VIA PRESS RELEASE | The Monkees—the 1966 debut that launched a global pop culture phenomenon—turns 60 with a new anniversary collection arriving October 30 from Rhino.

The Monkees (60th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) is available to pre-order now at Rhino.com. Produced by Monkees historian Andrew Sandoval, the LP/3CD set pairs the original album’s stereo mix on vinyl with a trio of CDs packed with the album’s mono mix, alternate takes, backing tracks, and broadcast-exclusive mixes from the Emmy-winning series.

Released in October 1966, The Monkees reshaped the pop landscape and helped make Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork superstars overnight.

Driven by the runaway success of the band’s #1 debut single, “Last Train To Clarksville,” the album skyrocketed to the top of the Billboard album chart, where it remained for 13 consecutive weeks on its way to quintuple-platinum certification. The album is loaded with classic tunes by legendary songwriting teams like Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, as well as Gerry Goffin and Carole King.

The anniversary collection delivers a rich behind-the-scenes look at this historic album with dozens of rare recordings. Highlights include the TV mix of “Take A Giant Step,” an alternate take of Nesmith’s “Papa Gene’s Blues,” a rehearsal for “I Wanna Be Free,” plus backing tracks for album favorites like “(Theme From) The Monkees.” The set also gathers vintage promos and the group’s rare Kellogg’s jingle.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Wewantsounds is proud to present the first official release of a legendary 1977 concert capturing Don Cherry, Collin Walcott, and Leon Thomas in their only documented performance together.

Recorded live on March 5, 1977, at Pease Auditorium in Ypsilanti, Michigan, the performance featured the three musicians playing an immersive hypnotic set, joined for part of the evening by the rest of Oregon. Long circulating among a few Don Cherry fans, the full concert is now available as a deluxe, remastered 2-LP gatefold set featuring Moki Cherry artwork and new liner notes by Jason Weiss—licensed by the Don Cherry Estate and producer James Quinlan.

Don Cherry’s huge influence has steadily grown over the years, as fans and new generations of listeners continue to uncover the vast breadth of his global musical vision. Sunrise captures Cherry during a particularly fertile late-1970s period, when the American jazz trumpeter blended global and Eastern spiritual concepts into his “Organic Music” philosophy, drawing deeply from Eastern and African traditions.

Moving fluidly between trumpet, the West African doussn’gouni (a traditional hunter’s harp from Mali), bamboo flutes, percussion, and vocals, Cherry creates a deeply resonant world music soundscape. Recorded live on March 5, 1977, at Pease Auditorium in Ypsilanti, Michigan, the show took place just a month after Don Cherry participated in the recording of Collin Walcott’s ECM album Grazing Dreams.

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Celebrating Frankie Avalon on his 86th birthday. —Ed.

It’s easy to say snide things about Frankie Avalon. I myself have called the teen idol who first made his name as a trumpet player, then as a singer, and finally as the star of such immortal motion pictures as 1963’s Beach Party (with Annette Funicello, natch) and 1965’s Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (with Vincent Price) the worst thing to happen to rock ’n’ roll this side of the extended drum solo.

I’m being unfair, of course. Avalon was just a good Italian kid from Philly who specialized in froth, didn’t have a rebellious bone in his body, and never pretended otherwise. An earnest and wholesome boy who never got hooked on heroin or attempted to reinvent himself as a pinwheel-eyed avatar of the hallucinogenic sixties was our Frankie. But say what you will about his escapist product, Avalon has always been and will always be true to himself.

As anyone who has ever listened to “Venus” or “Why” knows, Avalon was a crooner whose saccharine songs sound inconceivable as teen product to anyone reared in the rock ’n’ roll era. Lush orchestral arrangements, choirs, you name it—Frankie’s producers liked to lard it on, and on, and on. Ah, but once, just once—and it is as glorious a moment as any in the annals of rock—Avalon said to hell with it and got down with his bad self, garage rock style.

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There is a version of every record you own that you have never heard. Not a remaster, not a better pressing—the one the people who made it were hearing while they made it. Ultimate Ears Pro has spent three decades building the hardware that grants that access, starting in 1995 with a pair of custom monitors for Alex Van Halen and ending up in the ears of a startling percentage of the artists on your shelf.

I have spent my listening life on the other side of that glass: speakers, a room, a needle, the compromises of moving air across fifteen feet. So, I sat in an audiologist’s chair and had impressions taken of my ear canals, then sat with UE Pro and blind-tested all eight monitors in its lineup until my own ears picked a winner, and about ten days later, took delivery of a pair of UE Premiers that fit nobody else on earth. Then I plugged them into a turntable. What came back wasn’t a smaller version of my system. It was a much bigger one. And because UE Pro would rather you hear this for yourself than take my word for it, they’re giving a pair away to one of you.

It starts with your ears, and that is where I had badly underestimated things. The mold is not packaging. It is the first component in the chain, and everything the monitor does downstream is built on top of it. A custom shell seals the canal completely, and that seal is what gives twenty-one drivers something to push against—without it, there is no real low end and no isolation worth the name. A universal tip approximates your ear. An impression doesn’t have to approximate anything.

I went to Ann Mundell-Noel at Amazing Hearing in Laguna Hills, and the appointment felt closer to a medical exam than a fitting, which is essentially what it is. She inspected both canals first, reading the depth and shape she’d be casting, clearing anything that would compromise the mold, and narrating every step a beat before she took it.

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I recently spoke with Gerald Casale, co-founder of Devo and one of the architects of a band that turned the theory of de-evolution into one of the most conceptually rigorous acts ever encountered, while also being wildly fun. Along with Mark Mothersbaugh and Bob Lewis, Casale built Devo out of Kent, Ohio, in the early 1970s.

Casale was a graduate student at Kent State on May 4, 1970, and witnessed the National Guard shootings that killed four students, two of whom he knew. That day shaped the worldview that de-evolution came from, and it runs through everything Devo has made since. We got into all of it: the origins of Devo, the band itself, politics, Kent State, his winemaking, and his new solo work.

In July, he released the single and animated video “Just Do It!,” the first track from his forthcoming solo album Wetiko. Built with satirical artist Max Papeschi and animator Maurizio Temporin, and co-written with composer Moimir Papalescu, the video is a blistering piece of political satire timed to America’s 250th anniversary.

We also talked about Devo’s recent and upcoming touring, including the co-headlining Cosmic De-Evolution run with The B-52s, and what it means to be finding a new generation of fans this far into the story. Jerry amusingly calls Devo the New Wave Grateful Dead. Artist, provocateur, songwriter, director, and winemaker. What an incredible life. He joined Radar to talk about all of it.

You can find all things Jerry at geraldvcasale.com and follow along with all upcoming Devo happenings at clubdevo.com and you can find Jerry and Devo across all socials, of course.

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.

Is it possible that the best lyricist (and one of the best songwriters) in poor, benighted America is a guy most people have never heard of? Mark Eitzel, formerly the unjustly neglected frontman of the unjustly neglected American Music Club, hasn’t been unjustly neglected by the press. In 2008, The Guardian declared him “America’s greatest living lyricist,” and in 1991, Rolling Stone honored him as Songwriter of the Year.

He would have an Academy Award as well, but the people who hand out those golden Oscar Statuettes have an inexplicable prejudice against people who’ve never had anything to do with a motion picture. (Not true: “Blue and Grey Shirt” was used in the 2023 film Fellow Travelers.)

Yet despite the accolades, he labors away in semi-anonymity, singing his confessional songs in that one-in-a-million baritone voice, the Poet Laureate of the Alcoholic Undertow. He’s written more brilliant songs than I can count, including the Best American Song of the Past Fifty Years, “Johnny Mathis’ Feet,” a sweeping and anthemic blockbuster in which Johnny himself takes a look at Eitzel’s songs and tells him where he’s gone wrong:

“And with a wave of his jewel-encrusted hand
Across the glittering Las Vegas scene he said
‘You gotta learn how to disappear in the silk and amphetamine’”

I have my favorite LPs by the crushingly depressed comedian credited with inventing Slowcore, and they include American Music Club’s Everclear (1991), Mercury (1993), and 1994’s pre-AMC-breakup San Francisco. But I also have a sentimental favorite, the 1995 EP “Hello Amsterdam,” which shares two songs with San Francisco but also includes several songs that give it real entertainment appeal.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Forty years after Crowded House introduced themselves to the world with one of the most enduring debuts of the 1980s, Capitol Record Club celebrates the milestone with an expanded 40th anniversary edition of Crowded House, featuring the original album alongside another LP’s worth of rarities, including a selection appearing on vinyl for the very first time. The album is out September 25 and is now available for pre-order.

Strictly limited to 2,000 individually numbered copies, the Capitol Record Club exclusive is pressed on ember red and raincloud gray vinyl and includes a collectible 22” x 33” poster. Mastered for vinyl by Levi Seitz at Black Belt Mastering from 24-bit/192kHz (Sides A, C) and 16/44.1 (Side D) digital sources.

Released in 1986, Crowded House carried forward the melodic invention and personality of the New Wave era while transforming those influences into a warmer, more refined pop-rock sensibility that would help define the decade ahead. Neil Finn, Paul Hester, and Nick Seymour delivered the songs with infectious charm and unmistakable chemistry, but it was Finn’s songwriting, rich with indelible hooks, emotional nuance, and lyrical sophistication, that immediately distinguished the band from its contemporaries.

At the heart of the album is “Don’t Dream It’s Over, the reflective ballad of hope and resilience that became Crowded House’s signature song and a worldwide hit. Alongside favorites, including “Something So Strong” and “World Where You Live,” among others, the song helped propel Crowded House far beyond the musical moment from which it emerged. Four decades later, the album has transcended its era to become a timeless pop-rock classic and the foundation of Crowded House’s enduring international career.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | The Zombies, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees and “British Invasion” pioneers, announce the release of Continue Here (Mono Remastered) on October 30th via Beechwood Park Records. The album is a never-before released collection of all non-album singles/b-sides released between their albums Begin Here and Odessey and Oracle (1964–1967) and follows the recent releases of Begin Here (Mono Remastered) and Odessey And Oracle (Mono Remastered). 

The volume of singles released by The Zombies was not unusual in the mid-1960’s. Recalls lead singer Colin Blunstone: “It was very much a singles-orientated market in those days. Albums were almost an afterthought. After the sudden success of “She’s Not There,” the band was under constant pressure from Decca Records to record and release a new single every six weeks! Rod (Argent) and Chris (White) would have to sit in the back of the tour bus to write songs every chance they got, and then we’d rush into the studio whenever there was a break. I tried my own hand at songwriting for the band during this time, and we recorded my two first songs, which are included in this new release!”

Few of these singles made an impact on the charts when originally released, however, the songs were soon embraced by other artists. A cover of “I Love You” by San Jose band People! made the Billboard Top 20 in 1968, while a 16-year-old Tom Petty began a life-long obsession with The Zombies after hearing “I Want You Back Again” on the radio (the song later became a regular feature of his live set with The Heartbreakers), and Sonny & Cher improbably cut their own version of “Leave Me Be” for 1966’s The Wondrous World of Sonny & Cher.

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Remembering Dee Dee Ramone in advance of his birthdate tomorrow. —Ed.

It’s easy to take this, the Ramones’ landmark 1976 self-titled debut, too seriously. Sure, it signaled a seismic shift in rock music, exploding like an M80 in the minds of every cretinous young thing who’d had it up to here with the pompous, bloated likes of ELP, Queen, and the Eagles. And sure, this baby is often celebrated as the first real punk rock LP.

But so far as declarations of war go, Ramones is a hilarious one. On it, the most famous band to ever come out of Forest Hills, Queens state their demands (they wanna be your boyfriend and they wanna sniff some glue; they don’t wanna go down to the basement and they don’t wanna walk around with you), dabble with fascism (“I’m a Nazi schatze”), and beat on the brat with a baseball bat.

The Ramones weren’t the first NYC band to give voice to the inchoate yearnings of teengenerates everywhere; the Dictators got there first with 1975’s Go Girl Crazy!, and they deserve their due. But unlike Handsome Dick Manitoba and Company, the Ramones got their yucks playing their songs at tempos that boggled the imagination; I saw the Ramones early on, without having ever heard a single note of their music, and the experience bordered on the traumatic.

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Remembering Hank Williams, born on this day in 1923. —Ed.

Hank Williams is an icon of early country music, but he recorded before the LP era really took hold, so posthumously assembled compilations dominate his legacy. These sets come in various sizes and levels of quality. The latest, Pictures from Life’s Other Side: The Man and his Music in Rare Photos and Recordings, offers 144 transcriptions from Williams’ Mother’s Best radio program on six CDs, all tucked into a magnificent hardcover book loaded with photos, many of them in color, that serve to broaden the life of the artist beyond the still too common reduction of strife and an early death. But if it’s vinyl you require, the 3LP distillation Only Mother’s Best is also available from BMG.

When it comes to concise surveys of Hank Williams’ exceptional musical abilities (by which I mean single or double sets), the gold standard remains Polydor’s 40 Greatest Hits. Released in 1978, it was distinguished at the time for its lack of production meddling. Those four vinyl sides weren’t rechanneled into stereo, and there was no additional posthumous meddling such as overdubs or duet fakery.

40 Greatest Hits was just pure Hank, and for those who favored his work, disappointment in the listening experience was impossible. That’s not the same as being fully satisfied, however, which is where box sets come into the picture. Mercury’s 1998 10CD The Complete Hank Williams is an award winner, but amongst the numerous two- and three-disc collections, there’s an even bigger assemblage, Time Life’s The Complete Mother’s Best Recordings…Plus!, which emerged in 2010 as a 15CD behemoth.

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