Bad Brains' Lost 1979 Session Finally Surfaces, Plus Crowded House, Bad Suns & Gus Dapperton
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Sunday Reserve — new vinyl preorders
Bad Brains' Lost 1979 Session Finally Surfaces, Plus Crowded House, Bad Suns & Gus Dapperton
Duran Duran goes full remix album, Evanescence and Elliott Smith round out a deep week of preorders.
Sunday's a deep one. The headline is a genuine historical artifact: Bad Brains' earliest known studio session, recorded in a single frantic hour in 1979 and mixed more than four decades later by Ian MacKaye. Around it, we've got Crowded House's Finn-brothers reunion record, Bad Suns' breakout LP turning 10, and Gus Dapperton's most club-ready album yet. These are all preorders landing at future dates, so lock in what you want now before they're gone.
The Big Ones
Bad Brains — Are You Ready: The First Studio Recording (Inner Ear, March 1979) [Vinyl] — $28.98
Before 'Banned in D.C.,' before CBGB, before they were the band that taught hardcore how to swing, Bad Brains were four kids in Washington D.C. named Dr. Know, Darryl Jenifer, and brothers Earl and Paul 'H.R.' Hudson, playing jazz fusion under the name Mind Power. A chance introduction to punk rock flipped a switch, and a Bob Marley concert flipped another one right after it, fusing hardcore velocity with reggae's low end and Rastafarian philosophy into something nobody else was doing. That fusion, plus H.R.'s gospel of PMA (Positive Mental Attitude), got them banned from most of D.C.'s own clubs for drawing too-wild crowds — which they turned into an anthem instead of a grudge, then relocated to New York and became architects of the CBGB hardcore scene. This LP captures the very beginning of all of it: six songs cut in a single hour at Inner Ear Studios in March 1979, including an early, springier version of 'Pay to Cum' that predates the blistering one everyone knows. Bassist Darryl Jenifer says the riff came out of a stream of Ramones, The Damned, and Return to Forever worship — hardcore's whole DNA in one sentence. Fugazi and Minor Threat's Ian MacKaye, who was there for D.C. hardcore's birth in real time, mixed the tapes himself. With Turnstile and a new generation putting heavy music back in the zeitgeist, hardcore's actual origin document is finally seeing daylight. Out now — pre-order today.
Bad Suns — Disappear Here (10th Anniversary) [White Vinyl LP]
Bad Suns' sophomore album turns 10 this year, and it's the record that took them from L.A. buzz band to a genuine alt-rock radio presence. Recorded with producer Eric Palmquist and released in September 2016, Disappear Here spun off three real singles — the title track, 'Heartbreaker,' and 'Daft Pretty Boys' — and slotted in as the confident middle chapter between their debut Language & Perspective and 2019's Mystic Truth. This anniversary pressing adds 'This Was a Home Once' to physical release for the first time ever, a fan-favorite that's lived online-only until now. Out November 6 — pre-order now.
Crowded House — Woodface [Orange Vinyl]
Woodface almost wasn't a Crowded House album at all. Neil Finn wrote most of it on a break after touring Temple of Low Men, working with his older brother Tim — fresh off Split Enz — on what was meant to be a Finn Brothers project. When Capitol rejected most of what Crowded House had brought them for album three, Neil pulled in the Finn Brothers songs instead, and Tim agreed to join the band outright, on what he's since said was originally a joke that stuck. The result is the most purely joyful record in the Crowded House catalog: eight songs with the brothers trading and blending vocals, Neil leading 'Four Seasons in One Day,' Tim leading 'All I Ask,' plus 'Fall at Your Feet' and the euphoric 'Weather with You' — harmonies that only two people who've been singing together since childhood can pull off. Released in 1991, it became the band's first UK top-10 album and has aged into a stone-cold classic, landing on 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die and topping polls of the best Australian albums ever made. Pressed here on orange vinyl. Pre-order now.
Gus Dapperton — 4 Dear Life [LP] — $26.98
Dapperton's fourth studio album, out October 23 via ALTER, is a deliberate turn toward the dancefloor after years of bedroom-pop introspection. He's been open about the album's origin point — frustration. 'I've been so pissed off the last couple years about the state of the world,' he's said, and 4 Dear Life channels that into something you can move to instead of just sit with, following 2023's Henge and last year's Tunes for Late Spring EP. Lead single 'Queen' takes on male dominance and control, with Dapperton directing the video himself, and the record brings in guest turns from Ledbyher, A-Trak, spill tab, and hard life — a wider, more collaborative cast than he's worked with before. It's indie-pop that finally wants to go out. Pre-order now.
Also Up for Preorder
- Duran Duran — Free To Love: Hot Star Remixes [LP] — the New Romantic icons' first-ever remix album, their Nile Rodgers collab reimagined by Horse Meat Disco, Trixie Mattel, DJ White Shadow and more. Out October 16.
- Evanescence — The Open Door (Deluxe) [Ivory Vinyl 2LP] — 'Call Me When You're Sober,' 'Lithium,' and 'Sweet Sacrifice,' remastered, plus four B-sides and rarities. Out November 6.
- Elliott Smith — XO [Clear Vinyl] — $41.98 — his major-label masterpiece, 'Waltz #2' and aching, perfect songcraft.
- Gang Starr — Moment Of Truth [3LP] — $60.98 — boom-bap perfection, Guru and Premier's triumphant '98 return.
- Annie Lennox — Bare [White Vinyl LP] — $27.98 — her rawest solo work, on vinyl for the first time ever.
- Mandatory: The Best Of The Blasters [LP] — $31.98 — '80s roots-rock fire, the Alvin brothers' best on vinyl for the first time.
- Boards of Canada — Hi Scores [Vinyl] — $29.98 — electronic pioneers' breakthrough EP, 'Turquoise Hexagon Sun' returns to wax.
- Misfits — American Psycho [Orange/Red/Black Vinyl LP] — $31.98 — horror-punk reborn, the Graves-era classic.
- Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers — No Sleep Til L.A. [Zoetrope 180-Gram Vinyl] — $37.98 — unheard '70s Petty on animated zoetrope vinyl, seven unreleased gems.
- Peelingflesh — Peeling Flesh [LP] — $27.98 — Oklahoma slam-death brutality, crushing grooves and blunt-force impact.
- Tonic — Lemon Parade [Yellow Vinyl LP] — $41.98 — post-grunge radio staple, 'If You Could Only See' on lemon-yellow wax.
- Bush — Sixteen Stone [Grey/Black Marble 2LP] — $54.98 — post-grunge cornerstone, 'Glycerine' and 'Comedown' that defined the '90s.
Punk history, pop perfection, and a whole lot of '90s alt-rock nostalgia — this week's preorders have real range. Lock yours in before these dates slip past.
— Drowned World Records