It’s never a dull day for the BTS Army. Ahead of their week-long residency on The Tonight Show, the K-pop superstars have announced the release details for their next album. Entitled BE (Deluxe Edition), it’s due out on November 20th. Per a press release, BTS’s latest album “imparts a message of healing to the world by declaring, ‘Even in the face of this new normality, our life goes on.’” The album is also significant as it marks the first time the septet was involved in the overall production, from the concept concept, to the composition, to the design, and more. “BE (Deluxe Edition) reflects the thoughts, emotions and deepest ruminations of BTS while working on the album. This new project offers an even richer musical spectrum experience as well as the most ‘BTS-ish’ music ye...
Sufjan Stevens has unveiled The Ascension, one of the most anticipated albums of the season. Listen in below via Apple Music or Spotify. Out through his own Asthmatic Kitty Records, the album marks Stevens’ eighth full-length to date and first since 2015’s Carrie & Lowell. In the lead-up to today’s release, the indie songwriter shared three promising previews, including epic lead single “America”. Clocking in at a very generous 12 minutes, the track is a soaring “protest song against the sickness of American culture in particular,” Stevens described in a statement. The single was originally written prior to the 2016 Election, during the Carrie & Lowell sessions, but was shelved because its “vaguely mean-spirited” tone didn’t fit in with the rest of that record. Stevens later uneart...
Veteran funk bassist Bootsy Collins is gearing up to release a new album called The Power of the One. The guest-filled record is due to drop October 23rd via Bootzilla Records/Sweetwater Studios. For Collins, who rose to prominence working with James Brown and then Parliament-Funkadelic, this forthcoming solo effort marks his 10th solo overall. It was begun prior to the pandemic, but completed during lockdown at his own Boot-Cave Studios in Cincinnati. The entire record was produced, written, and arranged by Collins himself. Although quarantined in his own space, the 68-year-old artist was able to assemble long list of special collaborators, some of whom contributed from afar, including Snoop Dogg, fellow James Brown bandmate Christian McBride, bassists Larry Graham and Victor Wooten,...
With Pearl Jam’s Gigaton touring plans on hold due to the pandemic, guitarist Stone Gossard focused his attention on officially launching his new side project called Painted Shield. Along with Gossard, the group features Mason Jennings, veteran drummer and former Pearl Jam collaborator Matt Chamberlain, and keyboardist Brittany Davis. Today, they’ve formally announced their self-titled debut album, due out November 27th. While Painted Shield are only now stepping into the spotlight, the band’s origins actually date back to 2014. Gossard and Jennings previously teamed up for two joint singles — “Knife Fight” and “Caught in a Mess” — under the name Mason and Stone, and it was at that moment their chemistry was born. The pair ended up hitting the studio together a few years later, and th...
Queens rapper Homeboy Sandman has announced a new album, Don’t Feed the Monster, produced entirely by Detroit’s own Quelle Chris. The collaborative effort is expected to arrive October 16th via Mello Music Group. The upcoming hip-hop project consists of 15 tracks, and features one lone vocal contribution from Quelle Chris himself. According to a statement, the full-length represents a “turning point” for the two artists, who used this new music to help process and better understand their own personal struggles and complex emotions. “I was having a hard time and this record saved me,” Homeboy Sandman remarked in a statement. “Thank Quelle and thank God and shout to Gabor Maté.” Praising his friend and colleague, Quelle Chris said that Homeboy Sandman “finds balance in using his words t...
Veteran electronic music outfit Autechre are set to return with a new album this fall. Dubbed SIGN, it’s due out October 16th through longtime label Warp Records. The forthcoming effort follows the duo’s NTS Sessions, a collection of music broadcast during Autechre’s NTS Radio residency in 2018, as well as elseq 1-5 from 2016, a record comprised of five 50-minute segments. Per a statement, with a running time just a little over an hour, SIGN marks the British group’s first standard-length album since Exai from way back in 2013. SIGN contains a total of 11 songs. Among them are titles such as “M4 Lema”, “Metaz form8”, “gr4”, and “psin AM”, all seemingly strange and nonsensical, as is usually the case for Autechre’s Rob Brown and Sean Booth. Editors’ Picks Further album details are sti...
Micachu and the Shapes, the noisy indie-pop band led by Under the Skin composer Mica Levi, are back. They have renamed the group Good Sad Happy Bad — taken from their 2015 full-length of the same name — and have announced a new album called Shades. It’s due out October 16th via French label Textile Records. Shades is Good Sad Happy Bad’s fifth studio album to date and their first new music since releasing the Taz and May Vids EP in 2016. According to the record label, Good Sad Happy Bad have shuffled their musical duties on the 12-track full-length, with Raisa Khan taking on lead vocals, Levi playing playing guitar and electronics, Marc Pell on drums, and CJ Calderwood contributing vocals, saxophone, and recorder. To coincide with today’s announcement, Good Sad Happy Bad have also sha...
After putting out garage rock records for the last two decades, King Khan is looking to try something new on his next effort. Enter: The Infinite Ones, his first-ever jazz album, due out October 30th via Ernest Jenning Record Co. and Khannibalism. The 11-track effort boasts contributions from Sun Ra Arkestra members Marshall Allen and Knoel Scott. Calexico bandmates John Convertino and Martin Wenk also appear on select songs. According to King Khan, The Infinite Ones comes from “a place from deep within the soul” and serves as a tribute to iconic composers like Alice Coltrane, Ennio Morricone, Miles Davis, Sun Ra, John Carpenter, and Quincy Jones. The Canadian musician explained further, “In my 23 years of being a composer of music I have had the great opportunity to score severa...
Evergreen rock and roll titans The Hives have announced a new live album called Live at Third Man Records. The seven-song LP is due out September later this month, but the Swedish punk troupe are previewing it today with a kick-ass rendition of their 2000 hit “Hate to Say I Told You So”. The Hives are known for their high-energy sets (which they always perform while decked out in crisp suits), so it’s a little surprising that it took them this long to put out a live record. Regardless, the garage revivalists sound as tight as hell and electric as ever while busting out “Hate To Say”, a song that hasn’t aged a day in the 20 years since its release. Take a listen below. In addition to early-era staples like “Main Offender” and “Walk Idiot Walk”, Live At Third Man Records featu...