New Music Monday: High on Fire, Kacey Musgraves, Breaking Benjamin, Richard Thompson, 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!
It’s metal week round these parts! Quite the rare occasion when the most important release of the week is from a metal band. I think the last time it was that last Godflesh album. Anyway, the new High On Fire record, Luminiferous, is probably the most talked about record of this new week. One reason? They brought in Kurt Ballou, the guitarist from Converge, to produce the it. Another? High on Fire is fucking awesome anyway, so when you combine the brutality of Matt Pike and boys with the genius of Ballou it just sounds ballistic. It’s HOF’s seventh record overall and first since 2012. Quoth NPR: “[Luminiferous] vividly captures High On Fire’s unique chemistry, presenting it in a tone that’s both warm and aggressive to the point of leaping out at the listener.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qncjyyQ6nA

More Metal Type Stuff
Sort of sometimes metal or hard rock or something like that guys Breaking Benjamin unveil their fifth opus Dark Before Dawn. Never been a fan myself, but this writer for Citizens Voice really dug the band, and still has an affinity for them, it seems, and says “the album as a whole brings the tried-and-true Breaking Benjamin sound.” Not sure if that’s a good or bad thing. Don’t really care.

The Other Big News
The real big news, as far as record sales go, is the sophomore effort from country artist Kacey Musgraves, Pageant Material. I’m sure it’ll sell a lot of records.

Indie Mackerel
New stuff from Philly darlings Creepoid sounds great. Just ask, er, Spin, which opines “this new collection feels like their most fleshed-out release to date, fulfilling the gloomy promise of their doom-laden brand of slowcore by mixing in a glassy-eyed sense of melody that’d make Meat Puppets proud.” Disc is called Cemetery Highrise Scum and it’s their fourth. People name drop the fuck out of shoegaze bands when they talk about Creepoid (Swervedriver, Lush, etc), which is understandable but feel a real doomy, malicious vibe from these guys. And I like it.

Conner Oberst’s side piece, Desaparecidos, finally cough up their second, highly anticipated (and Epitaph Records approved) second rekkid, Payola, this week. The Guardian isn’t all that excited about the band’s first release in nearly fifteen years: “Desaparecidos sound as if they are harking back to a time when Jimmy Eat World and Glassjaw were the height of angsty American apathy.”

English alt rockers Wolf Alice release their debut lp My Love is Cool.

Legendary Legend
Richard Thompson, the critically acclaimed guitarist who formed the backbone of Fairport Covention (my first or second favorite band of all time, depending on how many beers I’ve had), offers up his fortieth effort, the “downright pleasant”(according to Rolling Stone), Still. The record was recorded in Chicago and produced by Wilco mastermind Jeff Tweedy, which is a really, really, good sign that it’s going to be flawless.

Bonus!!
My favorite song of all time!!

RIP
Last week was a busy one for dat ol’ grim reaper, yeah? This week has been kinda slow with the whole death thing, thank goodness, but still a few worth mentioning.

Wendell Holmes, of the prolific blues trio The Holmes Brothers, succumbed to hypertension at the age of 71.

Funny man Phil Austin of Firesign Theater, passed away at the age of 74.

Mighty Sam Mclain ain’t here no more. He was 72.

Big Time Sarah died this week at the age of 62.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzN5_HJ0Ykk

My Recommendation
Gonna go ahead and rec up that new Richard Thompson one more time, and throw some more Fairport Convention at yo ass. Enjoy!

Next Week

Tune in next week, same new music time, same new music channel for new new stuff from Failure, Refused, and Bassnecter!!