Celebrate Juneteenth and the summer solstice and Father’s Day with this week’s new releases…

Philly rapper Tierra Whack invites fans and detractors alike to revel in her sharp wordplay on the unapologetic mixtape WHACK’S MUSEUM. The second installment in his classical-riffing Piano Series, Jon Batiste’s Black Mozart sees the tireless bandleader reframing 18^th century melodies in jazz styles ranging from ragtime to stride.

The War and Treaty’s fifth LP, The Story of Michael and Tanya, charts the Trotters’ emotional journey and ongoing support of one another. On Saturday Night, Sunday Morning, PJ Morton explores sacred and secular themes across a double-length companion to his 2024 memoir of the same name.

Reuniting with singer Nick Heyward for the first time since their smash 1982 debut, Haircut One Hundred recapture new wave gold on Boxing the Compass. Blur guitarist Graham Coxon unearths material recorded 15 years ago for Castle Park; his ninth solo album was put on ice once his main group’s reunion became a full-time endeavor.

Listen for spotlights on new records like these (and more) every week on the XPN Morning Show and Indie Rock Hit Parade.

PRESS PLAY on these new releases

Tierra Whack –
WHACK’S MUSEUM

CHECK OUT: “WAX PAPER”
“TOTEM”

Jon Batiste –
Black Mozart

CHECK OUT: “Alla Blues”
“Facile-Batiste”

The War and Treaty –
The Story of Michael and Tanya

CHECK OUT: “Don’t Say Goodbye”

PJ Morton –
Saturday Night, Sunday Morning

CHECK OUT: “Mutual” “Mercy”

Haircut One Hundred –
Boxing the Compass

CHECK OUT: “Come Back to Me”
“The Unloving Plum”

Graham Coxon –
Castle Park

CHECK OUT: “Billy Says”
“Alright”

The PRESS PLAY-list

FURTHER LISTENING

Alex Zhang Hungtai – Orion/Mother, Barnes Courtney – Live and Wired, Billy Ray Cyrus – The Hill, casi – CASI, Chris Stamey – Modernism, Chris van Voorst van Beest – Bye Design, Hard-Fi – Sweating Someone Else’s Fever, Joe Bonamassa – The Spirit of Rory: Live from Cork, Kashus Culpepper – Act I: Summer Nights, Matt Palka – Moment in the Sun, Mixol – The Fool EP, The Pines of Rome – When You Are as Full as the Moon, Pond – Terrestrials, Resurrectionists – Double EP – Anytime You Make a Place for Them/Ok, Let’s Play King, Student 1 – Truant, Styrofoam Winos – Any River, Supertramp – Brother Where You Bound (Reissue) / Free as a Bird (Reissue), Swamp Dogg – Swamp Dogg Contemplates the Afterlife, Wild Up – Julius Eastman Vol. 5: Gay Guerrilla, ZOON – HAPPY THOUGHT SCHOOL

PRESS PLAY Back Catalog

Things are heating up with this week’s assortment of new albums. Wait, didn’t I say something similar last week? It’s hot out!!

At this year’s NonComm, Alex Amen and his band put on a warm and welcoming acoustic set; those rustic vibes are abundant on Sun of Amen. 20 years ago, in-demand collaborator Joan Wasser released Real Life, her debut under the name Joan as Police Woman; on Real Life Evolution, Wasser revisits her solo breakthrough with reimagined arrangements. The Landfill is Eric D. Johnson’s 13^th full-length as Fruit Bats, channeling his Midwest roots into breezy, observational odes to seeking comfort in nature. Midge Ure’s first collection of new material in over a decade is actually a pair of collections: A Man of Two Worlds’ first disc is a set of meditative instrumentals while the second contains similarly atmospheric songs.

Fresh off a surprise appearance at Primavera Sound last weekend, Olivia Rodrigo works out her feels (with some help from The Cure’s Robert Smith) on you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love. Connecticut combo Goose streamline their sound on Big Modern! while still leaving plenty of room for exploratory jams. It’s been seven years since Kelsey Lu’s debut, Blood; So Help Me God arrives after a pair of film scores from the singer/cellist. Prolific songwriter Jesse Welles turns the screws on those pushing buttons and pulling levers on his sixth LP, Masks Off.

PRESS PLAY on these new releases

Olivia Rodrigo – you seem pretty sad
for a girl so in love

CHECK OUT: “drop dead”
“the cure”

Goose –
Big Modern!

CHECK OUT: “Good2B”
“Torero”

Kelsey Lu –
So Help Me God

CHECK OUT: “Running to Pain”
“Portrait of a Lady on Fire”

Jesse Welles –
Masks Off

CHECK OUT: “Red”
“Domestic Error”

Alex Amen –
Sun of Amen

CHECK OUT: “Cabin by the Sea”
“California Blues”

Joan as Police Woman –
Real Life Evolution

CHECK OUT: “The Ride”
“Eternal Flame”

Fruit Bats –
The Landfill

CHECK OUT: “The Landfill”
“That Goddamn Sun”

Midge Ure –
A Man of Two Worlds

CHECK OUT: “Just Words”
“The Man Who Stole Your Soul”

FURTHER LISTENING

Alexis Taylor and Mike Simonetti – I See a Darkness / Perfect Kiss EP, The Army, the Navy – Fake Brave Life, Baauer – U, Bebe Rexha – DIRTY BLONDE, BendreTheGiant – Swollen Eyes, BIG|BRAVE – in grief or in hope, Big D and the Kids Table – The Good Ole American Saturday Night, Bob Bert – Beach Bongo Bloodbath, The Bobby Lees – New Self, CFCF – L.U.V., Duane Betts – Isle of Hope, Dustin O’Halloran – Lumière (Expanded), Elujay – A Constant Charade Deluxe, Holland Andrews x Methods Body – REMAIN, Horse Lords – Demand to Be Taken to Heaven Alive!, ISMAY – Half Truth, Jenny Gillespie Mason – In the Safety of the Light, Jon Spencer – Songs of Personal Loss and Protest, josh conway – plum, KALEO – A/B (10^th Anniversary Edition), Kalia Vendever – Mana, Keith Urban – Flow State, King G & the J Krew – Indestructible Sounds of the Humpback Whale (Reissue), Kit Major – Miss Ego EP, Lake Dorn – Black American Princess, The Mekons – HORROR/HORRORble (Mekons vs. Tony Maimone in Dub Conference), Mike Campbell and The Dirty Knobs – Mission of Mercy, Orange Doors – Corn Planet, Paycheque – Paycheque, Pharis and Jason Romero – These are the Days That Turn in to Years, Picastro – Double on Time EP, Piebald – Tales for the Rages, Pluralone – A Drop in the Ocean, Pussy Riot – CYKA, Sierra Spirit – Rodeo Clown EP, Spacey Jane – Exit Wounds EP, Stephanie Babirak – Rotten Fruit, Sublime – Until the Sun Explodes, Telescreens – Why the Lights Flicker, Trabants – Mirage

The first releases of the new month are bringing the heat!

Returning to official indie status after two decades on a major label, Death Cab for Cutie’s I Built You a Tower reflects bandleader Ben Gibbard taking stock of his life and career after milestones and hardships. Azniv Korkejian’s fourth album as Bedouine, Neon Summer Skin, charts the Los Angeles-based songwriter’s nostalgia-laced travels to her home country of Saudi Arabia (and back). On Coin-O-Matic, Deer Tick dredge up some of the lesser-known myths and legends of their home state of Rhode Island. Earlier this year, Jalen Ngonda was one of the guests on “The Moon Cave,” a standout from Gorillaz’s The Mountain; his second solo LP, Doctrine of Love, is an exuberant Motown homage.

Like Death Cab for Cutie, Modest Mouse make their own return to independent status on their eighth album, An Eraser and a Maze; it also marks the arrival of several new band members. Alabama rockers The Red Clay Strays reunited with producer Dave Cobb to give LP3, Grateful, a buoyant, revival tent energy. 2026 marks the 30th anniversary of the formation of Kevin Barnes’s prolific pop project, of Montreal; appropriately, they’re celebrating with their 20^th album, the New York love letter aethermead. Molly Hamilton and Robert Earl Thomas aren’t shy about the influences that inform the music they make as Widowspeak; swatches of classic rock, country, and shoegaze can be found on their seventh album, Roses.

PRESS PLAY on these new releases

Death Cab for Cutie –
I Built You a Tower

CHECK OUT: “Riptides”
“Punching the Flowers”

Bedouine –
Neon Summer Skin

CHECK OUT: “Long Way to Fall”
“On My Own”

Deer Tick –
Coin-O-Matic

CHECK OUT: “Mary Singletary”
“Everything Born”

Jalen Ngonda –
Doctrine of Love

CHECK OUT: “Doctrine of Love”
“Hang it on the Shelf”

Modest Mouse –
An Eraser and a Maze

CHECK OUT: “Picking Dragons’ Pockets”
“Look How Far…”

The Red Clay Strays –
Grateful

CHECK OUT: “Demons in Your Choir”
“People Hatin’”

of Montreal –
aethermead

CHECK OUT: “Already Dreaming”
“When”

Widowspeak –
Roses

CHECK OUT: “If You Change”
“Soft Cover”

FURTHER LISTENING

The Aggrolites – Super Atomic, Ari Lindo – For Much Longer, Bad Stuff – Bad Stuff, Benny Bleu – When I am a Fossil, Big Special – O’JOY! EP, BROCKHOFF – Easy Peeler, Bye Parula – Something Out of Nothing, The Creem – A Taste of Cherry, DJ Seinfeld – If This is It, Don Henley – The End of the Innocence (Reissue), FIGHTMASTER – Tolerance, Fucked Up – Year of the Monkey, Grey DeLisle & Les Greene – Grey & Greene, Hammok – When Does This Place Become Our Scene, Haylie Davis – Wandering Star, horsegiirL – NATURE IS HEALING, The Huntress and Holder of Hands – Babylon, Iris Dement – The Way I Should (30^th Anniversary Edition), Jared Mattson + Ruban Neilson – FEAR, josy and the mind readers – sigh some more (because it releases endorphins and reduces anxiety) EP, Lackeys – 10 Big Ones, Laura Misch – Lithic, Lukka – Wendekind, Neptune – Play Some Music, Primitive Broadcast Service – Monsters, Rose Walton – Tell Me it’s a Dream, Satya – Yellow House, Sharada Shashidhar – One Foot on the Ground, Slippers – Slippers 08, Tyler Sabbag – Novella, Vansire – Taking Solace, Vince Staples – Cry Baby, Zoh Amba – Eyes Full, zzzahara – Distant Lands

Still not enough new music?? For previous editions of PRESS PLAY, click HERE.

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