just come to me.” In 2017, the new GBV line-up (veterans Doug Gillard and Kevin March and newcomers Mark Shue and Bobby Bare Jr) blew audiences away and toured behind the ambitious and sprawling multi-vocalist double album August By Cake, followed just months later by the concise punchy and catchy How Do You Spell Heaven. Pollard has acknowledged that this line-up’s adroit talents pushes him to more daring and dizzying heights. And now, here it comes: Space Gun, the fullest realization yet of Pollard’s song talents, with the band firing on all cylinders. There’s humor and whimsical childlike musings, cinematic grace and elegance, heavy duty propulsion, dark futuristic undercurrents, twists and turns and kinetic magic. This is a band that turns on a dime, rips it up, psychs it out and can radically shape-shift to realize a three-act rock opera in 2 minutes and 48 seconds. Robert Pollard is a lyrical master; not a word out of place, every line bristling with surprise, telling a story that’s both irresistible and impossible. Invention and imagination remain the undiminished life-forces of a Guided by Voices record and this one absolutely crackles with this energy: this band is on fire.

Squirrel Nut Zippers/Beasts Of Burgundy

Wanderers, boogiers, strangers – unite! The end is nigh and the beginning is in sight. These are troubled times, easy to get you down. But not if you seek refuge in loftier sounds! This year has the Squirrel Nut Zippers roaming the lands, warding off evil, telling sweet lies, and making a joyful racket on wax and on wheels. Twelve original new songs from the mind of Jimbo Mathus and the Squirrel Nut Zippers. This is the band’s first studio album in 18 years. A return to form… a revival not a reunion.

Erika Wennerstrom/Sweet Unknown

2018 release. Sweet Unknown is the debut album from Heartless Bastards front-woman, Erika Wennerstrom, and will be released March 23, 2018. NPR describes Wennerstrom’s voice as “warm yet gritty, throaty yet sweet, gigantic yet intimate… a mix of country-rock twang, classic-rock heroics and restless ambition that’s not afraid to incorporate psychedelia, indie rock and pure pop songcraft.”

Kim Byoung Duk/Experiment X

Vinyl LP pressing. Growing up in the bustling port city of Busan and running his own record shop there from the late ’70s, Kim Byoung Duk had a front-row seat to the finest in foreign record imports and a taste for the psychedelic that naturally evolved into spiritual, ambient and avant-garde sounds. His growing interest in Tao philosophy and the meditative music that accompanied it provided a fertile environment for his audio imagination. Unhampered by limited access to musical gear, he made use of a wide assortment of self-sourced pots of various sizes and curvature, cymbals, wooden sculpted flutes and percussion tools-each chosen for it’s unique harmonic vibration-to create an entirely new and unique body of work. Experiment No. X retraces the oeuvre of Kim Byoung Duk, assembling tracks from Experiment No. 2, Pot Concerto and New Trilogy, illustrating a meditative journey from the freeness of the Tao sound, in the borders of ambient music and the avant-garde, to later groove-oriented jams which introduce rhythmic elements to the palate. This fully licensed release is the first collection of Kim Byoung Duk’s music, remastered from the original tapes and including for the first time on vinyl songs from the very scarce CD New Morning. Includes four-page booklet with photographs and an interview from Kim’s personal archives.

Eccentric Soul/The Saru Label

Eccentric Soul: The Saru Label The 20th volume of our flagship Eccentric Soul series has all the boxes checked: Gun-toting, skip-tracing record producers, child stars, rip-offs, the “World’s Greatest Bail Bondsman,” swindles, soaring falsettos, and a dwindling rust-belt cityscape offering mere glimpses of hope before the record industry escaped for the coasts. Helmed by the O’Jays Bobby Massey, Saru was a creative vortex that pulled Cuyahoga County’s greatest talent in, making a strong case for Cleveland to contend with Detroit, Philly, and Memphis as America’s soul music’s capital. Includes obscure and unknown sides from the Out of Sights, the Elements, Pandella Kelly, David Peoples, Sir Stanley, the Ponderosa Twins + 1, Ba-Roz, Bobby Dukes, and of course, the O’Jays. VINYL LP

Cavern Of Anti-Matter/Hormone Lemonade

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Spiritual Front/Armageddon Gigolo

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing in gatefold sleeve. Digitally remastered edition of this 2006 album. Spiritual Front is a five-part neofolk act from Rome. It’s members describe their music as “nihilistsuicide pop”, although elements of neoclassical and rock music, melancholic folk, as well as tango are prevalent, along with a recurring experimental feel. From dark, wailing experimental folk in the beginning, the sound began to transform and grow, to where it is now compared to the work of Nick Cave, Swans, and Scott Walker. The group’s work has been described as crossing a wide variety of genres and musical styles or traditions, and the band itself is considered highly unique among the modern neofolk and post-industrial scenes in Europe.

Porno For Pyros/Porno For Pyros “Good God Surge”

Vinyl LP pressing. Good God’s Urge is the second and final release from Porno for Pyros, the Los Angeles-based alternative rock band featuring former Jane’s Addiction members Perry Farrell and Stephen Perkins. The album features performances by legendary bassists Mike Watt and Flea, as well as former Jane’s Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro. The 1996 album was never released on vinyl, making this the first ever commercial pressing, 20 years later. There were three singles released from the album.

Francois Bayle/Tremblements

Vinyl LP pressing. François Bayle on Tremblement de terre très doux (1978); first performance on March 19, 1979 at the Grand Auditorium of Radio-France, Ina-GRM’s Cycle Acousmatique: “The familiar generates the strange. These rolls, these hums, these sudden rushes; this song, these peaceful circlings; these sudden outbursts, these returns to quiescence – what do they remind us of? This piece’s trajectory could also be a representation of the dramatic unfolding of a day – of a life – from sunrise (‘Climate 1’) to night-time (‘Landscape 4’) via restless encounters, transitions (‘Transit 1’, ‘2’, and ‘3’) that announce the drama climaxing in ‘Landscape 3’, before reaching it’s denouement in “Climate 4″… A whole concrete ‘story’. The subterranean properties inherent to listening gently shift our ideas…”

Grateful Dead/Best Of Live Vol. 2

Double vinyl LP pressing. The Best of The Grateful Dead Live: 1969-1977 – Vol 1. Rock’s longest, strangest trip, Grateful Dead, was the psychedelic era’s most beloved musical ambassadors as well as it’s most enduring survivors. They spread their message of peace, love, and mind-expansion across the globe throughout three decades. The group had popular music’s most fervent and celebrated fan following – the Dead Heads, whose numbers and devotion were legendary in their own right. Grateful Dead was the ultimate cult band, creating a self-styled universe all their own. The Dead became superstars solely on their own terms as tie-dyed pied pipers whose epic, free-form live shows were rites of passage for an extended family of listeners who knew no cultural boundaries.

The Sword/Used Future

Vinyl LP pressing including digital download. 2018 release, the sixth album from the Austin, Texas-based metal band. After worldwide touring and critical acclaim on High Country, The Sword returns with Used Future. Produced, recorded and mixed by Tucker Martine and Recorded at Flora Recording and Playback, Portland, OR. Includes the single ‘Deadly Nightshade’. The Sword formed in 2003. During it’s early career, The Sword was categorized primarily as a doom metal band, with the group’s members citing bands including Black Sabbath and Sleep as influences. In recent years, the group’s style has generally been classified as hard rock or stoner rock. The Sword has toured with a wide range of fellow rock and metal artists since it’s formation, including Metallica, Lamb of God and Clutch, and in recent years has also headlined it’s own tours.

Damon Edge/Alliance

“Limited edition vinyl pressing of this classic 1985 debut solo album from Chrome founder Damon Edge pressed on both crimson and clear vinyl!

Sunflower Bean/ Twentytwo In Blue

Vinyl LP pressing. 2018 release, the sophomore album from the NY-based alt-rock band. While the trio remains a guitar band at it’s core, new and different textures shine on this album. Sunflower Bean’s diverse sound has allowed them to tour alongside DIIV, Best Coast, Pixes and Wolf Alice. New York is still home to bands as varied as Sunflower Bean, whose music suggests what might have happened if psychedelia had emerged after punk and the Police rather than before – Jon Pareles of The New York Times. Sunflower Bean consists of Nick Kivlen (lead guitar and vocals), Jacob Faber (drums), and Julia Cumming (bass and lead vocals).

And:

Various Artists/Merritone Rock Steady 3:Bang Bang Rock Steady

Rory Gallagher/Irish Tour ’74

Rory Gallagher/Calling Card

Eric Dolphy/In Europr

David Byrne/American Utopia

Vinyl LP pressing. 2018 release from the veteran singer/songwriter and former Talking Heads frontman. American Utopia fits hand-in-hand with Byrne’s vision for his series Reasons To Be Cheerful, named for the song by the late Ian Dury. Over the last year, Byrne has been collecting stories, news, ideas, and other items that all either embody or identify examples of things that inspire optimism, such as a tech breakthrough, a musical act, a new idea in urban planning or transportation-something seen, heard, or tasted. Just as the album questions the current state of society while offering solace through song, the content of the series recognizes the darkness and complexity of today while showcasing alternatives to the despair that threatens us. – While David Byrne has collaborated on joint releases with Eno, Norman Cook (AKA Fatboy Slim), and most recently St. Vincent over the past decade, American Utopia is Byrne’s first solo album since, 2004’s Grown Backwards, also on Nonesuch. American Utopia morphed during the writing and recording process, beginning with longtime collaborator Eno, and eventually growing to include collaboration with producer Rodaidh McDonald (The xx, King Krule, Sampha, Savages) alongside a diverse cast of creative contributors including Daniel Lopatin (AKA Oneohtrix Point Never), Jam City, Thomas Bartlett (St. Vincent producer, AKA Doveman), Jack Peñate, and others. The album was recorded in New York City at David’s home studio, Reservoir Studios, Oscilloscope, XL Studios, and Crowdspacer Studio and in London at Livingston Studio 1.

Anna von Hausswolff/Dead Magic

“Dear listeners.
Me, my band and Randall Dunn spent 9 days in Copenhagen recording this record. The great pipe organ you’re hearing is a 20th century instrument located in Marmor Kirken, “The Marble Church”, Copenhagen.

Here is a poem for you by the Swedish writer Walter Ljungquist (1900-1974):

”Take the fate of a human being, a thin pathetic line that contours and encircles an infinite and unknown silence. It is in this very silence, in an only imagined and unknown centre, that legends are born. Alas! That is why there are no legends in our time. Our time is a time deprived of silence and secrets; in their absence no legends can grow.”

Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats/Tearing At The Seams

Deluxe double 180gm vinyl LP pressing including bonus seven inch single. 2018 release. Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats make their long-awaited return with Tearing At The Seams, a staggering album of rock ‘n’ soul music. Propelled by driving rhythms, blazing hornplay, and Rateliff’s rowdy, soul drenched vocals, Tearing At The Seams’ 12 tracks crackle with emotion and intensity. From anguished sorrow to ecstatic heights, Rateliff’s expressive tenor is unvarnished on the record’s tender R&B ballads and nitro-fueled rave-ups. Features “Be There,” “A Little Honey,” “Say It Louder,” “Hey Mama,” “Babe I Know,” “You Worry Me,” the title track and more. Nathaniel Rateliff is a singer and songwriter based in Denver, whose influences are described as folk, Americana and vintage rhythm & blues.

Young Fathers/Cocoa Sugar

Limited Edition, Colored Vinyl, Red, Indie Exclusive, Digital Download Card. In November 2017, Young Fathers announced that they’d completed work on a new album. The trio – Alloysious Massaquoi, Graham ‘G’ Hastings and Kayus Bankole – marked the news by previewing a brand new song, ‘Lord’ and a subsequent accompanying video. Just like their previous standalone 2017 single ‘Only God Knows’ (written for the Trainspotting T2 film and described by director Danny Boyle as “the heartbeat of the film”), ‘Lord’ provided an enticing glimpse of what to expect from Young Fathers’ third full album; something typically unique and exhilarating, but leaner, more muscular and self-assured than ever before.

Today, Young Fathers announce full details of that album. Titled Cocoa Sugar, the twelve track album will be released on 9th March 2018 via Ninja Tune and follows the group’s previous two albums; 2014’s Mercury Prize-winning DEAD and 2015’s White Men Are Black Men Too. Written and recorded throughout 2017 in the band’s basement studio and HQ, Cocoa Sugar sees Young Fathers operating with a newfound clarity and direction, and is without doubt their most confident and complete statement to date.

N.E.R.D./No_One Ever Really Dies

Double colored vinyl LP pressing including digital download. No_One Ever Really Dies is the 2017 album from N.E.R.D, and their first album since 2010. This album includes the hit single “Lemon” (featuring Rihanna). Other guest artists include Kendrick Lamar, Future, Andre’ 3000, M.I.A., Gucci Mane, and Ed Sheeran. N.E.R.D is an American funk rock band. Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo were signed by Teddy Riley to Virgin Records as a duo, The Neptunes. After producing songs for several artists throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, the production duo formed the band with Shay Haley as a side project of The Neptunes in 1999.

Mia Dyson/If I Said Only So Far, I Take It Back

Vinyl LP pressing. 2018 release from the Australian singer/songwriter. If I Said Only So Far I Take It Back was recorded at Portside Sound in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Produced by Ben Tanner (Alabama Shakes) and Dyson’s longtime drummer Erin “Syd” Sidney, If I Said Only So Far I Take It Back adds a stylistic unpredictability to her soulful, introspective strain of rock music. Mia Dyson has previously released five studio albums: Cold Water (May 2003), Parking Lots (April 2005), Struck Down (August 2007), The Moment (August 2012) and Idyllwild (June 2014).

They Might Be Giants/I Like Fun

Vinyl LP pressing. 2018 release. They Might Be Giants is back! The Brooklyn originals can’t stop and won’t stop, with 2018 already destined to be one of their most magnificent and productive years to date. Thirty-five years deep into their epic career, they release I Like Fun. The fifteen-track album was produced with and mixed by Patrick Dillett (St. Vincent, David Byrne, Mary J. Blige, The National, Donald Fagen) and recorded at Reservoir Studios (the former Skyline Studios where TMBG recorded their platinum album Flood). The lead track, ‘I Left My Body’, is a prime slice of the power They Might Be Giants commands. Hyper-melodic, fresh, and ever rocking, They Might Be Giants formidable live lineup enjoys a reputation for delivering one of the best shows around, and this album is a real showcase for that musical energy. I Like Fun jumps with surprises, vitality, and the startling, singular point of view TMBG always delivers.

Elephant9/Greatest On Earth

LP version. It’s not often a “jazz” band take the big step from the club scene to a 1300 capacity rock venue like Oslo’s Rockefeller. But then again, Elephant9 is not your ordinary jazz band. Often being named Norway’s best live band – surely quite rare for an instrumental band – they are equally popular in jazz and rock circles. On Greatest Show On Earth, their fifth studio album, Elephant9 is back to the core trio of their first two albums; Ståle Storløkken, Nikolai Hængsle, and Torstein Lofthus, three of Norway’s finest musicians. The Greatest Show On Earth displays some truly astonishing playing and is a more dynamic, structured and focused album with all tracks clocking in around the six-minute mark. It’s also very much a trio effort where all members are equal, and not only a vehicle for a soloist. Ståle Storløkken (keyboards) is widely considered the most inventive keyboard player on the Norwegian scene, his playing with bands like Supersilent, Humcrush, Motorpsycho, Terje Rypdal, and countless others being firm testament to this. Nikolai Hængsle (bass) is since long a member of popular rock group Big Bang as well as Ketil Møster’s quartet Møster!, Needlepoint, and Band Of Gold. Torstein Lofthus (drums) is probably the most in demand session drummer in Norway.

Albert Hammond Jr./Francis Trouble

Vinyl LP pressing. 2018 release from the singer, songwriter and musician best known as the guitarist in The Strokes. Albert Hammond Jr’s fourth solo album Francis Trouble explores a deeply personal topic – the stillborn death of his twin brother, Francis, and the lingering effects that event has had in his life and music. Albert is the son of singer/songwriter Albert Hammond (It Never Rains In Southern California). Hammond Jr. Released his debut album Yours To Keep in 2006 and followed up with Cómo Te Llama in 2008 and his EP, AHJ in 2013. His third solo album, Momentary Masters, was released on July 31, 2015.

Milt Jackson & John Coltrane/Bags & Trane

Double 180gm vinyl LP pressing housed in a Stoughton case-wrapped gatefold jacket. Mastered at 45rpm from the original master tapes by Bernie Grundman. This reissue presents this heralded release in exacting sound, with the instruments given full range and true-to-life imaging that takes you right into New York City’s Atlantic Recording Studios when the pieces were recorded in January 1959. Vibraphonist Milt Jackson and sax virtuoso John Coltrane recorded just once together, and it makes one wish they reunited for more. Collaborating with Hank Jones, Paul Chambers, and Connie Kay, the headliners go for broke, expanding the parameters of two Jackson originals and three standards. This audiophile-grade reissue presents the recording in exacting sound, taking you right into NYC’s Atlantic Recording Studios when the pieces were recorded in January 1959.

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Various Artists/The Langley Schools Music Project

Vinyl LP pressing. Replicas of the two rare and highly sought 1976 & 1977 LPs that have captivated the world, inspired a VH-1 documentary, a feature -lm and broadway musical (School of Rock) and the soundtrack for Spike Jones’ Where the Wild Things Are. The Langley Schools Music Project is a 60 voice chorus of rural school children from western Canada singing the songs of The Beach Boys, Paul McCartney, David Bowie and many more. Captured in the school gymnasium, the recordings were never meant for commercial release but were pressed on LP for the students, family and friends.

Awate/Happiness

With infectious melodies and razor sharp bars, rapper Awate flows over psychedelic funk by producer Turkish on debut album Happiness. The rapper, producer, and MOBO supported artist weaves together stories from Maiden Lane Estate in Camden and his refugee experience to build on his reputation as one of London’s most visionary artistic forces. Happiness was written and recorded on bail over a two-year period while Awate was on bail for four cases which he was eventually cleared. Honing his craft from the age of 12, he made a name for himself at the legendary hip-hop spot, Deal Real at the age of 15. Awate learned from mentors such as Poisonous Poets rappers, Stylah and Lowkey, BBC 1Xtra’s DJ Semtex and one of his heroes, Yasiin Bey. As a refugee from Eritrea via Saudi Arabia, Awate’s lyrics are a complex train of thought on subjects like self-esteem, racism, pride, and class. Building a reputation as an electrifying and engaging live performer, Awate has toured worldwide with Lowkey since 2010 and has supported the likes of Jay Electronica, Ghetts, Big Daddy Kane, and Blackstar (Mos Def and Talib Kweli). He has also headlined and performed regularly at The Roundhouse as a resident artist at the iconic venue. Awate’s long-awaited first release, 2016’s Shine Ancient EP was premiered on Complex with features on Noisey, Huck, AFROPUNK, OkayAfrica, and premieres on BBC 6 Music with Gilles Peterson, Jamie Kennedy on Radio X as well as support from DJ MK and Shortee Blitz on KISS. RIYL: Chris Franck, Turkish.

Moose Blood/Don’t Think I Can Do This Anymore

Limited vinyl LP pressing in gatefold jacket. Includes digital download. 2018 release. British rockers Moose Blood have brought emo back to the mainstream, blending thoughtful lyricism with guitar-driven choruses. Expounding on their success of 2016’s Blush, the quartet have gotten even more miserable for their full-length I Don’t Think I Can Do This Anymore.

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Sun Ra & His Astro-Ihnfiity Arkestra/Sun Embassy

Roaratorio’s survey of the unheard Sun Ra continues with Sun Embassy. Consisting of recordings from Sun Studios (aka Ra’s house in Philadelphia) from 1968-1969, the album features nine tracks: six compositions which have never been heard before in any form, plus fresh coats of paint on such 1950s classics as “Sunology” and “Ancient Aiethiopia”, and an early rendition of “Why Go To The Moon”. Essential listening for Sun Ra devotees. Includes download coupon.

Tom Waits/Closing Time(Remastered)

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing. Digitally remastered edition. Closing Time is the debut record by Tom Waits and it foreshadows the distinctly lyrical storytelling and original blending of jazz, blues and folk styles that would come to be associated with the artist. Waits performs enduring classics of his career such as Ol’ 55 (covered by the Eagles), the heartbreaking “Martha” and the gentle acoustic folk of “I Hope I Don’t Fall In Love With You”. Produced and arranged by former Lovin’ Spoonful member Jerry Yester, Closing Time was the first of seven of Waits’ major releases by Asylum. The album is noted for being predominantly folk influenced although Waits intended for Closing Time to be “a jazz, piano-led album.”

Also:

Various Artists/Rent Party

Various Artists/Fools Paradise Favorites

Dub Narcotic Sound System/Rhythm Record

Various Artists/The Tarantino Experience

Breeders/All Nerve

Vinyl LP pressing, exclusive indie 2018 release. The Breeders announce their return to 4AD with the infectious album All Nerve, the first music to be released by the classic lineup behind the iconic album, Last Splash. “A blurt of jolting joy” – NPR. “A classic Breeders bruiser, packed with punchy drums, sugar-rush power chords and lead riffs” – Rolling Stone “Wait in the Car” runs through all the hallmarks of a classic Breeders song: layered harmonies that manage to sound both euphoric and weary, vacillating between power chords, and a sneering Kim mandate. Though it has been 24 years since these last four recorded together, “Wait in the Car” effortlessly brushes away time.

Tracey Thorn/Record

Vinyl LP pressing. As ever, the personal has often been political in Tracey Thorn’s work. Across 4 decades, her songs and writing have offered up a clear-eyed woman’s view of the immediate world around her, from the acerbic teen love songs of her first early ’80s band Marine Girls through sixteen years as one-half of articulate multimillion-selling duo Everything But The Girl, to her recent acclaimed memoirs and journalism. “I think I’ve always written songs which chronicle the milestones of a woman’s life,” she says. “Different ages and stages, different realities not often discussed in pop lyrics. If 2010’s Love and It’s Opposite was my mid-life album – full of divorce and hormones – then this album represents that sense of liberation that comes in the aftermath, from embarking on a whole new ‘no f***s given’ phase of life.”

Joan Baez/Whistle Down The Wind

Vinyl LP pressing in gatefold jacket. 2018 release from the folk icon. Produced by Joe Henry (Bonnie Raitt, Allen Toussaint and many others) Whistle Down The Wind features songs by Tom Waits, Josh Ritter, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Eliza Gilkyson and others. Joan Baez remains one of the most celebrated and influential artists of her generation. Her impact on successive generations of singer/songwriters and female artists in particular is wide-reaching and crosses all genres and boundaries. Fellow artists from Emmylou Harris and Bonnie Raitt to Jackson Browne, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Indigo Girls cite her as a primary influence on their own careers. A new studio album from Baez is an event that will be celebrated by the media.

Fred Eaglesmith/Standard

Fred Eaglesmith is an Alternative Country icon. Starting in the early 1980’s, Eaglesmith is known for his songs about hard working folks and his endless touring. Country superstars Miranda Lambert ‘Time To Get A Gun’, Alan Jackson ‘Freight Train’, and others have had hits recording Fred’s songs. 42 years on the road, 21 studio albums, 5 different band configurations, 11 buses, countless stories, 1 man.

Millie Jackson/Caught Up

One of soul music’s great female voices, Millie Jackson’s reputation was made by the release of “Caught Up” and “Still Caught Up”, released in 1974 and 1975 respectively. Here we reissue “Caught Up” on vinyl. Both albums deal with infidelity – and see it from both the wife’s and the lover’s point of view. The combination of spoken word raps and forceful, risqué lyrics was to become Millie’s trademark for several years to come. Side One belongs to the lover and gives us an eleven-minute plus version of ‘If Loving You Is Wrong’. Superb backing from the classic Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section line-up of Beckett, Johnson, Hood and Hawkins features throughout, with long-time Millie Jackson producer Brad Shapiro at the controls.

Titus Andronicus/A Productive Cough

Vinyl LP pressing. Since debuting in 2008, Titus Andronicus has been conditioning faithful listeners to always expect only the unexpected, consistently zigging where others would zag and maintaining a steadfast dedication to fearless ambition. With the release of the new studio album A Productive Cough, the group has executed the most shocking departure yet – but only if, as ever mercurial singer-songwriter Patrick Stickles insists, “you haven’t been paying attention.” In a move that may infuriate the black-denim-and-PBR set, A Productive Cough finds Titus Andronicus setting aside the leadfooted punk anthems of yesteryear in favor of a subtler, more spacious approach that pushes Stickles’ soul-baring songwriting to the fore, creating a conversational intimacy between artist and audience with which previous Titus Andronicus efforts had only flirted.

Jonathan Wilson/Rare Birds

Vinyl LP pressing. Jonathan Wilson had a busy 2017, producing Father John Misty’s Grammy- nominated Pure Comedy and touring arenas around the globe as a guitarist and vocalist for Pink Floyd legend Roger Waters (for whom he also contributed to the lauded Is This The Life We Really Want? album.) Wilson also saw widespread acclaim heaped on Karen Elson’s sophomore LP Double Roses, which he recorded with her in Los Angeles in 2016. But it’s not looking like Wilson is going to get much of a rest in 2018 either, as he’ll be continuing on with the worldwide Waters tour and will release his new solo album Rare Birds. The highly anticipated LP features backing vocals from Lana Del Rey, Father John Misty, fellow Roger Waters bandmates Lucius and an extraordinary musical gift from otherworldly Brian Eno collaborator Laraaji.

Ry Cooder/Paris, Texas OST

Limited edition clear colored vinyl LP pressing. Ry Cooder’s soundtrack to Wim Wenders’ 1984 film Paris Texas is one of the most acclaimed and beloved works of his sparkling career. Seldom has any artist captured that ineffable “high, lonesome sound” quite as beautifully as Ry Cooder did on his landmark soundtrack to Wim Wenders’ film Paris, Texas. Not quite blues, not quite bluegrass, not quite ambient, Cooder’s haunting, evocative score mirrors the existential journey of Harry Dean Stanton’s Travis Henderson as he wanders through the empty Texas prairie landscape in pursuit of his irretrievable past. With the able help of multi-instrumentalists David Lindley and Jim Dickinson, Cooder crafts a soundscape (much of it based on Blind Willie Johnson’s “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground”) that is profoundly sad yet leavened with bits of humor and whimsy.

Moby/Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt

Vinyl LP pressing. Everything Was Beautiful, and Nothing Hurt is a glowing tapestry exploring spirituality, individuality and the brokenness of humanity and finds Moby returning to his orchestral, soul, trip-hop and gospel roots. Featuring LA-based soulstress Raquel Rodriguez, lead single “Like a Motherless Child” is a re-work of the well-known spiritual with origins in the slavery of the American South. The track describes the void left when one feels separated from a parent, higher power or similar guiding force. Over the years this powerful song has been reinterpreted by the likes of Odetta, Lena Horne, Mahalia Jackson and Van Morrison. Moby also curated a playlist of artists that influenced the recording of his fifteenth studio album which includes Baby Huey, Marianne Faithfull, Grace Jones, Soul Makossa, Mulatu Astatke, Liquid Liquid, Fresh Four, Sly And Robbie, Simple Minds, James Brown, Talking Heads and Gil Scott-Heron.

Fanny Walked The Earth/Fanny Walked The Earth

Vinyl LP pressing. 2018 release from this band made up of former members of pioneering female rock band Fanny. The groundbreaking band Fanny, called “the most masterful all-female band of the classic rock era” (NPR) and “one of the most important female bands in American rock” (David Bowie), has reunited as Fanny Walked the Earth – a name that reflects all that they’ve accomplished in their lives; all they’ve seen, done and lived through – for their first album in decades Fanny landed a deal in 1969 with Reprise Records, becoming the first-ever all-female rock band to sign a record deal for a full-length album, and would pave the way for women musicians such as The Runaways, The Bangles and the Go-Go’s for decades to come. Drawing influence from Motown bands to the Beach Boys to Jimi Hendrix, Fanny released their first five albums between 1970 and 1974 with various iterations of members, working with producers including Richard Perry (Carly Simon, Ringo Starr, Harry Nilsson), Todd Rundgren and Vini Poncia. They recorded at the Beatles’ Apple Studios, backed Barbra Streisand on her first “rock” album, Stoney End, and toured as the opening act for legends like Slade, Jethro Tull and Humble Pie, winning over new fans with their mix of full-throttle, rockin’-funk vocals, unapologetically heavy rock guitars, and hard, punchy beats. The band was also shattering expectations. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, to say that rock was male-dominated would be a gross understatement; rock was almost completely male. But the girls of Fanny never backed down from the challenge. “I just wanted to have fun, and I wanted to show off, and I wanted to do what I loved doing,” says drummer Brie Darling. “If anyone was ever a little snide, I thought, ‘You just wait.'”

Annie Lennox/Medusa

Vinyl LP pressing. Medusa is the second solo album by the Scottish singer Annie Lennox, released in March 1995, and consists entirely of cover songs. It entered the UK Albums Chart at #1 and peaked in the United States at #11, spending 60 weeks on the Billboard 200 chart. It has since achieved double platinum status in both the United Kingdom and the United States and sold more than six million copies worldwide. Annie Lennox, OBE is a Scottish singer, songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving moderate success in the late 1970s as part of the new wave band The Tourists, she and fellow musician David A. Stewart went on to achieve major international success in the 1980s as Eurythmics.

Pet Shop Boys/Please

Digitally remastered edition. Please was the debut album by Pet Shop Boys and produced by Stephen Hague. Released in March 1986, the record hit #3 and spent 82 weeks in the UK Official Album Charts, went into the Top Ten in the USA where it was certified platinum, and to date has sold over three million copies worldwide. Comprising ten tracks in it’s original release, the album’s track-listing includes the duo’s debut single ‘West End Girls’ – PSB’s first #1, certified Gold single. In 1987, it was awarded Best Single at the BRIT Awards, Best International Hit at th Ivor Novello Awards and later was awarded the Song Of The Decade Ivor Novello Award in 2005, chosen by the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters. It also reached #1 in the USA. Singles ‘Love Comes Quickly’, ‘Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots Of Money)’ and ‘Suburbia’ also feature on Please, all of which went on to earn Top 20 status in the UK Singles Chart.

Felt/Strange Idols Pattern & Other Short Stories

Vinyl LP pressing in gatefold jacket. Digitally remastered reissue of this 1982 album from British cult outfit Felt. This vinyl record, unavailable for many years, has been remastered and revisited by Lawrence, and he has fashioned the ultimate definitive collection. Before the Stone Roses and after Be-Bop Deluxe and Plastic Ono Band, John Leckie worked with Felt. Booked into a metal/reggae studio in Birmingham’s industrial wasteland he sculpted a Michelangelo slice of new rock – exquisite and beautiful guitar odysseys – quite unlike anything the city had experienced before. Merging pop with a classical nuance Felt stood alone as the forerunners of a brand-new style. And Gary Ainge was finally allowed to use his high-hat!

INXS/The Very Best

Double vinyl LP pressing. The Very Best is a greatest hits album released by Australian band INXS in 2011. The Very Best became the first INXS best of album to reach #1 in Australia. INXS was an Australian rock band, formed as The Farriss Brothers in 1977 in Sydney, New South Wales. Mainstays were main composer and keyboardist Andrew Farriss, drummer Jon Farriss, guitarists Tim Farriss and Kirk Pengilly, bassist Garry Gary Beers and main lyricist and vocalist Michael Hutchence. For twenty years, INXS was fronted by Hutchence, whose “sultry good looks” and magnetic stage presence made him the focal point of the band. Initially known for their new wave/pop style, the band later developed a harder pub rock style that included funk and dance elements.

Strawberry Alarm Clock/Incense and Peppermints

A vintage psychedelic gem! The Strawberry Alarm Clock’s smash single “Incense and Peppermints” is one of the landmarks of the psychedelic era. But this classic debut album demonstrates that the band was more than an one-hit wonder, combining trippy soundscapes, sunny harmonies and raw garage rock on such tunes as “The World’s on Fire”, “Birds in My Tree” and “Rainy Day Mushroom Pillow”. Now this vintage classic is back on vibrant vinyl from Sundazed! Mastered from the original stereo UNI reels.

Various Artists/Greatest Showman OST

Vinyl LP pressing. Original soundtrack to the 2017 motion picture. The Greatest Showman is a bold and original musical that celebrates the birth of show business and the sense of wonder we feel when dreams come to life. Inspired by the ambition and imagination of P. T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman tells the story of a visionary who rose from nothing to create a mesmerizing spectacle that became a worldwide sensation. The Greatest Showman is directed by exciting new filmmaker Michael Gracey, with songs by Academy Award winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (La La Land) and starring Academy Award nominee Hugh Jackman. Jackman is joined by Academy Award nominee Michelle Williams, Zendaya, Zac Efron and Rebecca Ferguson.

Samantha Fish/Belle of The West

Vinyl LP pressing. 2017 release from the blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. Fish recorded Belle of the West in the relaxed, rural creative atmosphere of the legendary Zebra Ranch Studios in the North Hills of Mississippi with producer Luther Dickinson (of North Mississippi Allstars fame), with whom she worked previously on her 2015 album Wild Heart. The studio team included some of the region’s most iconoclastic musicians, including Dickinson, solo artist and Jack White associate Lillie Mae, much-traveled juke-joint blues artist Lightnin’ Malcolm, Squirrel Nut Zippers founder Jimbo Mathus, upright bassist and beloved solo artist Amy LaVere, Tikyra Jackson, Trina Raimey and Shardé Thomas, granddaughter of the legendary Southern bluesman Otha Turner.

Danielle Nicole/Cry No More

Vinyl LP pressing. 2018 release from the blues/soul artist. Cry No More takes Danielle into fresh new creative territory, delivering 14 emotion-charged new songs whose rootsy musical edge is matched by their air of hard-won personal experience. With seasoned veteran Tony Braunagel (Taj Mahal, Bonnie Raitt, Eric Burdon) producing, such heartfelt, groove-intensive new tunes as ‘Crawl,’ ‘How Come You Don’t Call Me Anymore,’ the Bill Withers-penned ‘Hot Spell’ and the heart-tugging title track, find Danielle cutting loose and focusing on the storytelling and character-development aspects of her songwriting. Danielle Nicole was previously in the band Trampled Under Foot with her brothers Kris and Nick Schnebelen.

Fever Ray/Plunge

Vinyl LP pressing. 2018 release. Plunge is the second studio album by Fever Ray, an alias of Swedish musician Karin Dreijer. It is her first in eight years, following her 2009 eponymous debut. The album received acclaim from music critics, who praised it’s directly political and sexual themes alongside deconstructed club beats and catchy electronic hooks. Plunge contains aggressive beats and synths, and showcases a more varied sound than that of the self-titled Fever Ray album. Lyrically, the album focuses on themes of love and desire with a striking candor. It features Dreijer’s most verbose, dense and direct lyrics, and was said to be “political in a way Dreijer has not been before.”

Hannah Read/Way Out I’ll Wander

Vinyl LP pressing. 2018 release. Way Out I’ll Wander was produced in New Hampshire and upstate New York by Charlie Van Kirk and features a cast of musicians including Jefferson Hamer (Anais Mitchell), Jeff Picker and Sarah Jarosz. The recordings capture Read’s formidable songwriting in intimate arrangements which reflect her background in traditional Scottish and English folk while also calling to mind the ice-cool delivery of Mary Lorson or Nina Nastasia. The songs set characters in a finely-drawn geography of wooded slopes and crisp, clean air – city lights flickering on the horizon – to explore time and place from Hannah’s migrant perspective. Hannah spent her youth playing fiddle and singing in the rich traditional music scenes of Edinburgh and on the Isle of Eigg, a remote Island off the west coast of Scotland. With musical training at The City of Edinburgh Music School, The American School of Modern Music in Paris and the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, Hannah gathered the musical tools, vocabulary and experience that propelled her into the thriving Brooklyn music scene.

Julie Fowlis/Alterum

During an impressive career spanning more than a decade, with multiple awards, accolades and four studio albums, she has until now, sung primarily in Scottish Gaelic. The Latin title of her fifth studio album ‘alterum’ gently suggests that this record is a departure from what has gone before. Fowlis’s ascent to international stardom, putting Gaelic folk on the world music map, is evidence that a sublime voice transcends language and culture’ – Guardian Julie Fowlis originally hails from North Uist in the Outer Hebrides and is now based in the Highlands of Scotland. Firmly established as a world music artist with a natural interest and ability to cross-over into other genres and styles, she will forever be known as the singing voice of Merida, the female protagonist in the Disney-Pixar Oscar/Bafta/Golden Globe winning movie ‘Brave.’

Culture Club/Live At Wembley World Tour 2016

Limited double colored vinyl LP pressing. The iconic multi-platinum selling ’80s pop legends, Culture Club return home for the holidays and perform Live At Wembley after a hugely successful 60 city world tour featuring all four original members – Boy George, Roy, Mikey and Jon – along with an explosive horn section and mind-blowing backup soul singers. Culture Club ignites the stage before a sold out hometown crowd, as Boy George commands the Catwalk with his masterful charm and smooth soulful voice, performing the bands biggest hits, showing why Culture Club’s unique pop. Soul and reggae styles resonate with fans 35 years later. Featuring iconic hits like “Karma Chameleon”, ” Black Money”, “It’s A Miracle”, “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me, I’ll Tumble 4 Ya”, “Church Of The Poison Mind,” “Miss Me Blind,” along with an encore rockin’ performance of T Rex’s “Get It On.”

Low Anthem/The Salt Doll Went To Measure The Depths Of The Sea

Vinyl LP pressing includes digital download. Formed in 2007 by best friends, Ben Knox Miller and Jeff Prystowsky, The Low Anthem grew from DIY ethos in the late-aughts to semi-accidental success. Having originally self-released What The Crow Brings and Oh My God, Charlie Darwin (which sold a combined 100,000+ copies), the group signed with Nonesuch, toured the world, and were reluctantly lumped in with the so-called “folk revival”. However, night after night of performing their early material was not ultimately where they wanted to land: “The moment was losing it’s mystery. We were scared of becoming robots,” said the band after six years of reflection.

Caleb Caudle/Crushed Coins

Caleb Caudle may only now be catching the ears of country and Americana listeners, but the North Carolina native already has seven albums under his belt. His latest, Carolina Ghost, positions him as one of the genre’s most promising young songwriters, earning comparisons to revered songwriters like Jason Isbell and Ryan Adams, and a coveted placement on a recent episode of CMT’s Nashville.

Bowie:

David Bowie/Low

David Bowie/Heroes

David Bowie/Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)

David Bowie/Lodger

Various Artists/Death Row Greatest Hits Clear Vinyl

Double colored vinyl LP pressing. Death Row Greatest Hits is a compilation released in 1996 by Death Row Records and Interscope Records. This set contains singles by artists such as 2Pac, Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre. Death Row Records was an American record company founded in 1991 by Suge Knight and other associates. The label almost instantly became a sensation by releasing a succession of multi-platinum hip-hop albums from West Coast-based artists during the early-to-mid-1990s. At it’s peak, Death Row Records was making over $100,000,000 a year. This set also includes tracks by Ice Cube, Michel’le, Thug Life, Kurupt, Jodeci and others.

Allen Ginsberg/Reads Howl Deluxe Box (Translucent Red)

Bernard Hermann/North By Northwest OST

Kendrick Lamar/Damn.Collector’s Edition

Collectors double clear vinyl LP pressing with the track list reversed. 2017 release, the fourth album from hip hop superstar Kendrick Lamar. Damn is made up of 14 songs, including the lead single, “Humble.” Rihanna appears on a song called “Loyalty.” and U2 appears on “XXX.” Damn is the follow-up to his ground-breaking album To Pimp A Butterfly. The album features production from a variety of record producers, including executive production from Top Dawg Entertainment label-head Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith, Sounwave, DJ Dahi, Mike Will Made It and Ricci Riera; as well as production contributions from James Blake, Steve Lacy, BadBadNotGood, Greg Kurstin, The Alchemistand 9th Wonder, among others. Born and raised in Compton, California, Kendrick embarked on his musical career as a teenager under the stage name K-Dot, releasing a mixtape that garnered local attention and led to his signing with indie record label Top Dawg Entertainment.

Belle & Sebastian/How To Solve Our Human Problems

Limited LP Box set. A new Belle and Sebastian release is always something to cheer. So three new releases leads to the inevitable conclusion: three cheers! Here is the latest installment in a career that has always pursued a singular and delightful vision of what pop represents and what it can achieve, a career that has seen them triumph against the odds to win a Brit award, be one of the first bands to curate their own festival, and play at the official London residence of the US ambassador (the last president’s ambassador, not the current one’s). Murdoch, as ever, is not the only writer. Sarah Martin (violin/vocals) brought in the delicious ‘The Same Star’, which marries Belle and Sebastian’s melodiousness to a pounding Motown backbeat, and was produced by Leo Abrahams(Ghostpoet, Wild Beasts, Regina Spektor). “We’d met Leo in February of 2016, and I’d say that meeting and the recording of ‘I’ll Be Your Pilot’ were the first tangible steps of this EP project,” Martin says. “We didn’t have a stack of songs to play him, but we liked him and he became a part of the plan from that point – and when I’d got to a point with ‘The Same Star’ where it just needed to be recorded, I thought it could benefit from having a producer to steer things, and fortunately we had a slot in the diary marked ‘Leo’ coming up. It’s not a song we’d laboured over playing for months – it fell together quite quickly thanks in large part to Bob’s [Bobby Kildea, guitarist] enthusiasm and Stuart’s willingness to dismember an old song and repurpose the break, so that it wasn’t just the same three chords over and over and over.” The Limited Edition box set also includes a poster with 80 photographs of fans from around the world.

Brandi Carlile/By The Way, I Forgive You

Vinyl LP pressing. 2018 release from the singer/songwriter. By The Way, I Forgive You is not an album about forgiveness in the easy sense-where someone has hurt you and then suddenly there’s a great reconciliation and a remorse-filled scene with two people running across the golden wheatfield towards an embrace that somehow undoes a lifetime of pain and damage, as if the past has no meaning. It’s about radical acceptance (not to be confused with complacency) and unconditional love. Brandi Carlile is a Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter. Carlile’s music through the years has been categorized in several genres, including pop, rock, alternative country, and folk.

Laurie Anderson & The Kronos Quartet/Landfall

Double vinyl LP pressing. 2018 release. Laurie Anderson and Kronos Quartet’s Landfall, inspired by her experience of Hurricane Sandy, is the first collaboration between the iconic storyteller/musician and the groundbreaking string quartet, who perform together on the recording. Landfall juxtaposes lush electronics and traditional strings by Kronos with Anderson’s powerful descriptions of loss, from water-logged pianos to disappearing animal species to Dutch karaoke bars. The Washington Post calls it “riveting, gorgeous.” Laurie Anderson is one of America’s most renowned-and daring-creative pioneers. Her work, which encompasses music, visual art, poetry, film, and photography, has challenged and delighted audiences around the world for more than thirty years. For more than 40 years, San Francisco’s Kronos Quartet has combined a spirit of fearless exploration with a commitment to continually reimagine the string quartet experience. In the process, Kronos has become one of the world’s most celebrated and influential ensembles, performing thousands of concerts, releasing more than 60 recordings, collaborating with an eclectic mix of composers and performers, and commissioning over 900 works and arrangements for string quartet.

Car Seat Headrest/Twin Fantasy

Double vinyl LP pressing housed in a gatefold sleeve. Will Toledo always knew he would return to Twin Fantasy. He never did complete the work. Not really. Never could square his grand ambitions against his mechanical limitations. Listen to his first attempt, recorded at nineteen on a cheap laptop, and you’ll hear what Brian Eno fondly calls “the sound of failure” – thrilling, extraordinary, and singularly compelling failure. Will’s first love, rendered in the vivid teenage viscera of stolen gin, bruised shins, and weird sex, was an event too momentous for the medium assigned to record it.

Chasing Trane OST

Double 180gm vinyl LP pressing. 2017 release. This soundtrack features 11 tracks from the film, Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary. Set against the social, political and cultural landscape of the time, it brings saxophone great John Coltrane to life, as a man and an artist. The CD booklet includes images from the film and an essay by John Coltrane author and film participant, Ashley Kahn. John Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and was later at the forefront of free jazz. He led at least fifty recording sessions during his career, and appeared as a sideman on many albums by other musicians, including trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Thelonious Monk. As his career progressed, Coltrane and his music took on an increasingly spiritual dimension.

C.a.R./Pinned

PINNED is the much-anticipated follow-up to debut album ‘My Friend’. Released via Ransom Note Records, PINNED sees C.A.R. – aka Chloé Raunet – refine her palette of glimmering electronics and post punk angles.

With Raunet taking on the mantle of producer, singer, and songwriter, the album is a journey inside her inner world. Part French pop chanteuse and part cold wave androgyny, Raunet’s vocals spin out mysterious stories over hazy claustrophobic synth pop and epic, widescreen electronica vignettes.

Jim White/Waffles, Triangles, Jesus

Jim White gets around. When he’s not releasing his own critically acclaimed solo albums he splits his time producing records for other songwriters, exhibiting his visual art in galleries and museums across the USA & Europe and publishing award winning fiction. His sixth solo studio album, the bizarrely titled Waffles, Triangles & Jesus, is a mind-bending joy ride of sonic influences featuring a bevy of his hometown Athens’ roots musicians, plus west coast indie darlings Dead Rock West, and rock and roll maverick Holly Golightly. Prior to Waffles, Triangles & Jesus, White released five eclectic, totally uncatagorisable albums plus another six even stranger side projects. Numerous songs from his back catalog have appeared both in film and television, with his Primus-esque “Word-Mule” being featured in Breaking Bad, and more recently his cautionary rocker “Crash Into The Sun” appearing Ray McKinnon’s highly praised Sundance Channel series Rectify. UK fans may recognize White as the narrator and defacto tour guide for the award winning BBC documentary, Searching for the Wrong Eyed Jesus, a road movie set in the rural South, which the LA Times described as “Decidedly strange, delightfully demented.” Prior to becoming a musician White led an aimless, diverse life, working countless menial labor jobs: dishwasher, landscaper, lifeguard, cook, surfboard laminator, road builder, culminating with thirteen long years driving a taxi cab in New York City. White is presently at work completing a memoir, Incidental Contact, based on a series of uncanny coincidences that befell him during his days driving that taxi in New York City. Two chapters of Incidental Contact, The Bottom and Superwhite, have been published in the literary music journal Radio Silence, with Superwhite being awarded a Pushcart Prize for short fiction. White was a pro surfer. He served as literary commentator for the National Endowment of the Arts. He was a European fashion model. Samuel Beckett once played a practical joke on him. There’s lots more non linear information that doesn’t really fit the usual bio format. But that’s Jim he gets around.

Doc and Merle Watson/Never the Same Way Once:May 2, 1974

This is a live concert recording from Doc & Merle Watson at The Boarding House in San Francisco. Recorded during five live shows from May 1-4, 1974. This is the first home-grown release from Owsley Stanley Foundation, a non-profit, established to preserve and distribute Owsley’s legendary recordings. These performances have not been heard since the night they were played more than 40 years ago, and were professionally recorded and re-mastered. Owsley Stanley, known as Bear to his friends, is the father of the modern rock and roll concert sound system. He was the soundman for The Grateful Dead, and is infamously known as the first private individual to manufacture and distribute LSD. Bear recorded nearly every artist that played through a sound system that he built, calling these recordings ‘Sonic Journals, ‘ and using them to further refine his craft. Doc Watson was an American guitarist, songwriter and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues and gospel music, who won 7 Grammys, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He performed with his son, guitarist Merle Watson, for over 15 years until Merle’s death in 1985. Mastered by the Grateful Dead’s sound engineer, Jeffrey Norman.

Shannon & The Clams/Onion

Vinyl LP pressing. 2018 release. Onion, produced by The Black Keys front man Dan Auerbach at his Nashville studio, finds a finely tuned and tour-tested band stretching out from the ’60s-inspired, surf inflected rock that has defined their previous releases, and delves into genres including soul and psychedelic pop. On Onion, the band explores themes of origin and self-determination, loss and recovery, and the power of community to heal after tragedy. “It’s okay for people to interpret the songs,” Shannon Shaw says. “You can put your own story into it if that helps you heal. I just want people to feel something, whatever it is.”

Craig David/The Time Is Now

Double vinyl LP pressing in gatefold jacket including digital download. 2018 release. The Time Is Now is the seventh studio album by British singer Craig David. Guests on the album include JP Cooper, Bastille, AJ Tracey, Ella Mai, Kaytranada and GoldLink. Includes the first single “Heartline”. The Time Is Now is Craig’s follow-up to 2016’s Following My Intuition. “This is authentic me, doing what I love, just like I did when I was an unknown artist,” he explains. “That kid from Southampton making mixtapes in his bedroom and taking risks.” David has been nominated for thirteen Brit Awards: four times for Best British Male, and twice received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

Barbara Dane and The Chambers Brothers

During the Civil Rights Movement, activist singer Barbara Dane collaborated with the then up-and-coming quartet The Chambers Brothers to record a powerful politically charged gospel and rock album that spoke directly to the issues of the day. The vinyl reissue of Barbara Dane and the Chambers Brothers, which includes a liner note booklet and digital download, is part of Folkways Records’ 70th anniversary celebration series, revisiting some of the most iconic and influential albums released on the record label. The vinyl album is also the companion piece to a new Barbara Dane retrospective: Hot Jazz, Cool Blues and Hard-Hitting Songs (also available February 16, 2018).

Barney Kessel/Live At The Jazz Mill 1954, Vol.2

Songs: Ohia/Travels In Constants

Recorded in 2000 and newly reissued, the sprawling title track and its B-side are a defining precursor to the contemplative works Jason Molina would soon create and release under his own name.

Wild Beast/Last Night All My Dreams Came

Vinyl LP pressing. When Wild Beasts announced that they would be calling it a day, the news came with an unusual absence of drama. There were no bust-ups or breakdowns to report, no warring words, not even a trace of the trademark “creative differences”. Instead there was a dignified and heartfelt message to their fans that explained that the band had run it’s course. For those who’d watched the Cumbrian group grow from purveyors of peculiar guitar pop into one of the most inventive and important bands of their generation, the news came as a shock. Weren’t they just hitting the peak of their powers? Perhaps that was the point.

Walking Papers/WP2

The Plot In You/Dispose

Limited clear smoke translucent vinyl LP pressing. 2018 release. Dispose sees the band take a collective step forward, showcasing the group’s eclectic style and creative flair. Produced by Drew Fulk [Motionless In White, I Prevail, Crown The Empire], the 10-track album explores the lasting effects of a toxic relationship, whether it be a romantic, friendly or familial relationship, and serves as the group’s most personal record to date. The lead single ‘Feel Nothing’ serves as the first glimpse into the record as a whole – a cohesive story paired with unmatched songwriting and musicianship to create the band’s biggest sound yet.

Sun Kil Moon/Ghosts Of The Great Highway

Vinyl LP pressing. An album as good as Ghosts of the Great Highway should never go out of print. Ghosts continues- even fine-tunes- the work Kozelek did with his former band, Red House Painters. These songs are virtuously stoic Americana- all shimmery guitars, measured tempos, malevolent moods, and wandering melodies. His voice sounds like Neil Young’s, especially in the effortlessness with which he hits the high notes then returns to a lower, earthier texture. Ghosts is a travelogue of sorts, speeding through the Midwest and the West; in this sense, it’s the male equivalent to Lucinda Williams’ Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, especially in the imperfect mirroring of physical terrain and emotional geography. The band Kozelek assembled for Ghosts- Anthony Koutsos (Red House Painters), Tim Mooney (American Music Club), and Geoff Stanfield (Black Lab), along with a few guests- ably but subtly bolster his lyrics and vocals, generating a steady clip that never flags. The result is an album as hypnotic as highway divider lines whizzing past. Includes original bonus track “Gentle Moon (Acoustic).”

Pianos Become Teeth/Wait For Love

Limited edition vinyl LP pressing, includes digital download. Baltimore indie post-hardcore band Pianos Become the Teeth release their new album Wait For Love, on Epitaph Records. As the fourth full-length from Pianos Become the Teeth (vocalist Kyle Durfey, guitarists Mike York and Chad McDonald, bassist Zac Sewell, and drummer David Haik), Wait For Love follows 2014’s acclaimed Keep You. Produced and engineered by Will Yip, Wait For Love shows the band reconciling their aggressive past with the atmospheric turns of Keep You. The album eschews stylistic traps in order to focus on songwriting and feels like a full-realization of what the band have hinted at in the past.

Ought/Room Inside The World

Vinyl LP pressing includes digital download. On Room Inside the World-Ought’s third album and first for Merge-growing up doesn’t mean mellowing out so much as it means learning to pay attention, listening carefully and openly, staying somewhere long enough to really understand where you are. Recorded at Rare Book Room in Brooklyn with producer Nicolas Vernhes (Deerhunter, Animal Collective, Silver Jews), Room Inside the World explores themes that have always concerned the band- identity, connection, survival in a precarious world-but with a bolder, more nuanced sound palette. Vibraphone, justly intonated synthesizers, drum machines, and a 70-piece choir suffuse the precise post-punk breakdowns that spangled Ought’s first two albums, giving rise to an emotional complexity that pushes their characteristically taut sound to greater depths.

Marlon Williams/Make Way For Love

Loma/Loma

And the rest:

Various Artists/Jazz For Hi-Fi Lovers

Little Roy Wiggins/The Fabulous Steel Guitar Artistry Of

Everything Is Recorded By Richard Russell

Franz Ferdinand/Always Ascending

Vinyl LP pressing. Indie pink also available. 2018 release. A triumphant recasting, Franz Ferdinand’s Always Ascending is as exuberant as it is euphoric, bursting with fresh ideas born of what Alex Kapranos calls “aggressive sonic experimentation.” With the help of producer Philippe Zdar (Cassius, Phoenix, Beastie Boys), Kapranos and Co. Took a knife to their old canvas, producing an album that is so foreign in it’s familiarity it could only be current. A sound the singer refers to as “simultaneously futuristic and naturalistic.” These are the louche tales of the Parisian night, the exhilaration of an Italian car racing down the autobahn; a feeling of euphoria so pure it could only exist on a knife’s edge. As such, best to press play expecting nothing more than a good time. “I hope that when you listen to it you feel exhilarated,” Kapranos says, “Until you fully absorb the lyrics.”

MGMT/Little Dark Age

Double 180gm vinyl LP pressing in gatefold jacket including digital download. 2018 release. Little Dark Age was produced by MGMT, Patrick Wimberly (Chairlift, Kelela, Blood Orange), and long-time collaborator Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, Spoon, Tame Impala). MGMT recorded Little Dark Age at Tarbox Road Studios in Cassadaga, NY. The album includes the previously released title song “Little Dark Age,” and the tracks “When You Die” and “Hand It Over.” Formed in 2002 by Andrew VanWyngarden (lead vocals, guitar, keyboard, bass guitar, drums, percussion) and Ben Goldwasser (vocals, keyboards, guitar, percussion), MGMT released their influential, Grammy-nominated, debut album Oracular Spectacular in 2007. This was followed by 2010’s Congratulations and 2013’s self-titled album MGMT.

NinaSimoneMoodIndigoTheCompleteBethehemSingles

Nina Simone/Mood Indigo:The Complete Bethlehem Singles

Vinyl LP pressing. Mood Indigo: Complete Bethlehem Singles – Nina Simone’s classic Bethlehem singles collected in one package including a bonus 7″ single featuring remastered “Porgy (Porgy, Loves You)”. Carefully curated and packaged together to bring back Nina’s classic recordings.

Ezra Furman/Transangelic Exodus

Wild Child/Expectations

Vinyl LP pressing. Wild Child’s new album Expectations, out February 9, 2018, is the band’s most nuanced work to date. They’ve stretched their songwriting abilities on this record to both reflect and expand further upon their unique sound, and the album expertly rides the wave of genres that flows between beautifully sentimental acoustic to loud, distorted rock and back again. The band enlisted the help of several heavy-hitting producers to make this record: Chris Walla (formerly of Death Cab for Cutie), Matthew Logan Vasquez (Delta Spirit), Chris Boosahda (Shakey Graves), Scott McMicken (Dr. Dog), Adrian Quesada (Grupo Fantasma), and Max Frost.

John Tejada/Dead Start Program

Double LP version. Includes download code. Following up to three albums on Kompakt since 2011, the latest being Signs Under Test in 2015 (KOMP 119CD/KOM 321LP), Los Angeles based house and techno producer John Tejada returns to the Cologne-based imprint with his thirteenth full-length, Dead Start Program – an eleven-track journey spanning a prismatic array of styles and patterns, from John’s signature soulful techno tunes to the further mazy, hypnotic motifs of his trancey electro hybrids. Be it solo or through a host of multifaceted collaborations, Tejada keeps himself busy on all fronts in and off the club environment, be it by contributing the 44th number in Fabric’s seminal mix series (FABRIC 087CD, 2001), playing drums for Detroit legend Daniel Bell (as DBX), testing the limits of acid with Tin Man or joining forces with the hilarious self-proclaimed “disinformationist” Reggie Watts as Wajatta. Since his beginnings and the drop of his debut 12″, Waxing, released through his own label Palette Recordings in 1996, John has been carving out a lane of his own – combining and assembling elements from all ends of his wide-spanning spectrum of reference in a way that allows a more direct transition from the realm of the mind to the circuits of the machine, as confirmed by the deliberately limited studio setup used in the making of the present album. Navigating across the lines, from the arrhythmic machine spook of the album’s opener “Autoseek” via the straight-out thumping and jacking pulse of “Hypochondriac” and heavy-lidded breakbeat of “Sleep Spindle” onto the kosmische-infused vibrations of “Telemetry”, vibrant slo-mo inertia of “Loss” and wistful club-ready winds of “Duty Cycle” and “Heal”, John threads his way through genres and tempos with optimal chameleonic effect. Cloaked in a beautiful sleeve art courtesy of John’s long-time friend Juan Mendez, aka Silent Servant – another key contributor to the Los Angeles scene worldwide, based upon a picture by Mark Richards, Dead Start Program draws it’s title from the analog start up program used to boot an old CDC 6600 computer from a dead start and which metaphorically invites in John’s own words to figure a “reboot from the challenges life throws at you.”

Joan As Police Woman/Damned Devotion

Vinyl LP pressing. Already acknowledged as a thrilling live performer and starkly honest lyricist, Damned Devotion finds Joan Wasserat her rawest. While her 2014 album The Classic was a soulful celebration of life and her 2011 album The Deep Field a lush moody expansion, this new release sees her stripping her compositions back to the core, the bare-all lyricism and timeless melodies harking back to her accolade-winning album To Survive (2008) and her universally acclaimed debut Real Life (2006). “My maxim is: if it feels scary to say it, it’s the thing you must say,” Joan says. On Damned Devotion the thoughtful lyricism is married to Joan as Police Woman’s most accessible music to date.

GoGo Penguin/A Humdrum Star

Bruce Brubaker/Codex

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing in gatefold jacket. 2018 release. On Codex, American pianist Bruce Brubaker sets up a clash (or a discussion) between Terry Riley’s Keyboard Study No. 2 (1965) and the Codex Faenza, a 15th century manuscript considered to be one of the very first collections of keyboard music. By putting forth the work of the performer/creator above that of the composer, this back-and forth takes the listener on a journey that is at once timeless and eminently current. Over six centuries ago, at the dawn of the 15th century, unknown scribes – authentic artists or inspired copyists, that we do not know – collected over fifty vocal compositions, some from the previous century. Liturgical or secular, anonymous or bearing the imprint of the Ars nova’s most famous French and Italian composers (Jacopo da Bologna, Francesco Landini, Guillaume de Machaut, Pierre des Molins…), these works were transcribed on two parallel staves, which was unusual at the time and indicate that they were intended for keyboard. Thus the Codex Faenza – named after the Ravenna-adjacent town where it is kept – created circa 1420 and rediscovered in the 1930s, became an object of fascination for harpsichordists, organists and pianists the world over, as one of the oldest keyboard scores to have survived.

A.R. Rahman/The Essential A.R. Rahman

Twin Peaks/Sweet ’17 Singles

Vinyl LP pressing. Throughout the second half of 2017, Chicago’s Twin Peaks released a run of a half dozen limited-edition 7″ singles the band affectionately dubbed Sweet ’17. Only 300 copies of each 7″ were made, and subscriptions sold out almost immediately. Due to popular demand, Twin Peaks have compiled all of the songs from the series onto the new 12″ Sweet 17 Singles. The release also coincides with the band’s run of dates supporting Portugal. The Man, and a headline tour that winds through the Midwest in March. Sweet ’17 Singles follows in the footsteps of Down In Heaven, the band’s 2016 full-length release, which expanded on the garage-inspired sounds of 2014’s Wild Onion.

Shovels & Rope/Busted Jukebox Vol.2

Shovels & Rope’s – Busted Jukebox 2 LP – Shovels & Rope’s ‘Busted Jukebox: Volume 1’ is a collaborative effort between critically acclaimed duo Shovels & Rope and their close friends. The ten song collection finds the band covering well known songs or tracks they have written or performed with other artists in the past. Album features collaborations with Shakey Graves, Lucius, J Roddy Walston, Butch Walker and more.

Brain Fallon/Sleepwalkers

Double vinyl LP pressing. 2018 release, the second full-length solo album from the artist best known as singer/guitarist of The Gaslight Anthem as well as The Horrible Crowes. The follow-up to 2016’s Painkillers was recorded earlier this year at Parlor Recording Studio in New Orleans alongside Ted Hutt, who previously worked on The Gaslight Anthem’s 2008 breakthrough LP, The ’59 Sound. Sleepwalkers sees Brian Fallon once again pushing timeless rock ‘n’ roll into the modern era, recasting British Invasion rock, first generation UK punk, and American pop and soul into a near irresistible sound he’s dubbed – with a nod and a wink towards The Who – as Heavy R&B.

Thomas Stronens Time Is A Blind Guide/Lucus

Ruby Boots/Don’t Talk About It

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing including digital download. 2018 release. Don’t Talk About It charts this drifter’s odyssey, tattered passport in hand. Behind her commanding and versatile voice, sharp guitar playing, and adept songwriting, Ruby Boots confidently maneuvers past the whirlwinds life has tossed on her occasionally lost highway. It’s an album of hope, breakthrough, and handling the unknown challenges around the next bend. Echoes of first wave UK power pop and jangly punk intersect with the every (wo)man indie and pop-inflected muscle of Best Coast. Classic rock touchstones from T. Rex to the girl-group-wall-of-sound to personal hero Tom Petty meld with a weary poet’s eye recalling Hope Sandoval.

Danny Elfman/Justice League OST

Double vinyl LP pressing in gatefold jacket. Original score to the 2017 major motion picture composed by Danny Elfman. Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists the help of his newfound friend, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy. Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat. Despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash it may be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.

Ramones:

Ramones/Leave Home

Ramones/Rocket To Russia

Ramones/Ramones

Ringo Starr:

Ringo Starr/Goodnight Vienna

Ringo Starr/Ringo

Hugh Masekela/Hope

Vinyl LP pressing from Analogue Production. Hugh Masekela is a world-renowned South African flugelhornist, trumpeter, bandleader, composer, singer and defiant political voice. Masekela began to hone his, now signature, Afro-Jazz sound in the late 1950s during a period of intense creative collaboration, most notably performing in the 1959 musical King Kong, written by Todd Matshikiza, and, soon thereafter, as a member of the now legendary South African group, the Jazz Epistles (featuring the classic line up of Kippie Moeketsi, Abdullah Ibrahim and Jonas Gwangwa).

Tess Parks/Blood Hot

Limited colored vinyl LP pressing of Tess Parks’ 2013 Mazzy Star-esque debut, Blood Hot. A native of Toronto, Tess Parks moved to London, England at the age of 17 where she briefly studied photography before deciding to focus on music. Tess made an impression on industry legend Alan McGee, founder of Creation Records, albeit the timing of their meeting could hardly have been less ideal; McGee was no longer involved in music and Tess was due to move back to Toronto. After moving back to her hometown in 2012, Tess formed a band on the advice of McGee and less than a year after their meeting, he returned to music with his new label, 359 Music. Tess became one of his first signings and released her debut record Blood Hot in November 2013 to excellent reviews. One reviewer described her as “Patti Smith on Quaaludes”. Others have mentioned her “gauzy psychedelic sound” and “smouldering voice”. Alan McGee himself said: “She’s only 24 and is already an amazing songwriter… she just doesn’t quite know she is yet… her most beautiful quality is her lack of ego. Tess is an amazing lady.”

Ty Segall/Freedom’s Goblin

Double vinyl LP pressing including poster. 2018 release. Ty Segall goes all the way, flipping the Freedom coin to find passion, laughter and savagery on both sides. A head-spinning compendium of stompers, weepers, ballads, screamers, bangers and funker-uppers, all marking a different impasse, like a flag whirling into a knot, exploding and burning on contact, in the name of life and loathing and the pursuit of what you love. Ty Segall is a multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter and record producer. He is best known for his prolific solo career. Segall is also a member of the bands Fuzz, Broken Bat and GØGGS, and is a former member of The Traditional Fools, Epsilons, Party Fowl, Sic Alps, and The Perverts.

Tiny Moving Parts/Swell

Vinyl LP pressing. Following 2016’s acclaimed Celebrate, the delightfully chipper trio from Benson, Minnesota bring you their brand-new record Swell. The collection finds Tiny Moving Parts building on it’s predecessor and throwing into the melting pot, their impressively complex instrumentation, infectious melodies and killer hooks to create a tight, mathy melodic punk combination that’s hard to resist. Guaranteed to bring a smile to your face and a spring to your step. Swell is ushered in by the vibrant lead single “Caution.”

Superchunk/What A Time To Be Alive

The urgency of current events after the demoralizing 2016 election gave Mac, Laura, Jim, and Jon of Superchunk the momentum to make something new sooner than later. “It would be strange to be in a band, at least our band, and make a record that completely ignored the surrounding circumstances that we live in and that our kids are going to grow up in.” Enter What a Time to Be Alive, Superchunk’s first album in over four years. It’s a record, says Mac, “about a pretty dire and depressing situation but hopefully not a record that is dire and depressing to listen to.”

Nightmares on Wax/Shape The Future

Vinyl LP pressing housed in gatefold sleeve, includes digital download. One of the most influential artists of a generation and a long-standing member of the Warp Records family, Nightmares on Wax announces his new album Shape The Future. A perfect marriage of soul, hip-hop, dub and timeless club sounds that act as a salvo masterpiece of contemporary and classic genre-blending, brilliantly solidifying Nightmares On Waxs place as an inspirational electronic music figurehead.

spotify:track:3CNDhFRj5ex6caq3wVxAyQ

Half Japanese/Why Not

Half Japanese have returned to peel further layers from their onion. They have a new album that’s a square further on in their unpredictable musical snakes and ladders board. ‘Why Not?’ is a magical thing – it’s Springsteen’s ‘Born To Run’ recorded in a cupboard, it’s an ode to love, it’s a Wire song with two duelling guitarists being Zappa on helium, it’s Parquet Courts in a tantrum, it’s The Crickets contorted into? and The Mysterians, it’s everywhere and nowhere, baby, it’s where it’s at.
On ‘Why Not?’ nuances are mused, situations explained, questions asked. Outside, zombies and demons roam and everyday aliens emerge from spaceships: it’s a technicolor film transcribed by Jad Fair and friends John Sluggett, Gilles-Vincent Rieder, Mick Hobbs and Jason Willett, their faces at the cracked window of their subterranean habitat looking out at the real world. ‘Why Not?’ contains pieces of fluffy thought-provoking music, a bag of sentiments delivered with a real sense of wonderment at how the normal world revolves; all powered with heart and soul, some crunchy guitars, a cello and reverb set-to-kill infiltrating their storytelling.

Leonard Cohen/Various Positions

Various Positions is the seventh studio album by Leonard Cohen, released in December 1984 (and February 1985). It marked not only his turn to the modern sound and use of synthesizers (particularly on the opening track), but also, after the harmonies and backing vocals from Jennifer Warnes on the previous Recent Songs (1979), an even greater contribution from Warnes, who is credited equally to Cohen as vocalist on all of the tracks. – The album was recorded at Quadrasonic Sound in New York in the summer of 1983 with Leanne Ungar engineering. A small core of musicians from a group called Slow Train backed Cohen on the album. The album contains two songs that would become live standards for Cohen: “Dance Me to the End of Love” and “Hallelujah.”

Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa/Black Coffee

Double colored vinyl LP pressing in gatefold jacket. 2018 release. It’s been four years since the critically acclaimed, Grammy nominated, and #1 Billboard Blues album Seesaw was released by singer-songwriter Beth Hart and guitar hero Joe Bonamassa. Since they have both been on fire, riding creative tidal waves live in the studio. They have reunited for another collection of 10 soul gems that pair Hart’s breathtaking vocals and Joe’s masterful expressive playing. Featuring songs by Edgar Winter, Ray Charles, Etta James, Ella Fitzgerald, Lucinda Williams and more. The first studio album released by this magical duo was Don’t Explain in 2011, followed by the Grammy nominated album Seesaw in 2013. In 2014, they released their first live album and DVD Live in Amsterdam, recorded during their mini tour in Europe.

Dean Blunt/Wahalla

Produced in 2014, Wahalla is the collaboration between Dean Blunt (Hype Williams, Babyfather, Blue Iverson) and visual/folk artist Joanne Robertson. Created in the same year of Blunt’s Black Metal and Skin Fade releases, this eight-track release coincides with the time Robertson was recording for her 2015 album Black Moon Days (FTR 179LP). Originally released through social media in early 2017, Wahalla is now available for the first time on a physical format.

Cornelius/Mellow Waves

Limited vinyl LP pressing. Mellow Waves is a 2017 studio album by Japanese musician Cornelius, his first ‘solo’ album in 11 years. After releasing his fifth album under the Cornelius moniker, 2006’s Sensuous, Keigo Oyamada worked on a number of projects, including a collaboration with J-pop singer Salyu which, using the name Salyu x Salyu, resulted in the 2011 album S(o)un(d)beams. Oyamada composed soundtracks for educational TV programs and the Ghost in the Shell: Arise anime series. He toured with Yoko Ono and Yellow Magic Orchestra and produced remixes for Philip Glass and Sakanaction. He also joined the electro supergroup Metafive, whose lineup includes Yoshinori Sunahara, Yukihiro Takahashi, Towa Tei, and others.

New York Rock & Soul Revue/Live At The Beacon

The New York Rock And Soul Revue – Live at the Beacon (2LP). The New York Rock and Soul Revue: Live at the Beacon is a live album which documented the New York Rock and Soul Revue. It was recorded on March 1 and 2, 1991 at the Beacon Theater in New York City, a favorite venue of organizer Donald Fagen. The performances featured Fagen and included Phoebe Snow, Michael McDonald, Boz Scaggs, Eddie Brigati, David Brigati, and Charles Brown. Selections on the album included a number of songs which were originally written and recorded by members of the revue, as well as other songs. Musician Credits: Donald Fagen – vocals, piano, Fender Rhodes piano, melodia, Charles Brown – vocals, piano, Michael McDonald – vocals, electric piano, Boz Scaggs – vocals, Phoebe Snow – vocals, Eddie Brigati – vocals, percussion, David Brigati – vocals, percussion, Jeff Young & The Youngsters – vocals, Dennis McDermott – drums, Lincoln Schleifer – electric bass, acoustic bass, Drew Zingg – guitar, Danny Caron – guitar, Jimmy Vivino – guitar, Larry DeBari – guitar, Jeff Young – keyboards, Cornelius Bumpus – tenor saxophone, John Hagen – tenor saxophone, background vocals, Chris Anderson – trumpet, Bob Gurland – vocal trumpet, Philip Hamilton – background vocals, percussion, Mindy Jostyn – background vocals, harmonica, Dian Sorel – background vocals, Ula Hedwig – background vocals.

Memphis Slim & Willie Dixon/Songs of Memphis Slim & Willie Dixon

Veruca Salt/Eight Arms To Hold You

Vinyl LP pressing. Commemorating the 20th anniversary of Outpost Records, Eight Arms To Hold You is the second full-length studio album from the alt-rock band, originally released in 2007. This was the last album to feature original band members Nina Gordon, Louise Post, Steve Lack, and Jim Shapiro until the 2015 reunion album. The album features hit “Volcano Girls”. The title of the album is a reference to the working title for The Beatles’ film eventually titled Help! Named after Veruca Salt, the spoiled rich girl from the children’s book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (and it’s 1971 film adaptation Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory), Veruca Salt was formed in Chicago. Songwriting was shared between Gordon and Post, though the two seldom collaborated. Rather, each would typically submit a complete song to the group and sing the lead vocal on that song, while the other would record backing vocals.

Hollie Cook/Vessel Of Love

Sixx:A.M./Heroin Diaries Soundtrack 10th Anniversary

Limited double 180gm red and black marbled colored vinyl LP pressing. August 2017 marked the 10th anniversary of the release of Nikki Sixx’s drug-soaked New York Times best selling memoir, The Heroin Diaries and SIXX: A.M.’s The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack. To commemorate more than a decade of sobriety and life lessons learned, Nikki Sixx and SIXX: A.M. revisit the seminal work; presenting a 10th Anniversary Edition of the album on vinyl. Comprised of James Michael (vocalist, producer, songwriter), DJ Ashba (guitarist, songwriter) and Nikki Sixx (bassist, songwriter), the group initially came together to write, record, and co-produce The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack, which sold over 300,000 copies, and the #1 hit single, “Life Is Beautiful,” became radio’s most played rock song of 2008. This Heroin Diaries: 10th Anniversary vinyl edition features new artwork, personal notes from the band and three newly re-imagined tracks: “Life Is Beautiful 2017,” “Accidents Can Happen 2017″ and Girl With Golden Eyes 2017.”

Steep Canyon Rangers/Out In The Open

Featured Vinyl New Releases 1.19.18: tUnE-yArDs, Go Team, Damu The Fudgemonk, Tourist, The Specials, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Petite Biscuit, Earth Wind & Fire and More/Stream Samples

Posted by Marion M Merritt on January 19, 2018

Posted in: Music, Music News, New Releases. Tagged: buffy sainte-marie, damu the fudgemunk, earth wind & fire, featured vinyl new releases, mustafa ozkent, petit biscuit, the go! team, the specials, tourist, tune-yards. Leave a comment

tUnE-yArDs/i can feel you creep into my private life

Vinyl LP pressing. tUnE-yArDs’ magnum opus will arrive in the form of their new album I can feel you creep into my private life. Thematically, the 12 new songs tackle race, politics, intersectional feminism and environmental prophecies head on. But in the billows of intense subject matter, the album arrives as tUnE-yArDs’ most immediate and upbeat music yet- this is tUnE-yArDs’ music to dance to. On I can feel you creep into my private life, tUnE-yArDs is officially a duo. Garbus is joined by longtime collaborator Nate Brenner who produced and wrote the album together with lyrics by Garbus. tUnE-yArDs worked with mixer Mikaelin “Blue” BlueSpruce (Solange, Kendrick Lamar).

Damu The Fudgemunk & Raw Poetic/Reflecting Sea

Vinyl LP pressing. As music continuously evolves, times change and new ideas and movements come and go. All of this functions in tandem with scientific, technological, social and political advancements in our society. The biggest component to that evolution is the people. There are creators and consumers. One cannot exist without the other. Throughout art, the audience defines quality, but artist has the power to introduce change and shift perception. Execution is key. The masses are always hungry for something fresh. Sometimes we’re at the forefront of new trends and sometimes we find comfort innovating the past. No matter what, musicians have a responsibility to bridge the gap. Raw Poetic and Damu the Fudgemunk meet all of the above. Produced entirely by the artists, The Reflecting Sea revisits sonic textures of yesteryear and combined with their own distinct ears for music, have created something uniquely foreign for the music world in our time. Speaking of the times, Raw Poetic’s lyrical subject matter is nothing short of relevancy. Speaking from an observatory perspective in addition to his own personal experiences, the album’s content is infinitely relatable. Although known primarily as hip hop acts, both Damu and Raw P stretched out to expand what the genre is known for. The combination of elements from the mix of live instrumentation, improvisation and sampling to the range of styles including jazz, fusion, rock, electronic and soul make The Reflecting Sea unlike anything else. Captured and recorded in it’s rawest form, the album is honest expression.

Tourist/Wash

Vinyl LP pressing. 2017 EP release, the follow up to Tourist’s 2016 debut album U which earned him critical acclaim and a legion of tastemaker fans around the world. Featuring the single, “We Stayed Up All Night” (featuring Ardyn) from Grammy-winning, writer-producer William Phillips.

The Go Team/Semicircle

The joyously inventive Brighton collective the Go! Team have announced a new album, Semicircle, the follow-up to 2015’s The Scene Between. Lead single and quasi-title track “Semicircle Song” is an ecstatic marching band romp in which, at one point, all of the band members rattle off their astrological signs. It’s the sort of mishmash of warmth and discordance that this group has always been great at.

The Specials/Singles Collection

The Specials TITLE: The Singles (180 Gram Vinyl) The Specials are an English 2 Tone and ska revival band formed in 1977 in Coventry. In 1980, the song “Too Much Too Young”, the lead track on their The Specials AKA Live! EP, reached No. 1 in the UK, with the unemployment-themed single “Ghost Town” also hit No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart in 1981.

Buffy Sainte-Marie/Medicine Songs

Vinyl LP pressing. 2017 release including digital download for featuring additional new recordings. Coming off her critically acclaimed, Polaris prize winning 2015 album Power in the Blood, and after winning the 2016 spirit of Americana Award, Buffy Sainte-Marie has delivered Medicine Songs – and has made it her mission to educate and inform the world using her strongest tool – her music, by – in her own words – “putting the songs to work”. The album starts with the new unreleased collaboration with fellow Polaris prize winning indigenous artist Tanya Tagaq, followed by the politically charged “The War Racket.” There are also new recordings of some of the most powerful songs Buffy’s ever written, including “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,” “Starwalker,” timeless protest classics like “Universal Soldier,” “Now That the Buffalo’s Gone,” and “Little Wheel Spin and Spin,” as well as forgotten gems that were simply ahead of their time when first released, like the shimmery, eye-opening “Priests of the Golden Bull,” and the chillingly prescient “Disinformation.”

Petit Biscuit/Presence

Double vinyl LP pressing in gatefold jacket. 2017 debut album from classically-trained French artist Petit Biscuit. Recorded over the course of the past year, Petit Biscuit – AKA Mehdi Benjelloun – wrote, produced and mixed Presence completely independently, finding time between high school exams and sold out tours across the U. S., Europe and beyond. The album is his complete creative vision, and includes contributions from Lido, Bipolar Sunshine and Panama. The album was mastered by legendary engineer Chab (Daft Punk, Air, Sebastien Tellier) in a nod to the forefathers of French dance music. Presence is the first new music from Petit Biscuit since the release of his debut EP featuring smash hit “Sunset Lover,” released in 2015 when he was only 15 and streamed more than 350 million times to date. Petit Biscuit plays piano, guitar, cello and more, and began experimenting with electronics to form his signature sound at age 11. Presence is heavily informed by his schooling, combining acoustic elements with innovative electronic production and his trademark vocal manipulations.

Earth Wind & Fire/The Best of Earth Wind & Fire Vol.1

The Best of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. 1 is a 1978 compilation album collecting the charting singles of Earth, Wind & Fire. In addition to collecting previously charting songs, the album also included three new tracks for the band: a cover of The Beatles’ song “Got to Get You Into My Life” and the original track “September”, both of which also became charting singles, the former also winning a Grammy Award, and “Love Music.” Love Music was sampled by Ghostface Killah on his track Good featured on his 2006 album More Fish. “September” has been sampled by Crystal Waters on her track “Say… If You Feel Alright” from her 1996 album Crystal Waters.

Mustafa Ozkent/Funk Anatolian

Vinyl LP pressing. 2017 release. The incredible music of Anadolu Pop’s very own Dr. Frankenstein – Maestro Mustafa Özkent – as the daddy of all Turkish rarities, this record simply has to be heard to be believed and even then it’s still literally unbelievable. Özkent’s band is funky and loose in the way hyper-disciplined musicians can be, and it’s no surprise that Özkent is a world-class arranger. But the record transcends mere craftsmanship by fusing Özkent’s Turkish traditions with his contemporary funk musicians across the Atlantic. Mustafa Özkent is a talented guitarist who was known to modify the design of his instruments to create unusual tonal qualities by adding extra frets on his guitar to play traditional Turkish modes. Özkent was a nationalist, but the blends his Turkish folk influences so perfectly into modernity of the psyche-jazz-funk that you might not even notice them unless you knew what you were listening for.

New Jack White Single “Connected by Love” w/Respect Commander Arrives In Store 11.12.17

Posted by Marion M Merritt on January 12, 2018

Posted in: Uncategorized. Leave a comment

records with merritt

JackWhite Jack White/Connected by Love w/Respect Commander

Jack White has released “Connected by Love” the first single from his forthcoming fourth solo album, ‘Boarding House Reach’ along with the companion track, “Respect Commander.”

If the shipping is not delayed by the weather, we expect our first round on Friday, 11.12.17 sometime in the afternoon.

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New Jack White Single “Connected by Love” w/Respect Commander Arrives In Store 11.12.17

Posted by Marion M Merritt on January 12, 2018

Posted in: Music, Music News, New Releases, Video. Tagged: boarding house reach, connected by love, jack white, respect commander. 1 Comment

Jack White/Connected by Love w/Respect Commander

Jack White has released “Connected by Love” the first single from his forthcoming fourth solo album, ‘Boarding House Reach’ along with the companion track, “Respect Commander.”

If the shipping is not delayed by the weather, we expect our first round on Friday, 11.12.17 sometime in the afternoon.

records with merritt

Curate Your Vinyl Collection Here

Featured Vinyl New Releases 3.23.18: Jack White, The Wailers, Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, Eccentric Soul, Miles & Trane, Lisse, Guided By Voices, Kim Byoung Duk, Erika Wennerstrom, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Rory Gallagher and More/Stream Samples

Featured Vinyl New Releases 3.9.18: David Byrne, Ann von Hausswolff, Sun Ra, They Might Be Giants, Elephant9, Mia Dyson, Young Fathers, Albert Hammond Jr., Trane & Milt Jackson, Langley School Project, Porcupine Tree and More/Stream Samples

Featured Vinyl New Releases 3.2.18: The Breeders, Joan Baez, Millie Jackson, Moby, Tracey Thorn, Fred Eaglesmith, Ry Cooder, Titus Andronicus, Felt and More/Steam Samples

Featured Vinyl New Releases 2.23.18: Samantha Fish, Danielle Nicole, Bowie Reissues, Fever Ray, Culture Club, Hannah Read, Julie Fowlis, Allen Ginsberg and More/Stream Samples

Featured Vinyl New Releases 2.16.18: Kendrick Lamar, Belle & Sebastian, Brandi Carlile, Car Seat Headrest, Laurie Anderson & The Kronos Quartet, C.a.R., Doc and Merle Watson,

Featured Vinyl New Releases 2.9.18: Franz Ferdinand, MGMT, Nina Simone, Joan as Police Woman, Ramones, Ezra Furhman, Twin Peaks, Shovels & Rope, Ruby Boots, Brian Fallon, Wild Child, John Tajeda and More/Stream Samples

Featured Vinyl New Releases 1.26.18: Hugh Masekela, Tess Parks, Ty Segall, Half Japanese, Leonard Cohen, Tiny Moving Parts, Superchunk, Nightmares On Wax, Dean Blunt, Beth Hart and More/Stream Samples

Featured Vinyl New Releases 1.19.18: tUnE-yArDs, Go Team, Damu The Fudgemonk, Tourist, The Specials, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Petite Biscuit, Earth Wind & Fire and More/Stream Samples

New Jack White Single “Connected by Love” w/Respect Commander Arrives In Store 11.12.17

New Jack White Single “Connected by Love” w/Respect Commander Arrives In Store 11.12.17

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Hours

Follow me on Twitter

Instagram @RWM

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Midwestern Audio Vol. 3

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