STAFF PICKS

Kimber – Khruangbin
Lindsay – Pottery, Becca Mancari
Dario – Art Feynman, Becca Mancari, Woods
Eric – Redd Kross

Visit our webstore to purchase these titles plus pre-order future releases. If there’s anything you don’t see, give us a ring! 602-248-9461

THIS WEEK’S NEW RELEASES

KhruangbinMordechai CD/LP (Dead Oceans)
Khruangbin has always been multilingual, weaving far-flung musical languages like East Asian surf-rock, Persian funk, and Jamaican dub into mellifluous harmony. But on their third album, it’s finally speaking out loud. Mordechai features vocals prominently on nearly every song, a first for the mostly instrumental band. It’s a shift that rewards the risk, reorienting Khruangbin’s transportive sound toward a new sense of emotional directness, without losing the spirit of nomadic wandering that’s always defined it. And it all started with them coming home.

Post MaloneHollywood’s Bleeding 2xLP (Republic)
Double pink colored vinyl pressing. Post Malone stirs a mix of genres into his own sonic sound that’s both intoxicating and invigorating.

WoodsStrange To Explain CD/LP (Woodsist)
Dreaming doesn’t come easy these shadowed days, which is why Strange To Explain by Woods is such a welcome turning of new colors. It presents an extended moment of sweet reflection for the 15-year-old band, bouncing back to earth as something hopeful and weird and resolute. Like everything else they’ve recorded, it sounds exactly like themselves, but with subtly different shades and breaths and rhythmic feels and everything else that changes, the natural march of time and the intentional decisions of the musicians moving in what feels like an uncommonly organic alignment. [Limited colored vinyl pressing also available.]

Art FeynmanHalf Price At 3:30 LP (Western Vinyl)
Art Feynman (aka accomplished recording artist and producer Luke Temple) stitches art pop, Nigerian highlife, worldbeat, and other lesser-known genres into a musical quilt that displays his unmistakable guile and eccentric songcraft. On his sophomore album Half Price at 3:30 he delivers songs that side-smile while pointing out the emotional sinkholes that whirl beneath the most overlooked, seemingly commonplace scenarios. As effortlessly as he inhabits his Art Feynman character he also slips into the lives of other personalities, both living and fictional. Where previous entries in the Luke Temple discography– including his well-liked former group Here We Go Magic– have utilized organic timbres even while sailing far from the guitar-and-drums shore, Half Price sees him employing drum machines, slightly glossier production, and even autotune with a tasteful balance that suggests these tools have been in his kit all along. The result affectionately evokes guerrilla recording predecessors like Francis Bebey, Arthur Russell, and Haruomi Hosono in musicological detail, yet it’s Temple’s hard-won creative voice that resounds over top of it all facing Half Price forward instead of nostalgically backward.

Ray LaMontagneMonovision CD/LP (RCA)
The eighth studio album from singer/songwriter, sees Ray not only writing and producing the album once again but also includes added duties of engineering as well as performing all the instruments for the tracks.

Pottery – Welcome To Bobby’s Motel CD/LP+MP3 (Partisan)

The 11 songs on Welcome To Bobby’s Motel don’t just invite you to move your body; they command you to. Fusing reckless, manic energy with painstaking precision, the record is part post-punk, part art-pop, and part dance floor acid trip, hinting at everything from Devo to Gang of Four as it boldly careens through genres and decades. The music is driven by explosive drums and off-kilter guitar riffs that drill themselves into your brain, accented with deep, funky grooves and rousing gang vocals. The production is similarly raw and wild, suggesting an air of anarchy that belies the music’s careful architecture and meticulous construction. The result is an album full of ambitious, complex performances that exude joy and mayhem in equal measure, a collection that’s alternately virtuosic, chaotic, and pure fun. [Limited colored vinyl pressing also available.]

Haim – Women In Music Pt. III CD/2xLP/Cassette (Sony)
Following their 2017 release, Something To Tell You, Haim’s third full-length record, Women In Music Pt. III, was produced by bandmember Danielle Haim, Rostam Batmanglij (Vampire Weekend, Discovery), and Ariel Rechtshaid (Vampire Weekend, Adele, Madonna). It indicates a new personal and poppier direction for the sibling trio, from the sweet “Summer Girl” to the emotional heft of “Hallelujah”.

Elbow – Live At The Ritz – An Acoustic Performance CD/LP (Verve)

In the week that their eighth studio album, Giants Of All Sizes, became their third consecutive UK #1 album, Elbow played a series of special acoustic shows for select audiences in Leeds, Kingston and Manchester. Combining tracks from the new album with songs from their extensive and ever growing back catalog, the shows offered fans a rare opportunity to see Elbow in small venues, with the recordings emphasizing the special bond that exists between the band and their fanbase.

Becca Mancari – The Greatest Part CD/LP (Captured Tracks)
Expanding beyond the homespun rootsiness of her critically acclaimed debut to incorporate a grittier, more experimental palette, Becca Mancari’s captivating new collection, The Greatest Part, lives in a liminal space between grief and joy, pain and forgiveness, sorrow and liberation. The record, produced by Paramore drummer Zac Farro, marks a significant sonic and emotional evolution, balancing unflinching self-examination with intoxicating grooves and infectious instrumental hooks fueled by explosive percussion and fuzzed out guitars. [Limited coke bottle clear vinyl pressing also available.]

Corb Lund – Agricultural Tragic CD/LP (New West)
Corb Lund embraces his rich and rustic western heritage with a style that’s unique, honest and resolute, while touching on a range of cowboy themes – from rough-and-tumble tales of lawless frontier saloons, to the somber realities of running a modern family ranch. As a descendant of many generations of rodeo contestants and ranchers, he sings about a life that he and his ancestors have lived themselves, paired with his quick-witted, wry observations of today’s world. As a result of his heritage and the ten years he spent touring the world with his indie rock band, Corb’s writing resonates emphatically with rural and urban audiences alike. It’s a classic sound with a twist, something of a rarity these days, but one that evokes the spirit of the American West, past and present. Lund’s eleventh studio album, Agricultural Tragic, finally puts a name to the genre he’s been embodying all of these years. [Limited edition indie store exclusive clear vinyl pressing also available.]
Indigo Girls – Look Long CD/2xLP (Rounder)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Their first new studio album in five years, Look Long is a testament to the Indigo Girls’ storied 40-year career. Produced by John Reynolds at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studio in England, the album features 11 brand new tracks, all written by the pair. Among the many highlights are “Country Radio” and Reynolds’ arrangement of a recent live staple, “Howl At the Moon”. “It’s something I always do with my daughter, when we’re out in the woods,” says Amy. “I did it with my friends, when we were kids. It means you’re happy, you’re free. Explore the irreverent, but also honor the things that you should. Don’t be afraid.” In the song “Feel This Way”, Emily is singing to her younger self. She adds, “Enjoy everything, suck it all up now.”
Bloodshot Bill – Get Loose Or Get Lost CD/LP (Goner)
For nearly twenty years, Bloodshot Bill has shouted, snorted, cooed and crooned his way through the wild shadowland of primitive rock and roll, touring the world and collaborated with heavyweights like Jon Spencer, King Khan, the 5678’s and Deke Dickerson. 17 albums and over two-dozen singles later, this unstoppable Montrealeño has not slowed his manic touring and recording schedule one whit. He’s a seminal punk, a true wildman who blazes his own path to honky tonk hell with a bottomless repertoire of desperate rock and roll and insatiable R&B.

Caustic Wound – Death Posture CD/LP (Profound Lore)
Pacific Northwest’s Caustic Wound (featuring members of Mortiferum, Cerebral Rot, Fetid, and Magrudergrind) play unrelenting and punishing brutal death-grind that captures the aesthetic and palpitations of the classic old-school era of the genre (not exceeding 1992 of course). Their debut album, Death Posture, which follows their 2018 Grinding Terror demo, sounds like a foul relic that could have been produced in ’88-91, while upholding a powerful, dark, murky yet unyielding production.

Gordi – Our Two Skins CD/LP (Jagjaguwar)
Written in 20 anxious minutes during a lonely plane-ride to an isolated six weeks in Europe, Sophie Payten – the Australian musician known as Gordi – penned “Aeroplane Bathroom”, the Our Two Skins opening track. “It’s like all the adrenaline of the last two months just dropped away and I had a nervous breakdown,” says Payten, “thinking about all these big changes and entering a relationship with a woman. I was seeing my life that I thought was evolving in one direction is now evolving in this other direction.” The song and record open with a question: “Do you see yourself unravelling?” Our Two Skins, Gordi’s sophomore full-length album, chronicles the intense and impossible time Payten spent renegotiating who she is and how she fits in the world, particularly against the backdrop of Australia’s marriage equality vote – something that previously had not personally impacted Payten – and her Catholic upbringing. “It was a devastating way to fall in love with somebody,” she reflects. [Limited colored vinyl pressing also available.]

Prof – Powderhorn Suites CD/2xLP (Rhymesayers)
Prof is determined to grab the world’s attention, but it’s his artistic range that holds onto it. On Powderhorn Suites, Prof proves masterful at incorporating many different personas, styles, and deliveries into his music. With apparent ease, he vacillates between rapping and singing, between humor and drama, between joy and anger. [Limited gold colored vinyl pressing also available.]

Redd Kross – Redd Cross CD/LP+MP3 (Merge)
This special 40th anniversary edition of the Red Cross EP, which includes the band’s six-song eponymous debut and adds five contemporaneous extra tracks, is the most comprehensive document to date of the extraordinary birth of Redd Kross. Redd Kross incubated alongside such SoCal luminaries as Black Flag, Descendents, and the Minutemen, and this new 11-song collection-which includes rare and unreleased demos plus a live track recorded in 1979 at The Church, the infamous Black Flag birthplace in Hermosa Beach, CA-puts in proper perspective the McDonald brothers’ contribution, at the ridiculously precocious ages of 12 and 16, to that area’s punk scene.

Jessie Ware –What’s Your Pleasure? CD/LP (Interscope)

What’s Your Pleasure? is the fourth album from Jessie Ware. The recording process was a transformative period for Ware and the album sees the influential artist reconnect with her roots, entirely on her own terms. At its core, the album explores themes of femininity, freedom of imagination and escapism.

Active ChildIn Another Life LP (Masterworks)
Third full-length album from singer, songwriter, and producer.

Archers Of Loaf – Talking Over Talk b/w Cruel Reminder 7”+MP3 (Merge)
“North Carolina indie rock greats Archers of Loaf should have a new record on the way sometime soon, hopefully, and while we wait for details, here’s a new song, ‘Talking Over Talk’, that’s set to slow simmer and makes good use of Eric Bachmann’s smoky pipes.” – Brooklyn Vegan

Blanck Mass – Black Mass [Reissue/2011] LP (Sacred Bone)
Colored vinyl reissue of the debut album from John Power (Fuck Buttons). His eponymous debut album is a collection of tracks loosely themed around cere- bral hypoxia and the beautiful complexity of the natural world.
Ringo Deathstarr – Ringo Deathstarr LP (Levitation)
Austin, TX shoegaze legends Ringo Deathstarr are back with album number five, 13 tracks of soaring guitar daydreams, misty musings and blissful noise. Titled simply Ringo Deathstarr, the record comes almost five years after their acclaimed 2015 Pure Mood but picks up right where they left off.
Tobacco – Hungry Eyes 7”+MP3 (Ghostly Int’l)
Tobacco’s take on the Eric Carmen song (written by Franke Previte and John DeNicola) obscures its sentimentality, mucking up the desire of the Dirty Dancing classic while honoring its strange and timeless mystique. Pop melodies and structure intact, the Tobacco treatment is textural: all blown-out bass, analog synths, and drum machine chugging beneath Fec’s unmistakable analog gurgle and hiss.
Wooden Shjips – Back To Land [Reissue/2013] LP+MP3 (Thrill Jockey)
Clear with copper colored vinyl pressing. Wooden Shjips rise to prominence from the psychedelic underground to the rock and roll overground has been a steady sojourn. With each consecutive release, the band has found new ways of transforming heady psychedelic rock into minimalist masterpieces, bridging the gap between the woozy freeness of Les Rallizes Denudes and Crazy Horse and the tightly wound simplicity of Suicide and the Velvet Underground.

 

COMING NEXT WEEK

SPARKSSteady Drip Drip Drip CD/LP
DAVID DONDEROTransient LP
UNWED SAILORLook Alive LP
WILLIE NELSONFirst Rose Of Spring CD/LP
CHARLATANS UKBetween 10th + 11th CD/LP
EMPRESS OFI Am Your Empress Of CD/LP
DIRTY PROJECTORSWindows Open LP
LITHICSTower of Age CD/LP
PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA – S/T LP reissue