August kicks off with some strong new releases, like the latest from local group Iji. KEXP Music Director Don Yates says, "the latest album from this Seattle band led by Zach Burba (and currently also featuring members of Sick Sad World, Pill Wonder and Neighbors) is a fine set of wistful, '80s-steeped pop-rock."
Two excellent live albums hit the racks this week. Influential Athens, GA post-punk band Pylon share a 2XLP release capturing their final show at the Mad Hatter in 1983. The show was recorded (both audio and video) for a failed PBS pilot called Athens Shows, and after an exhaustive search, finally unearthed. The concert not only features highlights from their first and second albums, it also includes the hard-to-find song “Party Zone” (previously available only on a DB Rec comp) and their never-before-released rendition of the “Batman Theme.” Always-ambitious Jersey band Titus Andronicus share their first (and hopefully not last) live album, culled from their sold-out Shea Stadium shows in Brooklyn during their 2015 The Most Lamentable Tragedy tour.
DJ/producer/and fellow member of the radio industry, DJ Khaled shares his ninth studio album, featuring guest appearances from Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Nas, Busta Rhymes, and tons more. Folk artist Josephine Foster teams up with her husband, guitarist Victor Herrero, for the new project Mendrugo. The band also enlists the talents of members of The Victor Herrero Band, Japanese woodwind artist Taku, and folk musician Lorena Alvarez. And punk pioneers Descendents return! After a job layoff, frontman Milo Aukerman has recommitted himself to music (although the title Hypercaffium Spazzinate is a nod to his biology background).
Alternarock icons Dinosaur Jr. return with their eleventh album, their fourth together since reuniting in 2005. KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls it "another strong set of muscular, psych-tinged rock with fiery, fleet-fingered guitar solos, pounding rhythms, drawling vocals and potent song hooks."
Not only are they today's Song of the Day, but Swedish group The Amazing have one of the best new releases this week. KEXP Music Director Don Yates notes the group's fourth LP is "a somewhat bleaker, more intimate take on the band's atmospheric psych-pop, combining shimmering guitars, celestial key…
