Remembering Captain Beefheart in advance of his birthdate tomorrow. —Ed.

Every Captain Beefheart fan knows that his releases Unconditionally Guaranteed and Bluejeans & Moonbeams marked the nadir of his career. Desperate attempts at commercial success, both LPs met with critical opprobrium and horrified the good Captain’s fans. Even Beefheart, aka Don Van Vliet, his critical cred in ruins, come to regret them; he labeled them “horrible and vulgar” and urged fans to take them back for a refund.

Remember that ’60s TV show Branded starring Chuck Connors, who played a soldier in the Wild West? Who, wrongly convicted of some crime, had his shoulder epaulettes ripped off and his sword broken in half during the opening credits, which ended with him standing stoically outside the closed fort gates, facing the grim prospects of surviving in the savage wilderness the best he could? Well that’s what happened with these albums. They were branded, given the bum’s rush, and left shivering in the rock wilderness, while Beefheart fans tried their level best to forget them.

But nothing attracts me like a spectacular disaster, which is why I’ve watched every Irwin Allen film like 38 times. So I was eager to listen to Bluejeans & Moonbeams, which is generally considered a bigger fiasco than Unconditionally Guaranteed, or the Titanic even, because Beefheart’s Magic Band fired him in disgust after Unconditionally Guaranteed, leaving him to round up a whole new Magic Band that was around only for Bluejeans & Moonbeams. What’s more, the untaught Beefheart, who had always counted on a musical director to realize the sounds he heard in his head, was forced to do without one on Bluejeans & Moonbeams. And finally, he was still seeking commercial success, which entailed his curtailing many of the quirks and idiosyncrasies that made his music so intriguing in the first place.

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Described as a fully-collaborative quartet, Sun & Rain consists of Nathaniel Morgan on alto saxophone, Travis Laplante on tenor saxophone, Andrew Smiley on electric guitar, and Jason Nazary on drums. Co-composed by the four members when they were all together in the rehearsal space, their first album was built across a span of six years. An expansive work comprised of five sections, the music thrives on a collective precision that is in key intervals astoundingly intense. Waterfall is out now on vinyl in an edition of 500 copies through Out of Your Head Records.

The members of Sun & Rain have played in numerous ensembles but the most pertinent to Waterfall is Little Women, a four piece led by Laplante that featured Darius Jones on alto sax, Nazary on drums, and Smiley on guitar (replacing Ben Greenberg). Little Women recorded three albums between 2007 and 2013; the second and third, Throat and Lung, were released by Aum Fidelity with Smiley in the lineup.

The relationship between Little Women and Sun & Rain isn’t difficult to discern, but listening to Waterfall, it’s just as clear why Laplante chose to differentiate this fresh incarnation with Morgan stepping into the alto sax position. The rise in compositional rigor is palpable throughout the continuous piece (the sections are titled “Waterfall I” through “Waterfall V”), with jazz a vital component in the foundation. However, the overall structure is just as rooted in art-rock that radiates an appealing European vibe.

One could also cite Sun & Rain as having a non-noodlesome prog inclination, or just say they’ve honed an especially cerebral strain of experimental jazz-rock. The sound of Waterfall is likely to give a good goosing to fans of Soft Machine and ears attuned to the band that shape up the Rock In Opposition scene, while lovers of burly free jazz throwdowns won’t be disappointed, as the intertwined lung power of Morgan and Laplante is substantial.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Iconic hip-hop group De La Soul continues to celebrate their enduring legacy with exciting announcements for 2025. Fans of the group will soon have access to one of their most coveted releases, as their legendary EP “Clear Lake Auditorium” arrives on March 7, 2025, in digital and on limited-edition CD and vinyl in a sea green gel sleeve. Pre-order available here.

Originally pressed in 1994 as an exclusive promotional release for select DJs, “Clear Lake Audiotorium” has achieved near-mythical status among collectors. The album includes four tracks from De La Soul’s Buhloone Mindstate era, with two rare collaborations: “sh.Fe.Mc’s” featuring A Tribe Called Quest and “Stix & Stonz” with contributions from Tito of The Fearless Four, Grandmaster Caz, LA Sunshine of the Treacherous Three, and Prince Whipper Whip. This limited-edition release is a chance for fans to own a piece of hip-hop history.

Ahead of the release, De La Soul will bring their signature sound to Lincoln Center in New York City on January 17, 2025, following in the footsteps of an already legendary 2023 memorial celebration at New York’s Webster Hall around their catalog release. De La Soul’s headlining debut at David Geffen Hall represents their first major show in NYC in 16 months and a landmark moment for the future of hip-hop.

Adding to the excitement, Posdnuos of De La Soul is gaining Grammy buzz for his featured performance on the track “When the Sun Shines Again” alongside Common and Pete Rock from their album The Auditorium Vol .1, a collaboration that underscores the continuing relevance and influence in the hip-hop world. The band’s momentum extends internationally as well with a concert at X-TRA in Switzerland on February 17, 2025.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Rhino will unveil a very special David Lee Roth boxed set, The Warner Recordings 1985–1994, on February 21, 2025. It includes the first five solo releases recorded by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame® Inductee and original Van Halen lead vocalist in one comprehensive collection for the very first time.

Spanning one of the greatest runs in rock ‘n’ roll history, the set offers lifelong fans and newcomers alike the chance to experience “Crazy from the Heat” [1985], Eat ‘Em and Smile [1986], Skyscraper [1988], A Little Ain’t Enough [1991], and Your Filthy Little Mouth [1994] in succession. The Warner Recordings 1985–1994 arrives in multiple configurations, including 5CD.

40 years ago this month, on January 28, 1985, Roth officially debuted as a solo artist with the “Crazy from the Heat” EP. It crashed the Top 15 of the Billboard 200 and reached RIAA Platinum status. Plus, he logged a pair of Billboard Hot 100 hits—the medley of “Just a Gigolo/I Ain’t Got Nobody” vaulted to #12, while his take on “California Girls” by The Beach Boys soared to #3, replicating the 1965 chart success of the original. Meanwhile, “Crazy from the Heat” would later serve as the title of his New York Times best-selling autobiography in 1997.

The EP paved the way for his first full-length solo LP, Eat ‘Em and Smile. Released on July 7, 1986, it bowed in the Top 5 of the Billboard 200 and eventually went RIAA Platinum. Roth hyper-charged his sound, accompanied by an all-star band consisting of Billy Sheehan [bass], Gregg Bissonette [drums], and Steve Vai [guitar]. Together, they served up anthems such as “Yankee Rose,” “Tobacco Road,” “That’s Life,” and more. KERRANG! notably christened it ”Album of the Year,” and he launched the seminal Eat ‘Em and Smile Tour in its wake.

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Celebrating Wayne Coyne on his 64th birthday. —Ed.

Yeah, yeah, I know. The Flaming Lips’ 1999 LP The Soft Bulletin is brilliant. A masterpiece released just as the sun was going down on the Twentieth Century. But for my money—which unfortunately happens to be in worthless depression era German Reichsmarks—the Oklahoma band released its finest work between 1986 and 1995, before they went and got themselves domesticated.

The Soft Bulletin is a warm and fuzzy album for warm and fuzzy people looking for an uplifting musical experience. Earlier Flaming Lips albums featured songs like “Talkin’ ‘Bout the Smiling Deathporn Immortality Blues (Everyone Wants to Live Forever),” Unconsciously Screamin,'” Jesus Shootin’ Heroin,” and “Evil Will Prevail.”

If The Soft Bulletin is a hug-your-neighbor ecstasy trip, LPs like 1989’s Telepathic Surgery and 1992’s Hit to Death in the Future Head are LSD trips—you might find instant enlightenment or, conversely, locked in a Porta-John at your local music festival, because demons are pursuing you and you need somewhere to hide.

I attended a few Soft Bulletin-era shows, and they were joyous affairs—Grateful Dead concerts minus the home tapers. The concertgoers around me had the glassy-eyed look of true converts. The only song that’s ever left me glassy-eyed is Sammy Johns’ “Chevy Van,” which ought to qualify as a world religion. Your Flaming Lips idolater is a fanatic, and fanatics can be very dangerous people.

Which is why I prefer albums like 1989’s Telepathic Surgery. It doesn’t hurt that the LP’s title sounds like the name of a Blue Öyster Cult song. But what really wins me over are song titles like “Hare-Krishna Stomp Wagon,” “Hell’s Angel’ Cracker Factory,” and “Redneck School of Technology.” And the songs are as strange as the titles. A fair number of Flaming Lips fans would hide in a Porta-John to escape them.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | High Moon Records is heralding the upcoming arrival of enigmatic 1960s San Francisco singer Jeannie Piersol’s eagerly awaited anthology, The Nest, with today’s premiere of the psychedelic soul standout, “Gladys,” available everywhere now.

Originally released in 1968 as Piersol’s debut single, the track—which features backing vocals by iconic soul singer Minnie Riperton, drums by Earth, Wind & Fire founder Maurice White, and orchestral arrangements by Charles Stepney (Rotary Connection, Ramsey Lewis)—is joined by an official music video streaming now at the official High Moon Records YouTube channel. The clip is a new transfer of an original 1968 16mm film, directed and produced by Ray Andersen, to promote the single. Andersen, along with his wife Joan, were founders of the legendary “Holy See” light show in San Francisco that ran light shows at the Fillmore in the late ’60s, and he employed some of Holy See’s hypnotic visuals as backgrounds in the promotional film.

“Gladys” was written by Piersol and she sent a demo of it to Jefferson Airplane for potential inclusion on After Bathing At Baxter’s. When the band decided not to record it, she re-recorded it for herself and released the new version as her first single. Both the demo and recorded versions are available on The Nest anthology.

The first-ever full-length compendium of Piersol’s distinctive, rarely heard body of work, The Nest, arrives Friday, January 24 on CD, vinyl LP, and digital download, accompanied by an extensively illustrated booklet that includes liner notes from 5x GRAMMY® Award-nominated compilation producer Alec Palao (featuring exclusive interviews with Piersol and many of her musical collaborators), plus lavish artwork, never-before-seen photos, memorabilia, and more. Pre-orders are available now.

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Who put out the first yacht rock album? It’s not just an academic question—it’s a lethal one. Since 2005 thirty-six music critics have died in pitched fights over the question, six alone at a yacht rock symposium in San Diego, California in 2019. One was killed by a harpoon, another by a great white shark. Great whites take their yacht rock very seriously.

Most yacht rock scholars place the birth of yacht rock at 1975 or later, but that time frame has always struck me as both arbitrary and wrong-headed. But not as wrong-headed as some of the songs I’ve seen listed as yacht rockers. The Eagles’ “Life in the Fast Lane”? Seriously? Boston’s “More Than a Feeling”? Great Poseidon’s beard! Blues Image’s “Ride, Captain, Ride”? A hearty yar and a fuck you! No wonder people die in these debates. I would gladly force the moron that came up with “Life in the Fast Lane” to walk the plank.

Look, I’ve been yachting (musically speaking) since I was a teen, and I know of what I speak. And I am here to tell you without the slightest smidgeon of doubt that yacht rock first set sail in October 1973, when Loggins & Messina released their sophomore album Full Sail. There are those pina colada-addled landlubbers who will tell you different—who will try to write off Full Sail as “proto-yacht rock,” but these are the same dunderheads who will try to convince you that Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature” is yacht rock.

Defining yacht rock isn’t as difficult as some would have you think. It’s smooth, mellow even when up-tempo, slickly produced, and most importantly soothing to the mind and spirit. To listen to yacht rock, true yacht rock, is to find yourself on calm seas on a sunny day on a yacht or expensive sailboat, surrounded by frolicking dolphins, the sea breeze in your hair, and the smell of salt in the air. There can be no city in the yacht rock sound, for the simple reason that there are no cities in the middle of the goddamn ocean.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | One of the most influential figures of the 1960s folk revival, Mississippi John Hurt (1893–1966) offered his own brand of the blues, thanks to his gentle vocals and unique syncopated fingerpicking style.

Yet, he didn’t find success until the final years of his life. Born to sharecroppers in rural Mississippi, Hurt was a self-taught guitarist and farmhand, who honed his craft during his downtime. In the early 1920s, he began to gig regularly with fiddle player Willie Narmour, who, in turn, recommended his friend to OKeh Records.

Hurt recorded a handful of tracks for the label in 1928, including “Frankie,” “Candy Man Blues,” and “Stack O’ Lee Blues.” While his quiet, laid-back nature set Hurt apart from other bluesmen of the era, it didn’t connect with audiences at the time, who were accustomed to the tougher, more assertive styles of artists like Son House and Charlie Patton. Hurt, who never considered himself to be a professional musician, was just as content to return to his life on the farm.

More than 30 years later, however, Hurt would find a new audience that embraced his music. Amid the folk revival, scholars “rediscovered” his recordings and, in 1963, encouraged the 70-year-old bluesman to return to the stage. Relocating to Washington DC, Hurt spent the final three years of his life recording for the Library of Congress, performing at festivals, coffeehouses and colleges, appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and making several albums for Vanguard Records.

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Celebrating Rod Stewart on his 80th birthday. —Ed.

Rod Stewart remains my greatest lost hero, who went from a likable rogue with a knack for writing great and frequently self-deprecating songs to the cheesy lothario of “Hot Legs” and “Tonight’s the Night.”

And while pinning down when he jumped the shark from jovial rascal to queasy-making lecher (my pick: the lines from “Tonight’s the Night” that go, “You’d be a fool to stop this time/Spread your wings and let me come inside”) can be difficult, in my humble opinion his final great moment was 1972’s Never a Dull Moment, which was not nearly as great as 1971’s Every Picture Tells a Story, but still highlighted Stewart as an irrepressible rake rather than a sleazy ladies’ man.

Sure, both 1974’s Smiler and 1975’s Atlantic Crossing have their moments, and even 1976’s A Night on the Town includes the great “The First Cut Is the Deepest.” But Never a Dull Moment is the last Stewart LP to include more good tracks than mediocre ones, and features some undeniable classics in “Lost Paraguayos,” “Mama You Been on My Mind,” and the wonderful “You Wear It Well.”

Indeed, Never a Dull Moment lives up to its title, although I have to admit I’ve never been a huge fan of the blues standard “I’d Rather Go Blind,” which Etta James turned into a hit in 1968. On the other hand, his cover of Sam Cooke’s “Twistin’ the Night Away” rocks and rolls thanks to the cranked-up guitar of Ron Wood (the Faces featured on Rod’s first four “solo” records; odd how their ultimate disappearance coincided with his downfall) and the powerful drum thump of Micky Waller, who’d played with Stewart back in the days of The Steampacket.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Singer, songwriter and musician Lonnie Johnson (1899–1970) was among the most versatile musicians of his era.

He not only found success in jazz, blues and R&B but also pioneered one of the most recognizable guitar techniques in modern music. In the early 1920s, the New Orleans–born artist settled in St. Louis, where he was discovered in a blues talent contest. Before long, Johnson was releasing a steady output of solo material, while also playing alongside the biggest names in blues and jazz, including Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith and Duke Ellington.

Johnson’s unique stylings on the guitar also caught the attention of his peers, as he employed a pick to play single-note, string-bending solos. Soon emulated by the likes of Charlie Christian, Django Reinhardt, and, later, B.B. King, the technique would inform modern jazz, blues and eventually rock guitarists over the century. As a songwriter, Johnson also set himself apart with his expressive lyricism as well as his commentary on racial politics.

These talents helped Johnson score a string of blues hits in the ’20s and ’30s, but his post-war career found him transitioning with equal success into R&B with hits like “Pleasing You,” “Confused,” and the chart-topping “Tomorrow Night.” The ’60s folk revival, meanwhile, introduced Johnson to a younger audience, allowing him new opportunities to tour the world and score a contract with the Prestige Records imprint, Bluesville.

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Before Elvis Costello became the dullest Renaissance Man of the Western World, gadflying about with the likes of Burt Bacharach, the Brodsky Quartet, some Swedish mezzo-soprano whose name escapes me at the moment, the Netherlands’ Metropole Orkest, jazz pianist Marian McPartland, T-Bone Barnett, the London Symphony Orchestra and others, including for all I know the Men’s Choir of Barracks 22 of the Toksong Political Prison Camp in North Korea, he was a punk fellow-traveler and one of the angriest young men in England this side of Johnny Lydon.

Everybody grows up, but do you have to grow up to be a sophisticated dabbler and bore? In Costello’s case it was the Paul Weller Komplex times ten, and when it came to wanton genre-hopping, Elvis made Neil Young look like a piker. Even the early Costello was a hybrid of sorts—a singer-songwriter in spirit, a punk in attitude. The Village Voice’s Robert Christgau summed this up by comparing him to Jackson Browne in his review of Costello’s 1977 debut My Aim Is True, then turning around and complimenting him on his snarl come the following year’s This Year’s Model.

Costello famously recorded My Aim Is True with, yes it’s true, a California-based country rock act (Clover, whose members would later go on to play, variously, with Huey Lewis and the News, the Doobie Brothers, and Lucinda Williams) as his backing band. A very singer-songwriter thing to do, that, but by the time he got around to recording This Year’s Model (again with Nick Lowe as producer) he recruited a band of his own that could produce music to mirror his adamantine misanthropy (and some would say misogyny).

Costello would never be a true-blue punk—too much clever wordplay and a musical vocabulary that pre-dated the Sex Pistols—but he was a punk in spirit, much like the 1966 Dylan. Indeed, “Like a Rolling Stone” is a template of sorts for Costello, with its catchy wordsmithing, laser focus on the personal and themes of (to use words Costello would himself employ and would stick to him like glue throughout his career) “revenge and guilt.” Unlike the post-protest Dylan, Costello was not apolitical—his disgust extended to goings-on in Great Britain, but rarely went in for punk sloganeering. No anarchy in the UK for the former computer operator from Bootle.

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