VIA PRESS RELEASE | Pink Floyd announce a new San Tropez Orange Marble vinyl edition of their landmark 1971 album Meddle, for this year’s National Album Day, via Sony Music. Out on October 17th, you can pre-order Meddle here.

A pivotal moment in the band’s development, Meddle was the sixth studio album by the British rock group, originally released in 1971. Produced between touring commitments and widely regarded as a notable progression from their previous work, the band devised a series of novel recording and writing experiments, which also inspired the album’s “Echoes.”

Alongside this, it’s also announced that a newly restored high-resolution version of the iconic “Echoes” sequence, the final chapter from cult-classic 1973 surf film Crystal Voyager, will be available via Pink Floyd’s YouTube channel on 17th October.

The 1973 documentary directed by David Elfick was written and narrated by futuristic surfer, photographer and filmmaker George Greenough. Its iconic closing sequence shot by Greenough showcased his innovative new technique for filming in the water, involving a self-developed and built seventeen pound camera rig, which allowed the audience to see footage from inside a wave for the first time ever.

Greenough was looking for an appropriate soundtrack for this groundbreaking footage, and stumbled across a record his mother had bought for him. Upon hearing the closing track, and noting its perfectly matched 23-minute run time, he knew he had found what he was looking for. Then came the necessity of getting permission to use the song.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Vinylphyle is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Bee Gees’ 1976 smash Children of the World with a meticulously crafted new premium vinyl edition of the group’s transformative 14th studio album. Featuring the No. 1 hit “You Should Be Dancing,” Children of the World captured Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb at a pivotal moment as the group embraced the funk and dance-floor rhythms that would help define their next era.

Available 9/23 exclusively via uDiscover Music, the album was cut by Joe Nino-Hernes from the 1976 copy tape and is presented on 180-gram black vinyl pressed at RTI. Housed in a tip-on gatefold jacket, the edition includes a four-panel insert featuring tape box scans, additional photography and new liner notes featuring an interview between John Merchant, the Bee Gees’ engineer for the last 35 years, and Karl Richardson and Albhy Galuten, co-producers and engineers for the band’s 1970s hot streak.

Released in 1976, Children of the World was the Bee Gees’ first album produced by the group themselves, working in tandem with Richardson and Galuten. Building on the rhythmic direction that had begun reshaping their sound, the album paired the Bee Gees’ unmistakable harmonies and melodic instincts with a deeper embrace of funk and dance music.

The result was a Top 10 album led by the No. 1 hit “You Should Be Dancing,” alongside the ballad “Love So Right” and funk-driven “Boogie Child” and “You Stepped Into My Life.” The album’s blend of soaring harmonies, propulsive rhythms, and sophisticated production helped usher the Bee Gees into one of the most celebrated chapters of their career.

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Remembering Jesse Ed Davis, born on this day in 1944. —Ed.

Prior to his death in 1988, the noted Native American guitarist Jesse Ed Davis played on records by numerous big names, including Bob Dylan, Leon Russell, Taj Mahal, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and Harry Nilsson. If you’ve heard the guitar solo in Jackson Browne’s “Doctor, My Eyes,” well, that’s him. But not so well known are Davis’ own records, which are weird, as his 1971 debut for Atco, ¡Jesse Davis!, features guests Russell, Gram Parsons, and Eric Clapton, amongst others. It’s a solid affair that’ll be a welcome addition to any shelf of sharp and rootsy early ’70s sounds.

Listening with fresh ears in 2022, ¡Jesse Davis! fits into the early 1970s Atco Records scheme pretty damn snuggly, a tight fit that derives in large part from the judiciously applied guests; in addition to those named above, Davis’ debut pulled in contributions from singer Merry Clayton (The Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter,” Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama”), bassist Billy Rich (Paul Butterfield, Taj Mahal), drummer Alan White (Plastic Ono Band, Yes), and keyboardists Ben Sidran (Steve Miller Band, dozens of sessions, his own stuff), and John Simon (The Band, Big Brother & The Holding Company).

Rather than merely attempting to increase sales by flaunting the names Clapton and Russell, Atco’s intent seemed to be aligned with making the best record possible (along with some clear mutual backscratching). Other examples from the label include a handful from Delaney & Bonnie (albums that offer some insane credits lists) and Dr. John’s The Sun, Moon & Herbs, which is notable, as a couple of moments on ¡Jesse Davis! are reminiscent of the Night Tripper, the set’s opener “Reno Street Incident” in particular.

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I planned to experience Kabaka Pyramid’s Rebel Music – The Lyrics Tape for the first time on vinyl. I preordered the record and convinced myself I would wait for it to arrive before listening. That patience lasted about a week and a half. Eventually, I gave in, pressed play—and I am incredibly glad I did. Let me say this immediately: I absolutely love this album.

Released August 28, The Lyrics Tape arrives 15 years after Kabaka’s foundational “Rebel Music” EP introduced his unmistakable combination of roots reggae, hip-hop, dancehall, and conscious lyricism. This is more than an anniversary project, however. After losing an enormous archive of studio files and unfinished material, Kabaka treated the setback as a creative reset. Written and recorded between March and June 2026, these ten tracks reconnect with the hunger and raw energy of his beginnings while showcasing everything he has learned since.

Heavy reggae basslines, gritty hip-hop beats, soulful samples, and flashes of dancehall make the production outstanding, but Kabaka’s explosive flow and wordplay remain the centerpiece. This may be his strongest overall lyrical performance yet.

“Stand Firm” lights the fire immediately. Built around a powerful Peter Tosh introduction, Kabaka attacks the heavy riddim with sharp lyrics centered on truth, resistance, and spiritual strength. Pressure Busspipe matches his intensity perfectly, making the song a forceful opening statement.

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What a wonderful story—English free improvisational guitarist Derek Bailey, finding himself with time on his hands, spends several years playing along with some odd music he hears on pirate radio.

He doesn’t even know what the music is called. So he waylays a six-year-old he runs into at his newsagent’s and gets part of the answer. Then he reads about it in The Times.

He’s been playing along with drums ‘n’ bass. Except the drums ‘n’ bass Bailey’s been jamming along with isn’t even your standard drums ‘n’ bass, because the tape recorder he’s been using to record the music is broken and has sped the world’s fastest music up. Bailey likes it that way.

After that, things take their course. Bailey decides to record an album and takes his idea to John Zorn, who hooks him up with the young Birmingham, England, drum-and-bass producer D.J. Ninj, who provides the musical backing.

Zorn likes it but eliminates the electric piano. Then they run into a glitch with engineer Mick Harris, who can’t seem to produce a recording in which you can actually hear Bailey’s guitar. So Zorn moves shop to Bill Laswell’s studio in New York City.

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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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