New Music Monday: Robert Plant, Interpol, Ryan Adams, Karen O, and More!

Psst! Hey kid! You like new music? Great, because you’ve stumbled into the perfect luau – New Music Monday, currently the most “Pull de String!” column on 8CN. Each week oodles of new music type things get unleashed by greedy record labels and this is where they all 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

Legendary legend, and dude who probably banged your mom when she was a teenager, Robert Plant (ex-Led Zeppelin vocalist) returns with his tenth solo record (recorded with his band The Sensational Space Shifters), lullaby… and the Ceaseless Roar, this week. The LA Times called it “a compellingly eclectic landscape” which makes it sound like a Natalie Merchant record or something. Never cared for this wailing idiot myself, but lots of people seem to dig his shit so whatever.

What Would Be The Big News If That Choad Robert Plant Wasn’t Releasing a Shitty New Record

Incredibly prolific alt-country icon Ryan Adams returns with hsi fourteenth effort this week, a self-titled joint supposedly inspired by the Velvet Underground and The Smiths. Adams enlightened Rolling Stone about his recording process thusly: “I was like, ‘I’ll go in with a couple bros at seven o’clock and just jam. We would, like, smoke a bowl and drink some tea and the words came free flowing out of me’.” How visionary!

What Would Be The Big News If This World Were Actually Cool Instead of Sucky

The best young songwriter in America, Justin Townes Earle, returns with his sixth masterpiece, Single Mothers.

90’s Revival

Last week it was Counting Crowes, this week alt-rockers Better Than Ezra return with their first record in five years, All Together Now. Um, CBS News called it “familiar and fresh”.

Festi Faves

Michigan based hippie dippies, and one of my favorite festival bands, Greensky Bluegrass, return with their fifth release If Sorrows Swim.

Indietastic

Yeah Yeah Yeah’s vocalist and “queen of New York art rock” Karen O releases his debut solo set, Crush Songs, this week. The New York Times calls it a “concept album” that represents both a “time capsul and a burst forward”. O calls it “a new chapter”, and I’m excited to hear it.

Masters of the darkside Interpol return with their fifth effort, El Pintor.

Metal Mania

Swedish metal masters In Flames unleash their fifth monstrosity, Siren Chams, after a three year hiatus.

Sophomore Superior

Philadelphia dope rapper extraordinaire Meek Mill offers up his sophomore effort Dreams Worth More than Money.

My Recommendation

Still letting that Earth record from last week bang around in my head at the moment, but gonna make a little room in the old gray matter for the new David Bazan and the Passenger String Quartet release. It’s self-titled and made up of reworkings of Bazan’s solo work and his Pedro the Lion stuff, so that sounds good.