Staff Picks
Kimber – Nick Cave
Lindsay – War on Drugs, Nick Cave
Dario – Dirty Projectors
Eric – King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard, Gwar

The War On Drugs – Live Drugs CD/LP (Super High Quality)
Culled from over 40 hard drives of recorded live shows spread out across years of touring behind multiple critically acclaimed records, Live Drugs is a document showcasing the evolution of the band’s live show over the years. Additionally, Live Drugs is a portrait of the enduring relationship between Adam Granduciel and Dominic East. A longtime friend, guitar tech and stage manager, East is Live Drugs’ co-producer and the presence Granduciel credits as holding everything together. Inspired to finally finish with fresh ears, Granduciel and East poured through the vaults of live multi-tracks, sending final selections for mixing to Jonathan Low at Aaron Dessner’s Long Pond Studio. Sequenced to reflect how a typical 70-minute set would flow, Live Drugs thrives on live set staples immortalized on record for the first time. [A limited indie store exclusive colored vinyl pressing is available.]

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds – Idiot Prayer: Nick Cave Alone At Alexandria Palace 2xCD/2xLP (AWAL)
Idiot Prayer: Nick Cave Alone At Alexandra Palace is a live album by musician Nick Cave. It was filmed by cinematographer Robbie Ryan and live streamed across three different time zones on July 23rd, 2020 and features Cave performing solo on piano at Alexandra Palace in London. Idiot Prayer serves as the final film in a trilogy-along with 20,000 Days On Earth (2014) and One More Time With Feeling (2016) and was described by Cave as “it’s luminous and heartfelt climax.” The set features songs (including rare tracks) from across the breadth of Cave’s career, including early Bad Seeds and Grinderman, right through to the most recent Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds album, Ghosteen.

Dirty Projectors – 5EPS CD/2xLP+MP3 (Domino)
The newest chapter for Dirty Projectors is a sequence of five four-song EPs. Each EP features lead vocals by a different band member including Maia Friedman, Felicia Douglass, Kristin Silpp and Dave Longstreth. The final EP features vocals by all members. Each song collection is strikingly different from the next, but true to itself: Maia’s Window Opens is acoustic and folky; Felicia’s Flight Tower is super future, both soulful and electronic. Kristin’s Earth Crisis is cut-up orchestral collage – looped, pitch-shifted, and digitally deconstructed – and Dave’s Super Joao is four-track bossa nova. Ring Road, the final EP, recapitulates everything with a classic full-band Dirty Projects sound.

Eels – Earth To Dora LP (PIAS America)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. “Mark ‘E’ Everett’s 13th album under his melancholic indie moniker is a life-worn collection that charts the rise and fall of a relationship, exuding fragile hope. Revisiting the fertile emotional ground of Eels’ earliest albums, where naive simplicity met life-worn melancholy, Earth To Dora is structured to trace the rise and fall of a relationship (but not, E has been at pains to point out, as an open diary of his recent, short-lived marriage). All of which makes for Eels’ most complete and self-contained record, arguably the epitome of their oeuvre and a record that places E – in his own gruff, xylophone-toting way –alongside the great downtrodden romantics: Cohen; Rufus Wainwright; Stephin Merritt of Magnetic Fields; Nick Cave. Just the sort of bullheaded optimism we need, in fact, to see us through the cold winter ahead.” – NME

King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard – Live In San Francisco ’16 2xLP (ATO)
Just under a month after delivering their award-winning 2016 album Nonagon Infinity, King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard took the stage at San Francisco’s The Independent for a set both wildly frenetic and meticulously executed. In one of their final club gigs before bursting onto the international scene – soon selling out amphitheaters and headlining festivals – the Melbourne septet laid down a breakneck performance that, in the words of SF Weekly, “made every organ ache just right.” Multi-tracked and impeccably mixed, Live in San Francisco ’16 simultaneously channels the massive energy of King Gizzard’s set while echoing the sweaty intimacy of the 500-capacity venue. The set captures an extraordinary moment in the band’s increasingly storied history, a 13-song spectacular likely to leave every listener awestruck and adrenalized. [A deluxe colored vinyl pressing housed in a mirror board jacket is also available. CD edition due December 4.]

Leo Kottke & Mike Gordon – Noon CD/LP (ATO)
The unlikely partnership between acoustic guitar pioneer Leo Kottke and Phish bassist Mike Gordon continues with the long-awaited Noon, their first new album in fifteen years. Couching late-night melancholy in a summer lilt, Noon features eleven tracks of warmly askew songs and intricate playing – and the intimate third voice created by Kottke and Gordon, two of the most accomplished and idiosyncratic instrumentalists in American music. Noon is the pair’s third collaborative LP following 2005’s Sixty Six Steps and 2002’s Clone. [Limited gold & red colored vinyl pressing also available.]

Dave Alvin – From An Old Guitar: Rare And Unreleased Recordings CD (Yep Roc)
This 16-song collection features studio performances that Dave Alvin recorded over the years for his own albums or for tribute albums but mainly they’re just things he did for the pure kicks of playing music he loves with musicians he loves and admires. The songs range from some originals to interpretations of compositions by dear friends like Peter David Case, Chris Smither and the late Bill Morrissey to tunes written by heroes like Willie Dixon, Bob Dylan, Lil Hardin Armstrong, Earl Hooker and Marty Robbins. The music ranges from acoustic blues and ballads to electric barroom blues, folk/rock and even a little country/rock. [Vinyl edition due December 18].

The Cribs – Night Network CD/LP (Sonic Blew)
Featuring three brothers, Yorkshire, England’s The Cribs are back and on blistering form, brandishing their brand-new eighth album, Night Network; a unique blend of bittersweet melody, brutal lyrical honesty and riffs for days. [Limited clear blue colored vinyl pressing also available.]

Kamaal Williams – Wu Hen CD/LP+MP3 (Warp)
Wu Hen is the sophomore album from Peckham visionary Kamaal Williams an invitation to elevate to a higher state. Cinematic strings from Miguel-Atwood Ferguson and virtuoso saxophone from Quinn Mason are textural additions that make for a deeper, multi-layered experience than previous releases. Bringing groove back to the forefront, Wu Hen oscillates between celestial jazz, funk, rap and R&B reinforced with the rugged beat-heavy attitude of grime, jungle, house and garage – a self-styled fusion Kamaal describes as Wu Funk. [Limited colored vinyl pressing also available.]

Coldplay – Parachutes [Reissue/2000] LP (Parlophone)
Limited yellow colored vinyl reissue of Coldplay’s double-platinum debut featuring the hit single “Yellow”.

Drive-By Truckers ‎– Decoration Day [Reissue/2003] LP (Yep Roc)
Drive-By Truckers ‎– The Dirty South [Reissue/2004] LP (Yep Roc)
Drive-By Truckers ‎– A Blessing And A Curse [Reissue/2006] LP (Yep Roc)
Drive-By Truckers ‎– Brighter Than Creation’s Dark [Reissue/2008] LP (Yep Roc)
Drive-By Truckers ‎– The Fine Print (A Collection Of Oddities And Rarities) 2003-2008 [Reissue/2009] 2xLP (Yep Roc)
Limited colored vinyl pressings.

Groove Armada – Edge Of The Horizon 2xLP (BMG)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. It’s been ten years since Groove Armada released their landmark album Black Light. They’ve been active in recent years – DJ sets, select live shows and the Twenty One Years compilation – yet the prospect of a new album seemed unlikely. That all changed when they stepped out at the Boomtown Festival and saw the reaction from long-term fans and newcomers alike. “We walked on stage to a young crowd, there were 40,000 people there,” notes Cato. “We had the most amazing Hollywood Bowl type view from the stage and it just felt so fresh and relevant.” Their creative reconnection resulted in new album, Edge Of The Horizon.

Gwar – Scumdogs Of The Universe [Reissue/1990] LP/Cassette (Pit)
Recently released on CD — red marble colored vinyl pressing and cassette editions are now available. It has been thirty Earth “years” since the lords and masters Gwar released what many consider to be the band’s career-defining album, Scumdogs Of The Universe. In celebration of this momentous occasion, Gwar are pleased as piss to unveil this 30th anniversary remastered reissue.

New Order – Be A Rebel 12”+MP3 (Mute)
The first brand-new music from New Order since the release of the critically acclaimed album Music Complete In 2015. Includes remixes from the band’s own Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris. [Limited grey colored vinyl pressing also available.]

Rilo Kiley – Rilo Kiley [Reissue/1999] LP (Little Record Co.)
For the first time on vinyl, Rilo Kiley’s rare original self-released record from 1999. Originally only a homemade CD and only sold at shows, this release features the same artwork in a gatefold package.

COMING NEXT WEEK….!
BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG – No Fun Mondays CD/LP
SMASHING PUMPKINS – Cyr CD/LP
DANIEL AVERY – Love + Light CD/LP
BIRD AND THE BEE – Self-Titled LP
SECRET MACHINES – Aware In The Brain Chamber CD/LP
COIL – Musick To Play In The Dark CD/LP
HOLD STEADY – Heaven Is Whenever LP reissue
PHISH – Sigma Oasis LP
ORVILLE PECK – Show Pony LP0