It’s more new music releases for August. Info and links for this week’s releases – the ones you want to know about most below, plus some other ones you may not have heard of (but should know) – with audio & video for your listening and viewing pleasure. Click here to see releases from the past several weeks…Ark Life, The Dream of You & Me (Greater Than Collective/Misra)
Bahamas, Bahamas Is Afie (Universal Republic)
Afie Jurvanen is the alt folk musician from Toronto otherwise known as Bahamas. He's worked with the likes of Feist and Jack Johnson, and is kind of reminiscent of the latter, but with a more modern sonic pallette and a falsetto vocal tone he can hit ala Justin Vernon. Very very nice. Check out "All the Time" below.
Liam Bailey, Definitely Now (Flying Buddha/Sony Masterworks)
Beach Day, Native Echoes (Kanine)
Yep, you know this band; they are from Hollywood, Fla., and they play here frequently; in fact, the garage-pop-surf glazed outfit (now minus one of its feminine members and currently made up of singer/guitarist Kimmy Drake and drummer Skyler Black) hits town to play Summer Jam 10 on August 30.
Benjamin Booker, Benjamin Booker (ATO)
We have been hyping the shit out of this release. Click here to check out all the glowing praise we've given Benjamin Booker — and this includes the Best of the Bay award we gave him and Max Norton, when they were still know as 'Booker & Norton' and claimed Tampa as their hometown. (New Orleans and New Orleans-by-way-of-Tampa is how they get referenced now — and all I gotta say is, Tampa Bay doesn't get enough credit for producing great musicians as it is; throw this sad city a bone, won't you?) Check out the video for "Have You Seen My Son" after the jump...
Bishop Allen, Lights Out (Dead Oceans)
The band's first new album in more than five years. It's nice and easy going pop music, as based on the single "Why I Had To Go" - check the video below.
Cory Branan, The No-Hit Wonder (Bloodshot Records)
Brown Shoe, Lonely Beast Part ll EP (self-release)
Buddy, Last Call For The Quiet Life (Stove Punchin' Records)
Celebration, Albumin (Bella Union/PIAS America)
Darkness Divided, Written In Blood (Victory)
Dirty Loops, Loopified (Verve)
DragonForce, Maximum Overload (Metal Blade)
Colton Dixon, Anchor (Sparrow/Universal)
American Idol Season 11 contestant.
Dr. John, Ske-Dat-De-Dat: The Spirit Of Satch (Concord)
Egypt Central, Murder In The French Quarter (Fat Lady Music)
Electric Würms, Musik Die Shwer Zu Twerk (Warner Bros.)
The new side project of The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd. I am totally interested based on the latter, turned off based on the former. What I've heard sounds rather interesting, out-there prog/Kraut flavor (ala "I Could Only See Clouds") with some experimental/psychedelic synthness doing weird things in there, too. Check their cover of Yes'"Heart Of The Sunrise" below.
Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate), You Will Eventually Be Forgotten (Topshelf)
Fat White Family, Champagne Holocaust (Fat Possum)
Orenda Fink, Blue Dream (Saddle Creek)
Ace Frehley, Space Invader (eOne)
Otis Gibbs, Souvenirs of a Misspent Youth (Wanamaker Recording Company)
Halcyon Way, Conquer (Nightmare Records / Massacre Records)
He Is Legend, Heavy Fruit (Tragic Hero Records)
Imogen Heap, Sparks (RCA)
Jason Feathers, De Oro (self-release)
The mysterious side project of rapper Astronautalis and indie folk rocker Bon Iver; so mysterious, there isn't even an official webpage or FB.
Jessica Hernandez & The Deltas, Secret Evil (Instant Records)
JJ, V (Secretly Canadian)
Kimbra, The Golden Echo (Warner Bros.)
Literature, Chorus (Slumberland)
Music Go Music, Impressions (Thousand Tongues)
Pallbearer, Foundations of Burden (Profound Lore)
Punch, They Don't Have to Believe (Deathwish Inc.)
Roadkill Ghost Choir, In Tongues (Greatest Hiss)
Today is the day of Florida artist's releasing much-anticipated albums. This one is Orlando-spawned Roadkill Ghost Choir, which is also playing Summer Jam 10 on Aug. 30. They have an alt folk meets Radiohead/MMJ experimental indie rock flavor that is most delicious. The album is streaming in full at Consequence of Sound. Check out “A Blow To The Head” below.
Smokey Robinson, Smokey & Friends (Verve)
Souls Of Mischief, There Is Only Now (Linear Labs)
The Oakland hip hop group that came up in the mid-1990s hasn't released a new album since 2009's Montezuma's Revenge. Just knowing Adrian Younge produced the new Souls of Mischief album makes me want to hear it, like, now. So far, I already dig it, based on the title track, which features Snoop Dogg; check it below.
Statik Selektah, What Goes Around (Showoff Records/Duck Down Music Inc.)
Various Artists, Look Again To The Wind: Johnny Cash's Bitter Tears Revisited (Masterworks)
Gretchen Wilson, Snapshot (Redneck)
Wiz Khalifa, Blacc Hollywood (Rostrum/Atlantic)