The Electric Fetus - Outside The Heard - March 2016

	The Frights You Are Going To Hate This Dangerbird Records

The Frights' new long-player debut is a triumph of reverb-drenched riffs and driving rhythms with rockabilly references rooted in doo-wop's past while sliding toward punk's future -- deftly capturing the unbridled energy of the band’s live show while letting its garage/surf/punk songs shine.

	The Suffers The Suffers Rhyme and Reason

Just as much influenced by classic rock & roll, country, Latin and southern hip hop as they are the Stax/Volt or Muscle Shoals era, Houston, TX’s The Suffers are bringing a fresh approach to what they have coined ''Gulf Coast Soul.'' Late night legend David Letterman is a fan: ''If you can't do this, get out of the business!''

	Alice Cooper Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here Symphonic Decca

In honor of its 40th anniversary, Wish You Were Here is presented in spectacular symphonic sound, newly recorded at Abbey Road Studios. This performance is helmed by the one-and-only Alice Cooper and also features Yes maestro Rick Wakeman and the London Orion Orchestra with Peter Scholes, conductor & arranger.

	Alexandre Desplat The Danish Girl - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Decca

The Danish Girl is the remarkable love story inspired by the lives of Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener (portrayed by Academy Award winner Eddie Redmayne [The Theory of Everything] and Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina), and directed by Academy Award winner Tom Hooper (The Kings Speech). The original score is composed by Academy Award winner Alexandre Desplat (The Grand Budapest Hotel).

	Scofield, John Past Present Impulse!

Past Present updates guitar legend John Scofield’s early-’90s quartet with drummer Bill Stewart and saxophonist Joe Lovano, joined by bassist Larry Grenadier, who replaces Marc Johnson and the late Dennis Irwin. Past Present also features nine new compositions by Scofield, but inspired by country music, Ornette Coleman, and composter Aaron Copeland.

	Avishai Cohen Into the Silence ECM Records

Avishai Cohen impressed a lot of listeners with his soulful contributions to Mark Turners Lathe of Heaven album in 2014. Now the charismatic Tel Aviv-born trumpeter has his ECM debut as a bandleader with a program of expansive and impressionistic compositions for jazz quartet (trumpet, piano, bass, drums), augmented by tenor saxophone.

	Formanek Kolossus Ensemble The Distance ECM Records

The Distance represents a grand creative leap for bassist-composer Michael Formanek. The new album showcases his texturally rich compositions for the dynamic 18-piece big band he has playfully dubbed Ensemble Kolossus. The Distance features some of the most distinctive musicians on the New York scene bonding to realize Formanek’s epic design, as he re-imagines what a big-band can be.

	Tord Gustavsen What Was Said ECM Records

What Was Said introduces the entrancing German-Afghan vocalist Simin Tander, and builds upon the subtle understanding of Tord Gustavsen’s long musical association with drummer Jarle Vespestad. The combination of the intimacy of her voice, with Gustavsen’s melodically inventive piano and discreet electronics, and Vespestad’s patient, textural touch has considerable emotional persuasiveness.

	Ralph Alessi Quartet Quiver ECM Records

With Quiver, trumpeter Ralph Alessi teams with pianist Gary Versace and the trumpeters longtime rhythm section of choice bassist Drew Gress and drummer Nasheet Waits to create a follow-up of quicksilver melodicism and subtly energized rhythm. There is a lyricism to Alessi’s playing that channels such forebears as Miles Davis and Kenny Wheeler, the mood reflective, even pensive.

	Little Green Cars Ephemera Glassnote

Now all in their early 20s, Little Green Cars are both a different band and the same five friends who met every Sunday aged 15 to start writing songs in a garden. Those changes are candidly documented in Ephemera, via a dozen exquisitely-crafted, exceptionally-sung, sumptuously-produced songs shimmer with restlessness, regret, love, heartbreak, hope and acceptance among them.

	Miike Snow iii Atlantic

Miike Snow’s third album, iii, wasn't crafted in one fell swoop. Instead, the musicians collaborated across space and time, worked with a variety of outside collaborators, and sending songs back and forth when they couldn't be together in one room. As a whole, the album feels resolutely like a Miike Snow project – albeit it one with unexpected new flavors. Rest assured, these are pop professionals doing what they do best.

	The Rubens Hoops (Explicit) Warner Bros

It was in 2012 that 5 boys from the small country town of Menangle packed their bags and flew to New York City to record their debut album. They had 14 songs and only $20 per day to spend on food, and Grammy winning producer, David Kahne (Lana Del Rey, The Strokes). That was three years, a platinum album and numerous sold-out tours ago and, now, The Rubens are back with Hoops, which is brimming with giant rock hooks, growling guitars, and Sam Margin’s unmistakable, soul-drenched voice.

	Cardinox Portrait Warner Bros

As soon as Seattle duo Cardiknox began releasing songs online in 2013, a palpable buzz materialized. It’s safe to say everybody fell in love with that endearing, entrancing, and enigmatic audio amalgam. By 2014, MTV dubbed “Black Wayfarers” a “Song of the Summer.” Now, Portrait, their full-length debut threads together rich soundscapes, thick, booming beats, and dynamic vocal delivery.

	The Arcs Yours, Dreamily Nonesuch/WB

The Arcs is a new project helmed by The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach. Co-produced by Auerbach, the album was recorded in roughly two weeks through spontaneous, informal sessions across the country including Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound in Nashville, and in a lounge room at Electric Lady in Manhattan. The great Tchad Blake mixed the album on his horse farm in Wales.

	Matt Corby Telluric New Elektra/Atlantic

Matt Corby originally wrote his debut album two years ago in Los Angeles, but unsatisfied with the results he scrapped the entire thing. His aim was to become self-sufficient in every aspect of the recording process-not just writing but song compositions and producing, too. Completing Telluric was a process Corby found therapeutic: "I'm kind of playing psychologist to myself lyrically."

	Daddy Let Me Get What I Want We Are Daddy

James Franco (Yes, that one) and Tim O'Keefe are the art band duo Daddy. They have a new full-length album + full-length film entitled Let Me Get What I Want, and the project features The Smith's Andy Rourke on bass guitar. Inspiration for the record came from a book of poetry James recently published, because of course.

	Prince Rama Xtreme Now Carpark

Perceiving a great void in the world of extreme sports for music that could match the metaphysical intensity of these death-defying feats, Prince Rama set forth to make Xtreme Now, the first real foray by any musician to create a new "extreme sports genre." For inspiration, the group looked to their own flirtations with death and time-dilation, along with countless hours of obsessively watching extreme sports videos and consuming dangerous quantities of Monster Energy drink… And you can dance to it.

	Wakey Wakey Overreactivist The End

On his new album, Overreactivist, Wakey Wakey combines experience and lessons learned through the filter of the emotionally-political landscape of being an independent artist, pushing the bounds on his music to push the bounds on this exploration of self. All the while, Wakey Wakey drenches his soul-bearing songs in beautiful strings, piano, and glitchy rhythms to a beautiful, emotional effect.

	Gaz Coombes Matador Hot Fruit Recordings

Gaz Coombes, the mutton-chopped songwriter behind Supergrass, is a freakin’ pop genius. Supergrass may be no more but, as Coombes’ new solo album, Matador, clearly attests, his powers have only become stronger over the course of his twenty-odd years in the spotlight. Says Mojo in their five-star review: “By the end, it feels like a journey through one man’s rawest and real emotions… that likeable Supergrass scamp is shedding his youthful skin to emerge as a serious & fascinating artist”

	Lake Street Dive Side Pony Nonesuch/WB

Side Pony takes its name from a song on the record that refers to a whimsical hairstyle, but it also serves as a metaphor for Lake Street Dive's philosophy and personality as a band. As singer Bridget Kearney puts it, "When we were settling on the album title, that one just stuck out to us as embodying the band's spirit. We've always been this somewhat uncategorizable, weird, outlying, genre-less band. That's the statement we wanted to make with this record: be yourself."

	Vinyl Music From The HBO Original Series Volume 1 Various Artists Atlantic

Vinyl – the new HBO series produced by Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger – is a loud, sexy, and coke-addled Forest Gump-like survey through the music business circa 1973. The facts are as fast and loose as the music, but who cares when it's this much fun. Soundtrack includes new and classic cuts from Sturgil Simpson, The New York Dolls, Edgar Winter, Nasty Bits, and more. PLAY LOUD!

	Slingshot Dakota Break Topshelf Records

Slingshot Dakota is comprised of two people, but has no shortage of volume, energy and catchy tunes. Carly Comando shreds an 88-key digital piano through multiple effects pedals and provides vocals for the band. Drummer Tom Patterson keeps the beat while energetically crushing his drums, a sight that is both entertaining and inspiring. While Comando and Patterson are influenced by their respective punk and hardcore basement scenes, Break is a poppy, indie rock delight.

'A lot of geezers my age don't work out of their comfort zone anymore because once you become legendary you don't want people challenging you.' Post Pop Depression, is the 17th Iggy Pop album, and a worthy addition to the 22 album legacy spawned with the immortal trilogy of The Stooges, Fun House and Raw Power, spanning massively influential solo outings including 1977's opening 1-2 combo of The Idiot and Lust For Life, and 1990's gold-certified Brick By Brick. Post Pop Depression began with a succinctly worded text from Iggy to Queens of the Stone Age’s Joshua Homme, and was realized in seclusion with Homme's enlisted aid of his Queens Of The Stone Age bandmate and Dead Weather-man Dean Fertitia and Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders. Post Pop Depression is a singular work that stands proudly alongside the best works of either of its principles, from The Stooges to Queens Of The Stone Age, bearing its creators' undeniable sonic DNA while sounding like nothing they've done before. It's a record that wouldn't exist without either Pop or Homme-and one that probably shouldn't in theory if you really think about it-but it does, and we and rock n roll are all the better for it.”

Iggy Pop -
Post Pop Depression
Loma Vista/Concord

Michael Shackelford first wrote down the words “FUTURE” and “ELEVATORS” on a rough instrumental demo. The music never grew into a finished song, but that simple, surprisingly evocative phrase stuck. Like Roald Dahl’s fictional creation, Shackelford is something of a pop confectioner who thinks up impossible sounds and makes them a reality (as his former band, The Grenadines, attests). His self-titled debut as Future Elevators expertly mixes whimsy and gravity, the fantastical with the everyday. Even as he grounds his lyrics in real-world issues, Shackelford fills his songs with new and improbable combinations of familiar sounds: the jagged pastoral folk of “Alabama Song,” the Rube Goldberg blues riffs of “Machine Maker,” the retro-futuristic R&B of “Modern World,” and the 10-minute ambient bliss-out that closes the album, “Aphrodite.” Both a multi-instrumentalist and an engineer who keeps busy with production gigs and touring jobs, Shackelford spent a year piecing Future Elevators with Lynn Bridges, who has worked with Devendra Banhart and fellow Alabamans the Dexateens. Future Elevators was mixed by Grammy-winner Darrell Thorp (Radiohead, Beck). Shackleford played every note himself – and it’s a tour de force. FWIW: The vinyl is stunning.

Future Elevators -
Future Elevators
Communicating Vessels

With a career spanning nearly fifty years, over two dozen Grammy nominations with close to a dozen wins, and a member of The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Bonnie Raitt is one of the most successful artists in music today. She’s like the Meryl Streep of Americana (there is even an uncanny resemblance between the two titans of their trade), and Bonnie shows no signs of stopping. Raitt’s new album, Dig In Deep, her twentieth long-player, focuses on the live sound that Raitt and her band have cultivated over the years. "So much of the album is focused on what I want to do live," she says. "I write and pick these songs so we can nail them on stage.” Using a pallet splattered with Bay Area R&B, funk, gospel, soul, blues, psychedelia, and New Orleans second line, Dig In Deep is an embarrassment of riches – not to mention some of the most wicked slide guitar around (the instrument that, besides her sweetly graveled voice, is what Raitt plays best). There are some great covers, too: Namely Los Lobos’ “Shakin’ Shakin’ Shakes” and the INXS classic “Need You Tonight.” Dig In Deep is further proof that Bonnie Raitt is a national treasure.

Bonnie Raitt -
Dig In Deep
Redwing

The Coalition of Independent Music Stores (CIMS) is a group of some of the best independent music stores in America. CIMS was founded in 1995; its current membership is made up of 29 accounts that handle 47 stores in 21 states. Many of the accounts have been recognized by the music industry and their local communities for their outstanding dedication to customer service and developing artist support.

Each member is bound by its shared love of music, a reputation for great selection and customer service in its community, yet each CIMS account is as unique as the market it represents. Most importantly, CIMS member stores continually seek to challenge the jaded, color-by-numbers advertising and marketing of other retailers.