VIA PRESS RELEASE | Twenty-five years ago today, the late musical mastermind Elliott Smith released Figure 8, his immaculate, ornate, Technicolor second album for DreamWorks Records.

In honor of the album’s 25th anniversary, its enduring appeal and continued influence, Interscope/UMe will release Figure 8 (Deluxe Edition), the previously digital-only edition that expands the classic album with all the B-sides, solo acoustic and alternate version tracks that were released on the various singles, promos, and international editions of the beloved 2000 record, on vinyl for the first time. The Deluxe Edition was released as a digital exclusive in 2019 to commemorate what would have been Smith’s 50th birthday.

The first-ever vinyl pressing of Figure 8 (Deluxe Edition) features the album presented on 45 rpm tri-color opaque white, black and red “Figure 8 Mural Vinyl” as a nod to the famous Los Angeles mural that a black and white Smith stands in front of on the iconic album cover. The original 16 tracks are spread across two LPs while a third LP boasts seven bonus tracks, six of which have never been on vinyl.

The audio has been mastered for vinyl by Justin Perkins at Mystery Room Mastering with lacquers cut by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound. This special 25th anniversary Deluxe Edition will be housed in a tri-fold sleeve and this exclusive vinyl colorway is limited to 3,000 globally. Figure 8 (Deluxe Edition) is available to purchase exclusively via Interscope.com. The record will ship on or around June 6.

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Celebrating Andy Shernoff in advance of his 70th birthday tomorrow. —Ed.

You can’t judge a book by its cover, but LPs? A whole different story. One glance at the cover of The Dictators’ 1975 debut Go Girl Crazy!—which features roadie turned singer and “Secret Weapon” Handsome Dick Manitoba hamming it up in a wrestling outfit and a 200-watt smile, resplendent in Jewfro and dark sunglasses, an outrageous red glitter jacket bearing his name hanging from a gym locker nearby—and you know you’re in the presence of something truly outrageous and great.

Oh, how I love The Dictators. The New Yawk proto-punkers may have produced only one brilliant LP, namely Go Girl Crazy! (which sold like shit), but talk about influential; you can draw a direct line between it to The Ramones and straight to The Beastie Boys. All three bands have the same smartass “fight for your right to party” punk attitude; they all deliver tons of snotty and hilarious one-liners; and they all use great guitar riffs to deliver the goods. If The Ramones (who later did a version of “California Sun” off Go Girl Crazy!) and The Beastie Boys didn’t cop their entire shtick from The Dictators’ debut, I’m Michael Bolton, mulleted version.

But to be honest I don’t give a shit whether Go Girl Crazy! was the Sgt. Pepper of proto-punk and the Rosetta Stone for hundreds of bands that came later. All that matters to me is that Go Girl Crazy! is one of the rockingest, funniest, and most gleeful albums ever made. And it’s good-natured, too. I used the word “snotty” above, but The Dictators are a friendly lot, and as a result get away with a lot. You would expect songs like “Master Race Rock” and “Back to Africa” to be prime examples of the deliberate punk outrage, but both turn out to be just the opposite of what they appear to be, namely funny and friendly. Why, these guys don’t even swear; co-lead vocalist Andy “Adny” Shernoff says “heck!”

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PHOTO: DEVON BRISTOL-SHAW | On this episode of Radar, I speak with Oliver Ackermann who is the founder and creator of the Brooklyn-based effects pedal company Death By Audio, and is the guitarist and lead singer for New York-based punk/noise/shoe-gaze band A Place to Bury Strangers.

They have released seven LPs, fourteen EPs, a live album, and more singles than I can count. They are prolific and committed to the cause. Their most recent is called Synthesizer (Dedstrange). It is a wonderful record that also comes in a limited edition series of LPs where the album cover itself doubles as a circuit board and functional synth for curious and enterprising fans. “It’s pretty messed up and chaotic. But it feels really human,” says Oliver. “In an era of making music where so little is DIY and so much is left up to AI, never setting foot in a practice room or a home studio, making something that feels deliberately chaotic, messy, and human, is entirely the point.”

I had a wonderful time talking about the record with Oliver along with his approach to live shows, his love of art, community, and mixtapes.

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.

What’s all the fuss about this guy? And does anyone listen to him for pleasure? Between that sepulchral voice and the black attire and the overheated Gothic death dirges, which split the difference between folk music and lurid (and despite his rep as a “poet,” not very well written) and lugubrious blues melodrama, I just don’t see (or hear) the appeal. His “dark vision” is verbosity for verbosity’s sake and might work as comedy, but the man ain’t in it for the laughs. He’s for dead real serious.

Or is he? “I consider myself to be first and foremost a comic writer,” he once said. “The way I entertain myself—especially in those long and grim hours in the office—is to write stuff I find funny.” Is Cave a black humorist, and I’m simply too dumb to get the joke? I don’t think so. My sense of humor is blacker than Cave’s usual attire, and I’m not laughing. And I find E.M. Cioran funny.

I only have two problems with Nick Cave—his music and his lyrics. The former is dreary, morbid (he’s got a lot in common with the death metal crowd) and should be kept out of the hands of those with suicidal ideation. His lyrics show he spends a lot of time in the company of the Oxford English Dictionary, and it’s not doing him any favors. Take the opening line of a song I picked at random, “We Call Upon the Author”:

“Our myxomatoid kids spraddle the streets
We’ve shunned them from the greasy-grind
The poor little things they look so sad and old
As they mount us from behind.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | In the early 1970s, Dusty Springfield relocated from her native England to Los Angeles in an effort to pursue new opportunities in her career and signed with ABC/Dunhill Records. Her 1973 album Cameo showcased Springfield’s soulful pop in splendid fashion but failed to generate significant traction outside of Billboard’s Adult Contemporary listings. For her sophomore project with the label the following year, Dusty travelled to New York to team with producer Brooks Arthur, renowned for his work with Phil Spector’s 1960s coterie of girl singers.

For Longing, Arthur chose to frame Dusty in the 1970s singer-songwriter milieu, surrounding her with material from Colin Blunstone (“Exclusively for Me”), Melissa Manchester & Carole Bayer Sager (“Home to Myself”), Janis Ian (“In the Winter”), Stephen Schwartz (“Corner of the Sky”), Chi Coltrane (“Turn Me Around”), Barry Manilow (“I Am Your Child”) and others. In many cases, the songwriters themselves contributed directly by playing keyboards on their respective creations at Arthur’s famed 911 Studios. Bruce Springsteen was also known to sit in on some of the sessions in admiration.

As the sessions wound down in the summer of 1974, Dusty found herself suffering from emotional exhaustion and professional uncertainty. She subsequently chose to put the album on the shelf and part ways with the label, ultimately re-recording a pair of the tracks when she signed to United Artists Records a few years later.

In 2001, under the supervision of producer Arthur, nine of the ten tracks he recorded with Dusty were released on CD as part of a collection of her ABC/Dunhill period. A tenth track (“Corner of the Sky” from the Broadway musical Pippin) was reworked as a duet with Petula Clark and included on a pair of her anthologies. Now, all ten tracks make their vinyl debut, including the first-ever solo release of “Corner of the Sky” along with new mixes for eight of the other selections for this dual CD & LP release.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Today, Interscope Records, Pophouse and the Avicii Estate are proud to announce the upcoming release of Avicii Forever, a compilation featuring 19 essential tracks from Avicii’s iconic catalog, along with the brand-new single “Let’s Ride Away” featuring Elle King.

This special release honors the lasting impact and influence of Tim Bergling, better known to the world as Avicii. With beloved hits like “Wake Me Up,” “Levels,” “Heart Upon My Sleeve” (feat. Imagine Dragons), and more, Avicii Forever captures the spirit and sound that made Avicii a global phenomenon.

The compilation also introduces “Let’s Ride Away,” a long-awaited new track that showcases Avicii’s genre-defying sound, blending folk and electronic elements with powerful vocals by Elle King. Avicii Forever will be available across all major streaming platforms, in physical formats, and through exclusive content on Avicii’s official social channels on May 16 and is available now for pre-order here.

Avicii, born Tim Bergling in Stockholm, Sweden, was a visionary artist, producer, and DJ who revolutionized electronic dance music (EDM). Known for blending electronic beats with soulful melodies, Avicii’s groundbreaking style bridged genres and resonated with fans worldwide. He first rose to international fame with the 2011 hit “Levels,” which became an anthem for a generation and solidified his place as one of the most innovative figures in modern music.

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Celebrating Bez in advance of his 61st birthday tomorrow. —Ed.

A crash course for the ravers—back in the late 1980s, Happy Mondays became the veritable house band for Madchester’s e-fueled rave scene, which transformed an entire generation of Joe Bloggs-clad English kids into pinwheel-eyed, whizz-happy 24-hour party people stepping on and up, up, up to a dizzying sound composed of equal parts alternative rock, acid house, funk, and psychedelia.

Oh, it was a glorious time, a true Renaissance as it were. I’d have loved to be there when the party started, and every blessed baggy-jeans wearing ecstasy-altered geezer at the Haçienda loved every other baggy-jeans wearing ecstasy-altered geezer at the Haçienda. And every single one of them knew the song—which just happened to be the Happy Monday’s deliriously danceable “Step On,” with its infectious keyboard progression and funky drumming—would go on forever.

It didn’t of course—I strongly recommend Pulp’s “Sorted for e’s and Whizz” if you’re looking for a post-mortem—and Happy Mondays crashed as hard, or harder, than anybody else, having gone “crack crazy” (in guitarist Paul Ryder’s words) in Barbados during the sessions that would culminate in 1992’s Yes Please! But you can still hear the joy of being young and very, very chemically altered in every song on Happy Mondays’ 1999 Greatest Hits.

On such immortal ravers as “Step On,” “Kinky Afro,” “Loose Fit,” “Mad Cyril,” and “24-Hour Party People” brothers Shaun and Paul Ryder and Company (including of course, the band’s official “dancer” Bez) kept the punters soaring above the dance floor all night long. It’s all there in “Kinky Afro”—Brit pop melded smoothly to a seductive groove—and “Loose Fit,” the definitive baggy anthem and Madchester fashion manifesto, which fuses funky percussion to a lovely riff and a message (“Don’t need no tight fits in my wardrobe today”) that put a sizeable segment of England’s youth in flares.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Shocking. Hilarious. Boundary-defying. Fearless. Brilliant. In the world of comedy, few names resonate as powerfully as Richard Pryor. Regarded as one of the greatest and most influential comedians of all time, Pryor’s ability to weave incisive social and political observations into his storytelling has left an indelible mark on the genre. His comedic legacy goes beyond awards and accolades; he used humor to explore complex themes like race, addiction, and personal trauma, challenging societal norms while making audiences laugh.

In a celebration of his comedic genius, the enduring legacy of Richard Pryor is encapsulated in a newly released 7LP boxed set, I Hope I’m Funny: The Warner Albums (1974–1983), out April 18. Each album showcases Pryor’s unparalleled humor and thought-provoking social commentary, solidifying his reputation as one of the greatest comedians of all time.

The set includes six albums: That N*****’s Crazy, …Is It Something I Said?, Bicentennial N*****, Wanted/Richard Pryor Live in Concert (double-LP), Live On The Sunset Strip, and Here and Now. Limited to 1,000 copies, I Hope I’m Funny: The Warner Albums (1974–1983) is available exclusively at Rhino.com.

Scott Saul, a Professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Becoming Richard Pryor (Harper Perennial), details Pryor’s essential recorded output between 1974 and 1983 in the set’s enlightening liner notes. Saul takes a deep dive into Pryor’s vast and immeasurable influence on the world of comedy, quoting comedian Paul Rodriguez, who once said that “there are two periods in comedy in America: before Richard Pryor and after Richard Pryor.”

“The Age of Pryor has never ended,” Saul writes. “Across the six albums collected here, Pryor blew open what a comedian could do onstage, and it’s the rare comedian who is not somehow in his debt.”

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For bluegrass fans, guitarist Clarence White needs no introduction. And as a member of The Byrds, White’s impact on rock music in its maturation phase was substantial. These dual achievements were often in dialogue with each other, and on Melodies from a Byrd in Flyte: 1963–1973, White’s groundbreaking acoustic bluegrass flatpicking is sequenced on side one and his equally innovative electric playing takes up side two. Released by Liberation Hall for Record Store Day, copies are available now.

Listeners with a deep appreciation for Clarence White are possibly familiar with this set as The Lost Masters: 1963-1973, which Liberation Hall released on CD in September of 2023. With a debut on vinyl comes a change in title and improved cover art, but nothing else has changed right down to the sequence of the tunes and the liner notes by producer John Delgatto.

White is a fascinating figure, a player so exceptional that he was able to essentially escape criticism and condemnation from the notoriously conservative segment of the bluegrass community for turning his attention to the rock scene, switching to electric guitar, and making a sizable splash as a member of The Byrds. He joined that band in earnest in 1968, having played on Sweetheart of the Rodeo the year before.

The transition to electric occurred prior to playing on Sweetheart, as White was a member of two noted country bands on the California scene, Nashville West and The Roustabouts. Featuring Gib Guibeau on rhythm guitar, Wayne Moore on bass, and Gene Parsons on drums alongside White and his distinctive tone, Nashville West are represented on Melodies from a Byrd in Flyte with two tracks, an excellent non-vocal run-through of “Ode to Billie Joe” that opens side two, and the gorgeous band original “Nashville West.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | For more than half a century, Norman Greenbaum’s 1969 anthem “Spirit in the Sky” has captivated listeners of all generations with its euphoric energy and bold, genre-bending sound. Now, Craft Recordings celebrates the song’s era-defying legacy with two special releases: a brand-new Dolby Atmos® mix of the single available to stream/download now, and a vinyl reissue of Greenbaum’s kaleidoscopic debut album, Spirit in the Sky, arriving June 13.

Long out-of-print, Greenbaum’s 1969 debut returns to vinyl in a replica tip-on jacket with lacquers cut from the original tapes (AAA) by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio. Anchored by its beloved, iconic title track, “Spirit in the Sky,” the album fuses rock, gospel, and psychedelia, featuring hidden gems like “Marcy,” “Tars Of India,” and “Skyline” that highlight Greenbaum’s distinctive songwriting style. Meanwhile, the Dolby Atmos single gives fans an opportunity to experience “Spirit in the Sky” in transcendent spatial audio.

Fueled by one of the most unforgettable guitar hooks in music history, the single “Spirit in the Sky” premiered in December 1969 and soon reached the No. 1 spot on charts across the globe, including the US, Australia, Canada, Ireland, the UK, and Germany. Eventually selling over two million copies worldwide, the gold-certified track marked a major commercial and creative breakthrough for Greenbaum, fusing elements of rock & roll, gospel, pop, and psychedelia with a daring originality way ahead of its time.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Wewantsounds is delighted to continue its Algerian music reissue program with the release of Les Abranis’ coveted 1983 LP, Album No. 1. Originally recorded in Paris and privately pressed by the group, the album is now being reissued for the first time.

Curated by Cheb Gero, who recently compiled the Sweet Rebels Rai set for Wewantsounds, Album No. 1 is a masterful blend of Kabyle grooves, funk, and hints of reggae. Also known as Id Ed Was, the album is reissued with its original artwork, remastered audio by Colorsound Studio in Paris, and a two-page insert with new liner notes (in French and English) by journalist Rabah Mezouane. The Kabyle group Les Abranis from Algeria has become one of the most sought-after bands on the global beat scene over the years.

Founded in France in the late 1960s by two young Algerian Kabyle workers, Shamy El Vaz and Karim Abdenour, Les Abranis rose to prominence in the 1970s with their innovative sound, blending traditional Kabyle music with funk, rock, and psychedelic influences. Their lyrics, often sung in Kabyle, celebrate Amazigh identity and culture, making them a major influence on the North African music scene and beyond.

In 1973, they returned to Algeria to participate in the Festival de la Chanson Algérienne (Festival of Algerian Song). Despite facing opposition from the country’s authorities—who viewed them as a societal threat due to their use of the Kabyle language instead of Arabic—their popularity continued to grow.

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