Because of their mix of hellified gangster shit and progressive compositions, I once jokingly called Clipping "Deathrow Tull." Well, it's not a joke anymore. While Clipping's last few projects have been record-long concepts like classic prog rock, their cyberpunk-infused new album Dead Channel Sky is mixtape-like, a carefully curated collection in which every track is a love letter to a possible present. It sounds crisp and classic at the same time. When something strikes us as retrospective and futuristic at the same time, it's a reminder of how slipshod our present moment truly is. Juxtaposing high-tech, corporate command-and-control systems (the "cyber") with the lo-fi, D.I.Y. underground (the "punk"), cyberpunk proper starts in 1982 and ends in 1999, from Blade Runner to The Matrix. Concurrently, hip-hop matured, went through it's Golden Era, then melted into further forms: it went from from Fab 5 Freddy to Public Enemy to Missy Elliott. While other genres flirted with it, hip-hop was fickle and fey. Rap and rock birthed mutant offspring maligned by most, and hip-hop's relations with electronica rarely fared any better.What if someone explicitly merged hip-hop and cyberpunk - those twin suns of the '80s and '90s - into one set and sound? After all, both movements are the result of hacking the haunted leftovers of a war-torn culture that's long since moved on.On Dead Channel Sky, Clipping texture-map the twin histories of hip-hop and cyberpunk onto an alternate present where Rammellzee and Bambaataa are the superheroes of old; where Cybotron and Mantronix are the reigning legends; where Egyptian Lover and Freestyle are debated endlessly, and Ultramag and Public Enemy are the undeniable forefathers; where the lost movements of 1980s and the 1990s are still happening: rave, trip-hop, hip-house, acid house, drum & bass, big beat-the detritus of a different timeline, the survivors of armed audio warfare. Clipping are no strangers to sci-fi: two of their records were nominated for Hugo Awards (one of science fiction's top literary prizes), and a novella spun-off from their music was nominated for a third. On Dead Channel Sky, Clipping's co-conspirators include everyone from the guitarist Nels Cline, to their labelmates Cartel Madras, rapper/actor Tia Nomore, and wordsmith Aesop Rock. Diggs is known for intricate lyrics and rapid-fire rapping, and the tracks that Snipes and Hutson build in the background are no less complex. All of the above serves to give us a glimpse of an adjacent possible present, where hip-hop and cyberpunk are one culture.Binary stars are often perceived as one object when viewed with the naked eye. Like those twin sun systems, it'll take some special equipment and some discerning attention to pull the stars apart on this record. As Diggs barks on the fire-starting "Change the Channel": Everything is very important!

Billboard Heart, the new album by Deep Sea Diver, immediately puts the Seattle band in the company of St. Vincent, TV on the Radio, and Flock of Dimes, bands that have found newly ornate and magnetic ways to make indie rock by discarding notions of how it must sound or what it must say. It's their fourth album and first for Sub Pop, and it is a coup, a triumph over self-doubt, transforming failure into an opportunity to find new freedom, belief, and strength. In the middle of July 2023 in a Los Angeles studio, Deep Sea Diver mastermind Jessica Dobson took a guitar solo but somehow felt nothing. Just days earlier, her Seattle band played a series of semi-secret shows for devotees as de facto rehearsals for a new record. The sets had gone well, but the new songs seemed muddled, Dobson's conviction lost somewhere in the 1,000 miles between Southern California and the home studio she shares with partner, drummer, and frequent cowriter Peter Mansen. On that first night in Los Angeles, she broke down, wondering what she was doing there, and pondering how to fix it. Deep Sea Diver retreated home without an album. Did they need to scrap it, to begin again with new material? Not at all: Following a brief break, Dobson found a renewed sense of self, a trust in her vision for her band and songs and her ability to capture them. Over dinner with longtime collaborator Andy Park, a humbling confession that she needed help inspired Dobson to reimagine and reinvigorate Deep Sea Diver. This revelation set the stage for the power and brilliance of Billboard Heart, Three years before Dobson's galvanizing dinner with Park, Deep Sea Diver issued it's third album, 2020's Impossible Weight, via the colossal indie imprint, ATO. It was a significant step up, and earned the band a groundswell of exposure and a spot on Billboard charts. But the success caused Dobson to doubt her impulses, to wonder what an idea's impact or reception might be as much the strength of the idea itself. Moments of domestic creation, with her at the piano and Mansen on guitar in their Seattle living room, forged a path forward, and reinvigorated the pair's songwriting partnership. From end to end, the material on Billboard Heart is astonishing. The title track is the one song Deep Sea Diver actually finished in Los Angeles. It's a radiant and magnificent thing, the billowing synths of Elliot Jackson and tunneling pedal steel of Greg Leisz bolstering an anthem for fearlessly advancing into the future. "Emergency" links hardcore's vim to electroclash's instant allure with Dobson's captivating vocals and guitar work in the spotlight. Tender and vulnerable, "Tiny Threads" is a sweeping anthem for anyone trying to hold anything together-life, love, themselves. "If it haunts me, let it haunt me," Dobson sings softly over a stillness framed only by bass and noise. She let's her guitar careen into feedback, then steadily sculpts it into something tuneful. It's a lifetime of anxiety and sublimation, crystallized into 10 seconds. Billboard Heart feels that way at large.Billboard Heart emerged when Dobson trusted her instincts, a personal breakthrough that prompted an artistic one. It is, in turn, the best Deep Sea Diver album yet, a defiant and brilliant exclamation mark at the end of a long period of wandering.

California-bred singer-songwriter, Jillian Rose Banks, aka BANKS, crafts moody, alternative pop with shades of contemporary R&B. Emerging in the early 2010s with a handful of downtempo, alt-R&B tracks, BANKS created a signature sound that helped build a cross-genre audience. Her critically acclaimed and gold-certified debut album, Goddess, featured songs like “Before I Ever Met You,” “Warm Water,” and “Fall Over,” as well as collaborations with producers Justin Parker, Shlomo, and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. The album peaked just outside the Top Ten on the Billboard 200. In 2016, BANKS released her highly anticipated sophomore album, The Altar, which featured singles “Fuck with Myself,” “Gemini Feeed,” and “Mind Games,” and peaked at number 17 on the Billboard 200. BANKS returned in July 2019 with her third studio album, III, which featured her synth-heavy single “Gimme.” Additional contributors included Francis and the Lights on “Look What You’re Doing To Me” and producer Paul Epworth (Adele, Rihanna) on “Hawaiian Mazes.” She released a short EP entitled Live and Stripped in 2020, followed by her 2022 album Serpentina, which BANKS recorded amid the pandemic during months of isolation and is tied to themes of shedding old skin and embracing the new. BANKS’s artistry stands out through the rawness and vulnerability that shines earnestly through her music. With so much success under her belt already, BANKS is looking forward to an exciting future ahead. BANKS’ latest singles “Best Friends” and “I Hate Your Ex-Girlfriend” will be included on BANKS’ upcoming fifth studio album entitled, Off With Her Head, for which she states, “In many ways, it’s a big sister album to Goddess. After a decade apart, I’ve reunited with the core musicians and producers who helped shape my debut. At the same time, it’s something entirely different— I’ve grown so much as an artist and a person, and the journey is documented in all these sounds.” Off With Her Head is set for release on February 28, 2025.

If You Asked For A Picture, the 2nd album from Sabrina Teitelbaum, aka Blondshell, is a collection of songs from an artist at the peak of her powers. The album is alive with vital nuance both sonically and thematically, gesturing towards a deeper autobiographical story that taps into something painfully universal without being too overt. It’s a no-skips, triumphant record that captures the unresolved process of figuring out who you are, too wise to suggest that it has a definitive answer. Model Rocket Red LP. Limited Edition. Indie Exclusive.

New "Solar Garlic" 4-LP colored vinyl pressing
with extensive photo book.

A Live One, Phish's first live album,
originally released by Elektra in 1995; certified
g o l d and remains Phish's best selling album.

The band produced the album i n 1995 with Ed
Thacker and his team of engineers at Bearsville
Studios and was recorded by Paul Languedoc on
multitrack DA-88 DTRS digital tapes.

Lacquers cut from t h e 1/2" flat masters by Chris
Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering.

Hurry Up Tomorrow is the upcoming sixth studio album by the Canadian singer-songwriter The Weeknd, scheduled to be released through XO and Republic Records. It will serve as the final part of an album trilogy that began with After Hours (2020) and continued with Dawn FM (2022).

After a decade making the most of improvised recording spaces set in warehouses, trailers and lofts, Japanese Breakfast's fourth album, For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women), marks the band's first proper studio release. Produced by Grammy Award winner Blake Mills, the record sees front-woman and songwriter Michelle Zauner pull back from the bright extroversion that defined it's predecessor Jubilee to examine the darker waves that roil within, the moody, fecund field of melancholy, long held to be the psychic state of poets on the verge of inspiration. The result is an artistic statement of purpose: a mature, intricate, contemplative work that conjures the romantic thrill of a gothic novel.For Melancholy Brunettes follows a transformative period in Zauner's life during which her 2x GRAMMY nominated breakthrough album Jubilee and her bestselling memoir Crying In H Mart catapulted her into the cultural mainstream, delivering on her deepest artistic ambitions. Reflecting on that success, Zauner came to appreciate the irony of desire, which so often commingles bliss and doom. "I felt seduced by getting what I always wanted," she says. "I was flying too close to the sun, and I realized if I kept going I was going to die."The plight of Icarus and other such condemned ones lends For Melancholy Brunettes it's most persistent theme, the perils of desire. Like light dispersed, it's spectral parts take the album's characters through cycles of temptation, transgression and retribution. On "Orlando in Love" - a riff on John Cheever's riff on Orlando Innamorato, an unfinished epic made up of 68 ½ cantos by the Renaissance poet Matteo Maria Boiardo - the hero is a well meaning poet who parks his Winnebago by the sea and falls victim to a siren's call, his 69th canto (even in the lofty realm of classical myth Zauner has a soft spot for innuendo). "Honey Water" plumbs the quiet rage of a woman married to an unfaithful man, watching him cede again and again to lust like a base insect perpetuating it's own demise.Sadness is indeed the dominant emotional key of this record, but it is sadness of a rarified form: the pensive, prescient sadness of melancholy, in which the recognition of life's essentially tragic character occurs with sensitivity to it's fleeting beauty. Zauner finds space enough inside it for glimmers of hope. They are the consolations of mortals that poets before her have called out to and that poets after will continue to rediscover: love and labor, and though they run like tonic resolutions through the record's many episodes, they sound most saliently on it's final song, "Magic Mountain," an engagement with Thomas Mann's famous novel of the same name. For her, making any work feels like scaling a mountain, but from the perch of For Melancholy Brunettes, she surveys the future.

“Powerhouse Duo” (TODAY) The War And Treaty return with their new album Plus One. The album includes "Can I Get An Amen", "Leads Me Home, "Stealing A Kiss", "Called You By Your Name" and “Carried Away” "Every song on this album deals with some aspects of him and some aspects of her and some aspects of us. The ideal of sharing space with someone can be challenging no matter how short or long. We’ve had moments of doubt, moments of clarity, moments of regret and moments of solid faith." - Michael and Tanya

Ringo Starr releases a brand-new country music album, Look Up, produced and co-written by T Bone Burnett via Lost Highway Records. This stunning collection features 11 original songs, recorded this year in Nashville and Los Angeles. This album features Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, Lucius, Larkin Poe, and Alison Krauss.

Serving as a celebration of their 10-year history and a look ahead to their next era, Flatland Forever is Flatland Cavalry’s essential album. It features 15+ reissues of the band’s fan-favorite tracks from acclaimed releases Come May, Humble Folks, Homeland Insecurity, Welcome To Countryland, Songs To Keep You Warm, and Wandering Star – as well as 4 previously-unheard new songs. The album showcases Flatland’s signature range of breadth of ability – with heart-wrenching ballads, uptempo jams, timeless songwriting, and rich musicianship.

The War On Drugs, “one of the premier live bands of their generation” (Pitchfork), announce Live Drugs Again, via Super High Quality Records and Transgressive / Canvasback. In support of Live Drugs Again, the band will kick off their Zen Diagram North American co-headline tour with The National, with support from Lucius, on September 12th. Recorded on tour between February 2022 through December 2023 in America, UK, Europe and Australia, Live Drugs Again follows 2020’s Live Drugs and represents The War On Drugs at their ragged, righteous best. Bandleader Adam Granduciel comments, “Live Drugs Again chronicles the evolution of these songs from the studio to stages all over the world; documenting our continued growth as a live band. This series ensures that these versions, and some of our favorite moments on stage, will live on.” As Consequence so accurately hailed, “it’s hard to imagine a musical experience that’s more enveloping and uplifting.” This is hearing a band at its peak.

Childish Gambino - Atavista - Vinyl 2 LP

For years, Childish Gambino's Atavista hid in plain sight. When he released an unfinished version of the record on March 15, 2020, it spent just 12 hours on his website before he pulled it down. Reappearing on streaming a week later as 3.15.20, the project brought up almost as many questions as sparkling neo-soul anthems, which still sounded slicker than the average as raw cuts titled after timestamps.

Atavista is an ode to impermanence, never more directly than over the glimmering guitar of "Time" with Grande. ("One thing's for certain, baby/We're running out of time," they harmonize on the chorus.) But in Gambino's capable hands, Atavista also slows down to enjoy the view, the sonic equivalent of a luxe leather-interior BMW cruising an open California highway. "I did what I wanted to," he revels on closing track "Final Church." Atavista took many shapes over the years to reach a final form. In each warm refrain, tight sequence, and carefully chosen collaborator, Gambino demonstrates why some things are worth waiting for.

Steve Earle has a new album, Alone Again (Live) via Howe Sound Records/Missing Piece Records. The live album was recorded during his 2023 tour and features 15 of his most beloved songs including "Copperhead Road," "Guitar Town," "Galway Girl" and many more.

The Human Fear is the sixth studio album from Franz Ferdinand. Produced with Mark Ralph, who previously worked with the band on their 2013 album Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, the album showcases Franz at their most immediate, upbeat and life-affirming, unashamedly going for the pop-jugular in classic Franz style. Recorded at AYR studios in Scotland, the 11 songs on The Human Fear all allude to some deep-set human fears and how overcoming and accepting these fears drives and defines our lives.

Niall Horan is celebrating the incredible run of his ongoing 2024 world tour with The Show: Live from Madison Square Garden, collecting some of the finest moments of Horan's sold-out, two-night takeover of the legendary New York venue. The songs captured on this release hail from all three solo albums, including The Show, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Album Sales tally and also topped the charts in the U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Holland and Belgium, among others. Listeners can relive striking, full-band renditions of the triumphant, harmony-rich "Heaven," groove-steeped pop gem "Slow Hands," and Horan's first solo release, the intimate, acoustic "This Town," alongside fan favorites from the past eight years of powerful songcraft. Horan's latest outing has been a landmark one - his biggest tour yet, and his first headline run since 2018's Flicker World Tour. Niall Horan -"The Show: Live On Tour" Pressed on 140-gram translucent yellow 12" vinyl.

DMX made his legendary introduction to the world in 1998 with his multi-platinum-selling debut album It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot, which captured his gift for blending light and heavy concepts behind an intense, menacing presence at the microphone. Before the end of that year DMX had released his second hit, Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood, which also reached #1. DMX’s next three albums also went on to secure the top spot, making him the first rapper to have their first five albums go straight to the top of the US chart.

Yet, one thing remained as a consistent theme across DMX’s releases — his profound prayers.  Found on each of his first six studio albums, these prayers (which do not contain beats) blend supplications, thanksgivings, confessions, and meditations on life, death, and the beyond.

In celebration of DMX’s legacy and ahead of his 54th birthday, UMe will be releasing Let Us Pray: Partnering with GRAMMY award-winning songwriter and producer Warryn Campbell, we set DMX’s prayers to music for the first time on this groundbreaking project that marries hip-hop and gospel with features from Killer Mike, Snoop Dogg, LeCrae, MC Lyte and more.

Featured Artists

• Snoop Dogg
• Killer Mike
• MC Lyte
• LeCrae
• Mary Mary
• Terrace Martin
• The Walls Group
• Lena Byrd Miles

All Time Low -"The Forever Sessions Vol. 1" [White LP] Celebrating a successful 20 years, the boys of All Time Low went back into the studio with their years of experience and development to create new, high-quality re-recordings of their early bona fide hits, The Forever Sessions Vol.1, including the explosive "Dear Maria, Count Me In." Nearing over 1 billion streams worldwide, the single has become an online hit within the recent years, exploding on TikTok and other short-form platforms. These new re-recordings sound better than ever. White LP includes vinyl-only bonus track, "Therapy." [White LP]

Snoop Dogg’s new album, Missionary, produced entirely by Dr. Dre, brings together a lineup of legendary collaborations. Featuring Eminem, Jelly Roll, 50 Cent, Sting, Jhene Aiko, and more, this project is packed with undeniable greatness.