This week, the seven-year wait is over! Bad As Me, the latest from Tom Waits, tops this week’s list of new releases. For the typically idiosyncratic musical vagabond, the new album seems more of a journey through his previous styles than an outrageous step in a new direction -- and that’s not at all a bad thing! Fans of Waits will hear echoes of Blood Money, Swordfish Trombones, Frank’s Wild Years, Mule Variations, and even Nighthawks at the Diner, and yet the new songs continue sound as sharp as a broken-toothed grin.
While you’re no doubt picking up copies of Bad As Me for all of your friends, you’ll also find many other excellent new releases to complement it in record stores this week -- like some gritty post-punk soul from Chicagoans JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound, raucous beer-soaked folk rockers from Providence, RI’s Deer Tick, and rootsy soul-tinged garage-pop from Austin’s Strange Boys.
Other new releases you should check out include a new, catchy 6-song EP from electro-pop duo (now a trio?) Phantogram, a dynamic psych-rock opus from Cleveland duo Mr. Gnome, a hard-hitting LP of post-metal instrumentals from Chicago’s Russian Circles, and a ramshackle garage-pop record from NYC’s The Beets, put out by our own local label Hardly Art.
Plus, you’ll find the physical release of the Dirty Projectors + Björk project Mount Wittenberg Orca, a remastered version of Dntel‘s 2001 album, Life Is Full of Possibilities, the fifth studio album by UK alt band Coldplay, and the latest from the long-lived UK indie outfit Comet Gain.
Pick up all of these and more in record stores this week. Check Largehearted Boy’s list for a full lineup, but first sample these great tunes here:
A Classic Education - Forever Boy (MP3)
from Call It Blazing on Lefse Records
Bear Lake - Only War (MP3)
from If You Were Me (self-released)
The Beets - Doing As I Do (MP3)
from Let the Poison Out on Hardly Art
Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble - Pretend (MP3)
from Mr. Machine on !K7
Coldplay - Paradise
from Mylo Xyloto on Capitol Records
Comet Gain - An Arcade From The Warm Rain That Falls (MP3)
from Howl of the Lonely Crowd on What’s Your Rupture?
Deer Tick - Main Street (MP3)
from Divine Providence on Partisan Records
Dirty Projectors + Björk - On and Ever Onward
from Mount Wittenberg Orca on Domino Record Co.
Dntel - (This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan (MP3)
from Life Is Full of Possibilities (remastered with bonus tracks) on Sub Pop
The Gang Violets - Black Clouds (MP3)
from Black Clouds on All Hands Electric
Gospel Music - This Town Doesn’t Have Enough Bars for Both of Us (MP3)
from How To Get To Heaven From Jacksonville, FL on Kill Rock Stars
JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound - Everything Will Be Fine (MP3)
from Want More on Bloodshot Records
The Migrant - The Hurricane (MP3)
from Amerika (self-released)
MiM0SA - Sanctuary (MP3)
from Sanctuary on False Idol Musik
Mr. Gnome - Bit of Tongue (MP3)
from Madness in Miniature on El Marko Records
Peggy Sue - Cut My Teeth (MP3)
from Acrobats on Yep Roc
Phantogram - Don’t Move (MP3)
from Nightlife on Barsuk
Russian Circles - Mladek (MP3)
from Empros on Sargent House
Spectrals - Big Baby (MP3)
from Bad Penny on Slumberland Records
The Strange Boys - Me and You (MP3)
from Live Music on Rough Trade
Mark Sultan - In Future Worlds
from Whatever I Want on In The Red
The Through & Through Gospel Review - I Firmly Believe (MP3)
from The Through & Through Gospel Review on Common Wall Media
Wet Illustrated - Gypsy Town (MP3)
from 1x1x1 on True Panther Sounds
Tom Waits - Bad as Me
from Bad as Me on Anti- Records
Woodsman - In Circles (MP3)
from Mystic Places EP on Fire Talk
