New Music Monday: Chemical Bros, Ashley Monroe, Kasey Chambers, We Came as Romans, 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!
New Chemical Brothers for ya dancing needs!! Titled Born in the Echos, it’s the duos eighth release and first since 2012. Consequence of Sound: “[Echos is] an iron-clad musical statement from one of dance music’s most enduring exports.”

Country Chicks
Ashley Monroe unveils her second album, The Blade. Don’t know who she is? You will soon. This rekkid is bound to be big, kid. She’s friends with every freaking body from Jack White to the dude from Train and country legends like Vince Gill. Here’s what NPR has to babble ’bout The Blade: “[It’s] a canny and consistent star turn that’s equally at home in mournfully evocative ballads like the title track and in irresistible rippers like ‘Winning Streak.'”

Veteran Australian songwriter Kasey Chambers’ her tenth release, Bittersweet, finally hits American shores this week. It’s a highly anticipated new record “that blends folk glory, blues swagger, and alt-country bravado”, according to The Bluegrass Situation.

Indie-tastic!
Robert Pollard is Ricked Wicky. King Heavy Metal is his second release under that moniker. Snob’s Music kinda recommends the album (I’ll buy it cuz I love everything Pollard does) : “The sonic diversity and the dalliance into new territory (for Pollard anyway) is to be commended. However, the songs aren’t really up to a quality that one would like when forking over cash for a record.”

The dude from Real Estate’s side project Ducktails is set to release it’s fifth effort, St Catherine.

Misc Metal Things
Alessandro Cortini, the keyboardist for Nine Inch Nails, who plays a Roland TB-303, has another solo record coming out this week, his third, I believe. He told Synthtopia: “‘The 303 can be such a haunting instrument, used in a certain way,’ notes Cortini, ‘and I felt it completely fit the mood of the previous work I have done on the 202, especially when given a specific location in space.'”

We Came As Romans come again with a self-titled release.

RIP
Here’s where we say goodbye. These are those that duck walked off this mortal coil in the last week or two.

Southern rock icon Buddy Buie died from a heart attack.

Chicago rapper Capo was shot. He was 22.

Oklahoma icon Tom Skinner died at the age of 61.

And Gary Mack, my favorite JFK assassination researcher, died of goddamn cancer. This one sucks.

My Recommendation
I remember Eleni Mandell for some reason. I don’t remember why. Here’s her new record.

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