Challenging times give rise to a musical response from artists of conscience. They realize their place in society at a critical time requires some cultural response, declaration, or call to action. Bruce Springsteen has been consistent about that throughout his half-century career, playing rallies and the occasional campaign event, crafting songs that subtly or very specifically reflect our era, urging action while providing uplift.

Springsteen did so, reacting to the ICE aggression and murders in Minneapolis with an obviously quickly written song that mentioned the specific headlines in a way that Woody Guthrie might have done 80 years ago. With a title that suggested his much more subtle “Streets of Philadelphia” from the AIDs era, “Streets of Minneapolis” was a more direct, almost a weary wail mourning the murders of good people while excoriating the corrupt powers behind it all.

It was telling that Springsteen chose to open his terrific tour at the Target Center with that site-specific anthem. Because of the head-spinning blur of bad news and misguided decisions from what’s left of the White House, there was a current war on Iran to address.

So, when choosing which two songs to start, which were also streamed live to his social media channels and YouTube, he began with an exclamation point: Edwin Starr’s version of “War,” which he and the E Street Band slammed through during the Gulf War, just as effectively, followed by “Born in the U.S.A,” referring perhaps to the outrageous Supreme Court challenge to birthright citizenship (the song was lent to the defending ACLU for TV ads).

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | In celebration of what would have been influential bluegrass guitarist Tony Rice’s 75th birthday, Craft Recordings announces the return of his 1977 self-titled album.

The foundational recording captured a shift in bluegrass toward a more expansive, ensemble-driven sound. Out of print for more than 40 years, Tony Rice features a who’s who of bluegrass legends—including David Grisman, J.D. Crowe, and Jerry Douglas—and remains a cornerstone of the “new acoustic” genre, blending bluegrass standards with contemporary outings.

Cut from the original tapes with all-analog (AAA) mastering by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio, the album returns to vinyl on June 5, with packaging replicating the original 1977 jacket design.

The remastered album will also be available across digital platforms in standard and hi-res audio. Rice’s take on the traditional folk ballad “Banks of the Ohio” is available to stream and download now. The album is available to pre-save and pre-order today.

One of the most revered names in modern bluegrass, Tony Rice (1951–2020) was an innovative force who shaped the sound of the genre throughout his career, and whose distinctive touch on the guitar influenced countless others. Born in Virginia and raised in Los Angeles, Rice launched his career in Louisville, KY, where he rose to prominence as the lead vocalist and guitarist of J.D. Crowe’s legendary group, The New South.

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Remembering Eddie Hazel, born on this day in 1950. —Ed.

The late guitarist Eddie Hazel remains highly esteemed for his role in shaping the funk rock juggernaut that is Parliament-Funkadelic. With beaucoup assistance from the P-Funk All-Stars including George Clinton himself, Hazel released Game, Dames and Guitar Thangs, his solo debut, in 1977, an absolute fiesta of string bending that quickly fell out of print, grew to be highly sought after, and therefore became rather expensive. 

I suppose it’s possible to review Game, Dames and Guitar Thangs without mentioning Hazel’s role in Parliament-Funkadelic, but I’m not sure what purpose that would serve, particularly as so many of his bandmates contribute to it, specifically bassists Bootsy Collins and William “Billy Bass” Nelson, drummer Tiki Fulwood, keyboardist Bernie Worrell, guitarists Michael Hampton, Gary Shider, Glenn Goins, and those Brides of Funkenstein, Dawn Silva and Lynn Mabry. Additionally, George Clinton had a hand in writing all four of the record’s originals, with Hazel a co-writer on two of them.

It’s the original stuff, which is very much in the sonic ballpark of P-Funk, that made Hazel’s only non-posthumous solo album such a pricey item for such a long time. And even after being reissued on CD and vinyl on a handful of occasions in the 21st century, copies of the first pressing (in good condition, natch) still changed hands for roughly 200 smackers.

Lending Game, Dames and Guitar Thangs fresh ears on the occasion of Real Gone’s new vinyl edition (the label issued it on CD back in 2012 featuring notes by P-Funk Minister of Information Tom Vickers, with copies still available) reestablishes the most important factor in the record’s enduring stature, which is a baseline standard of quality. It is an eminently listenable record, providing that one is amenable to the P-Funk sensibility of course, and to Hazel’s playing in particular.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Few bands captured the scale, precision, and uplift of arena rock quite like Triumph—and now, as the Canadian trio steps back into the spotlight, their most defining songs return in one essential collection.

The Best of Triumph arrives June 12th, offering a focused retrospective of the band’s most enduring work at a moment of renewed momentum. Featuring powerhouse anthems such as “Lay It on the Line,” “Magic Power,” “Fight the Good Fight,” and “Hold On,” the collection traces Triumph’s ascent from a Canadian breakout act to an international force in rock. Available on LP, CD, and digital formats, the release coincides with Triumph’s long-awaited return to the stage for their first major tour in more than three decades.

Alongside today’s announcement, “Lay It on the Line (Single Edit)” is available now on streaming platforms for the first time. Newly mastered from the original analog tapes—part of a full-album remaster—the track presents the concise, radio-ready version that first introduced Triumph to a broad audience in the late 1970s. Many of the single edits featured in this collection have not previously been available on digital platforms, offering listeners a rare opportunity to experience these original versions.

In addition to standard black vinyl, The Best of Triumph will be available in exclusive color variants, including a “Spellbound Purple” pressing at Barnes & Noble, a “Blue Smoke” edition at Sunrise Records (Canada), and a “Silver Lightning” pressing available via CraftRecordings.com. Meanwhile, an exclusive CD edition featuring a commemorative tour pass can be found at Walmart (US) and Sunrise Records (Canada).

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The Black Angels have exuded menace via drone, squalls of guitar feedback, and dark subject matter since they first blew me away with the War Is Hell tracks “The First Vietnamese War” and “Young Men Dead” and the doom-laden “The Sniper at the Gates of Heaven” way back in (has it really been that long?) 2006.

They swiped their name from the Velvet Underground’s “The Black Angel’s Death Song,” and it’s appropriate. Theirs is not your hippie uncle’s idea of psychedelic music.

Over the course of six full-length LPs from 2006 to 2022, The Black Angels have transmogrified dread into ecstasy, utilizing the sitar in a manner that would not get Ravi Shankar’s Seal of Spiritual Approval and in general recording music that is all Altamont and no Woodstock.

I’m talking dark, darker, darkest, and when that massive drone kicks in, you won’t relax, but you’ll float downstream, straight into the Heart of Darkness.

The Black Angels hail from Austin, Texas, and have played festival after festival with such kindred spirits as the Brian Jonestown Massacre, Japan’s Acid Mothers Temple, the Flaming Lips, Spiritualized, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, the Dandy Warhols—even The Zombies! And they did a several-day stint as Roky Erickson’s backing band.

The liner notes of their 2006 debut LP Passover included a quote from Edvard Munch: “Illness, insanity, and death are the black angels that kept watch over my cradle and accompanied me all my life.” Very appropriate, that.

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Celebrating Aidan Moffat in advance of his birthday tomorrow. —Ed.

It’s Monday afternoon here at the Hug & Pint in lovely Falkirk, Scotland, not that you’d know it because management 86’d the sun a long time ago because it was annoying the customers, and that blootered bampot at the end of the bar is Arab Strap’s Adrian Moffat, and aren’t you curious what he’s havering on about?

Well I can tell you, because along with bandmate Malcolm Middleton he’s laid it all out for you in lovingly lugubrious detail on 2003’s Monday at the Hug & Pint. And as it turns out Moffat is one articulate, if very down in the mouth, fellow, one whose life is shite because, well, he has problems. Women problems, a rat-arsed-every-night-of-the-week problem, self-esteem problems.

And if that kind of bleak doesn’t sound like your idea of listening pleasure there’s this: Arab Strap’s music—often gloomy, yet just as often achingly lovely—makes for the perfect backdrop for Moffat’s often self-lacerating lyrics, and together they can be downright revelatory.

The only real question you’re left with after listening to Monday at the Hug & Pint—Arab Strap’s fifth studio outing and their next to last before going on a very long hiatus—is why you’ll want to play it again rather than go drown yourself in the nearest bog. Like Arab Strap’s other albums, this one is an epic bummer.

But here’s the explanation—depression can be surprisingly cathartic. It doesn’t hurt that Moffat is a lyricist of uncommon talent, and that Arab Strap seem incapable of writing of a bad song. Enter the Hug & Pint on a Monday night and you’ll wind up with more than just a bad case of sexual frustration and a wicked jackhammer of a hangover—you will partake of the divinely morose.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Porterhouse is humbled to announce the 30th Anniversary reissue of Exit The Dragon from Urge Overkill.

Dark, brooding, and laden with tension, the double LP set is being brought back to life in a newly re-mastered custom vinyl configuration featuring Pink and Purple 12” slabs and completely re-designed center labels. Production of this variant will be limited to 1,000 copies pressed.

Originally released on Geffen Records in 1995, the sprawling work is regarded by fans as a “criminally underrated” collection of compositions that never received the credit it so richly deserved.

History has a way of separating wheat from the chaff and the three decades that have passed since its original release have only cemented this recording’s epic status with both fans and critics such as Chicago’s Jim DeRogatis, who at the time insisted the band was “having the time of their lives” while “illuminating signposts to Big Star III and Exile on Mainstreet.”

Produced by the Butcher Bothers Joe and Phil Nicolo, Exit The Dragon shifts gears from the slick tone of its predecessor Saturation and embraces a low-fi approach that balances perfectly with the album’s stark song selection. Addressing emotional upheaval, isolation and personal struggle, the result is a masterwork and it’s returning for your listening enjoyment. Pre-orders are now open.

Remembering Carl Perkins, born on this date in 1932. —Ed.

Carl Perkins was one of the major shakers in the peak period of Sun Records, and these days he gets his due mostly as an architect of classic rockabilly. In that regard, one of his many hits compilations will provide an accurate if not comprehensive analysis. To get a taste of the full-blown ‘50s Perkins experience however, one will need to dig a little deeper, and seeking out the 1988 LP Honky Tonk Gal is an excellent choice.

Many outstanding recordings were made in the USA in the decade immediately following the Second World War, but at the top of the heap are a few truly indispensable documents. Amongst them can be found Charlie Parker’s master takes for Dial and Savoy, the high lonesome sound of Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys as captured by Columbia and Decca, Muddy Waters’ electrification of the Delta in Chess Studios, and perhaps inappropriately since it compiled 6 LPs worth of material from prewar 78s, the Anthology of American Folk Music as issued by Folkways.

But if an outlier, I’ll stump passionately for that Harry Smith-compiled doozy. On top of being one of the few multi-disc sets that can be listened to in its entirety without a hint of exhaustion, it just as importantly established a disparate songbook that’s continued to influence music right up to this very minute. And the icing on the cake is how the inspired assemblage of a bohemian painter (and record collector!) integrated American folksong two years before the Supreme Court handed down their unanimous blow to the ugliness of segregation with the Brown v. Board of Education decision.

And that relates pretty well to Samuel Cornelius Phillips and his Memphis Recording Service, later known more famously as Sun Records, a small business concern that was really on a creative mission in loose disguise. It was also the cradle of some extremely essential postwar music. For instance, Jackie Brenston’s “Rocket 88,” considered by some to be the first rock ‘n’ roll song. Or that behemoth of the blues The Howlin’ Wolf, who delivered his first sides there. And by the mid-‘50s it was where a bunch of poor white cats, to borrow a phrase from the mouth of Presley, got real real gone for a change.

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