[Repo]

will be posting a bit later than usual as I'm hanging out with my kids until about 9pm. Should have something up before 11pm.

Pretty psyched for this week's release!!! It's from a genre I'm not really that familiar with but will have to explore more of! 🤓

[MadhattanJack]

Take your time, man! There's no rush, it's Record Store Day...

It should really be called ""Record Store Weekend" now, since Friday is the day the stock is put out, but most people actually show up at the store on Saturday, and then on Sunday everybody prepares their eBay listings.

This has actually become a tradition of not only getting people to visit local record stores, but also of being the most problematic week of the entire year for people who follow new-album releases. Most people already know this, but roughly 98 percent of the "RSD Exclusive" releases that come out now — especially from established artists — are reissues, live albums (often from the distant past), hit compilations, non-hit compilations, demo/outtake collections, BBC (and other radio) sessions, remix collections, "deluxe editions" (did I mention reissues?), weird formats (the Rolling Stones are putting out a set of 3-inch singles, for example), and "reimaginings." Most of the actual new albums that are released on RSD weekend are from artists most people have never heard of. The only exceptions this year are Jessie Ware — her album was supposed to have come out last week — and Nine Inch Nails, who have a collaboration LP coming out with Boys Noize, so they're calling it Nine Inch Noize.

This all makes perfect sense though, because vinyl LPs all cost $30/£25 a pop now, minimum, so you're going to want to hear any new album from an unfamiliar artist on a streaming service before you shell out that kind of money for it.

I'll post a list of the new studio LPs I've flagged soon-ish — there are only about 8 of them that I'm interested in, not including the new soundtrack LP from actress Anne Hathaway. But as for the reissues/live/etc. stuff, probably the biggest splash (at least for BEA purposes) is coming from Arcade Fire, who are releasing a completely "reimagined"/reworked/re-recorded ambient-dreampop version of their Pink Elephant album called Open Your Heart or Die Trying, that being (as some of you may recall) the title of track 1 on Pink Elephant. I'm sure it will be awesome and all that... Also, I know some of you are fans of the late Mark Lanegan — whoever is in charge of his catalogue is releasing an "original draft version" of his Bubblegum LP, which I guess means it's a demo collection in roughly the same the same running order.

Naturally, my own personal choice for Most Important RSD Exclusive of 2026 is XTC's Live at Emerald City 1981, the first of their newly-announced "Live Boots" series, all cleaned up and remastered from the original tapes (existing boots of this show were all recorded off an FM radio broadcast). There's some question as to whether this is going to be UK-only or not:

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

If US-based XTC fans like myself can't get a copy here in the States on Saturday, we'll probably just have to settle for our inferior now-40-year-old copies of Fab Foursome in Philly. Oh well! 😐

I might also grab Suede's Coming Up at the BBC if I can find one — this being BBC session versions of all the tracks from Coming Up, in that album's running order. (Hey, I like self-explanatory album titles, what can I say.)

Another interesting one, if you're a fan of The Residents (and really, who isn't?) is The Residents Present Randy, Chuck & Bob In The Studio. It's basically an outtakes album from the 2009-2015 period, but all of the material is previously unreleased, they say. Let's see, there's also a Ramones live album, a Magdalena Bay singles comp, a remixes LP from Sister Ray Davies... just tons and tons and tons of this stuff. Impossible to get through it all, really.

[Repo]

RELEASE DAY EVE: April 17th, 2026

Jazz for Metalheads (& Noise Rockers!) 😈


Bitches Blues (2026) by Hedvig Mollestad Weejuns

The title - Bitches Blues - is a sly nod to one of their major inspirations - Bitches Brew ( and really the whole Jazz Fusion period of the late 60s & early 70s). But honestly their sound reminds me more of American Experimental Rock duo Battles than Miles Davis. The band itself is a trio from Norway composed of guitar, organ and drums. It's the kind of music that gets me excited to take drugs again! 🫠 They'd be freakin' amazing live. That's obvious. So here's to hoping this record gets just enough attention to lure them over here!

What April 17th, 2026 release do YOU have your ears & heart set on when midnight strikes?! 🔭👀

[MadhattanJack]

[Repo]

Gosh, MJ. You're so demanding! Honestly, that's such a minor detail. 🙄 😅

Fixed! Will actually enter the album into the BEA database once I can get my hands on the actual track list. Part of me wonders if this is even dropping tomorrow since there's such a dearth of info regarding this release. And I guess I wasn't helping matters any at all! It must be something subliminal. 🫠

Here's Hedvig, in her more metal-oriented band - The Hedvig Mollestad Trio - playing live in 2025...


Link


😈

[MadhattanJack]

As it turns out, I actually have fewer items here than I thought (since a couple of things I thought were albums turned out to be EPs/singles). Sorry about that! Here's what's left:

• April March, Villerville: She's best known for the song "Chick Habit," which played over the closing credits to Grindhouse, the 2007 Tarantino/Rodriquez double-feature. Since then she's taken a more serious direction, but I couldn't tell you how far with respect to this album, because she seems to have done a really good job of keeping the whole thing under wraps prior to the release date.
  
• The Spoiled, When It Rains: This is Giovanni Santolla, a pretty good Cure-ish gothgaze artist from Italy who doesn't want you to think of him as "goth," or anything-"gaze," either. Well, too bad.
  
• Robot Slide, Chimps: Here's a pleasant-sounding chillwave quartet, three of whom are brothers, who call themselves "frog rock" but are perilously close to "easy listening." I was tempted to overlook this, but I just happen to like chimpanzees.
  
• Let It Eat You For Fun, Upon the Forest Floor: Good pseudonym for this post-rock instrumental crescendocore guy whose real name is Aaron Richardson, from "the heart of the UK," which means he probably lives someplace like Oxford or Milton Keynes and doesn't want you to know. It's not bad, for what it is.
  
• Kathryn Mohr, Carve: I haven't heard the whole thing yet, but I would describe this as "folk songs played with a distorted electric guitar instead of the expected acoustic guitar." This approach has of course been used before, but for some reason I like it better when she does it as opposed to, I dunno, Billy Bragg or someone like that. Very lo-fi, very raw, not much concern for production or craftsmanship, but... I still like it?

Then there's this 4-track EP from Tanya Donelly and Chris Brokaw called The Undone is Done Again. They don't really explain what had been undone, but in any event, this is supposed to be "medieval music reimagined for the modern." (There's that word again!) In fact it's just Tanya (who I would never actually say anything bad about) singing early music vox over an acoustic guitar accompaniment that she probably could have handled herself. (Hopefully she doesn't have arthritis preventing her from playing guitar! That would be bad.) If you like early music, which I kind-of do, it's nice, just not revelatory.

On top of all that, there are two albums coming out from similarly-named death metal bands — Necromorbid with Ceremonial Demonslaught, and Nekrogoblikon with The Boiling Sea. Obviously this is pretty confusing, but Necromorbid (who usually refer to themselves in ALL CAPS to distinguish themselves from the other Necromorbid) are a black death metal act from Poland, while Nekrogoblikon are a melodic death metal act from Los Angeles who own synthesizers. NECROMORBID just look like regular death-metal guys, whereas Nekrogoblikon have a guy who wears a scary mask to look like Elijah Wood's character in the movie Sin City. So, hopefully that clears that up.

[MadhattanJack]

Now, about this Anne Hathaway situation...

Tomorrow is the release date for Mother Mary: Greatest Hits. (That's an Amazon.com link.) It's your basic electro-pop dance record (with the possible exception of the last track, "Cut Ties," which is a bit less upbeat). Anne Hathaway is a pretty good singer, and Charli XCX and FKA twigs were brought in to write (or at least co-write) the songs, so that's all good. The problem is the concept behind the movie, and while I know that the album sales will be a tiny fraction of the movie's box office, the movie is still being used to sell the album, which does have some hit potential.

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

I happened to notice this one-star review on IMDB.com, and while I initially thought, "really?" I decided to check it out anyway. It turns out there really is a twin-sister duo called MOTHERMARY who released an album called I Am Your God in 2022, in which they use religious imagery and terminology to try to distinguish themselves from all the other electropop dance/diva acts out there. Here's a quote from their website:

[Repo]

[Tap]

[imacgill]