An American Music Story: The Complete Studio Recordings 1979-1985 was a superb release in last year’s Record Store Day offerings, a comprehensive five LP overview of the Los Angeles roots-rock band’s career that immediately sold out. Rare Blasts: Studio Outtakes and Movie Music 1979-1985 was the fifth album and as with the other components, it is now available as a separate entity, released on CD and Cobalt blue vinyl. Both are fine of course, but vinyl is what suits the music best of all. Whilst many bands around this time were picking up on Magic Sam’s deep blues guitar lines and using them as the basis for longer solos, The Blasters open this release with his energetic, rockabilly-flavoured “21 Days In Jail,” all of two minutes and 16 seconds, deep echo on…
Category: rock
The landmark 1996 album reconstructed from BBC sessions and live recordings! Suede’s commercial high watermark came in 1996 with Coming Up. The 1995 addition to the line-up of lead guitarist Richard Oakes and keyboard player Neil Codling had given the band a new impetus and focus. At the very pinnacle of ‘Britpop’ – a scene they’d helped inspire but fiercely operated outside of – roared back with an adrenalin rush of new Suede classics.
The first missive from ‘Coming Up’ was the trailblazing ‘Trash’, which reached No. 3 in the UK chart – a joint career-best for the band. That was followed into the Top 10 over the next twelve months by four more hit singles from the album – ‘Beautiful Ones’, ‘Lazy’, ‘Saturday Night’, and ‘Filmstar’.
As the time approached 10:30 Tuesday night — nearly three hours after Bruce Springsteen had marched onstage at Inglewood’s Kia Forum alongside 18 of his musical comrades — the 76-year-old rock legend told the crowd he hadn’t intended to be there.
“This is a tour that we never planned,” he said. “The E Street Band is here with you tonight because we need to feel your hope and your strength. And we want to bring some hope and bring some strength for you.” It wasn’t impossible to believe him.
After a two-year trek that finally wrapped last summer amid the release of a massive box set and a splashy Hollywood biopic, Springsteen might’ve been expected to spend 2026 counting his money and his accolades. Yet the way…
This definitive new edition combines all 17 tracks from the UK and US versions of The Zombies’ 1965 debut album, remastered in its original mono mix. Begin Here (Mono Remastered) is the next chapter in the series of Zombies reissues via the band’s own label Beechwood Park Records, with the same team as Odessey and Oracle – again being overseen by Matthew and Jamie White, mastering by Reuben Cohen at Lurssen Mastering, and brand-new liner notes by the legendary David Fricke.
Begin Here, the British debut album by the Zombies, was released by Decca Records on April 9th, 1965. The LP, issued only in mono, was 14 tracks of beat-boom R&B and dynamic songwriting by one of the hottest young groups in the country. The band reprised “Summertime”…
Souled American return after thirty years with a work of immediate relevance. Arriving just in time, with decency roundly mocked, as dissent spells career disaster and algorithms isolate us into units of convenience, Sanctions dares explore roots and traditions in both sound and consequence, revealing a band that has lost members but gained gravity. Acclaimed by Jeff Tweedy, The Jayhawks, John Darnielle, and Counting Crows, Souled American here elevate their unique style of ambient Americana into a life-altering experience full of feeling and drama, like some ink-stamped elegy fresh off the printing presses of Walt Whitman. Written, performed, and produced by founding members Joe Adducci and Chris Grigoroff, the album marks…
Brand new CD reissue to celebrate its recent 40th Anniversary in 2025 and due for a critical reappraisal.
Following the breakup of the Police, their drummer Stewart Copeland undertook a musical Odessey through the heart of Africa in search of the roots of Rock & Roll. Originally released as both a film, (directed and produced by Jean-Pierre Dutilleux) and album in 1985, The Rhythmatist preceded amongst other albums, the release of ‘Graceland’ by Paul Simon which was to follow in 1986.
The album produced by Stewart along with Jeff Seitz, featured the singles ‘Koteja (Oh Bolilla)’ featuring Ray Lema a major figure in world music himself as well as ‘Gong Rock’.
This brand new edition comes with…
Live in Köln 1976, this special edition release is exclusive to RSD (Record Store Day) 2026 and catches both the Rainbow and the band at their creative and blistering energetic peak.
The album was originally released a few years back as a one of three double CDs, and more recently as part of the excellent Temple Of The King 9CD set, also by Demon. This is the first time on vinyl and wonderful it is too.
The classic Rainbow line-up of guitarist Blackmore, vocalist Ronnie James Dio, keyboardist Tony Carey, bassist Jimmy Bain and drummer Cozy Powell came together soon after the band’s 1975 debut, and in fact drew Cozy out of attempted retirement. Touring to support the classic (and equally ground breaking) Rainbow…
First ever CD release for this incredible live concert from Ian Dury & The Blockheads at London’s Dominion Theatre on Christmas Eve 1980. Originally transmitted as a special TV performance for the ‘Old Grey Whistle Test’ on BBC2 TV and for John Peel on BBC Radio 1.
Following on from the run of singles “Reasons to Be Cheerful, Part 3”, “I Want to Be Straight” and “Sueperman’s Big Sister” 1980 saw the release of new album ‘Laughter’ by Ian Dury & The Blockheads. The ‘Laughter’ tour took place in December 1980 and on Christmas Eve Ian Dury & The Blockheads performed at London’s Dominion Theatre live on Radio 1 and on TV via BBC2’s ‘Old Grey Whistle Test’ – introduced on TV by Annie Nightingale and on radio by John Peel.
Blues? Maybe, in atmospheric terms. But not in the 12-bar, blues-rock or Delta blues sense. Or most other senses. The album title is a play on Miles Davis’ end-of-’60s LP Bitches Brew which, at that point, was his most overt nod to the dynamics of rock music. Nonetheless, Bitches Blues doesn’t obviously use the 1969 set as a point from which to jump. But the reference sets up the first studio album from Hedvig Mollestad Weejuns – the latter word a slang reference to the trio’s Norwegian identity – as non-conformist, carving-out their own musical character; albeit just within the limits of the outer edges of jazz.
Hedvig Mollestad Weejuns are guitarist Hedvig Mollestad Thomassen, whose other band Hedvig Mollestad Trio distorts the boundaries…
On Friday, March 20 as new Tedeschi Trucks Band album Future Soul made its way into the world, the Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi led twelve-piece powerhouse returned to New York’s Beacon Theatre for night six of a ten-date residency and show number 70 overall for the group at the storied venue.
To begin the night, band officially welcomed the crowd to the age of Future Soul with a full performance of the eleven-track album culminating in the live debut of “Ride On”, the last of its songs to break into the live rotation. To fill out the remaining minutes of the Future Soul set, Susan led the group through longtime staple “I Want More” before passing the baton to Derek to channel some “Soul” from the past-that is…
Featuring new member Simon House on synths and violin, and following the departure of Robert Calvert and electronic effects man Dik Mik, Hall of the Mountain Grill feels like something of an interim album for Hawkwind. Despite their cosmic pretensions, they were wary of the commercial success they had enjoyed with 1973’s Space Ritual and pondering which direction to go in next.
The album was named after a restaurant in London’s Portabello Road in which the group used to convene, a self-effacing title at odds with the grandeur of the cover, depicting a derelict spaceship in the mists of an alien lagoon; in 1974 we were two years into the post-space age. Tracks like The Psychedelic Warlords (Disappear In Smoke) are quintessential Hawkwind space…
Khruangbin did not know if they were actually making an album. All they knew in the first frigid days of 2025, as they shivered in the Central Texas barn where they’ve recorded almost all of their music, was that the 10th anniversary of their debut, The Universe Smiles Upon You, was steadily approaching. Months earlier, they’d bandied about ways to mark the occasion, debating orchestral arrangements or compendiums of bonus materials and alternate takes. Thing was, back before Khruangbin helped establish a new modern idiom of semi-instrumental and gently psychedelic American music, there had been no bonus material, no unused songs. And how interesting would alternate takes or symphonic extravagance really be for a band whose aesthetic-essential vibes…
Stevie Nicks had much to prove when she stepped out on her own for the first time and crafted Bella Donna. Despite attaining superstar success with Fleetwood Mac, the singer often took a back seat to the band’s other members — and, due to the group’s approach, faced limitations in getting her songs on an album. Along with Nicks’ status as a significant artistic force in her own right, that all changed with the timeless Bella Donna.
Sourced from the original analog master tapes, Mobile Fidelity’s numbered-edition hybrid SACD of the 1981 benchmark plays with superb transparency, dynamics, and detail. Benefitting from extraordinary clarity, openness, and separation, it captures what went down in the studio with tremendous realism…
Bruce Springsteen is out to save America with rock and roll. On Friday night, in a Moda Center packed with screaming, singing fans, it felt like he might just do it.
At 7:30 p.m., long lines still snaked around the Rose Quarter. So it was about 10 minutes after the planned start time that Springsteen and the E Street Band took the stage for the second stop of their Land of Hope & Dreams American Tour.
It was the only hiccup in what became a high-intensity all-American political-musical-spiritual experience for the rapturous crowd.
The show began with a thesis statement. “The America that I love, the America that I’ve written about for 50 years, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty around the world is…
South Africa’s BCUC – Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness – have been channeling the spirit of Soweto for over twenty years. Indigenous funk, hip-hop consciousness, and punk rock energy fused into something utterly original and deeply rooted. The road is never easy is BCUC’s fifth album and their debut on Outhere Records. The album was largely recorded in Munich, Germany during tour breaks over two sessions, each three days long. It took place in a small studio located in a German WW II bunker converted into rehearsal spaces. The songs were recorded in one take altogether in one room, with only a few overdubs added, mainly backing vocals, by BCUC at Fourways studio in Johannesburg.
…Its ten new songs are rooted in the unique…
Damon Albarn’s perspective seems to be firmly placed on Gorillaz, so the arrival of Uncommon Side Effects fills a gap in the market of rapier-sharp and kinetic pop. The album, fronted by Marc Valentine, could easily have been released in 1996, given its bouncy choruses and soaring guitars. Bassist Richie Poynton unveils his inner Alex James, especially on the hybrid art piece “High in the Underground”. Valentine’s imprints are unapologetically British, splashing and dabbling about London nights based on youthful reverie.
Every song stems from an Anglo-centric mindset. The jangly “NY UAP” is the commentary from an outsider looking at the American landmark. “You Are the Jet” – a celebration, perhaps, of Paul McCartney‘s superlative Wings – forms…
With the release of Great As Ever: Live In Philadelphia ’86, a theme is beginning to emerge in the chronological issues of this archival series. Notwithstanding how this package lives up to its title–it’s actually a reference to the loyalty of the audience from the leader of the band–Gregg Allman’s self-assurance and pride in his work is too obvious to ignore throughout the third edition of concert recordings from the late Southerner’s vault, this one captured on January 11, 1986, at Chestnut Cabaret, Philadelphia, PA.
From the very opening of “Don’t Want You No More”/”Ain’t My Cross The Bear,” the segue taken from the ABB studio debut, much of the set consists of well-known selections from the Allman Brothers’ discography.
After Black Midi called it quits in 2023, bassist/co-vocalist Cameron Picton eventually started making music on his own. Although he was drawn to a more spacious, acoustic sound than that of his former band, his approach was still dramatic and unpredictable in nature. Not quite sure if he wanted to be in another band, he ultimately did bring in collaborators for his debut album, among them members of experimental London group caroline, singer/songwriter/composer Kiran Leonard, and veteran percussionist Steve Noble. Featuring shifting, often trippy narratives (he cited King Crimson as an influence), he named the project and the album My New Band Believe. Without offering much in the way of a through line other than the concept of “dream logic,”…
In 2016 and 2025, Washington alt-rock innovators The Melvins toured as co-headliners with UK grindcore veterans Napalm Death under the banner Savage Imperial Death March. The tours showcased contrasting heavy styles. The Melvins, pioneers of the grunge and sludge metal movements, bring intricate riffing at various tempos and odd time signatures, while Napalm Death, pioneers of the grindcore scene, favor an abrasive, ultra-fast mixture of punk and metal with harsh vocals. Now the bands join forces for their first collaborative album, Savage Imperial Death March, and the result is wild, messy fun.
The album features The Melvins’ Buzz Osborne on vocals, guitar, and bass, and Dale Crover on drums. From Napalm Death are singer…
You don’t have to hail from the Southeast to have heard of, or appreciated, the music of Drivin N Cryin… but it helps. While they have toured nationally, their slightly off-kilter Southern approach has been, not surprisingly, most popular in red clay states.
No need wondering how long they have been active either, since the answer (1985) is on the back cover, as large as the DNC type font.
The Atlanta based outfit – usually a four-piece, sometimes a trio – has been at it for forty years, although there have been decade-long waits between releases. Frontman/singer/songwriter Kevn Kinney has also crafted a solo career simultaneously with DNC, often with his side project band, the slightly more…