New Music Friday - February 16, 2018

Be sure to view a list of upcoming releases here!

Essential Full-Length Releases

Brandi Carlile - By the Way, I Forgive You It just over a decade ago that Carlile was a new artist, and one of my first forays into Americana music. Now, on her sixth album, she has become a reliably-excellent figure in the genre. On her latest record, she tackles both personal subjects, like motherhood, and broader issues. Also, fun fact, the cover art was painted by Scott Avett of The Avett Brothers! Watch: "The Joke" Listen: "The Mother"

Fischerspooner - SIR Fischerspooner is Warren Fischer and Casey Spooner, an electroclash duo formed two decades ago. Their first album in nearly a decade was self-produced, with some help from Michael Stipe and BOOTS (also with new music this week!, and features Holly Miranda, Andy LeMaster, and Caroline Polachek. Watch: "Togetherness" (featuring Caroline Polachek) Watch: "TopBrazil"

Loma - Loma Loma is a new band, made up of Shearwater's Jonathan Meiburg and both members of the duo Cross Record. The partnership began when Meiburg was sent Cross Record's debut album by Ben Goldberg of Badabing! Records, and brought them on tour with him soon after. While on tour, they found some common ground and decided to record together, creating this eponymous debut record. Watch: "Black Willow" Watch: "Relay Runner"

POLIÇA/s t a r g a z e - Music for the Long Emergency This is another meeting of minds, this time the Minneapolis band joins forces with the Berlin-based orchestra. The album has some personal elements for the performers, but is anchored by more overtly political tracks. The political aspects of the record continues on POLIÇA's last album, United Crushers, reckoning with the current state of affairs, especially Trump's presidency. Watch: "agree" Listen: "How Is This Happening"

U.S. Girls - In a Poem Unlimited If I had known about U.S. Girls' Half Free before the end of 2015, it easily would have been one of my favorite albums that year. But alas, I only first heard of Meg Remy in 2016, though I almost instantly fell in love with that previous record. She released a couple of amazing singles late last year before announcing this record. I've already listened to this a few times, and I must say, it's an early contender for my favorite of the year! Watch: "Mad as Hell" Watch: "Velvet 4 Sale"

Other Full-Length Releases

American Nightmare - American Nightmare Watch: "The World Is Blue" Watch: "Flowers Under Siege"

Car Seat Headrest - Twin Fantasy Watch: "Nervous Young Inhumans" Listen: "Cute Thing"

Everything Is Recorded - Everything Is Recorded by Richard Russell Watch: "Mountains of Gold" Watch: "Close but Not Quite"

I’m with Her - See You Around Watch: "Little Lies" Watch: "Game to Lose"

Johanna Warren - Gemini II Watch: "Here to Tell" Watch: "inreverse"

Marlon Williams - Make Way for Love Watch: "Vampire Again" Watch: "Nobody Gets What They Want Anymore" (featuring Aldous Harding)

Nipsey Hussle - Victory Lap Watch: "Been Down" (featuring Swizz Beatz) Watch: "Last Time That I Checc’d" (featuring YG)

Ought - Room Inside the World Watch: "These 3 Things" Watch: "Disgraced in America"

Pianos Become the Teeth - Wait for Love Watch: "Charisma" Watch: "Love on Repea

Robert Earl Thomas - Another Age Watch: "What Am I Gonna Do" Listen: "Another Age"

Superchunk - What a Time to Be Alive Watch: "What a Time to Be Alive" Watch: "Erasure"

Walter Martin - Reminisce Bar & Grill Listen: "I Can Run Now from the Hellhounds but I Can’t Hide" Listen: "Me & McAlevey"

Singles, EPs, Soundtracks, etc.

Beach Boys - Surfin’ Safari Vinyl Reissue Listen: "Surfin’ Safari" Listen: "409"

Belle and Sebastian - How to Solve Our Human Problems, Part 3

Björk Guðmundsdóttir & tríó Guðmundar Ingólfssonar - Gling-Gló Reissue Listen: "Gling-Gló" Listen: "Ruby Baby"

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago 10th Anniversary Reissue Listen: "Flume" Listen: "Skinny Love"

BOOTS - #DARKDAZE Watch: "Delete Delete" (featuring Run the Jewels & Cristin Milioti) Listen: "#DARKDAZE"

Lion Babe - "Honey Dew" Listen: "Honey Dew"

Nina Simone - At Town Hall Reissue Listen: "Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair" Listen: "Cotton Eyed Joe"

Ride - Tomorrow’s Shore Watch: "Catch You Dreaming" Listen: "Keep It Surreal"

Ryan Adams - "Baby I Love You" Watch: "Baby I Love You"

Sun Kil Moon - Ghosts of the Great Highway Reissue Listen: "Carry Me, Ohio" Listen: "Pancho Villa"

Tanlines - Present

Teenage Fanclub - Grand Prix Reissue Listen: "Don’t Look Back" Listen: "About You"

Tinashe - "Faded Love" Watch: "Faded Love"

Wild Beasts - Last Night All My Dreams Came True Watch: "All the King’s Men" Listen: "The Devil’s Palace"

New Music Tuesday - 06/10/2014

Be sure to view a list of upcoming releases here!

New Full-Length Releases

First Aid Kit - Stay Gold For such a young duo, the Söderberg sister act hit the ground running. This is their third studio album; their first, The Big Black & Blue, in 2010, when the younger sister, Johanna, was just 17 years old. Stay Gold is their most personal album yet, perhaps influenced by a young adulthood spent on the road away from other family. Watch: "My Silver Lining" Watch: "Cedar Lane"

The Fresh & Onlys - House of Spirits The Fresh & Onlys create an interesting mix of genres, spanning from psychedelic folk to garage rock. They've been an incredibly prolific band, releasing five albums over the past six years. Their latest was written by frontman Tim Cohen on an isolated Arizona horse ranch. Listen: "Animal of One" Listen: "Bells of Paonia"

Jack White - Lazaretto Jack White had spent so much time in bands, it started to seem like it was his comfort zone. It's been four years, however, since the release of his last record in a band, The Dead Weather's Sea of Cowards. He released his first solo record in 2012 so I guess solo his his new milieu! Watch: "Lazaretto" Watch: "High Ball Stepper"

Stagnant Pools - Geist When I decide to check out a new artist, it's usually because I've heard a song that they were featured on or have heard a lot about them from a variety of publications. I only heard about Stagnant Pools once, on the AVClub, but the headline mentioned that there were an Indiana band. Reading the story, I discovered they were from Bloomington. I did actually listen to the music and really liked it, but Hoosier pride people! Listen: "Intentions"

Other New Releases

How to Train Your Dragon 2: Music from the Motion Picture Now, I haven't actually seen the How to Train Your Dragon films, though I did see snippets of the first and it looked cute. I'm including the soundtrack on my weekly list, however, due to a contribution to the soundtrack from Jónsi, lead singer for Sigur Rós. Listen: Jónsi - "Where No One Goes"

Pepsi Beats of the Beautiful Game As I'm sure everyone knows, the 2014 World Cup began this week in Brazil. To celebrate the world's most popular sport, Pepsi has put together a collection of songs (some new, some old) to represent the various cultures also present in the Cup. Listen: Santigold - "Kicking Down Doors" Watch: Janelle Monáe - "Heroes"

Poliça - Shulamith Deluxe Edition Poliça released one hell of an album last year. This year, it's getting its re-release with a few newer songs and an awesome cover of the Lesley Gore classic, "You Don't Own Me." Watch: "Raw Exit" Listen: "You Don't Own Me"

Real Estate - Spotify Sessions: Live at SXSW The band Real Estate performed at this year's SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas. The performance was a part of a series of Spotify Sessions and is now getting a release (exclusively through the music streaming service, of course) this summer. Listen: "Crime" Listen: "Had to Hear"

New Music Tuesday - October 22, 2013

New Full-Length Releases

Poliça - Shulamith Poliça burst onto the scene early last year with their debut album, Give You the Ghost. Although the band was nearly brand new, they received a lot of attention leading into the album and overwhelmingly positive reviews upon its release. Here comes the hard part for any band, following up a successful first album. Poliça has released a sophomore album that's just as good. Listen/Watch: "Warrior Lord"

Other New Releases

Active Child - Rapor EP It's been a little while since we've heard from Active Child (aka Pat Grossi). He released his first and only album, You Are All I See, way back in 2011 following a series of EPs. I guess he's back to the EPs for now following two years of relative silence. Here, he collaborates with Mikky Ekko and Ellie Goulding. Listen/Watch: "She Cut Me"

Best Coast - Fade Away Mini-Album Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno (the only two members left of the band) released their last full-length album in May of last year. Normally, a collection of songs that's not quite full-length in length is called an EP, but Best Coast has decided to call this a "mini-album." It is the first release on Cosentino's new label Jewel City. Listen/Watch: "I Don't Know How"

Simian Mobile Disco - Tong Zi Dan EP Tong zi dan is an interesting Chinese cultural item. It's a dish consisting of eggs cooked in the urine of prepubescent boys. Sounds delicious; I guess that's the vibe Simian Mobile Disco is trying to set. Honestly, though, I'm not entirely sure what connection virgin boy eggs have to this music, but SMD always puts out great work. Listen/Watch: "Tong Zi Dan"

Van Morrison - Moondance Reissue Van Morrison initially released this iconic more than 40 years years ago. The album is generally considered Morrison's best and is one of my favorite albums from the 1970s. The reissue includes three discs of new (unreleased) material and a high-resolution audio recording of the original album. Listen: "Moondance"