Jukebox the Ghost
Safe Travels
Yep Roc Records
Jukebox the Ghost’s album Safe Travels, the ambitious follow up to their 2010 breakout, was produced by Dan Romer (Ingrid Michelson) and features 13 new, original tracks. JTG remains pianist Ben Thornewill, guitarist Tommy Siegel and drummer Jesse Kristin. After the release of 2010′s Everything Under the Sun Jukebox The Ghost’s fanbase exploded as the band played hundreds of shows and headlined the largest venues of their career, including a packed house at DC’s legendary 930 Club and NY’s Brooklyn Bowl. During their rapid rise the band’s music was featured in an iPad ad, they played on Letterman and Lollapalooza, and much more.
Sun Kil Moon
Among the Leaves
Caldo Verde
Among The Leaves is the 5th full length album by Mark Kozelek under the Sun Kil Moon moniker. Played almost entirely on nylon string guitar, this 17-song all original album was recorded between October 2011 and January 2012 in San Francisco. Among The Leaves – words which caught Mark’s attention from a John Connolly novel – finds Mark relaxed, singing playfully about his life as a musician while retaining the melancholic spirit of his 20 year catalog
First Aid Kit
The Lion’s Roar
Wichita Records
First Aid Kit is Swedish sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg. The first single and title track to their sophomore album, “The Lion’s Roar”, was recorded with producer Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes, Monsters of Folk, Jenny Lewis) in Omaha, NE. The record sees the band exploring a bigger sound and more instrumentation than on their debut album”The Big Black and the Blue”, but maintains the signature storytelling and harmonies they have become renowned for.
Mewithoutyou
Ten Stories
Pine Street
mewithoutYou returns with their 5th studio album, Ten Stories. Helmed by producer Daniel Smith (Sufian Stevens) and mixed by Brad Wood (Smashing Pumkins), Ten Stories is an allegorical coellection of songs that, at first listen, follows a winding narrative about a circus train crash in 19th century Montana. Long time fans will know that although we are introduced to a talking elephant, fox and tiger there is always more then meets the eye.
Public Image Ltd.
This is PiL
PiL Official
The Black Keys
The Big Come Up
Alive Records
There is something hugely satisfying about the unfettered moans of a vintage Fender Telecaster. For some solid sonic evidence, look no further than the gutsy 2002 debut of Ohio blues duo, The Black Keys. If you’re not hooked by the time Dan Auerbach finger-picks his way into the whining guitar groove of opener “Busted,” then the delivery of his sandpaper vocal drawl – ably assisted by Patrick Carney’s whiplash drumming and ‘medium fidelity’ production – will assure you that, in the US Midwest, they still keep their blues traditionally bottled. And therein lies the key to The Black Keys’ brilliance – the ability to make exciting new tunes sound raw and well-travelled, without falling into lame pastiche or parody. Check out the woozy, melodic leanings of “Yearnin’” or the straight-out garage barnstorm of “I’ll Be Your Man” – both tracks successfully fusing valve-humming cool with a contemporary edge that, five years and four LP’s down the line, remain founding cornerstones of The ‘Keys unique and wickedly uncoiled oeuvre. – Ross Bennett / Mojo
Nick Waterhouse
Time’s All Gone
Innovative Leisure
Nick Waterhouse is the New Breed – An R&B fanatic who combines an uncanny old-school sensibility and with a charged, contemporary style. Having just turned 25, he joins the ranks of similar acts and producers of recent times – Mark Ronson, Amy Winehouse, Sharon Jones, Mayer Hawthorne, Aloe Blacc et al — that are all moving forward into the past, yet all quite different. For Waterhouse, his muse is the over-modulated sound of vintage ’50s R&B and Rebel Rock n’ Roll. His take on such a time-honored tradition evokes the back-alley thrill of New Orleans, Detroit and Memphis in their heyday. He combines an astute attention to detail recording on all vintage equipment with an honest desire to match the emotional impact of the music that inspires him.
The Decemberists
Picaresque
Kill Rock Stars
The Decemberists know that the psychology of a culture at war is complex; that historical archetypes can inform the masses on current events far better than the evening news; and, perhaps most importantly, that life is ultimately a spectacular and colorful pageant. They remind us that, on any given day, we might rub shoulders with rogue spies and runaway prostitutes, child monarchs and vengeful mariners, boy ghosts, couples contemplating suicide, cannibals and drowning angels. This existence is indeed a spectacle to be revered.
In August of 2004, Rachel Blumberg, Jenny Conlee, Chris Funk, Colin Meloy, and Nate Query set up shop at a former Baptist church in Portland, Oregon. With co-producer Chris Walla at the controls, the five musicians collectively known as The Decemberists emerged three weeks later with the bulk of the work completed for Picaresque (Kill Rock Stars – March 22, 2005), their most ambitious and realized effort to date.
Gillian Welch
The Harrow & The Harvest
Acony Records
Acony Records proudly presents The Harrow & The Harvest, an album of ten new songs from Gillian Welch. The acclaimed duet’s first album in eight years is an all acoustic affair. Produced by David Rawlings.
The Decemberists
Her Majesty, The Decemberists
Kill Rock Stars
For all intents and purposes, “Her Majesty. . .” could best be described as the charming older brother to the band’s previous outing. And, while being recognizably related to its sibling predecessor, it is an altogether different beast. Present and accounted for are the Victorian literary tropes, the rakish mariners, and the Dickensian downtrodden that slouched their way across the lazer imprinted surface of “Castaways and Cutouts”; in “Her Majesty the Decemberists,” a new cast of characters is introduced as well, giving further depth to the richly bizarre songcraft of the band’s bespectacled leading player, Colin Meloy: an aristocratic Jewess, slumming it blindfolded among the exotic avenues of a Chinese bazaar, the coifed and coked-up bon vivants of greater Los Angeles, the writer Myla Goldberg, and a pair of affectionate soldiers, celebrating their comradery among the mortar blasts and trench mud of World War I Belgium. Musically, the band travels over new territory as well, mining deeper into their Beatlepop influences to create a record that is as lush as it is intricate. Strings soar, glockenspiels chime, and analog synths buzz over what the band considers its finest overture into pop song arrangement, all the while keeping intact the folk-pop instrumentation that has defined the sound of the band since its inception: Mr. Meloy returns on acoustic and electric guitars and singing, Jenny Conlee on accordion and keyboards, Chris Funk on electric guitars and sundry stringed instruments, and newcomers Rachel Blumberg and Jesse Emerson, respectively, contribute their drumming and upright bass playing.
