Record-Release Roundup

Featuring former members of Destroy the Runner and As I Lay Dying, retro rockers Chapter 14 drop a new five-song EP this week, Like Trees in November, which — like the band’s name — is a reference to the book Watership Down. “Chapter 14 [in the book] is entitled ‘Like Trees in November,’” says singer-guitarist Chad Ackerman, “with the bunnies trying to warn their friends at the farm that the farmer is just feeding them in order to kill them.... The songs are about fearing or refusing to accept the real truth from your loved ones.”

Metal-punk band Zombie Surf Camp debut Reefbiter with a Thursday, December 9, show at Brick by Brick. The following night, December 10, the Roosters, featuring occasional Beat Farmer Rolle Love, will record a live CD at the Riviera Supper Club in La Mesa.

Switchfoot’s six-song EP, Eastern Hymns for Western Shores, is being released only through the band’s website. Limited-edition vinyl of Delta Spirit’s The Waits Room EP will only be available on their upcoming tour.

Feeding the Soul Volume 1: Family Dinner will launch with a December 18 benefit concert at the 352-seat Neurosciences Institute auditorium in La Jolla. The CD features 13 songs donated by the artists to the Feeding the Soul Foundation, with new tracks by Bushwalla, Dawn Mitschele, Alex Woodard, Raining Jane, MC Flow, Gregory Page, and others. It comes with a cookbook.

Afro-jazz act the In Motion Trio are having a release party for The Barefoot Race at Lestat’s on December 29, after which they embark on a ten-day West Coast tour.

Others with new records due include the Iggy-inspired Old In Out (Dance Loud), reggae rockers the Mystic Roots Band (Cali-Hi), countryish prog-rockers Podunk Nowhere, pop songstress Wendy Bailey, coffeehouse queen Jane Lui, and rock trio the Grass Heat.

New seven-inchers are available from the Soft Pack (“Gagdad”), mid-fi newbies TV Girl (“On Land”), and pop-goths Tape Deck Mountain, whose storytelling track “P.I.” concerns an ethically challenged private eye. Former Wild Weekenders Jungle Fever have two new seven-inch releases on two different labels: “Cryin’ Blood” (Windian Records) and “California” (Surfin’Ki Records).

Due before year’s end is a sixth album from long-lived metal band Cage, who are already playing a new song at their shows, “War of the Undead.”

January 4 is the due date for Swim Party’s EP There Is Too Much Wood in My Coffin. Next up, Grand Guignol goth rockers Tragic Tantrum have captured their circus cabaret on digital tape for a debut album called Mirror, Mirror. In mid-January, former Fingers guitarist Billy Thompson releases his fifth album, A Better Man, a 13-song collection featuring Bonnie Raitt’s drummer Tony Braunagel, Little Feat bassist Kenny Gradney, and Crosby, Stills & Nash keyboardist Mike Finnigan.

Over the following few weeks, Manganista will be releasing downloadable singles from their upcoming album, with several shows to follow. Also keep an eye out for new releases from Americana folkies the Tree Ring (fronted by Joel P. West), electro-punk duo Eris Sisters (DownHEAR), multi-instrumental world musician Jason Chase (Weapon of the Future), and Ratt-free singer Stephen Pearcy, with his fourth solo album, Battering Ramm.