It's another strong week of new releases, and don't forget: KEXP can only discover this new music when you help power us! Consider making a gift to KEXP during the Fall Fundraising Drive.
Philadelphia-based band Beach Slang return with what KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls, "another excellent set of punkish, Replacements-style rock with loud, layered guitars, driving rhythms, cathartic song hooks and often-stirring lyrics of alienated youth getting by on love, drugs and rock 'n' roll." LVL UP do just that on their third release, "a strong set of '90s-steeped indie-rock reminiscent at times of Pavement, Built To Spill and Neutral Milk Hotel, combining fuzzy guitars, atmospheric synths and bright song hooks, with lyrics ranging from ruminations on spirituality to more personal fare."
Tampa, FL-bred band Merchandise share their fifth album, and first to be partially recorded in an actual studio. It's "a beautifully crafted blend of goth-tinged post-punk and shoegazer psych-rock, with an atmospheric sound featuring reverberating guitars, shimmering keyboards, cavernous drums, gloomy vocals, majestic song hooks and often-dark lyrics revolving around isolation and alienation." Last week's in-studio guests Warpaint bring "a more immediate sound with more prominent rhythms on their third album. It's a typically well-crafted set of brooding post-punk inflected with dub, funk and other styles, juxtaposing often-dark grooves with optimistic lyrics." And the latest from Devendra Banhart is "one of his more low-key and understated efforts, with a warm and intimate folk-pop sound flavored with bossa nova, samba, Japanese folk and other styles."
Audio Push - "Hypocrite"
from 90951 on Good Vibe Tribe
Beach Slang - "Punks In A Disco Bar"
from A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings on Polyvinyl
Billy Bragg / Joe Henry - "Gentle On My Mind"
from Shine a Light: Field Recordings from the Great American Railroad on Cooking Vinyl
Biosphere - "Sweet Dreams Form A Shade"
from Departed Glories on Smalltown Supersound
Boxed In - "Shadowboxing"
from Melt on Nettwerk
Bruce Springsteen
from Chapter & Verse on Columbia / Sony Music
Camberwell Now - "Speculative Fiction"
from The Ghost Trade reissue on Light in the Attic
Danny & the Darleans - "Bug out Bag"
from Bug Out on In the Red Records
David Bowie
from Who Can I Be Now? (1974-1976) on Parlophone
Devendra Banhart - "Middle Names"
from Ape in Pink Marble on Nonesuch
Dwight Yoakam - "Purple Rain"
from Swimmin' Pools, Movie Stars... on Sugar Hill
Eola - "B and O Blues"
from Dang on Leaving
Every Time I Die - "Glitches"
from Low Teens on Epitaph
Ex-Cult - "Attention Ritual"
from Negative Growth on In the Red Records
Fleetwood Mac
from Mirage reissue on Rhino
Flock of Dimes - "Semaphore"
from If You See Me, Say Yes on Partisan
Flyying Colours - "Long Holiday"
from Mindfullness on Club AC30
Forma - "improvisation for flute and piano"
from Physicalist on Kranky
Game Theory
from Big Shot Chronicles on Omnivore
Giraffe Tongue Orchestra - "0046"
from Broken Lines on Party Smasher
Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam - "A 1000 Times"
from I Had A Dream That You Were Mine on Glassnote
How to Dress Well - "What’s Up"
from Care on Weird World/Domino
Howe Gelb - "Vortexas"
from Sno' Angel Like You/Sno' Angel Winging It reissue on Fire Records
Idina Menzel - "I See You"
from Idina. on Warner Bros.
Jah Wobble - "XXXXXXXX"
from In Dub on 30 Hertz Records / Cherry Red
Kristin Chenoweth
from The Art of Elegance on Concord
Lee "Scratch" Perry - "Music & Science Madness"
from Must Be Free on Megawave Records
LVL UP - "Pain"
from Return to Love on Sub Pop
Madeira - "Manipulator"
from Bad Humors on Carpark
Merchandise - "Lonesome Sound"
from A Corpse Wired for Sound on 4AD
Mick Jenkins - "Spread Love"
from The Healing Component on Free Nation
My Chemical Romance - "The Five Of Us Are Dying (Rough Mix)"
from The Black Parade/Living with Ghosts on Reprise / Warner Bros.
Neurosis
from Fires Within Fires on Neurot
Passenger
from Young as the Morning Old as the Sea on Black Crow Records / Nettwerk
Randy Newman - "Guilty"
from The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. 3 compilation on Nonesuch
Reckless Kelly - "Sunset Motel"
from Sunset Motel on No Big Deal Records / Thirty Tigers
Selector Dub Narcotic - "Hotter Than Hott"
from This Party Is Just Getting Started on K Records
Seth Lakeman - "Ballad Of The Broken Few"
from Ballads of the Broken Few on Cooking Vinyl
Shabaka & the Ancestors - "NATTY"
from Wisdom of Elders on Brownswood
Shawn Mendes - "Illuminate"
from Illuminate on Island / Virgin EMI
Skylar Grey - "Kill for You Ft Eminem"
from Natural Causes on Interscope / Kid Ina Korner / Polydor
September closed out with a really strong week of new releases, including the long-awaited new album from Bon Iver. KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls it, "his most adventurous, forward-looking recording to date, combining spacy, digitally warped electro-pop with folk, gospel and other styles on s…
September continues to be strong for new releases. Highlights include the latest from Staten Island, NY band Cymbals Eat Guitars. KEXP Music Director Don Yates says their fourth album, "brings a bit more of an expansive and energetic sound to their anthemic indie-rock. Produced by John Congleton, t…
