CIMS Now Hear This

Bear Hands is releasing their fourth studio album Fake Tunes, produced by POP ETC, on May 10th. The album features the alternative radio hit "Blue Lips (featuring Ursula Rose)." Two days later, they'll embark on a tour opening for Twenty One Pilots in the US.

A Different Kind of Human is Aurora's third album, and one that forms the second part of last year's surprise release, the critically acclaimed Infections of A Different Kind. A more experimental album than it's predecessors, it is a record that finds Aurora focusing on the ecological crisis and the consequences of the rampant individualism so prevalent in society. It is another hugely impressive, conceptual leap forward from the young artist and one that firmly consolidates Aurora as a creative force to be reckoned with!! The album features singles "Animal" and "The Seed".

It was on a mountainside in Cumbria that the first whispers of Cate Le Bon’s fifth studio album poked their buds above the earth. “There’s a strange romanticism to going a little bit crazy and playing the piano to yourself and singing into the night,” she says, recounting the year living solitarily in the Lake District which gave way to Reward. By day, ever the polymath, Le Bon painstakingly learnt to make solid wood tables, stools and chairs from scratch; by night she looked to a second-hand Meers — the first piano she had ever owned — for company, “windows closed to absolutely everyone”, and accidentally poured her heart out. The result is an album every bit as stylistically varied, surrealistically-inclined and tactile as those in the enduring outsider’s back catalogue, but one that is also intensely introspective and profound; her most personal to date.

LOVE+FEAR is an album set split into two eight-song collections and lands as MARINA'S fourth full-length record since she released her critically-acclaimed third album, FROOT, in 2015. LOVE+FEAR are both lush, vibrant and powerful representations of the two main emotional driving forces behind human responses. LOVE is filled with a longing to enjoy life and a desire to unite and empower, while FEAR sees MARINA delve into matters of purpose and insecurity, also touching on conversations surrounding gender inequality and more broadly, the abuse of power. LOVE+FEAR are declamations that showcase these polarising sides of human nature.

MARINA spent the last two years writing and recording the new record across London, Sweden and LA with esteemed names including Noonie Bao, Sam De Jong, Oscar Görres, Camille Purcell, Justin Parker and Joe Janiak. LOVE +FEAR will be released via Atlantic Records on April 26th.

Named after the street that led to Soulsville, USA, Memphis-bred rock and blues outfit Southern Avenue burst onto the scene with their acclaimed debut in 2017. The boundary-breaking combo sparked a one-band musical revolution, embodying an effortlessly organic blues/soul/R&B fusion that reflects the band's international roots. On their latest album, Keep On, the band does exactly that, never letting up with a churning blend of horns, gospel-tinged harmonies, and a rhythm section that would make any southern soul icon proud. It’s a return of the Memphis sound – a gritty, funky mojo – ringing once again down Southern Avenue.

L'Eclair's Sauropoda LP was recorded in an undisclosed location in the mountains over the course of two days in October 2018. The music is freer than everit was captured live in the studio, there are very few overdubs, and it's mega-organic. Think of it as a 2am Youtube rabbit-hole find, or that weird-looking soviet prog funk private press that you knew you should've bought the one time you came across it in the bins. In fact, it actually sounds more like a L'Eclair live show...blended with carefully-crafted dance floor grooves, last-minute studio fantasies, and fully-faded late night jams. L'Eclair is all about the blending of things, and those things never sound the same twice; endlessly morphing like the human machine itself. Sauropoda is the way L'Eclair sounds right now in proto-groove's golden age. But don't let your head get in the way and try too hard to classify this music. Instead focus on the the way Sauropoda makes you f.e.e.l. and take your time and make it last.

From the filmmaking team behind the highly-acclaimed documentary The Beatles: Eight Days A Week - The Touring Years, PAVAROTTI is a riveting film that lifts the curtain on the icon who brought opera to the people. Academy Award winner Ron Howard puts audiences front row center for an exploration of The Voice...The Man...The Legend. Luciano Pavarotti gave his life to the music and a voice to the world. This cinematic event features history-making performances and intimate interviews, including never-before-seen footage and cutting-edge Dolby Atmos technology.

Also Available: Pavarotti - The Greatest Hits [3CD]

On 'Phantom Forest' Lydia Ainsworth introduces a lush, complex dream world that she created and inhabits largely on her own. It's a beautiful, vast collection of art pop with hooks about the search for personal connections in the midst of apocalypse and technology. It's a journey that holds up to close listening (and lyric reading) and to dance floors, but can also exist on a purely emotional plane. In all cases, it asks that you listen, and take some kind of action.  Lydia notes that although the self-produced album is considered pop, she approached it as an orchestrator. "Even if I'm dealing purely with synths," she says, "The songs are like a score, each one an evolving journey. I love to use strings so I've included my own arrangements on 'Tell Me I Exist' and 'Can You Find Her Place.' I recorded live musicians on drums, bass, and guitar on 'Edge of the Throne,' 'The Time,' and 'Floating Dream,' and wove those live elements into my programmed elements." She wrote and performed everything aside from a re-imagined cover of Pink Floyd's "Green is the Color"; two other tracks are co-written with Survive's Kyle Dixon (Stranger Things OST), to which Ainsworth wrote melodies and added lyrics to his instrumentals.

Give me a minute or three to extol the virtues of The Gotobeds, the modern rock and roll sensation that has always sounded like they love to play. Never maligned by having the world’s weight on their backs, The Gotobeds - Cary, TFP, Eli and Gavin - return to the fray with their third full lengther, Debt Begins at 30. The esprit de corps and anxiety-free joy that permeates their other LPs and EPs remains intact. The octane is high-test, the engine still has knocks and pings and the battery is overcharged. The Gotobeds - as Pittsburgh as it gets, the folk music of the Steel City - have more tar for us to swallow. Debt Begins at 30 is an old-fashioned blast furnace and the liquid iron flows. Debt Begins at 30 is not "pub sop" in any way or shape. Though I never considered The Gotobeds a band that needed assistance from their peers, Debt Begins at 30 features outside contributors on every track. The album's first single, "Calquer The Hound," includes local buddy Evan Richards, and Rob Henry of Kim Phuc. "Calquer The Hound" has euphony, a sly bridge, plenty of trademark bash, and a spacey outro. It's a sanguine album opener, more Al Oliver than Starling Marte. On "Twin Cities," the lads tap Tracy Wilson, formerly of Dahlia Seed and currently of Positive NO!, to share the vox, and the result is an exuberant pop song proving The Gotobeds benefit from women ruling the scene. "Twin Cities" is more Dakota Staton than Don Caballero. "Debt Begins at 30," the title trackular, includes the wizardry of Mike Seamans and legend Bob Weston. It's a brooding romp with tribal beats and slash-and-burn guitar, more Rocky Bleier than Le'Veon Bell. Unsurprisingly, The Gotobeds called partners-in-rock-crime Protomartyr a coupla times, with Joe Casey bolstering "Slang Words" and hook-fiend Greg Ahee shredding on "On Loan." "Slang Words" is a savory wrecking ball with a crunching bite, more of a soft shell crab sandwich from Wholey's Market than a 4am slop feast at Primanti Brothers. "On Loan" is an anthemic jangle-fest with high-arcing fret work, more Karl Hendricks (rest his soul) than "Weird Paul" Petroskey. Silkworm guitarist Tim Midyett is tapped on "Parallel," a grand song that enters a world of whimsy, melodic and uncomplicated, more Jaromir Jagr than Sidney Crosby. The likes of 12XU label boss Gerard Cosloy, Tre Orsi's Matt Barnhart, the wonderful Victoria Ruiz of Downtown Boys, Pittsburgh wordsmiths Jason Baldinger and Scott MacIntyre, and yours truly strut stuff on other tracks. In my case, I just scream “dross” on "Dross" several times. Good judgment on the part of The Gotobeds to know that's the best I can do, more Max Moroff than Andrew McCutchen. Anyways, The Gotobeds have quickly reached the veteran stage, but, based upon Debt Begins at 30, their best days are ahead of them. It's a pleasure to be associated with such an excellent band. --Bob Nastanovich, 1/13/2019, Des Moines

On June 7, 2019, hard working rock 'n roll band Hollis Brown from Queens, NY, will release their new album 'Ozone Park' on Mascot Label Group/Cool Green Recordings. Formed by singer/guitarist Mike Montali and lead guitarist Jonathan Bonilla, the band has been together 10 years, during which it’s released an EP and two albums, along with a Record Store Day tribute to the Velvet Underground’s ‘LOADED’ album. Hollis Brown is a group that lives up to the blue-collar legacy of their hometown. But, as evidenced on their new album 'Ozone Park’, there’s also a great deal of sophistication in the mix with rich melodicism and advanced harmonics that allows Hollis Brown to blend a wealth of influences into their own distinctive sound. “I think with this record we wanted to make a statement,” explains Montali. “Rock music can still be done in a modern way that is still as good as some of those acts from the past.”

FIRST RELEASE IN 10 YEARS!!

Here are Tommy's comments...

Alive started out as an acoustic album, but...little by little...I realized that there was no way I could interpret the songs acoustically so I gave into electricity!

It was a very long time in the making. Some songs go back 30 or 40 years and some are brand new, and there are lots of different kinds of songs. If there's one big theme it's that there's absolutely no theme.

I wasn't listening to the radio or what was going on around me musically; I just recorded songs that I had wanted to do for a long time or now.

For instance, there's a ballad version of ''I Think We're Alone Now'' that's very different than the original one. I'd also been thinking about a remake of ''Draggin' The Line'' for a long time and felt that a street or rap version might be perfect.

So I got a hold of T.O.N.E.-z, who is a great friend and an amazing talent, to lay down a rap on ''Draggin' The Line.'' Then, I called in another great friend Stevie Van Zandt to record a guitar solo.

The Rolling Stone's ''The Last Time'' had been rattling around in my head for awhile so I did a very different version of it. T.O.N.E.-z contributed to that one, too.

For the remake of ''I'm Alive,'' a song I originally recorded for my Crimson and Clover album, I asked my good buddy from the Rascals, Gene Cornish, to do some guitar parts for it.

Jonathn Ashe, who played bass on ''Mony Mony'' and has been a Shondell for years, was a constant presence as a co-writer and player. He really played a key part in the process.

And my good buddy Jimmy ''The Wiz'' Wisner was my co-producer until he passed away.

Alive has really been a labor of love: a personal statement of where I am today.

Tommy James