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Music Releases 03-17-23

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Movie Releases 03-21-23

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Music Releases 03-24-23

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Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd is the ninth studio album from acclaimed singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey, comprising 16 tracks and interludes with features including Father John Misty, Tommy Genesis, Jon Batiste, Bleachers and more. It follows the prolific artist's 2021 albums Chemtrails Over The Country Club and Blue Banisters.

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The time is now for Caroline Rose. Their last record, Superstar, was released on March 6, 2020. The record was critically acclaimed and positioned Rose as the next big breakthrough in music. Needless to say, the resulting pandemic grinded all momentum to a halt while at the same time throwing Rose’s personal life into turmoil. The result of that turmoil is the fuel that fired the creation of their latest album, The Art of Forgetting. With The Art of Forgetting, Rose took on the dual role of writer and producer. The album encapsulates the feeling of experiencing recent memories, having them turn into old ones and then ultimately forgetting those memories altogether. There is a romantic nature within the sonic landscape of this record. Tape effects and loops emulate the feeling of aging while the juxtaposition of modern acoustic-electronic textures, like lo-fi tape next to hi-fi granular synths result in some of their most mature and honest work to date.

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Fake Names

Expendables [LP]

Vinyl: $23.98 Buy

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If credibility were currency, FAKE NAMES’ wealth would be off the charts. Composed of Brian Baker (Minor Threat, Bad Religion, Dag Nasty), Michael Hampton (S.O.A., Embrace), Dennis Lyxzén (Refused, INVSN, The [International] Noise Conspiracy), Johnny Temple (Girls Against Boys, Soulside) and the newest member Brendan Canty (Fugazi, Rites of Spring), the band is a veritable post-hardcore dream team.

However instead of rehashing the past, Expendables is a reinvention that sees the band dialing back the distortion and leaning into the melodies. The result pairs their unparalleled pedigree with a pop sensibility that’s slightly unexpected and wholly satisfying. “For our
last record [2019’s FAKE NAMES]the general influences were 70’s U.K. punk and power-pop; but it wound up with a little classic rock vibe as well, like the Vibrators meets Aerosmith. We never saw that coming!” , Baker explains.

For Expendables the band enlisted producer Adam “Atom” Greenspan (IDLES, Yeah Yeah Yeahs). Baker explains, “The pop influences are a little more out front on this one and the production really helps it shine. It sounds more direct, more urgent.” Expendables is the latest exchange in a musical conversation that spans four decades. Baker aptly refers to the lineup of FAKE NAMES as a “mutual admiration society” and says that once the five members got in the same room together, it felt as if they had already been in the band together for years.

New Vinyl: $23.98 Video
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Released in May 1972, Honky Château was the album that made Elton John a superstar and ushered in a new era for him.

Named after the residential studios outside Paris where the album was recorded, Honky Château bought a new level of simplicity and directness to Elton’s music that had previously only been seen in glimpses. Shorn of the complexities and ornate orchestrations of his recent work, Honky Chateau seemed freewheeling and intimate. It was helped by Rocket Man, the record which became another of Elton’s signature songs.

These special editions contain the original album, and on both vinyl and CD editions a newly created selection of outtakes from the sessions, produced from the original tapes by Matt Still, which highlight the warmth and humor of the sessions.

On CD only there are eight tracks from the album that were recorded at the Royal Festival Hall in 1972, all receiving their live debut, just a few days back in the UK after recording. Assembled with the customary care by Elton’s catalog team, the album comes as a gatefold with an eight-page booklet with rare photos, memorabilia and an essay by co-curator and music writer Daryl Easlea, featuring interviews from those who were there.

Honky Château has been mastered at Lurssen in California, and the vinyl cut at Abbey Road.
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The Stripped Sessions adds to Wage War’s already impressive and numerous career highlights including over 580 total million streams; hitting high marks on Billboard Charts and earning press raves from Revolver, Loudwire, Kerrang!, Alternative Press, Rock Sound, Modern Drummer, and 2021 covers from Kerrang! and UPSET.
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Diplo

Diplo [LP]

Vinyl: $34.98 UNAVAILABLE

MP3 Album: $9.99 Download

'Diplo'-the prolific artist's self-titled new album and first full-length of dance/electronic music in 18 years- is the realization of a three-year deep dive into the house music that first blew Diplo's mind as a teenager and that he has now founded the label Higher Ground to champion worldwide. A titan of electronic music, he's now turned his focus back to these roots. With 3x GRAMMY® Nominations - Best Dance/ Electronic Album ('Diplo'), Best Dance/Electronic Recording ("Don't Forget My Love" with Miguel, and "On My Mind" with SIDEPIECE) - the album also includes singles "Looking For Me" and "Promises" with Paul Woolford and Kareen Lomax, "Don't Be Afraid" with Jungle and Damian Lazarus and "One By One" with Elderbrook and Andhim-classic house records that have soundtracked the reopening of clubs worldwide-as well as new collaborations with Aluna, TSHA, Leon Bridges, Lil Yachty, Busta Rhymes, Seth Troxler, Amtrac, RY X and more. 2023 GRAMMY® Nomination for Best Dance/ Electronic Album and Best Dance/Electronic Recording ("Don't Forget My Love"). Gatefold jacket with embossed logo on back. Full size booklet featuring artwork by Anton Reva (SaveMyMind) from photos by Jason Miller.
New Vinyl: $34.98 Digital:$9.99
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Just nine months after his 3x Grammy-nominated record Growin’ Up was released, reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year Luke Combs is back with a new companion album, Gettin’ Old, releasing March 24 via River House Artists/Columbia Nashville. In advance of the release, lead track, “Growin’ Up and Gettin’ Old,” written by Combs, Rob Snyder and Channing Wilson, is out now.

Produced by Combs, Chip Matthews and Jonathan Singleton, Gettin’ Old is Combs’ fourth full-length album following 2022’s Growin’ Up, 2019’s 3x Platinum What You See is What You Get and his 4x Platinum debut, This One’s For You. Across these eighteen new tracks, Combs continues to establish himself as one of music’s most authentic and powerful voices, as he reaches new lyrical depths exploring themes of family, legacy, love and personal growth.

New Vinyl: $34.98
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Felte Records presents Glimpse Of Heaven – a stunning new album by the Hawaii-born, LA-based musician, singer, producer and professional mastering engineer Jess Labrador, AKA Chasms.

Labrador’s deeply personal work as Chasms has always felt like an unveiling. Following 2019’s ‘The Mirage,’ which was a dark, dubby meditation on grief and loss, this new album is both familiar and different. The third full-length under the Chasms name, Glimpse of Heaven trades in washes of reverb for starker moments of closeness and intimacy. An exploration of the personal inventory and reckoning necessary to move forward in life, the LP considers not only how we relate to the world, but more importantly how we relate to ourselves.

While always distinct, you could previously detect post-punk, shoegaze, and dub sensibilities in the music. Dreamy drift tethered by skittered beats, airy vocals, and melancholic melodies are here like previous efforts too. However, at the same time, Labrador steps into new territory with an expanse of vaporous synths and samples, adding to the project’s ethereal electronic pop and dubwise pulse. Lush guitars glisten throughout the album, but this time only in sparse, disciplined embellishments. Glimpse of Heaven is a fully realised version of Chasms beyond its influences; to say that this is a seamless evocation of such disparate sounds as Massive Attack, Basic Chanel, Sade, Seefeel and Dif Juz is to say it is wholly unique. While she continues to unfurl her thoughts, there is a shift from opening up to the listener toward allowing the listener to witness her opening to herself.

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LP in gatefold sleeve, with two posters featuring design by Ian Emes and Gerald Scarfe. Cover design by Aubrey Powell/Hipgnosis and Peter Curzon/Storm Studios. Featuring original 1973 line drawn cover artwork by George Hardie.

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The usual boom-and-bust cycles of growing up - breaking down, gathering the strength to get up, fumbling hard, doing it all over again - can feel unmooring, to say the least, but, and according to Debby Friday, it's tragedies and glories need savoring. Losing illusions, gaining expectations; getting deep into the private, soupy kaleidoscope of what's possible and what's futile - GOOD LUCK, her debut, and supernovic, full-length album, is built on welcoming the journey's complicated drops and mountain highs with something more like grace.Nigerian-born, then an emigré to bits of Canada - from Montreal to Vancouver to Toronto - Debby Friday's roamings through space and time really began when the sun fell. Nightlife was her emancipation from the toughness of home life, and she fell into it, body and soul, totally seduced. Raves til sunrise; house music in unknown basements and warehouses - the lure of the party was the perfect escape. Things that feel good sometimes do fall apart, though. In 2017, after DJing for less than a year, nothing was going the way that she wanted it to go. So she gathered her things and embarked on what would turn out to be the first of a few of her coming-of-age stories. After making the decision to stop herself in her tracks, she pulverized new paths for herself forward. Late-night YouTube tutorials on music production led to an EP, BITCHPUNK, and BITCHPUNK led to her first public performances, and all that gave way to a second EP, DEATH DRIVE. Her art endowed her with the strength she needed to move on. "This is what I was born to do," she goes. "It came to me so naturally and instinctively."So what does it take to hone that power? Discipline - routines, rituals; an MFA, practices of writing and filmmaking, and music-making that guide a person from one day to the next - but something close to mysticism, too. DEBBY'S serious study of astrology, psychology, and philosophy allow her to move through the world, relate to others, and get closer to what's inside her. She believes in what emerges. She believes in making the unconscious conscious. She wants to be in dialogue with the darkness.It's why GOOD LUCK works like such a study in entropy. On the surface, you'll hear smears of Santigold's dub dazzle, the MIDI-crush of Death Grips, but less obviously the plaintiveness of directors like Eric Rohmer, or the grotesque decadence of later-era Sylvia Plath. (Juno Award and Polaris Prize-nominated composer Graham Walsh adds a sort of heft and pull to the genre-flexibility on parade here: think of it a little like Sevdaliza meets FKA Twigs.) Few do it like her, though, and GOOD LUCK spans from lucid, acid housey, high-BPM tracks to melancholia and darkness to striking falsetto pop with assuredness and aplomb. The album GOOD LUCK is being co-released with a short film of the same name, co-directed by FRIDAY and Nathan de Paz Habib (past work includes Eroica, based on Chino Amobi's novel of the same name). It's a story of individuation. It's a love story about a woman and her masked beloved, but outside of the accompanying-but-stand-alone visual, it's all a willing, yearning investigation into what goes on behind the veil of sadness, of cruelty. Because knowing the darkness is the only way to understand the light, but also the greys and the blues and the in-between states. FRIDAY's explorations in GOOD LUCK - delving down into the muck of nuance - are a kind of courage.
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2021 CMA Female Vocalist and 2022 ACM Awards Female Artist of the Year, Carly Pearce has come a long way from the pain she felt writing 29. Filled only with happy tears, she looks ahead chronicling her critically-acclaimed and commercially-lauded album with 29: WRITTEN IN STONE (LIVE FROM MUSIC CITY). Heartache and determination continue to connect her with fans across the country who can relate, including special guests Lee Brice, Ashley McBryde, The Isaacs, Matthew West and Jenee Fleenor.
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Nonesuch Records releases Cécile McLorin Salvant’sMélusine on CD March 24, 2023 and LP on May 19, 2023. Mélusine features a mix of five originals and interpretations of nine songs, dating as far back as the twelfth century, mostly sung in French along with Occitan, English, and Haitian Kreyol.

The new album’s songs tell the story of the European folkloric legend of Mélusine, a woman who turns into a half-snake each Saturday as a result of a childhood curse by her mother. Mélusine later agrees to marry Raymondin on the condition that he never see her on Saturdays. He agrees but is ultimately convinced by his brother to break his promise, piercing his wife’s door with his sword and finding her naked in the bath, half snake, half woman. When she catches him spying on her, she turns into a dragon and flies out the window, only to reappear every time one of her descendants is on their deathbed.

Salvant, whose parents are French and Haitian, saysMélusine is also “partly about that feeling of being a hybrid, a mixture of different cultures, which I’ve experienced not only as the American-born child of two first generation immigrants, but as someone raised in a family that is racially mixed, from several different countries, with different languages spoken in the home.”

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As badly as we want our trajectory to be linear and to make logical sense, sometimes life has other plans for us. We have to listen to that little voice within, whispering: rebel against the status quo. This has been the experience of singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer Kate Davis, where she hits the brakes on the life she thought she knew, grabbed the creative reins and rebuilt her artistic foundation. As she walks away from her previous life as a conservatory-trained jazz musician and into her future as an experi- mental art-rock singer, Davis has found a new home within herself. Growing up in Portland, Davis later moved to New York City to attend the Manhattan School Of Music. At night, Davis would sneak down to Brooklyn, where she watched indie-rock innovators Grizzly Bear and the Dirty Projectors and se- cretly dreamed of breaking away from the academic rigor of the jazz world she inhabited. With time, Davis found a way to take control of her musical destiny and define her own path, which is illustrated with vivid clarity on the highly conceptual Fish Bowl, coming three years after her debut album, Trophy. This coming-of-age story is at the heart of Davis’ sophomore album, Fish Bowl, coming soon via her new label home of ANTI- Records.

Across Fish Bowl’s 12 deeply personal tracks, Davis traces her very own he- ro’s journey, from the moment she steps away from her old life to the moment she finds inner peace. She follows these steps through the eyes of Fish Bowl’s central character, FiBo, who starts out on opening track “Monster Mash” realizing the community she cultivated has turned on her and starts to seek real change. Leading the entire creative process, Davis wove multiple genres — art-rock, pop, and folk — into an intricate, unique tapestry of sound.. As she steps into an exciting new stage of her music career, Davis is taking the very meticulousness she developed from her years in the jazz world and applying them to Fish Bowl. Like genre pillar John Coltrane, Davis is transitioning to a more musically spiritual place — a place where rules don’t matter, experimen- talism is encouraged, and change is part of one’s natural progression as an artist. As Davis continues to push forward with clear-eyed determination, the indie-rock world is about to gain a new sonic voyager.

New Vinyl: $23.98
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Legendary Tacoma, Washington mathcore/hardcore/metal band Botch’s debut full-length American Nervoso was originally recorded in 1998, eventually becoming one of the most ground-breaking records during a pivotal shift in heavy music. Now, the band’s debut album is set to be re-issued on Sargent House 25 years after its original release. The album features white-hot guitar action, scathing vocals, sweet bass moves, and torrential drums, smashing existing precepts of hardcore and redefining both the word and the music for a generation of kids and grizzled vets alike. Bassist Brian Cook, guitarist David Knudson, drummer Tim Latona, and vocalist Dave Verellen formed Botch in 1993, eventually becoming one of the most significant bands of their time before playing their final show on June 15, 2002. The members would go on to play in These Arms Are Snakes, Minus the Bear, and Russian Circles, among others, with acclaim for the band coming mostly post-breakup. Over 20 years since they played their final show, Botch are reuniting for select dates in the Pacific Northwest in February 2023

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Apollo’s long-awaited debut album IVORY brings him to another level in his career. Crossing genre lines as well as language barriers, the full-length showcases even greater musical diversity from the already boundless creator.  Despite being at this pivotal moment in his career, Omar feels like he’s just getting started.  The artist who once called himself “just a kid from Indiana” is breaking new ground, abandoning all comfort zones, and never looking back. Featuring the hit song, “Evergreen.”

New Vinyl: $24.98
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From the streets of Venice Beach CA, come Ottto, the electric eclectic funk-punk-rock stew who release their first full-length studio album Life Is A Game on March 24th, 2023. Bassist Tye Trujillo, lead vocalist/guitar Bryan Noah Ferretti, and drummer Triko Chavez spill their aggressive groove centric vibe throughout the 10 track, Tim Harkins (Korn, Jerry Cantrell) produced album, as Ottto lead the charge on a full-tilt Old School giant riff revival with pride and raw, unfettered passion. Double-stuffed with melody, Ottto throw it all down within a potent DIY punk attitude, infused with plenty of alternative chemical imbalance! "My Pain", "Skyscraper" and the ultra-dynamic "Night Howlers" are loaded with the sort of grease, grime, and funkified riffage that can only come from the hearts and minds of unpasteurized, raw warriors. If Life Is A Game then Ottto are going at it hard, fast, and without any traditional rules.
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Elvis Live 1972 compiles the best of the live tracks from the new 6CD+bluray box set Elvis On Tour.  Recorded at 4 Elvis tour dates throughout April 1972, most of these tracks are previously unreleased, and appear here on vinyl for the first time.

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Thrice

The Artist In The Ambulance [Green LP]

Vinyl: $25.98 UNAVAILABLE

MP3 Album: $7.99 Download

The question has to be asked: Why would Thrice re-record a 20 year old album? Here's what the members of Thrice had to say in regards to The Artist In The Ambulance - Revisited.

"The core of the answer is that it simply sounded fun and we were curious. What would it sound like to play these old songs after 20 years of playing and singing under our belts? We know that playing the revisionist is a dangerous game so we were always a little uneasy about trying to go back and mess with something that people loved, people who had none of the hang-ups about the record that we did. But, since we decided to do this anyway, we tried to let that wariness guide us in how we approached the record, and in the end we decided to make very minimal structural changes. At the end of the day, what we wanted the record to sound like for fans is that somehow one of their old favorite records got a new lease on life, but that it hadn't lost it's soul or turned into something else."

New Vinyl: $25.98 Digital:$7.99
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"During the pandemic, we started a Patreon page. Through the Patreon page, ten people purchased a song we would write for them after having a zoom chat with the band. The stories we heard in those conversations created foundations for the lyrics that evolved into ten different songs. A year or so later we decided to take them into the studio to create a new album. During the studio sessions, we realized we wanted a song to summarize the process and tell the story of the project. One afternoon during the session we came up with the title “10 Stories High” and matched it up with a melody that Pete and Bryan had recorded earlier on their phones. We really liked how the title added imagery of ten people in a ten-story building living out their own external and internal experiences. It was a perfect summary to the project. After a few hours of tinkering with the music and words we had our title track for the record."

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The historic Greatest Hits collection now available on vinyl. Featuring 18 classics including “I Want You To Want Me”, “Surrender”, “The Flame” and more. Plus track-by-track liner notes by the band.

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Vinyl LP pressing. 2023 release. Love & Money is Katie Melua's 9th studio album; a stunning and personal 10 track snapshot of Katie as both an artist and human. Producer Leo Abrahams assembled an exceptional group of musicians with an astounding track record to complete the sound of the record. The album was recorded at Peter Gabriel's iconic Real World Studios, before Katie and Abrahams took the tracks back to his own studio in Leyton, built over a WW2 bomb shelter. The album sees Katie reflecting on her place in the world; the bonuses and challenges of being a woman in the music industry and the delicate balance of career and family life, all brought to life in a lush moment of personal acceptance and catharsis. Originally from Tbilisi, Georgia, Katie Melua has become one of Britain's highest selling recording artists, amassing over 11 million sales and 56 platinum certifications across a 20 year career with all 8 studio albums to date charting in the top 10 in the UK albums chart.
New Vinyl: $26.98
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*NSYNC’s first album originally released in 1998 now available on black vinyl.  The debut smash features 13 tracks including the hits “Tearin’ Up My Heart ” and “ I Want You Back” among others. 

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The Scarlet Goodbye (labelled “the most unlikely mash-up in Minnesota music history”) is the creative combination of Daniel Murphy (Soul Asylum, Golden Smog) and Jeff Arundel. Murphy had stepped away in 2012 after 30 years of recording and touring. A chance meeting with the mellow singer/songwriter Arundel led the duo to start writing and recording together. The result is their full-length album, Hope’s Eternal, produced by John Fields and releasedvia Nashville’s The Label Group. Red LP.

Movie Releases 03-28-23

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All Quiet on the Western Front tells the gripping story of a young German soldier on the Western Front of World War I. Paul and his comrades experience first-hand how the initial euphoria of war turns into desperation and fear as they fight for their lives, and each other, in the trenches. The film from director Edward Berger is based on the world-renowned bestseller of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque.
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Plane [Movie]

Plane [4K]

Blu-Ray: $42.99 UNAVAILABLE
Neither the storm that forced airline pilot Brodie Torrance (Gerard Butler) to land his plane in an isolated region of the Philippines, nor the fact that he was transporting convicted killer Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter) proves to be his biggest problem when his passengers are taken hostage by a dangerous militia group. Out of options, Torrance must enlist Gaspare's aid in order to mount a daring rescue. Yoson An, Daniella Pineda, Tony Goldwyn co-star in this thrilling actioner. 107 min. Widescreen; Soundtrack: English. Two-disc set.
New Blu-Ray: $42.99
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Chucky is back! The notorious killer doll continues his onslaught of terror in Season Two of the hit horror series from franchise creator Don Mancini. This season finds Chucky (voiced by Brad Dourif) hellbent on exacting revenge against teens Jake (Zackary Arthur), Devon (Björgvin Arnarson) and Lexy (Alyvia Alyn Lind), as well as his ex Tiffany (voiced by Jennifer Tilly), after they successfully thwarted his murderous plot in Season One. While Jake and Devon encounter trouble as a couple at their new Catholic school, Chucky embarks on a whole new killing spree, crossing paths with familiar franchise faces along the way.
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It’s season six and Rick and Morty are back! Pick up where we left them, worse for wear and down on their luck. Will they manage to bounce back for more adventures? Or will they get swept up in an ocean of piss! Who knows?! Piss! Family! Intrigue! A bunch of dinosaurs! More piss! Another can't miss season of your favorite show.

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Music Releases 03-31-23

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Movie Releases 04-04-23

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