Indie Exclusive Releases

Distant Populations, just the fourth full-length album of Quicksand’s career, comes as a comparatively swift follow-up to Interiors--which itself came a full 22 years after its predecessor, 1995’s Manic Compression. Critically lauded and deemed very much worth the wait, Interiors succeeded in reestablishing the band as the powerful and contemporary entity they had always been.

Distant Populations has a punchier, more up-tempo sound than its predecessor; its 11 songs are concise, carved sonic jewels boasting not a single wasted note; and its raw power, its gripping lyricism, leaps out from the very first listening. It is a striking step up for the band.

The songwriting itself had been no minor process: Following the release of Interiors, the band successfully toured around the world and in the process fully re-established their chemistry together. Looking forward to making the next album, the three of them—frontman/ guitarist Walter Schreifels, bassist Sergio Vega, and drummer Alan Cage—had methodically recorded various soundchecks, improvisations, and show rehearsals, and compiled the results. “Eventually, when it came time to make a record,” Schreifels says, “we would just edit down to the ones that were most exciting to us all, and then refocus on them and see if we could recapture the magic from it.” 

There may be a final irony in the title of Distant Populations. Practically speaking, that’s precisely whom Quicksand recorded it for: Listeners very far away. Not a single one of these songs has ever been played live onstage. The band has dates on hold for the fall, notes Schreifels, and fingers are crossed Quicksand will be out there performing very soon. They will likely be the most memorable shows of the band’s career. 

Pluperfect Mind, the NNA Tapes debut from the 23-year-old UK-based musician Dear Laika (a.k.a. Isabelle “Izzy” Thorn), is an extraordinary creation — a beautiful and unique oddity which exists in the liminal space between dreamworlds and a blurry, watercolored version of reality. It is a reflection on the past few years of Izzy’s life, during which she sought solitude in the North Wessex Downs while beginning her gender transition. The album is a beguiling collection of vivid lyrics and celestial song, bound together with digital glitch and field recordings of flora and fauna. Comparisons can be made to Björk, Tim Hecker or Bat For Lashes, but ultimately, Dear Laika’s exploration of the experimental and the mystical builds something intricate and intimate that is truly original and bewitching.

Critically acclaimed soundtrack to Bo Burnham's Netflix musical comedy special INSIDE.  Double vinyl LP features all the music from INSIDE, including “All Eyes On Me”, “Welcome To The Internet” and “Bezos I”.  Shot and performed by Bo Burnham, alone, over the course of a very unusual year. Nominated for 6 Emmys including best variety series, writing, directing, song, musical direction, and editing.  Indie exclusive “coke bottle” clear vinyl in deluxe gatefold packaging

Sometimes, the best place to begin is at the end. If you really want to dig deep into Illusory Walls, the fourth album by THE WORLD IS A BEAUTIFUL PLACE & I AM NO LONGER AFRAID TO DIE, it definitely helps to do that. That’s because epic closer “Fewer Afraid”—all 19 minutes, 44 seconds of it—doesn’t just revisit the themes and ideas on the ten songs that precede it, but also offers a self-aware summary of the Connecticut band’s entire history. It’s the conclusion of all the stories within the record as well as a nod to all the lives that helped make them—little glimpses of everything that’s come before, on both a micro, immediate level, and a more universal one. “That song is a higher level look at my whole life and the whole world,” explains vocalist/guitarist David F.
Bello, “as well as the album, our band and our discography. It places the band in the context of the rest of the world, as if we’re listening to everything that came before. It touches on all the themes of the previous songs, but there are also callbacks to songs
from earlier in our career. But in this song, they’re the object, not the subject—I’m talking about a world in which these things happen, not talking about these things happening.”

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the band—completed by Steven K. Buttery (drums and percussion), Joshua Cyr (bass/vocals) and Katie Dvorak (vocals/synth)—had nothing but time to realize the full extent of their musical and thematic aspirations. And so, four years on from lauded third album Always Foreign, they were able to make what is undoubtedly the band’s most ambitious and epic record to date. Written and recorded remotely—a first for the band—Illusory Walls takes on the weight of human existence while it’s buckling under the pressure of today’s near-dystopian society. Personal anxieties and political struggles collide with a series of portentous, apocalyptic and dramatic tunes, resulting in some of the darkest music the band has made since forming in 2009.

Natalie Hemby will be performing at the Newport Folk Festival on July 24. She won a GRAMMY for Country Song of the Year for “Crowded Table,” the song she wrote with Lori McKenna and performed as a member of The Highwomen. 180-gram Clear Smoke LP. Indie Exclusive.

2021 release. Written and largely produced by Tyler Joseph in isolation over the course of the past year at his home studio, with Josh Dun engineering the album's drums from across the country, Scaled And Icy is the product of long-distance virtual sessions and finds the duo processing their upended routines along with the prevailing emotions of 2020 - anxiety, loneliness, boredom, and doubt. The duo had to forgo their normal studio sessions but reached a new of level of introspection in the process, adopting a more imaginative and bold approach to their songwriting. The result is a collection of songs that push forward through setbacks and focus on the possibilities worth remembering.

Multi-platinum UK glam rock giants THE DARKNESS bring you Motorheart, a record of immeasurable rock and roll extravagance and yet another masterpiece from England’s favorite rock icons. Brimming with their trademark blazing guitar riffs, solos and soaring falsetto, singer Justin Hawkins says, “’Motorheart’ rocks harder than anything we’ve done before. It makes me happy and proud to crank it up and literally shake my Swiss chalet to its foundations. Dan did an awesome job on the production, it’ll take your face off, but your skull will be grinning from meatus to meatus. Please, to enjoy.” Paying homage to a devoted sex robot named Motorheart, the album growls, pounds and stomps with Rufus Taylor’s drums, Frankie Poullain’s bass and Justin & Dan Hawkins’ guitars all turned up to 11, whilst Justin’s trademark vocals soar to ever more earthquaking levels. Drop the needle anywhere on Motorheart and be instantly transported from this moaning and weeping vale of tears to Elysian fields of rock where all hands are raised, the drinks – just as in the Club Tropicana of yore – are free, and everyone wears a pleasingly salacious grin. Does it rock? Is the sun hot? Has your partner’s touch grown cold? The Darkness are the Orwellian boot stamping on the flaccid face of limp rock, forever!

In 2007, Plant and Alison Krauss released Raising Sand, one of the most acclaimed albums of the 21st Century. It was an unlikely, mesmerizing pairing of one of rock’s greatest frontmen with one of country music’s finest and most honored artists, produced by the legendary T Bone Burnett. Now, after fourteen years, the two icons return with Raise the Roof, a dozen songs from a range of traditions and styles that extend this remarkable collaboration in new and thrilling directions.

"Woke up singing a dead man's song..." is the opening line from the Warren Haynes original "Heavy Load," a line of imagery that feels like the beginning of dirt. Blues. On this album, the iconic American band puts their unique musical stamp on an incredible collection of Blues covers and originals. Haynes, the leader of Gov't Mule, hails from a Southern rock tradition of scruffy virtuosity. Gov't Mule is Warren's show, and the Blues is the informing foundation, personal and universal.

Richard Ashcroft is set to release the new album Acoustic Hymns Vol. 1 on November 12th via RPA / BMG. The album features twelve newly recorded acoustic versions of classic songs from his back catalogue spanning both his solo career and his time with The Verve.

The album finds Ashcroft’s acoustic performances supported by a full band, which brings a lighter touch to songs that originally had a heftier sound such as his debut solo single ‘A Song For The Lovers’ or ‘C’mon People (We’re Making It Now)’. His renowned vocal has gained poise as his career has progressed, giving an added emotional resonance to his most poignant songwriting on ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’ or ‘Sonnet.’ Much of the material that features is drawn from the classic Urban Hymns, an album that Ashcroft and The Verve commenced recording sessions for 25 years ago this October.

SAVE FACE are a band who have always prided themselves on taking risks and the New Jersey band have doubled down on that sentiment with their sophomore album, Another Kill For The Highlight Reel.

Another Kill For The Highlight Reel, which features indelibly human performances, including a guest appearance from Thursday’s Geoff Rickly on “A.M. Gothic”. “There’s something about the New Jersey kinship [between Geoff and I] that really resonates with me,” Tyler Povanda explains. “New Jersey’s music scene is really something special.”

Musically, the album—which was produced by the Movielife’s Brett Romnes—sees Povanda taking influence from his Jersey brethren like Thursday but adds a theatrical twist. “‘GLITTER’ was the first song I wrote that ended up being on this album and it bridges the gap between Merci and Another Kill For The Highlight Reel, ” Povanda says. “I think that song serves as a cool sonic metaphor for the transformation of the band. I would say this album isn’t narrative in the same way as the last one, but it does feel much more immersive.”

10-Year Anniversary reissue of Rival Sons classic album "Pressure & Time"

21 years since the release of Radiohead’s seminal albums, Kid A and Amnesiac comes a combined and expanded reissue, KID A MNESIA Here put back together as originally intended, with an additional disc of bonus material - including 2 original unreleased recordings from the era: ‘If You Say the Word’ + ‘Follow Me Around’. 

“A new, uniquely fearless kind of rock record for a new, increasingly fearful century, Radiohead’s fourth album, released in October 2000, remains one of the more stunning sonic makeovers in music history” – Rolling Stone [500 Greatest Albums of All Time: #20 Kid A]

ABBA Returns - After Nearly 40 Years - With `Voyage,' New Album.

ABBA, one of the most successful music groups of all time, has announced its return nearly 40 years with a new studio album - hear two songs from it here - and a new concert that will see singers Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad and instrumentalists/songwriters Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus performing digitally via avatars with a live 10-piece band in a purpose-built arena in London, beginning on May 27, 2022.

The "Voyage" album will be released worldwide on November 5 via Universal Music Group's Capitol label. The two newly released songs, "I Still Have Faith in You" and "Don't Shut Me Down," were recorded by the group at Andersson's Riksmixningsverket studio in Stockholm and will both feature in the concert. The songs are the first new material from ABBA since the release of the "Under Attack" single in December of 1982, although the members, now all in their 70s, have released several solo projects.

ABBA / VOYAGE INDIE EXCLUSIVE BLUE ViNYL

Neal Francis’ sophomore album offers up a body of work both enchanting and painfully self-aware. Recorded entirely on tape and mixed by Grammy Award-winner Dave Fridmann (Spoon, Tame Impala, Flaming Lips), the set spotlights Francis’s refined yet free-spirited piano playing, an instrument he took up at age four. The songs came to life over the course of a tumultuous year spent living in a (possibly) haunted church in Chicago. The result: a portrait of profound upheaval and weary resilience.

Nathaniel once again demonstrates that he is a writer and performer of the highest order, who seems to be smack dab in the middle of what we all hope is an extended creative peak. The album showcases Nathaniel's unique observations of our world and people's ongoing struggle in learning how to better understand each other.  The Future was produced by Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Kevin Morby, Waxahatchee, Hiss Golden Messenger) and R.M.B. The latter being the production team of Nathaniel himself, Patrick Meese, and James Barone (Beach House). The same team that both produced and were the core musicians behind Nathaniel's latest and greatest solo effort, And It's Still Alright.  Additional production was added by multifaceted musician, engineer, producer, Elijah Thomson (Father John Misty, Richard Swift).  Other notable contributions came from Jenny Lewis and Jess Wolfe (Lucius), whom both added backing vocals to the stunning track, "What IF I".  And Amelia Meath (Sylvan Esso) who sang on "Face Down In The Moment".  The album was recorded at Nathaniel's own Broken Creek Studio just outside of Denver, CO

Simply calling Curtis Harding a soul man feels reductive. Harding's voice conveys pain, pleasure, longing, tenderness, sadness and strength-a full gamut of emotions. Today his voice takes on an optimistic lilt with his his new album, If Words Were Flowers. If Words Were Flowers is Harding's first new music since 2018, a follow up to his critically acclaimed 'Face Your Fears" album. It features songs like " Hopeful", where Harding croons with devotion over a classic soul groove, textured with infectious horn playing, background singers and modern psychedelic flourishes. Harding fuels his psychedelic sound with the essence of Soul but isn't bound by it. Instead, his songs convey an eclectic blend of genres leaping from the many musical lives he has lived from following his evangelical Gospel-singing mother on tour around the country as a child to rapping in Atlanta, forming a garage band with The Black Lips' Cole Alexander to singing back-up for Cee Lo Green. Through these experiences he fully embraces life's darkest intricacies and conjures dynamic, addictive melodies

“A big part of the project and why I did it,” says Sloppy Jane’s Haley Dahl of her Saddest Factory debut Madison, “Was because it felt similar to being a little kid and buying an out fit that was too big that I’d have to grow into. I really valued from the start that making Madison gave me someone I had to become.” The record, which Dahl first conceived of back in late 2017, is a grand gesture, a statement about big love, and about growing into yourself in the process.
 
Dahl and her 21 bandmates recorded all of Madison at the Lost World Caverns in West Virginia from 3pm to 8:30 am each day over the course of two weeks (they also made four music videos on location during this time). To access the space, they’d enter through the back of a gift shop, down a long tunnel where they’d walk down 200 feet of stairs to reach the entrance. Dahl and her bandmates did this steep walk with a piano. The ceiling of Lost World Caverns is massively high and is a perfect dome. The inside was also 98 percent humidity, leading to both stellar sound and also problems with tuning and gear. Engineer Ryan Howe sat in his parents Subaru above the cave with his mixing board and computer, and threaded cables down 90 feet through a hole in the ground to the ceiling of the cave. It’s the first time someone has ever recorded an entire album in a cave, and the results are pretty sonically stunning. That alone is a marvelous thing. Madison is an astounding, glorious record of melodrama of the highest order

The Walls Are Way Too Thin follows Holly’s critically acclaimed debut Falling Asleep At The Wheel, which marked the first chapter in the story of a new talent who’s garnered over 150M global streams to-date. Holly wants her lyrics to be the ones people could tattoo on themselves and her songs translate some of life’s most intense feelings in a way that typical conversations all too often fail to capture, from mental health struggles to the feelings of displacement as you grow out of adolescence. Indie Exclusive Clear LP.

The fourth installment in Sheeran’s symbol album series = is Ed’s most accomplished work yet; the evolution of an artist who continues to tread new ground. A body of songs that were made over a four-year period following his seminal ‘÷’ (Divide) album era, thematically, ‘=’ finds Ed taking stock of his life and the people in it, as he explores the varying degrees of love (‘The Joker And The Queen’, ‘First Times’, ‘2step'), loss (‘Visiting Hours’), resilience (‘Can’t Stop The Rain’) and fatherhood (‘Sandman’, ‘Leave Your Life’), while also processing his reality and career (‘Tides’). Sonically, ‘=’ encapsulates Ed’s versatile musical palette, spanning signature, guitar-led tracks and world-class balladry to weightier, euphoric production moments, as first showcased on the album’s lead single ‘Bad Habits,’ released earlier this summer.

Translucent Orange Vinyl, comes with an autographed 11x17 poster

Time In The Sun is the 4th full length album from Charleston, SC band Susto. The album was written and recorded in the midst of a lot of life changing events for lead writer/singer Justin Osborne. Like everyone around the world, Osborne was navigating the global issues felt from the pandemic while normal life continued with its own blessings and challenges.. "We were navigating the global and national issues that everyone else was dealing with, but also I became a father and also lost my father. There was a lot of contemplation going on in my brain, a lot of personal evolution going on in my life, and songwriting was my way of working through it all. The title Time in the Sun is meant to be a monument to my own human existence and also a tribute to the human experience in general. I wouldn’t claim to understand what it means to be a human, from the countless different perspectives of the world, but I do have my own experience to reflect on and I want to be able to express and explain that in some way. I guess this album is an attempt at that. At the core though, it’s just a collection of songs about my life and my feelings." Time In The Sun is set for release on October 29, 2021 via New West Records. 

The fictional band from the NBC series Parks & Recreation is finally getting their due with a new album set to arrive on Aug. 27. And to mark the 10th anniversary of their Pawnee reunion performance where they debuted "5,000 Candles in the Wind" after the death of town mascot Lil' Sebastian, a new video and digital release for the song has arrived.

Led by Andy Dwyer, who previously fronted A.D and the D Bags, The Andy Andy Andies, Andy Dwyer Experience, Angelsnack, Crackfinger, Death of a Scam Artist, Department of Homeland Obscurity, Everything Rhymes with Orange, Fiveskin, Flames for Flames, Fleetwood Mac Sexpants, Fourskin, God Hates Figs, Handrail Suicide, Jet Black Pope, Just The Tip, Malice in Chains, Muscle Confusion, Ninjadick, Nothing Rhymes with Blorange, Nothing Rhymes with Orange, Penis Pendulum, Possum Pendulum, Punch Face Champions, Puppy Pendulum, Radwagon, Razordick, Scrotation Marks, Tackleshaft, Teddy Bear Suicide, Threeskin, Two Doors Down and Scarecrow Boat, the group is finally issuing their debut album.

The buzz from Mouse Rat’s performances at Pawnee’s Snakehole Lounge led to Dualtone’s partnership with Entertainment 720 co-founder and Snakehole Lounge part owner Tom Haverford. “Any creative business coming out of Pawnee is tied to Haverford” said Dualtone President Paul Roper, “From Rent-a-Swag to Tommy Fresh cologne and Tom’s Bistro, not to mention his business ideas not yet formed like the scented phone, talking tissues, contact lenses that display text messages and the glitter-infused laundry detergent Sparkle Suds, partnering with Entertainment 720’s hype machine was essential. The man is an idea factory.”

Roper continues, “This is about the team as much as it is the music. Andy’s wife and manager April Ludgate Dwyer is a marketing genius. Selling CDs at the Parks and Recreation shoeshine stand for $18 each, $40 for the set?? I don’t know anyone else who could pull that off.”

Mouse Rat's The Awesome Album will feature guest turns by Duke Silver and Land Ho!. The album will be available via Dualtone in partnership with Entertainment 20.

Sam Evian’s highly anticipated third album, Time To Melt will be released on October 29th which will be a debut on Fat Possum Records. Sam is a prolific producer & engineer with credits including Big Thief, Blonde Redhead, Widowspeak, Anna Burch, Cass McCombs, Hannah Cohen, Cassandra Jenkins, Okkervil River and more.

Few artists are storytellers as deft and disarmingly observational as Andy Shauf. The Toronto-based, Saskatchewan-raised musician’s songs unfold like short fiction: they’re densely layered with colorful characters and a rich emotional depth. Like he’s done throughout his career, Shauf wrote, performed, arranged, and produced every song on his new album Wilds at his studio space in the west end of Toronto.

Over the course of a year-and-a-half, Shauf had written more than 50 songs, and pared down this massive body of work, into a single album’s worth of material, which became 2020’s highly acclaimed The Neon Skyline album. These songs focused on a theme by intertwining the individual characters stories of a group of friends who gathered for one night at the same local bar. Wilds includes songs from those same writing sessions, that did not fit into the Skyline storyline and had their own singular identity apart from that album, though he does revisit with his old friends Judy and Jeremy in this outing.