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New Release Round-Up 09-18-20
Neil Young - The Times - Warner Records
The Times is a moving and topical solo acoustic performance, a unique collection of songs, filmed at home during lockdown as part of the raw and personal, Fireside Sessions series.
Run The Jewels - RTJ4 - BMG Rights Management
This eleven song, 40 minute powerhouse is their most ferocious and focused effort to date, and sports a lineup of all-star guests including Pharrell Williams, Mavis Staples, 2 Chainz, Zack de la Rocha, Josh Homme, DJ Premier, and Greg Nice. Recorded primarily at Rick Rubin's Shangri-La Studios and the iconic Electric Lady Studios in NYC, RTJ4 represents two years of intensive writing, recording, distilling, and amplifying the most potent elements of their music. The result is a collection of wall-to-wall bangers illuminating the group's unique ability to straddle the worlds of pointed social commentary and raw, boisterous fun.
Keith Urban releases his brand new studio album THE SPEED OF NOW Part 1. The album includes his hit single “God Whispered Your Name” as well as the #2 smash hit “We Were”. Keith won the CMA Entertainer Of The Year in 2018 and he is currently the 2019 ACM Entertainer Of The Year. Keith will be hosting the ACM Awards on Wednesday-September 16th while will air on ABC-TV. “In October 2019 this album title came to me. I liked it because I felt like life was flying by so fast. But music (for me) has always been the place where it slows down and doesn’t even exist. I would never have imagined that, in 2020, this album title would take on a whole new meaning.” - Keith
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50 years after the original made him a global superstar Yusuf / Cat Stevens has rerecorded an entirely new version of his 1970 classic album Tea For The Tillerman. With many of the album’s songs sounding more relevant than ever today, Tea For The Tillerman 2 offers up striking and sensitive new renditions of stone-cold classics like “Father And Son,” “Wild World,” and “Where Do The Children Play?”
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A follow up to 2009's GRAMMY Winning Family Time - Ziggy Marley has bottled the energy of his children and put it into music form! This is a very special piece and have a number of friends guesting on this album, including: Stephen Marley, Sheryl Crow, Ben Harper, Angelique Kidjo, Alanis Morissette, Tom Morello, Lisa Loeb, Busta Rhymes and Jamie Lee Curtis (reading her new book Today I Feel Silly). A portion of proceeds will benefit Ziggy's 501(c)3 URGE - which supports the education, social development and overall well being of the Chepstow Primary School and the One Love Youth Camp, both in Jamaica.
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After the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1968, racial tensions across the country rose. Palo Alto, a largely white college town in Cali, wasn't immune. Danny Scher, a junior at the high school, had a dream to have Thelonious Monk perform and help bring about racial unity the community while raising funds for the International Committee. After many twists and turns, the triumphantly successful concert eventually happened. Now available on CD; Softpak w/ booklet & foldable poster.
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Between You And Me is the fourth album by the indie trio San Cisco, from Fremantle in Western Australia, town of sun-baked sandstone and sea breezes. It's an album two years and at least one sadly remembered love affair in the making. Between You and Me finds the childhood friends' open-hearted/ good times chemistry distilled to it's essence. Nearly 10 years since those first EPs, ARIA nominations and early US and UK inroads, San Cisco have made their most painstaking album sound effortless.
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Acclaimed singer/songwriter Joan Osborne is back with Trouble And Strife (Womanly Hips Records), her first album of original material in six years. Osborne self-produced the new collection and penned all ten songs, with two co-writes. Trouble and Strife finds the gifted vocalist offering a strong yet uplifting response to some of the socio-political issues plaguing our nation over the last several years. Osborne beautifully balances the weight of her messages with solace and optimism. Throughout her 25-year, multi-Grammy nominated career, Joan Osborne has never been an artist confined to one space. She has utilized her incredible voice through her own songs while also becoming one of her generation’s finest interpreters. Osborne has shared the stage with artists ranging from Stevie Wonder and Mavis Staples to Bob Dylan and Lucinda Williams and she continues to seamlessly blend into any genre. On Trouble & Strife, her tenth studio album, the need for her voice and words has never been stronger.
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ALSO OUT THIS WEEK
Bright Light Bright Light - Fun City
Alicia Keys - Alicia
Charli XCX - how i'm feeling now
Anjimile - Giver Taker
Gus Dapperton - Orca
Butcher Brown - #KingButch
Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets - Live At The Roundhouse
Osees - Protean Threat
Semisonic - You're Not Alone EP
Cults - Host
Matt Berry - Phantom Birds
Ace Frehley - Origins, Vol. 2
David Bowie - Young Americans [Brick & Mortar Exclusive 2016 Remaster Gold LP]
Brad Mehldau - Suite: April 2020
Nick Cordero - Live Your Life - Live At Feinstein's / 54 Below
Ed Harcourt - Monochrome To Colour
Jealous of the Birds - Peninsula
Ava Max - Heaven & Hell
Lauren Alaina - Getting Over Him EP
Steam Down / Afronaut Zu / Yazmin Lacey - Blue Note Re:imagined - Etcetera / I'll Never Stop Loving You [Limited Edition Vinyl Single]
& More .....
For more information on these and other releases out this week, check out our New Releases charts by week section.
What's New 9-11-20
As chaos envelopes the world, Manson penned the perfect prescription. The aptly titled We Are Chaos was written/produced by Manson & Shooter Jennings. Rock & roll icon and painter, Manson continues to infiltrate fashion, film, and music, leaving his fingerprints on modern culture.
On this record, Vega revisits familiar songs in her repertoire, as well as some hidden gems. Recorded live at New York’s Café Carlisle (on 14 March last year), Vega’s backed by longtime guitarist, Gerry Leonard, bassist Jeff Allen and keyboardist Jamie Edwards.
The enduring California rock quintet realign on their fifth full-length and first album since 2014, What Is There. As much as it reflects their journey thus far, it also ushers them into new territory as both musicians and, most importantly, friends. In the end, Delta Spirit not only return, but move forward together.
The supergroup-Renee Rosnes (piano), Melissa Aldana (tenor sax), Anat Cohen (clarinet), Ingrid Jensen (trumpet), Noriko Ueda (bass), Allison Miller (drums) and Cecile McLorin Salvant (vocals)-conjures a powerful, multi-generational, globe-spanning collective voice. The 9-track project features material composed/arranged by the instrumentalist members that unfurls with a dynamic flow, stunningly eclectic yet entirely cohesive.
New Release Round-Up 09-11-20
American Head is the best and most consistent studio album from The Flaming Lips since the release of their most successful brace of albums The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots. Similar to those albums, the 13 songs on American Head are classically structured and features the same sonic and production qualities. Kacey Musgraves (a fan who covers “Do You Realize” in her live set) is featured on “God And The Policeman”.
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Marilyn Manson - WE ARE CHAOS - Loma Vista
As chaos envelopes the world, Marilyn Manson penned the perfect prescription. The aptly titled WE ARE CHAOS was written/produced by Manson & Shooter Jennings. Rock & roll icon and painter, Manson continues to infiltrate fashion, film, and music, leaving his fingerprints on modern culture. "Making this record, I had to think to myself: Tame your crazy, stitch your suit, try to pretend that you are not an animal. But I knew that mankind is the worst of them all.”
The whole story could’ve been written in the stars… Astrology tells us a “Saturn Return” happens when the planet Saturn revolves back to the same position it held upon our birth. It typically takes almost thirty years. However, in the case of Delta Spirit, it took a little less than fifteen. The enduring California rock quintet—Matthew Logan Vasquez [vocals], Kelly Winrich [multi-instrumentalist, vocals], Will McLaren [guitar], Jon Jameson [bass], and Brandon Young [drums]—realign on their fifth full-length and first album since 2014, What Is There. As much as it reflects their journey thus far, it also ushers them into new territory as both musicians and, most importantly, friends. In the end, Delta Spirit not only return, but move forward together on What Is There.
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Medium Rarities is the first rarities collection from Mastodon covering their entire career. The compilation features one brand new song – “Fallen Torches”. It also includes a bevy of classic covers, soundtrack contributions, instrumentals, B-sides, and live recordings on one complete package for the very first time. Among an eclectic array of covers, the musicians tackle “A Commotion” by Feist, “A Spoonful Weighs A Ton” by The Flaming Lips, “Atlanta” by Butthole Surfers, and “Orion” by Metallica. It also features soundtrack cuts such as “White Walker”[from the Game of Thrones inspired mix tape] and the soundtrack song “Cut You Up With A Linoleum Knife” [Aqua Teen Hunger Force]. Meanwhile, they get under the hood with instrumental versions of “Asleep in the Deep,” “Toe To Toes,” “Jaguar God,” and “Halloween.”
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Produced by Alex Newport (Death Cab For Cutie, At The Drive In), Yellow Coat is a masterpiece of heartbreak, equal parts lost Sixties AM hits, folk-pop beauty and dark night of the soul music. Taking inspiration from Van Gogh's Dear Theo along with John Steinbeck's A Life in Letters, and stamped with the honesty and intimacy of something not meant to be heard, yellow coat is the product of Matt Costa penning letters to himself about the end of a relationship that lasted almost a decade. While Yellow Coat may have started as an album about heartbreak, its sense of sadness, continued hope and perseverance also feels completely universal right now. "My songs have always been something that transcends a feeling into something that is healing," Costa adds. "I hope listeners and fans find these songs as personal and honest as they are to me."
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Elizabeth Cook is a Nashville-based singer-songwriter from Wildwood, FL- the New York Times lauds her "a sharp and surprising country singer". A veteran SiriusXM Outlaw Country Radio DJ, Cook has hosted her own show, Apron Strings, for over 10 years. She's also a favorite of David Letterman, the host of an upcoming TV show on Circle Network called Upstream, and a frequent guest star on Adult Swim's long-running hit cartoon series "Squidbillies".
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Steinway artist & composer, Chad Lawson's solo work has a relaxed, meditative feel that draws on both the sonorities of classical music and the freeform nature of jazz improv. You Finally Knew, his debut solo piano album for Decca US, was recorded at Abbey Road Studios and features ten pieces he wrote to inspire listeners to take time every day to consciously be still for mental clarity and overall wellness of being.
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ALSO OUT THIS WEEK
Brothertiger - Paradise Lost
PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love
PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love - Demos
Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart [Picture Disc Vinyl Single]
The Pineapple Thief - Versions Of The Truth
Reba McEntire - Rumor Has It: 30th Anniversary Edition
Everything Everything - Re-Animator
Stray Cats - Rocked This Town: From LA To London
Logic - No Pressure
Skillet - Victorious: The Aftermath [Deluxe Edition]
Suzanne Vega - An Evening Of New York Songs And Stories
Artemis - Artemis
Various Artists - Reggae Gold 2020
& More .....
For more information on these and other releases out this week, check out our New Releases charts by week section.
What's New 9-4-20
On the band’s first album as a paired down trio, their signature psychedelic blues riffs, relentless drums, melodic bass lines and non-linear lyrics are all present. You also have tape loops coinciding with unplugged minimalism. It’s their heaviest album marked by their broadest atmospheres, intimate and pummeling.
The follow up to 2013's Purgatory/Paradise is an outpouring of modal guitars, reverbed shapes, echoey drums and driving bass set behind Kristen Hersh's well-thumbed notebook of storylines. A ten-song opus of suitably wrought tales set against a wall of sound that's at once calm and ethereal before building into glorious cacophonous crescendos.
Blending folk intimacy, country grit, and alt-rock muscle, Dandelion is an ode to survival in the face of struggle, a full-throated tribute to the power of hope and the unbreakable bonds of family fueled by raw, honest storytelling and lush, cinematic arrangements, expanding the homespun craftsmanship of the Nashville duo.
An extraordinary tribute album to one of rock's great composers, Marc Bolan, AngelHeaded is a collection of major stars (including Elton John, U2, Joan Jett, Nick Cave, and Peaches) reinterpreting and reimagining some of Marc Bolan and T.Rex’s greatest tracks including “Jeepster,” “Bang A Gong (Get It On),” and “Ride A White Swan.”
Bach's monumental "Goldberg Variations" stands as a work of unique, brilliant artistry in piano literature. Lang Lang first began exploring the masterpiece 20 years ago, now presenting this album as the outcome of a personal, emotional journey. A new stage in Lang Lang's artistic development, it's a project of a lifetime. Alongside studio recordings is a 1-take from a recital at iconic St Thomas Church.
Tomplicated Records release the eagerly anticipated second record from 21 year old singer/songwriter Declan McKenna. This 10 song follow up to 2017's What Do You Think About The Car? includes the hit singles “Beautiful Faces,” “The Key To Life On Earth,” “Daniel,” “You're Still A Child,” and latest single “Be An Astronaut”.
With his debut album turning five on 4th September, Rex Orange County has announced that he’ll be releasing his first record on vinyl for the very first time. “I remember being 16, mid-way through my final years of school and feeling like I had a lot I wanted to say,” Rex says of the album. “I didn’t have a strong intention with the release of Bcos, I just felt determined to make something and put it out into the world. But with it came the idea and belief to pursue music as a career.
What's New 8-28-20
S&M2 was recorded in San Francisco over two nights in September 2019 with the San Francisco Symphony to commemorate the 20th anniversary of S&M. Features 20 songs from the two-night event, with many Metallica fan favorites and two unique classical songs chosen by San Francisco Symphony Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas.
The Waterfall II completes The Waterfall, My Morning Jacket's acclaimed 2015 record. Originally intended to be a sprawling triple album, the band were advised to hold back and keep some of it on the shelf. Until now! Frontman Jim James says, "this is simply the second half of a long snapshot of life for me as a writer… and the life of us as a band as we lived and worked.”
Produced by Shaun Morgan and engineered and mixed by Matt Hyde (Deftones, AFI), their new album Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum, (which translates to “If you want peace, prepare for war”) features Shaun Morgan’s aggressive, highly melodic songwriting, some of the most expressive, politically charged music he’s ever made.
A spectrum of talented artists are featured, on the duo’s newest album, including for the first time, rappers. Appearances from Mick Jenkins, ChannelTres, Amine and slowthai sit comfortably alongside legendary Common; with the inimitable Kelis and powerhouse team, Kehlani and Syd.
Multi-Platinum, GRAMMY-winning megastar Toni Braxton releases her latest album, Spell My Name, via Island Records August 28th. Includes hit single, "Do It" as well as a new version with Missy Elliot, and fan-favorite "Dance"
Molly Tuttle finds solace in revisiting favorite songs from throughout her life in an attempt to “remind myself why I love music.” The result is 10 tracks that cross the musical spectrum and the decades, from FKA Twigs to Cat Stevens, from Rancid to Karen Dalton- all united by Tuttle’s clear, true voice, astonishing range and incredible musicianship
As Mortal makes exceedingly clear though its preposterously fantastic trans-dimensional death metal, 2017’s Blood Offerings was not a blueprint, but a blasting cap; the malicious maelstrom it released was not a squall, but a paradigm-scrambling superstorm. Blood Offerings was Necrot creating an opening into another world, Mortal is them walking through it.
On his sophomore album, Nashville-based artist Ruston Kelly now documents his experience in maintaining sobriety, and finally facing the demons that led him to drug abuse in the first place. But while Kelly recounts that journey with an unvarnished honesty, his grace and conviction as an artist ultimately turn Shape & Destroy into a work of unlikely transcendence.
Got To Be Tough is a reminder that through Toots’ creative veins run all the roots and shoots of the Black Diaspora. Blues, soul, RnB, funk, jazz, reggae, African griots – Toots honors, embodies and owns them. Throwing down an authoritative guide: how to survive and thrive among our earth challenges.
Bless Your Heart is fueled by “road-forged camaraderie and telepathic musical intensity, vibrantly reflecting the individual and collective experiences of these seven, all drawing inspiration from the band’s symbolic hometown, a place Devon Allman calls ‘the United States of Americana’.”
Ordinary Madness was completed mere days before the US shutdown, its cathartic song-craft and themes of shared troubles couldn't chime better with a period in which our souls and spirits are under fire from tumultuous global events. Trout comes armed with a boundary-exploring new studio album that bring his fans even closer.
On PVRIS' highly-anticipated third studio album Use Me, frontwoman, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer Lynn Gunn steps into a new chapter, as she owns her role as PVRIS’ leader and sole architect. The result is 11 pop conjurations of glitchy beat-craft, airy guitars, and spell-binding vocals.
Grammy award-winning singing sensation Gregory Porter’s 6th studio album, All Rise, is a heart-felt, joyful celebration of the evolution of his art to something even more emphatic, emotive, intimate, and universal. Along with producer Troy Miller (Laura Mvula, Jamie Cullum, Emili Sandé), Gregory takes us higher than ever with this uplifting album.
Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter J.S. Ondara reveals Folk N Roll Vol 1: Tales of Isolation, a new collection of songs written in direct response to the current global pandemic. The album was composed and produced by Ondara while in lockdown in Minneapolis over the course of a week, and came out of Ondara’s deep need to create as a form of therapy during this incredibly uncertain time.
The five-time Grammy-nominee and Blues Hall of Fame inductee releases a new album that features songs primarily popularized by women who were the “bridge she came across on.” From Dinah Washington’s "Drinking Again," Nina Simone’s "I Hold No Grudge," Billie Holiday’s "Strange Fruit," Nancy Wilson’s "Save Your Love For Me" and more, they are all delivered in LaVette’s rich and raspy tone and a touch of the blues.
