Ryan Kaiser has already made a name for himself creating daydreamy, sun-blasted, Polaroid-pop as Yot Club. With Rufus, Kaiser is expanding his sonic palette and challenging his own established modes of music making by letting collaborators in. The result sounds bolder and brighter with shimmering surf-pop, minor chord angst and lo-fi hooks.
All Now is as rich and honest as all the most profound music by The Staves scattered across albums for the last decade, calcified here into something special. But the most thrilling part of this album, is that the hardest pills to swallow, here, almost have a sweeter taste.
Bullhead sees the LA-based band revisiting the successful sound they cultivated in 2015, characterized by heavy-hitting and booming slacker rock and indie rock vibes. While the album draws influence from indie rock legends like The National, the group carves out a unique and straightforward musical style.
Jpeg Raw marks a grand step in Clark’s musical evolution. Hip-hop samples, flourishes of African, World Music, even Jazz merge with blues, rock, R&B and rap; familiar areas he has ventured before, this time with more unity forging a fresh new style giving way to anthemic choruses, rich with power-chording and wide fuzz riffage.
American Primitive arose from what vocalist/guitarist Rhett Miller refers to as a “de-evolution”. “As much as I want us to calm down and grow up, the songs that felt right for this record were mostly big and loud and brutal and dirty.” It’s gloriously rowdy, revealing a band more attuned than ever to the raw, reckless energy of timeless rock-and-roll.
After putting down the saxophone, the instrument he has become synonymous with, Shabaka returns with his first full-length album under his own name– a moving suite of primarily instrumental music. Featuring Andre 3000, Lianne La Havas, Moses Sumney, Floating Points and more to help build this all-encompassing aural landscape.
Glasgow Eyes finds one of the UK’s most influential groups embracing a productive second chapter, their maelstrom of melody, feedback and controlled chaos now informed more audibly by their love for Suicide and Kraftwerk and a fresh appreciation of the less disciplined attitudes found in jazz.
Featuring Rice alone on all but four tracks, the 1983 album showcases Rice’s guitar prowess and eclectic musical style. Features standards as well as covers from Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot and more. Noting the album’s intimacy, Bluegrass Today wrote “It’s like you become closer to Rice as a person with every note that is sung or played.”
For the Orlando five-piece, it’s second nature to have songs that cover hip-hop, pop-punk and emo music. After their first mixtape, a full-length album, and several EPs, the band are back with Halloween Mixtape II. Across seventeen songs, they team up with the likes of Nothing, Nowhere to deliver a mixtape that broadens their musical horizons.
Kicking straight into their groove-infused progressive trance, the metalcore kings ERRA embark on 2024 with more brutal screams from J.T. Cavey. With high-pitched riffs bleeding through, sporting new elements and more complex rhythms, the metalcore elites triumph a new level of experimentation on Cure.
Behind the New Orleans quartet’s penchant for pink is a violent streak. A Barbie girl in a deathgrind world. It would be foolish to write off their subversive aesthetic as a gimmick, especially when their debut album proves they have an extremely solid musical backbone, as well as a hell of a lot of rage.
Steeped in the lineage of British folk and American guitar music, taking his cue from Richard Thompson, John Martyn and Ry Cooder, Smith has evolved a transatlantic blend of guitar techniques. His new record is a true musician’s record, produced by Joe Henry, the man responsible for some of the subtlest Americana of recent times.
One of the brightest young luminaries in roots music today, Sierra Ferrell brings a dose of beautifully strange magic to everything she touches. On her new album Trail Of Flowers,Ferrell expands her sound while deepening the urgency of her songs, often revealing a wealth of wisdom within her wildly imaginative storytelling.
The Coalition of Independent Music Stores (CIMS) is a national level organization comprised of the best independent record stores in America. CIMS was founded in 1995 with the goal of uniting like minded independent store owners, giving them a more powerful voice in the music industry. The stores that make up CIMS are all very different, but we share the same desires – to be the heart of our communities, to super-serve our customers, to support and develop artists, and to share our love of music.
For more information about CIMS and the stores in our organization, please visit cimsmusic.com or find us through social media with the #cimsmusic hashtag. And please remember to always shop local by supporting your neighborhood record store.
