The week's new releases kick off with fresh albums from two bands who have been doing their thing a long time, and refreshingly have not changed their style at all to stay relevant. SLEATER-KINNEY and GREEN DAY both emerged from similarly fertile DIY scenes around the same time (they could have even played a show together at some point, anyone got the intel on that?), and just look at them now: S-K announce their new album 'Little Rope' with an exclusive interview with People Magazine, while Green Day just got tapped to headline the freaking Super Bowl halftime show. Corin and Carrie's phones oughta be ringing any moment now, if you ask me; if their mid-90s tour routings never brought them together, why not share a big stage in Las Vegas while the AFC Champs and the Not-the-Dallas-Cowboys face off? Both of these beloved bands approach new albums in attack mode this week, breathing fresh power into time-tested styles. Rapper DANNY BROWN turned forty recently, and it's hitting him hard. Take it easy, young fella, you've got this! A long overdue new album from the zany rhymer addresses such questions as "Should I still be doing this?" (Yes), and is blessed by amazing production help from Mario Caldato Jr, who was making the Beastie Boys sound like crack from outer space when Danny was just a toddler, just for some perspective on aging. If you saw the Barbie movie, you know the score had a whole lot of emotions, styles, and feelings crammed into it. If you didn't see the Barbie movie, stop lying. We've got the MARK RONSON & ANDREW WYATT score in the house now on neon pink, whether youre a Barbie completist, or if you just want to drop "Thoughts Of Death" into your next dungeon synth set.

Often heralded as the Japanese counterpart to Harold Budd, HIROSHI YOSHIMURA's classic works are unfortunately a lot harder to track down. We've been charmed with reissues of his 80s albums 'Music for Nine Postcards' and 'Green', and now we get 'Surround', from 1986, which is perhaps his most transporting collection of songs. Initially conceived as environmental music to enhance and adorn a model home, you can now use it to improve the interior of your very own living space. We have lots more treats from Japan this week. In 1987, SATOSHI SUZUKI self-released an album of samba and city pop inspired soft rock called 'Distant Travel Companion' which, unlike the big budget affairs of Taeko Ohnuki, Haruomi Hosono and the like, he recorded entirely by himself at home. It's refreshing to hear this style of music performed at such an earnestly DIY and homespun scale. TOMOKO ARAN's showroom-perfect album 'Fuyu-Kukan' is a shining example of the major label city pop style, and is back in print this week, plus we have a stellar new compilation of cheeky deep house from HIROSHI MATSUI. 'A Love From Tokyo 1991-2003' will resonate well with fans of Soichi Terada's classic "Sun Shower".

Dare ya to name a better compilation than NUGGETS! Before he joined the Patti Smith Group on guitar, Lenny Kaye was a record clerk in NYC, and a die-hard fan of sixties rock groups whose best work existed almost entirely on 45s. Somehow, he convinced the Elektra label to release what was basically a mixtape of his favorite songs, which eventually led to the codification of all sorts of genres we hold dear today: psychedelic, garage, freakbeat, bubblegum, even punk. Names like the 13th Floor Elevators, the Electric Prunes, the Seeds, and the Count Five were mere obscurities before Nuggets came along. Rhino has re-editioned this collection and it's equally dazzling sequel, on appropriately kaleidoscopic colored vinyl. We've also got fresh mintings of THE ENGLISH BEAT's stunning mod-ska debut 'I Just Can't Stop It', and the influential Australian folk-rockers THE TRIFFIDS 1983 debut 'Treeless Plain'.

Had trumpeter CLIFFORD BROWN not died in a car crash at the frighteningly young age of 25, he would likely be one of the towering figures of the bop period and beyond. His playing impressed Miles Davis and Charlie Parker, as well as producers at Prestige, who released 'Memorial Album' after his death, collecting some explosive 1953 live performances in Sweden. This classic gets a fresh edition this week, alongside BUD POWELL' 'The Amazing Bud Powell, Vol 1'. A deeply curated compilation covers decades of material from funky Japanese bandleader JIRO INAGAKI, and we've got a first-time reissue of a stunning private press spiritual fusion LP out of early 80s Milwaukee by JAMES DALLAS called 'Life Forms'.

German downtempo jazz wonderboy GIANNI BREZZO is back with another cant-miss session of seaside smoothness called 'Filigrani'; a new LP from Swedish retro-library composer SVEN WUNDER called 'Natura Morta' leans into the Italian-style soundtracks of Nino Rota and Piero Umiliani. The almighty private press new age label Yoga Records plucks an elegant cassette-only rarity from the late 80s ether with JOEL ANDREWS' 'Paradise Bird', and Chicago avant-pop chaos spreader FIRE-TOOLZ returns with 'I am upset because I see something that is not there.' That's understandable.

90 DAY MEN shepherded the awkward, noisy end of post-rock through the late 90s and into a new century, blossoming into a truly one of a kind band that made proggy, arty, punky music with a curious, creative core across a handful of fantastic albums. All of their work is collected on a new 5LP set from Numero called 'We Blame Chicago'. Korean ambient folk-pop whiz MID-AIR THIEF sees his classic debut 'Crumbling' come back in print, and we've got lively new ones from POOLSIDE and YUNG BAE.

A nice run of early albums from COLTER WALL come back in print this week on red wax: 'Imaginary Appalachia', 'Songs Of The Plains', and 'Western Swing & Waltzes' are here, plus we have a deluxe vinyl reissue of the breakout self-titled 2006 album from RODRIGO Y GABRIELA.

You may not be able feel your limbs outside but it's a veritable smoke show in the shop this week with a killer grip of metal featuring the likes of: Baroness, Drain, Pallbearer, Terror, Fuming mouth and more to get your brains all soupy and sloppy.

More heavy classics from David Crosby, AC/DC, Stone Temple Pilots, Clapton, Queen, and Dinosaur Jr. to keep your ashtray full and your room cloudy.

We've got heady jazz from the likes of Mingus, Deodato, Pharaoh, Mongo Santamaria, Monk, Miles, and of course Keith Jarrett.

Some hot soul hits the floor from the Funk Masters, Marlena Shaw, John Legend, Donna Summer, Stevie Wonder, and Derrick just to name a few.

We've got country 'twang from Emmylou Harris, Johnny Cash, and Glenn Campbell to keep you cozy and warm.

And last but not least we have some hilarious bits from the legendary Robin Williams and the man who never got respect at all Mr. Rodney Dangerfield. You can bet Dr. Vinnie Boombatz will have something to say about that.

Yes, we are still buying! Call us at the shop to schedule: 608-259-1991