August 2023
04 August
11 August
Raye Zaragoza/ ‘Hold That Spirit’/ Rebel River Records
Raye Zaragoza has announced Hold That Spirit, a twelve-song collection that stares fearlessly into the darkness as a path to rise above. On the new album out August 11, Zaragoza comes face-to-face with the things that take us away from ourselves - destructive expectations, painful experiences - and through them, finds the faith to become whole again. Hold That Spirit is a profound statement on Zaragoza’s journey to celebrating her own vibrant intersectional identity as a woman of mixed Indigenous, Asian and Hispanic heritage. Around the time of her 2021 breakout NPR Tiny Desk Concert, Zaragoza began to assemble a group of collaborators for this new album, ending up with a cast of powerful female producers, engineers, instrumentalists and co-writers alongside her. Together, they explore the beliefs too-often forced on young women - how their lives should unfold, how they should appear to others, what success should mean to them - as a way to fully break free. The new album also comes in the wake of Zaragoza ending a long-term relationship and engagement, however - always searching for positivity in the darkness - she ended up funding production of Hold That Spirit with what would have been her wedding budget.
18 August
DeYarmond Edison/ ‘Epoch’/ Jagjaguwar
The story of DeYarmond Edison begins to be told. Formed by Brad Cook, Phil Cook, Justin Vernon and Joe Westerlund, they were a band driven by big dreams and deep bonds – four childhood friends who built a musical connection that was too good to last. In the 17 years that have passed since DeYarmond Edison broke apart at the very height of their collective power, each member has gone on to establish their individual legacy through the indispensable work of projects like Bon Iver, Megafaun and so many more. But before then they succeeded and shattered together: out August 18th on Jagjaguwar, Epoch is a massive and maximalist box set that explores the saga like never before, in unabashed and unabridged detail. Across five LPs, four CDs, and a 60,000-word biography from journalist and executive producer Grayson Haver Currin, the collection not only offers the definitive account of a short-lived group with an outsized impact, but reveals a universal tale of small-town transcendence, coming of age, and collective artistic ambition, even when it became too much to bear.
18 August
East Forest/ ‘Music For The Deck Of The Titanic’/Bright Antenna
East Forest — the trailblazing DIY artist who has spent the past decade plus carving out a thoughtful and inventive oeuvre that includes forays into neoclassical, ambient, electro-acoustic music, and indie pop as well as collaborations with icons ranging from Jon Hopkins and DJ Anna to Laraaji and spiritual pioneer Ram Dass — announces a new album out August 18th on Bright Antenna entitled Music For The Deck Of The Titanic.
18 August
Grace Potter/ ‘Mother Road’/ Fantasy
Grace Potter, “one of the greatest living voices in rock today” (SPIN), will release her fifth studio LP Mother Road via Fantasy Records on August 18, 2023. An audacious and heart-pounding map of the soul, Mother Road finds Grace deconstructing her deepest fears and darkest regrets, charting the fallout with brutal honesty and emotional daring. Today, she shares the first single, the inviting, irresistibly twangy title track, “Mother Road.”
18 August
Rhiannon Giddens/ ‘You’re The One’/ Nonesuch
Rhiannon Giddens’ You’re the One will be released August 18 on Nonesuch Records. The album is the GRAMMY, MacArthur and Pulitzer-winning singer, composer, and instrumentalist’s third solo studio album and her first of all original songs; her last solo album was 2017’s critically acclaimed Freedom Highway. This collection of 12 songs written over the course of Giddens’ career bursts with life-affirming energy, drawing from the folk music that she knows so deeply, as well as its pop descendants. The album was produced by Jack Splash (Kendrick Lamar, Solange, Alicia Keys, Valerie June, Tank and the Bangas) and recorded at Criteria Recording Studios in Miami with a band composed of Giddens’s closest musical collaborators from the past decade alongside musicians from Splash’s own Rolodex, topped off with a horn section, making an impressive ten- to twelve-person ensemble.
25 August
Kendra Morris/ ‘I Am What I’m Waiting For’/ Karma Chief / Colemine Records
How do you put yourself into a record? I wanted to make it feel like you cracked open the ooze in my head,” says Kendra Morris, the longtime NYC-based musician/artist who will release her new album I Am What I’m Waiting For on August 25 (Karma Chief / Colemine Records). Produced by Torbitt Schwartz aka Little Shalimar (Run The Jewels), I Am What I’m Waiting For is not only a sophisticated and joyful reinvention, but an unfiltered expression of Morris’s idiosyncratic worldview that luxuriates in the little details. Featuring Morris’s towering voice over 11 shimmering songs bursting with dusty funk, R&B and touches of indie rock, it’s a rare record that doubles as self-portrait, unvarnished yet thrilling because of its imperfections.
25 August
Steward Copeland/ ‘Police Beyond Borders’/ BMG
The creative duo of two-time Grammy-winning album Divine Tides---Stewart Copeland and Grammy-winning Indian musician/composer Ricky Kej—announce their latest world music collaboration, Police Beyond Borders. Furthering their mission to feature leading talent from around the world, the album, recorded in Bangalore, is a reinterpretation of the seminal 80s band’s classic songs with diverse interpretations and artist representation from South Africa, India, Japan, China, Canada, the U.K., and more.
Copeland and Kej have enlisted top international artists, including South Africa’s Grammy-winning Soweto Gospel Choir; China’s “Father Of Rock” Cui Jian; U.S.-based Berklee Indian Ensemble; Japanese Grammy-winner for Best Global Music Album, Masa Takumi; South Africa’s acclaimed Mzansi Youth Choir; leading Indian composer/singer Shankar Mahadevan; renowned British classical trumpeter Alison Balsom; multi-award winning Canadian flutist Ron Korb; legendary Bollywood composers and brother duo Salim-Sulaiman, hammered dulcimer virtuoso Max ZT; and multi-instrumentalist Serj Tankian of metal band System of a Down.