New Music Friday - August 25, 2023

Be sure to view a list of upcoming releases here!

Essential Full-Length Releases

	Becca Mancari - Left Hand Watch: "Over and Over" (featuring Julien Baker) Watch: "Don’t Even Worry" (featuring Brittany Howard)
	Danger Mouse & Jemini - Born Again Listen: "Born Again" Listen: "Dear Poppa"
	open mike eagle - another triumph of ghetto engineering Watch: "WFLD 32" (featuring Eshu Tune, Still Rift, & Video Dave) Listen: "the wire s3 e1"
	SPELLLING - SPELLLING & the Mystery School Watch: "Under the Sun" Listen: "Cherry"
	Victoria Monét - Jaguar II Watch: "Smoke" (featuring Lucky Daye) Watch: "On My Mama"

Other Full-Length Releases

The Armed - Perfect Saviors Watch: "Sport of Form" Watch: "Everything’s Glitter"

Be Your Own Pet - Mommy Watch: "Worship the Whip" Watch: "Goodtime!"

Buck Meek - Haunted Mountain Watch: "Haunted Mountain" Listen: "Mood Ring"

Charlotte Cardin - 99 Nights Watch: "99 Nights" Watch: "Next to You"

Earl Sweatshirt + The Alchemist - Voir Dire Watch: "Sentry" (featuring MIKE)

Fat Tony & Taydex - I Will Make a Baby in This Damn Economy Watch: "Spectacular" Watch: "Make a Baby"

Florry - The Holey Bible Watch: "Cowgirl Giving" Watch: "Drunk and High"

A Giant Dog - Bite Listen: "Different Than" Listen: "A Daydream"

Hannah Georgas - I’d Be Lying If I Said I Didn’t Care Watch: "Better Somehow" Watch: "Fake Happy"

Hiss Golden Messenger - Jump for Joy Watch: "Nu-Grape" Listen: "Jump for Joy"

Islands - And That’s Why Dolphins Lost Their Legs Watch: "Life’s a Joke" Watch: "Superstitious"

Prewn - Through the Window Listen: "I’m Gonna Fry All the Fish in the Sea" Listen: "Alive"

Ruth Garbus - Alive People Watch: "Mono No Aware" Watch: "Healthy Gamer"

Strawberry Runners - Strawberry Runners Watch: "Look Like This" Watch: "Circle Circle"

Who Is She? - Goddess Energy Watch: "MoviePass" Watch: "96 Ghouls"

Willie J Healey - Bunny Watch: "Bluebird" Watch: "Woke Up Smiling"

Zach Bryan - Zach Bryan Watch: "Dawns" (featuring Maggie Rogers) Watch: "Oklahoma Smokeshow-w"

Singles, EPs, Soundtracks, etc.

Ariana Grande - Yours Truly 10th Anniversary Reissue Watch: "Honeymoon Avenue" (Live from London) Watch: "Baby I" (Live from London)

Drab Majesty - An Object in Motion Watch: "Vanity" (featuring Rachel Goswell) Watch: "The Skin and the Glove"

Grandaddy - Sumday: Excess Baggage Watch: "The Town Where I’m Livin Now" Watch: "Landscapes" (The Group Who Couldn’t Say)

Harmony - Dystopia Girl Watch: "Good Things Take Time" Watch: "Shoplifting from Nike"

This Is Lorelei - EP #33 Listen: "Lullabies and Glue or My Brother" Listen: "Hollered That Cry on the Pasture"

Toro Y Moi - Sandhills Listen: "Sandhills" Listen: "The View"

New Music Tuesday - March 24, 2015

Be sure to view a list of upcoming releases here!

New Full-Length Releases

Action Bronson - Mr. Wonderful This latest album from former chef and rapper Action Bronson is billed as hit debut studio album, though he already has two previous albums, and numerous mixtapes, beneath his belt. It is his debut on a major label; he signed with Atlantic Records in 2013. On the record, the Albanian-American works with Mark Ronson, The Alchemist, Chance The Rapper, and many others. Watch: "Baby Blue" Watch: "Actin Crazy"

Big Data - 2.0 Big Data is the electronic music project of Alan Wilkis. Though this album, with feature spots from the likes of Jamie Lidell and Rivers Cuomo of Weezer, was the first I had ever heard of him, he has previously reached number one on the Billboard charts with 2013's "Dangerous." For someone with a number one single, he sure seems to be aiming more for the indie audience with this record; in addition to the names mentioned above, White Sea, Twin Shadow, Bear Hands, and Jenn Wasner are also featured on the record. Watch: "Clean" (featuring Jamie Lidell) Watch: "Snowed In" (featuring Rivers Cuomo)

Chastity Belt - Time to Go Home There have been a lot of jangly surf rock bands surfacing over the past few years (Jaill, The Drums, Real Estate), but the subgenre has been largely a boys' game. Chastity Belt is an all-girl band from Seattle who are proving that the ladies can jangle right along with the men. This is the band's sophomore album. Watch: "Cool Slut" Watch: "Time to Go Home"

Chilly Gonzales - Chambers If there's one thing that seems common among Canadian musicians, it's that they work together frequently. Gonzales himself his often collaborated with Feist, Peaches, and Mocky. His latest album is largely a solo effort, though he does get some help on a couple of compositions. If you want more from Gonzales, be sure to check out his Pop Music Masterclass series on You-Tube, in which he deftly explains the appeal of popular music in music theory terms. Watch: "Advantage Points" Listen: "Sweet Burden"

Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit This Australian musician has mastered the art of the mundane. Her lyrics aren't boring, not by a long shot, but she focuses on the issues and concerns of everyday life. She received a great deal of praise for her previous release, The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas, which was a combination of her first two releases. She was looking to meet a lot of expectations with her first full-length, which she has easily done. Watch: "Pedestrian at Best" Watch: "Depreston"

The Cribs - For All My Sisters For All My Sisters is the sixth studio album from this British band of brothers. It's the band's first album since creating their own record label, Sonic Blew, in a deal with Sony RED UK; they were previously signed to Wichita Records. The album was produced by another iconic rock performer, Ric Ocasek. Watch: "Burning for No One" Listen: "An Ivory Hand"

Earl Sweatshirt - I Don’t Do Shit, I Don’t Go Outside Ever since Beyoncé surprise released her 2013 eponymous record, a number of artists have been following suit, though with varying levels of forewarning. Sweatshirt's latest record was announced a week before its release. The announcement was botched by Sony. He has intended to release the music video for "Grief" as a teaser, then announce the record. The label mixed the two up, and left their artist less than pleased. Still, it's an incredible record and a more than worthy follow-up to Doris. Watch: "Grief" Listen: "Wool"

JEFF The Brotherhood - Wasted in the Dream This brother duo has been quite prolific in their 14 years performing together. Wasted on the Dream is their eighth album. They has a bit of a break-out with their previous, Hypnotic Nights, which was produced by The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach and was their first to enter the Billboard 200 (it peaked at #198). The follow-up was intended to be their major-label debut; they even received funding from Warner Bros. Then, for some reason, they were dropped from the label. Good new though, the album was already completed and they were able to release it on their own. Listen: "Coat Check Girl" Listen: "What’s a Creep"

Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly Although three incredible hip hop albums were released this week, it seems like an exercise in futility to try to compete against Kendrick's magnum opus. The album is already being touted as a strong contender for 2015's album of the year (in terms of year-end reviews, not necessarily the Grammys). The record is definitely a game-changer, with a funk and jazz base and themes of self-doubt, humility, and hypocrisy. Watch: "i" Watch: "King Kunta"

Laura Marling - Short Movie Like so many folk artists before her have done, Laura Marling plugged in for her latest record. After four albums of acoustic guitar mastery, she has traded that in for a gorgeous white Fender (see the "False Hope" video below for a glimpse). Along with a new pixie cut, all this seems to signal a new era for Marling as an alt-rock chanteuse. She maintains the same appeal, though; the songs are expertly written and her warm vocals remain. Watch: "False Hope" Watch: "Short Movie"

Mini Mansions - The Great Pretenders Mini Mansions is a side project formed by Queen's of the Stone Age bassist Michael Shurman when the band took a short break following the Era Vulgaris tour. But be warned, the band sounds nothing like what Shurman creates with QoTSA. Their sound is pure indie pop, with a bit of 60s-inspired psychedelia thrown in. Perhaps it's for this reason that they've attracted some impressive guest vocals on the record; including Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys and Beach Boys legend Brian Wilson. Watch: "Any Emotions" (featuring Brian Wilson) Watch: "Vertigo" (featuring Alex Turner)

Sonnymoon - The Courage of Present Times An astonishing number of singers seem to get their first exposure providing vocal hooks on hip hop tracks. Such is the case for Sonnymoon, whose vocalist, Anna Wise, was featured on Kendrick Lamar's "Money Trees." She also appears on his new album. This is the third album from the duo, who have been working together since 2008. Listen: "Pop Music" Listen: "Grains of Friends"

Van Morrison - Duets: Re-working the Catalogue Van Morrison has a career that spans more than a half century and includes a number of great and iconic songs. He is revisiting many of these songs on his 35th studio album. He's mixing it up by re-recording the songs with a variety of other musicians, both his contemporaries and those who came after. Featured on the record are Michael Bublé, Natalie Cole, Bobby Womack, and Mavis Staples. Listen: "Real Real Gone" (featuring Michael Bublé) Listen: "Some Peace of Mind" (featuring Bobby Womack)

Other New Releases

Johnny Cash - American Recordings Box Set Towards the end of his long career, Johnny Cash released a series of American Recordings albums, of which he recorded six. Twelve year after his death, and just five after the final American Recordings release, all of those recordings are being collected into this box set. Listen: "God’s Gonna Cut You Down" Listen: "The Man Comes Around"

Kelela - Cut 4 Me Reissue Ethiopian-American musician Kelela released her break-out mixtape, Cut 4 Me, back in October of 2013. The tape found its way onto numerous year-end lists. This year, it is getting the re-release treatment, with eight additional remixes added to the original 13 tracks. Listen: "Something Else" Listen: "Cherry Coffee"

Vince Staples & Earl Sweatshirt in Cincinnati

When: April 3, 2015
Where: Bogart's in Cincinnati, OH

The Show:

Aside from sets at music festivals, live hip hop is not something that I've had much of an opportunity to experience over the past few years. It's been somewhat infrequent that an artist that I really wanted to see was coming around this way. So, when it was announced that Earl Sweatshirt, who has been a favorite of late, was playing in Cincinnati, I bought my ticket right away.

Remy Banks, a young rapper out of New York was the opening act of the night, backed by DJ Black Noi$e. While he had good energy and rapport with the crowd, he was my least favorite of the three artists that night. I was not surprised to find that he's not yet released any studio albums or EPs as nothing he performed felt like a fully fledged out thought. I'm sure he's very talented, but I couldn't get a handle on anything he performed that night. He had a, thankfully, short set and it was just a few minutes of transition before Vince Staples came out.

I am not as familiar with Staples as I would like to be, but have been keeping an eye on him ever since his extremely well-received 2014 EP, Hell Can Wait. Perhaps because he's been a rising name over the past year and has studio recorded material out, he commanded the crowd much better than Remy. He performed several songs from that EP and with each one, the excitement in the crowd swelled; especially with the tracks "Hands Up" and "Blue Suede."

There was no wait time in the transition between Staples and Earl Sweatshirt. Sweatshirt came out the end of Staples' set to perform a few tracks with him, including a personal favorite, "Hive." After those few songs, Staples left Sweatshirt to do his thing. The young rapper easily showed why he was the headliner of the show. He interacted with the audience extremely well and even had the entire crowd singing along with some of his songs' repeated refrains, though some were questionable (such as informing the mostly white audience that during the show and only while singing along, they were allowed to use the n-word).

Aside from some of those *awkward* moments, it was one of the most enjoyable shows that I have been to; credit to both the musicians and the audience for that.

Mini Setlist:

Remy Banks - "rem."
Vince Staples - "65 Hunnid"
Vince Staples - "Blue Suede"
Earl Sweatshirt - "Hive"
Earl Sweatshirt - "Grief"

New Music Tuesday - August 20, 2013

New Full-Length Releases

Crocodiles - Crimes of Passion Crocodiles has been on my radar for a couple of years, but I've never really listened to their music. This is surprising (to me, at least) considering their connection to other loved bands like The Soft Pack and the Dum Dum Girls (the lead singer, Brandon Welchez is married to Dee Dee Penny of the Dum Dum Girls). They have a sound that's somewhat similar to both bands, but theirs is much noisier and unhinged (a bit like early Black Lips). Now, I guess I just need to start checking out some of the other related bands! Listen/Watch: "Cockroach"

Earl Sweatshirt - Doris There's been a lot of hype around the Odd Future rap collective, but perhaps none more than for Earl Sweatshirt (maybe aside from Frank Ocean). Some of it is due to a delay in his career. After releasing an acclaimed mixtape in 2011, he was sent to boarding school in Samoa due to behavioral issues. He returned last year in almost full force. He was featured on several other Odd Future releases (including Frank Ocean's awesome album). A full-length release from him has been slow-coming, but I'm excited it's finally here! Listen/Watch: "WHOA"

Julia Holter - Loud City Song After the raucous rock and hip hop in this week's releases, you may be surprised to learn that I also enjoy more low-key music. Julia Holter is just one of those artists. Her music is intricately composed and ethereal; the result is really quite gorgeous. She caught my attention last year with the song and video for "Goddess Eyes II;" I loved the way that the song was layered. This is already being considered a great album by several publications, so I'm sure that my love of this artist will only grow more. Listen/Watch: "Maxim 1"

Julianna Barwick - Nepenthe OK, so we can have a little more low-key this week. Julianna Barwick has a similar name and sound to the previous artist. She, however, relies much more on looping to create her sound, which, despite the use of her voice, comes off much more instrumental. I'll be honest, I first checked her out because I was getting confused between her and Julia. Once I discerned the difference, though, I came to love her just as much. She's not as immediate (not to say that Julia is particularly so), but very rewarding. Listen/Watch: "One Half"

No Age - An Object No Age is another band that makes great use of noise, but in a much more experimental, maybe even "arty," way. This is their fourth album and is being touted as their protest release. I remember seeing them for the first (and so far only) time at Pitchfork two years ago and was amazed at the sound they were able to put out with just two members. I've read that this release is minimal in comparison to past albums, though. That makes me a little nervous, but I'm always up for seeing how musicians evolve their sound. Listen/Watch: "An Impression"

Porcelain Raft - Permanent Signal Porcelain Raft is another new act for me; and whose name has floated around on the websites and in the magazines that I most read. This isn't a band, rather the project of Italian musician Mauro Remiddi. It is his second album under the name and features even more of the dream pop sound that made him so acclaimed after his first album, Strange Weekend. I hope to discover what made so many others love his music. Listen/Watch: "The Way Out"

Sarah Neufeld - Hero Brother Neufeld is a member of one of the latest indie bands to come out of the "underground" and gain a more mainstream following, Arcade Fire! In that band, she plays the violion (as well as providing some backing vocals). While that band should be releasing a new album later this year, Sarah is releasing her first solo record. In contrast to music she's released with her various bands, this is an instrumental album. It's always interesting to see how these musicians translate their sound when they lose the vocals. Listen/Watch: "Forcelessness"

Other New Releases

David Bowie - "Valentine's Day" David Bowie proved that he's still got it when he released The Next Day earlier this year. In support of the album, he's released a number of songs with excellent music videos attached. Despite his break from recording new music, he made sure that fans really knew he was back. This is the latest single from that record. I know it's coming a few months too late, but it is a great song! Listen/Watch: "Valentine's Day"

The Lumineers - The Lumineers Deluxe Edition When The Lumineers released their debut album last year, they gained a lot of fans... and a lot of detractors. They're the type of band that I typically stall on checking out (yes, because of their popularity), but once I'd heard a few songs, I really started to like them. Re-releases aren't my favorite thing, especially when they come so soon after the initial release. But they often provide a way to hear newer songs from the band. Listen/Watch: "Stubborn Love"

Redder - Border/lines EP When it comes to identifying new music that I might like, I have several trigger words. Once of those is James Blake, who was used as a comparison for this band. It may not be much of a secret, but I love Blake's music, so I was interested to see just how this act stacked up. I listened and...they're not so bad! Similar to Blake, yes, but doing something fully unique as well. Listen/Watch: "Faster"

Zola Jesus - Versions Zola Jesus released her excellent third album, Conatus, about two years ago. This follow-up consists of versions (see what she did there?) of songs on that album, recorded with JG Thirlwell and the Mivos Quartet. She is interpreting her past releases in a neo-classical style, so this should be pretty interesting for fans. Listen: "Avalanche (Slow)"