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Aeon Station [Observatory] December 10 street date. Aeon Station's "Observatory" is an epic statement more than a decade in the making, with miles of timeless melodies and the kind of overpowering songwriting that will reaffirm your belief in life itself. Longtime Wrens member Kevin Whelan's first solo album draws heavily from the perseverance of the soul, resulting in rock music possessing an infectious and inspiring sonic uplift. If you're familiar with Whelan's past work, these ten tracks bear a certain and unmistakable familiarity - but they also mark an exciting new chapter in Whelan's musical career, as he steps out with more vulnerability than ever before. Whelan's scope of musical vision on "Observatory" is wide open and free with possibilities - at once recalling the reflective wisdom of Bruce Springsteen, Broken Social Scene's huge anthemic burn, and the Wrens' own pulsing-with-life take on rock music. First vinyl pressing on cloudy blue vinyl. |
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Boris [W (black)] January 21 street date. In an effort to sublimate the negative energy surrounding everyone in 2020, legendary Japanese post-rock band Boris focused all of their energy creatively and turned out the most extreme album of their long and widely celebrated career, "NO". The band self-released the album, desiring to get it out as quickly as possible but intentionally called the final track on the album "Interlude" with anticipation of a follow-up. The follow-up comes with "W", the band's debut album for their new label Sacred Bones Records. In contrast to the extreme sounds found on "NO", this new album whispers into the listener's ear with a trembling hazy sound meant to awaken sensation. On all of "W" Wata carries the lead vocal duties. In general the styles on the album range from noise to new age, as is typical with one of our generation's most dynamic and adventurous bands, but there is thread of melodic deliberation through each song that successfully accomplishes the band’s goal of eliciting deep sensation. Be it through epic sludgey riffs, angelic vocal reverberations or the seduction of their off-kilter percussion, Boris will have you fully under their spell. |
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Bria [Cuntry Covers Vol. 1 (EP)] December 10 street date. Bria is an intimate and incisive labour of love from multi-instrumentalists Bria Salmena and Duncan Hay Jennings, who have toured for years as members of Toronto four-piece FRIGS, whose 2018 debut "Basic Behaviour" was long-listed for the Polaris Music Prize. Making a mark in diverse genres from country to punk, both play as permanent members of Orville Peck’s band. Catapulted by a deep sense of dread and confusion in the depths of 2020, Salmena decided to forgo writing her own music. "I wanted to listen for what might reflect my life back to me", she says, "six tracks that could be my mirror". The result is a pointillistic knockout of an EP that weaves a landscape both luscious and a little rogue; showing us exactly what good songs can do. "Cuntry Covers Vol. 1" houses it all: well-worn favourites and lesser-known gems from Karen Dalton, John Cale, Waylon Jennings, The Walker Brothers, Lucinda Williams, and Mistress Mary. First vinyl pressing is on opaque light blue vinyl. |
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DVR [Dirty Tapes] January 14 street date. ‘dirty tapes’ is the debut EP from dvr on XL Recordings. Over the last year, dvr has gone from a 16-year-old from North Berwick in Scotland on the hunt for a cracked copy of Ableton to an artist collaborating with Kenny Beats. The prodigious singer, songwriter and producer self-released tape_01 and thru the city single in 2020, and u can call me dillon EP of demos in early 2021. These quickly became a viral success, racking up millions of streams and seeing him gain fans in Snoop Dogg, FINNEAS, Omar Apollo, Joy Orbison, and Clara Amfo who said of him "dvr - a name that is going to be everywhere in the coming years". |
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El Michels Affair [The Abominable EP (indie exclusive-yeti baby blue)] November 26 street date. El Michels Affair follows up the success of their full length "Yeti Season" with "The Abominable EP", a collection of unreleased tracks, alternate takes, and instrumentals from the "Yeti Season" recording sessions. EMA's blending their signature cinematic soul sound with influences from Turkish Funk and the grittiest of Bollywood soundtracks yielded an instant classic The Fader calls "a carnival of dusty funk and soul". The EP starts off with the unreleased gem "Messy Grass" whose synth intro, peppered with distant yeti cries, gives way to a tremendous backing track that Tamer Pinarbasi’s Qanun dances over. On "Cham Cham", EMA invites Piya Malik to the microphone again to share her styled storytelling vocals over the instrumental track from "Yeti Season"'s "Perfect Harmony". Where some of the tunes on the EP have vocals added, some of them have them removed letting the band take center stage, giving them a wholly different energy than the vocal versions. The EP is being released with two different covers. Covers are at random. |
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Fu Manchu [A Look Back: Dogtown & Z Boys (2LP-coloured/one side etched)] Please note new street date: January 28. "A Look Back: DogTown & Z-Boys" is the first short documentary by legendary artist/photographer Glen E. Friedman. The film looks back on an essential period in the history of skateboarding, but more directly on how the original award winning documentary affected the original surviving members of that influential team and what they thought about the original film itself, 20 years after its release. Fu Manchu provided the entire soundtrack for the film with the songs personally curated by Friedman. This official soundtrack recording release features all 9 tracks featured in the film in the order that they appear. The music spans the band's entire career from their 1994 debut album, "No One Rides For Free", to "Il Mostro Atomico" (featuring Alex Lifeson) from their most recent full length album, "Clone Of The Universe". This limited edition double LP run is pressed on one purple and one green vinyl and features an etching from legendary skater, Lance Mountain. |
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Fucked Up [David Comes To Life (2LP/Matador Revisionist History Edition)] December 10 street date. Limited 2LP 10th anniversary edition of Fucked Up's titanic 78-minute masterpiece, "David Comes to Life", on lightbulb-yellow vinyl. In 2011, Toronto's Fucked Up delivered an album that chafed the edges of punk rock's conceptual boundaries - a set of songs that splayed freely into unexpected instrumentation, psychedelic drift, and situationist philosophy. Its ambition was limitless and its run time opulent. Which is to say, they made a concept album. "David Comes To Life" is a story of lost love, global meltdown, depression, bombs, guilt and madness. Or is it? A modern-day morality tale set amid the dour backdrop of a British industrial town in the late 70s, it's a four-part play that follows the dark moods and inner psyche of the titular hero. At the same time, the reliability of the narrator gets called into question. The tables are turned, responsibility shifts, and the story goes meta. |
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Gendron, Myriam [Ma Delire - Songs of Love, Lost & Found (2LP)] January 14 street date.This is Myriam Gendron's first album since her 2014 critical success "Not so deep as a well" where she'd put Dorothy Parker's poems to music. The album is 1h15 long and features 15 songs of reinvented folklore, about half sung in English and half in french. Features Chris Corsano & Bill Nace and many fine Québec musicians. «L'un des plus beaux albums que j'ai écouté cette année» Benoît Poirier directeur musical CISM. «its 15 tracks cohere into a statement of astonishing power, making it one of 2021’s finest releases.» Joseph Neff, The Vinyl District. |
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Glenn-Copeland, Beverly [Keyboard Fantasies Reimagined] December 17 street date. In 1970, nine years after leaving the United States to study music in Canada, Beverly Glenn-Copeland released two self-titled albums. Both were a stunning showcase of classical and jazz acumen, layered with poetry and accompanied by some of the best players of the time. Original pressings now fetch thousands of dollars. Glenn-Copeland then vanished as a recording artist until his re-emergence in 1986 with the release (just a few hundred copies on cassette) of what many now believe to be his masterpiece, "Keyboard Fantasies". This seminal album just celebrated its 35th anniversary, and this new reimagining features indie all-stars from Bon Iver (with A Flock Of Dimes), Blood Orange, Joseph Shabason, Julia Holter, Arca, and more. |
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Jackson + Sellers [Breaking Point (+ poster)] December 10 street date (LP) / October 22 for CD. Introducing Jackson + Sellers and their debut album "Breaking Point". Jade Jackson and Aubrie Sellers are two rising stars who aligned during the pandemic to write one of the most compelling duo albums of the last decade. Drawn together by instant chemistry, cosmic forces and their ability to write intuitive romantic breakup songs for each other, their album is a window into the dissolution of two different relationships and the formation of another: a perfect, platonic, creative union. United in their desire to write a record that reflected their expansive musical interest from 70s rock to raucous roots to indie pop, their LA written, Nashville recorded album is a masterclass in unexpected vocal harmonic convergence. With "Breaking Point", Jackson + Sellers will establish themselves as two individual artists who together, share a deep friendship, musical kinship and the ability to craft tight singular pop rock songs that will embed themselves in your ears for the rest of time. |
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Lambchop [I Hope You're Sitting Down/Jack's Tulips (2LP)] December 10 street date. Back in 1994, when Lambchop first lurched lackadaisically into public view, they seemed to many people freakish, outlandish, destined at best for the pages of photocopied fanzines and the graveyard hours of specialist radio stations. A sprawling collective of Nashville musicians - eleven were credited on the sleeve of "I Hope You’re Sitting Down"/ "Jack's Tulips" - they'd named themselves after a sock puppet, inexplicably given their album two titles, and stuck a painting on the cover of a small, barefooted child holding a dog whose cock and balls are on proud display. Kurt Wagner - the artist behind that striking cover, as well as the group's soft-spoken singer, songwriter, and one of their guitarists, proceeded to offer further fleeting glimpses of a mysteriously intimate encounter, its unconventional details lingering long after the final note of lap steel guitar had faded. Disheveled yet tender, anarchic yet intricate, "I Hope You’re Sitting Down"/"Jack's Tulips" provided the springboard for a career - still ongoing, despite repeated reinventions, and still compelled by stubbornly freakish, outlandish intentions - during which Lambchop's ever-changing line-up has continued to confound expectations. |
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Long Blondes [Someone To Drive You Home (2LP/colour)] December 10 street date. Rough Trade Records are giddy - well, obviously! - to announce the release of the 15th anniversary edition of The Long Blondes debut album, the acclaimed ‘Someone To Drive You Home’. Originally released in November 2006 and produced by Pulp member Steve Mackey, this will come as a limited edition, double gatefold LP. Pressed on to red and yellow vinyl to mirror the album's artwork - a picture of actress Faye Dunaway also painted by Jackson - the edition will feature the original record, plus 11 additional tracks that the band used on B-sides. The home of a host of indie disco classics with its noir atmospheres and vivid storytelling - qualities that saw the record inspire recent, generation-capturing movie "Giddy Stratospheres" which takes its name from The Long Blondes' iconic single - the Sheffield band's first album managed that rare trick of capturing the 2000s zeitgeist while leaving a timeless artistic mark for the ages. |
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Lumineers [Brightside] January 14 street date. Multi-platinum selling GRAMMY nominated band The Lumineers are back with their highly anticipated fourth album, "Brightside". Coming off the success of their darkly cinematic third album "III", Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites' latest work features their ever-more sophisticated songwriting and arranging, with production from longtime producer and friend Simone Felice. The lead single and title track "Brightside" sets off the album with an anthemic bang, touching on themes of love and American life and featuring the foot-stomping, arena filling sound the band has become beloved for worldwide. |
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Maidza, Tkay [Last Year Was Weird Vol. 3] December 10 street date. ARIA and BET nominated artist, Tkay Maidza has announced the highly anticipated follow up to 2020's breakout "Last Year Was Weird, Vol. 2", which earned the #1 Best EP of the Year nod from The Needle Drop. "Last Year Was Weird, Vol. 3" completes Tkay's trilogy and will feature eight new songs produced by longtime collaborator Dan Farber. Tkay recently wrapped a stratospheric 2020 that propelled the Zimbabwe-born, Australia-raised artist to new heights. From billboards in Times Square, to features in Pitchfork and Vogue and a placement on the FIFA Soundtrack, her "Last Year Was Weird, Vol. 2" EP presented a compelling new stride for the young artist whose craft spans genres. |
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Men I Trust [Untourable Album (LP)] December 10 street date. With layered synths and rich bass tones that feel simultaneous full-bodied and feather-light, Untourable Album is a meticulously made album that is perfect for late-night headphone listening. At 13 songs and 37 minutes, Untourable Album is around half the length of 2019's sprawling Oncle Jazz. "Untourable Album is smooth and subtle, with slow tempos and reverb-kissed melodies that will sound great on a playlist of mood music. But with such beautiful keyboard tones and intricately woven guitar melodies, this is an album worth getting immersed in." - Exclaim! |
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Mouth Congress [Waiting For Henry] December 10 street date. Mouth Congress - friends Paul Bellini and Scott Thompson of Kids In The Hall fame - wrote and recorded hundreds of songs in the 1980s without ever putting out a proper release. Alongside various cohorts and conspirators, the band drew on their experiences as gay men to craft hilariously crude punk songs that run the gamut of strange characters and taboo subject matter. Their rag tag approach to songwriting blended various styles from noisy punk to lo-fi new wave and DIY disco, all with a very gay bent. Without trying, they were surprisingly cutting edge. In 2011, Paul dug out an old VHS tape of one of Mouth Congress's live shows. The sight of one of the Kids in the Hall covered in sweat, writhing on stage like Iggy Pop, was something he felt comedy fans might enjoy seeing. Naturally, Scott agreed and they uploaded everything - over 600 recordings - onto Bandcamp. One day in 2019, Mike Sniper of Captured Tracks stumbled upon the Bandcamp page, got in touch with Paul and Scott, and suggested assembling a compilation of the best recordings to be officially released for the very first time. So Paul and Scott chose 30 songs to share with the world and that's how we got the first Mouth Congress compilation, "Waiting for Henry". |
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New Pornographers [Mass Romantic (red vinyl + bonus 7")] December 10 street date. Matador Records celebrates the 21st anniversary of The New Pornographers' debut record and breakout, "Mass Romantic", with a limited-edition LP reissue. The album - clocking three singers and 12 effervescent and undeniable power-pop gems - will return to us on red vinyl and will include a bonus 7", "Letter From An Occupant", which includes two rare B-sides, "The End of Medicine" and "When I Was a Baby". What's more, The New Pornographers will tour the U.S. and Canada this fall playing a series of two-night stands - performing "Mass Romantic" in its entirety on the first night and running down the equally outstanding "Twin Cinema" (2005) on the next. Throughout this trip, the band's lineup will feature AC Newman, Dan Bejar, Joe Seiders, John Collins, Kathryn Calder, Neko Case, and Todd Fancey. |
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Pelgag, Klo [L'Etoile Thoracique] December 10 street date. NOW AVAILABLE ON CD. KLÔ PELGAG is a renowned singer-songwriter who shares her quirky, authentic world with the public. Her sophomore effort, 2016's "L'étoile thoracique" was a massive success in Quebec. She won four Félix awards at the Gala de l'ADISQ in 2017: Alternative Album of the Year, Album of the Year - Critics' Choice, Singer-Songwriter of the Year, and Record Producer of the Year. The album made the long list of the Polaris Music Prize in 2017, and was nominated at the JUNO Awards the following year. Additionally, she won the prestigious Prix Félix-Leclerc, as well as the Prix de la chanson SOCAN for her song "Ferrofluides-fleurs". In 2018, she was crowned Female Artist of the Year at the Gala de l'ADISQ. 6 panel digipak edition including a poster and a 16 page booklet. |
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Pollard, Robert [From A Compound Eye (2LP)] December 17 street date. Double vinyl gatefold reissue of Guided By Voices frontman Robert Pollard's most celebrated solo album, previously released in 2006 on Merge Records. "From A Compound Eye" was Pollard's first solo album after dissolving Guided By Voices in 2004. When things came to an end for GBV, Pollard promised that this would not mean the end of his songwriting and recording career. It actually provided a fresh start. Leaving his band behind allowed him to record when he wanted and what he wanted, with whomever he wanted. Chock full of fantastic songs including "Dancing Girls and Dancing Men", "I'm a Widow", "Love Is Stronger Than Witchcraft", and "I'm A Strong Lion". |
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Sixx: A.M. [HITS (2LP-translucent red with black smoke)] December 3 street date. "HITS" is the ultimate Sixx: A.M. collection, featuring their first new song in six years and one that compliments Nikki Sixx's new book, "The First 21". The collection also features two more unreleased tracks and new mixes of "Talk to Me", " Skin" and the iconic "Life is Beautiful". Sixx: A.M. was formed in 2007 by Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx, renowned guitarist DJ Ashba, and producer/songwriter James Michael, and has had 3 US top 20 albums. |
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Sumney, Moses [Live From Blackalachia (2LP-black)] December 10 street date. "Live from Blackalachia" is a live album and movie composed of dynamic band arrangements from Moses Sumney's first 2 albums. It was recorded in the Blue Ridge Mountains in the summer of 2020, on a stage built on a hill nestled within a 72-acre ranch. In January 2020, Moses Sumney and band gathered in Western North Carolina to design festival-ready versions of songs from "Aromanticism" and "græ". After the world shut down and tour was canceled, Moses maintained a desire to share the show, but in a new way. Not just a live stream or recording. A film. A concert film. So in the summer of 2020, the band re-convened in Asheville, and designed the show for "Live From Blackalachia". Moses directed the conceptual concert film, and decided to release it in both audio and visual formats. |
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Sunset Rubdown [Shut Up I Am Dreaming (pearl coloured)] December 10 street date. Originally released in 2006 on Absolutely Kosher Records, "Shut Up I Am Dreaming" is the first full-band effort from Montreal's Sunset Rubdown, a project previously reserved for the solo experiments of Wolf Parade's Spencer Krug. Alongside Michael Doerksen (guitar), Jordan Robson-Cramer (drums, keys, guitar), and Camilla Wynne-Ingr (keys, percussion, vocals), Krug and his new band recorded the songs in just five days with the help of engineers Jace Lasek and Dave Smith at Breakglass Studios. Though met with praise by fans and critics alike, placing 15th on Pitchfork's Top 50 Albums of 2006, "Shut Up I Am Dreaming" was never made available on LP. Now, fifteen years later, Krug is having the album pressed to vinyl via his own tiny record label, Pronounced Kroog. Remastered for vinyl at Greymarket Mastering by Harris Newman (the same engineer who mastered the original), and with original cover art by Matt Moroz reformatted for LP jacket, this first-ever pressing of a now cult classic will be available in December. |
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V/A [Lenny Kaye Presents Lightning Striking (2CD)] Please note new street date: December 17. Lenny Kaye's new book "Lightning Striking" is part history, part memoir and one hundred percent engaging from start to finish. It is not the generalist flip through rock's back pages, but instead surfs the flashpoints of inception and development that have lightning-struck Lenny the most. Each section devours the history and excitement of specific moments in rock 'n' roll evolution, and with chapter headers such as "Memphis 1954", "Detroit 1969", or "Seattle 1991", the thrust of "Lightning Striking" is unequivocally, unapologetically concerned with rock 'n' roll in its most basic and thrilling incarnations. In collaboration with Ace's Alec Palao, Lenny has also assembled an original soundtrack to "Lightning Striking"; the perfect playlist to spin whilst one peruses the pages. Like the book, it is a mixture of the familiar but essential and the fascinatingly unpredictable: in other words, not dissimilar to Kaye's curatorial triumph of yore "Nuggets", the compilation that established the garage rock genre. The earliest entry here is the Boswell Sisters' 1934 prophetic ‘Rock And Roll’, the most recent ‘Gimme Chocolate!!‘ by hard rock/J-Pop hybrid Babymetal. In-between we hear a nuanced selection of the finest vintage R&B, pop, psychedelia, punk rock and heavy metal, from an intriguingly diverse selection of bedfellows. |
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World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid [Illusory Walls (2LP)] December 3 street date (LP) / October 8 (CD). Sometimes, the best place to begin is at the end. If you really want to dig deep into "Illusory Walls", the fourth album by The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die, it definitely helps to do that. That's because epic closer "Fewer Afraid" - all 19 minutes, 44 seconds of it - doesn't just revisit the themes and ideas on the ten songs that precede it, but also offers a self-aware summary of the Connecticut band's entire history. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the band had nothing but time to realize the full extent of their musical and thematic aspirations. And so, four years on from lauded third album "Always Foreign", they were able to make what is undoubtedly the band's most ambitious and epic record to date. "Illusory Walls" takes on the weight of human existence while it's buckling under the pressure of today's near-dystopian society. Personal anxieties and political struggles collide with a series of portentous, apocalyptic and dramatic tunes, resulting in some of the darkest music the band has made since forming in 2009. |
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Due to heavy order volume going into the holiday season, it's crucial to send orders as early as possible. We will do our best to accommodate requests but some delays are to be expected, and with couriers at over capacity, delivery dates cannot be guaranteed. We appreciate your patience and understanding in these uncertain times. Stay safe and well! Please note: For the safety of our staff and our community, we continue to work in a limited capacity so that we can follow physical distancing protocols. |
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