NMW: QOTSA, The War on Drugs, Iron & Wine, EMA, and More!!

Time for your (late!) weekly round-up of all the new music stuffs! 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

Rolling Stone says about the new Queens of the Stone Age record, Villians: “No Queens record prioritizes groove like this, and it reboots their image”. Referencing krautrock, Bowie and Iggy in Berlin, but still with the trademark bombastic guitars, this could be the best QOTSA record yet.

Indie Miscy

I know Iron & Wine are all Warner and everything but that doesn’t seem to matter anymore. The whispery Sam Beam returns with his eighth record, Beast Epic, which sounds like something my son screams when he scores a touchdown in Madden.

Discography stongarms Thee Oh Sees are now Oh Sees and unveil their zillionth release, Orc.

One of the best bands on the planet, Liars, return with TFCF.

And The War on Drugs is still here.

Disappointment!

This review, from The Arts Desk, of the new Gogol Bordello pretty much sums up how I’ve felt about every Gogol Bordello record. Believe me, I love these guys, but…everyone else seemed to love it, like they always do.

Legendary Legends

Filthy Friends contains members of Sleater Kinney, REM, The Fastbacks, and others. Their debut release Invitation features Peter Buck and Corrin Tucker sharing songwriting duties. Nice!

Guitarist Richard Thompson updates many of his classic songs in acoustic form on Acoustic Classics 2.

Mentioning Richard Thompson is always and excuse to post my favorite song of all time!!!

My Recommendation

It is time. The new EMA album, Exile in the Outer Ring, my overall favorite for record of the year, is here. The AV Club get’s it: “Eventually, when the fog lifts, [this] could stand as one of the artistic triumphs of this dark time.”