June 30, 2017 —

New Releases and Staff Picks 6/30/17

STAFF PICKS

Kimber – Washed Out
Lindsay – Floating Points
Dario – Beach House
Brittany- The Coathangers

THIS WEEK’S NEW RELEASES

Lee Bains III + The Glory Fires – Youth Detention CD/LP (Don Giovanni)
Recorded in Nashville, Tennessee at Battletapes with engineer Jeremy Ferguson and producer Tim Kerr, Lee Bains III + The Glory Fires’ Youth Detention captures the band in raw form. Each song was cut live to tape, with the four performing in the same room without headphones or baffling. The result is thoroughly human, Lynn Bridges’ mix retaining the band’s live energy and looseness at the expense of a few out of tune strings. The Glory Fires music draws deeply from punk, but also soul, power pop, country, and gospel. [Limited edition color vinyl pressing also available.]

Beach House – B-sides And Rarities CD/LP+MP3 (Sub Pop)
B-sides And Rarities contains every song Beach House – aka Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand – has made that does not exist on one of their albums. The band explains: “When we announced that we were releasing a B-sides and rarities album, someone on Twitter asked, ‘B-sides record? Why would Beach House put out a B-sides record? Their A-sides are like B-sides.’ This random person has a point. Our goal has never been to make music that is explicitly commercial. Over the years, as we have worked on our six LPs, it wasn’t the ‘best’ or most catchy songs that made the records, just the ones that fit together to make a cohesive work. Accordingly, our B-sides are not songs that we didn’t like as much, just ones that didn’t have a place on the records we were making.”

Calvin Harris – Funk Wave Bounces Vol. 1 CD (Sony)
Calvin Harris’ new album features the previously released singles “Slide” featuring Frank Ocean & Migos, plus “Heatstroke” featuring Young Thug, Pharrell Williams & Ariana Grande. The album boasts 19 guest artist collaborations including Frank Ocean, Travis Scott, Kehlani, Future, Pharrell Williams, Katy Perry, Big Sean, John Legend, Khalid, Migos, Schoolboy Q, Ariana Grande, Young Thug, D.R.A.M., Nicki Minaj, Lil Yachty, Jessie Reyez, Partynextdoor plus Snoop Dogg. [Vinyl edition due August 4.]

Cody ChesnuTT – My Love Divine Degree CD (One Little Indian/Handwritten)
Recorded and mixed over the span of 18 months, My Love Divine Degree mixes ChesnuTT’s classic palette of beat-soul with the synth-funk of Chicago co-producer Anthony “Twilite Tone” Kahn.
 
Floating Points – Reflections: Mojave Desert CD+DVD/LP (Luaka Bop)
 A new short film and soundtrack featuring new, unheard compositions from British electronic musician and neuroscientist Floating Points, aka Sam Shepherd.

Mark Kozelek & Sean Yeaton – Yellow Kitchen CD (Caldo Verde)
Mark Kozelek (of Sun Kil Moon) teams up with Parquet Courts bassist Sean Yeaton. Yellow Kitchen also features appearances by Holly Throsby, Will Oldham, Steve Shelley, and Jim White.
 
Lapalux – Ruinism CD/2xLP (Brainfeeder)
Lapalux releases his new album on Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder imprint. Much of Ruinism‘s inspiration was born out of a theatrical score Lapalux (aka Stuart Howard) wrote for the performance art piece Depart which was performed in an East London cemetery. The aptly named project served as genesis for a direction wrought with doom and melancholia. Ruinismis all sonic wreckage and rubble created using only hardware and real instruments. The sound simultaneously destroys and redeems itself across a tight and formidable 48-minutes. [Limited blue vinyl pressing also available.]
 
Laurel Halo – Dust CD/LP (Hyperdub)
Recorded over a period of two years, Dust is a collection of breezy, broken songs, based on woody instrumentation, sub bass and restless, intricate electronics. Earnest songwriting meets with modal cut-up strategies, improvisational playing with high-grade digital dust. Swung grooves eddy and collapse; tactile and fibrous throughout the record, the vocals and percussion coalesce and breathe life into each other. The lyrics are themselves bricolage, without a specific narrator or place in time.

Peter Perrett – How The West Was Won CD/LP (Domino)
Peter Perrett – former frontman of The Only Ones – releases his debut solo album. Perrett, whose incisive song craft and sardonic drawl made him one of the most distinctive voices of the ’70s, hasn’t released any music for 20 years. Perrett makes each song on How The West Was Won sound natural and effortless, as though he were continuing a briefly interrupted conversation rather than picking up the threads of a solo career that faltered two decades ago.Backed by his sons – Jamie and Peter Jr. on lead guitar and bass respectively – and produced by Chris Kimsey (The Rolling Stones), Peter’s intuitive feel for words; his flair for idiosyncratic metaphors and his deadpan wit are all still as sharp as ever.
 
Pond – Weather CD/LP (Interscope)
New release from Nick Allbrook & his Perth psych-rock warriors, a concept album loosely based around their hometown. Produced by Tame Impala mainman Kevin Parker. Includes “Colder Than Ice” with Kirin J Callinan.

R.E.M. – Live At The Olympia In Dublin 39 Songs [Reissue/2009] 2xCD+DVD (Craft Music)
In the summer of 2007, R.E.M. performed a five-night residency at Dublin, Ireland’s Olympia Theatre. These dates were set up to allow the Athens, GA-based alt-rockers to explore new material, test out arrangements, and effectively rehearse songs for their 14th studio album, Accelerate, released in 2008. The 39 tracks on the double-disc set, recorded over the course of the residency, cover a wide range of material – digging deep into the band’s earliest tracks, and eschewing the obvious hits. Includes a bonus DVD.
 
Max Richter – Infra [Reissue/2010] CD/LP (Deutsche Grammophon)
The third physical release from Max Richter’s Retrospective catalog. Written for piano, electronics and string quartet, Infra is an expansion on Richter’s score for Wayne McGregor’s ballet of the same name that was created as a response to the London bombings on 7/7. Infrafollows Richter’s latest album, Three Worlds: Music From Woolf Works, an album featuring his score for another McGregor ballet, Woolf Works. This CD version of Infra features the bonus track, Sub Piano.

Kane Strang – Two Hearts And No Brain CD/LP+MP3 (Dead Oceans)
Recorded in his hometown of Dunedin at the notoriously haunted Chick’s Hotel studio, Kane teamed up with producer Stephen Marr from trip hop group Doprah for Two Hearts And No Brain. The collaborative result is a razor-sharp blend of intelligent alt-rock, bearing the signatures of grunge/alt rock swiftly executed with careful, meticulous precision over 11 tracks. Marr’s influence brings a pristine, retro-futuristic sheen which complements Strang’s perfectionist recording style, sharp melody, and verbose lyrical neuroticism. Taking to well-worn subject matter (heartbreak, loneliness, family) with a disarmingly frank scalpel, Strang’s wryly deadpan lines never miss a beat – the results often sardonic, and always captivating. [Limited red vinyl pressing also available.]

Washed Out – Mister Mellow CD+DVD (Stones Throw)
Boredom. Laziness. Complete apathy. Is it a quarter-life crisis or just an excuse to never grow up? This is the world of Washed Out’s (Ernest Greene) new album Mister Mellow. A fully immersive multimedia experience, the album guides the listener through the highs and lows of this often-ridiculous struggle. In classic Millennial fashion, most young adults’ perception of their own lives is overblown and over-dramatized to the point of absurdity – as are the many ways they distract themselves from the insecurities faced on a daily basis (see social media, fantasy, drugs, music). Mister Mellow shines a light on the humor found in this paradox – how we can be so bored and unhappy in what is often a very privileged, contented life? Further moving away from the synthesizer-driven sounds of his early work and the more band-driven sound of his work on iconic indie label Sub Pop, it is fitting that Greene has partnered with the rebellious beat-driven label Stones Throw as he continues to carve out a unique sonic identity that stands in direct opposition to most current trends.
 
John Zorn – Midsummer Moons CD (Tzadik)
 For millennia the moon has been a subject of deep fascination— a symbol of love, lust, madness and dreams. More than a passive observer, it is a powerful force whose brilliant luminosity exerts an intoxicating effect upon the winds, the tides, our emotions and more. This dark and moody CD of music inspired by Shakespearian Lunar imagery features ten lyrical compositions evoking the magic of Sister Moon. Stunningly performednby two of the most fabulous new guitarists working today—Julian Lage and Gyan Riley, this is a beautiful and heartfelt program of music for late night contemplation on a romantic midsummer evening.

Vic Chesnutt – Silver Lake [Reissue/2003] 2xLP+MP3 (New West)
At the time Silver Lake was recorded, you could count on two things with Vic Chesnutt: he would approach any topic, from the delicate to the mundane and he would take an unexpected angle. With an incisive eye and razor wit, he would always cut straight to the heart of the matter.
 
The Coathangers – Parasite 12” (Suicide Squeeze)
When The Coathangers first stormed on the scene over a decade ago, their power resided in their ability to craft a crooked hook out of a grimy guitar line, a delightfully crass chorus, or an enticingly ham-fisted drum-and-bass groove. With each successive album, the Atlanta garage punk ensemble has increasingly tempered their brash charm with sharp-witted pop. Not that the band ever fully excised the primal howl of The Gories or the sparse strut of ESG, but with the trio’s latest EP, Parasite, The Coathangers explore the space between their initial unbridled expressionism and their recent nuanced song craft. One-sided color 12″ with B-Side etching.
  
Coheed And Cambria – Good Apollo I’m Burning Star IV Volume One: From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness [2005] 2xLP+MP3 (Columbia)
First-time vinyl edition. Originally released in 2005, the breakthrough third studio album by progressive rockers Coheed And Cambria continued the band’s ambitious four-album “Armory Wars” sci-fi storyline and featured the mainstream rock hit “Welcome Home.”
 
The Cure – Greatest Hits [2001] 2xLP (Elektra)
The Cure –Acoustic Hits 2xLP (Elektra)
Featuring their best-known tracks including; “Love Song”, “Friday I’m In Love”, “Never Enough”, “Mint Car” and many more.

Danzig – Black Laden Crown LP (Nuclear Blast)
 Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Following on his historic reunion with the classic Misfits lineup attended by record numbers at last year’s Riot Fest in Denver and Chicago as well as the recent confirmation of a headlining set at this year’s Blackest Of The Black festival, Glenn Danzig releases his first Danzig album of all new material since 2010’s widely acclaimed Deth Red Sabaoth. In a 2015 interview with Noisey, Glenn Danzig was asked what it is that keeps him coming back to the creative well. He responded: “It’s so many different things. There’s always stuff to write about, but I think that the whole punk thing helped a lot. If it gets boring, change it, fix it, make it exciting, make it relevant again, and that’s what I did without sacrificing the music.”
Dave Matthews Band – Live At Red Rocks 8.15.95 4xLP (RCA)
First time vinyl edition.
 
Modern Baseball – MOBO Presents: The Perfect Cast EP featuring Modern Baseball [Reissue/2015] 12” (Lame-O)
Vinyl reissue of the second EP by the Philly pop punk/emo band.

of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? [Reissue/2009] LP+MP3 (Polyvinyl)
Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? is of Montreal’s landmark 2007 album. The album defined of Montreal’s career and continues to be hailed as a classic. Pitchfork called the album “Ceaselessly fascinating and inexhaustibly replayable,” honoring it with “Best New Music” and placing it in the Top 5 albums of 2007. It went on to become Polyvinyl’s all-time best selling album to date. For the 10-year anniversary of the release, Polyvinyl is proud to be issuing this updated vinyl version. [Cassette edition due July 7.]

Shakey Graves And The Horse He Rode In On – Nobody’s Fool & The Donor Blues EP 2×12”+MP3 (Dualtone)
 A double EP of B-sides and rarities from the Austin artist. 180gm clear vinyl pressing. Alejandro Rose-Garcia is professionally known as Shakey Graves. NPR Music named him one of 10 artists music fans “should’ve known in 2012,” describing him as “astonishing…unclassifiably original. And frighteningly good.” Paste included him in a “Best of What’s Next” feature, praising his “gnarly composite of blues and folk,” while The New York Times observed that Shakey Graves “makes the one-man band approach look effortless.”

Matthew Sweet – Tomorrow Forever LP (S. Matthew Sweet)
 Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Purely in terms of its guitar payload, Tomorrow Forever is a breathtaking Fourth of July fireworks show, with axes trading volleys from the left and right channels in old-school-stereo fashion, as Sweet breaks out a lineup of killer players, each sporting a distinct style, like a modern-day Moby Grape or Buffalo Springfield.

The Velvet Underground & Nico – The Velvet Underground & Nico (50th Anniversary) [Reissue/1967] LP (Polydor)
50th Anniversary Edition preserving iconic Andy Warhol-designed cover art, original gatefold cover, original back-cover torso photo which was altered after first pressing and replica black sticker used to obscure disputed image plus new vintage images and liner notes by John Cale and Richie Unterberge

NEXT WEEK’S NEW RELEASES

BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE – Hug Of Thunder CD/LP
HAIM – Something To Tell You CD
MEILVINS – Walk With Love and Death CD/LP
RADIOHEAD – OK Computer OKNOTOK CD/LP/Blue LP
ULRICH SCHNAUSS – No Further Ahead Than Today CD/LP
CHRIS BELL – Looking Foward: Roots of Big Star CD
TORO Y MOI – Boo Boo CD/LP
VIOLENT FEMMES – Two Mics CD/LP
ANTI-FLAG – Die For The Government CD/LP
BETH DITTO – Fake Sugar LP
OBEL AGNES – Philharmonics
STRFKR – Vault 2 LP
AHMAD JAMAL – Marseille CD/LP