Vinyl
At this point, it is almost impossible to say what makes for a classic Animal Collective album; the standard fluctuates with the weather, your temperament, whatever chemicals may or may not waft through your mind. But from start to finish, first listen to last, Isn’t It Now? absolutely lands as a classic, its mix of playfulness and earnestness, glittery pop and tessellated textures seeming to synthesize and update all that has ever made and still makes this band so compelling. It is experienced and wise, energized and young, the work of four people committed to finding the frontier of a beginner’s mind, together. Recorded, mixed and co-produced by Russell Elevado (D’Angelo, The Roots, Kamasi Washington).
Green Day
Dookie: 30th Anniversary [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Deluxe Brown 6LP Box Set]
Vinyl: $174.98 Buy
Green Day’s third studio album Dookie was released in February 1994, and has since sold over 15 million copies worldwide, including 10 million in the US (RIAA Diamond certified). The album is an iconic punk-rock-pop masterpiece and one of the most influential and defining albums of the 1990’s. It spawned five hit singles that are still hugely popular songs: “Longview”, “Basket Case”, “Welcome to Paradise”, “When I Come Around”, and “She”.
Limited Edition Super Deluxe Box Sets (vinyl and CD) will be released on September 29, 2023, to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of this landmark album.
In addition to the original album, the super deluxe box sets will include a wealth of rare and unreleased material. The legendary Woodstock ’94 performance is included – previously released as a very limited Record Store Day vinyl release. The 6 LPs (or 4 CDs) also feature 17 unreleased demos, 6 studio outtakes (3 unreleased), and a 17-track unreleased club show from Barcelona in 1994.
The deluxe vinyl box features the six LPs pressed on 6 different varieties of brown vinyl, plus a 36-page 12” x 12” book. The box also includes many fun memorabilia items inspired by the “Dookie” artwork: Doggie Poop Bags, Air-Freshener, Poster, Color-in litho, Button Set, Magnet Sheet, Postcard, Bumper Sticker and Paper Plane.
The CD box includes 4 CDs (the same audio content as the vinyl box), 48-page book, Button Set, Air-Freshener, Magnet and two stickers.
Ed Sheeran is releasing his new album Autumn Variations on September 29 through Gingerbread Man Records. The album has been produced by Aaron Dessner and features 14 new tracks.
“Last autumn, I found that my friends and I were going through so many life changes. After the heat of the summer, everything either calmed, settled, fell apart, came to a head or imploded,” says Ed Sheeran.
“When I went through a difficult time at the start of last year, writing songs helped me understand my feelings and come to terms with what was going on, and when I learned about my friend’s different situations, I wrote songs, some from their perspectives, some from mine, to capture how they and I viewed the world at that time. There were highs of falling in love and new friendships among lows of heartbreak, depression, loneliness and confusion.”
“My dad and brother told me about a composer called Elgar, who composed ‘Enigma Variations’, where each of the 14 compositions were about a different one of his friends. This is what inspired me to make this album. When I recorded Subtract with Aaron Dessner, we clicked immediately. We wrote and recorded non-stop and this album was born out of that partnership. I feel he has captured the feeling of autumn so wonderfully in his sonics and I hope everyone loves it as much as I do.”
It’s been four years since Cherry Glazerr released their resplendent third album Stuffed and Ready, but Clementine Creevy has been in no rush. “I’ve spent these years taking a hard look at myself, at my relationships, and writing about it,” she says. “I guess I’m coming to terms with a lot of my bullshit.” Cherry Glazerr has been on the road more often than not since Creevy was still in high school, and when the pandemic hit, she immersed herself in a static existence she’d been deprived of.
Creevy describes Cherry Glazerr’s ambitious new album, I Don’t Want You Anymore, as some of her most personal, raw music to date, a collection of songs that elaborate on this period of self-reckoning. It’s the first she’s produced since Cherry Glazerr’s garage rock debut, Haxel Princess, released nearly a decade ago when Creevy was a teenager.
A first time to vinyl reissue treatment of HAIM’s chart-topping debut album Days Are Gone, in celebration of the 10th anniversary. Featuring the six singles, ‘Forever’, ‘Don’t Save Me’, ‘Falling’, ‘The Wire’, ‘If I Could Change Your Mind’ & ‘My Song 5’, the record hasn’t been reissued since its release in 2013. Housed in an entirely new package, the album features a track list compiled by the band of their favorite demos and remixes on transparent green vinyl. Also features an exclusive fold out poster.
Jason Isbell's songs are filled with ghosts. They're haunted by spirits both welcome and unwelcome, by the personal and historical legacies that make us who we are. Nowhere Is this more evident than on his 2013 breakthrough album Southeastern. Isbell offers confessions. reflections. and promises that contront and make communion with those who have come before and remain wIth us still. Its twelve tracks represent an extended meditation on the concept articulated by another celebrated southern storyteller, author William Faulkner: "The past is never dead. It isn't even past."
Usher's second album, My Way, established him as a young and skillful R&B artist with slow jams and memorable guest artists. The 25th Anniversary Edition includes alternative album art that pays homage to the original cover from 1997 and a 2nd LP of 3 re-imagined tracks, “You Make Me Wanna… ,” “Nice & Slow,” and “My Way” by James Carr.
RSD Essential 043 * Includes 4 Bonus Tracks* Celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Neighbourhood's debut album "I Love You." with the new 180g 2-LP exclusively at Independent Record Stores as an RSD Essentials title. The new edition includes bonus tracks from the EPs "Thank You" and "I'm Sorry..." as well as the band’s hit songs "Sweater Weather" and “Afraid.”
On Yard, Wisconsin-bred, Chicago-based four-piece Slow Pulp nes- tles comfortably into pockets of nuance, impressions, contradictions— sonics and lyrics finessed together to bottle the specific tension of a feeling you’ve never quite been able to find the right words for. In that regard, listening to Slow Pulp can feel like being in a room with someone who’s known you so long that they can read your every micro-expression and pinpoint exactly how you’re feeling before you can. Perhaps this spawns from the band’s own shared history and chemistry; in various ways, the four of them grew up—are still grow- ing up—together.
The dreamy songs of the Midwest indie rock outfit draw on moody shoegaze, hooky grunge, and intimate lo-fi fare. The band made their full-length debut with Moveys in 2020. After the downcast 2021 7” Deleted Scenes, they put the focus on hooky grunge pop for singles like 2021’s “In Too Deep” and 2023’s “Cramps.” Yard is their second full-length album and first for ANTI-.
Djo – the critically acclaimed brainchild of multi-talented musician/actor Joe Keery – makes its long awaited return with the game-changing new album, DECIDE. A spellbinding collage of snaky pop hooks, neon melodies, and deeply personal singer-songwriter lyricism, the album melds high-tech songcraft with quick wit, irrepressible spirit, and an impressive breadth of vision that showcases glowing synths and big beats over the trippy guitars that defined 2019’s acclaimed debut, TWENTY TWENTY. Blissed-out bops like “Change” see Keery delving deep into a broad spectrum of eclectic influences, deconstructing hyperpop, euphoric psychedelia, spiky new wave, and symphonic 70’s rock into something utterly unique via dauntless melodies and technical innovation.
Escape The Fate
This Wars Is Ours: 15th Anniversary Edition [White w/Red & Green Splatter LP]
Vinyl: $26.98 Buy
After a year of drama and speculation, Escape the Fate return stronger and heavier than ever. Their sophomore release, This War Is Ours, marks the debut of singer Craig Mabbit (formerly of Bless the Fall) and has all the elements that made Dying is Your Latest Fashion such an immediate success. The blistering guitars, beyond-heavy breakdowns and an in-your-face attitude remain, and the addition of Craig’s mad vocal skills - from the deepest growls to the most emotive harmonies - propels ETF beyond the fray. From the formidable breakdowns of “The Flood,” to radio-ready heartbreak in “Something,” to the theatricality of “It’s Just Me,” Escape The Fate proves this is a band destined to triumph. First time pressing on limited edition White with Red & Green splatter vinyl to celebrate the album’s 15th anniversary!
Ricky Montgomery - Rick / Richard Owen Holmes Montgomery, known professionally as Ricky Montgomery, is an American singer-songwriter. In 2020, his songs went viral on TikTok, leading to being signed with Warner Records later that year. Vinyl LP pressing.
‘Metallic Spheres’ by The Orb and David Gilmour, the guitar and voice of Pink Floyd, has been reimagined and remixed as ‘Metallic Spheres In Colour.’ Of this rework, producer Youth says ‘The idea for Metallic Spheres In Colour, was that Alex Paterson (founder of The Orb) could have done more on the first version, and he didn't really have the opportunity because we had a philosophy of making the music like the Blade Runner soundtrack meets Wish You Were Here. So, I asked him why don't we remix it and make it like an Orb classic? And in doing that, it's almost like a completely different album.’
Elvin Jones, one of the true great drummers in jazz, recorded this album in 1971 after having led his own band for several years following his immortal work with the John Coltrane Quartet. This unique recording has a spacious feel with plenty of room for the players to work out the melodic compositions created by the members of the group. At times the recording creates an almost cinematic space, yet always propelling forward into unexpected territory. No pandering to contemporary tastes at this date or following the trends of the time, this is simply a great example of mature musicians given the freedom to create their own vision and place in time. Saxophonists Frank Foster and Dave Liebman instruments intertwine in a spellbinding way with opportunities to showcase Jones' incredible virtuosity as a drummer. An album that reveals itself to the listener slowly with new delights every time it's removed from the jacket.
313 Series
Detroit has long held a shared respect with New York; a similar outlook on authenticity. Tough to describe, but you know it when you see it. Third Man Records and Blue Note Records share this respect and also a commitment to integrity regarding the musical legacies they support that extends to the collaboration happening on the 313 Series partnership. The five unique albums from the Blue Note catalog chosen for limited edition re-release by Blue Note Records President and Detroiter Don Was represent the best of the Motor City; innovative sounds, incredible playing and that inexplicable something you know is real.
For an undertaking like this you have to walk the extra mile. The original tapes were sent to Third Man's Detroit mastering and pressing facility where their extensive all analog re-mastering process ensured that the albums delivered live up to the tradition they are part of. The Third Man Records team's commitment to audio purity means no corners can be cut; sound and mastering engineer Warren Defever's goal being to provide the closest possible approximation of the magic found on the original master's tape brought to your living room. From the lacquers cut in the studio on the Neumann VMS-70 Cutting Lathe to the 180 gram vinyl pressed across the hall, every step of the process is tested in the facilities against exacting standards. That's the Detroit way and the reason why the musical legacy from the 313 area code remains beloved around the world.
Elvin Jones - drums
Gene Perla - bass
Frank Foster - tenor saxophone, alto flute
Dave Liebman - tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone
Recorded at Van Gelder Studio - Englewood Cliffs, NJ 1971 by Rudy Van Gelder
Detroit has a long tradition of being the farm team for the Big Apple jazz big leagues, but just as important is the acknowledgement of local legends who left their mark on the city by staying put and releasing amazing music right in Detroit. Kenny Cox and the Contemporary Jazz Quintet is one such group that could have and definitely should have had a wider audience in their day, but their recorded legacy continues to grow in estimation. Truly a comprehensive group with no weak links, the compositions and playing on this record show the incredible talent and innovation that was brewing in Detroit before, during and after Motown locked its doors in the Motor City.
Of note is group member Charles Moore, an important figure in the jazz and arts scene in Detroit and founding member of an underground art and music co-operative called the Detroit Artist Workshop. A talented musician and composer in his own right, Moore and group leader Cox composed all the material on Multidirection. Cox described it as ''more of an orchestral-type effort than just a combo per se.'' in the original release liner notes by Nat Hentoff. Both were integral in the future DIY jazz universe by co-founding the highly influential Strata Records. But before embarking on that journey, his group recorded two timeless classics for Blue Note Records. Like many of the greatest musical albums, this work shines brightest as a whole with new dimensions to discover with each listen. This new and exciting re-issue is certain to provide the listening experience with the best possible platform.
313 Series
Detroit has long held a shared respect with New York; a similar outlook on authenticity. Tough to describe, but you know it when you see it. Third Man Records and Blue Note Records share this respect and also a commitment to integrity regarding the musical legacies they support that extends to the collaboration happening on the 313 Series partnership. The five unique albums from the Blue Note catalog chosen for limited edition re-release by Blue Note Records President and Detroiter Don Was represent the best of the Motor City; innovative sounds, incredible playing and that inexplicable something you know is real.
For an undertaking like this you have to walk the extra mile. The original tapes were sent to Third Man's Detroit mastering and pressing facility where their extensive all analog re-mastering process ensured that the albums delivered live up to the tradition they are part of. The Third Man Records team's commitment to audio purity means no corners can be cut; sound and mastering engineer Warren Defever's goal being to provide the closest possible approximation of the magic found on the original master's tape brought to your living room. From the lacquers cut in the studio on the Neumann VMS-70 Cutting Lathe to the 180 gram vinyl pressed across the hall, every step of the process is tested in the facilities against exacting standards. That's the Detroit way and the reason why the musical legacy from the 313 area code remains beloved around the world.
Kenny Cox - piano
Charles Moore - trumpet
Danny Spencer - Drums
Ron Brooks - Bass
Leon Henderson - Tenor Sax
Recorded at GM Recording Studio - East Detroit, MI 1969 by Jim Bruzzese
Gearing up for another pivotal creative chapter, GRAMMY® Award-winning UK singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer James Blake has released “Big Hammer,” the debut single from his forthcoming, sixth studio album Playing Robots Into Heaven which will be released on September 8, 2023. Playing Robots Into Heaven follows the critically acclaimed Friends That Break Your Heart and will see James return to the electronic roots of his Hessle, Hemlock and R&S records days. It will also nod to his latest creation, the CMYK event series with Ronda INTL which kicked off in Los Angeles last March and will be venturing to London on July 6th.

"Flying Wig" is an album of recurrent dualities; a can of paradoxes, a box of worms. The pine-surrounded cabin studio where Banhart was “constantly listening to The Grateful Dead” somehow birthed something slick, city pop-adjacent and eno-esque. It’s the actualisation of a “precious friendship” with producer Cate Le Bon - a coming together prophesied by the mirror-image titles of their early solo albums (Banhart’s “Oh Me Oh My” / Le Bon’s “Me Oh My”), a tenderness built on crude haircuts (“we finally met, soon after she was cutting my hair with a fork and that was that”) and home-made tattoos.
My favorite moments in the human experience are ones that you don’t even realize have started, but feel so deeply when you realize they’ve ended. I refer to these as ‘Ultrapure’ moments. This album was my humble, unqualified, and earnest as hell attempt at sitting in those feelings until they had no choice but to burst out of my head. These songs are about a type of pain I hate and love, but mostly have a deep appreciation for.
Slaughter Beach, Dog’s new album Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling finds Jacob Ewald hitting his songwriting stride. A decade into steadily releasing records through Slaughter Beach, Dog and Modern Baseball, Ewald spent hundreds of hours over the past few years to listen purposefully, diving deep into the worlds of Randy Newman, Tom Waits, Neil Young and many other “classic guys” that he hadn’t spent ample time with. Ewald also spent a similar amount of hours meticulously assembling a band fit for these new songs, and I am very happy to report that he found what he was looking for.
Kiefer’s newest album It’s Ok, B U marks a return to a beat-driven style after several years of live band projects for the acclaimed GRAMMY Award-winning artist - The album is accompanied by exclusive custom visuals by Barcelona-based artist María Medem, who created a visual universe specific to the album. - Video content across the project to include 3 custom animated visuals, private live sessions,and live streamed performances - Past Press & Radio highlights: Pitchfork, Paste, Bandcamp, Mojo, FACT, Mixmag, Drowned in Sound, and many more. - Over 65 million global track streams across all platforms - Loyal and highly engaged online community. Social stats include: YouTube - 3M+views; Instagram - 149k+ followers; Twitch - 12k+ subscribers; Twitter - 10k+ followers; Discord - 2.5k members; TikTok - 2.5k+ followers - Vinyl cut at 45 rpm for top audiophile quality - Exclusive moon yellow indie color vinyl - Value adds for indie retail, active digital marketing and radio campaigns, solo in-stores around US tour dates
A defining album of the 90s, Last Splash by The Breeders turns 30 this year. To celebrate, the band have returned to the original tapes to give it its first-ever remaster, and by doing so have also unearthed two lost tracks that will delight fans.
Recorded by the ‘classic’ Breeders line-up of Kim Deal, Kelley Deal, Josephine Wiggs and Jim Macpherson and featuring singles ‘Cannonball’ and ‘Divine Hammer’, Last Splash was “an alt-rock classic” (Pitchfork’s Top 100 Records of 1990s) on release; a fast seller too, quickly attaining Platinum status in the US.
Despite having had the boxset treatment on its 20th birthday, the album was still left to be remastered so 10 years on, the original ½” tapes were taken out of the archives and have been lovingly worked on by Kim Deal, Benjamin Mumphrey and Miles Showell (Abbey Road).
Never sounding so good, the album for its 30th anniversary, it’s getting the ultimate vinyl pressing. Entitled Last Splash (the 30th Anniversary Original Analog Edition), this new version has been cut at half speed at Abbey Road by Miles Showell, now spanning two LPs and running at 45rpm.
This edition contains an exclusive, one-sided etched 12” which features two previously unreleased tracks – ‘Go Man Go’ and ‘Divine Mascis’ (‘Go Man Go’ is a track that Kim co-wrote with Black Francis while ‘Divine Mascis’ is a different version of ‘Divine Hammer’ with Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis on lead vocals). Both tracks originate from the original sessions and were left forgotten until the sessions were exhumed to create this new master.
The attention to detail continues to the album’s art, which equally celebrates Vaughan Oliver’s iconic sleeve. With Vaughan sadly no longer with us, his long-time design partner Chris Bigg has gloriously reimagined the album’s sleeve for this new version.
Harvest Moon, Neil Young’s 19th studio album, was first released in 1992 and has since become one of Young’s most loved and successful albums, selling over 2 million copies in the US. The album features many of Neil’s most popular songs, including From Hank To Hendrix, Natural Beauty, Unknown Legend, One Of These Days, and the fan-favorite title track. The band on the album had also played with Neil on Harvest: Ben Keith, Spooner Oldham, Tim Drummond, and Kenny Buttrey. Guests contributing backing vocals included Nicolette Larson, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor. This limited edition 2-LP set is pressed on clear vinyl, with an etching on side D.
Buddy & Julie Miller
In The Throes [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Autographed Seaglass Blue LP]
Vinyl: $31.98 Buy
After forty years of marriage, Buddy and Julie Miller have learned to welcome a song however it arrives, questioning only where the song is taking them rather than where it originated. There’s no process, no assembly-line procedure, just an openness to those bursts of inspiration and those hours of refinement, which means their fourth album together, In the Throes, sounds lively and diverse, eccentric and slightly askew: a deeply soulful collision of mournful gospel, dusty country, cosmic blues, lusty rockabilly, ecstatic r&b, and anything else that crosses their minds.
Anches En Maat is the first new album from Grails in over a half-decade – following the masterful Chalice Hymnal in 2017 – and their first album recorded with all members in the studio together since Doomsdayer’s Holiday in 2008. With every Grails album released since Doomsdayer’s Holidaybeing a sprawling double-album endeavor, Anches En Maat was conceived as a return to the comparatively efficient single LP runtime. With that, Grails set out to craft the same sonically dense world that their longer albums showcased, while trading singular indulgences for live collaborative interplay.

Public Enemy
Yo! Bum Rush The Show [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Fruit Punch LP]
Vinyl: $29.99 Buy
The American south isn't just Brent Cobb's home. It's his muse, too. A Georgia native, he fills his Grammy-nominated songwriting with the sounds and stories of an area that's been home to southern rockers, soul singers, country legends, and bluesmen. Cobb has a name for that rich tapestry of music — "southern eclectic" — and he offers up his own version of it with his newest album, Southern Star.
"Down here, there's a lot going on and there's nothing going on at the same time," he says. "You've got all these different cultures in the south, and everything is mixed in together. Otis Redding and Little Richard were from the same town in Georgia. So were the Allman Brothers. James Brown and Ray Charles grew up right down the road. All these sounds reflect the South itself, and that music has influenced the whole world. It's definitely influenced mine."
Filled with country-soul songwriting, laid back grooves, and classic storytelling, Southern Star distills the best parts of southern culture into 10 of the strongest songs in Cobb's catalog. He began writing the material after leaving Nashville — where he spent a decade releasing solo records like 2016's Shine On Rainy Day (which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Americana Album) while penning hit songs for Luke Combs, Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town, and dozens of others — and returning with his family to Georgia. It was a time of change. Not long after celebrating the arrival of his second child, Cobb found himself mourning the death of his longtime friend, Jason "Rowdy" Cope of The Steel Woods.
"Rowdy was like my older brother," says Cobb, who named Southern Star in part after a small-town bar that he and Cope used to frequent. "He loved the music that came out of Georgia, and he helped me appreciate it even more. A lot of artists like to branch out and become experimental as their career continues, but I sort of go the opposite way. I feel like I can never go wrong if I continue to get closer and closer to the core of who I am and what I love, musically. Coming back to Georgia helped me with that. Southern Star is the sound of me getting closer to the source."
Don't let Cobb's breezy songs about rural life fool you. There's some serious complexity lurking beneath the surface. At first glance, "It's a Start" unfolds like the soundtrack to a leisurely afternoon in the south, with Cobb singing the praises of crawfish, barbecue, and day-drinking. Dig deeper, though, and the song reveals itself to be something more universal: a reminder to appreciate the small things in life, stay mindful, and chase down new horizons at your own pace. To Cobb, there's something distinctly southern about that message, too. "Sometimes, there ain't shit going on down here," he says with a laugh, "but since there's nothing else to do, you learn to be laid back. You learn to use your imagination, and you wind up imitating your surroundings. These songs sound like the place that inspired them. On 'It's a Start,' when the organ comes in, it reminds me of the sound of the cicadas and frogs you hear in the springtime."
Cobb doesn't just imitate his surroundings with Southern Star. He immerses himself within them. To record the album, he headed to Macon and set up shop at Capricorn Sound Studios, where artists like the Marshall Tucker Band, Charlie Daniels, and Percy Sledge once roamed the halls. "I decided to use all local musicians," says Cobb, who self-produced the album with help from Oran Thorton. "I wanted Southern Star to shine a light on the southern players who are still living and working in Macon. Everyone on the album is a Georgia native apart from Jimmy Matt Rowland, who plays keys, and Oran Thornton, my engineer and co-producer. That's it. I wanted to capture that 'southern eclectic' sound on this album, and I don't think you can capture it without being in it."
Eclectic, indeed. Track like "Devil Ain't Done," "Livin' the Dream," and "On't Know When" dish up greasy servings of country-fried funky-tonk, while "Patina" and "Kick the Can" evoke the unhurried sounds of 1970s folk music. "When Country Came Back To Town" even shifts its focus to Los Angeles (where Cobb recorded his indie debut, No Place to Leave, with producers Shooter Jennings and his own Grammy-winning cousin, Dave Cobb) and Nashville. The song is a salute to the unsung heroes of the music communities in both cities, laced with shout-outs to Nikki Lane, Hayes Carll, and others. "It's about the friends I've made along the nearly 20-year-old path it's taken for the independent country movement to grow into what it is today," he adds.
During the months leading up to Southern Star's release, Cobb spent much of his time on the road, playing to stadium crowds of 60,000 people as Luke Combs' opening act. Perhaps that's why Southern Star feels so well-timed. Not only is it a snapshot of an artist at the peak of his songwriting abilities; it's also a love letter to his southern roots, made all the more potent by his recent travels.
"You know how when you’re growing up, you're told that if you ever get lost out there, look for the northern star to help find direction back home?" he asks. "Well, I'm from Georgia, so I always look for the southern star. This album, the songs, the sounds… they're all a product of where I'm from, both musically and environmentally. Historically and presently, that area also happens to be the same place that cultivated a good many of the most influential artists in the whole world of music. Music as we know it would not exist without the American south. It's funky and sentimental. It's simple and complex."
With Brent Cobb, the southern star shines on.
British singer-songwriter Bakar’s highly anticipated second album ‘Halo’, is the follow-up to his 2022 debut ‘Nobody’s Home’. In addition to the new single ‘Alive!’ the album also includes the #1 hit single ‘Hell n Back.’ The LP is pressed on ultra-clear vinyl.
Will Johnson’s ninth solo album, No Ordinary Crown, hums with palpable motion. Travelers, runners and conductors fill its lyrics, and gesticulating storms and emotional highs and lows seep through the instinctual quality of its rock ’n roll performances. It’s also cabled by ephemeral momentum.
The songs were conceived in stolen moments and brief windows of time between the responsibilities of family and a multi-hyphenate career. The singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, painter and novelist describes the demo process as “fairly jagged,” a gathering and stitching of audio snippets recorded via cell phone and dictaphone over a year and half. “I finalized the songson short tours where I could hear my thoughts a bitmore clearly,” he says.
Killer Mike’s MICHAEL marks the celebrated MC’s first solo project since 2012’s R.A.P. Music. MICHAEL introduces the world to the totality of Michael Render, a lifelong rap fiend whose consciousness is steeped in the sounds of community that raised him – multiple eras of southern rap flows, Sunday church service and barbershop discourse. A 14-track album produced by No ID featuring the likes of Future, Young Thug, Ty Dolla $ign, Curren$y, André 3000, 6LACK, EL-P, Blxst, Eryn Allen Kane and more! 2 LP set includes a 24” x 12” pull-out insert.
The indie exclusive of STONE LP is a ruby red LP housed in a heavyweight printed inner sleeve inside of a spot UV gatefold jacket with black flood and a four-panel lyric booklet. All artwork by John Dyer Baizley. Produced by Baroness, mixed by Joe Barresi, mastered by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering. Only available at independent record stores.
Grammy-award nominated heavy rock outfit Baroness mark their much-anticipated return with new album, STONE. Their sixth record overall and third released via Abraxan Hymns, STONE finds the Philadelphia-based quartet of John Baizley (guitars/vocals/illustration), Gina Gleason (guitars), Nick Jost (bass), and Sebastian Thomson (drums) streamlining the momentous multi-genre vocabulary of its critically-acclaimed predecessor Gold & Grey (2019). This is still very much Baroness—just refocused for efficiency and rethought as a consequence of stability. STONE’s most prominent tracks, "Last Word,” “Beneath the Rose,” “Shine,” and “Anodyne," reflect thoughtfully, groove deeply, and refract tumult effortlessly. They, of course, rock.
Nation of Language
Strange Disciple [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Clear LP]
Vinyl: $31.98 Buy
"Alan Palomo (fka Neon Indian) is making his return this year with the brand new album World of Hassle. As Neon Indian, Alan most recently released VEGA INTL. Night School in 2015 and Era Extraña in 2013. His 2009 debut record Psychic Chasms not only earned the musician a spot on numerous year-end lists, but assisted the forming of a genre that, though known by a few names now (hypnagogic pop, glo-fi, chillwave), summoned a very unique and specific electro-mangled sound.
Palomo’s World of Hassle is a Pynchonesque place, packed with characters and situations rendered in dreamily absurdist strokes—guerilla freedom fighters camped out in a Rainforest Cafe in “The Wailing Mall,” a crumbling ex-pop star in “The Return of Mickey Milan,” the Leisure Suit Larry-does-Ibiza fantasy of “Nudista Mundial ’89” (featuring Mac DeMarco, who hosted some of the album’s sessions in his home studio). It’s parody, sure—of rock star ego trips, the mall-ification of America, and our own self-obsession, even on the brink of apocalypse—but it’s also dead serious, the sound of history repeating itself as the Doomsday Clock clicks past its Reagan-era maximum and nuclear anxiety comes back into style along with digital synthesizers and sax solos. The deeper it pulls you into its own uncanny reality, the clearer it becomes how thin the borders are between Alan Palomo’s World of Hassle and our own."
Corinne Bailey Rae
Black Rainbows [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Opaque Red LP]
Vinyl: $29.98 Buy
Black Rainbows is a musical project inspired by the objects and artworks collected by Theaster Gates at the Stoney Island Arts Bank in Chicago. Situated at the Great Grand Crossing neighborhoods of Chicago's South Side, Stoney Island Arts Bank is a cathedral to Black Art, a curated collection of Black archives comprising books, sculpture, records, furniture and problematic objects from America's past. As well as being a site for archive, the Arts bank is also a place for convening. Bailey Rae attended The Black Artists Retreat there in 2017 and performed in the space.
Wide ranging in it's themes, Black Rainbows' subjects are drawn from encounters with objects in the Arts Bank. Taking us from the rock hewn churches of Ethiopia, to the journeys of Black Pioneers Westward, from Miss New York Transit Queen 1957, to how the sunset appears from Harriet Jacobs' loophole. Black Rainbows explores Black femininity, Spell Work, Inner Space/Outer Space, time collapse and ancestors, the erasure Black childhood and music as a vessel for transcendence. The project will be released in various iterations - live performances, books, visuals, lectures, exhibitions, and more. Sonically, the album is a multi-genre mix of the progressive R&B, neo soul sound that will be familiar to fans but it also contains rock, jazz and electronic elements. The album was produced by S.J. Brown and Corinne Bailey Rae.

Multi-platinum selling artist Thirty Seconds to Mars makes a triumphant return with their sixth studio album, It’s The End Of The World But It’s A Beautiful Day. The record heralds a new era for the band, one that not only explores the darker sides of the human experience but the hope as well, an arresting reminder that even in the face of seemingly impossible obstacles, there is still beauty to be found in the world.
The Who
Who's Next: Remastered [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Coke Bottle Clear LP]
Vinyl: $39.98 Buy
Remastered version of the album, housed in the original jacket with a printed sleeves and pressed on 180gm Coke Bottle Clear vinyl. Indie Exclusive. Limited Edition.
The Remastered albums are available in the following formats: Limited Edition Super Deluxe 10CD/Blu-ray, Deluxe 2CD, CD, LP, Limited Edition Deluxe 4LP, Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Coke Bottle Clear LP, Half Speed LP
Coke Bottle Clear Color Vinyl. K. Flay returns with her latest studio album MONO. This album features 15 all new songs including "Raw Raw," "Shy" and "Punisher," as well as Irish Goodbye, her collaboration with Vic Fuentes from Pierce The Veil.
First establishing himself as an influential poet, then an award-winning screenwriter/actor, Saul Williams then went on to become an MC. His approach to MCing, though, wasn't exactly in line with the traditional school of hip hop. His rhymes weren't really rhymes, but rather his poetry delivered in a frenzied, spoken word manner that was more rhythmic than alliterate. Released in 2004, this self-titled album features guests like Zach de la Roca and members from Mars Volta.
Tyler Childers
Rustin’ in the Rain [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Green Blend LP]
Vinyl: $23.98 Buy
Rustin’ in the Rain is the eagerly anticipated new album from singer-songwriter Tyler Childers. This collection of new songs is Childers’ sixth studio album, and the follow up to his critically acclaimed release Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven?.
Rustin’ in the Rain is produced by Childers alongside his longtime band The Food Stamps, and the album features the heartfelt single “In Your Love,” which Tyler first teased to fans earlier in 2023 during his Bonnaroo Music Festival performance.
Olivia Rodrigo
GUTS [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Lavender LP]
Vinyl: $29.99 Buy
3-time GRAMMY® award winning recording artist olivia rodrigo will release her new album, GUTS, on september 8th via geffen records. available to pre-order now.
GUTS was recorded with producer daniel nigro, who also collaborated with her on SOUR, her chart-topping, 4x platinum debut album.
“for me, this album is about growing pains and about trying to figure out who I am at this point in my life and exactly what I want to say in my songs."
Courtney Barnett
End of the Day (music from the film Anonymous Club) [Milky Clear LP]
Vinyl: $31.98 Buy
Anonymous Club is Danny Cohen’s candid documentary about the personal travails and hard-fought triumphs of Courtney Barnett, as she rose through the ranks of indie rock during the last decade. A cautiously redemptive portrait, any happy ending reflects the possibilities of fulfillment and stability, not the things themselves. In May 2021, months before the film’s release, Courtney Barnett and collaborator Stella Mozgawa rendezvoused with Cohen in Melbourne to shape a score that fit that premise—nothing too obvious or instructive, to tell the audience how they should feel. Barnett found she liked listening to what the duo had made, existing within its reflective gaze. She began sorting through those little instrumentals like amoebic puzzle pieces, figuring out how they fit into a full picture. The result is a seamless series of 17 instrumental improvisations called End of the Day: Music from the Film ‘Anonymous Club’, soundtrack reimagined as impressionistic sound-art collage. Like Barnett’s rock songs, they wordlessly ask hard questions of our softest parts, wondering what it is we really find there.
Anyone who has had the pleasure of seeing Jalen perform live knows that he is one of the most captivating performers on today's soul scene. His upcoming full length debut on Daptone Records is equal parts raw feeling and elegance and exudes confidence and charm. Over the last few months he has disarmed packed rooms of rowdy concert goers, leaving them silent as they hold fast to every syllable sung. Recorded at Hive Mind Studios in Brooklyn, NY, with the help of producer/arrangers Mike Buckley and Vincent Chiarito (both members of Charles Bradley's Extraordinaires) and crack team of a-list musicians, his upcoming album blends heavy arrangements and introspective lyrics with sophistication, leaving the listener in a blissful wash of wonderment. Now with a massively successful US tour opening for sweet soul darlings Thee Sacred Souls behind him, 2023 is sure to be a propitious year for Daptone's newest signee.

The Loveliest Time is the follow-up to 2022’s The Loneliest Time, which continues in Jepsen’s tradition of coupled releases — but this time they’re not so much B-sides as they are a second chapter. While The Loneliest Time was born from a period of isolation and self-discovery, The Loveliest Time is a celebration of that growth. Featuring shimmering lead single Shy Boy, The Loveliest Time is Jepsen at her most experimental and intimate to date. Available on Milky White LP.