New Music Monthly: May 2020 Releases

Maybe May will be the month that this damn Covid-19 crapola goes the way of the do-do and we can all get out again to the clubs and record stores and imbibe on our favorite tunes. Distribution woes aside, the month promises an impressive slate of new tunes, including albums by American Aquarium, Willie Nile, Steve Earle, Jason Isbell, Marshall Chapman, and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, among many others! For those of you who dig the sounds of the past, check out the six-disc live set from Todd Rundgren's Utopia or the more affordable two-disc live set from Richard Thompson. No matter your taste in music, there's something here for everybody...

Release dates are subject to change and nobody tells me when they do. If you’re interesting in buying an album, just hit the ‘Buy!’ link to get it from Amazon.com...it’s just that damn easy! Your purchase puts valuable ‘store credit’ in the Reverend’s pocket that he’ll use to buy more music to write about in a never-ending loop of rock ‘n’ roll ecstasy!

MAY 1
American Aquarium - Lamentations   BUY!
Built to Spill - Built To Spill Plays the Songs of Daniel Johnston   BUY!
The Psychedelic Furs - Made of Rain   BUY!
Todd Rundgren's Utopia - Benefit For Moogy Klingman [six-CD live box]   BUY!

MAY 8
Airborne Toxic Event - Hollywood Park   BUY!
Lamb of God - Lamb of God   BUY!
Mark Lanegan - Straight Songs of Sorrow   BUY!
John Stewart - Old Forgotten Altars: The 1960s Demos   BUY!
Richard Thompson - Live At Rock City: Nottingham 1986   BUY!

MAY 15
Marshall Chapman - Songs I Can't Live Without   BUY!
Ruthie Foster Big Band - Live At the Paramount   BUY!
Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit - Reunions   BUY!
King Buzzo - Gift of Sacrifice   BUY!
Magnetic Fields - Quickies   BUY!
Moby - All Visible Objects   BUY!
Willie Nile - New York At Night   BUY!
Sparks - A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip   BUY!
Weezer - Van Weezer   BUY!

MAY 22
The 1975 - Notes On A Conditional Form   BUY!
Steve Earle & the Dukes - Ghosts of West Virginia   BUY!
Iron City Houserockers - Have A Good Time...But Get Out Alive!   BUY!
Throwing Muses - Sun Racket   BUY!
Woods - Strange To Explain   BUY!

MAY 29
Mick Hayes - My Claim To Fame   BUY!
The Killers - Imploding the Mirage   BUY!
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - Chunky Shrapnel   BUY!
Static-X - Project Regeneration   BUY!
Vandenberg - 2020   BUY!

Album of the Month: Tough choice, what with new music from personal faves like Willie Nile, King Gizzard, Jason Isbell, and Steve Earle this month, but I'm gonna have to go with an oldie-but-goodie that has endured for 40 years now – Iron City Houserocker's Have A Good Time...But Get Out Alive! Originally released in 1980, the sophomore effort from these Pittsburgh rockers is even more fierce the band's debut and this two-disc deluxe reissue includes the original LP as well as a bonus disc comprised of 16 previously-unreleased demo tracks including cool covers of "Rooster Blues" and "Doo Wah Diddy." Co-produced by Ian Hunter, Mick Ronson, and Little Steven the album features a batch of original Joe Grushecky songs guaranteed to rock yer turntable! A vinyl version will be released in June with a download card for all the bonus material. The Rev sez "check it out!"

New Music Monthly: October 2019 releases

Lotsa great music this month, with new tunes from friends old and new like Wilco, the Wildhearts, Joseph Arthur, the Muffs, Swans, and others. Not enough? How 'bout a new album from prog-rock supergroup Flying Colors (with Steve Morse, Neil Morse, and Mike Portnoy)? The first new LP in decades from glam-rockers Angel? A new set from Mississippi bluesman Jimmy "Duck" Holmes (produced by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys)? Maybe archive releases and reissues from Frank Zappa, Jethro Tull, Neil Young, and Big Star will scratch that itch. No? There's just no pleasing you people...

Release dates are subject to change and nobody tells me when they do. If you’re interesting in buying an album, just hit the ‘Buy!’ link to get it from Amazon.com...it’s just that damn easy! Your purchase puts valuable ‘store credit’ in the Reverend’s pocket that he’ll use to buy more music to write about in a never-ending loop of rock ‘n’ roll ecstasy!

OCTOBER 4
Angel - Risen   BUY!
Flying Colors - Third Degree [prog supergroup w/Steve Morse, Neal Morse & Mike Portnoy]   BUY!
North Mississippi Allstars - Up and Rolling   BUY!
that dog. - Old LP   BUY!
Wilco - Ode To Joy   BUY!
The Wildhearts - Diagnosis EP   BUY!

OCTOBER 11
808 State - Transmission Suite   BUY!
Joseph Arthur - Come Back World   BUY!
Babymetal - Metal Galaxy   BUY!
Kim Gordon - No Home Record   BUY!
Lacuna Coil - Black Anima   BUY!
Vinnie Moore - Soul Shifter   BUY!

OCTOBER 18
Alter Bridge - Walk the Sky   BUY!
Fastball - The Help Machine   BUY!
Rob Halford - Celestial   BUY!
Jimmy "Duck" Holmes - Cypress Grove [produced by Dan Auerbach]   BUY!
Jim James - The Order of Nature   BUY!
Jethro Tull - Stormwatch [40th anniversary box]   BUY!
Mark Lanegan Band - Somebody's Knocking   BUY!
Refused - War Music   BUY!

OCTOBER 25
Jan Akkerman - Close Beauty   BUY!
Big Star - In Space [CD & vinyl reissue]   BUY!
Longwave - If We Ever Live Forever   BUY!
The Muffs - No Holiday   BUY!
Grace Potter - Daylight   BUY!
Sunn O))) - Pyroclasts   BUY!
Swans - Leaving Meaning   BUY!
Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Colorado   BUY!
Frank Zappa - Halloween 73   BUY!

Album of the Month: Big Star's In Space, a reissue of the band's 2005 "reunion" album on both CD and vinyl. Big Star founder Alex Chilton had put together a new version of the band a decade previous, built around original drummer Jody Stephens and the talented duo of Jonathan Auer and Ken Stringfellow from the Posies. In Space was the only studio LP released by this line-up and would prove to be Chilton's last album released before his death in 2010. Although it's often criticized as no better than a Chilton solo album, one has to ask "what's wrong with that?"