Don Giovanni HHV Records 84 Items

The musical companian to Tim Kerr’s recent art book "Self Taught." Up Around The Sun consists of Tim Kerr on guitar and harmonica, and Jerry Hagins on banjo with assorted friends and extended family. Take a clawhammer banjo playing old-time tunes backed with an open D tuned guitar playing a style that might usually be found backing Irish tunes and you get an instrumental soundtrack that was once described by one listener as Windham Hillbilly.

Out of Tim Kerr’s prolific musical career he is probably best best known for the punk band The Big Boys formed in 1978 with Chris Gates and Randy “Biscuit” Turner. Although the band only lasted 6 years they were applauded by many for being one of the most influential bands on the Texas Punk scene mixing funk, soul and rock into their frenetic live performances. The bands on Tim’s lengthy roster include Poison 13, the funk of Bad Mutha Goose & the Brothers Grimm, The Monkeywrench, Jack O’Fire, Lord High Fixers…and more. One thing that many people mention about Tim is his love of community and how his DIY self-expression has influenced many others.

His latest project ‘Up Around The Sun’ is an altogether different and more mellow offering that sits nicely alongside his other loves: painting, surfing and skateboarding.

Now available on Hot Pink vinyl! Nc/dc superghouls Bat Fangs pick up where Roky & the Aliens blasted off -- cranking acid-soaked '80s hard rock for the living and the dead. Making heady heavy music for third eyes and stiff upper lips, Betsy Wright (Ex Hex) shreds 'n' howls over Laura King's (Fleshwounds, Speed Stick, The Moaners) deep-thunder drums. Let the Bat Fangs sink in!

After a five-year absence following 2020’s creative elevator-punk explosion Roundelay, Ashley Eriksson, Eli Moore, and Andrew Dorsett of LAKE return with Bucolic Gone, a mature and polished album that is at once groovy, upbeat, meditative, and slow-rolled. As LAKE’s 10th official full-length release, Bucolic Gone is a cohesive work of sophisti-pop that embodies an adult, contemporary sound—intimate, serene, mournful, and hopeful in equal measure.

The multi-instrumental trio is joined by an impressive lineup of collaborators, including guest vocalists Nicholas Krgovich on “Glad Rags” and Daisy Jaberi of Suver with original lyrics on “Love Is Deeper.” Frequent contributors also make appearances: Karl Blau delivers standout shredding on “Ferrari,” Mark Buzard of The Format provides guitar textures across multiple tracks, and New York jazz musician Eric Vanderbuilt-Matthews contributes intricate woodwind arrangements. Steve Moore (Earth, Sunn O))), First Aid Kit, Sufjan Stevens) adds trombone to “Love Is Deeper,” while legendary Canadian singer Jenn Grant lends her unique vocals to the outro of “Ferrari.”

Recorded at The Anacortes Unknown Recording Studio by longtime collaborator Nicholas Wilbur and in the band’s own home studios, Bucolic Gone marks another step forward for Eli Moore in production and mixing. His meticulous attention to arrangement and balance—alongside an arsenal of distorted “whatchamacallits”—creates a rich, layered sound.

Celebrating 20 years of ethereal, yearning pop songs, LAKE’s latest effort is their most produced but also most intimate album. Now signed to Don Giovanni Records, the band is ready to continue delivering jams. While the world has changed since LAKE’s last official release, Bucolic Gone shows that time has been on their side.

Cerulean Blue vinyl limited to 700 units! On her second full-length record as Waxahatchee, former P.S. Eliot singer Katie Crutchfield’s compelling hyper-personal poetry is continuously crushing. Cerulean Salt follows American Weekend -- a collection of minimal acoustic-guitar pop written and recorded in a week at her family’s Birmingham home. On this new record, Crutchfield’s songs continue to be marked by her sharp, hooky songwriting; her striking voice and lyrics that simultaneously seem hyper-personal yet relentlessly relatable, teetering between endearingly nostalgic and depressingly dark. But whereas before the thematic focus of her songcraft was on break ups and passive-aggressive crushing, this record reflects on her family and Alabama upbringing. Whereas American Weekend was mostly just Crutchfield and her guitar, Cerulean Salt is occasionally amped up, with a full band and higher-fi production.

At times, Cerulean Salt creeps closer to the sound of PS Eliot: moody, 90s-inspired rock backed by Keith Spencer and Swearin’ guitarist Kyle Gilbride on drums and bass. The full band means fleshed-out fuzzy lead guitars on “Coast to Coast”, its poppy hook almost masking its dark lyrics. Big distorted guitars and deep steady drums mark songs like “Misery over Dispute” and “Waiting”.

There’s plenty of American Weekend‘s introspection and minimalism to be found, though. “Blue Pt. II” is stripped down, Crutchfield and her sister Alison singing in harmony with deadpan vox. She’s still an open booking, musing on self-doubt versus self-reliance, transience versus permanence. “Peace and Quiet” ebbs and flows from moody, minimal verses to a sing-song chorus. “Swan Dive” tackles nostalgia, transience, indifference, regret — over the a minimal strum of an electric-guitar, the picking at a chirpy riff and the double-time tapping of a muted drum. The album closes with a haunting acoustic-guitar reflection on “You’re Damaged,” possibly the best Waxahatchee song to date.

Mike Montgomery’s lifelong fascination with music began as a solitary endeavor. After secretly mining his dad’s record collection of golden 60s and 70s icons and tumbling headlong into 80s skateboard culture and its thrilling soundtrack, Mike learned guitar and started amassing songs on his Tascam Porta-Studio, chronicling hushed bedroom melodies with each new chord he discovered. Soon, he founded thistle, a wonderfully self-sufficient power trio that served as a rich opportunity to tinker with every stage of the music-making process. Through four LPs and two EPs between 1992-2013 and countless thistle shows criss-crossing North America, Mike discovered how to book a tour, repair equipment, run live sound, manage a label, build a studio, and foster a community of collaborators.

Inspired by R.Ring’s looseness and a growing confidence in spartan songwriting, Montgomery’s latest project - under the Nervous Verbs moniker - further peels back the layers of production and fussiness that might accompany access to a fully appointed studio. Instead of ensconcing himself in Candyland with limitless options, Montgomery treated his latest batch of songs as field recordings, often using phone memos to document melodies and entire performances at their inception, where and whenever they might materialize. He realized “there was something about the idea of noticing I had captured something of myself that I couldn’t recreate on subsequent attempts.” As he collected these home sketches, he shared them with friends (including Kelley Deal, Lori Goldston, Devin Ocampo, Joe Suer, Kate Wakefield, Rick McCarty, Adam Nurre, Matt Hart, Dan Dorff Jr., and Alexis Marsh) who responded with supportive contributions, fostering the initial sparks. “All of the extra tracks people sent me that I dressed the songs up with showed me that these were sturdy enough to hold those layers.”

"Some people think this record is unlistenable, while others consider this one of the key documents of the American music underground" - Byron Coley -55th Anniversary edition, one time pressing of 1500 foil numbered 2xLP copies -2 disc collection including original album remastered and Live in 1965 -Half-speed mastered vinyl cut by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios -Live in 1965 (Disc 2) remastered by Ryan Schwabe and available on vinyl for the first time -Comprehensive liner notes by Jesse Jarnow (Heads: A Biography of Psychedelic America) and Peter Stampfel The year 1967 proved to be a strong point of the ’60s generation culture and the ever growing New York underground music scene. Steve Weber and Peter Stampfel provided a blithe sendup of musical Americana as they mined this tradition, while introducing outrageous and zany virtuoso turns on acoustic guitar, banjo and violin. Their lyrics and vocals are uniquely their own. Their personalities were profoundly incompatible, like those of Gilbert and Sullivan.

It has been 5 years since Screaming Females released their career defining album All At Once. For their follow-up they brought Matt Bayless (Mastodon, Foxing, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden) to Pachyderm Studios where albums like In Utero and Rid Of Me were recorded to make the strongest album of their 17 year career. A career which has seen them play over 1000 shows around the world. And to celebrate the release, they will be playing the only US state they have never played, Alaska for a 3 show run in March!

Lauren Denitzio is a maven at writing pop-punk anthems. Playing music for over a decade – beginning with the New Brunswick punk band The Measure {sa} – we had yet to see what Denitzio could accomplish as a sole songwriter until recently. Worriers, the Brooklyn-based band fronted by Denitzio and joined by friends, has released the 7” “Past Lives” on No Idea Records in 2011, the 12” EP “Cruel Optimist” on Don Giovanni Records in 2013. This summer, Worriers brings us their finest work to date, with Laura Jane Grace of Against Me! As producer, on their first full-length release Imaginary Life.

Kelley Deal met Mike Montgomery at Candyland, his Dayton, KY Studio, where she was recording a contribution for a Guided by Voices tribute album. It was the beginning of the friendship that would become R. Ring. Shortly after their work together at Candyland, Montgomery was asked to open a show for a band he was recording, and not wanting to play solo, recruited Deal to join him on stage. That show ended up sparking an LP, splits with Protomartyr, Vacation and Quailbones, and many more live shows.

Now Reunited at Candyland for their second LP, titled War Poems, We Rested, R. Ring is expanding on their creative process. For this release many of the songs were written with the support of drummer Laura King (Bat Fangs, Mac McCaughan, Speed Stick), allowing the group to explore fuller arrangements from the start. On their previous release, 2017's Ignite the Rest, Deal and Montgomery had written with the consideration that they would eventually play the songs as a duo. Now, at a time when playing live is no longer a given, the band is freeing themselves up to create without those constraints.

The result is a record that's equal parts driving and haunting, with noisy soundscapes bubbling over across tight and aggressive drumming. The ominous vocals and glockenspiel of opener "Still Life" hover above to the rhythm section, bringing the record in with a gothic shuffle.

Originally released in 1981, Rasa has long been admired and studied by musicians as a model for how to do a cross-cultural recording project where the musicians actually understand something of each other’s musical cultural and actually feel it.

Remastered from the original tapes by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering.

Energetic, delightful, virtuosic and soulful, and available again for the first time in over 40 years.

Includes extensive liner notes by Jody Stecher and a new essay by Baiju Bhatt.

Originally released in 1969 in a quantity so low that it was once rumored to not even exist (seriously). While groups like The Holy Modal Rounders were turning traditional American folk on its head in the states throughout the 60s, The Maglory Dengluch’s approach took influence from the Scottish and Irish. Armed with banjos, tin whistles, kazoos, and jugs they recorded the now infamous album to tape. Officially released for the first time since the storied 99-copy, 1969 run on the long defunct Granta label and includes exhaustive new liner notes from the band and a download card with the entire album as well as five bonus tracks recorded during the same session.

Hopi native Bruce Hamana recorded his psychedelic loner-folk classic Hamana almost entirely by himself. For his follow up he enlisted John Wagner–fresh off the heels of recording albums for Indigenous psych groups like Winterhawk and XIT–to produce a full band studio album of solo-laden rural psychedelic rock. Originally released in 1981 in an impossibly small pressing by Mother Earth Records. Re-mastered from the original tapes by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering.

Cristy C. Road has built a reputation in punk circles for her heavily political visual art, showcasing her skills through zines, books, tarot cards, and album art for bands such as the Muslims. Focusing on her identity as a queer latinx woman, these projects represent an important part of her creative expression, but to her, they are just one part of a larger whole.

While her visual work thrived, Road was sharing another part of herself with the world through music, most recently with her band Choked Up. While her illustration allows her the opportunity to express frustration with an unjust status quo, her music captures the parts of life that happen in between politics. Feeling pigeon holed into the themes of her visual art, Road explains “its an annoying task to be expected to be a certain way because you’re a woman or you’re latina or you’re queer”. Choked Up pushes against that expectation by making simple, catchy pop-punk rooted in everyday feelings.

Active since 2013, Paisley Fields is a singer, songwriter, and bandleader splitting time between Brooklyn, New York and Nashville, Tennessee.

A touring member of the newly reformed Lavender Country, Paisley also played keyboard on their album "Blackberry Rose". On his new album, "Limp Wrist", he draws inspiration from queer icon Andy Warhol and the myriad drag artists with whom he's collaborated. His years of experience in Manhattan piano bars did not diminish his love for country music, and he released two albums that pay homage to the music of his youth.

"Limp Wrist" is an exploration of where rural queerness intersects religion. Paisley's family were devout Catholics, and he served as the official church pianist in his parish throughout his teens, playing every Sunday.

The songs on the album are deeply personal, and often touch on what it was like to grow up closeted and queer in rural Iowa in the early 2000s. "Black Hawk County Line" tells the story of Paisley being outed by a former friend his senior year in high school, "Dial Up Lover" is about logging on to gay AOL chat rooms to find other queers in the area, and "Plastic Rosary" recounts the experience of being told he'll never get into heaven while praying the rosary.

The most personal and biographical moment comes during "Iowa", which recounts the tragic murder of Matthew Shepard, and the visceral fear he had to wrestle with since he was already aware of how different he was.

The album ends on an uplifting note, sharing a message of friendship and hope with "Tomorrow Finds a Way".

The stories are his, but the feelings they convey - love, loneliness, lust, fear - are still universal.

What began as an occasional recording project designed to allow Mark Palm to indulge his obsession with song-craft and pop sensibility through a series of two-song singles, has developed into a fully functioning band with countless live shows and many tours under it's belt. Although best known for playing in a long lineage of hardcore, punk, and metal groups, Palm began exploring softer sounds in the late aughts as one of the primary songwriters of San Francisco shoegazers Modern Charms before adopting the Supercrush moniker as a vehicle for his pursuit of powerpop preeminence.

Kari Faux is a multi-faceted artist - rapper, singer, producer, DJ and clothing designer - from Little Rock, AR. She is known for her bold fashion and genre-bending music, fusing elements of southern hip-hop, funk, and alternative soundscapes. Her unique style of rhyming, dashes of sultry vocal harmonizing and confidence have helped garner a cult following and make her a force amongst the new generation of hip-hop’s most fearless and outspoken female voices.

At the start of her career, Kari’s hit “No Small Talk” was remixed by Childish Gambino and featured on HBO’s Insecure. Since then, she has made an imprint on the music industry as an independent artist who has released four projects, headlined tours, opened for acts such as Steve Lacy and Mick Jenkins, and has written or produced on tracks for artists such as The Internet. Kari Faux’s forthcoming album, Lowkey Superstar Deluxe, drops September 24 and features fellow heavy-hitters Smino, J.I.D, Yung Baby Tate, Jazz Cartier and Deante’ Hitchcock.

Lowkey Superstar represents a new chapter along Kari Faux’s creative journey. What started as a phrase has turned into two independent albums, a record label, clothing line and identity representative of Kari’s innate superstar qualities mixed with her lowkey demeanor. The Lowkey Superstar Deluxe album is a sonic conglomeration of Kari’s longtime influences, including funk, alternative, and southern rap soundscapes and covers a range of topics from self-preservation to dating to braggadocious raps.

Love At Leeds is the realization of many dreams for Mikey Erg. A lifelong music obsessive, growing up in the early 90's,there was one sound he'd always hoped to capture on his recordings. The sound of Steve Albini. Steve's credits include The Pixies, PJ Harvey, Jimmy Page & Robert Plant and of course Nirvana's 3rd LP In Utero, One of Mikey's absolute favorite records. Mikey had never in his 20 plus year recording career ever gotten to make a fully analog recording. Love At Leeds was the perfect time to rectify all of that. Using the group of musicians that helped him realize his debut solo LP Tentative Decisions (Jeff Rosenstock, Alex Clute & Lou Hanman), He Headed out to Chicago to make this dream a reality. Recorded and Mixed in only 5 Days, Love at Leeds is a swift 25 minute long grunge-pop tour de force. Once the album was complete, Steve and his trusty razorblade compiled the master mix reels and sent the band on their way. The tapes then made the journey to Hollywood, California to the legendary Bernie Grundman Mastering facility to be mastered and cut straight to lacquer disc by Chris Bellman (Frank Zappa, Neil Young, Kenny Dorham, Pearl Jam). 

The Cycle is the fifth album by Mourning [A] BLKstar. It's the Cleveland-based collective's masterwork -- a double LP spanning 20 songs and three singers, touching on neo-soul, hip-hop, and the cosmic expanse in between/beyond. It is a humble addition to the long legacy of James Baldwin's adage of the artist as witness. It is their song cycle, written in a time that just may need a song or two in support of and in love and power to the living.

"They were one of those bands that were a prequel to what the future was becoming. Feminism, human rights, animal rights, environmental protection, gender issues... Spitboy was singing about these issues 30 fucking years ago. I'm so grateful to have witnessed it." -Billie Joe Armstrong "Spitboy are one of the most important punk bands to have ever existed. To me, an angry 20-year-old in London, discovering them felt like the first time I truly identified with a band's politics and agenda. One of my all-time favourite albums (then and now) was Penis Envy by Crass. No lyrics had ever touched me the way this album had--until Spitboy entered my life. My people. My radical feminists. My punk scene. Where I have lived and belonged for over 30 years." -Vique Simba

Zenizen is the sonic manifestation of Opal Hoyt who was born in Alaska and raised between Vermont, Jamaica, Washington DC and Brooklyn. She's infatuated with writing songs and creating musical landscapes with an emphasis on all things soulful. Since heading to Australia for the second time to write/record the band's debut EP, Australia. she has been back in New York simultaneously playing shows and working on the band's "vaguely seasonal" full-length album--due in 2018. Minnie Riperton, Mariah Carey, and London Nu-jazz is where she came from and ended up. She is committed to modern psychedelia, poetry, and groove. Side B remixes from: DJ Bruce, Vulture Street Tape Gang, Suzi Analogue and Black Spade.

The album follows Stevenson's 2019 career milestone The Big Freeze, celebrated for its 'finely detailed, wrenchingly intimate songwriting' (All Songs Considered), and a 2020 NPR Tiny Desk (counted as one of the year's 20 Best). Produced by John Agnello (Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Kurt Vile,) at The Building in Marlboro, NY, Laura Stevenson is an altogether beautiful record, a sincere portrait of a human heart in all its vibrant colors. More than anything, it is about bearing one's whole self in the face of those you love - uncomfortable, and exposed, but vital, present. Here.

Brooklyn tri Painted Zeros expand their sound on their debut full-length Floriography, a concept album dealing with love, loss, and the anxieties of living in post-industrial capitalist society. Lush strings color the spaces between melodic guitar lines and front woman Katie Lau’s dreamy vocal delivery.

The Degenerics were a DIY hardcore punk band from New Brunswick, New Jersey, active from 1996 to 2008. The band quickly gained a loyal following along the eastern seaboard and beyond by playing intensely energetic live shows that encouraged audience members to adopt a Positive Mental Attitude. The band’s music is rooted in hardcore punk with heavy metal, reggae, and rock and roll influences overlaid by raw and emotive vocals expressing vehement opposition to authority and societal rules. The band released two EP’s in the late 90’s that were followed by their definitive statement, the "Generica" LP, in 2000. The Degenerics were a major, influential force in the regional punk scene from New York City’s renowned venue ABC NO RIO to the Jersey Shore. Their distinctive musical style inspired diverse bands such as Tear It Up, Down In Flames, The Measure (SA), and Thursday. The Degenerics shared the stage with contemporary acts such as Anti Flag, Avail, Murphy's Law, Aus Rotten, Raw Power, Agnostic Front, and Violent Society, among others.

& The Glory Fires

Four decades after releasing the first openly gay country album, Patrick Haggerty & Friends are back with a fresh batch of songs as poignant as ever. Running the gamut from gut-wrenching ballads to rowdy marxist singalongs, Haggerty uses his knack for sharp storytelling to shine a light on institutionalized racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia. The current emergence of fascism and the deep political divisions in American culture are making Lavender Country a critical component of progressive and radical politics. 'Now 74 years old, Haggerty again respects no limits lyrically or musically. Where else can you hear a honky-tonk number about author and activist Clara Fraser, a socialist and radical feminist who died in 1998?' - Country Queer 'The band on the album is both cross-generational, cross-gender, and multi-racial, the kind of Lavender Country community described in the title track of the first album' - Adobe & Teardrops 'The new music blends a striking mix of radical queer and socialist politics, rural aesthetics, and classic country sound. Haggerty examines the risks intimacy, lust, and unconventional values pose to those seeking human connection and purpose in life' - Slate

In 1954, 12 year old Jerry Williams, then performing under the name Little Jerry Williams, made his first recording for Mechanic Records, a blues stomp with a shockingly mature vocal performance. Through the 60"s Williams' career developed with a number of successful singles, including 'I'm the Lover Man' and 'Baby You're My Everything', as well as writing and producing hits for Dee Dee Warwick, Doris Duke, and Patti LaBelle and the Blue Belles. It was in 1970, however, that the full extent of Williams' eccentric creative genius was unleashed on the world for the first time, with the birth of his musical alter-ego, Swamp Dogg. Created to 'occupy the body while the search party was out looking for Jerry Williams, who was mentally missing in action due to certain pressures, mal-treatments and failure to get paid royalties on over fifty single records,' the Swamp Dogg alias, still in use today, allowed Williams to create music that was bolder, raunchier, and more honest to his creative instincts. The Dogg's cult classic debut 'Total Destruction to Your Mind' struck a powerful blend of Williams classic soulful sensibilities and the blooming psychedelia of the time. Infused in the swirling brew is Swamp's blink-and-you'll-miss-it humor, a number of acid odes, and a heavy dose of sharp political insight. Though the psychedelic strangeness alienated R&B fans of the time, and the authentic R&B infrastructure prevented it from clicking with hippie audiences, it has retroactively received legendary status in cult music circles.Now, 50 years after Total Destruction introduced Swamp Dogg to an unprepared world, and nearly 70 since Little Jerry Williams went into the studio for Mechanic, Williams brings us I Need A Job' So I Can Buy More Autotune. A spiritual successor to 2018"s hit Love, Loss and Autotune, this album continues to push Swamp's sonic exploration of the effect as one of his many creative weapons. In the extended tradition of Total Destruction, Swamp Dogg's 2021 LP neatly balances sleek modern production techniques with that classic Dogg sound that has anchored William's music since the 70s. Subtle yet soulful drumming, skin-tight horn grooves and meandering funk guitar leads create a sonic landscape fitting Swamp Dogg's iconic croon, occasionally drenched in the titular autotune. At 78, Swamp Dogg is as sharp of a singer and songwriter as ever. His raunchy yet charismatic sense of humor takes a more forward role on I Need a Job' So I Can Buy More Autotune, with earnestly delivered lyrics about all day sex and an entire song dedicated to the perils of 'Cheating in the Daylight.' Many of the record's most charming moments emerge from the juxtaposition of Swamp's left field humor with genuine messages of love, such as 'She Got That Fire', which weaves descriptions of imagined sex acts, including but not limited to an encounter involving edible underwear, in between relatively wholesome proclamations like 'she must be an angel on earth,' and 'when she looks at you, it's like sunshine from her eyes'. I Need a Job does more than prove that Swamp's still got it, it proves he's still getting better.

Wheel features strings by Grammy award winning violinist Rob Moose (Bon Iver, Antony And The Johnsons), brass accompaniment from Kelly Pratt (Beirut, Arcade Fire, David Byrne and St. Vincent), and was produced and mixed by Kevin McMahon (Swans, Titus Andronicus, Frightened Rabbit, Real Estate). Laura Stevenson was born and raised on Long Island with music in her blood. Her grandfather Harry Simeone a successful composer ('Little Drummer Boy', 'Do You Hear What I Hear') and her grandmother Margaret McCravy a singer for bandleader Benny Goodman. On Wheel she pours geography and heritage into the record, tackling family dynamics of dependence and support, and the feelings of isolation and insignificance that she has experienced while growing up surrounded by a vast body of water on a planet surrounded by an endlessly expanding universe. The album is also about coming to terms with these relationships and feelings, as well as her own and other's mortality. Many of the lyrics on the album explore these themes before coming back to an understanding and acceptance of our place in the world, the short time we will spend here, and the people we end up sharing it with.

Fetish Bones is the Don Giovanni Records debut of Philadelphia-based musician, artist, and activist, Camae, who performs under the name Moor Mother. The album features 13 songs conceived and recorded in Camae's home studio using a variety of machines, field recordings, and analog noisemakers. The music is often harsh and strange, projecting both the visceral anger of punk and the expansive improvisatory spirit of Sun Ra. It's an album intended as a form of protest and also as form of time travel -- a collection of sounds that are events themselves, telling stories rich in history about the journey that brings us to today and the future we are creating. Fetish Bones is not an album meant to help you forget. It is made so that you will remember the injustices that we bear witness to and participate in.

Poet and noise musician Camae Ayewa (Moor Mother) presents her first theatrical work, a futuristic exploration—part musical, part choreopoem, part play—of public/private ownership, housing, and technology set in a living room in a corporate-owned apartment complex. Framed by Ayewa’s bold poetry and bolstered by new Moor Mother music performed live by Irreversible Entanglements and the Circuit City Band, Circuit City is an afrofuturist song cycle for our current climate.

On True Opera, Moor Jewelry took a different approach– exploring the visceral, physical punk music that the duo grew up listening to.

The tracks were improvised in the recording studio during two sessions. Mental Jewelry played drums and bass. Moor Mother performed guitar and vocals. Later, they were joined by drummer Philip Price

On its Don Giovanni Records debut, both feet en th infinite, Model Home find a balance between order and entropy. The Washington, D.C. duo’s music – “abstract hip hop,” if you must slap a label on it – has long favored a freewheelin’ and improvisational approach. Their single-take gonzo mind-melds currently span 19 Bandcamp-only releases, a compilation album, one full-length LP, and numerous mixpates.

both feet en th infinite enters a newly meditative territory. The music is Funkadelic-esque in its mutant decadence, but also strangely hypnotic. Here Model Home’s core duo – Nappy Nappa (words) and Pat Cain (home-made Serge modular synthesizer) – is augmented by producer and Future Times label-founder, Andrew Field-Pickering (Max D), whose obliquely funky rhythm tracks set a solid foundation for the group to spill alien logic.

The record’s 7 songs were captured in just two days with the goal of creating a Model Home record that could eventually be replicated on stage. All but two songs are full-blown live takes and there’s a communal energy present via contributions from a who’s who of contemporary DMV heads – including Dreamcast, Awad Bilal (Too Free), Luke Stewart (Irreversible Entanglements), Bubbie, and Rob Stokes. The album was engineered with Mike Petillo (Geo Rip).

Model Home create and release music at an intimidating pace. Amid that flood of noise and thought there are moments that mark a shift in tone and approach. Last year’s album SE was one, as was the compilation One Year. both feet en th infinite is another. It’s relative stillness and gridded percussion mark a departure from Cain, Nappa, and Field-Pickering’s status quo and also a renewal. It’s a set that pulls double duty as a brain-breaking koan and an outer-limits party record.

Born of a shared love of hair metal, partying, and the reckless spirit of rock and roll, East Coast duo Bat Fangs brings a nostalgic combination of shredderistic guitars and heavily harmonized hooks. Guitarist/vocalist Betsy Wright (Ex Hex) and drummer Laura King (Flesh Wounds, COLD CREAM) united after playing a show together in their respective projects, with the goal of pushing Wright's pop focused songwriting in a bolder, brasher direction. Their sophomore LP, Queen of My World is a reeling, rocking mass of guitar and vocals that serves as both a reclamation and a reevaluation of a sound that was once a breeding ground for a particularly egregious brand of cock rock dude-bro. Paying tribute to the sounds of their youth while offering an alternative to an era of music that deified toxic masculinity as a core value, Wright and King represent a new model of Rock Stardom that's less about the Stars and more about the Rock. On 'Talk Tough', the first song written for this LP, Wright sings of music carrying her into a near supernatural state, describing herself as being 'in the cosmic sea', and inviting others 'crawl out the window on to a higher plain'. This otherworldliness permeates throughout the record, applying magical perspectives to real lived experiences. Using musical nostalgia as it's crystal ball, Queen of My World looks into life's little moments and sees the mystical within the ordinary. Though many of the songs are autobiographical, at its core the record is a lens into other worlds, gazing into timelines that could have been and childhood memories so distant they may as well be past lives. One such reminiscion takes place on the title track, which reflects on a wild adolescence of drugs and destruction, with an aggressive guitar attack to match. Underneath the

For years Supercrush confined themselves to the limitations of the two-song 7" single format, demonstrating a mastery of hyper efficient song-craft, while leaving their audience wondering if a more expansive work would ever emerge. Sodo Pop answers that question, delivering on the promise of those 7" singles and then some with 36 minutes of guitar pop alchemy. With a full-length album, the band is for the first time afforded the space to stretch out, allowing for explorations into more ambitious song structures, varied compositions, and additional instrumentation. But those who enjoyed the of the brevity of the band's early material needn't worry, there are still plenty of compact two and a half to three minute gems here in the tradition of the group's tried and true superpop formula. Pressed on Orange Vinyl.

Andrew Choi is one of the most unique and powerful singer-songwriters working right now, and Ten Songs of Worship and Praise for Our Tumultuous Times is the proof. Choi’s fourth album as St. Lenox is at turns lush and raw, with gorgeous and impressionistic instrumentation orbiting around his forceful, intense vocals and the autofictional words that they carry. This is music struck with the uncertainty and passion of faith—an album about religion, belief, and locating the self amidst such weighty and intangible concepts. Just like life itself, there’s tons to discover in these ten songs, providing plenty in terms of revelation long after the record’s stopped. Listening to Ten Songs of Worship is an immediate experience, capturing your full attention in a generous and benevolent way. You may not hear another record like it this year, and if you do, consider yourself lucky.

After spending nearly a decade recording and touring with the collaborative psych rock band Quilt, Anna Fox Rochinski has completed her first solo record, Cherry.

Though this is her first solo outing, Quilt released three full length records on Mexican Summer between 2011-2016 and toured North America and Europe extensively via High Road Touring and Paper and Iron Booking, respectively. Quilt completed several headlining tours in both continents, as well as opening on tour for bands such as The War On Drugs, Luna, and Woods. Anna's songs have been licensed and used for sync placement extensively, most recently in Netflix's "You", and Quilt signed a publishing deal with Third Side Music in 2016. Their music was featured in many press outlets including NPR and Pitchfork, and was performed live on KEXP, Late Night with Carson Daly, and NPR's Tiny Desk. Initial pressing on limited edition opaque red vinyl

The thirteen song album has been remastered at the hallowed Abbey Road Studios in London from the original 1/4' analog master tapes, and the vinyl processed with a new half speed lacquer cut to ensure the highest quality audio possible. The bonus LP is a collection of outtakes of nearly every album track, including never before heard pre-production demo recordings, alternate mixes and arrangements, live material, an Archers of Loaf cover, as well as a newly recorded version of the album track 'Caretaker' which was recorded in 2019 on the literal last night in the house Stevenson grew up in, ten years after the song was originally written there. The album features liner note essays written by musicians Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus who drew early inspiration for their own music and songwriting from the album. Also contributing liner notes are Pitchfork, NPR and Stereogum writer Nina Corcoran, as well as long-tie friend and collaborator Jeff Rosenstock who produced and played guitar on some of the bonus demo material contained in the collection.

Out September 21st, Tell No One is the debut full-length by Washington, D.C.s Bad Moves. Its a perfect power-pop album -- alternately explosive and vulnerable, loud and tender. Recorded with Hop Alongs Joe Reinhart, its an album about secrecy -- its anxiety and weight. The songs are meant to tell a story about how self-discovery works when youre a kid and how those experiences, revelations, and regrets ripple into adult life. Bad Moves are Emma Cleveland, David Combs, Katie Park, and Daoud Tyler-Ameen.

Electric Park Ballroom is the Don Giovanni Records debut by Brooklyn/Nashville-based singer, songwriter, and bandleader, Paisley Fields. Fields' writes country music. His songs are tender and authentic, but also pretty good with a joke. They’re mindful of tradition, but deeply informed by his singular background -- as a teenage Midwestern church pianist, a Manhattan piano bar survivor, and a touring member of pioneering queer country outfit, Lavender Country. He’s worked on a farm and co-written songs for RuPaul’s Drag Race. The stories are his, but the feeling they convey -- love, loneliness, lust, and so on -- are, hopefully, universal. Electric Park Ballroom features contributions from Patrick Haggerty (Lavender Country), Mercy Bell, and Sam Gleaves.

At once ethereal and angry, When You Found Forever is the sophomore full-length by Brooklyn, NY’s Painted Zeros. It's a set of songs that balances anger and exuberance -- biting words delivered via breathy melodies. When the words run out, a guitar lead is often on hand to bring the message home. Painted Zeros has been the writing, recording, and performing outlet for Katie Lau since she released her first EP '"Svalbard" in 2014. A Brooklyn-based sound engineer by night, her songs blend her love of punk and the raw fuzz of shoegaze with the melodic imperative of indie pop. When You Found Forever will be out May 29 on Don Giovanni Records.