Angel Du$t

Justice Tripp, vocalist / guitarist for Baltimore, Maryland’s Angel Du$t, has never been one for making rock albums, at least not in the traditional sense. For Tripp, an album is not a singular, rigidly defined work, but rather an ever-evolving experience, a grab bag of creative tricks and treats that’s enjoyable whether its contents are savored individually or all at once. “People get really married to the idea of making a record that sounds like the same band,” Tripp explains. “If one song to the next doesn’t sound like it’s coming from the same band, I’m ok with that.” This spirit of creative restlessness, reinforced through a staunch work ethic and a revered live show, has fueled Angel Du$t’s steady ascent over the past eight years. The way Tripp sees it, Angel Du$t are neither hardcore nor a supergroup: just a revolving lineup of like-minded peers and ride- or-die friends, making guitar music, rocking the fuck on forever. YAK: A Collection of Truck Songs, Angel Du$t’s latest full-length and the follow-up to 2019’s Pretty Buff, sees the group channeling an anything-goes philosophy into their tightest, most forward- thinking material yet. Produced by Rob Schnapf and recorded over a two-month period in Los Angeles in 2020, it’s a rotating smorgasbord of percussion, guitar tones, effects, genres, and influences, fashioned in the spirit of a playlist as opposed to a capital-R “Record.” Like every great playlist—and Tripp makes a lot of playlists—it’s a carefully- engineered project that still manages to sound effortless, with brisk pacing and constant switch-ups that keep the spirit of discovery at the forefront.Links: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube

Sarah Shook & the Disarmers Album Release Show

North Carolina’s Sarah Shook sings with a conviction and hard honesty sorely lacking in much of today’s Americana landscape. Always passionate, at times profane, Sarah stalks/walks the line between vulnerable and menacing, her voice strong and uneasy, country classic but with contemporary, earthy tension. You can hear in her voice what’s she’s seen; world weary, lessons learned—or not—but always defiant. She level-steady means what she says. Writing with a blunt urgency—so refreshing these days it’s almost startling—Sarah’s lyrics are in turn smart, funny, mean, and above all, uncompromising. The Disarmers hit all the sweet spots from Nashville’s Lower Broad to Bakersfield and take Sarah’s unflinching tales out for some late-night kicks. At times, it’s as simple and muscular as Luther Perkins’ boom-chicka-boom, or as downtown as Johnny Thunders. The Disarmers keep in the pocket, tight and tough.Links: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube

EELS

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SALES

Longtime friends and collaborators, Lauren Morgan and Jordan Shih, have been known as SALES since 2013 when they released their first single, “Renee.” Following the self-release of SALES EP, SALES LP, and Forever & Ever, three of the duo’s songs (“Renee”, “Chinese New Year”, and “Pope is a Rockstar”) have gained virality on TikTok. Songs from their catalog have been streamed over half a billion times on Spotify. They have headlined tours in the US, Canada, Asia, Australia, and Europe. They’ve performed at major festivals like Coachella, Firefly, Osheaga, and Corona Capital Mexico City. The independent duo continues to self-release their work, which is recorded, mixed, and mastered in their Orlando, FL bedroom studio. Links: Website | Bandcamp | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | Soundcloud

Flock of Dimes

On her second full-length record, Head of Roses, Jenn Wasner follows a winding thread of intuition into the unknown and into healing, led by gut feelings and the near-spiritual experience of visceral songwriting.The result is a combination of Wasner’s ability to embrace new levels of vulnerability, honesty and openness, with the self-assuredness that comes with a decade-plus career as a songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist and prolific collaborator.Simply put, Head of Roses is a record about heartbreak, but from a dualistic perspective. It’s about the experience of having one’s heart broken and breaking someone else’s heart at the same time. But beyond that, it’s about having to reconcile the experience of one’s own pain with the understanding that it’s impossible to go through life without being the source of great pain for someone else.”Part of the journey for me has been learning to take responsibility for the parts of things that are mine, even when I’m in a lot of pain through some behavior or action of someone else. If I’m expecting to be forgiven for the things I’ve done and the choices I’ve made and the mistakes that I’ve made, it would be incredibly cowardly and hypocritical to not also do the work that’s required to forgive others the pain they caused me.”Showcasing the depth of Wasner’s songwriting capabilities and the complexity of her vision, Head of Roses calls upon her singular ability to create a fully-formed sonic universe via genre-bending amalgamation of songs and her poetic and gut punch lyrics. It’s the soundtrack of Wasner letting go — of control, of heartbreak, and of hiding who she is: “I think I’ve finally reached a point in my career where I feel comfortable enough with myself and what I do, that I’m able to relax into a certain simplicity or straight forwardness that I wasn’t comfortable with before.” Head of Roses puts Wasner’s seismically powerful voice front and center. Those vocals help thread it all together — it’s a textured musicality, quilted together by intentionality and intuition.Wasner’s sophomore LP as Flock of Dimes was mostly written during the isolation of early Covid-19 quarantine and fresh heartbreak. Some songs, like the title track, came to Wasner wholly-formed, like fever dreams. Aside from album opener “2 Heads,” which Wasner had been saving for this purpose since she wrote it in 2015, Head of Roses was born from just a few months at her North Carolina home, during a feverish period of productivity spanning from last March through June.On her 2016 debut album If You See Me, Say Yes, Wasner controlled every element of the production, meticulously crafting her solo debut to be a definitive statement of ability and artistry. Despite having succeeded in assuring herself of her own capabilities as a musician and producer, she felt drained by the demands of working in creative isolation. Instead, for Head of Roses, she felt drawn to a looser, more collaborative process — and reached out to friend and co-producer Nick Sanborn (Sylvan Esso) to help her understand what this new process could look like. Recorded with a small group of collaborators in quarantine at Betty’s in North Carolina, Head of Roses captures Wasner’s vision and expands upon it, with input from Meg Duffy (Hand Habits), Matt McCaughan (Bon Iver/Lambchop), and Adam Schatz (Landlady).Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Spotify | Soundcloud

Samantha Fish

“That was my mission on this album: To really set these songs up so that they have a life of their own,” says Samantha Fish about Kill or Be Kind, her sixth solo album and her debut on Rounder Records. “Strong messages from the heart – that’s what I really set out for.” Indeed, what comes across immediately on hearing the album is the extraordinary level of songcraft on its eleven tracks, the way these songs are so smartly put together to deliver a potent emotional impact.Anyone who has ever heard Fish’s previous albums knows that she has earned a place in the top rank of contemporary blues guitarists and that her voice can wring the soul out of a ballad and belt out a rocker with roof-shaking force. And, rest reassured, those virtues are fully in evidence on Kill or Be Kind. But each of the songs on the album does far more than simply provide a setting for Fish’s pyrotechnics. They tell captivating stories, set up by verses that deftly set the scene, choruses that lift with real feeling, and hooks that later rise up in your thoughts, even when you’re not aware that you’re thinking of music at all. It’s the kind of songwriting that emerges when raw talent is leavened by experience and aspiration, and when a committed artist genuinely has something to say. Those qualities make Kill or Be Kind a genuine artistic breakthrough for Fish.“I think I’ve grown as a performer and as a player,” she explains. “I’ve become more respectful of the melody. You can go up and down the fret board and up and down your vocal register, but that’s not going to be as powerful as conveying a simple melody that people can really connect to and sing themselves.” To help bring those elements to her music, Fish sought out high-quality songwriting collaborators – the likes of Jim McCormick (who has worked with Fish before and also written for Luke Bryan and Keith Urban); Kate Pearlman (who has worked with Kelly Clarkson); Patrick Sweeney; Parker Millsap; and Eric McFadden. The result is an album on which each song is distinct, but the complete work hangs together as a coherent, entirely satisfying statement. “When you get to this point in your life as an artist,” Fish says, “it’s good to work with others, because it makes you stretch. I think you hear a lot of that nuance on the record, songs that have a pop sensibility to them, hooks that really pull you in.”You get a good sense of the range the album covers from the first two songs released. Fish propels “Watch It Die” with an insistent guitar riff, but near the song’s end two female background singers lend the song a haunting soulful feel. Meanwhile, “Love Letters” moves on an insinuating, stop-time riff in its verses until it bursts in passion on its chorus. Both songs use horn sections for finesse and texture. “Love Letters” also introduces one of the album’s central themes: the allure of losing yourself in love – and the dangers of it. “Keep waking up in the bed I made,” Fish sings. “Forget the pain when you wanna play/I’m back to broken when you go away.”Links: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube

Bob Mould Solo Electric: Distortion and Blue Hearts!

Mask and Proof of Vaccination and or a negative Covid-19 test taken by a licensed health professional within the previous 72 hours before the event are required for entry.This show is presented by Cat’s Cradle & WUNC Music.Legendary musician Bob Mould announces his “Distortion and Blue Hearts!” tour starting September 16, 2021, in Boston at Paradise. The tour is in two parts. For the first three weeks, Bob will be joined by Jason Narducy on bass and drummer Jon Wurster. Beginning October 15 in Bloomington, IL, Mould will perform “Solo Distortion” electric shows (full run of dates and locations below).On July 16, 2021, before any tour dates happen, Demon Music Group will conclude their year-long Bob Mould retrospective campaign with their fourth vinyl box, Distortion: Live. The 8 LP set includes live recordings from Mould’s solo career and his band Sugar.This box follows October 2020’s 8 LP Distortion: 1989-1995 vinyl set, which took in Mould’s early solo outings as well as his records with the much-beloved Sugar, January 2021’s 9 LP Distortion: 1996-2007 box set continuing through the next steps in Mould’s solo career and his outings as LoudBomb and Blowoff, April 2021’s 7 LP Distortion 2008-2019 covering District Line to Sunshine Rock, and the 24 CD Distortion: 1989-2019 box, which covers the entirety of his post-Hüsker Dü output.Mould’s live shows will span his entire 40+ year career, including songs from the Distortion collection and from his landmark band Hüsker Dü, as well as songs from last year’s explosive and critically acclaimed album Blue Hearts — about which Rolling Stone’s 4 out of 5 star review raved, “feels like a lost Hüsker Dü album with Mould howling invective over his buzzsawing guitar.”“It’s been a year and a half away from the stage. I’ve missed the noise, the sweat, and seeing your smiling faces. I’m fully vaccinated, and I hope you are too, because this Fall will be a punk rock party with the band — and the solo shows will be loud and proud as well. It’s time to make up lost time, reconnect, and celebrate together with live music!”As with the previously released box sets in the Distortion collection, each album has been mastered by Jeff Lipton and Maria Rice at Peerless Mastering in Boston and is presented with brand new artwork designed by illustrator Simon Marchner and pressed on 140g clear vinyl with unique splatter effects. This box set includes 4 live albums: Live At The Cabaret Metro, 1989; the Sugar album The Joke Is Always On Us, Sometimes; LiveDog98 (first time on vinyl), and Live at ATP 2008 (first time on vinyl). In addition, the set includes a 28-page companion booklet featuring liner notes by journalist Keith Cameron; contributions from Bully’s Alicia Bognanno; rare photographs and memorabilia, and a bonus LP Distortion Plus: Live, which features live rarities including B-Sides and stand-out tracks from the Circle of Friends concert film.Discover more about the box sets including full track listings and FAQs here:https://www.demonmusicgroup.co.uk/bob-mould-distortion/Links: Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

Dan Andriano & The Bygones

Grouper

Mask and Proof of Vaccination and or a negative Covid-19 test taken by a licensed health professional within the previous 72 hours before the event are required for entry.The 12th full-length by Pacific Northwest artist Liz Harris aka Grouper is a collection of songs spanning 15 years. She characterizes Shade as an album about respite, and the coast, poetically and literally. How we frame ourselves in a landscape, how in turn it frames ourselves; memories and experiences carried forward mapping our connection to place.— An ode to blue / What lives in shade —Songs touch on loss, flaws, hiding places, love. Deep connections to the Bay Area, and the North Coast, with its unique moods of solitude, beauty, and isolation—a place described and transformed by the chaos and power of river-mouth, wild maritime storms, columns of mist that rise up unexpectedly on the road at night. Portions were recorded on Mount Tamalpais during a self-made residency years back, other pieces made longer ago in Portland, while the rest were tracked during more recent sessions in Astoria.Throughout, Harris threads a hidden radiant language of voice, disquiet, and guitar, framed by open space and the sense of being far away.Echoing a lighthouse, burying the faults of being human / Into things that we project upon the sky at night.Links: Website | Instagram

Snow Tha Product

Genre: Miscellaneous