As Dee Snider and Twisted Sister told us, you can’t stop rock ’n’ roll. Especially not at this time of year. And as another 600-plus albums, singles, EPs, compilations and whatnot roll down the assembly line, I’m like Lucy in the chocolate factory, trying to wolf down as many as I can. Here are the tastiest treats I came across:
Amyl And The Sniffers
Cartoon Darkness
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Recorded with producer Nick Launay at Foo Fighters’ 606 Studios in Los Angeles, on the same desk that captured Nirvana’s Nevermind and Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, the latest Amyl And The Sniffers album is their most diverse yet. It stretches from classic punk to the glammy strut of hit single U Should Not Be Doing That to the stormy balladry of Big Dreams to pugnacious punk of Jerkin. The Sniffers are back and back with a vengeance — bigger, brighter, smarter and sharper in every way. Amy Taylor says: “Cartoon Darkness is about climate crisis, war, AI, tiptoeing on the eggshells of politics, and people feeling like they’re helping by having a voice online when we’re all just feeding the data beast of Big Tech, our modern-day god. It’s about the fact that our generation is spoon-fed information. We look like adults, but we’re children forever cocooned in a shell. We’re all passively gulping up distractions that don’t even cause pleasure, sensation or joy, they just cause numbness.”
Badbadnotgood
Mid Spiral
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “At the start of 2024 BadBadNotGood were brimming with new creative energy. Having just come off a run of one-off international tour dates and a series of sessions for projects with artists Daniel Cesar, Charlotte Day Wilson, reggie, Baby Rose and Turnstile, the Canadian trio of Al Sow, Chester Hansen and Leland Whitty were eager to get back into the studio to simply create. The trio called on some of their closest friends and collaborators, BadBadNotGood touring member Felix Fox-Pappas (keys) and a few key players in the Toronto jazz scene including Kaelin Murphy (trumpet), Juan Carlos Medrano (percussion) and L.A. musician Tyler Lott (guitar), for an intensive and productive one-week of recording at Valentine Studios in Los Angeles in February 2024. The result of those sessions is the Mid Spiral series, originally released as three parts — Chaos, Order and Growth — digitally earlier this year and now collected altogether on a double LP and CD.”
Beach Weather
Melt
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Beach Weather are an American rock band based in the fictional town of Beach Weather, U.S.A., with members Nick Santino, Sean Silverman and Reeve Powers. Leaving behind the fictional world of their debut album Pineapple Sunrise, a fictional resort to escape all anxiety and insecurity, the band’s sophomore album boasts a more confident approach taking place in the desert, where only the strong survive. The desert also plays a role in the bands start, meeting in Arizona. Melt, a 12-song record, captures the maturity, honesty, and storytelling since the band re-sparked their career in the last few years. Unlike Pineapple Sunrise, which was written during the pandemic and thousands of miles away from one other, Melt allowed for all three members to connect down to the minor details. Santino, Powers, and Silverman are excited to release Melt and share this next chapter of their story. “We’ve always put our fans and listeners first,” Santino says. “We try to make our records feel like something that they can attach themselves to, like they’re a part of something.” Adds Powers: “We want the listener to know who we are inside just by listening to this new record. We really put all of ourselves into this one.”
Better Lovers
Highly Irresponsible
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “By challenging each other to progress, Better Lovers challenge heavy music to move forward along with them. Driven by the same restless spirit and clear intention, this cohort of longtime musicians have rallied around a shared vision of creative fearlessness and relentless energy. Playing with a chemistry bordering on magic, the musicians— Greg Puciato (vocals), Jordan Buckley (guitar), Will Putney (guitar, producer), Steve Micciche (bass), and Clayton “Goose” Holyoak (drums) — naturally evolve on their 2024 full-length debut album Highly Irresponsible. Puciato keeps it simple: “New album. First full-length. It’s a typical thing to say, but we’re excited to start getting this thing out there. Everyone really brought their best to this and brought out the best in each other.”
Cali Bellow
Ciao Bella
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “L.A. artist Cali Bellow is the solo alias of Agriculture singer-bassist Leah B. Levinson. Her album Ciao Bella is an ambitious and anomalous record exploring dark fantasy, artifice, aesthetic cuteness, meaning, abstraction, pop song forms, the limits of genre, gender, and spirituality. The product of over three years’ work, Leah crafted the album between extensive walks through the neighborhoods, parks, cemeteries, and hills of Altadena, as well as hours of devotionally attentive time in her shabby home studio. Ciao Bella is soaked in its artist’s surroundings while teasing the opportunity to retreat to another world altogether. Fueled by essays by Ursula Le Guin and Joanna Russ, video games like Dark Souls and Super Mario 64, and popular media like The Muppets and Hellraiser, Ciao Bella synthesizes a broad range of themes and interests, serving as a statement of purpose for the longstanding project of Cali Bellow.”
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Live At Fillmore, 1969
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “After famously playing their second show at Woodstock in August 1969, David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young spent the rest of the year touring and writing songs for what would become CSNY’s 1970 debut, Déjà Vu. A newly discovered multi-track recording of the band’s Sept. 20, 1969, concert at the historic Fillmore East in New York City captures an early moment from that first tour. Recorded only a month after Woodstock, the concert was the band’s fourth show in two days at the venue and featured both acoustic and electric sets. The setlist spotlights soon-to-be classics from CSN’s self-titled debut and Young’s Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, with Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, Helplessly Hoping and Down By The River. The concert also features early versions of two future Déjà Vu tracks: Stills delivers a stunning solo acoustic performance of his introspective ballad 4 + 20, followed by Nash, alone at the organ, singing Our House to its inspiration, Joni Mitchell, who was in the Fillmore audience.”
D.O.A. / Various Artists
No Escape From What You Are
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Last winter the D.O.A. guys came up with an album concept: ‘Hey, why don’t we get a bunch of our punk rock pals to record D.O.A. songs?’ So Canada’s Godfather of Punk Joey Shithead Keithley contacted a bunch of his old friends and his favorite bands — including Rancid, Fear, Circle Jerks, Duff McKagan, Descendents, Adolescents, Propagandhi, Voivod and more. For a lot of the musicians involved here, D.O.A. was one of the first two or three punk bands they ever saw in their lives. So what you have here are incredible versions 15 great songs that Joey and friends wrote and D.O.A. recorded and performed during the past 47 years.”
Green Day
American Idiot 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Green Day’s seventh studio album American Idiot was released in September 2004 and has since sold over 23 million copies worldwide, including nine million in the U.S. The album is a punk-rock opera masterpiece that won the Best Rock Album at the 2005 Grammy Awards. Five hit singles were released from the album: Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Holiday, Wake Me Up When September Ends, Jesus of Suburbia and the title track. In addition to the original album, this deluxe box set include 15 unreleased demos, a 15-song 2004 concert from Irving Plaza (nine songs previously unreleased), and 15 tracks that were released as B-sides and bonus tracks. The box set is completed with two Blu-rays that feature the film Heart Like A Hand Grenade, 35 minutes of Green Day live at the BBC, and a new documentary: 20 Years of American Idiot.”
Instant Crush
I’m Sorry I Didn’t Bite My Tongue
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Formed in Seattle, Instant Crush consists of Megan Cannon, Matthew Tran, Keegan Mangahas and Zoee Mangahas. Setting out to breathe new life into the genre that ruled the 2000s, Instant Crush are ever-evolving. Mixing sparkly synths, high-energy guitar riffs, and penetrating vocals, they take the energy of the anthemic rock bands that ruled the radio and intertwine it with overly personal lyrics that could be the soundtrack of a coming-of-age film. Put simply, Instant Crush make music for the tongue biters who have a lot on their mind. Cannon says: “This album will forever be special to me, because it was never truly my intention to make an album. The first song that was included on this record was written in 2021, and the last in 2023. It truly encapsulates how I felt over the last three years. It captures how I found myself, and who I wanted to be, while tapping into every emotion I have felt. Writing this album taught me how to speak up for myself as a person, and to say what is on my mind no matter how much fear saying those words might bring me.”
Amythyst Kiah
Still + Bright
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Produced by Butch Walker and recorded at his Nashville studio, Amythyst Kiah’s Still + Bright explores the vast expanse of her inner world: Her deep-rooted affinity for Eastern philosophies and spiritual traditions, a near-mystical connection with the natural world, the life lessons learned in her formative years as a self-described “anime-nerd mall goth.” In dreaming up the backdrop to her revelatory storytelling, Kiah and Walker arrived at a darkly cinematic and exhilarating twist on the rootsy alt-rock of her 2021 breakthrough album Wary + Strange. With its sonic palette encompassing everything from fuzzed-out guitars and industrial-leaning beats to gilded pedal steel and Kiah’s exquisitely graceful banjo work, Still + Bright fully affirms her as an artist of both daring originality and uncompromising depth. While Still + Bright undoubtedly finds Kiah pushing into new emotional and musical terrain, the album also makes for a vital new addition to a body of work largely dedicated to exploring the struggle and joy of true self-discovery. “With all of my music, I’d love to leave people with the feeling that it’s OK to go off the beaten path and to structure your life in a way that feels right to you,” says Kiah. “And just like with the last record, I hope that these songs can help people out if they’re going through a difficult time. That’s what I always hope for more than anything: For my music to continue to be a part of the healing process for anyone who might need it.”
King Crimson
Red 50th Anniversary Edition
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In celebration of the anniversary of this classic King Crimson album, this deluxe edition features completely new Dolby Atmos, 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio Surround and stereo mixes by Steven Wilson, taking the music to new levels of clarity and power. Also featured are a complete album’s worth of Elemental Mixes by long-time King Crimson producer (and band manager) David Singleton, using the original multi-track recordings to present a very different audio picture of the album, with greater separation of instruments and utilising many recorded elements recorded for, but not included in, the original mixes. Multiple new-to-disc tracks and studio outtakes — representing all material to survive from the recording sessions — have also been mixed and/or mastered for inclusion, making this the most comprehensive overview of the album to be released.”
Lone Justice
Viva Lone Justice
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “From the band who invented alt-country, Viva Lone Justice is the first album to be released by Lone Justice in nearly 40 years. It features original band members Maria McKee, Ryan Hedgecock, Marvin Etzioni and the late Don Heffington. In 1983, Lone Justice started playing the clubs in Los Angeles. Word spread like wildfire. By 1984, Lone Justice were on Geffen Records, and by 1985, the self-titled debut album emerged. They played shows with U2, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and Willie Nelson. By 1986, Lone Justice broke up, and McKee, Hedgecock, Etzioni and Heffington would began solo careers. Now, through the advent of technology, sweat and tears, a new Lone Justice album has been completed. Special guests include string arranger Tammy Rogers, multi-horn player David Ralicke, Greg Leisz on steel guitar and Benmont Tench on piano.”
Laura Marling
Patterns In Repeat
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Patterns In Repeat was written, recorded and produced by Laura Marling at her home studio in London. If 2020’s acclaimed Song For Our Daughter was written figuratively, and from the perspective of writing to and about a fictional daughter, Patterns in Repeat was written after the birth of her daughter in 2023, and finds Laura reflecting on the patterns at play in the constellation of a family. The songs are grounded in a very specific and revelatory time in her life, diving deeper into her reckoning with the ideas and behaviours we endure through family over generations. The record was co-produced by Dom Monks, with additional assistance from strings supremo Rob Moose, and reflects not only the metaphorical intimacy of the record’s content, but purely from a circumstantial one too, with her daughter often beside Laura for these recording sessions.”
