AIMS Music
Bach's monumental Goldberg Variations stand alone in the piano literature as a work of unique artistry and brilliance. Lang Lang first began exploring this masterpiece more than 20 years ago and presents this record as the outcome of a long personal and emotional journey. Marking a new stage in Lang Lang's artistic development, it is the project of a lifetime. Alongside a studio recording is a contrasting performance, a single take from a recital in Leipzig's iconic St Thomas Church, where Bach worked and is now buried. The heart of this project is the deluxe edition - a unique offering with simultaneous studio & live recording.
Zeros is the second studio album from Declan McKenna. Produced by Jay Joyce, the album features "Beautiful Faces."
2020 release. Blending folk intimacy, country grit, and alt-rock muscle, Carolina Story's resilient album, Dandelion, is an ode to survival in the face of struggle, a full-throated tribute to the power of hope and the unbreakable bonds of family. Recorded with acclaimed producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Paul Moak (Joy Williams, Ashley Monroe), the collection is fueled by raw, honest storytelling and lush, cinematic arrangements, expanding the homespun craftsmanship of the Nashville duo's debut to draw on a broader, more ambitious palette, one that hints at everything from The Jayhawks and Lucinda Williams to R.E.M. and Nirvana. Though the record was written over the course of the last few years, the songs here feel eerily prescient given the current state of the world, reflecting on loneliness, depression, and economic hardship with the kind of vulnerability and empathy that can only come from lived experience. Much like the dandelion, though, Carolina Story insist on reaching for the light with their music. After more than a decade in the business, it's all they know how to do.
Long before Tennessee Jet began crisscrossing America as a one-man band, playing nightly shows full of fuzz guitar, primal percussion, and songs that split the difference between country and raw rock & roll, he traveled the interstates of Oklahoma with his bronc-riding father and barrel-racing mother. Sitting on the bench seat of an old Ford pickup truck pulling a horse trailer while heading to the next rodeo, he'd watch the grasslands of his home state fly past the windshield at highway speed. Country music was always on the radio back then, and those songs — honest, heartfelt classics by icons like Willie Nelson and Dwight Yoakam, both of whom he'd eventually join on tour — left a permanent mark.
The Country, Tennessee Jet's third album, nods to that childhood soundtrack. A salute to the sounds of his youth, these songs double down on Jet's country and folk influences, without sacrificing the left-of-center approach that's earned him a reputation as a genre bender. Honky-tonk ballads, twin fiddles, and country two-steps rub shoulders with a Nirvana-inspired rock song ("Johnny," a tribute to 1950s legend Johnny Horton) and a bluegrass cover of the Black Crowes' "She Talks to Angels." The result is a richly-textured album that's both classic and modern in the same breath. This is raw, truthful country music — a reinvention of the sound that's always formed the bedrock of Tennessee Jet's artistry, even during his most amplified moments.
All Them Witches
ALL THEM WITCHES have built a career out of playing music that can not be pigeonholed into one specific genre. NOTHING AS THE IDEAL was recorded in Studio 2 at the world famous Abbey Road with the help of longtime mixing engineer Mikey Allred. The history and vibe of that setting laid the groundwork for what was to come. The band’s signature psychedelic blues riffs, relentless drums, melodic bass lines and non-linear lyrics are all present. The resulting album is a thought provoking head banger that is the band’s most cohesive album to date.
Various Artists
AngelHeaded Hipster: The Songs of Marc Bolan & T. Rex [2CD]
New CD: $18.98 $18.98 Buy
Marc Bolan has been famously cited as a major influence by some of the biggest names in music from David Bowie to Johnny Marr.
Bolan’s golden era was in the late sixties and seventies when he was the biggest selling singles artist since the Beatles, movie star and the electric spark behind Glam Rock. He died in 1977 aged just 29, after a car crash in Barnes, London but his reputation has only grown.
Later this year Marc will be inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall Of Fame and 50 years since the first T.Rex single and album, illustrious fans have gathered to pay tribute and argue for his place amongst the music greats.
For ‘AngelHeaded Hipster’, a collection of major stars including Nick Cave, U2 featuring Elton John, Joan Jett, Peaches and Marc Almond have reinterpreted and reimagined some of his greatest tracks including Jeepster, Bang A Gong (Get It On) and Ride A White Swan.
Every track reveals a different Marc and offers a unique appreciation of a multifaceted musician, writer, poet and composer.
AngelHeaded Hipster was lovingly created by the late Hal Willner, who passed away on April 7 from COVID-19. The acclaimed music producer, who “for nearly four decades bent and shaped the dimensions of almost-popular music” (New York Times), produced albums for artists including Lou Reed, Marianne Faithfull and William S. Burroughs, and concept albums drawing upon the music of Thelonious Monk, Kurt Weill, vintage Disney films and others.
2020 release, the second release from The Allman Betts Band. Includes 'Magnolia Road'. When The Allman Betts Band released Down to the River in June of 2019, the debut album represented not only the first time the group had recorded together but, in fact, the first time the seven-piece ensemble had ever played together. If Down to the River was the sound of the band's combustible sparks igniting, then Bless Your Heart is their bonfire, built for the summer of 2020 and beyond. A conflagration of influences and invention, confidence and ambition, Bless Your Heart captures a vast, panoramic scope throughout a baker's dozen of modern rock. Ragged and stomping. Heady and frayed. Soaring and scorching. Generational and genteel. West Coast scenes and Gulf Coast shores. Gateways of the Midwest and swamplands of Florida. Wyoming's Big Sky. New York's Big Apple. Chicago's Broad Shoulders.
2020 release. For Walter Trout, there is no 'us' and 'them'. Across his five-decade career, the great US bluesman's music has always been a lifeline and call-to-arms, reminding listeners they are not alone. Now, as the world seeks solace from a tragedy that has touched us all, he comes armed with a boundary-exploring new studio album and eleven searingly honest songs that bring his fans even closer. "There's a lot of extraordinary madness going on right now, " considers Trout, of the COVID-19 crisis. "This album started because I was dealing with the flaws and weakness inside me. But it ended up being about everyone." Ordinary Madness was completed mere days before the US shutdown, it's cathartic songcraft and themes of shared troubles couldn't chime better with a period in which our souls and spirits are under fire from tumultuous global events.
In March 2020, Nashville-based artist Molly Tuttle experienced the devastating tornado that tore through much of East Nashville, followed by the global pandemic. Tuttle, who grew up in California and has toured as a solo artist for years, suddenly found herself - along with the rest of the musician community - sheltering at home. She found solace in revisiting favorite songs in an attempt to "remind myself why I love music." She conceptualized an idea for a record with renowned LA producer Tony Berg (Phoebe Bridgers, Andrew Bird) to be recorded over 2,000 miles apart. Tuttle taught herself how to use Pro Tools, recorded and engineered all of her parts alone at home before sending them to Berg in Los Angeles, who enlisted legendary session musicians to add instrumentation in their respective home studios. "This is how the astronauts do it!" she recalls Berg saying as they sent the files back and forth. The result is 10 tracks that cross the musical spectrum and the decades, from FKA Twigs to Cat Stevens, from Rancid to Karen Dalton, that will be released as... but i'd rather be with you on Compass Records.
4-panel softpack + 16-page booklet
The Waterfall II completes The Waterfall, My Morning Jacket’s acclaimed 2015 record. Originally intended to be a sprawling triple album, the band were advised to hold back and keep some of it on the shelf. Until now! Frontman Jim James says, "this is simply the second half of a long snapshot of life for me as a writer in the years leading up to 2014, and the life of us as a band as we lived and worked in the epic country in and around Stinson Beach, CA during these recording sessions."
2020 release. If the state of today's society is reflected in music, hardcore punk / grindcore veterans Venomous Concept return to the stage with a fitting soundtrack. On Politics Versus The Erection, Kevin Sharp (Brutal Truth), Shane Embury (Napalm Death), Danny Herrera (Napalm Death) and John Cooke (Corrupt Moral Altar) voice criticism and opinions with satirical animations, venomous lyrics, and 30 minutes of short, sharp musical blasts, creating a true grind punk spirit. This band's fourth full-length frontal assault manifests a no-nonsense, outspoken and angry tone, resonating with the chaos that reigns over the world today.
From the prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada and recently seen on Austin City Limits, Colter Wall sings songs of the great West. Heralded by icon Steve Earle and touted as a favorite of celebrity Jason Mamoa, the music of Colter Wall has graced the silver screen many times, in films such as Peanut Butter Falcon, Hell or High Water, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, MO and Deadwood. Characterized by his distinct, gritty baritone, Colter Wall’s career has been marked with critical praise from his breakout EP, Imaginary Appalachia to his debut and sophomore records produced by Dave Cobb. Whether headlining music festivals in Norway, or playing legendary stages like Newport Folk Festival, Colter Wall continues to garner attention from the world. On his third full-length release, fans will hear Colter Wall in the producer’s chair.
Bobby Rush pays homage to the great bluesmen from Mississippi on his 27th studio album 'Rawer Than Raw'. This is Bobby Rush, stripped down-just his guitar, harmonica, singing, and foot tapping. There's a song from Skip James, Robert Johnson, Sonny Boy Williamson, Willie Dixon, and Howlin' Wolf. One song is Public Domain originally recorded for the Library of Congress by Alan Lomax, but later made famous by Muddy Waters (Honey Bee, Sail On).
Blackbirds features songs primarily popularized by women who were the “bridge she came across on.” The album finds LaVette in top form with powerful renditions of songs that touched her personally. From Dinah Washington’s “Drinking Again,” Nina Simone’s “I Hold No Grudge” and more, they are all delivered in LaVette’s rich & raspy tone. Blackbirds honors LaVette’s heritage as an R&B singer and the women who came before her. LaVette A&R’d and sequenced the record herself – her first true curation.
Gregory Porter, the world’s best-selling contemporary Jazz/Soul artist with over 3 million worldwide album sales returns with ALL RISE, his sixth studio album. The album marks a return to Porter’s beloved original songwriting – heart-on-sleeve lyrics imbued with everyday philosophy and real-life detail, set to a stirring mix of jazz, soul, blues and gospel. Produce by Troy Miller (Laura Mvula, Jamie Cullum, Emili Sande), the set also represents the evolution of Porter’s art to something even more emphatic, emotive, intimate, and universal too. After 2017’s Nat King Cole & Me, Porter knew two things: one, he’d bring in an orchestra for his next LP, and two, the music is medicine. In the spirit of that latter revelation, ALL RISE brims with songs about irrepressible love, plus a little protest, because the road to healing is bumpy.
Since his world-beating 2013 Blue Note debut, ‘Liquid Spirit’, which won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album, Gregory hasn't let down his legion of fans, whether collaborating with Disclosure on ‘Holding On’, releasing his dance hit ‘Liquid Spirit – Claptone Remix’ which became one of the most popular tracks in Ibiza, scoring another Grammy for ‘Take Me to the Alley’ (2016), or telling his life story through Cole's songbook. Porter is still surprised by his runaway success, but he has a theory: "I was soothed by my voice as a child and I think that's the same thing others get from it. I'm trying to heal myself with these songs."
Not only has Gregory made chart history by bringing jazz back to the masses, graced the iconic Pyramid Stage and the world’s most prestigious gig venues, performed for the Queen, appeared on the biggest TV shows as well as presented his own series (‘Gregory Porter’s Popular Voices’ on BBC Four), 2019 saw the singer launch and host his own podcast, ‘The Hang’, featuring such distinguished guests as Annie Lennox and Jeff Goldblum.
The Third Gleam marks a return to the Avett Brothers’ roots, both sonically and with Seth & Scott playing as a trio with longtime bassist Bob Crawford. The eight tracks capture their personal experiences and perspectives on undeniably timely, universal themes: isolation, gun violence, incarceration, historical prejudice, mortality, resilience, love, hope, redemption. 12 years in the making, this is the third installment of the brothers’ ongoing Gleam series.
“I allowed myself to support a narrative I thought I had to support of PVRIS being a band,” Lynn confesses. “I didn’t really have a role model for this. Coming from a ‘band culture,’ it’s about how the group is always greater than the sum of its parts, and you’re not supposed to take credit, even if you do everything. There’s no template or role model for really owning it as a woman. I wanted to make everyone else happy and uphold an image I thought we had to. Growing up, I learned I don’t have to do that anymore. I’m finally allowing myself to take credit. I’ve got the full support and encouragement of my bandmates. PVRIS is a unit and very much a team, but the heart and soul of the vision and music always has sourced from me. I’m just saying it now. I fulfilled my own vision of what a role model should be.”
Writing and recording all of 2019, she found the perfect collaborator to bring this to life in JT Daly [K. Flay]. With Lynn writing, cooking up beats, playing guitar, drums, and bass, and singing, he amplified and augmented her vision and versatility in the studio. PVRIS set the foundation for the new era with recent EP, Hallucinations, spawning lead single and title track “Hallucinations,” which clocked 10 million total streams in a few months’ time, as well as fan favorites, “Old Wounds” and “Death of Me.”
One of the best-selling musical artists of all time, Katy Perry releases her studio album, Smile. Features hit singles "Daisies", "Harleys In Hawaii" and gold-certified "Never Really Over" as well as the title track, "Smile".
2CD: S&M2, the live set from Metallica & The San Francisco Symphony is the concert event of the year! S&M2 features 20 songs (over 2.5 hours of music) from the two-night event that opened San Francisco’s new Chase Center, with many Metallica fan favorites and 2 unique classical songs chosen by San Francisco Symphony Musical Director Michael Tilson Thomas. S&M2 has newly re-mixed and remastered audio for a whole new sound from the original theatrical run in October 2019. The 2CD set includes two CDs and a 36-page booklet featuring photos from the show by Anton Corbijn.
Metallica and San Francisco Symphony’s September 6 & 8, 2019 S&M2 concerts were historic on multiple levels: They served as the grand opening of San Francisco’s Chase Center, reunited the band and Symphony for the first time since the 1999 performances captured on the Grammy-winning S&M album, and featured the first-ever symphonic renditions of songs written and released since those original S&M shows.
The sold out shows were rapturously received by the 40,000 fans who traveled from nearly 70 countries, as well as the media: Rolling Stone raved “the group proved that anything was possible,” Variety noted an atmosphere “buzzing with excitement,” while the Mercury News witnessed "a concert that fans will be talking about for decades to come,” and Consequence of Sound hailed "a true celebration of Metallica and their musical prowess.”
Arca is one of the world's most transformative musical talents. Since breaking through with her 2012 EPs Stretch 1 and Stretch 2, she's created an unprecedented body of work drawing from club music, experimental noise, and the ballad tradition of her native Venezuela, while reaching beyond music to encompass performance, visual art, and technology. As a collaborator with Björk, Kanye West, and FKA twigs, she's stretched contemporary music's sonic boundaries and helped set the sound of her era. As a Latinx nonbinary trans woman, she's redefined the role of the diva for a new generation. Her latest work is KiCk i, the first in a series of upcoming works, each with it's own sonic theme. For the first installment, KiCk i, Arca pursues pleasure, dignity, and dance floor liberation by refracting club music, reggaetón, and pop through her radical vision.
SUGAREGG 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 band leader Alicia 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. A 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. 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. The 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." An 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. The experience was cathartic, infusing Bognanno with new energy for songwriting, and she dove into making the new album. Having engineered both previous Bully albums herself, Bognanno freed herself to focus on the songs by handing production and engineering duties to Grammy-winning producer John Congleton (St. Vincent, Sleater-Kinney, The War on Drugs, Modest Mouse), and who worked with her on SUGAREGG at Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls in Bognanno's home state of Minnesota. (Nirvana's In Utero, PJ Harvey's Rid of Me and Superchunk's Foolish were recorded at Pachyderm.) With contributions from longtime touring drummer Wesley Mitchell and bassist Zach Dawes (Sharon Van Etten and Lana Del Rey), and two additional songs recorded at Palace Studios in Toronto with Graham Walsh (Alvvays, METZ, !!!), SUGAREGG was finally complete. Ultimately, 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/f***-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."
2020 release. Burning deep in Girl Friday's music is an unquenchable will to survive. The LA-based band don't blunt the impact of the themes they work through in their ferocious, knotty rock songs, but they don't let the more harrowing aspects of being alive and young in the 21st century daunt them, either. Taking full advantage of the dystopian shades of post-punk and noise rock palettes on their arresting debut LP, Androgynous Mary, Girl Friday nevertheless suffuse their music with abundant optimism. The world is a hellscape, but the four of them are in it together. Written during a year of personal struggle for all four band members, Androgynous Mary reflects the solace they took in each other - as a band, but also as a micro-community and a chosen family.
Old 97's return with Twelfth, their aptly titled 12th studio album, recorded this spring in Nashville, Tennessee between a tornado and a pandemic. 2016's Graveyard Whistling took the 97's to new heights lead by the single "Good With God" - a bona-fide hit at non-commercial radio. Twelfth's lead single "Turn Off The TV" might be the unintentional anthem of 2020, celebrating the occasional and necessary need to turn off the TV set and tune out the outside world.
2020 release. The Waterboys, one of the most creative, loved and literate bands of the last four decades, return with their 14th studio album Good Luck, Seeker - coming just over one year after the release of the critically acclaimed album Where The Action Is. Standout track is the seven-minute mash-up manifesto 'My Wanderings In The Weary Land'. Is it psychedelic soul? Is it trance? Is it punk?
Fresh off their 30th Anniversary & World Tour in 2019, the genre-bending, multi-platinum selling Mavericks are changing the game once again with the release of their first-ever Latin format album En Español. Produced by the band's longtime creative partner Niko Bolas (Neil Young, Prince, Sheryl Crow) and Mavericks lead singer & principal songwriter Raul Malo, En Español features a compelling mix of standards and Spanish-language originals in signature Mavericks style.
2020 release. The D'Addario brothers return with their third Lemon Twigs album, Songs For The General Public. The prodigiously-talented duo's showstopping melodies mined from every era of rock quickly earned fans in Elton John, Questlove, and Jack Antonoff. Songs For The General Public was written, recorded and produced by the D'Addarios at their Long Island home studio, Sonora Studios in Los Angeles and New York City's Electric Lady.
John Denver is one of the most successful and best loved recording artists of the 20th century. His easy going manner, fine voice and superb songwriting all combined to build his huge global fanbase. This wonderful concert was filmed at the NEC in Birmingham in 1986 and sees John Denver on top form delivering his finest songs with all his characteristic charm and good humor. Among the many highlights are "Annie's Song", "Rocky Mountain High", "Take Me Home, Country Roads" and many others.
Troye Sivan -"In A Dream - EP On August 21st, Capitol Records will release IN A DREAM, Troye Sivan's new six-song concept EP. Features leadoff hit "Take Yourself Home" and new single "Easy," an infectious plea to set a relationship back on course. "This small collection... explores an emotional rollercoaster period in my life when the feelings and thoughts were most shockingly fresh," he says. "I'm proud of this music and excited to have it out in the world." CD in slipcase with art cards, a sticker & a foldout poster booklet.
2020 release. Portugal's Gaerea challenges the archetype of black metal, coloring outside of the genre's lines with melancholy texture and deep emotion. Limbo devours the listener with misanthropic catharsis and cinematic agony, delivering palpable emotion for 52 uninterrupted minutes. Prepare to lose yourself in the nihilistic abyss with this devastating offering.