News
What's New 2-21-25
Sunny spent the past few years touring with artists like Bonnie Raitt and Mitski. To avoid falling back into past struggles with alcohol, she channeled her energy into music, experimenting with sound. This process involved shifting from acoustic to electric guitar, blending punk and roots influences, emphasizing the rebellious spirit of both genres. The result is a reflection on identity and choices, balancing heavy themes with empowerment.
After twenty years of musical partnership, both Jeremiah Fraites and Wesley Schultz, now dads, fully embraced the life-altering, unromantic challenges and rewards of family life. Their fifth album features a new vulnerability, sly humor and acknowledgements of need – for love, respect, and connection in an increasingly chaotic world.
Plus One represents the duo’s first full-fledged attempt at carving a space in mainstream country music. Tunes that reference country roads and chugging double shots of whiskey sit alongside their trademark message of fostering hope and connection. “We knew that Nashville had something to offer us,” says Michael Trotter, “but we also knew that we’ve got something to offer Nashville.”
Throughout the record, Strange lays down one difficult truth after another, all over a sonic pastiche of music he loved as a kid. His dad hipped him to Parliament Funkadelic, Fleetwood Mac, Teddy Pendergrass, and Neil Young. Those influences merged with Strange’s interest in hip-hop, country, indie rock, and house, culminating in a record that feels completely original.
The Velveteers’ explosive sophomore album is loaded with blistering rock anthems infused with melodic indie songwriting. With producer Dan Auerbach at the helm, the trio encapsulates the raw, forceful, and profoundly heavy power of their live performances and laser-focuses a spotlight on tightly crafted songs as they carve out their own distinctive niche.
Over the last three decades, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer Gary Louris has built a deeply compelling body of music whose artistry and integrity has won the loyalty and respect of both critics and his peers. Best known for his seminal work with The Jayhawks, he is one of the most acclaimed musicians to come out of Minnesota's teeming rock scene.
New Release Round-Up 02-21-25
Sam Fender - People Watching - Capitol
Hailing from northeast England, Fender is a British songwriter with a penchant for euphoric, hard-hitting guitar anthems. Bursting onto the scene with a BRITs Critics’ Choice win in 2018, his first two albums, Hypersonic Missiles (2019) and Seventeen Going Under (2021), both debuted at Number 1 on the UK’s Official Albums Chart and earned Platinum status. With over two billion global streams, Fender has headlined stadiums in Newcastle, toured arenas across the UK and Ireland, and headlined at major festivals like Reading/Leeds, while also supporting icons like The Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen.
If Seventeen Going Under – Fender’s sophomore album and second to debut at Number 1 on the UK’s Official Albums Chart – was his “coming of age” album, his forthcoming work is his next step – colorful stories and observations of everyday characters living their everyday, but often extraordinary, lives. Sam produced People Watching alongside bandmates Dean Thompson and Joe Atkinson over two years, working first in London in 2023 with producer Markus Dravs, and then earlier this year in Los Angeles with Granduciel. See below for track listing.
ALSO OUT THIS WEEK
Sam Fender - People Watching [Indie Exclusive Blue Yolk LP Alternate Cover]
Sunny War - Armageddon In A Summer Dress [Indie Exclusive Autographed Pink LP]
Tate McRae - So Close To What [LP]
Jordan Smith - People's Hymnal
Paul Thorn - Life is Just A Vapor [LP Opaque blue]
The Murder Capital - Blindness [Indie Exclusive Gold LP]
Sunny War - Armageddon In A Summer Dress [Indie Exclusive Autographed CD]
Rejjie Snow - Peace 2 Da World [Sky Blue Vinyl]
Wrekmeister Harmonies - Flowers In The Spring [Opaque Pink Vinyl]
Kenny Wheeler - Some Days Are Better: The Lost Scores [Deluxe With Booklet]
Basia Bulat - Basia's Palace [Download Included]
Anna Shoemaker - Someone Should Stop Her
John Zorn - Bagatelles Vol. 2 Erik Friedlander And Michael
Silkworm - Developer (Bonus Tracks) [Deluxe] [Download Included]
Mild Minds - Gemini [Download Included]
Sun Ra - Prophet [Colored Vinyl] (Red)
Apollo Brown & Crimeapple - This Is Not That [Colored Vinyl]
Jules Reidy - Ghost/Spirit [Indie Exclusive Translucent Red LP]
Oddisee - Mental Liberation (Blue) [Colored Vinyl]
Altons - Waiting / Teach Me To Forget You
Say Zuzu - Take These Turns (Blue) [Colored Vinyl] [Deluxe]
Le Nombre - Scenario Catastrophe (Blue) [Colored Vinyl] [Remastered]
Moriaty - Devil Has A Child [Colored Vinyl] (Red) (Aus)
Michael Buble - Call Me Irresponsible [Cobalt Blue 2LP]
New Release Round-Up 02-14-25
The War and Treaty - Plus One - Mercury Nashville
“Powerhouse Duo” (TODAY) The War And Treaty return with their new album Plus One. The album includes "Can I Get An Amen", "Leads Me Home, "Stealing A Kiss", "Called You By Your Name" and “Carried Away” "Every song on this album deals with some aspects of him and some aspects of her and some aspects of us. The ideal of sharing space with someone can be challenging no matter how short or long. We’ve had moments of doubt, moments of clarity, moments of regret and moments of solid faith." - Michael and Tanya
Empire & NBA2K25 Present Music To Ball To - Empire
EMPIRE, the nation's leading independent record label, recently teamed up with the NBA 2K video game to provide the soundtrack for Season 2 of it's series in October 2024. The soundtrack was a natural pairing of the two iconic Bay Area based companies to push culture forward through music, sports, and gaming. The 2 LP Box set, which includes music from the likes of Larry June, Key Glock, Money Man, LUCKI, Asake & Central Cee, 310babii and more is housed in a premium box with glossy, hardwood floor print on the outside, and a basketball textured inner box will also include a mini-satin championship banner, a custom basketball keychain, and virtual currency for in-game purchases.
ALSO OUT THIS WEEK
Empire - Empire & NBA2K25 Present Music To Ball To [Deluxe Boxset]
The War and Treaty - Plus One [2 LP]
Sabrina Carpenter - Short n' Sweet [Deluxe Edition Bright Azure 2 LP]
the Velveteers - A Million Knives [Limited Edition Indie Exclusive "Glass Of Port" LP]
Vulture Feather - It Will Be Like Now [Rose Vinyl LP]
FKJ - 22_23 Live Sessions [Translucent Light Blue Vinyl]
The Altons - Heartache in Room 14 [Baby Blue LP]
Horsegirl - Phonetics On And On [Clear Vinyl] [Indie Exclusive]
Bartees Strange - Horror [Colored Vinyl] (Red)
Beach Bunny - Honeymoon [Colored Vinyl] (Purp)
Open Mike Eagle - Hella Personal Film Festival (Blue) [Colored Vinyl]
Richard Dawson - End Of The Middle [With Booklet] [Indie Exclusive] [Download Included]
Speed of The Stars - Speed Of The Stars [Colored Vinyl] (Purp) (Can)
Good Morning - The Accident [Indie Exclusive]]
Califone - Villager's Companion [Indie Exclusive Firework Shimmer LP]
Rusty Williams - Grand Man [Indie Exclusive]
Various Artists - Fania Records: The Latin Sound Of New York (1964-1978) [2 LP]
Joyner Lucas - Not Now I'm Busy
The Wombats - Oh! The Ocean [Indie exclusive Cloudy clear]
Lambrini Girls - You're Welcome [Red/Orange Vinyl]
Alesia Cara - Love & Hyperbole [LP]
Betty Carter - Out There With Betty Carter (Verve By Request)
Four Tops - Changing Times [Limited Edition]
Bill Henderson - Bill Henderson With Oscar Peterson (Verve By)
I Prevail - Heart vs Mind (10th Anniversary Edition) - [Translucent Grape vinyl]
Iron Maiden - Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son [2015 Remaster] [180 Gram]
What's New 2-14-25
After twenty years of musical partnership, both Jeremiah Fraites and Wesley Schultz, now dads, fully embraced the life-altering, unromantic challenges and rewards of family life. Their fifth album features a new vulnerability, sly humor and acknowledgements of need – for love, respect, and connection in an increasingly chaotic world.
Plus One represents the duo’s first full-fledged attempt at carving a space in mainstream country music. Tunes that reference country roads and chugging double shots of whiskey sit alongside their trademark message of fostering hope and connection. “We knew that Nashville had something to offer us,” says Michael Trotter, “but we also knew that we’ve got something to offer Nashville.”
Throughout the record, Strange lays down one difficult truth after another, all over a sonic pastiche of music he loved as a kid. His dad hipped him to Parliament Funkadelic, Fleetwood Mac, Teddy Pendergrass, and Neil Young. Those influences merged with Strange’s interest in hip-hop, country, indie rock, and house, culminating in a record that feels completely original.
The Velveteers’ explosive sophomore album is loaded with blistering rock anthems infused with melodic indie songwriting. With producer Dan Auerbach at the helm, the trio encapsulates the raw, forceful, and profoundly heavy power of their live performances and laser-focuses a spotlight on tightly crafted songs as they carve out their own distinctive niche.
Over the last three decades, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer Gary Louris has built a deeply compelling body of music whose artistry and integrity has won the loyalty and respect of both critics and his peers. Best known for his seminal work with The Jayhawks, he is one of the most acclaimed musicians to come out of Minnesota's teeming rock scene.
What's New 2-7-25
Dream Theater’s first release with the classic lineup since 2009 rarely takes the simple route. Head-spinning solos and rhythmically complex musical passages were essential to defining the prog metal master’s reputation and they're no less exciting here. The 16-year break from each other rarely reveals any cobwebs, shaking off any doubts about their return.
Michigan-born and Nashville-based Jason Singer leaves one chapter in the rear-view and turns the page on another with uplifting instrumentation, and plainspoken heartland storytelling punctuated by alternative flare. It’s a deft balance of rock energy, alternative adventurousness, and heart-on-his-sleeve songcraft.
The punk/alternative supergroup’s (members of Thursday, My Chemical Romance, Coheed and Combria, and Circa Survive) debut, Past Lives, navigated through dark, thunderous clouds—each song a lightning bolt illuminating the raw, untamed experimentation of the band. Violet, on the other hand, is the radiant dawn that breaks after the tempest, bringing with it a new hope with its profound lyrics and melancholically hopeful melodies.
Forever is a raw, unvarnished work of love and trust that walks the line between alt-rock muscle and singer-songwriter sensitivity. It is a bold, guitar-driven, exploration of maturity and adulthood that grapples with growth and change, escape and anxiety, self-loathing and self-love, and the songs are intensely vulnerable, full of diaristic snapshots.
Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, and Eric Johnson inaugurated the G3 Tour concept 28 years ago which put them on stage together for the first time ever. In 2024, G3 reunited for a sold-out run of US dates. “Reunion Live” much more than just a live album, containing a new album from each artist plus a new LP from the certified supergroup.
Beautifully varied and richly rendered, Lefty is an album that wanders from theme to theme, style to style, exultation to tragedy. Yet it is never lost. If anything, it is at play. Lefty feels like not just a celebration of their journey beyond the bounds of their traditional genre, but as if they have rediscovered the joy in music by honoring the sounds that inspired two boys growing up in Texas to one day make the damn stuff themselves.
On her first studio album in five years, the ever-experimental artist searches for transcendence in her own inimitable language. As promised, twigs’ long-awaited third album is inspired by techno – it’s also her warmest and brightest material to date. The hazy underground equivalent of BRAT summer with a massive injection of purified sex.
Backed by a seven-piece band, Iggy breathes new fire into Stooges classics like “I Wanna Be Your Dog” and “T.V. Eye” and ignites the adoring crowd with visceral run-throughs of “The Passenger” and, of course, “Lust for Life.” Live At Montreux… captures the avant-garde icon and punk pioneer in a performance that could only happen here. A singular moment in a singular career.
Recorded in 2014 but never released, Mac Miller’s second posthumous album is the missing link between the earnest rapper he was and the evocative songwriter he would become. Feeling distinct from his broader catalogue, Balloonerism equally tethers itself to other points in Mac’s work. It’s a rather wonderful, albeit unsettling, reminder of a talent lost.
If peppering political songs with humor is like sticking a sparkler in some bread, then Who Let The Dogs Out is like a fireworks display in the factory itself: strange, dangerous, exciting. Sirens blare over a heavy distorted bass and a live drum breakbeat. The band dance between upbeat pop punk, dirty grunge tones and discordant post-punk. A take-no-prisoners debut from one of the UK’s most fun and fearless bands.
Mark Tremonti levels up all around on his 19th overall album, joined by bandmates Eric Friedman [guitar], Ryan Bennett [drums], and Tanner Keegan [bass]. The End Will Show Us How charges with inspirational lyricism, metallic barrages, and Tremonti’s most incisive displays of fret fireworks - a testament to his legacy of ceaseless creativity and a certified triumph!
The band’s sixth full-length album showcases Franz at their most immediate, upbeat and life-affirming, unashamedly going for the pop-jugular in classic Franz style. Recorded at AYR studios in Scotland, the 11 songs on The Human Fear all allude to some deep-set human fears and how overcoming and accepting these fears drives and defines our lives.