Out This Week 2/14

Although Tennis claims the release date is a coincidence, Valentines Day is perfect for the release of Young & Old, the Denver band’s second album. If you don’t know the story: the espoused Patrick Riley and Aliana Moore spent a romantic half-year sailing along the East Coast, during which they composed songs that would become their debut, Cape Dory. Produced in part with The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney, the new album finds the duo evolved into a band, with drummer James Barone now a full member. You can read an exclusive interview with the band here and a more in-depth review of the album here.

At their beginning, Austin band Shearwater also contained a husband and wife duo, songwriter/guitarist Jonathan Meiburg and bassist Kimberly Burke. The two have since split but continue to find their “Animal Joy” as a musical trio with percussionist Thor Harris. Their latest, and first to be released by local label Sub Pop, follows their previous lush trio of albums on Matador. In the words of our Music Director, Don Yates, it’s a “dramatic contrast to the increasingly expansive art-pop found on their previous records” and “is the band’s most straightforward, rock-oriented release.”

Other great new releases out this week include the 10th solo album from British artist Barry Adamson, former bassist for legendary bands Magazine and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, who continues to sear with this “vibrant, edgy blend of noirish garage-rock, industrial funk, smoky jazz, moody soul and more, with well-crafted songs featuring bristling guitars, haunting organ, fuzzed-out bass and Adamson’s own stylish crooning”; the third album from Bay Area rockers Howlin Rain, led by Comets On Fire’s Ethan Miller, with a “diverse and expansive take on their bluesy, ’70s-influenced psych-rock, with sprawling, shapeshifting songs fleshed out with the band’s fiery guitar interplay and impressive layered harmonies”; and the fourth album from Canadian band Islands, led by Nick Thorburn (The Unicorns, Human Highway, Reefer, etc.), which “finds them switching gears yet again for a darker, more streamlined and subdued set of brooding indie-pop featuring a stripped-down, piano-based sound and melancholy lyrics reflecting on a relationship fallen apart.” Kind of a bummer for Valentines Day, but as we all know, love hurts! Speaking of that, Heartless Bastards have a new record of bluesy southern rock.

While you’re grabbing these albums in record stores today, also look for the latest from infectious disco funksters Phenomenal Handclap Band, darkly melodic Seattle drone rockers Earth, British brothers/synth rockers Field Music, local singer/songwriter/comedienne Rosie Thomas, and much more. Also, the woefully underrated and recently reunited Austin, Texas band Cotton Mather are re-releasing their out-of-print power pop classic Kontiki. Go get yourself a valentine!