For the Record
Thad Cockrell - If In Case You Feel the Same (Ltd. Ed. Autographed Translucent Pink Vinyl)
Thad Cockrell releases his first solo album in over a decade. In Case You Feel The Same is his debut for ATO Records and it taps into the tremendous depth of expression he's brought co-writing songs for artists such as Joy Williams, Devon Gilfillian, Joseph and Mathew Caws of Nada Surf. It was produced by Tony Berg (Phoebe Bridgers, the Replacements etc) and includes collaborations with Brittany Howard, Blake Mills and Shawn Everett.
Ted Nugent - Free-For-All (Ltd. Ed. 150G Translucent Forest Green Vinyl)
Free-For-All is the second solo release from guitarist Ted Nugent and his first album to go platinum. As the recording of Free-For-All commenced, rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist Derek St. Holmes left the band, citing growing personal and creative conflicts with Nugent. Two solid years of living together on the road had taken its toll on the relationship. Additionally, St. Holmes was unhappy with Tom Werman's production, saying that the producer was watering down the band's sound. A full year before Bat Out of Hell brought him international success, vocalist Meat Loaf was brought in by producer Werman to sing on the album. Meat Loaf was paid the sum of $1000 for his contributions to the album, which included crafting all of the vocal arrangements and two days of recording sessions.
Khruangbin - Mordechai (Ltd. Ed. Translucent Pink Vinyl)
Mordechai is a story of finding yourself in unexpected places. Travel weary and without a home after 24 itinerant months of travel and touring, Laura Lee went on a hike with a family of strangers, led by a father named Mordechai. Here, on this least expected journey after so many others, she found spiritual awakening and rebirth. Known already for drawing on the music of locales like Thailand and Iran, Khruangbin found their most diverse and global influence by looking inward, returning to their hometown and America's most diverse city: Houston, TX. With Laura Lee's voice now clear and centered amid a glossolalia of musical influence and 14 languages, Khruangbin have found singularity in multiplicity.
The Blind Tiger Record Club will be “On Air” on Lightning 100
NASHVILLE, TENN. (JULY 17, 2020) – The Blind Tiger Record Club is a vinyl subscription service started in 2017 and operating out of Nashville, TN. Members pick from four different styles and receive vinyl delivered directly to their door each month. In 2018, The Blind Tiger Record Club started a podcast under the same name. Now, in the middle of Season 3, they are taking the show to radio. Beginning Monday, July 20th, The Blind Tiger Record Club On Air will premiere on Lightning 100 (100.1 WRLT) and return every other Monday from 8pm to 9pm following the615. Stream live at lightning100.com
The Texas Gentlemen - Floor It!!! (Ltd. Ed. 140G Orange Green Magenta Striped 2XLP)
Pop on Floor It!!!, the new and second full-length effort from the Texas Gentlemen, and prepare your eardrums to be hit with everything from woozy, brass-fueled Dixieland-style jazz (“Veal Cutlass”), to slinky, chicken-scratch country funk (“Bare Maximum”) to lushly orchestrated pop-soul balladry (“Ain’t Nothin’ New”)—and that’s all in just the first 10 minutes of play time.While the Gentlemen’s sound is clearly steeped in the classic roots, rock and pop music of the ‘60s and ‘70s, there’s a dreamy (the lilting “Sing Me to Sleep”), spacey (“Skyway Streetcar”) and occasionally progressive (“Dark at the End of the Tunnel”) element to what they do that seems to detach the music from belonging to any particular place and time. Add in elements of funk, soul, country, r&b, southern rock, gospel and essentially any other style that catches their musically omnivorous ears; an expansive and detailed approach to arrangement that sees the songs adorned with all manner of horns, strings and heavenly background vocals (“Hard Road”) and you have a collection of tunes that is more than just a mere album. Rather, Floor It!!! is a rich and righteous ride.
Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher (Ltd. Ed. Red & Swirly Vinyl)
Phoebe Bridgers doesn't write love songs as much as songs about the impact love can have on our lives, personalities, and priorities. Punisher, her fourth release and second solo album, is concerned with that subject. To say she writes about heartbreak is to undersell her blue wisdom, to say she writes about pain erases all the strange joy her music emanates. Bridgers pulls together a formidable crew of guests, including the Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus, Christian Lee Hutson and Conor Oberst as well as Nathaniel Walcott (of Bright Eyes), Nick Zinner (of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Jenny Lee Lindberg (of Warpaint), Blake Mills and Jim Keltner as well as her longtime bandmates Marshall Vore (drums), Harrison Whitford (guitar), Emily Retsas (bass) and Nick White (keys). The album was mixed by Mike Mogis, who also mixed Stranger In The Alps.
Van Halen - 1984 (Ltd. Ed. 180G)
Six years and five albums after their debut, Van Halen had become one of the biggest bands in world around the release of 1984, which includes a number of the band’s most legendary songs such as the #1 hit, "Jump", "Panama" and "Hot For Teacher". Mastering engineer Chris Bellman, who remastered the original albums at Bernie Grundman Mastering Studios, was enlisted for this new version. In order to produce the original sound the band intended, Bellman cut straight from the quarter-inch tapes.
Norah Jones - Pick Me Up Off the Floor (Ltd. Ed. Black/White Vinyl)
Norah Jones' seventh solo studio album Pick Me Up Off The Floor features collaborators from Brian Blade to Jeff Tweedy, and grew out of her acclaimed singles series of the past two years as the songs she hadn't yet released unexpectedly congealed into an album of tremendous depth and beauty connected by the sly groove of her piano trios, lyrics that confront loss and portend hope, and a mood that leans into darkness before ultimately finding the light.