[Editor’s Note: It being a long week and capped off with a crazy Record Store Day, this week’s new releases post will have little to no write ups, but I still wanted to acknowledge some good stuff hitting the shelves this week.]

Death Grips: The Money Store [CD & Digital formats]

 ”Hacker” by Death Grips

Official debut from the California punk/hip-hop/industrial/synth/noise trio.  Get to tha Grippin’.

Toro Y Moi: June 2009

 ”Ektelon” by Toro y Moi

A collection of older songs recorded by Chaz during a tumultuous time of indecision in college.

Jack White: Blunderbuss

 ”Sixteen Saltines” (Recorded Live at Saturday Night Live) by Jack White

Solo debut from one of the most talented, motivated and prolific contemporary songwriters.

Spiritualized: Sweet Heart Sweet Light

‘Hey Jane’ by Spiritualized

Jason Pierce (aka J. Spaceman) releases his seventh album under the Spiritualized moniker this week.  Originally he desired to title it “Huh?” (hence the striking album art) but couldn’t picture people going into the record shop to ask “Do you guys have the new album ‘Huh?’” without encountering a Monty Python-esque circular conversation.  Partly inspired by his recent performances of their seminal 1997 album Ladies and Gentleman We Are Floating In Space and mainly inspired by his experimental drug treatment for a degenerative liver disease, Sweet Heart Sweet Light finds J. Spaceman embracing poppier song writing.

Neon Trees: Picture Show (Standard & Deluxe Editions)

Everybody Talks by Neon Trees

The follow up to their well received 2010 debut Habits.  Deluxe edition has four extra bonus tracks for a total of 15 new songs from the band (the debut only had eight!).

Moonface with Siinai: Heartbreaking Bravery

 ’Headed For The Door’ by Moonface with Siinai

A new full length album by the prolific Canadian musician Spencer Krug (he has released music as a member of Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown, Frog Eyes, Swan Lake, etc.) under his Moonface moniker that is the follow up to last years’ Organ Music Not Vibraphone Like I’d Hoped.  Heartbreaking Bravery is a full collaboration with Finnish band Siinai, whom he met while on tour with Wolf Parade three years ago.  The groups quickly became fast friends and plans were put in place to write and record an album together.  After many back and forth e-mails and a trip to Finland, the product of this collaboration is Heartbreaking Bravery, the lyrical theme of which, fittingly enough, is heartbreak.

Grinderman: Grinderman 2 RMX (vinyl)

 ’Evil (‘Silver Alert’ Remix Feat. Matt Berninger of The National)’ by Grinderman

A collection of remixes of the Nick Cave side project’s final album, Grinderman 2.  Many of these songs have already been released on the four 12” singles released from the album, but this remix album collects them all in one place and includes a few new ones.  Remixers include: King Crimson’s Robert Fripp, A Place to Bury Strangers, UNKLE & Josh Homme to name a few and even features a cover by Cat Eyes of Grinderman’s “When My Baby Comes”.

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DON’T FORGET RECORD STORE DAY THIS COMING SATURDAY, APRIL 21st!

M. Ward: A Wasteland Companion

Sweetheart (feat. Zooey Deschanel) by M. Ward

Concerned mainly with creating music that can be considered “timeless”, M. Ward has made a career out of carefully restoring the sounds of vintage rock n’ roll pre-British Invasion.  On A Wasteland Companion, the Portland songwriter teams up with many of his musician friends such as his She & Him companion Zooey Deschanel (stream the track above), John Parish, fellow Monsters of Folk member Mike Mogis, Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelby, recent tourmate Howe Gelb (of Giant Sands) and even Devotchka’s Tom Hagerman.  This album (his seventh solo) features 12 new tracks recorded in eight different studios across the U.S. and finds Ward still deeply in love with traditional American music.

Florence + the Machine: MTV Unplugged

Florence’s live set on the newly resurrected MTV Unplugged is set to air Sunday, April 8th and will be released digitally and in a CD/DVD format featuring footage of the entire show.  The setlist is 11 tracks culled from both studio albums and a cover of June Carter Cash & Johnny Cash’s song “Jackson” featuring Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme.

Alabama Shakes: Boys & Girls

Hold On by Alabama Shakes

The hype machine has been buzzing over Alabama Shakes ever since they dropped their self-titled debut EP late last year and for good reason.  Lead vocalist Brittney Howard belts her lines with the conviction of a southern gospel preacher.  Their sound is equal parts gospel and roots rock and it’ll be interesting to see how the debut is recieved critically.

High on Fire: De Vermis Mysteriis (The Mystery of the Worm)

Bloody Knuckles by High on Fire

Legendary sludge metal group that features a member from the legendary doom metal outfit Sleep release their sixth studio album.  De Vermis Mysteriis is a rather bizarre concept album produced by Converge’s Kurt Ballou about “if Jesus had a twin who died at birth to give Jesus his life? And then what if the twin became a time traveler right then? He lives his life only going forward until he finds this scroll from an ancient Chinese alchemist who derived a serum out of the black lotus—which is actually in Robert E. Howard’s ‘Conan’ stories—and then he starts traveling back in time. He can see the past through his ancestors’ eyes, but his enemies can kill him if they kill the ancestor that he’s seeing through at the time. Basically, he keeps waking up in other people’s bodies at bad times. It’s kinda like that old TV show Quantum Leap.”

::OTHER NOTABLE RELEASES::

Demon Hunter: True Defiance

Margot & the Nuclear So & So’s: Rot Gut Domestic

Ministry: Relapse

Pelican: Ataraxia/Taraxis

The Smiths: Remastered Editions of: Hatful of Hollow, Louder Than Bombs, Meat is Murder, Queen is Dead, Rank, The Smiths, Strangeways Here We Come & The World Won’t Listen

 ”The Reflection of You” by Bear in Heaven

Bear in Heaven: I Love You, It’s Cool

New York synth-pop group follows up 2009’s critically well received Beast Rest Forth Mouth.  The new album has been streaming on the band’s website since December 12th of last year, but slowed down 400,000% so it would play once throughout until its official release.  All-in-all the “drone-stream” will consist of over 2700 hours of music and surprisingly will be offered as part of a deluxe package if you pre-order the album via the Dead Oceans website (comes on a 2TB hard drive).  I Love You, It’s Cool is the first Bear in Heaven album written as a trio and in a short time (six months).

 ”Get Alive” by AU

AU: Both Lights

Both Lights is the experimental pop group from Portland, Oregon’s third album.  Originally a solo project of classically trained pianist Luke Wyland with a rotating cast of collaborators, the new album finds Wyland collaborating with fellow kindred spirit Dana Valatka, giving the new music a refreshing sense of vibrancy and focus.  Renowned bass saxophonist Colin Stetson also contributes on several of the songs.

“King and Lionheart” by Of Monster and Men

Of Monsters and Men: My Head is an Animal

Winners of the 2010 Icelandic Battle of the Bands contest, My Head Is an Animal, has been released in the bands’ native Iceland since September of last year.  Based on the really positive response to the groups’ indie-folk music, it is finally getting a worldwide release.

 ”We Made It” by FIRST SERVE

First Serve: First Serve

Consisting of 2/3’s of the legendary and influential rap crew De La Soul, First Serve is as much a side project as it is an exercise in acting.  First Serve is De La Soul’s Posdnous and Trugoy with French producers Chokolate & Khalid and is a concept album about two new up and coming rappers looking to get famous.

 ”Too Late To Topologize” by Zammuto

Zammuto: Zammuto

New album from Nick Zammuto, of the recently broken up sound collage act The Books.

::Other Stuff::

Nicki Minaj: Pink Friday - Roman Reloaded

Why do rap albums albums always have the WORST album covers?  This looks like she just got splatter-dumped on by a bunch of My Little Ponies.  Then again, that Zammuto album cover was pretty bad too.

THEESatisfaction - QueenS

THEESatisfaction: awE naturalE

Experimental R&B outfit closely related to likeminded experimentalists Shabazz Palaces (of which Palaceer Lazaro makes a cameo on the album) release their first full length album.  THEESatisfaction were featured prominently on Shabazz Palaces’ excellent 2011 release Black Up and it should be interesting to see what they do and what directions they take their own sound.

Zed And Two Naughts by The Mars Volta

The Mars Volta: Nocturniquet

The prolific duo of Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala follow up 2009’s Octahedron with a concept album inspired by Greek mythology and the children’s nursury rhyme “Solomon Grundy” with the goal in mind to remind everyone that “we’re all artists”.  Musically the album has been finished and recorded since 2009, but it took lyricist Bixler-Zavala three years to complete his portions, claiming he was unable to keep up with Rodriguez-Lopez’ frantic pace.  The end result is 13 new songs and over an hour of their unique brand of experimental progressive rock.

Paddling Out by miikesnow

Miike Snow: Happy To You

Swedish electronic- indie pop trio release their sophomore album this week and it includes a collaboration with fellow Swedish indie pop artist Lykke Li.

Zeus - Love/Pain 

Zeus: Busting Visions

If the Canadian rock acts’ 2010 debut album Say Us was a loveletter to 60’s Beatlesesque pop, then the follow-up, Busting Visions is being heralded as a throwback to the 70’s sound of Wings (or how the Beatles would sound if they continued making music).

Rusko - Somebody To Love

Rusko: Songs

Popular English DJ returns with his sophomore album that still features his heavy trademark bass sound and dubstep influences, but artistically strives to stretch beyond the dance floor.  Does he succeed on this release?  Listen and find out.

::OTHER NOTABLE RELEASES::

Katy Perry: Teenage Dream (The Complete Confection)

Katy Perry rereleases her smash hit album Teenage Dream with seven new tracks.

E-40: The Block Brochure (Welcome To The Soil Pts. 1, 2 & 3)

E-40 follows up his four part Revenue Retrieving series with an equally (if not more so) ambitious three full length albums released on the same day.  Available seperately or collected in one deluxe 3-disc set.

This years’ Record Store Day (which lands on April, 21) is already shaping up to be much better than last year’s with exclusive releases by artists such as David Bowie, Arctic Monkeys, Beach House, Danny Brown, Shabazz Palaces, The Flaming Lips (with their widely talked about collaboration album) and Death Grips to name a very few.  Check out the full list here.

disconaivete:

Two unreleased Balam Acab tunes: Just Stay and Come True.

mp3 Balam Acab - Just Stay
mp3 Balam Acab - Come True