Category Archives: The TVD Storefront

Celebrating Herbie Hancock in advance of his 84th birthday tomorrow. —Ed.

The short description of Herbie Hancock’s gorgeous 1965 LP Maiden Voyage, is that it’s the ’63-’64 Miles Davis Quintet with Freddie Hubbard subbing on trumpet. But as nicely as that reads, it’s actually much more. Hancock’s fifth and best record as leader, to this point it was also his most ambitious, and was additionally something of a rarity in jazz terms; a wildly successful and delightfully peaceful concept album.

Herbie Hancock has had a long and illustrious career, and in tandem with his contribution to the groups of Miles Davis, Maiden Voyage is probably his finest moment. As a look at the personnel relates, the disc is closely tied to Miles’ ‘60’s work, but as a standalone document Hancock’s masterful session equals anything Davis produced in the decade with the exception of the live material from the Plugged Nickel.

Some will disagree and a few will downright scoff at the notion of Maiden Voyage being rated so highly, in part because of its lack of edginess and decidedly refined sensibility. This circumstance extends to the considerable influence Hancock’s record wielded upon subsequent endeavors in the jazz and rock fields, byproducts that span in quality from mediocre to flat-out awful.

But that’s okay. What Maiden Voyage lacks in bluesy grit or fiery abstraction is greatly made up for by boldness of aspiration and a beautifully sustained mood, and as the title track and “Dolphin Dance” have both become late-period jazz standards, a certain percentage of underwhelming interpretations is basically inevitable.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Rhino is launching a new career-spanning archival series honoring Robert Hunter’s work as a solo artist with a deluxe reissue of his 1974 debut, Tales of the Great Rum Runners. While Hunter is widely revered as the primary lyricist for the Grateful Dead, this series will explore the depth of his solo work, offering a renewed appreciation for his exceptional artistry. Tales Of The Great Rum Runners (Deluxe Edition) will be available on June 7 from Rhino on 2-CD and 2-LP. Pre-order HERE.

This Deluxe Edition introduces a freshly remastered version of the original album alongside 16 previously unreleased recordings, including alternate versions of album tracks and several session outtakes. All the music has been remastered from the original master tapes by GRAMMY® Award-winning engineer David Glasser using Plangent Processes tape restoration and speed correction. Tales Of The Great Rum Runners will also be making its debut on streaming services on June 7. Available today is a sneak peek, with a newly remastered version of “Standing At Your Door” now available digitally.

Originally released in spring 1974, Tales Of The Great Rum Runners marked the inaugural release on Round Records, an offshoot of the newly formed Grateful Dead Records. Among its 13 tracks were several destined to become staples of Hunter’s live repertoire, like “Boys In The Barroom,” “Rum Runners,” and “It Must Have Been The Roses.”

Recorded at Mickey Hart’s converted barn studio in Novato, California, the album reveals Hunter’s multifaceted talents and features him singing and playing various instruments, including guitar, tin whistle, and bagpipes on “Children’s Lament.” He was accompanied by a revolving cast of Bay Area musicians on the album, including Jerry Garcia, Keith and Donna Jean Godchaux, and Mickey Hart of the Dead, as well as guitarist Barry Melton (Country Joe & The Fish), bassist David Freiberg (Quicksilver Messenger Service/Jefferson Starship), and pedal steel guitarist Buddy Cage (New Riders Of The Purple Sage).

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Voluminous of discography with an unflagging underground spirit, Sunburned Hand of the Man has returned with Nimbus, releasing April 12 on vinyl (black or “big blue”), compact disc, and digital with cover art by Tony Oursler through Three Lobed Recordings. It’s a wide-ranging set packed tight but flowing loose with psychedelic groove jams, post-Beat poetic recitations, and even a delightful folky strummer courtesy of returning member Phil Franklin. Loaded with guitars and rhythm and synths and even mellotron, the album is a fine extension of the Sunburned ethos.

Sunburned Hand of the Man reared to life in mid-’90s Boston, growing out of the deep underground psych-art-scuzz outfit Shit Spangled Banner, but the contracting and expanding troop really hit their grooving-jamming-racket stride in the decade following as part of the burgeoning New Weird America movement (their 2004 CD No Magic Man was released by Bastet, a label associated with Arthur magazine).

Once wildly prolific, with roughly 20 releases coming out in limited editions (mostly CDrs and a few cassettes) in 2008 alone, Sunburned’s output has slowed in recent years, but they’ve still managed to rip multiple CDrs every year in this century so far, some archival, others freshly recorded. Regarding vinyl, Nimbus is a follow-up to Pick a Day to Die, issued in 2021, also by Three Lobed Recordings.

Fluidity of lineup with a solid core is something of a Sunburned constant. Nimbus was recorded last year with Michael Josef K, Matt Krefting, and original member Phil Franklin returning to the fold and fortifying a core of founders John Moloney and Rob Thomas. The other players include Conrad Capistran, Gary War, Shannon Ketch, Wednesday Knudsen, Adam Langellotti, Jeremy Pisani, Taylor Richardson, Ron Schneiderman, and Sarah Gibbons, who’s credited here as making her proper recorded debut with Sunburned.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Trailblazing feminist icon, musician, outspoken women’s rights activist, and original rebel girl Kathleen Hanna has revealed the first serial excerpt with People magazine, offering fans a taste of what to expect from her memoir Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk due out May 14 with Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins.

Hanna is also thrilled to announce the lineup of brilliant minds who will join her “in conversation” on a US book tour, including Amy Poehler, Molly Ringwald, Hanif Abdurraqib, Lindy West, Brontez Purnell, Puja Patel and more. Fans unable to attend the tour in-person can join the live stream on May 22! A portion of all ticket sales will be donated to Peace Sisters, a non-profit organization for which Hanna is an Ambassador. Tickets are on sale now.

Hanna’s band Bikini Kill embodied the punk scene of the ’90s, and today her personal yet feminist lyrics on anthems like “Rebel Girl” and “Double Dare Ya” are more powerful than ever. But where did this transformative voice come from?

In Rebel Girl, Hanna’s raw and insightful new memoir, she takes us from her tumul­tuous childhood to her formative college years and her first shows. As Hanna makes clear, being in a punk “girl band” in those years was not a simple or safe prospect. Male violence and antagonism threatened at every turn, and surviving as a singer who was a lightning rod for controversy took limitless amounts of determination.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | “Joan’s ideas and musings ricochet from the profound and humanly factual to the observant and slyly humorous. Her words can be both poignantly executed and captivating in a colorful closeness that pin-points the chinks in our armor that mirror all facets of the world we inhabit. A National treasure she is indeed.” —Bernie Taupin, author of Scattershot: Life, Music, Elton, and Me

When You See My Mother, Ask Her to Dance, an intimate, autobiographical poetry collection from legendary artist and activist, Joan Baez, will be released April 30 on Godine.

While Baez has been writing poetry for decades, she’s never shared it publicly. Poems about her life, her family, about her passions for nature and art, have piled up in notebooks and on scraps of paper. Now, for the first time ever, her life is shared in verse, revealing pivotal life experiences that shaped an icon, offering a never-before-seen look into the reminiscences and musings of a great artist.

Throughout the collection, Baez shares poems for or about her contemporaries, reflections from her childhood, personal thoughts, and cherished memories of her family, including pieces about her younger sister, singer-songwriter Mimi Fariña. Speaking to the people, places, and moments that have had the greatest impact on her art, this collection is an inspiring personal diary in the form of poetry.

Joan Baez is a dynamic force of nature. Her commitment to music and social activism has earned global recognition, ranging from induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, to the Ambassador of Conscience Award, Amnesty International’s highest honor.

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“Let me take you by the hand/And lead you through the streets of London/I’ll show you something to make you change your mind” —“Streets of London” by Ralph McTell

The folk revival that began in the late ’50s and lasted almost into the early ’70s, is often most associated with New York’s Greenwich Village and Cambridge in Massachusetts while other American locales like Philadelphia and Chicago were also part of the scene. The folk revival, or “folk scare” as it was so humorously referred to by one of its key participants, Dave Van Ronk, was however, not just an American phenomenon. While America had a long roots music history, England also did and the folk revival there happened a little later and centered around a basement club in London’s Soho district called Les Cousins. Initially a French restaurant and then a discotheque, the folk club incarnation launched in April of 1965.

Like folk clubs in America, it served many purposes. It revived the songs and artists from folk’s past, which in some cases had been around for centuries. Folk was also a catch-all term that included blues, bluegrass, country, and other forms of roots music, even early forms of jazz, ragtime, and jug music. Maybe most importantly and foremost for many in England, it described an acoustic-based music played by artists who were song interpreters and stylists, and in some cases guitar wizards.

The list of musicians who actually played at the club in one form or another just hung out there, since its founding in 1965 and final year in 1972 is staggering. This comprehensive and widely varied, 72-track, 3-CD box set covering music released between 1963 and 1973 does not include any live performances from the club, but instead features some of the key figures of the British folk scene, American musicians who count Les Cousins as a key stepping stone in their music evolution and artists who may not have been strictly folk, but who are part of the club’s rich musical history.

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The bassist, composer, and bandleader Moppa Elliott is best known for his playing in the wildly inventive ensemble Mostly Other People Do the Killing, but his creativity is manifest in various other groups, including the quintet Advancing on a Wild Pitch and the nonet Acceleration Due to Gravity. Both have new LPs out now via Elliott’s Hot Cup label. On Disasters, Vol. 2, the five-piece delivers a warm and deep straight-ahead set of Elliott originals, and on Jonesville, an album inspired by bassist Sam Jones, the nine-piece group offers a wilder compositional ride. They are rewarding both singly and considered together.

Released in 2022, Disasters, Vol. 1 was recorded by Mostly Other People Do the Killing in a trio configuration of Elliott, pianist Ron Stabinsky and drummer Kevin Shea, with Stabinsky and Shea doubling on Nord electronics. Across that record, Stabinsky’s piano establishes Elliott’s “inside” compositional core as the bassist’s foundation is supple but sturdy. Shea’s frequently explosive drumming sends the record down a less conventional path. The electronics ensure Disasters, Vol. 1 won’t be mistaken for any other album.

As stated above, Disasters, Vol. 2 is a more straight-ahead affair, though it thrives on toughness of execution, in part through the choice of baritone sax, played by Charles Evans, and trombone, played by Sam Kulik. Alongside Elliott, pianist Danny Fox and drummer Christian Coleman round out the band. Two compositions “Marcus Hook” and “Dimock” return from the first volume; as on the prior set, all of the pieces are named after “towns in Pennsylvania that experienced historical disasters.”

Through an underlying disdain for conventionality, Advancing on a Wild Pitch brings the descriptor straight-ahead into question across Disasters, Vol. 2 in a manner that’s a bit reminiscent of Charles Mingus. Not surprising given Elliott’s chosen instrument, but the feel is based more in the horns recalling Jerome Richardson and Jimmy Knepper. As in Mingus’ work, there’s a boldness in both ensemble play and soloing here that suggests an affiliation with the avant-garde without ever embodying it.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Get ready for an endless summer of fun, fun, fun with The Beach Boys, the all-new documentary streaming exclusively on Disney+ beginning May 24, 2024.

The Beach Boys is a celebration of the legendary band that revolutionized pop music, and the iconic, harmonious sound they created that personified the California dream, captivating fans for generations and generations to come. The documentary traces the band from humble family beginnings and features never-before-seen footage and all-new interviews with The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, David Marks, Bruce Johnston, plus other luminaries in the music business, including Lindsey Buckingham, Janelle Monáe, Ryan Tedder, and Don Was. Viewers will also hear from the group’s Carl and Dennis Wilson in their own words, plus view a new interview with Blondie Chaplin and hear audio from Ricky Fataar.

A Kennedy/Marshall and White Horse Pictures Production, The Beach Boys is directed by Frank Marshall and Thom Zimny and written by Mark Monroe. The film is produced by Frank Marshall, Irving Azoff, Nicholas Ferrall, Jeanne Elfant Festa, Aly Parker, with Nigel Sinclair, Mark Monroe, Tony Rosenthal, Cassidy Hartmann, Glen Zipper, Thom Zimny, Beth Collins, Jimmy Edwards, Susan Genco, Marc Cimino, Jody Gerson, Bruce Resnikoff, and Ben J. Murphy serving as executive producers. “I’m super happy with the way the documentary turned out, they did an amazing job,” says Brian Wilson. “It really brought me back to those days with the boys, the fun and the music. And of course those incredible harmonies.”

The official soundtrack, The Beach Boys: Music From The Documentary, will be available to stream and download on May 24 via Capitol/UMe, and the group’s iconic 1964 album Shut Down, Vol. 2 is now available on limited edition blue and white marble vinyl. Additionally, the group’s only official book, The Beach Boys by The Beach Boys, was released on April 2 via Genesis Publications.

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Minneapolis hip-hop pioneers Atmosphere have announced a reissue of their 2007 mixtape Strictly Leakage, available May 17th via Rhymesayers Entertainment.

Early on, Strictly Leakage had been pressed on a limited run of vinyl and CD, but it wasn’t long before they sold out, and fans were left chasing bootlegs and digital files in order to hear the project. Finally, the project returns to double-vinyl LP and CD, made available for retail distribution for the first time. Additionally, an exclusive pressing of blue & green colored vinyl LP’s and limited cassettes are available for pre-order directly from the artists at atmospheresucks.com and rhymesayers.com.

Often recognized as one of the most consistent and prolific duos in independent hip-hop, Atmosphere hit a stride of extraordinary output from July 2007 to April 2008, even by their own standards. Within those 9 months, they released a full-length album, four EP’s, and a 42-minute mixtape of exclusive material, altogether totaling 48 new songs released, all while they were consistently touring as well.

This rapid-fire string of releases introduced some of their most popular songs to date and showcased their dynamic range, from moody and reflective, to upbeat and optimistic, to a boom-bap throwback style of rap, the latter of which was most prominently displayed on the mixtape. Introduced on Christmas Day 2007, the mixtape was a “gift” to fans in the form of a free download, aptly titled Strictly Leakage—a nod to both eschewing standardized industry practices in favor of giving the music away, and to another prominent hip-hop album title from the era that inspired them and perhaps more specifically, these recordings.

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Remembering Carl Perkins, born on this date in 1932. —Ed.

Carl Perkins was one of the major shakers in the peak period of Sun Records, and these days he gets his due mostly as an architect of classic rockabilly. In that regard, one of his many hits compilations will provide an accurate if not comprehensive analysis. To get a taste of the full-blown ‘50s Perkins experience however, one will need to dig a little deeper, and seeking out the 1988 LP Honky Tonk Gal is an excellent choice.

Many outstanding recordings were made in the USA in the decade immediately following the Second World War, but at the top of the heap are a few truly indispensable documents. Amongst them can be found Charlie Parker’s master takes for Dial and Savoy, the high lonesome sound of Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys as captured by Columbia and Decca, Muddy Waters’ electrification of the Delta in Chess Studios, and perhaps inappropriately since it compiled 6 LPs worth of material from prewar 78s, the Anthology of American Folk Music as issued by Folkways.

But if an outlier, I’ll stump passionately for that Harry Smith-compiled doozy. On top of being one of the few multi-disc sets that can be listened to in its entirety without a hint of exhaustion, it just as importantly established a disparate songbook that’s continued to influence music right up to this very minute. And the icing on the cake is how the inspired assemblage of a bohemian painter (and record collector!) integrated American folksong two years before the Supreme Court handed down their unanimous blow to the ugliness of segregation with the Brown v. Board of Education decision.

And that relates pretty well to Samuel Cornelius Phillips and his Memphis Recording Service, later known more famously as Sun Records, a small business concern that was really on a creative mission in loose disguise. It was also the cradle of some extremely essential postwar music. For instance, Jackie Brenston’s “Rocket 88,” considered by some to be the first rock ‘n’ roll song. Or that behemoth of the blues The Howlin’ Wolf, who delivered his first sides there. And by the mid-‘50s it was where a bunch of poor white cats, to borrow a phrase from the mouth of Presley, got real real gone for a change.

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California-based tenor saxophonist Harold Land had a long and versatile recording career both as a sideman and as a leader. Of the latter albums, The Fox, first released in 1960, is widely considered to be his best; it sees reissue on 180 gram vinyl April 12 as part of Craft Recordings’ ongoing Contemporary Records Acoustic Sounds Series. It is an album defined by sturdy ensemble play, inspired soloing, and a multifaceted backstory. We delve into it all below.

On The Fox, Harold Land and his assembled crew tear into the opening title track with such energy that it sounds like the year is not 1959 (this set, an early producer credit for David Axelrod, was recorded in August of that year) but 1949, infused as it is with uncut “get the no-talent scrubs off the bandstand” bebop verve.

1949 was the year Land debuted as a leader on record, cutting “San Diego Bounce” b/w “I’ll Remember April” by the Harold Land All-Stars, a 78rpm disc issued by the Savoy subsidiary Regent. That record’s vintage means Land was firsthand witness to the angular intensity of the original bebop era, though “San Diego Bounce” isn’t bop but a potent strain of instrumental R&B.

Land’s rise in stature included a lengthy stint performing and recording with the Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet, a key group in the refinement of hard bop in the mid-1950s. Following the end of that band due to trumpeter Brown’s untimely death in a car accident, Land joined the outfit of bassist Curtis Counce, a move that first brought him into the sphere of Contemporary Records, where Counce recorded and Land cut his debut LP, Harold in the Land of Jazz in 1958.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Due to demand, influential alternative rock band Garbage is making their 4th studio album, Bleed Like Me, available on vinyl for the first time since it was originally released in 2005. Bleed Like Me is out now via UMe.

Fully remastered for 2024, this expanded reissue of 2005’s Bleed Like Me includes 2CD, 1LP white vinyl, deluxe 2LP red vinyl, and HD digital formats and features b-sides, rare tracks, remixes, and alternate versions of tracks.

Speaking about the new Bleed Like Me expanded reissue, Shirley Manson says: “This album was tricky to make and resulted in the band taking a 5-year hiatus shortly after it was released. However, over the years, it has become a mainstay of our discography, so we decided to finally make it available on vinyl due to the many pained pleas from our fans.”

Bleed Like Me was a top 5 album chart hit in the UK, US, Australia, and the European Billboard chart upon its initial release in April 2005. The album featured four singles, “Why Do You Love Me,” which was a top 10 single in the UK, “Bleed Like Me” and “Sex Is Not The Enemy,” which both went on to be regulars in the band’s live shows and “Run Baby Run,” which was accompanied by a Sophie Muller directed music video.

Garbage are playing a number of festival shows this year, including European and UK dates at Mad Cool in Madrid (July 10 – 13) and TRNSMT in Glasgow (July 12-14). The band’s new Bleed Like Me expanded reissue is out now.

VIA PRESS RELEASE | In the great pantheon of musicians transcending above mere “celebrity” status, the late Michael Hutchence towers over most. A consummate “rock star” if there ever was one, he embodied the spirit and smoldering swagger of rock ‘n’ roll while possessing one of the most iconic voices in the contemporary music scene.

So, it was with an earth-rattling shudder when tragically he passed away in 1997, leaving a mind-numbingly impressive legacy across the entertainment realm. What many didn’t know, however, is that he left some of his brilliance behind in the form of unreleased music. Producer, musician and personal friend Danny Saber (Madonna, Rolling Stones, U2) has taken some of these musical pieces and completed them to continue and extend Hutchence’s impact. The new single “One Way” is available now via Boss Sonics.

“’One Way’ is the culmination of nearly two decades of work,” says Saber. “One of the fundamental reasons for releasing this music is to allow the fans to hear Michael’s voice on something new and fresh, offering a glimpse into what might have been, and, in turn, reawakening millions of people who may have simply forgotten about him.”

“Michael first contacted me in 1995 soon after the release of my album It’s Great When You’re Straight,” recalls Saber, referring to the UK #1 album by his band Black Grape with Happy Mondays’ Shaun Ryder. “Michael was a huge fan of my record and wanted to find the right sound for a solo record, a sound that would galvanize all the success he had with INXS and allow him to establish himself as a solo artist and spread his creative wings outside the confines of being the frontman of one of the most successful bands in the world.”

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Celebrating Justin Sullivan, born on this day in 1956. —Ed.

You’ve got to love New Model Army. They were once introduced on Brit TV program The Tube as “the ugliest band in rock and roll,” their lead singer went by the name Slade the Leveller for years to avoid losing his unemployment benefits, and the United States refused them entry to the country on the grounds that their music was “of no artistic merit.” I love that last part. Oh, and the angry young leftists of New Model Army—they snatched their name from Thomas Fairfax’s English Revolution militia of the mid-1600s—were forced to abandon playing the song “Vengeance” on The Tube, due to its friendly lines, “I believe in justice/I believe in vengeance/I believe in getting the bastards.”

The band has switched genres the way some people switch their bedroom lights on and off, but one thing has remained the same—New Model Army are angry punters with a knack for controversy, as is demonstrated by the fact that 1993’s Love of Hopeless Causes came complete with directions on how to construct a nuclear device. 1991’s Thunder and Consolation is considered their high point—even Justin Sullivan, aka Slade the Leveller, has modestly called it “brilliant”—although I consider 1990’s The Ghost of Cain excellent as well, what with its great songs “The 51st State” and “Poison Street.”

I generally believe that rock and politics make unfortunate bedfellows, but I like New Model Army because as the album title Love of Hopeless Causes indicates, they know that in life there are winners and losers, and they understand what class they belong to. Which is not to say they’re taking their loser status lying down; they’re not. But unlike those wankers in the Clash, who were either totally naïve or incredibly cynical, New Model Army seem to have no illusions that their music can change the world.

Instead they rage on in the face of futility, knowing it’s a sucker’s game. And they’re not falling for any of that “the meek shall inherit the earth” bullshit either, as they sing in folk/post-punk “The Ballad of Bodmin Pill”: “How we all dance with this fire ’cause it’s all that we know/And as the spotlight turns toward us, we all try our best to show/We are lost we are freaks, we are crippled, we are weak/We are the heirs, we are the true heirs, to all the world.” Sullivan is not implying that their inheritance will be one of plenty; No, theirs will always be an inheritance of suffering, and injustice, and powerlessness in the face of the haves, who have always ruled the world and always will.

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Journey weren’t always the greatest rock ’n’ roll band in the world. Before they rocked the earth on its axis with such absolutely essential MOR smasheroos as “Wheel in the Sky,” “Lights” (an even greater salute to San Francisco than Starship’s “We Built This City”!), “Don’t Stop Believin’,” and “Hustler” (okay, so that one’s not so great) the MOR giants from Rice-a-Roni City were that best of all possible things, a progressive rock/jazz fusion band. Right up there with such titans as Kansas, Return to Forever, and Spock’s Beard even!

Surprised? I sure am! Why, it’s like finding out the Sex Pistols began their career with a triple album (played solely on Moog synthesizers and tubular bells) called Moonbeams Refracted by the Gleaming Enamel of Parachuting Molars released under the name of Odysseus’ Merkin! Or that the New Dolls started as a jazz fusion band called, I don’t know, Bent Oxygen! But if it’s news it’s wonderful news, because as everybody knows Journey can do no wrong, even if the Journey that put out their 1975 debut Journey had yet to include the super-dynamic Steve Perry, whose magic flying tonsils wouldn’t arrive on the scene until October 10, 1977, a day that will live infamy!

Later guitarist extra ordinaire Neal Schon would say, “I still think some of the stuff we did then was great. Some of it was self-indulgent, just jamming for ourselves, but I also think a lot of other things hurt us in the early days. It took a while for the politics to sort of shape up.” Self-indulgent? Why, I’ve never heard that one used in conjunction with progressive rock before! And politics? Does Journey have its own form of government? A constitutional monarchy with a bicameral legislature perhaps? But I digress.

You’re probably not familiar with Journey’s debut unless you’re a hardcore Journey fan (smartest rock fans in the world) or just plain unlucky, as it seems I am. But please allow me to extract tongue from cheek and turn to an honest discussion of the songs on Journey. And the good news—relatively speaking—is that while I’m no fan of either progressive rock or jazz fusion, Journey approach them from a hard rock angle.

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