Carnival of Soul

This upcoming Friday, Aug. 21 brings with it a number of notable new music releases from acts all across the wide spectrum of music. Below is our curated list of Rock Cellar’s new music picks for Aug. 14, along with links to purchase (where applicable).

The Killers — Imploding the Mirage (Click here to pre-order from the Rock Cellar Store)

The Killers just keep on chugging. The band’s recent single “Caution” is already one of the group’s most successful on radio, a preview of Imploding the Mirage.

The album was delayed a bit due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the record — the Killers’ sixth overall — is finally seeing the light of day this Friday.

Bright Eyes — Down in the Weeds Where the World Once Was (Click here to pre-order from the Rock Cellar Store)

Bright Eyes, the acclaimed indie/rock band fronted by Conor Oberst, will release its tenth album (and first since 2011) this Friday.

Per a press release, there’s a significance to the album’s title, Down in The Weeds Where the World Once Was:

As a title, as a thesis, Down In The Weeds Where the World Once Was functions on a global, apocalyptic level of anxiety that looms throughout the record. But on a personal level, it speaks to rooting around in the dirt of one’s memories, trying to find the preciousness that’s overgrown and unrecognizable. For Conor Oberst, coming back to Bright Eyes was a bit of that. A symbol of simpler times, vaguely nostalgic. And even though it wasn’t actually possible to go back to the way things were, even though there wasn’t an easy happy ending, there was a new reality left to work with.

Bully — Sugaregg (Click here to pre-order from the Rock Cellar Store)

Sub Pop Records is the perfect label home for Alicia Bognanno and Bully, and the band will release its new album, Sugaregg, this week. Bognanno is a passionate guitarist/singer with roots in intense, grunge-y expression — the calling card for most bands on the label that rose to prominence in the early ’80s with acts like Nirvana and Mudhoney, among others.

Sugaregg will be Bully’s third full-length to date.

Old 97’s — Twelfth (Click here to pre-order from the Rock Cellar Store).

Twelfth, the new album from Rhett Miller and Old 97’s, was “recorded this spring in Nashville, Tennessee between a tornado and a pandemic,” giving the whole affair a weight of significance amid the chaos. Coming after 2016’s Graveyard Whistling and the hit “Good with God,” the release of Twelfth was previewed with songs including “Turn Off the TV”:

The Lemon Twigs — Songs for the General Public (Click here to pre-order from the Rock Cellar Store)

Brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario return this week with their fourth album as the Lemon Twigs, a folksy psychedelic indie/rock project steeped in tradition and a reverence for the acts that came before them. They’ve shared the stage with acts including Arctic Monkeys, count Elton John and the Zombies as admirers and are poised for even bigger things.

The Front Bottoms — In Sickness & In Flames (Click here to pre-order from the Rock Cellar Store)

Versatile “folk/punk” duo The Front Bottoms return this week with their fifth full-length album, In Sickness & In Flames, via Fueled By Ramen.

Guided By Voices — Mirrored Aztec (Click here to pre-order from the Rock Cellar Store)

Guided By Voices has released four albums in just over twelve months. That’s a prolific rate (almost to the point of absurdity), and another one is due this week when the band (fronted by Robert Pollard) releases Mirrored Aztec. Per the album description:

“After venturing through the tangled brambles of Plague and Poppy Field, here is a sunny summer reprieve, a relentless barrage of hooks-Mirrored Aztec is the latest stop on this runaway train.”