Staff Picks
Dario – Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, The Weather Station

 

FOO FIGHTERS – Medicine At Midnight (RCA) CD/LP 
All initial orders come with a FREE slipmat! LP pressed on indie exclusive blue vinyl Medicine at Midnight is the new album from Foo Fighters, and packs nine new songs into a tight-ass 37 minutes. This collection includes the smoldering new single, “Shame Shame.” Medicine at Midnight is produced by Greg Kurstin and Foo Fighters, and is the band’s 10th album. Foo Fighters are Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Chris Shiflett, Pat Smear, and Rami Jaffee.

 

Vinyl is the limited edition silver version! The latest offering from the Weather Station, the project helmed by Canadian artist Tamara Lindeman, is a creeping, powerful meditation on all sorts of systemic social ills. Moving away from the Joni Mitchell-inspired folk of her previous albums, she embraces a sound more akin to the spacious and vaguely uneasy compositions of Talk Talk, allowing her music to more effectively take up big, billowing questions.

 

It’s tempting to think that you have all the answers, screaming your gospel every day with certainty and anger. Life isn’t quite like that though, and the debut album from London four-piece TV Priest instead embraces the beautiful and terrifying unknowns that exist personally, politically, and culturally. Posing as many questions as it answers, Uppers is a thunderous opening statement that continues the UK’s recent resurgence of grubby, furious post-punk music. Debut single “House Of York,” is a searing examination of the Monarchy set over wiry post-punk and fronted by a Mark E. Smith-like mouthpiece in Charlie Drinkwater, the coronavirus pandemic hit. Taking musical cues from post-punk stalwarts The Fall and Protomartyr as well as the mechanical, pulsating grooves of krautrock, it’s a record that moves with an untamed energy. Available on colored LOSER EDITION vinyl.

 

PSYCHEDELIC PORN CRUMPETS – Shyga! The Sunlight Mound CD/LP
Vinyl on indie exclusive splatter vinyl
Psychedelic Porn Crumpets continue to assert their status as one of Australia’s hardest working bands – pandemic be damned – in announcing the release of their new album, SHYGA! The Sunlight Mound. For the Perth group, creativity and production hasn’t stopped in 2020. Despite much of this year’s tour plans being put on pause, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets have used their time off road to continue preparing themselves for the release of their fourth studio release, and an eventual blistering return to stages around the world with a heavy-hitter of an album primed for the live space.

 

BLACK COUNTRY, NEW ROAD – For The First Time (Ninja Tune) CD/LP
For The First Time is the highly anticipated, debut album from Black Country, New Road – a new UK based seven-piece, who have gained huge tastemaker press and radio support in the UK, US and internationally including NPR, KEXP, WFUV, The Fader, The Guardian, Loud & Quiet and more, off the back of just two singles releases in 2019. They are the latest stars from the famed Brixton Windmill scene – other acts from this scene include black midi, Squid, Fat White Family and Shame. Recorded with Andy Savours (My Bloody Valentine), the album is the perfect capturing of a new band and all the energy, ferocity and explosive charge that comes with that.

DEAN & BRITTANeon Lights (Double Feature) LP
Dean & Britta cover Kraftwerk’s “Neon Lights” — EP contains the original mix and three additional remixes by Holy Shit.

 

PEEL DREAM MAGAZINE – Moral Panics (Slumberland) LP 
Yellow Vinyl. NYC’s Peel Dream Magazine dazzled listeners with their recent release “Agitprop Alterna, a smart album that draws from a wide set of post-punk, shoegaze and indiepop influences but still has an assured, unique sound. Now they’re following up with Moral Panics, a companion EP that features unreleased songs from the Agitprop Alterna sessions. Far from being outtakes, these are all songs that stand strong on their own, and gathered together function as a useful corollary to the album. Songs like “New Culture,” “Verfremdungseffekt” and “Life At The Movies” continue Peel Dream’s investigations into those fraught areas where art, culture and commerce meet. Bristling with both ideas and solid tunes, the EP as a whole comprises a crucial piece of the band’s discography. Due to customer demand we are now making available a vinyl edition of this EP, pressed on yellow vinyl and including two songs not on the digital release.

 

TYLER THE CREATOR & PROPHET – Peach Fuzz (Stones Throw) 10″ Picture Disc
Limited 10 inch shaped picture disc vinyl pressing. Tyler the Creator first came onto our radar circa 2009-2010 when he was a regular on the old Stones Throw Message Board posting music under the name Wolf Haley. Tyler got to know Stones Throw artist James Pants around the same time. Fast forward a bunch of years later and Tyler hears a James Pants mixtape featuring Prophet’s “Wanna Be Your Man” from an album we were about to release. Tyler got his hands on the instrumental version (produced by Prophet, Mndsgn, and Swarvy) and created “Peach Fuzz.” This record contains Tyler’s version on Side A, Prophet’s original on Side B.

JOHN CARPENTER – Lost Themes III: Alive After Death (Sacred Bones) LP

Indie exclusive red vinyl. Much has changed in the musical life of renowned composer and director John Carpenter since 2016’s Lost Themes II. Following the release of that album, he went on his first-ever concert tour, performing material from the Lost Themes albums, as well as music from his classic film scores. He re-recorded many of those classic movie themes for 2017’s Anthology album, working alongside son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies. The following year, he was asked to executive produce and compose the music for the new Halloween movie directed by David Gordon Green, which promptly became the highest-grossing install- ment in the series. Now, he returns with his first album of non-soundtrack music in nearly five years, Lost Themes IIIAlive After Death. Underpinning Carpenter’s renaissance as a musician has been his collaboration with Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies. They’ve composed and performed as a trio throughout this entire run, on studio albums, on soundtracks, and onstage. Here, the trio reaches a new level of creative mind meld. Richly rendered worlds are built in the interplay between Davies’s guitar and the dueling synthesizers played by the Carpenters.

 

COMING NEXT WEEK….!
STILL CORNERS – Last Exit CD
VARIOUS ARTISTS – Cuba: Music + Revolution: Culture Clash CD/LP
CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH – New Fragility CD/LP
LILYS – Brief History Of Amazing Let Downs LP
MILK CARTON KIDS – Live From The Lincoln Theatre LP
BAILTER SPACE – Wammo LP
GOAT GIRL – On All Fours LP
CAROLE KING – Tapestry LP 50th Anniversary Reissue
CLAUD – Super Monster CD/LP