Yep, 23. Yep, I know that’s a lot. Nope, I don’t know what the hell is going on either. Maybe it’s a Father’s Day thing — a handful of these titles are definitely Dad-friendly. As for the rest, well, you’ve got everything from pop-punk and electronica to stoner-rock and goth-metal. See for yourself. Yep:
Been Stellar
Scream From New York, NY
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Hailing from metro Detroit, L.A., and Brazil by way of Sydney, Nico Brunstein (bottoms), Sam Slocum (vocals), Skyler Knapp (guitar), Laila Wayans (drums), and Nando Dale (guitar) are positioned at the glimmering rotten center of today’s rock ’n’ roll. This diverse gang were drawn together in their first year of university by serendipitous fortune and a shared, waggish sense of humor. Scream From New York, NY is beautifully cohesive and grungy, nostalgic yet modern — the true brainchild of a band with a shared vision.”
Black Country Communion
V
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Black Country Communion is the the rock supergrouping of Joe Bonamassa, Glenn Hughes, Jason Bonham and Derek Sherinian. Produced by longtime collaborator Kevin Shirley, V marks a monumental chapter in the band’s storied career, embodying a renewed spirit and an evolution of their unmistakable sound. Shirley captures the essence of the band’s journey, stating, “For a band that started out as a collection of the best practitioners of their instruments, they very quickly found a unique sound. This time around, it has more purpose, the riffs are tougher, and there are hooks! Yes, hooks! It’s the most cohesive record, full of soul and grit, and I think this is the one that’s going to be the benchmark for Black Country Communion.” Hughes agrees: “In my opinion, we had the best time recording this record at Sunset Sound in Hollywood, tons of fun and a magical recording. Meet you inside the Music.”
David Bowie
Rock ’N’ Roll Star
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Rock ’N’ Roll Star is a five CD and single Blu-Ray box that explores David Bowie’s journey from February 1971 through the creation of the Ziggy Stardust character, the recording of the iconic The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, and the international mania that surrounded the Ziggy phenomenon, documented in U.K. radio sessions and TV performances, as well as tracks from the band’s Oct. 1st, 1972 show at the Boston Music Hall. Containing 29 unreleased tracks, the set covers early songwriting demos, recordings from David’s band The Arnold Corns, rehearsals at Bowie’s then-home Haddon Hall, BBC sessions, singles, live performances, plus outtakes and alternative versions from the original album sessions, which have been newly mixed by original producer Ken Scott.”
John Cale
POPtical Illusion
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Despite the album’s playful title, John Cale’s second album in just over a year still contains the same feelings of fierce and inquisitive rage that were present in Cale’s much-lauded 2023 album Mercy. He remains angry, still incensed by the willful destruction that unchecked capitalists and unrepentant conmen have hoisted upon the wonders of this world and the goodness of its people. But this is not Mercy II, or some collection of castoffs, as throughout his career of more than six decades, Cale has never been much for repetition. His vanguard-shaping enthusiasms have shifted among ecstatic classicism and unbound rock, classic songcraft and electronic reimagination with proud restlessness. And so, on POPtical Illusion, he foregoes the illustrious cast to burrow mostly alone into mazes of synthesizers and samples, organs and pianos, with words that, as far as Cale goes, constitute a sort of swirling hope, a sage insistence that change is yet possible. Produced by Cale and longtime artistic partner Nita Scott in his Los Angeles studio, POPtical Illusion is the work of someone trying to turn toward the future — exactly as Cale always has.”
Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs
Vagabonds, Virgins & Misfits
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Vagabonds, Virgins & Misfits, the third album by Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs, opens with a song about the one thing every rock band on the road needs to feel alive and going forward, night after night: The crowd. “Look at this place, look at these faces,” Campbell sings through droning jangle in the acid-ballroom march The Greatest, marveling at the “amazing grace” of “voices raised together” the guitarist has experienced with his band at every stop for the last three years — and before that, in four decades with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. The Greatest is one of 11 new songs co-produced by Campbell with Petty-studio veteran George Drakoulias — the same view from the stage in The Beatles’ overture to themselves on Sgt.Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, except Campbell and the Dirty Knobs are firing all of that joy and wonder back at the fans. “We had just come off a tour, and I wanted to write something for them, to say, ‘You are the greatest, thanks for coming,'” Campbell explains. “I’m so proud of my legacy,” referring to that previous lifetime of hits and tours. “But I’m creating my own music and direction with this band. I’m grateful that there’s an audience for what we’re doing, and I wanted to put that in a song, to start the record: ‘Let’s go on this journey together.’ ”
Isobel Campbell
Bow To Love
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Isobel Campbell is no stranger to navigating turmoil. On her previous album, There Is No Other (2020), she re-emerged after a decade of label trouble with a gem of subtly questing psychedelic folk. Four years on, Campbell spreads her net wider on Bow To Love, a soft-spun yet sharp-edged set of reflections on modern crises that doesn’t stop at diagnosing the problems: it goes further to ask how we might progress from our tense, conflicted times. With all the dexterity the Glasgow-born singer-songwriter and cellist is known for, the result is an album of lambent surfaces and choppy riptides, a deeply personal record for today poised between hope and despair. “The album is about what we’re all in right now, and my response to that and my life as a microcosm within that,” says Campbell, before suggesting how exposing modern horrors might prove purgative. “I think there’s a quote from A Course In Miracles which says, ‘Love brings up everything unlike itself for the purpose of healing and release.’ Maybe these horrible things are coming up and out so we can get rid of them and things can be better.”
Cola
The Gloss
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “With roots in Montreal, the band Cola were formed by ex-Ought members Tim Darcy and Ben Stidworthy. Evan Cartwright, an in-demand session musician and collaborator in Toronto’s vibrant jazz/experimental scene with acts such as U.S. Girls and Brodie West, joined after their first practice in 2019. From their inception, they’ve expanded on the d.i.y. ethic of the Dischord and SST eras, creating potent sounds from a minimal palette of drums/bass/guitar and lacing their songs with winsome one-liners and societal commentary. What’s another word for commentary? Gloss, apparently. The Gloss is almost like a play. Not a rock opera–no–but a performance where the music, lyrics, and changes in light come together to, at the risk of mixing too many metaphors, make some fool’s gold. It’s an album bursting with energy and wit and ideas — filled to the margins.”
Jim Cuddy
All The World Fades Away
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “How do you chronicle a life, especially as a widely acclaimed musician with a thousand hair-raising stories to tell, while simultaneously and simply documenting the present moment? And why would anyone assign themselves such a task? As Jim Cuddy discovered making his dazzling new album, All The World Fades Away, that particular songwriting mission was less an option than an imperative, one that came for the Blue Rodeo co-founder out of a rare abundance of time to reflect, tinker, and create. Sure, most rootsy singer-songwriter albums detail what the artist sees looking up, down, and around. But All The World Fades Away goes deeper, its windscreen is wider, maybe because Cuddy is that rare musician with decades to draw from and whose story is very much an arc in progress. “You sort of enter a dream state when you begin writing. And I’ve begun to wonder why some images have stayed with me over the years and others haven’t. So yes, this album is about looking back,” Cuddy shares from his hometown Toronto. “However, I tried to make sure the record is affirming of life as it is now, reflecting how much I like where I’m at today. It’s not wrapping up or being nostalgic for old times. It’s just… surveying.”
Dead Posey
Are You In A Cult?
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “L.A.-bred Dead Posey has punctured her proverbial vicious vein by serenading a posse of devoted followers with fuzz-guitar infused rock ’n’ roll and edgy yet timeless sounding vocals that pack an anti-establishment punch. When Dead Posey (aka Danyell Souza) and her creative partner Tony F. (multi-instrumentalist / producer) met, they quickly tapped into an undeniable chemistry that led them down a cathartic path of creating bold hard rock sounds riddled with unsettling lyrical themes ranging from sexism, depression, angst and rage against oppressive systems — all doused with a healthy dose of “DGAF” attitude yet still seeing the beauty within the madness. Like a vampire craving blood, Dead Posey‘s hunger for unapologetic creative expression is deeply intensifying. Dead Posey has steadily begun to uncage many years’ work of titillating and provocative sounds into the speakers of hardcore musical pariahs and grungy sound systems abound. Meanwhile the ever-growing cult of Dead Posey anxiously await the debut full-length album.”
The Decemberists
As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “For over 20 years, The Decemberists have been one of the most original, daring, and thrilling American rock bands. Their distinctive brand of hyperliterate folk-rock set them apart from the start, releasing nine full-length albums that are unbound by genre and highly ambitious. Now the beloved indie band is back with their first new album in six years, As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again — not only the longest Decemberists album to date (and their first intentional, proper double-LP) but also their most empathetic and accessible, its 13 songs like semaphores of mutual recognition for our fraught times and faint hope. This, songwriter Colin Meloy will tell you proudly, is the best Decemberists albums and perhaps the ultimate realization of 22 years of work. In many ways, As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again feels like an aptly titled renewal for The Decemberists. As they were once, here are the Decemberists again, now an independent band empowered by singing stories that sound instantly familiar and convey some bit of hard-won wisdom.”
Feet
Make It Up
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Make It Up is the long player followup to Feet’s debut album What’s Inside Is More Than Just Ham, which introduced them in 2019. Make It Up distils the Feet of old with a fine-tuned, cohesive, and compelling new output that builds on the sonic DNA of their debut, while effortlessly taking it to the next level. “There’s no throwaway ideas on this album and everything has to have its place. It has to be ironed out and perfected,” explains frontman George Haverson. “I don’t like to say polished, but it is perfected to a point where everything can be done in its fullest form. I feel like we’ve got 12 complete songs on this album and not 12 ideas. We’ve made the Feet machine and now it’s a case of inserting the right idea and the output is a great song. Before, it felt a bit more like we were throwing shit at the wall. This time round, everything feels a bit more refined. Being in a band is a big chunk of time in your life, but this is a choice we all make, and we don’t ever have to even think about coming back to Feet. It’s like our child, really, and we’re all the surrogate fathers of this band! That keeps us together, this desire to create and make something that’s truly great.”
Fu Manchu
The Return Of Tomorrow
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Return Of Tomorrow is Fu Manchu’s first new album in six years, and the veteran desert-rock stoners made sure that it was worth the wait. Their 14th album is their first double LP of new material, and it was conceived of as a vinyl listening experience. The first LP features seven songs in their iconic heavy fuzz sound, including the first single Hands Of The Zodiac and the relentlessly catchy Loch Ness Wrecking Machine. The second LP sees the band mellowing out with six slower tempo jams including the synth-inflected Solar Baptized and the title track. Founding guitarist and vocalist Scott Hill says: “When I listen to music, it’s either all heavy stuff with no mellow stuff mixed in or just softer stuff with no heavy stuff. I know a lot of bands like to mix it up and we have done that before, but I always tend to listen to all of one type of thing or the other. So, I figured we should do a double record with seven heavy fuzzy songs on one record and the other record six mellow(er) songs fully realizing that maybe I’m the only person that likes to listen to music that way.”
Diamanda Galá
In Concert
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Diamanda Galás In Concert is not simply a live album. With nothing but a piano and the full expressive range of her extraordinary voice, Galás strips away the comforting patina of time, tradition and stylistic convention to expose and express the raw human emotion that is the living heart of a song. It explores an eclectic range of material; rembetika, soul, ranchera, country and free jazz, and her passionate eviscerations reveal their hidden kinship. Four of the songs are for and by the forsaken, outcast and debased; the other three are hardboiled love songs. In Concert features select recordings taken from performances n Chicago and Seattle from 2017. The songs are drawn from disparate sources.”
Hermanos Gutiérrez
Sonido Cósmico
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Onstage, in an old church in Santa Fe during the tour for their last record, El Bueno Y El Malo, the brothers Estevan and Alejandro Gutiérrez looked at each other, their guitars in their laps, the crowd attentive to their soulful, braided playing. It was the third song of their set, and they didn’t speak or gesture to one another to acknowledge what was happening. They were both crying. Neither hesitates to recall the moment — it lives vividly between them, a shared memory — but putting words to the emotion they felt remains difficult. It was a special night in a charged environment, this holy place in a desert city in New Mexico. “It felt like we were a medium,” says Estevan, the older of the two men. Alejandro agrees. “Sometimes you get hit by this emotional perception that you are the one playing the music,” he says. A connection with something bigger than this life, in this place, on this planet — it passes through the brothers into their playing and into the audience. It’s a kind of miracle that exists beyond words, beyond reason. In many ways, this ineffable feeling is the heart of Sonido Cósmico, the new Hermanos Gutiérrez album. The title in English translates to cosmic sound. Music that is not of this earth. Deep, infinite. Without lyrics to spell the way, instrumental music always invites the listener to engage in acts of imagination. Desert scenes. Baking-hot highways. The sun gradually falling behind a mesa. Sonido Cósmico, Estevan explains, is meant to lift you away from the desert.”
Little Feat
Feats Don’t Fail Me Now 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Little Feat”s new Deluxe Edition of Feats Don’t Fail Me Now arrives just in time for the 50th anniversary of the legendary group’s fourth studio album. It joins the growing list of Little Feat reissues, including last year’s Deluxe Editions for Sailin’ Shoes and Dixie Chicken and 2022’s massive Waiting For Columbus box set. Like its predecessors, it includes rare and unreleased alternate versions and outtakes from the album sessions, along with a previously unreleased recording of the performing live in Paris in 1975. A wealth of unreleased music is included in the new Deluxe Edition, including alternate versions of album tracks (Rock & Roll Doctor and Oh Atlanta) and early versions of songs destined for future albums, including Long Distance Love (The Last Record Album) and an unfinished version of Day At The Dog Races (Time Loves A Hero).” Originally released in August 1974, Feats Don’t Fail Me Now was the band’s fourth album overall but only the second recorded by the classic lineup of singer-guitarist Lowell George, drummer Richard Hayward, keyboard player Bill Payne, singer-guitarist Paul Barrere, bassist Kenny Gradney and percussionist Sam Clayton. The album also features the R&B funk group Tower of Power on horns.”
Paul McCartney & Wings
One Hand Clapping
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The wait is over: With the release of One Hand Clapping, one of the most bootlegged live albums in musical history will finally receive a proper release. In August 1974, when Band On The Run was enjoying a seven-week consecutive No. 1 stint at the top of the U.K. album charts, Paul McCartney and Wings headed to Abbey Road Studios for the filming of a video documentary and possible live studio album — One Hand Clapping. Despite overwhelming demand for newly recorded material from the biggest band in the world at that time, One Hand Clapping was never officially released. Filmed and recorded over four days and directed by David Litchfield, the release of One Hand Clapping is a historic moment for McCartney fans. Over the years, various parts have been bootlegged with varying degrees of success. Some of the material has also appeared on official releases. However, this release, which features the original artwork designed for the project, including a TV sales brochure for the unreleased film at the time, is the first time the audio for the film — plus several additional songs recorded off-camera — have been officially issued.”
Me First & The Gimme Gimmes
Blow it… At Madison’s Quinceañera!
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Twenty years after Me First & The Gimme Gimmes ruined Johnny’s Bar Mitzvah, punk rock’s premier cover band is back to wreak havoc on another important coming-of-age ceremony. This time, as the album title reveals, it was a Quinceañera. Nobody attending had ever heard of Me First & The Gimme Gimmes before, and nobody knew what to expect. “It was really tense for me going out to no applause — and to people actually walking away when we were playing,” says frontman Spike Slawson. “A Quinceañera is a very celebrated and important event, not just in a young girl’s life, but in the whole families. Mom and Dad were great, but it took the uncles a little while to warm up to me and our off-color jokes, though I think eventually they got it. Our process is to cast the line out and bring people to the point of — and beyond — outward expressions of displeasure like booing, and then hopefully reel them back in by the end of the set.”
Moby
Always Centered At Night
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “On always centered at night, Moby has once again conjured into reality a collection of heartachingly beautiful, tender- yet-defifiant songs, made in collaboration with uniquely talented, soulfully aware, other-worldly vocalists. All the songs are love letters to the unrestricted and enchanting music scene of late ’70s, early ’80s New York that shaped Moby as a musician. The featured vocalists were given the same assignment: “Please don’t write anything commercial. Let it be weird. Let it be personal. It doesn’t have to make sense. Because of that randomized freedom, I’ve been on the receiving end of so much genius work,” says Moby. “And the result has been one of the most exciting, surprising things I’ve ever done as a musician, and it’s one of the most worthwhile things a human being can do: make tender, gentle, vulnerable music that’s a clarion call to act.”
Mono
Oath
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “What are we doing here?” The year 2020 turned what was once quintessential late-night stoner existentialism into a daily mantra for nearly everyone on this planet. What are we doing with our limited time in this life? What is our purpose? What should we be doing? For the past 25 years, Mono have explored themes such as the relationship between darkness and light; hope in the face of disaster; and the duality of birth and death. On their 12th album Oath, they ponder the time that makes up life, and how to make the most of that time. Recorded and mixed with longtime friend and collaborator Steve Albini, Oath opens like a sunrise with a slowly ascending orchestra and brass section, the full band taking its time to revel in the atmosphere before joining in the splendor. Throughout the album’s 71-minute runtime, Mono meditate on that theme of time and life in myriad ways. The unhurried evolution of a song that is a hallmark of Mono’s catalog is infused with an air of elegance that elevates Oath to new heights.”
µ-Ziq
Grush
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Mike Paradinas, veteran producer and Planet Mu label owner has written a new album called Grush and it’s full of weird bangers that reclaim the ‘dance’ part of the woeful term IDM. A back-to-first-principles record, inspired in part by the group of artists IDM was coined for; melodic dance music that didn’t come out of urban scenes, but interpreted them from a distance. The tracks on Grush are all road-tested live favorites developed with feedback from Mike’s touring partner and visuals guy ID:Mora (Jan Moravec). It’s a detailed and energetic journey which replicates the flow of a live gig. A lot of the tracks have been made in hotel rooms in response to shows, Imperial Crescent is named after a Japanese hotel, as is Belvedere in Prague, while some tracks such as Hyper Daddy were created specifically to play live. Grush is a strong album that works both for listening and DJing and a great snapshot of where Paradinas’s musical head is at in 2024.”
Senyawa
Vajranala
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Vajranala sees the Indonesian experimental duo of vocalist Rully Shabara and multi-instrumentalist Wukir Suryadi explore how, over centuries, the natural world has shaped our society, the knowledge systems from which power derives, and why that still resonates today. It’s an exercise in understanding the root of the power (knowledge) discussed in their 2021 release Alkisah. When it comes to ‘power’, says Shabara, “people will normally think of someone political, but I don’t think that’s the case. The origin of power goes deeper than that.” It’s the shamans, he says, who were the first possessors of power: “If you’re in a village, if you’re considered to have the knowledge to connect people with the realm of the gods, then you will have power before the leader. It’s very fundamental to explore this.” Further to this, Vajranala is a collection of multidisciplinary works that reinterpret the mythology of the land where the Brojonalan Temple (aka Pawon Temple) stands. The work is also accompanied by an installation in the form of a stone relief that is placed on the ground where it was created, serving as an artefact for the future.”
Staples Jr. Singers
Searching
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “When siblings Edward and R.C. Brown and Annie Brown Caldwell, were growing up in Mississippi, they would pile into their family van and travel across the South, performing sometimes as many as three shows in a single day. Back then, the South was desegregated on paper but not always in practice, and the Staples Jr. Singers were influenced by what they saw: The backlash after desegregation, civil rights, and wrote music with messages of community and social justice. “All the songs we were singing about,” said lead singer Edward Brown, “We were going through it.” In 1975, when they were just teenagers, they got to make a single record together, When Do We Get Paid. They paid for the record themselves and pressed a few hundred copies, selling most of them on their front lawn to their neighbors. After the re-issue of When Do We Get Paid in 2022, the Staples Jr. Singers finally had their time in the sun. But they never made another full-length record together — until now. Searching was recorded in a single-room church called The Message Center, in West Point, Mississippi, in October 2023. There, three generations of the Brown family played songs that Edward, Annie, and R.C. have been singing together for most of their lives. “It was good to be able to go back,” said singer Annie Brown Caldwell, “and look back over our life. Some of the same songs that we had sung, those songs have a new meaning to me.”
Walt Disco
The Warping
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Written on both sides of the Atlantic, from Los Angeles and Austin to Glasgow and London, The Warping is a significant step forward from Glasgow’s Walt Disco, a band who have already seen strong success with their debut album Unlearning. On The Warping, deft lyricism takes in deeply personal issues and writes them large, transposing feelings of envy, fear, joy and hope out of individual experiences. Yearning for another self is a recurring dream on The Warping, as they explore gender dysphoria and envy with radical honesty, accepting them as two tangled threads in the same experience. Taking the cinematic glam of their debut and pushing it further, the band brought in classically trained orchestral musicians. Sonically, the horns, woodwind and swelling string sections lend an entirely new level to the Walt Disco sound — one that feels both fantastically organic and technically accomplished. While the foundations were laid during pre-album recording sessions at Phil Manzanera of Roxy Music’s studio the songs themselves largely come together in collaboration.”
