THE JULIE RUIN – HIT RESET
Julie Ruin return with ‘Hit Reset’ which expands on the band’s established sound: dancier in spots and moodier in others, with girl group backing vocals and even a touching ballad closer. ‘Hit Reset’ is the sound of a band who have found their sweet spot. Kathleen Hanna’s vocals are empowered and her lyrics are as pointed and poignant as ever. From the chilling first lines of ‘Hit Reset’ (“Deer hooves hanging on the wall, shell casings in the closet hall”) to the touching lines of ‘Calverton’ “(“Without you I might be numb, hiding in my apartment from everyone / Without you I’d take the fifth, or be on my death bed still full of wishes”), Hanna takes a leap into the personal not seen completely on the first album or possibly even in the rest of her work.
LP+ – Limited Rough trade Exclusive – 500 Copies on Neon Pink Vinyl with Download.
LP – Black vinyl with Download.
LP/MP3 – Limited Indie Shops vinyl – white vinyl with Download
The Rave-Ups, Town + Country [Expanded Edition]
Omnivore offers a 30th anniversary expanded edition of The Rave-Ups’ Town + Country. The band may be best known for its appearance in the film Pretty in Pink, but this reissue proves there’s plenty more to the group. The reissue of this lost Americana classic produced by Stephen Barncard (Grateful Dead’s American Beauty) features the original 10 songs, plus 11 previously unissued bonus tracks-including live radio performances recorded for Deirdre O’Donoghue’s KCRW-FM program Snap and material produced by Steve Berlin (Los Lobos) and longtime Beach Boys associate Mark Linett. The Rave-Ups’ Jimmy Podrasky supplies the new liner notes!
OF MONTREAL – INNOCENCE REACHES
The project’s 14th LP follows two full decades of mercurial creative mania: swallowing up ’60s psych-pop, Prince-ly funk, and glammy prog in turn; morphing freely between full-band affair and cloistered confessional booth; comprising lyrics both painfully personal and absurdly fantastical; and recently drawing site-specific inspiration from culture capitals like San Francisco or New York City. The thread that runs through it all is Athens, GA’s Kevin Barnes, and ‘Innocence Reaches’ finds him at his most light-hearted in years, working a Parisian stint, Top 40 sounds, and his newfound single status into the kaleidoscopic swirl. ‘Innocence Reaches’ features darker moments to be sure – isolation, anger, indifference, and the feeling that, like a Truffaut film, madness lurks just outside the frame.
LP – 180-Gram Light Blue vinyl with download code. Packaged in deluxe gatefold jacket with 18×24 David Barnes-designed poster.
Tape – Limited Lime Green Cassette.
GREGORY ALAN ISAKOV – GREGORY ALAN ISAKOV WITH THE COLORADO SYMPHONY
Gregory Alan Isakov with the Colorado Symphony marks a milestone for the Colorado-based singer-songwriter, re-imagining songs from his previous three studio albums– The Weatherman, This Empty Northern Hemisphere, and That Sea, the Gambler –along with the debut studio recording of “Liars,” a fan favorite and staple of his live shows for many years. With orchestral arrangements by Tom Hagerman (DeVotchKa) and Jay Clifford (Jump, Little Children) and with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra’s Scott O’Neil conducting nearly 70 classical musicians, the songs are cast in new and revelatory hues.
CLINIC / SEX SWING
TAPE FOR JASE / NIGHT TIME WORKER
Very limited split 7″ repress on sexy Brown Vinyl from Liverpool’s legendary psych overlords Clinic backed with blood-pumping shadowy noise from London’s Sex Swing featuring Mugstar, Part Chimp, Earth, Dethscalator and Dead Neanderthals members. Released on God Unknown Records and beautifully packaged.
JOANNA GRUESOME
PRETTY FUCKING SICK (OF IT ALL)
Blue Coloured Vinyl 7″ (Limited to 300). Joanna Gruesome release their first material since the departure of vocalist Alanna McArdle on this limited edition coloured vinyl 7″ on the Fortuna Pop! Jukebox 45s singles club. Following a chance meeting in an occult bookshop, the band’s new line up features two amazing and inspiring women, Kate Stonestreet (formerly of queer punks Pennycress) on melodic vocals / shouting / screaming and Roxy Brennan (of Two White Cranes and Grubs) on melodic vocals / keyboard, joining Owen Williams (guitar / vocals), George Nicholls (guitar), Max Warren (bass) and Dave Sandford (drums). The record features original artwork from Bart De Baets. Recorded by producer Rory Atwell on a boat in London, a statement from the band on ‘Pretty Fucking Sick (Of It All)’ reads, “This song is about being pursued by intelligence operatives and is partly set in the Welsh village of Llangrannog. It is influenced by our recent U.S tour, during which the CIA took a special interest in the group’s movements.” On Occult Bookshop the band says, “This is an origin story, detailing the first meeting of the group. It is also about using astrological means to strengthen, receive and administer crushes. Another reading suggests that the song is about attempting to destroy binary conceptions of gender through ritual hexing.”
Martha – ‘Blisters In The Pit Of My Heart’
Martha return with their second album. Produced again by MJ from Hookworms, the album explores the difficulties in staying political, staying passionate and staying punk over the course of eleven expertly crafted pop songs. Hailing from Pity Me near Durham, Martha play energetic, impassioned power pop with intricate vocal interplay and lush four-part harmonies, informed by 90s indie rock and contemporary garage punk. The band is comprised of J. Cairns (guitar), Daniel Ellis (guitar), Naomi Griffin (bass), and Nathan Stephens Griffin (drums). All four members sing and write the songs. Daniel and Nathan also play in Onsind, while Naomi also plays in No Ditching.
Their debut album “Courting Strong” came out in 2014 and was included in the top 50 albums of that year, winning them the epithet “One of Britain’s best rock bands”. If the band’s first album, ‘Courting Strong’, was about punks growing up, then ‘Blisters In The Pit Of My Heart’ is about grown-ups staying punk. It’s an album about trying to stay creative and passionate and making the most of everything in spite of the many obstacles that get in the way. It’s about finding strength and solace in friendships, love, and taking motivation from the people in your life who really inspire you. Taking inspiration from such likely and unlikely sources as The Replacements, Heart, Billy Bragg, Thin Lizzy, Cheap Trick, The Go-Gos and Radiator Hospital, the album bursts into life with “Christine”, “a love song filtered through the messiness of anxiety and night terror” that takes inspiration from “Threads”, the British TV drama of the 1980s about nuclear war, and is followed by the rousing “Chekhov’s Hangnail”, with backing vocals from Ellis Jones of Trust Fund. The catchy “Precarious (The Supermarket Song)” finds romance in the washing powder aisle, while “Goldman’s Detective Agency” shows the band’s playful side as they re-imagine 19th century anarchist Emma Goldman as a private eye vanquishing corrupt cops and politicians.
Nearly every song here is a potential single, from the infectious “Do Whatever” and “11:45, Legless In Brandon” to outsider anthem “The Awkward Ones” and the Billy Bragg / Coronation Street-referencing “Curly and Raquel”. The album concludes with “St Paul’s (Westerberg Comprehensive)”, a song about being caught up in the toxic culture of a Catholic comprehensive school. “It’s for the kids who had the guts to be queer at school and for those who didn’t figure themselves out until they got out of school.
The Fat Angel Sings 