CIMS In The Groove
2019 release. Unbridled joy springs eternal from Halfway Home by Morning. Recorded live off the floor in Nashville, Tennessee, celebrated songwriter Matt Andersen's tenth album collects all the essential elements for a down-home ramble and shoots them through with enough electrifying energy to drive the rock 'n' roll faithful to simmer, shimmy, and shake. Over it's lucky 13 tracks, he explores every facet of his sound-sweat-soaked soul, incendiary rhythm and blues, heartbroken folk, and gritty Americana-and binds them together with palpable heart, as the band leaves everything they've got on the sweet old hardwood of the Southern Ground studio, in the same spot that legends like Neil Young, Emmylou Harris, and Jerry Lee Lewis turned up the volume 'til it couldn't go up anymore. Halfway Home by Morning is the sound of an artist doing what he was born to do.
My Finest Work Yet finds Bird grappling with themes of current day dichotomies and how to identify a moral compass amidst such divisive times. “I’m interested in the idea that our enemies are what make us whole—there’s an intimacy one shares with their opponent when locked in such a struggle. If we were to just walk away would our enemies miss us? How did we get to this point and how can we, through awareness of it, maybe pull ourselves out of this death spiral,” says Bird.
I Prevail return to dominate the rock & alternative world with their second full-length album ‘TRAUMA’ set to release March 29th on Fearless Records. Produced by Tyler Smyth (Falling In Reverse) this album continues to expand upon the band’s style, entrancing hooks, and powerful music breakdowns & features guest appearances from female vocalist Delaney Jane & hip hop artist Justin Stone. Leading the way with dual singles - a moving “Breaking Down” & hard-hitting “Bow Down” - the band will embark on a year’s worth of worldwide festival appearances, headlining tour dates, and stadium worthy rock shows this spring.
4-panel gatefold wallet
When Ex Hex exploded onto the scene with their unfettered brand of rock and riffage, the power trio for our generation had finally arrived. Made up of Mary Timony (guitar, vocals), Betsy Wright (bass, vocals), and Laura Harris (drums), the group’s 2014 debut Rips was a gleaming collection of tightly wound gems that scored Best New Music honors from Pitchfork, the top spot on Magnet Magazine’s Best of 2014 list, and No. 11 in that year’s Pazz & Jop critics poll. Near-constant touring throughout 2015 and 2016 established the band as a force to be reckoned with: an audacious three-piece distilling rock music to its essence with formidable skills and a reputation for frenzied and unabashedly fun live shows.
On It’s Real, the group’s forthcoming second album, Ex Hex’s commitment to larger-than-life riffs and unforgettable hooks remains intact, but the garage-y, post-punk approach that defined Rips has grown in scale and ambition. What started as a reaction to the blown-out aesthetic of Rips would test the sonic limits of the power trio and lead the band on a quest for a more immersive and three-dimensional sound. Vocal harmonies are layered ten tracks deep, solos shimmer and modulate atop heaving power chords, and the codas linger and stretch toward new frontiers of sound. On first listen, you might think you’ve unearthed a long-lost LP carved from the space where crunch-minded art rock and glitter-covered hard rock converge, an event horizon at the intersection of towering choruses and swaggering guitars.
As with 2012's engrossing Mr. M and 2016's staggering FLOTUS, Kurt Wagner's openness to unexpected collaborators to give his thoughts and feelings the shape they need was central to the creation of This (is what I wanted to tell you). In the summer of 2017, Wagner re-met Matthew McCaughan, who has spent the last decade drumming for the likes of Bon Iver and Hiss Golden Messenger. McCaughan told Wagner he had been adventuring inside the world of rack-mounted analogue synthesizers and asked if Wagner might send some vocals to which he could compose. They became instant musical pen pals, with Wagner sending him a cappella takes of new song ideas and McCaughan dispatching long-form synthesizer pieces for inspiration. McCaughan eventually headed to Nashville, where, together, they put a band behind the songs, using pedal steel and piano and the harmonica of Nashville legend Charlie McCoy to color in the spaces of these black-and-white sketches.
In 2019 the legendary US band Kiss will bring their pyro-loving, make up-wearing, guitar-shredding live show to the world! It's KISSWORLD Kiss, America's #1 Gold Record Award winning group of all time in every category, have a stunning catalogue of rock n roll classics. "KISSWORLD - The Best OF Kiss" brings 20 of their best loved tracks together on one album. Iconic fan favorites such as "I Was Made For Lovin' You", "Rock And Roll All Nite", "Detroit Rock City" and others in one huge collection.
Steve Earle was nineteen and had just hitchhiked from San Antonio to Nashville in 1974. Back then if you wanted to be where the best songwriters were you had to be in there. Guy Clark had moved to Nashville and if you were from Texas, Guy Clark was king.
Flash forward more than forty years. In the fall of 2018, Steve and The Dukes went into House Of Blues studio in Nashville and recorded GUY in six days. 'I wanted it to sound live...When you've got a catalog like Guy's and you're only doing sixteen tracks, you know each one is going to be strong.'
Earle and his current, perhaps best-ever Dukes lineup, take on these songs with a spirit of reverent glee and invention. But in the end GUY leads the listener back to its beginning, namely Guy Clark, which is what any good 'tribute' should do. GUY is a saga of friendship, its ups and downs, what endures. We are lucky that Earle remembers and honors these things, because like old friends, GUY is a diamond.
Nashville s Free Throw return with the new full length What's Past Is Prologue. It's the follow up to the critically-acclaimed sophomore LP Bear Your Mind. Fader proclaimed 'Free Throw do emo right, pure feeling and no whining.' and The A.V. Club called it 'pop-punk drenched in throat-shredding emotion with a side of shimmery, arpeggiated guitar' The band spent most of the last year touring and sharing stages with Trophy Eyes, Real Friends, Pet Symmetry, Boston Manor and more. The band will start 2019 off by Supporting The Wonder Years throughout Europe and will be hitting the road in the states with label mates Tiny Moving Parts right after the release of the new record
2019 release. Rattlesnake is the fourth studio album from The Strumbellas, a six-piece collective who rocketed to success with the breakthrough hit "Spirits". For the group, which consists of Simon Ward (lead vocals/guitar), David Ritter (keys), Jeremy Drury (percussion), Isabel Ritchie (strings), Jon Hembrey (guitar) and Darryl James (bass), Rattlesnake marks a stylistic turn from their melancholy, introspective releases. While staying true to their roots, the band has delivered us an album that elicits the feelings of joy and the promise of hope.
With a career spanning two decades and 11 releases, L.A. hip hop duo People Under the Stairs bid farewell with their final LP. Their unique style is on full display; lyrically dense spliced with vintage boom bap. Self produced, self recorded and NO features but with multiple instrumentalists to supplement their trademark dusty breaks. Gatefold CD in case with artwork by @drewtoonz
Weezer (The Black Album) was produced by TV On The Radio's Dave Sitek, with whom the band worked for the first time. The album's songs were entirely written on piano by frontman Rivers Cuomo for the first time in Weezer history, creating some of the most satisfyingly awesome songs in the entire hits-filled Weezer catalogue. With band members switching up instruments in the studio, and choruses filtered through Sitek's own encyclopedic musical references of everything from Gorillaz to Can to Pink Floyd, Weezer (The Black Album) is the bold next step in the winning streak of acclaimed albums they've released since 2014.
Now with over a billion streams of his music globally and being named Billboard’s “Chart-Breaker” in October, Deanhas topped local and international charts with ‘Be Alright’. The single was announced last week by ARIAas the fourth highest selling single in Australia and the second highest selling single from an Australian artist in 2018. Achieving GOLD certification by RIAA in the USA in December‘Be Alright’ is still charging up the charts hitting Top 40 at Billboard.
Having ended 2018 on a high note with the announcement of her fourth solo album On The Line—to be released March 22nd on Warner Bros. Records—Jenny Lewis has now unleashed the first taste of her highly anticipated return with the first single, “Red Bull & Hennessy
Following hot on the heels of 2018’s Sparkle Hard comes Groove Denied, the rejected album Stephen has been telling everyone about. Groove Denied was written in Berlin and Oregon between Malkmus’ soundtrack to the Netflix series Flaked and Sparkle Hard. It finds Stephen in a playful, exploratory mode – recorded by himself in Oregon; Malkmus plays bass, organ, drum machines, a Roland 2080 and a Memorymoog alongside other instruments interspersed with loops and vocal effects. His first album as a solo artist since 2001, Groove Denied is a fine companion to Sparkle Hard, echoing the experimentation (Auto-Tune, genre-dabbling) found there.
The stars aligned and the strawberry moon coincided with the 2016 summer solstice. Our recording session felt like a potluck dinner - a group of interesting new friends convened and marveled at what was brought to the table. Oh, a gut-string banjo and a clarinet? Check out this Mississippi bamboo cane fife and funky beats. Is it ok if I sing this harmony? Wow, listen to how our voices blend together.The music came together and flowed organically, as did the band name. The Sisters of the Strawberry Moon passed the mic, family style, backing each other up with sympathy and empathy, enjoying their new found chemistry. With instruments as ingredients and songs as recipes, the Sisters of the Strawberry Moon stirred up lovely new concoctions as well as fresh interpretations of family heirloom songs we hold dear. We believe music is a celebration of life and folk music an expression of community and family, and Solstice is an artifact of our new friendship and musical fellowship.
Led by vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter Jay Farrar, Son Volt became one of the leading bands in the alternative country community, attracting critical praise and an audience that was loyal if not always large. Farrar has collaborated with Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie), Steven Drozd (The Flaming Lips), Jeff Tweedy (Wilco) and several other well respected artists / musicians. Their upcoming album Union will be the bands 10th studio album mixes present and past into strong confluence.The thirteen new songs written by Farrar confront our turbulent politics and articulate the clarity and comfort music can offer in the tumult.
La Dispute is five close friends from the Upper Midwest with a firm passion for the concept of music and art as a medium for making new friends. As a result, La Dispute makes (or strives to make) music that is both artistically, technically, and emotionally engaging in hopes of establishing legitimate connections with any and all interested people, while encouraging dialogue between those people and themselves about things in life that truly matter and that truly last. La Dispute also carries a firm passion for the relevance of a live show, both for the bands involved and for the people in attendance, and will go to the grave believing that the environment created when strangers come together despite their differences to celebrate one important thing is invaluable and should not under any circumstances be taken for granted.
Hailed as one of the most prodigious guitarists of his generation, Julian Lage has spent more than a decade searching through the myriad strains of American musical history via impeccable technique, free association and a spirit of infinite possibility. 'Love Hurts' which marks Lage's third Mack Avenue LP recorded with a trio and his first to feature bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Dave King (The Bad Plus) sees the GRAMMY® Award-nominated guitarist exploring the American song catalog from a truly unique vantage point, performing music written by a range of audacious and original artists, from Roy Orbison to Ornette Coleman, Jimmy Giuffre to David Lynch. Progressive yet somehow timeless, 'Love Hurts' reveals new facets of Lage's approach while truly demonstrating his avowed belief in simple human interaction and spontaneous creative communication. As he has throughout his already remarkable career, Julian Lage has once more built a musical bridge all his own, linking tradition and history with the characteristically American spirit of invention and adventure.