Category Archives: The TVD Storefront

Remembering Alan Vega, born on this day in 1938. —Ed.

Although he’s departed this mortal coil, the spirit of Alan Vega remains vital to contemporary music, mainly through his work as the vocal half of the groundbreaking unit he formed in the early ’70s with keyboardist Martin Rev. Today, Suicide is justly celebrated as one of punk’s most beautifully twisted and truly sui generis outfits, but the appreciation hasn’t really spilled over to the solo careers of either member. Out of print for decades, the contents of Vega’s self-titled 1980 debut highlight a ’50s rockabilly-ish approach that’s loose, non-studious, and yet thoroughly sincere.

Solo albums generally work best when they provide some sort of departure from the artist’s main gig, and Alan Vega surely fits that bill. Suicide’s second album (titled Suicide: Alan Vega and Martin Rev), illuminates the duo’s connection to synth-pop and electronica; Alan Vega was released shortly afterward, and is succinctly described as an off kilter early rock ‘n’ roll experience, landing halfway between revamp and throwback.

How so exactly? Well, the record’s opener gets right down to business, with “Jukebox Babe” clearly indebted to the hip-swiveling swagger and vocal affirmations (i.e. a whole lot of “uh-huh”s) of Elvis in his spring chicken days. Overall, the results sport an unserious vibe, and it’s easy to imagine it pissing off more than a few purists, but simultaneously, the formally recognizable nature of the tune scored Vega an unlikely hit in France. Or maybe not so unlikely, as the region has been a reliably enthusiastic locus of rockabilly and roots fandom for a long fucking time.

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The sheer amount of high-quality old-time music that’s been preserved and released by numerous archival record labels is voluminous to the point of being forbidding to the curious neophyte. It’s okay just to plunge right in, but those seeking a thoughtfully curated point of entry need look no further than Dick Spottswood & Tompkins Square Present…1925 Songs. As the cover of this beaucoup 2CD collection details, the contents offer, per the cover, Blues, Country, Jazz & More. The ride is fascinating and delightful from start to finish.

As the promo text for this release succinctly states, 1925 was the dawn of electrical recording. The record companies in their bloom were grooving into shellac any act, solo, duo, or group, they could plant in front of a microphone. There was no shortage of brilliance in a range of artistry that had yet to be rigidly defined, and musicologist Dick Spottswood, whose radio shows on WAMU over the years never sat stylistically still for very long, is the perfect guide to an eventful year of recording.

Dora Carr’s “Cow Cow Blues” opens the set, Carr belting it out while the track’s credited composer Charles “Cow Cow” Davenport brings the rollicking boogie-woogie piano, getting the collection off to a lively start. Rosa Lee Carson’s “The Drinker’s Child” follows, an early country lament with Rosa Lee singing and playing guitar, accompanied by her father, Fiddlin’ John Carson, on the instrument that brought him considerable success. The despair is palpable.

The Wheat Street Female Quartet’s “Go Down, Moses” swings the proceedings into gospel territory, the emotionally resonant root of a collective vocal style carried forward by groups like the Golden Gate Quartet, the Swan Silvertones, and Sweet Honey in the Rock. Next is fiddler William B. Houchens and guitarist J. M. Houchins with the fleet dance mover “Fisher’s Hornpipe and Opera Reel,” and then comes the Old Southern Jug Band (reportedly the pseudonymous Dixieland Jug Band) with the spirited and lithe “Hatchet Head Blues.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | M.U. – The Best of Jethro Tull is to be released on half-speed remastered vinyl on 31 July. Part of Warner’s “Spirit of ‘76” campaign, this reissue, overseen by Ian Anderson, gives a greater depth of sound to what was the band’s first Greatest Hits album.

The “Spirit of ‘76” campaign, celebrates the best music released from that year. M.U. – The Best of Jethro Tull was originally released in the January and has been certified Gold in the UK and Platinum in the US. With the artwork true to the original release, it features recordings made between 1969 and 1975, including “Teacher,” “Aqualung,” “Locomotive Breath,” and “Living In The Past,” it also includes the non-album song “Rainbow Blues.”

This special edition has been cut at a half-speed by Miles Showell at Abbey Road from the source master. As with all releases in the “Spirit Of ‘76” campaign, it will be available exclusively through independent record stores only.

The “Spirit Of 76” campaign will launch on July 17 rolling out records originally released in 1976 in weekly waves. The 23-album lineup spans the 1976 musical landscape, as well as Jethro Tull, it will bring together artists such as Bootsy Collins, Black Sabbath, ZZ Top, Ramones, Linda Ronstadt, and more.

VIA PRESS RELEASE | ‘80s American Indie-rock band Absolute Grey, whose original songs echoed early REM with female vocals while blending Fairport Convention with Echo & The Bunnymen confirmed the release of a new album of previously unreleased live recordings, Live at CBGBs 1985 (Heyday Again Records) on August 7. The album is released on compact disc and all digital music platforms.

Live at CBGBs 1985 consists of ten tracks from the band’s original line-up of Beth Brown, Mitchell Rasor, Pat Thomas, Matt Kitchen. It features extensive liner notes, rare photographs, gig flyers, set lists and more in the CD version plus new essays from early supporters—music journalists Jim DeRogatis and Karen Schomer as well as a teenage, obsessed Rochester fan turned musician/record executive Luke Wood (Girls Against Boys, Beats Electronics). A three-song teaser of the album can be found here.

“Worthy art stands the test of time, remaining as vital in the present as it was in the moment,” said music journalist Jim DeRogatis of the band’s live sets and debut album. “And that Absolute Grey set forty Easters ago, as well as the debut album Greenhouse, move me as much today as they did then.”

“Long before self-reflective female singers became the hip trend on the alternative music scene, Beth Brown of Rochester, New York’s Absolute Grey was writing and singing about loneliness and the challenge of independence,” said Karen Schomer in Trouser Press Record Guide.

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Celebrating Bobby Gillespie on his 65th birthday. —Ed.

The year: 1992. The place: a rave in a field outside Manchester. I’d taken enough e to send Hannibal’s 37 elephants into the stratosphere and I said to the geezer I was dancing next to, “This is the most beautiful thing that’s ever happened to me.” He replied, “This whole deal’s a hallucination, mate. You’re in your apartment in Philadelphia listening to Primal Scream’s Screamadelica. It’s the next best thing to being here.”

And he was right. It was one of most beautiful things to ever happen to me. But youth are fickle, and there came the day when raves went the way of the Acid Tests and youth moved on to other things, in my case rehab. But on occasion I still dig into my closet and put on my baggy pants, orange Kangol hat and pacifier, and hold my very own one-man rave.

And speaking of “Movin’ on Up,” it’s one of the premier tracks (alongside ”Loaded” and “Come Together”) on Primal Scream’s 1991 landmark Screamadelica. The LP captures the good vibrations that came with taking MDMA and dancing with thousands of stoned strangers at an illegal rave in some rural field in the outer reaches of Manchester. All three stand alongside the Happy Mondays’ “Step On” and “Kinky Afro,” and the Stone Roses’ “I Wanna Be Adored” and “Fools Gold” as iconic souvenirs of a time when the Hacienda became Manchester’s very own Studio 54—and you didn’t have to be Bianca Jagger to get in.

“Movin’ on Up” is everything a rave song should be–the nonstop drum beat is impossible not to dance to, the acoustic guitar and piano add coloring, and the female backing vocals contribute a gospel feel to let you know that raves were the new religion. On “Loaded” the same gospel singers take front and center, and the looped drums, recurrent piano riff, and horns constitute trance music at its best.”Come Together” is a call for youth unity, and yet another gospel-heavy, crash course for the ravers on which Bobby Gillespie wants you to touch him, because e makes you want touch people even when fucking them isn’t on the agenda.

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PHOTOS: MATTHEW BELTER | Some records you outgrow. Others grow up right alongside you. For more than forty years, Haircut 100 has been the second kind for me—the sound of a certain light, a certain feeling, the kind of song that quietly turns an ordinary afternoon into a memory you keep.

“Love Plus One” has been a soundtrack of my life for as long as I can remember, and I’m hardly alone in that; I felt it again last September in Anaheim, camera in hand, watching faces in the crowd light up, watching people cry over memories they’d carried in their pockets for decades. You don’t shoot a show like that so much as get swept up in it. I came away thinking the same thing I’d just been talking over with Richard Blade—that there’s a rare kind of music that refuses to age, and Nick Heyward has spent a career making it.

So, when the chance came to sit down with him ahead of Boxing the Compass—only the second album the classic lineup has made since 1982, and, fittingly for this publication, arriving on vinyl the way it was always meant to—I’ll confess my heart was in it every bit as much as my notebook.

What I found on the other end of the line wasn’t nostalgia. It was a man still chasing the magic, still talking about turning up to the studio like it’s the best job in the world, still steering by the same compass that first pointed him out to sea all those years ago. We covered the reunion, the records that shaped him, the strange arithmetic of keeping a promise the universe seemed to make to him when he was barely out of his teens—and where, after the whole long voyage, the needle finally settles. Here’s how it landed.

I read that the band reconvened for what was meant to be a business meeting that ended up feeling more like a reunion of old friends. Can you take us into that room—was there a specific moment you realized this wasn’t going to be a meeting; it was going to be a band again?

It was never that definite, because we didn’t want to get our hopes up—we always hope the band is going to stay together. The key position is manager, and that’s the one we lost back in 1982; it had never been filled since. So, we could get back together, but staying together was the hard part. Even after we played Shepherd’s Bush Empire, I was still wondering, is this going to last?

But it started to build—the 40th anniversary, then the gig, and then the BBC Piano Room invited us on, which is a big deal over here. When the BBC wants to help you, you think, wow. Then a manager who’d looked after Wet Leg and the Manic Street Preachers rang up and asked if we needed any help. That seemed to be the feeling around that time—people actually wanting us to stay together, which felt different from every other time. We wanted it, and so did everyone around us. And honestly, we’re too old to split up now.

You left after Pelican West, and the band went on to make Paint and Paint without you in ’84. More than forty years later, you’re writing and recording with Graham and Les again. What did it take—in yourself, not just on paper—to walk back toward something you once chose to walk away from?

It wasn’t really a return, because we’ve known each other all along and we’ve always been friends—old friends just slot straight back into the same position. Les, Graham, and I have so much history—the band years, but also before that, when we lived together, and all the good times since. We’re a real band—it was our dream, and it happened. That goes beyond everything else, and the truth is everything else just gets in the way. We let that stuff get in the way before, which is why we didn’t stay together. So now we just keep having to let go, and because we let go, it keeps going.

It’s too easy to get bogged down in the reasons not to do it—the music business has changed, there’s no money in touring, no money in records. But none of that is a reason not to do it. We’re a band, so we get on with it. Every time the four of us—Les, Graham, Blair and me —play, I can’t think of anything better to do with my life. It’s the best job in the world. We’re foolhardy enough to think there are more albums in us, because we just keep turning up, the way we did when we were young. We didn’t get to turn up and do our thing for forty-four years. Now we can, and it’s precious. We’re not going to give it away.

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Celebrating Todd Rundgren on his 78th birthday. —Ed.

The words “studio genius” get flung about willy-nilly, but Todd Rundgren, the guy who gave us “Hello, It’s Me,” is the real thing. Oh, I know, his prog explorations with Utopia are largely unlistenable, but I would ask you to look at Exhibit A, the 1972 double LP Something/Anything?, as proof of his, er, geniusitude. It was one of the greatest gifts (along with Mott the Hoople’s All the Young Dudes and Rod Stewart’s Every Picture Tells a Story) my older brother bequeathed to me when he took off to see the country in the mid-seventies, and I loved (and played) it to death.

Studio savant that he is, Rundgren recorded three of the LP’s four sides all by himself, and brought in a gaggle of studio musicians, including Rick Derringer, Randy and Mike Brecker, Hunt and Tony Sales, and Ben Keith to record side four. All four sides have titles, which we needn’t worry about, and side four purports to be a “pop operetta,” to which I can only say, okay, Todd, it’s your LP. The critic Robert Christgau said of Something/Anything?, “I don’t trust double albums” before changing tracks and saying, “But this has the feel of a pop masterpiece, and feel counts.” He’s right about double albums: some of the tunes on Something/Anything? It does nothing for me and has the distinctive smell of filler. That said, there are more than enough timeless tunes on Something/Anything? to justify that other overused word, “masterpiece.”

Stirring ballads (“It Wouldn’t Have Made Any Difference”), dizzyingly marvelous power pop numbers ala The Raspberries (“Couldn’t I Just Tell You”), flat-out screamers (“Some Folks Is Ever Whiter Than Me”), great horn-driven hard rockers (“Slut”), Steely Dan soundalikes (“Piss Aaron”), utterly sublime pop confections (“Hello, It’s Me,” “I Saw the Light”) and oddball novelty tunes that nevertheless rock (“Wolfman Jack”)—that “anything” in the album’s title is Todd’s way of telling us he can do it all, and does.

Why, I didn’t even mention his soulful turns on the piano (“I Went to the Mirror,” “Torch Song”), maniacal metal contraptions (“Little Red Lights,” the big-hooked “Black Maria”), big, bad gospel- AND Steely Dan-tinged tunes (“Dust in the Wind”), ironic Harry Nilsson numbers (the happy-go-lucky sad song, “You Left Me Sore”), and brief lo-fi studio jams (“Overture—My Roots: Money (That’s What I Want)/Messin’ with the Kid”).

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We’ve closed TVD’s HQ for the Juneteenth holiday. 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 Monday, 6/22.

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Interscope-Capitol Records’ Definitive Sound Series (DSS) announces Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On as the next release in its acclaimed premium audiophile vinyl collection. Arriving July 24, the limited-edition AAA 180g high-definition vinyl One Step pressing is available for pre-order.

“Mr. Gaye created music that was deeply personal, yet universally understood,” says The Estate of Marvin Gaye. “Let’s Get It On remains one of his most celebrated works, and we are honored to see this album presented in a way that respects its legacy while introducing its extraordinary sound to new audiences.” Mastered by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering, the Definitive Sound Series edition of Let’s Get It On was cut from the original analog master tapes and pressed on Neotech VR900 D2 180g high-definition vinyl by Dorin Sauerbier at Record Technology, Inc.

Utilizing the state-of-the-art One Step process, which eliminates multiple plating stages, the release presents the album’s intricate arrangements, rich instrumentation, and vocal harmonies with exceptional clarity and depth.

This DSS edition is limited to 3,000 numbered copies and housed in a custom-designed slipcase featuring the original album artwork, a premium heavyweight tip-on gatefold jacket, and a certificate of authenticity detailing the mastering, plating, and pressing chain.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | In 2014 k.d. lang sent an email to Neko Case and Laura Veirs on a whim. It read simply: “I think we should make a record together.”

Though the three musicians were barely more than acquaintances, “Laura and I both responded immediately,” recalls Case. “There was no question.” Now known as a seminal album in each of their catalogues, case/lang/veirs was released ten years ago today. In celebration, a new 10th anniversary edition will be released on September 4 with the previously unreleased track “Accidental Tattoo” and 12 live versions of each other’s songs that were recorded during the original 2016 tour. Pre-order on metallic orange swirl vinyl, limited to a pressing of 500, in the Anti- Records webstore.

“Accidental Tattoo” is a song that came from a sudden creative spark that happened between all 3 of us a couple of years ago,” lang explains. “Neko wrote the lyrics, Laura and I organized Neko’s poetry, adding arrangements and intertwining it with melodies and music. And then I worked closely with Larry Goldings on the actual production to fasten all of it into the song you hear now.”

Added Veirs: “So much in the world has changed since this album first came out in 2016, but when I listen back, these songs still hold up to my ears. I’m proud of what we made together and am thankful for the opportunity to have been part of it. The experience challenged me, taught me a great deal, and ultimately helped shape the artist I am today.”

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Celebrating Paul McCartney on his 84th birthday. —Ed.

The prog people were right! Turns out the greatest songs, the legendary songs, aren’t the simplest ones—simplicity is for losers! The greatest songs, and if anybody knew this Rush knew it, are the ones with sections! Multiple moving parts! Just look at the evidence. “Stairway to Heaven,” epic! “Hotel California,” stupendous! “MacArthur Park,” godly! And the same goes for “Layla,” “Free Bird,” “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” and forget I said “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.” It’s a nightmare.

One of the very best, by which I mean it’s definitely in the top five in not the top three if not the very best, is Paul McCartney & Wings’ 1974 smasheroo “Band on the Run.” Why, it’s even better than Sir Paul’s “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey,” which stickler for detail that I am I refuse to include on my list because let’s face it, it’s two songs separated by a slash, as is “Venus & Mars/Rock Show” for that matter. And that’s cheating.

The number three is the number to remember when it comes to “Band on the Run.” The song has three parts. Only three musicians (Paul, Linda McCartney, and Dennie Laine) were involved in its making. “Band on the Run” was McCartney’s third chart-topping American single. On the other hand, the song only went to number three on the UK charts (what’s wrong with those people?).

The song’s creation coincided with (and was perhaps in part inspired by) the three non-Johns in The Beatles’ escape from manager Allen Klein. Only three people in the entire world think it’s not the greatest thing ever. And finally, I listen to it three times a day, every day, because it’s been proven to keep the bowels regular and improve mental health. Oh, and it will open your third eye, guaranteed.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Getting their start as the 1980s bled into the ’90s, Velocity Girl arose from a new pop underground that had been percolating in Washington, DC, and its suburbs, a group of bands clustered around our then-nascent Slumberland Records who broadened DC’s punk paradigm with an ear for pop tunes and feedback-driven racket. Velocity Girl, blessed with multiple gifted songwriters, particularly knew how to merge euphoric pop hooks with waves of noisy bliss and lovelorn melancholy.

This new compilation 1989–1992 covers the band’s pre-Sub Pop years and shows that their skill with a tune was there from the beginning, across several line-up changes and numerous early releases. Their maiden vinyl voyage “Clock” is Velocity Girl at their darkest, a neat slice of gothic pop featuring original vocalist Bridget Cross, later of fellow DC legends Unrest. Cross also provides vocals for the band’s debut single “I Don’t Care If You Go,” included here with all the b-sides from the US and Australian 7″ versions.

The next phase of the band begins with the departure of Cross and the addition of Sarah Shannon as main vocalist, whose powerful and effortlessly melodic voice is first heard on two previously unreleased songs, including a spirited cover of the Jam’s “That’s Entertainment.” Further recording with Sarah (and the entrance of Brian Nelson as second guitarist) yielded crucial tunes that appeared on split singles and compilations, and well as their all-time classic “Forgotten Favorite,” still guaranteed to jump-start any indiepop dancefloor.

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Drummer Charles Downs has been on the scene for a long time. Stretching back to the 1970s, he was known as Rashid Bakr and contributed to numerous albums, including a few stone killers with the great pianist Cecil Taylor. After the turn of the century, he reverted to his birth name and continued recording; Inner by the Charles Downs Quartet is the first release to feature him as a sole leader. It is a superb set of five medium-length improvisations with Hery Paz on saxophone, Jamie Saft on piano, and Joe Morris on bass. It’s out now on compact disc and digital through ESP-Disk.

Charles Downs’ credits as Rashid Bakr are extensive and illuminate various points of development in the jazz avant-garde after its 1960s heyday, with his productivity continuing and contributing to the resurgence of free jazz in the ’90s. His initial recordings were with a younger generation of improvisers who were either deep in the thick of the New York City loft scene or adjacent to it.

During this early stretch, Downs played with double bassist William Parker (collected on Centering. Unreleased Early Recordings 1976–1987), saxophonist Jemeel Moondoc (collected on Muntu Recordings), and violinist Billy Bang’s Survival Ensemble (the albums New York Collage and Black Man’s Blues).

A hookup with Cecil Taylor in the 1980s captured Downs in a quartet for the live album The Eighth and the larger all-star ensemble for the studio set Winged Serpent (Sliding Quadrants). Both releases are high-energy monsters in Taylor’s distinct mode of explosiveness, and both are essential to understanding Downs’ progression.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | “A concert is an event where songs come back to life. That’s why this album is called Live!” explains Jarvis Cocker of this unique record in the Pulp canon. “It’s both a statement of fact (it’s a recording of a live band) and a challenge (come on! Everyone come alive!).”

It’s also Pulp’s first film soundtrack album: the Garth Jennings directed movie Pulp: What Do You Do For an Encore? which is to be released worldwide this autumn.

Pulp’s relationship with Garth Jennings dates back to 1997: the year he directed the promo video for the song “Help the Aged.” When Pulp announced that they were touring again back in 2023, Garth got in touch and offered his services in helping to design the staging concept. Then, in June 2025, he filmed the band’s two performances at the O2 Arena in London. This footage provides the main content of the film.

The O2 shows also provide the content of this live album. They were the 566th and 567th performances of the band’s career and provide a snapshot of a group at the height of its powers. Recorded the week More—Pulp’s first album in 24 years—hit Number 1 on the Official UK Chart, the album captures the very moment the band returned as a creative force. Old classics and new classics brought together for the first time.

Live! will be released on 28 August 2026, suitably enough Pulp will be onstage that evening, performing a sold-out show in Manchester’s Wythenshawe Park. The album will be available on double vinyl—both in a limited-edition blue pressing available from the band and label webstore and independent record shops and on black vinyl—double CD and via digital streaming services. What Do You Do For an Encore? is coming to MUBI Autumn 2026.

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MoFi), the leader in high-fidelity audio reissues, is proud to release Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s 1973 progressive-rock masterpiece, Brain Salad Surgery, in audiophile sound.

Available on June 19, 2026, this platinum-certified milestone is issued as a numbered-edition 180g 33RPM vinyl LP (order HERE) and a numbered-edition Hybrid SACD (order HERE). These definitive reissues bring the visionary depth and virtuosic musicianship of Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, and Carl Palmer to the fore with spectacular dimensionality, breadth, and clarity. Sourced from the original master tapes, the 180g 33RPM LP reissue was mastered at MoFi’s Northern California studio from the 1/4” / 15 IPS analog tape to DSD 256 to an analog console to the lathe and pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing.

Regarded by Carl Palmer as his favorite Emerson, Lake & Palmer studio album, Brain Salad Surgery remains a benchmark achievement in progressive rock, a legacy encapsulated by bassist-guitarist Greg Lake’s famous opening line: “Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends.” Originally released in late 1973, the trio’s fourth studio blockbuster finds the band taking front-to-back control of its creative direction by incorporating several studio firsts. Decades later, the record’s cohesive blend of musicianship, songwriting, and production remains revered.

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