“Into The Blue is the clearest portrait of who I am as an artist. It’s me through and through,” says multi-instrumentalist Aaron Frazer. A daring blend of soul, psychedelia, spaghetti western, disco, gospel and hip-hop, Into the Blue represents the impressive range of Frazer’s sonic talents. Frazer maintains the unmistakable falsetto and classic songwriting he’s known for, but plants Into the Blue firmly in the now with a hip-hop mentality at its core, weaving together genres and production techniques to form something new.

Into The Blue was conceived, like so many classic records, out of actual heartbreak. Frazer moved cross-country from Brooklyn to Los Angeles and embarked on a journey that’s reflected in the album’s themes of grief, loneliness, and searching for healing. “Into The Blue really means heading into the unknown. That has been the last year of my life and I’m still in the blue,” Frazer explains. “But there are also songs here that celebrate love and the giddiness of a new relationship and all that. That’s part of a breakup to me, processing the whole thing, remembering the things that were right as much as the things that were wrong.”

Frazer wrote on every track and played several live instruments on the album. The title track, “Into The Blue”, is a haunting, resolute anthem, combining cinematic strings and tough-as-nails breakbeats as Frazer heads west. “Here I go, to a place where the broken heart knows,” he sings. “It’s all I can do. Back into the blue.” “Payback” is an explosive dancefloor heater, featuring shimmering tambourines and driving bass lines. Northern soul drums meet snarling fuzz guitar, hurdling towards its epic conclusion.

The album features moments of towering arrangements, recalling David Axelrod and Ennio Merricone, balanced by rawness, incorporating iPhone recordings and one-take vocals. For Into the Blue, Frazer enlisted Grammy-winner Alex Goose as coproducer, known for his crate-digging samples and collaborations with hip-hop artists like Freddie Gibbs, Madlib and Brockhampton. Frazer also experimented with samples for the first time on a record, drawing from unexpected sources like 90s R&B group Hi-Five. Though Into the Blue is born out of heartbreak, Frazer hopes it leaves listeners with a sense of optimism. “You know, you can still laugh on a day when you’re grieving,” he says, “there’s no peaks without valleys,” he says, but Into The Blue sees Aaron Frazer at new heights.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 20TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM ON MONDAY APRIL 22ND.

The newly reformed Soup Dragons release their frst single in 30 years. The double A- side 7" single features two new tracks; LOVE IS LOVE and NO
MUSIC ON A DEAD PLANET which features the B52's legendary Fred Schneider. The single is released by Last Night From Glasgow on coloured vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

1. No Music On A Dead Planet
2. Love Is Love

London group The Tubs return to Trouble In Mind with their hotly anticipated full-length album entitled “Dead Meat”. The band were formed in 2018 from the ashes of beloved UK post-punk band Joanna Gruesome by former members Owen 'O' Williams and George 'GN' Nicholls. By incorporating elements of post-punk, traditional British folk, and guitar jangle seasoned by nonchalant Cleaners From Venus-influenced pop hooks and contemporary antipodean indie bands (Twerps/Goon Sax, et al).

“Dead Meat” is resplendent in hi-fidelity strum & thrum, incorporating fleeting elements of post-punk and indie jangle, but the group’s penchant for trad British folk & Canterbury folk-rock takes a noticeable, caffeinated step forward. Echoes of Fairport Convention’s decidedly English chime cross swords with singer Owen Williams’ lyrics directing Bryan Ferry’s “thinking man’s libertine” persona into a more dolorous outlook. Many songs (like “Round The Bend” and “Duped”) soar with an urgent strum under Williams’ acerbic lyrics, recalling a younger fiery Richard Thompson. They languish in an aching, bitter resignation (of both the situations described & the protagonist’s place in it), particularly near the album’s second half. Others like the previously released “I Don’t Know How It Works”, “Two Person Love” and “Illusion” (re-presented here as “Illusion Pt. II” and all rerecorded from their original 7-inch versions) up the urgency, implying that the journey for the person described in each tune is not over & may be even more desperate than before. The band has never been tighter & more dynamic, often imperceptibly ratcheting up the tension, an extra guitar strum overdubbed, a barely audible organ/synth cranking under a chorus or bridge, or unexpected backups from current Ex-Vöid (and ex-Joanna Gruesome) vocalist Lan McArdle. The Tubs are poised to take over your stereo - there’s no point in resisting.

STAFF COMMENTS

Martin says: Urgent, energised and utterly compelling debut from Joanna Gruesome offshoot; a motorised, razor sharp fusion of chiming guitars, folk stylings and punk fire that might just owe a lot to Hüsker Dü. Or, even if it doesn't, it scratches the same buzzsaw pop itch. "Wretched Lie", which closes the LP, is a nailed on classic.

TRACK LISTING

1. Illusion Pt. II
2. Two-Person Love
3. I Don’t Know How It Works
4. Dead Meat
5. Sniveller
6. Duped
7. That’s Fine
8. Round The Bend
9. Wretched Lie

Review from 2010:
Baton down the hatches! The Dead Weather are back. The Nashville-based 4-piece have announced plans for the release of their sophomore album "Sea Of Cowards". The band exploded onto the music scene early last year with a stunning debut that combined the furious talents of members Jack White (vocals/drums), Alison Mosshart (vocals/ guitar), Jack Lawrence (bass/drums) and Dean Fertita (guitar/organ). "Horehound" was an exhilarating and electrifying introduction to the band, a gritty blues-driven dirge rock masterpiece that hit the UK charts at #14 upon its release in July 2009. Now, less than a year later, the follow-up is ready to be unleashed.

Review from 2009:
"Horehound" is the first album to be recorded and released via Jack White's new Third Man studios and record label in Nashville, TN. Those of you who came along to our screening of their awesome 'From The Basement' show will already know what to expect from this four piece. If you missed out, well, with a line up that consists of Dean Fertita from Queens Of The Stone Age, Greenhornes and Raconteurs fella "Little" Jack Lawrence, vocals courtesy of Alison Mosshart from The Kills and the sickeningly talented Mr Jack White on drums, you can pretty well guess what direction this album is gonna take - cool as f**k bluesy rock'n'roll!

Originally released in the fall of 2003, The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place was a watershed moment for Explosions In The Sky, and a landmark album for underground and experimental music. Its iconic sound would become a touchstone in film and television as it inspired a generational sea change towards introspective art rock in lieu of traditional orchestral scores.

Artfully remastered by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service, The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place Anniversary Edition is packaged in a stunning triple gatefold with restored and expanded original artwork, housed in a heavyweight slipcase. Exquisitely pressed onto colored vinyl for the first time ever, this is the soundtrack to our everyday lives in full panoramic wonder.

TRACK LISTING

1. First Breath After Coma (9:34)
2. The Only Moment We Were Alone (10:14)
3. Six Days At The Bottom Of The Ocean (8:43)
4. Memorial (8:50)
5. Your Hand In Mine (8:17)

It's only fitting that Khruangbin’s first-ever official live releases would be double albums paired with their tourmates: artists whose music they love and admire, friends who’ve become family along the way. Khruangbin’s ‘Live At’ series of live LPs traces just one small slice of the band’s flight plan through the years: it’s a taste of some of their most beloved cities, stages and nights. Each release comes with a limited-edition unique album cover exclusive for the recording’s home turf, just a little something extra for the fans that bring a little something extra. Most of all, Khruangbin’s ‘Live at’ series ignites both sides of the band’s magic: the warm, prismatic feeling of their albums and the bewitching energy of their performances.

‘Live at The Fillmore Miami’ features performances by Toro Y Moi and Khruangbin.

Sometimes, Mitski says, it feels like life would be easier without hope, or a soul, or love. But when she closes her eyes and thinks about what’s truly hers, what can’t be repossessed or demolished, she sees love. “The best thing I ever did in my life was to love people,” Mitski says. “I wish I could leave behind all the love I have, after I die, so that I can shine all this goodness, all this good love that I’ve created onto other people.” She hopes her newest album, The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, will continue to shine that love long after she’s gone. Listening to it, that’s precisely how it feels: like a love that’s haunting the land.

“This is my most American album,” Mitski says about her seventh record, and the music feels like a profound act of witnessing this country, in all of its private sorrows and painful contradictions. In this album, which is sonically Mitski’s most expansive, epic, and wise, the songs seem to be introducing wounds and then actively healing them. Here, love is time-traveling to bless our tender days, like the light from a distant star.

The album is full of the ache of the grown- up, seemingly mundane heartbreaks and joys that are often unsung but feel enormous. It’s a tiny epic. From the bottom of a glass, to a driveway slushy with memory and snow, to a freight train barreling through the Midwest, and all the way to the moon, it feels like everything, and everyone, is crying out, screaming in pain, arching towards love. Love is that inhospitable land, beckoning us and then rejecting us. To love this place — this earth, this America, this body — takes active work. It might be impossible. The best things are.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Mitski turns her considerable talents away from the confessional intensity and jagged production of 2018's 'Be The Cowboy' and brings us her own unique version of country music. Full of wry confessionals, intimate diarising and her unmistakable, beautiful vocals.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
01 Bug Like An Angel
02 Buffalo Replaced
03 Heaven
04 I Don’t Like My Mind
05 The Deal

SIDE B:
06 When Memories Snow
07 My Love Mine All Mine
08 The Frost
09 Star
10 I’m Your Man
11 I Love Me After You

It features ten tracks, four of which were never recorded elsewhere and early versions of some of their most popular songs such as The Tenant and Propaganda. Between 1980-85 they grew into one of the UK’s leading postpunk bands with regular indie chart hits and a large loyal live following. The Peel Sessions helped with their exposure alongside extensive gigging (with UK Decay, Sex Gang Children, Killing Joke, The Cult and more), subsequent headline tours in their own right and a live spot on the UK’s top music TV programme, The Tube.

The long-awaited reissue of The Dead Tongues' beloved third album, Unsung Passage, a profound reflection on the emotional architecture of love, loneliness, and life at large.

The Dead Tongues is songwriter Ryan Gustafson's long-evolving vehicle for a beautifully fractured vision of folk, country, blues, and cosmic American rock, and Unsung Passage is a first-person reckoning with the things Gustafson, a chronically peripatetic adventurer, has seen enough to sing about. The ten remarkable tracks of Unsung Passage are long-distance distillations of events lived and places seen and pondered and ultimately poured into reflective anthems for our harried times.

During "Like a Dream," a gentle gallop of grinning harmonica and trickling guitar, Gustafson explores the balance of existence from a hillside vantage. He sees the curveof the earth while pondering his need for a paycheck, a moment that eternally pits the banal against the beautiful. "The Broken Side of People Everywhere" is a gorgeous love song written with the wisdom of someone who knows that nothing is forever or perfect, that there's no real risk in a life where everything ends, anyway. There are meditations on mortality and devotion (the flute-laced dream "My Other"), on money and temporality (the banjo trot "The Giver"), and on impermanence and acceptance (the achingly gorgeous "Pale November Dew").

This isn't Gustafson's idle speculation about life and the world: these are the realizations of a restless mind, of a songwriter who sings "this old town ain't gonna watch m edie" and means it.

TRACK LISTING

1. Won't Be Long
2. Ebb And Flow
3. Pale November Dew
4. My Other
5. Like A Dream
6. Unsung Passage
7. The Broken Side Of People Everywhere
8. Thunder And Crash
9. TheGiver
10. Clip Your Wings

Reissue of the 2011 album Tao of the Dead by American alternative rock band ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead. First time available on vinyl since its release year. Features a replica of the original comic book insert. Tao of the Dead is their seventh album. The band stripped down to its core four-piece lineup for the record, deviating from the past two records that featured a filled-out six-piece band. This resulted in a stripped-down record with heavy emphasis on guitar. It’s a two-part record, each side with a specific musical tuning; Part One in D and Part Two in F. The album can be listened to as 16 different movements or two lengthy tracks. Part One: Tao Of The Dead is split into eleven tracks, whereas Part Two: Strange News From Another Planet is five songs combined into one. Lead singer Conrad Keely described the album's composition; "It's the way I listened to albums when I was a kid, seeing as some of my favorite records were Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, Yes' Relayer and Close to the Edge... I always liked listening to records that were just a continuous piece, like an orchestra or a symphony."

TRACK LISTING

1. The Wasteland
2. Know Your Honor
3. Introduction: "Let's Experiment"
4. Spiral Jetty
5. Rule By Being Just
6. Pure Radio Cosplay
7. Weight Of The Sun (Or The Post-Modern Prometheus)
8. The Ship Impossible
9. Summer Of All Dead Souls
10. Strange Epiphany
11. Pure Radio Cosplay (Reprise)
12. Cover The Days Like A Tidal Wave
13. Racing And Hunting
14. Fall Of The Empire
15. Ebb Away
16. The Fairlight Pendant

The Dead C’s trio of albums in the middle of their harsh 90s reality served for many as entry points to the band. Operation Of The Sonne, The White House and Tusk received wider distribution than the band had ever seen before, and this was the first rays of them being considered amongst the most important rock bands of the 20th century.

This trio of vinyl reissues capture their intensity and presence in a way that may even blow out the candle of the original pressings. Newly remastered by Lasse Marhaug, and with bonus tracks, these 2023 reissues have been cut carefully and loud, with the sonic wars heard on these now-classic tracks more blaring than ever.

Coming after the monster that was Harsh 70s Reality, and its evil twin, Clyma Est Mort, this album has always confounded even soi-disant Dead C fans. Side one documents the discovery of the analogue synthesizer coupled with field recordings from the basement of Willowbank, Koputai’s “most stately” home. Side two emerged spontaneously to cassette on stage at the “fabled” Empire Tavern—and it still sounds like stripping the breathable atmosphere from an already-depleted biosphere.

The Dead C’s trio of albums in the middle of their harsh 90s reality served for many as entry points to the band. Operation Of The Sonne, The White House and Tusk received wider distribution than the band had ever seen before, and this was the first rays of them being considered amongst the most important rock bands of the 20th century.

This trio of vinyl reissues capture their intensity and presence in a way that may even blow out the candle of the original pressings. Newly remastered by Lasse Marhaug, and with bonus tracks, these 2023 reissues have been cut carefully and loud, with the sonic wars heard on these now-classic tracks more blaring than ever.

The Dead C on The White House, now including bonus track “Breakdown/World”: “Recorded in the winter of 1994, sessions were accompanied by snow, an infrequent but always super-exciting event in downtown Dunedin. Mainly if not entirely recorded direct to REVOX B77, just like The Clean’s Oddities. Our version of Led Zepp IV with no ‘Stairway’, as recorded by the Meat Puppets in a K-hole. Originally M&D by Matador, this is as major label as we got. Mere pseud post-grunge sell-out moves-ah.”

The Dead C’s trio of albums in the middle of their harsh 90s reality served for many as entry points to the band. Operation Of The Sonne, The White House and Tusk received wider distribution than the band had ever seen before, and this was the first rays of them being considered amongst the most important rock bands of the 20th century.

This trio of vinyl reissues capture their intensity and presence in a way that may even blow out the candle of the original pressings. Newly remastered by Lasse Marhaug, and with bonus tracks, these 2023 reissues have been cut carefully and loud, with the sonic wars heard on these now-classic tracks for blaring than ever.

How does one follow up one of the most immediately revered noise rock releases of all time? Definitely not by spending ten times the money and time recording their next release and doing a bloated double album. Tusk (now including bonus track “There Is Something To Be Gained”), The Dead C record, is uncompromising and unrelenting. Here’s a band enjoying more attention than they ever got before, and they launch their new album with a long, ominous percussive rattle. Tusk digs into the thought bubble that formed via Operation Of The Sonne and The White House, sharpens the edges and reveals some of their greatest broken progressions and vicious feedback. The band is at their performative peak, staking their ground with an amp covered in dirt

TRACK LISTING

1. Plane
2. Head
3. Tuba
4. Half
5. Imaginary
6. Tusk
7. There Is Something To Be Gained

One of the things that struck Oberst as he and the band went through twenty-plus years of music is that he may in fact have been writing the same song this whole time. Not sonically, of course, but conceptually. This last wave contains, in Noise Floor, early Bright Eyes songs so raw Oberst never even released them back in the day, as well as, in Cassadaga and The People’s Key, the band’s most polished and sophisticated albums. When Bright Eyes toured Cassadega they performed an epic 7 sold-out nights at NYC’s Town Hall. What’s more grown-up rock- star than that? And yet ...“Thematically those early songs are not that different than the songs I make now,” Oberst says, shaking his head. “There’s something affirming and disheartening about it. It’s like, have I really changed or grown? But maybe it’s just that I knew what I wanted to write about from the beginning.

TRACK LISTING

1. Firewall
2. Shell Games
3. Jejune Stars
4. Approximate Sunlight
5. Haile Sellassie
6. A Machine Spiritual (In The People’s Key)
7. Triple Spiral
8. Beginner’s Mind
9. Ladder Song
10. One For You, One For Me

One of the things that struck Oberst as he and the band went through twenty-plus years of music is that he may in fact have been writing the same song this whole time. Not sonically, of course, but conceptually. This last wave contains, in Noise Floor, early Bright Eyes songs so raw Oberst never even released them back in the day, as well as, in Cassadaga and The People’s Key, the band’s most polished and sophisticated albums. When Bright Eyes toured Cassadega they performed an epic 7 sold-out nights at NYC’s Town Hall. What’s more grown-up rock- star than that? And yet ...“Thematically those early songs are not that different than the songs I make now,” Oberst says, shaking his head. “There’s something affirming and disheartening about it. It’s like, have I really changed or grown? But maybe it’s just that I knew what I wanted to write about from the beginning.

TRACK LISTING

1. Jejune Stars (Companion Version)
2. Firewall (Companion Version)
3. When You Were Mine
4. Approximate Sunlight (Companion Version)
5. A Machine Spiritual (The People’s Key) (Companion Version)
6. Beginner’s Mind (Companion Version)

The original album, newly re-mastered by GRAMMY®Award-winningengineer, David Glasser, using Plangent Processes from the original analog 2-track tapes, recorded live by Owsley “Bear” Stanley. The Grateful Dead's first true archival album, Bear's Choice, was lovingly produced as a tribute to Pigpen shortly after he passed by none other that the Dead's original soundman and benefactor, Owsley Stanley, aka Bear. Drawing from live shows recorded three years earlier by Bear at the Fillmore East in New York City, Bear's Choice captures the Dead at an essential moment of their history, as they were about to record Workingman's Dead (and shortly thereafter, American Beauty), and were transitioning into becoming Americana pioneers, while never losing touch with their psychedelic improvisational roots. Three of the eight songs on the album are sung by Pigpen, with Side 1 being the definitive example of early Acoustic Dead, and Side 2 being electric blues and rock & roll, with Pigpen leading the charge on both tracks on the second side. This has been re-mastered by David Glasser using Plangent Processes from the original analog 2-track tapes recorded live by Bear and has never sounded better.

TRACK LISTING

Side One
1. Katie Mae
2. Dark Hallo
3. I’ve Been All Around This World
4. Wake Up Little Susie
5. Black Peter

Side Two
1. Smokestack Lighnin’
2. Hard To Handle

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2023 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

100 % New original songs done by the psychedelic french garage duo The Liminanas & german-french music composer David Menke for the forthcoming Arte documentary "Thatcher's Not Dead" dedicated to Margaret Thatcher. The only physical edition done is the this Double LP for the Record Store day. 

TRACK LISTING

A1 - Snatcher – Feat. Oliver Howlett
A2 – Downfall – Part.1
A3 – Not Our War
A4 – Heritage
B1 – Bright Future
B2 – The Iron Lady
B3 – Master Plan – Feat. Oliver Howlett
B4 – Don’t Be A Traitor Feat. Oliver Howlett
B5 – Fuzzy Thatcher
B6 – She Had To Be Believed
B7 – War
C1 – Broken Dreams – Feat. Oliver Howlett
C2 – Num Confrontation
C3 – Chaos
C4 – Business As Usual
C5 – Revolting
D1 – Tears Don’t Lie
D2 – Way Of Her Cross
D3  - Ambiguous Memories
D4 – Downfall Part.B

Expanded reissue of mega rare 1979 unknown vanity pressing LP that blends ethnological field recordings, musique concrète principles and introspective synthesiser music from this cult European studio maverick and historic collaborator of COS, Philippe Druilet, Marc Moulin and John Surman.

Alain Pierre’s Mondo movie soundtrack to the controversial ‘Des Morts’ shares very few stylistic rivals, but fans of Jodorowsky’s ‘The Holy Mountain’ soundtrack and some of the more eldritch early sampling experiments of Jean-Pierre Massiera will certainly draw fragmented comparisons herein. Other listeners might file this album at the weirder end of your Smithsonian Folkways shelf, just before the Video Nasty soundtracks.

Presented in remastered form comprising extra vintage studio outtakes (in accordance with the film’s morbid narrative), ‘Des Morts’ serves as a would-be sequel to Finders Keepers’ previous Ô Sidarta release witnessing Pierre balance his allegiance to the Belgian bandes dessinée scene and Thierry Zéno’s shock cinema oeuvre from the heart of his uber-legendary Brussels based experimental recording studio through the 1970s.

TRACK LISTING

1.  Des Morts (Theme)
2.  Funérailles Chez Les
3.  Hmongs (Thaïlande)
4.  Clown
5.  Fête Des Morts Chez
6.  Des Morts (Alternative Theme)
7.  Chant D’un Mariachi (Mexique)
8.  Cryogene
9.  Funérailles Bouddhistes (Thaïlande)
10.  Des Morts (Final Theme)

PLAY DEAD release a career-spanning anthology, a CD digipak with sixteen of their most essential tracks plus a ten-track limited-edition blue vinyl LP (Inner bag with unseen photos and notes by Adi Vine)

Between 1980-1985 they grew into one of the UK’s leading post-punk bands with regular indie chart hits and a large loyal live following. They built up through exposure from three John Peel sessions, extensive gigging (with UK Decay, Sex Gang Children, Killing Joke, The Cult and more), subsequently headlining UK and EU tours in their own right and landing a live spot on the UK’s top music TV programme, The Tube. 

TRACK LISTING

Burning Down
Isabel
Sin Of Sins
Sacrosanct
Time (cd Only)
Chains (cd Only)
Propaganda
Pale Fire (cd Only)
Gaze (cd Only)
This Side Of Heaven
Shine
Witnesses
Conspiracy (cd Only)
Company Of Justice (cd Only)
Break
The Tenant

Originally released on 2nd May 2011, Mick Harvey’s sixth studio solo album Sketches From The Book Of The Dead is being reissued on clear vinyl, alongside 2013’s Four (Acts of Love), with Delirium Tremens and Intoxicated Women set to follow later in 2023.

Sketches From The Book Of The Dead is Mick Harvey's first fully self-penned album; the 11-track album was recorded and mixed with David McCluney at Atlantis Sound, Port Melbourne with additional recording at Harvey's own Grace Lane music room. The record sees Mick Harvey (playing most of the instruments) joined by Rosie Westbrook on double bass and J.P. Shilo on accordion and violin, with Xanthe Waite contributing occasional ethereal backing vocals. Containing an extraordinary investigation into a rarely scrutinised area of the human condition, Sketches From The Book Of The Dead is a truly unique piece of work.

TRACK LISTING

A1. October Boy
A2. The Ballad Of Jay Givens
A3. Two Paintings
A4. Rhymeless
A5. Frankie T. & Frankie C.
B1. A Place Called Passion
B2. To Each His Own
B3. The Bells Never Rang
B4. That's All, Paul
B5. How Would I Leave You?

TRACK LISTING

The Big Picture
Method Acting
False Advertising
You Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will.
Lover I Don’t Have To Love
Bowl Of Oranges
Don’t Know When But A Day Is Gonna Come
Nothing Gets Crossed Out
Make War
Waste Of Paint
From A Balance Beam
Laura Laurent
Let’s Not Shit Ourselves (to Love And To Be Loved)

TRACK LISTING

The Big Picture
You Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will.
Laura Laurent
Nothing Gets Crossed Out
November
Waste Of Paint

Revered indie trio The Staves' debut album 'Dead & Born & Grown' is celebrating its 10th Anniversary on the 12th November 2022. To celebrate 10 years of their debut album the band will be re-pressing Dead & Born & Grown on recycled colour vinyl.

The album was produced with Glyn and Ethan Johns, who have worked with a plethora of huge artists from past and present between them, including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, as well as the likes of The Vaccines, Kings of Leon and Kaiser Chiefs. The Staves are three sisters from Watford who share vocal duties in addition to some contributions on guitar and ukelele.

This special-edition recycled vinyl is made from 100% PVC recycled material, using waste material and clippings from previous pressings and are re-used. The result is that each vinyl is unique with its own colour combination therefore the colour you receive will be randomized.

TRACK LISTING

Wisely & Slow
Gone Tomorrow
The Motherlode
Pay Us No Mind
Facing West
In The Long Run
Dead & Born & Grown
Winter Trees
Tongue Behind My Teeth
Mexico
Snow
Eagle Song

“There Is Nothing Left But The Enjoyment Of Senseless Destruction” is the first deadly plastic bullet from Dead Normal, a Barcelona-based trio fusing harsh electronics with a confrontational punk aesthetic to devastating effect. Think: early SPK meets 1990s Whitehouse, distorted Scorn/JFK type skullcrushing beats, a sprinkling of deconstructed Mark Stewart/Tackhead-esque mutant groove and a ferocious dual male/female vocal attack reminiscent of Mark E Smith at his most irascible combined with Crass' Eve Libertine at her most acerbic. Push the levels into the red and you're still only half way close to the unique and original hybrid of Dead Normal's punishing sonic assault. Founded in 2016 by Mario (electronics) with Oriol Rosell and Zoë V sharing vocal duties, the members of Dead Normal have a pedigree spanning two decades in the experimental/avant-garde scene, including collaborations with artists such as The New Blockaders and 2nd Gen. Dead Normal have played in Spain, London and Berlin alongside a diversity of acts from hardcore punk to power electronics and synthpop with further live performances to be announced shortly. 

TRACK LISTING

1/Reasons To Not Love
2/When The Shit Hits The Fan
3/The Epiphany
4/Little Tweaker Fuck 
5/The Man Is A Twat
6/Bobby
7/Guilt Hits Harder Than The Truth
8/You Were Good
9/Fully Loaded

Submitted for listener’s approval, …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead present their eleventh album, BLEED HERE NOW…in historic quadraphonic surround sound, giving listeners an immersive listening experience that will take them through a listening journey from one track to the next. Forced into a pandemic-necessitated cancellation of their 2020/2021 tours, the band retreated to lengthy period of doing nothing. After a lengthy period of doing nothing, the band decided to make an album in a way that hasn’t really been done since the 70s - in quadrophonic sound. From the opening bombast of “Our Epic Attempts” to the alternative drive of “Penny Candle” to the thunderous 11-minute opus “Taken By The Hand” this album is unlike anything the band has produced before, equal parts experimental and ambitious, yet still sounding honest and true to what the band is. XI: BLEED HERE NOW was produced by engineer Charles Godfrey alongside Trail’s own Conrad Keely, who also created, directed, edited and produced all of the album’s artwork again.

TRACK LISTING

1. Our Epic Attempts
2. Long Distance Hell
3. Field Songs
4. Penny Candle
5. No Confidence
6. Sting Theme
7. Kill Everyone
8. Growing Divide
9. Pigments
10. Golden Sail
11. A Life Less Melancholy
12. Taken By The Hand
13. Contra Mundum
14. Darkness Into Light
15. Water Tower
16. Sounds Of Horror
17. Protest Streets
18. The Widening Gyre
19. Millennium Actress
20. Salt In Your Eyes
21. English Magic
22. Calm As The Valley

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
1. If Winter Ends
2. Padraic My Prince
3. Contract And Compare
4. The City Has Sex
5. The Difference In The Shades
6. Touch

SIDE B:
7. June On The West Coast
8. Pull My Hair
9. A Poetic Retelling Of An
Unfortunate Seduction
10. Tereza And Tomas

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
1. The Difference In The Shades
2. The City Has Sex (feat. Waxahatchee)
3. Contrast And Compare (feat. Waxahatchee)
SIDE B:
4. Kathy With A K’s Song (feat. M Ward)
5. St. Ides Heaven (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)
6. June On The West Coast (feat. Becky Stark)

Mary Lattimore’s version of 'Love Is The Tune' alongside Bill Fay's original.

TRACK LISTING

Mary Lattimore - Love Is The Tune
Bill Fay - Love Is The Tune

Born in 1999, Charlie Hickey grew up in South Pasadena, just minutes from Downtown Los Angeles. Raised by two singer-songwriter parents, Charlie’s second language was music since day one. As early as grade school, he was making sense of the world through songwriting, and by middle school he was writing, recording and performing songs that attracted a community of collaborators and could silence a room.

A turning point for Charlie came at around the age of thirteen, when he covered a song by then up-and-coming artist Phoebe Bridgers, who was still in high school herself. The two quickly became friends and collaborators, setting Charlie on an exciting new musical path. Years later, Bridgers introduced Charlie to songwriter, drummer, producer and her bandmate Marshall Vore, who noticed something special about Charlie. The two began writing and recording songs together, and soon Charlie dropped out of school to work on his music full-time.

Charlie Hickey’s first proper single is “No Good At Lying.” The Marshall Voreproduced track introduces us to Charlie’s evocative storytelling and features Phoebe Bridgers on backing vocals. “I’m no good at lying / on my back or through my teeth / but I’m good at dreaming / I can do it in my sleep,” he sings over hushed guitars and a whimsical banjo, searching for truth as his unconscious mind runs wild and bleeds into reality. It’s a slow, quiet, and understated peek to the world of Charlie Hickey, who is barely of legal drinking age, but taps into such universal themes that showcase a wisdom beyond his years and exudes promise for what’s to come

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
1. No Good At Lying
2. Count The Stairs
3. Two Haunted Houses

SIDE B:
4. Seeing Things
5. Ten Feet Tall
6. Notre Dame

Friends! I am so pleased to announce A Night At The Little Los Angeles - the 4-track version of Sundowner. Recorded at home and in my back shed - aka The Little Los Angeles - in suburban Kansas during the summer and winter seasons of 2017 and 2018. This is quite simply the sound of me alone in a room with a four-track to catch my songs as they fell out of my mouth. When I later went into a proper studio to make Sundowner my goal was to capture the essence of these initial recordings, and here you will now have access to the very essence I was chasing. In many ways, this feels like a proper album to me, as it’s my initial attempt to capture the Kansas sunset and put it into sound, where as Sundower was an attempt of an attempt. I love and am proud of them both, of course, but am happy to - for the first time - share this vulnerable side of my songwriting process with the public. Many of my favorite recordings have been made inside of an artist’s home without regard of the outside world, but instead deep in their own world that they’re creating in real time. And with that - I’d like to invite you into my own little world here and now and ask you to please....step inside of....and spend A Night At The Little Los Angeles! - Kevin Morby

****** Sundowner is Morby’s “attempt to put the Middle American twilight -- its beauty profound, though not always immediate -- into sound.” Released in fall 2020 on Dead Oceans, Morby’s distinctively conversational and reflective writing style was received with open arms and was beloved by fans and critics alike. Pitchfork lauded it as “a vision of the Midwest that feels mythical and enormous.” Sundowner’s vision was further fleshed out in comprehensive features in Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, Stereogum, The FADER, Vice, Aquarium Drunkard, and more. In addition to traditional music publications, Morby appeared on Adult Swim’s Fishcenter and Office Hours with Tim Heidecker. Morby also made his network television debut on CBS This Morning, where he performed the songs “Campfire” and “Sundowner” as part of a special joint performance with his partner and fellow songwriter Katie Crutchfield, aka Waxahatchee.

TRACK LISTING

1. Campfire (4-Track Version)
2. Sundowner (4-Track Version)
3. A Night At The Little Los Angeles (4-Track Version)
4. Wander (4-Track Version)
5. Velvet Highway (4-Track Version)
6. Valley (4-Track Version)
7. Brother, Sister (4-Track Version)
8. Don’t Underestimate Midwest American Sun (4-Track Version)
9. Provisions (4-Track Version)
10. U.S. Mail (4-Track Version)

Private Space, the group’s third album, is a previously untapped vibe at the heart of The Indications. Pushing beyond the boundaries of the funk and soul on their previous releases, Private Space unlocks the door to a wider range of sounds and launches boldly into a world of synthy modern soul and disco beats dotted with strings. It’s an organic, timeless record that’s as fresh as clean kicks and familiar as your favorite well-worn LP.

Developed after being apart for much of the year, Private Space is creatively explosive and delights in upending expectations. Its 10 tracks are both an escapist fantasy and a much-needed recentering after a tumultuous 2020. Throughout, The Indications highlight a collective resiliency – as well as the power of a good song to be a light in the darkness.

Durand Jones and The Indications have long provided the soulful soundtrack for such deep thoughts, both on stage and on your turntable. But as the world slowly resets from the chaos of the past year, Durand Jones and The Indications’ Private Space is arriving at just the right time.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It was always a brilliantly inventive maelstrom of sound emanating from a Durand Jones release, bridging the (admittedly small) gap between funk and soul, but this time sees them broaden their horizons into a wonderfully realised and perfectly weighted groove-laiden disco masterpiece. A stunning and completely essential outing.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
1. Love Will Work It Out
2. Witchoo
3. Private Space
4. More Than Ever
5. Ride Or Die

SIDE B:
6. The Way That I Do
7. Reach Out
8. Sexy Thang
9. Sea Of Love
10. I Can See

Acid Dad is an American alternative-rock band composed of singer-guitarists, Vaughn Hunt and Sean Fahey, and drummer, Trevor Mustoe. Vaughn first started recording the band in his Bushwick, NY basement releasing singles “Brain Body” and their first EP “Let’s Plan a Robbery.” Appearing live in the New York City rock scene in 2016, Acid Dad quickly moved to a world stage with their self-titled debut album, released by Greenway Records in 2018. During 2020, the band spent their time building a new studio space in Queens, NY, while continuing to independently produce all their own music, art and even building their own guitars.

With a new space and vision, the band produced their second LP, “Take It From The Dead,” set to be co-released in June 2021 by Brooklyn’s Greenway Records and psych powerhouse LEVITATION’s label, The Reverberation Appreciation Society. “Take It From The Dead” features an array of different influences ranging from 90’s neopsych, modern post-punk and 70’s rock-n-roll. Acid Dad has crafted a record that sounds new, yet feels nostalgic. In contrast to their earlier work, they make use of slower tempos and expand their sound to include songs that are both more intricate and more hypnotic. To accompany the new record, the band spent the last year collaborating with video artist Webb Hunt, producing psych and glitch art videos that form a visual counterpart to the dreamy distortions of their sound.

TRACK LISTING

1. Searchin'
2. BBQ
3. RC Driver
4. She Only Eats Organic
5. Good Time
6. Smile You're On Camera
7. 2 Face
8. Djembe

Cult of Dom Keller will release their fifth album, ‘They Carried The Dead In A U.F.O’, on May 21st via Fuzz Club Records. Since 2007 the British band have been leaving a trail of sonic fever dreams, dark psychedelia and experimentalism that beats with a heavy industrial heart and the forthcoming LP sees them conjuring their heaviest and most adventurous work to date. Channelling recent limitations and turning them to their advantage, Cult of Dom Keller found themselves radically altering their creative approach and morphing their sound into a whole new beast. On this LP the band hone in on an industrial noise-rock sound that is pushed to the brink. On 'They Carried The Dead In A UFO', the band said: “We managed to create our most experimental and exciting album to date without being in the same room together. U.F.O. was recorded, mixed and produced by ourselves, meaning we had total control over every noise on the record.

This was the exact record we wanted to make: Experimental and playful; moments of light and pure dark... we wanted to f*ck with the listener and pull them in with moments of beauty and chaos. We hope you enjoy the trip!” Cult of Dom Keller have long been at the forefront of the contemporary British psych scene but their notorious reputation also extends much further afield too. They’ve done several tours around the UK, Europe and US and shared the stage with greats like Roky Erickson, Spectrum, Silver Apples and The Sisters of Mercy, as well as contemporaries like The Black Angels, Fat White Family, Sleaford Mods and Temples.

TRACK LISTING

1) Run From The Gullskinna
2) Lyssa
3) Cage The Masters
4) She Turned Into A Serpent
5) Infernal Heads
6) Psychic Surgery
7) Amazing Enemy
8) Last King Of Hell

The band’s most experimental album, Anthem Of The Sun was an unprecedented mix of studio and live recordings stitched together to create a hybrid. More than fifty years later, it remains a pinnacle of psychedelic music. It also marked a departure for the band, as they began to channel their creativity into longer jams on songs like “Alligator” and “Caution (Do Not Stop On Tracks)” – two live staples of the Dead’s early days. During this period, the band included: Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann. The LP features a remastered version of the 1971 mix, mastered by Grammy®-winning engineer David Glasser from the original analog master tapes.

Cardinal Fuzz and Feeding Tube Records are proud to present a long awaited reissue of Dead Sea Apes & Black Tempest – The Sun Behind The Sun. This re-issue is presented in a reflective Mirri Board reflective outer sleeve. Manchester’s Dead Sea Apes and Godalming’s Black Tempest engage in a mind meld of galactic proportions on this; both band’s first outing on vinyl.

Both entities weave together seamlessly as Grey Alphabets recalls Goblin’s giallo soundtracks, whilst Wilder Penfield pulses with post-punk metal-loid Harmonia kraut vibes. Side 2 is given over to the 25+minute Heliopause - a dubby astral meditation, where Oneida meet Tangerine Dream in an elongated Komische drift. For fans of: Harmonia, Oneida,Goblin, Mogwai, Tangerine Dream.

Elbow finally release the long awaited b-sides album: 'Dead In The Boot' which brings together b-sides and hard to find non-album tracks from the band's lengthy recording career. The release tells an alternative elbow story beginning with the early years, with tracks like 'None One' from the original 'Newborn' EP in 2000, right up to 'Buffalo Ghosts' from last April's 'Open Arms'.

TRACK LISTING

1. Whisper Grass
2. Lucky With Disease
3. Lay Down Your Cross
4. The Long War Shuffle
5. Every Bit The Little Girl
6. Love Blown Down
7. None One
8. Lullaby
9. McGreggor
10. Buffalo Ghosts
11. Waving From Windows
12. Snowball
13. Gentle As

Some bands struggle to transcend their initial mythos, those stories that introduce them to the public eye. But The Dead C is a notable exception. They appeared in 1986 under a cloud of mystery, their unconventional location (South Island, New Zealand) helping to fuel their erratic sound. Name-dropped through the nineties by groups like Sonic Youth and Yo La Tengo, they gained influence and acclaim but never strayed from their original mainlined performing technique, which can sound like chaos to the casual listener.

What kind of a world greets them and their new album Unknowns in 2020? New Zealand culture is better known throughout the world, not to mention a low-virus paradise. Yes, isolated as in the past, but this time for being a nation of efficacy in tackling a public health crisis. But what about the rest of the world? The music of Mssrs. Robbie Yates, Bruce Russell and Michael Morley endures, partially because their errant sounds, once so alienating, now feel like they’ve been made flesh in a large part of the modern day world.

Continuing to delve inwards for inspiration with tin ears towards trends, styles and technique, The Dead C forge onward. Unpolished, dusty and gritty, these three have again taken two guitars and drums, a combo which has less to say than ever, and leave the listener stunned. Unknowns has Morley slurring over spiraling dissemblance, with tracks ricocheting from intense to assaultive to drained, yet consistently magnificent. As reliable as ever, The Dead C are firmly grounded as an unassailable Truth.

TRACK LISTING

1. Grunt Machine
2. Still
3. The Sky Above
4. Glitterness
5. The Field

Ken Kesey’s Ultra Rare 1966 studio recording of the Acid Test with The Grateful Dead originally released in 1966. Legendary documentation of the 1965-66 Bay Area Acid Test scene from 14 hours of the actual trip (recorded in a studio). Lots of amazing mind games and word play with Ken Kesey and Ken Babbs in good form, ad libbed poetry, fractured harmonica solos, tape loops and the Grateful Dead lurking in the background.

TRACK LISTING

1. Ken Kesey
2. Ken Babbs And Harmonica
3. Take Two
4. Bull
5. Peggy The Pistol
6. One Way Ticket
7. Bells & Fairies
8. Levitation
9. Trip X
10. The End

Into The Labyrinth (1993) is Dead Can Dance’s sixth album, one of their most successful releases, its title a reference to the Greek legend of Theseus going into the Labyrinth to slay the Minotaur. It came when Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard had embarked on more individual personal paths, now writing their songs independent of one another, and on separate continents. Engineered and produced by Brendan at his Quivvy Church studio in Ireland, the album is an audiophile benchmark and also noted for being their first without any guests, instead they played all the instruments.

The 2016 LP version is also a double LP like the original release, but comes with brand new cover artwork and an altered track sequence.

A lone pair of footsteps meanders down a street in omaha, into the neighborhood bar and then into a near-imperceptible tangle of conversations – about wars, sleepless nights – a surrealist din pushing against the sound of ragtime. Then, as the background quiets, a line rings out clearly: “i think about how much people need – what they need right now is to feel like there’s something to look forward to. We have to hold on. We have to hold on.”

Thus we enter the fitting, cacophonic introduction to bright eyes’ tenth studio album and first release since 2011. Down in the weeds, where the world once was is an enormous record caught in the profound in-between of grief and clarity – one arm wrestling its demons, the other gripping the hand of love, in spite of it.

The end of bright eyes’ unofficial hiatus came naturally. Conor oberst pitched the idea of getting the band back together during a 2017 christmas party at bright eyes bandmate nathaniel walcott’s los angeles home. The two huddled in the bathroom and called mike mogis, who was christmas shopping at an omaha mall. Mogis immediately said yes. There was no specific catalyst for the trio, aside from finding comfort amidst a decade of brutal change. Sure, why now? Is the question, but for a project whose friendship is at the core, it was simply why not?

The resulting bright eyes album came together unlike any other of its predecessors. Down in the weeds is bright eyes’ most collaborative, stemming from only one demo and written in stints in omaha and in bits and pieces in walcott’s los angeles home. Radically altering a writing process 25 years into a project seems daunting, but oberst said there was no trepidation: “our history and our friendship, and my trust level with them, is so complete and deep. And i wanted it to feel as much like a three-headed monster as possible.”

As a title, as a thesis, down in the weeds, where the world once was functions on a global, apocalyptic level of anxiety that looms throughout the record. But on a personal level, it speaks to rooting around in the dirt of one’s memories, trying to find the preciousness that’s overgrown and unrecognizable. For oberst, coming back to bright eyes was a bit of that. A symbol of simpler times, vaguely nostalgic. And even though it wasn’t actually possible to go back to the way things were, even though there wasn’t an easy happy ending, there was a new reality left to work with.

And here, there is a bleary-eyed hopefulness – earnest, emotive recommitments to love appear on “dance and sing” and “just once in the world.” And throughout, down in the weeds features snippets of oberst’s loved ones speaking, in late-night conversations. The fleeting loveliness of intimate moments punctuates the bleakness of the record’s existential crisis, crackling like lightning bugs illuminating the long night.

Down in the weeds is a distillation of a prolific, enduring canon. It’s immediate and urgent, the product of its creators’ growth across a decade apart, as well as the need to make a record together to find solace from loss. Through deliberate, fearless experimentation in process, the trio made the truest bright eyes sound: the sound of a deep bond, of a band coming home, but also a seamless continuation, like bright eyes never went away. It’s the impossible, sprawling mess of human experience that bright eyes has always sought to put to tape, since the beginning – the sound of holding on. Why now? Why not?

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It's been far too long since the last Bright Eyes album, and this one shows why we've missed him so much. Beautifully tender melodies, orchestral swoon and soaring crescendos aplenty. This is a new journey for Oberst & crew, but also warmingly familiar.

TRACK LISTING

Pageturners Rag
Dance And Sing
Just Once In The World
Mariana Trench
One And Done
Pan And Broom
Stairwell Song
Persona Non Grata
Tilt-a-whirl
Hot Car In The Sun
Forced Convalescence
To Death’s Heart (in Three Parts)
Calais To Dover
Comet Song

In 2012 Durand Jones left his small-town in Louisiana, alto saxophone in tow, for the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. “Being a singer was never part of the plan,” Jones admits. But soon enough he found his way in front of a rowdy rock-n-roll band belting out a rambunctious rendition of “Dock Of The Bay,” to a basement full of drunken undergrads. That rowdy band unfolded into The Indications which includes founding members Aaron Frazer (drums, lead vocals) and Blake Rhein (guitar).

Inspired by a handful of dusty and obscure 45s bearing names like The Ethics, Brothers of Soul and The Icemen, The Indications set out to make a record steeped in heavy drums, blown-out vocals, and deep grooves. Gathered around a Tascam 4-track cassette recorder and a case of Miller HighLife, the group spent their Sunday evenings recording into the early hours of the morning. The result is their modern soul masterpiece Durand Jones & The Indications (Dead Oceans/Colemine Records).

With comparisons from Charles Bradley, Lee Fields to Al Green, this young band are now at the forefront of 60’s soul revival. Their sweaty, fiery live shows have earned them a reputation for giving it their all each night which can be witnessed on Durand Jones & The Indications Live Vol. 1. Available for the first time on limited translucent blue vinyl, the album includes tracks from their debut and deep cut soul covers fans have become accustomed

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. I Can’t Do Without You [Live From Bloomington, IN]
2. Make A Change [Live From Bloomington, IN]
3. Can’t Keep My Cool [Live From Bloomington, IN]
4. Groovy Babe [Live From Bloomington, IN]
5. Should I Take You Home [Live From Bloomington, IN]
6. Dedicated To You [Live From Boston, MA]

Side B
7. Now I’m Gone [Live From Boston, MA]
8. Is It Any Wonder? [Live From Boston, MA]
9. Smile [Live From Boston, MA]
10. Giving Up [Live From Boston, MA]

Five years on from the release of their previous record, Austin’s beloved art-rock heroes … And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead return with their tenth album – X: The Godless Void and Other Stories. Expansive yet concise, this album nods to the band’s traditional touchstones – the feral scree of Sonic Youth, Rush’s symphonic anthems, the textured bliss of My Bloody Valentine – while morphing effortlessly into newer forms. The synth-orchestral swell of curtain-raiser “Opening Crescendoes” recalls Hans Zimmer and Tangerine Dream, before “All Who Wander” descends from guitar-soaked high drama into simmering, murky psych. Next up, “Something Like This” offers nods to the ethereal songcraft that defined the sound of the legendary 4AD label, before everything kicks in at full pelt with “Into The Godless Void”, as noisy and thrilling an existential anthem as the band have ever put their name to. And this is just the first four songs… Work on X: The Godless Void and Other Stories began in earnest in 2018, after Keely returned to the band’s hometown of Austin following five years in Cambodia. With a new line-up having recently toured the 20th anniversary of their Madonna album, they’re also reverted to the live format of their earlier years, with Reece and Keely alternating between drums and frontman duties – a musical partnership that dates back to their high school days. Appropriately, it all feels fresh.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Opening Crescendo
2. All Who Wander
3. Something Like This
4. Into The Godless Void
5. Don't Look Down
6. Gone
7. Children Of The Sky
8. Who Haunts The Haunter
9. Eyes Of The Overworld
10. Gravity
11. Blade Of Wind
12. Through The Sunlit Door

On her sophomore LP, The Best of Luck Club, 26-year-old Melbourne, Australia native Alex Lahey navigates the pangs of generational ennui with the pint half-full and a spot cleared on the bar stool next to her. Self-doubt, burn out, break-ups, mental health, moving in with her girlfriend, vibrators: The Best of Luck Club showcases the universal language of Lahey’s sharp songwriting, her propensity for taking the minute details of the personal and flipping it public through anthemic pop-punk. Lahey’s 2017 debut I Love You Like a Brother encases Lahey’s knack for writing a killer hook and her acute sense of humor delivered via a slacker-rock package and, in a way, The Best of Luck Club picks up where that record left off.

Lahey co-produced the album alongside acclaimed engineer and producer Catherine Marks (Local Natives, Wolf Alice, Manchester Orchestra), and dives headfirst into a broader spectrum of both emotion and sound through polished, arena pop-punk in the vein of Paramore with the introspective sheen of Alvvays or Tegan & Sara. Here, Lahey documents the highest highs and the lowest lows of her life to date. After a whirlwind of global touring in support of breakout debut I Love You Like a Brother, Lahey wrote the bulk of her follow-up in Nashville during 12-hour days of songwriting. There, she found the inspiration for The Best of Luck Clubís concept: the dive bar scene and its genuine energy.”Whether you’ve had the best day of your life or the worst day of your life, you can just sit up at the bar and turn to the person next to you - who has no idea who you are - and have a chat. And the response that you generally get at the end of the conversation is, "Best of luck", so The Best Of Luck Club is that place.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Don’t Get Invited To Parties Anymore
2. Am I Doing It Right
3. Interior Demeanour
4. Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself
5. Unspoken History
6. Misery Guts
7. Isabella
8. I Need To Move On
9. Black RM’s
10. I Want To Live With You

Durand Jones & the Indications aren’t looking backwards. Helmed by foil vocalists in Durand Jones and drummer Aaron Frazer, the Indications conjure the dynamism of Jackie Wilson, Curtis Mayfield, AND the Impressions. Even with an aesthetic steeped in the golden, strings-infused dreaminess of early ‘70s soul, the Indications’ sophomore LP, American Love Call, is planted firmly in the present, with the urgency of this moment in time.

The Indications’ 2016 self-titled debut was the product of friends who met as students at Indiana University in Bloomington, In., recorded for $452.11, including a case of beer. American Love Call, the band’s sophomore LP is instead the record the Indications dreamed of making, fleshed out with strings, backing vocals, and a newfound confidence in songwriting.

Blending a slew of influences from years spent crate-digging, guitarist Blake Rhein says the Indications approach songs in the same way hip-hop producers do, as likely to pull inspiration from ‘70s folk-rock or classic R&B as they are Nas’ Illmatic.

“Did I expect to do this shit once I got out of college? Hell no,” Jones relays, laughing. “Totally not. But this is what God is telling me to do – move and groove. So I’m gonna stay in my lane.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A brilliantly emotive and smoothly contrasting duo of voices over this classic soul, brought to the modern day with crisp, clean production and the perfectly sunny songwiting Durand Jones has become known for. From mournful, lost-love ballads to swinging, dancefloor ditties, this is yet another mindblowing LP from Jones & co.

TRACK LISTING

1. Morning In America
2. Don’t You Know (feat. Aaron Frazer)
3. Circles
4. Court Of Love (feat. Aaron Frazer)
5. Long Way Home
6. Too Many Tears (feat. Aaron Frazer)
7. Walk Away
8. What I Know About You (feat. Aaron Frazer)
9. Listen To Your Heart
10. Sea Gets Hotter (feat. Aaron Frazer)
11. How Can I Be Sure (feat. Aaron Frazer)
12. True Love

Disguised as the meandering outpourings of vacant thought and activity dialed simultaneously from zero and ten. Formed in the cauldron of a fevered mistake resolute. Surrounded by ignorance, dis-interest, and the attention of the carefully self-selected. Recorded and burned through a thousand galaxies of dust and doubt and endless infinite wonder, transforming both time and space. Forever exiled to the very bottom of the world to reflect on the struggling desperate pile above. Recognizing any contribution as miniscule and insignificant when placed within the greatness of the other, the dominant insolent preening satisfied, continually shouting the pre-eminence of the first world order.

TRACK LISTING

1. Staver
2. Waver
3. Laverl

On ‘The Lillywhite Sessions’, Ryley Walker and the similarly indebted trio of drummer Ryan Jewell and bassist Andrew Scott Young cover Dave Matthews’ infamously abandoned 2001 art-rock masterpiece of the same name, a record where he and his band indulged a new adult pathos and a budding musical wanderlust.

With a delicate rhythmic latticework and vocals that ask you to lean in, ‘Busted Stuff’ recalls Jim O’ Rourke’s golden Drag City days. Emerging from a wall of distortion, ‘Diggin’ a Ditch’ becomes a power trio wallop à la Dinosaur Jr, shaking off existential malaise like twenty-something pals writing rock songs in the garage. Walker’s ‘Grace is Gone’, the most faithful take here, is a testament to his unflagging love for the music that helped make him a musician.

This end-to-end interpretation of youthful fascination is a collective reminder that we are all just kids from somewhere, reckoning with our upbringing the best we can. Walker has stepped through the door long ago opened by the Dave Matthews Band to find a world teeming with musical possibilities. On ‘The Lillywhite Sessions’, he has, in turn, created his own.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: As well as being a VERY good follow on the ol' Twitter, Ryley Walker is also a superb chap and undeniably brilliant songwriter and musician. Although the songwriting doesn't really get a look in on this release (it being entirely covers), it is clear that his laid-back style and impeccable vocal performance is only improving. Even if you've never heard this Dave Matthews Band release before, I implore you to hear Walker's take on things. Stunning.

TRACK LISTING

Busted Stuff
Grey Street
Diggin’ A Ditch
Sweet Up And Down
JTR
Big Eyed Fish
Grace Is Gone
Captain
Bartender
Monkey Man
Kit Kat Jam
Raven

Hailed as the new vanguard of indie rock following the breakout success of 2016’s Puberty 2, Mitski returns with Be The Cowboy, via Dead Oceans.

Mitski’s carefully crafted songs have often been portrayed as emotionally raw, overflowing confessionals from a fevered chosen girl, but in her fifth album, Mitski introduces a persona who has been teased before but never so fully present until now—a woman in control.

“For this new record, I experimented in narrative and fiction,” comments Mitski. Though she hesitates to go so far as to say she created full-on characters, she reveals she had in mind “a very controlled icy repressed woman who is starting to unravel. Because women have so little power and showing emotion is seen as weakness, this ‘character’ clings to any amount of control she can get. Still, there is something very primordial in her that is trying to find a way to get out.”

In Be The Cowboy, Mitski delves into the loneliness of being a symbol and the loneliness of being someone, how it can feel so much like being no one. Lead single “Geyser” introduces us to a woman who can’t hold it all in any more. She’s about to burst and unleash a torrent of desire and passion that has been building up inside. While recording the album with her long-time producer Patrick Hyland, the pair kept returning to “the image of someone alone on a stage, singing solo with a single spotlight trained on them in an otherwise dark room. For most of the tracks, we didn’t layer the vocals with doubles or harmonies, to achieve that campy ‘person singing alone on stage’ atmosphere.”

There is plenty of buoyant swagger on Be The Cowboy, but just as much interrogation into self-mythology. Throughout these 14 songs, the music swerves from the cheerful to the plaintive. Mournful piano ballads lead into deceptively uptempo songs. “I had been on the road for a long time, which is so isolating, and had to run my own business at the same time. A lot of this record was me not having any feelings, being completely spent but then trying to rally myself and wake up and get back to Mitski.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: We aren't the only ones who've been eagerly awaiting a new Mitski album, with the news on this outing being VERY warmly received online, and listening to it, it's no surprise. Forward thinking synth-pop progressions, beautifully balanced song structures and Mitski's unmistakeable vocals. Superb stuff.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Geyser
2. Why Didn't You Stop Me?
3. Old Friend
4. A Pearl
5. Lonesome Love
6. Remember My Name
7. Me And My Husband

SIDE B
8. Come Into The Water
9. Nobody
10. Pink In The Night
11. A Horse Named Cold Air
12. Washing Machine Heart
13. Blue Light
14. Two Slow Dancers

Since their widely-acclaimed self-titled debut album released in 1999 Dead Meadow have released seven studio albums - three via Matador records (Shivering King and Others (2003), Feathers (2005), and Old Growth (2008)) and two live albums which includes Three Kings, a feature length live film and soundtrack. Their unique marriage of Sabbath riffs, dreamy layers of guitar-fuzz bliss with singer Jason Simon’s melodic croon has won over psychedelic pop/rock and stoner rock fans alike and with their new album The Nothing They Need (Xemu Records) the band show that in 2018, they continue to fuse their love of early-’70s hard rock and ’60s psychedelia into their own distinct sound.

The album was recorded in Dead Meadows’ studio/rehearsal space, The Wiggle Room and it celebrates twenty years of the band with eight songs that feature everyone that has been musically involved with the band over the years. Jason and Steve Kille are joined by original drummer Mark Laughlin, Stephen McCarty ( the drummer throughout the Matador years), and current drummer Juan Londono. Cory Shane joins them on guitar for some Feathers era dual guitar interplay.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Woozy, warbling guitars and throbbing bass kicks bolster the psychedelic maelstrom that only Dead Meadow could provide. A wholly mesmerising trip through progressive psychedelia and staggered rock. Superb.

TRACK LISTING

1. Keep Your Head.
2. Here With The Hawk.
3. I'm So Glad.
4. Nobody Home.
5. This Shaky Hand Is Not Mine .
6.Rest Natural
7. The Light.
8. Unsettled Dust

The live albums the band released during its 30-year career are the primary source for the collection, including tracks like “Bertha” from Grateful Dead (Skull & Roses) (1971), “Fire On The Mountain” from Dead Set (1981), and “The Music Never Stopped” from One From the Vault (1991). A testament to its ongoing popularity, the revered double-album Europe ’72 (1972), is represented by no less than five tracks, including “Sugar Magnolia,” “Jack Straw” and a searing rendition of “Morning Dew.”

Other performances on the set were selected from the growing number of live releases that have emerged since the death of founding member Jerry Garcia in 1995. Some of those recordings include “Touch Of Grey” from Truckin’ Up To Buffalo (2005), a 1990 version of “Eyes Of The World” with saxophonist Branford Marsalis featured on Wake Up To Find Out (2014), and “Estimated Prophet,” which debuted earlier this year as part of Cornell 5/8/77, a recording of the Grateful Dead’s mythic show at Cornell University in 1977, thought by many to be the band’s greatest live performance.

The album, which was originally released in 2016, received praise from The Philadelphia Inquirer, who called it, “Smartly restrained music steeped in the Deep South” and Paste, who said, “With a tingling rasp that screams James Brown and coos Otis Redding, Jones simply has to be heard to be believed on these vintage R&B pleas.” Detroit Metro Times furthered, “Modern soul that pulls with as much power as Lee Fields and Charles Bradley.” Of their debut, the band reflects, “Three years ago we spent every Sunday in our basement with a 4-track tape machine and a goal: record an album inspired by not only the ubiquitous titans of soul music but also the should-have-beens and the never-weres. With that modest target in mind, we released the record and booked one show marking the occasion. The reception we saw was both humbling and invigorating, and what started as a recording project, became a touring unit with larger aspirations.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: Boy can these guys sing! Timeless sweet soul music.

TRACK LISTING

Make A Change
Smile
Can't Keep My Cool
Groovy Babe
Giving Up
Is It Any Wonder?
Now I'm Gone
Tuck 'N' Roll

Widely considered to be both The Smiths’ finest work and one of the greatest albums ever made, ‘The Queen Is Dead’ has cast a significant influence over subsequent generations since it was first released in the summer of 1986.

This reissue represents the first time that The Smiths’ back catalogue has been revisited in such a way. The album features several of the band’s finest moments including the title track and ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’, as well as the iconic singles ‘The Boy With The Thorn In His Side’ and ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’.

‘The Queen Is Dead’ will be released on digital and streaming formats as well as the following physical formats – all of which feature the 2017 master of the original album:

5LP box – featuring the 2017 master of the album, additional recordings and the ‘Live In Boston’ recording. Housed in lift-off box with 2 double gatefolds and 1 single sleeve pressed on 180g heavy weight vinyl.

Deluxe 3CD / 1 DVD box set – features the 2017 master of the album; additional recordings featuring demos, b-sides and alternative versions; the ‘Live In Boston’ album recorded at the Great Woods Center For The Performing Arts on 5th August 1986; and a DVD featuring the 2017 master of album in 96kHz / 24-bit PCM stereo and ‘The Queen Is Dead – A Film By Derek Jarman’.

2CD – features the 2017 master of the album; additional recordings featuring demos, b-sides and alternative versions.

TRACK LISTING

VINYL BOX SET TRACKLISTING:
LP 1 – Original Album: 2017 Master
Side A:
1. ‘The Queen Is Dead’
2. ‘Frankly, Mr. Shankly’
3. ‘I Know It’s Over’
4. ‘Never Had No One Ever’
5. ‘Cemetry Gates’

Side B:
6. ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’
7. ‘The Boy With The Thorn In His Side’
8. ‘Vicar In A Tutu’
9. ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’
10. ‘Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others’

LP 2 & 3 – Additional Recordings
Side A:
1. ‘The Queen Is Dead’ (full Version)
2. ‘Frankly, Mr. Shankly’ (demo)
3. ‘I Know It’s Over’ (demo)

Side B:
4. ‘Never Had No One Ever’ (demo)
5. ‘Cemetry Gates’ (demo)
6. ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’ (demo)

Side C:
7. ‘Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others’ (demo)
8. ‘The Boy With The Thorn In His Side’ (demo Mix)
9. ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ (take 1)

Side D:
10. ‘Rubber Ring’ (b-side)
11. ‘Asleep’ (b-side)
12. ‘Money Changes Everything’ (b-side)
13. ‘Unloveable’ (b-side)

Tracks 1-7 And 9 Are Previously Unreleased.
Track 8 Was Released On 7” For Record Store Day.
Tracks 10 And 11 Are 2017 Masters Of B-sides From ‘The Boy With The Thorn In His Side’.
Tracks 12 And 13 Are 2017 Masters Of B-sides From ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’.

LP 4 & 5 – ‘Live In Boston’ – Previously Unreleased
Side A:
1. ‘How Soon Is Now?’ (5.25)
2. ‘Hand In Glove’ (2.58)
3. ‘I Want The One I Can’t Have’ (3.24)
4. ‘Never Had No One Ever’ (3.29)

Side B:
5. ‘Stretch Out And Wait’ (3.09)
6. ‘The Boy With The Thorn In His Side’ (3.34)
7. ‘Cemetry Gates’ (3.01)
8. ‘Rubber Ring/What She Said/Rubber Ring’ (4.17)

Side C:
9. ‘Is It Really So Strange?’ (3.23)
10. ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ (4.09)
11. ‘That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore’ (4.51)

Side D:
12. ‘The Queen Is Dead’ (5.08)
13. ‘I Know It's Over’ (7.39)

Recorded At The Great Woods Center For The Performing Arts On 5th August 1986.

DELUXE 3CD / 1 DVD BOX SET TRACKLISTING: 
CD1 – Original Album: 2017 Master
1. ‘The Queen Is Dead’
2. ‘Frankly, Mr. Shankly’
3. ‘I Know It’s Over’
4. ‘Never Had No One Ever’
5. ‘Cemetry Gates’
6. ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’
7. ‘The Boy With The Thorn In His Side’
8. ‘Vicar In A Tutu’
9. ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’
10. ‘Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others’

CD2 – Additional Recordings
1. ‘The Queen Is Dead’ (full Version)
2. ‘Frankly, Mr. Shankly’ (demo)
3. ‘I Know It’s Over’ (demo)
4. ‘Never Had No One Ever’ (demo)
5. ‘Cemetry Gates’ (demo)
6. ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’ (demo)
7. ‘Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others’ (demo)
8. ‘The Boy With The Thorn In His Side’ (demo Mix)
9. ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ (take 1)
10. ‘Rubber Ring’ (b-side)
11. ‘Asleep’ (b-side)
12. ‘Money Changes Everything’ (b-side)
13. ‘Unloveable’ (b-side)

Tracks 1-7 And 9 Are Previously Unreleased.
Track 8 Was Released On 7” For Record Store Day.
Tracks 10 And 11 Are 2017 Masters Of B-sides From ‘The Boy With The Thorn In His Side’.
Tracks 12 And 13 Are 2017 Masters Of B-sides From ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’.

CD3 – ‘Live In Boston’ – Previously Unreleased
1. ‘How Soon Is Now?’ (5.25)
2. ‘Hand In Glove’ (2.58)
3. ‘I Want The One I Can’t Have’ (3.24)
4. ‘Never Had No One Ever’ (3.29)
5. ‘Stretch Out And Wait’ (3.09)
6. ‘The Boy With The Thorn In His Side’ (3.34)
7. ‘Cemetry Gates’ (3.01)
8. ‘Rubber Ring/What She Said/Rubber Ring’ (4.17)
9. ‘Is It Really So Strange?’ (3.23)
10. ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ (4.09)
11. ‘That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore’ (4.51)
12. ‘The Queen Is Dead’ (5.08)
13. ‘I Know It's Over’ (7.39)

Recorded At The Great Woods Center For The Performing Arts On 5th August 1986.

DVD:
‘The Queen Is Dead’ On 96kHz / 24-bit PCM Stereo.
‘The Queen Is Dead – A Film By Derek Jarman’.

2CD TRACKLISTING:
CD1 – Original Album: 2017 Master
1. ‘The Queen Is Dead’
2. ‘Frankly, Mr. Shankly’
3. ‘I Know It’s Over’
4. ‘Never Had No One Ever’
5. ‘Cemetry Gates’
6. ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’
7. ‘The Boy With The Thorn In His Side’
8. ‘Vicar In A Tutu’
9. ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’
10. ‘Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others’

CD2 – Additional Recordings
1. ‘The Queen Is Dead’ (full Version)
2. ‘Frankly, Mr. Shankly’ (demo)
3. ‘I Know It’s Over’ (demo)
4. ‘Never Had No One Ever’ (demo)
5. ‘Cemetry Gates’ (demo)
6. ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’ (demo)
7. ‘Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others’ (demo)
8. ‘The Boy With The Thorn In His Side’ (demo Mix)
9. ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ (take 1)
10. ‘Rubber Ring’ (b-side)
11. ‘Asleep’ (b-side)
12. ‘Money Changes Everything’ (b-side)
13. ‘Unloveable’ (b-side)

Tracks 1-7 And 9 Are Previously Unreleased.
Track 8 Was Released On 7” For Record Store Day.
Tracks 10 And 11 Are 2017 Masters Of B-sides From ‘The Boy With The Thorn In His Side’.
Tracks 12 And 13 Are 2017 Masters Of B-sides From ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’.

Phoebe Bridgers wrote her first song at age 11, spent her adolescence at open mic nights and busked through her teenage years at farmers markets in her native Los Angeles. By age 20, she’d caught the ear of Ryan Adams, who listened to her perform her song ‘Killer’ in his LA studio, inviting her to come back and record it there the next day. The session blossomed into the three song ‘Killer’ EP, released to much acclaim on Adams’s Pax-Am label in 2015. In the two short years since, Bridgers has toured or played with Conor Oberst, Julien Baker, City And Colour, Violent Femmes, Mitski, Television and Blake Babies among others.

Now Phoebe Bridgers releases her debut full-length, ‘Stranger In The Alps’. From the weeping strings and ‘Twin Peaks’ twangs of opening track ‘Smoke Signals’, to the simple heartbreak of ‘Funeral’ and melancholic crescendo of ‘Scott Street’, ‘Stranger In The Alps’ is a swooningly beautiful record with a gothic heart.

‘Stranger In The Alps’ features guest vocals by Conor Oberst and John Doe.

TRACK LISTING

1 Smoke Signals
2 Motion Sickeness
3 Funeral
4 Demi Moore
5 Scott Street
6 Killer
7 Goergia
8 Chelsea
9 Would You Rather
10 You Missed My Heart

Limited to 800 on Black Vinyl. Formed in 2010, The Cosmic Dead are a quartet from Glasgow, Scotland who share their music through good vibes and better vibrations. Known for their improvised, chaos-strewn, Buckfast-smashed-against-the-wall take on space music, they have roamed from Roadburn to Las Vegas, Dundee to Bangalore. Each album is a document of the time and space the group find themselves in, a tangible artefact hewn from a psychedelic continuum orchestrated by The Cosmic Dead. Eccie Bam Yas, E? began life as a more meditative piece than the rocket-fuelled out-rock the band are more associated with.

Spliced and reformed by the band, taken from jams and improvised sets taken from the Rainbowhead recordings in Kyle of Lochalsh, a small village in the North of Scotland near the Isle of Skye. In this remote setting the band recorded a myriad of improvised pieces inspired by their rural surroundings and the material has been scattered across three albums; 'Easterfaust'(2014), 'Rainbowhead'(2016) and 'Eccie Bam, Yas E?'(2017). Beginning with an eldritch drift that roams the stereo field, phasing in an out from another realm, Smash The Sash melts into an electronic rock piece powered by keyboardist Lewis Cook’s analog synth sequence and drummer Julian Dicken’s pummelling drum work.

The cumulative effect reminds the listener of early Krautrock experiments, like first line-up Tangerine Dream playing Tanzmusik with early, rock-band Kraftwerk while epic show-stealer Fleein’ From The Polis brings the stringed instruments centre stage, Bassist Omar Aborida duets with James MacKay’s warped guitar playing to create weaves of sound across a moody rhythm section. Side B opens with Buckfast Aye, a brooding exploration with stereo-panned guitars a-flutter before the band take the listener into a slow-paced burner that brings the group’s psychedelic craftsmanship into play. The set ends with a full on trip. Lynx Africa builds the group’s sound into a space-rock jam that reminds the listener of classic mid-70s Hawkwind or the more long-form music White Hills built their early career on. What’s without question on Eccie Bam Yas, E? is that the group are telepathic in their playing and psychopathic in their purpose. Monorail Music of Glasgow are proud to announce a new imprint with the intention of documenting our global community and the many forms it takes.

Scotland's favourite space-psych-rock-gods return with a new album 'Psych Is Dead' before heading out on a lengthy UK/European tour including appearances at all the key genre festivals such as Safe As Milk, Wrong Fest, DesertFest, Raw Power Festival and Karma Fest.

Formed in 2010, The Cosmic Dead are a quartet from Glasgow, Scotland who share their music through good vibes and better vibrations. Known for their improv, chaos strewn, Buckfast smashed against the wall take on space music, they have roamed from Roadburn to Las Vegas, Dundee to Bangalore with each album offering a meditative window into a certain time and space.

'Psych Is Dead' is the sixth full length album from the band, the glowing embers of a a few days spent recording in a sweaty Sardinian kitchen overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Soon to be available on LP and CD via Riot Season Records, 'Psych Is Dead' is an aural exploration of their tumultuous universe.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Cosmic Dead have once again opened our minds with an expansive and hazy vision of reality. Chugging guitars and swirling synths mix with thunderous drums and all-round heavy vibes. It's a wonder their hearing is still ok with riffs like this going down.

TRACK LISTING

A. Nuraghe (21:54)
B1. Psych Is Dead (8:23)
B2. #FW (15: 28)

Dead Can Dance’s fourth album, The Serpent’s Egg (1988), came during a prolific period for the band, being released just four years after their debut. It was also the first they made at their own studio which, according to Brendan Perry, allowed them to continue to grow in “their own self-proclaimed direction”. A minimal yet rather grandiose record which includes fan favourites ‘The Host Of Seraphim’ and ‘Ullyses’, The Serpent’s Egg is a triumph and perhaps the finest example of where Brendan and Lisa’s diametrically different influences are overcome to form a new, almost synaesthetic whole.

‘Within The Realm Of A Dying Sun’: With Dead Can Dance now firmly centred round the core of Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard, they released their third album ‘Within The Realm Of A Dying Sun’ in the Summer of 1987, showing both a continued maturity in their sound and rise in their popularity. Recorded during an intense period of musical and personal growth for the band, the album’s eight songs are split equally between the duo with the first half being sung by Brendan and the second Lisa. At the time, Q Magazine described the album as combining “superb voice, ethereal church choirs, sweeping strings and a brochure of ethnic music: Middle Eastern, Indian, Moorish, anywhere but London’s East End where the couple resided.” The album’s cover only adds to the album’s aura of mystery with a haunting photograph of the family grave at the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris of famed French biologist François-Vincent Raspail.

'Dead To The World' is the long anticipated new studio album in seven years. With this album, mixed by Jay Baumgardner (Bush, POD, Papa Roach, Evanescence), Helmet have once again proven to be one of America's most influential alternative rock bands. Dead To The World comes with heavy guitar riffs, blasting drums and the distinctive voice of front man Page Hamilton. The album is energy at its purest form. Every track adds its unique flavour to mix of hard rock, alternative, metal and punk, showing the world again how versatile a rock album can be.

A Post-rock staple. Intertwining delayed guitar melodies weave around eac-other, adding layers of simple melodies before bursting into euphoric instrumental bliss. Lengthy solo passages do more to exacerbate the eventual burst of action, heightening the impact and soothing the soul. An absolute unmissable classic.

TRACK LISTING

1. "First Breath After Coma" 9:33
2. "The Only Moment We Were Alone" 10:14
3. "Six Days At The Bottom Of The Ocean" 8:43
4. "Memorial" 8:50
5. "Your Hand In Mine" 8:16

Saskatchewan is how it sounds: A province in the prairies of Canada. Double the size of Germany, but with less than one million residents. Lots of nature, and lots of silence. Perhaps lots of time to fill the silence with natural sounds, too. This is where the quartet The Dead South comes from, and fits perfectly within this description. The debut album "Good Company" revealed the four hatted, hairy and bearded fellas, with singer Nate Hilts as a focal point. The album is a perfect fit to the genres Folk, Neo-Folk and Bluegrass-Folk or even alternative Country with refreshing tunes to it.

With impact, humor and a kind of bold manner of putting words into sound. The instrumentation stays knowingly pure: guitars, cello, banjo, kick drum, mandolin - building the acoustic fundamentals for full lead vocals and harmonies. The first album really was a promise that is now fulfilled with the new release titled "Illusion & Doubt". No doubt the four piece from the prairies has matured. Harmony changes as well as excellent and virtuosic instrumental parts have been added to their incredible energetic, passionate and sometimes surprisingly catchy melodies. But Hilts and company are far from being tame: "We are definitely closer to the Pogues than to Alison Krauss. Unfortunately, we do not possess much of the delicate elegance so we try and bring more energy and entertainment to our side. You could say we are a mix of Nu-folk with a few different styles mixed in between. We tend to add elements of classical, punk, rock, alternative, bluegrass, folk and everything in between." What is sometimes hard to describe, is often better to simply listened to.

The opener 'Boots', starts like a grizzly on ecstasy. After a short quiet prelude, the boots really start to want to dance. Lighted by banjo and guitar and grounded by a stoic cello, Hilts tells a more free-spirited love story: rough, sincere and honest. With the following track 'Every Man Needs a Chew' - the first song the band has ever written - they speed up with the impulsive tact, a squeaky fiddle and some Gypsy Swing components. There is proof of a second great lead singer from Scott Pringle in 'Dead Man's Isle', - a drinking song with a great chorus and bizarre lyrics - a drunken guy expects his dog who is obviously sober to give him a ride home. If that doesn't remind you of The Pogues, then maybe "One-Armed Man', another tipsy party hymn, will. They really feel good in an up-tempo environment, but they can do slower and subtle as well, as you can hear with 'The Good Lord': "This our version of a classic country tune. It is about a husband and wife separated by war. The wife waits pregnant at home wondering if the child will ever meet his father, while the father at war wonders the same thing," says Hilts to this harmonically accommodating, but lyrically vexing song. That's how they like it, and another good example is 'Miss Mary': "The album's title is taken from a line in this song. In classic Dead South fashion, a woman takes too many pills and murders her husband, before she comes to and realizes what she's done" describes Hilts, as their type of humor. The same darkness can be found in the Western-Style of 'Massacre Of El Kuroke' and the gloriously nostalgic 8 minute "Spaghetti Western Ballad", 'Gunslinger's Glory'.

Dark Bird Is Home, the fourth album from The Tallest Man On Earth, doesn’t feel like it came from one time, one place, or one tape machine. The songs and sounds were captured in various countries, studios, and barns, and they carry a weather-worn quality, some dirt and some grit.

Early in Dark Bird, toward the end of the opening track, we hear other voices and sounds backing Kristian Matsson’s own. One of them, later credited in the liner notes with Angel Vocals, shows up several times throughout the record, adding new color to the familiar palette. And so the story grows and expands. That first song has horns and a piano, keyboards, synthesizers, and other modern noisemakers . . . and by track two you’ve got The Tallest Man on Earth as full-throttle rock and roll.

While Dark Bird is The Tallest Man at his most personal and direct, deeper and darker than ever at times, it’s also an album with strokes of whimsy and the scent of new beginnings — which feels fresh for The Tallest Man on Earth, and well timed. Reliably, the melodies and arrangements are sturdy and classic, like old cars and tightly wound clocks. The lyrics and their delivery are both comforting and alarming, like tall trees and wide hills.

The other musicians and layers on this recording put a wide lens on familiar themes. Fear and darkness, sleep or lack of it, dreams in the dark and in the light. Moving, leaving, going. Distance and short stops, long straight lines, temporal places. More hopefully, a grateful nod to a traveling partner, a healing mind. Maybe a little forgiveness needed. Definitely some things to forget.

TRACK LISTING

01. Fields Of Our Home
02. Darkness Of The Dream
03. Singers
04. Slow Dance
05. Little Nowhere Towns
06. Sagres
07. Timothy
08. Beginners
09. Seventeen
10. Dark Bird Is Home

Ask Bill Fay about his relationship with his instrument and he says something revealing, not ”Ever since I learnt to play the piano,” but “Ever since the piano taught me…”

What the piano taught him was how to connect to one of the great joys of his life. “Music gives,” he says. And he is a grateful receiver. But, it makes him wonder, “Who is the sender?”

Fay - who after more than five decades writing songs is finally being appreciated as one of our finest living practitioners of the art – asserts that songs aren’t actually written but found. He recorded two phenomenal but largely overlooked albums for Decca offshoot Nova in 1970 and 1971. After 27 years of neglect, people like Nick Cave, Jim O’ Rourke, and Jeff Tweedy were praising those records in glowing terms. Recorded in Ray Davies' Konk Studios, North London, Who Is The Sender? sees Bill expanding upon themes he has touched on from the beginning, spiritual and philosophical questions, observations about the natural world and the people in the city he has lived in all his life.

‘The Firstborn Is Dead’, co-produced by Nick Cave, the Bad Seeds and Flood, is the second studio album released by Cave & The Bad Seeds, and was originally released on June 3rd 1985.

Cave explores his fascination with the American South, with references ranging from Elvis Presley to ‘Blind’ Lemon Jefferson.

Recorded in Berlin, Cave later said of this album, "Berlin gave us the freedom and encouragement to do whatever we wanted. We'd lived in London for three years and it seemed that if you stuck your head out of the box, people were pretty quick to knock it back in, particularly if you were Australian. When we came to Berlin it was the opposite. People saw us as some kind of force rather than a kind of wacky novelty act”.

The album's title is a reference to Jesse Garon Presley, the stillborn identical twin of Elvis Presley, and ‘Wanted Man’ was Cave’s own take on a song Bob Dylan wrote for Johnny Cash. Dylan gave his permission for the lyrics to be changed, with Cave’s interpretation referencing his friends.

TRACK LISTING

Tupelo
Say Goodbye To The Little Girl Tree
Train Long Suffering
Black Crow King
Knockin’ On Joe
Wanted Man
Blind Lemon Jefferson

Mark McGuire was previously a member of the critically acclaimed drone band Emeralds.

From the mid-western underground consciousness, guitarist / producer Mark McGuire emerges with his forthcoming ‘Along The Way’ album. The conceptual album details the inner journey of an individual seeking definition and enlightenment.

For those following McGuire’s musical ascent thus far, the record is a culmination of a prodigious and prolific artist.

Playing with a wide variety of instruments and styles on ‘Along The Way’, McGuire presents his unique vision of modern psychedelia. Using electric and acoustic guitars, a Talkbox, drum machine, a mandolin and lots in between, McGuire conducts a sonic exploration of the inner self.

For the best part of a decade T15DM have been cultivating a post-electro, nu-tech-industrial sound aesthetic, that, until now has only been heard by the lucky attendees of their live excursions that took place in some of the more sordid sound dungeons worldwide.

Their debut EP on Trensmat is venomous with intent from the outset. “The Runaway” is some serious hydraulic electro-techno, a driving 808 rinse-out into a storm beyond the aquatic triangle. “Children of the 303” is a raw , haunted, obscure and sinister sounding…lock up yer kin! Flip for “Fibril” where the 303 gets mangled and twisted, melancholic melodies drowning in running tape delays, wobbling analog pulses-frustrated funk in full effect. “Internal dialogue” closes the B, all dark driving basslines and glitchy sounds going all over the place, straight to the point mixed up machine madness. A perfect soundtrack for a dark basement full of smoke and strobe light. Proper underground electro for those that do because they couldn't care less.

The 12” comes with digital copies of the tracks on the record plus two additional distorted & nasty future-electro groovers not on the vinyl – “MacReadys Tape” & “Mass”. The digital version of this EP is only available to the buyers of the vinyl.

The unique pairing of Oxbow’s feisty vocalist with self-proclaimed “musical tour guide” Philippe Petit return to pick over the carcass of a dying relationship

Vinyl on heavyweight 180 gram black vinyl in gatefold sleeve with die cut inner pocket and printed inner dust cover.
CD in gatefold sleeve with lyric insert.
Released following Eugene’s appearance with the Oxbow Orchestra at Supersonic festival

Introducing vocalist Kaisa Meow The second release in a trilogy from Robinson-Petit following The Crying of Lot 69 LAST OF THE DEAD HOT LOVERS, a secondary installment in the tryptic of modern and highly specialized anomie brought to life by vocal lyricist EUGENE S. ROBINSON and musical tour guide PHILLIPPE PETIT, covers an unspecified disaster at the centre of a failed and failing relationship. Equal parts "Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf ?" and the last 16 hours of a love affair, LAST OF THE DEAD HOT LOVERS also features the estimable KASIA MEOW in a duet with Robinson that radiates all the best parts of homicidal suicides.

File Under: Experimental / Spoken Word For Fans of: Oxbow, Tom Waits, Swans, The Enablers, William Burroughs.

Now available on black vinyl. Third single released from their breakthrough album in 2002.

Animator, opens with ‘Montuno’, a 9-minute account of a hallucination about the repetition of days, the split seconds that define us, and the strangeness of the certainty of death.

There's something almost supernatural to the feel of this album: “‘Animator’ is supposed to be some weird resuscitation. The animator’s job is to create the semblance of movement in things that cannot move themselves. The musician’s is to make us feel like something is happening with a sound,” explains singer and multi-instrumentalist Jessie Stein.

Recorded and produced at the Treatment Room by band member and experimental brass player Pietro Amato, and mixed by Jace Lasek of The Besnard Lakes at his Breakglass Studios in the band’s hometown of Montreal, ‘Animator’ is a cathartic sophisticated collection of songs.

As melodically compelling as it is artistically rich, ‘Animator’ is intuitive, seductive, moody and textural. It slowly unfolds its beauty and trusts the listener to stay with it.

TRACK LISTING

Montuno
Fifty Fifty
The Quiet Way
Face
Your Name’s Mostly Water
Earth Turner
Talking Mountains
Traces
Crimes Machine
Channeling

Hugely anticipated, The Tallest Man On Earth returns with ‘There’s No Leaving Now’.

The sense of urgency that fuelled his previous work remains, and the results are paralyzing – drums, piano, baritone guitar, woodwinds and pedal steel combine with songwriting so detailed and captivating.

Since his last album, ‘The Wild Hunt’, The Tallest Man On Earth has sold out Shepherds Bush Empire two months in advance of the show, performed on ‘Later With Jools Holland’ and now lands at the start of this campaign with a sold out London Hackney Empire show, with fans desperate to hear his new material.

One of the greatest albums of all time, but then you don't need me to tell you that! Again there were surprises: the sprawling power of the title track, the vaudevillian jokiness and throwaway lightness of "Frankly Mr. Shankly" and "Vicar In a Tutu" respectively, the swaying poise and drama of "I Know It's Over" and the murky psychedelia of "Never Had No-one Never". These tunes rung the changes but the remaining 5 were world classics: "Bigmouth Strikes Again", "Cemetry Gates", "The Boy with the Thorn in his Side", "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others" and, of course "There is a Light That Never Goes Out". The whole thing was perfectly sequenced to take you on a proper musical journey. A truly beautiful record.

‘Onwards To The Wall’ packs every bit of the searing sonic maelstrom listeners have come to expect from A Place To Bury Strangers. Yet, the adroit songcraft that’s always been there is brought more the fore, pop hooks are repurposed and more instantly recognizable.

Now joined by bassist Dion Lunadon, formerly of The D4, in whom the band have found a crucial companion in pulling timeless melodies from their jet engine textures.

Standout ‘So Far Away’ takes all the pure pop perfection of The Box Tops’ ‘The Letter’ and shoots it through with a barely-harnessed dark energy and snarling propulsion. The title track carries a similar balance of classic, 60s pop hooks and doomed-out vibes, employing a boy-girl vocal trade off that’s at once both sexy and menacing.

A handful of contemporary bands are currently exploring the new limits of loud. And here, A Place To Bury Strangers prove that they have not only been leading that charge for some time now, but that they are also evolving and maturing on those front lines.

‘Onwards To The Wall’ is a fresh, complete artistic statement. It’s a new chapter, a prelude for what awaits on the horizon. It is a taste of greatness to come.

‘The Clearing’ is Bowerbirds’ third album - a much bigger, bolder and broader record than the first two records could even hint at.

Recorded with Brian Joseph (Bon Iver) in Wisconsin.

From the first song onwards, this is a band willing to make a statement and develop all the finest moments heard on the previous two records. The band sing of the best and most important moments in life and, in turn, create new ones.

In this blistering world, these songs are the rarest sort of balm. A record sure to turn this much loved and well kept secret into one of the most acclaimed bands of 2012.

2nd album by the group led by Colin Huebert and Erik Arnesen, former and current members of Great Lake Swimmers respectively. 

Even as Siskiyou's first record was delivered to Constellation in early 2010 and getting prepped for release that fall, Colin Huebert remained holed up in Mara, BC (pop. 350) through the winter, writing more songs and eventually being joined by his Siskiyou co-conspirator Erik Arnesen for a few weeks of intensive recording. Unlike the material on their eponymous debut, which was largely recorded in nomadic fashion while Colin and Erik toured as members of Great Lake Swimmers, the Mara, BC sessions found the pair settled, rooted and with keys in hand to the century-old Mara Community Hall. Most of the tunes on 'Keep Away The Dead' were born at Mara Hall, where bed tracks were laid down in the crisp air during depth of winter. The arctic atmosphere of that empty, cavernous, hardwood structure was the perfect complement to Huebert's sensibility: a tense and acute restraint; a shivering, biting, sometimes bitter rending of barebones, folk-inflected rock music. (Neil Young remains a clear touchstone – overtly so with the album's cover of "Revolution Blues" – as do the pointed, starkly controlled arrangements and textures of contemporaries like Angels Of Light.)

Huebert left Mara in spring 2010 and moved to Vancouver, where Siskiyou began to take shape as a full band with the addition of Shaunn Watt and Peter Carruthers. Coming off a season of extensive touring in Euope and Canada in fall 2010, Siskiyou had coalesced into an incisivie quartet and hit Vancouver's JC/DC Studio in early 2011 with engineer David Carswell (Destroyer, New Pornographers), adding to the previous year's Mara sessions and cutting two more tunes for which Carswell ran the mix: "Twigs And Stones" and "Revolution Blues”. Huebert recorded and mixed the remainder of Keep Away The Dead (as he did on the previous record). Where Siskiyou's debut was a stunning little scrapbook of short, sharp tunes, 'Keep Away The Dead' ramps things up with subtle care and clarity, yielding something closer to a rural gothic novella in spirit and scope. The album is a strikingly cold-eyed, tender-hearted song cycle, marked by quiet defiance and desperation. Huebert's acoustic guitar and gently acetic voice, Arnesen's gorgeous banjo and treated guitar lines, and the judicious rhythm section of Watt and Carruthers deliver a superbly compelling album on the knife's edge of darkness, where each tune feels like another precious log thrown on a lone campfire burning in the cold night.

TRACK LISTING

1. Keep Away The Dead
2. Where Does That Leave Me
3. Twigs And Stones
4. So Cold
5. Revolution Blues
6. Dear Old Friend
7. Not The Kind
8. Fiery Death
9. Sing Me To Sleep
10. Dead Right Now

This album was written in a cabin built into the side of Mount Meakan, an active volcano in Akan National Park, on the island of Hokkaido, Japan. It was recorded in an abandoned train station in Detroit with Chris Koltay (Liars, Women, Deerhunter, Holy Fuck, No Age).

Akron/Family spent the end of 2009 and half of 2010 exploring the future of sound through bent acid punk diamond fuzz and underground Japanese noise cassettes, lowercase micro tone poems and emotional Cagean field recordings, rebuilding electronic drums from the 70s and playing them with sticks they carved themselves.

A picture-perfect collection of echo-drenched space-age pop songs, "Too Beautiful To Work" buzzes and pops into retro-futurist sonic bliss.

The Luyas enlisted the help of many friends on "Too Beautiful To Work". These friends happen to double as world-class musicians. Owen Pallett plays the violin and arranges the strings. Colin Stetson adds saxophone and clarinet. Sarah Neufeld (who plays in Arcade Fire) also plays violin. John Marshman adds some cello, Daniel Tavis Romano plays the bass, Lisa Chisholm brings the bassoon and Leonie Wall plays the flute.

"Too Beautiful To Work" was recorded by Jeff McMurrich, whose fingerprints can be found on fantastic recordings by Tindersticks, Constantines, Owen Pallett and countless others.

TRACK LISTING

1. Too Beautiful To Work
2. Worth Mentioning
3. Tiny Head
4. Moodslayer
5. Canary
6. Spherical Mattress
7. Cold Canada
8. What Mercy Is
9. I Need Mirrors
10. Seeing Things

The Good Ones is a trio of Rwandan genocide survivors who play joyous, acoustic love songs written in the ancient local Kinyarwanda street dialect of their nation's capital, Kigali.

Adrien Kazigira, Stany Hitimana and Jeanvier Havugimana recorded the songs collected on "Kigali Y’ Izahabu" over the course of one summer evening on the back porch of a friend's home. The primary obstacle to recording the group was that the musicians showed up with only one guitar for two players, and that guitar was missing two strings. Hitimana ‘played bass’ on the 4-string and a beat-up acoustic was located for the second guitarist, the sullen, primary songwriter Kazigira, who interweaves intricate harmonies with cosinger Havugimana.

In a style often referred to as ‘worker songs from the streets’, these simple, direct and plaintive love songs speak more to the healing power of peace than a thousand academic treatises or preachy goodwill ambassadors ever could.

The Tallest Man On Earth released "The Wild Hunt" this year to widespread acclaim. The live reaction that the Tallest Man On Earth (aka songwriter Kristian Matsson) generates from his fans is a sight to behold. He has performed around the world, headlining Euro festivals and selling out prestigious club venues.

Matsson is the rarest of performers, charismatic and captivating. At many of the Tallest Man on Earth shows this year, Matsson closed his set with a new song titled ‘Like The Wheel’. It quickly became a fan favourite, with YouTube videos spreading virally, and the sets closing on a high note night after night.

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: A five track mini-album and another example of his superb widescreen late night Americana songwriting skills.

TRACK LISTING

1. Little River
2. The Dreamer
3. Like The Wheel
4. Tangle This
5. Trampled Wheat
6. Thrown Right At Me

'I used to have a girlfriend…..but she’s six feet underground'.

Describing their sound as 'A kick in the teeth…..with a load of reverb', Speak & The Spells formed somewhere deep inside their collective vinyl collection. And now they’re adding to yours with their debut single.

The ominous surf-rock opening riff of "She’s Dead" sets the tone for a b-movie style tale of grief and grave digging. Scratchy guitars and screams provide the perfect soundtrack for singer Joe Eakin’s lament. Front man Joe is joined by Benjamin Craven (Bass) and Alex Felstead (Drums) to complete a stripped back, bare essentials line-up that’s a million miles from the gadget heavy electro of 2009 but just as thrilling.

The equally enthralling b-side "Brianna" show’s a spiced up more punk side to the band, while "Caleb Pink" finds the band in a more experimental mood with a 4.5 minute instrumental.

Initially bonding at school through a shared love of Garage, Psych and Freak-Beat, the 3-piece outfit was conceived in a West London storeroom playing covers of 60s teenage garage heroes like The Downliners Sect and Tintern Abbey before developing their own unique and exciting style.

Straight out of school, the band created "Ricky Ticks" in a Soho basement, a bi-monthly clubnight where they could play their records and hone their live act. They quickly caught the attention of fellow London promoters, which led to them supporting one of their personal idols; Billy Childish and being invited by The Horrors to play their own night ‘The Cave Club’. They’ve also played alongside the likes of The Guillotines, Bo Ningen and The Vinyl Stitches.

"She’s Dead" is one of those records destined to accompany the sound of needle hitting wax but perfectly at home on your ipod as well as in your pile of prized 45’s.

While it has only been 18 months since Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band's self-titled debut, they have traveled what feels like thousands of miles. "Where The Messengers Meet" is in real time, an expansion of the sound of the band's eponymous debut. They take the same frantic and skewed elements and stretch them out, giving them room to breathe and blossom.

Thematically, "Where The Messengers Meet" is an exercise in contrasts: the delicate and gentle, the dark and furious. Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band collects powerful compositions into one cohesive whole held together with lush production and a haunting atmosphere. They are imperceptibly inching away from an angular style influenced by Modest Mouse and Wolf Parade, instead incorporating an epic sound recalling both the modern masters such as Arcade Fire, and classic pioneers, like Pink Floyd.

When fans lined up to see the sold-out Bon Iver performances at New York City's Town Hall in late 2008, few of them went with any expectations of the opening act. But the audience that night, and on every other night of Bon Iver's tour that December, were introduced to something special, something unforgettable: The Tallest Man on Earth. This was the first of several tours for the Tallest Man on Earth (aka Kristian Matsson), with obsessive crowds growing each step of the way.

It is impossible to discuss The Tallest Man on Earth's music without acknowledging Bob Dylan. The seemingly effortlessness, the melodic sensibility and the deft lyricism all recall Dylan's early years. But when you witness the Tallest Man on Earth perform live, you are watching a man possessed. The energy pours out with every word. Full of intensity and raw emotion, he paces the stage, bringing the audience into the palm of his hand, completely lost in his songs.

This brings us to the reason you are reading this. With unbridled excitement, we bring you The Tallest Man on Earth's second LP, "The Wild Hunt". It is all here: The words. The voice. The melodies. Ten perfect songs. "The Wild Hunt" picks up where "Shallow Grave" left off, with Matsson doing what he does best. It is unmistakably The Tallest Man on Earth, from the urgent strums of "You're Going Back" and the sweet melodies of "Love is All," to the playful lyricism of live favourite "King of Spain" and the subtle hook on "Burden of Tomorrow". "The Wild Hunt" isn't just another folk album; this is acoustic rock 'n' roll from a man with a story to tell.

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: Ace singer/songwriter with a desolate, stripped down acoustic Americana vibe that brings to mind early Dylan.

‘The Firstborn Is Dead’, co-produced by Nick Cave, The Bad Seeds and Flood, is the second studio album released by Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds and was originally released on June 3rd 1985.

Cave explores his fascination with the American South, with references ranging from Elvis Presley to ‘Blind’ Lemon Jefferson.

Recorded in Berlin, Cave later said of this album: “Berlin gave us the freedom and encouragement to do whatever we wanted. We’d lived in London for three years and it seemed that if you stuck your head out of the box, people were pretty quick to knock it back in, particularly if you were Australian. When we came to Berlin it was the opposite. People saw us as some kind of force rather than a kind of wacky novelty act.”

The album’s title is a reference to Jesse Garon Presley, the stillborn identical twin of Elvis Presley, and ‘Wanted Man’ was Cave’s own take on a song Bob Dylan wrote for Johnny Cash. Dylan gave his permission for the lyrics to be changed, with Cave’s interpretation referencing his friends.

Also features the apocalyptic classic ‘Tupelo’.

This CD and DVD version includes the original album in 5.1 surround sound, one bonus track and three bonus videos.

TRACK LISTING

CD
Tupelo
Say Goodbye To The
Little Girl Tree
Train Long-Suffering
Black Crow King
Knockin’ On Joe
Wanted Man
Blind Lemon Jefferson

DVD
Audio:
The Firstborn Is Dead
(5.1 Surround Sound)
The Six Strings That
Drew Blood
Video:
Do You Love Me Like I
Love You (Part 2: The
Firstborn Is Dead)
Tupelo
Wanted Man

The Donkeys are best friends from southern California, with songs steeped in the music of their state – part Beach Boys, part The Byrds, part Pavement. "Living On The Other Side" is about rolling the windows down, cranking the stereo up and hitting the open road.

**LONG OVERDUE CD REPRESS**

"Dead in The Water" is compilation carefully edited together by The Heads vocalist and guitar player Simon Price. It was originally released in a micro edition of 100 CD copies on the bands own Rooster label, these copies sold out overnight! The material consists of album outtakes, jams and rehearsal recordings, most of which are improvised. "Dead In The Water" is a lot more space rock than the previous Invada outtakes LP "33", it will appeal to fans of Bardo Pond, Acid Mothers Temple, Faust and Hawkwind!

Evangelicals follow up 2006's "So Gone" with their expansive yet restrained second album. According to the band, "The Evening Descends" is their 'answer to Prince's "Around The World In A Day", but from the perspective of someone crashing at Pee-Wee's Playhouse.. who happens to have a chainsaw slowly gnawing through his leg.'

2006 was a big year for Bishop Allen. The band recorded and self-released an EP every month of the year. Fifty-eight songs later, they completed one of the most ambitious recording projects in recent memory. With the EPs, Bishop Allen's pop smarts sound timeless, escaping the indie-pop idiom and revealing a language informed by the Kinks, Dylan, and the Zombies. "The Broken String" includes nine reworked tracks from the EPs along with two previously unreleased tracks. These are not just re-recordings: Bishop Allen has stepped out of the home studio and created definitive versions of songs that were originally conceived within the constraints of a monthly deadline. Benefiting from the earlier recordings and several tours, the songs' arrangements have grown, the production is lush, the lyrics are front and centre, and the band's evolution has reached a new level.

Follow up to 2004's Grammy nominated "Good News...", and the band now include Johnny Marr as a permanent member.

The Dead Texan is the first solo album from Adam Wiltzie (Stars Of The Lid and WIndsor Of The Derby) and as you expect from someone with his pedigree, this is without doubt one of the most beautiful ambient/ avant album releases of the year. The 11 tracks sweep between noctambulent piano and string infiltrated mini symphonies and 60s filmic vignettes.

Chicago's Yakuza kick off this aural assualt with a Tibetan monk drone, that's just before some humungously large riffs drop into your lap and twist your goolies into a contorted knot. They're not averse to a bit of subtelty and invention either, in fact this is an indescribable mix of avant metal, jazzcore and post-apocalyptic psychedelia. The album ends with "01100011101", a cerebral forty-three minute instrumental that has large dollops of post hardcore about it as well as superb guitar and bass riffing. Terrorizer magazine observes 'When Yakuza hit their mark they come off as a jazz-inflected mixture of early 90s experimental thrash (Bastro seems to be a major influence) and post Helmet groove metal'.