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Bibi Club [Le Soleil Et La Mer] August 26 street date. Like a song through an open window, it feels like we've been waiting a long time for "Le soleil et la mer". The debut release by Bibi Club, aka real-life lovers Adèle Trottier-Rivard and Nicolas Basque, is sun-kissed and wave-washed, shimmering and chic, a party overdue after two years that have felt (to everyone!) like winter. Adèle has been singing for others for years, notably with Nico's band, Plants and Animals, but "Le soleil et la mer" stunningly and confidently reveals the extent of her skills. Bibi Club effortlessly moved from home to the stage, with infectiously easygoing, fun-loving charm. You can immediately feel this euphoria on the album, which quickly makes you forget about the worries of the daily grind. It's summertime, come out and dance! Throughout "Le soleil et la mer", Adèle and Nico set out to create music that is intimate, honest, sparkling with an energy that animates even its quiet moments - and inspired by artists as diverse as Stereolab, Suicide, Alice Coltrane, and Tirzah. It's a sound as ready for revels as it is for rainy days. Bibi Club will remind you: if it's not sunny here, it's sunny somewhere. |
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Built To Spill [When The Wind Forgets Your Name (black)] September 9 street date. Since the band's inception in 1992, Built To Spill founder Doug Martsch intended his beloved band to be a collaborative project, an ever-evolving group of musicians making music and playing live together. Following several albums and EPs on Pacific Northwest independent labels, Martsch signed with Warner Brothers from 1995 to 2016. He and his rotating cast of cohorts recorded six more great studio albums during that time, along with a live album, and a solo record, "Now You Know". While the band's impeccable recorded catalog is the entry point, Built To Spill live is an essential force of its own: heavy, psychedelic, melodic, and visceral tunes blaring from amps that sound as if they're powered by Mack trucks. Now in 2022, Built To Spill returns with "When The Wind Forgets Your Name", Martsch's unbelievably great new album (and his eighth full-length)... with a fresh new label. Alongside Built To Spill's poetic lyrics and themes, the experimentation and attention to detail produces an album full of unique, vivid, and timeless sounds, from guitar-driven rock odes to R.E.M. and Dinosaur Jr to bluesy 60s-style anthems to dub-reggae-inspired instrumentation. |
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Codeine [Dessau (black)] Please note new street date: September 2. After the success of Codeine's "Frigid Stars" LP, the trio of Stephen Immerwahr, John Engle, and Chris Brokaw booked time at Harold Dessau Recording in June 1992 to track an eight-song sophomore album. A few days and a couple of unexplainable high-pitched frequencies later, the record was scrapped, shelved, and forgotten about. Brokaw left the band shortly after, and these songs were re-tracked in various iterations for Codeine's final LP. On its 30th anniversary, Numero has unearthed these recordings, restoring the original "White Birch" to the band's exacting standards with producer Mike McMackin. A slowcore masterpiece hidden in plain sight. |
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Donnelly, Stella [Flood (black)] August 26 street date. Like the many banded stilts that spread across the cover of her newest album "Flood", Stella Donnelly is wading into uncharted territory. Here, she finds herself discovering who she is as an artist among the flock, and how abundant one individual can be. "Flood" is Donnelly's record of this rediscovery: the product of months of risky experimentation, hard moments of introspection, and a lot of moving around. Donnelly accumulated 43 tracks as she moved around Australia, often finding herself displaced due to border restrictions, a tough rental market, and once from the joys of finding black mould in the walls. While each song on "Flood" is a singular artwork unto itself, the collective shares all of Stella Donnelly in abundance: her inner child, her nurturing self, her nightmare self; all of herself has gone into the making of this record, and although it would take an ocean to fathom everything she feels, it's well worth diving in. |
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Elfman, Danny [Bigger. Messier.] August 12 street date. Following his triumphant performances at the 2022 Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Danny Elfman delivers "Bigger. Messier.", an ambitious double album collection of remixed and re-imagined tracks from his highly acclaimed "Big Mess" album. This sprawling 23 track collection features tracks reworked by some of the most groundbreaking and subversive artists around today. "Bigger. Messier." views the Grammy and Emmy Award-winning composers songs through the lens of luminaries from diverse sides of the music business, including Trent Reznor, Iggy Pop, Squarepusher, and Ghostemane. Elfman once again has achieved a kind of artistic liberation on the record that had been eluding him for decades, and connecting him to a brand new audience. |
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Esmerine [Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More (180g)] September 2 street date. Esmerine presents "Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More", its first album in five years, following a celebrated run of Juno Award winning and nominated records throughout the preceding decade. Founded by ex-Godspeed You! Black Emperor percussionist Bruce Cawdron and cellist Rebecca Foon (Saltland, Silver Mt Zion, Set Fire To Flames), the acclaimed instrumental music ensemble and has long embroidered emotive chamber works using threads of post-classical, post-rock, Minimalism, neo-Baroque, jazz, pop and a wide array of folk traditions. Esmerine conjures a distinctive and immediately identifiable sound that consistently defies the trappings of "fusion", forging emotive cinematic soundtracks under the overriding sonic sensibilities of postpunk grit, Wall-of-Sound, drone and dark ambient. Recorded by longtime co-producer Jace Lasek (The Besnard Lakes), the new album manifestly carries on in this fine tradition. |
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Five Finger Death Punch [AfterLife (indie exclusive/2LP-yellow)] August 19 street date. "AfterLife" is the ninth album from the Las Vegas-based metal band Five Finger Death Punch. The band has amassed over 8 billion streams and 3 billion video views to date and have sold over one million tickets between 2018 and 2020 alone. Afterlife features the singles "Welcome to the Circus", "IOU", and the title track. The band's longtime collaborator Kevin Churko helmed the producer duties of arguably their most diverse record to date. "AfterLife" implores fans to fight for their rights to be unapologetic and straightforward about their opinions. |
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Friendship [Love the Stranger (Peak Vinyl indie shop edition/colour)] July 29 street date. Friendship's Merge debut, "Love the Stranger", moves like a country record skipping in just the right spot, leaving its fellow travelers longing for a place they've only visited in their dreams. Guitarist Peter Gill, drummer Michael Cormier-O'Leary, bassist Jon Samuels, and hawkeyed balladeer Dan Wriggins map out the group's particular, breathtaking landscape and invite the listener to share in its glory. "Love the Stranger"'s invitation is all the more wondrous because its characters have clearly been hurt before. Wide awake, vulnerable, and gimmickless, Friendship won't hesitate to confide in us, or even ask for help when the moment calls. The record's images craft a symbolic language of high and low Americana, both evocative and consistently accessible. Spending time with "Love the Stranger" creates a community - one in which the window between the listener and the musicmaker shatters in full, until all that remains are the fragments you decide to pick up together. |
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GA-20 [Crackdown (black)] September 9 street date. GA-20 clearly is on to something big. It's a movement, a new traditional blues revival. The dynamic, throwback blues trio are disciples of the place where traditional blues, country and rock 'n' roll intersect. "We make records that we would want to listen to", says guitarist Matt Stubbs. "It's our take on the song-based traditional electric blues we love". Stubbs, guitarist/vocalist Pat Faherty, and drummer Tim Carman have been at the forefront of this traditional blues revival since they first formed in 2018. It's no wonder they skyrocketed to the top of the Billboard Blues Chart. On "Crackdown", GA-20's third full-length release, the band creates an unvarnished, ramshackle blues that is at once traditional and refreshingly modern. Expanding on their previous releases, GA-20 finds inspiration on the edges of the genre, where early electric blues first converged with country and rock 'n' roll. With tight, propulsive performances and a brevity and punk energy reminiscent of The Ramones, "Crackdown" is rowdy and fun, filled with instantly memorable, and well-crafted songs. |
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Jacklin, Julia [Pre Pleasure (white)] August 26 street date. "Pre Pleasure", the beautiful new full-length album from Australian native Julia Jacklin, finds the musician at her absolute peak, delivering ten of the most personal, raw, and devastating songs of her career. Featuring standouts such as "Lydia Wears A Cross", "Love, Try Not To Let Go", nd the driving "I Was Neon", the album is a clear portrayal of Jacklin's captivating strength as a lyricist, and her undeniable talents as one of the most gifted songwriters of the decade. |
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Jockstrap [I Love You Jennifer B] September 9 street date. London-based duo Jockstrap (Georgia Ellery and Taylor Skye) present their debut full-length record "I Love You Jennifer B". It's "a collection of tracks that have been 3 years in the making. Everything on it is pretty singular sounding so we hope there is a track on there for everyone and something that speaks to you and says ‘I'm a banger’", Skye adds. Jockstrap formed in 2017 after Georgia (also of Black Country, New Road) met Taylor at the Guildhall School Of Music & Drama where they were studying jazz and electronic composition respectively. Generally speaking their modus operandi has been to produce a spatially and temporally disrupted form of pop music, gleefully breaking apart existing styles only to expertly reassemble them, and at other times mint entirely fresh genres. The process and result has one definition: pure modern pop alchemy. With their debut 10-track album, "I Love You Jennifer B", they've cemented themselves as one of the most vital young groups to emerge from London's melting pot of musical cultures in years. On their first North American tour this fall, Jockstrap are slated to play Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver on Nov 24th, Nov 25th, and Dec 1st respectively. |
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Mccombs, Cass [Heartmind] August 19 street date. On "Heartmind", Cass McCombs enters the double-digit-album phase of his career, a quantitatively rari?ed place for any songwriter; rarer still, though, is the fact that he does not yet seem to have settled into a qualitative sound or pattern, of singing the same thought twice (or perhaps even once). There are, at least, some basic facts to share about "Heartmind", logistical evidence that may in turn shape your own questions: Cass recorded these songs in multiple sessions on both coasts, in Brooklyn and Burbank. The great Shahzad Ismaily not only cut the staggering "Unproud Warrior" and four others here but also played lots of bass. Buddy Ross tracked "New Earth", a paean of post-humanity renewal with several sharp wisecracks. Ariel Rechtshaid captured Cass' scintillating guitars on "Belong to Heaven", a thoughtful consideration of what we all lose when we lose an old friend to the inevitable end. The steadfast Rob Schnapf (who previously produced McCombs' ANTI- debut, "Mangy Love") mixed and merged it all. Wynonna Judd (yes, that one) offers harmonies, while her beau Cactus Moser provides some lap steel. Joe Russo, Kassa Overall, Danielle Haim, and Nestor Gomez are featured on the album, too. |
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Mountain Goats [Bleed Out (2LP/yellow w'OBI strip)] August 19 street date. In the depths of the pandemic end of 2020, Mountain Goats frontman John Darnielle passed the time trapped at home watching pulpy action movies, finding comfort in familiar tropes and sofabound escapism. French thrillers like 2008's "Mesrine", vintage Italian poliziotteschi, and the 1974 Donald Pleasence mad-scientist vehicle "The Freakmaker" brought him back to his formative days as an artist, when watching films fueled and soundtracked his songwriting jags and bare-bones home recordings, and in turn inspired his 20th album to be a song cycle about the allure - and futility - of vengeance. The resulting performance is "Bleed Out", a cinematic experience unto itself. One song about preparing to exact bloody revenge begat another song about the act of exacting bloody revenge and then more songs about and the causes and the aftermath of being driven to exact bloody revenge, each delivered with the urgency and desperation deserving of their narrators and circumstances. Darnielle was drawn to the antiheroes of the hard-boiled action flicks he was bingeing, particularly the ways in which their quests for justice were almost all inevitably doomed. |
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Of Montreal [Freewave Lucifer f September 9 street date. Over the course of the last two decades, of Montreal's creative force, Kevin Barnes, has been wowing fans with their vast catalog of endlessly fascinating pop and mesmerizing live shows. Barnes' songwriting and production aesthetic has since become iconic in the industry and has garnered massive critical acclaim in publications such as Rolling Stone, The New York Times, NPR, and Pitchfork, who described the band'’s album, "Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?" as "ceaselessly fascinating and inexhaustibly replayable", as well as ranking it as the #5 album of the year. Barnes' influence on pop music is undeniable, with multiple late night TV appearances as well as brilliant collaborations with the likes of Solange, Janelle Monáe, Jon Brion, and others. On of Montreal's latest album, "Freewave Lucifer f |
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Parkway Drive [Darker Still] September 9 street date. In the kitchen of the Byron Bay home of Winston McCall stands a refrigerator, adorned on one side by a quote from Tom Waits: "I want beautiful melodies telling me terrible things". This, the Parkway Drive vocalist says, is a pretty good summation of himself. It holds true, too, as one of the guiding principles behind "Darker Still", the seventh full-length album to be born of this picturesque and serene corner of northeastern NSW, Australia, and the defining musical statement to date from one of modern metal's most revered bands. "Darker Still", McCall says, is the vision he and his bandmates have held in their mind's eye since a misfit group of friends first convened in their parents' basements and backyards in 2003. The journey to reach this moment has seen Parkway evolve from metal underdogs to festival-headlining behemoth, off the back of close to 20 gruelling years, six critically and commercially acclaimed studio albums, three documentaries, one live album, and many, many thousands of shows. While "Darker Still" remains irrefutably Parkway Drive, it finds the band sonically standing shoulder to shoulder with rock and metal's greats as much as it does their metalcore contemporaries. |
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Pavement [Slanted And Enchanted (30th Anniversary/splatter)] August 12 street date. This year we celebrate 30 years of Pavement's debut full-length, "Slanted and Enchanted". First released by Matador Records on April 20, 1992, it remains a truly monumental album - one that defined/ruined a generation and a genre, depending on who you ask. To mark the occasion the iconic album is going to be reissued on limited red/white/black splattered vinyl. In their own way, Pavement changed the face of 1990s rock just as much as Nirvana, at least for those with an ear closer to the ground of the indie scene. In fact, they virtually defined the indie scene for that decade, and "Slanted and Enchanted" was the non-anthem of slacker rock. For years after its release, every hip indie band seemed to imitate their Fall-influenced, off-kilter sound and post-functional, obscurantist lyrical approach. Pavement are set to bring their unique brand of indie-rock back for 2 nights at Toronto's Massey Hall this September. |
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Real McKenzies [Float Me Boat (2LP)] August 19 street date. Vinyl edition now available! Founded in 1992 by the larger than life, Scottish punk-rock poet laureate, Mr. Paul McKenzie, Vancouver's merry band of miscreants has spent a quarter-century circumnavigating the globe to bring the McKenzies gospel to an ever-expanding throng of rebels and scallywags. There aren't many bands that can boast of a three-decade long year career as staggeringly adventurous, wildly tempestuous, and utterly death-defying as The Real McKenzies. "Float Me Boat" is the ultimate collection of kilt-twisting classics from The Real Mckenzies; comprised of 23 rousing refrains that perfectly encapsulate their 30 years as a band. Whether you're a McKenzie lifer or new to the game, these anthemic songs are sure to have you stomping your feet and hoisting a glass. |
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Sim, Oliver [Hideous Bastard] September 9 street date. The debut solo album from Oliver Sim - vocalist and bassist of The xx - "Hideous Bastard" is the culmination of two years of writing and recording, a love of queer horror movies, and lived experiences unpacking themes of shame, fear, and masculinity. Oliver is joined by bandmate Jamie xx, producing with an elegant touch, and Jimmy Somerville (Bronski Beat/Communards) features on guest vocals. Full of surreal pop sounds that escape into the ether and break free, "Hideous Bastard" is a bold and ambitious debut that sees Oliver explore his voice and capacity to evoke emotion, melding masculinity and tenderness, beauty with a baritone. |
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Tall Dwarfs [Unravelled: 1981-2002 (4LP)] August 19 street date. "Unravelled: 1981-2002" shines a loving light on lo-fi pioneers Tall Dwarfs, the prized New Zealand duo of Chris Knox and Alec Bathgate. The collection compiles songs from two decades of recordings. The vinyl edition includes a 20-page collector's booklet of photos, comics, posters, and other ephemera. Tall Dwarfs formed in 1981, opting to record themselves on a 4-track reel-to-reel. Tall Dwarfs was meant to be a one-off, but after the founding of their New Zealand label Flying Nun, they continued to record music for the next 21 years, releasing seven EPs and six albums. Their process was spontaneous, with songs being recorded as they were written. Typically, Bathgate would work up something on guitar while Knox provided vocals, lyrics, and tape loops. Then they added any sounds that seemed necessary to finish a song, using whatever was lying around: pans, chairs, baby rattles. Though Tall Dwarfs could be weird, they were never too experimental; Knox and Bathgate both loved melody too much. The collection captures the different sides of the Tall Dwarfs in 55 songs. Though the band was an excuse for two good friends who lived in different cities to get together, drink beer, watch shitty old movies, and do some recording and drawing, Tall Dwarfs created music unlike anyone else. |
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Tops [Empty Seats (EP) (black)] August 19 street date. New 5 track EP from TOPS. TOPS were formed in Montreal when songwriting duo David Carriere and Jane Penny decided to join forces with drummer Riley Fleck. Since then they have become one of the most influential underground bands of the past decade, creating a space for sophisticated pop music in the indie world. Their tendency to opt towards making straight-forward, stripped down and honest recordings lets their pop songwriting shine out in the open. With a heart firmly attached to their sleeves, their songcraft delves into the emotional intricacy of personal relationships, asking questions about power and desire. The result of this mixture is a collection of four self-produced records and a handful of singles that cover a range of moods and a complex emotional realm while maintaining a groove and musicality. Soft rock infused pop hits flow easily, surrounded by their signature moody ballads. |
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Trout, Walter [Ride (2LP)] August 19 street date. However fast or far a man travels, he can never truly outrun his past. Walter Trout knows this better than anyone. As he embarked on his 30th solo album, "Ride", the iconic US blues-rock guitarist found himself eyeing the horizon and the green shoots of his triumphant late career. Even now, aged 70, Trout was still writing fresh chapters of his life story. The last time we saw Trout stepping out, he was on the road in support of 2020's "Ordinary Madness": a universally acclaimed album that debuted at #2 on the Billboard Blues Chart. Since then, Walter has taken some much-needed time off to refocus. "I've been at this since 1969, when I started out in the New Jersey bars", he reflects. "Suddenly, I'm sat on my ass for sixteen months, although I did still practice guitar every day. This album is a snapshot of how I was feeling through this pandemic. I think I still have something new to say about the world, and that's important to me". By now, Trout knows that nobody ever really leaves their old selves behind. But with "Ride" providing an emotional release-valve - both for its creator and his loyal listeners - perhaps this veteran artist can reconcile with his past, accept his future, and live in the present as it unfolds. |
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V/A [Eccentric Soul: The Shiptown Label (2LP-black)] August 12 street date. From a humble storefront studio located in a shoeshine parlor on Norfolk, Virginia's Church Street, Noah Biggs built a world. Hustler by day, gambler by night, the always-in-a-suit Biggs took a gaggle of off-brand singers and combined his connections and charisma to forge timeless soul music during a period of deep upheaval. Compiled here are 25 of Shiptown's most compelling sides recorded between 1965-1977, from the likes of Ida Sands, The Soul Duo, The Anglos, Dream Team, The Grooms, Positive Sounds, Barbara Stant, Wilson Williams, Art Ensley, and yes, Flip Flop Stevens. |
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Williams, Marlon [My Boy (black)] September 9 street date. "My Boy", the third solo record from acclaimed New Zealand singer/songwriter Marlon Williams, announces an artist emerging anew. Gone is the solemn, country-indebted crooner with the velvet voice - in his place comes a more playful, shape-shifting creature. Following the release of his second album, 2018's stunning portrait of a breakup, "Make Way For Love", Williams' toured the world, playing major festivals, and appearing on Conan and Later with Jools Holland. He forged a fledgling acting career, making a cameo in Oscar winning film "A Star Is Born", and then major roles in films "The True History of the Kelly Gang", "Lone Wolf" and current Netflix series "Sweet Tooth". Williams has also become an in-demand collaborator, singing on stage with Lorde and Florence Welch, recording duets with Courtney Barnett, Paul Kelly, Yo-Yo Ma, releasing the "Plastic Bouquet" album with Kacy and Clayton, and making his first foray into composing with the film "Juniper". "My Boy" parlays this flush of worldly experience into a vivid, dynamic record as spirited, complex and kinetic as the unfolding life of its performer. |
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Yo La Tengo [I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One (2LP/yellow/25th Anniversary)] July 29 street date. New Jersey indie rockers Yo La Tengo had already been slowly growing into their sound for over a decade by the 1997 release of their revelational eighth album, "I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One". Now, 25 years later, this "stone cold classic" (Rolling Stone) by "the greatest band in the universe" (Pitchfork) is getting reissue treatment on translucent yellow vinyl as part of Matador's 2022 Revisionist History catalogue campaign. Featuring their eclectic blend of folk, rock, shoegaze, electronic, and what can be widely termed experimental, "I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One" subtly shifts moods with their wide curious palette of stylistic exploration. For the album's 25th anniversary, Yo La Tengo expanded the double-LP to include a smorgasbord of unearthed live takes from a 1997 Peel Session, as well as remixes of ‘Autumn Sweater’. Though the band turned in standout albums before and after, this fan-favourite announced itself as their definitive master statement. |
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