STAFF PICKS
Lindsay – Kim Gordon and Pixies
Dario – Dry Cleaning
Kimber – Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band
Jake – Kim Gordon, Dry Cleaning, and Jpegmafia
Zach – Moor Mother 

Kim Gordon – The Collective CD/LP (Matador)
Legendary musician and multi-disciplinary artist Kim Gordon returns with her second solo album, The Collective. Recorded in her native Los Angeles, The Collective follows Gordon’s 2019 full-length debut No Home Record and continues her collaboration with producer Justin Raisen (Lil Yachty, John Cale, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Charli XCX, Yves Tumor), with additional production from Anthony Paul Lopez. The album advances their joint world building, with Raisen’s damaged, blown out dub and trap constructions playing the foil to Gordon’s intuitive word collages and hooky mantras, which conjure communication, commercial sublimation, and sensory overload.

Desire – Escape LP (Italians Do It Better)
Desire’s new album was written and recorded in Los Angeles and Palm Springs, California. Inspired by the ultra-vivid world of 1970’s giallo films, they wrote the soundtrack of their dreams using their favorite musical instruments: Minikorg, Jupiter 8, 909, Mellotron, Simmons Rhythm Modules, String Machine, a D-50 & Fender Rhodes. House music rhythms provide the canvas for girl group narratives and a children’s choir to paint the picture. Throbbing synthwave and daytime drama soap operas all play into the color pallet of the album. The lyrics are sung in English, French, and Korean, adding even more drama to the mix. Through it all, there is the optimism of true love’s compass navigating us through all the chaos life has to offer.

Norah Jones – Visions CD/LP (Blue Note/Capitol)
Limited edition candle free with purchase, while supplies last!
Visions is a vibrant and joyous 12-song set that finds Jones singing about feeling free, wanting to dance, making it right, and acceptance of what life brings. It’s the yang to the yin that was Pick Me Up Off The Floor, Jones’ last album of new original songs which was released early in the pandemic lockdown of 2020 and foreshadowed many of the dark emotions of that period. Visions is a collaboration with producer and multi-instrumentalist Leon Michels. Michels played saxophone in Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings and has performed with Lee Fields & The Expressions, Dan Auerbach’s band The Arcs, Menahan Street Band, and his own project El Michels Affair. Michels and Jones first collaborated on the single “Can You Believe” and later worked together on Jones’ 2021 holiday album I Dream of Christmas. Visions also features contributions from trumpeter Dave Guy, bassist Jesse Murphy, and drummers Brian Blade and Homer Steinweiss. [An indie store exclusive orange color vinyl pressing is available.]

Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band – BRSB CD/LP (Big Crown)
Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band, the mysterious steel pan outfit hailing from Hamburg, Germany have amassed a cult following around the globe. With a slew of classic 7″s and three critically acclaimed full length albums, they set a high bar for themselves, one they clearly intend on pushing even higher with this new offering. On their fourth album BRSB, Bacao are back with more of the same, but more of the same with them is inherently different. Covering songs that span genres and range from mega hits to underground album cuts, they make them their own with their unique approach to the traditional steel pans of Trinidad and Tobago. [An indie store exclusive yellow color vinyl pressing is available.]

Bleachers – Bleachers CD/LP (Dirty Hit)
Free poster with purchase, while supplies last!
Bleachers return with their self-titled new album. Bleachers is Jack Antonoff’s distinctly New Jersey take on the bizarre sensory contradictions of modern life, on his position in culture, and the things he cares about. Sonically, it’s sad, it’s joyful, it’s music for driving on the highway, for crying to and for dancing to at weddings. There’s something reassuringly touchable and concrete about its sentiment: exist in crazy times but remember what counts. [Available on indie exclusive blue vinyl]

Dry Cleaning – Boundary Road Snacks And Drinks + Sweet Princess CD/LP (4AD)
Following two critically acclaimed John Parish-produced studio albums – New Long Leg (2021) and Stumpwork (2022) – South London’s Dry Cleaning take a moment to reflect on their journey and pay homage to their roots with the release of their first two EPs, now remastered and reissued together on one single record with the original artwork and lyric sheet. [A limited-edition blue color vinyl pressing is available.]

Moor Mother – The Great Bailout CD/LP (ANTI-)
Moor Mother is an American musician, poet, and interdisciplinary artist known for her avant-garde and experimental work. The Great Bailout is an expansive meditation that acts as a non-linear word map about colonialism, slavery, and commerce in Great Britain. Featuring guest contributions from Lonnie Holley, Angel Bat Dawid & Sistas of the Nitty Gritty, Vijay Iyer, Mary Lattimore, and more, it’s Moor Mother’s most uncompromising vision to date. Moor Mother has gained recognition for her unique blend of spoken word, noise, and electronic music, addressing themes of race, gender, and socio-political issues. She hails from Philadelphia and has been an influential figure in the city’s vibrant arts and music scene.

Pixies – Pixies At The BBC 2xCD/3xLP (4AD)
Between 1988 and 1991 – during the band’s 4AD years – Pixies recorded six sessions for the BBC, five for John Peel and one for Mark Goodier. Catching the raw energy of the band’s live performances, these sessions felt immediately noteworthy, timestamping a moment when Black Francis, Kim Deal, Joey Santiago, and David Lovering were motoring out front.

Xmal Deutschland – Early Singles 1981-1982 CD/LP/Cassette (Sacred Bones)
“Gothics” – a time before the word goth had even taken shape – believed in the do-it-yourself punk ethos that anyone could pick up an instrument. Gray clouds were starting to form and in the unlikely city of Hamburg, a brazen and haunting gang of five women formed Xmal Deutschland. As any true punk would, Xmal Deutschland’s members Caro May, Rita Simon, Manuela Rickers, Fiona Sangster, and Anja Huwe (who’s new album Codes is also out this week on CD and vinyl), started the band despite any previous musical experience. [Available on indie exclusive purple vinyl.]

Deerhoof – Reveille [Reissue/2002] LP (Joyful Noise)
2002’s Reveille is a defiant expression of artistic rebirth, spilling over with madcap exuberance, apocalyptic imagery, newfound technical confidence belying their no-budget DIY recording methods, and jarring stylistic about-faces in which no two songs sound alike. The contrast of Satomi’s ever-catchy, ever-charming melodiousness with John and Greg’s noisy, cinematic bombast still has the power to thrill and tickle and upset, more than 20 years after its initial release. Includes reimagined cover art with the faint morning glow the band had always envisioned, pressed on clear sun-color vinyl.

Jpegmafia – Ghost Pop Tape 2xLP (Godmode)
Ghost Pop Tape is a 23-song mixtape from the Baltimore-based renowned artist Jpegmafia. Originally released on Bandcamp under Jpeg’s birth name, Devon Hendryx, in 2013, the rapper finally brought it to streaming under the same moniker in 2023. The tape is a slightly more lofi hip-hop, alt-R&B record that we are used to seeing from Jpegmafia and showcases his strengths as a multi-versed rapper and producer. [Multiple colorways are available.]

Nothing – Guilty Of Everything [Reissue/2014] LP (Relapse)
Nu-gaze band Nothing present a 10th year anniversary edition of their landmark debut album, Guilty Of Everything. Recorded and produced by Jeff Zeigler (Kurt Vile, War On Drugs, etc), Guilty Of Everything is a triumph of a debut that successfully manages to be massively loud, darkly introspective and totally beautiful all at once. [Available on indie store exclusive black ice and limited-edition silver.]

Viagra Boys – Welfare Jazz [Reissue/2021] 2xLP (Year0001 AB)
Viagra Boys’s album, Welfare Jazz, doesn’t bargain with the anxiety in that defeated feeling, but rather a boiling certainty that nothing and no one is absolute. There’s plenty of blame to go around, and things are just a lot more interesting when you admit that you’re not always going to be nice, you’re not always going to pick the right words in a fistfight. So why not keep moving forward, swaying, and strutting into the night.

KRS-One – D.I.G.I.T.A.L. LP (X-Ray)
For the first time ever on vinyl – an essential collection of B-sides and features recorded by KRS-One through the ’90s and early ’00s!. Features guest appearances by Big Pun, Truck Turner, Kool G. Rap, Common and more! KRS is an immensely influential figure in modern rap who helped define hip-hop music! 

COMING NEXT WEEK!
MUNA – Saves The World CD/LP
JOE HENDERSON – Power To The People LP
CAKE – Pressure Chief LP
COIL – Moon’s Milk – In Four Phases LP
KACEY MUSGRAVES – Deeper Well CD/LP
MESSTHETICS / JAMES BRANDON LEWIS – Self Titled CD/LP
BLACK CROWES – Happiness Bastards CD/LP
INNOCENCE MISSION – Small Planes LP
BOBBY OROZA – Queen Of 7″
XIU XIU – La Foret LP
JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE – Everything I Thought It Wasn’t LP