{"title":"Loser (color) LP","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"iron-and-wine_weed-garden","title":"Weed Garden","description":"\u003cp\u003eIron \u0026amp; Wine follow up their 2018 Grammy-nominated full-length \u003ci\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/megamart.subpop.com\/releases\/iron_and_wine\/beast_epic\"\u003eBeast Epic\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e with \u003ci\u003eWeed Garden\u003c\/i\u003e, a collection of material that began about three years ago. The six-song EP features songs that were part of the writing phase for \u003ci\u003eBeast Epic\u003c\/i\u003e, but went unfinished. They were part of a larger narrative for principal songwriter Sam Beam, who ran out of time to get them where they needed to be for inclusion on \u003ci\u003eBeast Epic\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003ci\u003eWeed Garden \u003c\/i\u003ealso includes the fan favorite “Waves of Galveston.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhile on tour in the fall of 2017, the final pieces of material took shape and a sense of urgency prevailed in bringing these characters full circle. To resolution. To completion. In January of 2018, Beam and company hunkered down in Chicago at The Loft recording studio to capture these six songs.  No more, no less. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eWeed Garden\u003c\/i\u003e joins the good company of previous Iron \u0026amp; Wine EP’s – \u003ci\u003e\u003ca title=\"Link: https:\/\/megamart.subpop.com\/releases\/iron_and_wine\/the_sea_and_the_rhythm\" href=\"https:\/\/megamart.subpop.com\/releases\/iron_and_wine\/the_sea_and_the_rhythm\"\u003eThe Sea \u0026amp; the Rhythm\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003e\u003ca title=\"Link: https:\/\/megamart.subpop.com\/releases\/iron_and_wine\/woman_king\" href=\"https:\/\/megamart.subpop.com\/releases\/iron_and_wine\/woman_king\"\u003eWoman King\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eIn the Reins \u003c\/i\u003e– and in 2018’s attention-span challenged world that's not a bad thing.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Iron \u0026 Wine","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":31826132631648,"sku":"712551","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":31826132664416,"sku":"712552","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cassette","offer_id":31826132697184,"sku":"712554","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":32556520898656,"sku":"712556","price":5.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":39591794540640,"sku":"712550","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/products\/ironandwine-weedgarden-cover-3000x3000.jpg?v=1581642543"},{"product_id":"tacocat_this-mess-is-a-place","title":"This Mess Is a Place","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhen Seattle band \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/megamart.subpop.com\/artists\/tacocat\"\u003eTacocat\u003c\/a\u003e—vocalist Emily Nokes, bassist Bree McKenna, guitarist Eric Randall, and drummer Lelah Maupin—first started in 2007, the world they were responding to was vastly different from the current Seattle scene of diverse voices they’ve helped foster. It was a world of house shows, booking DIY tours on MySpace, and writing funny, deliriously catchy feminist pop-punk songs when feminism was the quickest way to alienate yourself from the then-en vogue garage-rock bros. Their lyrical honesty, humor, and hit-making sensibilities have built the band a fiercely devoted fanbase over the years, one that has followed them from basements to dive bars to sold-out shows at the Showbox. Every step along the way has been a seamless progression—from silly songs about Tonya Harding and psychic cats to calling out catcallers and poking fun at entitled weekend-warrior tech jerks on their last two records on Hardly Art, 2014’s \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/megamart.subpop.com\/releases\/tacocat\/nvm\"\u003eNVM\u003c\/a\u003e and 2016’s \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/megamart.subpop.com\/releases\/tacocat\/lost_time\"\u003eLost Time\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis Mess is a Place, Tacocat’s fourth full-length and first on Sub Pop, finds the band waking up the morning after the 2016 election and figuring out how to respond to a new reality where evil isn’t hiding under the surface at all—it’s front and center, with new tragedies and civil rights assaults filling up the scroll of the newsfeed every day. “What a time to be barely alive,” laments “Crystal Ball,” a gem that examines the more intimate side of responding emotionally to the news cycle. How do you keep fighting when all you want to do is stay in bed all day? “Stupid computer stupor\/Oh my kingdom for some better ads,” Nokes sings, throwing in some classic Tacocat snark, “Truth spread so thin\/It stops existing.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDespite current realities being depressing enough to make anyone want to crawl under the covers and sleep for a thousand years, Tacocat are doing what they’ve always done so well: mingling brightness, energy, and hope with political critique. This Mess is a Place is charged with a hopefulness that stands in stark contrast to music that celebrates apathy, despair, and numbness. Tacocat feels it all and cares, a lot, whether they’re singing odes to the magical connections we feel with our pets (“Little Friend”), imagining what a better earth might look like (“New World”), or trying to find humor in a wholly unfunny world (“The Joke of Life”).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThroughout the album, Tacocat questions power structures and the way we interact with them, recalling the feminist sci-fi of Ursula K. Le Guin in pop-music form. “Rose-Colored Sky” examines the privilege of people who have been able to skate through life without ever experiencing systemic disadvantage: “For all the years spent\/Hot lava shaping me\/For all the arguments\/I wonder who else would I be?” Nokes sings. “If I wasn’t on the battleground\/I bet I could’ve gone to space by now.” “Hologram” reminds us to step outside ourselves and try to see beyond imaginary structures that trap us: “Just close your eyes and think about the Milky Way\/Just remember if you can, power is a hologram.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe record is full of beautiful details, finding plastic beaded curtains catching light amidst feelings of despair. This Mess is A Place explores politics with more nuance than the topical songs of Tacocat’s past, inviting listeners in for more complicated exchanges and leaving space for introspection. “Grains of Salt” finds the band at the best they’ve ever sounded: Maupin’s spirited drums, McKenna’s bouncy walking bass, Randall’s catchy guitar and Nokes’ soaring melody combine to create a bonafide roller-rink hit that reminds us that it just takes some time, we’re in the middle of the ride, and to live for what matters to you. It’s a delightfully cathartic moment and the cornerstone of the record when they exclaim: “Don’t forget to remember who the fuck you are!”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan id=\"docs-internal-guid-7da06be3-7fff-d2bb-58a7-4690f1ef0b46\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eProducer Erik Blood (who also produced Lost Time) brings the band into their full pop potential but still preserves what makes Tacocat so special: they’re four friends who met as young punks and have grown together into a truly collaborative band. Says Nokes: “We can examine some hard stuff, make fun of some evil stuff, feel some soft feelings, feel some rage feelings, feel some bitter-ass feelings, sift through memories, feel wavy-existential, and still go get a banana daiquiri at the end.”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tacocat","offers":[{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":31826140954720,"sku":"712850","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":31826140987488,"sku":"712851","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":31826141020256,"sku":"712852","price":13.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cassette","offer_id":31826141053024,"sku":"712854","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":32556524470368,"sku":"712856","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/products\/tacocat-thismessisaplace-cover-3000_96fc42c5-ab17-42b5-a941-87ac78b89ef0.jpg?v=1581642847"},{"product_id":"perfect-son_cast","title":"Cast","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSometime in 2016, just as the Polish singer and producer Tobiasz Biliński began to find success through the dim and fractured electropop of Coldair, he knew it was time for a radical change. The songs on \u003ci\u003eThe Provider\u003c\/i\u003e, Coldair’s much-lauded second album, had been an exorcism of sorts. Laced with songs about early death, chronic disappointment, and clouded minds, the record was, as he puts it now, his earnest attempt to “get all this old shit out.” That mission accomplished, he needed something new, a restart—the unabashedly radiant and unapologetically complex pop of Perfect Son, delivered in 10 perfect shots on Biliński’s Sub Pop debut, \u003ci\u003eCast\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn the past, Biliński’s music has flirted with and explored the darkness, first in a sort of Transatlantic freak-folk and then with the gothic refractions of Coldair. But on \u003ci\u003eCast\u003c\/i\u003e, Perfect Son steps boldly into the light without sloughing off emotional weight or depth. With powerful, sweeping production that recalls the best pop beats of Matthew Dear and arcing melodies that conjure the majesty of \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/megamart.subpop.com\/search\/results?utf8=%E2%9C%93\u0026amp;query=shearwater\"\u003eShearwater\u003c\/a\u003e, Perfect Son animates sensations of lust, belonging, and newfound trust with tumescent electronic arrangements that threaten the safety of any sound system. Biliński sings about falls throughout \u003ci\u003eCast\u003c\/i\u003e, but also about picking yourself back up, about pressing on despite or perhaps because of the bruises. In the process, he is lifted by music that feels unabashedly motivational, built to remind us that the best times are hopefully to come.\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003ePerfect Son, it should be said, is Sub Pop’s first Polish artist, the result of an extended interest in Biliński’s work and the country itself from label co-founder Jonathan Poneman. Several years ago, Biliński applied to play at South by Southwest as Coldair.  Poneman saw his performance, and was impressed. The two stayed in touch, with Poneman eventually signing Coldair to a publishing deal. “I bugged him about releasing my stuff constantly,” Biliński admits with a laugh. “And I guess he admired my persistence.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen \u003ci\u003eCast \u003c\/i\u003ewas finally finished, Poneman didn’t need more convincing. These songs, after all, are magnetic, with the searching harmonies and deep drums of “Promises” and the rhythmic intricacy and serial synths of “Wax” pulling you close on first listen and holding you there for the foreseeable future. These songs and this story are about the power of human perseverance and deliberate reinvention, of knowing that you can confront and come to terms with the darkest angels of your being. \u003ci\u003eCast \u003c\/i\u003eis a testament to the possibilities of the future, brilliantly disguised as 10 grandiose and undeniable pop anthems.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Perfect Son","offers":[{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":32668242313312,"sku":"712840","price":8.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":32611886039136,"sku":"712841","price":9.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD","offer_id":31826146230368,"sku":"712842","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":32556512608352,"sku":"712846","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/products\/perfectson-cast-2400.jpg?v=1581642994"},{"product_id":"the-homesick_the-big-exercise","title":"The Big Exercise","description":"\u003cp\u003eIf their debut Youth Hunt marked The Homesick’s tryst with faith and pastoral life, the band’s upcoming second album The Big Exercise brings them to more grounded, tangible pastures. With its title ripped from a passage in the Scott Walker-biography Deep Shade Of Blue, the record is a concentrated effort by Jaap van der Velde, Erik Woudwijk and Elias Elgersma to explore the physicality of their music in fresh ways. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“When we were on tour in 2018, I bought Meredith Monk’s Dolmen Music in Switzerland,” Van der Velde recalls, “Elias and I have been completely immersed in her music ever since. But also the work of Joan La Barbara for example, who also did things with extended vocal techniques, that was also quite vital to us. We discovered that the human voice offers so many beautiful elements that can still feel very physical and intrusive.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDuring those formative years, the Dutch trio was often typecast as your resident tricksters. Hailing from the backwater Frisian municipality of Dokkum, Van der Velde, Woudwijk and Elgersma shrewdly courted spirituality under their own nonconformist whims, even if that wasn’t immediately obvious to outsiders. For those on the outside looking in, it was hard to tell whether the band was taking the piss or genuinely unraveling themselves as starry-eyed romantics.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Homesick relished and thrived in that very schism on Youth Hunt. When not ruminating on their environment under the guise of Dark Age Christianity, they wrapped their ambivalence into sure-fire pop earworms. Even the album’s production values were undeniably quixotic: the exuberant vocal retorts of Elgersma and Van der Velde drenched in reverb, as warped synths and distorted guitars launched skyward with the glee of a firework spectacle. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs an inverse to that mindset, The Big Exercise finds the band keenly second-guessing their core chemistry as a live unit, imbuing their angular post-punk workouts with baroque elements such as piano, acoustic guitar, percussion, and even clarinet. “It’s the opposite of trying to translate recorded music to the stage,” Elgersma comments. “We were already playing these songs live for quite some time, so for this album, we wanted to unlock the potential of these songs further in the studio.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOpening track “What’s In Store” was in part inspired by Van der Velde’s unprompted deep dive into the world of National Anthems, making his own attempt to conjure a similarly timeless melody. The song seamlessly bleeds into the chivalrous prance of  “Children’s Day” and the fragmented “Pawing,” righteously encouraging Erik Woudwijk’s nimble, cerebral drumming to become the band’s driving force. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe headstrong wanderlust of The Big Exercise is very fitting, given The Homesick’s exodus as a small-town Dutch band ready to trot the world. Contrary to Youth Hunt’s quest for belonging, roots, and provenance, however, the band’s creative trajectory is now dictated by a sense of otherness and imagination. The sharp contrasts are nevertheless ever-present; the music’s new sonorous depth is underpinned by wry meditations on family ties, alternate realities, and commonplace encounters. As the band’s chief lyricists, Elgersma and Van der Velde deliberately keep each other in the dark, allowing the syntax of words and music to entangle in surprising – sometimes delightfully absurd – ways.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“I Celebrate My Fantasy,” for example, summons a mirage of creeping pianos, sylvan clarinet flourishes and cartoonish sprawls with mock-paranoia, as Elgersma documents a macabre vision he had during a mild case of sleep paralysis. True to the band’s method of holding the more mundane, fleeting moments under a magnifying glass, capricious closing track “Male Bonding” pulls a wide range of movements out of the top hat: the album’s rare heavy burst is promptly mediated by almost medieval-sounding prog rock-flirtations. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith aplomb, The Homesick made a record impregnated with impressions which – when superimposed – still fit neatly under the pop umbrella. That obvious nod to Scott Walker isn’t an aberration either: straddling pop sonority and the cacophonous fringes is something well worth aspiring.  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“That’s also a  phenomenal aspect of the position we’re now in as a band,” Van der Velde enthuses. “I consider The Homesick a pop band first and foremost. If you’d introduce a late-era Scott Walker-record to a layman, it would likely fall on flat ears. But put it in the right scene of a good movie, and that person may finally understand its potential. The Homesick is allowed to play around in that pop framework, and the goal is to explore what’s possible within it. You can do super radical and weird things, and at the same time convey it all as straightforward pop music. With this album, I hope people will hear things anew after multiple listens.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Homesick","offers":[{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":31826244173920,"sku":"713390","price":9.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":31826244206688,"sku":"713391","price":9.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD","offer_id":31826244239456,"sku":"713392","price":6.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":32556525322336,"sku":"713396","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/products\/thehomesick-thebigexcercise-cover-3600.jpg?v=1581644657"},{"product_id":"mudhoney_superfuzz-bigmuff","title":"Superfuzz Bigmuff","description":"\u003cp\u003eAnthems that fucked up a generation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLoser (color) LP is a 35th anniversary color edition!\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mudhoney","offers":[{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":39753109962848,"sku":"700215","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":31826404311136,"sku":"700211","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD","offer_id":31826404343904,"sku":"700212","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Cassette","offer_id":31826404376672,"sku":"700214","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":32556521357408,"sku":"700216","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/products\/5899.jpg?v=1581647833"},{"product_id":"calexico-and-iron-and-wine_years-to-burn","title":"Years to Burn","description":"\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/megamart.subpop.com\/artists\/calexico\"\u003eCalexico\u003c\/a\u003e and\r\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/megamart.subpop.com\/artists\/iron_and_wine\"\u003eIron \u0026amp; Wine\u003c\/a\u003e first made an artistic connection with \u003ci\u003eIn the Reins\u003c\/i\u003e, the\r2005 EP that brought Sam Beam, Joey Burns and John Convertino together. The\racclaimed collaboration introduced both acts to wider audiences and broadened\rBeam’s artistic horizons, but it was the shared experience of touring together\rin the tradition of Bob Dylan’s “Rolling Thunder Revue” that cemented their\rbond. Their metaphorical roads diverged in the years that followed, but they\rkept in touch and cross-pollinated where they could. But although they often\rtalked about rekindling their collaboration in the studio and on the stage, it\rwasn’t until last year that their schedules aligned.\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\r\u003cp class=\"BodyA\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eYears to\rBurn\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e can’t help but\rbe different from \u003ci\u003eIn the Reins\u003c\/i\u003e. Back then, Calexico entered the studio\rwith a long list of previous collaborations (first in Giant Sand, then backing\rthe likes of Victoria Williams and Richard Buckner) and the knowledge that they\rloved Sam’s voice and his songs, but wondering if his material was so complete\rand self-contained that it lacked a way in, so hushed and delicate that it\rmight be overwhelmed. For his part, Beam had been intimidated by their virtuosic\rplaying and their deep comfort in an encyclopedic array of styles. “In my mind,\rI was a guy who knew three chords and recorded in a closet,” Sam says. “They\rwere playing big stages and were superb musicians.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\r\u003cp class=\"BodyA\"\u003eThose fears\rwere dispelled quickly. Calexico was bowled over by Beam’s many talents: “The\rarranging, the writing, his sense of rhythm, the quality of his vocals—and then\rthere’s the experimental side of Sam,” Joey says. “They were the perfect band\rat the perfect time for me,” Sam adds. “I loved all their different sounds.\rThey’re musical anthropologists, not regurgitating but absorbing what they\rdiscover.” Nearly 15 years on, “coming back to the project has to do with\racknowledging how much impact the first record had for me in my life.”\u003c\/p\u003e\r\r\u003cp class=\"BodyA\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBeam, Burns and\rConvertino reconvened in Nashville for four days of recording in December 2018.\rNobody was keen to retread old ground. The change of venue—from Calexico’s home\rbase of Tucson, where \u003ci\u003eIn the Reins\u003c\/i\u003e was tracked—was one part of the\reffort. Together with\u003c\/span\u003e Niehaus\u003cspan\u003e, veteran Calexico trumpet player Jacob Valenzuela and\rfrequent Beam cohorts Rob Burger (Tin Hat Trio) on piano and Sebastian\rSteinberg (Soul Coughing, Fiona Apple) on bass, they settled in at the Sound\rEmporium, a fabled studio founded in the sixties by Cowboy Jack Clement and the\rsite of countless landmark sessions in country and rock over the ensuing\rdecades. Convertino got chills when he found a framed photo of R.E.M. on the\rwall: \u003ci\u003eDocument\u003c\/i\u003e was recorded there.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\r\u003cp class=\"BodyA\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAnother added\ringredient was engineer Matt Ross-Spang, whose recent resume includes producing\rMargo Price’s \u003ci\u003eMidwest Farmer’s Daughter\u003c\/i\u003e, working with Memphis legends\rlike Al Green in the Sam Phillips studio that’s now Ross-Spang’s home turf, and\rwinning a Grammy for mixing Jason Isbell’s album \u003ci\u003eSomething More Than Free\u003c\/i\u003e\r(another Sound Emporium project)\u003ci\u003e.\u003c\/i\u003e Ross-Spang was assisted by\u003c\/span\u003e Rachel\rMoore; he shares\rproduction credits with Beam, Burns and Convertino.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\r\u003cp class=\"BodyA\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBeam wrote all\rthe songs for \u003ci\u003eIn the Reins\u003c\/i\u003e. He took the lead again here, bringing five\rsongs to the session, but Burns added one of his own in the end too. They took\rdiffering approaches; Sam shared meticulous demos ahead of time and was ready\rwith arrangement ideas and instrumental parts, while Joey spontaneous as ever,\rcame in with concepts and an eagerness to improvise. Upon arriving in\rNashville, he also penned a tune.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\r\u003cp class=\"BodyA\"\u003e“Life is hard.\rAwesome. And scary as shit. But it can lift you up if you let it,” Sam offers.\r“These are the things Joey and I write about now. And the title can encapsulate\ra lot of things. ‘Years to Burn’ could mean you’re cocky, you’ve got it made.\rOr, our life is ours to burn, to be inspired. Or you’re burned by life,\rbrutalized. It’s an ambiguous title, because life is complicated. Let’s not\rtalk like teenagers about love, desire, pain, ‘cause we’re not teenagers. And\rthat’s not a bad thing.”\u003c\/p\u003e\r\r\u003cp class=\"BodyA\"\u003e“This project\rhad to find the right time,” Joey concludes. “We’re all different people than\rwe were in 2004, and music helps to bridge some of the gaps. For all the things\rgoing on in our world and in each of our lives, this connection, this\rfriendship, this love that we have—this album is a vehicle for that bond. It’s\ra chance to see where we’re at, take stock and be there for our friends.”\u003c\/p\u003e\r\r\u003cp class=\"BodyA\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eANDERS SMITH LINDALL\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Calexico and Iron \u0026 Wine","offers":[{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":31826506743904,"sku":"713000","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"LP","offer_id":31826506776672,"sku":"713001","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD","offer_id":31826506809440,"sku":"713002","price":13.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":31826506842208,"sku":"713006","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/products\/calexicoironandwine-yearstoburn-3000px_50e6c845-ae66-4593-bf2e-81fb9124a8fe.jpg?v=1581650452"},{"product_id":"the-gotobeds_debt-begins-at-30","title":"Debt Begins at 30","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003eGive me a minute or three to extol the virtues of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\" href=\"https:\/\/megamart.subpop.com\/artists\/the_gotobeds\"\u003eThe Gotobeds\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e, the modern rock and roll sensation that has always sounded like they love to play. Never maligned by having the world’s weight on their backs, The Gotobeds - Cary, TFP, Eli and Gavin - return to the fray with their third full lengther, 'Debt Begins at 30'. The \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003eesprit de corps\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e and anxiety-free joy that permeates their other LPs and EPs remains intact. The octane is high-test, the engine still has knocks and pings and the battery is overcharged. The Gotobeds - as Pittsburgh as it gets, the folk music of the Steel City - have more tar for us to swallow. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003eDebt Begins at 30 \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003eis an old-fashioned blast furnace and the liquid iron flows. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003eDebt Begins at 30 \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003eis not \"pub sop\" in any way or shape.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"normal\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e Though I never considered The Gotobeds a band that needed assistance from their peers, \u003ci\u003eDebt Begins at 30 \u003c\/i\u003efeatures outside contributors on every track. The album's first single, \"Calquer The Hound,\" includes local buddy Evan Richards, and Rob Henry of Kim Phuc. \"Calquer The Hound\" has euphony, a sly bridge, plenty of trademark bash, and a spacey outro. It's a sanguine album opener, more Al Oliver than Starling Marte.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"normal\"\u003eOn \"Twin Cities,\" the lads tap Tracy Wilson, formerly of Dahlia Seed and currently of Positive NO!, to share the vox, and the result is an exuberant pop song proving The Gotobeds benefit from women ruling the scene. \"Twin Cities\" is more Dakota Staton than Don Caballero. \"Debt Begins at 30,\" the title trackular, includes the wizardry of Mike Seamans and legend Bob Weston. It's a brooding romp with tribal beats and slash-and-burn guitar, more Rocky Bleier than Le'Veon Bell.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"normal\"\u003eUnsurprisingly, The Gotobeds called partners-in-rock-crime \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/megamart.subpop.com\/artists\/protomartyr\" title=\"Link: https:\/\/megamart.subpop.com\/artists\/protomartyr\"\u003eProtomartyr\u003c\/a\u003e a coupla times, with Joe Casey bolstering \"Slang Words\" and hook-fiend Greg Ahee shredding on \"On Loan.\" \"Slang Words\" is a savory wrecking ball with a crunching bite, more of a soft shell crab sandwich from Wholey's Market than a 4am slop feast at Primanti Brothers. \"On Loan\" is an anthemic jangle-fest with high-arcing fret work, more Karl Hendricks (rest his soul) than \"Weird Paul\" Petroskey.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"normal\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e Silkworm guitarist Tim Midyett is tapped on \"Parallel,\" a grand song that enters a world of whimsy, melodic and uncomplicated, more Jaromir Jagr than Sidney Crosby. The likes of 12XU label boss Gerard Cosloy, Tre Orsi's Matt Barnhart, the wonderful Victoria Ruiz of \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/megamart.subpop.com\/artists\/downtown_boys\"\u003eDowntown Boys\u003c\/a\u003e, Pittsburgh wordsmiths Jason Baldinger and Scott MacIntyre, and yours truly strut stuff on other tracks. In my case, I just scream “dross” on \"Dross\" several times. Good judgment on the part of The Gotobeds to know that's the best I can do, more Max Moroff than Andrew McCutchen.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cspan\u003eAnyways, The Gotobeds have quickly reached the veteran stage, but, based upon \u003ci\u003eDebt Begins at 30\u003c\/i\u003e, their best days are ahead of them. It's a pleasure to be associated with such an excellent band.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e--Bob Nastanovich, 1\/13\/2019, Des Moines    \u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"The Gotobeds","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":32611920183392,"sku":"713031","price":9.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":32611920281696,"sku":"713030","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":31826514411616,"sku":"713032","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":32556508577888,"sku":"713036","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/products\/thegotobeds-debtbeginsat30-3000px_34d0cbd3-6fec-42ee-a74b-b5381032f13e.jpg?v=1581650627"},{"product_id":"shannon-lay_august","title":"August","description":"\u003cp\u003eThere is an entire sub-genre of poetry devoted to rivers and their persistent, meditative flow. Emily Dickinson’s “My River Runs to Thee” compares them to the cycle of life, while Alfred Tennyson’s “The Brook” deems them eternal and Kathleen Raine’s “The River” muses on the dream-state they evoke. For transcendent folk-pop artist \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/megamart.subpop.com\/artists\/shannon_lay\"\u003eShannon Lay\u003c\/a\u003e, the river is all of the above: It’s the metaphor driving her latest album, the exquisitely uplifting August (Sub Pop Records, out August, 23rd)—which doubles as an aural baptism renewing her purpose for making music. “I always picture music as this river. Everyone’s throwing things into this river, it’s a place you can go to and feed off of that energy,” she says, “and feel nourished by the fact that so many people are feeling what you’re feeling. It’s this beautiful exchange.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe album’s name, August, refers to the month in 2017 when Lay quit her day job and fully gave herself over to music. This was her liberation as an artist, and the album is devoted to paying that forward to her listeners. “It’s a thank you to the universe,” says the L.A. artist. The title track is a mystical, folk-psych expression that builds into a gentle gallop. “Open the doors that you cannot,” she sings with a feathery lightness. Notes Lay: “Everyone is capable of so much, but we have a tendency to stand in our own way.” The steady movement of the song captures the rapids of a river. “I was thinking about creating something with momentum,” she continues. “I started out with just the guitar and Laena Geronimo came in and added that gorgeous drone and when Nick Murray put his drum touch in there it was exactly what I never knew it would be.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLay may be the most chilled-out artist you’ll ever meet. Despite fronting her tranquil solo act and being a guitarist\/singer in the indie-rock band Feels, she never pressures herself to overachieve. (Even though she regularly does—in a glowing review, Pitchfork anointed her last album, Living Water “captivating.”) “I learned to not beat myself up if I’m not writing all the time,” she says. “Music really does come in these waves of inspiration.” During the album’s graceful finale, “The Dream,” Lay addresses embracing uncertainty. “I’ve always felt like a lucky person, life is a dream and it is yours to manipulate. Create the world you want to live in, create your own reality, create your path. We have so much more control that we could ever imagine.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith her life devoted to music, the artist often spends hours a day simply playing the guitar, challenging herself to become better “It just feels so good, doing something that is so much bigger than myself. I think so much of music is that, realizing that it’s coming from something beyond and you are just the messenger” says Lay, who took guitar lessons at age 13, which introduced her to Neil Young and The Beatles. After high school, she moved from Redondo Beach, Calif., to Hollywood and joined an indie-rock band. “It was an energy I needed to release,” she says. The exact type of energy may have changed, but her drive hasn’t. Her recent practice pays off transcendentally in songs such as “Nowhere,” a wistful kindred spirit to “August” that evokes Nick Drake. “It’s about getting somewhere and not doing anything or meeting anyone,” Lay says, “the idea of just having a quieter journey, zero expectation.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere are other lovely, solitary moments on August. The simple, soprano narrative “Shuffling Stoned,” for instance, serves no grander purpose than to capture a snapshot of the time Lay walked into a cool record store in New York City and watched the guy working there buy some weed off his dealer, as “this tiny, little spider crawled up on the records—it was such a cool, weird moment.” And “Sea Came to Shore,” in which Lay’s guitar finds its foil in a slightly askew violin, immediately teleports you, alone, to a breezy shore. “The ocean,” adds Lay, “is a good reminder of how small we are.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAugust was mostly written in three months, during Lay’s first solo tour for Living Water. “For the most part, all of the songs were just guitar and voice,” she says. In keeping with the humbled, contemplative nature of August, most tracks clock-in at three minutes or less. She saved indulgence for the production. “Some songs as they were had this room to grow,” says Lay, who recorded the album with her longtime friend, musician Ty Segall at his home studio on the East Side. “I believe whoever you record with tends to affect the mood of music and Ty really brought this jovial sense that I hadn’t really explored yet,” she says. “Once you get rolling with him, he just throws these ideas at the wall. And you’re like, ‘I would never have thought of that!’ I couldn’t have hoped for a better guide and energy to help create this record.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn this sense, the album’s opener, the mantra-like “Death Up Close” is also its centerpiece. “With that song, I wanted to recognize that everyone else is going through something and reflect on that. Don’t be so close-minded to think you’re the only one who’s got issues, in fact, find comfort in the thought that everyone is on their own journey” Lay explains. What starts as an Eastern-influenced song morphs into an avant-garde sound bath. “I had this idea of the violin ascending. Then Mikal Cronin came in with the saxophone and just blew me away.  I love the idea of building a song like that, take people by surprise.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“A lot of my friends who are really tough have admitted that they shed a tear when they hear my songs, and I think that really speaks to the visceral aspect of folk music,” Lay says. “It’s this ancient form of expressing yourself.” Think of August as a warm hug for your psyche. “I want to create as much music as I can,” she says, “and leave this spot by the river where people can go sit and enjoy.”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Shannon Lay","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":31826555797600,"sku":"713151","price":8.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":31826555764832,"sku":"713150","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":32611895279712,"sku":"713152","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cassette","offer_id":31826555863136,"sku":"713154","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":32556521521248,"sku":"713156","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/products\/shannon-lay-august-3000.jpg?v=1581651608"},{"product_id":"kyle-craft_showboat-honey","title":"Showboat Honey","description":"\u003cp\u003eThere is this curious equilibrium to existence: In order to create balance, the universe must giveth, and the universe must taketh. \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/megamart.subpop.com\/artists\/kyle_craft\"\u003eKyle Craft\u003c\/a\u003e, along with his now solidified backing band dubbed Showboat Honey, know this all too well. And this is why their self-titled album, the contemplative yet restless \u003ci\u003eShowboat Honey\u003c\/i\u003e (Sub Pop Records, July 12th, 2019) reflects that sturm-und-drang. “This is basically an album centered around bad luck and good fortune hitting at the same time,” Craft explains “Then, out of nowhere, I find love. Everything went to shit except that. I guess that’s how life works.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"normal\"\u003eNo track better captures this duality than the sweeping “Sunday Driver,” about sticking to your guns, despite a universe of blow-back. “At this point, you get baptized by certain fires and start to walk with the dead a little bit, like nothing can harm you anymore,” says the Portland-based musician. “That’s what self-love sounds like to me, as aggressive as that sounds.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"normal\"\u003eThe sticky-sweet title of the album is lifted from the brightly choral “Buzzkill Caterwaul” (“Once you were the showboat honey\/ But your ship sailed out”). “I wanted to make something that sounded like a raucous collision of Leon Russell and Patti Smith,” he says, “But ‘Buzzkill Caterwaul’ was the only tune that ended up showcasing that vision.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"normal\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThough aesthetics veer from song to song, \u003ci\u003eShowboat Honey\u003c\/i\u003e’s steadfast formula remains the same. Drummer Haven Mutlz holds down the machine with a ’60s\/’70s fast-molasses groove that locks in with the slinky rolling bass of Billy Slater. When Kevin Clark isn’t bouncing across the piano, his mellotron swells in and out of frame. Jack of all trades Ben Steinmetz’s organ parts well up from the deep of the songs, while lead guitarist Jeremy Kale’s solos rip through them like electricity. On top of it all, sits the tongue-in-cheek phantasmagoria created by Craft’s lyrics. \u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"normal\"\u003eLyrically, perspectives shift to imbue life into a cast of intriguing, mysterious characters, à la Bob Dylan. (“There is not a single thing in my life that has affected me more than the first time I heard Dylan,” says Craft. “It immediately changed my life.”) “Johnny (Free \u0026amp; Easy)” is seemingly about a date gone awry at a swinger’s party in the Hollywood Hills. And the twangy pop of “O! Lucky Hand” appears to shadow a poor sod desperate to elude a hex. Its antidote is the stunning, cinematic “Deathwish Blue,” which sounds like a deep cut from the book of John Lennon, about the lovesick salvation found in his bride to be, Lydia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"normal\"\u003eIf that’s not head-trippy enough, the carefree sing-along “2 Ugly 4 NY” features a lyrical reference to a previous incarnation of Craft. Its lyrics—“Don’t wanna see Death strum for cash downtown\/ Or the look on his face when the change hits the case on the ground”—call out his early days in Portland when he went by the moniker of Hobo Grim. Busking downtown, he’d cover country tunes while dressed as the Grim Reaper so as to conceal his true identity. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"normal\"\u003eCraft started writing about as soon as he could play the guitar at the age of 15. He grew up in the isolated Mississippi River town of Vidalia, Louisiana where his chops weren’t honed in a woodshed, but rather an old, dingy meat freezer that was out of commission.  When asked about the first song he’d ever written, he laughs, saying it was an “angsty-rock tune” and “a rare bird of how bad a song could be.”     \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"normal\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAfter years of touring, two LPs with Sub Pop Records, and solidifying the band, he’s since grown into a prodigious songwriter, to say the least. The band recorded \u003ci\u003eShowboat Honey—\u003c\/i\u003eco-produced by Craft, Clark, and Slater—at their own Moonbase Studios in Portland over 2018. “We approached this record differently for sure,” Craft says. “I’d make a demo, and after putting the songs together, shoot it to the band for ideas.” Tracks such as “Broken Mirror Pose” ended up being highly collaborative, while others settled into Craft’s original vision. “Deathwish Blue,” for instance, was tracked in a similar fashion to his solo debut, \u003ci\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/megamart.subpop.com\/releases\/kyle_craft\/dolls_of_highland\"\u003eDolls of Highland\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e, with Craft tracking every instrument by himself. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"normal\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eKyle and the members of Showboat Honey worked at such a feverish wine-fueled pace that they actually ended up with two completely different albums. But at the end of the day, they decided to combine the two into what is now \u003ci\u003eShowboat Honey,\u003c\/i\u003e a moonstruck rock ’n’ roll record teeming with reckless abandon.    \u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"normal\"\u003e“We thought we had the album done at one point. But at the last minute, I was like, ‘Shit, this isn’t the album. This isn’t it,’” Kyle says. “It was just a gut feeling. I’m glad for that because I feel like I ended up writing some of the best songs I’ve ever written.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Kyle Craft","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":31826584076384,"sku":"713111","price":8.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":31826584043616,"sku":"713110","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":31826584109152,"sku":"713112","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":32556525977696,"sku":"713116","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/products\/kylecraft-showboathoney-3000x3000_3d5895fe-2739-4992-a5d1-6276bf32e661.jpg?v=1581652181"},{"product_id":"frankie-cosmos_close-it-quietly","title":"Close It Quietly","description":"\u003cp\u003eClose It Quietly is a continual reframing of the known. It’s like giving yourself a haircut or rearranging your room. You know your hair. You know your room. Here’s the same hair, the same room, seen again as something new. Close It Quietly takes the trademark \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/megamart.subpop.com\/artists\/frankie_cosmos\"\u003eFrankie Cosmos\u003c\/a\u003e micro-universe and upends it, spilling outwards into a swirl of referentiality that’s a marked departure from earlier releases, imagining and reimagining motifs and sounds throughout the album. FC’s fourth studio release is a manifestation of the band’s collaborative spirit: Greta Kline and longtime bandmates Lauren Martin (synth), Luke Pyenson (drums), and Alex Bailey (bass) luxuriated in studio time with Gabe Wax, who engineered and co-produced the record with the band.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRecording close to home— at Brooklyn’s Figure 8 Studios— grounded the band, and their process was enriched by working closely with Wax, whose intuition and attention to detail made the familiar unfamiliar and allowed the band to reshape their own contexts. On opener “Moonsea,” an unaccompanied Greta begins, “The world is crumbling and I don’t have much to say.” Take that as a wink and a metonym for the whole album, as her signature vocals are joined by Alex’s ascending bassline and Lauren’s eddying synths, invoking a loungey take on Broadcast or Stereolab’s space-disco experimental pop. There’s much more than “not much” to say here, and it's augmented and expanded by experimentation with synth patches, textures, and other recording nuances courtesy of Wax.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs the lineup has solidified into the most permanent expression of full-band Frankie Cosmos, the bandmates have felt more comfortable deviating from their default instruments and contributing bigger-picture ideas to continue pushing the sound forward. The synergy of its creation is clear upon listening: the multiple hands dipping and re-dipping into each song form a multifaceted whole. The band’s closeness and aesthetic consistency freed its members to take more musically-formal risks, notes Luke: \"Everything will sound like Frankie Cosmos because Greta has such a distinct voice (literally and figuratively). We have so much latitude to experiment with the instrumental music, and this time around we really took advantage of that.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe album forms its own vortex of reinvention that’s embodied through both the tracks themselves and the recording and arranging processes. “A Joke” curls in on itself, in word and in deed, a series of undercuts defining negative space: “It’s just a joke I wasn’t trying to tell;” “It wasn’t really a game;” “I do not know what I am for\/I wasn’t really keeping score.” Inverting technology’s human mimicry, Luke impersonates a drum machine until the song’s end. “A Joke’s” tricks scratch at something bigger, a small song embodying the laughability of attempting to neatly organize or adhere to any particular role.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Rings of a Tree” frees itself from its original context: released earlier this year on Greta’s solo piano album Haunted Items, she didn’t initially anticipate a major deviation; then, Luke says, “Lauren and I had the same arrangement idea without talking about it. Like, ‘let’s make this song funky. Let’s channel Orange Juice.’ We texted Greta and Alex before practice and Alex came in with a new guitar part that perfectly captured what Lauren and I heard in our heads.” \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“I’m just fucking glad for my bubble\/despite how often it is penetrated by evil” Greta sings on “Last Season’s Textures,” taking to task the accusation that young people cloister themselves in complacency: she’s quick to point to, thank, and feel suspicious of that sphere all at once. The song explores the feeling of safety in her realm; reasonable despair re: reality (“the news is excruciating”); and a quick admission that darkness isn’t something a liberal-minded social network can block out. Kline notes how the song is “partly about misogyny and internalized misogyny--moments where I've felt betrayed by what is meant to be a safe space.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWithout losing any intimacy of prior albums, Close it Quietly is different, is outer. The album functions as a benign doppelganger, a shadow self of past releases; where other Frankie Cosmos records shine brightest looking inward, Close it Quietly refracts the self into the world, and vice versa, miraculously echoing Thoreau’s assertion that “when I reflect, I find that there is other than me.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eReflection--and refraction--isn’t tidy. “Flowers don’t grow\/in an organized way\/why should I?” Greta sings on “A Joke.” Growth isn’t linear. Change happens in circles. While recording the album, Alex says, “I closed my eyes a lot.” Stand in the sun, listen to Close it Quietly, and do the same.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Frankie Cosmos","offers":[{"title":"Puppy CD","offer_id":31826621694048,"sku":"713203","price":23.2,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":31826621726816,"sku":"713200","price":18.4,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":31826621759584,"sku":"713201","price":18.4,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD","offer_id":31826621792352,"sku":"713202","price":9.6,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cassette","offer_id":31826621825120,"sku":"713204","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":32556516376672,"sku":"713206","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/products\/frankiecosmos-closeitquietly-3000_a4d8b4bd-d9e0-457f-9d60-f531ad866e3f.jpg?v=1581652484"},{"product_id":"minor-poet_the-good-news","title":"The Good News","description":"\u003cp\u003eAfter spending years writing and recording music by himself in various bedrooms and basements, Andrew Carter hit his stride with the debut Minor Poet album, And How!. Made on a creative whim with no outside expectations, the eleven-song collection combined Carter’s love of carefully-crafted pop with a loose, fun, off-the-cuff recording aesthetic. The album was released in 2017 and developed a small but loving fan base, and Minor Poet has grown from a passion project into a cross-country touring band with write-ups in publications such as American Songwriter, Magnet, The Wild Honey Pie, Impose, and more.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMinor Poet’s second album, The Good News, is a six-song collection that expands the boundaries of what constitutes the band’s sound. In just twenty-two minutes, the songs take apart the standard formulas of guitar-based rock and infuse them with vibrance and energy. On opener “Tabula Rasa,” interlocking guitars and a Farfisa organ carry the song through until everything drops suddenly into a doo-wop section that wouldn’t be out of place on a 1950’s greatest hits compilation. Warped noise envelops a tropicalia-flavored Casio beat in “Tropic of Cancer” before a slick groove and sliding bass line lead into the chorus’ pure pop bliss of of horns and vocal harmonies. “Museum District” begins with a drum intro reminiscent of an off-kilter “Be My Baby,” and “Bit Your Tongue\/All Alone Now” features a midsection with a glam-rock guitar solo amidst trumpet fanfare. These are a just a few of the infectious moments on an EP filled with many more.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Good News was made over four days at Montrose Recording, in Minor Poet’s hometown of Richmond, VA. In the past, Carter played all the instruments and handled all the production, but he knew he that he had to reach outside himself to do justice to these songs. “I couldn’t capture the sounds I heard in my head,” Carter explains. “I wanted something that was vast and expansive but that at the same time could hit you immediately in the gut.” Paying homage to the “wall of sound” techniques made famous by Brian Wilson and Phil Spector, Carter and co-producer Adrian Olsen (Natalie Prass, Foxygen) overdubbed layer after layer of Carter playing an array of guitars, pianos, organs, synths, and percussion, as well as singing all the harmonies. The members of Minor Poet’s touring band were brought in to perform the core rhythm section, and local musicians stopped by to add crucial flourishes, such as the harmonizing guitar riffs in “Reverse Medusa” and the saxophone solo that closes out “Nude Descending Staircase.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt the center of everything is Carter’s voice, singing lyrics that seamlessly mix allusions to religion, mythology, art, and philosophy as he questions himself, his place in the world around him, what he owes to his relationships, and, in turn, what he needs to ask of others in order to stay healthy. Tabula Rasa is a concept that argues that humans are born blank slates, shaped through experience and environment. The last two years couldn’t have felt more applicable for Carter, who started out as a fresh face with little-to-no experience in the music industry and slowly grew into himself as a stage performer and bandleader through both good and bad times. During this period he began to come to terms with lifelong struggles, such as the depression that permeates “Tropic of Cancer” and the social anxiety that runs through “Museum District.” Rather than be one-dimensional, however, Carter dives deeper into himself and his motivations, such as in “Reverse Medusa” when he sings, “Hide my love in poetic half-truths\/never was one to dwell on my issues.” Carter’s ability to balance emotional honesty with a tongue-in-cheek self awareness adds to the richness and originality of the music. Short but memorable, catchy yet meaningful, The Good News is another promising step forward for Minor Poet.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Minor Poet","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":31826634080352,"sku":"712801","price":6.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":31826634047584,"sku":"712800","price":13.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":31826634113120,"sku":"712806","price":6.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/products\/minorpoet-thegoodnews-cover-3000_bfc28e17-5e53-49a0-b121-f17ef1343bc4.jpg?v=1581652605"},{"product_id":"shabazz-palaces_the-don-of-diamond-dreams","title":"The Don Of Diamond Dreams","description":"\u003cp\u003eCruise the city in a night ship, dressed to kill in the Seville. Float down waterfalls and fountains, reclined on some pimp shit. The time zone ghost returns to paint a picture that echoes through infinity. The sun is put to rest, the soliloquy is killer bee. A diamond purpose lying beneath the surface. Nothing is ever what it seems, but forever is the theme. It’s time. \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/megamart.subpop.com\/artists\/shabazz_palaces\"\u003eShabazz Palaces\u003c\/a\u003e are back with yet another classic of divine mathematics design. More dazzling Afrofuturist sutras to illuminate distant constellations with sacred abstractions. Enter The Don of Diamond Dreams, raw and uncut, but glowing with 10,000 karat shine. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you adhere to the corporeal limitations of space and chronology, it’s been roughly a decade since Shabazz Palaces first shook the ramparts with their debut stylistic revolution, \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/megamart.subpop.com\/releases\/shabazz_palaces\/black_up\"\u003eBlack Up\u003c\/a\u003e -- which Pitchfork named as one of the Best of the 2010s, hailing it as an “album of impossible vision.” But the project masterminded by vocalist and producer Ishmael Butler (with levitational assists from multi-instrumentalist Tendai \"Baba\" Maraire) has never conformed to gravitational consideration or terrestrial measurement. They are heirs to the astral imagination of Sun Ra and George Clinton, Octavia Butler and Alice Coltrane. If they technically claim residence in Seattle, their sound emanates much closer to Alpha Centauri than Alki Beach. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn his unstinting drive to re-imagine hip-hop, Butler remains one of the preeminent visionaries of the last quarter-century. His first album with Digable Planets, Reachin (A New Refutation of Time and Space, nodded at Miles Davis in the first half of its title, but 27 years later, he has become one of the most vaunted inheritors of the trumpet deity’s rarefied legacy -- still innovating as he enters his fourth decade as a working musician -- splintering, rebuilding, and expanding the possibilities of sound. He has collaborated with like-minded visionaries Flying Lotus and Thundercat, Battles and Animal Collective. While all-timers like Radiohead and Lauryn Hill have invited him to join them on tour. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt remains impossible to accurately describe a Shabazz Palaces album without lapsing into cosmic tropes. Yet sometimes clichés are stand-ins for eternal truths. Therein, The Don of Diamond Dreams embodies a futuristic manifestation of ancient myth, full of robotic vocoder and warped auto-tune, Funkadelic refracted into different dimensions, weird portals and warm nocturnal joy rides alongside the coast (a reflection of it being mixed near the beach in California). The synthesizers are alien but the drums speak a universal language. It is hip-hop, dub, jazz, R\u0026amp;B, soul, funk, African, experimental, and occasionally even pop. But over the course of five albums, Shabazz Palaces have conceived the fluid boundaries of their own one-band genre. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEven though the construction of the album is meticulous, it’s a startling masterpiece of improvisation and instinct. It’s both cerebral and automatic, with Butler jotting down phrases and ideas in his phone and eventually shaping them into amorphous abstract expressionist canvasses. If anything, their latest illustrates Butler’s gift for being a conduit of sounds and experience. It’s partially shaped by his own reflection on being a parent and watching his son, Jazz, become internationally renowned as the artist, Lil Tracy. If you listen closely, you can hear the interplay between father and son, as Butler does what is impossible for most veteran artists: he absorbs the sounds of today’s youth, but filters it through his own fractured lens, spitting back convex poems with wild cadences, free-styling with the wisdom of age and the frenetic passion of someone still trying to show and prove. It’s confident and suffused with the thing that defines almost all great art: the willingness to risk attempting something new. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is “Ad Ventures,” a shout out to Butler’s crew, The Black Constellation. The beat operates like a melodic free jazz hymn, with Ish boasting about Ethiopian carats and watching lakes from a theological terrace. It’s an imagistic rendering of their tours through Europe in sprinter vans, blitzing from place to place and absorbing every detail. Featuring Purple Tape Nate, “Fast Learner” offers odd splendor, spoken word reveries and flexes that wriggle through a wrinkle in time. The synthesizers sound like New Age from the 37th century crossed with 90s R\u0026amp;B, the drums are slow and seething. On top of that, Butler laid a guitar line down and auto-tune harmonies that instantiate the feeling of driving along PCH at night. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Wet” is a freestyle of sorts with Ish offering his own twist on contemporary rap cadences but making it sound like an underwater Atlantis symphony. There are Based God shout-outs and fuzzy guitars that wouldn’t sound out of place on an Ariel Pink album. “Chocolate Souffle” is some god-level shit-talking in the way that only Butler could do: replete with Maurice Chevalier allusions and admissions of being an “elitist at the zenith of slick demeanor.” While “Thanking the Girls” might be the most poignant song in the Shabazz catalog, a song that acknowledges the myriad positive ways in which women have shaped Butler’s life. The second verse is dedicated to his two daughters and the pride which they engender. Of course, this is a Shabazz Palaces song so the beat sounds like a riff on Panda Bear distilled through a bent futuristic boom-bap prism. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn some respects, it’s difficult to consider the possibility that this might be the best Shabazz Palaces album yet. Very few musicians have ever peaked in their fifth decade on earth, but whoever said they were actually from earth? It’s wrong to say that Shabazz Palaces have gone beyond the looking glass. This time they’ve shattered it entirely and created a brilliant new universe in each one of the shards. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShabazz Palaces The Don of Diamond Dreams will be available April 17th, 2020 worldwide on Sub Pop. The 10-track album includes the highlights “Fast Learner (ft. Purple Tape Nate),” “Chocolate Souffle,” “Bad Bitch Walking (ft. Stas THEE Boss), and “Thanking The Girls.” It also features contributions from singer\/keyboardist Darrius Willrich, Percussionist Carlos Niño, Knife Knights collaborator OCnotes, Saxophonist Carlos Overall, and bassist Evan Flory-Barnes. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Don of Diamond Dreams was recorded throughout 2019 and produced by Shabazz Palaces at Protect and Exalt: A Black Space in Seattle, mixed and engineered by Erik Blood with mixing assistance from Andy Kravitz at Studio 4 Labs in Venice, California, and mastered by Scott Sedillo at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Los Angeles. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Shabazz Palaces","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":32100539662432,"sku":"713352","price":7.2,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":32100539596896,"sku":"713350","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":32100539629664,"sku":"713351","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cassette","offer_id":32100539695200,"sku":"713354","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":32556526469216,"sku":"713356","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/products\/shabazzpalaces-thedonofdiamonddreams-cover-3600x3600.jpg?v=1587000233"},{"product_id":"bully_sugaregg","title":"SUGAREGG","description":"\u003cp\u003eA very old saying goes that no one saves us but ourselves. Recognizing and breaking free from the patterns impeding our forward progress can be transformative — just ask Bully’s Alicia Bognanno. Indeed, the third Bully album, SUGAREGG, may not ever have come to fruition had Bognanno not navigated every kind of upheaval imaginable and completely overhauled her working process along the way. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“There was change that needed to happen and it happened on this record,” she says. “Derailing my ego and insecurities allowed me to give these songs the attention they deserved.” \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSUGAREGG roars from the speakers and jumpstarts both heart and mind. Like My Bloody Valentine after three double espressos, opener “Add It On” zooms heavenward within seconds, epitomizing Bognanno’s newfound clarity of purpose, while the bass-driven melodies and propulsive beats of “Where to Start” and “Let You” are the musical equivalents of the sun piercing through a perpetually cloudy sky. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOn songs like the strident “Every Tradition” and “Not Ashamed,” Bognanno doesn’t shy away from addressing “how I feel as a human holds up against what society expects or assumes of me as a woman, and what it feels like to naturally challenge those expectations.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut amongst the more dense topics, there’s also a lightheartedness that was lacking on Bully’s last album, 2017’s \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/megamart.subpop.com\/releases\/bully\/losing?SPL\"\u003eLosing\u003c\/a\u003e. Pointing to “Where to Start,” “You” and “Let You,” Bognanno says “there are more songs about erratic, dysfunctional love in an upbeat way, like, ‘I’m going down and that’s the only way I want to go because the momentary joy is worth it.’”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe artist admits that finding the proper treatment for bipolar 2 disorder radically altered her mindset, freeing her from a cycle of paranoia and insecurity about her work. “Being able to finally navigate that opened the door for me to write about it,” she says, pointing to the sweet, swirly “Like Fire” and slower, more contemplative songs such as “Prism” and “Come Down” as having been born of this new headspace. Even small changes like listening to music instead of the news first thing in the morning “made me want to write and bring that pleasure to other people.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAn unexpected foray into the film world also helped set the table for Sugaregg when Bognanno was asked to write songs for the 2019 movie Her Smell, starring Elisabeth Moss as the frontwoman of the fictional rock band Something She. “It got me motivated to play music again after the last album,” she says. “I loved reading the script and trying to think, what music would the character write? People asked if I’d play those songs with Bully but the whole point was for them to not be Bully songs. It was nice to get my head out of my own ass for a second and work on a project for someone else,” she says with a laugh.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA highly accomplished engineer who ran the boards herself on the first two Bully albums, Bognanno was ready to be free “from the weight of feeling like I had to prove to the world I was capable of engineering a record, and wanted to be content knowing for myself what I can do without needing the approval of others to validate that.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSo for SUGAREGG, she yielded recording and mixing responsibilities to outside collaborators for the first time and trekked to the remote Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls, Minn., an unexpected return to her home state. Behind the console was John Congleton, a Grammy-winner who has worked with everyone from St. Vincent and Sleater-Kinney to The War on Drugs and Modest Mouse. “Naturally, I still had reservations, but John was sensitive to where I was coming from,” Bognanno says. “He was very respectful that I’d never worked with a producer before.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe studio’s rich history (classics such as Nirvana’s In Utero, PJ Harvey’s Rid of Me and Superchunk’s Foolish were recorded there) and woodsy setting quickly put Bognanno’s mind at ease. Being able to bring her dog Mezzi along for the trip didn’t hurt either. “I had never tracked a record in the summer, so waking up and going outside with her before we started each day was a great way to refresh,” she says.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSUGAREGG features additional contributions from longtime touring drummer Wesley Mitchell and bassist Zach Dawes, renowned for his work on recent albums by Sharon Van Etten and Lana Del Rey. Dawes and Bognanno met at Pachyderm to work on parts just two days before tracking, “but it ended up being so much less stressful than I had expected and I loved it,” she see says. “Zach wanted to be there to help and make my vision happen.” \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith 14 songs on tape, Bognanno and friends left Pachyderm thinking SUGAREGG was done. But once back home in Nashville, she realized there was more to be written, and spent the next five months doing exactly that. Moving to Palace Studios in Toronto with Graham Walsh (Alvvays, METZ, !!!), Bognanno and Mitchell recorded “Where to Start” and “Let You,” which proved to be two of the new album’s key tracks.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan id=\"docs-internal-guid-3050336c-7fff-11b4-1283-d0fc2e0854c2\"\u003eUltimately, SUGAREGG is a testament that profound change can yield profound results — in this case, the most expressive and powerful music of Bognanno’s career. “This is me longing to see the bigger picture, motivated and eager for contentment in the best way,” she says. “I hope the happy go lucky \/ fuck-it-all attitude shines through some of these songs because I really did feel like I was reentering a place I hadn’t been to in a while and was excited to be back there.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bully","offers":[{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":32452089905248,"sku":"713630","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"LP","offer_id":32452089938016,"sku":"713631","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":32452089970784,"sku":"713632","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cassette","offer_id":32452090003552,"sku":"713634","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":32452090036320,"sku":"713636","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/products\/bully-sugaregg-900x900.jpg?v=1620337893"},{"product_id":"clipping_wriggle-expanded","title":"Wriggle (Expanded)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThe 2021 edition of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWriggle\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e features new artwork, guests, and previously unreleased remixes. Included are the original versions of the title track, “Shooter,” “Hot Fuck No Love” (Feat. Cakes Da Killa \u0026amp; Maxi Wild), “Our Time” (Feat. Nailah Middleton), along with “Back Up 2021” featuring SB The Moor and a new verse from\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eindustrial-rap experimentalist\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eDebby Friday. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWriggle\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e also features remixes of the title track from Drum \u0026amp; Bass\/Breakbeat act Homemade Weapons and Classicworks label co-founder Cardopusher, a rework of “Back Up” by Fade To Mind producer Dave Quam (formerly Massacooramaan), and Chicago footwork producer Jana Rush delivers both the “Hot Fuck No Love (Naughty Bitch Remix)” for the vinyl version, and “Shooter (Face Rearranged Remix)” for the digital release.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThe original, digital-only \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWriggle\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e was six tracks that weren’t finished in time to make it onto the group’s 2014 Sub Pop debut, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eCLPPNG\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e. For “Shooter,” Clipping recorded themselves firing fifteen different guns, the sounds of which exclusively constituted the beat’s drums, augmented only by a synthesized tone-row. The verses referenced the well-worn technique of “hashtag rap,” but instead of using it to boast about the rapper’s personal wealth and masculine prowess, Clipping put forth imagistic narratives of three violent encounters. True to much of the group’s music, “Shooter” was an attempt to reframe a familiar style and test the limits of its formal capabilities. “Hot Fuck No Love” contains what might be the most explicit verse to date from Clipping’s favorite New Jersey rapper Cakes Da Killa. The EP’s title track, “Wriggle,” was built around a sample of the influential power-electronics song “Wriggle Like a Fucking Eel” by Whitehouse, transforming William Bennett’s torturous imperative into a instructional dance-floor banger. “Wriggle” and “Shooter” have become classic Clipping tracks and staples of their live show. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eVinyl tracklisting:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eA1. Shooter\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eA2. Back Up 2021 (Feat. Debby Friday \u0026amp; SB The Moor)\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eA3. Wriggle\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eA4. Hot Fuck No Love (Feat. 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That's the transformation Guerilla Toss trace on their newest album Famously Alive, their effervescent Sub Pop debut. After a decade sprinkling glitter into grit, building a reputation as one of the most ferociously creative art-rock groups working, the upstate New York band have eased fully into their light. This is Guerilla Toss at their most luminescent -- awake, alive, and extending an open invitation to anyone who wants to soak it all up beside them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSinger and lyricist Kassie Carlson, multi-instrumentalist Peter Negroponte and guitarist Arian Shafiee wrote Famously Alive at home in the Catskills during the pervading quiet of the pandemic year. The uncertainty of COVID-19 lockdowns and the total disruption of routine forced Carlson to negotiate with herself in new and challenging ways. \"You have to be with yourself all the time during the pandemic,\" she says. \"I had to figure out a way to manage my anxiety. The pandemic was hard, but it helped me get comfortable inside my own body. My peace of mind came out of being thrust into the deepest shit. This album is all about being happy, being alive, and strength. It’s meant to inspire people.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe album's title derives from a poem written by a close friend of the band, Jonny Tatelman, who supported Carlson through the early stages of her recovery from opiate addiction. The poem comprises the entirety of the lyrics to the title track, an exuberant ode to loving your own survival and charting a course into unconditional self-acceptance. \"The song 'Famously Alive' is about living with purpose and excitement whether you’re famous or not, accepting your strangeness and thriving even if your successes look different than other people’s,\" notes Carlson. \"To me, 'Famously Alive' means flipping the notion of dying famously to living famously,\" Negroponte adds. \"I also like to think of it as a way to describe living through something traumatic and coming out of it a stronger, wiser person.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSongs like the expansive, gleaming \"Live Exponential\" similarly invite the listener to lean into the light. \"It’s about loving yourself and finding a way to be comfortable in your own body -- to live life to the fullest and beyond,\" says Carlson. Throughout the record, Guerilla Toss meet themselves with curiosity, generosity, and acceptance even for the harder parts of being alive. Opener \"Cannibal Capital,\" a song about the exhaustion and dread of social anxiety, came together in a flurry toward the end of the album's sessions. A taut bass groove erupts into competing squalls of guitar and synth that support one of the most immediate and arresting vocal hooks of Guerilla Toss's catalog to date.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTogether with guitarist Arian Shafiee, Carlson and Negroponte cultivated a sound that spliced together psychedelic texturing and Krautrock syncopation with the gloss and glow of contemporary pop music. \"I like to combine as many musical influences as possible,\" says Negroponte. \"We thought the sleekness of current radio pop would make our dense wall-of-sound aesthetic both more bizarre and more accessible and fun at the same time.\" Carlson was similarly inspired by a wide range of artists from around the world after diving deep into obscure 7-inches for her weekly show on Radio Catskill, Rare Pear Radio.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhile writing the album, Carlson took voice lessons online for the first time. Though she has been singing since she was four years old, at first with a vocal harmony group in her family's church, she hadn't formally trained her voice since joining Guerilla Toss. The lessons allowed her to deepen and broaden her range, helping her feel more embodied and connected to her voice. Underneath ripples of Auto-Tune, playful, searching vocal melodies suspend lyrics about reaching for yourself and holding fast in your own love.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFamously Alive finds Guerilla Toss coming into the fullness of their power, celebrating their prismatic idiosyncrasies from a place of optimism and abundance. \"It felt like I didn’t need to force myself into this dark place to create anymore,\" Carlson says. \"For the first time in my life, I feel like I’m finally comfortable inside my body.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Guerilla Toss","offers":[{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":39426672164960,"sku":"714800","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":39426672066656,"sku":"714802","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cassette","offer_id":39426672132192,"sku":"714804","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":39426672099424,"sku":"714806","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/products\/GuerillaToss_FamouslyAlive_LP_Loser_01.jpg?v=1722289673"},{"product_id":"charlie-gabriel_89","title":"89","description":"\u003cp\u003e“I’ve been playing since I was 11 years old,” says Charlie Gabriel, the most senior member of the legendary Preservation Hall Band, “I never did anything in my life but play music. I’ve been blessed with that gift that God gave me, and I’ve tried to nurse it the best way I knew how.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhile he’s faced plenty of challenges nursing that gift for more than 78 years, none likely rank with last winter’s passing of his brother and last living sibling, Leonard, lost to COVID-19. For the first time ever, Gabriel put down his horn, filling his days and weeks instead with dark reflection, a stubborn despondency broken now and then by regular chess matches in the studio kitchen of Hall leader Ben Jaffe, working overtime to bring his friend some light.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOne such afternoon also included Joshua Starkman, sitting off in a corner playing his guitar and half-watching the chess from a distance. When Charlie returned the next day, he brought his saxophone. “I was just inspired to try it, to play again. It had been a long time, and a guitar makes me feel free. I do love the sound of a piano, but it takes up a lot of a space, keeps me kind of boxed in.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThat day was to be the first session for 89, almost entirely the work of Gabriel, Jaffe and Starkman, recorded mostly right there, in the kitchen, by Matt Aguiluz.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCharlie Gabriel’s first professional gig dates to 1943, sitting in for his father in New Orleans’ Eureka Brass Band. As a teenager living in Detroit, Charlie played with Lionel Hampton, whose band just then also included a young Charles Mingus, later spending nine years with a group led by Cab Calloway drummer, J.C. Heard. While he’s also fronted a bebop quintet, played and\/or toured with Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennet, Aretha Franklin and many more, this is the first time his name appears on the front of a record, as a bandleader.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSince 2006, Gabriel has been a member of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, featuring prominently on That’s It, So It Is, and Tuba to Cuba. 89 was different, and not simply due to a smaller ensemble.  “We had no particular plan, or any particular insight on what we were gonna do. But we were enjoying what we were doing, jamming, having a musical conversation,” Charlie says, further musing, “Musical conversations cancel out complications.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e89 includes six jazz standards and two new pieces, “The Darker It Gets” and “Yellow Moon”.” Charlie describes the repertoire, which includes “Stardust,” “I’m Confessin’ (That I Love You),” and “Three Little Words,” as “standard material that every musician, if they’re an older musician like myself, will have played throughout their career. Every time I play one of these tunes the interpretation is a little bit different.” \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFinally, 89 includes three tracks of Charlie singing…\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“I always sung, but it wasn’t my forte to become a singer,” he says. “The truth is, people often develop a real relationship with a song once they hear the words. 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There, its 12 tracks took shape, informed to such an extent by the acoustics and ambience of the rambling lakeside house that they decided to record the album there (and put the house on the album cover). For the first time, the band self-produced the record (alongside engineer, collaborator and old friend, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eMatt Duffy\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e). The result is a collection of songs permeated by the spirit of the place; punctuated by field recordings of rain, fire, birds, and wind. \"It's almost an anti-concept album,\" says the band. \"The \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eEndless Rooms\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e of the title reflects our love of creating worlds in our songs. 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The debut album from \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/megamart.subpop.com\/collections\/metz\"\u003eMETZ\u003c\/a\u003e guitarist and vocalist Alex Edkins contains all of his main band’s bite with an unexpected, yet totally satisfying, sweetness. Imagine The Amps covering Big Star, or the gloriously hissy miniature epics of classic-era Guided by Voices combined with the bombast of Copper Blue- era Sugar—just tons of red-line distortion cut with the type of tunecraft that thrills the moment it hits your ears. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese ten songs showcase a new side of Edkins’ already-established songwriting, but even though the bulk of Weird Nightmare was recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic some of its tunes date back to 2013 in demo form. “Hooks and melody have always been a big part of my writing, but they really became the main focus this time” he explains. “It was about doing what felt natural.” \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo be clear: Weird Nightmare is not a “pandemic album,” but an album—some of which had been gestating for quite a while—that just so happened to be recorded during the pandemic. “I had always planned on finishing these songs, but being unable to tour with METZ, and forced to lock down, really gave me a push.” After days spent homeschooling his son, Edkins would drive to the METZ rehearsal room and tinker deep into the night on these songs’ deceptively simple structures and rich, static-laden textures. “It was a godsend for me,” he states about the creative process. “The hours would disappear and I would get lost in the music and record. It was a beautiful escape.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWeird Nightmare is, in its own way, a study in extremes: Edkins’ melodic instincts and penchant for dissonance are both turned up to the max throughout, the latter reflecting not only the barn-burning tendencies of METZ, but Alex’s own sonic predilections. “It doesn’t sound right to my ears until it’s pushed over the edge.” He also cites other artists who are masterful at mixing the sublime and the punishing—Kim Deal and Scout Niblett among them—as influences on his own songwriting. “My favorite songs are the simple ones,” he explains. “I’ve never been attracted to virtuosity or technicality. Certain songs have the power to lift your spirits like nothing else can. I wanted to create that type of song.” \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I’ve found a new confidence in my writing and producing,” Edkins continues while discussing his songwriting approach on Weird Nightmare. “I really enjoy creating and recording, and I wanted this record to reflect how much fun I was having.” And even though its songs occasionally dip into weighty themes—underneath the driving riffs of “Darkroom” are ruminations on trying to fight off bad habits amidst personal malaise, while the anthemic “Lusitania” is, in his words, “a fictional love song”—this album is indeed an absolute blast to listen to. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA few guests pitch in on Weird Nightmare: Canadian alt-pop genius Chad VanGaalen adds his unmistakable touch to the ever-escalating “Oh No,” while Alicia Bognanno of Bully lends her distinctive pipes to the thrashing “Wrecked,” a collaboration that effectively saved the song. “I almost didn’t put it on the album because I thought it was missing something,” Edkins explains. “I sent it to Alicia and she lifted it way up.” \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd taking risks and reaching out of Edkins’ comfort zone was the name of the game when it came to making Weird Nightmare. “I found myself doing new things I didn’t have the guts to do before, recording everything by myself and trusting all of my musical instincts,” he states. “I think when music manifests quickly, a certain amount of honesty automatically comes along with it. 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Heralded as the next big thing in post-punk, they were established as a bolshy, sharp-witted outfit, the kind that starts movements with their political ire. There was of course truth in that, but it was a suit that quickly felt heavy on its wearer’s shoulders, leaving little room for true vulnerability. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A lot of it did feel like I was being really careful and a bit at arm's length,” says vocalist Charlie Drinkwater. “If I'm honest, I think maybe I was not fully aware of the role I was taking, how I would be perceived. I had to take a step back and realise that what we were presenting was quite far away from the opinion of myself that I had. Some of the ways people would interpret the music and my performance isn't really me, and I didn’t know why I was trying to wear that coat of the meat-and-two-veg rock guy. Now, I just want to be honest.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHaving made music together since their teenage years, the London four-piece piqued press attention in late 2019 with their first gig as a newly solidified group, a raucous outing in the warehouse district of Hackney Wick. Debut single “House of York” followed with a blistering critique of monarchist patriotism, and they were signed to Sub Pop for their debut album. When Uppers arrived in the height of a global pandemic, it reaped praise from critics and fans alike for its ‘dystopian doublespeak’, but the band — Drinkwater, guitarist Alex Sprogis, producer, bass and keys player Nic Bueth and drummer Ed Kelland – were sat at home like the rest of us, drinking cups of tea and marking time via government-sanctioned daily exercise. As such, the personal and professional landmark of its release felt “both colossal and minuscule” dampened by the inability to share it live. “It was a real gratification and really cathartic, but on the other hand, it was really strange, and not great for my mental health” admits Drinkwater. “I wasn’t prepared, and I hadn't necessarily expected it to reach as many people as it did. It sounds a bit naïve, but it was all very quick. It felt kind of divorced from reality.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs such, My Other People intentionally maintains a strong sense of earth-rooted emotion, taking full advantage of the opportunity to physically connect. Using “Saintless” (the closing song from Uppers) as something of a starting point, Drinkwater set about crafting lyrics that allowed him to articulate a deeper sense of personal truth, using music as a vessel to communicate with his bandmates about his depleting mental health. “Speaking very candidly, it was written at a time and a place where I was not, I would say, particularly well,” he says. “There was a lot of things that had happened to myself and my family that were quite troubling moments. I apologised to the band the other day for not being a great friend or person in this process, because I simply was not happy. Despite that I do think the record has our most hopeful moments too; a lot of me trying to set myself reminders for living, just everyday sentiments to try and get myself out of the space I was in. Whether or not the sincerity is understood, I think I'll always be proud of that.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“It was a bit of a moment for all of us where we realised that we can make something that, to us at least, feels truly beautiful,” agrees Bueth. “Brutality and frustration are only a part of that puzzle, and despite a lot of us feeling quite disconnected at the time, overwhelmingly beautiful things were also still happening.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo strike this balance, My Other People relies on the band’s tight-knit working method, with Bueth once again at the self-producing helm. Following their own intuition as part of a “feverish” writing process, they looked inwards for inspiration rather than attempting to ape any sonic heroes, ending up with something that feels much more like affirmingly widescreen alt-rock than it does post-punk. Arrangements give room to let the voice roam; the optimistic melodies of “The Breakers” light flares to accompany Drinkwater’s recognition of the path that leads him back to friendship, while the rumbling pace of “Unravelling”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ereflects his more fractious state, looking for a safe place to land amidst the detritus of biting guitars. Where possible, recordings weren’t agonised over, but rather trusted on their initial takes when the mood had hit right. Though they recognise that ‘ band still searching for sound on second album’ is a sentiment that is often weaponised as criticism, it’s a process of self-improvement that Drinkwater is keen to protect: “Why would I keep making art if I didn't believe that the best thing was not around the corner?”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eVisually speaking, the same intention of momentum carries forth. The album’s artwork, photographed by Edward Thompson, depicts two children looking out to sea, a scene suspended somewhere between melancholy and hope. The video for “One Easy Thing”, the album’s lead single, directed by long term collaborator Joe Wheatley (“Decoration”, “Press Gang”) is a homage to new wave and French cinema, the singer donning full medieval armour as he bleeds and dances, persevering despite the seemingly impossible circumstance. Though Drinkwater wants its message of discomfort to show, he’s also keen not to overexplain it: “Last time, I literally was like, 'please like me', to everyone,” he laughs. “I stood next to the record and talked it to death, what things meant or where I did and didn’t stand. This time, I think it’s better if I leave some space.”  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAn allowance for the interpretation of others is perhaps most clear on “Bury Me In My Shoes”, built around a stark chorus line; “Life Only Comes In Flashes Of Greatness.” It is a lyric borne out of deep depression, the existential fear of our ever-changing mortal coil.  But if you look at it differently, it could just as easily be read as affirmation, a reminder to seize the moment and make it count. This tension between the fullness of the glass, the cathartic value that such a lyric may hold in different lights, is central to My Other People — a record that heals by providing space for recognition, a ground zero from which you’re welcome to stay awhile but which ultimately — realistically — only leads up and out. For TV Priest, it is a follow-up that feels truly, properly them; free of bravado, unnecessary bluster or any audience pressure to commit solely to their original sound. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan id=\"docs-internal-guid-bab10a34-7fff-983e-0763-8de5d6d759c1\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“When we finally got to tour, it was so enjoyable; it was punk and it was intense and it was sweaty rooms. It was – and it is - very cathartic to do that,” says Drinkwater. “But when we go back on the road, we're interested in being a band that feels like we've progressed. Sometimes it can be scary to be quiet, you know? 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This heritage combines with more recent pursuits in Naima’s music; from the Brazilian standards that the family would listen to driving to the beach, to the European folk traditions she tapped into on her own, and the pursuits that interest her today – studies in archaeology, work as a gardener, and walking the world’s great trails – Naima’s music draws from family, the earth and the handing down of music through generations. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNaima’s debut album Giant Palm is undoubtedly infused with the Brazilian music of her youth and regular family visits. She found inspiration in “the percussion, the melodies, chords - and particularly the poetic juxtaposition of tragedy and beauty held within the lyrics”. By the age of 15 Naima was embedded in the music scene of South-East London, slotting into a group of like-minded friends writing and playing music. This led to the creation of Goat Girl, the band she toured the world with playing bass and singing alongside her school friends. After six years, Naima decided to leave Goat Girl to try something new. In the intervening years she set up a gardening company and started a degree at University College London in archeology because, as she jokes, “I liked being near the ground”. During this time she was writing music, playing guitar, and learning violin. She was also introduced to producer and arranger Joel Burton through Josh Cohen and his label, Memorials of Distinction. Over the time he and Naima worked together, Joel’s burgeoning interest in Western Classical music, global folk music, experience in large scale arrangement and orchestration informed the collaborative process that eventually culminated in Giant Palm.  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNaima had been writing songs for years without any strong idea of where to take them. However, over a gradual process of rehearsing and performing with Joel, the compositions began to settle into something more concrete. It wasn’t until restrictions began to ease post- lockdown that they were able to focus on getting the songs finished and recorded. Fortunately, Dan Carey of Speedy Wunderground offered his spare studio space in Streatham, in south east London, free of charge. Informed by a desire to create music that was considered and intentional, they spent the month leading up to the recording expanding the arrangements, to be performed by a large and varied group of musicians - with Joel scoring parts and recording the synth and electronic elements in advance. Once they managed to schedule slots for the more-than 30 musicians on the record - the expansive yet delicate arrangements were brought to life and captured with the help of engineer Syd Kemp.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNaima loves the collective voice of traditionals that belong to everyone. She’s recently found a home for this passion in her role in the ever-shifting line-up of South-London folk collective Broadside Hacks, but it’s long been a way for her to explore her own artistry. She learned to play guitar and violin through these songs, but she also found her voice in them. “All the other representations that I’d had of singing felt so unattainable” she recalls, but in folk music she found that singing can take on so many forms without the need to exactly replicate something. Here, qualities that make her voice unique were able to flourish. This is present all through her music, as well as a feeling of community and the sharing of ideas.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWritten over the space of years, each of Naima’s songs represents a snapshot of a specific feeling, of brief moments in Naima’s life that make up a larger whole. “I never change lyrics” she says, “even if I don’t relate to them anymore, I related to them once which means someone else could, somewhere”. Whether that’s in the playful humour of ‘Campervan’, the peaceful exhale of ‘Giant Palm’ or in the darker moments like in the stark, self-critical honesty of ‘Every Morning’, whatever the form it’s always laid bare. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere’s also a feeling of clarity to the songs, which Naima largely credits to the fact that many of them were written while walking. She finds inspiration in the meditative and revealing nature of long walks with a fixed but far-off destination. “There’s a stripping away that takes place”, she says, the slowing of thoughts by the rhythm of walking is often to thank for the sharp focus of her lyrics. Be that during a period of three years where she would return to Spanish pilgrimage network Camino de Santiago for weeks at a time, or simple hours spent in the English countryside.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Naima Bock","offers":[{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":39467466522720,"sku":"714860","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":39467466555488,"sku":"714862","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":39467466489952,"sku":"714866","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/products\/naimabock-giantpalm-cover-2400.jpg?v=1649446905"},{"product_id":"stella_up-and-away","title":"Up and Away","description":"\u003cp\u003eΣtella makes her Sub Pop debut with the mesmerizing Up and Away, an old-school pop paean to the pangs and raptures of love. From the Greek folk-inflected get-go, we’re swept up in Σtella’s world – and it’s quite the captivating place to be.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe singer-songwriter joined forces with artist and producer Tom Calvert (aka Redinho), and it was a match made in Athens; the results are heavenly. Tom caught one of Σtella’s gigs on a visit to the city. He reached out, they started hanging out, and the pair soon clicked creatively. Both mention chemistry when asked about their collaboration and it’s clear, from what we hear, they had it in spades. The meld is seamless.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eΣtella’s songs have always riffed on American and Greek mid-century pop but Up and Away doubles down on the vintage aesthetic. Tom says he styled the record “as if it was a rare gem from the ’60s found in a box of records in Athens,” and Σtella notes she was ready for a more “deeply Greek touch – it felt comfortable and right, smoothly fusing with the pop.” The bouzouki appears on a full five tracks played by Christos Skondras who, she says, “was brilliant at improvising,” while Sofia Labropoulou on the kanun “brought an insane amount of dreaminess to the last two songs. Having these amazing musicians play for Up and Away – I couldn’t be more grateful.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhile not exclusively a confessional artist, Σtella is always intimate – when she sings, it’s personal. She says she writes, “about things I feel passion for. Stories about me, about others, about all that’s there in love and war.”While she won’t be drawn out on more private inspirations for this album (“There were one or two interesting things going on in my life, but we won’t be going into those…”), Σtella will say she was, “in a very emotional state at the time, which came through in the lyrics and vocals.” And it’s true, her honeyed voice – layered in those unmistakable harmonies of hers – thrillingly runs the gamut from tender to terse, by turns bracing and smitten, aching and forlorn.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut it’s the lyrics that feel key. Across her output, Σtella has proven herself a strong storyteller, and Up and Away is no exception (the guise of the medieval bard she assumes on the cover is telling). Past releases have been studded with gem-like vignettes – a diverse array of stories set tightly together to form non-linear narratives unified by emotion. Her latest feels singular in that it seems to trace a longer-form tale across songs, with each track escalating the record’s erotic arc. Rollicking album opener “Up and Away” launches us headlong into an all-consuming affair. She’s caught, she shivers, thrilled by a new beginning, the sweetness of her vocals offset by vertiginous, blistering blasts of bouzouki. And so the sensual scene is set.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLanguorous “Nomad” sees her fall deeper, groove slower into love. Imbued with a tender urge to understand the other, and tinged with sadness, the song ends with the rhythmic thrum of cicadas – nature too is calling out, courting a mate. “Manéros,” meanwhile, is a foreboding instrumental interlude threaded with driving virtuoso runs of improvised bouzouki shimmers. An 1881 study defines the manéros form as “a ballad of erotic passion bursting from a heart on fire, or a deeply charged lament for the loss of one’s beloved.” Consider this a spoiler for what’s to come.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Charmed” opens with a disarming sixties “shoop” and lolls delightfully along, its feel-good surface bop hiding more melancholy truths – and insecurities. Not so “Another Nation,” which boasts all the strut and swagger of an artist happy to be stepping out. Here’s how love can feel: as joyous and beautiful and ridiculous as a flamingo galumphing forward to take flight. Boisterous “Black and White” drives home the vagaries of love (“you redirected, you changed your mind”) with a cyclical guitar riff at the song’s heart mirroring the lover’s spiraling complaint.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd then it hits: “Titanic” relays the relationship’s end in ways unexpectedly hopeful, plucking a constellation of endearing bygone names (John Borie, Laura Mae, and the like) from a list of the sunken liner’s survivors. With a breezy whistle, and propelled by bouncing staccato strums, Σtella makes it safe to shore, alone.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe album’s final three tracks are left to deal with the aftermath. Heartfelt “The Truth Is” leaps forward to a time when she feels “alright, but still I miss you every night.” Unable to justify why they’re apart, most everything falls away as the song builds to an emotional climax that has no need of words, with Σtella’s affecting voice left to melt into the bouzouki as she gives us an ever-surging series of sensational “ooos” that compellingly make her case.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInfectiously bassline-led “Who Cares” takes a more petulant, finger-pointing approach before toppling cheerfully into a boozy coping mechanism (“in a bottle we all fell”). But it’s mellow and reflective outro “Is It Over” that perhaps best distills Up and Away’s core concerns: the conflicting and conflicted emotions inherent in love, that live on in ways we can’t always understand or control. Love is like this record: when it’s over, you feel it still for time to come.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Σtella","offers":[{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":39471504261216,"sku":"714830","price":18.4,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD","offer_id":39471504228448,"sku":"714832","price":9.6,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":39471504293984,"sku":"714836","price":8.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/products\/Stella_UpAndAway_LP_Loser_01.jpg?v=1736402884"},{"product_id":"bret-mckenzie_songs-without-jokes","title":"Songs Without Jokes","description":"\u003cp\u003eAs you can probably glean from that gleaming album title above, Bret McKenzie—whom you know from such modern musical treasures as comedy duo Flight of the Conchords, the Muppets movie reboots and other ace family-film soundtracks, Lord of the Rings fan blogs, guest songs for The Simpsons, cycling around the streets in his native New Zealand, and more— has a new solo record coming out filled with songs that ARE NOT COMEDY SONGS! For members of the press, we thoughtfully provide some irresistible story headlines below, for Bret’s sake and your convenience.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e-Kiwi Flies, and Solo!\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e-Songs From One Bloke\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e-Three (Con)chords (Minus Two Conchords) and the Truth\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e-Uh-Oh! Rhymenoceros on the Loose!\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e-Bretty or Not, Here He Comes\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere. Now doesn’t that feel better? Sometimes it helps just to get it out in the open. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSo, yeah, Bret’s a ridiculously funny dude, and you might even call him one of the best comedy songwriters in the biz. He’s had smash hits, he’s won major awards, he’s the better-dressed part of his duo...he’s got a good thing going! So, what gives with this whole “songs without jokes” solo stuff, man? \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Post-Conchords, I’d been working on songs for the Muppets films, and during a session I had the thought that it would be fun someday to work on some songs that weren’t for someone else, that doesn’t have to tell a story or be funny or continue the narrative plot, checking all the boxes for the character in the movie,” McKenzie says. “I thought it’d be fun to do a record like that, something different. It started as kind of a side project; it’s not like I’m trying to start a massive solo career or change the world with music. But now it’s turned into a full record and therefore requires quite a bit of time. It turns out it’s quite a big job, putting out a record. Why did no one try to stop me?” \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Conchords landed McKenzie and Jemaine Clement a hit HBO TV show, a BBC Radio series, chart-topping records, world tours, a Best Comedy Album Grammy, and a 2018 “reunion” special and accompanying live album, Live In London. McKenzie then transitioned to Hollywood, writing songs for 2011’s The Muppets (winning a “Best Original Song Oscar” for “Man or Muppet”), 2014’s Muppets Most Wanted, along with films in the Pirates! and Dora canons. But while he both enjoyed and excelled at the work, he also endured the tedium accompanying all that plot-bound specificity, and began wondering what directions his songs might go if set truly free. He had already noticed his writing vocabulary expanding organically, something he attributed to the emotional needs of the films. And so, while in Los Angeles a few years back, recording movie music with a crack assemblage of legendary session musicians, McKenzie started playing around with a tune or two he had written simply as songs—songs without any external direction, songs without plot-pushing concerns, songs without jokes. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“My songwriting had started to open up a little bit,” he says. “We were writing songs all the time in Conchords, but they were always based on a gag. Then the movie stuff often required more story and character, so sometimes what might be a funny song also had to be an emotional moment. I wanted to do some songs that didn’t have to be anything for anyone else, songs that could just exist. It’s kind of bizarre, because 99 percent of songs are like that—there’s only about 10 people who write comedy songs. So mostly this was just me wanting to write songs that didn’t have to do anything apart from be a song.” \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAdding to his successful track record writing and performing across most genres of pop music, McKenzie is a fan of wry, literate artists like Harry Nilsson, Steely Dan, Randy Newman and Dire Straits. He’s a talented player of multiple instruments and a veteran of several non-comedy bands in New Zealand back in the day, most notably the reggae-based fusion group The Black Seeds. Yet, while songs without jokes are just as much in his blood as those with, he recognizes that most people who know his work will arrive expecting a laugh. Hence, the album’s title. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“When I tell people I’m doing an album, they hit this wall: ‘Is it comedy?’ I’ve been working on it for two years, so I’m well past that, but until people hear it, it’s harder for them to wrap their head around what I’m doing.” \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWritten mostly during the quieter moments of 2019, with his life split between work in Los Angeles and his family in Wellington, the songs of Songs focus on themes of escape, the perpetual search for peace, and navigating a life being pulled in multiple directions at once. There are also simple meditations on driving through a city, and the weather. McKenzie was inspired by the path his aforementioned idols like Newman and Nilsson had paved, where a silly or playful number could be sandwiched directly between a song about heartbreak or an earnest redemption and a scathing satire or character commentary. He threw a bit of everything into the mix, recording ideas on his phone at home in New Zealand after the kids had gone to sleep. Upon returning to LA, he would play the sketches for his longtime producer and collaborator, Mickey Petralia, who helped McKenzie identify the best moments, then together they would add parts and shape the songs. From there, longtime film collaborator Chris Caswell created charts for that same ensemble of session players with whom they’d recorded so many pieces for film. The majority of songs were then recorded at United Studio in Los Angeles in just a few takes. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“I love working in the studio with those guys, this older generation of LA session musicians, these Wrecking Crew type legends,” McKenzie says. “They’ve played on everything, it’s insane —Dolly Parton, James Taylor, Lionel Richie, everything. It’s quite old-fashioned; the band all get a chart and sit there and play the song two or three times and you’re done. It’s a bit like directing actors. I’ll say ‘This song should have a bit of a Steely Dan vibe, or, it feels like LA freeway music” and Dean, the guitarist, just goes, ‘Yeah.’ And we’re cracking up because it turns out Dean is one of the guitar players from Steely Dan. All those session guys are such a trip.” \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“If You Wanna Go” charges out of the gates like a classic Randy Newman kiss-off served sunny-side-up, with an instrumentation that somehow manages to sound contemporary and vintage all at once. “A Little Tune” is a vampy, barroom piano romp with a great big smile, loads of style, and nary a yuk. And the driving, synth-laced rhythmic pulse and bathroom stall wisdom of “Dave’s Place” offer a sense of groove and strong, understated vocals that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Dire Straits record.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhile the album may be free of traditional punch lines, it doesn’t lack a sense of humor. It showcases a new stage of McKenzie’s career, to be sure, but one that isn’t so far removed from his past work and true artistic self. Like Jim Henson before him, who made a career of blending the silly with the sincere and the playful with the profound, McKenzie also aims to connect rainbows to the ridiculous. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan id=\"docs-internal-guid-04d87ba4-7fff-238d-d805-4c30c327f1a1\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“I’m becoming way more comfortable in my own skin with songs that are a bit more personal. At first, I felt a little naked singing a song about how I’m not sure what to do with my life— compared to writing for fucking Kermit the Frog—but I’m getting more comfortable now with  the heartfelt. Instead of going for a laugh you’re creating these cool little moments. I love comedy songs but I don’t put a comedy record on while hanging out; I don’t drive around listening to standup, I listen to regular music. 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Turning nocturnal with necks mock turtle, our Local Kiwi Jr. takes neon flight off the digital cliff - like The Monkees starring in Blade Runner; like Michael Mann directs Encino Man. Ten songs with synth shimmer, zen gongs with yard strimmer. The signs along the highway read “LESS BAR, MORE NOIR AHEAD.” Ah, those late summer, Joe Strummer, Home on the Range Rover Blues.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThere's a melancholy to all forms of flight, and the view out the Chopper is as hazy as it gets: mission-oriented, both stealth and self-realized. This album is decidedly (yet almost secretly) anti-patio-sunscreen-Beach Boys bachelor cruise sing-a-long. Sure, these songs let a little light through the blinds, but they sting insomnia, corrupt mayors, Kennedy Curses, sex tapes, and deer rifles. 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Greta Kline spent a few years living with her family and writing a mere 100 songs, turning her empathy anywhere from the navel to the moon, rendering it all warm, close and reflexively humorous. In music, everyone loves a teen sensation, but Kline has never been more fascinating than now, a decade into being one of the most prolific songwriters of her generation. She’s lodged in my mind amongst authors, other observational alchemists like Rachel Cusk or Sheila Heti, but she’s funnier, which is a charm endemic to musicians. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMeanwhile Frankie Cosmos, a rare, dwindling democratic entity called a band, had been on pandemic hiatus with no idea if they’d continue. In the openness of that uncertainty they met up, planning to hang out and play music together for the first time in nearly 500 days. There, whittling down the multitude of music to work with, they created Inner World Peace, a collection of Greta’s songs changed and sculpted by their time together. While Kline’s musical taste at the time was leaning toward aughts indie rock she’d loved as a teenager, keyboardist Lauren Martin and drummer Luke Pyenson cite “droning, meditation, repetition, clarity and intentionality,” as well as “‘70s folk and pop” as a reference for how they approached their parts. Bassist\/guitarist Alex Bailey says that at the time he referred to it as their “ambient” or “psych” album. Somewhere between those textural elements and Kline’s penchant for concise pop, Inner World Peace finds its balance. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eInstant centerpiece “One Year Stand” is a small snowglobe of intimacy recalling the softest moments of Yo La Tengo’s And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out. Lifted by Martin’s drones on Hammond organ and synthesizer, it could be played on repeat in a loop. I like to think it’s obvious how Greta’s vocals were recorded: late at night as we all sat by in low light, transfixed as she sings “I’m not worried about the \/ rest of my life \/ because you are here today \/ I go back in time \/ I’m a cast iron.” The voices of Kline and Martin, who have sung together since middle school, blend seamlessly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe first order of business upon setting up camp in Brooklyn’s Figure 8 studios was to project giant colorful slides the band had made for each track. Co-producing with Nate Mendelsohn, my Shitty Hits Recording partner, we aimed for FC’s aesthetic idiosyncrasies to shine.The mood board for “Magnetic Personality” has a neon green and black checkerboard, a screen capture of the game Street Fighter with “K.O.” in fat red letters, and a cover of Mad Magazine that says “Spy Vs. Spy! The Top Secret Files.” On tracks like “F.O.O.F.” (Freak Out On Friday), “Fragments” and “Aftershook,” the group are at their most psychedelic and playful, interjecting fuzz solos, bits of percussion, and other sonically adventurous ear candy. An internal logic strengthens everything, and in their proggiest moments, Frankie Cosmos are simply a one-take band who don’t miss. When on Inner World Peace they sound wildly, freshly different, it may just be that they’re coming deeper into their own.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThroughout the album there are plays on the notion of feeling seen or invisible, as in “Magnetic Personality” when Kline sings “ask me how I am and I won’t really say,” or in “One Year Stand” when she says “maybe I’m asking myself.” Kline emphasizes that this was her first group of songs in years that weren’t written while on tour, but rather with ample time on her hands. She reflects on past selves in “Abigail” (“that version of myself I don’t want back”) and “Wayne” (“Like in first grade \/ How I went by Wayne \/ I always had \/ another name”). If we’re alone, what becomes of the things we see? As in “Fruit Stand,” Kline asks “If it’s raining and I can’t feel it, is it raining?”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eInner World Peace excels in passing on the emotions it holds. When in the towering “Empty Head” Kline sings of wanting to let thoughts slide away, her voice is buoyed on a bed of synths and harmonium as tranquility abounds. When her thoughts become hurried and full of desire, so does the band, and she leaps from word to word as if unable to contain them all. As a group, they carry it all deftly, and with constant regard for Kline’s point of view.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSays Greta, “To me, the album is about perception. It’s about the question of “who am I?” and whether or not the answer matters. It’s about quantum time, the possibilities of invisible worlds. The album is about finding myself floating in a new context. A teenager again, living with my parents. An adult, choosing to live with my family in an act of love. Time propelled us forward, aged us, and also froze. If you don’t leave the house, who are you to the world? Can you take the person you discover there out with you?”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e- katie von schleicher\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Frankie Cosmos","offers":[{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":39523417718880,"sku":"714950","price":18.4,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":39523417751648,"sku":"714952","price":7.2,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cassette","offer_id":39523417784416,"sku":"714954","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":39523417817184,"sku":"714956","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/products\/FrankieCosmos_InnerWorldPeace_LP_Loser_01.jpg?v=1741201645"},{"product_id":"suki-waterhouse_milk-teeth","title":"Milk Teeth","description":"\u003cp\u003eMilk Teeth EP (on limited-edition blue marble vinyl) features five songs from Waterhouse’s early career plus one new track “Neon Signs”. Also includes the hit track \"Good Looking\" (on vinyl for the first time!)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“It means the world that Milk Teeth is getting a vinyl release,” Waterhouse says. “These songs were like secrets to me. They were witness to a time when I felt like I was drowning and I needed to connect on a profound level in order to stay afloat. I share them with everyone who collaborated me on this record. I'm so grateful for the guidance and permission they gave me to explore.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTRACKLISTING: \u003cbr\u003e1. Neon Signs \u003cbr\u003e2. Valentine \u003cbr\u003e3. Good Looking \u003cbr\u003e4. Johanna \u003cbr\u003e5. Coolest Place in the World \u003cbr\u003e6. Brutally\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Suki Waterhouse","offers":[{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":39541706489952,"sku":"715400","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":39541706555488,"sku":"715402","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":39541706522720,"sku":"715406","price":6.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/products\/SukiWaterhouse_MilkTeeth_LPMockUp.jpg?v=1663604593"},{"product_id":"hot-hot-heat_make-up-the-breakdown-deluxe-remastered","title":"Make Up The Breakdown (Deluxe Remastered)","description":"\u003cp\u003eMake Up The Breakdown was produced by Jack Endino (Nirvana, Soundgarden, Sonic Youth) at Vancouver, BC’s Mushroom Studios with additional engineering and mixing from former Death Cab for Cutie member Chris Walla at The Hall of Justice in Seattle, and released on October 8th 2002 as a ten-track album.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor this deluxe edition, Make Up The Breakdown has been expanded to twelve tracks and now includes “Apt. 101” and “Move On,” two tracks only previously available with a UK-only single for “Bandages.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMake Up The Breakdown earned praise from the likes of AllMusic, who called the album “an addictive, densely packed pop gem that ranks among 2002’s best albums,” and Pitchfork agreed, including it at no. 20 on “The 50 Best Albums of 2002.” The official videos for \"Bandages\" and \"Talk to Me, Dance With Me\" saw regular airplay on MTV. Meanwhile the singles saw huge support at Alternative Radio, with both songs going to no. 1 at the KROQ in Los Angeles.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hot Hot Heat","offers":[{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":39549210853472,"sku":"715290","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":39549210886240,"sku":"715296","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/products\/hothotheat-mutbd-20th-3600.jpg?v=1664560647"},{"product_id":"king-tuff_smalltown-stardust","title":"Smalltown Stardust","description":"\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThere are times in our life when we feel magic in the air. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWhen new love arrives, or we find ourselves lost in a moment of creation with others who share our vision. A sense that: this is who I want to be. This is what I want to share. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eIt’s a fleeting feeling and one that Kyle Thomas, the singer-songwriter who records and performs as King Tuff, found himself longing for in the spring of 2020. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eBut knowing he couldn’t simply recreate this time in his life at will, Thomas—who hails from Brattleboro, Vermont—set out to write a love letter to those cherished moments of inspiration and to the small town that formed him. The one where he first nurtured his songwriting impulses, bouncing ideas off other like-minded artists. The kind of place where the changing of the seasons always delivered a sense of perspective and fresh artistic inspiration. Where he felt a deeper connection with nature and sense of community that had once been so close at hand. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e“I wanted to make an album to remind myself that life is magical,” he reflects. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eAnd so, Thomas seized upon his memories, creating what he calls “an album about love and nature and youth.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThe result is \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSmalltown Stardust\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e, a spiritual, tender and ultimately joyous record that might come as a shock to those with only a passing knowledge of the artist’s back catalog. On \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSmalltown Stardust\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e, Thomas takes us on his journey to a place where past and present collide, where he can be a dreamer in love with all that he sees. Images of his youth abound: from Route 91 which runs through his hometown (in “Smalltown Stardust”); to Redtooth, a spectre who used to roam the streets (“Bandits Of Blue Sky”); to old friends, old haunts and old dreams (“Always Find Me”); to Vermont’s Rock River, which gave its name to a song of a torch still burning for past love: “\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThose days are gone and we can’t rewind\/ Cuz people grow and places change\/ But my love for you will never fade away.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eBut at the core of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSmalltown Stardust \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eis Thomas’s desire to commune with nature on a spiritual level. Images of the natural world, from blizzards to green mountains to cloudy days, fill the songs and create a setting unmistakably far away from Los Angeles. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e“I consider nature to be my religion,” he explains,\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eand \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSmalltown Stardust\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e is nothing if not a spiritual exploration. Thomas’s identification as a sort of eternal spiritual seeker is underscored in one of the album’s sweetest moments, “A Meditation,” which features a home audio recording of Thomas as an eight year old, trying his hand at leading a meditation. It’s a journey that he continues to this day, as he intones on “Portrait of God”: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e“Walking in the woods, wading in the river” and “breathing in the mountain air” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ebefore heading back to a place where he finds himself “\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eOil painting in my garage\/ Let my colors flow\/ I’m working on my portrait of God.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWhile so much of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSmalltown Stardust\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e invokes idealized traces and places of Thomas’s past, the album’s recording process made his communal vision a reality. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThomas’s Los Angeles home in 2020\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eformed a micro-scene of sorts, with housemates Meg Duffy (Hand Habits) and Sasami Ashworth recording their own heralded albums (2021’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eFun House\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e and 2022’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSqueeze,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e respectively) at the same time. A shared spirit dominated an era spent largely on the premises, with Thomas serving as engineer and contributor to both records, and Ashworth working as co-producer on \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSmalltown Stardust. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThomas describes the time with a fitting metaphor: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eI’ve always thrived around other people making things. You want to bloom with each other.” Ashworth’s contributions are vital to the album: she co-wrote a majority of the record and contributed vocals, arrangements, and instrumentation to each song. As Thomas notes, “I tried to follow her vision a lot. It helps to open your world to collaborators. You always get something completely different than you would have expected.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWith the gorgeous orchestral tones of “Love Letter to Plants,” it’s immediately clear that Thomas is declaring a wider vision of what his music can be. Gone are many of the squalling guitars of previous King Tuff records, replaced with thoughtful, tender touches of cello and violin on “Love Letter to Plants,” “\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ePebbles In A Stream” and “The Bandits Of Blue Sky”; a plaintive saxophone on \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eAlways Find Me\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e”; and orchestral vocal harmonies with Ashworth that lift the songs to a celestial plane. (Though the rollicking, joyous leads on “Portrait of God” show Thomas hasn’t lost his touch on guitar.) On “How I Love,” Thomas makes clear that all of this is by design: “\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSo lost in nothing but noise for so many years, I forgot to love.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eIn the end, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSmalltown Stardust \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eis not merely a nostalgia trip. In making the record, Thomas not only conjured a special time in his life, he found new inspiration, surrounded by a small circle of collaborators and a sense of love and wonder for nature. If the first King Tuff record was content to merely state Thomas was no longer dead, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSmalltown Stardust\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e is a paean to what that life means. A statement of belief and a hymnal to the magic still to behold all around us. “I’m a different person now than I was 20 years ago when I first started it. But oddly, when I first started the band, it was more like this,” he says. Which is to say, things have come full circle. Or as Thomas intones on “The Wheel”:  \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eOoh we were just kids then… \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eCaught up in the turning of the wheel….\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eAnd it’s coming ‘round again.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"King Tuff","offers":[{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":39555464069216,"sku":"715250","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":39555464101984,"sku":"715251","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD","offer_id":39555464003680,"sku":"715252","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cassette","offer_id":39555464036448,"sku":"715254","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":39555463970912,"sku":"715256","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/products\/KingTuff_SmalltownStardust_LP_Loser_01.jpg?v=1741201908"},{"product_id":"quasi_breaking-the-balls-of-history","title":"Breaking the Balls of History","description":"\u003cp\u003eBreaking the Balls of History is Quasi’s tenth record, landing ten years after their last record, on February tenth. Three tens, which aligns with the thirty years they’ve played together. Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss have become Pacific Northwest icons, and Quasi has always felt so steadfast— their enduring friendship so generative, their energy infinite, each album more raucous and catchy and ferocious and funny than the last. But we were wrong to ever take Quasi for granted. For a while, they thought 2013’s intricate Mole City might be their last record. They’d go out on a great one and move on.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThen in August 2019 a car smashed into Janet’s and broke both legs and her collarbone. Then a deadly virus collided with all of us, and no one knew when or if live music as we knew it—the touring, the communal crowds, the sonic church of the dark club—would ever happen again. “There’s no investing in the future anymore,” Janet realized. “The future is now. Do it now if you want to do it. Don’t put it off. All those things you only realize when it’s almost too late. It could be gone in a second.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUnder lockdown, Portland’s streets fell still, airplanes vanished, wildlife emerged. And with the obliterated normal came an unexpected gift: uninterrupted time, hours every day, to make art. Quasi couldn’t go on the road, so they got an idea: they would act as if they were on tour and play together every single day. Each afternoon, Sam and Janet bunkered down in their tiny practice space and channeled the bewilderment and absurdity of this alien new world into songs. Janet’s strength returned and rose to athlete-level stamina. “When you’re younger and in a band, you make records because that’s what you do,” Sam said. “But this time, the whole thing felt purposeful in a way that was unique to the circumstances.” They knew they would keep it to just the two of them playing together in a room. They knew they’d record the songs live and together, to capture a moment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe incredible result of those sessions is Breaking the Balls of History, recorded in five days and produced by John Goodmanson at the legendary Robert Lang Studios in Shoreline, WA. Here are two artists at their prime, each a human library of musical knowledge and experience, entirely distinctive in their songcraft and sound. In Quasi-form, the band becomes alchemically even greater than the sum of its parts: Janet’s galloping drums and Sam’s punk-symphonic Rocksichord and their intertwining vocals make something gigantic, anthemic. In the thick of a cataclysmic social and political moment, they’ve crafted exquisitely melodic songs that glitter with rage and wild humor and intelligence, driven by a big bruised pounding heart.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“A last long laugh at the edge of death” sings Sam at the album’s outset, and that gleeful defiance—which might as well be the logline of our present moment—sets the table for the songs to come. In “Gravity,” Quasi’s predilection for the absurd now tips into unnerving realism; in the post-facts era, the very thing that tethers us all to the earth is rendered meaningless (“you can walk on water if you so choose in your made-in-USA concrete shoes.”) Punchy warning verses about death and disarray swoon into the blissed-out, checked-out chorus of “Queen of Ears” (“But I, I float above it all, wizard of idleness, mistress of killing time.”) Janet’s voice floats sweet and eerie through the atmospheric suspended reality of “Inbetweenness.” Etch “Doomscrollers” onto the golden record and launch it into space as a precise time capsule of the incomprehensible present. “The Losers Win” is a tart arsenic nightcap to close out the record, and hell, the nation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt sounds dark, and because it’s rising to the moment, it is. But this is also a record surging with energy and pleasure and joy. “It felt so life-affirming. I can hear in the music how happy I am to be there and to be playing at that level again,” Janet said. “I get to exist.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI’ve been listening to this record for a few months now, and I can’t stop thinking about how as the world started to end, and then kept on ending in all kinds of surprising new ways, Sam and Janet returned to their practice space every day and made songs. Face to face, instrument to instrument, they decided to build something new. They did the work. They made their art. They’ve lived through enough to understand that nothing is permanent, and that when your faith in humanity sinks, you turn to the life force of what you can rely on: the people you trust, the community that claims you, and what you can create. You can’t control the time. But you can make a record of a time. And luckily for us, Quasi has again.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e—Chelsey Johnson\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Quasi","offers":[{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":39555464822880,"sku":"715280","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":39555464888416,"sku":"715282","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":39555464855648,"sku":"715286","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/products\/quasi-btboh-3600.jpg?v=1665779156"},{"product_id":"bria-salmena_cuntry-covers-vol-2","title":"Cuntry Covers Vol. 2","description":"\u003cp\u003eAs its name suggested, the intimate and sultry Cuntry Covers Vol. 1 was always going to have a follow-up. Led by the brooding vocals of Bria Salmena, Cuntry Covers Vol. 2 is every bit as potent as its predecessor whose noir-inflected alternative country-rock stood in sharp contrast to the singer's commanding delivery as leader of post-punk revivalists FRIGS. Debuting the project in 2021, the languid, reverb-drenched Cuntry Covers Vol. 1 saw her artfully collaborating with multi-instrumentalist Duncan Hay Jennings and reimagining a carefully picked collection of Americana anthems.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eVol. 2 pushes the envelope further and harder. Encompassing feverish takes on tracks by Gillian Welch, Paula Cole, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Robert Lester Folsom, Glenn Campbell – by way of Nick Cave – and the late, great Loretta Lynn, Bria’s deliciously dark approach shimmers through these six startling songs.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eCreated during a break from Salmena and Jennings’ work in Orville Peck’s world-conquering backing band, Vol. 2 was recorded directly after Peck’s second album and Bria’s US tour supporting Wolf Alice. Embracing contrast, the sunny circumstances in which Vol. 1 was made were flipped on their head. Instead of a bucolic barn in the Canadian countryside, they recorded the new tracks in chilly\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"bcTruncateMore\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eToronto, huddled together in their tiny makeshift home studio, with Jennings at the controls. “There’s a lot of chaotic energy to it, because it's us cramped in a space where we're all also working and living during the dead of winter,” explains Salmena, who also enlisted the help of local Toronto musicians Lucas Savatti (FRIGS), Simone Baril (US Girls, The Highest Order, Darlene Shrugg, Partner), Andrew Manktelow, and frequent collaborator Jaime Rae McCuaig.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe intention behind the songs was different this time around too. While Vol. 1 was Bria’s attempt at subverting country music’s conservative roots and primarily white and heterosexual agenda, here the emphasis was on experimentation. The duo purposely split the two sides of the EP, with the A-side acting as more of an homage to the tracks covered, and the B-sides interpretations taking on a more traditional route with the source material. “We wanted to mess with things,” she says. And while Vol. 2 might be less personal, it’s just as idiosyncratic, with half of the reversions staying truthful to the originals and others taken to a different universe entirely.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe opening trio of tracks triumphs at the latter. A double dose of nostalgia can be found in a pumping, synth-led 1990s dance version of “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?” originally by US songwriter Paula Cole. Bria’s hypnotic vocals then lead a woozy version of Canadian icon Mary Margaret O’Hara’s jazz ballad “When You Know Why You're Happy”. “It's uplifting but there's also a darkness and somberness to it that really resonated with me,” she says. “I wanted to explore that.” Most innovative of all is their take on Loretta Lynn’s groundbreaking “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind)”. Recorded before the iconic artist’s recent death, Bria’s punky version drills into the fiery confidence of the song, which topped the country charts in 1967. About marital rape, it was chosen by Bria because of Lynn’s unapologetic approach to such a highly charged subject matter.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eCo-producers Salmena and Jennings are more faithful on the flipside. Nick Cave’s doomy version of “By The Time I Get to Phoenix” – which featured on The Bad Seeds’ 1986 covers album Kicking Against The Pricks – is rendered in fittingly apocalyptic style. “We liked the history of the song and we were attracted to Cave's dark and brooding version. We felt we could honor that well,” she explains. Gillian Welch’s meditative “I Dream A Highway” is similarly mournful, and “See You Later, I’m Gone”, originally by 1970s folk singer Robert Lester Folsom, sees a moment of hopefulness spring from the gothic gloom that precedes it.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBuilding on the tried-and-true\/bold-and-new duality of Cuntry Covers’ first offering, Vol. 2 delivers a deeper dive into the duo’s brilliant alchemy of traditional and contemporary reinterpretations. But it’s the added experimental flourishes, from dizzying electronica and pulsing bass to sax-driven soul, that takes Bria’s new EP into previously uncharted territory, signalling a thrilling new step in this adventurous artist’s evolution.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrack listing:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWhere Have All The Cowboys Gone?   \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e           \u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWhen You Know Why You’re Happy    \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e           \u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eDon’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)                 \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eBy The Time I Get To Phoenix                 \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eI Dream A Highway                    \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSee You Later, I’m Gone \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ol\u003e","brand":"Bria Salmena","offers":[{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":39568442785888,"sku":"715230","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":39568442818656,"sku":"715232","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":39568442753120,"sku":"715236","price":6.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/products\/bria-cuntrycoversvol2-2400px.jpg?v=1668457343"},{"product_id":"debby-friday_good-luck","title":"GOOD LUCK","description":"\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThe usual boom-and-bust cycles of growing up -- breaking down, gathering the strength to get up, fumbling hard, doing it all over again - can feel unmooring, to say the least, but, and according to DEBBY FRIDAY, its tragedies and glories need savoring. Losing illusions, gaining expectations; getting deep into the private, soupy kaleidoscope of what’s possible and what’s futile -- \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eGOOD LUCK\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e, her debut, and supernovic, full-length album, is built on welcoming the journey’s complicated drops and mountain highs with something more like grace. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eNigerian-born, then an emigré to bits of Canada - from Montreal to Vancouver to Toronto - DEBBY FRIDAY’s roamings through space and time really began when the sun fell. Nightlife was her emancipation from the toughness of home life, and she fell into it, body and soul, totally seduced. Raves til sunrise; house music in unknown basements and warehouses -- the lure of the party was the perfect escape. “I was like a little club rat,” she laughs. Her adoration of the world that it opened for her came in “almost in a sensual way.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThings that feel good sometimes do fall apart, though. In 2017, after DJing for less than a year, her life just sort of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eimploded. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eParties started getting less functional. Nothing was going the way that she wanted it to go. So she gathered her things and embarked on what would turn out to be the first of a few of her coming-of-age stories -- a wave of bildungsromans. “Personal issues: mental health stuff, substance abuse stuff, stupid love;” she lists, but the way DEBBY says it, it seems as if she’s grateful for the valleys she had to walk through in order to see the version of herself we get today. After making the decision to stop herself in her tracks, she pulverized new paths for herself forward. Late-night YouTube tutorials on music production led to an EP, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eBITCHPUNK\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e, and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eBITCHPUNK \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eled to her first public performances, and all that gave way to a second EP, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eDEATH DRIVE. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eHer art endowed her with the strength she needed to move on. “This is what I was born to do,” she goes. “It came to me so naturally and instinctively. I felt just so clear, focused, and in my power in a way that I’d never felt before up until that point.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSo what does it take to hone that power? Discipline - routines, rituals; an MFA, practices of writing and filmmaking, and music-making that guide a person from one day to the next - but something close to mysticism, too. DEBBY’S serious, long-term relationships to the study of astrology, psychology, and philosophy allow her to move through the world, relate to others, and get closer to what’s inside her. She believes in what emerges. She believes in making the unconscious, conscious. She wants to be in dialogue with the darkness. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eIt’s why \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eGOOD LUCK \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eworks like such a study in entropy. On the surface, you’ll hear hints of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSantigold’s \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003edub dazzle, the MIDI-crush of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eDeath Grips\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e, but less obviously the plaintiveness of directors like \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eEric Rohmer, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eor the grotesque decadence of later-era \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSylvia Plath\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e. (Juno Award and Polaris Prize-nominated composer \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eGraham Walsh \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eadds a sort of heft and pull to the genre-flexibility on parade here: think of it a little like \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSevdaliza \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003emeets \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eFKA Twigs\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e.) \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eFew do it like her, though. If lucid, acid housey, high-BPM tracks like “I GOT IT” - accompanied by \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eChris Vargas \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eof \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePelada \/ Uñas \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e- has her cocksure and vainglorious about her “big ol ego” and “red blood libido,” a crushing track like “LET U DOWN” (“I been your Brutus, your Judas \/ I’ve been so wrecked and so ruthless”) doesn’t hesitate to explore the lower ends of the emotional register. She’s drawn to certain keys and moods (the brooding D and F minors, for instance, are all over this album) to suggest melancholia and darkness. However, the lead single, “SO HARD TO TELL,” sees FRIDAY totally shed all of her signature industrial tropes, to deliver a completely out-of-pocket, yet totally assured, falsetto pop song. Sounding like little that has come before in her catalog, this track is a crucial signifier in FRIDAY’S essential development. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThe album \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eGOOD LUCK\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e is being co-released with a short film of the same name, co-directed by FRIDAY and Nathan De Paz Habib (past work includes \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eEroica, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ebased on \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eChino Amobi'\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003es novel of the same name\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e). \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eIt’s a story of individuation. It’s a love story about a woman and her masked beloved, but outside of the accompanying-but-stand-alone visual, it’s all a willing, yearning investigation into what goes on behind the veil of sadness, of cruelty. Because knowing the darkness is the only way to understand the light, but also the greys and the blues and the in-between states. FRIDAY’s explorations in \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eGOOD LUCK \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e-- delving down into the muck of nuance - are a kind of courage.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrack listing:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eGOOD LUCK\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSO HARD TO TELL\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eI GOT IT (FEAT. UÑAS)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eHOT LOVE\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eHEARTBREAKERRR\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWHAT A MAN\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSAFE\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eLET U DOWN\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ePLUTO BABY\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWAKE UP\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ol\u003e","brand":"DEBBY FRIDAY","offers":[{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":39581219749984,"sku":"715330","price":18.4,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":39581219782752,"sku":"715332","price":9.6,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":39581219717216,"sku":"715336","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/products\/debbyfriday-goodluck-3600px.jpg?v=1671231733"},{"product_id":"mudhoney_plastic-eternity","title":"Plastic Eternity","description":"\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThe world is filling up with trash. Humanity remains addicted to pollution despite the planet getting hotter by the minute. People are downing horse dewormer because some goober on television told them it cured COVID. Tom Herman of pioneering \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eavant garage\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e band Pere Ubu still doesn’t have his own Wikipedia article. The apocalypse, it seems, is stupider than anyone could’ve predicted.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eFortunately, the absurdities of modern life have always been prime subject matter for Seattle-based band Mudhoney. The foursome take aim at all of them with barbed humor and muck-encrusted riffs on \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ePlastic Eternity\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e, their 11th studio album.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eMudhoney (vocalist Mark Arm, guitarist Steve Turner, bassist Guy Maddison, and drummer Dan Peters) remain the ur underground group, their gnarly primordial punk stew and Arm’s sharply funny lyrics as potent a combination as they’ve been since the band’s formation in the late 1980s. From taking on climate change from the perspective of the climate if the climate tried to play guitar like Jimi Hendrix (“Cry Me An Atmospheric River”) to a driving rock and roll song about taking drugs meant for livestock (“Here Comes the Flood”) to a classic punk attack on treating humans \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003elike\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e livestock (“Human Stock Capital”), \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ePlastic Eternity\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e is a heady run through all the proto-genres of guitar rock with a keen eye on the inanities of the world in the 2020’s.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThe recording of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ePlastic Eternity\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e delivered several firsts for the band. With Maddison planning on moving his family to Australia, Mudhoney was forced to work on a deadline, booking nine days at Crackle \u0026amp; Pop! in Seattle with longtime producer Johnny Sangster. Since the pandemic had made it impossible for them to convene in their practice space for nearly a year and a half, this meant they were going in to make a record with an assortment of half-forgotten riffs and nascent ideas rather than fully-fledged, well-rehearsed songs. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThis was unusual for a band used to writing songs by “standing in a room and looking at each other and playing,” says Arm. “We had the time and space to think about things as we were doing them, and to make a kind of course correction—to use a fucking terrible cliche.” They built “Flush the Fascists” around a looping synth line, broke out a harmonizer on two tracks, added a vocoder to “Plasticity,” and even created a protest song out of a spontaneous jam on “Move Under,” the chorus of which Arm calls “something the Runaways might have come up with if they were us.”  “Undermine the foundations\/ Of the lies that they repeat,” implores Arm on the chorus. “You gotta move under\/ \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eUntil it all comes down\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ePlastic Eternity\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e also marks the first time Mudhoney has given writing credit to anyone outside the band, thanks to Sangster, whom Arm calls “a brilliant musician and way more adept at musical theory than any of us,” stepping in at times to offer advice on where the songs could go.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eAlso unusual for Mudhoney: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ePlastic Eternity\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e contains two genuine love songs. The first is for the aforementioned Tom Herman, one Arm’s favorite guitarists and the protagonist of “Tom Herman’s Hermits.” Then there’s closing track “Little Dogs,” an paean to the simple joys of hanging out with tiny canines, and one in particular: Arm’s Pomeranian, Russell, whom he couldn’t bear to give up after fostering him, sure that any other owner wouldn’t allow the little fellow to “let his freak flag fly.” No irony here—just gratitude to a little pal in dark times.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSo it seems, despite its mordant delivery and crusty exterior, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ePlastic Eternity\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e is not just a rebuke to the constant attacks on our intelligence and our planet—it’s an ode to the connections we make with other living beings. What is the persistence of Mudhoney but a testament to that? When asked why they continue making records nearly four decades after forming, Arm’s answer is simple.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e“We like each other and we like being in a band together,” says Arm. “Some people have poker night or whatever the fuck, and they have the excuse to get together with their friends. For us, this [band] is that. This is what we do.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrack listing:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSouvenir of My Trip\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eAlmost Everything\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eCascades of Crap\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eFlush the Fascists\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eMove Under\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSevered Dreams in the Sleeper Cell\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eHere Comes the Flood\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eHuman Stock Capital\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eTom Herman's Hermits\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eOne or Two\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eCry Me an Atmospheric River\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ePlasticity\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eLittle Dogs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ol\u003e","brand":"Mudhoney","offers":[{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":39597723025504,"sku":"714450","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":39597722959968,"sku":"714452","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cassette","offer_id":39597723058272,"sku":"714454","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":39597722992736,"sku":"714456","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/products\/Mudhoney_PlasticEternity_LP_Loser_01.jpg?v=1741202148"},{"product_id":"lael-neale_star-eaters-delight","title":"Star Eaters Delight","description":"\u003cp\u003eLael Neale still has a flip phone and there were no screens involved in the creation of her new record Star Eaters Delight. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe album is her second for Sub Pop and reveals an expansion of her sonic collaboration with producer and accompanist Guy Blakeslee.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn April of 2020, in the wake of transformations both personal and global, Lael moved from Los Angeles back to her family’s farm in rural Virginia. Looking at the world from a distance and getting in tune with her own rhythms, she wrote and recorded steadily for two dreamlike years, driven by a need to make order out of chaos. Forged in isolation, Star Eaters Delight is a vehicle for returning, not just to civilization, but to celebration. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShe says, “Acquainted with Night (recorded in 2019, and released in 2021), was a focusing inward amidst the loud and bright Los Angeles surrounding me. It was an attempt to create spaciousness and quiet reverie within. When I moved back to the farm, I found that the unbroken silences compelled me to break them with sound. This album is more external. It is a reaching back out to the world, wanting to feel connected, to wake up, to come together again.” \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlbum opener and lead single “I Am The River” melts the ice with a dynamic explosion of minimalist transcendental pop clearly descended from the Velvets branch of modern music’s family tree. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e “Lael is always telling me to play fewer notes,” says Blakeslee, whose spare yet cinematic  arrangements create an ambient space in which Neale’s clear and unaffected voice can explore familiar themes in an unexpected way. Subtle but potent references to Shakespeare, Emerson and the Bible (which she hasn’t read) swirl together with deeply personal musings and touches of wry humor, always more optimistic than cynical. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \"I like to use archetypal language because I want to get a rise out of people. I want to trigger a response. A single archetypal word carries more weight and punch than an ordinary word. Jesus means more to us than Joe,”  she notes. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlbum centerpiece “In Verona” is a sprawling gospel dirge in which the narrator-as-newscaster chants hypnotic incantations to lament a society plagued by divisions and hypocrisies,  reimagining the Montagues and Capulets without mentioning them by name and cautioning the listener to “cast no stone.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLael continues, “The past few years have seen more mud slinging \u0026amp; finger pointing than I’ve witnessed in my life. When I found myself getting drawn into the fray, this phrase became a mantra helping me seek higher ground and a broader perspective.” \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Faster Than The Medicine” gallops across a misty imagined English countryside, frenetically propelled by the drum machine built into Neale’s signature Omnichord, while the bittersweet “Must Be Tears” invokes Nico with its pulsing Mellotron strings.    \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile this is a record about polarities- country vs. city, humanity vs. technology, solitude vs. relationship - the deeper intention is to heal; to come to terms with our differences and put the broken pieces back together again. Lael’s affinity with the Transcendentalists has to do with her quest to hold onto sovereignty over her own mind. In a time when our devices are constantly flooding us with information, opinions and propaganda, Lael is intentional about what she takes in - hence the flip phone and the cassette recorder.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShe claims to be a minimalist “not because I don’t like things, but because I value freedom more.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrack listing:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eI Am The River\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eIf I Had No Wings\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eFaster Than The Medicine\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eIn Verona\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eMust Be Tears\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eNo Holds Barred\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eReturn To Me Now\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eLead Me Blind\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ol\u003e","brand":"Lael Neale","offers":[{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":39597723189344,"sku":"715340","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":39597723123808,"sku":"715342","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cassette","offer_id":39597723156576,"sku":"715344","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":39597723222112,"sku":"715346","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/products\/laelneale-stareatersdelight-3000px-1.jpg?v=1674260066"},{"product_id":"hannah-jadagu_aperture","title":"Aperture","description":"\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eFresh out of high school, Hannah Jadagu released her debut EP, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWhat Is Going On?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e, a collection of intimate bedroom pop tracks recorded entirely on an iPhone 7, which was, at the time, Jadagu’s most accessible mode of production. An off-the-cuff approach to music making and instinctive ability to write unforgettable hooks belied the intensity of Jadagu’s subject matter. In a short run time, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWhat Is Going On? \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003econfronts some of the nation’s most urgent struggles all through Jadagu’s compassionate perspective. “I want my songs to be both super intimate and still universally relatable,” Jadagu says. “With the EP, so many people told me that the songs resonated with them on a personal level, and that’s what I’m always hoping for.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eResonate it did; \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWhat Is Going On?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e is Jadagu’s first Sub Pop release, but she’d been putting out music on SoundCloud for years, garnering a small online fanbase as she settled into an aesthetic, and recognition from a broader audience was overdue. “It really took off when I became a percussionist in my middle school’s band,” she says. “Writing songs started as a hobby and quickly became a passion to the point that I spent all my free time recording.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eOn May 19th, 2023 Jadagu premieres \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eAperture\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e, her first LP and most ambitious work to date. Written in the years between graduating from high school in Mesquite, TX and her sophomore year of college in New York, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eAperture\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e finds Jadagu in a state of transition. “Where I grew up, everyone is Christian; even if you don’t go to church, you’re still practicing in some form,” Jadagu says, laughing. “Moving out of my small hometown has made me reflect on how embedded Christianity is in the culture down there, and though I’ve been questioning my relationship to the church since high school, it’s definitely a theme on this album, but so is family.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eAs a kid, Jadagu followed her older sister – a major source of inspiration who she refers to as “the blueprint” – to a local children’s chorus, where she received choral training. “I hated it,” Jadagu admits. “But it taught me how to harmonize, how to discover my tone, how to recognize and write melody.” The aching single “Admit It” is dedicated to Jadagu’s sister, whose  boundless love and impeccable taste has been a constant for Jadagu ever since she was a kid. At home, the siblings were raised on mom’s Young Money mixtapes  and the Black Eyed Peas (to whom she credits her love of vocoder) but it was in the sanctity of her sister’s car that Jadagu discovered indie artists who would go on to inspire her work. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e“Lose” showcases Jadagu’s love of contemporary indie auteurs as it weaves a spare and unpretentious guitar riff with barebones piano chords all while Jadagu sings about the thrill and underlying fear that comes with beginning a new relationship. It is, in her words, a “classic pop song.” “The things we haven’t done\/ Play out in my mind\/ Would you just give me time?” she sings, nearing the end, as the skittering drumbeat propels the song from a place of contemplative yearning to defiance. “Every track on this album, except for “Admit It”, was written first on guitar, which is an instrumental throughline,” Jadagu says. “But the blanket of synths I use throughout helps me move between sensibilities. There’s rock Hannah, there’s hip-hop Hannah, and so on. I didn’t want any of the songs to sound too alike.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eEmblematic of this ethos is the single “Warning Sign,” which starts out as an acoustic, R\u0026amp;B slowburner before a muscular electric guitar enters the mix and the song morphs into something akin to psychedelic. “I knew I could make another album on my phone, but I wanted to make sure that I was leveling up, especially for the debut,” Jadagu says. So she began the difficult process of searching for a co-producer capable of complementing her work without dominating it. Enter Max Robert Baby, a French songwriter and producer who captured Jadagu’s attention with his take on \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eAperture\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e’s lead single “Say It Now.” The duo worked together remotely, sending stems to one another via email, before eventually meeting in-person for the first time at Greasy Studios on the outskirts of Paris. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e“When I recorded my EP, it was all MIDI, but in the studio Max and I worked with a ton of analog instruments,” Jadagu says. “There’s some Glockenspiel on the album, calling back to my percussionist days, and some synth warping that adds texture.” While \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWhat Is Going On?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e was heavy on layered reverb, making Jadagu’s vocals feel “shy,” she took what she calls a more “intimate, up close” approach while recording her voice for the LP. That experimentation is best heard on the rousing “What You Did,” which leverages crushing accusations against the song’s unnamed subject. Screaming static and a crunchy guitar part softens under Jadagu’s calm delivery as she sings: “\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eAct like it’s best if we make amends, but I dont wanna talk to you again.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eAn aperture is strictly defined as an opening, a hole, a gap. On a camera, it’s the mechanism that light passes through, allowing a photographer to immortalize a moment in time. For Jadagu, the word perfectly encapsulates the mood of her debut album. In the years it took her to complete, she faced moments of darkness, sure, but the process of making it, her first ever in a professional studio, was ultimately a cathartic experience, one she now shares with you, the listener. Let the light in.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrack listing:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eExplanation\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSay It Now\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSix Months\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWhat You Did\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eLose\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eAdmit It\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eDreaming\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eShut Down\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWarning Sign\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eScratch The Surface\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eLetter To Myself\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eYour Thoughts Are Ur Biggest Obstacle\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ol\u003e","brand":"Hannah Jadagu","offers":[{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":39607093264480,"sku":"715440","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":39607093231712,"sku":"715442","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cassette","offer_id":39607093330016,"sku":"715444","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":39607093297248,"sku":"715446","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/products\/HannahJadagu_Aperture_Loser_MockUp.jpg?v=1741201791"},{"product_id":"bully_lucky-for-you","title":"Lucky For You","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eLucky For You\u003c\/em\u003e is Bully’s most close-to-the-bone album yet. It’s an album that’s searing and unmistakably marked by its creator’s experiences, while still retaining the massive sound that Alicia Bognanno has become known for over the last decade. Her fourth album draws from personal pain and the universal struggle that is existing, learning, and moving on—and it’s all soundtracked by Bognanno’s rock-solid melodic sensibilities and a widescreen sound that’s impossible to pin down when it comes to the textures explored. These ten songs are simply the most irresistible Bognanno’s put to tape yet, making Lucky For You her greatest triumph to date in a career already packed with them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWork on \u003cem\u003eLucky For You\u003c\/em\u003e began last year, when Bognanno brought some in-progress demos to producer J.T. Daly in his Nashville studio to see if they could strike creative kismet. “Authenticity is always on my mind, without even knowing it,” she explains while discussing their recording process together. “If I’m doing something that doesn’t feel natural or right, I’m quick to shut it down. So it was great with J.T., because I could tell he was a genuine fan who wanted to emphasize what’s actually good about my writing instead of changing it. I could tell how much he cared about the project and it meant alot to me.” The album came together over the course of seven months, the longest gestation process for a Bully record to date: “I was freaking out about it at first, because taking my time was so new for me. But a few months in, I realized how crucial that time ended up being. I got songs out of it that I wouldn’t have had otherwise.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“With every record, I feel more and more secure in terms of doing what I want,” Bognanno continues. “For this one, I wanted to be as creative as possible with these songs.” She got her wish: A kaleidoscopic rock record spanning punk’s grit, the crunchy bliss of shoegaze, explosive Britpop, and the type of classic anthems Bully has been known for, \u003cem\u003eLucky For You’s\u003c\/em\u003e thematic focus also zooms in on grief and loss. The record is largely inspired by Bognanno’s dog Mezzi passing away, at a time when her life already felt as if in metamorphosis.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Mezzi was my best friend,” she explains. “She made me feel safe and empowered, she showed me that I was worth loving and never judged me or viewed me as a let down. I always felt accepted, understood and so much less alone. Mezzi was living, breathing proof that I was worthy of being loved.” And the oceanic first single “Days Move Slow” was written shortly after Mezzi’s passing, reflecting the persistence of Bognanno’s incisive wit even while facing adversity. “There was nothing else I could do except sit down and write it, and it felt so good.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Hard to Love” stomps and lurches with awesome abandon, resembling one of the most sonically left-field tunes Bognanno’s put to tape as Bully; and then there’s the passionate opening track “All I Do,” which kicks in the door Bully-style with huge riffs atop her lyrical reflections on three years of sobriety. “I’ve been living in this house for seven years,” she says while discussing her current Nashville abode. “Once I stopped drinking, I felt like I was still haunted by mistakes and things that had happened when I was drinking, and it’s still taking me a long time to forget about that while existing in this house. How do I shed the skin from a path I’ve moved on from?”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn that vein, \u003cem\u003eLucky For You\u003c\/em\u003e is a document of perseverance in the face of the big and the small stuff. “I’m so overly emotional and sensitive, it’s a blessing and a curse” she says with a laugh, but there’s no downside to her expressions of vulnerability on this record; it’s the latest bit of evidence that nothing can hold Bognanno back.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrack listing:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eAll I Do\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eDays Move Slow\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eA Wonderful Life\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eHard to Love\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eChange Your Mind\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eHow Will I Know\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eA Love Profound\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eLose You (feat. Soccer Mommy)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eMs. America\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eAll This Noise\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ol\u003e","brand":"Bully","offers":[{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":39624331886688,"sku":"715650","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"LP","offer_id":39624331788384,"sku":"715651","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":39624331919456,"sku":"715652","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cassette","offer_id":39624331853920,"sku":"715654","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":39624331821152,"sku":"715656","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/products\/ScreenShot2023-03-20at8.57.35PM.png?v=1741201352"},{"product_id":"chai_chai","title":"CHAI","description":"\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThe Japanese band CHAI cast a spell on the world in 2017, when they released their debut album,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e PINK\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e, a collection of songs that introduced us to their singular brand of playful pop. The jubilant and enthusiastically feminist follow-up, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ePUNK\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e, raked in accolades from the music press and fellow artists alike. That led to \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWINK\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e, which CHAI made via remote Zoom sessions, a limitation that became a strength since it allowed MANA (lead vocals and keys), KANA (guitar), YUNA (drums), and YUUKI (bassist-lyricist) to collaborate with artists abroad. On \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWINK\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e, CHAI looked beyond their immediate surroundings, and the confines of home, to create a work that found catharsis in their international community.  \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eOn September 22nd, 2023, CHAI will release their dazzling self-titled fourth album worldwide from Sub Pop, and in Japan \u0026amp; Asia through Sony Music. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eUnlike \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWINK\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e, this self-titled collection of songs finds CHAI returning to their roots, drawing inspiration from their Japanese cultural heritage and the music that raised them. “Everything reflected in the lyrics expresses our experience as Japanese women,” MANA says, explaining why they chose to self-title this album. CHAI’s ethos is one of inclusion, and lead single “We The Female!” – recorded live off the floor to honor the band’s riotous performances – beckons all listeners into the mission. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e“We are human and were born as female, but we have both female and male aspects in each of our souls, each with our own sense of balance,” CHAI said in an accompanying statement. “We can’t just label ourselves into clear-cut, simple categories anymore! I’m not anyone else but just ‘me,’ and you are no one else but just ‘you.’ This song celebrates that with a roar!”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eA nostalgic look backward was, in part, circumstantial. When pandemic restrictions were lifted, CHAI returned to the road, bringing their exuberant live show to new cities, where the experience of performing for enormous crowds in cities like Santiago, Buenos Aires, and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSão Paulo made them realize they had truly unlocked a global audience. Since the band’s inception in 2011, CHAI have espoused a philosophy they call Neo Kawaii, in reference to the Japanese word for cute, a label typically bestowed upon women who maintain societally prescribed beauty standards. As young women, CHAI felt that any deviation from what culture considered kawaii was discouraged, and so Neo Kawaii emerged as a rallying cry against those oppressive standards. “Neo Kawaii is about reclaiming self-esteem,” MANA says. On the ESG-inspired single “NEO KAWAII, K?” MANA sings: “\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThis is just my body, not a trendy body\/ Gonna be loved, baby!\/ Just as I am.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eRealizing that message applied to people outside of Japan, who screamed in delight when MANA shouted “NEO KAWAII!” into the mic, made CHAI consider what other facets of their upbringing might resonate with audiences outside of their home country. Unlike previous albums, CHAI wrote their self-titled record on the road, finding time to record in the days between shows at Stones Throw Studio in LA,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e Ometusco Sound Machine in Mexico City, and Grand Street in New York\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e. “It was actually a chill and relaxed process, because we were playing shows every day and were really \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ein\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e the music,” MANA says. One song on the album, “Driving22,” directly draws from long days spent navigating the highways of foreign cities until the band arrives at their destination. The YUUKI-penned lyrics distill the excitement of touring over a squelching rhythm section funkier than anything we’ve heard from CHAI before: “\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eAll skin colors gathering\/ Imperfect sing-along (That's so nice).”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eEach CHAI album borrows aesthetic inspiration from specific musical movements, and on this album, the quartet wanted to make direct comparisons to city pop, a Tokyo-born sound popularized in the ‘70s and ‘80s. City pop was a Japanese take on Western lounge music, borrowing from jazz, boogie, funk, and yacht rock to create a sound that straddled two cultures. Only recently has city pop become a pop culture phenomenon in the U.S. thanks in part to TikTok and YouTube exhuming songs by artists like \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eTatsuro Yamashita\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e, but for CHAI, city pop was just the music of childhood. They tapped previous collaborator Ryu Takahashi to produce, who shared their love of city pop and eurobeat, as well as the melodies of J-pop artists like \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eMaria Takeuchi,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e which also contributed to the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eCHAI \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003emoodboard. “They wanted to dig into their Japanese identity, not in a traditional sense, but in this filtered Western way,” Takahashi says. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eIn writing sessions, the members of CHAI listed words immediately associated with Japan, resulting in songs with titles like “MATCHA” and “KARAOKE.”  Some terms are less immediate, but no less authentic to the country’s cultural heritage. For example, single “LIKE, I NEED” mentions the “selfie,” a now-universal practice popularized by both the Japanese photographer Hiromix in the 1990s and the hugely popular photo booths found in communal places across the country. On “PARA PARA,” CHAI memorialize the bafflingly popular two-step dance trend that overtook Japan that same decade. “There’s not a deep meaning to that song, it’s really just about the dance. We’re saying: ‘as long as you have the two-step dance, you can do anything,’” MANA says. Others, like the aforementioned “MATCHA,” carry metaphorical weight. “The process of making matcha requires a lot of focus and concentration, it’s a very meditative process. Making it is similar to the process of self-reflection, looking deeply at your emotions and trying to understand yourself better.” The song emerged from a shared obsession with Tyler, the Creator, who CHAI and Takahashi mutually adore for his expansive bridge sections that give each song a clear personality.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThe members of CHAI have always been reluctant to share their ages, but on this album, they declare that they’re “From 1992,” though a glance at some of their references, and the instrumentation on the album might have clued listeners in. Working in studios with vast collections of gear allowed them to experiment with aesthetics as-yet-unheard on a CHAI album. For example, at Stones Throw Studio, CHAI recorded “GAME” with the sole intention of writing something listeners will recognize as new wave, riding on a house synth line and minimalist production that recalls the eurobeat influences most recently associated with Robyn’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eHoney\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e. “GAME” might be the perfect distillation of CHAI’s ethic, as it urges listeners to keep moving through this life with joy and passion. 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Does your body want to move with it?” These are the questions he asked himself as he and bandmates Shiraz Bhatti, Drew McBride, and Kevin Fairbairn were writing and recording \u003cem\u003eCareful!\u003c\/em\u003e, their third record and Sub Pop debut. “I wanted these to be interesting songs, but in a way where a two-year-old would vibe out to it,” Gohl adds. “It’s pop music, basically.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat “basically” qualifier is working pretty hard, as fans of 2020’s \u003cem\u003eAuto-Pain\u003c\/em\u003e might suppose. \u003cem\u003eAuto-Pain\u003c\/em\u003e was an album of thick brutalist architecture, full of straight lines and sharp angles, making hard shapes strong enough to carry a heavy thematic burden. On \u003cem\u003eCareful!\u003c\/em\u003e, they’re reshaping the facades and splashing color, not reimagining their sound so much as testing its limits. There are synth experiments, there are moments of nauseatingly powerful darkwave and coldbeat. There are massive rock’n’roll songs that you can imagine 10,000 people singing along to in some beautiful outdoor setting. There is a remarkably moving love song. Is there pop? There’s some pop, yes, a wiry bit of Cars-esque neon called “Everynight.” Look around the right corners, and you might see some of the old buildings peeking through, too, but in this context—on a song like “Sub,” say, a song that began life as a slow and dark prog jam but is now an elegantly cresting wave of post-punk—they feel more sophisticated, lit up in the cold, bright glow of Television. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eAuto-Pain\u003c\/em\u003e was released in March 2020, which means Deeper wasn’t able to play their new album live for nearly a year and a half. “It was hard living in the vacuum of depending on Spotify numbers to quantify what your music means to other people,” McBride says. Nature abhors a vacuum, though, and the band rushed to fill not only their empty time but the suddenly empty idea of what, exactly, their identity was. “Isolated by ourselves, we were like, ‘What is Deeper?’” Bhatti says. “We’ve always talked about how we didn’t want to stay in one genre as a band,” Gohl says, and absent any audience expectations, they gave themselves the freedom to tinker. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“One vibe I thought about a lot was Bowie’s most coked-out productions,” Gohl says. If you want to, you can hear echoes of \u003cem\u003eLow\u003c\/em\u003e in the snapping rhythm and gray-sky synths of “Tele,” but you can also hear a bit of \u003cem\u003eAuto-Pain\u003c\/em\u003e in the nailed-in, stippling lines being spit out by Bhatti’s drum programming and McBride’s synthesizer. “Fame” seems to stumble together and nearly fall apart, the dialed-up noise making the beat feel maniacal and a little invincible, the whole thing a series of short, snipped, autonomous gestures that are by now Deeper’s trademark. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Build a Bridge” pushes in the opposite direction, using a prickly guitar line to launch into big, smeary art-pop, its emotional palette clear, well-defined, and easy to latch onto. On “Sub,” Gohl sings above and below the melody like Ian McCulloch, bellowing and wondering and ruminating and rounding into swaggering confidence that the band rises to meet. It’s festival headliner music that still feels like it was written in a garage. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe album’s title, exclamation point, and all come from the song “Airplane Air,” and it’s echoed in the album’s final song, “Pressure,” a song Gohl wrote for his wife and longtime partner. “Be safe,” he sings, “I will need you around.” It’s a song that sounds like nothing else in their catalog—ringing harmonics, chiming chords, vocal harmonies—but the sense of interdependence is near the center of Deeper’s music, from the way Gohl and McBride’s guitars jigsaw together and interlock with Bhatti’s drum patterns and Fairbairn’s bass to the lyrical vulnerability at the album’s core. That sense of mutuality makes this restlessly curious, stylistically broad album feel like the most coherent portrait of who Deeper is. 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Inactive during the majority of the pandemic–the longest downtime in their history–they approached this recording with lots of pent-up energy. Guitarist Frankie Broyles, singer\/bassist Philip Frobos, and drummer Chris Yonker converted their creative fuel into sharp, driving songs that land immediately, sporting chopping riffs, staccato beats, and wiry melodies.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhy does Souvenir sound so sharp? Because each track is a compact unit that stands on its own, reflecting the time and place in which it was created. That’s why Omni called the album Souvenir: it’s a collection of audio objects, a stash of musical miniatures. Think of it as a family photo album, a binder of rare playing cards, a shoebox holding precious gems.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTake “Plastic Pyramid,” the first song Omni wrote after coming out of lockdown. Filled with twists and turns, it’s a journey unto itself, charged by clanging chords, spinning rhythm, and Frobos trading lines with Izzy Glaudini of Automatic, with whom Omni toured with last fall. (Glaudini sings on two other Souvenir tracks, the first guest vocalist the band has collaborated with). Or take opener “Exacto,” a slicing web of intertwined guitar and bass. Its razor-fine notes and syncopated beats perfectly match pointillist Frobos lyrics such as “Exacto, de facto, concise, quite right”–a line that could well be an Omni mantra. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe precision and clarity of Souvenir comes from some new Omni developments. For one, this is their first album with Yonker as their full-time drummer, and his forceful playing adds exclamation points to every pointed moment on Souvenir. In addition, the trio worked with Atlanta-based engineer Kristofer Sampson for the first time. 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This is obviously not a very aggressive release schedule, but when you figure in the live albums, guest spots, and records done with his various other bands (Dinosaur Jr., The Fog, Heavy Blanket, Witch, Sweet Apple, and so on), well, to paraphrase Lou Reed, “J's week beats your year.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat Do We Do Now began to come together during the waning days of the Pandemic. Utilizing his own Bisquiteen Studio, J started working on writing a series of tunes on acoustic with a different dynamic than the stuff he creates for Dino. “When I'm writing for the band,” he says, “I'm always trying to think of doing things Lou and Murph would fit into. For myself, I'm thinking more about what I can do with just an acoustic guitar, even for the leads. Of course, this time, I added full drums and electric leads, although the rhythm parts are still all acoustic. Usually, I try to do the solo stuff more simply so I can play it by myself, but I really wanted to add the drums. 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Hats off to him.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"J Mascis","offers":[{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":39889908924512,"sku":"716050","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":39889908990048,"sku":"716052","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cassette","offer_id":39889908957280,"sku":"716054","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":39889909022816,"sku":"716056","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/files\/JMascis_WDWDN_MockUp_LP_USLoserClearPurple_2000x1417_8b3ff532-09d4-4e02-9356-d304c7d8b6fb.jpg?v=1741201892"},{"product_id":"shabazz-palaces_exotic-birds-of-prey","title":"Exotic Birds of Prey","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePING.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShe looked up. A rectangular notification had popped into view, obscuring the view of the road. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u0026gt;You have an update pending.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“No thank you,” she said, and brusquely waved it out of her field of view.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePING.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHer head jerked up again in annoyance. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u0026gt;Stellify Subscriber alert: new album from Shabazz Palaces: Exotic Birds of Prey. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Oh.” Her eyebrows arched, her fingers lightly drummed her tablet. “Play,” she said, voice softening.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe integrated Bang \u0026amp; Olufsen speakers cut on. Lyrics and info danced on the windscreen, casting the cabin in a crimson glow.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u0026gt;Shabazz Palaces’ latest is a foreboding foray into final-days funk. Cold-forged synths cut like steel underneath paranoiac playerisms and science-faction set pieces. What will you do when the robots don't recognize your face?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Pour more bass on my mids.” \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Mmm.” The bio-reactive seat gently reclined as the whole vehicle body, composed of recycled marine plastics and seaweed, throbbed with deep, monstrous tones. Her eyes closed. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“ETA,” she mumbled. \u003cb\u003e77 minutes\u003c\/b\u003e, the car said softly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePING. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u0026gt;BrainBroom Subscriber: your weekly ketamine session is ready to transmit. Initiate?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShe opened her eyes. Hers was the only vehicle in sight. Rain sheeted across the windscreen. In the corner, the heads-up relayed a leisurely 160 km\/h and fully charged hydrogen cells. The road ahead was lit in a deep violet; the ancient LED’s on this stretch of highway had delaminated over time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“..Sure.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShe laid back. As the corners of her sensory perception started to curl up, she heard different voices, new and old to the Shabazz cinematic universe. Stas the Boss, Irene Barber. OCnotes, Jahpreme Magnetic. Purple Tape Nate, Lavarr the Starr. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Many among them…traded in myths.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs she submerged into innerspace, the soundtrack repeated, undermining her sense of time. The softly rocking motion of the vehicle, bee-lining it’s way home, did the same to her sense of space. Swirling in her mind’s eye, she saw ancient bones dancing underneath the solar-powered roadway; empty eye sockets turned and locked on her own. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Going back to the essence is not a bad thing.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePING.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDirectly ahead, zooming towards her, was an old Tesla, stopped, blue flames feathering out from the windows. The scream caught in her throat, a choked sob her only sound.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShe opened gummy eyelids and raised her face. She was at the high, fortified gate of her rural high-rise community. She cleared her throat, and eased the windshield down. She faced the sensor.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u0026gt;Face Not Recognized. Try Again.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“What?” Sweat rolled down her ribs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u0026gt;Face Not Recognized. Try Again.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShe looked around, poked her head out and looked back at the forest, dark and featureless. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Hello?”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUnseen wings flapped in the trees, dark bodies taking flight against the moon.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Shabazz Palaces","offers":[{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":40008628895840,"sku":"716120","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":40008628928608,"sku":"716122","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40008628863072,"sku":"716126","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/files\/ShabazzPalaces_ExoticBirdsofPrey_MockUp_LP_USLoser_2000x1417_19c5586d-fe96-4af4-a9dd-9e1993dd4e08.png?v=1741202283"},{"product_id":"pissed-jeans_half-divorced","title":"Half Divorced","description":"\u003cp\u003ePissed Jeans has never been a band that goes halfway—they’re known for their feral vocals, biting lyrics, buzzsaw guitars, and unhinged live shows, and their sixth album, Half-Divorced is no exception. These songs skewer the tension between youthful optimism and the sobering realities of adulthood, and when viewed through frontman Matt Korvette’s scowl, everything takes on a level of violent absurdity.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePissed Jeans’ notorious acerbic sense of humor remains sharper than ever as they dismember some of the joys that contemporary adult life has to offer, from helicopter parents to stolen catalytic converters to being $62,000 in debt. On “Seatbelt Alarm Silencer,” Korvette growls, “Call it a death drive but that ain’t fair \/ Drive implies I’m headed somewhere.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSo where does a band like Pissed Jeans go after nearly twenty years of making music, after becoming fathers, after marriages, and after divorces? Existence has festered to a boiling point. Korvette said, “Half-Divorced has an aggression within it, in terms of saying, I don’t want this reality. There’s a power in being able to say, I realize you want me to pay attention to these things, but I’m telling you that they don’t matter. I’m already looking elsewhere.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEven within the brutality that Korvette conjures on songs like “Killing All the Wrong People” (“If violence is now their form of play \/ Let’s aim em towards those who made em that way”), the energy on some of these songs is inadvertently, well, fun. Listening to this album will give even the most jaded nine-to-fiver the sense that unrestrained freedom is still possible. And who else is going to rhyme “colonizer” with “moisturizer” anyway? \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKorvette, Brad Fry (guitar), Randy Huth (bass) and Sean McGuinness (drums) weren’t in any rush to finish Half-Divorced, which was recorded by Don Godwin at Tonal Park in Takoma Park, Maryland. “We’re not the kind of band that bangs out a new record every two years,” Korvette said. “Pissed Jeans is truly like an art project for us, which is what makes it so fun.” This lack of restraint rages within the songs that unexpectedly veer into classic hardcore punk territory—often coming in at under two minutes long and erupting like the “butane tank explosion” Korvette sings about in “Junktime.”  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis distilled energy makes Half-Divorced sound menacing and dangerous. Korvette said, “We realized we’d never really fucked with pop punk, and we thought, this is something that isn’t going to be immediately recognizable as cool. So let’s challenge ourselves to make it feel cool to us.” \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere’s also a Pink Lincolns cover, “Monsters,” on which Korvette sings, “People are more hideous than monsters.” And in the last song, “Moving On,” Korvette sneers, “Cheesing into my cameraphone \/ Pretending that I’m not alone \/ Life’s the first thing that we all postpone.” One gets the sense that Pissed Jeans refuses to “postpone” life in quite the same way—life, like art, is something that happens now, not later. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe word “divorce” falls in line with the moments of humiliation and shame that are held up for all to see on this album. Korvette said, “If you say something enough or if you just allow it to exist publicly, then it loses its evil monster-in-the-closet thing.” There is clarity to be found within both the light and the dark, in both the marriage and the divorce. As the chorus of the last song calls out: “I’m moving on, I’m moving on, I’m moving on.” \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Pissed Jeans","offers":[{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":40008629682272,"sku":"715990","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":40008629715040,"sku":"715992","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40008629649504,"sku":"715996","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/files\/PissedJeans_HalfDivorced_MockUp_USLoser_2000x1417_e88ca283-f02f-4148-98cc-7d31f0db1a45.jpg?v=1721244442"},{"product_id":"boeckner_boeckner","title":"Boeckner!","description":"\u003cp\u003eDaniel Boeckner understands the grit and gravel that accumulates in the heart and that it takes an unwavering courage to crack through that clutter and burrow to the other side. And in Boeckner’s hands, that quest comes via postapocalyptic synth and guitar heroism, a rallying cry for those always coming home through the scorched clouds. Throughout his work with Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs, Divine Fits, Operators, Atlas Strategic, and more, the iconic Canadian indie rocker recognizes that few feelings are more gratifying—more memorable, more generative, more abundant—than hope. But it takes getting the hell out of your own way. A culmination of that deep library of musical reference, Boeckner is set to release his first album under his own name: Boeckner! “I think in a lot of ways in my mind I’m still playing in a punk band in Vancouver,” Boeckner laughs. “Starting back when I was a teenager, my life in music has been trying to develop my own musical language, and this record is the beginning of presenting that.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo matter where his genre exploration has taken him, there’s something about growing up in punk and DIY spaces that puts collaboration in Boeckner’s blood. Composed of a collection of intimately familiar elements, Boeckner! elicits the same thrill of young passion and discovery. It’s a jet-powered chase through a tech-noir cityscape—fueled by a dream and that special someone in the passenger seat. Boeckner introduces this fused language immediately with the thumping opening track and lead single “Lose.” Buoyed by the scorched space-age synths developed across two records with Operators and the fist-pumping guitar push of Wolf Parade, the song charges headlong into a new world. “Now I’m a walking phantom\/ Night watch at the radar station,” Boeckner sings, as if in a race against time to keep hope alive.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat urgency and passion have always been a trademark of Boeckner’s, and writing on his own pushes those feelings further into the center of the scope. But while Boeckner may be the clear driving force behind the album, he’s not without collaborators for his solo debut. After meeting producer Randall Dunn while contributing to the soundtrack to the Nicolas Cage-starring psychedelic horror film Mandy, Boeckner knew he’d found the perfect counterpart for his solo debut. “I’d been a fan of his forever, especially the Sunn0))) records he produced,” Boeckner says. “Working with Randall really unlocked some suppressed musical urges, things that I enjoy in my private life but don’t normally weave into what I’m releasing—like occult synth, pseudo-metal, krautrock, and heavy psych influences.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlbum highlight “Euphoria” dips into that off-kilter darkness, dashes of vibraphone tossed against woozy waves of synth. “It’s too late\/ Time accelerates\/ From the cradle to the grave,” Boeckner calls like some nuclear fallout Ziggy Stardust, glitching electronics dripping off the mix. The track’s percussive thrum comes courtesy of Matt Chamberlain—whose credits include work with Bowie and Fiona Apple, not to mention a stint as drummer for Pearl Jam—and serves to bolster Boeckner’s potent guitar throughout the record. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat solid base allows Boeckner to thoughtfully weave between emotional imagism and more grounded storytelling. Throughout the record, his imagery delves into science fiction, but it’s charged first and foremost by experience.  “With the exception of early Wolf Parade, I've always tried to put myself into a fictional mindset, but with this record, I was tapping into something raw and personal,” he explains. As a prime example, the desperate reach of “Euphoria” is felt in every line, pushed to its titular state only through some unhealthy choices, the gloom drawing near.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe trio of Boeckner, Dunn, and Chamberlain formed a sort of dark engine for the album, and Chamberlain’s ingenious approach of triggering a vintage Arp synthesizer simultaneously with each drum track helped Boeckner shape the record’s atmosphere. That layered shadow colors the acoustic-tinged haze of “Dead Tourists,” a song littered with bad omens—steel-eyed cattle, bodies lined on church pews, overturned luxury cars. That tense futurism was influenced by Boeckner’s time staying in Dunn’s Circular Ruin studio, a dusky, electronic aura singed into every track...He often found himself falling asleep under the synth rack in a sleeping bag, looking up through a tiny skylight at the Brooklyn lights, the faint thump of Daniel Lopatin recording his latest Oneohtrix Point Never record next door coming through the wall.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn addition to tapping into his own rock roots, Boeckner brought in one of his personal guitar heroes. “As a teenager, I imported cassettes of Medicine’s flawless shoegaze noise records, and I absolutely loved Brad Laner’s sandblasting, Chernobyl guitar,” he says. And while Boeckner first reached out hoping Laner would contribute to one track, the Medicine guitarist wound up adding guitar layers throughout the album, as well as helping arrange vocal harmonies. The haunted, wordless choir on “Don’t Worry Baby” stand especially tall in that regard, Laner delivering Boeckner’s writing through his trademark Medicine guitar ravage. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“This record is like an autobiography—Atlas Strategic music concrete synth explosions, lush synth stuff from Operators, the noise guitar from Handsome Furs, drawing influence from everything from Stockhausen to Tom Waits all at the same time,” Boeckner says. And as the record fades away on the low-slung “Holy is the Night,” the mutated skyline fades away, replaced by blue skies “after the plague.” No longer a sci-fi epic, Boeckner! eases into something more akin to a torched VHS copy of a John Cassevetes film, the chemtrails and nuclear fallout fading long in the distance. “How much pain can we deliver before the sunrise, baby\/ Holy is the night we can get some peace,” he sighs. “How much blood can this world want from you and me together?” Like all good sci-fi, the emotion and pain hits home for the author and listener alike, and genre flourishes there to bolster the human experience. And in revealing more than ever before, Boeckner! both ratchets up the musical intensity to unforeseen levels and hopes to find some peace at the end of the journey.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Boeckner","offers":[{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":40021007761504,"sku":"715050","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":40021007794272,"sku":"715052","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40021007728736,"sku":"715056","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/files\/Boeckner_Boeckner_MockUp_LP_USLoser_2000x1417_607a4897-5ca9-4265-bc6a-356aeb154e9d.png?v=1712266561"},{"product_id":"corridor_mimi","title":"Mimi","description":"\u003cdiv id=\"contentsContainer\" class=\"style-scope qowt-page\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv id=\"contents\" class=\"style-scope qowt-page\"\u003e\n\u003cp id=\"E59\" class=\"x-scope qowt-word-para-2\"\u003e\u003cspan id=\"E60\"\u003eYou get older, you have a family, and you start to slow down—that’s how things are supposed to go, right? Not for Montreal band Corridor, who have returned on their fourth album, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan id=\"E61\"\u003eMimi,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan id=\"E62\"\u003e with a sound and style that’s more widescreen and expansive than anything that’s preceded it. The follow-up to 2019’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan id=\"E63\"\u003eJunior\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan id=\"E64\"\u003e is a huge step forward for the band, as the members themselves have undergone the type of personal changes that accompany the passage of time; even as these eight songs reflect a newfound and contemplative maturity, however, Corridor are branching out more than ever with richly detailed music, resulting in a record that feels like a fresh break for a band that’s already established themselves as forward-thinkers.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp id=\"E67\" class=\"x-scope qowt-word-para-2\"\u003e\u003cspan id=\"E68\"\u003eMimi\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan id=\"E69\"\u003e immediately recalls the best of the best when it comes to indie rock—Deerhunter’s silvery atmospherics immediately come to mind, as well as the spiky effervescence of classic post-punk—but despite these easy comparisons, Corridor remain impossible to pin down from song to song, which makes \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan id=\"E70\"\u003eMimi\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan id=\"E71\"\u003e all the more thrilling as a listen. The road to this point, as roads to greatness often are, was not without challenge; if the elastic guitar rock of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan id=\"E72\"\u003eJunior\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan id=\"E73\"\u003e came together quickly—or, as guitarist and vocalist Jonathan Robert describes the process, “in a rush”—then the steady-as-they-go creative pace of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan id=\"E74\"\u003eMimi \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan id=\"E75\"\u003emarked a desire to break from the “exhausting” work ethic that previously birthed \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan id=\"E76\"\u003eJunior\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan id=\"E77\"\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp id=\"E80\" class=\"x-scope qowt-word-para-2\"\u003e\u003cspan id=\"E81\"\u003e“The goal was to work differently, which is the goal we have every time we work on a new album—to build something in a new way,” Robert explains. “This time, we took our time.” And so in the summer of 2020, Corridor’s members—Robert, vocalist\/bassist Dominic Berthiaume, drummer Julien Bakvis, and multi-instrumentalist Samuel Gougoux—holed away in a cottage to engage in the sort of creative experimentation that would lead to \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan id=\"E82\"\u003eMimi\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan id=\"E83\"\u003e’s ultimate creation. “We went there to write, and a lot of ideas came \u003c\/span\u003efrom that retreat,” Berthiaume explains. “We didn’t end up with songs as much as we did ideas, so the result is a collage of the ideas.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv id=\"contentsContainer\" class=\"style-scope qowt-page\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv id=\"contents\" class=\"style-scope qowt-page\"\u003e\n\u003cp id=\"E86\" class=\"x-scope qowt-word-para-2\"\u003e\u003cspan id=\"E87\"\u003eAfter that productive session together, Corridor continued to tinker with the songs’ raw parts digitally and remotely over the next few years, with co-producer Joojoo Ashworth (Dummy, Automatic) lending their own specific talents in the theoretical booth. The process was a byproduct of not having access to their previous rehearsal space as the COVID-19 pandemic faded from public view, but also a result of the four-piece leaning harder into incorporating electronic textures than on previous records.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp id=\"E90\" class=\"x-scope qowt-word-para-2\"\u003e\u003cspan id=\"E91\"\u003e“For a long time, we identified as a guitar-oriented band, and the goal of making this whole record was trying to get away from that,” Berthiaume states while admitting that the band encountered their own challenges as a result: “We had to figure out how to make new songs without having the chance to play together. It was complicated sometimes.” Berthiaume also describes \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan id=\"E92\"\u003eMimi\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan id=\"E93\"\u003e—which, fun fact, is also named after Jonathan’s cat—as a record about “getting older” and “figuring out new parts of life”—but despite any claims of transitional growing pains from the band, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan id=\"E94\"\u003eMimi\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan id=\"E95\"\u003e is a record bursting with new energy and life, a vibrance that’s owed in no small part to Gougoux joining the band full-time after pitching in on live performances in the past.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp id=\"E98\" class=\"x-scope qowt-word-para-2\"\u003e\u003cspan id=\"E99\"\u003e“I come more from a background of electronic music, so it was nice to involve that with the band more,” he explains, and\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan id=\"E100\"\u003e Mimi\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan id=\"E101\"\u003e contains a distinct rhythmic pulse reminiscent of classic era-post-punk’s own melding of dance and rock textures. Over bright, chiming guitars and ascending synths, Robert addresses his looming mortality on “Mourir Demain”: “I wrote it when my girlfriend and I were shopping for life insurance,” he laughs. With our little daughter growing up, we also considered making our will. I said to myself, ‘Oh shit, from now on I’m slowly starting to plan my death.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp id=\"E104\" class=\"x-scope qowt-word-para-2\"\u003e\u003cspan id=\"E105\"\u003e“Jump Cut” is pure psychedelic bliss, with hypnotic ziggurats of guitar lines aligning themselves in the distance as Robert and Berthiaume’s vocals \u003c\/span\u003eexcitingly duck and weave throughout the lovely chaos created; meanwhile, the nocturnal air of “Caméra” provides perfect cover for ruminations on self-promotion and exposure in the digital age, while the hypnotic haze of “Mon Argent” tackles the realities of making a living while making music. “Nothing is more abstract, insecure, and random than a musician’s income,” Jonathan muses while discussing the song’s thematic bent. “The responsibilities piling up in my adult life have, unfortunately, prevented me from continuing to avoid the subject. We end up giving a lot of importance to something we don’t understand.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv id=\"contentsContainer\" class=\"style-scope qowt-page\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv id=\"contents\" class=\"style-scope qowt-page\"\u003e\n\u003cp id=\"E108\" class=\"x-scope qowt-word-para-2\"\u003e\u003cspan id=\"E109\"\u003eDon’t mistake this as music about dead ends, though, as \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan id=\"E110\"\u003eMimi\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan id=\"E111\"\u003e embraces and champions unfettered creativity while paving a way for Corridor’s own bright future. “We just focused on making a record that sounded the way we wanted,” Gougoux exclaims while discussing the band’s aims. “There were no limitations when it came to what was possible.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Corridor","offers":[{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":40060404105312,"sku":"715870","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":40060404138080,"sku":"715872","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40060404072544,"sku":"715876","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/files\/Corridor_Mimi_MockUp_USLoser_2000x1417px.jpg?v=1712253694"},{"product_id":"iron-and-wine_light-verse","title":"Light Verse","description":"\u003cp\u003e“All our dreamers lose to the light” - from “Angels Go Home”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen the pandemic began, and the world shut down, so did the process of creating for Iron \u0026amp; Wine’s Sam Beam. In its place was a domesticity that the singer hadn’t felt in a long time, and although it was filled with many rewards, making music was not one of them. Reflecting on that time, Beam notes:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I feel blessed and grateful that I and most of my friends and family made it through the pandemic relatively unscathed compared to so many others, but it completely paralyzed the songwriter in me. While so many artists, fortunately, found inspiration in the chaos, I was the opposite and withered with the constant background noise of uncertainty and fear. The last thing I wanted to write about was COVID, and yet every moment I sat with my pen, it lingered around the edges and wouldn’t leave. I struggled to focus until I gave up, and this lasted for over two years.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe journey back began with a recording session in Memphis to record a handful of Lori McKenna tracks for the EP Lori with friend and producer Matt Ross-Spang. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Recording has always been my favorite, and that session was an attempt to reconnect with what I love most about making music. I could finally feel the blood coming back into the body and the creative muscles beginning to relax and move again.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSoon a series of short tours were booked entitled “Back to Basics,” which, out of necessity, were solo acoustic shows in smaller venues. They had an unspoken weight to them for Beam and the audiences alike, and also an incredible sense of relief for finally sharing art together and being back to work! A larger tour with Andrew Bird followed in the summer of ’22, and Beam was inspired even more by the excitement of collaborating with Andrew and his band and the warmth of musical friends. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“By the time I got home, the paralysis had officially passed, and I was finishing lyrics and booking studio time for what would become Light Verse!”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs Beam began to assemble the musicians he wanted for his record, one common thread arose- they all lived in Los Angeles!  Outside of his own pedigree, the decision to work with engineer and mixer Dave Way at his studio Waystation high up in Laurel Canyon was a logical step based on recommendations from two of the joining players on the record. An additional session would also take place at Silent Zoo Studio, where a 24-piece orchestra would lay claim to a handful of songs, helping prepare them for lift-off.   \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I’ve met and played with so many talented musicians from Los Angeles over the years but never recorded there, and this felt like the perfect time to try. Tyler Chester plays all the keyboards, Sebastian Steinberg plays the bass, David Garza guitar and slide and stuff, Griffin Goldsmith, Beth Goodfellow, and Kyle Crane all play drums here and there, and Paul Cartwright plays many various sizes of violin and mandolin and wrote some wonderful string arrangements for the orchestra! Even Fiona Apple was kind and generous enough to lend us her voice (that miracle that sounds like both a sacrifice and a weapon at the same time) to a duet called “All In Good Time.” \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBeam lyrically once again takes focus on a series of both fictional and personal insights, filled with desperate characters and wide-eyed optimists, offering promise and a dose of heartache, tears and laughter, life and love. Taking stock in the album’s title, he jokes, “Light verse is a form of poetry about playful themes that often uses nonsense and wordplay, and it’s my first official Iron \u0026amp; Wine comedy album!…. Just kidding….”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile true this may be Iron \u0026amp; Wine’s most playful record, Beam says the title mostly reflects the way the songs were born with joy after the heaviness and anxiety of the pandemic. Where recent records like Beast Epic or Weed Garden gave air to the disquiet of middle-aged frailty and brokenness, these songs trade that for the focus acceptance can bring. Moment by moment, they delight in being pointed or silly (or both) and attempt beauty over prettiness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLight Verse arrives April 26th, and it’s Iron \u0026amp; Wine’s seventh full-length overall and fifth for Sub Pop Records. Fashioned as an album that should be taken as a whole, it sounds lovingly handmade and self-assured as a secret handshake. Track by track, its equal parts elegy, kaleidoscope, truth, and dare.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Iron \u0026 Wine","offers":[{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":40146832097376,"sku":"716150","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":40146832130144,"sku":"716152","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40146832031840,"sku":"716156","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/files\/IronandWine_LightVerse_MockUp_LP_USLoser_2000x1417_cae3f57d-fbac-4df4-b67b-a97506fb588a.jpg?v=1712186865"},{"product_id":"metz_up-on-gravity-hill","title":"Up On Gravity Hill","description":"\u003cp\u003eWith time, we come to understand the way the joy of connection is mirrored by the void of loss, how the constancy of love is matched only by the impermanence of life, the simple idea that we could not create light if we did not risk the dark—we’d never need to.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSo it is with METZ, a band once known for blowing out eardrums with songs of joyous rage who have, over their past few records, begun exploring ways to turn abrasiveness into atmospherics, the evolution of their sound not only a reflection of the maturing of the band themselves but also of a changed world that demands nuance and compassion to comprehend and to survive.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt was a journey already underway on 2020’s Atlas Vending, but one that reaches new heights on Up On Gravity Hill, where the Canadian trio creates a kaleidoscopic sonic world as tender as it is dark, aided once again by engineer Seth Manchester (Mdou Moctar, Lingua Ignota, Battles, The Body). Deep, detailed, and unyieldingly personal, it is not only METZ’s most powerful record to date but also their most beautiful.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eStill three punks from Ontario at heart, guitarist and vocalist Alex Edkins, drummer Hayden Menzies, and bassist Chris Slorach waste no time as opener “No Reservation\/Love Comes Crashing” sweeps in like a wave, sonically and thematically setting the scene for the record to come. A dynamic song about feeling suspended in stasis, layers of dissonance melt into a restlessly heady outro marked by escalating crescendos of shimmering noise that reach for the stars—and is that a violin quivering brightly beneath those elegant swells of guitar, those charging drum fills, those intricate bass lines? It is indeed, courtesy of composer Owen Pallett; his presence an immediate indicator that METZ are thinking more cinematically than ever before.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe change is partially inspired by Edkins’ work as a scorer for film and television and his pop-leaning solo project, Weird Nightmare, where, he says, he learned to write more intuitively, letting his emotions lead the way. “The lyrical content is more heart-on-sleeve than I've ever allowed myself to do,” he says. “I tried to be direct with my words, this record felt like a big step.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut make no mistake: Up On Gravity Hill is a total band effort, the work of three musicians who have been playing together for over a decade, with all the trust that entails. “We’re at the point now where we feel really strong as a band and as musicians, and there is no second guessing our collective instincts. Allowing ourselves to branch out and work with other musicians has been a blessing and also continues to remind us that what we have, our musical bond, is very rare and really special.” says Edkins. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor those who believe in the power of the rock band to exemplify the highest resonance of human connection, there is much on Up On Gravity Hill to lift the spirit, a puzzle worth repeated listening to unlock or just to get lost in again and again. Rather than the music being flattened into a single plane, the band explores “the space above the cymbals,” resulting in some of the most spacious, sympathetic, and accessible songs—could we call them pop?—of their career. If this seems contradictory, well, METZ has always been something of a contradiction. “We’ve never been heavy enough for metal or hardcore purists, but we're way too heavy for indie rock. We just don't have a lane—and that's okay. We exist outside the lines of delineation. I think this record is even more like that,” says Edkins.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLyrically, Up On Gravity Hill pulls no punches: this is a record about death the way all art is ultimately about death, yet it crackles with life and intensity. “Entwined” is a charging throwback to the cerebral Dischord punk bands the trio grew up loving; the snarling “99” takes on the nonstop onslaught of advertising that marks our modern lives; “We are all just a dream,” sings Edkins on “Superior Mirage,” Menzies’ charged drumming and flickering hi-hats a contrast to the song’s ghostly themes of impermanence. The record peaks on the gorgeous closer “Light Your Way Home,” which features vocal contributions from Amber Webber of Black Mountain. Here, Edkins confronts the choices that keep him from the people he loves, their absence only emphasizing how much they matter. “If only I could see what isn’t shown\/ I’d clear a path for you,” he sings, a deeply emotional confession for a band that has found a new way to bend the raw power of rock music to its most delicate, intricate ends. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"METZ","offers":[{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":40242363531360,"sku":"715600","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":40242363564128,"sku":"715602","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40242363629664,"sku":"715606","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/files\/Metz_UpOnGravityHill_MockUp_LP_US_2000x1417._1_copy.png?v=1711660427"},{"product_id":"girl-and-girl_call-a-doctor","title":"Call A Doctor","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn one sense, it’s easy for artists—songwriters, specifically—to express their feelings in their work. After all, that’s what the lyrics are for! But it’s much harder to convey emotional energy in how you play, slash at the guitar, and the structure of the music itself. That’s precisely why Girl and Girl’s Sub Pop debut, Call A Doctor, feels like such a vital, electrifying shock to the senses. Not since the early work of Car Seat Headrest or Conor Oberst’s widescreen emotional brutality as Bright Eyes has indie rock managed to come across as this intimate and grandiose, as the Australian quartet led by Kai James lay a lifetime’s worth of woes—mental health, the human race’s planned obsolescence if you’ve been living on this cursed rock you know what we’re getting at—across a canvas of indie rock that feels both timeless and in-the-moment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn audacious and aggressively tuneful blast of a record, Call A Doctor is an unforgettable first bow from Girl and Girl, whose origins lie in James and guitarist Jayden Williams jamming in his mother’s garage in the afternoon after school. One afternoon, James’ Aunty Liss headed down to their practice space after walking her dog and asked if she could sit in on drums. “It sounded really great,” James recalls. “We begged her to stay, and she said, ‘I’ll stay until you find another drummer.’ We wore her down, and she eventually became a permanent member.” \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter bassist Fraser Bell joined to round things out, Girl and Girl hit the road and began to make a name for themselves beyond the Australian bush, eventually signing to Sub Pop off the strength of word of mouth. Call A Doctor came together quickly soon after, largely recorded in marathon sessions in a two-story industrial complex over the course of two weeks. “That added to the intensity of the album,” James says about the frenzied creative process overseen by producer Burke Reid. “I can hear the stress in the record, which is good because that’s what it’s about—being tense, tied up, and in your own head.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCall A Doctor’s eleven songs—spanning sweeping guitar epics and wry acoustic shuffles to spiky punk maneuvers and the type of raw, adoringly unvarnished indie-pop associated with legendary PacNW label K Records—are literally plucked from James’ personal history, as he reworked older recordings with newer lyrics reflecting his past struggles as well as new anxieties that emerged prior to the album’s recording. \"I've struggled with mental health for a lot of my life,\" he explains, “and I went through a particularly difficult patch when we were making the album; the band had started to get some attention, and I felt an enormous amount of pressure to live up to it.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFar from the sound of collapsing under pressure, Call A Doctor finds James and Co. stepping up with their entire collective chest. This is a record that’s so out-and-out alive that you nearly feel like you’re in the same room with Girl and Girl as you listen to it; lead single “Hello” practically bursts through the speakers, amplified by Aunty Liss’ unbelievable stickhandling duties. “‘Hello’ is all about romanticizing your own misery. Letting those deep, dark, dirty thoughts take over. Understanding that even if you could pull yourself out, you wouldn’t because the constant stress and worry is far too familiar and comfortable.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Mother” pogos on a spiky groove that’s reminiscent of the geographically close New Zealanders who make up the legendary Flying Nun label, while “Oh Boy” draws from the Shins’ own jangly sound, injected with James’ wonderfully nervy vocals. Then there’s Call A Doctor’s sorta-centerpiece “Maple Jean and the Anthropocene,” a five-minute epic offering a new perspective on climate change and the notion of what it means, in a personal sense, to suffer: “I live in the bushland, and I was driving home one night and hit and killed a wallaby with my car,” James recalls while discussing the song’s lyrical inspiration. \"My first thought was, ‘What is the universe trying to tell me?’ No remorse, no guilt, just total self-centeredness. Which was like, Woah, you fucking psychopath! This wallaby wasn’t put on this earth to send you a message. That’s what the song is about, our egocentric species - thinking you’re the main character and that everything that happens is somehow about you.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“This record is about an individual who’s too far in their head, trying to get out,” James continues while discussing Call A Doctor’s overall outlook—specifically the snapshot it offers of its creator. But even though this record deals with uneasy topics we all know well from within ourselves, it’s important to emphasize how teeming with life Girl and Girl’s music is. There’s a brazen, bold sense of humor to this stuff, an undeniable brightness to the darkness that makes it impossible not to be drawn in as a listener. Feeling down never sounded so goddamn good.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Girl and Girl","offers":[{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":40266540089440,"sku":"716060","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":40266540122208,"sku":"716062","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40266540154976,"sku":"716066","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/files\/GirlandGirl_CallADoctor_LP_2000x1417_none.jpg?v=1712253653"},{"product_id":"man-man_carrot-on-strings","title":"Carrot On Strings","description":"\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWhen Man Man released its last album, “Dream Hunting in the Valley of the In Between,\" frontman Honus Honus (né Ryan Kattner) was in a state of unrest, oscillating between hope and cynicism. Perhaps fittingly, the album ended up dropping during the pandemic. (We could all relate.) But much like that bizarre turn of global events, the ennui seems so distant now to Man Man’s creative force, whose revived sense of purpose washes through Carrot on Strings (out June 07, Sub Pop), his latest release, which radiates a mix of calm and confidence.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eKattner always embodied a wild-man pied-piper vibe: his melodic, art-rock output just unhinged enough that it was at once intriguing and angsty. He was so alluringly creative that you went along with it, even if you were never sure where Man Man would take you. Carrot on Strings is no less inventive, but its ethos is radical in context of the band’s two-decade, idiosyncratic career. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThe name “Carrot on Strings” came to Kattner while experimenting with the sound of someone munching on the vegetable, which you can hear in the cacophonous, almost similarly named title track. It refers to “the diagnosis of my career,” or how success always seemed to dangle uncertainly before him—life as a series of “almost maybe” opportunities to elevate things to a more sustainable tier. But listen intently, and you’ll hear a more content Kattner, making an uneasy peace with, “Life, as far as I’ve known it, has always been side hustles. Would it be great if I could go into a studio and record for a year without figuring out how to finance it? Yeah, it would be,” he says. “But ultimately, I need to keep making music because art is an extension of my psyche. It’s not about how I define myself or want to be perceived necessarily. It’s how I have learned to translate the palpitations of my heart.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThe unrest may have slightly lifted (chalk that up to fatherhood), but “Carrot on Strings” opener, the shot of scintillating adrenaline that is “Iguana,” clarifies that he’s still on a mission to traverse uncharted territory, even if it is total banger sing-along. The song melds Krautrock, dance music, no-wave, and even an homage to Old Yeller (the 1950s Disney film) sneaks in for good measure. Kattner, who penned the lyrics to “Iguana” while cycling through the hills of Los Angeles, was inspired by director Werner Herzog’s somewhat mystical cave-painting documentary, Cave of Forgotten Dreams. “In the last 10 minutes of it, he has this beautiful monologue about uncertainty and the universe, the evolution of self-consciousness, albino crocodiles. How nothing is real, nothing is certain. Here you have this relatively straightforward documentary about ancient cave paintings, and in the end, Herzog can't escape himself from being himself, which in the end, why would you want to escape yourself anyway” he recalls, drawn to this outsider artist who infiltrated mainstream culture without compromising his impulses. With “Iguana,” Honus Honus continues, “I’m trying to write a very genre-specific song, but I can’t escape my own idiosyncratic pull into making it be something else or a combination of something else.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eGrowing up with a father in the U.S. Air Force, Kattner lived an itinerant childhood that included a few pivotal years in Germany, where he honed in on an appreciation for out there German cinema and art. He’d go on to teach himself to play piano at age 22 by playing with drummers, developing a style more rhythm-based than chops heavy but was also equally focused on screenwriting, the craft he studied in art school along with playwriting. (He continues to more-than-dabble in the film industry with an acting role in the upcoming horror-comedy movie Destroy All Neighbors, for which he also served as composer; music supervising season 1 \u0026amp; 2 of the Interview With The Vampire AMC TV series; and shopping around, with director Matthew Goodhue, a script he wrote that he describes as a Wim Wenders road movie on acid.) “As a child I gravitated towards troublemakers but not necessarily out of rebellion but more likely because it simply seemed more interesting at the time,” yet, growing up as a multiracial Hapa kid (half Filipino, half white), “I didn’t have anyone else to relate to on that level until I discovered playing music in my early 20s. The artworld and especially underground music is scattered with people from all sorts of disparate backgrounds.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eLike “Iguana,” the spacious, indie-pop “Odyssey” is a slight nod to another of his German avant heroes, the filmmaker Rainer Fassbinder (also the musician’s professed style icon). “My melodies are typically born out of playing parts on repeat,” he explains, “and pushing the boundaries of where my voice can go. Music and lyrics are birthed together, laborious but significant in that it instills a combined permeance. One fits into the other like a puzzle ring.” Meanwhile, “Blooodungeon” — a symbolic sexy, mutinous lovechild between Italo-disco legends La Bionda and the goth-rocker the Sisters of Mercy (or as Kattner puts it, “Dario Argento’s Goblin mixed with something from a ’90s leather bar”) — even finds him crooning suavely in German at one point. Sensing a theme yet?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eAll these journeys off the beaten path are underscored by a palpable ease that’s way less about the process and more about the outcome. “It’s never been a driving factor in my life as a performing artist but I’m just at a point now where I don't give a fuck about image or any of that stuff,” he says. “And it’s not about acquiescing. Making music, acting in people’s films, these things are more fun these days, come more naturally. That doesn’t mean it’s easier by any means. There’s still love, labor, and toil involved. And a reserved spot on the wall for banging my head in frustration.” This newfound looseness is imminently apparent on songs such as the twangy “Cherry Cowboy,” a lingering, ambling ode to small-town Texas (where he was born), loosely inspired by a Randy Newman ear worm from the 1986 comedy Three Amigos and “Pack Your Bags,” a thumping stadium chant just waiting to be unleashed for consumption.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eIn a bid to not overthink anything (mindful that his last album took about seven agonizing years to make), he booked out five days in Mant Sounds studio in Glassell Park, Los Angeles and enlisted “very chill” producer Matt Schuessler, with whom he had worked on a cover of Neu!’s “Super” for the seminal Krautrock band’s box set. He and the band knocked out the songs live, workshopped in front of live audiences while Man Man toured, in 5 days and then hashed out other sonic ideas over the coming months. “I wanted things to be loose. My intention was just to knock it all out,” he says. He even recorded more than a few of the single-track vocals while reclining on a couch. “It’s pretty wild,” he says — “because, you know, it wasn’t actually wild at all. It was the first time I wasn’t sequestered in an isolation booth, extensive baffling keeping me apart from the rest of the music. Something about being in the mixing room, tracking vocals, songs blasting out of the monitors that just felt perfect for this particular album.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e“Odyssey” considers Kattner’s transformation, his newly defined sense of self that distinguishes his outsize stage persona from the thoughtful, soulful guy he actually is. Before surmounting this identity crisis, he frequently faced bouts of severe depression and imposter syndrome. “I first got into music to escape from myself,” he says. “And now, it sounds so corny, but I have zero doubt that music ended up saving my life.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSo when you hear him croon on tracks such as the wistful meditation on humility “Mulholland Drive” or the cheeky-tableau “Cryptoad”, you’re actually hearing Kattner liberate himself. “Take me home,” he sings on the latter. ”This party sucks.” It’s his favorite song on the album. “I didn’t want to make an overtly heavy record. The world already has too much heaviness,” he explains. “We're teetering on the brink of fascism, the planet is boiling, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria.  We don’t need to have another album that points that out with every breath.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e“On a cellular level, I'm not even the same person I was on my last album. This time around, I didn't want to overthink it, or beat myself up too much about it,” he continues. “I think I spent the first 15 years of playing music, wanting to quit every day. And now…it just feels like a gift.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Man Man","offers":[{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":40409574801504,"sku":"715500","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":40409574834272,"sku":"715502","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40409574867040,"sku":"715506","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/files\/ManMan_CarrotOnString_MockUP_LPv1_2000x1417_f51f6809-d68e-4989-8009-9e7ed3fbaf77.jpg?v=1712253581"},{"product_id":"loma_how-will-i-live-without-a-body","title":"How Will I Live Without a Body?","description":"\u003cp\u003e“this is how it starts\u003cbr\u003eto move again”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJanuary 2023, Dorset. Snow is piled at the door, icy roads are closed, and Emily Cross is in a coffin. Not a setting typical for a rebirth. But for Loma, this is where they bring their band back from the brink.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“It's like a demon enters the room, whenever we get together”, writer, singer and instrumentalist Cross says of the struggle to bring new Loma music into the world. Following the release of their 2020 second album Don’t Shy Away, Loma’s three members were cast around the globe and the band—not for the first time—entered a deep sleep. Multi-instrumentalist and recording engineer Dan Duszynski remained in his studio in Don’t Shy Away’s central Texas heart, but Cross, a UK citizen, moved to Dorset, and writer and instrumentalist Jonathan Meiburg left the US for Germany to research a book. In the pandemic years, even being in the same room was impossible, and attempts to start a new record faltered.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"We got lost,\" admits Meiburg, \"and stayed that way for a long time.” The trio's personal lives diverged, and remote sessions didn't gel; a post-pandemic reunion in Texas was cut to a few frustrating days by an illness, and a pile of half-finished tracks was an unruly mess. The following winter, in an attempt to salvage the record and the band, Cross suggested they regroup in the UK, in the tiny stone house—once a coffin-maker’s workshop—where she works as an end-of-life doula. With minimal recording gear and few instruments, Loma turned two whitewashed rooms into a makeshift studio, using a padded coffin as a vocal booth.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt was a turning point. \"There was a sense of, well, this is it,\" Meiburg recalls. \"And I had my doubts, especially when that ice storm swept in; I thought, here we go again.  But sitting in our heavy coats around a little electric radiator, we realized how much we'd missed each other—and that just being together was precious.”  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThey scrapped much of what they'd made, letting a new place set a new course. The first two Loma albums feature the sounds of Texan animals and landscapes, and the one-lane roads, hedgerows and dark skies of Dorset gave the new songs an ineffable but unmistakable Englishness. The band used the ruin of a 12th-century chapel as a reverb chamber—surprising hillwalkers who peeked in to find them singing to no one—and the sounds of Cross’s chilly workshop wormed their way into the recording: a leaky pipe, a drummer’s brushes on a metal lampshade, the voices left on an ancient answering machine.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat emerged was How Will I Live Without A Body?: a gorgeous, unique, and oddly comforting album about partnership, loss, regeneration, and fighting the feeling that we're all in this alone. Many of its songs have a feeling of restless motion; faceless characters drift through meetings and partings, tangling together and slipping away. ‘I Swallowed A Stone’ is like a nightmare with a happy ending; ‘How It Starts’ and ‘Broken Doorbell’ reflect on the challenge (and necessity) of wrestling with agoraphobia.  Though the record nods to the trio’s separate lives— a German percussion ensemble, a pair of Texan owls, and the surf at Chesil Beach make guest appearances—the core of Loma's sound remains intact: earthy, organic and deeply human, anchored by Cross's cool, clear voice.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMost artists want their records to be listened to as a whole. But with Loma, it’s particularly rewarding, and How Will I Live Without A Body? reveals itself more with every listen. Songs that begin as riddles swim into focus when listened to in sequence; images return and interact in unexpected ways, and something like a narrative begins to form. It’s also a record of two distinct halves. A compelling sense of wandering engulfs the A-side, as the trudging progress of opener ‘Please, Come In’ staggers and sways through succeeding tracks to the album’s centerpiece, ‘How It Starts’—which gathers strength and purpose, flooding the B-side with a hope that embraces darkness without surrendering to it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLoma’s previous album, Don’t Shy Away, was galvanised by the unexpected encouragement (and eventual contributions) of Brian Eno. This time, they found inspiration in another hero, Laurie Anderson, who offered a chance to work with an AI trained on her entire body of work. Meiburg sent her a photo from his book-in-progress about the once and future life of Antarctica; Anderson’s AI responded with two haunting poems. “We used parts of them in a few songs,” he says. “And then Dan noticed that one of its lines, “How will I live without a body?” would be a perfect name for the album, since we nearly lost sight of each other in the recording process.” Anderson, Meiburg adds, was happy for the band to use the title. “I think she was tickled that her AI doppelganger is running around naming other people’s records.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan id=\"docs-internal-guid-06c8be0d-7fff-04db-51fb-6e7c34d29bba\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut in the end, Loma’s efforts to reconnect with one another are the album's central focus: what do you owe a shared past, when everyone and everything has changed? “Making this record tested us all,” says Duszynski. “I think that feeling was alchemized through the music.”  Alchemized, because How Will I Live Without A Body? is by no means a stressed-out record: an undercurrent of deep calm runs through it. “Somehow, out of the chaos, we made something that sounds very relaxed,” Cross notes, mystified. But maybe ‘relaxed’ isn’t the right word. It’s more like a feeling of relief, of making it through a tough journey together. “I've never run a marathon,” Cross says. “But I can imagine it's kind of what that feels like.” This is how it starts, to move again.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Loma","offers":[{"title":"Loser (color) LP","offer_id":40606021353568,"sku":"714740","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":40606021386336,"sku":"714742","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":40606021419104,"sku":"714746","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/1882\/9920\/files\/Loma_HWILWAB_MockUp_LP_US_2000x1417_ec90ab9c-f3d7-4702-bae4-e70678207f89.jpg?v=1712878284"}],"url":"https:\/\/megamart.subpop.com\/collections\/format-loser-color-lp\/downtown-boys.oembed","provider":"Sub Pop Mega Mart","version":"1.0","type":"link"}