RMBLR are members of Din’s Boys and ex-Sleigh Bells.

A tough punk 7” from a band that definitely can lose.

TRACK LISTING

Cannibals
Gelada
Miracle
Name Game

A Color of the Sky is the third album by Lightning Bug - the project of musicians and friends Audrey Kang, Kevin Copeland, Logan MIley, Dane Hagen and Vincent Puleo. A Color of the Sky is an album of many firsts: the band’s first album with their new label home, Fat Possum, the band’s first time recording together as a live band, and the first time Lightning Bug, initially a three-piece, is rounded out by Hagen and Puleo as full-time band members. Recorded in a rundown home-turned makeshift studio in the Catskills, A Color of the Sky finds Lightning Bug sounding more organic, dynamic and lush than ever, while also finding the band’s songwriter Audrey Kang sounding bolder than before.


"Here I wanted to connect how the struggles and flaws within the individual are mirrored in the greater problems of society. How do we as individuals know we are on the right path? How do we as a society, as a species, know we are on the right path? So I started with myself, and my own struggles, touching on how I hide myself away from other people, on my stage fright, on my inability to be vulnerable, on this feeling I used to have that I needed to prove I was worthy of being alive. Then I tried to connect these struggles outward to global issues like xenophobia, the building of walls, destruction of the environment that we are ALL so guilty of. I feel like the lyrics are pretty self explanatory on this one."


RIYL: Grouper, Helena Deland, Ana Roxanne, Snail Mail, Julia Holter, Slowdive, Japanese Breakfast, Tomberlin, Hand Habits, Big Thief, Broadcast, Stereolab, Jessica Pratt, Deerhunter, Mazzy Star, Cate Le Bon, Boards of Canada, Adrianne Lenker, Gia Margaret

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. The Return
2. The Right Thing Is Hard To Do
3. September Song, Pt. Ii
4. Wings Of Desire
5. The Chase

SIDE B
1. Song Of The Bell
2. I Lie Awake
3. Reprise
4. A Color Of The Sky
5. The Flash

Pure Phase is the second album by Spiritualized, released on 28 March 1995. The album was recorded in the Moles Studio in Bath, England and features contributions from The Balanescu Quartet.

At the time of release, Pierce had renamed the band as "Spiritualized Electric Mainline", the name that appears on the album cover, before reverting to the Spiritualized name shortly afterwards.

TRACK LISTING

1. Medication
2. The Slide Song
3. Electric Phase
4. All Of My Tears
5. These Blues
6. Let It Flow
7. Take Good Care Of It
8. Born, Never Asked
9. Electric Mainline
10. Lay Back In The Sun
11. Good Times
12. Pure Phase
13. Spread Your Wings
14. Feel Like Goin' Home

The first four Spiritualized records are the sound of J Spaceman finding his way through the cosmos; bumping into debris, soaring over stars, crash landing onto bleak, lonely landscapes then taking off again, sometimes spinning around uncontrollably until he finds somewhere sublime that he can rest his head for a while, until the restless soul takes flight again.

Elevating the gritty, narcotic garage blues of his first band Spacemen 3 into more of a crystalline experimental space rock, pop sound, the Lazer Guided Melodies core line up was Jason (vocals, guitar), Mark Refoy (guitars), Kate Radley (keyboards), Will Carruthers (bass) and Jonny Mattock (drums). Recorded from 1990 to 1991, the 12 songs are divided up into four movements.

Jason: ‘The last Spacemen 3 record was under-realized to me. When I listen back to that stuff it sounds like somebody finding their way. There was a lot of ideas but no way to put them into a space that would make them all work. So, there was a huge freedom forging over the last Spacemen 3 record and when Spiritualized started it was like, ‘Ok it’s all yours. Go.’

I was living in Rugby in a flat above a plumber’s merchant at the time. I accidentally kept that flat for eight years when I moved to London and when I returned it was exactly how I left it. There was the Nick Kent book open at the page I left it like it was waiting for my return.

We recorded the tracks in the studio near my flat which was a place where they predominantly recorded advertising jingles and it’s where we made all the Spacemen 3 records, but then the recordings were taken to Battery Studios in London, to explore a more professional way of making music, the world outside.

We got it down onto a Fostex E16; like a half inch of tape and we squeezed 16 tracks onto it. It was almost like recording on a cassette tape but then we introduced those multi tracks to a new kind of mix scenario, new to me anyway.

Once I approached that way of doing things I opened up a whole world and I was astounded that somebody could take those tracks and turn it into the record it became. Barry Clempson mixed it and his references were completely outside my world. He was playing stuff like Massive Attack, the Horace Andy track with that beautiful tremolo voice, and Rain Tree Crow, very precise and clear productions. But he brought this clarity and definition to it that I could not have done in Rugby. I didn’t know how to make records that sounded like that. It turned out absolutely beautiful.”

TRACK LISTING

1. You Know It's True
2. If I Were With Her Now
3. I Want You
4. Run
5. Smiles
6. Step Into The Breeze
7. Symphony Space
8. Take Your Time
9. Shine A Light
10. Angel Sigh
11. Sway
12. Bars

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2020 RELEASE AVAILABLE ONLINE ONLY AS PART OF THE SEPTEMBER 26TH DROP DAY AT 6PM.
LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Kickin presents Hi Tide Groove, DJ's choice 1969 - 1981, selected by Daisuke Kuroda.A collection of Hi Records singles from the famous Al Green and Ann Peebles, to the obscure African and Jean Plum.180 gram color vinyl

While everyone is social distancing, closing ranks and donning masks while they shop, life can seem somewhat surreal to the senses. Yet, through all of the chaos, one thing is constant, music brings us together. Now, on the 40th Anniversary of the landmark, Los Angeles, and 35 years since the original band have released an album – X, one of the greatest Punk Rock bands in music history, releases ALPHABETLAND. The original foursome - Exene Cervenka, John Doe, Billy Zoom, and DJ Bonebrake have now made the album available for fans to purchase and by adapting to this moment, X continues to embody the same spirit they did when they began in 1977.

“When your heart is broken you think every song is about that. These songs were written in the last 18 months & it blows my mind how timely they are,” explained John Doe. “We all want our family, friends & fans to hear our records as soon as it's finished. This time we could do that. Thanks to Fat Possum & our audience.” 

STAFF COMMENTS

says: Alphabetland is exactly what we need right now, rawkous good-natured punk-rock. Irreverent in places but as politically charged as you'd expect from some veterans of the scene. Brilliantly good fun, and as serious as it needs to be.

TRACK LISTING

1. ALPHABETLAND
2. Free
3. Water & Wine
4. Strange Life
5. I Gotta Fever
6. Delta 88 Nightmare
7. Star Chambered
8. Angel On The Road
9. Cyrano DeBerger's Back
10. Goodbye Year, Goodbye
11. All The Time In The World

Blair Howerton started songwriting as a coping mechanism during her formative years. Her vivid lyricism has bloomed into the dazzling, full-band emotional release known as Why Bonnie. The band's Fat Possum Records debut EP Voice Box celebrates unhindered expression via beguiling, propulsive guitar pop. In a decisive step to start performing her backlogged material, Howerton moved back home to Texas after graduating college in 2015. In Austin, Howerton joined lifelong best friend Kendall Powell, who she met in preschool. Powells classical piano chops swapped to synth for the new project. Both active in the Austin scene, guitarist Sam Houdek and bassist Chance Williams later joined to complete the lineup. In 2018, the band emerged on petite indie outlet Sports Day Records with In Water. The EP eulogized Howertons older brother, who passed away years prior. Intimately bristling tracks explored the grieving process, introducing the groups uncanny ability to stir up huge catharsis in a seamless rise. Follow-up Nightgown expanded the effort, pulling lush Mazzy Star and Cranberries influences.

Embarking on their first DIY tour the same year, Why Bonnie quickly landed opening runs for the like-minded sounds of Snail Mail and Beach Fossils. The sum of those experiences culminates in the sweeping, layered rock sound of third EP Voice Box. Fuzzed-out guitars and crystalline vocals drive a tough-edged struggle in the space between suppression and artistic liberty. Howerton explains: It encapsulates a disconnect between my inner and outer world, and not being able to express myself authentically because of that. But, ultimately knowing I will crash and burn if I dont The intense effort isnt always pretty. The title track fumes with quiet wisdom, urging: I know it's easier to bury your uncertainties in a cloud of masculinity / Guess is the curse you bear to talk over me. Breeders-inspired Athlete endeavors self-doubt in a blistering metaphor of failed sportsmanship. Fiery No Caves rises to a forceful album finale, unleashing the full windswept power of Howertons vocals, padded by Houdek. Of the ending ascent, the lead singer decides about the freedom of realizing that you can't hide anymore. You have to put yourself out there.

TRACK LISTING

1. Jetplane
2. Bury Me
3. Voice Box
4. No Caves
5. Athlete

The full-length debut from Ellis, Born Again takes place in spaces both intimate and vast, ordinary and near-mythic: warm beds and lonely church pews, restless cities and desolate forests and the furthest reaches of the cosmos. Produced by Jake Aron (Snail Mail, Solange, Grizzly Bear) and recorded partly at Aron’s Brooklyn studio, Born Again arrives as the follow-up to Ellis’s debut EP The Fuzz—a self-released, self-produced effort that promptly led to a deal with Fat Possum Records. In a departure from the viscerally charged dream-pop of The Fuzz, Born Again unfolds with a mesmerizing subtlety, gracefully spotlighting Ellis’s unhurried melodies, starkly confessional lyrics, and the luminous vocal work she’s shown in opening for artists like Soccer Mommy and Alvvays.

TRACK LISTING

1. Pringle Creek
2. Fall Apart
3. Happy
4. Born Again
5. Shame
6. Into The Trees
7. Saturn Return
8. Embarrassing
9. Zhuangzi's Dream
10. March 13

"You Know I’m Not Going Anywhere is an unachievable promise,” says The Districts bandleader Rob Grote. “It’s about a dream for love to last forever and a yearning to postpone death. It is about wanting to escape everyday life while also craving time with one who’s present. It’s a plea to remain the same in the face of constant change, and the certainty of going nowhere fast.” Written after playing nearly 200 shows over two years in support of their 2017 album, Popular Manipulations, The Districts’ fourth full-length You Know I’m Not Going Anywhere almost never arrived.

As they began to contemplate a new album, Grote and his longtime bandmates Pat Cassidy (guitar), Connor Jacobus (bass), and Braden Lawrence (drums) faced a transitional period that was painful for both personal and professional reasons, and found themselves fatigued and disoriented as a group. Grote also felt dysphoric from the anxiety-provoking state of the world today, while facing a daily battle with the dire health problems of his beloved dog. The Districts were forced to rethink everything. “This album was written as an escape and as reassurance. I was falling in love with someone new and trying to juggle this desperate desire to escape with the need to show up in my life. It’s pretty damn hard to be present and completely checked out all at once,” Grote explains. “It felt like much of my world had reached such a pitch that all I could do was try to tune it out. I felt really uncertain about the future of the band and super detached from much of what I used to identify with, on a personal level and with our music. I was thinking, ‘Do I want to keep doing music?’ ‘Do I want to keep doing it in this context?’” Grote retreated to his bedroom and started writing with no objective other than to create. Free from expectations, and with an acoustic guitar, synthesizer, and drum machine at hand, he discovered a newfound creative freedom. 

TRACK LISTING

1. My Only Ghost
2. Hey Jo
3. Cheap Regrets
4. Velour And Velcro
5. Changing
6. Descend
7. The Clouds
8. Dancer

Cats and Dogs, the fourth Royal Trux album, was originally released in 1993 to critical acclaim; it was also the first indication that Royal Trux could do more than whip up a tornado of distortion. A little less focused than Thank You, it still has its moments of splendor, especially when it sounds as though it's going to fall apart and, suddenly, comes back together

TRACK LISTING

1. Teeth
2. The Flag
3. Friends
4. The Spectre
5. Skywood Greenback Mantra
6. Turn Of The Century
7. Up The Sleeve
8. Hot And Cold Skulls
9. Tight Pants
10. Let's Get Lost
11. Driving In That Car (with The Eagle On The Hood)

A compilation of the best songs released from Townes Van Zandt over his career.

TRACK LISTING

1. For The Sake Of The Song
2. Pancho& Lefty
3. To Live Is To Fly
4. Fare Thee Well, Miss Carousel
5. I'll Be Here In The Morning
6. St. John The Gambler
7. If I Needed You
8. Black Widow Blues
9. Tecumseh Valley
10. Flyin' Shoes
11. Waiting Around To Die
12. Lungs
13. You Are Not Needed Now
14. Tower Song
15. Nothin'
16. Rex's Blues

First 12" pressing of The Districts critically acclaimed debut EP, first released in 2014. Included in addition to the original five tracks is a stirring BBC live session version of 'Silver Couplets', a live favourite that had only previously appeared on the band's self-released debut.

TRACK LISTING

1. Rocking Chair
2. Lyla
3. Funeral Beds
4. Long Distance
5. Stay Open 

Raw, soulful blues-rock from this duo from Akron, Ohio. This is the awesome second album (their first in the UK) from Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney. With a stripped back guitar, drums and vocal line up this is top notch blues, set apart by Auerbach's distinctive fuzz guitar. Recommended.

TRACK LISTING

1. Thickfreakness
2. Hard Row" (lyrics By Dan And Chuck Auerbach)
3. Set You Free
4. Midnight In Her Eyes
5. Have Love Will Travel (Richard Berry)
6. Hurt Like Mine
7. Everywhere I Go (Junior Kimbrough)
8. No Trust
9. If You See Me
10. Hold Me In Your Arms
11. I Cry Alone

Fantastic album from the acclaimed guitar and drum, Delta blues-infused rock duo from Akron, Ohio, The Black Keys. The album takes a few listens to get into - mainly down to the fact that the songs are, in general, quite understated rather than big catchy blues numbers, that grab you on first listen, but you're bored of within a week. You imagine that if Jack White could possibly get himself off the rock 'n' roll treadmill he'd love to kick back and make albums like this!!! A swaggering blues rock masterpiece!!

TRACK LISTING

1. When The Lights Go Out
2. 10 A.M. Automatic
3. Just Couldn't Tie Me Down
4. All Hands Against His Own
5. The Desperate Man
6. Girl Is On My Mind
7. The Lengths
8. Grown So Ugly (Robert Pete Williams)
9. Stack Shot Billy
10. Act Nice And Gentle" (Ray Davies)
11. Aeroplane Blues
12. Keep Me
13. Till I Get My Way

It’s been eight years since Bondy last released a record, and his distaste for the present day has intensified. But rather than avoid popular sounds, on Enderness he gathers and subverts modern tools to construct his indictment of the modern world. With an arsenal of synthesizers, drum machine, sparse electric guitar, and a skeptic’s pen, he builds a plodding dystopian story of living death stoked by internet anti-reality, big pharma conspiracy, and environmental apocalypse—aka 2019.

It’s existential dread as mid-tempo cradlesong, the music of our worst sleepless nights. “Stranger if you come/Know that much is broken/I forget the way/Surrender is spoken,” he sings on album standout “Images of Love,” bass pulses driving the caustic groove. On “Diamond Skull,” Bondy strings tragic and worrying subjects of popular obsession into a stream-of-consciousness phantasmagoria over a simple guitar riff, like Nick Cave on “Higgs Boson Blues.” Observations about white nationalism, spiritual charlatans, and hollow celebrity worship spill into internet speak: “OMG sea to sea/L-M-F-A-O,” he sings with a knowing wink. Like so many who simultaneously bemoan and fuel the simulation—tweets and grams as a form of self-flagellation—Bondy is both in on and imprisoned by the joke.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: A.A. Bondy have mastered the art of slow and simmeringly beautiful melodies. Warming saturated melodies and slowly unfurling progressive synthplay form a percussive but unhurried base to Bondy's haunting vocal drawl. Lovely stuff.

TRACK LISTING

1. Diamond Skull
2. Killers 3
3. In The Wonder
4. The Tree With The Lights
5. Images Of Love
6. I'll Never Know
7. Fentanyl Freddy
8. Pan Tran
9. #Lost Hills
10. Enderness

This is the debut EP from new Fat Possum signing Ellis. The six-track release presents an uncommonly fully-realized aesthetic to match the strength of Siggelkow's songwriting. Built from simple instrumentation, but deftly arranged to lend a grandeur and devastating scale to Siggelkow's skillfully rendered laments, the release is a resounding statement from a young artist who is poised for a reception that equals the scope of her remarkable gifts. Ellis, who, after generating buzz in her local scene on the back of opening stints with the likes of Soccer Mommy, Gabby's World, Chastity, Palehound, and Free Cake For Every Creature, garnered international acclaim with the release of a series of singles, earning comparisons to Mazzy Star, Alvvays and Slowdive from outlets like Pitchfork, Noisey and Stereogum, who marked her out as one of "a new generation of exciting songwriters."

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. The Drain
2. Frostbite
3. What A Mess!

Side B
1. All This Time
2. The Fuzz
3. NYE

In case you don't know by now, Insecure Menare led by Saul Adamczewski (Fat White Family) and his schoolmate Ben Romans-Hopcraft. There debut album was a glorious mess of  exotica, easy listening, lounge and timeless pop music.They now return with this 10 track covers record, feat. takes on Bruce Springsteen, The Pogues, The Carpenters, Peter Andre et al.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: It's a completely bizarre but thoroughly brilliant re-working of some karaoke classics from Insecure Men here, including the Police, the Denny's and PETER BLOODY ANDRE. WTAF / This is brilliant. Special shout-out to the Pogues' 'A Rainy Night In Soho'.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Rainy Days And Mondays
2. Mysterious Girl
3. She Thinks I Still Care
4. A Rainy Night In Soho
5. Streets Of Philadelphia

SIDE B
1. Roxette
2. I'm So Depressed
3. Sail Away To The Sea
4. Picture Cards Can't Picture You
5. Madame George

Fat Possum and Julian Casablancas' Cult Records are partnering to release NY Punks Surfbort record, "Friendship Music". Surfbort, a four-piece punk band from Brooklyn, New York made up of David Head, Alex Kilgore, Sean Powell and led by Dani Miller, channels inspiration from the 80’s punk scene to produce rousing, explosive music. Surfbort’s live experience is visceral and confrontational. Their feedback-strafed, guitar-shredding punk music says no to a digital age full of intolerance; they radiate love and friendship. All are welcome in the SURFBORT FREAK FAMILY! In the last three years they have supported acts such as The Dickies, Thee Oh Sees, Fat White Family, White Fang, Martin Rev, The Garden, Tijuana Panthers, The Mystery Lights, Tomorrows Tulips, Sunflower Bean, DIIV, GOGGS, The Dune Rats, Leftover Crack etc, Meatbodies, Ex-Cult, Hinds among others…

TRACK LISTING

1. Burn
2. High Anxiety
3. Feed
4. Rats
5. ACAB
6. Slushy
7. Hillside Stranger
8. Pretty Little Fucker
9. Stalker
10. Sunshine
11. Forty Five
12. Lets Be In Love
13. Selfie
14. Trashworld
15. Dope
16. Friendship Music
17. White People

Unknown Mortal Orchestra (U.M.O.) was conceived as a home recording project by Ruban Nielson after spending years playing and touring in an award-winning New Zealand punk band (on the legendary Flying Nun label). The band broke up after re-locating to Portland, OR and Ruban was ready to move away from his nomadic past. His recordings as U.M.O., mainly created for his personal amusement, have now taken on a life of their own. 

Ruban’s vision of creating “junkshop record collector pop” culminated in the creation of sprawling Beatles-esque guitar melodies over hammered out break-beats, spliced with an individual touch of gentle weirdness. The results deliver a surprisingly unified fusion of several influential elements - classic psychedelic rock, Krautrock rhythms and proto-hip hop beats – all interacting to create a cohesive album. 

Though the songs were never intended to be performed live, the last six months has seen the project gather pace behind a wave of critical acclaim. A sold-out limited edition EP lead Ruban to construct a live band consisting of skilled producer Jake Portrait on bass and a brilliant teenage drummer named Julien Ehrlich.

TRACK LISTING

1. Ffrends
2. Bicycle
3. Thought Ballune
4. Jello And Juggernauts
5. How Can You Luv Me
6. Nerve Damage!
7. Little Blu House
8. Strangers Are Strange
9. Boy Witch

Debut album from Australian band RVG drawing on an array of influences from Echo and the Bunnymen, The Psychedelic Furs, and The Go Betweens. A Quality of Mercy is made up of Eight songs. Classic songs. Songs recorded by the band, live off the floor, at Melbourne’s iconic rock’n’roll pub, The Tote. Songs that leant on the band’s heroes —the Go-Betweens, the Soft Boys, the Smiths— whilst never sounding like homage or pastiche. Songs hitting that sweet spot between light and dark, employing guitars both angular and jangling. Songs passionately sung by Romy Vager, the eponymous leader of a band once called, in full, Romy Vager Group. All of the songs on A Quality Of Mercy find Vager trying to move beyond ego, beyond the simple confessional of the songwriter, hoping to find perspective on both world and self. In such, these songs are at once personal and universal, intimate and grand, timely and timeless. They’re classic songs. And there’s eight of them. Adding up to a perfectly-formed debut that says so much, yet gets out in under half-an-hour.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: Displaying a perfect mix between jangling guitars and evocative vocal aesthetic (there's definitely a bit of Jarvis in there somewhere), RVG manage to switch from syncopated rhythmic psychedelia to soaring anthemic post-punk without batting an eyelid. Perfectly produced, and brilliantly immersive throughout.

TRACK LISTING

1. A Quality Of Mercy
2. Cause And Effect
3. IBM
4. Heart Paste
5. The Eggshell World
6. Vincent Van Gogh
7. Feral Beach
8. That's All

THE PICCADILLY RECORDS ALBUM OF THE YEAR 2018.

PICCADILLY RECORDS EXCLUSIVE: 
For a limited period only, buy either the vinyl or CD of 'Childqueen' and get a free 3 track 'Outtakes' CD bonus disc. 

Kadhja Bonet’s second album, Childqueen is something of a Hero’s Quest. In the opening Procession, above a muted drummer’s march, an unseen oracle announces to you, the listener: “every morning is a chance to renew, a chance to renew.” This is your first clue, setting you upon a path not to treasure, nor a grail, nor even a long lost love, but highest of all, what Kadhja has christened the “childqueen,” that innermost self that you were truthfully and instinctively before the press of the world came crushing in.

As with her 2016 debut The Visitor, the songs on Childqueen are never casual, never ditties. Instead they invite us into a world not wholly our own, a half-mythical atmosphere where past and future meet in a parallel, yet faraway, present. The lyrics and melodic lines nudge us along a path of self-discovery— or act as breadcrumbs along her own path. Everything that you hear on Childqueen was written, played, produced, and even mixed by Kadhja, who has always produced all her own music, insisting on a total vision that is nearly as difficult to co-create as a dream. The result is a soundscape the listener sinks into, a sound that combines softer enchantments with an ever-listenable experimentalism, unplaceable in genre and decade from beginning to end.

TRACK LISTING

1. Procession
2. Childqueen
3. Another Time Lover
4. Delphine
5. Thoughts Around Tea
6. Joy
7. Wings
8. Mother Maybe
9. Second Wind
10. Nostalgia (hidden Track)

Piccadilly Records Exclusive CD Bonus Disc:
1. Imposter
2. Wake
3. The Watch

Following on from last years compilation “Collection”, Nashville based Sophie Allison aka Soccer Mommy now brings us her debut album proper. Produced by Gabe Wax (Deerhunter, War On Drugs, Beirut), the new album is a huge step up from her earlier bedroom recordings. The fuller sound works perfectly with Sophie’s finely crafted, bitter-sweet pop songs that have a world weary quality beyond her 20 years.

TRACK LISTING

1. Still Clean
2. Cool
3. Your Dog
4. Flaw
5. Blossom (Wasting All My Time)
6. Last Girl
7. Skin
8. Scorpio Rising
9. Interlude
10. Wildflowers

In many ways Insecure Men - the band led by the fiercely talented songwriter and musician Saul Adamczewski and his schoolmate and stabilising influence, Ben Romans-Hopcraft - are the polar opposite of the Fat White Family. Whereas sleaze-mired, country-influenced, drug-crazed garage punks the Fat Whites are a “celebration of everything that is wrong in life”, Insecure Men, who blend together exotica, easy listening, lounge and timeless pop music, are, by comparison at least, the last word in wholesomeness.

The band originally formed in 2015 in the cramped confines of The Queens Head pub, Stockwell, in the Fat White Family’s notorious South London ‘practice space’. Saul recorded all of the songs he wrote at The Queens Head onto tape at Sean Lennon’s studio in upstate New York. This tape, recorded on his own in a corridor onto an ancient Tascam while in a foul mood with his mates, essentially became Insecure Men’s self-titled debut album as more layers were dubbed over the top until nothing of the original demos remained.

Saul lists some of the influences on their sound, mentioning the exotica of Arthur Lyman, the early electronic pop of Perrey and Kingsley, the supreme smoothness of The Carpenters, the songwriting chops of Harry Nilsson and the hypnagogic uncanniness conjured up by David Lynch, describing what they do as “pretty music with a dark underbelly to it”.

TRACK LISTING

1. Subaru Nights
2. Teenage Toy
3. All Women Love Me
4. Mekong Glitter
5. Heathrow
6. I Don't Wanna Dance (With My Baby)
7. The Saddest Man In Penge
8. Ulster
9. Cliff Has Left The Building
10. Whitney Houston And I
11. Buried In The Bleak

The Districts are a band that never stops moving. Popular Manipulations is an accurate representation of how much Robby, Braden, Connor, and Pat have grown, individually and as one solid unit. They’ve fallen in love and had their hearts broken and put back together again. They’re not the young underage band anymore, they’ve stepped out of their comfort zone and have come face to face with things that are so much bigger than them.

Popular Manipulations is life in the present. The way Robby belts from the depths of his chest compliments Pat’s crooning guitar while Braden and Connor lock in with a rhythm section so thick you could slice it with a knife. The songs are so visceral and compelling they make you like you’re experiencing every emotion at once. You can wade through the lyrical themes of manipulation, possessiveness, and anxiety or float among their dark and dreamy arrangements. Each song stands alone on its own but the synergy between them as a whole is explosive

STAFF COMMENTS

says: Soaring melancholic indie anthems are underpinned by a staggeringly precise rhythmic backbone of hammering percussion and rolling bass. Slightly grungy in places and brilliantly emotive and perfectly produced throughout. Brilliant stuff.

TRACK LISTING

1. If Before I Wake
2. Violet
3. Ordinary Day
4. Salt
5. Why Would I Wanna Be
6. Point
7. Airplane
8. Fat Kiddo
9. Capable
10. Rattling Of The Heart

Quietly catchy & surprisingly confrontational. Soccer Mommy is the project of Sophie Allison, a nineteen-year-old Nashville native & musical wunderkind. Collection compiles the best of Sophie’s DIY Bandcamp work as well as a few new songs.

Sophie sings of toxic relationships & infatuations. Or, as Sophie describes her subject matter, “crush stuff with a hint of bad to it.” The songs can be sweet, they can be happily melancholic or melancholically happy, but they always cut deep. They belong on playlists & mixes, to be shared among friends & belted out during road trips.

‘Allison,’ a gorgeous meditation on the bittersweet feeling of hurting someone you love while pursuing your own dreams, showcases Sophie’s talent for home recording, with multitracked vocals layered to perfection. On ‘Out Worn,’ a searing takedown of the desire for male validation, is relatable & anthemic, striking the perfect balance between anger & sugary pop bliss.

As long as records like Collection exist, there will be no shortage of young artists bashing their hearts out on guitars for years to come. “You can’t say indie rock is dead,” says Sophie. “It’s just being taken over by women.”

STAFF COMMENTS

says: Lovely heartfelt melancholic pop songs from this Nashville singer songwriter. I have to admit I knew nothing about her before this release but this is really great. If you like Chastity Belt, Big Thief, Girlpool etc. then check it out.

TRACK LISTING

1. Allison
2. Try
3. Death By Chocolate
4. Out Worn
5. 3am At A Party
6. Inside Out
7. Benadryl Dreams
8. Waiting For Cars

Hoops' full-length debut, Routines is a bittersweet and honest record that sounds both warmly familiar and jarringly distinctive. Whereas their previous releases were recorded on four-track tape machines in living rooms and basements (both their own and their parents’), Routines marks the band’s first sessions in an actual studio - namely, Rear House Recording in Greenpoint, Brooklyn with Jarvis Taveniere (Widowspeak, Quilt). Those sessions, however, were just one step in the band’s careful creative process. After a few months of touring, they returned to Indiana to set up their gear in Krauter’s parents’ basement and began experimenting with the studio-recorded tracks. Some songs they only tinkered with, others they scrapped completely and rebuilt from the ground up. They were determined to make a record that sounded like Hoops. The result is Routines, the sharpest and clearest delineation of the band’s sound thus far, drawing from and emphasizing each members’ distinctive influences and personal styles: four guys making music that is larger than themselves.

RIYL: Real Estate, Deerhunter, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Ariel Pink, John Maus, Wild Nothing, Mac DeMarco, Twin Peaks, Whitney, Tennis

TRACK LISTING

1. Sun's Out
2. Rules
3. On Top
4. Benjals
5. Burden
6. On Letting Go
7. The Way Luv Is
8. Management
9. All My Life
10. Underwater Theme
11. Worry

Gold Connections’ debut EP was home-recorded in the spring of 2014 in Williamsburg, VA, and features production, engineering, and mixing by Will Toledo (Car Seat Headrest). It is comprised of the band's five best, earliest original songs written by Marsh while he was an undergrad of the College of William & Mary in Virginia. It was there that Marsh met Toledo; Marsh a freshman, Toledo a sophomore. Though Toledo won’t be a member going forward, he also plays drums, electric guitar, bass, and backing vocals throughout the EP. Fat Possum will release Gold Connections’ debut album later this year.

RIYL: Car Seat Headrest, The Districts, Pavement, Modest Mouse, Wilco, Ryan Adams, Bright Eyes, Pinegrove, Built to Spill, The Walkmen

“...an animal of its own. Languid atmospherics give birth to howlingly aggressive rock ‘n’ roll that ultimately builds to a richly arranged climax." - Stereogum

Communions are a four-piece from Copenhagen, made up of brothers Martin and Mads Rehof, Jacob van Deurs Formann and Frederik Lind Köppen.

‘Blue’ is Communions’ debut album, following a series of singles over the last two years. ‘Blue’ makes the most of everywhere Communions have been. Through all of this the stakes have changed but the sensitivity and craft with which the band takes risks has bloomed. An eloquence now shines through and you can take it or leave it.

Discarding some of the moodiness found in their previous recordings, ‘Blue’ tells us what was always natural to Communions. It’s about love and taking chances. It’s about trying something and it still doesn’t matter if there’s apprehension.

TRACK LISTING

Come On, I’m Waiting
Today
Passed You By
She’s A Myth
Midnight Child
Got To Be Free
Don’t Hold Anything Back
Take It All
It’s Like Air
Eternity
Alarm Clocks

‘Goodbye Terrible Youth’ is the second album from St Louis-by-way-of-Scotland songwriter, Gary McClure.

Performing under the name American Wrestlers, Gary’s second record sees him taking bedroom recordings onto a bigger stage without sacrificing the intimacy that makes them so attractive.

If his self-titled album showed Gary’s knack for stringing together addictive guitar lines - the shimmer of shoegaze mixed with the emotional fist pump of power pop, ‘Goodbye Terrible Youth’ amplifies that energy with a roadtested band. Literally breaking out of the home studio - the Tascam mixer McClure had been recording on has fallen apart from overuse - he’s embraced a bigger sound and stage on ‘Goodbye Terrible Youth’, his rueful yet propulsive songwriting only becoming sharper.

“This [‘Amazing Grace’] is, quite simply, one of the most beautiful songs I’ve heard in 2016. All swirling guitars and plinking pianos, the song builds to a real moment of triumph. ‘I am waiting for that moment to arrive,’ Gary McClure sings, and then they hit you with those crunchy, soaring guitars, and you know it has” - USA Today

KEXP named ‘Amazing Grace’ their Song Of The Day, saying “When the guitar solo kicks in towards the final minute, it’s almost enough to make you pick up that matchbook and light the edge of that ever-expanding todo list on fire.”

TRACK LISTING

Vote Thatcher
Give Up
So Long
Hello, Dear
Amazing Grace
Terrible Youth
Blind Kids
Someone Far Away
Real People

‘Pearls To Swine’ maps Adam Torres’ complicated history as a songwriter and musician: it’s the sound of someone who discovered the value in his own devotion to music and how songs and writing are extensions of his own journey. He embeds his own folklore within his high-lonesome sounding, deeply felt and moving brand of folk music.

‘Pearls To Swine’ was recorded over eight days in January at Austin’s Cacophony Recorders, which overlooks the Colorado River valley. Working alongside co-producer and mixer Erik Wofford (Bill Callahan, Black Angels, M. Ward, Okkervil River), Torres chose the analogue route, recording and mixing directly to tape to allow for more finality and less overthought. This method in turn lends a natural, warm and almost magical realism atmosphere to the songs - like a high stakes live show captured in a fantastical setting.

The core rhythm was captured live and augmented by a few overdubs and Torres is joined on the album by the players in his band: Thor Harris (of Swans; on conga drums, vibraphone and percussion), Aisha Burns (violin) and Dailey Tolliver (bass / piano), with drum kit performances by Matthew Shepherd and Rodolfo Villareal III.

TRACK LISTING

Juniper Arms
Some Beast Will Find You
By Name
High Lonesome
Morning Rain
Daydream
Outlands
Where I’m Calling From
Mountain River
City Limits

‘Get Gone’, the potent debut album by Shreveport, Louisiana natives Seratones, makes a strong case that this little-known corner of the state is fertile ground, musically speaking. AJ Haynes (vocals), Connor Davis (guitar), Adam Davis (bass) and Jesse Gabriel (drums) serve up a combination of Southern musicality, garage rock ferocity and general badassery.

Seratones’ music, created with collaborative songwriting and spontaneous creativity, is certainly their own, due perhaps in part to Shreveport’s unique sonic geography. The city sits at a nexus roughly equidistant from Memphis soul, Mississippi Delta Blues and New Orleans jazz, with Texas swing located just over the nearby state border. The band’s sound draws from those touch points and more, ranging from Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’ to ‘Kind Of Blue’.

TRACK LISTING

Choking On Your Spit
Headtrip
Tide
Chandelier
Sun
Get Gone
Trees
Kingdom Come
Don’t Need It
Take It Easy
Keep Me

Sunflower Bean find magic within friction. The New York trio’s full-length debut album, Human Ceremony [Fat Possum Records], emerges at the intersection of dreamy modern psychedelica and urgent fuzzed-out bliss. That push-and-pull colours the aural tapestry of these three musicians—Jacob Faber [drums], Julia Cumming [vocals/bass], and Nick Kivlen [vocals/guitars].

“Everything comes from a conflicting interest,” affirms Nick. “We love dream pop, but we also really love rock ‘n’ roll. It’s those two spectrums.”

“You’re allowed to obsess over Black Sabbath as well as The Cure,” adds Julia. “It’d be boring if everything was just one way or the other.”

That diversity defined the group’s approach since Nick and Jacob started jamming back in high school. They would hole up in Jacob’s Long Island basement for hours on end, channelling this vast cadre of influences. Julia’s addition would only expand that creative palette further in 2013. Through constant gigging around New York, Sunflower Bean sprouted into a sonic enigma, boasting a fiery musical call-and-response that serves as a centrepiece, giving the music what Jacob refers to as a “lyrical aspect” between the guitars, drums, and bass.

They transferred this multi-headed energy into their 2015 Independent EP, Show Me Your Seven Secrets. At the same time, this distinct alchemy enchanted ever-growing audiences live. By the time, they entered the studio for Human Ceremony, Sunflower Bean had a lively aural cauldron from which to draw.

They took the summer of 2015 off and retreated to Jacob’s basement to write together. Taking the ideas out of the basement, they hit a Brooklyn studio with producer Matt Molnar [Friends] and tracked eleven tunes in just seven days. Whereas the EP was recorded after Sunflower Bean played 100 shows in one year, Human Ceremony showed the band’s studio side with richer soundscapes, overdubs, and music that had yet to be debuted live.

On the lead track “Easier Said,” Julia’s delicate vocals glide over a lilting clean guitar that spirals off into a vibrant hum.

Sunflower Bean’s spell is cast on Human Ceremony.

“When you’re in a band, you always dream about the first record,” Julia concludes. “It’s that moment where you explore everything that’s been inspiring you.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Human Ceremony
2. Come On
3. 2013
4. Easier Said
5. This Kinda Feeling
6. I Was Home
7. Creation Myth
8. Wall Watcher
9. I Want You To Give Me Enough Time
10. Oh, I Just Don't Know
11. Space Exploration Disaster

Under the moniker Los Angeles Police Department, Ryan Pollie makes the kind of homespun bedroom pop that excels in its quiet intimacy, while retaining its emotional weight under sparse instrumentation and soft delivery.

On his 11-track self-titled debut album (released September 2014) Pollie wrote and recorded each song in a day, allowing for small imperfections and spurts of urgency found throughout the record. It’s a creative process Pollie has now become accustomed to: “This project really changed an important misconception for me. It was that music that I was making, which wasn’t recorded in a studio with a band, was illegitimate or not real for some reason.”

These 11 tracks, pared down from 30 and recorded in a house in Hollywood, became personal anecdotes to a specific time and place: following a burgeoning relationship until its untimely end. At times shaken and hazy and at others affront with exhaustion, Pollie is able to weave a tapestry of pop songs that is the perfect distillation of where the project is currently at and where it could be taken in the future.

“The album’s first half represents as strong a collection of songs as will appear on any debut LP in 2014, maybe the best of its variety since the debut Youth Lagoon record” - Impose Magazine

“Gloriously arranged with a late-summer-light country rock haze” - Pitchfork

TRACK LISTING

Insecurity
Water & Wine

Katie Monks and Liz Ball started Dilly Dally in 2010 while living in a cockroach-infested apartment near Toronto’s Kensington Market. The two shared a love for dreamy guitars, weed and karaoke. Turning to good friends Corey Marshall (drums) and Michael Guiliani (bass), the four piece spent the next three years playing any bar or basement with a PA, building a solid fan-base in Toronto and sharing the stage with notable bands such as Born Ruffians and Tokyo Police Club.

By 2014 the band had recorded their first full length record with producers Leon Taheny (Owen Pallett, Austra, Dusted) and Josh Korody (Fucked Up, Beliefs, Greys) at Candle Studios in Toronto, capturing a collection of songs that had been written over the course of three years. The track ‘Next Gold’ was released independently as a single: “Katie Monks sings the way drunk people do at weddings - loudly, messily, and with absolute conviction. You can make out about five words total on ‘Next Gold’, the first track from Dilly Dally’s forthcoming debut, but the Toronto four-piece’s Pixies-style grunge pop is no less riveting for being incomprehensible.” - Pitchfork, May 2014

TRACK LISTING

Candy Mountain
Green

Fat Possum are excited to announce the European release date of Jackson Scott’s debut album, ‘Melbourne’. The album is a refined bedroom pop record which pitches Jackson somewhere amidst the otherworldly stargazing of Sparklehorse and the determined singularity of Neutral Milk Hotel and Mellow Gold-era Beck.

Jackson Scott has developed out of a weird audacity; bending spoons with apocalyptic melodies, sugared with solipsistic textures. How did the world conceive this young cosmonaut? A college dropout with a 4-track and a one-track mind. A listener and a conceiver. His voice, whether pitched up or androgynous, speaks of a still life. But painting is meaningless, songs irrelevant, aura outdated if you are a revivalist. Jackson is not.

The upcoming debut ‘Melbourne’ - conspired it out of isolation, deprivation and hunger - shows we’re all alone together, sharing the same tragedies, ecstasies and phenomenon.

TRACK LISTING

Only Eternal
Evie
Never Ever
Sandy
That Awful Sound
Tomorrow
Wish Upon
Any Way
Together Forever
In The Sun
Doctor Mad
Sweet Nothing

A.A. Bondy's second album originally released in 2009.

Recorded primarily in Water Valley, MS in April and May of 2009, 'When the Devil's Loose' expands upon the stripped-down sound of A.A. Bondy's debut album, 'American Hearts'. A full band now accompanies him on most tracks, lending a full, roomy sound to ten songs of bluesy Americana carried along by Bond's lived-in voice. 'When the Devil's Loose' sounds almost from another era, whether it's a quiet, spooky twang, lullaby-like, inflected with old-time R&B, or coloured with traces of '60s pop.

For those not au fait with wrestling vernacular, the Swanton Bomb is a manoeuvre, popularized by the three-time world champion Jeff Hardy, that involves leaping off a top rope, flipping your body over and landing back-first upon your opponent. So what does it have to do with Swanton Bombs, the band? “Absolutely nothing,” concedes singer and guitarist Dominic McGuinness. “We just thought it was pretty cool.”
Their sound is a visceral, unvarnished blend of blues and punk, underpinned by rich narratives and resolute melodies, and informed by McGuinness and drummer Brendan Heaney’s admiration for The Clash, Television, The Ramones and Richard Hell along with the moody, blues-rock stylings of Randy Newman, Tom Waits and Nick Cave.
This limited edition two tracker on Fat Possum features "Wasteland", "Swanton Bombs Who's Asking".

STAFF COMMENTS

says: Two more great slices of blues punk rock from this two piece. Limited edition on Fat Possum.