Saturday, April 30, 2016

Upcoming Album of the Week (Ending April 29)

This was the week that Beyoncé surprised us all yet again and launched a thousand think-pieces (yes, my own is coming). With all the excitement around the surprise release of Lemonade, it can be easy to forget the legion of artists working just as hard with less recognition. Check out a list of upcoming releases I'm looking forward to on my Upcoming Releases page!

This week, De La Soul simultaneously released a new EP, For Your Pain & Suffering, and provided an updated release date for their upcoming album, And the Anonymous Nobody.

Posdnous, Dave and Maseo formed De La Soul in 1987. They were one of the originating rap groups of alternative and jazz-influenced hip hop in the late 1980s/early 1990s, and frequently worked with other artists who helped make the style popular, including the Jungle Brothers and A Tribe Called Quest.

Though they've been active for 28 years, it's been 12 years since their last record, 2004's The Grind Date, something that has not gone unnoticed by fans. They announced an eighth album with a Kickstarter campaign in March of last year. The campaign quickly surpassed its goal and they gave the album an April 2016 release date.

That date came and went. This week, the band acknowledged the delay and released an apologetic four-song EP to tide fans over.

exclaim.ca

For Your Pain & Suffering is available now; And the Anonymous Nobody is set for release on August 26.



Also announced this week:

Braids - Companion (May 20)
GØGGS - GØGGS (July 1)
Hiss Golden Messenger - TBA (October 7)
Sonic Youth - Spinhead Sessions (June 17)
Sunn O))) - NOLIFE: Alive in Moscow 11 August 2015 (end of May)
Terry - Terry HQ (July 1)
Todd Terje & The Olsens - The Big Cover Up (June 16)

Thursday, April 28, 2016

New Music Friday - April 1, 2016

Be sure to view a list of upcoming releases here!

Essential Full-Length Releases



Ash Koosha - I AKA I

Ash Koosha is an Iranian composer, producer and graduate of the Tehran Conservatory of Music. He is also a software designer for whom visuals and sound often overlap. He released his debut album, GUUD, in 2015 to critical acclaim. He has followed that up in short order with I AKA I, another collection of intricately-constructed tracks.

Listen: "Mudafossil"
Listen: "Biutiful"




Bleached - Welcome the Worms

Welcome the Worms is the second album from this three-piece punk outfit out of California. Since the release of their 2013 debut album, Ride Your Heart, they've experienced the less-pleasant side of life with loss of homes and relationships; experiences which influenced the writing of this album. With producer Joe Chicarelli, their sound also matures greatly on this record.

Watch: "Wednesday Night Melody"
Watch: "Keep on Keepin’ On"




Bombino - Azel

Omara Moctar is a Nigerian Tuareg guitarist whose music often addresses issues impacting his people. He risked his life in pursuit of art. The Nigerian government banned guitars for the Tuareg following the Tuareg Rebellion in 2007, and he saw fellow musicians executed. During a three-year exile, he met filmmaker Ron Wyman, who urged him to formally record his music. He released Agadez in 2011 and the Dan Auerbach-produced Nomad in 2013. His latest record was produced by David Longstreth of Dirty Projectors.

Watch: "Inar"
Listen: "Akhar Zaman"




Charles Bradley - Changes

Charles Bradley became a new recording artist around the same age that other musicians are thinking retirement. Though he had performed for over 40 years, he released his first album, No Time for Dreaming, in 2011 at the age of 62. Positive response to the record kicked off a wave of success for Bradley, who followed it up with 2013's Victim of Love and this latest record, which (of all things) includes a Black Sabbath cover!

Watch: "Changes"
Watch: "Change for the World"




Frankie Cosmos - Next Thing

Frankie Cosmos is the stage name of Greta Kline, daughter of actors Phoebe Cates and Kevin Kline. Despite famous parents, she has been making a name for herself since 2011. She has performed with the band Porches and released her debut album, Zentropy, in 2014.

Watch: "It Is Possible/Sleep Song"
Listen: "Sinister"


Other Full-Length Releases



Andrew Bird - Are You Serious

Watch: "Left-Handed Kisses" (featuring Fiona Apple)
Watch: "Capsized"


Babyfather - BBF Hosted by DJ Escrow

Watch: "Shook"/"Motivation"
Listen: "Meditation" (featuring Arca)


Black Mountain - IV

Watch: "Florian Saucer Attack"
Watch: "Mothers of the Sun"


The Field - The Follower

Listen: "Raise the Dead"
Listen: "Reflecting Lights"


The Heavy - Hurt & the Merciless

Watch: "Since You Been Gone"
Watch: "Turn Up"


Japanese Breakfast - Psychopomp

Listen: "Everybody Wants to Love You"
Listen: "That Woman Loves You"


John Congleton & The Nighty Night - Until the Horror Goes

Watch: "Until It Goes"
Listen: "Your Temporary Custodian"


Kaada/Patton - Bacteria Cult

Watch: "Imodium"
Listen: "Red Rainbow"


The Last Shadow Puppets - Everything You’ve Come to Expect

Watch: "Everything You’ve Come to Expect"
Watch: "Aviation"


Moderat - III

Watch: "Reminder"
Listen: "Running"


Operators - Blue Wave

Listen: "Cold Light"
Listen: "Blue Wave"


Sasha - Scene Delete

Listen: "Bring on the Night-time" (featuring Ultraísta)
Listen: "View2"


Starwalker - Starwalker

Watch: "Le President"
Watch: "Holidays"


Terrace Martin - Velvet Portraits

Listen: "Think of You"
Listen: "Valdez Off Crenshaw"


Weezer - Weezer (White Album)

Watch: "California Kids"
Watch: "L.A. Girlz"


Yeasayer - Amen & Goodbye
Watch: "I Am Chemistry"

Listen: "Silly Me"

Singles, EPs, Soundtracks, etc.



Battles - EP C/B EP Reissue

Listen: "B+T"
Listen: "SZ2"


Battles - Gloss Drop Reissue

Listen: "Ice Cream" (featuring Matias Aguayo)
Listen: "Futura"


Battles - Mirrored Reissue

Listen: "Atlas"
Listen: "Tonto"


Chelsea Wolfe - "Hypnos"/"Flame"

Watch: "Hypnos"
Listen: "Flame"


Fool’s Gold Presents: Night Shift

Listen: A-Trak & Ookay - "Only One"
Listen: KRNE - "I’ll Be Good"


Sia - Colour the Small One Reissue

Listen: "Breathe Me"
Listen: "Numb"


Small Circle - Melatonin EP

Listen: "Please Don’t Touch the Moon"


Sufjan Stevens - Illinois Reissue

Listen: "Chicago" (Demo)
Listen: "Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois"


Twenty88 - Twenty88

Watch: "Out of Love"
Listen: "Déjà vu"



Willis Earl Beal - Through the Dark

Watch: "Through the Dark"
Listen: "Lost in a Dream"

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Upcoming Album of the Week (Ending April 23)

Official dates are out for the upcoming I Love the 90s tour, which includes the inimitable Vanilla Ice! I hope you can catch the sarcasm there; some of the artists on the tour may be best left to that decade, but there any many wonderful new and established artists releasing music every week. Check out my list of albums set to come out over the coming months on my Upcoming Releases page!

This week, the San Francisco band Deerhoof announced their 13th studio album, The Magic.

pitchfork.com

Deerhoof has been making their frenetic style of noise rock for more than twenty years. The band was started in 1994 by Rob Fisk and Greg Saunier, who were joined a year later by Satomi Matsuzaki as vocalist, not long after she first arrived in the US from Japan. Fisk has since left the band, but Matsuzaki and Saunier have remained fixtures ever since.

The album follows 2014's La Isla Bonita and last year's Fever 121614 live album, but won't be their first release of this year. Along with Dal Niente, they will be releasing Balter/Saunier next week.

They aroused new album speculation on Monday with the release of "Debut" and wasted no time in confirming, announcing the album and releasing another new song, "Plastic Thrills," on Tuesday.



The Magic is set for release on June 24.



Also announced this week:

Air - Twentyears (June 10)
Alexis Taylor - Piano (June 10)
Death from Above 1979 - Live at Third Man Records (out now)
Death Grips - Bottomless Pit (May 6)
Gone Is Gone - Gone Is Gone EP (July 8)
MF DOOM - Live from Planet X Reissue (May 20)
Mumford & Sons with Baaba Maal, The Very Best, & Beatenberg - Johannesburg (June 17)
Refugee (June 3)
Roísín Murphy - Take Her Up to Monto (July 8)
Sara Watkins - Young in All the Wrong Ways (July 1)

Sunday, April 17, 2016

New Music Friday - March 25, 2016

Be sure to view a list of upcoming releases here!

Essential Full-Length Releases



Domo Genesis - Genesis

Domo Genesis is a member of the maybe-now-defunct Odd Future hip hop collective. This is his first album truly on his own, though he is also a member of the Odd Future subgroup MellowHigh, who released a self-titled album three years ago. Like much of the work coming from members of Odd Future, other rappers from the collective feature prominently on this album, including Left Brain, Hodgy Beats, and Tyler, the Creator.

Watch: "Dapper" (featuring Anderson .Paak)
Listen: "Go (Gas)" (featuring Tyler, the Creator, Wiz Khalifa, & Juicy J)




The Joy Formidable - Hitch

This is the third album from this Welsh band, following 2013's Wolf's Law. Since that record, they've been busy; they toured, released an EP, and released a series of singles recorded in the Welsh language. They return to English for Hitch and keep on making the anthemic indie rock they've become known for.

Watch: "The Last Thing on My Mind"




Margo Price - Midwest Farmer’s Daughter

This may be Margo Price's first solo album, but she's been performing far longer. She moved to Nashville from Illinois in 2003, started the band Buffalo Clover, and released three albums between 2010 and 2013. She has also worked with other up-and-coming country mainstays, including Sturgill Simpson. She's worked hard, which has paid off for her in the form of big gigs; last week, she was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live!

Watch: "Hands of Time"
Watch: "Hurtin’ (On the Bottle)"




SBTRKT - Save Yourself

This release is not meant as an album per se, but as the start of a project from SBTRKT intended to share music with fans more immediately. The songs on this collection were written between last summer and just about a week before Save Yourself's release. As has become the norm for SBTRKT, he brings together a number of collaborators. Included on this release are The-Dream, D.R.A.M., and frequent collaborator Sampha.

Listen: "I Feel Your Pain" (featuring D.R.A.M. & Mabel)
Listen: "Gemini"




The Sun Days - Album

The Sun Days are an indie band from Sweden fronted by Elsa Fredriksson Holmgren. Though this is their first full-length album, they've released a number of singles since their debut in 2013 that earned them a great deal of praise. Their music is upbeat and jangly, which at times complements light and empowering lyrics and at others belies darker, more serious content.

Listen: "Get Him Off Your Mind"
Listen: "Don’t Need to Be Them"


Other Full-Length Releases



Bob Mould - Patch the Sky

Watch: "Voices in My Head"
Watch: "Hold On"


The Body & Full of Hell - One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache

Listen: "Little Death"
Listen: "Fleshworks"


Elliphant - Living Life Golden

Watch: "Step Down"
Watch: "Spoon Me" (featuring Skrillex)


Father - I’m a Piece of Shit

Listen: "Why Don’t U?" (featuring iLoveMakonnen & Abra)
Listen: "Party on Me" (featuring iLoveMakonnen & Ethereal)


Lontalius - I’ll Forget 17

Watch: "Glow"
Listen: "I Was More Than"


Museyroom - Pearly Whites

Watch: "Ballad"
Listen: "It Won’t Change Now"


RJD2 - Dame Fortune

Listen: "Peace of What"
Listen: "The Sheboygan Left"


White Denim - Stiff

Watch: "Holda You (I’m Psycho)"
Watch: "Ha Ha Ha Ha (Yeah)"

Singles, EPs, Soundtracks, etc.



Alex Calder - Bend
Listen: "Great Ideas"



Devinyl Splits Vol. 6

Listen: Jesse Lacey - "Bad Day"
Listen: Kevin Devine - "Imitation of Life"


Eric Clapton - The Live Album Collection

Listen: "After Midnight"
Listen: "Wonderful Tonight"


Follin - "Memories"

Listen: "Memories"


James Bishop - Bad Dream EP

Listen: "Tailspin"
Listen: "Butch"


Miles Davis - Live in San Juan ‘89




Neko Case - The Tigers Have Spoken Reissue

Listen: "If You Knew"
Listen: "Soulful Shade of Blue"


Sarah Vaughan - Live at Rosy’s




Ty Dolla $ign - Free TC: Deluxe Edition

Listen: "Like a Drug"
Listen: "Long Time" (featuring Quake)


The World Is a Beautiful Place and I Am No Longer Afraid to Die - Long Live Happy Birthday

Listen: "Katamari Duquette"
Listen: "Even More Forever"