Music Releases 05-13-22

Luke Steele's debut solo album, Listen To The Water, began in the gathering storm of late 2019. A fourth Empire of the Sun album was on hold, a global pandemic was on the horizon and LA was conspiring to set Luke and his family adrift on a new adventure. The album is a work of pointed words cloaked in a richly swirling atmosphere, capturing the blend of innocence and wisdom, which questions without the need for answers. Pedal steel dances among the acoustic guitars and percussive nuances.

Monophonics cordially invite you to attend the grand re-opening of the once thriving, once vibrant establishment, the legendary Sage Motel. A place where folks experience the highs and lows of human existence. A place where big dreams and broken hearts live, where people arrive at without ever knowing how they got there. It's where folks find themselves at a crossroads in life. So join us as we examine where the stories are told and experiences unfold.....and sink into a soft pillow of soulful psychedelia.....down at the Sage Motel.

This release marks the first vinyl reissue of the jazz classic by master conguero Mongo Santamaría.  First released in 1976, Sofrito combines jazz with Afro-Cuban grooves, funk and soul. From the simmering blues of “Spring Song” to the devastating bass line of “O Mi Shangó” to the rousing groove of the title track, this set exemplifies the heady ambition of ’70s Afro-fusion at its most soulful. This edition features lacquers cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio and is pressed on 180-gram vinyl.

Really Really Happy is the album that kicks off the second phase of The Muffs career.” So begins Roy McDonald’s liner notes for the expanded reissue of the band’s fifth album. After eight years and four albums, The Muffs had written, recorded, and toured non-stop. After a break, the group was ready to do it all again, and was approached by friends (and sisters in law) Charlotte Caffey (Go•Go’s) and Anna Waronker (that dog), who had just started their own label – Five Foot Two Records. McDonald, bassist Ronnie Barnett, and singer/guitarist/songwriter Kim Shattuck had a new home, and were ready to do it all again. Really Really Happy arrived in 2004 to rave reviews. Now, nearly two decades later, it returns as an expanded double-CD / Digital release with 22 bonus tracks, including 16 of Kim Shattuck’s original demos for the album. There will also be a very limited edition of the LP available only at indie retail on colored vinyl with a 7” EP containing 6 bonus tracks, with a sleeve hand-stamped by Ronnie.

The Euphoria Season 2 soundtrack will feature new music from the HBO original series, including Lana Del Rey’s song “Watercolor Eyes.”

Produced by Clint WalshPerformed by Josh Klinghoffer & Clint WalshSongs by Josh KlinghofferEric Avery - Bass on 3, 5Eric Gardner - Drums on 1, 3, 5, 7Vanessa Freebairn-Smith - Cello on 10Mixed by Michael CraverFight For The Soul mixed by Andrew Scheps & Michael CraverOffend & Can't Put The Bullet Back In The Gun mixed by Andrew SchepsRecorded by Michael Craver at Now Space, Eric Palmquist at Palmquist Studios, Clint Walsh at Scarboro Sound, and Kody Reiners at EastWest StudiosAdditional engineering by Eric GardnerMastered by John Webber at AIR Studios

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of Moon Duo’s long-out-of-print debut LP Escape, Sacred Bones is proud to present a new deluxe version of the album. The new reissue will include the original album in its entirety, plus three additional rare tracks taken from Moon Duo’s wild early days. Reflecting on the album in March 2020, the band shared the following statement:

“We made this record in a rehearsal space in San Francisco in late 2009. It was kind of a classic band space, shared by a rangy assortment of musicians over months and years, behind one of several similar doors in a dark red hall. A windowless room lit by string lights and an odd assortment of lamps, the walls a palimpsest of posters and gig fliers. There was a grimy, burn-pocked rug, cluttered gear in various stages of use and abandonment, and the air seemed to hang in a permanent film of smoke residue and stale beer. We recorded to a 4-track tape machine over the course of a few nights - we’d just start the beats, hit ‘record’ and let fly. We had a vague sense of coalescence, or fomentation, like a glimpse of a thing in outline which you can’t yet see, but neither of us knew at the time that this was the record that would mark the beginning of our life as a touring band and would initiate our connections to so many (now long-time) friends, familiars and collaborators. Ten years feels like both a lifetime and the blink of an eye - measurable but impossible to quantify. These four tracks, and the others that join them here, are a snapshot of our earliest incarnation: flying blind, but high on the freedom of experimentation and filled with hope for things to come."

Communion, the debut album by Sister Ray, is a raw, meticulously-crafted portrait of momentous, ordinary moments; experiences that define your past, and instruct how you move through the world. . The record is anchored by guitar melodies that bear an undercurrent of turmoil, and echoes with the wisdom of hard-won lessons. It’s a break-up album invested in exploring the motivations behind actions, rather than attempting moral judgment. Out May 13 via Royal Mountain Records.

Jesse Mac Cormack's at last beginning to see what his music is all about. His second studio album is piercing as a look, tender as a goodbye'a collection of electronic songs that lift and crash like waves upon a shore. After a recording process that was by turns nourishing and peaceful, lonely and anguished, the gifts of time, distance and therapy have allowed the Montreal songwriter to finally understand everything he wants to say.

"Whatever you go through, you're always going to be alone with what you're living," Mac Cormack says. This was a hard-won lesson. In the deepest depths of the Pandemic, with a relationship in its ending, the musician recalls finally making a decision: to move forward, to change, to really begin to see himself. SOLO is the sound of that transformation, recorded over the course of a year and a half, marked by its hardships but also its relief.

As on Now, Mac Cormack's acclaimed 2019 debut, he plays almost every instrument himself, surrounded by a soundtrack of one. Across 11 rippling tracks, the singer summons a sonic world that's razor-edged and intimate, influenced by the textured electronics of James Blake, Little Dragon, Caribou and SUUNS. Drum machines stutter under blooms of synths; curses float below swirls of loving sound. Mac Cormack has hidden so much discomfort inside an album that's warm and glimmering, like a storm cloud before its strike. Even now, long after the season's passed, there's lightning in the air.

Originally released in a very limited capacity in 2001, Maserati’s debut album finally gets reissued on all formats to commemorate the band’s 20th anniversary. 

Remastered from the original master tapes by Josh Bonati, 37:29:24 featured Maserati’s original lineup of Coley Dennis, Matt Cherry, Steve Scarborough, and Phil Horan, and includes many of the most placid and medicative moments in Maserati’s storied catalog – a darker, more pensive night drive than they would come to be known for on their later albums.

Originally released in 2002, The Language Of Cities was Maserati’s second album – and their last before Jerry Fuchs joined the band. Out-of-print and unavailable for over a decade, The Language Of Citiesfinally gets reissued on all formats to commemorate the band’s 20th anniversary.

Remastered from the original master tapes by Josh Bonati, The Language Of Citiesfeatured Maserati’s original lineup of Coley Dennis, Matt Cherry, Steve Scarborough, and Phil Horan, and remains the most sprawling and contemplative album of the band’s decades-long career. 

Toronto-based Deanna Petcoff shaped her unique brand of beautiful and confessional indie rock through years of devotion to music, sharing the stage with Molly Burch, Tokyo Police Club, The Nude Party and many more. She excels with heart-on-her-sleeve, emotive lyricism that showcases her strength as a songwriter and vocalist. To Hell With You, I Love You is a reckoning with the loss of a relationship, documenting the aggressive highs and deeply emotional lows that come from falling out of love.

On Graham Bonnet Band's new studio album, "Day Out In Nowhere", Graham Bonnet is joined by long-time bandmates Beth-Ami Heavenstone (bass) and Conrado Pesinato (guitar), as well as keyboardist Alessandro Bertoni and drummer Shane Gaalaas. "Day Out In Nowhere" also sees performance and co-writing guest appearances from Jeff Loomis (Arch Enemy, Nevermore), John Tempesta (The Cult, White Zombie), Mike Tempesta (Powerman5000), Roy Z (Halford, Bruce Dickinson) and Don Airey (Deep Purple, Rainbow), to name a few.

2022 release. This is Matt Andersen's ninth studio album, recorded in his home studio and highlighting his songwriting in an intimate setting. "Matt Andersen has drawn from the best roots music has to offer over his decades-long career: down and dirty blues, heart-wrenching soul, life-affirming gospel, and introspective singer-songwriter balladry. These sounds, textures, and influences are laid bare on House to House..." - No Depression.

'I wrote the album in a tiny apartment, at a time when everything felt big and overwhelming,' says poet and songwriter Jenny Berkel about her new album, "These Are the Sounds Left from Leaving". She was living in a brownstone walk-up full of radiant light and the ever-present soundscape of a leaky bath faucet. It was a sudden move at the time, a spontaneous departure from touring, bustling city life, being many things to many people, that landed Jenny in a space of self-imposed stillness. 'The songs themselves are a study of proximity, bringing big fears into small spaces,' says Jenny, reflecting on the album. 'They're intimate examinations of a world that often overwhelms.' The album features contributions from critically acclaimed folk duo Kacy & Clayton, and string arrangements by Colin Nealis (Andy Shauf)' the record was co-produced by Jenny alongside Dan Edmonds and Ryan Boldt (The Deep Dark Woods). Warm and dark, soft with stabs of madness, "These Are the Sounds Left from Leaving" is a cohesive collection of spare songs that bloom lushly with detail. Whether you're reading Jenny's poetry or listening to her songs, you'll experience her drawing layers of far-reaching concern into particular moments, like concentric waves rippling inward toward a lone cast stone. "These Are the Sounds Left from Leaving" showcases the perspective of a unique storytelling artist, with an evocative practice that hinges powerful narratives on the intricacies of a multifaceted musicality. A songwriter immersed in poetry, a poet immersed in music, her work in all its forms is an invitation into a world of relatable introspection, in which even absences can be sculpted into vividly memorable verse.