STAFF PICKS
Kimber – The Telescopes
Lindsay – Beirut, Cherry Glazerr
Dario – Beirut
Paula – Mandolin Orange, Beirut

JUST ANNOUNCED PRE-ORDERS

Iron & Wine – Our Endless Numbered Days (pre-order)
The Mountain Goats – In League With Dragons (pre-order)
Better Oblivion Community Center – ST (pre-order)
Panda Bear – Buoys (pre-order)
Jenny Lewis – On The Line (pre-order)
Xiu Xiu – Girl With The Basket Of Fruit (pre-order)
Ty Segall – Deforming Lobes (pre-order)
Pinegrove – Skylight (pre-order)
Homeshake – Helium (pre-order)
John Carpenter – Halloween OST (pre-order)

THIS WEEK’S NEW RELEASES

Boy Harsher – Careful CD/LP (Nude Club)
Boy Harsher’s second full-length album, Careful, further develops the band’s brooding dance style, set up in their previous EP Country Girl. The ten songs, spanning forty-four minutes, contain eerie narrative soundscapes that are bracing, high tempo and dynamic. The album delivers manifold emotions, from the nostalgic yearning of “LA” to the gripping intensity of “Come Closer”. The nervousness of Augustus Muller’s bent, out of tune synths paired with the lush and sometimes brittle vocals of Jae Matthews, delivers an unsettled, yet fulfilling encounter with Boy Harsher. Careful summons a new spirit for the young band – that of growth and desire.

Ex:Re – Ex:Re CD/LP (Glassnote/4AD)
New solo recordings from Elena Tonra from Daughter. Running parallel to Daughter, she’s assumed the pseudonym Ex:Re (pronounced ex ray) for her eponymously-titled debut solo album, a deeply personal record that was made with both a sense of urgency and a cathartic need. Tonra’s candid solo songs document the time after a relationship ended and are written like unsent letters to herself and others. Taking on a creative moniker, she chose Ex:Re to mean ‘regarding ex’ and also ‘X-Ray’ as a way to look inside and see what is really there. Elena said of the album, “Although the record is written for someone, a lot of the time it’s about the space without that person in it. In every scenario, there’s either the person in memory or the noticeable absence of that person in the present moment. I suppose it is a break-up record, however I do not talk about the relationship at all, and he hardly features in the scenes. He is only felt as a ghostly presence.”

Girlpool – What Chaos Is Imaginary CD/LP (ANTI-)
With their powerful harmonies and imaginative songwriting in full force, Los Angeles, CA duo Girlpool (Harmonoy Tividad and Cleo Tucker) makes new creative leaps with their new album, What Chaos Is Imaginary. Combining elements of shoegaze, folk, and ‘80s postpunk with their own melodic gifts, these two great songwriters come up with a modern classic full of great tunes and sonic surprises. NPR has already praised the songs saying, “Girlpool’s full-band transformation has illuminated its raw sound in deep and unexpected ways.” Lead single “Hire” is a great example of the band’s constant evolution and maturation.

Mandolin Orange – Tides Of A Teardrop (First Edition) CD/2xLP (Yep Roc)
North Carolina-based singer-songwriter Andrew Marlin and multi-instrumentalist Emily Frantz, aka Mandolin Orange, release their first new music since 2016. Tides Of A Teardrop finds Mandolin Orange exploring the intimate grief at the frayed edges of their songwriting and confronting loss head-on, facing down the depths of despair and emerging with something renewed and redemptive. It’s a progressive, personal statement from one of roots music’s most thoughtful young groups. On the self-produced set, their slow-burning acoustic meditations on love and loss are belied by a newfound directness as Marlin tackles the death of his mother, who died when he was 18. Marlin’s songwriting voice emerges clearer than ever throughout; whether it’s the trilling, weighty atmosphere of the allegorical “Wolves” or the Appalachian yearning of the hymn-like “Suspended In Heaven”, Marlin and Frantz’s vocal and instrumental interplay is as dialed in as ever, the instinctual expression of deeply known but unspoken truths.

Beirut – Gallipoli CD/LP+MP3 (4AD)
Beirut’s fifth album, Gallipoli, started life when Zach Condon returned to his old Farfisa organ, the same one he used to write his first two albums, Gulag Orkestar (2006) and The Flying Club Cup (2007). After stints writing and recording in both New York and Berlin, with time for Zach to recover from a broken arm factored in, band plus producer Gabe Wax (Speedy Ortiz, Soccer Mommy, Adrianne Lenker/Big Thief) headed to Puglia in Italy to finish the album. With the remote rural setting “the right amount of isolated”, an intense month of 12 to 16-hour days in the studio with day trips around the coastline followed. Inspired by the surroundings, Gallipoli is unintentionally more visceral than Beirut’s more recent albums, alive with an energy that is further enhanced by every creak and groan of their instruments, every detuned note, and all amp buzz and technical malfunction being left in the cracks of the songs.

Blockhead – Free Sweatpants CD (Backwoodz Studioz)
A mixtape-esque album that pairs Blockhead’s narrative-driven solo aesthetic with a team of rappers that thrive in Blockhead’s layered, melodic sound. Aesop Rock, Tree, Breezly Brewin, Open Mike Eagle, Homeboy Sandman, Armand Hammer, Vic Spencer, Hemlock Ernst, MarQ Spekt, and Billy Woods round out the guest list.

Cherry Glazerr – Stuffed & Ready CD/LP/Cassette (Secretly Canadian)
After releasing 2016’s critically acclaimed Apocalipstick, Cherry Glazerr spent the next 18 months touring the world on their own steam. Between DIY all-ages venues, rock clubs, large festival stages, and massive theaters with some of the world’s best and most beloved bands (The Pixies, Flaming Lips, Slowdive, and The Breeders, among others), the band has really only stopped to work on their follow up, Stuffed & Ready. While furiously building the band’s sound and ideas, front person Clem Creevy enlisted Carlos de La Garza to be the band’s studio co-collaborator as they evolved the songs and refined the recordings.

DBUK – Songs Nine Through Sixteen CD/LP (SCAC Unincorporated)
DBUK consists of the four core members of Denver’s Slim Cessna’s Auto Club: Munly J Munly, Slim Cessna, Lord Dwight Pentacost and Rebecca Vera. SCAC have spent the last two decades honing a lethal mix of country blues, gospel shouting, rock & roll and folk, becoming one of the best-known, critically acclaimed bands to rise from the musical community that brought us 16 Horsepower and Wovenhand. DBUK exists on it’s own musical plane. On Songs Nine Through Sixteen, haunting, warped murder ballads come with a louche, anti-spiritual cast. Limerence and longing co-exist with casual cruelty in compositions that feature a remarkable amount of detail of the natural world; they often begin sparingly, building into an ecstatic reverberation of instruments and voices. Reverb and shake rattles abound, lending a spaghetti western vibe on songs written by Munly, whose dark humor fills the record lest anyone mistake the menace for malice.

Dead C – Rare Ravers CD/LP (Ba Da Bing)
Recently released on vinyl – now available on CD. 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 minuscule 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. The latest by The Dead C – Rare Ravers: it’s a long player.

Guided By Voices – Zeppelin Over China CD/LP (GBV Inc.)
Zeppelin Over China is a major and majestic work in the GBV canon, spotlighting the scope and genius of Robert Pollard’s songwriting as he continues to deliver endless invention and emotional wallop in two and three-minute guitar rock gems.

Rustin Man – Drift Code CD/LP (Domino)
New release from Paul Webb aka Rustin Man, former bass player in Talk Talk. Drift Code has a warm, wise kind of euphoria to it, coupled with an acute sense of storytelling and surreality.

The Telescopes – Exploding Head Syndrome CD/LP+CD (Tapete)
The 11th full-length from The Telescopes consists of eight songs and incantations that form a series of sonic convulsions stretching the parameters of intuitive composition to the point of auditory illusion. “A static haze of electronic distortion drifts in and out of lucidity to a sure propulsion of stone age repetition and heady bass vibrations, the momentum held on a thread of acoustic tension.”

The Cranes – Self-Non-Self LP (Music On Vinyl)
After releasing their first EP Fuse, Cranes expanded to a four-piece band and recorded Self-Non-Self. The increased textures and drum slams showing their improvements. The dark sounds are a combination of industrial and post-punk music. ‘One From The Slum’ is an instrumental piece and one of the highlights of this versatile record. Alison Shaw’s lonely voice is setting the tone on this breathtaking album. She’s singing with deeper tones on a track like the industrial ‘Focus Breathe’. The re-release bonus tracks include the live song ‘Reach’ and the rough and doomy ‘Nothing In The Middle, Nothing At The End’. Siblings Alison and Jim Shaw formed the band Cranes back in 1989. They recorded several successful albums.

Deer Tick – Mayonnaise LP+7” (PTKF)
“On Mayonnaise, you will find alternate versions of songs from Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 that we feel have their own merit and we wanted to share them with our fans. To add to this collection, we decided to record some of the cover songs that Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 inspired us to play along the Twice Is Nice Tour. We had such a good time playing these covers live that it felt appropriate to document them here. And, lastly, if we are going into the studio, why not write a few new songs, record them, and give the fans something new to round this whole collection out?”

NRBQ – Scraps [Reissue/1972] LP (Real Gone Music)
NRBQ – Workshop [Reissue/1973] LP (Real Gone Music)
The wildly eclectic New Rhythm & Blues Quintet, better known to its worldwide legion of adoring fans as NRBQ (or just the Q!), is the only band on the planet that can play rockabilly, bar-band blooze, Beatles sound-alikes and Sun Ra-style free jazz in the same set and remain standing.

Le Butcherettes – bi/MENTAL CD/LP (Rise Records)
You may not know who Le Butcherettes are or the name Teri Gender Bender but you should. Those who do have, know that Le Butcherettes is one of the most insane, unrestrained and ultimately ground-breaking bands of the 21st century, and it’s head (vocalist and lead guitarist) Teri Gender Bender is a visionary in the punk-rock genre who has collaborated with some of the greatest names in rock, such as Iggy Pop and John Frusciante. For the bands newest release bi/MENTAL they teamed up with legendary producer Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads and Modern Lovers fame. The final result is 13 innovative, infectious, and artistic rock songs that capture the passion and energy of Le Butcherettes live show while in a way that sounds both refreshing and modern.

P.O.S – Never Better [Reissue/2009] LP (Rhymesayers)
Originally released in February 2009, P.O.S’ third album, Never Better, was met with critical acclaim for its aggressive fusion of grinding beats and radical lyrics.

Warsaw – An Ideal For Living – The Demos LP (Lively Youth)
Before there was Joy Division, there was Warsaw. The group was founded after a 1976 Sex Pistols gig, and the late great Ian Curtis joined the group soon after. By their first official gig, in 1977, they were already the talk of NME and a rush to sign and record led the group to RCA. Recording in Manchester’s Arrow Studios in May 1978 brought a full album’s worth of songs but the band ultimately didn’t like the direction of the production and asked to be released from their contract. Here is that mythical unreleased album along with the earliest demos from the group, recorded in 1977.

NEXT WEEK’S NEW RELEASES
HEALTH – Vol 4: Slaves of Fear CD/LP
JESSICA PRATT – Quiet Songs CD/LP
BOB MOULD – Sunshine Rock CD/LP
LCD SOUNDSYSTEM – Electric Lady Sessions LP
PRINCE – 3121 CD/LP
PRINCE – Musicology CD/LP
PRINCE – Planet Earth CD/LP
FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY – Wake Up The Coma CD/LP
GALACTIC – Already Read Already CD/LP
CASS MCCOMBS – Tip Of The Sphere CD/LP
MERCURY REV – Bobbie Gentry’s The Delta Sweetie Revisited CD/LP
PANDA BEAR – Buoys CD/LP
YAK – Pursuit of Momentary Happiness CD/LP
MAVIS STAPLES – Live In London CD/LP
BAND OF HORSES – Acoustic At The Ryman LP
MICHAEL CHAPMAN – True North CD/LP
JOSEF VAN WISSEM + JIM JARMUSCH – An Attempt To Draw Aside The Veil CD/LP
JOHN CARPENTER – Halloween Soundtrack LP
SAID THE WHALE – Cascadio LP
SOUL ASYLUM – Clam Dip and Other Delights LP
SOUL ASYLUM – Made To Be Broken LP
SOUL ASYLUM – Say What You Will… LP
SOUL ASYUM – Twin/Tone Extras LP
SOUL ASYLUM – While You Were Out LP
TWIN PEAKS – Sweet 17 Singles LP