Category: Releases

Austin Lucas & The Bold Party “No One is Immortal!” availableOct. 18! Available on vinyl or as a 2 disc CD/DVD combo pack. Featuring ten fan-favorite tracks recorded live in Bloomington, IN in 2018!

After years of touring solo, and off and on with various backing bands. Austin Lucas has finally come forward with a solidified Bold Party lineup. With the addition of Matt Romy(Keys, vox), Chuck Roldan(drums, vox), alongside BP founding member, Alex Mann (bass). Austin and band have re-emerged, stronger and tighter than ever before. ‘No One Is Immortal! Live at the Blockhouse Bar.’ Represents the end result of 5 months solid on the road, supporting the critically acclaimed 2018 album, ‘Immortal Americans.’ For one special night, fans traveled down the road, across the country and from around the world. All to be present for the recording of this live album and DVD. Their hometown, their favorite club, amongst family, friends, and some of Austin’s most esteemed songwriting peers. What was captured, was something remarkable. A live band, at their peak, doing what they do best, in a room filled with love.

Two albums of the band Wayne Graham were necessary for Germany’s most intransigent music critics to fully embosom them and their music. Wayne Graham is a folk-rock band from Whitesburg, Kentucky, and almost unknown even in their home state. They are not a band for grand gestures, they are understated, subtly cantankerous but somehow they always remain catchy and timeless. Their secret is as perfidious as it is simple. They make records which invoke the urge to listen to them again and again. Records that do not impose – that reveal their secrets little by little.

Wayne Graham is the band of two brothers, apparently bestowed with infinite creativity and talent, that still write, record and produce in the basement of their parents’ home. They still live in Whitesburg, a former mining hicksville, in one of the poorest regions of the USA. When they were kids, they backed their father, who once founded a church there and now has a small business as a repair service for electronics, on drums and bass at his church services.

“Songs Only A Mother Could Love” is going to be released only eight months after their latest album “Joy!” which has marked a modest break trough of the band. This summer they play on some of the most selected festivals in Germany. Rolling Stone critiques and readers have chosen “Joy!” as one of the best records of 2018:

“The sublime Americana of the brothers […] takes a while until it enfolds its full splendor. But then you want to listen to these songs between J.J. Cale and The Band, gentle blues and smoldering folk-rock, again and again.” (Rolling Stone 1/2019)

“Songs Only A Mother Could Love” forms a trilogy with “Mexico” (2016) and “Joy!” (2018). However, singer and songwriter Kenny Miles sees the upcoming album as more of a prequel to these two, because it is a collection of songs which, for various reasons, were never finalized during the recording of these albums. As their label, one shed some tears when songs like “House I’ll Never See” or “Silver Spoon” vanished from the track list at some point in the process. There are live favorites from previous tours which never got recorded (“By and By”, “Two Minutes”). And some songs that never even found their way over as demo versions. “Flower Store” for example is an almost classical Americana piece, with lyrics so perfectly writ and woven into the fabric of the music – another song that makes you wonder why Wayne Graham is not a household name in every dusty American Jukebox.

The new album is a family matter. Dedicated to their mother. The eponymous grandfathers Wayne and Graham are staring grumpily from the LP-labels. The cover shows mother Kim, lovingly glancing back over her shoulder towards her two sons on the backseat of the car. The whole album was finished in the course of mere weeks in fall 2018.

“Songs Only A Mother Could Love” is being released on the 13^th of April 2019 in the framework of the Record Store Day – strictly limited to 400 copies of bone-white vinyl with inside-out cover print, download code and lyrics sheet.

“You sewed the flag they carried to the moon / You are my favorite silver spoon.”

5 songs (almost 30min.) Paired with beautiful emotional melancholic moments, also rocking and driving parts, to that a clear and melodic voice. The music of the sympathetic boys from essen/germany is often compared to bands like TEXAS IS THE REASON or old CHAMBERLAIN, neverless very obstinate! Relief don’t have to hide behind any praised us-bands! The ingenious guitar-accented sound and the smooth but really stylish layout will motivate the last doubters to buy it.

Upbeat post hardcore music with catchy hooks and enough melodies to help you through the cold season. Soft guitars and very unique vocals, and everything is like a mix of Quicksand, Pale, Bush and Del Amitri without really sounding like any of them.
ThisRecord contains definitely the best songmaterial of the band so far, of course the best sound too. The whole thing is well-rounded with a stylish, colourful heavy gatefold cover.

After the well sold 2-song demo tape, these four Guys of FOUR WHEEL DRIVE present us their great debut 7″. Three punkrock hymns full of drive in a good sound and a solid, pretty cover. Fans of AVAIL and HOT WATER MUSIC will be impressed.

“6 sympathische Jungs aus Essen, sozusagen die deutsche Antwort auf Hot Water Music. Mensch könnte tatsächlich meinen, die Combo aus Gainesville hätte mal eben auf dem kleinen thüringer Label ‘ne 7” aufgenommen, 3 Songs voller Emotion, Spielfreude und Energie. Weiter so. “
Flight 13

Two of germanys best postrock bands at one piece of plastic. 4 fantastic, emotional and impressive rocksongs, from RELIEF. In comparison to their e.p. , the songmaterial is even more well rounded. TREADMILL’s 6 new songs are more independent and stronger, than their older stuff.

Ann Beretta is a three-piece punk rock outfit from Richmond, VA. Often compared to bands such as Rancid, The Clash, The Jam, And Swingin’ Utters, Ann Beretta take straight forward punk rock, combine it with rockabilly, a little country, and a whole lotta rock-n-roll and create cool, rocking’ and catchy tunes that have become hits with kids across the world. Ann Beretta has spent most of the last two and a half years touring, both headlining and supporting bands such as All, Avail, The Bouncing Souls, Hot Water Music and many others.

Rob / ANN BERETTA went into the studio inspired by Tom Waits “Closing Time” with nine new songs. The first tracks were acoustic guitar and vocals. The rest is history. The album contains 12 songs total. Nine original Foundation songs, two Ann Beretta acoustic renditions, and a Tom Waits cover. Foundation will not only move, and inspire you, but leave you falling in love with the simplicity of the spirit, message, and soul of what happens when you let go, reach deep inside, and find a voice that has been there all along.

10 great rocksongs by this young emo/pop/punk band from Burlington, Canada. Artists like “Hot Water Music” and “Knapsack” play a huge role in the song writing and bands like “The Get Up Kids” and “Grade” are favourites of ALWAYS OUTNUMBERED. Smartly constructed, emotionally charged post-hardcore. A new breed of music not brash enough to be Hardcore, not biting enough for Punk, not wimpy enough for Emo, rock on!!!

Exit 263 is mainly an alt-country/rock album but it still has the appeal of the awesome vocal style of David Moore which has always been a something of an institution within the hardcore/emo scene as being one of the most well-rounded and influential voices. On the one hand you could argue they have gone more mainstream but equally if you know the band they have actually followed their hearts and not tried to produce anything less than the music and message they wanted to express. Highlights like “Masterpiece” and “Lovely and Alone” are perfect examples of an album that is consistent throughout. Sophisticated and perfectly executed guitar work gives the impression you”re listening to an old hand in the country/ rock genre. This is complimented with a perfectly suited rhythm section played with a more “blues/roots” style as it keeps things exciting and moving while the vocals and guitars tell their story. Lyrically Moore shows a matured but still recognisable style using poetic lines to express personal tales of love- lost and people moving on. The few tracks that were recorded on a 4-track in a remote cabin are perhaps about as close to the band as anyone can get and the rawness of these tracks soon whittle away further need for analysis. Both determined longstanding fans or eager newcomers should agree that this final phase of one of the most integral bands of the 90’s alternative scene once again embodies pure emotion, expression, identity and originality.