New Releases for June 3, 2022
CDs + Vinyl:
Andrew Bird – Inside Problems CD/LP (Loma Vista)
On his brand-new album Inside Problems, Andrew Bird acknowledges all the complex thoughts, questions and middle-of-the-night obsessions swirling around in each of us. Inside Problems is a collection of eleven original songs that take on those inner demons that run amok when things get especially quiet. It’s a lush and rousing entry to his acclaimed, constantly evolving and perennially curious career. [An indie store exclusive red color vinyl pressing is available.]
Drive By Truckers¬ – Welcome 2 Club XIII CD/LP (ATO)
Arriving as Drive-By Truckers enter their 26th year, Welcome 2 Club XIII marks a sharp departure from the trenchant commentary of The Unraveling and The New OK (both released in 2020). Produced by longtime DBT collaborator David Barbe and mainly recorded at his studio in Athens, GA, Welcome 2 Club XIII took shape over the course of three frenetic days in summer 2021 – a doubly extraordinary feat considering that the band had no prior intentions of making a new album. Featuring background vocals from the likes of Margo Price, R.E.M.’s Mike Mills, and Mississippi-bred singer/songwriter Schaefer Llana, Welcome 2 Club XIII was recorded live with most songs cut in one or two takes, fully harnessing Drive-By Truckers’ freewheeling energy.
Michael Franti & Spearhead – Follow Your Heart CD (Boo Boo Wax)
“Follow Your Heart is all about resilience, connection, and joy. How we reunite with our souls, our power, our loves, and our heart as we go through the greatest challenges our world has seen. I wanted to make a record that was uplifting and vulnerable. These songs have all been written during the pandemic, a time in which I lost my father to Covid, lost my job (as a touring musician), and leaned on my wife, family and friends and found a closeness with them that I never knew before. I laughed louder, played harder, cried deeper and danced with more freedom than I’ve ever felt during this crazy time – this music reflects it all.” – Michael Franti [Vinyl edition due August 12.]
S.G. Goodman – Teeth Marks CD/LP (Verve Forecast)
Teeth Marks is steeped in Kentucky rock ‘n’ roll truth teller S.G. Goodman’s signature caustic wit and social commentary, specifically exploring the various and often painful indelible marks that love can leave behind. Mining garage rock, Appalachian folk and post-punk influence, the album finds Goodman’s stirring vocals draped in a sonic patchwork of southern indie rock. The title track, which recounts dating as a queer woman and facing the jarring reality of unrequited love over a swirling guitar lick, was debuted via Rolling Stone, who stated, “Goodman launches a wounded plea at an unavailable lover. Verses and choruses collide with instrumental passages of ethereal beauty, the clouds of ringing feedback calling to mind the mellower side of Yo La Tengo… Her voice glasslike and flecked with pain.”
Horsegirl – Versions Of Modern Performance CD/LP+MP3 (Matador)
Horsegirl are best friends. You don’t have to talk to the trio for more than five minutes to feel the warmth and strength of their bond, which crackles through every second of their debut full-length, Versions Of Modern Performance. Penelope Lowenstein (guitar, vocals), Nora Cheng (guitar, vocals), and Gigi Reece (drums) do everything collectively, from songwriting to trading vocal duties and swapping instruments to sound and visual art design.
Jasmyn – In The Wild CD (ANTI-)
Jasmyn is the new solo project created by Jasmyn Burke, former singer-songwriter and frontwoman of the critically acclaimed Canadian band, Weaves. Collaborating remotely with Los Angeles-based producer John Congleton (St. Vincent, Angel Olsen, Sharon Van Etten) on a body of work she had compiled over months of being in lockdown. Finally in the Spring of 2021, Jasmyn went to L.A. to record with Congleton, exploring themes of finding patterns in life and how to perhaps change them. [Vinyl edition due June 24.]
The Kills – No Wow (The Tchad Blake Mix 2022) CD/LP+MP3 (Domino)
On their seminal second album, 2005’s No Wow, The Kills established the ethos that would set the tone for their expansive career – capture the rawest emotions and sounds, and then push them to the furthest possible edge. The band is celebrating No Wow’s 15-year anniversary with a deluxe reissue featuring the original recording and a fresh new mix by the multiple Grammy Award-winning Tchad Blake that brings new life to the 11 vivid tracks. [An indie store exclusive gold color vinyl pressing is available.]
Killswitch Engage – Live At The Palladium 2xCD+Blu-ray/2xLP (Metal Blade)
On August 6, 2021, Killswitch Engage unleashed a streaming event that took fans by storm. The event took place at The Palladium in Worcester in the band’s native Massachusetts, which has been the site of many iconic KsE shows throughout the band’s history. The performance setlist consists of 2019’s Atonement album in full, along with the 2000-released self-titled album in full – with some fun and unexpected surprises along the way.
Lettuce – Unify CD/2xLP (Round Hill)
Unify serves as the eighth studio album from six-piece Lettuce and the third consecutive record made at Denver’s Colorado Sound Studios, completing a loose trilogy starting with 2019’s Grammy-nominated Elevate, and continuing with 2020’s Resonate. Fans can expect the same tight, wildly funky instrumentals Lettuce has always been known for, but in the tightest form they’ve ever taken. And this time around, the guys have gotten the stamp of approval from one of the genre’s most legendary icons, Bootsy Collins, who can be heard singing on the track “Keep That Funk Alive”.
Prince and The Revolution – Live 2xCD+Blu-ray/3xLP (Legacy)
James Brown had the Apollo. Jimi Hendrix had Monterey Pop. And Prince had Syracuse, New York’s Carrier Dome – the Purple Rain Tour performance that was beamed to millions live via satellite and captured for posterity in the Grammy Award-nominated concert film Prince and The Revolution Live and has since gone down in history as one of the most iconic live recordings in pop and rock history. For the first time, this powerful performance by Prince and The Revolution has been entirely remixed from the original 2″ multitrack master reels by engineer Chris James and remastered by Bernie Grundman.
Adrian Quesada – Boleros Psicodélicos CD/LP (ATO)
Adrian Quesada delivers Boleros Psicodélicos, a sprawling and singular tribute to the golden era of Latin America psychedelic ballads. The brand-new album from the Grammy-winning guitarist, producer and Black Pumas co-founder serves as a celebration of the super funky, slightly delirious, and deeply soulful sounds that transcended the cultural boundaries of Latin America throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Jens Lekman – The Linden Trees Are Still In Blossom CD/2xLP+MP3 (Secretly Canadian)
Jens Lekman – The Cherry Trees Are Still In Blossom CD/2xLP+MP3 (Secretly Canadian)
Lekman’s impulse for giving old music fresh life and context has led him to remake the records under new names, each delicately positioned in dialogue with the past – the same albums, just different. The Cherry Trees Are Still In Blossom and The Linden Trees Are Still In Blossom are a pair of lovingly and painstakingly assembled reduxes, each keeping the same core tracklisting, spirit and source material as the originals, but blending brand new versions of some tracks, in part or in whole, together with many tracks left largely as they were. Both records are fleshed out with rare, previously unreleased, and even previously unfinished old songs, as well as other contemporaneous material such as cassette diaries. [Pink and clear (respectively) color vinyl pressings are available.]
Angel Olsen – Big Time CD/2xLP/Cassette (Jagjaguwar)
Big Time is an album about the expansive power of new love, but this brightness and optimism is tempered by a profound and layered sense of loss. [A limited-edition opaque pink color vinyl pressing is available.]
Post Malone – Twelve Carat Toothache CD (Republic)
9-time Grammy nominee Post Malone says of Twelve Carat Toothache, “I think this whole record is the most honest record I’ve made, and I’m so pumped for people to hear it. Every song in there tells a story.”
Animals As Leaders – Animals As Leaders [Reissue/2009] 2xLP (Prosthetic)
Two colorways are available: pink and yellow. When Tosin Abasi released his self-titled debut solo album under the moniker Animals as Leaders in 2009, few would have predicted the band’s meteoric rise over the following years. Although Abasi earned acclaim as the lead guitarist in the Washington, D.C.-based metalcore act Reflux, it was still a long-shot that an instrumental album of progressive metal with jazz, electronic and ambient flourishes would develop anything more than a cult following.
Clutch – Robot Hive / Exodus [Reissue/2005 LP+7” (Weathermaker Music)
Weathermaker Records presents a series of Clutch catalog releases reimagined and individually curated by one of the band members and reissued as part of the Clutch Collector’s Series. The artwork is in the vein of the original yet strikingly different. The vinyl releases are remastered and manufactured on colored 180gm vinyl which in turn is stored in extra heavy sleeves. The gatefold jackets are printed on metalized polyester paper and each album includes a numbered insert autographed by all band members.
Lucy Dacus – Kissing Lessions b/w Thumbs Again 7”+MP3 (Matador)
After landing towards the top of too many year-end lists to count with 2021’s Home Video, Lucy Dacus is back with two new tracks “Kissing Lessons” and “Thumbs Again” on vinyl for the first time.
Mason Jennings – Real Heart LP (Loosegroove Inc.)
Released earlier this year on CD – now available on vinyl, including an indie store exclusive blue color pressing. Mason Jennings’ new album Real Heart was produced by Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam. “I’m very excited to be working with Loosegroove Records and to have had Regan Hagar and Stone Gossard produce this album. We made the unabashed folk record that I have been wanting to make for years. Kind of a love letter to the acoustic guitar and to musical intimacy.” – Mason Jennings
Magnolia Park – Halloween Mixtape LP+MP3 (Epitaph)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl.
Os Mutantes – World Psychedelic Classics 1: Everything Is Possible – The Best Of Os Mutantes LP (Luaka Bop)
Limited orange color vinyl pressing in gatefold jacket. The late ’60s in Brazil produced an explosion of new sounds and ideas that still reverberate throughout the world… during that time, Os Mutantes’ creative cannibalism produced psychedelic gems unlike anything else in the world. They were exactly what their name implies: a mutant genetic recombination of elements of John Cage, The Beatles, and Bossa Nova. A creature too strange and beautiful to live for very long, but too strong ever to fade away. It lives again.
Neil Young – Royce Hall 1971 LP (Reprise)
Recently release on CD – now available on vinyl. During Neil Young’s long and storied career, some of his concerts have gained mythic status, thanks to the practice of bootlegging. Recorded on January 30, 1971, this previously unreleased concert was performed at gorgeous Royce Hall on the campus of UCLA in Los Angeles, near the end of the singer/songwriter’s 1971 solo tour. Young played 16 solo acoustic numbers that night, accompanying himself on guitar and harmonica. The track list features beloved classics like “Old Man”, “Heart Of Gold”, “Ohio”, “Cowgirl In The Sand”, “Don’t Let It Bring You Down”, and “Down By The River”, plus the timeless version of “The Needle And The Damage Done” that appears on 1972’s Harvest, one of the greatest albums of all time.
