VIA PRESS RELEASE | “Greaser, hippie, glam rocker, punk… Larry tells some amazing stories. And I’m stoked he’s my friend.” —Billie Joe Armstrong

Don Giovanni Records has announced the second edition of Spy Rock Memories by Larry Livermore, out March 2, 2027. The new edition features words from Aaron Cometbus, an interview with Tre Cool about growing up on Spy Rock, reflections from the author, and 22 added photos.

In 1982, Larry Livermore, an ex-greaser, post-hippie, burnt out and disillusioned by the Bay Area punk scene, journeyed north into an off-the-map, off-the-grid mountain wilderness at the heart of California’s Emerald Triangle, in search of something “real.”

Things got way more real than he’d bargained for. He confronted blizzards, droughts, floods, fires, marauding bears, skunks, rattlesnakes, and a posse of ornery pot growers, all while launching a magazine, a solar-powered punk rock band, and the DIY record label that introduced the world to Green Day, Operation Ivy, and Screeching Weasel.

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Celebrating K. K. Downing on his 75th birthday. —Ed.

Six Six Six/My Judas Priest tix/I’m out in the parking lot/And I’m looking for kicks!

What am I supposed to say about Judas Priest, Birmingham, England’s contribution to heavy metal, that hasn’t already been said by those three great music critics, Bart Simpson, Beavis, and Butthead? Judas Priest has received the imprimatur of the greats for being the guys who put out “Breaking the Law” and “Living After Midnight” on their groundbreaking 1980 LP British Steel, and what’s more, introduced plenty of your basic heavy metal tropes (S&M gear, operatic vocals, the twin guitar attack) that we now take for granted.

In short, I’m going to have to reach to find anything original to say about Judas Priest, and I’m not sure I have the cojones. Beavis and Butthead’s rendition of “Breaking the Law” captures the essence of the band better than any critic ever will.

But I’m nothing if not intrepid, and Judas Priest has released 17 studio albums starting with 1974’s Rocka Rolla, which leaves me with lots to natter on about. Like the infamous civil action following the suicide of one young man and the attempted suicide of another, which their parents alleged was the result of a backward masked message on a Judas Priest album saying “Do it.”

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With roots in the psychedelic ’60s and stature as a key punk antecedent, Roky Erickson stands as one of rock’s great cult figures, inhabiting the fringe partly due to personal struggles that kept him from maintaining his true potential. He did hit some significant high points, and anybody desiring an entry point into the man’s post-13th Floor Elevators work should get acquainted with The Evil One, the debut album from Roky Erickson and the Aliens, originally released by CBS Records in the UK and 415 Records in the US, and freshly reissued in a 15-track 2LP 45rpm edition by Fire Records, out October 30.

In the days prior to the internet, there were numerous avenues that could lead inquisitive young ears to the doorstep of Roky Erickson. Most prominent was his third band, The 13th Floor Elevators, formed after Erickson left The Spades, that band having released two singles including “We Sell Soul” and the original version of the Elevators’ hit “You’re Gonna Miss Me” (prior to The Spades, Erickson was in The Roulettes, an unrecorded outfit later known as The Missing Links).

Debut album The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators, released in October 1966 by Texas label International Artists, is one of the essential rock albums of its decade. Its follow-up, Easter Everywhere, from the next year is also unmissable, and in fact, everything recorded by the band prior to disbanding is worth hearing, even the exploitative Live album (that’s really not a live album).

Back in the day, the Elevators’ records were sought out by anybody whose interest in psychedelic rock expanded beyond the US West Coast, the UK, and Jimi Hendrix. The inclusion of “You’re Gonna Miss Me” on the original 2LP Nuggets comp also meant that anyone with a jonesing for garage rock was hip to the Elevators.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | “Big Mama Thornton was rock & roll before rock & roll. She had the energy. She had this rawness. There was electricity when she would perform. I actually think she inspired a whole lot of singers but nobody could really hit like she does.” —Brittany Howard

Celebrating Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and Blues Hall of Famer Big Mama Thornton’s centennial and coinciding with the new documentary about her life, I Can’t Be Anyone But Me, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings is reissuing Thornton’s essential first two Arhoolie Records albums In Europe (originally released in 1966) and Big Mama Thornton with Muddy Waters’ Blues Band (1967) on vinyl LP. The LP reissues arrive December 4, one week before her centennial on December 11.

Both albums were remastered by Don Godwin, with In Europe restored to its original mono and Big Mama Thornton with Muddy Waters’ Blues Band in stereo. Both show the rock ‘n’ roll and rhythm & blues architect in full command at the front of all-star blues bands.

In Europe, recorded in London in 1965, finds Thornton backed by a band that featured nine-time Grammy Award-winning guitarist and Sinners film actor Buddy Guy alongside Blues Hall of Famer Eddie Boyd on piano and Fred Below—the legendary Chicago blues drummer and veteran of Chuck Berry sessions—on drums.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Rhino High Fidelity (Rhino Hi-Fi) expands its acclaimed audiophile series today with Love’s Forever Changes on vinyl and reel-to-reel.

Forever Changes (Rhino High Fidelity) was cut from the original master tapes by Kevin Gray and pressed on 180-gram black vinyl at Optimal in Germany. It comes in a glossy gatefold sleeve with newly written liner notes. The album is limited to 5,000 individually numbered copies and available exclusively at Rhino.com and select Warner Music Group stores internationally.

Forever Changes (Rhino High Fidelity R2R) was duplicated in real time from a 1:1 copy of the original flat analog master tape. The result is a master-quality listening experience that captures the recording’s full dynamics. The 15 i.p.s. half-track 1/4” tape is produced to the IEC equalization standard on premium RTM LPR90 tape stock and stored on a 10.5” metal reel. The Reel-to-Reel edition is limited to 350 copies worldwide and available exclusively at Rhino.com.

Forever Changes marked a creative breakthrough for Love in 1967, radically expanding the Los Angeles quintet’s musical vocabulary, from the sophisticated arrangements of “Alone Again Or” to the adventurous instrumentation of “The Red Telephone.” Produced by Bruce Botnick and Arthur Lee, the album captured Love at their most ambitious, with David Angel’s inventive string and horn arrangements adding new dimensions to “Andmoreagain” and “You Set The Scene.”

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Celebrating Keith Hopwood on his 80th birthday. —Ed.

Amongst the insults lobbed at Herman’s Hermits over the decades: fabricated, shallow, calculatedly commercial, utterly safe, disposable. At home, they scored hits, and in the US, they became one of the most popular imports of the mid-‘60s. However, for many, they are simply a Brit Invasion phenomenon that connects the Frankie Avalon/Fabian ‘50s scene to the eventual rise of bubblegum. Any folks curious as to what the fuss was all about might want to look into Their Greatest Hits.

Herman’s Hermits can be considered the UK equivalent of, and a predecessor to, The Monkees. However, they had to fight longer for redemption, which is still in progress, as many persist in viewing them as eternal inhabitants of Squaresville, damned to never ascend from the circumstances thrust upon them by their era.

The ever-growing legion of Pop scientists will chalk this up to plain Rockism, but it’s a little more complex than that. Before being captured in the vise-like clutches of Mickey Most, Herman’s Hermits were a highly amiable, small-time, Manchester-based gigging band, initially shouldering the rather unimaginative moniker of the Heartbeats; it was after Peter Noone’s arrival that a name change, reportedly inspired by managers Harvey Lisberg and Charlie Silverman, occurred.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | A superb, but long out-of-print document by tenor saxophone giant Clifford Jordan will greet a new generation of jazz fans with Time Traveler Recordings’ October 23 reissue of Night of the Mark VII, Jordan’s celebrated 1975 album recorded live in Paris.

The LP package is the latest installment in TTR’s Muse Master Edition Series, unearthing the long-lost masterworks from the catalog of the historic Muse Records. The series is a collaboration with Virgin Music Group spearheaded by TTR founder, producer and “Jazz Detective” Zev Feldman.

Remastered AAA directly from the original analog tapes by Matthew Lutthans at the Mastering Lab in Salina, Kansas, Night of the Mark VII is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Furnace.

It will be issued in a hand-numbered, high-gloss tip-on sleeve jackets by Stoughton Press, featuring a new liner essay by journalist and NEA Jazz Master Willard Jenkins (along with the original 1975 notes by writer/musician Hank Diamond Smith), a rare period photograph of Williams by Raymond Ross, and statements by Barney Fields and Feldman.

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Dire Straits’ Mark Knopfler sounded like an atavistic throwback from the very start—a throwback to another, and in his mind, better time. “Sultans of Swing” was a celebration of the past, whether it was about the present or not. With Dire Straits’1978 debut, Knopfler introduced himself as a musical conservative dedicated to the proposition that punk never happened. He was a counter-revolutionary with a guitar.

“An active member of the Fraternal Order of Old Farts since birth,” Robert Christgau once said of Knopfler. “Money for Nothing” is a prime example. It’s the rare Dire Straits song that sounds of our time, but Knopfler definitely comes across as an Old Fart. He mocks the working class for thinking musicians have it easy, and comes across like a rock elitist harboring a grudge.

He seems to disdain a proletariat unwilling to spend the ten hours a day necessary to master the guitar. I doubt it has ever occurred to him that the know-nothings in “Money for Nothing” weren’t lazy (ever try to move a refrigerator, Mark?), but the victims of an industrialized society that condemned them to grunt work.

But there’s no denying Dire Straits have recorded their fair share of commendable songs, even if few of them are as electrifying as Knopfler’s guitar. There’s something staid about the work of Dire Straits—they impress, but they rarely thrill. Tasteful, always—but tasteful, perhaps, to a fault. The only tasteless thing about Dire Straits is Knopfler’s frequent slurs against gays, which is definitely an Old Fart thing to do.

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