NEW RELEASE for the week of January 8, 2021 PRIORITIES & HIGHLIGHTS >> Pre-Order Now! CLEAN "Mister Pop (re-issue 2009)” (MERGE) MRG325 LP January 29 street date. David Kilgour on "Mister Pop": ""Mister Pop" began in Brooklyn, NY, at Gary Olson's Marlborough Farms studio and was completed in the basement hall of First Church Dunedin. There is more synthesizer on this album than the others, mainly an old Juno synth. I do remember having a bath in Brooklyn while Robert was downstairs singing and writing. I thought he was singing "he's a factory man", so I dried off and went down and wrote "Factory Man" while thinking heavily of The Kinks". Robert Scott on "Mister Pop": "I remember thinking at the start of the NY sessions with Gary Olson, "is this the start of a new album?". We were coming up with quite a bit of new stuff, and of course, Gary is great to work with. We carried on at Burlington St in Dunedin with (engineer and Heavy 8) Tex Houston at the controls, good fun from what I remember, lots of mucking around with keyboards and synths. We were going for that Krautrock groove and we sure got it on "Tensile", one of my faves along with the pure pop of "Dreamlife". CLEAN "Unknown Country (re-issue 1996)” (MERGE) MRG739 LP January 29 street date. David Kilgour on "Unknown Country": "The Clean always wanna try something different, but on this LP, we were obsessed with the idea. I remember we generally left vocal ideas to last, after the tracks were recorded, so we never really knew where we were headed. Might also explain all the instrumentals! Made during the Balkan War, hence the reference. And for the freaks, I think "Balkans" is the only Clean track ever to not actually feature The Clean playing. It's all Alan Starrett, as we removed the backing track". Robert Scott on "Unknown Country": "This album is very different from our other albums. We didn't go into the studio with many "song" ideas - a lot of it was written on the spot. I really enjoyed recording this as it was free of expectation. We weren't playing much live at the time. Certainly our most experimental album". EVERGREY "Escape Of The Phoenix (AFM) AFM7541 LP (2LP-indie exclusive/picture d" EVERGREY "Escape Of The Phoenix (AFM) AFM75411 LP (2LP-indie exclusive/crystal c" EVERGREY "Escape Of The Phoenix (AFM) AFM75412 LP (2LP-clear blue vinyl)" EVERGREY "Escape Of The Phoenix (AFM) AFM75414AFM LP (2LP-indie exclusive/clear red" EVERGREY "Escape Of The Phoenix (AFM) AFM7546 LP (2LP+7-inch artbook)" EVERGREY "Escape Of The Phoenix (AFM) AFMD7549 CD (digi)" February 26 street date. Swedish dark melodic metal masters Evergrey return with their 12th album - dark and heavy, the phoenix is rising! Since the release of "Hymns For The Broken" in 2014, Evergrey has enjoyed increased notoriety and success with "The Storm Within" (2016) and "The Atlantic" (2019) - ironically, a conceptual trilogy - which is highly unusual for a veteran act. They mean to continue this tradition with "Escape Of The Phoenix", another heavy, melancholic and thought-provoking journey as only Evergrey can create. The result is 11 songs that embody everything Evergrey fans have to expect, albeit - a more metal version of "The Atlantic", with songs that are more direct - according to Englund and producer Jacob Hansen. KROL, MIKE "Mike Krol Is Never Dead (MERGE) MRG589 CD (3CD) the first 2 albums" January 29 street date. Most listeners were introduced to Mike Krol in 2015 with the release of his Merge debut, "Turkey". Few knew at the time that "Turkey" was actually Chapter 3 of the Krol saga, and that he had self-released two records years earlier. To the delight of his new legion of fans, Merge reissued those early albums as the 2017 collection "Mike Krol Is Never Dead". With that release, "I Hate Jazz" and "Trust Fund" found new life, and the inclusion of digital-only rarities led to fresh demand for this CD reissue. The 3-CD edition of "Mike Krol Is Never Dead" includes the first two albums housed in miniature-sized reproductions of the original album tri-fold wallets, and an additional disc filled with an illuminating selection of outtakes, demos, and B-sides from that era. Exclusive >> ROCK/POP/PUNK/ALTERNATIVE/INDIE >> ANAMANAGUCHI "Dawn Metroplis (POLYVINYL) PRC412 LP (coloured vinyl)" February 19 street date. Back in print for the first time in years, "Dawn Metropolis" is Anamanaguchi's debut album, and the first with the complete band lineup. The core is an NES sound chip programmed to the brim with hyperactive 8-bit melody, as the band shreds along with a real punk sensibility. "Blackout City" appeared in the game Bit Trip Runner, and "Jetpack Blues, Sunset Hues" was featured as the theme song to the Nerdist podcast. Orange/maroon/purple vinyl with download. ANAMANAGUCHI "Power Supply (coloured)” (POLYVINYL) PRC415 LP February 19 street date. Anamanaguchi's driving & dynamic debut EP, recorded while the band was still in high school. First released on the legendary chip music netlabel, 8bitpeoples, these are the seeds of the band's hyper- melodic, digital powerpop flavor - "it is recommended that you sing along with the squarewaves". White with red and gold splatter vinyl and download. ANOTHER MICHAEL "New Music And Big Pop” (RUN FOR RFC210 CD ANOTHER MICHAEL "New Music And Big (RUN FOR RFC210LPC3 LP Pop (coke bottle green vinyl)" February 19 street date. Recorded in a small A-frame house-turned-makeshift studio outside Ferndale, NY, "New Music And Big Pop" finds Another Michael pushing their sound in a dreamier, more folk-influenced direction, building songs around vulnerable, intimate performances using an ethereal palette of breezy guitars, subtle keyboards, and layered harmonies. As on the band's early EPs, singer and songwriter Michael Doherty's mesmerizing voice is front and center here, calling to mind Robin Pecknold or Ben Bridwell in its reedy, crystalline timbre, but it feels more at home than ever before amidst the album's lush, Technicolor landscape, which the band partnered with producer and fellow housemate Scoops Dardaris to create. The result is a masterfully understated record that belies its status as a full-length debut, a thoughtful, poetic, collection all about growth and change, hope and faith, endings and beginnings, delivered by a band that's only just begun to scratch the surface of their story. BERNICE "Eau De Bonjourno" (TELEPHONE TER075 LP March 5 street date. Bernice is the experimental pop vessel of musician/songwriter Robin Dann and her longtime collaborators Thom Gill (keyboards, guitar), Philippe Melanson (e-percussion and drums), Daniel Fortin (bass) and Felicity Williams (voice). Together and apart, they have performed with Martha Wainwright, Andy Shauf, Lido Pimienta, Bahamas, KNOWER, and Beverly Glenn Copeland among many others, which led to them being referred in the press as “Toronto’s ever-evolving backing band.” In their own right, however, they have repeatedly proved to be far more than the sum of their considerable parts. Bernice’s Polaris Prize-nominated 2018 LP Puff: In the air without a shape received major international attention, described as an “analytical, self-dissecting monument to ephemerality” by The New York Times, and “a fascinating musical conversation” that blends pop and R&B influences with C86 aesthetics by Pitchfork, alongside high praise from outlets like NPR, FADER, and Stereogum, and many more. Nearly three years on from that release (for Bernice a rapid turnaround by comparison to the seven- year gap between their 2011 debut and Puff), the band return with their third full-length, Eau de Bonjourno. It marks their first collaboration with producer Shahzad Ismaily, the acclaimed multi-instrumentalist who has worked with artists as varied as Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Elvis Costello, Iggy Pop, John Zorn, and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy. While their genre reconstruction remains distinctly Bernice, Dann’s lyrics bring a newfound focus to storytelling in the present moment, compassionately meeting ourselves where we are, and finding joy in spaces that are familiar but ever changing. CAMERA "Prosthuman" (BUREAU B) BB351CD CD CAMERA "Prosthuman" (BUREAU B) BB351LP LP February 19 street date. With the band's tenth anniversary in their viewfinder, Camera push the button on Prosthuman, their fifth studio album. With the departure of two keyboard virtuosos (Steffen Kahles and Timm Brockmann), for this release Michael Drummer (the drummer) formed at triumvirate with Tim Schroeder (synthesizer) and Alex Kozmidi (guitar). In spite of shifts in instrumentation, the ten tracks comprising the album fall into place like a progressively unfolding narrative. There is no apparent beginning to the record, no obvious ending -- rather more a sense of being right in the middle. CRUCIFIX "Dehumanization" (KUSTOMIZED) KUS04 CD/ LP February 5 street date. "Dehumanization" is the only full length album from the band Crucifix. Recorded in 1983, it is considered a classic American hardcore album and a landmark of anarcho-punk. "Dehumanization" delivers a raging critique of war, violence, displacement, and the decimation of human rights and human dignity - themes at once global in scope and also completely endemic to Reagan-era America. The intensity of this message is matched only by the intensity of the sound: a heavy minimalist construction built on brutal guitar riffs, low-end distortion, hardcore fury and teenage speed. It is an album of pure raw power, a hot blast of personal and political outrage and musical adrenaline. The album preceded much of the hardcore metal crossover of the mid-80s and played an influential but often unacknowledged role in the punk and metal subgenres that followed.