NASHVILLE, TN | This was one for the history books. Avatar blew the roof off Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl Sunday night, a stop on September’s “Chimp Mosh Pit” tour. It was exhilarating—top to bottom, not just one of the best shows I’ve been to in recent times, it was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen in my life. I’m still wiped out.

Leading off on this tour is The Native Howl (Alex Holycross, Zach Bolling, Mark Chandler, and Jacob Sawicki), from Detroit, Michigan. They specialize in “thrash grass,” a newly coined term describing a sound that combines the melodicism and precision of bluegrass with the aggression of thrash metal. To illustrate, a hallmark of their sets is “Harvester of Constant Sorrow,” which mashes up The Soggy Bottom Boys and Metallica—imagine metal with a banjo solo. Live, it’s a sound that is clever and creative—it works extremely well.

In Nashville, The Native Howl were poorly lit to the point of performing in the dark; this was unfortunate as it undermined the crowd’s ability to really see the charisma of singer Holycross. The previous weekend I traveled to Bloomington, IL to catch this tour in advance of covering it in Nashville. The Native Howl had been on my radar for a while, and I was curious about how they would be live.

It was fun to see all three bands on the bill in what felt like a sardine can of a club. When I caught the show in Bloomington, Holycross struck me as a bit of a Joe Cocker type—imagine if Cocker had a Michigan grandson. His expressive eyes and signature bare feet aren’t a gimmick of any kind—this is who this dude is.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Chrysalis Catalogue presents Copperopolis on vinyl for the first time, accompanied by a selection of bonus tracks.

First released in June 1996, Copperopolis would be the final Grant Lee Buffalo studio album to feature the original line-up of Grant-Lee Phillips, Paul Kimble, and Joey Peters. For Copperopolis, the band expanded on the stripped-down sonics from their first two albums, using the studio to create a layered, more powerful sound, as heard on standout tracks “Arousing Thunder,” “Bethlehem Steel,” and the single “Homespun.” Side four features a trio of bonus tracks, the B-sides “Crashing at Corona” and “Mr. Know It All,” plus the original four-track demo for “Hyperion & Sunset.”

Newly remastered by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios from the original production masters, pressed on two 180g clear vinyl LPs, and housed in a gatefold sleeve with poly-lined inner bags.

Originally released in June 1998 following the departure of long-time bassist Paul Kimble, Jubilee was Grant Lee Buffalo’s fourth and final studio album. For the album’s 25th anniversary, Chrysalis Catalogue presents Jubilee on vinyl for the first time.

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After leaving the group Them and recording one album for the Bert Burns label Bang (Blowin’ Your Mind), Van Morrison recorded two albums (for Warner Bros. Records) that solidified his place in music at that time and forever.

Astral Weeks (1968) is considered Morrison’s most critically acclaimed album and his next one, Moondance (1970), is his most popular and well-known album. While these two recordings often receive the most attention in an evaluation of the immense legend of Morrison, his next three LPs further enhanced and reinforced the enormity of the man’s vast talents. Those albums are His Band and Street Choir (1970), Tupelo Honey (1971), and Saint Dominic’s Preview (1972). His Band and the Street Choir has just been reissued as one of the first four releases from the Rhino High Fidelity Series. This is a great album and the approach taken by Rhino on this reissue is like a master class on how to reissue a classic album.

His Band and the Street Choir was a dramatic change from his previous two albums. On those two records, Morrison was an artist who drew from a range of sometimes tortured emotions to create music of impressionistic, sublime beauty that mixed folk, jazz, r&b, rock, and soul in a sound that was unmatched. On His Band and the Street Choir, Morrison continued to mix those styles, but sounds more relaxed, like he’s truly having fun, and is surrounded by musicians he clearly loves and is inspired by. The songs are shorter and punchier and were clearly recorded mostly live with minimal rehearsal or takes.

It’s a joyous celebration and while it didn’t quite reach the heights of the previous two albums, was an instant classic. The most well-known song from the album is “Domino.” “Blue Money” is another enduring classic from the album and “I’ve Been Working” was a highlight of his live shows at the time. This music very much reflects Morrison’s Woodstock period and the rural, pastoral beauty of that place was certainly a key ingredient in the writing and recording of the album.

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PHOTO: RIO WARNER | In the vibrant and ever-evolving music scene of the 1980s, one name shone brightly amidst a sea of artists, Josie Cotton. With her audacious new wave sound and captivating stage presence, Cotton quickly became an icon of the era. From her popular hits like “Johnny Are You Queer?” and “He Could Be the One,” to her thoughtfully crafted albums that spanned genres, Josie Cotton left an indelible mark on the music industry.

But her influence extends far beyond her catchy tunes; it’s in her trademark style, her public persona, and the significant life events that have shaped her remarkable career. As we dive into the world of Josie Cotton, we uncover a musician who defies categorization, evokes nostalgia, and continues to captivate audiences with her timeless sound.

How did your journey in music begin, and what inspired you to become a singer?

When I was still living in Texas, I was just exploring different bands and writing songs. But I came to California to be in the music business, and once I finally arrived that happened fairly quickly. Even while moving from record label to record label, I ended up, ironically, getting signed because of a song I didn’t write—it was a demo that got me signed. So, that was just an odd way to begin a career.

When did you determine that you wanted to do this as a career?

Well, I really wasn’t planning on being a singer, per se. I was planning on being a songwriter, and so singing was something I did to let people hear the songs I wrote. That was when people seemed to notice my voice. The Paine brothers were one of the first to take notice shortly after I met them. They directed me away from the different styles of music I was experimenting with and asked me to focus on something which was familiar to me, girl groups. And coincidentally, they were working with the Go-Go’s at the time that I met them.

What are your earliest memories of performing on stage?

My stepfather was a ballet teacher, and he was grooming me to be a prima ballerina from the time I was three years old. He had been a famous dancer in Europe—dancing with Maria Tallchief and had run the Harkness Ballet in New York years later. So, my first memory on stage was when I was four years old. I was with a boy, and it was just us on stage with an orchestra. My stepfather would do these major productions with famous ballet dancers coming in from Europe, and so I ended up alone on the stage with a boy with this orchestra, and I just loved it. And the stage ended up being the only place I felt truly comfortable.

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On October 13, 2018 in Jersey City, NJ’s White Eagle Hall, guitarists Glenn Mercer and Bill Million, bassist Brenda Sauter, drummer Stanley Demeski and percussionist/ keyboardist Dave Weckerman, a gang collectively known as The Feelies, played a long set of songs by request in connection with the opening of The Velvet Underground Experience exhibition in NYC. Some Kinda Love: Performing the Music of The Velvet Underground documents that show, and on October 13, five years to the day later, it’s released for home consumption on 2LP and CD through Bar/None Records.

Cover songs are an integral part of the whole rock ‘n’ roll shebang, but when it comes to versions of material by The Velvet Underground, I’ll confess to being something a stickler. This is partly because The Velvets are my pick as the greatest (non-jazz) band of all time, and additionally, my favorite band ever (jazz included).

But personal protectiveness is not really the issue with my persnickety nature toward VU covers. It’s just that their stuff is so hard to get right, as far too many attempts get too hung up on replicating the source’s cool factor, while others are just far too reverent in approach, and still more diminish the essence of the originals by structurally altering them too severely or transmogrifying them into an artist or band’s personal style.

Great VU covers are certainly possible (see Big Star’s “Femme Fatale,” Thurston Moore’s “European Son,” and Luna’s “Ride Into the Sun”) and aren’t even necessarily rare, but middling versions are far more common and I’ll make the case that egregious missteps outnumber the gems. To my ear, it took Imaginary Records three tries to put out a various artists tribute compilation (in the label’s Heaven & Hell series) where the good to great outnumbered the duds. It would be even more difficult for a single performer or band to cut an entire album of VU covers that didn’t fumble the task.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Astralwerks and UMe proudly announce the remastered re-issue of Eno’s seminal 2016 album The Ship, available on color vinyl (coke bottle green) on December 8.

The release coincides with a series of live performances, Ships, which features Brian Eno with Baltic Sea Philharmonic and its conductor Kristjan Järvi and is a newly commissioned work from La Biennale di Venezia. The first performance will premiere on October 21 in Teatro la Fenice as the centerpiece of the 2023 Venice Biennale Musica. Ships features an orchestral adaptation of The Ship as well as new and classic Eno compositions. Preorder Brian Eno’s The Ship HERE.

The Ship was the first Eno record to feature vocals since 2005’s Another Day On Earth and was inspired in part by the sinking of the Titanic and the First World War. “Humankind seems to teeter between hubris and paranoia,” Brian said at the time, “the hubris of our ever-growing power contrasts with the paranoia that we’re increasingly under threat.”

The opening track, “The Ship,” and the second, “Fickle Sun (i),” unfold over the majority of the album. They then give way to “Fickle Sun (ii): The Hour Is Thin,” with narration from actor Peter Serafinowicz, and “Fickle Sun (iii),” a celebrated interpretation of The Velvet Underground’s “I’m Set Free.”

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Remembering Darby Crash, born on this day in 1958.—Ed.

Poor Darby Crash. First the Germs charismatic and drug-abusing lead singer returned from England a converted Adam Ant fan (very bad form, very bad form indeed), then he had the amazingly bad luck to die in a suicide pact the day before the murder of John Lennon, thus ensuring his death would receive virtually no recognition in the press.

Fortunately neither his Antdom nor his ill-timed deliberate death by heroin overdose have sullied his posterity, and his pre-planned live-fast-die-young career continues to contribute to what practically amounts to a cult. And I get it. The guy was loony tunes, but he also had charisma. Germs drummer Don Bolles recalls, “With a little more luck and concentrated effort, Darby could have fulfilled his plan to be the new Jesus/Bowie/Manson/Hitler/L Ron Hubbard… he was a natural messiah type, whose heroic consumption of LSD helped make him the most psychedelic prankster I have ever known.”

Fortunately he started a punk band instead, and not just any punk band. As Germs guitarist Pat Smear recollects, “Whatever we were going to be, we were going to be the most. If we’re gonna be punk, then we are gonna out-punk the Sex Pistols! If we are gonna be the worst band ever, then we are gonna be the fucking worst band ever!” As the lead singer for what I like to think was one of the worst bands in history, those are inspiring words indeed.

But my favorite Darby Crash story has nothing to do with the Germs, but rather Pop Rocks. Remember the candy that detonated like little hand grenades in your mouth? Well, in We Got the Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of L.A. Punk, Gerber (aka Michelle Bell) recalls the time she and Crash were walking through a parking garage towards two Persian gentlemen who, faced with a couple of deranged looking punkers, assumed they were being mugged. So they threw themselves to the ground and offered up their wallets.

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Based in Water Valley, Mississippi, Bark is the married duo of Tim Lee on Bass VI and vocals and Susan Bauer Lee on drums and vocals. LPs? They’ve released a few, with their latest getting some instrumental and production assistance from, amongst others, a couple Drive-By Truckers. Tough but tuneful and roots-raw but non-retrograde, the 10-song effort has been given an appropriate title. Loud is out now on blue vinyl and compact disc through Dial Back Sound and Cool Dog Sound.

Tim Lee’s musical activity is considerable, as he came to ’80s underground notoriety in The Windbreakers, Beat Temptation and solo, along with a few other projects. More recently, he was the anchoring force in Tim Lee 3; for a deeper dive into Lee’s discography, check out the review of Tim Lee 3’s Devil’s Rope via this very website.

Susan Bauer Lee was Tim Lee 3’s bassist, but for Bark, she’s commandeering the drum kit, a switch that’s been working out just marvy. She also adds vocals to the scheme, strengthening the roots-punk (think X) and Paisley Underground (see early Dream Syndicate) foundations of Bark’s sound, though it’s not like the duo is retracing any particular band’s stylistic footsteps.

In addition to Bass VI (a six-string bass guitar designed for bottom-end melodic versatility), Tim plays baritone guitar on Loud, choices ensuring the songs are as hefty as they are catchy, but his tone is also appealingly ragged throughout the set. This solidifies (but doesn’t strain for) a punk connection, while jibing nicely with Susan’s drumming, as she’s hitting and kicking hard and generally eschewing the caveperson thump that’s often associated with guitar-bass duos.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | On November 17, MCA/UMe is set to release both vinyl and CD editions of Dame Olivia Newton-John’s smash-hit, tenth studio album, 1978’s Totally Hot, a record that further reinforced her status as a surefire international superstar.

In celebration of Newton-John’s first-ever platinum-certified album’s 45th anniversary, Totally Hot returns to vinyl for the first time in decades in two different options, in addition to being made available anew on CD and on all major digital platforms. Totally Hot will be released in the following formats: limited-edition 1LP neon coral red vinyl, standard weight 1LP black vinyl, 1CD, and Digital. All versions of Totally Hot can be pre-ordered here.

Following on the heels of her megastar turn as Sandy Olsson, the Australian transfer student who quite demonstrably comes out of her shell in the hit musical film Grease, 1978’s biggest box office hit, British/ Australian vocal powerhouse Newton-John released Totally Hot that November, further refining her embrace of the emerging pop sound of the late 1970s to great effect and much acclaim while at the same time remaining true to her country ballad roots.

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