November sees the release of MERRIE LAND, the second album from The Good, The Bad & The Queen, a band comprising of Damon Albarn, Paul Simonon, Tony Allen and Simon Tong.

The Good, The Bad & The Queen began life as the acclaimed 2007 album of the same name, a heartfelt tribute to London described by The Observer in a 5 star review as –“One of the most surprising and magical records for which Damon Albarn has ever been responsible”. The record traced a journey from the English music hall tradition to West Africa and Afrobeat, zigzagging through the West Indies and its reggae and dub, back to England and London's punk scene, all the while taking in a strand of British beat music from the '50s right through to Britpop. The result was a record specific to a place and mood but with a background that was geographically wide-ranging.

Now the four musical storytellers are back with a new studio album titled Merrie Land. Produced by Tony Visconti and The Good, The Bad & The Queen was completed in London and Wales this year, during the current ongoing period in which the UK is preparing to leave the European Union, Merrie Land is a questioning good-bye letter, a series of observations and reflections on Britishness in 2018. Even though it has been over 10 years since the band last released a record, the timing could not be more apt – there could not be a more perfect band to untangle the optimism, disorientation and confusion in the atmosphere today. With Merrie Land, the band taps into a creative symbiosis of past and future, drawing inspiration from their shared glittering musical histories and wrapping the hybrid results in a brilliantly postmodern yet thoroughly British package.

The album sees the band’s focus move beyond London with a beautiful and hopeful paean to the Britain of today - an inclusive Britain - and the possibilities of the future. In the band’s own words, Merrie Land is a ten song lament of Anglo-Saxosentialism marking the reluctant end of a relationship, and about picking up the pieces and seeing what can be salvaged. The band set a beautifully muted palette and lustrous finish to bring out a mood that is bruised yet unapologetically defiant and optimistic, and carries the underlying message: we will survive. In times of metaphysical trauma, the people need to forge ahead and wear armour. Here it is, set to the mood music of a nation about to be broken yet undefeated.

Jeff Tweedy will release, WARM, a solo album of all new material on November 30th via dBpm Records. WARM was produced and recorded entirely by Jeff at Chicago’s now legendary studio, The Loft (with help from some of his usual collaborators – Spencer Tweedy, Glenn Kotche and Tom Schick). WARM follows the acoustic retrospective release, Together at Last (2017), and Wilco’s 2016 album, Schmilco. The incredible liner notes for WARM were written by George Saunders. Jeff’s long-awaited memoir, Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back): A Memoir of Recording and Discording with Wilco, Etc., is out November 13th via Dutton

Mumford & Sons emphatic return is spearheaded with the inspiring new single, "Guiding Light".  Their fourth album, Delta, is out on November 16th.

The 1975’s highly anticipated third studio album A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships will be released on Friday, November 30th via Dirty Hit / Interscope Records. Their debut album The 1975 is now platinum with their most recently released album I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it surpassing Gold after having debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top 200.

Formed in Chicago, IL in 1988, The Smashing Pumpkins released their heralded debut album Gish in 1991 and found mainstream success with 1993’s 4x multi-platinum Siamese Dream and 1995’s 10x multi-platinum Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Following the release of Adore, Machina/The Machines of God, and Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music, the group’s original lineup disbanded in 2000. Singer/guitarist Billy Corgan reformed the group in 2005, enlisting various collaborators for Zeitgeist, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, Oceania, and Monuments to an Elegy. In June of 2018, The Smashing Pumpkins released their new single “Solara” ahead of their monumental Shiny And Oh So Bright Tour. The track was the first song in over 18 years to feature founding members Billy Corgan, James Iha, and Jimmy Chamberlin, alongside longtime guitarist Jeff Schroeder and offered the first glimpse of music from the newly reformed lineup. In September of 2018, the band formally announced their forthcoming 10th studio album SHINY AND OH SO BRIGHT, VOL. 1 / LP: NO PAST. NO FUTURE. NO SUN. and shared its second single “Silvery Sometimes (Ghosts)”. Recorded at Shangri La Studios with legendary producer Rick Rubin, LP is due for release on November 16th, 2018 via Martha’s Music under license to Napalm Records. With over 30 million albums sold to date, the GRAMMY®, MTV VMA, and American Music Award winning band remains one of the most influential bands in history.

For his new album Upside Down Flowers, out November 16, 2018 via Fantasy Records, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness teamed up with noted producer and acclaimed musician Butch Walker (Pink, Weezer, Panic! At The Disco). Featuring standout tracks like 'Ohio,' 'Teenage Rockstars' and 'Paper Rain,' the album is a striking collection of wistful and biting tunes that reflect the past and our chaotic present.

HOLOGRAPHIC COVER, 18X24 POSTER, LTD TO 1500

6LP in case-wrapped folio book with 48-page book and exclusive lithograph, sticker.

Reprise Recordswill releaseAn American Treasure-a career-spanningTom Pettybox set.The 60-track set unveils dozens of previously unreleased recordings, alternate versions of classic songs, rarities, historic live performances and deep tracks that spotlight Tom's remarkable depth and evolution as a revered and tremendously influential songwriter, recording artist and performer.An American Treasuremarks the first release of Tom Petty music since the artist's tragic passing in October 2017.

Goshen Electric Co. happened both all at once and gradually: an electrifying culmination of Tim Showalter’s nearly two decades- long love affair with Jason Molina’s craft, and just one half-day in the recording studio with the members of Magnolia Electric Co. Better known as Strand of Oaks, Showalter’s turn at the helm of Magnolia Electric Co. (Mike Benner, Jason Evans Groth, Mikey Kapinus, Mark Rice, Peter Schreiner) comes ahead of the Goshen, In. native’s Memorial Electric Co. European tour. The resulting 7-in. shows a sweeping range: “The Gray Tower,” a 2002 single, and “Ring the Bell,” which appeared on both Songs: Ohia’s Didn’t It Rain (2002) and Magnolia Electric Co.’s Trials & Errors (2005). “Ring the Bell,” recorded in one take, roars in with a twinge of psychedelia, thrumming with vibe; Showalter’s wail recalls Molina’s somber, choir-boy croon, but roughened with sandpaper. The prophetic, dystopian darkness of “The Gray Tower” captures the original soaring chorus and delicate melody with the power of a full band. Decades later, the intense, un inching urgency of Molina’s songwriting endures. “There was such an intimate relationship with his music – it felt a lot deeper than just liking a song,” says Showalter. “You live in these songs.”

Denzel Curry's highly-anticipated third album TA13OO will be released in three acts. The first act, Light, will be released July 25th, followed by Gray on July 26th and Dark on July 27th. Each early single represents one of the album's acts, as "Sumo" represents Light, "Clout Cobain" represents Gray, and "Percs" represents Dark, which come together cohesively to form TA13OO. Across the three sections of TA13OO, Denzel explores topics including molestation, the presidential election, fame, hatred, paranoia, revenge, love, the current state of music and personal tales of his own near death experiences. Sonically, the album ranges just as widely as its subject matter, sounds of paranoia, fear of loss, brooding melancholy and mood swings straight from hell all find their way onto TA13OO, making this Denzel's most groundbreaking musical performance to date.

TA13OO is the first longform statement from Denzel since his 2016 album Imperial, which landed him on the XXL Freshman cover and helped set the template for the South Florida sound that has exploded in the last few years. The album bridges the gap between the older generation of hip hop and the budding generation of SoundCloud rappers that he helped birth in sound and style, all while commanding respect from them both with lethal lyricism and deeply personal storytelling.

Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus formed boygenius after booking a tour together, but the trio had subconsciously been in the works for longer than that. Through a series of tours and performances together, and chance encounters that led to friendships – including Bridgers’ and Dacus’ first in-person meeting backstage at a Philadelphia festival, greenroom hangouts that felt instantly comfortable and compatible, a couple of long email chains and even a secret handshake between Baker and Dacus – the lyrically and musically arresting singer-songwriters and kindred spirits got to know each other on their own terms. 

Cult Leader is a chaotic band from Salt Lake City, Utah. “A Patient Man” was recorded and engineered by Kurt Ballou at God City Studios (Converge, Nails, High On Fire). From the first hits of opener “I Am Healed” Cult Leader take listeners on a sonic rollercoaster ride. Much of the album follows this blueprint. Songs like “Curse of Satisfaction”, “Craft of Mourning”, and “Share My Pain” are driven by a weave work of unorthodox metallic riffing and fueled by hyper-aggressive percussion. While the tech- nical proficiency is impressive, it’s in their use of dynamics where they truly shine. The album contains four beautifully brooding epics; “To: Achlys”, “A World of Joy”, title track “A Patient Man”, and “The Broken Right Hand of God”. Each one of them carries a maturation and sense of melody that few “extreme” bands have within their arsenal. Proving that aggressive music still has much to offer the world in terms of originality, creativity, and emotion.

Aviary is LA composer Julia Holter's most breathtakingly expansive album yet, full of startling turns and dazzling instrumental arrangements. The follow-up to her critically acclaimed 2015 record, Have You in My Wilderness, it takes as its starting point a line from a short story by Etel Adnan: "I found myself in an aviary full of shrieking birds." It’s a scenario that sounds straight out of a horror movie, but it’s also agood metaphor for life in 2018, with its endless onslaught of political scandals, freakish natural disasters, and voices shouting their desires and resentments into the void.

Original score music from Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, including 5 original songs, soundtracking the forthcoming remake of Dario Argento’s cult classic “Suspiria.” The Luca Guadagnino directed film stars Dakota Johnson & Tilda Swinton.

When the new Halloween movie hits theaters in October 2018, it will have the distinction of being the first film in the series with creator John Carpenter’s direct involvement since 1982’s Halloween III: Season of the Witch. Carpenter serves on the new David Gordon Green-directed installment as an executive producer, a creative consultant, and, thrillingly, as a soundtrack composer, alongside his collaborators from his three recent solo albums, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies. The new soundtrack pays homage to the classic Halloween score that Carpenter composed and recorded in 1978, when he forever changed the course of horror cinema and synthesizer music with his low-budget masterpiece. Several new versions of the iconic main theme serve as the pulse of Green’s film, its familiar 5/4 refrain stabbing through the soundtrack like the Shape’s knife. The rest of the soundtrack is just as enthralling, incorporating everything from atmospheric synth whooshes to eerie piano-driven pieces to skittering electronic percussion. While the new score was made with a few more resources than Carpenter’s famously shoestring original, its musical spirit was preserved. “We wanted to honor the original Halloween soundtrack in terms of the sounds we used,” Davies explained. “We used a lot of the Dave Smith OB-6, bowed guitar, Roland Juno, Korg, Roli, Moog, Roland System 1, Roland System 8, different guitar pedals, mellotron, and piano.” Unlike the Lost Themes albums, where the composers wrote the soundtracks for imaginary movies, Halloween saw the Carpenters and Davies collaborating on music set to images for the first time. Though it marked a significant change from their previous creative process, the trio thrived under the constraints and tight deadlines that film scoring work demands. “Being limited by the length of time in scoring the sequence, we focused on the director’s tempo, timing, and vision,” Davies said. “He would tell us what he had in mind, how long the cue should be, what emotion he wanted, and we would take it from there. It’s only the three of us, there is no elaborate system. We wrote, performed, and orchestrated everything.” For John Carpenter, who reunited on the new film with original Halloween star Jamie Lee Curtis, composing the score felt like a homecoming. Not only had he not worked on a Halloween movie in 35 years, he hadn’t composed a soundtrack since his 2001 sci-fi thriller Ghosts of Mars. “It was great,” Carpenter said of the experience. “It was transforming. It was not a movie I directed, so I had a lot of freedom in creating the score and getting into the director's head. I was proud to serve David Gordon Green’s vision.” For Cody Carpenter, John’s son, and Davies, his godson, it was surreal to work on something that means so much to generations of fans, and that they grew up around. “It was an honor for us to be involved, and we are really happy to be a part of something that so many people are anticipating and excited about,” Davies said. “Working together with both the director of the new Halloween and the creator of the original Halloween was really a fantastic experience.”

The second full length album by KG&TLW, released in 2013 and originally limited to 500 copies. A cult western audio book, the album is narrated and tells a story of the American Frontier. Spaghetti western, garage rock. The original pressing was limited to 500 copies on sky blue wax.  It has never been repressed or reissued.

New Artwork Re-imagined by Jason Galea

Halloween Orange-Colored Vinyl

On 12” 45rpm for the First Time

Heavyweight Jacket with Inner Sleeve

“I had a dream about Lemmy,” says Matt Pike, explaining the inspiration behind the title of High on Fire’s triumphant eighth album Electric Messiah. If there’s one aspect of High on Fire that warrants comparison to Lemmy’s mighty Motörhead, it’s longevity. 2018 sees the band celebrating 20 years of the most thunderous heavy metal, with brothers-in-arms Pike, bassist Jeff Matz, and drummer Des Kensel having been firmly intact for the last dozen years. Along the way the band has forged a distinct identity of towering riffs, a propulsive rhythm section, shredding solos, and lyrics of Hessian poetry that has drawn accolades from not only the metal community (notably Decibel, Revolver, Metal Hammer, Terrorizer, Kerrang! magazines) but from mainstream music scribes as well. Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, the Chicago Sun-Times, and The Village Voice are among the dozens of publications outside the metal scene to extol the greatness of High on Fire to curious readers.

While recording Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s latest release, Sex & Food, Ruban Nielson, his longtime collaborator Jacob Portrait and his brother Kody Nielson, found themselves in the Vietnamese city of Hanoi playing and recording with local musicians at Phu Sa Studios. The studio, normally used for traditional Vietnamese music, found the band jamming on sessions dubbed IC-01 Hanoi: exploring the outer edges of the band’s influences in Jazz, Fusion and the avant-garde. The musicians, along with Ruban and Kody’s father, a Jazz musician in his own right, helped lay down the unique textures heard throughout Hanoi. At its core Hanoi is a record of exploration, finding its closest antecedent in Miles Davis’ experimental On The Corner – itself a record full of nods toward avant-garde composers and Jazz outsiders alike. Hanoi finds Ruban amplifying and stretching out on lead guitar, with a blown-out and wandering fuzz tone that slinks throughout the sessions. Kody and Jacob match Ruban’s melodic diversions with aplomb, mining their talents to finding as easy a role in the fusion of funk as they do in the more ambient and abstract tangents on Hanoi.

Travel can inspire in surprising ways: Kurt Vile discovered as much making his first record in three years, the eclectic and electrifying Bottle It In, which he recorded at various studios around the country over two very busy years, during sessions that usually punctuated the ends of long tours or family road trips. Every song, whether it’s a concise and catchy pop composition or a sprawling guitar epic, becomes a journey unto itself, taking unexpected detours, circuitous melodic avenues, or open-highway solos. If Vile has become something of a rock guitar god—a mantle he would dismiss out of humility but also out of a desire to keep getting better, to continue absorbing new music, new sounds, new ideas—it’s due to his precise, witty playing style, which turns every riff and rhythm into points on a map and takes the scenic route from one to the next. Using past albums as points of departure, Bottle It In heads off in new directions, pushing at the edges of the map into unexplored territory: Here be monster jams. These songs show an artist who is still evolving and growing: a songwriter who, like his hero John Prine, can make you laugh and break your heart, often in the same line, as well as a vocalist who essentially rewrites those songs whenever he sings them in his wise, laconic jive-talkin’ drawl. He revels in the minutiae of the music—not simply incorporating new instruments but emphasizing how they interact with his guitar and voice, how the glockenspiel evokes cirrocumulus clouds on “Hysteria,” how Kim Gordon’s “acoustic guitar distortion” (her term) engulfs everything at the end of “Mutinies,” how the banjo curls around his guitar lines and backing vocals from Lucius to lend a high-lonesome aura to “Come Again.” These journeys took Vile more than two years to navigate, during which time he toured behind his breakout 2015 album b’lieve I’m goin’ down, recorded a duets album with Australian singer-songwriter-guitarist Courtney Barnett, opened for Neil Young in front of 90,000 people in Quebec, famously became a clue on Jeopardy, hung out with friends, took vacations with his wife and daughters. “I’ve been bouncing around a lot and recording all over. My family would meet me in the middle of America, and we’d go on a road trip somewhere. I would record in between all that stuff.” As Vile prepares for another round of lengthy tours and countless shows, these songs should prove good company, reminders of the love and responsibility he has toward those he leaves at home and those he meets along the way. That makes the sentiments resonate more strongly and lends Bottle It In an emotional weight. “It’s like that moment on the airplane,” Vile says, “when you’re on your way somewhere and you have that burst of panic. When you’re terrified of dying, that’s when you want people to know you love them.” “Impeccably recorded and mixed songs that shuffle bits of folk, new wave, or country in the mix but are always squarely down-the-middle rock.” Mark Richardson, Pitchfork “Vile’s self-awareness is as appealing as his melodies, and he’s stoked a reputation as a bit of a slacker maharishi—at the very least, a look inside Vile’s head might make you think a bit more deeply about what’s going on in your own.” The New Yorker

The musicians and production team behind the great CHARLES BRADLEY present DUNHAM RECORDS newest sensations! Direct from Staten Island, The SHA LA DAS (a play on their surname, Schalda) are a musical family in every sense of the phrase. Don't get confused here, folks. We're talking real-deal, shoot-from-the-hip group harmony of the highest order. The group is comprised of Patriarch, BILL who honed his skill and cultivated his ear for harmonies at an early age, singing on the streets of Brooklyn with other neighborhood kids and his sons WILL, PAUL, and CARMINE, all musicians in their own right (THE EXTRAORDINAIRES, SWIVS, PAUL AND THE TALL TREES.) The genesis of the Sha La Das came to fruition when an old friend, TOMMY BRENNECK (Dunham/Daptone producer and musician), called upon the Schalda boys to sing back-ups on CHARLES BRADLEY S now classic Victim of Love. The second Tommy heard the four Schaldas sing he knew he had to make a record with them. This idea soon developed into a passion whose fruits have been cut into the 12 masterpiece we humbly present here. From the opening atmospheric guitar strum of Open My Eyes' via a walk along the Coney Island boardwalk catching the last glimpse of sunlight at dusk of Carnival to the sublime crescendo of harmonies of the winsome Love in the Wind, each song evokes a deeply personal yet universal yearning that none of us can escape. Quite simply every song yields magic. So sit back, close your eyes and take in the SHA LA DAS' Love in the Wind. Let the full realization of their harmonies wash over the lush instrumentation of MENAHAN STREET BAND, and float into the starlit summer's night.

Mothers attempt to exist in two places at once - both singular and collaborative, sprawling and concise, present and distant. Kristine Leschper, songwriter and founding member of the project, explains that it is in the space between opposites that she finds herself. The multifaceted is, by nature, fragmented - each facet reflecting a slightly different perspective of the whole. On their latest record, Render Another Ugly Method, the band attempts to gain an expanded view of its surroundings through splintered sound, thought, and image.

Melody's Echo Chamber (aka Melody Prochet) has confirmed her second album, Bon Voyage, will be released on June 15th on Fat Possum Records. Made up of seven expansive tracks, Bon Voyage marries Melody's breathless soprano to the wildest sonic excursions, always pinned to an emphatic, clattering groove as she delivers her fables of spiritual search and emotional healing in multiple tongues (French, English and Swedish).

Bon Voyage is a collaborative record between Prochet and Dungen's Reine Fiske and The Amazing's Fredrik Swahn with Melody sculpting and producing the sessions as well as encouraging the players around her to experiment, often with instruments that might be less familiar to them. It also features special guests Gustav Esjtes and Johan Holmegaard (both from Dungen) and Nicholas Allbrook (Pond).

If troglodytes could have gotten their paws on a Fuzzthrone or other fuzz pedals…they would have probably bashed each other`s skulls in. Conan on the other hand use these beautiful tools to wrench the maximum out of their legendary Caveman Battle Doom: could there be a more monolithic opener than ‘Prosper On The Path‘? Narp. The British trio presents a tar monster named Existential Void Guardian that seems even more menacing as soon as it gets high on its own downtuned groove frenzy. Two years after the remarkable Revengeance, Conan once more leave us baffled with a previously unknown side to dual vocal sludge – behold the painful melody splinters ‘Eye To Eye To Eye‘ leaves behind or the insane grind intermezzo that is ‘Paincantation‘. True beauty lies in dissonance, and it always will.

2018 release. Bayside have already established themselves as a cornerstone artist in the punk scene, and are rising to new heights with the release of their second acoustic album, Acoustic Volume 2. Containing some of their biggest hits and most profound songwriting, Acoustic Volume 2 is a necessary piece in any fan's collection.

On September 7, Katie Crutchfield’s ever-shifting musical project Waxahatchee returns with the Great Thunder EP. Featuring a collection of songs written with now-dormant experimental recording group Great Thunder while Crutchfield was also writing the Waxahatchee albums Cerulean Salt and Ivy Tripp, the original recordings have mostly faded into obscurity. Unearthing and reimagining them with producer Brad Cook at Justin Vernon’s April Base studio in Wisconsin was a cathartic experience, she says. On the heels of last year’s critically acclaimed Out in the Storm, Crutchfield found herself looking to take a sharp turn away from the more rock-oriented influences of her recent records towards her more folk and country roots. “I would say that it is a complete 180 from the last record: super stripped-down, quiet, and with me performing solo, it’s a throwback to how I started,” writes Crutchfield. “Overall, the EP is a warm, kind of vibey recording.” Some of the songs on Great Thunder, like “Chapel of Pines” and “Singer’s No Star,” stayed the same and will be recognizable to those intensely familiar with Crutchfield’s catalog to date, while closer “Takes So Much” was built back up on piano from the bones of the original version, surprising even the songwriter: “Until then, I didn’t realize how beautiful this song was.” As Crutchfield entered April Base to record, she became ill but opted to forge on, beautifully stretching her voice to its emotional limits.

Although civilization’s transition into a cyborg world seems inevitable, there are still those who recognize the beauty and power of a human touch to complement the circumvention. Jack Tatum understands this balance, and through a decade making music as Wild Nothing he has learned to embrace both sides of that dynamic—but perhaps never as distinctly as on Indigo, the fourth Wild Nothing album. On one hand, it is a return to the fresh, transcendent sweep of his debut, 2010’s Gemini, and on the other, a culmination of heights reached, paths traveled, and lessons learned while creating the follow-ups, Nocturne and Life of Pause. Indigo finds Tatum at his most efficient, calculated, and confident—resulting in an artful blend of hi-fi humanity and technology that fires on all circuits and synapses.

To make Indigo, Tatum confronted the Man vs. Machine dichotomy by seizing on the surrounding synergy. Finding the right people to work on the album was integral, as was the proper place to record it. So, Tatum booked four days at legendary Sunset Sound’s Studio. Afterwards, producer Jorge Elbrecht (Ariel Pink, Gang Gang Dance, Japanese Breakfast) and Tatum built out the rest of the album’s sound by adding new parts and repurposing sounds from Tatum’s demos. The resulting Indigo is its own cyborg world, utilizing the artful mechanisms of human touch with the precision of technology to create the classic, pristine sound Tatum had been seeking his entire career. From the opening drum beat, chiming guitar, and sweeping synth of “Letting Go” to Tatum’s Bryan Ferry vocal turn on “Oscillation” to the ’80s-heavy blips, clicks, and strut of “Partners in Motion,” it’s clear that Indigo is at once vintage Wild Nothing and a bold, new leap into a bigger arena.

Los Angeles based, Swedish vocalist, producer, and songwriter Lykke Li released new single "deep end" and additional track "hard rain." The songs mark the long-awaited coming of so sad so sexy, Lykke Li's fourth full-length album and follow-up to 2014's critically acclaimed I Never Learn, due June 8th via RCA Records, her first release with the label.

Year of the Snitch is the upcoming sixth studio album by experimental hip hop group Death Grips, set to be released on August 10, 2018 through Third Worlds and Harvest Records.

ABOUT THE ALBUM In 2008, Aaron Dessner sent Justin Vernon an instrumental sketch of a song called “Big Red Machine” for Dark Was The Night. This was before they had met in person. Justin wrote a song to it, interpreting the Big Red Machine title as a heart. 10 years of friendship later, there are 10 more songs. Big Red Machine. Each song includes a large number of collaborators via the PEOPLE platform and the record was produced by Justin and Aaron with longtime collaborator Brad Cook and engineered by Jonathan Low primarily at Aaron’s studio Long Pond in Upper Hudson Valley, NY ABOUT PEOPLE PEOPLE is a steadily growing group of international artists who have come together to create and share our work freely, with each other and everyone. It was born outo a wish to establish an independent and nurturing space in which to make work (generally around music) that is collaborative, spontaneous and expressive in nature and where all unnecessary distractions or obstacles that get in the way are removed. PEOPLE is for the bene t and development of the artists involved and just as importantly, for those who would like to access and enjoy the output. It is as much about the process of making work and showing all that openly, as the final outcome.

‘Lamp Lit Prose’ arrives just over a year after 2017’s self-titled ‘Dirty Projectors.’ Here David Longstreth’s band returns with a new album that is the yang to the yin of the 2017 effort. The songs signal a page turned for Longstreth: hope instead of heartbreak, a restorative balance. Guitars have returned to the Dirty Projectors’ world, intricate and gorgeous vocal harmony too. The album begins with “Right Now,” David singing, “there was silence in my heart, but now I’m striking up the band.” In addition to the core musicians and guests, LA string group the Calder Quartet, and The Brass Players of Los Angeles both appear on several songs. ‘Lamp Lit Prose’ is a recommitment to the sounds and ideals of Dirty Projectors, embracing the band’s trademarks while pushing forward the sonic envelope. Lamp Lit Prose will be the ninth release for Dirty Projectors and comes with collaborations from HAIM, Syd, Robin Pecknold, Rostam Batmanglij, Amber Mark, Empress Of and Dear Nora. Lamp Lit Prose was recorded at Ivo Shandor in Los Angeles.

Pink Vinyl- Ten Bands One Cause

Released in 2006 as a follow-up to Sufjan Stevens’ 2005 Illinois, Asthmatic Kitty Records is finally releasing Avalanche on vinyl on August 31st, 2018. Initially conceived as part of a double album version of Illinois, Avalancheinstead became a “companion” (a polite word for “b-sides”) to Illinois. Since its release, fans have had mixed reactions. “3 versions of Chicago?!?! Enough already,” wrote ‘biografiend” on Sputnik. But “cravenmonket,” who gave the album 4.5 stars on rateyourmusic, suggests that we all “stop thinking of The Avalanche as more Illinois. It actually owes more to Michigan.” Cravenmonket may be right. Take “The Mistress Witch” or “Saul Bellow,” both of which could have lived on the 2003 Michigan as much as on Illinois. One can hear Sufjan’s 2004 Enjoy Your Rabbit in “The Undivided Self.” And the band jam on “Springfield” looks forward to 2010’s All Delighted People. Then there’s “Pittsfield,” which, at least lyrically, foreshadows the more personal themes of 2015’s Carrie & Lowell. All that to say, a vinyl release of Avalanche is long overdue. With gratitude, we happily present Avalanche as a 2xLP a mere twelve years after its release, complete with all 21 songs from the original release, including the three versions of “Chicago” (you’re welcome, biografiend). THANK YOU!

25 years after its initial release, Julee Cruise’s sophomore album The Voice of Love will be issued for the first time on vinyl August 17 via Sacred Bones Records, and on CD for the first time since its initial pressing in 1993. It would mark the final full-length collaboration between Cruise, David Lynch, and Angelo Badalamenti. In 1994, a er the release of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Lynch, Badalamenti, and Cruise returned to the studio with new compositions as well as the intent to craft previously instrumental score-based material from Fire Walk With Me and Wild at Heart into Julee Cruise songs. The result was 1993’s final studio album The Voice of Love. “In the studio, David would always say ‘[sing] like an angel, like an angel...” Cruise remembers. In many ways, this quest for “angelic” was the seed that grew an entire genre out of the inability to utilize This Mortal Coil’s “Song to the Siren” for Blue Velvet. It’s eerie to ponder what might not have been had the song actually been within reach for that film. Fitting that all these years later, Twin Peaks concluded on a similar question followed by Cruise’s performance of “The World Spins”: What happens if Laura Palmer was never murdered?

4-track 12" Vinyl EP. Recoded live at Copenhagen's Royal Arena in October 2017, Performing new album Skeleton Tree's beautiful compositions alongside songs from their essential catalogue, Distant Sky captured an extraordinary and triumphant live concert from Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds from their celebrated 2017 world tour.

Thank You for Today, Death Cab for Cutie's ninth studio album, was produced and mixed by Rich Costey (Fiona Apple, Franz Ferdinand, Muse), who also produced the band's last album the GRAMMY® nominated Kintsugi. Thank You for Today marks the first Death Cab for Cutie release to see long time bandmates Gibbard, Nick Harmer, and Jason McGerr joined in the studio by new members Dave Depper (Menomena, Fruit Bats, Corin Tucker, Ray Lamontagne) and Zac Rae (My Brightest Diamond, Fiona Apple, Lana Del Rey, Gnarls Barkley). Depper and Rae have both been part of Death Cab's touring band since 2015. Death Cab for Cutie will celebrate their new album with a much anticipated fall tour. Check out the single "Gold Rush"

The third full-length release for the Philadelphia shoegaze band led by Domenic Palermo was produced by John Agnello.

Though often lumped in with New Orleans sludge bands like Eyehategod and Crowbar, Thou shares a more spiritual kinship with ’90s proto-grunge bands like Nirvana, Alice in Chains, and Soundgarden (all of whom they’ve covered extensively, both in the studio and onstage). The band’s aesthetic and political impulses reflect the obscure ’90s DIY hardcore punk found on labels like Ebullition, Vermiform, and Crimethinc. From 2004 through 2016, the band has released four full-length albums, six EPs (some bordering on full lengths), two collaboration records with The Body, and enough material spread out over splits to make up another four or five LPs. Sacred Bones Records is proud to present the new album, Magus, Thou’s first full-length since 2014’s Heathen. In the months leading into the new album, Thou will be releasing three drastically different EPs: The House Primordial on Raw Sugar, Inconsolable on Community Records, and Rhea Sylvia on Deathwish, Inc. Each record will focus on a particular sound—noisy drone, quiet acoustic, and melodic grunge—all of which is incorporated into the new LP, subsumed in the band’s more standard doom metal. While sonically, Magus may be a continuation of Heathen, thematically it stands as a stark rebuttal, a journey beyond the principles of pleasure and pain. It is more the culmination of these distinct EPs, which all orbit some internal black hole. FFO alienation, absurdity, boredom, futility, decay, the tyranny of history, the vulgarities of change, awareness as agony, reason as disease.

“The Lamb was written during a time of intense paranoia after a home invasion, deaths of loved ones and general violence around me and my friends,” says Lillie West, the Chicago-based songwriter behind Lala Lala. “I began to frequently and vividly imagine the end of the world, eventually becoming too frightened to leave my house. This led me to spend a lot of time examining my relationships and the choices I’d made, often wondering if they were correct and/or kind.” West initially started Lala Lala as a way to communicate things that she felt she could never say out loud. But on The Lamb, her sophomore LP and debut for Hardly Art, she has found strength in vulnerability. Through bracing hooks and sharp lyrics, the 24-year-old songwriter and guitarist illustrates a nuanced look on her own adulthood -- her fraught insecurity, struggles with addiction, and the loss of several people close to her. Across the album’s 12 tracks, West carefully examines the skeletons in her closet for the first time, hoping to capture honest snapshots of her past selves. Many of the songs show West asking herself agonizing questions about her life with a clever and hopeful curiosity. On the album’s first single and opening track, “Destroyer,” she reflects on feeling self-destructive and the delayed realization something in the past has irrevocably hurt you. In “Water Over Sex,” West laments her old precarious lifestyle, while trying to readjust to her newfound sobriety, and ”Copycat” confronts her feelings of alienation and boredom. “Some of this album is about being frustrated that everything is always repeating itself and being bored with your own feelings,” she explains. “‘Copycat’ in particular is about how everyone talks exactly the same on the Internet and how it sometimes feels futile to try and be yourself.”

Joyce Manor are back with a new album, entitled Million Dollars To Kill Me. Frontman Barry Johnson along with co-founding guitarist Chase Knobbe, new drummer Pat Ware—(“Awesome new drummer,” adds Johnson)—and longtime bassist Matt Ebert, wrote enough songs to fill a full-length, and then worked to get songs lifted from emails between Johnson and one of his musical hero Impossibles’ guitarist/vocalist Rory Phillips, with whom he had been co-writing long distance, to match the ones written at full volume. (“Bedroom charm versus live rock band,” Johnson explains.) Their next step was a new step: their first time recording outside their L.A. hometown, at Converge’s Kurt Ballou’s GodCity studio in Salem, Massachusetts. They recorded daily 10-to-6 and then slept right upstairs in bunk beds: “Kinda felt like camp,” says Johnson. “It was a pleasure—I would recommend it to anyone.” If 2016’s Cody was about growing up, then Kill Me is about what happens next—the reckonings with love, money, doubt and confusion, and the hope that persists despite it all.

Gouge Away are a hardcore punk band from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. “Burnt Sugar” is their latest album, co-produced by Jack Shirley (Deafheaven, Oathbreaker) and Jeremy Bolm of Touche Amore. With “Burnt Sugar” Gouge Away dive into personal and social political subject matter without getting the bends on their way back to surface. Carrying an emotional vulnerability and honesty that few bands own in today’s music world.

The new highly anticipated album from Alice In Chains on 2xLP 180 gram vinyl.

The seven-track release for the New York rap artist was produced by Kanye West.

Swearin’ is the kind of band that comes around, at best, once a decade. Thankfully for us, they’ve come around twice. After releasing two beloved full-lengths, 2012’s Swearin’ and 2013’s Surfing Strange, the Philadelphia band quietly put things on hold. It was due, at least in part, to the band’s main songwriters, Allison Crutchfield and Kyle Gilbride, ending their romantic relationship. And though Swearin’ tried to soldier on, it became far too stressful to keep going. But after a few years apart, those bad feelings disappeared. And when the band’s three members—Crutchfield, Gilbride, and drummer Jeff Bolt—found themselves in a room again, the conversation inevitably turned back to Swearin’. “Drunkenly, without any hesitation or inhibitions,” said Crutchfield, “we asked, ‘What would it take from each of us? What would we need to do this again? What would we want to accomplish if we decided to be a band again?’” They realized that what they all wanted was to not just play shows, but to make a new record. Before the band initially split, they’d already started writing for what would have been their third album, but instead of going back to that old material, they wanted to do something that reflected the people they’d become during those intervening years. “When a band re-forms and makes a new record that is trying to sound like the heyday of their band, it doesn’t sound genuine,” said Bolt. Before long, Crutchfield and Gilbride had a new batch of Swearin’ songs, ones that meshed with the sound they’d originally developed together but boldly pushed things forward. The result is Fall into the Sun, a Swearin’ record that doesn’t try to obscure the passage of time but instead embraces it. “Getting older, your tastes change, and what you want to do changes,” said Bolt. Those changes, though subtle, are impactful, making Fall into the Sun what Crutchfield calls “the adult Swearin’ album.” It can be seen in songs like “Big Change,” where she says goodbye to Philly and the scene that she came up in, or in “Dogpile,” where Gilbride offers the line any aging punk can relate to: “By pure dumb luck I’ve gotten where I’m going.” Where Swearin’ used to pummel through their songs, on Fall into the Sun, they bask in what this newfound openness offers. It’s most notable on the ambling “Stabilize,” which sees the band throw their weight around in the song’s back half, offering up what’s easily the heaviest riff in the band’s catalog. “I think both me and Allison have gone through huge transitions in our lives. There was a lot on our minds, and it was a super fertile time to put a bunch of songs together,” said Gilbride. It’s true of the material found on Fall into the Sun, but it’s noticeable in the album’s production, too. Much like the band’s previous albums, Gilbride anchored the recording and producing of the record, but this time around, the band worked to make the process feel more collaborative than ever before. “I feel like this was the first time I could look at a Swearin’ record and say that I co-produced it, and that felt really good,” said Crutchfield. Recorded in both Philly and Los Angeles, where Crutchfield now resides, Fall into the Sun took shape by the members giving their full trust to one another, and it can be seen in the final product. Listening to Fall into the Sun, the old Swearin’ is still there, but it’s a more confident, collaborative version than the one people first came to know. Crutchfield and Gilbride always had an innate ability to mirror the other’s movements in songs, but here, they build a focused lyrical perspective across their songs, one that’s thankful for their past, but looks boldly toward the future. Though it may have taken them a while, Swearin’ finally made the third album they always wanted. Fall into the Sun is as riotously affirming as their early work...

For years, Phosphorescent’s rise was a steady one: tours got a little better, rooms got a little bigger, and with it the music became more intricate, more ambitious in its recording and arrangement. Then came Muchacho, a juggernaut that to date has sold over 100,000 worldwide, with lead single “Song for Zula” now well over 50 million streams. Now, ve years later, Phosphorescent returns with his seventh studio LP, C’est La Vie. Recorded in Nashville at Matthew Houck’s own Spirit Sounds Studio, C’est La Vie reveals a crystallization of what made Muchacho such a breakout — a little sweetness and a little menace, sometimes boot-stomping and sometimes meditative.

A lot of life was lived between these records: Houck became a father (twice), built his studio, escaped New York. And C’est La Vie does have a hefty, career-spanning feel. But there’s a newfound wisdom, too, a deeper well for all that livin’. The magic of Matthew Houck’s music has always been the way he weaves shimmering, almost golden-sounding threads through elemental, salt-of-the-earth sounds. It’s not experimental, exactly, but it’s singular and it’s definitely not traditional. That knack, the through-line across the Phosphorescent catalog, is front and center here.

Molly Burch burst onto the music scene in 2017 with her debut Please Be Mine – a ten-track ode to unrequited romance written after studying Jazz Vocal Performance in Asheville, NC – and earned immediate praise from critics for her smoky, effortless vocals and bleeding-heart lyrics. Following a year of touring all over North America, Europe and the UK alongside the likes of Ought, Alex Cameron, Grizzly Bear and Courtney Barnett amongst others, Burch then returned to Texas to decompress. Finding herself suddenly devoid of stimulation and with nothing but time on her hands, she began anew, bouncing ideas off her bandmate and boyfriend Dailey Toliver – who contributed guitar parts and orchestration suggestions – and, slowly, an album took shape; soon after, First Flower became real.

A walk-through Burch’s most intimate thoughts – broken friendships, sibling relationships, and overwhelming anxiety – First Flower is a bright, beautiful album peppered with moments of triumph with Burch’s voice as strong and dexterous as ever. Opening track “Candy” is a swinging, playful hit, while “Wild” deals with pushing away fear. Title track “First Flower” is classic Burch, a simple love song that makes your skin raise with goosebumps when she breaks into the chorus. But the album’s true stand-out is “To The Boys”, a courageous, sassy fuck-you to her own self-deprecation where she learns to love all the things she hated about herself. “I don’t need to scream to get my point across/I don’t need to yell to know that I’m the boss,” she coos over a sparse guitar riff.

First Flower is a shapely sonic stage to let Burch shine on. The composition and production carefully constructed to compliment and not over power.

There are few voices more deeply embedded in the iconography and mythology of American indie rock than that of Chan Marshall. Under the musical nom de plume of Cat Power, Marshall has released music for nearly 25 years now and her prowess as a songwriter, a producer, and most notably—as a voice—has only grown more influential with time. Wanderer, Cat Power’s stunning 10th studio album, marks a pivotal moment in both Chan Marshall’s life and her career. In the six years since the release of 2012’s Sun, Marshall has travelled the world, given birth to a child, and parted ways with her previous record label. Even though it was, in many ways, a period of profound upheaval and radical change, those experiences resulted in a record that is arguably the most assured artistic statement of her career. Produced by Marshall and mixed by Rob Schnapf (Elliott Smith, Beck), the album includes appearances by longtime friends and compatriots, as well as guest vocals courtesy of friend and recent tourmate Lana Del Rey. Wanderer is, in many ways, a quintessential Cat Power record, with Marshall’s clarion voice front and center in a set of songs that remarkably stark and straightforward. But, if old Cat Power records might easily have been viewed as repositories for pain, Wanderer is, at its heart, a testament to the transformative nature of songs, an album-length imagining of alternate paths, redemptions, connections, and open-ended possibility.

Empress Of's debut album Me was released in 2015. As the name suggests, it presented a personal exploration of her emotional world. So personal, she says, it was difficult to perform. With Us, Rodriguez wanted to facilitate a more equal exchange of energy between herself and her listeners, to create a "community." "It's not just love songs. It's about different experiences of the heart," she says. "I want it to be like a mirror, and [the audience] sees a little bit of themselves in every song."

Producer, multi-instrumentalist, composer, songwriter and vocalist Devonte Hynes returns with his fourth album as Blood Orange, Negro Swan. Raised in England, Hynes started out as a teenage punk in the UK band Test Icicles before releasing two orchestral acoustic pop records as Lightspeed Champion. In 2011, he released Coastal Grooves, the first of three solo albums under the moniker Blood Orange. His last album, Freetown Sound, was released to critical acclaim in 2016, and saw Hynes defined as one of the foremost musical voices of his time, receiving comparisons to the likes of Kendrick Lamar and D’Angelo for his own searing and soothing personal document of life as a black man in America. He has collaborated with Solange Knowles, FKA Twigs, and many other artists, and was recently one of four artists invited to the Kennedy Center to perform alongside Philip Glass. In addition to his production work, he scored the film Palo Alto, directed by Gia Coppola and starring James Franco. Hynes’ newest album, Negro Swan, was written and produced by Hynes. Says Hynes: “My newest album is an exploration into my own and many types of black depression, an honest look at the corners of black existence, and the ongoing anxieties of queer/people of color. A reach back into childhood and modern traumas, and the things we do to get through it all. The underlying thread through each piece on the album is the idea of HOPE, and the lights we can try to turn on within ourselves with a hopefully positive outcome of helping others out of their darkness.”

Minus the Bear is a product of the first two decades of this century. From their first show in 2001 to their impending dissolution at the end of 2018, the Seattle band thrived on the musical awakening in the era of the mp3, the internet, poptimism, and the crosspollinations generated from an expanded consciousness of new music forms. With their final EP, Fair Enough, Minus the Bear closes the book on their hybrid of art-rock, indie pop, and warehouse party appeal. The opening track “Fair Enough” went through a variety of permutations before the band found new meaning in its lyrical lament of lost passions and finding “the exact moment we turned it off”. The other songs of Fair Enough are a continuation and culmination of Minus the Bear’s diverse sounds. The up-tempo drumbeats, lush electronics, and nimble guitar work that initially set them apart are on full display during “Viaduct”. “Dinosaur” has the groove of early hits of “Fine + 2 PTS”, but crafted with the understated Steely Dan-eque delivery of their more current slow jams. The EP closes with a nod to their ongoing remix collaborations, this time with a rave-up reinvention of “Invisible” by Sombear.

Eternal Return, the fourth full length from Richmond, Virginia’s heavy psychedelic quartet WINDHAND represents a new era for the group, a chrysalis moment that takes them to new and unforeseen heights. Across nine songs and 63 minutes, Eternal Return is an infectious display of songcraft cloaked in alluring atmosphere, molten fuzz, eerie psychedelia and ethereal vocals. The album was once again produced by Jack Endino (Nirvana, Soundgarden) with vivid artwork by Arik Roper (Sleep, High on Fire). Equally informed by heavy, fuzzed-out psych along with the iconic grunge / alternative groups of the 90s, WINDHAND have crafted a record brilliant in scope, powerful in execution, and perfect for an era of increasingly blurry yet still heavy borders.

MassEducation re-imagines St. Vincent’s #1 New York Times album, MASSEDUCTION, laying bare exquisite songwriting and beauty.

Some bands love having very ironic names. When a band is called Daughters, listeners might expect: (1) a female-dominated or female-fronted lineup, and (2) an introspective folk-rock or adult alternative approach along the lines of the Indigo Girls, the October Project, or 10,000 Maniacs. But those who have been following Daughters since their official formation in 2001 (or before that when they were As the Sun Sets) know that they aren't a female act and that they don't sound anything like the Indigo Girls, the October Project, or 10,000 Maniacs. Daughters are guys, and they're guys who provide a jagged, dense, highly abrasive dose of noise rock on this self-titled 2010 release. Daughters have been described as everything from mathcore or math metal to alternative metal to grindcore (although this album doesn't sound like Cannibal Corpse or Carcass), but noise rock is the term that best captures Daughters in 2010 -- and make no mistake: this is an extremely noisy album. Daughters thrive on being as noisy as possible, and they love to be as frantic and as nervous as possible. A lot of that nervousness comes from a healthy appreciation of punk; they clearly appreciate punk's high-speed aggression as much as they appreciate metal's heaviness. Combine that frantic, nervous, punk-minded tension with a lot of metallic heaviness, and you have an album that leaves a trail of destruction in its wake.

James Blake has long been a hip-hop ally. Not only has his own discography cemented him as a critically acclaimed artist, the multiple Grammy award-nominee and Mercury Prize winner has worked with artists from the likes of Drake, Beyonce, Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, Frank Ocean and more. 2018 was a massive year for the producer, singer and song-writer who collaborated with Kendrick Lamar on the era-defining Black Panther soundtrack and lent his vocals to Travis Scott's "Stop Trying To Be God."

Imagine: John Lennon 75th Birthday Concert captured performances from the historic event  at The Theatre At Madison Square Garden, honoring the songs of one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. The concert film/audio recordings feature 20 performances of Beatles and solo classics by Aloe Blacc, Eric Church, Sheryl Crow, Brandon Flowers, John Fogerty, Peter Frampton, Juanes, Kris Kristofferson, Pat Monahan, Tom Morello, Willie Nelson, The Roots, Spoon + Chris Stapleton.

After rising to fame two years ago in 2016 with her explosive debut 1 Million selling single 'No Roots' (Mom + Pop), written about her constant moving homes as a child becoming such as huge debut, its safe to say its been a whirl wind for Alice Merton with 124 Million YouTube hits to date. She also gained 6+ Million streams, toured the US supporting the brilliant Vance Joy, championed by Billboard Magazine, Rolling Stone Magazine with Performances on Jimmy Fallon's The Tonights Show and James Corden's Late Late Show, Live With Kelly and Ryan, and even a recent 2018 Teen Choice Awards Nomination in 'Best Rock' category. Merton's debut album, Mint, will be released on January 18th and featured "No Roots", "Lash Out" and her newest single "Why So Serious".

Guster's latest studio album Look Alive was produced by English musician, composer, and producer Leo Abrahams (Regina Spektor, Brian Eno/David Byrne, Belle and Sebastian, Chromatics). The forthcoming LP maintains the band’s unique charm while charting new sonic and lyric pathways. It will be available on CD, vinyl, and digitally.

One of Los Angeles punk rock’s most widely admired yet little-heard bands makes a striking return to records on Jan. 18, as Yep Roc Records issues an all-new collection by The Flesh Eaters, I Used to Be Pretty.  On the release, founding vocalist and songwriter Chris Desjardins — better known as Chris D. — is backed by the legendary “all-star” edition of the band, originally heard on the 1981 set A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die: Dave Alvin (guitar) and Bill Bateman (drums) of the Blasters; John Doe (bass) and D.J. Bonebrake (marimba and percussion) of X; and Steve Berlin (saxophones) of the Plugz (and later the Blasters and Los Lobos). The album was produced collectively by the band members. 

Old Sea Brigade releases his highly anticipated full-length debut Ode to a Friend. While the songs remain rooted in Americana, indie, rock, and ambient soundscapes, they also toss and turn between analog cinematic flourishes and provocative lyricism. At times singer-songwriter, other times indie-rock – no matter the inspiration behind the mélange of styles, Cramer has created a soundscape of the utmost sincerity and beauty. Throughout Ode...Old Sea Brigade tackles one of life’s most complex crises: how to make each day’s fleeting moments amount to something. It's these deeply introspective, meditative songs that make Old Sea Brigade so compelling.

In music as in love, one + one can add up to not two but a new and greater one. On Heart Songs two of the world's greatest guitarists, Tommy Emmanuel and John Knowles, make this clear. Both are masters of their instrument, honored by the iconic Chet Atkins with the rare designation of CGP (Certified Guitar Players). Their early journeys were dissimilar. Emmanuel began his in Australia, grew up on the road with his family's band, settled as a teenager in Sydney and left his rock band to launch a spectacular solo career. Knowles followed a more academic path, eventually earning a PH.D. in physics from Texas Christian University but then electing to pursue his true love of music. Inevitably they would cross paths, become friends and perform on stages and clinics around the world. Their styles are distinctive but for that very reason they mesh seamlessly, with Knowles generally creating sophisticated but compelling foundations over which Emmanuel's guitar soars in astonishing yet always musical flights.

On August 26, 2017, VOLBEAT became the first Danish band to headline and sell out their hometown venue, Denmark’s Telia Parken, setting the record for the biggest show by a domestic artist in Denmark ever with over 48,250 people in attendance. To commemorate and immortalize the record-breaking event, the band will release their live album and concert film, Let’s Boogie! Live From Telia Parken, on December 14th via Republic Records.

Craft Recordings is proud to announce the release of The Complete Cuban Jam Sessions 5-LP and 5-CD box sets on November 9, 2018. Compiled here in their entirety and original format for the first time, the five volumes of Panart’s Cuban Jam Session albums were recorded over a span of almost a decade, from 1956–1964. Together these albums encapsulate a stylistic and historic panorama of Cuban music, from big band son montuno to Afro-Cuban rumba, mambo, cha-cha-chá and country acoustic guajira music. At the same time, they attest to Cuba’s long relationship with popular American music and jazz.

Collectively these sessions feature an impressive line-up of renowned pioneers of descarga (improvised jam session), including pianist Julio Gutiérrez, tres player Niño Rivera, flautist José Fajardo and the legendary master bassist and mambo co-creator, Israel “Cachao” López. Participating musicians include the legendary percussionist Tata Güines, trombone master Generoso Jiménez, pioneering Cuban jazz drummer Guillermo Barreto, Cachao’s brother and co-father of the mambo Orestes López, ground-breaking timbales player/drummer Walfredo de los Reyes, Sr., jazz-influenced pianist Pedro Jústiz “Peruchín,” and Cuban scat singer Francisco Fellove, among many others. 

Wild Life’s limited deluxe edition treatment features the full album remastered at Abbey Road plus 25 bonus audio tracks including rough mixes of the album, original single edits, B-sides, home recordings and other previously unreleased material across three CDs. The set’s DVD features rare footage of acoustic home videos, rehearsals and more. The Wild Life deluxe package includes a 128-page book written by David Fricke telling the story behind the album, 48-page scrapbook of tour diaries + more

This edition of Red Rose Speedway is a six-disc (3CD, 2DVD + Blu-ray) numbered limited deluxe edition of the second Wings album and first credited to Paul McCartney and Wings. Released in April 1973 and featuring the #1 single ‘My Love,’ Red Rose Speedway was the first Wings album to hit #1 on the U.S. chart. The Red Rose Speedway limited deluxe edition features three discs of audio including the original album remastered at Abbey Road, no less than 35 bonus audio tracks, including a reconstruction of the originally conceived double album version of Red Rose Speedway, singles, B-sides, alternate mixes and previously unreleased tracks. The 2DVD + Blu-ray portions of the deluxe are packed with rare and previously unseen footage, including the James Paul McCartney TV Special, interviews and music videos, as well as the never before seen film The Bruce McMouse Show - fully restored and remixed in stereo and 5.1 surround sound. The package includes a folio containing 14 replica hand-drawn original character sketches by Paul and facsimile dialogue sheets for the film, a 128-page book containing many previously unpublished images by Linda McCartney, expanded album and single artwork from the archives and story behind the album - including new interviews with Paul McCartney, and key album personnel - and track-by-track information, written by Amanda Petrusich, five replica handwritten lyric sheets and photo print, a 64-page ‘Wings In Morocco’ photo book, all housed in a numbered outer slipcase. The Red Rose Speedway download redemption card will provide access to all audio in HD 24/96kHz unlimited high-resolution versions

Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee John Mellencamp to release his 24th studio album Other People’s Stuff via Republic Records. Mellencamp will embark on a 26-date North American tour next year in support of his upcoming album, which will kick off 2/7/19 in his home state of Indiana. Other People’s Stuff contains covers of singer-songwriter classics. The album follows his 2017 album Sad Clowns & Hillbillies.

DANIEL ROMANO FINALLY FREE Finally Free marks Daniel Romanos eighth long playing album in the last eight years. He has had what understatedly would be considered a prolific output of incredibly entrancing, poignant and creative records in this span of time. Recording, producing, designing and landing his records into the minds and hearts of scores of fans the world over. He has been called a shapeshifter, contrived, a chameleon, a Charlatan, the best living songwriter, an asshole and a genius. His last record, Modern pressure received outstandingly high acclaim and praise from every notable publication out there and was acknowledged by most reputable for-profit-prize-corporations as well as a plethora of voguish music-as-competitive-sport year end lists. Despite being the bronze placeholder in most of these dogfights, he is most often noted as a person of astounding influence on all of his musically economic successors. No matter what he does, everything he puts out is better than anything else being put out by anyone else. Unnamed Subjugate.

This Studio Albums Collection box set comprises the complete Creedence Clearwater Revival studio output, from 1968 to 1972. Each 180-gram LP has been mastered at half-speed at Abbey Road Studios, benefiting from an exacting process that allows for an exceptional level of sonic clarity. The discs come housed in handsome tip-on jackets replicating the packaging of the original pressings. The set also features an 80-page book with new liner notes, archival photos and reproductions of band ephemera offering something for both new and the most diehard of Creedence fans.

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s second EP, Willoughby’s Beach was self-released in 2011 and originally limited to 350 hand-numbered copies. Lo-fi garage rock.

- New Artwork Re-Imagined by Ican Harem

- Red Colored Vinyl

- On 12” 45rpm for the First Time

- Heavyweight Jacket w/Embossed Spot UV Coating and custom Inner Sleeve

First ever complete retrospective of Chris Cornell’s career covering Soundgarden, Temple of the Dog, Audioslave and his solo works. This 2 LP set includes:

• 2 x 180gram audiophile black LPs
• 17 tracks highlighting Chris’ astonishing career with 2 unreleased recordings
• 12-page booklet with unreleased photos
• Liner notes by Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron, Tom Morello, Mike McCready and Brendan O’Brien

 * Denotes previously unreleased material

The 2-LP Chris Cornell edition showcases 17 songs with 2 previously unreleased of songs from all stages of Chris’ career including Soundgarden, Temple of the Dog, Audioslave and his solo works. The centerpiece to the collection is the newly discovered, unreleased track “When Bad Does Good” found in Chris’ personal audio archive which was performed, recorded and mixed by Chris himself.  Creative Director for the project is Jeff Ament (Pearl Jam, Temple of the Dog) who oversaw the project design including the 12-page booklet with unreleased photos. Liner note contributions by Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron, Tom Morello, Mike McCready and Brendan O’Brien.  Additional highlights of tracks include the unreleased performance from SiriusXM of the Prince classic “Nothing Compares 2 U,” Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun,” Audioslave’s “Like A Stone” and the theme song to the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale “You Know My Name.”

November sees the release of MERRIE LAND, the second album from The Good, The Bad & The Queen, a band comprising of Damon Albarn, Paul Simonon, Tony Allen and Simon Tong.

The Good, The Bad & The Queen began life as the acclaimed 2007 album of the same name, a heartfelt tribute to London described by The Observer in a 5 star review as –“One of the most surprising and magical records for which Damon Albarn has ever been responsible”. The record traced a journey from the English music hall tradition to West Africa and Afrobeat, zigzagging through the West Indies and its reggae and dub, back to England and London's punk scene, all the while taking in a strand of British beat music from the '50s right through to Britpop. The result was a record specific to a place and mood but with a background that was geographically wide-ranging.

Now the four musical storytellers are back with a new studio album titled Merrie Land. Produced by Tony Visconti and The Good, The Bad & The Queen was completed in London and Wales this year, during the current ongoing period in which the UK is preparing to leave the European Union, Merrie Land is a questioning good-bye letter, a series of observations and reflections on Britishness in 2018. Even though it has been over 10 years since the band last released a record, the timing could not be more apt – there could not be a more perfect band to untangle the optimism, disorientation and confusion in the atmosphere today. With Merrie Land, the band taps into a creative symbiosis of past and future, drawing inspiration from their shared glittering musical histories and wrapping the hybrid results in a brilliantly postmodern yet thoroughly British package.

The album sees the band’s focus move beyond London with a beautiful and hopeful paean to the Britain of today - an inclusive Britain - and the possibilities of the future. In the band’s own words, Merrie Land is a ten song lament of Anglo-Saxosentialism marking the reluctant end of a relationship, and about picking up the pieces and seeing what can be salvaged. The band set a beautifully muted palette and lustrous finish to bring out a mood that is bruised yet unapologetically defiant and optimistic, and carries the underlying message: we will survive. In times of metaphysical trauma, the people need to forge ahead and wear armour. Here it is, set to the mood music of a nation about to be broken yet undefeated.

Dan Mangan is a multiple JUNO Award-winning singer/songwriter who pairs the rich vocals and classic, melody-driven songwriting of Van Morrison and Nick Drake with the clever, everyman lyrical insights of The National and Ryan Adams. More Or Less, Mangan’s fifth studio album, uses perceptive wit and storytelling to grapple with the experience of growing older and becoming a new parent in an increasingly distressing world, finding hope and love while forging ahead into an unknown future.

The lost album from Glen Campbell, Sings for the King contains eighteen recently unearthed and restored studio recordings from 1965-1967 that casts new light on the influence that Campbell had on America’s greatest rock and roll star, Elvis Presley. Before his breakthrough single “Gentle On My Mind” Campbell was recording songs for legendary songwriter Ben Weisman, who wrote an unmatched 57 songs recorded by Elvis Presley. Campbell had an uncanny knack to sings in Elvis’s key and thirteen of these tracks went on to be recorded and released by Presley. The collection highlights Campbell’s incredible musicianship and contains “We Call on Him” a previously unreleased duet fused from the voices of Presley and Campbell.

Housed in a slipcase with two gatefold jackets, this 3, 180-g LP features the 2015 album remaster along with previously unreleased and newly restored bonus content consisting of the band’s 1979 Pinkpop festival performance. Also includes a 24-page booklet with unreleased photos and new artwork by Hugh Syme, a 5,700 word essay by Rob Bowman, and a digital download card sticker of new 40th anniversary art by Hughe Syme.

The Chris Robinson Brotherhood is indisputably one of the hardest working bands in rock ’n’ roll. 2018 marks the fourth year in a row that they’ll play over 200 shows across the U.S. and Europe. Through that prolific touring schedule, the band has emerged a razor sharp, riveting live unit. Each evening The CRB plays two sets of music with a dynamic, ever-changing setlist. Presenting original material stretching across six studio albums, plus a repertoire of covers that runs from Slim Harpo to Bob Dylan and beyond, it’s only fitting that the band would document this output.

They’ve done exactly that through a series of live recordings dubbed, ‘Betty’s Blends’—taking its moniker from legendary Grateful Dead archivist and recording engineer Betty Cantor-Jackson who is called upon to capture The CRB’s performances in multi-dimensional, audio-verite. ‘Betty’s Midwestern Magik Blends’ is the fourth volume from the acclaimed series, gathering highlights from three shows in Milwaukee, Madison and Chicago in October 2016.

Available as a vinyl exclusive, 3-LP set with only 3500 copies released, the collection finds The CRB in peak form delivering highlights like “New Cannonball Rag,” “Forever As The Moon” and “Shadow Cosmos,” as well as adapting two from The Rolling Stones: “Down Home Girl” and “Let It Bleed” and the seldom played fan favorite, Steppenwolf’s “Magic Carpet Ride.” If the past is any indication, this will sell out fast, while quickly becoming much sought-after, so fans are advised to grab one quick. 

Brian Newman, trumpeter, crooner and long-time bandleader for superstar Lady Gaga, has signed to Verve Records and will be releasing his debut solo album this fall. A true talent on trumpet, this release incorporates creative takes on rock classics as well as jazz standards. Brian has toured with Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga and has collaborated with Jose Feliciano and Dierks Bentley. He's performed on Boardwalk Empire, NBC's Christmas in Rockefeller Center, MTV's Video Music Awards, The Tonight Show, Watch What Happens Live, Marc Jacobs fashion shows and in a national H&M commercial.

In November 1968, millions of double LPs were shipped to record stores worldwide ahead of that tumultuous year’s most anticipated music event: the November 22^nd release of The BEATLES (soon to be better known as ‘The White Album’). With their ninth studio album, The Beatles took the world on a whole new trip, side one blasting off with the exhilarating rush of a screaming jet escorting Paul McCartney’s punchy, exuberant vocals on “Back In The U.S.S.R.” “Dear Prudence” came next, John Lennon warmly beckoning his friend and all of us to “look around.” George Harrison imparted timeless wisdom in “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” singing, “With every mistake we must surely be learning.” Ringo Starr’s “Don’t Pass Me By” marked his first solo songwriting credit on a Beatles album. For 50 years, ‘The White Album’ has invited its listeners to venture forth and explore the breadth and ambition of its music, delighting and inspiring each new generation in turn.

On November 9, The Beatles will release a suite of lavishly presented ‘White Album’ packages (Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/UMe). The album’s 30 tracks are newly mixed by producer Giles Martin and mix engineer Sam Okell in stereo and 5.1 surround audio, joined by 27 early acoustic demos and 50 session takes, most of which are previously unreleased in any form.

“We had left Sgt. Pepper’s band to play in his sunny Elysian Fields and were now striding out in new directions without a map,” says Paul McCartney in his written introduction for the new ‘White Album’ releases.

This is the first time The BEATLES (‘White Album’) has been remixed and presented with additional demos and session recordings. The album’s sweeping new edition follows 2017’s universally acclaimed Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band Anniversary Edition releases. To create the new stereo and 5.1 surround audio mixes for ‘The White Album,’ Martin and Okell worked with an expert team of engineers and audio restoration specialists at Abbey Road Studios in London. All the new ‘White Album’ releases include Martin’s new stereo album mix, sourced directly from the original four-track and eight-track session tapes. Martin’s new mix is guided by the album’s original stereo mix produced by his father, George Martin.

“In remixing ‘The White Album,’ we’ve tried to bring you as close as possible to The Beatles in the studio,” explains Giles Martin in his written introduction for the new edition. “We’ve peeled back the layers of the ‘Glass Onion’ with the hope of immersing old and new listeners into one of the most diverse and inspiring albums ever made.”

Set for release on November 9, the bands fourth LP 'Take Good Care' is previewed with the first single 'All My Friends,' a song brimming with confidence that unleashes the bands next chapter. The track which is already Top 3 at AAA and Top 10 at Modern Rock. 'All my Friends' will cross over to Hot AC in early October followed by Top 40. This is just the start! 'You Said it All', 'Oh No' and 'Some People Say' are just a few of the potential chart-toppers in this collection, which was co-produced with Dave Cobb (Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton) and Andrew Dawson (Kanye, Fun) it's a project showcasing new found depth and craft that mark a band bent on proving they are far more than a band synonymous with a single song.

Near the end of Reagan's first term, the Western Massachusetts Hardcore scene coughed up an insanely shaped chunk called Dinosaur. Comprised of WMHC vets, the trio was a miasmic tornado of guitar noise, bad attitude and near-subliminal pop-based-shape-shifting. Through their existence, Dinosaur (amended to Dinosaur Jr. for legal reasons) defined a very specific, very aggressive set of oblique song-based responses to what was going on. Their one constant was the scalp-fryingly loud guitar and deeply buried vocals of J Mascis. A couple of years before they ended their reign, J cut a solo album called Martin + Me. Recorded live and acoustic, the record allowed the bones of J's songs to be totally visible for the first time. Fans were surprised to hear how melodically elegant these compositions were, even if J still seemed interested in swallowing some of the words that most folks would have sung. Since then, through the reformation of the original Dinosaur Jr lineup in 2005, J has recorded solo albums now and then. And those album, Sings + Chant for AMMA (2005), Several Shades of Why (2011) and Tied to a Star (2014) had all delivered incredible sets of songs presented with a minimum of bombast and a surfeit of cool. Like its predecessors, Elastic Days was recorded at J's own Bisquiteen studio. Mascis does almost all his own stunts, although Ken Miauri (who also appeared on Tied to a Star) plays keyboards and there are a few guest vocal spots. These include old mates Pall Jenkins (Black Heart Procession), and Mark Mulcahy (Miracle Legion, etc.), as well as the newly added voice of Zoë Randell (Luluc) among others. But the show is mostly J's and J's alone. He laughs when I tell him I'm surprised by how melodic his vocals seem to have gotten. Asked if that was intentional, he says, “No. I took some singing lessons and do vocal warm-ups now, but that was mostly just to keep from blowing out my vocal cords when Dino started touring again. The biggest difference with this record might have to do with the drums. I'd just got a new drum set I was really excited about. I don't have too many drum outlets at the moment, so I played a lot more drums than I'd originally planned. I just kept playing. [laughs] I'd play the acoustic guitar parts then head right to the drums.” There is plenty of drumming on the dozen songs on Elastic Days. But for those expecting the hallucinatory overload of Dinosaur Jr's live attack, the gentleness of the approach here will draw easy comparisons to Neil Young's binary approach to working solo versus working with Crazy Horse. This is a lazy man's shorthand, but it still rings true. Elastic Days brims with great moments. Epic hooks that snare you in surprisingly subtle ways, guitar textures that slide against each other like old lovers, and structures that range from a neo-power-ballad (“Web So Dense”) to jazzily-canted West Coasty post-psych (“Give It Off”) to a track that subliminally recalls the keyboard approach of Scott Thurston-era Stooges (“Drop Me”). The album plays out with a combination of holism and variety that is certain to set many brains ablaze. J says he'll be taking this album on the road later in the year. He'll be playing by himself, but unlike other solo tours he says he'll be standing up this time. “I used to just sit down and build a little fort around myself -- amps, music stands, drinks stands, all that stuff. But I just realized it sounds better if the amps are higher up because I'm so used to playing with stacks. So I'll stand this time.” I ask if it's not pretty weird to stand alone on a big stage. “Yeah,” he says. “But it's weird sitting down too.” Ha. Good point. One needs to be elastic. In all things. --Byron Coley

Charles Bradley's forthcoming LP, Black Velvet is an extraordinary collection of 10 tracks making their LP debut. In addition to fan favorites like Charles covers of Nirvanas 'Stay Away', Neil Young's 'Heart Of Gold', and Rodriguez's 'Slip Away' - this album features 4 never-before-heard tracks from Producer Tommy 'TNT' Brenneck's vaults.

ARCHITECTS UK are a band who’ve never shied away from challenging the world around them. After suffering the loss of co-founder /guitarist Tom Searle to cancer in 2016, the band returned to the road and the studio in 2017 releasing the hit track “Doomsday”, which climbed the Active Rock Radio charts and went on to be one the bands most successful songs. Long lauded as some of modern metal’s most progressive-thinking minds, for the past decade, the quintet have pushed boundaries, redefined genres, and never feared having to question themselves in order for their art to leave its mark on this Earth. ARCHITECTS UK, are a band like few others; The quintet all practice a vegan lifestyle, tour with a consciousness about their footprint on the world, and devote time and energies to environmental causes. Their 8th studio album, Holy Hell is the return to the studio for a band that have come through the grieving process with more drive and determination than ever before. Drummer Dan Searle- Desbiens takes on the helm as lyricist and writes music with his bandmates vocalist Sam Carter, guitarist Adam Christianson, bassist Alex Dean and new guitarist Josh Middleton. For the follow-up to their 2016 album All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us , ARCHITECTS UK recorded at Middle Farm Studios in Devon, UK with bandmates Dan Searle Desbiens and Josh Middleton behind the board as producers.

Sarah Brightman returns with her new studio album, HYMN, reuniting with long time producer and collaborator Frank Peterson, with whom she created chart topping albums such as Timeless (Time To Say Goodbye), Eden, La Luna, Harem, Symphony, and A Winter Symphony. HYMN is an inspirational collection of orchestrated, choir-based songs. Brightman, kept thinking about the word, HYMN, and to her it suggested joy a feeling of hope and light, something that is familiar and secure. For Brightman, every project comes from an emotional place, and HYMN is no exception. HYMN was recorded over the past two years in Hamburg, Miami, London, Vancouver, Los Angeles, New York, and Budapest, and encompasses songs by such modern composers as Eric Whitacre (Fly To Paradise), Japanese superstar musician and songwriter Yoshiki (Miracle), and German DJ Paul Kalkbrenner (Sky and Sand). HYMN's mystical, uplifting tone is set with its title track a song by British prog-rock band Barclay James Harvest. From there, the album becomes excitingly eclectic, encompassing many styles. Sogni, described as a mash-up of two arias from two different operas by French composer Georges Bizet, is flawlessly sung by Brightman and French tenor Vincent Niclo. Also included are Canto Per Noi, written by famed Italian composer Ennio Morricone and Romano Musumarra, and Follow Me, the love theme from the 1962 film Mutiny on the Bounty. Finally, the album closes with a new rendition of Brightman s signature smash duet with Andrea Bocelli, Time To Say Goodbye, in a new solo rendition with lyrics Sarah wrote herself, and sung in English for the first time.

JD McPherson presents A Christmas Album, SOCKS. Featuring 11 original tracks written by JD McPherson and his friends. SOCKS is an album of Holidays songs sure to be standards while you are decorating the tree. Come get warm by the fire with songs such as , "All The Gifts I Need" and "Every Single Christmas." Or, burn the cookies to "SOCKS" and "Ugly Christmas Sweater." There is something for everyone on this record to enjoy whether you are in the Christmas spirit or if you just wanna say, "Bah Humbug".

My childhood memories of Christmas aren't warm and fuzzy. The holidays were more of a nuisance for my parents than cause for celebration. This is not to say that on behalf of their only child they didn't give the season a halfhearted try. There were Christmases when I found under the tree an electric football set, a Daisy pump air-rifle and a basketball goal that never got nailed up. But, there were also mornings when apples, oranges, hickory nuts and a hammer signified that year's bounty. Which is to say that Christmas in our household was mostly a wait-and-see proposition. I was finally ready to record an album of original Christmas songs. With Dan Knobler producing and some very gifted musicians and vocalists lending their talents, the making of the album Christmas Everywhere ranks as some of the most enjoyable recording sessions I've ever experienced. The record was close to being finished when it occurred to me that to set the tone for the albums mostly irreverent subtext, I needed to compose a lyrical prelude. In honor of Clement Moore, who wrote the poem we all know as, 'The Night Before Christmas,' I came up with a short piece called 'Clement's Lament (We'll See You in The Mall)'. Tania Hancheroff and Kim Keyes stopped by the studio and performed the tune with Jordan Lehning's orchestral backing and the album was pronounced complete. Seasons Cheer, Rodney Crowell

Since the early 90s Sweden’s Opeth have stretched the boundaries of heavy music. From the progressive death metal the band began with on classics like “Orchid” and “My Arms, Your Hearse” to the records like “Blackwater Park” and the band’s recent record, 2016’s “Sorceress”, Opeth has continually invited their growing audience along with them as they grew into the musically respected band they are today. Filmed and recorded in 2017 at Red Rocks Amphitheatre outside of Denver, “Garden of the Titans (Opeth Live at Red Rocks Amphitheatre)” is a 2-CD/BLU-RAY + DVD release (along with several vinyl color formats) consisting of tracks spanning the band’s nearly 30 year career.

The verb, the noun, the substance, the action, the command: make a mark! With that, PAINT (guitarist/singer Pedrum Siadatian of the Allah-Las), is making his mark too with his first, self-titled solo record.

PAINT started by four-tracking his own strange, slow-growing ideas just after Allah-Las third album Calico Review (2016) fed or led by a certain acid-bitter poetry and the murky music of Kevin Ayers and Syd Barrett. Siadatian found a producer in Frank Maston, who instinctively understood these songs would fall apart if scrubbed too roughly in the studio.

Think of it this way: PAINT’s first album isn’t always clean, but it’s very very clear. Sometimes the mess is the message.

The debut album from Quavo, one third of the international supergroup “Migos”. Album includes the hit single “Workin Me” and additional album features from Drake, Travis Scott, Madonna, Cardi B, Lil Baby, Offset, Takeoff, and 21 Savage. Currently performing on “Drake & Migos” 42-date North American tour with Drake which started August 10th. His joint project with Travis Scott, “Huncho Jack,” debuted with 90K first week on the Billboard 200. The latest Migos album “Culture II” debuted at #1.

It's been a couple of years since we heard from Justin Courtney Pierre. When we last left off, his celebrated rock band Motion City Soundtrack decided to take a hiatus following a victory lap in support of their sixth album, Panic Stations. This culminated with a Riot Fest performance and a sold-out, career-spanning show at The Metro in Chicago in September of 2016. In reality, what he's been doing lately hasn't been terribly exciting bio fodder: He's been in Minneapolis, mowing the lawn, cultivating tomatoes, taking care of his daughter and figuring out who he is if he isn't the guy fronting Motion City Soundtrack. “I guess the jumping off point for this album was that I wanted to see if I could just write everything myself and perform as much of it as I could,” Pierre says of the impetus for his first solo album, In The Drink. When it came to recording the songs, it made perfect sense to enlist longtime collaborator and Motion City Soundtrack guitarist Josh Cain to produce In The Drink. “Working with Josh on this album was super fun because we have been working together for 20 years and basically share a brain. But it didn't have the same dynamic of Motion City Soundtrack in the sense that at the end of the day I got to call all the shots,” Pierre says. Musically, In The Drink sees Pierre evoking his usual influences like Pavement, Superchunk, The Flaming Lips, Jawbox, Fugazi, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Nirvana, more Jawbox, Tom Waits, The Carpenters and Eddie Money, but through his own unique perspective and sung via his instantly recognizable tenor. From the quirky, anthemic pop of “Anchor” or “I Don't Know Why She Ran Away” to more moody, darker material such as “Moonbeam” (which features guest vocals from Jenny Owen Youngs) and the experimental closer “Goodnight Hiroyuki,” the album is Pierre at his most unfiltered and the results are sublime (even if it sounds nothing like Sublime).

Soft Hell, Pill’s second full-length album for Mexican Summer, is a raucous, splintering dispatch from New York City, animated by the madcap ingenuity of a foursome finding a palpable sense of joy and play in expressions of caustic, black humor. Like the contradiction of the album title, which references our acceptance of everyday miseries, it’s a slew of dichotomies, a frenzied cutup. It’s bleeding saxophone and lustrous feedback sounding somehow pastoral, and winking hooks subtly infused with venom.

The expansive, charred psychedelia of Pill’s early sound — textured by homemade, circuit-bent instruments and custom effects by guitarist Jon Campolo’s brother Nick — has morphed into something more compact and mischievous but no less evocative. It’s also the most hook-laden, melodic statement in the band’s catalog to date.

Soft Hell, like its Mexican Summer predecessor Convenience, carries forward a free-associative ensemble feel, with the players finding room for intuitive subtleties and melodic interplay even in the most skeletally spare compositions. They play post-punk, maybe no wave, mostly insofar as the terms are far-reaching creative passports.

Saves The Day have been through a lot over the past two decades: Van accidents, member changes, the emo explosion, and the adventures that carried the act and their fans from adolescence to adulthood. But they’ve never had a proper history of the band… until now. Saves The Day’s ninth album 9 tells the story of the band from the perspective of the band’s founder Chris Conley and does it in a way that’s as exhaustive as it is poetic and makes the listener a part of the songwriting process. From a narrative standpoint, 9 chronicles the epic story of a group of kids from New Jersey who realized their dream and became international sensations. However, on a more existential level, it shows how Conley “woke up” and became aware of his own consciousness through his relationship with music and the unbelievable adventures it inspired since he formed the act in 1997.

Oh Pep! have returned with their second full-length that takes their alt-folk to a whole new level of delicious pop. Chock full of memorable hooks, sing-along moments I Wasn't Only Thinking About You…, proves itself as a career-defining feat. The band gets its Oh from Olivia 'Liv' Hally (vocals, guitar) and its Pep! from Pepita Emmerichs (violin, mandolin), who met at secondary school in Victoria. Their harmonies are sweet, with lyrics that are thoughtful, deep, funny and poetic.

Andrea Bocelli has teamed up with some of the hottest musical stars on the planet for his forthcoming album Si reuniting with his friend Ed Sheeran after their chart-topping Perfect Symphony on a brand new song called Amo Soltanto Te (written by Ed with lyrics by Tiziano Ferro) and joining with pop sensation Dua Lipa on the single If Only . Crossover superstar Josh Groban and classical soprano Aida Garifullina also duet with Bocelli on the record, which is released on Sugar/Decca on 26th October. It is his first album of new material in 14 years 16 brand new songs which celebrate love, family, faith and hope. At the centre of the new record is a spine-tingling duet between father-and-son, as 20 year-old Matteo Bocelli steps into the limelight to duet with Andrea on Fall On Me a beautifully poignant song which reflects the bond between parent and child. It will appear in the end credits of the hotly-anticipated new Disney film, The Nutcracker and The Four Realms, starring Keira Knightley, Mackenzie Foy, Helen Mirren and Morgan Freeman, to be released on 2nd November. Andrea explains how his voice compares with Matteo's: Technically they are very different, but there is one thing that makes them most similar: the attitude. That characteristic way of expressing yourself through your voice. This makes Matteo and I very similar. But that is something that you cannot learn, that cannot be taught. That is something you are born with.

Grammy-nominated vocalist Jessie J to release new holiday This Christmas Day via Lava Records / Republic Records on 10/26. The album will include her previously released holiday track “Man With The Bag” in addition to holiday classics “Let It Snow,” “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town,” and “Jingle Bell Rock”. The album features production by David Foster. Jessie J will embark on her first US headlining tour this October.