VIA PRESS RELEASE | Twenty-five years after The Be Good Tanyas introduced their singular take on folk music to the world, the celebrated Vancouver group announces a special 25th anniversary edition of their debut album, Blue Horse, arriving November 20th, 2026 via Birthday Cake Records. The album previously had a very limited vinyl run and this new edition features archival photos and a new introduction from the group.

Originally independently released in Canada before finding an international audience in 2001 via Nettwerk Records, Blue Horse introduced The Be Good Tanyas’ intimate, unvarnished combination of traditional folk, deep country, Appalachian and blues. Across songs including “The Littlest Birds,” “Only in the Past,” “Light Enough to Travel,” “Rain and Snow” and “The Coo Coo Bird,” the record brought traditional folk music into conversation with a distinctly contemporary sensibility, anchored by the group’s loose instrumentation and unmistakable vocal harmonies.

Blue Horse emerged from remarkably modest circumstances, in fact the first few songs were recorded for free, live-off-the-floor at a local recording school as a student project with instructor Futcher. Later the band finished the record in a handful of evening and late-night sessions at Futcher’s small home studio on the edge of East Vancouver. The record’s homespun character became inseparable from its sound: warm, spacious and imperfect in all the right places, as though the listener had stumbled into a room where the songs were already being played.

The album also captured a particular moment in Vancouver’s late-’90s and early-’00s roots community. Frazey Ford, Samantha Parton, and Trish Klein, joined on the recording by Jolie Holland, approached traditional material not as museum pieces but as living songs, placing them alongside original compositions that felt capable of belonging to the same lineage.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MoFi), the leader in high-fidelity audio reissues, is proud to present The National’s 2007 breakthrough album, Boxer, in audiophile sound. Sourced from the original masters (16-bit / 44.1kHz digital master to analog console to lathe), mastered by engineer Krieg Wunderlich, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, and housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, MoFi’s numbered-edition 180g 45RPM 2LP set (pre-order HERE) is strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies and available October 9.

“Another uninnocent, elegant fall into the unmagnificent lives of adults”: That lyric distills the thematic essence of Boxer, a breakthrough that transformed The National from a respected indie act into one of the 21st century’s foremost bands. Replete with literary narratives, widescreen arrangements, and mysterious beauty, the album addresses issues of domesticity, maturation, and escapism with equal parts stark honesty and clever wit. Stately, rich, and intimate, Boxer is more relevant today than it was upon release in 2007.

The wider grooves of this collectible 45RPM reissue lend to improved tracking, precise detail, and high-frequency preservation that bring the quintet’s chamber textures, rhythmic pacing, and brassy accents forward with immediacy, depth, and balance. Black backgrounds practically place The National on an intimate stage in your listening space. At long last, the airiness, directness, and atmospherics The National generates at its acclaimed live shows can be experienced on record.

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Remembering Melvin Franklin, born on this day in 1942. —Ed.

On March 21, 2025, Elemental Music concluded the impressive string of reissues that constitutes the label’s Motown Sound Collection with a 180-gram edition of The Temptations’ Psychedelic Shack, the groundbreaking Norman Whitfield-produced LP from 1970. It’s an appropriate finale for a series that has divided its focus between the classic Motown approach to pop R&B and the company’s later forays into funkier and more expansive sonic terrain.

Psychedelic Shack isn’t Motown’s first dive into the style, whose impetus for Barry Gordy’s enterprise has often been attributed to Sly and the Family Stone. However, that’s somewhat reductive, as in terms of pop sophistication, the 5th Dimension almost certainly served up some inspiration to Gordy. Just as importantly to Norman Whitfield, as from a contemporary vantage point, psychedelic soul is the innovation upon which the producer’s reputation largely rests.

Attempts to cash in on trends can frequently age like a deli tray left out in the desert sunshine, with the sounds often reeking of the retrograde at the moment of first release. Aging poorly is really not the case with most of Motown’s psych soul output, though that shouldn’t suggest that the company’s intentions weren’t mercantile in nature.

But of course, Motown’s aims were far from purely financial, and the label’s excursion into psychedelic soul set as many trends as it followed them. Often it was both at once. For one example, Psychedelic Shack features two longer numbers, “Take a Stroll Through Your Mind” and “Friendship Train,” that set a standard for Motown album tracks to follow (even as some were released as singles in shorter edits). At the same time, likely being influenced by The Chambers Brothers’ “Time Has Come Today.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Craft Recordings celebrates the 50th anniversary of Have Moicy!, the genre-shaping “freak folk” collaboration from Michael Hurley, the Unholy Modal Rounders (led by Peter Stampfel), and Jeffrey Frederick & the Clamtones. Originally released in 1976, the offbeat album’s blend of traditional folk-rock motifs with playfully wacky lyricism (heard in songs like “Sweet Lucy,” “Griselda,” and “Robbin’ Banks”) became a cult favorite and later influenced the New Weird America movement of the late ’90s and early 2000s.

Arriving December 4, Have Moicy! will be reissued on LP, CD, and digital. The LP edition was pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing. CD and digital formats have been freshly remastered and are complete with a previously unreleased alternate version of “Sweet Lucy.” Both physical formats include new liner notes from writer, podcaster, producer, and musician Jason P. Woodbury (Aquarium Drunkard, Transmissions podcast). Pre-order today.

In 1975, some of the most unique talents from the Greenwich Village folk scene came together to create avant-garde magic. While Have Moicy! is credited to three acts, it was really one group of old friends who’d known each other since the early 1960s, sharing a love of irreverence and humor along with uncanny musical talent.

Peter Stampfel (b. 1938) co-founded the Holy Modal Rounders—a group that developed a devoted following for its innovative blend of witty lyricism, psychedelia, and traditional, early 20th-century folk modalities. When the group split into East and West Coast lineups in the mid-’70s, Stampfel’s New York–based side became the Unholy Modal Rounders. Jeffrey Frederick & the Clamtones formed out of that same split, as Frederick (1950–1997) embarked on a solo career; his blend of folk, country, and rock made him a pioneer—albeit a largely uncredited one—of the alt-country sound.

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Vocalist Jay Ferguson was the epitome of the journeyman musician, bouncing from never-made-the-big-time bands Spirit (“I Got a Line on You”) and Jo Jo Gunne (“Run Run Run”) before embarking on a solo career.

Which was auspiciously inauspicious until the Golden Year 1978, when Ferguson struck a blow for journeyman everywhere with the impossibly upbeat summertime/goodtime classic rock radio staple “Thunder Island.” And perhaps the most amazing thing is he pulled the classic rock monster hit out of his subconscious while wearing (it’s right on the album and single covers) quite possibly the ugliest man sandals ever to shame the male foot. Think beige, open-toed, and lattice-worked.

I look at them, and I feel physically ill. And to make matters worse, his shirt is unbuttoned, and his long hair looks like a cheap wind machine is blowing it back. And his mustache practically screams sex criminal.

Intermission No. 1: Ferguson ultimately turned his attention to film and TV scores, and he’s the genius who gave us the theme song for NBC TV’s The Office. How cool is that? He was even the guitarist in Kevin Malone’s band Scrantonicity! And he, chew on this, wrote the score for A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child. The greatest film score of all time!

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | “Drink The New Wine,” the last song ever recorded by Peter Murphy, Daniel Ash, Kevin Haskins, and David J—aka goth legends Bauhaus—will be issued on white, silver, and red vinyl, just in time for Halloween.
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Formed at the tail end of the 1970s, before there even was such a thing as Goth, Bauhaus effectively birthed an entire way of life with their debut single, the immortal “Bela Lugosi’s Dead.” Four albums in four years cemented the band’s reputation; a handful of much-applauded reunion tours (and a fifth album in 2008) ensured it remained in place. Indeed, even now, Cleopatra are planning a slew of releases based upon those later, thrilling, adventures.

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“Drink The New Wine,” however, is something else entirely. Musically, it is classic Bauhaus, as Ash explains. “I always loved it when Bauhaus would go into art fart mode. Truly liberating and FUN!” But the record itself, too, is unique.
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Releasing on 12-inch single on October 30, every color variant comes with an etched b-side, gloriously reproducing the Bauhaus logo. And with only 150 copies of each color available worldwide, clearly one of the final chapters in Bauhaus history is about to become one of the band’s rarest physical releases. Every copy will be individually hand numbered, making each color its own edition of only 150. There will be no repressing.

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Remembering John Lennon, born on this day in 1940. —Ed.

The Plastic Ono Band album, released in 1970 by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, is monumental in the annals of rock history. It was the fourth album John and Yoko released, but it is often credited as Lennon’s solo debut.

There were so many facets to what made the album so iconic, right from its initial release. First and foremost, it signaled Lennon’s complete break with The Beatles and the 1960s, spiritually and philosophically. It was a sharp severing of all the bonds that tied him to that earth-shattering decade as well as to his place in the band that defined the era. It was also his divorce from Paul McCartney, his songwriting partner and co-equal in The Beatles.

Emotionally and psychologically, the music was the result of Lennon’s time in primal scream therapy with American psychologist and psychotherapist Dr. Arthur Janov, who developed the therapy in the early 1950s. It is this therapy that informs Lennon’s use of raw, sparse backing as a foundation for his direct, unflinching, and often wrenching lyrics.

Lennon, unlike most rock stars (except maybe Pete Townshend), sought to shatter the mythology and invincibility of his group, especially after the breakup of The Beatles. George Harrison didn’t exactly seek to do that, but he felt the burden of being an ex-Beatle the heaviest.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Dark Horse Records is proud to announce Joe Strummer 003: The 101’ers Years, the definitive collection of studio and live recordings from Joe Strummer’s pre-Clash band, The 101’ers. Featuring the first known recordings of Joe Strummer, the collection captures a pivotal chapter in his development as an artist and documents a band caught between London’s pub-rock scene and the punk revolution that was about to unfold.

Produced by David Zonshine and remastered by Paul Hicks (The Beatles, David Bowie, Rolling Stones) and available on 20th November, the 3CD deluxe edition features 48 tracks and is housed in a 48-page hardback book with slipcase. The book includes a foreword by Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock, a history of The 101’ers written by band member Richard Nother Dudanski along with illustrations and writings by Joe Strummer.

Disc 1 collects the band’s studio recordings, including select newly mixed tracks. Disc 2 features basement tapes and demos, including one of Joe’s most intimate recordings, “Full Moon,” recorded alone at the band’s West London squat. Disc 3 is dedicated to live recordings including first performances of “Junco Partner,” which he later went on to famously cover with The Clash and an early version of “Jail Guitar Doors” originally titled “Lonely Mother’s Son.”

The demos and live recordings have been carefully restored by Paul Hicks from the original cassette tapes, including performances recorded directly from the soundboard, bringing recordings unheard for decades back to life.

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This band of Japanese noise punkers began life as the Psychedelic Speed Freaks, which summed them up so well their label recommended they change their name because it was “too direct.” So they opted for High Rise in tribute to the J.G. Ballard novel of the same name.

Other than that, nothing much changed—the band may have taken a new name, but they continued to produce some of the fastest, noisiest, most super-charged guitar-driven assaults ever recorded. In the red, they were, and the only question is, is there a color BEYOND red? Guitarist Munehiro Narita played like his goal was to find out.

And he was ably assisted by vocalist/bassist Asahito Nanjo, whose idea of a good time was recording, mixing, and mastering albums using extreme distortion, dynamic range compression, and clipping (overdriving an amp to the point of tweeter damage) to make the instruments unrecognizable. As for drummer Yuro Ujiie, his job was to hit the drums so hard they filed criminal charges for assault and battery.

1986’s II was High Rise’s debut, and I’m assuming they’re counting 1984’s live Psychedelic Speed Freaks (recorded under their original name) as their first. Unlike the live disc, which featured a slothful metal tune with a Black Sabbath vibe in “Bedlam,” II is a nonstop storm of furious fuzz, feedback, and fantastically fast tempos, and I’m pretty certain that listening to it frequently will make it impossible for you to have children.

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PASO ROBLES, CA | On a beautiful late September evening in a beautiful setting, some of the most, you guessed it, beautiful music was heard. Robert Plant and Saving Grace came to Vina Robles Amphitheatre in Paso Robles, California, an open-air venue set in the heart of Central Coast wine country, where vineyards and oak-studded hills make for a backdrop few concert halls can match.

As the sun went down over those hills, a crowd that spanned generations, from longtime fans in faded Led Zeppelin shirts to younger listeners drawn in by Plant’s more recent roots work, settled in for something that was neither a nostalgia act nor a greatest-hits revue. In that earthy setting, Plant and company delivered a night of otherworldly music, drawing on British folk, American gospel and blues, and, yes, the Zeppelin songbook, all of it filtered through a singer who has spent more than five decades refusing to stand still.

As part of a West Coast swing supporting their 2025 album, Saving Grace, Plant, along with Saving Grace, the band, a group he has been touring with since 2019, played to a packed house, or rather a packed backyard, since the venue is outdoors. Front and center with Plant for most of the show was Suzi Dian on vocals, accordion, and a bit of bass guitar. The rest of the band features drummer Oli Jefferson, guitarist Tony Kelsey, banjo and string player Matt Worley, and cellist Barney Morse-Brown.

A legend like Robert Plant could have pulled musicians from anywhere in the world, but Plant’s current musical journey brought him as close as his local pub to start this new venture. While Plant has explored folk and roots music before, most notably with Alison Krauss, this group is entirely English and Welsh, and Dian is his first English singing partner. That alone gives a unique take on the covers that Plant chose to explore and reinterpret.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Five decades after its original release, Elton John’s raucous and freewheeling album Rock of the Westies will receive a 50th Anniversary Edition reissue, out November 20 via UMe.

The special reissue will be available on multiple formats, including 2LP, 2CD and 1LP, with the expanded editions featuring previously unreleased Piano & Vocal Versions from the original album sessions. The 2017 remasters of the original album will now also be available for the first time on CD and digital. All available to pre-order now here.

Released in October 1975, Rock of the Westies is the tenth studio album by Elton John. Recorded at Caribou Ranch in Colorado and produced by longtime collaborator Gus Dudgeon, the album captures Elton and his band having fun at the height of their mid-’70s success. It was, as Elton says today, “the most genuine rock and roll record that I’ve ever made.”

The album arrived during an extraordinary year for Elton, following Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy just five months earlier. In 1975 alone, Elton headlined Wembley Stadium, released two studio albums, enjoyed a succession of hit singles and played his era-defining concerts at Dodger Stadium.

Against this backdrop, Rock of the Westies marked the pinnacle of an extraordinary period of commercial success, becoming his sixth consecutive album to reach No. 1 in the U.S.. It made history by entering the U.S. Billboard 200 at No. 1 and remaining there for three consecutive weeks, while also reaching the top five of the UK Albums Chart.

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Celebrating Robert “Kool” Bell on his 76th birthday. —Ed.

Funky stuff—and even more funky stuff—that’s what Kool and the Gang have on offer on 1973’s party manifesto Wild and Peaceful. Just how funky is this LP? Well, my copy has its very own musk, and I had an enormously difficult time with this review because I couldn’t stop toprocking long enough to write it. From the whistle that sounds at the beginning of the opening track “Funky Stuff,” you know things are going to get wild, and they do. They do.

I’m familiar with Kool and the Gang thanks to Top 40 radio, which played both “Jungle Boogie” and “Hollywood Swinging” with wonderful regularity when I was but a young sprout.

And how I loved them! A naysayer might interject that neither tune rises to the pure badassness of P-Funk, but said naysayer would be missing the point. Both of them were like nothing else on the radio at the time—their chanted vocals, fierce horn charts, rubbery grooves, and sheer funky strangeness (love roadie turned lead singer Don Boyce’s maniacal lip blubber on “Jungle Boogie”!) were sui generis, baby. They could almost have been novelty tunes, and perhaps in fact they were, but if so, the novelty never wore off and never will.

Robert “Kool” Bell and the Gang’s “Jungle Boogie” was without a doubt the funkiest song to ever hit this adolescent honky cat’s ears; toss in some cool guitar scratch, a relentless groove, and some truly deranged vocals, and what you have is a song for the ages. “Hollywood Swinging” is a subtler beast; in its unique way, it presages Kool and the Gang’s subsequent shift towards disco, but it possesses a sophistication—so many layered voices and sounds, such a cool guitar, and check out those horns!—that most disco tunes lacked.

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