STAFF PICKS
Lindsay – Big Crown Comp and Stinkweeds Holiday Gift Guide
Dario – Cotton Jones reissue
Kimber – Grant Green reissue
Jake – Mac Demarco
Zach – Mac Demarco and Cotton Jones reissues

Mac DeMarco – Some Other Ones [Reissue/2015] LP (Captured Tracks)
Canary yellow colored vinyl. In the summer of 2015, Mac DeMarco released Some Other Ones – a collection of original instrumental recordings DeMarco deemed his “BBQ soundtrack” – as a free digital download exclusively on Bandcamp. It was recorded in just 5 days at his home in Far Rockaway, Queens, about a year after the massive success of his third album, Salad Days, and just weeks before the release of mini-LP Another One. Originally released in conjunction with a barbecue DeMarco hosted to promote Another One and collect food bank donations, Some Other Ones soon gained cult status, now regarded amongst his fans as a key entry in his beloved catalog.

Mac DeMarco – One Wayne G Blu-ray Audio (Mac’s Record Label)
Earlier this year, Mac DeMarco released his 199-song album, One Wayne G, a collection of songs Mac recorded 2018-2023. Previously available only in digital formats, the One Wayne G Blu-ray marks the first time the album is available in physical form.

Eels – Eels So Good Vol 2  (2007-2020) CD/LP (PIAS)
Eels So Good: Essential Eels, Vol.2 spans over 15 years, seven studio albums and features some of Eels best loved songs, includes hits such as “Fresh Blood” and “The Look You Gave That Guy”, new favorites from 2020’s “Earth To Dora”, as well as three previously unreleased tracks (including five that are on vinyl for the first time).

Cotton Jones – The River Strumming [Reissue/2009] LP (Suicide Squeeze)
When Michael Nau and Whitney McGraw struck out on their own in the wake of the dissolution of their beloved indie-folk outfit Page France, they continued their songwriting practice with a new project called Cotton Jones Basket Ride. As legend has it, Nau and McGraw were working on the material for their debut full-length Paranoid Cocoon (2009) when they realized they had an entire album’s worth of odds-and-ends from various recording sessions. The resultant album – The River Strumming – was released in 2008 under the simplified Cotton Jones moniker.

Grant Green – Green Street [Reissue/1961] LP (Blue Note)
Grant Green began his lengthy and prolific Blue Note career with the 1961 release of his debut album Grant’s First Stand, a stellar soul jazz outing that featured the guitarist in an organ trio with Baby Face Willette on Hammond B3 and Ben Dixon on drums. When he returned to Van Gelder Studio next in April of that year it was once again with a trio but this time one with a leaner sound featuring Green backed by bass (Ben Tucker) and drums (Dave Bailey). The spare setting and sturdy support created spacious realms for Green to expound at length, unspooling his inventive, bluesy lines on a five-song set.

Disclosure – Alchemy LP (GHL)
The UKs finest purveyors of dancefloor dynamite, Disclosure return with their fourth album, Alchemy, their first album in three years. The super duo, consisting of brothers Guy and Howard Lawrence, are one the world’s most celebrated and well known electronic acts. With a career spanning over a decade, they have collected Grammy, Ivor Novello and Mercury Prize nominations, repeatedly topped the UK charts, and soundtracked the lives of a generation. The album sees the duo produce the first Disclosure album with no features. A deeply personal album for Howard lyrically, Alchemy also showcases Guy as a producer at the top of his game.

Rolling Stones – Hackney Diamonds (AZ Diamondbacks Cover) LP (Geffen)
MLB presents an exclusive collector’s edition of the new Hackney Diamonds album on white vinyl. This version has an exclusive Arizona Diamondbacks cover. Limited!

Various Artists – Big Crown Records presents Crown Jewels vol 3 LP (Big Crown)
These compilations are something of a calling card for the “Big Crown Sound” where they get to put the most well established next to the newest on the roster and through that paint a picture of the overall ethos of the label. It’s been extremely satisfying when the fans of one Big Crown artist discover another one because they are label mates. These Crown Jewels comps are released with the hope that it will continue that process. Even though not all BCR artists can be found in the same aisle of the record store, after listening to Crown Jewels Vol. 3, it should be clear how they all fit on the same record label.

The Black Crowes – The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion [Reissue/1992] 2xCD/LP (UMe)
Following up a breakout album like 1990’s Shake Your Money Maker and runaway singles like “She Talks To Angels” and “Hard to Handle”, is no easy task but The Black Crowes managed that and then some with 1992’s The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion. The Deluxe 2xCD set features the original remastered album with the bonus Best Of The Box CD containing nine rare and unreleased selections from the Super Deluxe boxset. The Super Deluxe 3xCD and 4xLP boxsets includes a hymn book with insights from both Chris and Rich Robinson, sheet music and four lithographs. The reissue was overseen by Chris and Rich Robinson and album producer George Drakoulias. Featuring 14 unreleased tracks – including two studio recordings, a live February 1993 concert, and the never-before- heard live in-studio performances at the end of the Southern Harmony session – along with B-sides and the original album.

Rosanne Cash – The Wheel [Reissue/1993] 2xCD (Rumblestrip)
Rosanne Cash left Nashville in the early ‘90s. The first album she recorded in New York with John Leventhal, The Wheel, celebrates 30 years with an exclusive 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition that features a 2023 remastered version of the original album and an additional 11 tracks from the 1993 Live From Austin City Limits and Live From The Columbia House Records Radio Hour sessions, making their digital debut. [A single-disc vinyl LP version is also available.

Sonny Rollins – Newk’s Time [Reissue/1959] LP (Blue Note)
Sonny Rollins first appeared on a Blue Note recording session in 1949 as part of Bud Powell’s Modernists during a period when the saxophonist was coming up on the scene and cutting his teeth alongside bebop innovators including Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, and Miles Davis. After he began leading his own record dates in the 1950s, Rollins hooked up with Alfred Lion again and recorded four tremendous albums for Blue Note in less than a year between December 1956 and November 1957. Following two quintet dates that were released as Sonny Rollins, Volume 1 and Vol. 2, the saxophone colossus returned to Van Gelder Studio in September 1957 with a quartet comprised of pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Doug Watkins, and drummer Philly Joe Jones to record Newk’s Time (the album title was a reference to his nickname Newk due to his resemblance to Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Don Newcombe).

U2 – Atomic City 7″ (Interscope)
‘Atomic City’, the brand new track from U2, is produced by Jacknife Lee and Steve Lillywhite and comes ahead of the band’s upcoming run of dates at Sphere in Las Vegas. This Limited Edition Photoluminescent Transparent 7’’ Vinyl, includes the original song, alongside an etching on the B-Side.

COMING NEXT WEEK
Field Medic – Haunted Haiku Tattoo (2014-2017) LP
Albert Hammond Jr – Momentary Monsters LP reissue