Don’t Miss New Albums From Stereolab, Taj Mahal & Keb’ Mo’, Andy Frasco & The U.N. + More

Stereolab return with their first album in 15 years, Instant Holograms On Metal Film, available today through their Duophonic UHF Disks label and Warp Records. Stereolab’s primary members Laetitia Sadier and Tim Gane wrote the 13 new songs making up the Instant Holograms On Metal Film tracklist. The follow-up to Stereolab’s 2010 album, Not Music, was recorded by Sadier and Gane with current touring members of the band, Andy Ramsay, Joe Watson and Xavi Muñoz.

Others contributing to Instant Holograms On Metal Film include Cooper Crain and Rob Frye of Bitchin Bajas, Ben LaMar Gay, Holger Zapf, Ric Elsworth, Marie Merlet and Molly Hansen Read. Crain engineered the sessions held at Press Play in London.

Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ joined forces once again for their collaborative album, Room On The Porch, which was released today via Concord Records. Co-produced by Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’, Room On The Porch, is comprised of 10 new songs, many co-written by the duo. Vocalist Wendy Moten appears on the song, “Better Than Ever.” The title track features the song’s co-writer Ruby Amanfu. Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ released their debut album, TajMo, in 2017. The collaborative effort earned the two veteran musicians the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album.

“That first album turned out so great that part of me wondered if maybe we just got lucky,” Keb’ Mo’ jokingly said of working with Taj Mahal again. “But when we got back into the studio together, I felt that same magic again, and I realized it wasn’t luck at all.”

Growing Pains is Andy Frasco & The U.N.’s 10th full length studio release, out now via Fun Machine Records. Andy Frasco co-wrote the majority of the material featured on the 12-song collection in Nashville with The U.N. guitarist Shawn Eckels and collaborators Steve Poltz, Chris Gelbuda and Andrew Cooney. Frasco recruited several special guests to contribute to his forthcoming LP, including Poltz, Billy Strings, G. Love, Eric Krasno, Daniel Donato, and Phish’s Mike Gordon.

“I wanted to show people how I’ve grown as a songwriter,” Frasco stated. “That I wasn’t just a crowd-surfing party guy in a bar band. This record is about finding balance in both music and life—focusing on the simple pleasures, embracing the grind, and taking nothing for granted because there are no guarantees tomorrow.”

Marc Ribot released his first album featuring his vocals, Map of a Blue City, via New West Records. Map of a Blue City is three decades in the making. Writing and home-recording some of the songs in the 1990s, Ribot sent demos to a label, but was told they were “too dark.” While he moved on to other projects, the material he created never left his mind. Ribot brought the demos to late legendary producer and frequent collaborator Hal Wilner, but ultimately decided the lush production was not a fit. Ribot more recently met Ben Greenberg — producer and guitarist for the Brooklyn industrial band Uniform — who finally helped him realize his vision. Ribot detailed the finished product:

“Working on this album for so long, I’ve seen the world change dramatically and not really change at all. Some of the issues today are the same ones I thought about when I was just starting the album, but some are things I couldn’t have dreamt of at the time. But I think that’s why I was so determined to get the production values right. Recording production is really complicated, but it all boils down to what kind of room the listener feels they’re standing in. There are some hard truths and cold observations in these songs. I wanted the room to be small enough so that we couldn’t turn away; but warm enough to feel like you’re hearing it from a friend.”

MAD! is the 28th studio album released by Sparks. The collection of 12 new original song is the band’s first album after signing to Transgressive Records. Brothers Ron Mael and Russell Mael, who were recent subjects of the acclaimed documentary feature film The Sparks Brothers, released their first album over 50 years ago. According to the label’s description accompanying the record:

MAD! finds Ron and Russell examining cultural phenomena such as branded backpacks, tattoos and the hegemony of banter. The satire is never on-the-nose, always retaining enough ambiguity for the listener to fill in the blanks. The exquisitely unusual lexicon and cultural references leap out on every listen.

Musically there are nods to new wave, synthpop, art rock and electronic opera – all genres’ Sparks had hands in pioneering or straight up invented. Ultimately, however, MAD! is a modern record that belongs in and speaks to the modern world, which is all the more remarkable when you consider the vintage of its creators.

The SteelDrivers released a new album entitled Outrun on the venerable Sun Records label. The band celebrating 20 years in 2025 currently consists of guitarist Matt Dame, fiddler Tammy King. bassist Michael Flemming, mandolinist Brent Truitt and banjoist Richard Bailey. The self-produced 12-track effort is a tribute to late founding member Mike Henderson, who died in 2023.

“Mike’s greatest influences were blues and bluegrass,” Rogers stated. “And he intentionally put people together that he knew would understand those influences. He allowed us to just play how we played that’s always been the way we’ve approached it … I lovingly refer to Mike as the architect of the band. Because he’s the one in the beginning that called us all together. Everybody respected everybody else, and that’s what created our sound and what makes it so unique.”