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New Release Round-Up 06-11-21
Mammoth WVH - Mammoth WVH - Ex1 Records
Mammoth WVH is the debut, self-titled album of Mammoth WVH – the band created by Wolfgang Van Halen. This collection includes the chart topping new single, "Distance” plus “Don’t Back Down,” “Epiphany,” “Mammoth” and more. At the beginning of 2015, Wolf broke ground on what would become Mammoth WVH with producer Michael “Elvis” Baskette [Alter Bridge, Slash] behind the board. Wolf began to embrace his voice, inspired by everyone from his father, to bands like AC/DC, Foo Fighters, Nine Inch Nails, TOOL, and Jimmy Eat World. In addition to writing and singing every song on the self-title debut album, remarkably Wolfgang plays every instrument. “The name Mammoth is really special to me.” says Wolf. “Not only was it the name of Van Halen before it became Van Halen, but my father was also the lead singer. Ever since my dad told me this, I always thought that when I grew up, I’d call my own band Mammoth, because I loved the name so much.”
Danny Elfman - Big Mess - Anti / Epitaph
Big Mess marks Danny Elfman’s first solo collection in more than thirty years, but it’s no return to form. Clocking in at 18 tracks, the sprawling, ambitious double album finds the Grammy and Emmy Award-winning composer breaking bold new ground as both a writer and a performer, drawing on a dystopian palette of distorted electric guitars, industrial synthesizers and orchestra in an effort to exorcise the demons brought about by four years of creeping fascism and civil rot. The songs here call to mind everything from Nine Inch Nails, to David Bowie to XTC at times, balancing dense, harmonically complex arrangements with biting, acerbic wit as they reckon with the chaos and confusion of the modern world. Elfman wrote almost all of the record during quarantine, and while the anger, frustration, and isolation of it all is palpable in his delivery, Big Mess is about more than simply blowing off steam. In making the space to truly sit with his emotions and write without limitations, Elfman achieved a kind of artistic liberation on the record that had been eluding him for decades, rediscovering his voice and reinventing himself all at once in the process. Born and raised in southern California, Elfman began his career as part of a surrealist, avant-garde musical theater troupe known as The Mystic Knights of Oingo Boingo. The group would eventually morph into the critically acclaimed rock band Oingo Boingo, whose high-energy performances and genre-bending sound garnered them a fanatically devoted cult following in the 1980s and ’90s. Among the group’s early fans was fledgling director Tim Burton and Paul Reubens (aka Pee-wee Herman), who enlisted Elfman to score their first feature film, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. The collaboration would prove to be the start of a long and fruitful partnership for Elfman and Burton, with Elfman going on to score a string of iconic Burton features like Batman, Beetlejuice, Big Fish, Edward Scissorhands, and The Nightmare Before Christmas. To date, Elfman has scored more than 100 films.
Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band - Live Bullet - Capitol
Considered to be one of the best live albums of all time, Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band’s 'Live' Bullet was captured at Cobo Hall, Detroit, MI, in September 1975. The album was released April 12, 1976, and helped to supercharge Bob Seger’s career. To mark the 45th anniversary, the album has been remastered and will be released in its original 2LP format in both black and color vinyl.
Def Leppard - Volume Three [Limited Edition 9 LP Box Set] - Mercury
The 3rd in four volumes of Def Leppard's complete recorded output, this box set contains all of the recordings from the band in the 2000's and features the original packaging. Housed in rigid boxes, the set also contains a hard-backed book with rare photos by Ross Halfin and liner notes by Classic Rock's Paul Elliott. Band members Joe Elliott, Rick Savage, Rick Allen and Phil Collen have also contributed introductions to the set. Limited Edition 180gm 9 LP Box Set.
ALSO OUT THIS WEEK
Sleater-Kinney - Path Of Wellness [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Opaque LP]
Garbage - No Gods No Masters
Mr. Bungle - The Night They Came Home [Blu-Ray + CD]
Lin-Manuel Miranda - In The Heights (Official Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Back The Way We Came: Vol. 1 (2011-2021) [Deluxe 3CD]
Maroon 5 - JORDI
The Shins - Oh, Inverted World: 20th Anniversary Remaster
AFI - Bodies
Lukas Nelson & Promise Of The Real - A Few Stars Apart [Limited Edition Ink & Paint Black w/ White Splatter LP]
Joe Bonamassa - Now Serving: Royal Tea: Live From The Ryman
Leslie Jordan - Company's Comin'
Marina - Ancient Dreams In A Modern Land
Kiss - KISS Off The Soundboard: Tokyo 2001 [3 LP]
The Oak Ridge Boys - Front Porch Singin'
Faith No More - Who Cares A Lot?: The Greatest Hits [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Clear 2LP]
Roisin Murphy - Crooked Machine
Indigo de Souza - I Love My Mom [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Purple Splatter LP]
Jordan Davis - Buy Dirt EP
Black Sabbath - Sabotage: Super Deluxe Edition [4LP+7in]
& More .....
What's New 6-4-21
Unabashedly outspoken 11 songs explore the tight bonds and the distances we share, the struggles of everyday life, our personal failings and triumphs, as well as how the social and economic decks can be stacked against us. But also hints at the reclamation of ourselves, a call to resurrect who we are at our core, who we want to be and what we want to do with our lives, despite the rampant weaponizing of our culture.
After a fantastic year leading up to the release of their long-awaited 3rd album We Will Always Love You, The Avalanches are set to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of their groundbreaking debut album Since I Left You, with a deluxe edition release featuring the original 18 tracks + a 21 track that includes 7 unreleased tracks + their own remixes of The Manic Street Preachers, Badly Drawn Boy, Belle & Sebastian + Franz Ferdinand.
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and ZZ Top frontman, Billy F Gibbons wants to take you on a desert trip. Gibbons compiled a group of a-listers including Matt Sorum and Austin Hanks and headed into the California desert to record in Pioneertown. Hardware features the guitar prowess and vocals that have made Billy a legend but it also shows him stretching his music landscape past the place where the road ends.
On June 15th 2014, Jason Isbell reunited onstage with former Drive By Truckers bandmates Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley for a special round-style night in Muscle Shoals Music. The setlist includes acoustic versions of Isbell-era Truckers gems including “Heathens,” “Decoration Day” and “Zip City” as well as post-Isbell Truckers tracks like “Space City” and solo Isbell faves such as “Cover Me Up.”
Jump For Joy is Gary Louris' long awaited 2nd solo album. Over the last three decades, the singer, songwriter, guitarist, and composer has built a deeply compelling body of music whose artistry and integrity has won the loyalty of an international audience and the respect of both critics and his peers. Best known for his seminal work with The Jayhawks, he is one of the most acclaimed musicians to come out of Minnesota's teeming rock scene.
Mark Collie presents the adventures of the Rockabilly Hitman in Book Of My Blues, a ground-breaking new album. This smokey fifteen song project chronicles the tale of Jessie Wayne Hardin aka the “Rockabilly Hit-man”. The audience joins this journey of misadventure as Hardin balances the moral scales of good and evil in the service of rock and roll.
Cleopatrick harness all the magic they’ve been brewing over their two-decade friendship and funnel it into a record that aims to reinvigorate the rock landscape from the ground up. Taking the ethos of their New Rock Mafia collective – a group of friends and fellow bands, united in making a more inclusive, equality-driven space in rock music – Bummer bursts with the sonic ambition and ferocity of a record designed to be played hard and loud.
New Release Round-Up 06-04-21
Mike Cooley, Patterson Hood & Jason Isbell - Live At The Shoals Theatre - Southeatern Records
On June 15th 2014, Jason Isbell reunited onstage with former Drive By Truckers bandmates Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley for a special round-style night in Muscle Shoals Music. The setlist includes acoustic versions of Isbell-era Truckers gems including “Heathens,” “Decoration Day” and “Zip City” as well as post-Isbell Truckers tracks like “Space City” and solo Isbell faves such as “Cover Me Up.” The set opens and closes with a pair of classic Hood-sung numbers, 2004′s “Tornadoes” and 2001′s “Let There Be Rock.”
Atreyu - Baptize - Spinefarm
Atreyu ushered in a new movement in heavy music. They've broken into the Top 10 in the Billboard 200 more than once; 2 of their albums are certified gold. Yet, 2 decades since the release of their first album, Atreyu is just getting started. Baptize is a definitive work for a new era. Atreyu recorded Baptize w/ producer John Feldmann. Guests include Jacoby Shaddix & Travis Barker. Songs like "Warrior," "Catastrophe," & "Save Us" are massive.
cleopatrick - BUMMER - Nowhere Special Recordings
"Listening to the story of Canadian duo cleopatrick is a bit like hearing the plot of the best, most righteously validating coming-of-age film never made. Two friends meet aged four in Hicksville, Nowheretown (real name: Cobourg, Ontario, population 19,000), grow up completely inseparable, form a band and, against numerous obstacles, blossom into a genuine, global underground sensation. There are heroes and villains, highs and lows and, crucially, some of the most poetic plot twists that could seem almost too perfect, were they not completely true.
Take the story of 2017 breakthrough track ‘hometown’ for example. “It’s one of the craziest, most ironic things that’s ever happened,” begins vocalist and guitarist Luke Gruntz. “I was going to college because I was too scared to put all my chips in the band pile, and that’s what ‘hometown’ is about: it’s a song about feeling like we’re doing all this stuff and we’re working so hard and we’re just never going to be heard. It’s literally a song about people probably never hearing our songs. And then by some act of the universe, that song ended up unlocking all the doors for us.”
Today, cleopatrick has logged 77 million streams and counting - all from an increasingly dedicated fanbase who’ve found the duo, completed by drummer Ian Fraser, their own way: no major label, no big budget, just two best pals knuckling down, cementing a unique sonic alchemy and filling a space of honest, empathetic yet undeniably heavy-hitting rock music that they’d been searching for themselves for years. Between multiple sold out tours in Canada, the US and the UK/EU and appearances at Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits and Reading/Leeds, the pair have been crafting BUMMER: a debut album that sees cleopatrick harness all the magic they’ve been brewing over their two-decade friendship and funnel it into a record that aims to reinvigorate the rock landscape from the ground up. Taking the ethos of their New Rock Mafia collective - a group of friends and fellow bands, united in making a more inclusive, equality-driven space in rock music - and imbuing it with the sonic ambition and ferocity of a record designed to be played hard and loud, it’s an album about two friends, who’ve been with each other since the formative first steps that adorn ‘BUMMER’’s heartwarming cover image and made something that’s a testament to the power of sticking to your guns."
Rostam - Changephobia - Mastor Projects
Changephobia is the 2nd full-length solo record from Grammy Award-winning songwriter, producer, and composer Rostam Batmanglij. An adventurous new direction for Rostam, the songs collected on Changephobia are deeply personal, yet universal for anyone who has ever experienced doubt. In addition to being a founding member of the seminal New York Indie Rock Band, Vampire Weekend, Rostam has been described as "one of the great pop and indie-rock producers of his generation." Rostam has produced & co-written critically heralded recent albums by Clairo and Haim, as well as singles from Maggie Rogers, Solange, Charli XCX, Frank Ocean, Santigold and others
ALSO OUT THIS WEEK
Poté - A Tenuous Tale Of Her
San Holo - bb u ok? [Clear 2LP]
Crowded House - Dreamers Are Waiting
Liz Phair - Soberish [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Milky Clear LP]
Rise Against - Nowhere Generation [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Flame LP]
Atreyu - Baptize
Wolf Alice - Blue Weekend
TOMORROW X TOGETHER - The Chaos Chapter: FREEZE [WORLD version]
Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Clear with Yellow Swirl LP]
Satsang - All. Right. Now.
Tristen - Aquatic Flowers [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Cool Blue LP]
Billy F Gibbons - Hardware
Chris Thile - Laysongs
Bad Brains - Into The Future (Alternate Shepard Fairey Cover)
Mndsgn - Rare Pleasure [Limited Edition Yellow LP]
The Avalanches - Since I Left You: 20th Anniversary [Deluxe 2CD]
Einar Selvik - Assassin's Creed Valhalla: The Wave of Giants [Opaque White LP]
Red Fang - Arrows [Indie Exclusive limited Edition Yellow with Heavy Neon Magenta Splatter LP]
Cheap Trick - In Another World [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Blue & White Splatter LP]
Night Beats - Outlaw R&B [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Bone LP]
& More .....
What's New 5-28-21
Black Midi’s new album Cavalcade is a dynamic, hellacious, and inventive follow-up to 2019’s widely-praised Schlagenheim, “a labyrinth with hairpin-turn episodes and lyrics full of dourly corrosive observations” (New York Times, Best Albums of 2019). It scales beautiful new heights, pulling widely from a plethora of genres and influences, reaching ever upwards from an already lofty base of early achievements.
When Smoke Rises is the debut solo musical release from Toronto-based, poet, activist and songwriter Mustafa. Written in the past 18 months after losing several friends to gun violence, the project is a cross-genre celebration of his friends and narrative vignettes from his community, Regent Park. Mustafa describes his work as 'inner city folk music'. *Available on Limited Edition Green Vinyl*
Always a daring and imaginative thinker, Moby’s first classical collaboration happened in October 2018, when he performed a selection of his songs alongside the LA Phil and conductor and friend Gustavo Dudamel. This was the inspiration for the current project, which features not only full orchestral versions but new electronic arrangements, as well as sophisticated smaller-scale acoustic interpretations.
KGLW return with L.W., their seventeenth studio album and the third volume in the band’s explorations into microtonal tunings. A companion piece to its 2020 predecessor, K.G., as well as a stand-alone work of art in its own right, L.W. displays a collision of musical worlds. After a decade of frenzied productivity and a recent inability to tour, the band was able to “reset their brains” and embark upon a search for “the notes between the notes”.
Throughout their career, Blackberry Smoke has embodied Georgia’s rich musical legacy, honoring the people, places and sounds of their home state. On their latest album, You Hear Georgia, Blackberry Smoke is further celebrating these roots with 10 new songs that feel like Georgia, accented by the addition of Grammy-winning producer and fellow Georgia-native, Dave Cobb (Jason Isbell, Brandi Carlile).
New Release Round-Up 05-28-21
Blackberry Smoke - You Hear Georgia - 3 Legged Records
Throughout their career, Blackberry Smoke has embodied Georgia’s rich musical legacy, honoring the people, places and sounds of their home state. As the band celebrates their 20th anniversary this year, their reverence for Georgia has only deepened. On their latest album, You Hear Georgia, the follow-up to 2018’s critically acclaimed Find a Light, Blackberry Smoke is further celebrating these roots with 10 new songs that feel like Georgia, accented by the addition of Grammy-winning producer and fellow Georgia-native, Dave Cobb (Jason Isbell, Brandi Carlile). “Dave and I had spoken for the last few years about making a record,” Starr says. “Finally, it worked out, our schedule and his schedule, and we said, yes—let’s make a record.”
Various Artists - Get On Board The Soul Train - The Sound Of Philadelphia International Records Volume 1 - United Souls
8CD Book set with bonus 12 inch single. United Souls, in conjunction with Sony Legacy Recordings, is delighted to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Philadelphia International Records with the eagerly anticipated release of Get On Board The Soul Train - The Sound Of Philadelphia International Records Volume 1. This is the first volume in a limited edition series which covers the first eight studio albums released by the label from 1971-1973. The series, in which all album are re-mastered from the original tapes, will map the history of Philadelphia International Records chronologically. Housed in a stylish 48 page slipcased book, the edition is strictly limited to 2500 copies. It also includes a numbered certificate of authenticity, an exclusive 12" single and a unique poster. The detailed 48 page hard cover book, including rare photographs was compiled and curated in association with PIR artists, engineers and producers, with liner notes by Tony Cummings (Author of The Sound of Philadelphia) and a foreword by Ralph Tee. The eight classic albums included in Volume 1 comprise: Billy Paul - Going East/Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes - I Miss You/The O'Jays - Back Stabbers/Billy Paul - 360 Degrees of Billy Paul/Dick Jensen - Dick Jensen/The Intruders - Save the Children/MFSB - MFSB/Billy Paul - Ebony Woman. Exclusive 12"- The O'Jays - Back Stabbers / MFSB - Back Stabbers
Moby - Reprise - Deutsche Grammophon
Moby’s eclectic career has cast him in the roles of electronic dance music pioneer, singer and songwriter, producer, activist, and restaurateur, but for his latest venture he presents his music in a whole new light. Together with Deutsche Grammophon, he is releasing an album of his best known tracks in stunning new arrangements for classical instruments – featuring Moby himself and a stellar lineup of collaborators from across the musical spectrum. Always a daring and imaginative thinker, Moby’s first classical collaboration happened in October 2018, when he performed a selection of his songs alongside the LA Phil and conductor and friend Gustavo Dudamel. This was the inspiration for the current project, which features not only full orchestral versions but new electronic arrangements, as well as sophisticated smaller-scale acoustic interpretations. The 14-track album includes classic Moby songs like “Porcelain”, “Why Does My Heart”, and “Extreme Ways” in innovative new versions, featuring eye-catching collaborations including both Jim James (My Morning Jacket) and Víkingur Ólafsson on “Porcelain”; Gregory Porter and Amythyst Kiah on “Natural Blues”; and Kris Kristofferson as well as original vocalist Mark Lanegan on “The Lonely Night”. The album concludes with a cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes”.
ALSO OUT THIS WEEK
Porter Robinson - Nurture [Ultra Clear 2LP]
World Party - Dumbing Up
Dispatch - Break Our Fall
Del Amitri - Fatal Mistakes
Nat Turner Rebellion - Laugh To Keep From Crying
k.d. lang - makeover
Shannon Mcnally - The Waylon Sessions
Elder Island - Swimming Static
LP - Live In Moscow [Limited Edition LP]
Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments
Taylor Swift - evermore [Deluxe Green 2 LP]
Robert Ames - Change Ringing
Brian Setzer - Rockabilly Riot! Volume One: A Tribute To Sun Records [Red 2LP]
Texas - Hi
Mustafa - When Smoke Rises [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Green LP]
Alestorm - Live in Tilburg (Live) [CD + Blu-ray + DVD]
black midi - Cavalcade
David Bowie - The Man Who Sold The World [12in Picture Disc]
PJ Harvey - The Peel Sessions 1991-2004
& More .....