You know, the last few years we’ve seen a few big releases right away in January, but this year, NOTHING. Finally some new releases are starting to trickle in, but not a ton. Loads of big stuff getting announced lately though, don’t worry, your wallet will be crying soon enough.
…..pick of the week.….
OST: Blade Runner (Rhino) LP
This iconic score is available again! Don’t miss out this time!!!! “The Blade Runner soundtrack was composed by Vangelis for Ridley Scott’s 1982 film, considered one of the finest sci-fi movies ever made. It is mostly a dark, melodic combination of classical compositions and synthesizers which mirrors the futuristic film noir envisioned by Scott. The soundtrack holds legendary status and at the time was well-received by fans and critics including Best Original Score nominations for a BAFTA and Golden Globe yet, except for a few cuts, it was not released until 1994. The movie remains a classic film with a long list of popular movie stars including Harrison Ford, Daryl Hannah, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, most of whom appear on this record in movie dialog samples mixed into the 12 tracks of nearly one hour of music. Vangelis makes each track flow into one another. The soundtrack features vocal contributions from Demis Roussos and the sax solo by Dick Morrissey on “Love Theme.” The gatefold jacket includes many colorful stills from the film. Blade Runner is a timeless classic on film.”
File Under: OST, Ambient, Sci Fi
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…..new arrivals…..
Bahamas: Earthtones (Universal) LP
In tomorrow… Afie Jurvanen isn’t from the Bahamas. He’s a Finnish-Canadian from Barrie – a working class town in rural Ontario. But his chosen epithet is fitting. Since 2009 he’s been making music under the name Bahamas – writing songs about sunsets, love affairs, and making out with crooked smiles. Through simple arrangements, he charts an escape route from the snow belt to the coral reefs. “I wasn’t feeling too inspired in 2016,” explains Jurvanen. “I’d been in a seemingly unbroken cycle of recording and touring for 6 years. I know, you’re saying to yourself “that’s so cliché̇, all musicians complain about being tired…” But wait, there’s more! Not knowing exactly what type of album to make, I was feeling pretty low. But at that very moment, my longtime manager and confidante Robbie Lackritz called and said “dude, you should make an album with D’Angelo’s rhythm section.” And just like that, the juices were flowing and the songs started coming. I wrote songs about having success, having kids, and having depression. I wrote songs about going on tour, going back in time and going in circles. I wrote songs about my other worldly wife, my jerk dad and my garbage relationship with my brother. Crazy right?! “In September of 2016 I flew to Los Angeles and spent three days in the studio with the bass boss Pino Palladinoand the titan of time keeping, Mr. James Gadson. No rehearsals, no charts, no rules. We worked fast and came away with 10 songs that sounded fresh and strange and warm and free of any genre. The results were so inspiring to me that I quickly pulled my road band (Felicity Williams, Christine Bougie, Darcy Yates, Jason Tait, Don Kerr) into a Prague studio to record a few more songs. And here’s the best part…the whole thing is produced by my longtime producer and confidante Robbie Lackritz, so you know the sound is correct, totally modern and completely familiar at the same time.”
File Under: Indie Rock
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Big Star: Live at Lafayette’s Music Room (Omnivore) LP
It is well known that Big Star played a one-off promotional show for the Memphis Rock Writer’s Convention at Lafayette’s Music Room in Memphis in May of 1973. It cemented them into legendary status due to the writers who witnessed it and carried the message of Big Star out in their writing, even though the band had only released one album, #1 Record, and were unsure of recording a second after the departure of co-founder Chris Bell. What may not be so widely known is that the trio played the same venue four months earlier with the same power and passion opening shows for the Houston R&B band, Archie Bell & The Drells. First issued as Disc 4 of the Grammy Award-winning Keep An Eye On The Sky boxed set, Live At Lafayette’s Music Room sees new light as a stand-alone release, available on double LP. The performance has never sounded better thanks to new mastering and restoration from the Grammy-winning engineer, Michael Graves with supervision from fellow Grammy-winning producer, Cheryl Pawelski. The 20-track set features material from their debut, #1 Record, songs that would appear on the (not yet recorded) follow-up, Radio City, and choice covers from The Kinks, Todd Rundgren, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and T-Rex. As an added bonus, all formats include a download of a previously unissued 1972 interview with Alex Chilton and Andy Hummel from the summer of 1971 with Jon Scott on FM 100. Packaging features new liner notes from Bud Scoppa, who was friends with the band, and in attendance at the 1973 Rock Writer’s show. His most recent work for Omnivore was an integral part of the acclaimed Big Star boxed set Complete Third. Experience the only known document of Big Star at this pivotal point in their short, but massively influential career!
File Under: Rock
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Brian Eno: Here Come the Warm Jets (Astralwerks) LP
In tomorrow… The hybrid of glam, prog and art rock on Brian Eno’s 1974 debut Here Come The Warm Jets continued in a vein similar to his previous albums with Roxy Music, but further upped the experimental ante. In developing the album’s words and music, Eno used unusual methods, including dancing for his band members – having them play accordingly, and singing nonsense syllables to himself, then forming those into actual words, phrases and meaning – a technique revisited on later albums. The lyrics on Here Come The Warm Jets are macabre with an underlying sense of humor. They are mostly free-associative and have no particular meaning – another recurring method. Eno enlisted sixteen guest musicians to play on the album, including Robert Fripp and John Wetton of King Crimson, Simon King from Hawkwind, Bill MacCormick of Matching Mole and Quiet Sun, Paul Rudolph of Pink Fairies, Phil Manzanera and Andy MacKay from Roxy Music and Chris Spedding. Eno selected them on the basis that he thought they were incompatible with each other musically. He stated that he “got them together merely because I wanted to see what happens when you combine different identities with the knowledge that there might be accidents, accidents which will be more interesting than what I had intended.”
File Under: Rock
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Hot Snakes: Automatic Midnight (Sub Pop) LP
In tomorrow…San Diego’s influential post-hardcore all-stars Hot Snakes – boasting members of Pitchfork, Rocket From the Crypt, Drive Like Jehu, Earthless, Obits, Burning Brides, OFF!, The Delta 72, and more – released three of Sub Pop’s favorite rock records of the past 20 years: Automatic Midnight, Suicide Invoice, and Audit in Progress. All three were originally issued on Swami Records, with art by singer/guitarist and visual artist Rick Froberg. As we await the somewhat-later-in-2018 release of their first new album since 2004, the label is pleased to reissue this trio of classics back on vinyl. 2000’s Automatic Midnight is Hot Snakes’ sinister and swaggering debut blast of fierce and turbulent rock ‘n’ roll. Guitars attack, drums pound and vocals destroy. The band’s sound here represented a return to the unrealized past of its members: direct, undraped rock ‘n’ roll with some edge.
File Under: Rock, Punk
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Hot Snakes: Suicide Invoice (Sub Pop) LP
In tomorrow…San Diego’s influential post-hardcore all-stars Hot Snakes – boasting members of Pitchfork, Rocket From the Crypt, Drive Like Jehu, Earthless, Obits, Burning Brides, OFF!, The Delta 72, and more – released three of Sub Pop’s favorite rock records of the past 20 years: Automatic Midnight, Suicide Invoice, and Audit in Progress. All three were originally issued on Swami Records, with art by singer/guitarist and visual artist Rick Froberg. As we await the somewhat-later-in-2018 release of their first new album since 2004, the label is pleased to reissue this trio of classics back on vinyl. Hot Snakes’ highly anticipated sophomore effort, 2002’s Suicide Invoice, features a more varied assault and larger mood palate than their debut, but with the same guitar attack, drum pound, vocal destroy style that we’ve come to know and love.
File Under: Rock, Punk
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Hot Snakes: Audit in Progress (Sub Pop) LP
In tomorrow… San Diego’s influential post-hardcore all-stars Hot Snakes – boasting members of Pitchfork, Rocket From the Crypt, Drive Like Jehu, Earthless, Obits, Burning Brides, OFF!, The Delta 72, and more – released three of Sub Pop’s favorite rock records of the past 20 years: Automatic Midnight, Suicide Invoice, and Audit in Progress. All three were originally issued on Swami Records, with art by singer/guitarist and visual artist Rick Froberg. As we await the somewhat-later-in-2018 release of their first new album since 2004, the label is pleased to reissue this trio of classics back on vinyl. Audit in Progress is Hot Snakes’ third studio album and last to date, originally released in 2004. It finds the band doing what they do best, churning out fast and explosive songs with understated dynamics and plenty of character. By 2005 Hot Snakes was no more, however, they would reconvene in 2011 for some live dates.
File Under: Rock, Punk
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Fela Kuti: Box Set 4 (Knitting Factory) 7LP Box
In tomorrow…Knitting Factory Records presents the next installment of the long-awaited vinyl reissues from the Fela Kuti catalog. The inimitable Erykah Badu personally selected the seven albums featured in this fourth box set, which have been remastered from their original vinyl pressings. The artwork for each album has been meticulously recreated from original album artwork, alongside vintage vinyl label artwork. The 7LPs include Yellow Fever (1976), No Agreement (1977), JJD (1977), VIP (1979), Coffin for Head of State (1980), Army Arrangement (1984), and Underground System (1992). The package is rounded out with a 20-page full-color booklet featuring seven personal essays written by Erykah Badu; seven in-depth commentaries by veteran music journalist and Afrobeat historian Chris May; song lyrics; never before published photos of Fela Kuti; and a 16 x 24″ poster designed by Nigerian artist Lemi Ghariokwu, the creative force behind 26 of Fela Kuti‘s album covers.
File Under: Afro Beat, Funk
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Mudhoney: LiE (Sub Pop) LP
In tomorrow… Recorded live during their 2016 European tour at shows in Germany, Croatia, Sweden, Austria, Norway, and Slovenia LiE is the first unlimited-edition, non-bootleg live Mudhoney album to date. 2018 marks Mudhoney’s 30th anniversary, and this release is a fitting start to a year that will also see the release of a new Mudhoney full-length. Includes ten tracks spanning the band’s storied career plus their live cover of Roxy Music’s “Editions of You.”
File Under: Rock, Grunge
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Porches: The House (Domino) LP
In tomorrow… Porches’ third record The House is a conscious effort in minimalism and honesty. “Making Pool” – the band’s 2016 breakthrough record, and Domino debut – “I learned how valuable the spirit of the demos are,” says singer Aaron Maine. “So this time I made a point of capturing a song the day it was conceived.” Because of this desire to document immediate sensations, the record’s fourteen tracks offer a series of diaristic vignettes. There are moments of emerging from fear of ego death (“Leave the House,” “By My Side,” “Now The Water”), escaping the corporeal (“Now The Water,” “Swimmer”), the terrifying thrill of young love (“Country,” “W Longing”), and parting with the past (“Wobble,” “Goodbye”). While these themes possibly paint The House in a dark light, the record is marked by an excitement at the prospect of self-discovery, and commitment to the process of getting there. Though Aaron largely composes on his own, The House features contributions by Alexander Giannascoli ((Sandy) Alex G), Dev Hynes (Blood Orange), Maya Laner (True Blue, Porches), Kaya Wilkins (Okay Kaya), Bryndon Cook (Starchild & the New Romantic), Cameron Wisch (Cende, Porches), Jason Arce, Bea1991, and his own father, Peter Maine. As with Pool, Aaron brought his recorded work to Chris Coady (Beach House, Slowdive, TV on the Radio), who then mixed The House at his Sunset Sound studio.
File Under: Indie Rock
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Colter Wall: Imaginary Appalachia (Thirty Tigers) LP
In tomorrow… A native of Swift Current, Saskatchewan Canada, Colter Wall’s sound is comprised of resonate and raw baritone vocals, folk and bluegrass style guitar and banjo picking, steady kick-drum stomping, and visually provoking, story telling lyrics. Since debuting in 2015 with the release of his Jason Plumb-produced EP, Imaginary Appalachia, Wall has received overwhelming acclaim – Steve Earle declares, “Colter Wall is bar-none the best young singer-songwriter I’ve seen in twenty years,” while Rick Rubin, who signed Wall to his American Songs publishing company, proclaims, “Colter sings and writes songs in ways seemingly lost in time. There is an agelessness about him so unusual in someone so young.” The standout Imaginary Appalachia track “Sleeping On The Backtop,” was featured on the soundtrack of the Oscar-nominated film, Hell or High Water.
File Under: Country
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Neil Young: The Visitor (Reprise) LP
Neil Young + Promise Of The Real pair up once again for the new studio album The Visitor. When Young entered Shangri La Studio with Promise Of The Real in the Fall of 2017, there were a lot of images and feelings careening around his soul. The country was heading in a direction Young had never seen, even though up until then he thought he’d seen it all. But something different was happening, and it had gotten inside his music. “I’m a Canadian by the way and I love the USA,” he sings on the first song “Already Great.” The ethos of The Visitor can be summed up in the refrain of “Already Great” where Young insists, “Already great, you’re already great. You’re the promise land, the helping hand. No wall. No hate. No fascist USA. Whose Street? Our Street.” From those words, Young was ready to take a musical journey like he had never taken before. It was one where he’d even surprise himself, always the mark of a creative leap. By the end of the recording sessions, he knew he’d made his most diverse album going all the way back to Harvest in 1972, when America was also in the throes of becoming unhinged. Neil didn’t blink then, and he is not blinking now. The Visitor is an intriguing and always exciting peek into the mind and heart of one of rock & roll’s true seekers. His new songs, whether it’s a mashup of spoken word and rock & roll on “Fly By Night” or the heart-stopping beauty of “Forever,” once again ask listeners to stay open and ready for whatever comes through the open channels of the man and his unstoppable band. Listening to an album like The Visitor is not unlike taking off on a cross-country trip without a map. There is no way to tell where the destination will lead or what will be encountered. At one moment the savage rock of “Stand Tall” leads into Caribbean and Latin musical strains rising through on “Carnival,” only to turn around to embrace the blues on “Digging a Hole.” There is also the modern funk-rock of “When Bad Got Good,” the anthemic “Children of Destiny” and the spirit-tugging strength of “Change of Heart” to ensure the musical travels remain full of wonder. With the unlimited ability of Promise of the Real, featuring Lukas and Michah Nelson along with Corey McCormick, Anthony Logerfo and Tato Melgar, the passionate power of their playing pushes the songs to maximum expression. There are very few rock bands now who can go to as many places as this outfit and always deliver their own distinct identity. The closing song on The Visitor feels like a prayer for today and tomorrow. In “Forever,” Young sings “Earth is like a church without a preacher, the people have to pray for themselves.” These lines, and everything else on this landmark release point to the future in a way that sounds the alarm for troubled times but at the same time offers hope that, once again, music can help lead the way to understanding and hopefully a better place.
File Under: Rock
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…..Restocks…..
Alabama Shakes: Sound & Color (ATO) LP
Aphex Twin: Come to Daddy (Warp) 12”
Aphex Twin: Window Licker (Warp) 12”
Arcade Fire: Funeral (Merge) LP
Arcade Fire: Reflektor (Sonovox) LP
Beastie Boys: In Sound From Way Out (Universal) LP
Beck: Colors (Universal) LP
Beck: Morning Phase (Universal) LP
Boards of Canada: Tomorrow’s Harvest (Warp) LP
Alice Coltrane: Journey in Satchidananda (Impulse) LP
Alice Coltrane: World Spirituality Classics (Luaka Bop) LP
Daft Punk: Random Access Memories (Columbia) LP
Dio: Holy Diver (Rhino) LP
Dio: Last in Line (Rhino) LP
Gord Downie: Battle of the Nudes (Arts & Crafts) LP
Gord Downie: Coke Machine Glow (Arts & Crafts) LP
Nick Drake: Pink Moon (Island) LP
Flying Lotus: Cosmogramma (Warp) LP
Flying Lotus: Until The Quiet Comes (Warp) LP
Aretha Franklin: A Brand New Me (Rhino) LP
Aretha Franklin: Lady Soul (Rhino) LP
Frightnrs: Nothing More to Say (Daptone) LP
Charlotte Gainsbourg: Rest (Warner) LP
Golden Smog: Weird Tales (Rhino) LP
Herbie Hancock: Headhunters (Legacy) LP
Herbie Hancock: Maiden Voyage (Blue Note) LP
Jlin: Black Origami (Planet Mu) LP
Knife: Shaking the Habitual (Mute) LP
Kendrick Lamar: Damn (Aftermath) LP
Kendrick Lamar: Good Kid M.A.A.D. City (Aftermath) LP
Kendrick Lamar: To Pimp a Butterfly (Aftermath) LP
Led Zeppelin: II (Warner) LP
Love: s/t (Rhino) LP
Hank Mobley: Soul Station (Blue Note) LP
Thelonious Monk: Monks Dream (Wax Time) LP
Thelonious Monk: Underground (Universal) LP
Lee Morgan: Search for a New Land (Blue Note) LP
Mount Kimbie: Love What Survives (Warp) LP
Oasis: (What’s the Story) Morning Glory (Big Brother) LP
Tom Petty: Highway Companion (Universal) LP
Portishead: Dummy (Universal) LP
Otis Redding: Live In Europe (Rhino) LP
R.E.M.: Automatic for the People (Universal) LP
Daniel Romano: Modern Pressure (You’ve Changed) LP
Daniel Romano: Sleeps Beneath the Willow (You’ve Changed) LP
Richard & Linda Thompson: Shoot Out the Lights (Rhino) LP
Tragically Hip: Fully Completely (Universal) LP
Tragically Hip: Road Apples (Universal) LP
ZZ Top: Tres Hombres (Rhino) LP
ZZ Top: Rio Grande Mud (Rhino) LP