We’ve sent the TVD team home early this week so they can visit their own local record stores. Who does this? We do.
While we’re away, why not fire up our Record Store Locator app and visit one of your local indie record stores? Perhaps there’s an interview, review, or feature you might have missed? Catch up, and we’ll see you back here on Monday, 5/11.
It’s a little jarring that bands that reached their heights in the ’90s are now mounting 40th anniversary tours. Just as we’ve gotten used to grey hairs bopping to ’60s and ’70s revivalists, there are throngs wagging their white-haired heads to the anthems from out of the grunge-era Clinton Administration—and sometimes bringing their kids along so they can witness in person the bands that dad used to blast from the CD player.
That was the scene when The Afghan Whigs played a packed 9:30 Club in Washington last week, their first return there in years, with Mercury Rev opening.
It was a loud, roaring show from the Whigs—with decibels so cranked it threatened to blow hats off. And in place of a tour built around a new release, this one was well balanced over their career, though there was a hint of their next steps with a couple of songs from an album due later this year, the piano-led “Duvateen,” definitely an outlier from all the guitar-driven rock, and the menacing “House of I” with its insidious “Sympathy for the Devil” style doo-doo’s.
Just two original members remain in the Whigs, frontman and driving force Greg Dulli and bassist John Curley, and each carries the well-groomed grey of grizzled grunge-era veterans. Their age (early 60s) is contrasted by the relative youth of the current members, from the behatted Christopher Thorn of Blind Melon on guitar, and the versatile Rick G. Nelson on keyboards, strings, and fiddle, to newly added drummer Bryan Lee Brown (replacing Patrick Keeler, busy working with Jack White’s band).
VIA PRESS RELEASE | Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MoFi), the leader in high-fidelity audio reissues, is proud to announce the first-ever audiophile vinyl edition of the 1990 club favorite and international crossover success, Deee-Lite’s World Clique.
Sourced from the original master tapes (1/2” / 30 IPS analog master to DSD 256 to analog console to lathe) and strictly limited to 2,000 numbered copies, this 180g 45RPM 2LP set presents the club favorite in audiophile quality for the first time. Pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing and housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, the reissue allows for a boost in groove velocity and near eradication of inner-groove distortion by spreading the 48-minute album across four vinyl sides, enhancing high- and low-frequency reproduction.
Dig! A rare club album that crossed over into the mainstream and became an international success, World Clique seemingly came from out of the blue from a band whose whimsical, quasi-psychedelic name—Deee-Lite—hints at the sheer fun, quirky personality, and humorous flair within its diverse borders.
Renowned for the smash “Groove Is in the Heart,” ranked #233 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and No. 2 on Billboard’s 100 Best Dance Songs of All Time, the 1990 record is a good-time dive into funk, house, disco, and pop waters that never fails to put a smile on listeners’ faces or a spring in their step.
VIA PRESS RELEASE | London Records has today announced the first major reissue program for Happy Mondays’ landmark album Pills ’n’ Thrills and Bellyaches, the defining record of the club and indie crossover era of the late ’80s/early ’90s. With all original audio remastered from the Factory Records master tapes, the album will be available starting on August 21 on multiple formats, including:
5LP Super Deluxe Edition: Includes the original album plus the fabled “Hallelujah” and “Madchester Rave On” EPs, the Baby Big Head Bootleg Album recorded Live at Elland Road on June 1, 1991—with a fold-out A2 tour poster from the same legendary gig, classic and newly commissioned remixes, plus a “Madchester” slipmat.
Also included is a 60-page 12” x 12” hardback book containing liner notes written by author and journalist James Brown, who worked for the NME during the Pills ‘N’ Thrills era and went on to found Loaded magazine.
Original Central Station Design members: Pat Carroll and Karen Jackson, now known as Sublime Limbo, together with Samuel Carroll contribute the essay “Postcards from the Edge: The Art and Anarchy of Pills ’n’ Thrills and Bellyaches,” which outlines the philosophy behind the album’s iconic artwork, and reveals that Shaun Ryder’s working title for the record was Kinky Album. Among many previously unseen images, the book includes the album artwork that was scrapped just before it went to print, after Shaun had a new idea.
The music world lost Robert Flack in February of 2025. Flack began her singular career in 1969 and released her 15th and final album in 2012. Her Atlantic Records albums make up the bulk of her recorded output and easily represent her best music. It’s no surprise that an iconic artist whose music was initially rooted in jazz and R&B, and later in pop and soul, would record for Atlantic Records. She is one of the key artists who made the label the undisputed supreme record company of the music business during its heyday of the 1960s and 1970s.
A new box set includes the first eight albums she recorded, all on Atlantic. Two more Atlantic albums are not included in this box. Flack’s beautiful, silky, smoky, and sultry style evolved slowly over these eight albums. This is the sound of a singer fully in command of her art and life, who sings with an understated yet powerful, mature grace unmatched.
Many may not know that her debut album, First Take, released in 1969, was the result of her being discovered by jazz pianist and vocalist Les McCann. Joel Dorn, veteran producer of many legendary jazz recordings, produced the album. It begins with her singular interpretation of the jazz classic “Compared to What.”
Flack was also adept at interpreting folk-based material at this time, with a Leonard Cohen cover and the album’s big hit, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” written by English folk artist Ewan MacColl. The song, in its earlier folk incarnation, was popularized by Peggy Seeger. Flack’s version was featured in the Clint Eastwood film Play Misty for Me. It was her commercial breakthrough.
VIA PRESS RELEASE | In October 1974, the Grateful Dead walked off the stage at Winterland and into an indefinite touring hiatus, exhausted by the logistical and financial strains of touring with the groundbreaking Wall of Sound. A newly remastered version of Steal Your Face, the 1976 double-live album taken from that historic five-show “farewell” run, arrives on June 26, the album’s 50th anniversary.
Steal Your Face (50th Anniversary Remaster) will be released as a 2LP set highlighting the band’s official Pantone colors, Grateful Red and Stealie Blue. The exclusive “Off Your Head” custom variant from Dead.net splits the colors half-and-half with a touch of black splatter on both discs. The center labels include the iconic “Steal Your Face” logo’s facial features gradually fading away across all four sides. This version also includes an 11×11 sticker sheet loaded with SYF logos.
The album will also be available for streaming and digital download. This anniversary edition was newly mastered by GRAMMY® Award-winning engineer David Glasser at Airshow Mastering, sourced from the Plangent Processes restored and speed-corrected tapes. Lacquers were cut by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering. Pre-order here.
Following the 1974 Winterland run, Jerry Garcia spent the next three years immersed in editing The Grateful Dead Movie (1977), while Phil Lesh and Owsley “Bear” Stanley began mining the 16-track tapes for a live album. The songs they chose balanced road-tested rockers (“U.S. Blues” and “Promised Land”), with standout songs from band member solo albums (“Sugaree” and “Black-Throated Wind”) and choice covers (“Big River” and “El Paso”). In perfect Dead synchrony, their “farewell” live album arrived in June 1976, the same month the band officially returned to the road, ending the 20-month touring hiatus.
Many ears were hipped to Indigenous folksinger, poet, filmmaker and activist Willie Dunn by the 3LP/2CD set Native North America (Vol. 1): Aboriginal Folk, Rock, and Country 1966-1985. Issued by Light in the Attic in 2014, that one’s received a recent repress, and in even better news, the next volume in the series is Creation Never Sleeps, Creation Never Dies: The Willie Dunn Anthology, which gathers tracks from his four albums and more, with everything remastered by John Baldwin. The icing on the cake for vinyl buyers is the inclusion of Willie Dunn Notes, the 24-pg newsprint insert with exhaustively researched liners assembled by the set’s producer Kevin Howes.
Willie Dunn’s best-known song is “I Pity the Country,” in large part because it was one of two recordings featured on Native North America (Vol. 1). That revelatory compilation, GRAMMY®-nominated and prominent in numerous year’s best lists including the top 10 reissues offered by this very website, smartly placed “I Pity the Country” as track one on side one.
When a musician attains a belated boost in profile, their best-known song often just happens to be their best song period, but that’s not the case with Willie Dunn, as Creation Never Sleeps, Creation Never Dies begins with the nearly 10-minute powerhouse “The Ballad of Crowfoot.” Now, that song is arguably the artist’s greatest composition (as it plays it sure feels that way); that the ensuing 21 songs here are unmarred by even a hint of anticlimax is testament to Dunn’s talent.
“The Ballad of Crowfoot” is included on both his debut and its follow-up (both eponymous, released in 1971 and ’72 with an overlap of six tracks), but neither of those shorter versions are the one that’s heard on Creation Never Sleeps. The recording collected here is sourced from the soundtrack of the short film of the same title that was made in 1968 by the National Film Board of Canada’s Indian Film Crew, of which Dunn was a member.
Bowling Green, KY | Iconic record store reopening in Bowling Green: While so many of Toledo’s independent (and even corporate-owned) record stores went under with the rise of music downloads and streaming services in the early twentieth century, one stalwart record store in Bowling Green held strong. Finders Records was a mainstay on Main Street in Bowling Green since 1971, giving a place for generations of BGSU students and townies alike a place to hang out and discover new music. Unfortunately, even though physical media, specifically vinyl records, are making a comeback with younger generations, Finders finally gave up the ghost in 2023 when founder and owner Greg Halamay made the decision to retire and close the store. But that may not be the end of the story.
Los Angeles, CA | Where music still lives in crates: At High Fidelity, music is something you can hold, collect and share. Inside High Fidelity, music doesn’t live in a cloud. It sits in crates. You flip through it, hold it in your hands and take it home with you. “Records and vinyl still matter because it is something that you own,” said Raymond Limon, co-owner of the store. “Something you could hold, something you could look at even the smell of old records is very distinct.” Ownership. This is what keeps his store relevant in a digital world. Raymond has been around records since he was 17. His sister helped him get a job at Aaron’s Records in Hollywood, and what started as an after-school job turned into a career. “People played music all day. There were rockers, punks, hip hoppers, goths—everybody was super cool,” he said. “Once I got into music and records, I never looked back.”
New Braunfels, TX | New Braunfels record shop turns up the volume with expansion: Yard Sale Records is hitting a high note, doubling in size less than two years after opening to accommodate the surging demand for vinyl and vintage media. Howard Lovell opened Yard Sale Records in March 2024 at 880 S Business IH 35 Suite 600, and focuses on selling vinyl records, CDs, VHS tapes and other vintage items like toys and clothing. Lovell said that the shop has built a loyal following, prompting an expansion that started in October 2025 and is still ongoing. …Lovell moved to New Braunfels from Houston in 2020 and spent several years traveling to markets selling vinyl records before opening his storefront. Lovell said he’s really come to love the New Braunfels community and enjoys establishing connections with his customers.
Ithaca, NY | The Persistence of Vinyl: There’s not much to do in Ithaca on a rainy Saturday—unless you know where to look. This weekend in particular held an event I was excited for as a lover of music and a gumshoe of music lovers: the Ithaca Vinyl Records & CDs Fair. The Downtown Ithaca Conference Center took on the persona of an audio-fanatic’s dream basement, hosting makeshift isles overflowing with CDs, vinyl records and various music paraphernalia. I wasn’t sure where to begin; not just as a shopper, but as an investigator. I wanted to pick the brains of these vendors who had come from far and wide to peddle their wares, because I’m sure they too wonder why vinyl records, against all odds, still hold appeal to a world where almost any song can be cued up at the push of a button.
VIA PRESS RELEASE | VMI Worldwide is proud to announce that the music documentary, I Was a Teenage Sex Pistol, will be available to buy or rent on digital platforms in the US starting Tuesday, May 26, with pre-orders beginning Tuesday, May 12 on Apple TV HERE.
Based on the acclaimed tell-all memoir by the Sex Pistols’ founding member Glen Matlock, the film offers an honest, insightful, and long-overdue account of one of the most influential and controversial punk bands of all time. Audiences will now have the chance to hear the story from a man whose creative contributions, essential to the band’s revolutionary sound and musical legacy, have historically been downplayed.
Matlock said, “Why don’t you check out the US release of my documentary, I Was A Teenage Sex Pistol, loosely based on the still available book of the same name I wrote in the ‘90s? It tells the tale of my contribution to the band, which I think without it the group wouldn’t have had the success it had. For anybody interested in the birth of British punk and its effect on the then wider music scene, I’d suggest it’s essential viewing—but then I would say that!”
The film follows Matlock’s journey from the band’s formation through their explosive rise to global infamy. He co-wrote ten of the twelve songs on their only studio album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, underscoring his central role in shaping the band’s sound and legacy. Through the film, experience the band’s rise to global infamy with an insider’s honest account of a group of malcontents, determined to change the music business and to attack the hypocrisy and stale conventions in British society at large.
VIA PRESS RELEASE | He screamed his way into metal history. Then cancer tried to silence him for good. Now, for the first time, Chuck Billy—the iconic frontman of Bay Area thrash legends Testament—tells the whole truth in his unflinching memoir, Holding My Breath: The Two Testaments of Chuck Billy, publishing November 10, 2026, from Permuted Press.
This is not your typical rock memoir. Structured as two interlocking testaments, the book traces the full arc of a life lived at maximum volume—and then something louder than any riff: the fight to stay alive. The Old Testament plunges readers into the explosive birth of Bay Area thrash metal, the formation of Testament, the rivalries, the brotherhood, and the reckless, glorious chaos of becoming one of the genre’s most powerful voices.
The New Testament is something rarer and more raw—a frontman at 38, blindsided by a devastating cancer diagnosis, drawing on his Native American and Mexican-American heritage, spiritual healers, visions, and the fierce love of a metal community. At the center of that community: the legendary Thrash of the Titans benefit concert—one of the most galvanizing moments in heavy metal history—which rallied old rivals into brothers and helped ignite a genre revival while keeping Chuck Billy in the fight.
“This book is about two versions of me that are really just one story,” says Billy. “The guy who thought he was invincible, and the guy who learned how fragile life really is.”
Celebrating Bill Ward, born on this day in 1948. —Ed.
Is Black Sabbath the dumbest band in rock history or what? Even as a wee lad “Iron Man” struck me as the work of a band that was slow, and I don’t mean slow as in sluggish in tempo but slow as in dim in cerebral wattage—heavy metal half-wits who wore boots because the alternative was those shoes with Velcro straps on them. They reminded me of the weird kid down the street who chewed then swallowed the heads off a full battalion of little green plastic army men but continued to play with them, despite the fact they were dead.
And I’m not alone: rock crit Robert Christgau gave Sabbath’s debut LP an unprecedented “E,” and when I asked my younger brother to sum up Black Sabbath he said simply, “Apparently the Devil likes doofuses.” Personally I lay the responsibility for this perception of the band from Birmingham as English oafs at the feet of Geezer Butler, whose wooden, stilted, and startlingly stupid lyrics make the boneheads in Bad Company look like MENSA material in comparison.
Let’s be honest: The Geez’s “I’m living easy where the sun doesn’t shine” may well be the most unintentionally hilarious rock lyric of all time (what, has he rented a penthouse in a giant’s bunghole?) And “I looked through a window and surprised what I saw/A faerie with boots and dancing with a dwarf” runs a close second. Then there’s “Into the Void,” wherein Butler comes up with the bright idea of sending freedom fighters to the sun to escape a doomed Earth, which ought to work out just dandy until they spontaneously combust.
But if I’m coming off all condescending (and I am) the joke’s on me, because Black Sabbath must have had something going for them (I know I’m talking past tense when they’re still around, but are they really?) or they wouldn’t have spawned a thousand heavy metal, doom metal, sludge rock, thrash, goth, and stoner rock bands, to say nothing of that Satanic duo Loggins and Messina. And that something wasn’t the dumb lyrics but duh, the music, which was murky, heavy-as-Leslie-West, and doom-laden, and kicked the bats out Hell because frankly Black Sabbath made a scarier noise and Ozzy was more than happy to bite the head off any bat that thought different.
There’s something quietly magnetic about Opal Mag. She’s the kind of artist who doesn’t demand attention, but instead pulls you in slowly. With her new single “Kiss Me,” the London-born musician continues to carve out a space that feels both nostalgic and strikingly personal.
Opal Mag’s latest single, “Kiss Me,” marks a significant step forward. Following on from “Wasting,” the lead track from her November EP, this new release sharpens her lyrical focus while maintaining the immersive, blurred-edge production that defines her style. There’s a sense of emotional clarity cutting through the haze this time, a recognition of stagnation in a relationship, and the quiet heartbreak that comes with it.
As Opal herself explains, “‘Kiss Me’ displays the realisation that a partner doesn’t want to grow or change with you. Instead they sabotage what had huge potential, to stay comfortable and set in their ways.” It’s a theme many will recognise, but few articulate with such understated precision.
With a busy summer of festivals on the horizon, Opal Mag feels poised for a breakout moment, not through reinvention, but through refinement. She knows exactly who she is as an artist, and more importantly, who her music is for.
“Kiss Me” is in stores now.
The 6-song EP can be a splendiferous thing, especially when is loaded with songs by The Wedding Present. Back in 1995, this august UK band released “Mini,” a set with a loose driving theme, and now, 30 years later, we have “Maxi,” a fresh half dozen from the current lineup, led as always by David Gedge, with the contents covering the same subject from six distinct angles.
The red and black 12-inch vinyl released by Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records is sold out on Bandcamp, but copies are still available in brick-and-mortar stores. A 10-inch pressing is also out now through the band’s label Scopitones, but it is going fast. Compact discs and digital downloads are also there for the purchasing.
A concise synopsis of The Wedding Present would, of course, situate them as top-tier indie pop specialists with an aptitude for guitar jangle at its most sublime and, occasionally, hyperactive. The other main characteristic is the band’s founder and constant frontman, David Gedge’s handiwork with a love song, and in fact, a whole big book of love songs.
Part of what makes this inclination for the amorous so impressive is how the songwriting has developed within the band’s indie-pop sound, which is very British and robust enough to be described as melodic rock (never have they been twee). The Wedding Present is not a band of grand stylistic detours and/or trend-hopping, although this shouldn’t suggest that the discography is predictable. Recognizable, sure, but predictable? No.
California, PA | Gen Z Is Making Owning Physical Media Trendy Again: Gen Z’s nostalgia and desire for true ownership is sparking a resurgence of owning physical media. When was the last time you picked up a DVD? What about a magazine, or a vinyl record? Just a year or two ago, I would expect most people’s answers to sound something along the lines of, “I can’t even remember.” However, driven by Gen Z nostalgia and the desire of true ownership, physical media is making a comeback. The convenience of streaming services can’t be argued; Netflix’s switch from DVD-by-mail service to streaming in 2007 changed the way many people view tv shows and movies forever. But the recent topic of conversation hasn’t been about convenience; people want a sense of true ownership, and the fulfillment of collecting again.
Houston, TX | 50-year-old record store closing its final location: A longtime destination for collectors and music fans is shutting down as streaming continues to reshape how music is discovered and consumed. …A long-standing Houston retailer has now joined the list of closures. Soundwaves, located at 3509 Montrose Blvd., is in the process of closing after five decades in business. Liquidation sales began on April 25, with all items discounted by 50% until closing, according to a post on its Instagram. By April 30, the store was listed as “permanently closed” on Google Maps, and its official website was no longer accessible, though liquidation sales are still ongoing, and its Instagram account remains active. Soundwaves became more than just a retail space; it was a cultural fixture.
Coeur d’Alene, ID | Terry and Deon Borchard closing music store after 41 years in Coeur d’Alene: Tad Mosher has been coming to The Long Ear in search of music for more than 30 years. “I love having the CD in my hand,” the Hayden man said Tuesday as he took a break from perusing the shelves. “That’s why I keep coming back. I’m not into downloading stuff.” The Long Ear, he said, has the work of artists he likes, including Adele and Judas Priest. The staff, as well, are knowledgeable and friendly. “It’s a great atmosphere here,” Mosher said. That’s why he was disappointed to learn the store that’s been a mainstay in Coeur d’Alene’s music scene for 41 years would be closing this summer. “I don’t know what I’ll do. I guess I’ll go online and buy CDs,” he said. Owners Terry and Deon Borchard wish it wasn’t so.
Athens, GA | Musical longevity in the Classic City: Wuxtry Records celebrates 50 years in Athens: It’s a story that Mark Methe recounts with ease. A moving truck, a new car and countless crates of records led to that March day in 1976 when Methe and his friend Dan Wall opened Wuxtry Records in Athens. A month prior, the two music lovers from the Midwest set out to open a record store down South through a process of trial-and-error. With years of experience working in record stores and a goal to open one, they passed on Morgantown, West Virginia and Knoxville, Tennessee in their tour of the region. Eventually, their oil-burning vehicle and a recommendation from a friend took them down Highway 441 and landed them in Athens. They secured a location in February, and by March, they were ready to come back down and open the store.
Looking like a pair of archetypal men of the West, Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore pick up their guitars and face each other like old gunslingers, eventually conversing enough musically to sync up—one electric, one acoustic—as they begin their two-man show.
In many ways, the two musicians couldn’t be more different. One is from California, the other from Texas; one tall, the other shorter; one with a deep baritone, the other with a keening, distinctive tenor.
Then, of course, there is the difference in their guitars—Alvin’s stinging electric leads, honed in driving bands like The Blasters and most recently firing up the psychedelic band The Third Mind, almost don’t fit with the gentler, steady acoustic work of Gilmore.
But the two have addressed these differences agreeably, first on their initial duo album Downey to Lubbock in 2018, and again in their 2024 follow-up, Texicali. The formats on each album were the same—Alvin would take the lead on one song, Gilmore would take the next. Alvin’s band, The Guilty Ones, would back them both (and Jon Langford of the Mekons would design both covers).
