If there ever is a box set that is needed right now, it’s the recently released Power to the People from John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band.

Available in various configurations, the 9-CD/3-Blu-ray The Ultimate Collection slipcase box set, featuring a lenticular cover, is the one to get. It is the one that tells the whole story of a time in New York City (and elsewhere), when John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, became politicized and, through their music, believed that with the power of the people, there could be peace in the world.

The Lennons didn’t just think big; they used creativity, the media, and the power of art, and with the savvy eye of a hustler and the idealism of the times, both co-opted and became co-opted by “the movement” and inspired political engagement and hope that has resonated for decades and brought about results.

Why this box set is so timely is that much of the progress made by the various movements that began in the 1960s and were solidified in the 1970s is under siege—women’s rights, gay rights, equal rights, the environmental movement, social justice, and government transparency, to name a few.

While the movement became part of the establishment in positive ways, the current political environment is erasing 60 years of gains. The people who are causing the damage are the obvious root problem, but what spells disaster for the future of the country, if not the world, is that there is essentially a weak resistance.

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I recently spoke with Godlis, the photographer whose images defined CBGB’s, the Bowery, and downtown New York in the ’70s punk scene.

His iconic photographs of the Ramones, Patti Smith, Television, Blondie, Talking Heads, Richard Hell, and many more offered a window into that world that stays with us today. It’s an astonishing record.

We talk about his college years in Boston and when he first picked up a camera. Having that first camera (a Leica) robbed, making his way back to New York, fully realizing his desire to be a defining street photographer, and how he discovered CBGB’s, and more.

His books include History Is Made at Night, Godlis Miami, and Godlis Streets, each capturing a different part of the worlds he’s been documenting for decades. All wonderful documents of one of the greatest street photographers of all time.

Radar features discussions with artists and industry leaders who are creators and devotees of music and is produced by Dylan Hundley and The Vinyl District. Dylan Hundley is an artist and performer, and the co-creator and lead singer of Lulu Lewis and all things at Darling Black. She co-curates and hosts Salon Lulu which is a New York based multidisciplinary performance series. She is also a cast member of the iconic New York film Metropolitan.

An abundance of excellent reissues hit store shelves in 2025. We take a look back at what was looked back upon—part two. Part one is here.

10. Charlie Haden, Live at the Jazz Record Mart (Delmark) This is a fascinating document of an 1988 in-store held in the celebrated Windy City record shop owned by the late Bob Koester, who also founded and operated Delmark Records. The digital release features a lot more talking, much of it at the start, as California resident Haden gets acclimated to his Chicago environment, but there is also some playing that’s not included on the vinyl. This is worth mentioning as the event captured is truly a special one. There are many duo albums in Haden’s discography, but no solos, until now. And yet the whole is wonderfully casual, which only magnifies its worthiness.

9. Archie Shepp and the Full Moon Ensemble, Live at Antibes (Lmlr) This 2LP was part of the glorious spate of recordings, most of them live, made by US free jazz musicians on sabbatical in Europe at the dawn of the 1970s. Initially released by the BYG Actuel label as two separate volumes, this compilation combines them, as the two performances, each over 48 minutes long, are split across opposing vinyl sides. Shepp is in strong form in a sextet with the too seldomly recorded Clifford Thornton, the way too seldomly recorded Alan Shorter (Wayne’s bro, don’tcha know), plus Joseph Dejean, Bob Guerin, and Claude Delcloo. Things are already beautifully harry, and then Shepp starts shouting.

8. Mercenárias, Baú 83-87 (Munster / Nada Nada Discos) These Brazilian post-punks have landed tracks on assorted compilations over the decades and even had an anthology devoted wholly to themselves on the Soul Jazz label (released under the name As Mercenárias). In 2018, Nada Nada Discos released this collection of non-album tracks, live material, and a “lost” studio session, and now here comes Munster, doing the world a solid with this very deserving fresh edition. Mercenárias, at least across this set’s 20 big ones, never smoothed out the jagged edges, so anybody down with the sound of prime early Rough Trade should step right up before this one’s gone again.

7. The Verlaines, Some Disenchanted Evening (Schoolkids) Featuring the smart and often biting lyrics of Graeme Downes, the songs of The Verlaines are equal to the work of The Chills and The Clean (and The Bats and Tall Dwarfs) in terms of quality. There’s a very attractive disdain for simplicity in Downes’ songs (it’s almost like he’s a prog rocker at heart) as he manages to always stay on the pop course, often to thrilling effect. Equally wonderful is the core toughness in the instrumentation that reinforces (without making a big deal of it) how this stuff was made possible by the revolution of 1977.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | This Angry Pen of Mine: Recovering the Journals of Layne Staley—an unprecedented look into the creative archive of Alice in Chains vocalist Layne Staley, created in direct collaboration with his family—has debuted as a New York Times Nonfiction Bestseller in its first week.

This Angry Pen of Mine (Weldon Owen; November 11, 2025) published by Weldon Owen in partnership with Primary Wave Music, offers the first ever look into the untold creative world of Layne Staley, the legendary voice fronting Alice in Chains. This extraordinary collection showcases his handwritten lyrics, deeply personal poetry, stunning original artwork, rare photos, fan tributes, and so much more.

Discover his striking original artwork, where every line tells its own story, and explore rare, candid photos that capture both the highs and lows of his journey. Experience the love and admiration of the fans whose lives he touched, beautifully expressed through evocative fan art that honors his legacy.

“I hope this book gives you a glimpse of the son I knew, the one beyond the headlines, the one with a beautiful, creative, happy soul,” Nancy McCallum, Layne’s mother, writes in the foreword to this book.

“Layne’’ songwriting has left an unmistakable imprint on the music world, and its significance only grows with time. We’re honored to showcase his talents as a writer and to help ensure his legacy continues to shine,” says James Janocha, Primary Wave Music

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Tony Joe White’s The Real Thang Deluxe Edition unearths more gems from a country-leaning, Waylon Jennings-collaborating era of the legendary Louisiana recording artist’s career.

Over the last few years, the late, great Tony Joe White’s output has been as prolific as ever, thanks to his son and de facto archivist, Jody White, who spends his free time digging through The Swamp Fox’s treasure trove of lost, rare, and mostly-unreleased material. Earlier this year, Jody re-released one of his father’s forgotten albums, The Real Thang, which included not only the original album but a heaping helping of never-before-heard recordings from that era. And, with the release of The Real Thang Deluxe Edition, even more has been unearthed. For the digital-only deluxe release, two new songs are included with the original eighteen tracks: “Fine Country Woman” and “Gringo.”

The former is an ode to White’s wife, Leann, with White’s guitar sounding more ’90s country than any of his previous work. The latter, “Gringo,” is a rare instrumental written by White and his friend Waylon Jennings. Replete with the iconic Waylon Jennings phase-shifted telecaster tone and delicate acoustic lead playing from White, “Gringo” is a prime example of the pair’s musical friendship. “Nobody really knows the story behind this song, as these two men took it to their graves,” says Jody. “Apparently, it was recorded one night while they were just hanging out and buried deep in the archives of the Tony Joe White audio tapes.”

Fans can stream or purchase The Real Thang Deluxe Edition here. For more information or to purchase a physical copy of The Real Thang on vinyl or CD, please visit tonyjoewhite.com. To hear more stories about the project and Tony Joe White, be sure to check out Jody White’s recent interviews with Otis Gibbs.

Celebrating Tony Hicks on his 80th birthday. —Ed.

When it comes to scrumptious English pop confections, it’s hard to top the fluff produced by The Hollies on the Epic and Imperial labels during the mid-sixties. While their contemporaries were producing big psychedelic statements, these Mancunian lads were whipping up irresistible little ditties that were pure froth. “Carrie Anne” is one of the most innocent and loving slices of pure popcraft ever recorded.

And 1973’s The Hollies’ Greatest Hits offers a wonderful–if inherently limited–overview of the Hollies’ not-so-grand ambitions. These proud lightweights adhered like superglue to the format of the 3-minute pop song–“He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” is a serious outlier at 4 minutes, 19 seconds–but they knew how to make those 3 minutes count. A whole hell of lot happens in “Dear Eloise,” and the deliriously dizzy-making “On a Carousel” contains gorgeous multitudes. When it comes to great songwriting teams, the names of Allan Clarke, Tony Hicks, and Graham Nash should never be forgotten.

It goes without saying that this compilation will not appeal to existentialists, hard rockers, or people who recoil at the word “cute.” That said, the LP doesn’t play up the cute as much as it might have. I can certainly understand why such post-Nash compositions as 1969’s heavy-on-the-soul “He Ain’t Heavy,” 1972’s lovely but lugubrious “Long Dark Road,” and that same year’s surprisingly hard rocking “Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress” are included herein, but they don’t feel much at home; a comp that focused solely on the Nash-era Hollies would sound more of a piece, and would provide more pure pop pleasure to people looking for frothy pop thrills.

I also wish this greatest hits didn’t jump back and forth in time in a craven effort to put the more recognizable hits up front; side two starts with a song from 1969 followed by three songs from 1967, then fast forwards to two songs from 1972. But hey, that’s show business, and I can only presume that the folks who put the comp together–and omitted some great U.K.-only hits in the process–knew best.

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An abundance of excellent reissues hit store shelves in 2025. We take a look back at what was looked back upon.

20. The Paragons, On the Beach (Charly) The UK-based reissue imprint Charly has had a presence in the record store bins for decades. It’s great to see that the label is still going strong by putting out records that will either be difficult (if not impossible) to find or insanely pricey to procure in good quality, in an original pressing. For example, there’s this swell slice of rocksteady from The Paragons, which came out way back in 1967 on Duke Reid’s Treasure Isle label. Including the original version of “The Tide is High” and featuring backing from Tommy McCook and The Supersonics, this set is a total delight.

19. Bratmobile, The Real Janelle and Peel Session (Kill Rock Stars) Bratmobile’s beautifully back-to-basics attack could really get under the skin of some listeners back in the day, and that’s likely still the case. Favoring a buzzy and at times kinda surfy feel that was nearer to Beat Happening and Girl Trouble than the blistering fury of others in their Riot Grrl cohort, Bratmobile could still let loose with the rage when it hit them. This combines their ’94 EP and subsequent Peel Session, and the whole still barely breaks 20 minutes.

18. Salem 66, Salt (Don Giovanni) Like a slew of 1980s underground bands, the Boston-based Salem 66 was underrated while active and posthumously neglected but not forgotten. This collection, issued on vinyl and CD, coincides with the digital reissue of what appears to be the band’s entire catalog (this is a model more contemporary reissue programs should employ). Salem 66 caught some occasional guff while extant for being a little too college rock in orientation, but the reality is that their approach was appealingly moody post-punk.

17. Ken McIntyre + Eric Dolphy, Looking Ahead (Craft Recordings) Obviously, the commercial hook here is Eric Dolphy, but please notice that Ken McIntyre’s name is favored size-wise in the cover design. McIntyre, who was later known as Makanda Ken McIntyre, was, like Dolphy, a multi-instrumentalist attracted to the edgier regions of the ’60s-’70s jazz scene. He recorded into the early ’90s as a leader and sideman with Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, Bill Dixon, and others, passing in 2001. Taking this album’s title into consideration, Looking Ahead is still a very approachable set, and it’s very deserving of reissue.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Back in 1980, Twisted Sister were still a few years from superstardom. They’d already been around since 1972, growing out of a band called Silver Star, who styled themselves as New Jersey’s New York Dolls. A year later, though, they changed their name and shifted their direction as well.

Constantly gigging, forever sharpening their sound, and undergoing a veritable plethora of line-up changes, Twisted Sister as we know them best would not emerge until 1982. But already they’d made appearances on major label comps, and they’d recorded, too, the first couple of live shows featured on 2016’s so-aptly titled box set Rock ‘N’ Roll Saviors – The Early Years. Now the most ferocious of those performances, from West Islip NY in1980, makes its stand-alone debut as Hammerheads—and what a show it is.

Opening with a positively roof-raising rampage through “What You Don’t Know (Sure Can Hurt You),” the 12 song concert sees these legends of crazed, cross-dressing hard rock mayhem absolutely slaying on stage, with—among so many more—future smash “Rock’n’Roll Saviors,” a fiery “Johnny B Goode,” and one of the all-time greats, “Born To Be Wild.”

It’s a devastating concert—the sound of a band that, still awaiting their first major break, has already put all the pieces in place. Now all they need do is wait for the world to catch up with them.

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There are voices in rock history that don’t just age; they gather texture, like a well-worn leather jacket that only gets cooler with time. Graham Bonnet possesses one of those voices.

When you think of the sheer power required to front bands like Rainbow, MSG, and Alcatrazz, you realize it takes a special kind of fortitude to keep that engine running decades later. With the release of Lost In Hollywood Again, recorded live at the legendary Whisky a Go Go on the Sunset Strip, the Graham Bonnet Band doesn’t just revisit history—they grab it by the collar and shake the dust off. And this isn’t a nostalgia trip; it’s a testament to the enduring vitality of hard rock when it’s delivered with Bonnet’s level of conviction.

From the moment the band launched into their set, I could feel the raw energy of the Whisky beginning to hum. The album opens with “Eyes of the World,” a 1979 Rainbow classic that immediately sets the stakes high. It’s a bold choice, demanding vocal dexterity right out of the gate, and Bonnet delivers. But the true centerpiece of the evening—and perhaps the emotional anchor of the entire record—is “Since You’ve Been Gone.”

Bonnet himself notes that this track “put Rainbow on the map,” and hearing it live in 2025 feels like a victory lap. The audience connection is electric; you can almost hear the crowd sweating along with the band as they belt out that iconic chorus. It captures the essence of a great live performance: the shared passion between artist and fan.

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Celebrating Dave Clark on his 86th birthday. —Ed.

The Dave Clark Five were one of the most successful and acclaimed bands of the British Invasion of the 1960s. Unlike The Beatles and many others of that time and place, however, they were not from Liverpool. The group was from Tottenham, in north London. Their big, booming, stomping, brassy and infectious sound propelled them to seven top-ten UK singles and eight top-ten US singles.

The DC5’s unique sound centered around Clark’s pounding drums, Mike Smith’s full-throated voice and wide-ranging keyboard styles, and Denis Payton’s honking sax. The group was rounded out by guitarist Lenny Davidson and bassist Rick Huxley. Huxley also played harmonica and all four members, other than Smith, supplied bracing backing vocals. Unlike most of the groups of the British Invasion, their sound did not center around guitars. They were the first British group after The Beatles to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show and they were inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 2008.

The group disbanded in 1970, but Dave Clark, who was the group’s manager and producer, has always curated the group’s legacy with aplomb. Among his many other activities through the years are acquiring the rights to the seminal British music television show Ready Steady Go! and, in the 1980s, he wrote and produced the 1986 theatrical musical Time.

There have been excellent collections of the group’s music on CD and vinyl, but the latest reissue is the best yet. The group’s debut U.S. album Glad All Over, originally released in 1964 and one of four albums released by the group in the U.S. that year, has been reissued on white vinyl in glorious mono, from the original master tapes from BMG.

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To kick off the week, here are ten of the finest box sets or expanded releases of 2025.

10. Clikatat Ikatowi, The Trials and Tribulations of… (Numero Group) Post-hardcore emerged in the 1980s (DC, Louisville, Chicago, Boston) as young musicians gained adeptness on their instruments and became frustrated with the stylistic restrictions on the right side of the hyphen. However, this new genre really flourished in the decade following as a younger generation absorbed the foundational post-hardcore records and caught the bands (that didn’t quickly break up) on tour.

San Diego was a bit of a hot spot of ’90s post-hardcore, and across this superb 3LP set, the city’s Clikatat Ikatowi brandish a highly consistent style with roots in records issued by the Touch and Go (Slint) and Homestead (Honor Role, Squirrel Bait) labels. An even bigger influence is the Dischord scene, which continued to hone post-hardcore deep into the ’90s alongside these more youthful upstarts. Any of the cuts on this superb collection would’ve fit nicely onto a ’90s-era compilation on Kill Rock Stars or an ’00s release on Troubleman Unlimited.

9. Kenny Burrell with Art Blakey, On View at the Five Spot Cafe: The Complete Masters (Blue Note) This is the second, and one would assume, given the titular addendum (although one can never be sure), final expansion of performances originally recorded in 1959 and released the same year. Capturing guitarist Burrell in the midst of a fertile creative stretch, these 14 selections across three LPs alternate a quintet with tenor saxophonist Tina Brooks, pianist Bobby Timmons, bassist Ben Tucker, and drummer Blakey with a quartet where Brooks lays out, and Roland Hanna takes Timmons’ spot.

The music these groups delivered to the Five Spot’s audience wasn’t perfect, in large part because the club’s piano was out of tune; so it was in ’59, and so it remained two years later when Eric Dolphy’s At the Five Spot was recorded, a profound gesture of disrespect during jazz’s supposed heyday. But Timmons and Hanna largely overcome this obstacle (as does Mal Waldron on the two Dolphy volumes), with Hanna particularly impressive in the quartet configuration. Blakey is his usual solid self, as is Tucker. Getting to hear more from the under-recorded Brooks is a treat. But it’s really Burrell’s show. He never lays a note wrong.

8. Xmal Deutschland, Gift: The 4AD Years (4AD) Formed in 1980 in Hamburg, Germany, with an all-female lineup, Xmal Deutschland emerged as part of the Neue Deutsche Welle scene, releasing their first single on the NDW-affiliated ZickZack label. That means Xmal is aptly categorized as post-punk, but it was a Goth orientation that surely attracted the band to 4AD’s owner-operator Ivo Watts-Russell and, by extension, landed them in late ’80s US import bins.

The most sensible comparison is Siouxsie and the Banshees, but Xmal had a harder edge that underscored a disinterest in imitation. Still, far too many prospective listeners, at least in the US, were dismissive of Xmal as the Goth genre became near-synonymous with poser-dom. That’s silly, and this set, which rounds up everything the band recorded for 4AD (that’s two LPs and two EPs inside ’83-’84), makes a strong case for Xmal as residing near the head of the original gloom-merchant class.

7. Ida, Will You Find Me (Numero Group) Marking the quarter century anniversary of what was to be Ida’s major label debut (for Capitol), the fourth album by this enduring New York City band (properly released by Tiger Style in 2000) gets a massive expansion, available either as a four LP or five CD set, with the latter holding a whopping 103 tracks (the vinyl comes with a download of the entire kaboodle).

It’s too often the case that a musical act’s major label debut connects as a disappointment, but in this almost instance, Ida was clearly bringing their best record to the (turn)table. That the deal fell through is almost certainly for the best, because Will You Find Me could’ve easily gotten lost in the shuffle, and then possibly stuck in legal purgatory. It didn’t; instead, it landed as a creative breakthrough. It’s a record wholly deserving of this bold enlargement, which is the dictionary definition of deep dive.

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Here I spent decades, hell, most of my life, thinking Eddy Grant’s synth-fueled, hard-rocking, reggae-flavored, let’s dance dawn-of-the-eighties MTV anthem “Electric Avenue” was about having a good time. I guess it would have helped to listen to the lyrics.

Because, and you probably know this, my lyrics-conscious brothers and sisters, it’s actually about a riot, the Brixton Riot of 1981 to be specific, and Eddy isn’t heading on down to Electric Avenue to have a good time, as I spent decades believing. He’s going to light shit up, and I’m not talking electricity. And it wasn’t the first protest song by the Guyanese-British musician–he’d been on the front lines since the mid-sixties as guitarist of the Equals, the UK’s first major interracial rock group, for whom he wrote the incendiary tracks “Police on My Back” (which the Clash culturally appropriated!) and “Black Skinned Blue Eyed Boys.”

The Equals were a top-notch rock/soul/reggae/pop act, and their most popular songs were apolitical, from their first (and biggest) hit “Baby Come Back” (1967) to “Viva Bobby Joe” (sample lines: “Bobby Joe and his funk machine, yeah, yeah/Everybody’s gonna see a sensation, a sensation”).

They had some bubblegum in them too; “Michael and the Slipper Tree” must have resonated with the kiddie crowd, ditto “Rub a Dub Dub” (the Equals Jamaican-born lead vocalist Dervan “Derv” Gordon wants to smell like a rose for his baby). And “Laurel and Hardy” is kiddie novelty rock at its most blatant. “Honey Gum” isn’t as chewy chewy as you’d expect, but it still has bubble-blowing appeal. Why, they even recorded a cover of The Music Machine’s bubblegum standard “Little Bit of Soul.”

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