New Releases - 2/17/23
Hitting The Racks
Here's your weekly rundown of what's hitting the new release racks at Grimey's
New Releases
Avatar – Dance Devil Dance CD/LP (Black Walts/Thirty Tigers)
“Dance Devil Dance was recorded in the Swedish wilderness, far away from all the perceived glamor of the big city and modern studios. Jay Ruston (Anthrax, Mr. Bungle, Crobot, Stone Sour, Amon Amarth, Uriah Heep, etc.) returned as producer. He first worked with us when he mixed Hail the Apocalypse, a role he reprised on Feathers & Flesh before taking the wheel as producer on Avatar Country and Hunter Gatherer. No extra personnel were wanted nor needed. We stayed together for a month, eating, sleeping, and breathing Dance Devil Dance, just the six of us. With grit and sheer force of will, we made music the only way metal ever should be done. Modern metal too often becomes homogenized by everyone using the same drum samples and pre-sets for guitars. Dance Devil Dance is the sound of our bodies in motion, and nothing else. It sounds hard because we play hard.” [Limited-edition red vinyl.]
Avey Tare – 7s CD/LP+MP3 (Domino)
During the first week of January 2021, Avey Tare (Animal Collective) began making regular drives to his friend Adam McDaniel's Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville, NC to give guts and flesh and color to the skeletal demos he'd made at home the year prior. The plot for 7s, Avey's fourth solo album, then, was set: trusting, intuitive, exploratory collaboration among friends, after a winter without it. These songs are like overstuffed jelly jars, cracking so that the sweetness oozes out into unexpected shapes. Still, the sweetness - that is, Avey's compulsory hooks - remains at the center, the joy inside these Rorschach blots. If Animal Collective has forever been defined by its charming inscrutability, Avey surrenders to a new intimacy and candor with 7s. [Indie store exclusive violet color vinyl.]
Brothertiger – Brothertiger LP (Satanic Panic)
Released last November on CD – now available on ‘tangerine galaxy’ color vinyl. Brothertiger is the culmination of two years of singles featuring collaborations with Underoath's Spencer Chamberlain and guitar virtuoso Yvette Young (Covet). Blending '90s-inspired city pop with his original take on electronic music, Brothertiger's eponymous new album defies genre and harkens back to the sounds of his childhood. Using a variety of rack-mounted synths from the '90's to build a bed of ethereal rhythms, Brothertiger prefers the weird and wild over the tried and true for his self-titled magnum opus.
Cheater Slicks – Ill-Fated Cusses LP (In The Red)
Cheater Slicks, the take-no-prisoners Columbus, Ohio-based trio, return with the thrilling, musically diverse Ill-Fated Cusses, their first album in eight years and their first package for the label in twenty years. The ten-track collection follows Piano Tunnels, a freewheeling, improvisation-based benefit collaboration with vocalist Bill Gage, whom the band has known since the then newly formed trio and the singer's group BILL were working in the Boston area in 1987.
Civic – Taken By Force CD/LP (ATO)
Melbourne-based five-piece Civic return with their visceral new full-length studio album Taken By Force. The LP was recorded in the Castlemaine countryside with Radio Birdman frontman Rob Younger producing and was mixed and mastered by Mikey Young (Total Control, Eddy Current, Sonny & the Sunsets). Taken By Force is Civic's follow up to their critically acclaimed 2021 debut full-length Future Forecast – an album of songs that showcased the band's frenetic, yet melodic sound coupled with introspective lyrics. Taken By Force picks up where their debut left off, seeing Civic joyfully obliterate the line between furious catharsis and unbridled fun. It's an album the band aptly sums up as "1984 meets Endless Summer." Civic has reimagined the reckless intensity of proto punk for an era of endless uncertainty to become one of the most exhilarating bands to emerge in recent years. [Limited-edition red vinyl.]
Dark Funeral – We Are The Apocalypse LP (Century Media)
Approaching nearly 30 years since the beginning of their journey as one of Swedish black metal's most genuine and unvarnished exemplars, Dark Funeral continue to reach for new heights to bring audiences into its otherworldly and unholy visions on the band's seventh full-length LP, We Are The Apocalypse.
Jordan Davis – Bluebird Days CD (MCA Nashville)
The second album from country music's Jordan Davis features 17 songs including the #1 double-platinum CMA Song of the Year, "Buy Dirt" feat. Luke Bryan.
Elskavon – Origins LP (Western Vinyl)
On Origins, Chris Bartels takes on the role of singer-songwriter for the first time under his Elskavon moniker, unveiling a voice that wouldn't sound out of place next to vocal-forward artists like Justin Vernon, Jónsi, or Baths, who master the balance between conventional songcraft and bold, idiosyncratic experimentation. Origins is vast yet intimate, fluttering yet cohesive, tattered yet clean, a little like rainfall during sunlight. [CD version due March 3.]
Fauness – The Golden Ass LP (Cascine)
The Golden Ass is a dreamy electroacoustic infusion of folk, country, pop, and soft rock, with an undercurrent of ambient, sometimes psychedelic melancholy. Listen closely and you'll hear traces of the millennial RnB that soundtracked her teen years. Her biggest influences are three singers who all arose in the 1970s: Sandy Denny, Bonnie Raiit and the lesser-known Valerie Carter. [Limited edition gold vinyl.]
Grand River - All Above LP (Editions Mego)
On her third album, Berlin-based Dutch-Italian composer and sound designer Aimée Portioli, aka Grand River, asks what guiding forces might be driving, enticing, and affecting us. All Above blurs the boundaries between electronic and acoustic music, sculpting familiar ambient forms into personal themes painted with rich emotional colors. Using a wide variety of instrumentation (including voices, strings, organs, guitars, and synthesizers) and focused around the piano, Portoli's compositions bloom into abstraction and processed electronics, as reverb mutates into ghostly vapor trails, and distortion forms the keys into another instrument entirely. Tracks take shape as meditative sound poems: "The World At Number XX" is seemingly centered around a chugging synthesized arpeggio, but the cosmic, Klaus Schulze-esque pads, strangled guitar and evocative organ tones hint at the open-hearted, literate psychedelia of the 1970s; "In The Present As The Future" meanwhile is breathy and windswept, juxtaposing urgent rhythmic phrases with light, flute-like gusts of harmony.
Grade 2 – Grade 2 LP (Hellcat)
50 years after the genre turned the music world upside-down, Grade 2 bring the raw power of old school punk to a new generation. Their second release on Tim Armstrong's legendary Hellcat Records is a thumping 15 track tour de force melding the uncompromising ethos of punk with the howl of contemporary injustice, personal identity, and frustrations of Gen-Z youth, authentically told by three lads with punk coursing through their veins.
Jaimee Harris – Boomerang Town CD/LP (Folk N’ Roll/Thirty Tigers)
“For her sophomore recording effort, Jaimee Harris took inspiration from her experiences growing up in small-town Waco, Texas. ‘These characters reflect people whose resilience, hope, and faith are being tested. I love them. I am them,’ she wrote in a post announcing the record. She has captured those sentiments and more in the 10 arresting songs that comprise Boomerang Town. Love - and compassion - for the fragility of being human permeates the work, making it masterful.” – Deborah Crooks, Holler.
Billy Howerdel – What Normal Was LP (BMG)
What Normal Was is a studio album by Billy Howerdel, guitarist of A Perfect Circle. The album is his first to be directly released under his own name, and his second solo album overall, after releasing his prior album, Keep Telling Myself It's Alright (2008), under the pseudonym Ashes Divide 14 years prior. [Indie exclusive translucent red vinyl.]
Inhaler – Cuts & Bruises CD/LP (Gefffen)
Cuts & Bruises is the eagerly awaited follow-up to Inhaler's debut album, It Won't Always Be Like This, which hit No. 1 in both the UK and Ireland. This became the fastest-selling debut album on vinyl by any band this century and saw Inhaler become the first Irish group to top the album charts with a debut in 13 years. Introduced by the soaring anthem "These Are The Days" and uplifting "Love Will Get You There", Cuts & Bruises features 11 tracks and was produced by Inhaler's long term collaborator Antony Genn. [Indie store exclusive splatter vinyl.]
Khotin – Release Spirit LP+MP3 (Ghostly Int’l)
Canadian producer Dylan Khotin-Foote has kept his Khotin alias going for the better part of a decade; the impressionistic electronic project shifts with the movements in his life. With Release Spirit, Khotin releases himself from the pressure of expectation, fusing and refining everything we know about his music. The warmth and familiarity of Khotin's dreamy, dulcet style meet new ideas and frameworks, a natural progression, a modest revelation; Khotin confirms it is okay to move slowly and he's never sounded better doing it. [Limited-edition ‘pink cloud’ vinyl.]
Bobbie Lovesong – On The Wind LP (Woodsist)
Bobbie Lovesong is the alias of American recording artist Madelyn Strutz. On The Wind is the debut full length from Bobbie, who produced, performed, recorded, and mixed the album herself in Taos, New Mexico. The album is a collection of psych-pop oddities and fizzy space age interpretations of jazz standards that are informed in equal parts by Larry Heard's breezy dream sceneries, LSD blotted Americana and kaleidoscopic ‘60s pop.
Meshuggah – Immutable 2xLP (Atomic Fire)
Full of surprises and yet instantly recognizable as the work of metal's most idiosyncratic force, Immutable redefines and redesigns the Swedish progressive metal band’s sound across more than an hour of the most stimulating and absorbing music. [Limited edition translucent red/white/black marbled vinyl.]
P!NK – TRUSTFALL CD/LP (RCA)
TRUSTFALL is the highly anticipated new studio album from critically acclaimed singer-songwriter and global pop icon P!NK. TRUSTFALL marks her ninth studio album, following the release of 2019's Hurts 2B Human. The new album was launched with the release of the first single, "Never Gonna Not Dance Again", a vibrant pop track produced by Grammy-winning hitmakers Max Martin and Shellback, who also co-wrote the song with P!NK.
The Pretty Reckless – Other Worlds LP (Fearless)
Released last November on CD – now available on indie store exclusive bone color vinyl. The Pretty Reckless gives rock 'n' roll the jumpstart it needs for a new generation, apparent in this new collection of songs featuring remixes, reimagined versions, and covers of their favorite tracks. "For a long time, we've been trying to figure out an alternative way of releasing music, including songs we love that didn't make our records, covers, and alternate versions," explains singer Taylor Momsen. "We found a way to do this coherently and consistently with Other Worlds. We're a rock band, so there are lots of electric guitars on our records. However, we've gotten incredible feedback from fans about our acoustic performances, and we'd never put those out in any real format. So, this is a different take on the traditional format of a record and a stripped back version of us that our fans haven't really heard before, but it's still us."
Quavo & Takeoff – Only Built For Infinity Links 2xLP (Quality Control)
Only Built for Infinity Links is a collaborative studio album by rappers Quavo and Takeoff. The album contains guest appearances from Mustard, YoungBoy Never Broke Again, Young Thug, Gunna, Summer Walker, Birdman, and Gucci Mane. It was the last project that Takeoff released in his lifetime as he was shot and killed just twenty-five days after the digital release of the album on November 1, 2022.
Runnner – Like Dying Stars, We’re Reaching Out LP (Run For Cover)
Cloud clear vinyl pressing. New album from Los Angeles-based musician Noah Weinman aka Runnner. This is music made at home, using anything and everything: cell phones and handheld tape recorders, the hum of an a/c unit, voicemails from friends. Rubbing cardboard together, stretching acoustic sounds out to near liquid, or stacking delay pedals at random to scramble the smoothness of a song can make something known into something unknown - something ordinary into something cosmic. These are songs where the edges have been left deliberately rough because perfection invites predictability, and imperfection imbalances, and those imbalances ask the listener to listen again, and again. And in that listening, the sound can become earnest, can ask a question, can hold a conversation.
Screaming Females – Desire Pathway CD/LP (Don Giovanni)
Desire Pathway was recorded at Minnesota's Pachyderm Studios (where Nirvana recorded In Utero) and produced by Matt Bayles (Foxing, Pearl Jam, Mastodon, et al). Bright and full, the album captures the band at a time when nothing was certain other than their abiding desire to make music together. Desire Pathway opens with the Sabbathy hypnotism of "Brass Bell". Following a swelling haze of synth, feedback shrieks, martial snares advance, and the band explodes into a bracing groove. Soon, Paternoster makes the cryptic announcement: "I have flown us to the moon," and we're off. The song has the effect of clearing one haze and replacing it with another, much heavier one. Compared with their previous record (2018's expansive All At Once), Desire Pathway feels refreshed and direct.
Ron Sexsmith – The Vivian Line LP (Cooking Vinyl)
New release, the 17th album from the Canadian singer/songwriter. The Vivian Line features 12 songs written and performed by Ron. “The Vivian Line is a rural route right near where we live in Stratford (Ontario). Whenever we have to get out of the city, we jump on The Vivian Line, and it dumps us out onto the highway. I wondered about the name when we first moved there and thought it was intriguing... it sort of represents escaping from our old life in Toronto to this new phase we're in.”
Spectral Souls – Towards Extinction CD/LP (Napalm)
Death f***ing metal from Peru. A nuclear detonation of shredding and unbridled aggression.
Tithe – Inverse Rapture LP (Profound Lore)
Tithe is a Portland, Oregon-based band that constructs an unorthodox amalgamation of death metal, black metal, and grind without straying too far from the fundamentals of aggressiveness and depravity.
Total Refreshment Centre – Transmissions From The Total Refreshment Centre LP (Blue Note)
The extended family around London's Total Refreshment Centre (TRC) connects continents and generations, creating rich relationships on Transmissions From Total Refreshment Centre. It's an eclectic and electric collection drawing on new school jazz, hip-hop, dub, soul, funk, and drill. Top players from London, Chicago, and Melbourne seeking out new collaborations, new ways of working, or just new tunes, always coming back to that central truth - that we all need each other.
Jennifer Touch – Midnight Proposals LP (Fat Cat)
Berlin artist Jennifer Touch returns with her second album, Midnight Proposals. Touch was reading Steinbeck's Grapes Of Wrath when she started to work on the album. "The whole settlers movement touched me, and I really felt like a cowboy whilst writing and recording these songs," she explains. It reminded her of her great-grandparent's story, and the house they built in the 30s that was her sanctuary as a child." As cozy as it was, I always yearned for somewhere else, to find myself and my own place to settle." Full of hope and mystery, Midnight Proposals is a selection of songs that both celebrate and question the romance of this illusion, documenting a very human desire to search for our people and our safe place.
Ulthar – Anthronomicon LP (20 Buck Spin)
Ulthar – Helionomicon LP (20 Buck Spin)
Over the course of their first two albums, Cosmovore and Providence, Ulthar carved out a unique niche on the spectrum of underground metal, forging a grotesquely elegant hybrid of technical death metal alchemy and black metal's stinging blizzard winds, all with the acerbic color of the absurdist's brush. Nearly three years on from Providence, a burst of deadly creativity has resulted in two new albums, to be released simultaneously. [Multiple vinyl colorways are available.]
Hüma Utku - The Psychologist 2xLP (Editions Mego)
The sophomore album from the Istanbul-born and raised, Berlin-based electronic music composer and sound artist Hüma Utku. As the title suggests, The Psychologist is a series of sonic essays based around themes of psychological phenomena and can be read as a musical enquiry into the human condition. Including recordings of Buchla 200 from Utku's Elektronmusikstudion residency in October 2020, The Psychologist is a genre aversive work that embodies elements of synthesizer music, electroacoustic, experimental techno, industrial, modern composition, and spoken word. Piano, string compositions, and vocals hold weight throughout a number of pieces, providing a dramatic acoustic edge to the psychological explorations contained within. The results unravel with both the clockwork rhythms of the human body and the unpredictable nature of the psyche as the pieces follow arrhythmic patterns in a harmonious way.
The Whitmore Sisters – Ghost Stories LP (Red House)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Sisters Eleanor and Bonnie Whitmore, two of roots music's most accomplished songwriter/instrumentalist/vocalists, release their first album together as The Whitmore Sisters. Titled Ghost Stories, it's inspired by the loss of family, friends, ex-boyfriends and - on the title track - people who died by police violence. These "ghosts" chose to appear right as Covid became entrenched - when live music evaporated and people were isolated from each other.
Reissues, Comps, Live Recordings, Vault Excavations & Books...
A Flock Of Seagulls – A Flock Of Seagulls CD (BMG)
Originally released in 1982, A Flock OF Seagulls' eponymous debut reached the top 10 in the US charts, with the smash hit single, “I Ran”, climbing to number 9 in the US Billboard Hot 100. The album - with its pioneering new wave production techniques - received rave reviews at the time, with producer Phil Spector hailing it as 'phenomenal'. This 40th Anniversary edition is available in two remastered editions: expanded three-CD and single-disc orange color vinyl LP.
Peter Barclay – I’m Not Your Toy LP (Numero)
The diminutive Peter Barclay was that guy in early '90s Oakland, the eccentric with the most style, the most talent, the local magician. This self-taught musical wizard recorded at home and produced two barely released albums, 1990's dreamlike Acceptance and 1992's synth pop What Kind Of World, winning over the few who heard them. But fame outside his small circle was not to be, and Barclay was lost in the late-'90s crest of the AIDS epidemic. Rediscovered for a new generation, this is queer music at its finest. [Limited-edition pink vinyl.]
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – The Good Son [Reissue/1990] LP (BMG)
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds – No More Shall We Part [Reissue/2001] LP (BMG)
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! [Reissue/2008] 2xLP (BMG)
Vinyl reissue of the sixth, eleventh and fourteenth albums by Nick Cave’s post-Birthday Party alt rock band.
Chicago – V [Reissue/1972] LP (Friday Music)
Limited gold colored vinyl pressing. Chicago V is the fourth studio album - and fifth album overall - by Chicago, originally released in 1972. It is notable for being the group's first single album release, after having released three consecutive double albums and a four-disc box set of live material.
Attila Csihar – Void Ov Voices : Baalbek LP (Ideologic Organ)
2012 recordings from Void Of Voices, the metal band led by former Mayhem/Tormentor/SunO))) vocalist Attila Csihar.
Charlie Daniels & Friends – Volunteer Jam 1 – 1974: The Legend Begins 2xLP (Blue Hat)
Released last August on CD – now available on vinyl. Thought lost for years, the very first Volunteer Jam from Nashville's War Memorial Auditorium in 1974 is available. Special guests include Toy Caldwell (Marshall Tucker Band) on guitar and steel guitar; Dicky Betts (Allman Brothers) on guitar; Paul Riddle (Marshall Tucker Band) on drums and percussion; and Jamie Nichol on percussion. Recorded live at the War Memorial Auditorium, October 4, 1974.
Deerhoof – Apple O’ [Reissue/2003] LP+7” (Joyful Noise)
Deerhoof's fan-favorite breakthrough album, Apple O', gets a 20th-anniversary edition after years of being out of print in the physical realm. Pressed on cotton candy pink color vinyl with bonus 7” of previously unreleased live recordings.
Joe Ely – Joe Ely [Reissue/1977] LP (MCA Nashville)
Joe Ely – Honkey Tonk Masquerade [Reissue/1978] LP (MCA Nashville)
Joe Ely – Down On The Drag [Reissue/1979] LP (MCA Nashville)
Since his debut in the 1970s, Joe Ely has blended rock ‘n’ roll sensibilities with hardcore honky-tonk to become one of the most recognizable and respected artists from the Lone Star State. Ely's first three solo albums have been remastered and sourced from the original production masters.
Guided By Voices – Sandbox [Reissue/1987] LP (Scat)
Even back in 1987, Guided By Voices was not content to release just one album in a year-Sandbox was released in the summer of that year following Devil Between My Toes' appearance that February. Likewise, in similar GBV style, the sound and approach of the two albums could not be more different. Where Devil mostly mines a darker, lo-fi psychedia, along with several instrumental explorations, Sandbox is sunny, direct, has a bigger, crunchier sound, and zero instrumentals. Where Devil has a murky and impressionistic black and white photo of a rooster for a cover, Sandbox sports a full color photo of the band relaxing on a lawn on a sunny day.
Harem Scarem – Harem Scarem [Reissue/1991] LP (Real Gone Music)
The 1991 debut album from Canadian hard rockers Harem Scarem is one of the most notorious, even legendary, albums to come out north of the border during the '90s. Not only did Harem Scarem feature appearances from Canadian stars Ray Coburn (Honeymoon Suite), Carl Dixon (Coney Hatch), and Ray MacAusland (Haywire), but eight songs from the record appeared on School's Out, the farewell movie to the wildly popular CBC series DeGrassi Junior High.
John Hiatt – Crossing Muddy Waters [Reissue/2000] LP (New West)
John Hiatt & The Goners – Beneath This Gruff Exterior [Reissue/2003] LP (New West)
John Hiatt – Master Of Disaster [Reissue/2005] LP (New West)
John Hiatt – The Tiki Bar Is Open [Reissue/2012] LP (New West)
Black vinyl reissues of four albums by the Indianapolis singer/songwriter.
Kris Kristofferson – Live From Austin TX 2xLP (New West)
Double green and gray vinyl LP pressing. Live archive release from the singer/songwriter. Kris Kristofferson has an unusual resume. Brownsville, Texas-born, football star and Golden Gloves boxer in college, Rhodes scholar at Oxford, Army captain, and chopper pilot, studio janitor, part-time bartender, leading man opposite Barbara Streisand and Jane Fonda. But on his passport, under occupation it reads songwriter. And that, more than anything, sums up the essence of Kris Kristofferson. This performance from September 1981 captures Kris in his prime.
Yusef Lateef – The Three Faces Of Yusef Lateef [Reissue/1960] LP (Life Goes On)
The Three Faces Of Yusef Lateef is an album by multi-instrumentalist Yusef Lateef recorded in 1960 and released on the Riverside label.
Melanie Martinez – Cry Baby [Reissue/2017] 2xLP (Atlantic)
Melanie Martinez's 2015 double-platinum debut album Cry Baby has now been expanded to a two LP set featuring the full deluxe album tracking listing. Three songs ("Play Date", "Teddy Bear" and "Cake") have been added to the album's original 13 tracks while the enclosed booklet has expanded to 20 pages featuring new illustrations.
Jackie McLean – Bluesnik [Reissue/1962] LP (Blue Note)
Alto saxophonist Jackie McLean had the blues on his mind when he went into the Van Gelder Studio in 1961 to record his hard bop masterpiece Bluesnik with a blazing quintet featuring Freddie Hubbard (trumpet), Kenny Drew (piano), Doug Watkins (bass), and Pete La Roca (drums). The six-song set of bluesy originals brims with immediacy and vibrancy.
Mötley Crüe – Crücial Crüe: The Studio Albums 1981-1989 5xCD/5xLP (BMG)
Crücial Crüe features Mötley Crüe's smash-hit, multi-platinum studio albums Too Fast For Love (1981), Shout At The Devil (1983), Theatre Of Pain (1985), Girls, Girls, Girls (1987), and Dr. Feelgood (1989). [The vinyl box set features a splatter colorway of each title.]
Motörhead – Hammered [Reissue/2002] CD (BMG)
Hammered is the 16th studio album by British rock band Motörhead, originally released in 2002. It was recorded in Hollywood and Motörhead was now a three-piece band, with Mikkey Dee on drums, Phil Campbell on guitar and Lemmy on vocals and bass.
Ogassa – Ogassa Original Vol. 1 [Reissue/1978] LP (Acid Jazz)
The first LP from the obscure but ultimately brilliant Porto Novo group, Ogassa from 1978. Like many Albarika releases, it was recorded at EMI Lagos, giving a depth and fidelity that stands out in the realm of Afro rarities. Reissued in full with the original artwork for the very first time, this is a must have for Afro collectors and completists alike.
Horace Parlan – Speakin’ My Piece [Reissue/1960] LP (Blue Note)
Best known for his work with Charles Mingus, pianist Horace Parlan began recording for Blue Note in 1960 with an excellent run of hard bop classics including Speakin' My Piece, a quintet date featuring a frontline of Stanley Turrentine (saxophone) and Tommy Turrentine (trumpet) with the rhythm team of George Tucker (bass) and Al Harewood (drums).
Oscar Peterson Trio – Vancouver, 1958 LP (Justin Time)
Oscar Peterson was one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time, releasing over 200 recordings, winning seven Grammy Awards, as well as a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy.
Kenny Rogers & the First Edition - Kenny Rogers & the First Edition 2LP (Reel Music / Good Time Records)
Kenny Rogers’ fame as a solo musician in country and pop music has somewhat overshadowed this band’s impressive array of hits during the late sixties. Billed until 1969 as just The First Edition, the group developed a unique sound blending folk and country with psychedelic rock. Their first major brush with fame was the release of "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)", a psych single with Rogers on lead vocals. Rebranded as Kenny Rogers & The First Edition, the group went on to work with producer and record executive Jimmy Bowen who produced the sessions herein. A unique double album pressed on trans-violet colored vinyl, transferred from the original master tapes.
Daniel Romano – Content To Point The Way – Archives Vol. 4 LP+MP3 (You’ve Changed)
Daniel Romano – Forever Love’s Fool – Archives Vol. 5 LP (You’ve Changed)
Daniel Romano – Dandelion – Archives Vol. 6 LP+MP3 (You’ve Changed)
In 2020, Daniel Romano and his increasingly exalted band "The Outfit" were forced home, faced with the cancellation of tours and all live engagements at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Almost immediately, Daniel instigated a near legendary run of new albums, releasing twn full-length albums in the span of nearly the same number of weeks. Genre-spanning, astoundingly distinct artist achievements of an unprecedented order, these albums were originally released exclusively in digital only formats on Bandcamp. They were direct and immediate missives from one of the most talented, prolific, ambitious, and exciting artists of his generation. They are now available in special limited-edition vinyl pressings.
Various Artists – Birthright: A Black Roots Music Compendium 2xCD (Craft Recordings)
In the span of just 40 songs, Birthright offers an expansive overview of American Black roots music - from old-time banjo and traditional jazz to Mississippi hill country blues - demonstrating the pervasive influence of these styles on popular culture from country to hip-hop. This rollicking ride through the joyful landscape of African American musical invention includes essays from musician/scholars Dom Flemons and Corey Harris, as well as an essay and track notes by co-producer Ted Olson.