Available on black vinyl, colored vinyl, CD and cassette! Describing their first three albums as a trilogy that is now complete, Meath and Sanborn see No Rules Sandy as the beginning of a new period, with songs that are “wilder and stranger and more cathartic than the band used to be,” as Nick Sanborn puts it. “It feels like who we actually are,” Amelia Meath adds. “It just feels like us. We’re not trying to fit into the mold, just happily being our freak selves.”

MAC DEMARCO – Five Easy Hot Dogs CD (Mac’s Record Label)
Mac DeMarco’s new instrumental collection Five Easy Hot Dogs was created while traveling across North America, with each song named after the city in which it was recorded. The tracklist is sequenced in the chronological order in which the songs were produced. DeMarco set out on his journey to make Five Easy Hot Dogs in January 2022 with the plan to stay and record in motels, hotels, or people’s houses. “The nature of ripping around and recording and traveling in this manner doesn’t lend well to sitting around and planning or thinking about what it was that I was setting out to do,” DeMarco said. “I didn’t ever have a sound in mind, or a theme or anything, I would just start recording. Luckily the collection of recordings from this period all shake hands, they have a present musical identity as a whole. I was in it while I was in it, and this is what came out of it, just the way it was.” Five Easy Hot Dogs follows-up 2019’s Here Comes The Cowboy. [Vinyl edition due May 12.]

Available on black vinyl, colored vinyl and CD. The dynamic Chicago rock band Wilco return with their 12th studio album, the first of its kind. Cruel Country is the band’s exploration of the genre they’ve often been defined by but, until now, never fully embraced. The double album features 21 Jeff Tweedy-penned tracks, made almost entirely of live takes, created with all six members together in The Loft for the first time since the 2011 release The Whole Love.

GUIDED BY VOICES – La La Land CD/LP (GBV Inc)

La La Land doubles down on the intricate proggy-pop displayed on Guided by Voices’s last album Tremblers And Goggles By Rank. On a hot streak of critical acclaim, Robert Pollard continues expanding his songwriting towards extremes of prettiness, heaviness and poeticism. As always, unforgettable hooks are everywhere. But with this latest, it seems Pollard is playing with the extremes of his abilities as a songwriter, emboldened by the power of this lineup now on their fourteenth album together since 2017.

ELLIOTT SMITH – Either/Or (Alternate Versions) 7″ (Kill Rock Stars)

This limited edition 7” features four alternate versions of some of Elliott Smith’s greatest songs. With distinct production, instrumentation, and vocals, the recordings found on Alternate Versions offer a new perspective on one of Smith’s most highly acclaimed albums, and separate them from the original cuts found on Either/Or. Limited Edition White Vinyl Edition!

LADYTRON – Time’s Arrow CD/LP (Cooking Vinyl)

Available on black vinyl, colored vinyl and CD. Beauty, disposability and fragility of the culture that surrounds us, and the exhilaration of freeing yourself from those structures… these are the themes Ladytron return to on Time’s Arrow, their seventh album. Driven by analog synths, distorted chimes and hallucinogenic soundscapes, Ladytron crash-landed into electroclash at the turn of the century, using the dancefloor as a bridgehead to the collective unconscious. On Time’s Arrow the group add new richness, distant shimmers and a shoegaze-adjacent glow with Helen Marnie and Mira Aroyo’s trademark understated voices now inhabiting a space somewhere between cloudscape and dream.

JOHN CALE – Mercy CD/LP (Domino)

What does John Cale have that the rest of us don’t-some gene that engenders infinite restlessness, a rapacious mind that is never satisfied? For nearly 60 years, or at least since he was a young Welshman who moved to New York and joined The Velvet Underground, Cale has been reinventing his music with dazzling and inspiring regularity. Once again, here is Cale, reimagining how his music is made, sounds, and even works. His engrossing 12-track MERCY-his first full album of new tunes in a decade-moves through true dark-night-of-the-soul electronic blues toward vulnerable love songs and hopeful considerations for the future with the help of some of music’s most curious young minds.

ELLA FITZGERALD –Live In Montreux 1969 CD/LP (Mercury Studios)
Live At Montreux 1969 finds The First Lady of Song expertly backed by the Tommy Flanagan Trio (Tommy Flanagan (piano), Frank de la Rosa (bass), and Ed Thigpen (drums)) and performing a stunning set that combines contemporary tracks, such as “Sunshine Of Your Love” and “Hey Jude” alongside such classics as “I Won’t Dance” and “That Old Black Magic” plus a scat medley.

GRANT GREEN – Green Is Beautiful [Reissue/1970] LP (Blue Note)

Grant Green’s musical style evolved to embrace jazz-funk as the decade turned to 1970. The guitarist’s vibrant album Green Is Beautiful is a highlight of the era. With his distinctive tone, he shines on a set that includes covers of James Brown (“Ain’t It Funky Now”), The Beatles (“A Day In The Life”) and Burt Bacharach (“I’ll Never Fall In Love Again”).

SKATALITES – Essential Artist Collection 2xCD/2xLP (Trojan)
During the early 1960’s, the sound of ska exploded upon Jamaica’s musical landscape, with the driving dynamic sound championed by arguably the greatest ensemble of musicians ever to have performed and recorded on the island. Fronted by legendary saxophonist Tommy McCook, The Skatalites also comprised a veritable who’s who of Kingston-based performers, their number including trombonist Don Drummond, tenor saxman Roland Alphonso, drumming supremo Lloyd Knibb and keyboard prodigy Jackie Mittoo.

KMFDM – HYËNA LP (Metropolis)
Released last September on CD – now available on vinyl. KMFDM’s new album HYËNA is a maniacal laugh in the face of maniacs who assume control, desperately trying to convince you that what you see, what you hear, what you read is not real – don’t you believe it. Nearly four decades on, KMFDM continues to keep it real for you as HYËNA proves to be among the group’s leanest and meanest efforts, feeding fuel to the fury.

B52’s – Whammy LP (Rhino)

40th Anniversary edition. Reissued on limited, colored vinyl .

POWER TRIP – Nightmare Logic [Reissue/2017] LP (Southern Lord)
Orange w/ pink smash color vinyl pressing of the second crushing, soul mangling, neck bustin’ album from the Texas hardcore thrashers. 

RISE AGAINST – Nowhere Generation II 10” (Loma Vista)
Two decades into delivering social commentary via their blistering brand of punk rock, Rise Against’s latest, Nowhere Generation II, may be their most poignant, as it sums up the struggles, injustices, and collective action of a generation. The new single, “Last Man Standing”, is smooth in its most sensitive moments and roaring like a tempest at its peak. Brimming with punk rock spirit, it begs that we answer who and what is left if we continue on our current path.

NAS – Magic (Instrumental Version) LP (Mass Appeal)

Color vinyl pressing. In 2021 rap legend Nas delivered the highly anticipated Magic, a transcendent nine track album produced by longtime collaborator Hit-Boy and including “Wave Gods” feat. A$AP Rocky and DJ Premier. Magic follows-up the August 2021 release of Nas’ Grammy nominated album, King’s Disease II, and finds the hip-hop icon spitting bars about social media, fellow rappers, the rough past few years and the human condition.

BOY HARSHER – Burn It Down 12”+MP3 (Sacred Bones/Nude Club)
Fan favorite dark dance outfit Boy Harsher have contributed a sumptuously eerie track for the David Gordon Green directed finale to the iconic Halloween franchise. Sacred Bones and Nude Club (Boy Harsher’s imprint) are joining forces and releasing a proper 12″ maxi single containing four versions of the track “Burn It Down”, to be released in tandem with the original score provided by John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter, and Daniel Davies. [A limited-edition ‘pumpkin orange’ color vinyl pressing is available.]

BRAINIAC – The Predator Nominate E.P. 12” (Touch & Go)
Silver color vinyl pressing. The Predator Nominate E.P. is a celebration of what was to come before the tragic exit of ringleader/singer Tim Taylor. Listen to these realized demos and imagine what only could have been the confident seed of what the group might be capable of in this future century. The world will never truly know.

SPRINGTIME – Night Raver 12” (Joyful Noise)
Bone white color vinyl. Feast or famine, Springtime will continue to sow their garden of auditory delights. Despite the global unrest and strict lockdowns that have come to define the past three years, Gareth Liddiard (Tropical Fuck Storm, The Drones), Jim White (Dirty Three, Xylouris White), and Chris Abrahams (The Necks) have continually convened to weave narratives of death, destruction, desire, and devotion. Pulling the threads cast by their eponymous debut, Night Raver offers three character studies rife with the trio’s trademark urgency and poetics.

SAMPA THE GREAT – As Above, So Below CD/LP (Loma Vista)
Having started her professional career outside of her home of Zambia, Sampa The Great returned at the beginning of the pandemic to Africa. As Above So Below is the result of this return to her roots, embracing the sounds and themes of her origins. Sampa has reconnected with a different side of herself, one closer to the younger artistry that was nourished growing up. Now, in an age of authenticity, meet a 360 Sampa, a higher version of herself. No mask on, or role to play. [An indie store exclusive blue color vinyl pressing is available.]

KYUSS – Muchas Gracias: Best Of Kyuss LP (Rhino)

Muchas Gracias: The Best of Kyuss is a compilation album by American stoner rock band Kyuss, released in 2000 through Elektra Records. Although promoted as a “best of” album, it features mostly rare tracks and B-sides and includes only five tracks from the band’s four studio albums. The final four tracks are live recordings from a May 24, 1994 performance in Hamburg, previously released as the Live at Marquee Club EP which was included with the first 3,000 copies of the band’s 1994 album Welcome to Sky Valley released in Germany and Australia; the tracks were also included on various editions of the “Demon Cleaner” single that same year.

ADAM GREEN – That Fucking Feeling LP (Capitane)

The New Yorker Adam Green’s 11th and latest solo album, That Fucking Feeling, continues his musical explorations with longtime collaborators Loren Humphrey, James Richardson (MGMT), and Jesse Kotansky. The album places large-scale ‘Wall of Sound’ style productions alongside home-recordings done during COVID quarantine.

ROCKY VOTOLATO – Wild Roots LP (Spartan)

First album in over 7 years from universally acclaimed singer-songwriter. Exclusive “White” Vinyl Variant for Indie Retail

CLOUD NOTHINGS – Attack On Memory LP 10th Anniversary Edition (Carpark)

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Cloud Nothings’ seminal album, Attack On Memory, the band has announced a very special limited edition vinyl pressing. It’s housed in a foil jacket with all new colorized artwork, is pressed on Sky Blue vinyl, and includes two bonus flexi 7″s with two never-before-released tracks, “You Will Turn” and “Jambalaya” from the original sessions at Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio.

POLICA – Give You The Ghost LP 10 Year Anniversary (Mom + Pop)

Pressed on white opaque vinyl. Poliça is an offshoot of Ryan Olson’s Gayngs collective, produced by Olsen and fronted by vocalist Channy Leaneagh. They recorded this debut LP in the wake of Leaneagh’s divorce, and its R&B-inspired electronica feels appropriately grief-stricken, fizzing with minor-key synths. Leaneagh’s laments are often indistinct, lost to a wash of silvery Auto-Tune and cascading reverb, and bolstered by a hybrid of natural and digital beats. Influences fluctuate between styles old and new, evoking shades of Portishead’s 90s eeriness in places while sounding starkly futuristic on the pummeling, siren-strewn stab of Violent Games.

ROKY ERICKSON AND THE EXPLOSIVES – Live at the Whisky 1981 LP (Sunset Blvd)

1st Time On Vinyl. Limited Edition 1000 Units. Grey Marble Vinyl. Roky Erickson & The Explosives had been honing their craft in hot, sweaty clubs all over Texas for a couple of years before this California tour which, along with the Whisky, included the Warfield Theater in San Francisco, Galactica 2000 in Sacramento, the Stone in San Francisco, the Keystone Berkeley in, well, Berkeley, the Bacanal in San Diego and the Europa in Tucson, AZ on the way back to Texas. But, the Whisky was a special, magic night of music. Roky was on top of his game and the Explosives was a well oiled machine capable of musically “turning on a dime” with nary a single apple falling from the cart. Songs include “Heroin,” “Hide Behind The Sun,” “You’re Gonna Miss Me,” “I Walked With A Zombie” and more.

HOWDY GLENN – I Can Almost See Houston: The Complete Howdy Glenn CD (Omnivore)
While Black influences are inextricably intertwined with the formation of the genre, there is a very short list of Black country performers who made a splash on the national charts or the public consciousness in the 20th century. After winning the 1974 “Trucker’s Jamboree” at the Hollywood Palladium, Inglewood California firefighter Howdy Glenn began a recording career that not only gained him regional hits on an independent label but found him appearing to rapturous crowds whenever and wherever he performed live. After singing at the Academy of Country Music’s general meeting, he was signed to Warner Bros. Records by Andy Wickham (who had also signed Joni Mitchell, Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris, Buck Owens, and more). I Can Almost See Houston: The Complete Howdy Glenn collects 23 of his recordings and reexamines Glenn’s legacy.

THE MURDER CAPITAL – Gigi’s Recovery CD (Human Season)
Ireland’s The Murder Capital make their return with Gigi’s Recovery. While their 2019 debut When I Have Fears captured the vital beginnings of the group, the 12 songs of Gigi’s Recovery push the band into ever braver sonic territories, oceans apart from previous peers. Ambition is put right at the front and center, with the inventive, expansive guitar work of Cathal Roper and Damien Tuit paired to a precise and intelligent rhythmic unit in bassist Gabriel Paschal Blake and drummer Diarmuid Brennan. Electronic elements are noticeably more prominent across the record, with industrial influences explored in greater detail than ever before, frontman James McGovern’s bold melodies acting as a reassuring anchor, so we never get totally swept away into the band’s newfound soundscape.

CAITLIN ROSE – Cazimi CD (Missing Piece)

The latest release from Nashville-based Caitlin Rose, Cazimi captures a voice which is equal parts honeyed and world-weary, and sees her singing self-aware songs of self-destruction, documenting proclivity and impulse control, bad habits in life and in romantic pursuits. She skips across genres, combining new wave influences with pop stylings and the melancholy folk songwriting that made her such a staple of the Nashville rock scene. Featuring the singles “Black Obsidian”, “Nobody’s Sweetheart” and “Getting it Right”.

WE ARE SCIENTISTS – Lobes LP (Masterswan Recording)
Darker and more danceable (and demonic) than 2021’s Huffy, We Are Scientists’ new album Lobes features the singles “Operator Error,” “Settled Accounts,” and “Less From You.” On their 2nd self-produced outing, the band’s assurance and perversion have blossomed. Limited Edition “Photon-Canceling Black Lobe” [An indie store exclusive translucent blue color vinyl pressing is available. CD edition due February 3.]

KENNY BEATS – Louie CD/LP

DELAYS – Faded Seaside Glamour CD/LP

ARCS – Eletrophonic Chronic CD/LP

SAM SMITH – Gloria CD/LP

BASS DRUM OF DEATH – Say I Won’t CD/LP

SAMIA – Honey CD/LP

JOE HENRY – All The Eye Can See CD/LP

SELENA – Moonchild Mixes LP

FUCKED UP – One Day CD/LP

HAMMOCK – Love In The Void CD/LP

KING TUFF – Smalltown Stardust CD/LP

BAD BOOKS – Bad Books LP reissue

BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME – Automata LP

JOHN COLTRANE – In The Winner’s Circle LP

NICK SHOULDERS – Lonely Like Me LP

SOUNDS OF ANIMALS FIGHTING  – Apeshit LP

H.C. MCENTIRE – Every Ache CD/LP

HEAVY BLANKET (J MASCIS) – Moon Is LP

R. RING – War Poems We Rested LP

NOSAJ THING – Continua LP

GARRETT SARACHO – Jazz Is Dead 15 LP