New Music Monday: ASAP Rocky, Florence and The Machine, Willie Nelson, The Darkness and More!!

Happy Monday music maniacs! Like new stuff? Great! You’ve come to the right place. Each week all sorts of audiolicious goodies are unleashed onto the masses and this is where they come to be judged. I’ll tell ya what’s good, what’s bad, and what’s a waste of your time. Thanks for stopping by!

The Big News!
Wow, after a paltry, lukewarm week of new releases last week we’re ’bout to get inundated with great new shit. Where to begin, where to begin? Hmm… how ’bout the new ASAP Rocky set At.Long.Last.ASAP? I guess it leaked last week and the label just dropped it. The release date for this shit was frustratingly schizophrenic – thank god it’s finally out. Rolling Stone, which awarded the record a disappointing 3 1/2 stars, says: “At.Long.Last.A$AP takes the gritty East Coast classicism and syrup-drippin’ Houston screwiness of his killer 2013 debut, Long.Live.A$AP, and adds an extra level of psychedelic sprawl via a new found taste for acid.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ16dUcisBs

But Rocky ain’t the only one rocking a new release this week. The new Florence and The Machine, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, is, according to the New York Daily News, “brilliant”. From the Nico inspired cover photo to the lead single “What Kind of Man”, the record has the feel of some sort of relationship record, which might be a good assumption. MSN: “Compared to the fanciful fantasy preoccupations of previous releases – especially the death and water fixations of Ceremonials – this is Welch facing up to reality, confronting her emotional demons in a frank manner.”

Metal Mania
Big week for metal and hard rock. Legendary LA ’80s metal dudes Armored Saint have reformed and released a new rager, Win Hands Down, their seventh since 1982 and first in five years. My Global Mind calls the record “world class”.

Mysterious doom metal outfit Goatsnake unveils it’s third opus Black Age Blues this week.

UK hard glammy rockers The Darkness set out to rule your summer with their latest Last of Our Kind. Smells Like Infinite Sadness calls it “their most varied and exploratory album to date”.

Brutal death metal reformers Skinless unleash all hell with their reunion effort, Only the Ruthless Remain. The Angry Metal Guy says: “As you would expect, you can find plenty of moments of blistering fury, colossal breakdowns, and heavy-as-hell mid-tempo chug-chug-cheery throughout.”

Legendary Legends
Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard have collaborated on the new Django and Jimmie. Why doesn’t Merle Haggard have arms in the still below?c Monday

The final Frank Zappa record, Dance Me This, will finally see the light of day this week. It’s also the 100th album with which the master is credited.This is a long awaited, very hush hush record that a lot of people thought would never be released. Can’t wait to hear it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvG-aNHzmzg

Here’s more Zappa!

Dark Indie Places
I’m still not over Benji, the 2014 effort from Mark Kozelek and his Sun Kil Moon project, which I named one of the ten best albums of 2014. But the man has gone and released another record, the “intimate and minimal“ Universal Themes. Don’t be surprised if it’s on my best of 2015 list come December.

Someone Still Love You, Boris Yeltsin returns with The High Country. The 405 gushes about the “simple grace” of the album.

RIP
Rocky Frisco, who played piano for JJ Cale and was huge in the music hotbed of Tulsa, OK, died this week at the age of 77.

Soul singer Mel Walters died this week.

Roger Johnson, one of the founders of the absolutely essential early Midwest rock and roll bands Eric and The Norsemen, died this week. I did a story on the Norsemen a few years ago for Perfect Sound Forever, and Roger was one of my favorite rock and roll people ever. He will be missed by many. Long live the Norsemen!

My Recommendation
Ben Lee’s new record Love is the Great Rebellion. Aww, it’s a new Ben Lee reocrd. How cute!!

Next Week
Tune in next week, same new music time, same new music channel for new new stuff from Muse!!