If a hen and a half can lay an egg and a half in a day and a half, I guess I should be happy that it only takes me the better part of a day to sample hundreds of albums and track down everything I need to assemble this weekly roundup. After all, there are worse ways to be cooped up. With that in mind, here are your lays… er, plays of the week. No half-measures:
And Also The Trees
The Devil’s Door
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Devil’s Door by And Also The Trees — one of the original post-punk bands — presents a quiet storm of an album. At times filmic, poetic and intense with an undercurrent of dark psychedelia. It completes a trilogy of works created by the current lineup, preceded by The Bone Carver and Mother-Of-Pearl Moon. It includes all the signature poetic lyrics, orchestral guitars and soundtrack-influenced songs inspired by newsreels, oil paintings and folklore. But with this work we have the addition of some surprising instruments that skew the album towards a world where John Barry meets Bela Bartok. Founded by singer Simon Jones and his guitarist brother Justin, AATT formed during the original post-punk era in rural Worcestershire, an environment that has provided a constant inspiration to a group whose music has often explored the dark underbelly as well as the beauty of the British countryside. They are renowned for their captivating live performances, a unique style of mandolin-like electric guitar, evocative lyrics and dark jazz rhythms — not to mention a creative independence fiercely preserved for over four decades. They have released 16 studio albums.”
Bill Callahan
My Days Of 58
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “My Days Of 58 is the eighth Bill Callahan album and his first since 2022. The 12 tunes here open uncanny depths of expression as Bill continues to blaze one of the most original songwriting-and-performance trails out there. With My Days Of 58, he applies the living, breathing energies of his live shows to the studio process, sharpening his slice-of-life portraiture to cut deeper than ever before. The core musicians featured here toured for 2022’s Reality: Guitarist Matt Kinsey, saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi and drummer Jim White, whose synergy was evident in 2024’s live Resuscitate! This showed Bill, as he puts it, “that they could handle anything I threw at them,” adding: “Improv / unpredictability / the unknown is the thing that keeps me motivated to keep making music. It’s all about listening to yourself and others. A lot of the best parts of a recording are the mistakes — making them into strengths, using them as springboards into something human.”
Crooked Fingers
Swet Deth
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “One afternoon, Eric Bachmann’s son returned from school with a sheath of pictures he’d drawn, all of them macabre. “There were crows and sinister figures with scythes and tombstones,” he recalls. On one, he had written ‘Deth, Sweet Deth,’ and everything clicked in my head.” Swet Deth, Bachmann’s first album under his Crooked Fingers moniker after a 15-year hiatus, organized itself around the image: Its songs are about death, yes, but there’s a sweetness to them, a wry sensibility to his lyrics that comes from having experienced many kinds of death and the life that follows in its wake. There is a freedom to this collection of songs, a groove to them that would belie their agonies and anxieties were mere death the album’s point and not what comes before. For Bachmann, that has been growth, as a musician and as a man. Like the tree sprouting from the graveyard on its cover, Swet Deth is surprising and lush, a shock of color against its morbid landscape, proof of life in the shadow of its opposite. As Crooked Fingers, he’s never felt more alive.”
Dog Chocolate
So Inspired, So Done In
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “After seven strange years of relative silence, and 13 years of being a band, Dog Chocolate have returned with So Inspired, So Done In. Their fourth album is their most focused, cohesive and song-y yet. They still sound like a bin full of wasps, but now the bin has double-cream or a Viennetta or something at the bottom. While many of the 16 songs on here barely make it past the three-minute mark, each one is bursting with all the textures and colours of an office cupboard: Full of old sweets, fluorescent markers, and multiple ways to fix paper together. Thematically, a lot of ground is covered, with songs tackling subject matter as diverse as overheard conversations, healing fungal toenails, bronze age living conditions, dreaming songs into being and human-plant relations. Work (and anti-work) is a recurring theme, as is artistic inspiration and burnout. Dog Chocolate revel in the mundane and incidental, to explore bigger, existential questions. So Inspired, So Done In charts a long and confusing period in the band’s collective life, marked by major life changes, losses and shifts, colouring the band’s trademark frantic, daft and anxious energy with a contemplative glaze.”
Gord Downie, The Sadies & The Conquering Sun
Live At 6 O’Clock
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Gord Downie, The Sadies, And The Conquering Sun released their debut self-titled album in 2014. It was a triumphant 10-song barnburner that clashes Downie’s indelible poetry with the brash, inspired playing of The Sadies, whose catalog already included albums with Neko Case, Jon Spencer, John Doe and Andre Williams, to name a few. Not a one-off but a brotherhood, The Conquering Sun struck a punk-addled chemistry verging on possessed, compelled by Downie’s peerless words, unbridled charisma, and the unencumbered playing of Mike Belitsky, Sean Dean, Travis Good and Dallas Good. The summer tour of that album blazed a trail of indescribably fiery performances of the album, riddled with incendiary covers of punk and psych-rock greats, a rare intensity now captured on the concert album, Live At 6 O’Clock.”
Draümar
Draümar
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Static Shock Records are out here still pushing the finest in international punk and hardcore — this time with a smoking debut from Oslo’s Draümar. Their influences are from the same city block with groundwork laid by groups like So Much Hate and Svart Framtid. The songs are blasting away at the same monumental enemies albeit with different faces. The never-ending nuclear question, societal unease, genocide, and a steadfast approach to not turn away from the constant horror of today’s world make up the tapestry of this album. The intro and outro track nod and update John Carpenter’s Assault On Precinct 13, setting the stage for a flurry of cold, desperate Norwegian punk — instantly identifiable and as potent as ever. They’ve scraped the blood, sweat and victory off the floors of Blitz and distilled it into a Molotov aimed directly at a world in constant crisis. These are chords and context against a rising fascist world where screaming is not limp response but also tactic, celebration and affirmation.”
The Dream Machine
Fort Perch Rock
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Dream Machine are back with their third studio album Fort Perch Rock — following a successful few years of U.K. shows, national airplay and festival appearances. This Wirral five-piece have established theselves as one of the most exciting new acts in the northern guitar music scene. Often compared to bands like King Gizzard, their live shows are chaotic, euphoric, and impossible to ignore. Fort Perch Rock marks a new but familiar chapter for the band. The album is bold, cinematic, and deeply rooted in their origins. Named after the iconic New Brighton landmark, it serves as a gritty love letter to seaside life, brimming with raw emotion and fuzz-soaked guitars. The Dream Machine are forging their own path, and it leads to Fort Perch Rock.”
The Glass Cage
Where Did The Sunshine Go?
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In 1968, Nanaimo’s Glass Cage recorded six songs before their dance at Fuller Lake Arena and cut three acetate copies. After a name change and a move to Vancouver, on New Year’s Eve 1969 the band played their final gig and went their separate ways. The rock ’n’ roll dream was over — and the record forgotten forever. Or so they thought… In 2016, retired promoter Marcus Pollard unearthed an acetate in a Vancouver Island thrift store. What came next is a decade-long journey that ends with an unknown Canadian classic finally coming to light after 58 years.”
Hey Colossus
Heaven Was Wild
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The idea was simple: A week in a studio together playing live — no click-track, amps up full, don’t stress the spill. BE A BAND. Shortly before recording, we did four sold-out London dates in three days: North, South, East and West. We played the new album across the weekend, tweaking songs between gigs. Then it was into a room in Bruton, Somerset with the JT Soar mobile studio coming down from Nottingham. Five days and it was done, warts-and-all. Some imperfections. Some un-ironed creases. And better that way too. This is Hey Colossus album No. 15 and record number 30 or 40 or something equally ridiculous. The band is heading towards a quarter of a century of existence and there are some deep thoughts to be had about this. But not here. There’s therapy in music; listening AND playing. This felt like therapy. And it was needed.”
Iron & Wine
Hen’s Teeth
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “I’ve always wanted to use that title,” Sam Beam says of Hen’s Teeth, his eighth full-length album and his sixth for Sub Pop Records. “I just love it. To me it suggests the impossible. Hen’s teeth do not exist. And that’s what this record felt like: a gift that shouldn’t be there but it is. An impossible thing but it’s real.” Hen’s Teeth and his previous album Light Verse are siblings of a sort. They were recorded during the same sessions after a years-long dry spell, with the same band, at Waystation studio in Laurel Canyon. “When I’ve been on a writing kick, and the band can meet me where I’m at, they push me into something I hadn’t imagined. I’m at a point in my life where spontaneity is a lot more important to me. I don’t have as much to prove as I used to. I’m a lot freer and I love making music more than ever. There are no right or wrong answers. You just pray for your luck and try your best.” In this case prayers were answered and luck struck hard. The musicians cohered so quickly and inspired each other so much that they were often getting songs recorded in just a few takes, sometimes at the rate of two or three per day. The two albums might therefore be thought of as fraternal twins: they share DNA and complement each other but have distinct identities and are defined as much by their differences as their similarities.”
Lil Ed & The Blues Imperials
Slideways
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “For nearly 40 years together, Blues Hall Of Famers Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials — bassist (and Ed’s half brother) James “Pookie” Young, guitarist Mike Garrett and drummer Kelly Littleton — have been delivering gloriously riotous, intensely emotional, wickedly playful Chicago blues to audiences around the world. Lil’ Ed Williams — like his musical forebearers, slide guitar masters J.B. Hutto (Ed’s uncle), Elmore James and Hound Dog Taylor — is among the giants of the genre. His celebratory slide work, deep blues string bending, fervent vocals and riveting original songs, all powered by The Blues Imperials’ rock-solid, road-tested, telepathic musicianship, are as real and hard-hitting as Chicago blues gets. According to Guitar World, “The band is a snarling boogie-blues machine.” Now, Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials return with Slideways, their 10th Alligator Records release, and perhaps the crowning achievement of their entire career. Mixing smoking slide guitar boogies and raw-boned shuffles with the deepest soul-burners and heart-wrenching slow blues, Lil’ Ed and co. bring it all back home, playing each track with an impassioned sense of wild abandon.”