Remembering Lou Reed, born on this date in 1942. —Ed.

Anybody who doesn’t have a love-hate relationship with Lou Reed, well, I have to wonder about them. He was both a flawed genius and an unreconstituted pretentious asshole/nutjob, and it could be hard to separate his bat shit from his diamonds. But one LP I love unconditionally is 1976’s Coney Island Baby, on which he reveals both a pop side and a vulnerable side, and on which Reed shocked the entire world by singing about how he wanted to play football for the coach. Lou Reed? Football? To paraphrase John Fogerty, “Put me in coach/I’m ready to pay… good money for methamphetamines.”

Coney Island Baby is as close as Reed would ever come to pure pop product, and followed hard on the heels of the disappointing Lou Reed Live and the combination fiasco/fuck you that was Metal Machine Music, on which Lou let feedback do not just the heavy lifting, but all of the lifting period, before cold-bloodedly foisting off the resulting caterwaul on a defenseless public. Lou claimed there were classical references buried in all that hypnotizing squeal, but Reed spent those years as crazy as a hoot owl on one substance or another, and should you ever get the chance I recommend you read the Lester Bangs essay in which he calls Reed on Metal Machine Music, amongst other things.

Don’t get me wrong. Lou at his warmest can still be one mean character. On the otherwise catchy “Charley’s Girl,” which comes with a ready-made melody and fetching female backing vocalists, Lou warns the world to “watch out for Charley’s girl,” because she’s evidently some sort of narc, and in the middle of the song he sings, “I said if I ever see Sharon again/I’m gonna punch her face in.” Which is one catchy rhyme, but given Reed’s history of domestic abuse, was neither funny nor an idle threat.

But for the most part the melodies are friendly and easy on the ears, and there isn’t so much as a trace of the maniac/genius who gave us such harsh blasts of gritty Hubert Selby Jr. realism as “Sister Ray.” There are no extended cuts either. No, this is your radio-friendly Lou, although the radio declined to turn any of these tunes into hits. Only on the static, stutter rock classic “Kicks,” a loosey-goosey studio shuck/jam on which Lou lets us know he needs thrills in his life, does the wild man show us his avant-garde degenerate dope fiend side. With its weird vocal interjections, disjointed conversations, and general aura of studio mayhem, it has more in common with the Velvet Underground’s “Lady Godiva’s Operation” than anything else Reed would ever put on record.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | On April 17, 2026, Beastie Boys’ platinum-selling To the 5 Boroughs album will be made available as limited-edition 3LP and 2CD sets featuring 11 bonus tracks, including remixes and B-sides.

The 3LP set will be pressed on 180-gram vinyl in a triple gatefold jacket with pop-up elements and a subway map lithograph, all housed in a firm slipcase. The 2CD will be housed in a multi-paneled soft pack. This is the first time the 2019 digital deluxe edition will be made available physically and can be pre-ordered, HERE.

Beastie Boys’ self-produced dedication to their home city of New York, To the 5 Boroughs was released in 2004 and hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200, Top Rap Albums, Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, Top Current Albums, Rap Album Sales, and Top Album Sales charts.

The album features a steady mix of deep pop culture references in tracks such as “Shazam!” and “Ch-Check It Out,” as well as more serious social and political issues with “Right Right Now Now,” “It Takes Time To Build,” and “An Open Letter To NYC.”

Rolling Stone stated, “To The 5 Boroughs is an exciting, astonishing balancing act: fast, funny and sobering,” while Pitchfork proclaimed, “the album’s easy air speaks to veteran, nothing-to-lose attitude of both the city and the group.”

Since the late 1990s Japan’s Acid Mothers Temple and its numerous spinoff bands, side projects and collaborations have been assaulting listeners with all manner of music, and I say assaulting because much of the music they release is chaotic, clamorous and fast—speed runs made up of sheets of distorted guitar noise that gets called psychedelic but is too aggressive for the peace and love associations attached to the label. Forget your kinder psychedelic drugs—these guys are an aural STP trip.

Acid Mothers Temple have released scads of albums under their umbrella of names and assorted line-ups, and many of them bear amusing titles that demonstrate the irreverent respect the band has for their musical heroes: Freak Out, Son of a Bitches Brew, Electric Heavyland, Minstrel in the Galaxy, Are We Experimental?, Holy Black Mountain Side, and believe me I could go on. They’re prolific, experimental, atonal, fearless, and not afraid to bend your mind.

Like I said—think STP. You have your choice of sitting back and enjoying the ride, or jumping out of your first-floor window, screaming, “I can fly!” and ending up in the shrubbery with some scratches. I’ve done both.

Especially when it comes to the band’s eponymous 1997 debut Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. It’s a psychedelic freakout of epic proportions and heavy on the atonal interstellar overdrive, as is evident from song titles like “Speed Guru,” “Amphetamine A Go Go,” and “Satori LSD.” Acid Mothers Temple have cited Krautrock as an influence, but they’re not speeding down the Autobahn on this one—they’re on the Bonneville Salt Flats, liquefying salt.

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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, 3/2.

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Org Music continues its comprehensive Descendents reissue series with Enjoy!, the third installment in the campaign celebrating the band’s foundational catalog and the latest release since the group reclaimed ownership of their master recordings. Originally released in 1986, Enjoy! captures Descendents pushing fully into their instincts, doubling down on short, fast, melody-driven songs that balance juvenile humor with sharpened songwriting and unmistakable urgency.

While the band had already helped define what would become pop punk, Enjoy! finds them expanding the formula without losing intensity. Tracks like “Hürtin’ Crüe” and “Get the Time” channel irreverence through speed, melody, and tension, while subtle new wave and pop touches—including a punked-up take on The Beach Boys’ “Wendy”—broaden the band’s sound without dulling its edge. Forty years on, Enjoy! remains a defining entry in the Descendents catalog and a crucial document of the band’s restless evolution.

This new edition arrives April 24, 2026 on LP, CD, and cassette, with multiple color-vinyl variants. Produced in close collaboration with the band, the reissue brings Enjoy! back into print across formats with careful attention to presentation and detail.

Among the vinyl offerings is a limited “Punk Note” edition featuring alternate packaging by John Yates (Stealworks), inspired by the iconic jazz designs of Reid Miles and Francis Wolff, whose work helped define the Blue Note label. This visual reimagining of punk classics continues the aesthetic series that began with Org Music’s Bad Brains reissues. Each “Punk Note” title includes new liner notes by BrooklynVegan senior editor Andrew Sacher and is housed in a deluxe case-wrapped jacket.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | “Alright, stop what you’re doin’ ’cause I’m about to ruin / The image and the style that you’re used to…” With those words, Digital Underground’s “The Humpty Dance,” pushed hip-hop into a bold, new direction, sonically inspired by the sound of George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic, mixing the creativity of the Bay Area and Miami scenes with memorably funny verses.

Sex Packets, their breakthrough debut album that offered “The Humpty Dance,” “Doowutchyalike” and more, returns for its 35th anniversary as a remastered and expanded edition from Tommy Boy Records on March 27, boasting redesigned 3-D artwork and rare and unreleased bonus tracks. Fans can pre-order Sex Packets (35th Anniversary) now here.

Available on 180-gram light blue/black on clear splatter 2LP vinyl, 2CD or digital, Sex Packets (35th Anniversary) will boast the extra tracks “A Tribute to the Early Days” (originally available on cassette versions of the album) and “The Humpty Dance (Humpstramental Mix)”; the previously unreleased “Blue View”; and the rare full version of “Gutfest ’89,” exclusively available on the 2CD and digital products. The digital version includes an exclusive bonus track: the Mini-Hump Radio Mix of “The Humpty Dance.” All five tracks will be available to stream or download for the first time ever.

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Axis: Bold as Love, the second album from The Jimi Hendrix Experience (Jimi Hendrix, Noel Redding, and Mitch Mitchell), originally released in December 1967, is the middle child of the trilogy of albums that introduced guitarist Jimi Hendrix to the world and often receives much less attention than the other two albums.

As detailed in an overview of the Bold As Love box set from 2025, the album was recorded quickly at Olympic Studios in London, following the startling group debut of Are You Experienced?, and was released just seven months after that album in the UK. Hendrix often lamented that the album was rushed, but a listen to it reveals a musician burning with inspiration as a songwriter, guitarist, and studio innovator. The album features some of Hendrix’s most beloved songs, including “Little Wing” and “Spanish Castles.”

Hendrix grew to love working in the studio, and this album takes some of the raw fury and guitar dazzle of Are You Experienced? and adds songs of great depth, often with more emphasis on mood and spirit than sheer guitar prowess. Hendrix was becoming more involved in shaping the sound of his music in the studio and did so on the album’s mix, alongside engineer Eddie Kramer and manager Chas Chandler. Unfortunately, side one of the album had to be remixed in one night at the last moment by Hendrix, Kramer, and Chandler, as Hendrix lost the master tape in a taxi. Over the years, those involved in the making of the album have said this added to the rushed nature of the album.

This new UHQR release of the album from Acoustic Sounds marks a slight departure in design for the UHQR package. The new outer box is a flip-open, clam-shell package with gold foil lettering, with the change being a flip-open design replacing the rounded dowel spine, slip-case box. Released previously in a UHQR package as a single-33 1/3 vinyl album, this set is a double 45- RPM Clarity vinyl set, with the two vinyl records in audiophile archival sleeves in a plastic sleeve.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Independent Label Market takes over Coal Drops Yard, King’s Cross, on Saturday 9 May, bringing together the best in independent music, vinyl culture, artist-makers and local brewing. Now 15 years strong, Independent Label Market is both a showcase for independent labels and a key meeting point for music fans, labels and industry alike. This year, ILM joins forces with Bristol New Music Festival, to launch ILM Bristol, a new pop-up market at Bristol Beacon.

This spring, ILM London will transform Coal Drops Yard into a vibrant hub of independent culture. A carefully curated line-up of the UK’s most exciting indie labels, will be joined by local brewers pouring their finest wares at the London Brewers’ Market, alongside the ILM Live Stage spotlighting emerging artists from participating labels. Label and artist DJ sets, powered by Audio Gold, will provide a high-fidelity soundtrack to ILM’s open-air party, while Voices Radio broadcasts live from King’s Cross, championing the area’s creative community. Selected sets will be uploaded to their Mixcloud channel after the event. Full programme details coming soon.

The market brings together the gold standard of UK independent labels alongside a new wave of rising names, including 4DAD, BBE Music, Because, Bella Union, Big Dada, Brainfeeder, Brownswood, Chess Club, Chrysalis, Communion, Erased Tapes, Far Out, Fire, Full Time Hobby, Ghostly, Hyperdub, Jagjaguwar, Late Night Tales, Mute, Ninja Tune, Nonclassical, Secretly Canadian, Sonic Cathedral, Speedy Wunderground, Transgressive, Tru Thoughts and Wah Wah 45s. Beyond the label stalls, the market also welcomes Disco Pogo, Rock & Roll Public Library, War Child and Mr Bingo.

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Marc Riordan and Jon Leland are multi-instrumentalists, extensive collaborators, members of Sun Araw and also Ragger, an undertaking dedicated to playing the ragtime compositions of Scott Joplin on synthesizers (Riordan) and electronic V drums (Leland). If Wendy Carlos springs to mind, that’s a solid conclusion to jump to, but think of Carlos composing for Nintendo while sitting on a big-ass synthetic mushroom.

This electronic ragtime impulse isn’t revivalist, but neither is it a gimmick. Instead, Euphonic Sounds connects as a thoughtful and fascinating reinvigoration that retains its recognizability and is a sheer pleasure to listen to, even for those who’ve never, or hardly ever, brutalized a joystick or commandeered a controller in their lives. Ragger’s debut release is out now on compact disc, cassette, and digital through Hausu Mountain.

There’s nothing inherently boneheaded about tackling the ragtime style in a purist manner. When a skilled pianist who understands the music is sitting at the bench, ragtime’s worthiness can still be very much in evidence. It’s Joshua Rifkin’s three volumes of Scott Joplin compositions recorded for Nonesuch from 1970–’74 that set the standard and, crazy as it might seem now, rescued The King of Ragtime from obscurity.

Ragger establishes that straight ahead isn’t the only route to ragtime success. Euphonic Sounds includes four Joplin pieces handled by Rifkin on those Nonesuch sets—the title track, “Paragon Rag,” “Original Rags,” and “Weeping Willow.” And adds four more. The final selection, “Wiggle Rag,” was composed by George Botsford. As said, this album isn’t a gimmick on Ragger’s part and is also not an attempt at twisting or otherwise distorting the ragtime form into something deliberately strange.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Time Traveler Recordings will release the recently unearthed Terry Callier At The Earl Of Old Town, the influential singer/songwriter’s captivating 1967 solo performance at Chicago’s intimate and historic folk club, as an exclusive RSD 180-gram two-LP set on April 18, 2026. The package, recorded by longtime jazz venue owner Joe Segal, will be available on CD on April 24, which would have been Segal’s 100th birthday.

This album is the latest release from premier archivist and “Jazz Detective” Zev Feldman and illuminates the early work of a widely influential and remarkably singular artist. Recorded a year before the release of his debut LP, Callier infused the repertoire and format of folk music with the energy and spirit of jazz improvisation. Segal, founder of Chicago’s beloved Jazz Showcase, recorded the performance which was among the vast treasure trove of Joe Segal’s archives which Wayne Segal opened to Feldman in 2025.

Along with Joe Lizzy’s pristine restoration and Matthew Lutthans’ expert mastering, the package includes liner notes by Callier’s longtime friend, Real Jazz Sirius XM program director Mark Ruffin. Callier’s daughter, Sunny Callier, serves as an executive producer.

Callier, who was 22 years old when he performed at The Earl Of Old Town, grew up in Chicago’s North Side Cabrini-Green public housing projects alongside such R&B stars as Jerry Butler and Curtis Mayfield. But his own music took a different path when he brought his acoustic guitar and quietly compelling voice to the counter-culture folk music clubs that shaped the Old Town neighborhood in the 1960s. His voice and guitar are centered here with the club’s background sounds adding a sense of historic ambiance. Ultimately, this recording presents Callier’s early command of a stage and indicates where he would go in the future.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Today (2/23), on the exact two-year anniversary of The Past Is Still Alive—named one of the Best Albums of the 2020s So Far by Pitchfork, and one of the Best Albums of 2024 by The New York Times, The Atlantic, Associated Press, NPR Music, Rolling Stone, Billboard, OUT, Mojo, Uncut and a multitude of others—Hurray for the Riff Raff announces the release of a new live record.

Arriving digitally on March 20th, and physically on May 8th via Nonesuch, Live Forever was captured over the course of two sold-out summer nights at the Old Town School of Folk Music in bandleader Alynda Segarra’s new home of Chicago, Illinois. Spanning 14 songs, Live Forever presents The Past Is Still Alive in its entirety, as well as a selection of Hurray for the Riff Raff’s show-stopping, set-defining staples: decrying ICE on the poetic “Precious Cargo” and The Navigator’s anthemic “Pa’lante”; the prescient digital age critique of “Pyramid Scheme”; and ripping through a folk-rock rendition of LIFE ON EARTH’s “Rhododendron,” which is out today with a new video shot at Old Town School of Folk Music.

“I moved to Chicago in September 2024, the year I released The Past Is Still Alive and hit the road with a new band—a group of musicians recommended by my front of house/production manager, Johnny Wilson. Everyone had ties to the city, and had been playing together in the DIY scene for over a decade.

Since then, we’ve traveled the world together, becoming family, playing the best shows of my life. Chicago has become home for me, and I feel grateful for the welcome I’ve gotten into the best music scene in the country.

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Remembering Nicky Hopkins, born on this day in 1944. —Ed.

Ever since the late ’50s/early ’60s pop music explosion, session or studio musicians were integral to recording. Whether they be backing singers, soloists, part of such illustrious posses as the famed Wrecking Crew, or the musicians who were the heart and soul of the Motown sound, these formerly somewhat anonymous players have been given their due over the years in books and in such movies as Standing in the Shadows of Motown from 2002, The Wrecking Crew from 2008, and 20 Feet from Stardom from 2013.

For anyone who has followed the birth and evolution in particular of British rock, from the singles-based British Invasion or album-based ’70s, one name stands out for those who read liner notes: British pianist Nicky Hopkins. In 2011 the book And on Piano …Nicky Hopkins: The Extraordinary Life of Rock’s Greatest Session Man by Julian Dawson was published. The book came many years after Hopkins passed away in 1994 at the age of 50. That book did a lot to recognize what an important musical artist he was and solidified his place in rock music history.

A new film entitled The Session Man: Nicky Hopkins is sure to bring his legacy alive for even more fans of great British and in some cases even American music. The film was directed by Mike Treen who has primarily worked in television. The timing is just right as it was just announced that Hopkins will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with the “Musical Excellence Award.”

This is a perfectly crafted musical doc and includes a star-studded cast of interviewees with whom Hopkins worked. There are interviews with Keith Richards, Bill Wyman, Peter Frampton, Nils Lofgren, Jorma Kaukonen, Jack Casady, Jim Keltner, Terry Reid, Chuck Leavell, Graham Parker, P.P. Arnold, Harry Shearer from Spinal Tap, and record producers Glynn Johns, Shel Talmy, and Chris Kimsey, among many others. There’s also an audio interview with Pete Townshend and a previously filmed interview with Mick Jagger.

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