While the Beatles were whipping up the initial storms of mania in the U.K., bands in America weren’t just sitting around waiting for something to happen. Contrary to popular belief there were a few burgeoning rock & roll scenes cooking along quite nicely in the colonies. On the West Coast, surf music was riding the waves, while on college campuses across the country bands were cranking out a raucous take on rock & roll mixed with R&B in a style later known as frat rock. The early rumblings of garage rock were being heard in small towns and cities too, creating a vibrant sound that even the mighty Beatles couldn’t wipe out. Cherry Red’s 2026 compilation Steppin’ Out: The Roots of Garage Rock 1963-1965 digs into these strands of American music, unearthing…
Category: rock
Whether some genres or sub-genres are supposed to go together or not is often a moot point, and in more cases or not, depends on whether a band or an artist have the ability and inventiveness to be able to make a musical combination that actually works.
Taking that route on their debut album, The Devil You Know, is New York quintet St. Divine. As you sift through the eleven tracks here, you can encounter quite a few things this band likes, garage rock, punk art rock, Americana, and they sneak quite a few things they sneak in, sometimes in a single song.
Such an approach is always a sort of a double-edged sword – it can turn into a chaotic mess, or it could be inspired and inventive…
There had been rumors for years that James Grigsby was in possession of a number of live recordings from the legendary LA-based U Totem. A supergroup of sorts that resulted from the merging of two other bands – 5uus and Motor Totemist Guild, led respectively by Dave Kerman and Grigsby – U Totem was ultimately in existence for maybe six years. During that period of time they recorded two rather stunning albums, including a self-titled debut that inspired an academic publication. Throughout its course, the band played music festivals, smaller venues, and dive bars, often without PR or fanfare.
…Grigsby finally released one set of these recordings, aptly titled Set. The album combines two U Totem performances, a six-track…
After four years, North London’s For Breakfast return with Longer Than Spring, an LP trading the murky, sprawling friction of the seven-piece band’s roots for a leaner, solo-led architecture. It’s a sophisticated if occasionally sanitised evolution; while the band’s signature virtuosity remains, it is now tethered to the singular narrative of vocalist and keys player Maya Harrison.
This shift is catalysed by Harrison’s decade-long recovery from illness, framing the record’s elastic pacing as a non-linear map of healing built around lyrics the band used as a centering force for their arrangements. Longer Than Spring also reckons with the external: the relentless broadcast of global suffering ubiquitous across digital feeds. This intersection of private trauma and…
…unreleased music from the ‘Fisherman’s Blues’ sessions, plus revelatory live versions of ‘And a Bang On the Ear’ and Dylan’s ‘New Morning’.
There are rare, magical times in a musician’s life when the songs will not stop coming. Few, though, have experienced streaks quite so abundant as the one enjoyed by Mike Scott and The Waterboys in the second half of the 1980s. “We used to play live in the studio, vocals included, and could lay down as many as eight or 10 songs in a day,” Scott tells MOJO. “The stack of tracks built up until there were over a hundred, though at the time I wasn’t counting.”
The climax of it all came with 1988’s Fisherman’s Blues, a classic album of buccaneering folk rock – but one which, at 13 tracks,…
The third batch of 50th anniversary releases arrives in June, with Brother Where You Bound and Free As A Bird. In keeping with the previous releases in the series, both are 180g pressings and have been half-speed mastered by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios.
During the tour for 1982’s Famous Last Words co-frontman Roger Hodgson decided to quit the band, leaving Rick Davies as the band’s sole songwriter. The following album, 1985’s Brother Where You Bound, was the group’s proggiest album in over a decade – see the pulsing ‘Better Days’ and the 16-minute title track, which features cameos from guitarists David Gilmour and Scott Gorham. Two years later, Free As A Bird marked another change of direction, with a shift towards…
On Parole Sessions celebrates the 1975-1976 recording sessions for what was originally intended to be the band’s debut studio album, On Parole. Because their record label shelved the project at the time, it was not commercially released until 1979. It stands as the only studio album to feature Motörhead’s original lineup: Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister (bass/vocals), Larry Wallis (guitar), and Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor alongside Lucas Fox (drums).
The 50th-anniversary release is organized across a 4-disc set (3 CDs and 1 Blu-ray) containing completely overhauled and unreleased material:
CD1: The Studio Album (Steven Wilson Remix): A brand-new stereo remix of the core 9-track album handled by acclaimed producer Steven Wilson. It uncovers clarity and depth while maintaining the gritty attitude of the original tracking.
CD2 & CD3: Extensive Session Outtakes: Compiled and mixed by Richard Digby Smith, these discs feature a deep dive into the vault with instrumental jams, alternative takes, early demo versions, and raw studio dialogue.
Thirty years since the release of their breakthrough self-titled album and lead singer Bradley Nowell’s passing, sunburnt reggae punk rockers Sublime are back with an hour-long love-letter to their past, and their home. The band proudly states in their 1996 chill out track “Doin Time”, that they’re “qualified to represent the L.B.C”, a statement that has stood the test of time considering how little they have faltered.
All of the same laid-back stoner rock, soaked in sunlight, Mexican beer and good times, but now, however, there’s a new man at the helm. Jakob Nowell, son of founding member Bradley Nowell, has had been passed the torch seamlessly and with a respect to the band’s past, that makes Until the Sun Explodes even more enjoyable.
The Karl Hector adventure continues with their fourth studio album. Since the release of Sahara Swing, the group have built a devoted following through their fusion of funk, psychedelic sounds and influences from across Africa, the Middle East and beyond.
Yolek digs deeper into the Krautrock history embedded deep in the soil of their native Munch – three of the most influential bands of the 1970s experimental German rock scene sprung from there: Amon Düül, Popol Vuh and Embryo. Drawing from those bands’ homebound and worldly influences, JJ Whitefield and Zdenko Curulija conceived and produced this kosmiche-werk. Influenced by these musical heroes, and following the path of Non Ex Orbis, Whitefield…
Birdland is the fourth album by New England line-up The Bluest Sky, built around the songs of Chuck Melchin, long of the Bean Pickers Union. The ten songs on Birdland are an eclectic mix, and paying tribute to his brother Bill, who passed away early this year, Melchin writes: “More than an inspiration, he was the person most responsible for my interest/obsession with music at a very young age (who) had eclectic taste and a record collection to match. From Deep Purple to John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, I was exposed to a wide spectrum of musical styles and genres which I believe continues to inform my own music today. Maybe you can hear the influence in Birdland. This one’s for you, Bill.”
At the core of the band’s sound is electric…
Any discussion about Datura4 will focus on its frontman/founder Dom Mariani.
Although not a world-renowned, or even familiar, name to all but the most dedicated rock fan, Mariani is an award-winning icon of the Australian roots music scene. He has led, or been involved with, a dizzying array of bands over a career extending back to the early ’80s.
Those familiar with the sounds from down under may recognize groups such as The Stems, The Someloves, DM3, The Stonefish, The Summer Suns… and there are more. Mariani has been connected with them all, some as frontman, others as a hired hand for a while or tours. There is a full Wikipedia page dedicated to his eventful, colorful career for those who want to learn more.
Disc 1 features a brand new (2026) stereo remix of the album by Michael Hunter. Discs 2 and 3 feature a previously unreleased recording of the band’s performance at Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London on the 20th November 1999. Disc 4 contains jam sessions and early versions of tracks.
…Recorded at their own studio, The Racket Club, between December 1998 and August 1999, the album’s zeigeisty title reflected Marillion’s embrace of the internet as a means of communicating directly with their fans, leading to early forays into crowdfunding. The band – at this point Steve Hogarth (vocals, piano, percussion), Steve Rothery (guitar), Mark Kelly (keyboards), Pete Trewavas (bass, guitar, backing vocals) and Ian Mosley – were credited on production,…
Bruce Springsteen’s emotionally charged, politically angry, and incredibly moving Land of Hope and Dreams tour pulled into Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on a gorgeous spring night, Thursday, May 14th. The sold-out crowd got to experience The Boss with the full E-Street Band, along with special guest Tom Morello, delivering twenty-seven powerful songs as well as a few from-the-heart speeches from Springsteen.
Bruce began the show with a direct address attacking the corrupt President and his enablers before dropping dramatically into a cover of “War” by Edwin Starr, as the large arena sang along to the iconic tune. The righteous anger continued as the band segued directly into “Born in the USA,” a Vietnam War protest tune that still…
…The deluxe edition of the album unveils six tracks that were previously only available via a limited-edition boxset at the time.
Like a heavy weather warning, there’s not much you can do once Beth Hart decides she’s coming through. The assumed shorthand for Beth Hart is blues siren, but she’s far more than that, even if this latest album opens with the fiery ‘Savior with a Razor’, which struts in like a cowboy kicking open saloon doors before Slash comes in through the window like Paul Kossoff with a grudge against his Gibson Les Paul.
Very good it is too, and no one would blame you if at that point, a light bulb went off above your head and you thought, ‘I get it; Beth Hart, blues siren’. Because when Hart throws back…
Warner’s 1988 Fleetwood Mac Greatest Hits compilation, which was released at the time to capitalise on the success of Tango in the Night, is being reissued as a deluxe edition.
…In addition to the plethora of smash hits like “Rhiannon,” “Go Your Own Way,” “Dreams,” “Don’t Stop,” “Tusk,” “Gypsy,” “Little Lies” and “Everywhere” – as well as the then-new tracks “As Long As You Follow” and “No Questions Asked” – the set now includes a bonus disc of 10 songs from the same era/line-up; three were on certain CD pressings of the original set, and the rest include “Landslide,” “The Chain” and the sole chronological outlier, the live version of “Silver Springs” from 1997 live album The Dance.
In just over a decade between 1975 and 1987,…
As we hurtle toward Skynet, there is more information than we know what to do with. Great swaths of the population bend the knee to those who orchestrate our demise. We live in an Information Age in which very few people seem to be doing any thinking. This creates an opening for false prophets and self-appointed kings.
Such is the overarching theme of Signal Fire, the fourth album from electro-metal smashers Genghis Tron. As on their 2021 comeback record, Dream Weapon, core duo Hamilton Jordan and Michael Sochynsky are joined by Sumac drummer Nick Yacyshyn and the Armed vocalist Tony Wolski. Unlike last time, Kenny Szymanski from the Armed plays bass.
…“I Am All” is Genghis Tron in excelsis,…