VIA PRESS RELEASE | Famously formed in 8th grade for a school talent show, The Donnas began as a self-styled co-ed answer to the Ramones, playing gleefully unapologetic, pop-punk paeans to adolescent alienation and hedonism from a decidedly female perspective. But by the time of 2004’s Gold Medal, their sixth album and second for the major label Atlantic, the group has clearly—dare we say it?—matured.

With the notable exception of the single (and career highlight) “Fall Behind Me,” Gold Medal marks a move away from The Donnas’ harder/faster ethos towards a more polished (acoustic guitars…whaaat?) pop sound veering towards ‘70s psychedelia under the helm of Avril Lavigne producer Butch Walker. And you can tell it from the album’s graphics, which flash vintage, Peter Max-esque squiggles on the front cover and feature a faux black light poster inside (which we have reproduced for this reissue along with the original printed inner sleeve).

The result was an album that lead vocalist Brett Anderson a.k.a Donna A. deems her favorite, and one that stands as probably the most underrated album in the band’s fabulous catalog (most of which we have recently released here at Real Gone Music). Real Gone Music’s reissue comes in gold smoke vinyl—an overlooked early-oughties gem.

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Elton John today unveils a brand new video for his Triple Platinum-certified Christmas classic, “Step Into Christmas,” available to watch now. The new video reimagines what it was like behind the scenes for the now iconic original 1973 visual, starring British actress and model Cara Delevingne as Elton.

Over 50 years after Elton’s classic performance, the gloriously kitsch new video finds the video production team frantically trying to get the set ready for his arrival as they attempt to make it “Christmassy enough.” Despite the addition of a festive feather boa, balloons, and confetti, chaos reigns as they wrangle an escaped turkey, fail to book a real reindeer, and tackle a deranged fan who storms the set, all whilst Cara brilliantly mirrors Elton’s choicest dance moves and iconic facial expressions from the original video.

Cara’s star turn in the video sees her fulfilling a lifetime ambition to step into Elton’s high-heeled boots. A lifelong fan and aspiring Elton wannabe from an early age, the pair have become firm friends over the years.

Elton says: “I saw Cara at Glastonbury last summer, and we talked about how much we’d love to work together if the right idea came up. She’s hilarious to spend time with; we both have quite a self-deprecating sense of humor. When someone suggested the idea of her playing me in a riff on the 1973 ‘Step Into Christmas’ video, I just thought it was the perfect opportunity. Thank God Cara thought the same because it came out great.”

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The new movie about Bob Dylan, A Complete Unknown, focuses on the controversy of his going electric at the Newport Folk Festival in July of 1965. Dylan was the darling of the new folk scene in the early ’60s and was heralded as the voice of the generation. His poetic songs of injustice galvanized the anti-war and civil rights movements of the time. When Dylan chose to go electric, many viewed it as heresy for abandoning the purity and non-commercial aspects of folk. What often gets lost in this debatable topic is that the move in fact launched Dylan’s long career as a peerless and dogged performer.

Although acknowledged as one of the most, if not the most, important songwriter of the rock era, Dylan is a road-dog, who has performed and played with countless group configurations. His mid-’60s electric period was marked by controversy, but he and his backing group The Band (formerly the Hawks and comprised of Canadians Robbie Roberston, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, Garth Hudson, and American Levon Helm) are one of the most successful collaborations between a rock artist and a backing group of musicians.

Although their time together on the road in the 1960s was often met with scorn by the folk crowd (loosely chronicled by Dylan in his songs “Maggie’s Farm” and “Positively Fourth Street,” to name two), they were making exciting music that could fit into Dylan’s description of music that he called that “wild mercury sound.” The difficulty of performing this music night after night in the face of mounting derision caused one of the members of The Band, drummer Levon Helm, to quit by the fall of 1965.

When Dylan had his motorcycle accident in the summer of 1966, it brought a close to that chapter of his career that saw him release three monumental albums in a row (Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited in 1965 and Blonde on Blonde in 1966), but also resulted in his getting off the “wild mercury” caravan of raucous music, alcohol and drug abuse, as well as his tendency at this time toward self-doubt and fury.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | “This is a collection of shots taken by my good friend and permanent-owner of-an-RSpress-pass, Jay Gilbert. Jay has taken pretty much all the photos you’ve seen of moi in the last 20 years and these are quite a few of them.” —Rick Springfield

Longtime photographer for pop icon Rick Springfield, Jay Gilbert, will be releasing his first-ever coffee table book to celebrate his work with the artist. Burning Film: Rick Springfield Through the Lens presents a comprehensive photographic documentation of Rick Springfield from 2005 to 2025, showcasing his dynamic stage performances and studio work through the camera lens. The book will be available exclusively as part of the deluxe edition of Rick Springfield’s Big Hits: Greatest Hits, Vol. 2, which is due out February 14, 2025. Pre-orders are available here.

Rick Springfield’s Big Hits: Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 will be released February 14, 2025 via SING (distributed by Symphonic/AMPED Distribution). It is the latest career-spanning retrospective chronicling his more recent recording output from 1999’s Karma through his most recent new album, 2023’s Automatic. It will include the just-announced brand-new single, which is only available on this compilation. Springfield remarks on the package, “The GH 2 is more a fan favorite songs album. The albums I have made in the past 20 years I think are the best work I’ve done musically.”

“I had so much fun going back through the archives of over 60,000 photos I’ve shot of Rick in the studio, in concert and on location to present the 200 or so images for the book. They align perfectly with the music on his upcoming Big Hits – Rick Springfield’s Greatest Hits, Volume 2.” —Jay Gilbert

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Midlake have announced a very special new vinyl pressing of their landmark 2006 second album, The Trials of Van Occupanther, available Friday, January 17 on the band’s own Midlake Records.

Limited to 750 copies on Opaque Marigold, 180-gram vinyl, available at Indie Retailers, and 250 Black vinyl copies, which will be available on Midlake’s webstore, the new LP edition—re-mastered by Christopher Colbert (Nathaniel Rateliff, Richard Swift) and lacquer cut by Amy Dragon (Big Thief, Richard Thompson) will feature the 44-minute album’s original layout and labels from the very first pressing. Pre-orders are available now. To celebrate, Midlake have shared, for the first time, the official music video for the album’s classic opening track, “Roscoe,” directed by filmmaker Dan Fernbach.

“This video was shot on an absolutely beautiful piece of land in Oxfordshire, England while we were on tour in Europe,” says Midlake’s Eric Pulido. “We only had a day to shoot the video, so time was of the essence. We had worked with Dan before with “Kingfish Pies,” and loved his work on that, but didn’t have the chance to actually be a part of the video like we did with “Roscoe.”

It was an enjoyable process for all of us to dress up and ‘act’ together. The last scene where we’re all having a feast was quite nice. It was the end of the day, and although we were tired and hungry, I thought it was a perfect way to celebrate the day’s work. So don’t be fooled by the acting, the jubilation and hunger was pretty genuine.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | To commemorate 40 years of “Last Christmas,” WHAM!, George Michael Entertainment and Sony Music have released a very special “Last Christmas” 40th Anniversary EP worldwide. Out now in limited edition vinyl, CD, and digital, the release comes with the incredible news that the much-loved hit has reached its highest-ever chart position in North America on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number three and notably reaching seven times RIAA Platinum this week.

The song’s lasting impact continues with breathtaking reimagined covers from today’s superstars, most notably Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan who dueted the iconic song last week on Carpenter’s A Nonsense Christmas on Netflix, as well as ROSÉ who covered it for BBC’s Radio 1 Live Lounge. The Backstreet Boys also covered the song for last week’s NBC special Christmas at Rockefeller Center, where WHAM!’s Andrew Ridgeley joined host Kelly Clarkson. Ridgeley also appeared as a guest on NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Additionally, WHAM!: Last Christmas Unwrapped, a brand-new Christmas special that tells the story of how George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley’s WHAM! turned one song into a seasonal phenomenon, will debut on Netflix in select territories and Roku in the United States on December 15 and on BBC 2 in the UK on December 14. Brimming with memories, the film reunites a cast of characters from the song’s illustrious history.

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Celebrating Paul Rodgers on his 75th birthday. —Ed.

I’m bad company, I don’t deny it. I tend to monopolize conversations. I’m loud. I laugh at my own jokes. I cut other people off mid-sentence. I cheat at penny poker, although I always get caught. And I have the annoying habit of boring people with long monologues on the Versailles Treaty.

But England’s hard rock band Bad Company are another beast altogether. Their members constituted a minor supergroup. Vocalist Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Burke hailed from Free. Guitarist Mick Ralphs came by way of Mott the Hoople, where he’d tired of their fancy Glam pretensions. Bass player Boz Burrell previously played with King Crimson. Together they hammered out some of the most lowdown, stripped to the bone music of the Seventies. They had no interest in bedazzling you with subtlety.

The band’s eponymous 1974 debut was one of the premier hard rock albums of its time, and gave teen listeners a no-frills alternative to such bands as Queen, Supertramp, and the Electric Light Orchestra, amongst others. There was scads of other hard rock bands out there, but few pounded it home the way Bad Company did—Grand Funk Railroad were just plain inferior product, and Bachman-Turner Overdrive—with such up-tempo songs like “Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet” and “Hey You”—may as well have been the Archies. The sole populist band their superior was Lynyrd Skynyrd, thanks both Ronnie Van Zant’s extraordinary lyrical gifts and the Southern Rock touches, which added color but never detracted from the band’s hard rock sound.

Bad Company kicks things off with “Can’t Get Enough,” with Ralphs playing pile driver guitar while drummer Burke crushes stone like a guy on a slave gang. Rodgers makes it clear he has bad manners—he doesn’t politely ask for things, he takes them. “Rock Steady” is a slinkier-than-usual statement of purpose with Ralphs playing a cool guitar hook, perfect fills and a restrained but perfect solo while a pair of female backing vocalists toss in on the choruses. As for Rodgers, he demonstrates why he’s considered one of the finest vocalists of the era and an inspiration for the likes of Ronnie Van Zant.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | IV, Godsmack’s fourth studio album, features the #1 rock hit “Speak” and the #4 hits “The Enemy” and “Shine Down.” It was the first Godsmack album produced solely by Sully Erna, marking a significant milestone in the band’s journey. The album sold 211,000 copies in the US in its first week of release, debuting at #1 on the Billboard chart. It also debuted at #4 on the Top Canadian Albums and #1 on the Top Internet Albums, solidifying its place in music history.

Presented with exceptional remastered audio and debuting on 2LP 45rpm vinyl, Godsmack IV fuels the band’s converging disciplines for what Sully calls old-school Godsmack, harking back to the thunderous arc of multiplatinum masterpieces like their 1998 self-titled debut album, 2000’s Awake, and 2003’s Faceless. The remastered audio brings a new life to the music, making it a must-have for any Godsmack fan. In addition to classic black vinyl, the album is released on limited edition marble vinyl as an online exclusive.

With over 20 years of chart-topping success, the Boston rock band has cemented themselves as 21st-century hard rock titans. To date, they’ve accomplished a staggering 13 #1 singles at mainstream rock radio, including the tracks “Surrender,” “Soul on Fire,” and “Truth” from the band’s most recent album Lighting Up the Sky.

Additionally, they’ve enjoyed 24 Top 10 hits at the format—the most of any act since February 1999—as well as four Grammy nominations and were named Billboard Music Award’s Rock Artist of the Year in 2001. Selling over 20 million records worldwide, the band has released eight studio albums: Godsmack (1998), Awake (2000), Faceless (2003), IV (2006), The Oracle (2010), 1000hp (2014), When Legends Rise (2018), and Lighting Up the Sky (2023).

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Celebrating Billy Gibbons on his 75th birthday. —Ed.

Billy Gibbons is an open-minded guy. While I was busy hating the English synthpop likes of Depeche Mode and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, the leader of Texas legends ZZ Top was listening to them, and enough light bulbs were going off in his head to illuminate all 1,954 miles of the US-Mexico border.

Anybody who thought Gibbons of the La Grange laugh and Methusaleh beard was some front-porch blues and boogie purist was sadly mistaken—Billy dug the synthesizers, and Billy dug the drum machines, and most of all Billy dug the acceleration—the more beats per minute the better. And they all set him to thinking—if Black Oak Arkansas could bring electricity to Arkansas, why couldn’t ZZ Top bring New Wave to the Lone Star State? And become MTV Gods and make a bazillion dollars in the process?

It didn’t happen all at once, but it all came together on 1983’s Eliminator, easily one of the slickest, glossiest, supercharged, and yes weirdest albums ever to blow across the finish line between your ears, sending tumblin’ tumbleweeds a’ tumblin’ in all directions. An unholy fusion of down home blooz-boogie and the latest in studio technology, it put plenty a purist off his BBQ, but by gum it exploded out of the speakers just like that 1933 Ford Coupe in the band’s star-making videos.

And they kept what counted most; Billy still sounded like the biggest lecher this side of the Rio Grande, and his 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard still had enough Texas hot sauce on it to burn ears from Houston to Honolulu. And each and every rip-snortin’ power chord reminds me of a boast from a previous album; “I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide.”

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Ian Hunter is a kind of paradox. Very few have sung with as much cynicism and candor about the cost of the rock and roll dream. In songs like “All the Way to Memphis,” “The Ballad of Mott the Hoople,” and “Hymn for the Dudes” the man in the shades has called rock stardom a sham and “a loser’s game,” and fickle to boot (“You ain’t the nazz/You’re just a buzz/Some kinda temporary”). It’s a mighty long way down rock and roll has always been his message, and about all you can look forward to on the way is losing your illusions, and your hair.

Yet Hunter has never given up. He didn’t give up during the dark days before David Bowie’s “All the Young Dudes” saved Mott the Hoople from giving up the ghost, and he didn’t throw in his shades when his solo career refused to take off, much as the early Mott the Hoople had. Loser’s game or not, Hunter kept on keeping on because he has no choice. He told us as much in “The Ballad of Mott the Hoople”:

“Behind these shades the visions fade
As I learn a thing or two
Oh but if I had my time again
You all know just what I’d do.”

He’d do it all over again, is what he’d do, and so he did as a solo artist, pushing through doomed jazz-influenced missteps like 1976’s All American Alien Boy, putting together so-so bands and not scoring hits, but he never took his eyes off the promised land that he knew better than anybody was an illusion. Hunter has always been the ultimate realist who can’t help but behave like a starry eyed-dreamer, and he’s been doing it since the start.

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